…

On that day, Tong Guan called Ma Kuo over and asked, "You should have a good relationship with Liu Qi, right?"

Ma Kuo was puzzled, but he still said as the truth: "I once served in the Xihe Army with Liu Qi. When Xuan Xiang you subdued Qing Qiang, my brother asked me to surrender, but I was a charity to Xuan Xiang you and the Grand Marshal Suo, and the Grand Marshal later sent Liu Qi to Xige City as a hostage, and my subordinates accompanied Liu Qi to Xige City."

Tong Guan slapped his head, then pretended to remember and said, "Look at me, I am not old, but my memory is poor first. Why did you forget that you had also been hostage to Xige City? By the way, your father-in-law, General Zhao Long, is he still the old commander of Liu Qi?"

Ma Kuo said: "Yes, Liu Qi was taught by my father-in-law."

Tong Guan said: "So, your relationship with Liu Qi is indeed extraordinary."

Ma Kuo said: "Life and death are in conflict."

Tong Guan said: "I'm relieved."

Ma Kuo was puzzled and asked, "I don't know what Xuan Xiang means?"

Tong Guan said: "I have an important task here. I originally wanted to hand it over to Liu Qi's two brothers. Since you and Liu Qi are in a life-and-death manner, it's better for you to do it. After all, his two brothers are reckless men in military affairs, and you don't have the right to deal with things."

When he heard Tong Guan's words, Ma Kuo's mind flashed and he immediately figured it out. Tong Guan wanted him to surrender Liu Qi.

Tong Guan quickly said again: "You have heard of Liu Qi's 70,000 infantry and 30,000 cavalry in Qingshui River that wiped out the Liao Kingdom, Xixia, and Mongolian coalition 100,000 cavalry?"

Ma Kuo said: "I have heard of it."

Tong Guan said: "Liu Qi is really a talent for generals. No wonder the official family was so optimistic about Liu Qi. When he was in his early twenties, he was appointed as the commander of the four-box commander of the Longshen Guard of the guards. Who can compare this? Their Liu family is the general family of our Song Dynasty, especially his father and my friend Liu Ziwen, who has been the Xuzhou Observer, the Chengxuan envoy of Baojing Army, and the Jiedushi of Luchuan Army. His two brothers and several nephews are now serving important positions in our Song Dynasty army..."

Thinking of the reason why Liu Qi went to Li Yan's side, Tong Guan said for Zhao Ji: "At that time, there was no way for the official family to let Liu Qi go to Li Yan temporarily. You know, Tian Hu, Wang Qing, and Fang Laqi rebelled, and the country was in danger. Besides, Li Yan had no intention of rebelling at that time, so the official family borrowed Liu Qi and the others to help Li Yan establish the Liangshan Army." Tong Guan immediately changed his tone and said in pain: "Who thought that Li Yan's ambition would actually waste the official's kindness to him, and his brain was rebellious!" After a pause, Tong Guan said again: "Since Li Yan's ignorance of the emperor's grace, don't blame us for being unrighteous. Now we have to take back all the military generals who lent to Li Yan!"

Ma Kuo knew clearly about the fact that Zhao Ji, the monarch and ministers sold Liu Qi and others, because he was in Tokyo at that time and had discussed with Liu Qi the mistakes of Zhao Ji, the monarch and ministers' affairs.

Now Tong Guan insists on selling as a borrowing, can this work?

Ma Kuo was very unsure.

With Ma Bu’s understanding of Liu Qi, Liu Qi is definitely not the kind of repeated two ministers, but the only minister with a strong heart.

Ma Kuo believed that if Zhao Ji had sold Liu Qi forcibly, Liu Qi would not have served Li Yan even if he died.

But Zhao Ji sold Liu Qi.

Now, Li Yan appointed Liu Qi, who was less than 30 years old, to be the commander-in-chief to command a decisive battle with the enemy. In order to support Liu Qi, he personally led his troops to charge. How trust is this?

"Will the lord in Liu Qi's heart be the official who sold him or Li Yan who supported him to the end?"

Ma Kuo dared not think about it anymore.

After calming down, Ma Kuo said, "Does Xuan Xiang want me to say that Liu Qi is coming to surrender?"

Tong Guan said: "Hey~ Why are you here to surrender? You should be going home."

Tong Guan said again: "Go and tell Liu Qi that Li Yan is not the only one who dares to hire people. If he can bring back 30,000 to 50,000 people, I guarantee that he will be the commander of the capital. All the hundreds of thousands of people in our Song Dynasty will be under his control, and he will be responsible for the battle against Liao."

After hearing Tong Guan's promise, Ma Kuo felt that there was some hope of surrendering Liu Qi.

If Tong Guan’s promise is fulfilled, then Liu Qi will be the one who replaces Zhong Shidao. This is basically the highest position that a military general can reach. If he is at a higher level, he should enter the central government and the Privy Council. And, don’t forget that Liu Qi is less than 30 years old now, and he can definitely be said to have a great prospect.

More importantly, Ma Kuo knew that Liu Qi did not want to serve Li Yan at the beginning.

Ma Kuo said: "My subordinates will do their best to persuade Liu Qi to go home."

Tong Guan said: "Okay, it's not too late, you can set off as soon as possible."

...

Ma Kuo was a decisive person. He left Xiongzhou that day, and then passed Zhending, and the two prefectures of Zhongshan came to Daizhou.

After arriving in Daizhou, Ma Kuo and made a stop, he directly passed Yanmen Pass and entered Yundi.

Ma Kuo and his party just entered the cloud land and were stopped by someone.

Ma Kuo bluntly stated that he was a friend of Liu Qi and Liu's command and wanted to go to Huanzhou to meet Liu Qi.

He stopped Zhao Erwa, a small school student from their group, asked them to rest in the inn, and informed Liu Qi at the same time.

What Ma Kuo did not expect was that within two hours, Zhao Erwa came back to notify Ma Kuo, and Liu Qi invited him to meet him.

Ma Kuo thought that Liu Qi was nearby, otherwise he shouldn't have been so fast.

But under the escort of Zhao Erwa and others, they rode the horse for almost three hours but didn't reach Liu Qi's location.

While Ma Kuo was very curious, he couldn't help but feel a little alert: "The Liangshan Army delivered messages so fast. If this were during war, it would have invisibly gained a lot of advantages."

Walking along the way, Ma Kuo observes all the way.

Ma Kuo discovered that Huanzhou had many more fortresses than before, and it was well-defined and relied on each other. It was obvious that it was arranged by experts.

Ma Kuo thought in his mind: "If enough troops were stationed in these fortresses, it would be difficult for the Song Dynasty to attack Yundi from Yanmen Pass."

It took me more than an hour to go, and when it was almost dark, Zhao Erwa took Ma Kuo and his party to a rice field.

Zhao Erwa said to Ma Kuo: "General Ma wait, I will go and invite the commander to come here."

Ma Kuo said in surprise: "Constitutional Liu is here?" Then he looked around and saw that there was nothing here except the endless rice fields.

Zhao Erwa smiled and said, "General, wait."

After saying that, Zhao Erwa turned over and got off the horse, took off her shoes and socks, rolled up her trousers, and then barefoot into the rice fields.

Under the surprise and confusion of Ma Kuo and others, Zhao Erwa asked several people in a row, then came to a farmer who was planting rice seedlings, then lowered his head and said a few words to the farmer in a low voice.

After hearing this, the man straightened his waist, handed the rice seedlings in his hand to Zhao Erwa, and then looked at them.

After seeing the man's appearance, Ma Kuo was so surprised that he really didn't expect that this farmer was Liu Qi!
Chapter completed!