Soldiers come to the world

In a large tent in the military camp outside the city, a Hu man in his thirties was pacing back and forth thoughtfully. Although it was already warm spring, he was still wearing a thick leather jacket and a leather hat with two ears. Wearing thick felt boots on his feet, this is the typical dress of the Qiangdi people. He is of medium build and extremely strong, with a black face and bright and energetic eyes.

His name is Ge Yuan, and he is the younger brother of Yang Wanwan, the leader of the Di people. The Di people are distributed in Longxi area, consisting of dozens of tribes, large and small, with a population of hundreds of thousands.

There are three major forces in Longxi and Liangzhou. One is Song Jian from Longxi, who claims to be the king of Longxi. He has ruled Hehuang for more than [-] years.

The second is the Qiang people and the Di people. Because the Qiang people live in the north and the Di people live in the south, they are also called Northern Qiang and Southern Di.

The Qiang people live in the Hexi Corridor near Wuwei and Zhangye. The Qiang King Nan Gongsu once sold horses to Jiangxia and brought alfalfa seeds to Liu Jing.

The Di people lived in the area of ​​Longxi and Hehuang, mixed with the Tuyuhun people and some Qiang people. There were two branches of the Di people, one was Yang Wanwan, the king of Xingguo, and the other was Agui, the king of Baixiang Di.

The envoys in the big tent were sent by Yang Wanwan, Di Wang of Xingguo. For the Han people in the Central Plains, it was difficult to distinguish between Xingguo and Baixiang, and they were all called Dihu.

In fact, Di people live by water, and there are Di people in Tianshui County, and even in Wudu County. Liu Jing mobilized a large-scale army in Wudu County, and Cao Cao continued to increase troops in Tianshui County, which has already alarmed the people living here. Hu people in the area.

Including the Qiang people, Di people, Tuyuhun people, etc., they all migrated westward to avoid the upcoming war, and the leader of the Di people, Yang Wanwan, had deep interests in Longxi, so he sent his brothers to meet Liu Jing . [

At this time, voices and footsteps came from outside the tent, and a soldier rushed to Ge Yuan and said, "Our state shepherd is here!"

Ge Yuan walked out of the big tent in a hurry, and saw a burly young general walking quickly, surrounded by dozens of soldiers. The young general was wearing a fish scale armor and a golden helmet, and walked vigorously. He immediately guessed that this was He He The famous Liu Jing, Ge Yuan hurriedly stepped forward and knelt down to salute, "The envoy of King Di, Ge Yuan, pays homage to Zhou Mu!"

Years of dealing with Han people allowed Ge Yuan to speak fluent Chinese, and his humble attitude made it easy for people to like him, and Liu Jing was no exception. He smiled slightly and said, "Please talk in the tent! "

He invited the envoy Ge Yuan into the big tent, and the two sat down, Liu Jing ordered someone to serve tea, and then smiled at Ge Yuan: "I don't know Di people very well, but I know Nangong Suo, he seems to be Leader of the Qiang people!"

Ge Yuan hurriedly said: "Yes, he is the leader of the Qiang people, and he mainly lives in Liangzhou. We are Di people, living in Longxi and Hehuang. .”

Liu Jing nodded. The reason why he attached so much importance to the Qiang Di Hu people and hurried over when he heard the news was because he had a deep impression on him when he dealt with Nangong Suo back then.

The Qiang Dihu people have a lot of great horses in their hands, which are the strategic materials he urgently needs. Liu Jing said with a smile: "I told Nangong Suo back then that I would like to establish trade with the Qiang people and buy and sell their own special products, such as cattle. Sheep and horses, but it can only be a wish, because Bashu and Hanzhong are separated in the middle, but now it is different, we can already establish trade routes, whether it is Qiang people or Di people, I am very willing to develop friendly relations. "

Liu Jing said it very implicitly, if it is plain, it is just one sentence, 'I want to buy your war horse! '

As an envoy, Ge Yuan certainly understood the deep meaning of Liu Jing's words. He quickly smiled and said, "I brought a few horses, which are gifts from my chief to the state shepherd. I wonder if the state shepherd would like to have a look."

"Hehe! I'm very happy."

The two walked out of the big tent, and Ge Yuan asked his attendants to bring in some war horses. These war horses were all slender and vigorous, and they looked extremely majestic. Some of them were all black, or they were all snow white, without a single hair. Ge Yuan patted them. The body of the war horse smiled and said: "These five war horses were all obtained from Longju Island. It is said that they are the descendants of dragons and horses, and they are a wish of my chief."

Liu Jing also really likes these five horses. It can be seen that these five horses are more than the horses that Nangong Suo gave him back then. This chief of the Di people really paid for it. He said with a smile: "Thank you very much!"

The two returned to the big tent and sat down again. Ge Yuan then slowly stated the purpose of his trip, "Because we support Ma Chao, after Cao Cao wiped out Ma Chao's remaining troops, he ordered Xia Houyuan to continue to attack the Di people to the west. , If the Battle of Guanzhong was not about to break out, we would have perished, so for us, we very much hope that Zhou Mu can defeat Cao Jun, for this reason, my brother is willing to send troops to assist Zhou Mu in attacking Tianshui."

Liu Jing didn't speak for a while. He didn't expect that the Di people would send troops to help him attack Tianshui. This was really beyond his expectation. He thought the Di people just wanted to establish a trade relationship.

Liu Jing pondered for a moment and said: "Thank you very much for your chief's kindness. In fact, there are many ways for us to cooperate. For now, I want to buy a thousand first-class war horses." [

"There is no problem with this transaction. We hope to exchange it with cloth. According to the market price, ten pieces of silk can be exchanged for a horse. We will send the horse from Yinping Road to Hanzhong as soon as possible. In addition, we have assembled [-] cavalry. Launch an offensive against Cao Jun from the west, and we are willing to obey the order of the prefect."

Speaking of this, Ge Yuan asked his attendants to bring in a golden dagger studded with precious stones and presented it to Liu Jing, "This is our King Di's army sword. With this sword, Zhou Mu can mobilize six thousand Xidi cavalry warriors at any time. We I would like to help Zhoumu defeat Cao Jun and restore the former peace.”

Ge Yuan said goodbye and left. Liu Jing paced back and forth in the big tent with his hands behind his back, thinking about the sudden change. He also knew that Xia Houyuan was planning to lead the army to continue attacking Dihu, but later canceled the plan because he wanted to Instead of preparing for war, defending the Han army from going north to Guanzhong, it would be great if Dihu was really willing to send troops to attack Cao Jun, but this incident came quite suddenly, which made Liu Jing a little confused.

At this time, a soldier reported outside the tent: "General Ma Chao is here, please see Zhou Mu!"

Liu Jing was about to look for Ma Chao, but unexpectedly Ma Chao came, and he quickly ordered: "Please let him in!"

After a while, Ma Chao walked into the big tent quickly, knelt down on one knee and saluted, "See Zhou Mu!"

It has been four months since Ma Chao surrendered to Liu Jing, and he has gradually adapted to his current status. Fazheng also hinted to him that because of his father, the state shepherd can't reuse him for the time being, so let him endure it for a year or two.

Ma Chao can also understand this point, and more importantly, Ma Chao is very moved that Liu Jing intends to marry his widowed sister to him. He has already agreed to this marriage, so that Ma Chao can stay in the Hanzhong.

This time in the northern expedition to Guanzhong, since Liu Jing was personally on the expedition, Ma Chao, as a general accompanying the army, listened to orders under the tent. Just now when he learned that Ge Yuan was here as an envoy, he was very familiar with the Qiang Di people, so he couldn't help but come See Liu Jing.

Liu Jing waved his hands and smiled, "General Meng Qi, please sit down!"

Ma Chao sat down under Liu Jing, and asked, "I heard that Yang Wanwan sent an envoy, is he still there?"

"The envoy's name is Ge Yuan. He claims to be Yang Wanwan's younger brother. He has already returned. Is Meng Qi familiar with him?" Liu Jing asked with a smile.

Ma Chao nodded, "Ge Yuan is indeed Yang Wanwan's younger brother, and he is very familiar with Weichen, but he is very slippery and good at adapting to the wind, I don't like him."

Liu Jing smiled, "Actually, I wanted to buy their war horses to supplement my cavalry strength, and they agreed, but Ge Yuan actually expressed his willingness to help me attack Cao Jun, which was really beyond my expectation. Is this statement credible?"

"Did they give any credentials?"

Liu Jing took out the golden sword and put it on the table, "Give me this sword, saying that I can use it to mobilize the Di people's cavalry."

Ma Chao picked up the sword, looked at it, and said to Liu Jing, "This sword is one of Yang Wanwan's three military swords. It is indeed useful for mobilizing troops. Since they gave this sword to Zhou Mu, it shows that they intend to send troops. , and I know that Yang Wanwan is very afraid of Cao Cao's westward advance, so it is not surprising that he has the idea of ​​sending troops to attack Cao Cao, but there is one thing I want to remind Zhou Mu!"

"Meng Qi, please tell me!"

Ma Chao said slowly: "There is a saying in Longyou that Qiang is thick and Di is thin, which means that the Qiang people are reliable and the Di people believe in it. When I was defeated in Guanzhong, I asked Di Wang Yang for help. He did give me ten thousand troops. However, this person only gave the soldiers, not the horses. In the end, I returned to Xiliang and was wiped out by Cao Jun. From this, it can be seen that Yang Wanwan is not a sincere person. At least you can't rely on him to prevent him from changing his mind temporarily."

Liu Jing nodded, "Meng Qi is right. Although I really hope that the Di people can attack Cao Jun from the side, I still can't see their sincerity, so I can't pin our hopes on them. We still have to follow our original plan." implementation of the plan.”

Qishan Road refers to a north-south official road from Xiabian County, Wudu County to Jixian County, Tianshui County. It is about [-] miles long and is divided into north and south parts with Qishan as the middle point.

The South Road is from Xiabian County to Xixian County to the north of Qishan. This section is about [-] miles, half of which is in Wudu County. This is the western section of Zhongnan Mountains. It is a difficult and difficult section of the road, but after walking out of this section of the mountain road, it is relatively easy to march and enter the Qishan area.

Qishan is actually a mountain group composed of three mountain ranges and nearly a hundred mountains. The terrain is broken, and the mountains are relatively independent. They stretch for hundreds of miles from northwest to southeast. There are three wide official roads, which detour from the east and west sides of Qishan Mountain to the north.

The so-called ease of marching is only relative to the southern road. Compared with the plain terrain in Guanzhong, Qishan Road is still a relatively difficult mountainous road. Jieting, Liucheng, Licheng, Mumen, Longkou, and a county - Xixian.

Cao Cao stationed an army of [-] troops in Qishan area, led by his second son Cao Zhang, Xia Houyuan as deputy general, Chen Qun as counselor, core generals such as Cao Hong, Yu Jin, Zang Ba, Li Dian, Zhang He, Zhang Yan and so on.

For Liu Jing's Han army, the search for intelligence was also the top priority before the war. For this reason, Liu Jing sent ten of the most elite scout teams composed of the Eagle Strike Army to search for intelligence on Qishan Road, Tianshui, and Weihe River.

This afternoon, near Licheng, the southernmost part of Qishan Mountain, a scout team composed of 20 people was hurriedly marching on the mountain road. They were going to carry out a secret mission.