Outlaws of the Marsh

Chapter 494 Should be going home (please subscribe!)

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On this day, Tong Guan called Ma Kuo over and asked, "You should have a good relationship with Liu Kai, right?"

Ma Kuo was puzzled, but he still said truthfully: "This subordinate once served in the Xihe Army with Liu Kai. When Xuanxiang you conquered Qingqiang, the servant brother promised to surrender, but I asked Xuanxiang you and the commander-in-chief Suo Dashuai." One son was taken as a hostage, and the commander later sent Liu Kai to Xige City as a hostage, and his subordinates accompanied Liu Kai to Xige City."

Tong Guan patted his head, then pretended to remember, and said: "Look at me, I am not old, but my memory is bad first, why did I forget that you went to Xige City as a hostage, by the way, your father-in-law Zhao Is Old General Long still Liu Kai's old officer?"

Ma Kuo said, "Yes, Liu Kai was taught by my father-in-law."

Tong Guan said: "So, the relationship between you and Liu Kai is indeed unusual."

Ma Kuo said: "Life and death are irreversible."

Tong Guan said: "I'm relieved."

Ma Kuo was puzzled and asked, "I don't know what Xuanxiang means?"

Tong Guandao: "I have an important task here. I wanted to hand it over to Liu Kai's two older brothers. Since you and Liu Kai are irreversible, it's best for you to handle it. After all, his two older brothers are both soldiers. Reckless man, I don’t have the same degree of control as you.”

Hearing Tong Guan's words, Ma Kuo's mind flashed, and then he figured it out, Tong Guan really wanted him to recruit Liu Qi.

Tong Guan quickly said again: "Have you heard about the fact that Liu Kai wiped out [-] cavalry from the Liao, Xixia, and Mongolia allied forces with [-] infantry and [-] cavalry at Qingshui River?"

Ma Kuo said: "This subordinate has heard about it."

Tong Guandao: "This Liu Kai is really a great general. No wonder the officials were so optimistic about Liu Kai at the beginning. When he was in his early twenties, he was given the command of the guards, the horse army, the dragon god and the guards. Who can compare with this? Grace? Their Liu family is a family of generals in the Song Dynasty, especially his father and my good friend Liu Ziwen, who has been the Xuzhou Observation Envoy, the Baojing Army Propaganda Envoy, and the Luchuan Army Jiedu Envoy along the way. His two brothers and Several nephews are now holding important positions in our Great Song army..."

Thinking of the reason why Liu Kai went to Li Yan in the first place, Tong Guan said for Zhao Ji: "At the beginning, the officials really had no other choice, so they asked Liu Kai to go to Li Yan temporarily. You know that at that time Tian Hu Li Yan, Wang Qing, and Fang La all turned against each other, and the country was in danger. Besides, Li Yan hadn't objected at that time, so the officials used Liu Kai and them to help Li Yan build the Liangshan Army." Tong Guan's tone changed immediately. , Heartbroken and said: "Who would have thought that Li Yan's wolfish ambition would be in vain for the kindness and righteousness of the officials to him, and his brains will be rebellious!" After a pause, Tong Guan said again: "Since Li Yan is ignorant of the emperor's kindness, don't blame him! We are unrighteous, and now we want to take back all the generals that we lent to Li Yan!"

Ma Kuo knew very well about Zhao Ji's betrayal of Liu Kai and others, because he was in Tokyo at that time, and he had discussed Zhao Ji's mistake with Liu Kai.

Now Tong Guan insists that selling is borrowing, can this work?

Ma Kuo was very uncertain.

Based on Ma Kuo's understanding of Liu Kai, Liu Kai is definitely not the kind of repeated second minister, but an incomparable minister with iron blood and loyalty.

Ma Kuo believed that if Zhao Ji hadn't forced Liu Kai to sell him, Liu Kai would never have played for Li Yan even if he died.

But Zhao Ji just sold Liu Qi.

Now, Li Yan appointed Liu Kai, who is not yet 30 years old, to command and command a [-] army to fight the enemy decisively. In order to support Liu Kai, he personally led the troops to charge.
"At this time, Liu Kai's king will be the official who sold him, or Li Yan who will support him to the end?"

Ma Kuo didn't dare to think about it anymore.

Reining in his mind, Ma Kuo said, "Xuan Xiang wants me to tell Liu Qi to surrender?"

Tong Guan said: "Hey~ Why did you come to surrender, you should go home."

Tong Guan said again: "Go and tell Liu Kai that Li Yan is not the only one who dares to employ people. If he can bring back 5 horses, I will guarantee him to be the governor of the capital. The 10 horses in our Song Dynasty will belong to him. He will be in charge of the battle against Liao."

After hearing the promise made by Tong Guan, Ma Kuo felt a little hope of recruiting Liu Qi.

If Tong Guan's promise is fulfilled, then Liu Kai will be the one who replaces the teacher. This is basically the highest position a general can achieve. No matter how high he is, he should enter the Central Committee and the Privy Council. And don't forget , Liu Qi is less than 30 years old now, and it can definitely be said that he has a bright future.

More importantly, Ma Kuo knew that Liu Kai didn't want to play for Li Yan at the beginning.

Ma Kuo said: "The subordinates will definitely try their best to persuade Liu Kai to go home."

Tong Guan said: "Okay, there is no need to delay, you should leave as soon as possible."

……

Ma Kuo is a vigorous and decisive person. He left Xiongzhou on the same day, and then came to Daizhou from Guozhending and Zhongshan Erfu.

After arriving in Daizhou, Ma Kuo didn't stop at all, and went directly through Yanmen Pass and entered Yundi.

Not long after Ma Kuo and his party entered Yundi, they were stopped by someone.

Ma Kuo bluntly stated that he was a friend of Liu Kai and Liu Tongzhi, and wanted to go to Huanzhou to meet Liu Kai.

Zhao Erwa, the primary school student who stopped them, asked them to rest in the posthouse and inform Liu Kai at the same time.

What Ma Kuo didn't expect was that within two hours, Zhao Erwa came back to inform Ma Kuo that Liu Kai invited him to meet.

Ma Kuo thought that Liu Kai was nearby, otherwise it shouldn't be so fast.

But under the escort of Zhao Erwa and others, the group of them rode for almost three hours and did not reach Liu Kai's location.

This made Ma Kuo very curious, but at the same time he couldn't help being a little vigilant: "The Liangshan Army transmits the news so fast. If this is a wartime, it will have a lot of advantages invisibly."

Along the way, Ma Kuo looked around.

Ma Kuo discovered that Huanzhou had many more fortresses than before, and they were well-organized in depth and interdependent, which seemed to be arranged by experts at first glance.

Ma Kuo thought in his heart: "If enough troops are stationed in these fortresses, it may not be easy for the Song Dynasty to attack Yundi from Yanmen Pass."

After walking for more than an hour, when it was almost dark, Zhao Erwa brought Ma Kuo and his party to a rice field.

Zhao Erwa said to Ma Kuo: "General Ma, wait a moment, I will go and ask the commander to come over."

Ma Kuo asked in surprise: "Is Liu Tongzhi here?" Then he looked around, and there was nothing here except the endless rice fields.

Zhao Erwa smiled and said, "General, wait a moment."

After she finished speaking, Zhao Erwa got off her horse, took off her shoes and socks, rolled up her trouser legs, and went into the rice field barefoot.

Under the surprise and confusion of Ma Kuo and others, Zhao Erwa asked several people, and then came to a farmer who was planting rice seedlings, and then lowered her head and whispered a few words to the farmer.

After hearing this, the man straightened up, handed the rice seedlings to Zhao Erwa, and looked towards Ma Kuo and the others.

After Ma Kuo saw the man's appearance, he was very surprised—he really didn't expect that this farmer turned out to be Liu Kai!
……

(End of this chapter)