My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 545 Pang De carries the coffin to fight against Ma Chao

Many people in later generations thought that the "swearing by the Luo River" was a shameful thing, because what Sima Yi did was indeed worse than pigs and dogs.

But if we analyze it carefully, we can see that it is the part that is stinky, not the oath itself. If someone swears and keeps his promise, then it is fine, right?

In history, the one who swore an oath by the Luo River earlier than Sima Yi was Liu Xiu, and he kept his oath. He said he would not settle the historical accounts of resisting the enemy generals, and in the end he really did not settle them.

Therefore, at this moment, Sima Yi, with a mean heart, judged others by his own standards and gave Cao Cao a strategy to gain the trust of Ma Teng. There was nothing wrong with this strategy itself.

Cao Cao is not Sima Yi. Although Cao Cao also had many black spots in history, in terms of being open and honest, Cao Cao is indeed many times better than Sima Yi.

After hearing this suggestion, Cao Cao began to seriously consider the pros and cons and whether he could adopt this plan.

When Cao Cao was thinking about it, he really intended to carry out this oath.

“If we really let Ma Teng go, it will give those wavering people in the court more opportunities to play both sides, which will be very detrimental to eradicating all evil.

But Ma Teng is a foreign lord. If we can make some conditions with him, weaken his strength, and ensure that he has no power to rebel again, it is not impossible to consider it...

Moreover, in order to fully implement the oath, both parties must abide by it. If Ma Teng completely complies with the conditions I set, so what if I spare his life? But if Ma Teng still dares to disobey me and fails to do what I asked him to do, if I attack him in the future, it will be Ma Teng who violated the contract first, and I will also occupy the righteous position..."

After figuring out this logic in his mind, Cao Cao no longer worried about it.

As for how to make the oath and what conditions to set, Cao Cao certainly would not discuss it with Sima Yi.

He doesn't deserve it yet.

That night, Cao Cao finally discussed with Xun You and Guo Jia and finally finalized the details.

……

The next morning, Cao Cao called Ma Teng again and told him the conditions of the alliance.

details as follows:

Because Ma Chao's rebellion caused the imperial army to suffer so many losses, the Ma family must be punished.

Even if Ma Teng helped to pacify the rebellious son, he would be stripped of his post as General of the Cavalry and demoted five levels to General of Pingxi. In addition, as for local positions, Ma Teng could only retain the post of Governor of Liangzhou.

In addition, Pang De should be transferred directly to the court, leading 30,000 elite soldiers from Xiliang to help the court enter Sichuan to fight. The required military supplies should also be raised by the Liangzhou princes themselves without delay.

Only when Ma Teng did these two things did Cao Cao promise to release Ma Teng back to Jincheng or Wuwei after retaking Chang'an and incorporating the Ma family army. At the same time, Chencang and all other lands east of Longshan Mountain were to be directly governed by the court. As an additional punishment, Tianshui County was also to be governed by newly sent officials from the court and garrisoned by direct generals loyal to the court.

In other words, Cao Cao weakened Ma Teng comprehensively in five aspects: official position, title, actual control of territory, army, and supplies.

Although the Western Liang Army could gather a lot of people, as long as the most elite 30,000 veterans were recruited by Pang De and loyal to Cao Cao, and the remaining ones were left to Ma Teng, Cao Cao thought that they would not pose much threat.

Ma Teng had to ensure the delivery before Cao Cao would fulfill his promise, and as long as Ma Teng was no longer hostile to the court, the court would also promise never to settle accounts or attack again.

Ma Teng could only choose to agree or not, there was nothing to talk about.

If they don't agree, Ma Teng, Ma Xiu, Ma Tie and their concubines and followers will all die.

If he agreed, Cao Cao promised not to pursue the other Ma relatives who remained in Liang Province. He only needed to get Ma Chao's head and then kill or send Ma Chao's wife and children to him.

After much deliberation, Ma Teng finally decided to agree.

However, he still thought of a detail and was a little worried, so he asked, "As long as I cooperate with the Prime Minister to recapture Chang'an City, regain control of the Liangzhou Army, and make them loyal to the court again, will the Prime Minister let me go back first? It will take time for all parts of Liangzhou to completely regain stability. Please understand, Prime Minister."

Ma Teng was afraid that Cao Cao would find excuses to delay. After all, if Cao Cao released him only after 100% of the contract was fulfilled, he might never get out of this situation. Living on the edge of a knife every day was no different from being dead, and he was still worried.

Cao Cao had obviously thought of this, and he was also afraid that Ma Teng would give up, so he solemnly promised: the time for releasing the people would be after he recaptured Chang'an City, Chencang City and the main force of the Western Liang Army. Of course, to reach Chencang, they had to recover Mei County and other places along the way.

In other words, Cao Cao added a condition: he must ensure that all the major nodes on the Guanzhong Plain were under his control again.

Ma Teng thought this was reasonable and finally accepted it all.

……

After Cao Cao and Ma Teng reached an agreement in private, there was nothing much to elaborate on in the subsequent oath-taking process. That morning, the army held a ceremony to swear to march westward and attack Ma Chao on the bank of the Yellow River near Dizhu Mountain, north of Hongnong City.

Cao Cao pointed to the mainstay of the Yellow River and swore to Ma Teng that as long as the above first batch of conditions were met, he would let Ma Teng go back and let Ma Teng solve the subsequent remaining rebellion on his own. At the same time, as long as Ma Teng did not resist the court in the future, all previous things would be forgiven and there would be no settlement.

After both parties finished their oaths and drank blood, the matter was considered settled.

However, during the actual process, when Cao Cao announced the completion of the blood oath, there was some commotion in the venue, as if an unexpected incident had occurred.

Cao Cao looked in the direction of the sound and saw that it was Pang De, who had been chosen as the vanguard during the oath-taking ceremony, who had someone carry a coffin.

Cao Cao rode his horse forward with a serious face and asked Pang De what he meant.

Pang De also said bluntly: "I have received the grace of the country and the trust of the prime minister. As the vanguard of the rebellion, I swear to kill the thief Ma Chao! If I kill him, I will put Ma Chao in this coffin and present him to the court! If I cannot win, I will die on the battlefield and also put him in this coffin. So I am prepared here in advance, and there is no reason to return empty-handed!"

"How magnificent!" Cao Cao was overjoyed and praised. He immediately ordered someone to bring some wine and poured it for Pang De in public to cheer him up.

After drinking the wine, Cao Cao led his army to continue westward. After two days of marching, the vanguard cavalry of Cao's army arrived at Tongguan. The main force of the subsequent infantry would also arrive in batches within one or two days after the arrival of the cavalry.

At this time, only five or six days had passed since Ma Chao's army arrived and began to attack Tongguan. Ma Chao suffered a lot of casualties and was unable to break through.

With the arrival of Cao Cao, Ma Chao no longer had any hope of breaking through the pass - historically, when he started his army, Pang De was still on Ma Chao's side, but now Pang De was on Cao Cao's side. The gap in strength between them should not be underestimated. What's more, Ma Chao had also suffered some other weakenings, so it was completely normal that he could not capture Tongguan.

On March 29, which was also the sixth day after Ma Chao arrived at Tongguan, in the early morning, when Ma Chao was about to organize his army to launch a new round of offensive, a row of soldiers suddenly appeared on the wall of Tongguan.

Ma Chao originally thought that it was just another ordinary reinforcement of Cao's army that arrived. Although this would make his attack more difficult, it would not make him completely despair.

But when he heard the general leading the troops on the city wall speak, Ma Chao was really in despair.

Because the person who shouted and insulted him turned out to be his own father, Ma Teng.

"Rebellious son! You thief! The imperial court has treated our Ma family well! How dare you, a beast, rebel? Why didn't I strangle you to death earlier?

Soldiers of the Xiliang Army, listen up! Ma Chao is not only a traitor to the Han Dynasty, but also a thief of my Ma family! You were deceived by him at the beginning, and I can't blame you. Everything is the fault of this thief!
You must not be deceived by him again! As long as you return to the court, the court will only punish the thief Ma Chao and leave the rest alone!"

Ma Chao's army was shaken in an instant.

After all, this was their real lord speaking.

Ma Chao was shocked and confused for a long time. He didn't expect that his father was still alive and was sent here by Cao Cao to persuade him to surrender. It was simply incomprehensible.

When Cao Cao heard that he had started a rebellion, shouldn't he have killed his father to vent his anger? Even if he didn't kill him, he should have imprisoned him first. How could Cao Cao feel at ease?
Fortunately, Ma Chao was not stupid. His mind worked quickly and he quickly thought of a situation, so he shouted:

"Don't be fooled! Father was held hostage by Cao the thief! There must be someone behind him holding a knife to force him to say this!"

But even so, Ma Chao's defense seemed quite weak.

He knew that just saying this was not enough, but he couldn't think of any better words. Plus, he was too confused for the moment, so he just stumbled and came up with some excuses to try to stabilize the morale of the troops.

Unfortunately, Ma Teng did not give his son a chance. He waved his hand and signaled the guards around him to move away. Then he stood alone on the wall of Tongguan Pass, so that the soldiers of the Western Liang Army who were attacking the pass could clearly see that there was no one standing behind Ma Teng and he was not held hostage by anyone.

In fact, Cao Cao certainly didn't need to do it so ugly and directly let someone hold a knife against Ma Teng.

The wall of Tongguan was so high, even if no one was watching, could Ma Teng just jump down from the city and escape on foot? If he really dared to do that, he would have been shot into a hedgehog long ago.

The excuse Ma Chao just made up was just a fig leaf he pulled out in a hurry, and it was normal for it to be falsified in an instant.

Ma Teng obviously felt that this was not enough. After proving that he was not being held hostage, he continued to curse Ma Chao and persuade his old subordinates to surrender, while announcing in a stern voice:
"You thief! Pang De knows more about loyalty than you! He has sworn allegiance to the Prime Minister, and today he will prove his loyalty! Comrades in Xiliang, don't make the same mistake over and over again! As long as you surrender, you won't have to kill each other!"

While Ma Teng was frantically trying to persuade his old subordinates to surrender, the gate of Tongguan had already been opened. Pang De had already taken the lead and led Ma Teng's personal cavalry to rush forward and charged straight out.

When the Western Liang troops under Ma Chao saw that they were actually going to fight against the personal guards of their old lord, who were all their own people, and saw that Pang De was the first to suppress the rebellion on the orders of his lord, Ma Chao's men were naturally in great chaos.

This is a son beating up his father. How can we fight this kind of battle?
Moreover, after Pang De led 3,000 cavalry out of the pass first, Cao Cao's direct cavalry troops followed closely behind, commanded by Le Jin, who had just been transferred from Guandong by Cao Cao, and even with Xu Chu as the vanguard.

(End of this chapter)