Chapter 467: Miscellaneous Events in the West
Ganquan, Zhongxiang Pavilion.

When the sky brightened, Xu Huang also stood up and squatted in a separate corner of the room to wash his body with cold water.

After rinsing her mouth, she drank the tea and held the tea leaves in her mouth before putting on her new clothes that had been fumigated with mugwort scented all night.

His official rank was set at two thousand stones. He wore a crimson military officer's robe and a slightly larger military hat with black and brown overlapping heron feathers inserted on both sides of the hat.

Finally, he put on his brand new cashmere felt boots before going out and taking a car to the shogunate.

Inside the shogunate, Black Bear had his meal alone in the morning. He had a plate of peach blossom pastry, which he drank with tea and was not too greasy.

He only ate five pieces of peach blossom cakes and pushed the remaining three forward.

Seeing that he had finished his meal, Fa Zheng came in with a tray of official documents and said, "Your Majesty, the important thing today is to select the envoy to Liaodong."

"Well, take these three pieces of crispy Xiaozhi."

After a reply, Black Bear turned over the official document on the top, and saw that the content was that Zhang Xiu, the governor of Hexi, had submitted a report describing that Ma Chao had committed indiscriminate killings during his pursuit of Han Sui, and the victim was now reporting the matter to the Hexi Governor's Office.

This is the most important thing today in the eyes of the secretary. Seeing the appetizer like this, Black Bear knows that today is another day of slacking off.

After carefully reading Zhang Xiu's memorial, Black Bear asked carefully, "Have you read Zhang Xiu's memorial, Xiaozhi? I feel that Zhang Xiu's words are still a bit restrained, understating the matter, and not willing to give a detailed account. Based on my understanding of Meng Qi, this matter should be true, but what does Zhang Xiu want to do?"

Fa Zheng had already studied the official documents in advance, and many issues were also discussed within the secretariat.

So he answered without thinking: "Earlier, the Protector of the Qiang Captain submitted a memorial saying that the heroes of the four counties in Hexi had joined forces to rebel against the Qiang, pretending to be servants, but in fact they were in cahoots with each other. Therefore, there was a proposal to buy back the slaves of the Qiang men and women in Hexi at a fair price and return them to the people. At that time, the army was stationed in Shuzhong, and the king decided to postpone the handling of the matter. Therefore, I think that Zhang Xiu's memorial today is to drive out the minions of the Protector of the Qiang Captain."

Fa Zheng also paused as he spoke. Through the archives of official documents and discussions during this period, he had a rough idea of ​​what kind of person Ma Chao was.

How to hunt down and kill Han Sui is the fun of Ma Chao's life.

In the process of chasing Han Sui, Ma Chao's goal was to destroy all the Hu and Han landlords who had taken Han Sui in.

It seems that Ma Chao's pursuit of Han Sui and his relatives and old subordinates was just to continuously punish them and find excuses to kill, plunder and train troops.

Many Qin Hu people felt wronged, and Ma Chao forced them to hand over Han Sui's children based on a few clues... If they refused to hand them over, he would send troops to punish them for harboring them.

Although Ma Chao left the four counties of Hexi and returned to Beidi County.

However, Ma Chao's minions left in the four counties of Hexi were still carrying out the order to hunt down Han Sui's relatives. This was the reason why Zhang Xiu reported and exposed the matter.

"Bring me the copies of Meng Qi's previous documents."

Black Bear gave this instruction and continued to study the subtleties of Zhang Xiu's wording.

If it wasn't necessary, Zhang Xiu would not have stood up to pick a fight with Ma Chao.

This shows that the people left behind by Ma Chao in the four counties of Hexi went too far and touched upon the fundamental interests of the powerful people in the four counties of Hexi.

For example, Ma Chao was obsessed with the scattered Qiang tribes in the four counties of Hexi. As the Protector of the Qiang, theoretically he could intervene in all matters related to the Qiang people.

Ma Chao now has the help of Qiang volunteers under his command, and these Qiang volunteers have the original motivation to expand the influence and jurisdiction of the Qiang Protectorate.

For these Qiang volunteers, there was no difference between suppressing the rebellious Qiang and suppressing the powerful Han people; both were about killing and robbing.

So the matter may be very simple. Ma Chao became very arrogant, and his peripheral minions began to harm the powerful people in the four counties of Hexi under the pretext of hunting him down, which shook Zhang Xiu's prestige as the governor.

Does Ma Chao know about this?
He should know it, but he would not take the initiative to make concessions to Zhang Xiu.

If he easily gave in to Zhang Xiu, how could Ma Chao fight for the position of commander-in-chief or vanguard general in future expeditions to the Western Regions?
Thinking of these links, Black Bear had nothing to be angry about. In Liangzhou, the people who survived were all Han and Hu people, and there was no innocent or kind person. Although their fate was rough, they were generally not good people.

Instead, he began to think about Ma Chao's replacement. Currently, the mature generals waiting to be placed and available were Zhang Liao and Pang De.

Pound is a little unfamiliar, but if he is well trained, he can also be a pillar of the country who can stand on his own.

While thinking about it, Fa Zheng went back and brought back the relevant documents that had been prepared long ago.

Black Bear read it casually and said, "Draft a document to reprimand the Huqiang Commandery Commandant for causing trouble to the border counties. The content does not need to be harsh."

"Here."

Fa Zheng left, turned around and walked a dozen steps to the compartment to give instructions to Shi Weikang. The two whispered a few words to set the tone. Weikang then began to imitate the tone of the shogunate, using short sentences to reprimand Ma Chao's Huqiang Cavalry.

Then Fa Zheng brought the draft to see Hei Xiong, who was writing on Zhang Xiu's manuscript with a pen.

He casually glanced at the draft, picked up the pen and scribbled a few words, and made some minor revisions: "That's it. In the name of the shogunate, send a letter to the Huqiang Commandery."

"Here."

Fa Zheng agreed, and Black Bear took out another piece of paper and started writing a private letter to Ma Chao.

By June, it was the time for the Xiongnu and Xianbei to hold a grand summer gathering. Hei Xiong was preparing to move Ma Chao to be the Right Wise King of the Xiongnu and let him take over the right unit in advance.

Now Liu Bao and the Huns have not yet recovered their strength, so they dare not disobey or resist this order and will naturally hand over the right wing.

Ma Chao cannot be allowed to continue to serve as the Protector of the Qiang, because the various Hu tribes are integrating very quickly. If Ma Chao is the only one who serves as both the Right Wise King and the Protector of the Qiang, then over time, the right Xiongnu and the various Qiang tribes will merge to form a new ethnic group.

As a reward to Ma Chao, Black Bear promised Ma Chao that he would join him in future expeditions to the Eastern Xianbei.

As for the volunteers currently under the command of the Huqiang Commandery Captain, Ma Chao is allowed to select the best soldiers and merge them with his own troops to expand the number to eight hundred.

There is not much difference in tactics between a thousand steps and eight hundred steps.

Eight hundred is a line, and Ma Chao is no exception.

However, each member of the Ma family now controls a large number of troops. Ma Teng has 500 households in his personal estate, and 800 personal soldiers outside; Ma Chao also has 800; others like Ma Dai and Ma Tie also have troops of over a hundred people.

Especially Ma Dai and his son, who together owned more than 500 households.

The most common one is Ma Yun. Ma Teng's brothers and father and son would give their excess strength to Ma Yun, as if it were a deposit. Now Ma Yun has about 1,200 households in Xixiang, many of whom are relatives and relatives.

As long as people like Ma Teng and Ma Chao lead troops outside and participate in governing the various Hu tribes, the scale of manpower they control will continue to grow.

Some were robbed, some were redeemed, and some came here out of admiration.

As long as we maintain a good relationship with Ma Yun, the Ma family will be stable.

After finishing the letter to Ma Chao, he picked up the second official document, which stated that at the beginning of summer, the size of the caravan that declared customs from Dunhuang was much smaller than expected.

Therefore, the officials in charge of selling Shu brocade felt the pressure of sales, so they proposed to form a small-scale caravan and take the initiative to cross the Western Regions to sell the brocade.

But Black Bear looked strange after seeing this, and always felt that this was an excuse for war.

After thinking for a while, he picked up the pen and wrote the word "accurate", and then added: There should not be too many people, the key is to explore the way.

(End of this chapter)