Established a millennium family since King Wu defeated Zhou

Chapter 750: Guanzhong is actually the place of the Four Wars?
When Ma Chao got the news, he was completely confused.

Not only Ma Chao, but even a resourceful person like Fazheng didn't think of it.

One can imagine how unusual this thing is.

The essence of the Han Dynasty was the five states of the Central Plains. Since the collapse of the Later Han Dynasty, all the great wars that had occurred were in the Central Plains.

Those who win the Central Plains can win the world. This is recognized by everyone in the world.

Guanxi and Liangzhou occupied by Ma Chao and Han Sui are already considered quite remote areas in this era.

So far, no Central Plains nobles have included Ma Chao among the ranks of princes who can compete for the world.

What Fazheng pursues tirelessly is to make Ma Chao one of the great princes in the world, so that people in the world will look up to him with admiration.

But the news that came at this moment shocked both of them.

The king of Zhongxia actually attacked Liangzhou!
Liangzhou is already located on the western border of the Han Dynasty, and the farther west is almost to the land of Huawai.

No one has ever regarded the Western Region as an opponent!

But at this moment, the King of Zhongxia told Ma Chao with bloody facts that the Western Region was not a dispensable role.

The army from the Western Regions attacked Liangzhou, and Ma Chao arranged for the generals guarding Liangzhou to report three times a day.

Because Ma Chao took away the Liangzhou army, the Western Region army was extremely powerful. If this continues, the four counties in Hexi will fall.

It is the key to connecting the Western Regions. Once lost, Ma Chao's Yong Kingdom will be strategically passive.

After realizing this, Ma Chao did not bother to continue fighting with the defeated allied forces of the princes. After hurriedly cleaning up the battlefield, he sent his army westward to fight the army of the Western Regions.

……

The King of Zhongxia looked at the mighty army. There were many monks and Taoist priests in the army, and they were leading the soldiers from the Western Regions to recite scriptures. He held Buddhist beads in his left hand and a Taoist sword in his right hand. He was also praying and chanted first. Once to the World Honored One, and again to the Heavenly Honored One.

After the routine worship was completed, the King of Zhongxia said energetically to the princes of the Western Regions: "How many years have we been preparing for this?

Today we finally successfully set foot on the land of Liangzhou. This is just the beginning. We will capture Liangzhou, then Guanzhong, and finally the Central Plains.

After conquering Chang'an, we will build the largest Taoist temple and temple in the city, and also move the Suwang Temple to Chang'an.

After entering the Central Plains, we will build a temple in Luoyang, the sacred capital, that is larger than the White Horse Temple. On the city walls of Luoyang, all Buddhist and Taoist scriptures will be engraved. "

Faith in the Central Plains is not prosperous. This is the biggest feeling of the nobles in the Western Regions along the way.

Although there are equally many people who believe in Taoism and Buddhism, compared to the thousand-mile Buddhist country in the Western Regions, this place is simply a desert.

How can this work?
The nobles of the Western Regions are bound to accept the glorious glory of Buddhism!

Looking at the ministers with different expressions, King Zhongxia nodded secretly in his heart.

After so many years of integration, although the problems of the split of the Zhongxia Kingdom have not been completely solved, it is at least much better than forcibly kneading it together before. At least it will not explode directly after one failure.

Ma Chao, who was galloping towards Liangzhou, finally saw the King of Zhongxia and the army of Zhongxia Kingdom who were brazenly attacking Liangzhou.

Then he took a deep breath, looked at Fa Zheng in disbelief and said, "How can the strength of the Western Region be so strong?"

Fazheng was also numb. Since the Later Han Dynasty, the Central Plains did not know much about the Western Regions. They did not know the population nor the situation within the territory. They only had caravans traveling back and forth in order to make money.

After all, even Guanxi is regarded as the border with the Qiang people. Who would pay attention to the more distant Western Regions, which are thousands of miles away from the capital?

The Western Region Army that now appears in front of Ma Chao and Fazheng consists of tens of thousands of elite infantry, and their armor rate is not inferior to that of the Han Army!
Everyone in the Han Dynasty knew that the Western Region had excellent blacksmithing skills and was not a barbaric land.

This strength cannot be underestimated by all the princes in the world.

In particular, the mix of troops in the Western Regions is quite reasonable. A large number of nomadic cavalry from the Western Regions are not afraid of the Xiliang cavalry at all.

Fazheng suddenly reacted and said with a rather ugly face: "When Wushuang Zhongwu Hou entered the Central Plains, he seemed to have brought tens of thousands of troops from the Western Regions with him.

We should have thought of it a long time ago. Wushuang Zhongwuhou can bring so many troops. How could the King of Zhongxia who unified the Western Regions not be able to do it? "

Ma Chao's scalp was numb and he said bravely: "Xiaozhi, what should we do now?"

He didn't want to go head-to-head with the King of Zhongxia at all. He couldn't be more vigilant against an opponent he didn't know well.

Fazheng sighed deeply, but his eyes were very clear. He said seriously: "Your Majesty, there is no other way but to fight.

The King of Zhongxia wants to go east, and the Hexi Corridor is the only way. Do you want to give up the Hexi Corridor?

After giving up the Hexi Corridor, the Western Region Army will enter Guanzhong. Do you still want to give up Guanzhong?

If so, it would be better to surrender directly and follow the King of Zhongxia to march eastward. "

Ma Chao heard this and clenched the spear in his hand. It is absolutely impossible for two people with conflicting strategic goals to get along well.

As soon as he thought of this, Ma Chao sent an envoy to the king of Zhongxia's tent and said to the king of Zhongxia: "I wonder why the king wants to enter the Central Plains? Isn't it a good thing to be alone in the Western Regions?"

The king of Zhongxia laughed loudly when he heard this and said: "Go back and tell King Yong that he is a citizen of Zhuxia, and I am also a citizen of Zhuxia. The Han people in the Xia have fought for it, and we, the people from the Western Regions, have fought for it.

I heard that King Yong is braver than ordinary people, and I have a love for talents. If King Yong is willing to surrender, I am willing to give the princess to King Yong, so that King Yong can keep his title forever. "

When the envoy brought the words of the King of Zhongxia back to Ma Chao, Ma Chao was so angry that he even smashed a wine glass and said angrily: "The King of Zhongxia is hateful. What a lowly person dares to speak like this to me?" .”

When Ma Chao said this, he probably did not expect that if the world was not in chaos, his status would probably not be as high as the current King of Zhongxia.

After all, the King of Zhongxia was a great aristocrat of the original Liu clan and Wusun Kingdom before he became king.

This kind of status, in the Central Plains, is at least a family with a family worth two thousand dan, which is much better than the Ma Teng family's background as a woodcutter.

Ma Chaoyue wanted to get even more angry. He really felt that he had been insulted. What kind of rotten fish wanted to recruit him?

Thinking of this, Ma Chao directly said to Fa Zheng: "Xiaozhi, since the king of the Western Regions is unwilling to retreat, then attack and let them see the power of my Xiliang cavalry.

Before next year's New Year, I will celebrate the New Year with the Xiliang Iron Cavalry. "

Although Ma Chao was shocked by the strength of the Western Regions, he was more confident in his own troops. These troops were the powerful troops that had just defeated Han Sui and the Xiliang generals' coalition.

The King of Zhongxia was also encouraging the army. He also had extremely strong confidence in his army, especially the imperial guards directly under his command.

This army followed him all the way from the land of Wusun, and participated in almost every war north of the unified Tianshan Mountains. As long as the Imperial Guards took action in every battle, victory would come.He was also very brave when facing the Hu army that invaded the Western Regions.

The two men, who were quite confident in their own army, started a destined war on the vast grassland Gobi.

At that time, Luo Wuji and Huo Qubing led the Han cavalry to attack the Xiongnu tribe here, and finally drove them away from Yanzhi Mountain and Qilian Mountain. The Han people took root here.

This land was born to be a battlefield filled with cavalry, and the view was so vast that it was impossible to avoid it.

The world's elite Xiliang Cavalry and the Western Region Cavalry ushered in their second collision.

The first collision was naturally between Luo Kong and Dong Zhuo. At that time, due to the numerical disadvantage, the Western Region Cavalry was defeated by the Xiliang Cavalry.

What about this time?

The land of the Western Region has always had the habit of leading the way, because here there is a habit of respecting the strong, and only the bravest warriors can be respected by everyone.

However, the King of Zhongxia knew his importance to the Zhongxia Kingdom, so he just sat in the middle army and ordered the nobles who were the former Western Region lords who surrendered to him and were now ennobled by him to attack.

Ma Chaoyun, who is superb in martial arts, will personally lead the army. Fazheng will come up with a plan for him, and he will be responsible for realizing it. This is the way the two of them have been collaborating. So far, they have never suffered a defeat.

……

Another strong wind came, and the yellow sand rolled in.

Under the sand and dust, there are corpses that have been drained of blood. They are densely packed with different forms of death. I don’t know how many there are. Among them are Han people and people from the Western Regions.

If it were not for the dry environment in Hexi, but for the dry environment in the south, there would have been another plague.

The war between the Western Region and Guanzhong has lasted for four full months!

Both sides misjudged the opponent's strength. This was not a crushing game for either side, but a stalemate where the opponent met his opponent.

The most fearful thing about war is this situation.

In the vast Hexi Corridor, from the Gobi Desert to the foothills of farmland, there are corpses of the Western Region Army and the Yong Kingdom Army everywhere.

No one can count the number of casualties.

Ma Chao and the King of Zhongxia may not have thought about stopping during this process, but as soon as they talked about it, they knew it was impossible.

It is impossible for the King of Zhongxia to retreat to the Western Regions. He will never retreat before all the blood of other kings of the Western Regions has been shed.

As long as the Imperial Guards are still there, he is the strongest and can constantly drive others to consume Ma Chao's army.

Moreover, the king of Zhongxia had long planned to attack Liangzhou, so he moved the political center to the border of Dunhuang early. After occupying Dunhuang County, he even moved all the scholars in Dunhuang County to the Western Regions and transferred the people who managed the county to the Western Regions. All were replaced by monks and Taoists who came with the army.

These monks and Taoists were all literate intellectuals and capable of fulfilling this important task.

Ma Chao felt his heart bleed as he watched the number of Xiliang cavalry being consumed.

They could only make up their minds with difficulty, mobilize troops from the Qiang tribe and Guanzhong, and at the same time re-arm the previously captured Xiliang cavalry and throw them into this battlefield.

The plan previously discussed with Fazheng to capture the entire Kansai region and then peek into Shu was completely shelved!
All the resources at hand can only be devoted to this war.

Insightful people on both sides have seen that this war is unlikely to end in a short period of time. In the end, it all depends on who can't hold on first.

This is a life-and-death war.

But Ma Chao was really frustrated. If he lost, the King of Zhongxia would get Liangzhou and Guanzhong.

But if he wins, he still can't waste time attacking the Western Region.

That land was too unfamiliar to him.

No one is willing to do this kind of thing where you lose everything if you lose and gain nothing if you win.

How can this make Ma Chao not go crazy?

He said rather depressed: "I never imagined that one day Liangzhou and Guanzhong would become the places of the Four Wars."

Yes.

The place of four battles.

This is what Fazheng described to Ma Chao about their current situation. This is something that Fazheng did not expect.

Both the Qin State and the Gao Emperor had eliminated future troubles before leaving Guanzhong, but this so-called elimination of future troubles actually only reached Longxi.

But after 300 years of development.

Faced with the cruel facts, Fazheng and Ma Chao had to tell the world one thing.

Times have changed!

Guanzhong is no longer the westernmost land of Zhuxia!
To the west of Guanzhong there is the Western Region, which has always wanted to go east. The current Guanzhong is Hedong and Heluo during the Bang and Zhou Dynasties, and the Western Region was the original Guanzhong.

Today's Guanzhong has to defend the Western Regions to the west, the grassland to the north, and Hanzhong to the south. Not to mention the east, Wuguan, Hangu Pass, and Dahe Ferry have always been heavily guarded.

Although there are mountains, rivers and dangerous passes, there are enemies everywhere in the pass. This is an indisputable fact.

Especially enemies from the Western Regions. Once they attack Liangzhou, there will only be a few passes in front of them, among which Xiao Pass is the most difficult to defend.

For the first time, Fazheng felt so powerless. Advisors made plans instead of making decisions by patting their heads on the head. Generals and commanders did not just talk on paper. Advisors all mastered certain information, and then used this information to deduce something and then predict local actions. Just like a general leading an army on a march, he does not just walk around randomly, but must judge the location based on countless information.

The biggest problem facing Fazheng now is that he has a dark eye on the Western Regions. The Yong Kingdom has no intelligence agency in the Western Regions and can only rely on some information obtained from the caravans, but it is not of much use.

The King of Zhongxia, who had always wanted to get involved in Guanzhong, knew the Central Plains very well. It is said that knowing oneself and the enemy can lead to victory in a hundred battles. In this war, it is quite normal for the Western Region to gradually gain the upper hand.

As the casualties increased day by day, Ma Chao felt that he could no longer bear it. He even had the idea of ​​​​abandoning Liangzhou, shrinking all troops into Guanzhong, sticking to the four fortresses in Guanzhong, and relying on dangerous passes to block the attacking Western Region Army.

After he informed Fazheng of this idea, he thought that the always radical Fazheng would object, but he did not expect that Fazheng was actually thinking about it. After he pondered for a moment, he said slowly: "Your Majesty, I have always been very One thing I’m worried about is that our army and the Western Region Army suffered heavy casualties in the battle. Do the princes of the Central Plains know about it?”

Ma Chao was shocked!
----

This war that took place between the warlord Ma Chao in the late Han Dynasty and the Xia Kingdom in the Western Regions was extremely damaging to the Western Regions, Liangzhou, and Guanzhong in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, but it had far-reaching significance. This was the first time that the princes of the Western Regions joined the fight for world hegemony. The formation reflects from the side that the Western Regions have basically been integrated into the Zhuxia civilization. ——"History of War in the Late Eastern Han Dynasty"

(End of this chapter)