My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 543 Cao Cao: Give Brother Shoucheng a chance to clean up the mess
The night of March 20th.

It was just getting dark and Chang'an City was still quiet as usual.

Because the war was approaching, the curfew in the city was strictly enforced, and basically no one could walk around the streets freely after dark.

Ma Chao's army was originally stationed outside the city, and Zhong Yao had not allowed them to enter the city. But over the past two days, Ma Chao's men were able to infiltrate the city more or less, or a small group of people found other excuses to come in in advance.

At 3:30 pm, when the defenders on the city wall were exhausted and paralyzed, a group of elite soldiers from Ma Chao's army finally sneaked to the vicinity of Zhangcheng Gate in the south-west of the city and suddenly attacked and seized the gate.

"Kill! Seize the city gate! Stop Cao's thieves!"

"Tonight is the night to serve the king and fight against the rebellion!"

A group of Ma Chao's followers, as ferocious as wolves and tigers, wielding swords and spears, rushed up the steps to the city wall and rushed straight to the city wall, killing anyone they saw and breaking through the gates and locks.

Because it was a sudden counterattack by the friendly army, the Chang'an defenders were completely unable to react and were quickly defeated by Ma Chao's lurking soldiers. As the city gates were opened, Ma Chao's army rushed into the city.

Ma Chao had carefully chosen the right time to take action tonight. Two days ago, Zhong Yao was forced to leave Chang'an urgently to deal with other logistical and defense matters.

Because Zhong Yao was away, the government affairs in Chang'an City were temporarily handled by Zhang Ji.

Zhang Ji was a good coordinator of internal affairs, and he did a good job in mediating among the generals. However, he was still a little short of being able to suppress the garrison in Chang'an and ensure that there would be no chaos in times of crisis.

With Ma Chao already rushing in through the gate, Zhang Ji's repeated resistances were of no avail.

After a brief and chaotic battle in which both sides lost more than a thousand people, Ma Chao personally led the cavalry to attack the Jingzhao Yin's mansion and controlled Zhang Ji who was temporarily in charge there.

The rest of the defenders in the city were unaware of the situation and were soon taken hostage by Ma Chao. There were also some civil servants and generals in the city who were quick to see the opportunity, such as Du Ji, who saw that the situation was hopeless and opened the east gate to escape from the city.

After Ma Chao succeeded in capturing Chang'an City, it took him most of the night to barely control the situation because the city was so large.

Afterwards, Ma Chao did not dare to stop, and divided his troops to pass through Bashang and Xinfeng and attack Huayin, in order to seize Tongguan and prevent Cao Cao from entering Guanzhong.

Unfortunately, when this step was being carried out, history finally showed some deviations.

Because Ma Chao's strength was not as good as that of the same period in history, it took longer to control the city of Chang'an than in the same period in history, and Ma Chao was not completely united internally.

After escaping from Chang'an, Du Ji reacted quickly and rushed all the way to Tongguan to report the news. At the same time, he sent out light cavalry and fast horses to take another route to urgently notify Zhong Yao.

Zhong Yao reacted quickly as well. He arrived at Tongguan in just a day and a half and took the opportunity to defend the city before Ma Chao could.

Although the number of Cao's troops defending Tongguan was not large, Tongguan was a dangerous pass in the world after all.

When Ma Chao arrived, he was already a step too late, and his plan failed, so he had to switch to a violent attack.

Tongguan was unusually strong. Thousands of Cao's troops fought desperately for several days, with heavy casualties on both sides. Ma Chao was unable to break through the pass.

During these two days, the news of Ma Chao's rebellion was reported to Cao Cao and Ma Teng, who had already arrived in Hongnong.

When Cao Cao heard the bad news, he was so shocked that he was speechless.

Ma Teng's face was filled with horror, and an immense fear rose in his heart.

The father is still in Cao Cao's hands! How dare this rebellious son rebel directly?
Fortunately, Xun You and Guo Jia, who were with the army, immediately stopped Cao Cao and prevented him from falling out with Ma Teng.

In history, Cao Cao, who had dared to kill Ma Teng without fear after hearing about Ma Chao's rebellion, calmed down this time and reassessed the situation.

Cao Cao was immediately told by calmness and reason: If Ma Teng was killed directly, there would be no way back. Once Ma Chao colluded with Liu Bei, not only Hanzhong, but even Guanzhong would be lost!

Therefore, even if Ma Teng’s son rebelled, he must be extremely cautious now!
If we can continue to use Ma Teng as a hostage, whether it is to knock on the door, to undermine Ma Chao's military morale, or to recruit other people, it will be more useful than killing him directly!

Even if they were afraid that Ma Teng would run away, they could still take him with them with courtesy. In short, as long as they didn't kill him, there were still other possibilities for using him.

Cao Cao's mind was working rapidly. In the first half hour after receiving the bad news, he pulled out so much hair that he didn't know how much it had disappeared. Finally, he came to an understanding.

……

Originally in history, Cao Cao dared to kill more than 200 members of Ma Teng's family in Xudu. This was of course because he was already unscrupulous at that time and felt that the world was about to be in his hands.

But that was after the Battle of Red Cliffs, when two-thirds of the world had fallen into Cao Cao's hands, and the south was divided among Liu Bei, Sun Quan, and Liu Zhang, posing no threat to Cao Cao.

Cao Cao was determined to resolve the Northwest issue once and for all and to eliminate those warlords who pretended to obey but actually disobeyed. He was not afraid of forcing anyone to rebel, but was only afraid that those potential enemies who were hiding deeply would not dare to show up.

He didn't care about exacerbating the conflict, as he was absolutely sure that he could kill Ma Chao with force. A lion won't worry about angering a jackal.

But in this life, the situation was very different. Cao Cao did not even have two-thirds of the world, he only had half at most. The remaining 15% was taken from Cao Cao and subsidized to Liu Bei.

Today, the forces of Liu Biao and Liu Zhang in the south are similar to the forces of Sun Quan and Liu Zhang after the Battle of Chibi in history.

The gap in strength between the enemy and us is not that overwhelming. It is said that Liu Bei has just won several battles against Xiahou Yuan in Ba, and it is even possible that he will go north to respond to the rebellion in Guanzhong and Liangzhou.

Therefore, the most crucial thing at the moment is not just whether Cao Cao can kill Ma Chao, but also "how much time it will take to kill Ma Chao."

Cao Cao not only had to ensure victory, but also had to ensure that he won quickly and not give Liu Bei the opportunity to support Ma Chao.

In other words, in history, Cao Cao could have taken his time, using more time to "clean up more thoroughly". But now, he must use the idea of "preferring quick results over muddy ones" to replace the idea of "slow work produces fine results".

At this critical juncture, how could Cao Cao still have the courage to offend others?

Madness requires capital.

You can kill anyone you want, but you need capital.

Cao Cao was a very shrewd man. After a painful and careful assessment of the situation, he finally understood all these principles thoroughly.

Afterwards, Cao Cao suppressed his anger and resentment, pretended to be sad and disappointed, and asked Xu Chu to invite Ma Teng and Pang De to discuss the matter. Xun You and Guo Jia also accompanied him.

……

Ma Teng was soon recruited to the Hongnong Prefecture's Mansion, which was used as a temporary shogunate, and met Cao Cao and others.

Pang De also came, but was temporarily left outside the second gate to wait, and they did not bring any weapons. There were layers of Cao Cao's trusted soldiers guarding the inner courtyard, and Xu Chu stood ten feet away from Cao Cao with a knife and a sword, guarding and alert, not giving Ma Teng any chance to attack.

When he entered the door, Ma Teng was like a walking corpse, his energy and spirit were drained out. He was still in a state of extreme shock, obviously unable to understand why his eldest son would do such a thing at this time.

When Ma Chao was still with Cao Cao, he started a rebellion ahead of time. Wasn't this putting his own father to death? What a rebellious son!

Of course, the current situation of the Ma family is not as miserable as it was in history.

Originally in history, Ma Teng was summoned by Cao Cao to serve as the Weiwei, one of the Nine Ministers, and had been a Beijing official in Xudu for a long time. Therefore, Cao Cao used his tricks to slowly bring Ma Teng's other relatives to Xudu and used them as disguised hostages. Once Ma Chao took action, he would directly massacre the entire family.

In this life, Ma Teng was only granted the honor of General of Cavalry by Cao Cao. He stayed in Xudu for two months just to accept the official position and persuade Cao Cao to become the Prime Minister. Because he had not yet reached the stage of "serving as a Beijing official for a long time", Ma Teng did not bring that many family members with him.

Cao Cao only asked him to bring a few sons to the capital to receive the reward. So Ma Teng only brought Ma Xiu and Ma Tie, leaving Ma Chao at home. He did not need to bring other female relatives and distant relatives.

If Cao Cao still insisted on exterminating the Ma family, only the father and his two sons, as well as dozens of their followers and concubines, would be killed directly, and there would definitely not be more than 200 people. Their wives, daughters, nephews, and cousins were still in the northwest and would not be killed together.

Ma Teng was led to the main hall, where he stood there for a long time, thinking about random things, and did not even salute Cao Cao. It was obvious that he was not sure what Cao Cao's attitude was, and he did not want to waste his dignity in vain.

Ma Teng was afraid of death, but he had also been a powerful leader and had dignity. If he knew that he was going to die, why would he beg for mercy and humiliate himself? It would be better to die with dignity.

Cao Cao stared at Ma Teng for a long time, observing his expression and trying to figure out his mind. With Cao Cao's shrewd eyes, he could easily see through Ma Teng's mentality.

Finally, Cao Cao took the initiative to speak: "Brother Shoucheng, your son did such a thing, it is really heartbreaking! However, I believe that it was his own confusion, disloyalty and unfilial behavior. Brother Shoucheng himself should not have known about it beforehand, right? How did you discipline your son when he caused such a disaster!"

The first half of Cao Cao's sentence was to calm Ma Teng's emotions, subconsciously arouse Ma Teng's desire to survive, and imply that he knew that they, father and son, were not of the same mind.

But in the second half of the sentence, Cao Cao immediately brought the topic back to the topic, put the dignity of the court first, and severely reprimanded Ma Teng for raising an ungrateful person.

Ma Teng was a little stunned by Cao Cao's unexpected words. He had already prepared himself mentally for execution and thought that if it really came to that, he would just say a few passionate words. It would be a waste if he didn't say them before he died.

Hearing what the Prime Minister said, it seems that I still have a chance to survive?

Once the desire to survive is aroused, people's will will not be so firm.

Just as Ma Teng was wavering, Guo Jia, who was standing by, quickly found a way out for both parties. He left the table despite his illness and made a great gesture, pretending to plead for Ma Teng:
"Prime Minister, please understand! The General of the Cavalry is devoted to the country. Although he neglected to discipline his child, he raised a traitor and rebel. But please, Prime Minister, for the sake of state affairs, give the General of the Cavalry a chance to clean up the mess and atone for his crime!"

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(End of this chapter)