Ma Chao led his troops from Wudu, detoured to the Qiang territory, and prepared to leave Didao and attack Guo Huai of Tianshui County. This was Liu Bei's strategy, and Ma Chao had no intention of disobeying it.
But when Ma Chao entered the territory of the Qiang people, he suddenly discovered that the number of Qiang people here seemed to be a bit small.
To be precise, the number of adult males in each Qiang tribe is quite small.
If it was a Qiang territory close to Wudu County, this would be understandable. After all, the adult men of these Qiang tribes had all participated in the Qiang and Hu Yi Cong that they called for. It was normal for there to be few adult men.
But when Ma Chao led the Qiang and Hu Yi Cong into the territory of Longxi County near Didao, the number of adult Qiang men here, or to be more precise, the number of adult Hu men in the entire northwest of Liangzhou was very rare.
Whether they are Qiang people, Di people, or Xianbei people who have recently migrated here, the number of adult men in the tribe is very small.
Ma Chao immediately noticed something was wrong.
Even though Ma Chao is hailed as the "Mighty General" by the Hu people, Ma Chao has been dealing with these Hu people for a long time, and he will not naively think that he can intimidate all the Liangzhou Hu tribes just by relying on his name.
Therefore, the reason why there are so few adult men in these Hu tribes far away from Wudu County is definitely not because they were recruited by him to join his Qiang and Hu Yi Cong.
Ma Chao was so surprised that he immediately sent his envoys to negotiate with these tribes and learned some bad news.
Since Ma Chao left Liangzhou, there was another Han general in Liangzhou who could fight. This general conquered all the Hu tribes in the west of Liangzhou and was revered as the "god of heaven" by the Qiang, Di and Xianbei people. ".
Now the "god" has recruited these warriors from the barbarian tribe to fight against the rebellion, so all the adult men in the tribe set out to answer the call of the "god".
Ma Chao was so angry that his teeth itched after hearing this.
Of course, I know that these barbarians are all people who "fear power but not be moral" and will listen to whoever is strong. But I have only left Liangzhou for a few years, so there are people who don't know the name of "Shenwei Tianjiang" Already? !
Ma Chao immediately led his troops and circled the Hu tribes near Longxi County and Nan'an County, announcing his presence and forcing these Hu tribes to choose sides.
Should I choose that bullshit "God" or should I choose myself, the "Mighty General"? !
If you choose that bullshit "god", then there will be no need for you barbarian tribes to exist.
But if you choose yourself, shouldn't the remaining men in your tribe respond to your call and go out with you? !
These barbarian tribes are also in bad luck.
How else can I choose this? !
Most of the adult men in the tribe have gone out to fight. Although there are still some adult men left behind, the number is so small that it is impossible to compete with the Qiang and Hu Yi Cong brought by Ma Chao.
Moreover, among these tribes, they are eager to have someone be unlucky so that they can annex the tribes and become slaves. If you expect everyone to unite as one to fight against Ma Chao, then you are really thinking blindly.
Therefore, as soon as Ma Chao threatened, most of the tribes immediately expressed their willingness to surrender to "General Shenwei" and sent the last group of warriors in the tribe to fight with "General Shenwei".
And Ma Chao kept leading troops to various tribes along the way to intimidate and lure them, and tied these barbarian tribes to his chariot.
Although Ma Chao meant to declare his prestige, in fact, Ma Chao also had his own considerations in doing so.
You must know that Ma Chao only brought more than 10,000 Qiang and Hu Yi to follow, and judging from the tribes Ma Chao passed by, almost half of the tribes in western Liangzhou accepted Guo Huai's recruitment. That means that just in terms of Qiang and Hu Yi, The number of slaves, Guo Huai's is much greater than his own.
What's more, Guo Huai definitely has his own Liangzhou cavalry to dispatch. The combat effectiveness of these cavalry is not comparable to that of the Qiang and Hu Yi Cong.
Therefore, Ma Chao felt that if he wanted to implement the strategy formulated by Pang Tong and Fa Zheng and defeat Guo Huai's main army from the flank, it would definitely not be enough to rely on the more than 10,000 Qiang and Hu Yi followers he led.
Even if Zhang Xi helps him attract the attention of the Liangzhou Legion from the front, and he only makes a sneak attack, given the combat effectiveness of the Qiang and Hu cavalry, if they really have to face the same number of Liangzhou cavalry, it will be a gift.
Not to mention that Guo Huai still has so many Qiang and Hu Yicong.
Therefore, Ma Chao felt that it was necessary to increase his Qiang and Hu Yi soldiers and force these Hu people to respond to him with cavalry, so that he could have a chance of winning.
As for whether these barbarian tribes will not survive this winter after losing all their male members, Ma Chao doesn't care.
Although Ma Chao has Qiang blood, Ma Chao considers himself to be Han, and is a descendant of Ma Yuan, General Fubo of the Han Dynasty. After generations of famous men, what does the life and death of the Hu people have to do with me, General Han? !
In this way, Ma Chao wandered around the Hu people's territory near Didao in order to recruit more Qiang and Hu cavalry.
Well, clan brother Ma Dai and general Pang De have advised Ma Chao, don't forget, we have to quickly march into Tianshui to join Zhang Xi who is fighting in Tianshui County.
But Ma Chao didn't care.
Don't forget, we are cavalry, and you don't know how fast the cavalry is.
And Zhang Xi was leading the infantry, and their short legs were struggling desperately. Their speed was not as fast as ours, and we had plenty of time.
Let Ma Chao put it this way, Ma Dai and Pang De can't say anything. After all, they know the speed of cavalry best.
Even up to this point, Ma Chao has not made any mistakes.
What really frustrates Ma Chao is that Ma Chao forgets the right time.
Ma Chao's bravery is frightening, and his ability to command cavalry in battle is also very strong, but he is not a qualified commander after all.
In the words of Zhuge Liang, a commander should know the sky, the location, and people. Ma Chao did not occupy any of these three things.
Ma Dai and Pang De are also the kind of people who are more suitable as vanguards but are not qualified as commanders.
None of these three people realized that it was already October, and Longxi County was located in the north of the Great Wall, further north than Tianshui County. A sudden heavy snowfall made Ma Chao immediately realize that he was in trouble. Big.
It snowed heavily, covering almost all the roads, and even the grasslands were completely white.
Ma Chao wanted to lead his cavalry in a quick assault under such extreme road conditions, but that was a fool's errand.
But Ma Chao had to take action. According to Ma Chao's understanding of the grassland climate, once the first snow falls, the next heavy snow will come at any time, and each one will be heavier than the last.
Ma Chao must attack, otherwise he may not be able to catch up with the battle in Tianshui County. Then his Liangzhou governor will fly away, and he will not be able to avenge himself.
Therefore, although going on the road in this case would greatly damage the horses, Ma Chao could no longer care about it and could only take the risk and turn south, exit Didao, and head towards Nan'an County.
But in the end, it was the road conditions that affected the speed of the march. Ma Chao was anxious to death along the way, but the cavalry could not pick up the speed on the snow-covered road. They kept marching so slowly until they left Didao and entered Nan'an County. , Ma Chao breathed a sigh of relief.
Fortunately, it didn't snow here in Nan'an County. In other words, it might have snowed in Nan'an County, but the snow was not heavy and it has melted now. Apart from the road being a little muddy, it didn't slow down the cavalry's speed.
At this time, Ma Chao immediately ordered the entire army to speed up and rush to Tianshui County.
The heavy snowfall before finally made Ma Chao aware of the weather problem.
The entire Liangzhou has now entered winter, and heavy snow may fall at any time. Once the heavy snow paves the road, the power of the cavalry will be greatly reduced. It will be very difficult to march quickly and attack the flanks of Guo Huai's army.
Therefore, Ma Chao asked Ma Dai to lead some troops as scouts to find Liu Bei's location, while he hurried to Tianshui County according to the original plan to find Guo Huai's Liangzhou Army for a surprise attack.
And soon, the scouts led by Ma Dai finally brought back the current battle situation in Tianshui County. There was really no need to go to Tianshui County. Ma Dai found out the specific situation in Nan'an County.
The reason is still because of Guo Huai.
After Guo Huai learned that Liu Bei was in Xi County, he immediately ordered his Qiang and Hu Yi followers to bypass Ji County and go to Xi County to contain Liu Bei's army of 30,000 Qiang and Hu Yi followers. They all rushed to the south of Ji County like this. .
But how many of these Qiang and Hu Yi Cong obey orders honestly? !
In the eyes of this group of barbarians, any attempt to contain Liu Bei's army was nonsense. The most important thing was to take a detour to the south of Ji County, rob homes and seize the spoils of war.
Some people have even robbed their homes and moved to Nan'an County's territory.
As a result, he happened to encounter a vanguard scout led by Ma Dai. After a battle, Ma Dai captured the leader of a small tribe and learned from his mouth the current war situation in Tianshui County.
After learning that Liu Bei had been stationed in Xi County, and that Zhang Xi had captured Ji County and was confronting Guo Huai, Ma Chao was a little embarrassed.
In this situation, Ma Chao was a little hesitant. Should he go directly to Jixian to attack Guo Huai, or should he go to Xixian first to visit Liu Bei, and then go to Jixian after meeting Liu Bei.
Ma Chao is not a fool. Ma Chao actually knows very well how he will be treated after taking refuge with Liu.
Except for Liu Bei who would think of him when he needed to support himself, Ma Chao actually had no rights at all regarding other military and political affairs. Liu Bei only asked himself to guard Didao to prevent Qiang invasion.
Returning to Liangzhou this time, if Ma Chao wants to seek the position of Liangzhou governor, he must show his worth, but at the same time, he must also show a sufficiently surrendered attitude to Liu Bei, otherwise Liu Bei will not be willing to take Liangzhou. Give it to yourself.
Therefore, after learning that Liu Bei was in Xixian, Ma Chao almost immediately felt that he should go to Xixian to meet Liu Bei first, and then march into Ji County.
But this may delay the attack on Guo Huai.
Ma Chao hesitated for a long time and finally decided to go see Liu Bei first.
As for Zhang Xi, just wait. It only takes two or three days, so there is no rush.
But when Liu Bei received the news and heard that Ma Chao did not directly lead his troops to attack Guo Huai, but instead came to see him first, he was so angry that he almost cursed his mother.
After all, the war situation in Ji County at this time has undergone considerable changes.
(End of chapter)
