Chapter 236 Picture Poverty Dagger

(Thank you for the reward of Xiao Meng, Xiao Ben, Yandu and Brother Mo Yan) "Meng Qi, Xuande is so kind. Why don't you have a drink?"

Zhang Lu knew that Ma Chao was wary of Liu Bei. He didn't want the atmosphere to become discordant, so he relieved Liu Bei with a half-command and half-persuasion tone.

Ma Chao sank for a moment, stepped forward, took the wooden cup in Liu Bei's hand, picked it up and filled it up, and then put the wooden cup back into Liu Bei's hand without saying a word.

Looking at the empty wooden cup, Liu Bei smiled and said, "General Meng Qi is indeed a northernerlang, which is very bold."

The corners of Ma Chao's mouth were slightly **, and he still didn't say a word, but stared at Liu Bei indifferently.

The blade-like eyes made Liu Bei have a kind of uncommbling on his back.

Liu Bei could only avoid Ma Chao's eyes, returned to his position, drank another cup of himself, and said to Zhang Lu, "Zhang Shijun is benevolent and righteous. He is willing to accept this homeless and depressed person. I am really grateful. I thank you for this glass of wine."

"In the future, we will be our own family. Why do we have to be so polite?" Zhang Lu raised his glass and drank it with one drink.

The more the two talked, the more speculative they became. The atmosphere of the banquet was more harmonious. The previous unhappiness caused by Ma Chao's cold attitude seemed to dissipate quickly.

After three rounds of drinking, Liu Bei and Zhang Lu were both slightly drunk.

At this time, Fa Zheng said, "Master, didn't you say that there was something to be offered to Master Zhang?"

After this reminder, Liu Bei, who was drunk, suddenly remembered and hurriedly said, "When he was ready to retreat to Jianmeng, he specially ordered to draw a picture of Xichuan, which detailed the key points of the grain depots in various places, and now it is just dedicated to Zhang Shijun."

Although the two rivers in the east and west belong to Yizhou, Zhang Lu is divided from Hanzhong and has been hostile to Liu's father and son. They are very guarded against each other. Even Zhang Lu, a neighbor, is only roughly heard of all the military secrets of Xichuan.

Now Liu Bei presents this detailed picture of Xichuan. Zhang Lu suddenly got the most precious treasure and said excitedly, "Xuande has this picture. Take it out quickly and let me have a look."

"Come on, bring up the picture."

Liu Bei shouted loudly, and a personal soldier entered outside the account. Sure enough, he was holding a scroll of silk in his hand.

The Han warrior in the account stopped the soldier and was not allowed to take another step forward.

Liu Bei knew that Zhang Lu was on guard, so he gave a look to Fa Zheng.

Fa Zheng got up immediately, took the silk map from his own soldiers, presented the case in front of Liu Zhang, and slowly unfolded the huge map in person.

"When I was ready to enter Shu, the places I passed by recorded all the key points I saw here, especially Zitong and the two counties of Brazil, which are particularly detailed."

Liu Bei said a few times before the case, as if he was ready to give Liu Zhang some advice.

Zhang Lu became more and more interested, and Baba's eyes widened and looked carefully.

Fa Zheng is not in a hurry, and slowly spread out the map little by little.

When the last volume of the map unfolded, something suddenly flashed.

A dagger.

When the bright handle appeared under his eyes without any sign, Liu Zhang looked shocked in an instant, and four words instinctively appeared in his mind:

The picture of the poor dagger appears!

Before he could react, Fa Zheng picked up the dagger and stabbed Liu Zhang with a low roar.

Liu Zhang, a literati, was shocked for a moment, while Ma Chao and Zhang Wei, who were beside him, reacted quickly. At the sight of the short sword, they knew that there was fraud. In the sound of metal humming, the sword at his waist had exhaled out of the sheath.

"Brother, be careful."

Zhang Wei exclaimed a warning, retreated Liu Zhang with his right hand, and waved his sword with his left hand to stab him.

At the same time, Ma Chao's sword danced at the same time.

Electric light flashes.

Poof ~ ~ Blood splashed, and the big map was covered with blood in an instant.

A long object fell on the case.

Zhang Lu's expression was extremely horrified, as if he had seen the most incredible and terrible thing in the world.

The thing that fell on the case turned out to be Zhang Wei's broken arm!

"Ah--"

In the scream, Zhang Wei covered his broken arm and fell back.

At this time, Fa Zheng, who was originally stabbed Liu Zhang's short sword, turned halfway.

With a sound of bone and flesh tearing, the sharp edge easily pierced Zhang Wei's chest.

"Meng Qi, Xuande, you..."

The shock happened too fast. In a blink of an eye, his brother Zhang Wei had fallen into a pool of blood, and Zhang Lu's brain was still in a mess.

The bloody sword edge shook, and the cold blade was on Zhang Lu's neck. Ma Chao was hooked on the corners of his mouth, showing a ferocious smile.

Liu Bei, directly opposite, with a gray face, also made people sneer.

In an instant, the Han and middle-Chinese warriors around them were just shocked. When they were about to rush to protect Zhang Lu, Ma Chao shouted harshly, "Whoever dares to move, I will let Zhang Lu's head fall to the ground."

The lord was captured. Under such coercion, the troops threw rats and avoided weapons, and they did not dare to act rashly any more.

At this time, Zhang Lu finally understood everything completely. In anger, his face was extremely pale, and his whole body trembled with anger.

"It turns out that you have plotted for a long time, Ma Mengqi. I treat you well. Why did you betray me?" Zhang Lu roared at the horse in grief and indignation.

Ma Chao sneered: "After Ma Chao's general Fubo, how can I be willing to let you be driven by a demon? You don't pee and take pictures of yourself. Do you deserve it?"

"You, you--"

Zhang Lu was so angry that his tongue was knotted, but he didn't know how to fight back.

"At the beginning, I advised you to take advantage of Cao Qian's eastern expedition to take all the troops of Hanzhong to seize Guanlong in the north, but you just refused to miss the good opportunity. If I, Ma Chao, surrender to you again, when can I avenge the blood of the Ma family to Cao thief?

After Ma Chao counted Zhang Lu's "crimes", it seemed that the resentment accumulated in his heart had finally opened the gate and vented, and he was indescribably happy all over his body.

Zhang Lu had no choice but to turn his eyes to Liu Bei and said in a trembling voice, "Xuande, I kindly accept you. Why do you want to harm me with this villain?"

"Alas~~"

Liu Bei's gloomy sneer faded and was replaced by a helpless expression. He shook his head and sighed, "Gong Qi, don't blame Meng Qi, and don't blame me. Everything we do is to rejuvenate the Han Dynasty and destroy the thieves. We have no choice but to do it.

"You, you~~"

At this point, Zhang Lu was so angry that he didn't know why.

At this time, Fa Zheng had wiped the dagger on Zhang Wei's body and said to Liu Bei with a smile, "Master, look, I said earlier that everything is under my control."

It turns out that this scene of defecting to Zhang Lu is a trap set by Zhuge Liang and Fa Zheng from beginning to end.

Earlier, after Zhuge Liang heard that Liu Feng had entered Shu, he predicted that the matter of Yizhou might develop to what it is today, so from that time on, Zhuge Liang began to think about Hanzhong.

At that time, Zhuge Liang heard that Zhang Lu had a counselor named Yang Song. This man was a member of the Han Dynasty and was very dependent on Zhang Lu. And most importantly, he was extremely greedy for money.

Therefore, Zhuge Liang sent people to Nanzheng secretly, and secretly married this person with a huge amount of money.

Yang Song took the money and said a lot of good words for Liu Bei. When Zhang Lu planned to send troops to attack Liu Bei's rear, Yang Song also dissued him in every way.

Not long ago, after Chengdu fell, Zhuge Liang sent someone to send a large amount of money to Yang Song, claiming that Uncle Liu wanted to come to Zhang Lu and asked Yang Song to say more words.

Yang Song didn't know that Liu Bei had the intention to annex Hanzhong, so he thought that if Liu Bei came to vote, he would benefit himself. Zhang Lu was also like a tiger adding wings. Why not do the best of both worlds?

Therefore, at that time, Yang Song tried his best to persuade Zhang Lu to welcome Liu Bei into Hanzhong, but he didn't expect that Ma Chao would suddenly come out to oppose it, which almost ruined his good deeds.

However, Yang Song would never have thought that Ma Chao, who was hostile to Liu Bei, was originally a pawn made by Liu Bei.

Ma Chao is a Fufeng family in Guanzhong, and Hefa is a fellow countryman. When Zhuge Liang persuaded Liu Bei to take Hanzhong, Fa Zheng thought of using Ma Chao's relationship to deal with each other.

Fa Zheng guessed that with Ma Chao's ambition, he would not be willing to surrender to Zhang Lu, so in the name of his hometown, he secretly contacted him and revealed to him that Liu Bei wanted to take the meaning of Hanzhong, and Ma Chao immediately got along with him.

Because Ma Chao was a newcomer to Zhang Lu, I'm afraid that Zhang Lu was suspicious. At the beginning, he deliberately sang the opposite tune with Yang Song and pretended to be wary of Liu Bei.

In this way, Zhang Lu's confidence in him has been enhanced, and he can follow Zhang Lu out of Yangping Pass to meet Liu Bei on the grounds of protecting Zhang Lu.

The joint performance inside and outside successfully deceived Zhang Lu. He never dreamed that Ma Chao, who was hostile to Liu Bei and was full of protecting himself, had already colluded with Liu Bei.

After killing Zhang Wei and captureing Zhang Lu, Liu Bei recruited his own 100 soldiers and took close care of Zhang Lu.

He immediately sent people south and ordered Zhuge Liang, Xu Shu and others to lead the army to march towards Hanzhong immediately. At the same time, Liu Bei, together with Ma Chao and Fa Zheng, led the 3,000 soldiers and horses to Yangping Pass in the starry night to seize the key door to Hanzhong.

Yangping Pass originally had 10,000 horses of Yang Bai. If they attacked, even if millions of soldiers might not be able to do it.

But now Yang Bai saw that there were 3,000 Han soldiers who had just left the customs, and Zhang Lu was among them, so he did not take any precautions and easily let them into the customs.

In the name of Zhang Lu, Liu Bei recruited Yang Bai to the front, captured him, and captured the army of Yangping Pass.

The incident suddenly happened. When the news of Zhang Lu's capture was sent back to Nanzheng, it was already three days later.

The news spread, and Dongchuan was in an uproar.

Because Zhang Lu was afraid of being captured, all the civil and military dragons had no head, and they did not know how to deal with it.

And when Nanzheng's Wenwu was still like ants on a hot pot, and the endless discussion was endless, a letter of transmission issued by Liu Bei in the name of Zhang Lu had arrived, and he ordered the officials at all levels to settle their duties, listen to Liu Bei's command, and transfer to the new master.

Then, 20,000 soldiers and horses unified by Zhuge Liang arrived at Yangping Pass at night. Liu Bei took Zhang Lu hostage and led tens of thousands of troops to come to the south of the Hanzhongzhi.

Yangping has been lost, and Zhang Lu has been held hostage again. When the county officials in Hanzhong saw that the general trend had gone, they all fell down. Liu Bei's army passed along the way and almost encountered any resistance.

Two days later, Liu Bei's army occupied Nanzheng.

(to be continued)