The sky is high and the clouds are light, and I look at the flying geese in the south.

Ma Chao took more than 10,000 Xiliang cavalry and climbed over Jieting Pass in a nervous mood. When he entered Longchuan Valley, he saw this scene. This was the first time Ma Chao, who was eighteen years old, led his troops. The first battle of his life will come at any time, and even the talented person will be nervous.

Unfortunately, Ma Chao lacks culture, so he cannot write poems to describe the scenery in front of him. He can only be purely empathetic to the magnificent mountains and rivers and the clear and cool autumn weather.

Jieting is located on a gap in the branch of the west side of Longshan Mountain, and is the nearest throat that crosses the eastern Longshan Mountains.

Longshan is the Liupan Mountain in later geography textbooks, spreading more than 600 miles from north to south, from Guyuan, Ningxia (Chaona County, Anding County) to Baoji, Shaanxi (Chencang County, Youfufeng), and runs through the three provinces of Shaanxi, Gansu and Ningxia.

One thousand eight hundred years later in history, an expeditionary force with a "tourism of 20,000" traveled more than 20,000 miles and finally crossed Longshan and arrived at its final destination. It was also at the end of the autumn harvest season of the eighth lunar calendar. "The sky is high and the clouds are light, and I look at the flying geese in the south" was the scenery at that time, almost the same as what Ma Chao saw.

The danger and importance of this place can be seen.

The northern section of Longshan has only one main ridge structure, and it is high and steep into the clouds, with an altitude of nearly 3,000 meters and no pass can be crossed. However, in the southern half, due to the confluence of rainwater in the mountainous areas for millions of years, the mountain was divided into two parallel branches, east and west.

Between the eastern and western branches, the Wei River originates from the near Jieting. The source of the Wei River is Wei County, which flows southeastward along the mountain, passes through Huangmi County, and injects into the Wei River not far east of Chencang City.

The water source of the water from the confluence of precipitation on Longshan Mountain, so tributaries will be etched on the hillside to form low mountain tips. The gap that is washed out of the west slope of Neiyuan is Jieting, and the gap in the east slope of Neiyuan is called Huating.

So after the Xiliang army left Jieting, there were two ways to choose from:

The first one is to go down the river directly along the river, enter the Guanzhong Plain, attack Chen Cang from behind, or block the enemy army in Chen Cang, and then plunder the three auxiliary areas along the Wei River, including Ji County, etc.

The second is to cross the western branch of Longshan from Jieting, then climb up the eastern branch of Longshan from Huating to the Loess Plateau, and then run from Huating to Jingyuan and Linjing. There is the second largest river in Qin, Jinghe, which attacks down the Jinghe River, and can eventually merge into the Weihe River in Chiyang County north of Chang'an City, and then merge into the Yellow River with the Weihe River.

Speaking of Chiyang, there is another strange scene, which is "clear separation of Jingwei". Later generations can also be seen on Douyin, because the Jinghe River flows into the Guanzhong Plain and the Loess Plateau, with great sand content, and when you converge near Chang'an, you can still see the clear and turbidity.

However, from the pre-Qin to the Three Kingdoms, the Loess Plateau was not yet the "Loess Plateau" and the vegetation was lush, so the Jing River was clearer than the Wei River at that time. The Book of Songs said that "the Jing River is turbid and the Wei River is turbid, and the storm is surging", which shows that.

Later, Guanzhong was repeatedly destroyed, and the Loess Plateau officially became Loess. It was obvious that the Jing River was turbid and surpassed the Wei River during the Sui and Tang Dynasties. Du Fu wrote a poem saying "How should we divide the turbid Jing and the clear Wei River?" (Now the Loess Plateau has been governed, and the Jing River is clear again)

It was a bit far and back to the route of advancing after Ma Chao left the army.

It is precisely because the "Loess Plateau" in the late Han Dynasty was not a loess wasteland, but a fertile land with lush vegetation, so the terrain of most areas on the plateau is still very rugged, and it can even be regarded as a remnant of the Longshan Mountains, and it is difficult to march in other places except on both sides of the Jing River.

After passing Jieting, Ma Chao was inevitably a little confused, so before separating his troops with his father, he took advantage of the last military consultation to ask for instructions.

"Father, is it too smooth for our army to cross Jieting this time? Not only Jieting, but also there are no defenders on the opposite Huating Pass. Next, should our army go directly to Chang'an from Linjing, Anding County, and follow the Jing River, or take the southern line, and go directly to Chang'an from Chencang and Mei County along the Wei River?" Ma Chao asked sincerely.

Ma Teng smiled in the tent: "In Jieting, Huating did not encounter resistance, so I feel uneasy? Meng Qi, you are still too young and do not understand politics. It should be noted that your father is still the general of the Western Expedition, who was enthroned by the Chang'an court. Before he had officially opened the flag to resist Li Jue and Guo Si, he had just crossed the border slightly, and the officials of Anding County and You Fufeng would not meet our soldiers immediately.

It is even possible that when our army had just arrived in Linjing, as long as we put out a banner to indicate that the former general of the Western Expedition was going to Chang'an to meet, the Anding Prefect of Linjing, Su Ze, might have been deceived by our army and captured the city.

However, Wang Hong from Youfufeng will definitely not fall into the trap. After all, Zhang Ji has always been guarding Chen Cang, so Wang Hong will definitely be alert. And when our army arrived, Han Wenyue might have been besieging Chen Cang."

In fact, although Ma Teng and Han Sui are currently brothers, they are still not subordinate to each other in name, even if Han Sui causes rebellion, Zhang Ji and Jia Xu cannot take it for granted that Ma Teng is really going to cause rebellion. Only Ma Teng makes substantial moves can confirm that the first shot of the sneak attack always exists.

Ma Chao, who had no political experience, was taught by his father, and said thoughtfully: "Since that's the case, we might as well take advantage of the sneak attack and seize Anding County first. Even if we attract counterattacks, we can transfer the money and food of Anding, and the people will retreat from Jieting to Longxi. If the enemy's counterattack is restrained by Han Sui, our army will be able to hold on to Anding and slowly make plans - anyway, there are many defenders in Chang'an, and it is impossible to capture it with our 20,000 people. It is better to stop when we see it and support it."

Ma Chao's words were also very correct, because there was no point in attacking Chang'an.

The historical situation of sneak attacks on Chang'an is meaningful. Chang'an must be that it is not the capital, and the army is not stationed in the city. If it is directly the heart of the country, with a hundred thousand soldiers, what else can you steal?

Or even though Chang'an originally had many troops, most of the main forces were transferred out to attack other warlords, which also had the meaning of stealing. For example, Li Jue and Guo Si currently have more than 100,000 direct troops. If Han Sui or Liu Bei were too busy to attack Chen Cang, most of the 100,000 people in Chang'an were transferred to Chen Cang. Tianshui, then Ma Chao could consider stealing while Chang'an was empty.

Otherwise, it would be safest to just grab one and leave, and let Han Sui fight the tough battle.

Ma Teng also felt it made sense, and finally added: "However, Han Wenyou said that he would be the enemy of Chen Cang and fight hard with Zhang Ji. I have never dared to believe that. With me, he is likely to be just bluffing and want our army to fight the main force.

Therefore, you must be careful when going to Stability. Once the main force of the enemy comes and there is a risk of being surrounded, you should immediately grab a retreat. Keep your father at this Jieting and Huating opposite to ensure that our army can always retreat to Longxi."

Ma Chao was not worried because he felt that there was no father in this world who sold his son. He left the retreat to his father to defend and was responsible for going out to rob. It was quite satisfying.

"Since that's the case, I'll go to Jingyuan today." After Ma Chao said that, after lunch in Huating camp, he led his cavalry to continue to advance eastward.

...

When he first entered Anding County, it was indeed very smooth at the beginning. Ma Chao did not fight and directly attacked the banner of General Xi and asked the city to receive it. Jingyuan County, the first small county along the way, was directly taken down by bloodlessness.

Ma Chao captured the county magistrate, asked his soldiers to take over the four gates, and also distributed people to clean up all the grain in the granary, transported it back in batches, and transported it to Jieting Daying 70 miles away for food for the garrison guarding the pass.

This time, Ma Teng brought food for several days and had no intention of eating his own. The troops stationed at the pass could not rob him, so of course, they had to rob the enemy's food from the front line and transport it back to eat.

After retrieving a ticket in Jingyuan, the troops only rested for one night.

The next day, Ma Chao, whose morale was high, continued to move eastward, and walked more than 80 miles to Linjing County, Anding County. Ma Chao continued to make people shout at the city gate and used the same trick again.

Su Ze, the prefect of Anding, turned from the city, shouted firmly: "Old thief Ma Teng, you are in the plan of General Xuanyi of my family! Why don't you get off the horse and be tied up quickly! The court appointed you as General of the Western Expedition, but you were ungrateful and invaded and rebelled with Han Sui! Betrayed the court! General Guo has led tens of thousands of troops and secretly stationed in the Wu family for several days. At this moment, he has gone south to cut off Huating. Your retreat has been cut off, and you can only surrender!"

Ma Chao was shocked and quickly stabilized his morale and shouted: "Impossible! Don't talk nonsense! When our army came, there was no enemy along the way, and there was no enemy hidden in the valley. How could the enemy hide in the bitter cold land of Wu for no reason? This is the trick of the enemy to disrupt our morale, quickly attack the city and kill this thief!"

It turned out that the Wushi County mentioned in the conversation between the two is the northwest county in Anding County. It is located on the eastern foot of Longshan Mountain and is more west than the source of Jingshui. The place is very desolate all year round, and the local grain output is definitely not enough for tens of thousands of troops to be stationed for a long time.

Ma Teng and Ma Chao and his son came out of seclusion to rob. It was impossible to go all over the place and search too far along the sides of Longshan. So the scouts scattered thirty or forty miles to the north and south sides. Without seeing the enemy situation, they felt at ease to go deeper along the Jing River.

Ma Chao ordered this, and a deputy general around him, Pang De, advised: "Major General, don't be reckless! I heard that Jia Xu has always been wise and tricky. Since the enemy is so calm, he still said that Zhang Ji and Guo Si are supporting him. Maybe he is really attacking Jieting, which is defending by the veteran general.

The veteran general only had thousands of people guarding the pass, and more than 10,000 main forces were brought to us to stabilize. If Guo Si really had tens of thousands and the veteran general could not hold on for too long, our retreat would be cut off. The veteran general himself could give up Jieting and retreat to Wuwei, what should we do? Or turn around and fight to the death, and fight back from front and back to ensure Jieting. Huating is important."

"This..." Ma Chao was very unwilling to accept it. After all, it was just a one-sided remark from the enemy now. What if he was deceived? Wouldn't it delay the fighter plane?

After thinking about it, Ma Chao said, "If the enemy really wants to plot against us and let Guo Si go around, I am afraid that even if Jieting can be guarded, Huating will be... We will travel 160 miles back and forth. If we run for a waste of time and delay the fighter plane, we will not be able to advance or retreat at that time. What should we do?"

Pound: "What do you think the Major General?"

Ma Chao: "Let's divide the troops. I will take the main force back to Huating first. You will divide the troops into two or three thousand. Bypass Linjing and go to Qixian County, the lower reaches of the Jinghe River. Anyway, no matter which small county, you can cheat the city and open the city at any time. Just leave a foothold with us. On the way, I also divided the troops to guard the four gates.

If Guo Si is fake, I will bring people back and continue to advance with you. If Guo Si is defeated by me, I will send a messenger to inform you to retreat slowly. If Guo Si has already captured Huating... Then I can only bring troops back, join your troops, and wander around the patrol. I don’t believe that we have tens of thousands of cavalrymen, and can still be besieged and killed! At that time, we will break south, go to the Weishui line, join Han Sui’s army, and go around Chencang to the Weishui Valley and retreat back to Longxi."

Pang De was speechless for a while, so he was allowed to stay behind the enemy for the time being to establish a foothold. Because he didn't give him many soldiers, it did not affect the combat effectiveness of the front battlefield. As compensation, Ma Chao also left behind all the tokens such as the general's talisman seal and flags of the Western Expedition General, so that Pang De would cheat Kaicheng by deceiving his identity.

"... The last general received the order. However, the last general was the youngest soldier. Please ask the major general to confirm the situation and respond quickly."

After saying that, Ma Chao ran back with 10,000 main force.

Unfortunately, the prefect An Ding was indeed not bluffing. When Ma Chao first arrived at Huating, he found that Huating had fallen - after all, Ma Chao went east through Huating, three days ago. Three days were enough for Guo Si and Jia Xu to do a lot of things.

Before Jieting was captured, Ma Teng himself guarded the troops with three or four thousand remaining soldiers, trying to take his son to retreat, but obviously there was no hope. As long as one of the mountain-crossing passes on both sides of the Lishui River was cut off, the troops of Anding County could not retreat back to Longxi.
Chapter completed!