The Horse of the Three Kingdoms Treads the World

() In November of the third year of Han Zhongping, the Han and Qiang armies fought in Beidi County.It was the same day, and the sky suddenly sent down a big fire, burning the Qiang's food, grass, and luggage, and it was useless to hurt people.At that time, Taizu was by Dong Zhuo's side, and when he saw the incident, he suggested, "Heaven will help me, a great man, and I will send troops." Dong Zhuo followed his invitation and sent troops to attack westward.

At that time, the Qiang army had lost all courage and could not resist.With [-] people facing [-] Han troops, there was not a single man who could fight until dawn, tens of thousands of dead and countless descendants.After this battle, the Qiang rebellion was nearly leveled off, and Dong Zhuo was awarded the title for his achievements, but the achievements of the Taizu were not allowed to be presented to the court, which is really suspicious.

More than ten years later, a subject once asked Taizu about the old story, but Taizu said with a smile: "Dong Zhuo is also a rebel of the country. I don't want to have too many connections with him, so I abandon this work." Believe it?I'm afraid that future generations will have difficulty guessing Taizu's intentions.

—— "Book of Jin. Taizu Benji"

Ma Yue walked in the original camp of the Qiang army, and the ground here still had burn marks from the sky fire two days ago and the coagulation of blood from the killed soldiers of both sides.In the distance, several soldiers were pushing more than a dozen corpses into the deep pit, and then used tools to bury the deep pit below which hundreds of corpses of the enemy and us were buried.

In the past two days, Li Ma has seen a lot of such scenes, which also made his original discomfort slowly dissipate.At that night, when he saw the Han army successfully entering the Qiang camp, he was still very excited, but when he came to the battlefield after dawn, Ma Yue felt the cruelty after the killing.

Countless corpses piled up together, although there was no smell due to the weather, it still made him feel uncomfortable in Ma Yue's eyes.This is the value of life in the face of war, but it turns into an unconscious body, and soon, they return dust to dust.

However, Ma Yue didn't regret that he persuaded Dong Zhuo to send troops before, because he knew that in a war, there must be life and death and victory or defeat. It is better to kill the enemy than to be killed by the enemy.Now that the Qiang people are completely defeated, the chaos in Xiliang will be quickly quelled in the next few days, and it can also be shown to those foreigners who dare to watch the tiger from the sidelines, so the value of this battle is not just killing The enemy is even more attacking.

Just as Ma Yue was lowering his head to consider the possible actions of the foreign races in Xiliang and surrounding areas, Wang Feng beside him suddenly pulled his sleeve: "My lord, someone is coming over there again. This time, it seems to be a Lieutenant General."

Hearing the sound, Ma Yue looked towards the gate, and saw Bai Laiqi appearing there, the first one was dressed in full armor and looked extraordinary.Regarding the arrival of this person, Ma Yue just smiled casually: "No matter who it is, even if Zhang Wen came in person, it is impossible for Dong Zhuo to agree to continue to send troops to pursue him."

It turned out that after the end of the battle two days ago, Dong Zhuo followed Ma Yue's suggestion and did not continue to pursue and fight the defeated Qiang army.Although the reason he put forward was that the poor should not chase after him, he was worried that if he did so, the Qiang army would be forced to jump over the wall in a hurry, which would cause damage to the army.But Ma Yue knew Dong Zhuo's real thoughts very well. He didn't continue to exterminate the Qiang army because he felt that it would be more beneficial for him to keep the Qiang rebel army in Xiliang.

This is Ma Yue's final explanation for Dong Zhuo's behavior.Because Dong Zhuo still needs to continue to expand his power in Xiliang, he must have a reason for the court to keep him here.And there is still the saying that the remnants of the Qiang army caused disasters to the locality, which is the most high-sounding one.

However, Zhang Wen didn't think so.He had already missed an opportunity to make great contributions, so naturally he couldn't miss another opportunity to pursue the victory.However, in terms of familiarity with the situation here in Xiliang, he is naturally inferior to Dong Zhuo. To be on the safe side, and also because he has suffered enough from being unfamiliar with geography, he ordered Dong Zhuo to cooperate with him to continue westward to quell the chaos.

Regarding this, Dong Zhuo's attitude was very indifferent.Although he has received many orders to go west, he always rejected Zhang Wen on the grounds that the soldiers were exhausted after the new battle and needed to rest.After sending orders several times but being rejected by Dong Zhuo, this time Zhang Wen finally couldn't bear to send a general who should be on the same level as him as an ultimatum.

Seeing this general with a dark face and striding into Dong Zhuo's main tent, Ma Yue showed a sympathetic look on his face: "Now Dong Zhuo has nothing to fear. For such a great achievement, the imperial court will definitely reward him, and He Jin will have more trust in him. With this confidence, how can he be ordered by others? After this victory, the situation in Xiliang is completely different now. Can't he, Zhang Wen, feel it?"

Sure enough, at this time in the main tent of the Chinese army, facing this general who was on an equal footing with him, Dong Zhuo did not avoid the table as usual, but continued to sit there smugly, drinking the fine wine in his hand, Then he said very casually: "It turns out that General Zhou has arrived, but I don't know why he made a sudden visit?"

The person who came was none other than Zhang Wen's general Zhou Shen, who was second only to Zhang Wen in the army.He did not make any contribution in this battle against the Qiang people, so he was naturally very anxious.Seeing that everyone else had run into a wall with Dong Zhuo this time, he thought that in his own capacity, Dong Zhuo should not dare to be too arrogant, or he would be able to make a contribution to success, so he came to be a lobbyist.

Seeing Dong Zhuo's attitude, Zhou Shen was furious in his heart, but because he had something to do, he suppressed his anger and said in a hard tone: "This general is here for two things. The first is to congratulate General Dong was able to make a great contribution, presumably the imperial court's reward will arrive soon?"

"Hey, it's just a little credit, nothing. It's just that compared to some people who only know how to delay time with the Qiang bandits, this credit is still good!" Dong Zhuo took a sip of wine and squinted again. He glanced at the other party: "I don't know what the second thing about General Zhou is?"

"You... The second thing this general came to see you was to urge you to send troops quickly. Now that we have finally defeated the Qiang army, it is time to pursue the victory. But you are just staying Here, I don’t see a single soldier being sent to continue westward, which really violates the trust of the imperial court!”

Dong Zhuo put down his wine glass, shook his head and sighed: "General Zhou, do you know why I, Dong, can win such a victory, but you can only be suppressed by the Qiang people all the time?" He gave the answer: "It is only because I have won the hearts of the soldiers that they are willing to sacrifice their lives for me. It is precisely because the soldiers put their lives to the test that they can win such a smooth victory when facing the Qiang army.

"And the reason why I can win the hearts of the soldiers is because I care about them more than you. After several battles, the soldiers are exhausted physically and mentally. How can we continue to let them go west at this time? That's why I will Let the army stay here, recharge your batteries, and then act according to the situation. I don’t know if General Zhou thinks I’m right?”

As soon as Zhou Shen heard Dong Zhuo's words, his nose was almost crooked.In addition to rejecting his own ideas, he actually used this to satirize everyone including himself, how could he not be angry?But Zhou Shen also knew that Dong Zhuo was gaining momentum now, and he was in his camp, so a conflict would only cause big trouble, so he had to suppress his anger and say, "Do you know what Marshal Zhang meant? Are you willing to accept the commander-in-chief's military order, but what is your intention? Are you not afraid of being punished for it? The Qiang rebellion in Xiliang has been going on for more than a year, but you have been refusing to do your best to put down the chaos. What is your intention? The commander-in-chief must It will actually be played by the court!"

"Go back and tell Marshal Zhang, and say that the reason why a certain person did this is to better quell the chaos." Dong Zhuo restrained himself when he saw that the other party had been teased by his sly words and was about to lose control. Recalling the attitude just now, he said solemnly: "This general has already reported my idea to the imperial court. The reason why I didn't pursue it while the victory was in order to cause differences among the Qiang people, so as to solve this rebellion without bloodshed."

"What, the reason why you don't send troops to pursue it is to quell the chaos? What kind of nonsense are you talking about? The imperial court can't believe your rhetoric!" Zhou Shen said a little puzzled.

"What is the specific situation, I believe there will be a result soon, you just wait for the follow-up." Dong Zhuo suddenly shouted: "See off the guests!" Immediately, several soldiers came in through the curtain, and said to Zhou Shen: " General Zhou, my lord is busy with affairs, and I really don't have much time to talk to you, so please come back."

Seeing that he could not persuade Dong Zhuo, Zhou Shen could only grunt bitterly, then walked away.Watching him leave, Dong Zhuo's eyes lost a bit of self-confidence: "Will Zhong Ling's words come true? It's fine if there are disputes among the Qiang people. If there is no chaos among them, I will trouble you." gone."

It turned out that there was also a debate within Dong Zhuo's army about whether to take advantage of the victory to pursue the Qiang people.In the end, it was Ma Yue's words that moved Dong Zhuo.In his words, in addition to mentioning the self-respect of raising bandits, he also mentioned that not chasing them would be of great benefit to the Han army.

Because Ma Yue believed that the Qiang people were not as united as they had imagined. Under the threat of external forces, they might still be able to unite with the outside world, but once there were no foreign enemies, the contradictions among the Qiang people would break out.

"Although this rebellious army is called the Qiang people by us, in fact nearly half of them are our Han people. They will take refuge in the Qiang people either because they are coerced by the Qiang people or because they are dissatisfied with the status quo. After all, they will not be of one mind with them. When the Qiang people were powerful, they would naturally not do anything, but once the Qiang people were defeated, even if self-protection was very difficult, the contradictions between these Han people and them would be completely intensified .At that time, we only need to watch from afar to see them killing each other, and finally the Qiang army fell apart!"

Dong Zhuo can still clearly recall Ma Yue's words, but he still has doubts about how much of this matter is worthwhile: "I hope this time he will be right, and there will really be some troubles within the Qiang Army." However, even if there is no chaos within the Qiang people, I can't send troops, otherwise it will only be easy for Zhang Wen. He no longer has the ability to press on my head. The situation is different now, so why should I, Dong Zhuo? How about obeying people's orders?"