Three Kingdoms: I, Ma Su, just want to die

Chapter 726 Extra

"Jieting, whose full name is Jiequanting, is located on the Longshan Mountain Road, to the right of Lueyang. It is the only way for the Wei army to go up to Longshan."

"Originally there was a city here, and Prime Minister Zhuge also told Ma Su to defend the city, which was all about seeking stability. But these obviously have nothing to do with our Master Ma, especially the word 'seeking stability', which has never appeared in Master Ma's dictionary in this life."

"Ma Su arrived at Jieting and without further ado ordered the Han army to set up camp at Nanshan. He then personally put on his armor and stood by his side to meet the Wei army."

"Less than five days later, the Wei army arrived. Leading the way was Zhang He, a famous general from the Three Kingdoms period. He led an army of 50,000 and marched day and night."

"According to the Biography of Ma Su in the Book of the Later Han, Ma Su was standing on a mountain in the middle of the night and saw the beacon fires of the Wei army from afar. Then he assembled the entire army without saying a word, and personally put on armor and went into battle, without even doing any reconnaissance, and led his troops to attack."

"Zhang He was a veteran general, and he never expected Ma Su to be so reckless. As a result, his kidney was almost injured. A famous general was ambushed by a rookie."

"Zhang He was defeated and led his troops to retreat. Ma Su then divided his troops into five groups and arranged them in random places to lure the Wei army into taking the bait. Zhang He really couldn't help it and immediately led his troops to attack Jieting City. After taking Jieting, he immediately planned to lead his troops to rescue Long first."

"As a result, the anxious Zhang He met the equally anxious Prime Minister Zhuge in Lueyang..."

"This battle was Ma Su's first battle. From this alone, we can roughly understand the general's thinking on leading troops."

"He is good at using military tactics and is also very good at guessing people's hearts. This gentleman not only likes to scheme against his opponents, but also against his own people. Many times, Zhuge Liang's reactions were within his calculations."

"At the end of the Battle of Jieting, the troops led by Zhang He were almost completely wiped out. When the news came out, the entire Longyou surrendered. Guo Huai, the governor of Yongzhou in Wei, disguised himself as a refugee and fled over the mountains. The five counties in Longyou all surrendered to the Han army."

"During the surrender period, Ma Su also discovered that Longxi Governor You Chu was pretending to surrender. So he quickly executed You Chu before reporting to the emperor, and the entire Northern Expedition situation was quickly reversed."

"But as I said before, the power of Ji Han at that time was too weak. Although Longyou was successfully recovered, the gap between the power of Ji Han and the pseudo-Wei was still unimaginable."

"So, Zhuge Liang appointed Li Yan as the governor of Yongzhou to supervise the defense of the five counties in Longyou. Wu Yi, Wei Yan, Yang Yi, and Ma Su were assigned to garrison four counties in order to quickly digest the occupied areas."

"According to the Prime Minister's deployment, it is quite stable. In order to prevent conflicts between Ma Su and Li Yan, Ma Su was sent to Chencang before Li Yan arrived."

"It can be said that the Prime Minister is really working hard to maintain stability."

"As a result, right after Zhuge Liang left, Ma Su did something big in Chencang. He led only a thousand men and won successive battles near Chencang. Because the situation was so good, Li Yan took the opportunity to lead his troops and recaptured Chencang."

"Originally, the recapture of Chencang was a good thing. After all, as the gateway to Longyou, taking this place was a prerequisite for the Han army to advance eastward. But with the recapture of Chencang, Li Yan and Ma Su came into contact."

"Li Yan is from Nanyang. According to his place of origin, he should be considered a member of the Jingzhou faction. However, because he entered Sichuan earlier than Lao Liu and had already established a foothold in Yizhou before the Han army entered Sichuan, he was regarded as the leader of the Dongzhou faction."

"Before Liu's death, he ordered Li Yan to serve as a minister to Zhuge Liang in order to win over the Dongzhou faction. But as Zhuge Liang opened his government and took charge of the overall power, Li Yan basically had no power."

"But this man is different from Zhuge Liang. He is a person who is extremely obsessed with power. After Zhuge Liang took control of the power, he was appointed as the governor of Jiangzhou and often complained. Moreover, this guy has a very bad background and is used to corruption and bribery." "It is also because of this that Zhuge Liang sent Ma Su away to prevent any accidents. In the end, even with such a plan, he still couldn't escape."

"After Ma Su and Li Yan met in Chencang, a conflict broke out immediately. Ma Su, who could not tolerate any injustice, immediately discovered that Li Yan had embezzled grain and fodder because he also came from a logistics background."

"The two sides met in Chencang, and the conflict was so acute that Ma Su even drew his sword. In the end, Li Yan gave in first, and the two sides parted unhappily. Ma Su then returned to Longxi to search for evidence of Li Yan's crimes."

"As a result... accidentally, the fact that Li Yan was trying to stage a coup was exposed. Especially at that time, Li Yan was leading troops to resist the Wei army in Chencang. If he knew that his dirty deeds were discovered, he would probably surrender to the enemy in the middle of the battle."

"So, Ma Su made another decisive decision and rode back to Chencang at full speed, falsely claiming to have a letter from the prime minister. After meeting Li Yan, Ma Su brazenly drew his sword and killed Li Yan at the camp gate, thus avoiding a major chaos."

"Afterwards, Ma Su, recommended by his generals, led his army to confront Guo Huai head-on. The two sides fought at Chencang, and under Ma Su's leadership, the Han army defeated the Wei army with its weak force."

"Please remember this Guo Huai, he will have a lot of roles to play later on!"

"After defeating Guo Huai and stabilizing the government, Ma Su brought the army back safely. Zhuge Liang did not dare to send anyone else and directly ordered Fei Yi, whose background was cleaner than his face, to supervise Longyou."

"After Fei Yi became the governor of Longyou, Ma Su became much quieter. In the next two years, Ma Su carried out large-scale construction in Longyou."

He and his successor Li Mu successively dug several canals in Longxi County to divert water from the Yellow River to irrigate Longxi. Tens of thousands of acres of farmland from Didao to Jixian were irrigated, and the local tyrants who were dissatisfied with the court were pacified. "

"Most importantly, Ma Su severely cracked down on the local Qiang rebellion."

"Since the Eastern Han Dynasty, rebellions by Qiang and Hu have been breaking out in Yongliang. A large number of ethnic minority tribes have been fiercely exchanging views with the local Han people, and have been physically integrated for hundreds of years."

"After Ma Su arrived, he quickly led his troops to attack the Qiang soldiers. The Qiang that were wreaking havoc in the area were quickly pacified by Ma Su. Ma Su selected the best and strongest among them and formed a group called "Longwu Yicong", which was the predecessor of the later Han Jingqi."

"In just two years, Longyou, which had been in turmoil for a hundred years, quickly became stable. If you go there now, you can still see the shrine built by the locals for Ma Su."

"In a sense, Ma Su is to Longyou what Zhuge Liang is to Sichuan."

"At the same time, during this period, Ma Su also improved the papermaking process. Based on the previous Han paper, he improved Longyou paper made of bamboo and reeds. This feat can be said to be epoch-making. Without this thing, there would be no later Emperor Zhaowu's policy of selecting people based on their talents."

As I said before, our Master Ma is a real talent. These inventions that changed the times are just toys that people made casually. If it weren't for some of Ma Su's subsequent operations that were criticized, the name of the Martial Saint might have been Ma.

However, soon Master Ma will have no time to rest, because something of vital importance is about to happen.

The thing is, Sun Wu proclaimed himself emperor!
(End of this chapter)