The Jagged Cavalry of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 701 700 Lightning Strike
Xu Huang was extremely surprised by the kung fu shown by Ma Chao just now. He could pinch off the blade with just two fingers. He couldn't do such a thing. far above him.

However, Xu Huang didn't intend to admit defeat, and in front of his subordinates, Ma Chao made himself so ugly, how could he swallow it?
Just when Xu Huang was about to go all out and fight Ma Chao, someone suddenly reported the imperial decree and asked Xu Huang to go and receive the decree.

Not long after the words were finished, Pang Tong came in from the outside of the hall with the imperial edict in his hand. As soon as he entered the hall, he shouted: "The imperial edict has arrived, General Xu Huang of the left will accept it!"

Everyone in the hall knelt on the ground one after another, listening respectfully to Pang Tong's reading of the imperial edict.

The so-called imperial decree is nothing more than a secret order issued by Zhang Yan, which is only stamped with a jade seal.Ma Chao already knew this secret order, but Xu Huang and Niu Jin didn't know it yet. After leaving Pengcheng, Ma Chao went back to Liangzhou to gather troops. Everyone who arrived was notified one by one, coupled with the warm hospitality of the officials along the way, so Pang Tong's trip was delayed for a day or two, and he did not arrive at Chencang until today.

Originally, Xu Huang was ordered to garrison Chang'an, but Xu Huang couldn't sit still in Chang'an City, and went out to inspect the situation of various passes as soon as he took office, and Chen Cang was one of the passes he wanted to inspect. For the sake of the name, he took a few entourages and went hunting. In fact, he wanted to observe the local terrain and the deficiencies in defense.

After Pang Tong finished reading the imperial decree, Xu Huang looked at Pang Tong with a puzzled face and asked, "Angel, did you read it correctly? As General Zuo, my position is obviously higher than that of Ma Chao. You want me to be Ma Chao's deputy?"

Pang Tong said: "General Xu, this is written in the imperial decree, black and white, I read it correctly, if you don't believe me, you can read it."

Xu Huang took the imperial decree from Pang Tong's hand and read it carefully. It was clearly written in black and white. It was true that Zhenxi General Ma Chao was the vanguard general and Zuo General Xu Huang was the deputy vanguard.For such a weird decision, Xu Huang was very wronged and dissatisfied, so he shouted: "Who made this decree?"

"Who else is there besides the regent?" Pang Tong said.

Xu Huang said: "It shouldn't be, did the Prince Regent make a typo and wrote the imperial decree?"

Pang Tong said: "General Xu, you don't have to doubt it. This is indeed the meaning of the Regent. There is no mistake in writing. Please also ask General Xu to act according to the imperial edict."

"I don't believe it. How could the regent make such a mistake? There is something wrong with the imperial decree. Please forgive me for not being able to accept the decree!" Xu Huang said.

Pang Tong said sharply: "General Xu! If you don't accept the order, you are resisting it. As an important minister of the country and a general guarding one side, you should know the disrespectful end of resisting the order. Let me ask you again, you really don't want to accept it. purpose?"

Before Xu Huang could speak, Niu Jin hurriedly snatched the imperial edict, and said to Pang Tong respectfully: "Supervisor, General Xu has drunk too much, don't be as knowledgeable as him, this imperial edict has been accepted by General Xu."

Xu Huang stared wide-eyed, and was about to yell at Niu Jin, but Niu Jin covered his mouth first, and said in Xu Huang's ear: "General Xu, bear with it for a while, the wind and the sea are calm, if you can't bear it, you will mess up the big plan!" , Resisting the decree and disrespecting it is a serious crime to be beheaded. If the general is beheaded because of this incident and spread, he will definitely be ridiculed by many people. Moreover, it will be cheaper for Ma Chao..."

Xu Huang listened to Niu Jin's last words. Xu Huang turned his head and glanced at Ma Chao, but seeing Ma Chao gloating there, with a sneer on his face, he thought that what Niu Jin said was right. If the matter dies, not only is it too unworthy, but it will also make the world ridicule. I am afraid that Ma Chao is the most proud.

Thinking of this, Xu Huang took the imperial decree, looked at the contents above, and finally suppressed the anger in his heart, and said to Pang Tong: "The last general's decree is it!"

The tense atmosphere in the hall naturally couldn't hide from Pang Tong's eyes. key person.Therefore, Pang Tong comforted Xu Huang while enlightening Ma Chao, hoping that the two could work together to contribute to the pacification of the Southwest.

Under Pang Tong's persuasion, Xu Huang and Ma Chao reluctantly showed harmony, but in their hearts, Xu Huang and Ma Chao had some suspicions because of this.

Later, Ma Chao left with an excuse, and the army did not enter Chencang City, but spent the night in the mountains outside Chencang City.

After Ma Chao left, Pang Tong personally found Xu Huang, handed a secret letter to Xu Huang, and said to Xu Huang: "General Xu, this is a secret order from the regent. You can open it and you will know why." The regent made you Ma Chao's deputy."

Xu Huang took the secret order and looked at it carefully. All the unhappiness in his heart disappeared at this time, and a smile appeared on his face. As for the actual situation, please don’t blame Xu for being the superintendent.”

Pang Tong said: "This secret order was issued by the Regent. Now you should know how heavy a burden is on your shoulders, right?"

Xu Huang nodded, and said with a hey smile: "Superintendent, you are so bad. If you took out this letter early in the morning, what would be the conflict? I still make a fool of myself in front of the superintendent."

Pang Tong said: "General Xu is polite. It doesn't matter if you make a fool of yourself in front of me, as long as you don't make a fool of yourself in front of the regent. Except for the regent, only you and I know about this matter. Everything must be kept secret and must not be leaked. If there is even a little bit of wind, especially Ma Chao must not know."

"I understand this, the superintendent can rest assured, Xu knows what to do." Xu Huang said.

It turned out that Zhang Yan didn't feel at ease with Ma Chao during the Western Expedition, so he deliberately made such an arrangement, letting Xu Huang serve as Ma Chao's deputy, Ma Chao led the army to charge forward, and Xu Huang led the troops to clean up the mess and occupy the city. Always block Ma Chao's back road.Worried about Ma Chao's rebellion, Zhang Yan even gave Xu Huang an order to use Xu Huang to restrain Ma Chao if Ma Chao was found to be acting abnormally.

Although Xu Huang's martial arts is not necessarily better than Ma Chao's, in Zhang Yan's view, Xu Huang's resourcefulness is definitely stronger than Ma Chao's, and Xu Huang is behind Ma Chao. If there is a real fight, Xu Huang can sneak attack Ma Chao.

Zhang Yan's order to Pang Tong was to reconcile the conflict between Ma Chao and Xu Huang as much as possible, and to make suggestions for Ma Chao so that he could capture Hanzhong and even the entire Xichuan as quickly as possible.

In other words, this Western Expedition was a method Zhang Yan deliberately used to weaken Ma Chao's power, and it was also a test for Ma Chao.

Just in case, Zhang Yan issued such an order on purpose, making Xu Huang, who had a higher official position than Ma Chao, to be Ma Chao's deputy.

In the early morning of the next day, Ma Chao's army had been assembled. He first went to Chencang City to find Pang Tong, the military adviser and army supervisor, and proposed to Pang Tong the plan to attack Hanzhong.

According to the information collected in the past few days, Pang Tong learned that Zhang Lu in Hanzhong had been negligent in guarding against it. If he launched a sudden attack, he would definitely be able to take Hanzhong in a very short time.

Therefore, Pang Tong agreed to Ma Chao's suggestion and asked Ma Chao to lead the army of the headquarters to attack various counties and counties in Hanzhong quickly.Xu Huang led the army to prepare for support.

As soon as the order was issued, Ma Chao gathered his generals. This time, his army was full of elite soldiers and strong generals. Although the Qiang people were the main force, the leaders of the Qiang people all looked forward to Ma Chao's head. Willingly act as the vanguard of Ma Chao's army, led by Pang De, first set off from Chencang, pass Sanguan, enter the boundary of Wudu, take the Mian River from Wudu County in Liangzhou, and attack Mianyang in Hanzhong County, while Ma Chao Leading Ma Dai and others, they went straight to Nanzheng, the county town of Hanzhong County, through Xiegu.

Ma Chao's troops were divided into two groups, with the Qiang people led by Pang De as the West Route Army, and himself as the East Route Army. The West Route Army launched an attack first to attract Zhang Lu's army, while Ma Chao rushed to Zhang Lu's army as a surprise soldier. At the time of Mianyang, soldiers suddenly approached the city. Taking advantage of the emptiness of Nanzheng, they captured Nanzheng and captured Zhang Lu.

It has to be said that Ma Chao's strategic plan was perfectly formulated and acted very quickly.

As the prefect of Hanzhong, Zhang Lu, the leader of Wudoumi Taoism, never dreamed that a few days ago he was still dreaming of being the king of Hanning, but today he became a prisoner.

Standing on the city wall of Nanzheng City, Ma Chao looked at the large number of Wudoumi Taoist believers who were captured by his subordinates. He couldn't help feeling very emotional. He thought it would be a bloody battle, but Zhang Lu's subordinates were all pulling tiger skins to sing a big show. He was vulnerable at all, and after the battle, he would be defeated at the first touch. He was not the opponent of Xiliang Jianer led by Ma Chao at all.

Zhang Lu, Zhang Wei, and the other big and small leaders of Wudoumi Taoism were all captured, tied together with ropes, strung together in a string, and neatly arranged in Nanzheng City. Zhang Lu's indomitable image in the past, And the glorious image among the Taoist believers of Wudoumi is greatly reduced. What is invulnerable, ghost king, and ghost soldiers are all useless at this moment, and they are all reduced to prisoners.

It took only three days from Ma Chao's army to Ma Chao standing on the tower of Nanzheng City showing his power and pointing the country. It was a miracle that Zhang Lu, who had ruled Hanzhong for many years, was defeated by Ma Chao.

"Brother, what should Zhang Lu and the others do?" Ma Dai came to Ma Chao's side and asked Zhang Lu and others who were tied up.

Ma Chao said: "Zhang Lu's gossip confuses the crowd. It's useless to keep this kind of person. It's better to kill him."

Ma Dai said: "But brother, if you don't ask the supervising army, you can kill Zhang Lu and the others, okay?"

Ma Chao said: "I despise people like Zhang Lu who have no real ability and are still lying there to confuse the crowd. They have killed a hundred people. When the supervising army asks, they will say that Zhang Lu died in the chaos. Isn't that all right?"

Ma Dai was still a little worried, and asked: "Brother, why don't we wait until the supervising army arrives?"

"Where are you talking so much nonsense? When the supervising army arrives, he will let you kill him? Hurry up and execute it. If something happens, I will take care of everything!" Ma Chao said.

"Here!" Ma Dai reluctantly responded and went down.

However, when Ma Dai walked to the steps of the city wall, he suddenly thought of something, and then turned back, and suddenly said to Ma Chao: "Brother, I heard that Zhang Lu has accumulated a lot of wealth, and he is already incomparably rich. Now, our people haven't found Zhang Lu's wealth, do you think it's not too late to kill him after finding Zhang Lu's wealth?"

Ma Chao thought for a moment, then said: "When you say that, I almost forgot. This time we went west, the imperial court didn't take any money. I heard that it was all funded by Zhang Lu. Since Zhang Lu is so rich, we haven't found it yet." It’s really irrational to kill him in the place where he hides his wealth. Fortunately, you reminded me, otherwise, if Zhang Lu is killed and the wealth can’t be found, then we will be at a loss. You take people down, Lock up all the family members of Zhang Lu and Zhang Wei, and interrogate them one by one until they reveal the place where the wealth is hidden. Interrogation."

"Yes, brother." Ma Dai took the order, hurried down the tower, and did as Ma Chao ordered.

(End of this chapter)