Become a feudal king from today

"Your Highness, please take a look."

Ma Jin took out a map of Jinzhou from his arms.

It shows the important mountains, rivers and the location of the city in Jinju.

Zhao Xu looked at it and nodded slightly.

Although the painting Ma Jin took out was very rough.

But it basically explains the geographical essence of Jinju.

Jinzhou is contemporary Shanxi, and Shanxi is surrounded by mountains.

Especially to the west, there is the Yellow River blocking it and the Luliang Mountains crossing it.

If you want to invade Jinzhou from the west, in addition to crossing the Yellow River, you must also cross the pass of Luliang Mountain.

The pass in the north is called Yanmen Pass in modern times and Tongguan in Dasong, facing Yinshan Mountain.

Currently, the south of Yinshan Mountain is the territory of Xiliang, and Tongguan is also occupied by Xiliang.

To the east is Feihu Pass, which in modern times was called Pingxing Pass.

The Jin River is also blocking the way to the south. To attack Jinzhou from the south, after passing the Jin River, you have to cross Pingguan in the south.

It can be seen that Jinzhou is really easy to defend but difficult to attack.

In the history of Dasong, Jinzhou was often the focus of the wars between the Central Plains Dynasty and the Grassland Empire.

If the grassland empire gets Jinzhou, it can advance and attack the Central Plains dynasty, and retreat and defend it.

Basically losing Jinzhou, the northern part of the Central Plains Dynasty will be shrouded in the haze of the Grassland Empire.

If one thing goes wrong, the entire Central Plains will be lost.

As long as the Central Plains Dynasty does not lose Jinzhou, the Grassland Empire cannot move south with peace of mind.

After all, this is a nail that threatens their supply lines.

Even the Central Plains cavalry can set out from Tongguan, Jinzhou, to surprise the tribes of the grassland empire.

In Zhao Xu's memory, there was a very powerful grassland empire more than four hundred years ago.

This empire first conquered Jinzhou, then Yanzhou, and then went all the way south to sweep the Central Plains Dynasty at that time, and implemented a sixty-year rule in the Central Plains.

It's just that this grassland empire expanded too quickly.

History books mention that the Steppe Empire reached the end of the western land.

However, due to strong conquests and weak governance, the grassland empire collapsed in just sixty years.

Now Beidi is known as the successor of this empire.

Whenever he thought about this, he was reminded of a similar empire in the contemporary era.

Perhaps in this world, gunpowder was also introduced to the West in this way.

At the same time, another cruel fact is that in this world, the opponent has the right technology tree on the gunpowder.

The Central Plains dynasty, which was dragged down by powerful clans, was like the Qing Dynasty.

The powerful people ranked themselves as first-class people and enslaved the people.

In order to safeguard their own interests, they will do anything they can to resist any change and hinder development.

They are afraid of people's contacts with other countries, believing that it will bring instability.

On the one hand, Dasong's maritime ban was due to pirates, and on the other hand, it was due to the clamor of powerful tribesmen.

His stubbornness and conservatism can be seen in general.

Of course, there are also people with insight who are fighting hard to speak out, but how can these people stand up to a room full of powerful officials?

"The Ma family is in the south of Jinzhou, and His Highness is in the west of Jinzhou. On the day of the attack, our Ma family will cross the Jin River through Sizhou Ferry and attack to the north. I hope that Your Highness can attack from the west. The two armies will meet at the foot of Jin City. Let’s attack Jincheng together,” Ma Jin said.

After a pause, he continued: "At the same time, the Majia Navy will also go north from Yongzhou Ferry to the Jin River to block the Xiliang reinforcements."

Zhao Xu came back to his senses from the chaotic thoughts. He was stunned for a moment and said: "Well, yes, this is indeed an excellent strategy."

Although I am not very reassured about the current Ma family.

But the offensive line mentioned by Ma Jin is perfect.

Cut off Xiliang's backup and attack the Xiliang soldiers entrenched in Jinzhou from both sides.

With the Ma family and his strength, fighting a good fight is not a problem.

But the most important thing is that he only hopes that Ma Jia can really execute it as beautifully as Ma Jin said.

But no matter what, the Ma family took the initiative to send someone here and came up with this idea.

He had no reason to refuse.

Otherwise, if the Ma family comes to the capital with a hint and says that he is afraid of fighting, Zhao Heng will definitely change his face.

After all, as he thought, Dasong couldn't lose Jinzhou.

"So, His Highness agrees." Ma Jin smiled.

Zhao Xu nodded affirmatively.

Seemingly relieved, he continued: "According to His Highness's statement, on March 16, the Ma family and Your Highness will send troops at the same time."

"It's a deal." Zhao Xu slapped the table.

The Ma family kicked the ball to it, and he had to take it.

Whether the Ma family is sincere or pretentious this time.

He had to prepare with both hands. It would be best if the Ma family sincerely cooperated with him in attacking Xiliang.

But if the Ma family holds back, he has to find a way not to let the Ma family hold him back.

"Hahaha..." Ma Jin laughed when he heard this, and seemed to be really happy to cooperate.

The laughter stopped, and he seemed to remember something, with a sad expression on his face: "Although Ma Chong is the head of the family now, he is only the acting head of the family. Ma Han has never been seen alive or dead. If your highness has any news about Ma Han, will he still be there?" I hope His Highness can inform the Ma family and Ma Chong will give him the position of head of the family."

"Really?" Zhao Xu asked, and he said: "Okay, if there is news, I will definitely inform the general."

In fact, last time the Ma family sent someone here, he asked the government office to post a notice and pay attention.

Anyone who can provide clues will be rewarded with a thousand taels of silver.

However, he has not received any feedback so far.

Although it was a pity, he thought that Ma Han was probably dead.

Ma Jin cupped his hands and said, "This way Ma will not disturb Your Highness."

Zhao Xu is also very busy. He has been receiving people again and again in the past few days, and he is a little tired.

And he doesn't really like the hypocrisy at banquets.

He stayed for a while, but when Ma Jin said he was going back to report, he did not try to persuade him to stay.

He just ordered Xu Lie to send Ma Jin to the gate of the palace.

Ma Jin got on his horse and led more than a hundred guards to leave.

When he got outside the city, Ma Jin's face darkened.

He asked a guard beside him, "Has the message been sent out?"

"It has been sent to the merchants of the Ma family." The guard said.

Ma Jin nodded.

The assassin was from Beidi, but he was the one who released the pigeon that day.

He had once robbed several women as concubines and killed some civilians during the battle in Jinzhou.

When he returned to Xiancheng, he was punished by Ma Xuan's military law and was whipped forty times.

He had long been secretly resentful of this.

Moreover, his father and Ma Xuan were brothers from the same mother.

He was originally dissatisfied with Ma Xuan's lineage taking charge of the Ma family.

So he and the Dou family hit it off, and with the participation of Beidi, they decided to kill Ma Xuan and his son and let Ma Chong inherit the Ma family.

In this way, Ma's family took the position of the head of the family, and he took control of the real power of the Ma family because of his merits.

However, Ma Han's body was not found, which was always his biggest worry.

What he was particularly afraid of was that Ma Han fell into the hands of King Yan.

This would be extremely disadvantageous to the Ma family.

Therefore, he decided to come to Yancheng in person and come up with a sincere plan to attack Xiliang.

He took the opportunity to test King Yan, but he did not find any flaws in him.

King Yan did not seem to know where Ma Han was.

"Tell them to keep an eye on him. As long as Ma Han appears in Yanzhou, he must be killed at all costs."

"Yes, General." The guard replied.