When Ma Chao received the news, he was utterly stunned.
It was not just Ma Chao. Even someone as supremely resourceful as Fa Zheng had never expected it.
That alone showed just how extraordinary this was.
The essence of the Great Han lay in the Five Provinces of the Central Plains, and since the collapse of the Later Han, all the great wars had taken place in the Central Plains.
Whoever gained the Central Plains could gain All Under Heaven. This was universally acknowledged.
West of the Passes and Liangzhou, occupied by Ma Chao and Han Sui, already counted as quite remote regions in this era.
To this day, no aristocratic clan of the Central Plains had included Ma Chao among the feudal lords capable of contending for All Under Heaven.
What Fa Zheng tirelessly pursued was to make Ma Chao one of the foremost feudal lords under heaven, forcing the world to see him with new eyes.
But the news that arrived now shocked them both.
The King of Central Xia was actually attacking Liangzhou!
Liangzhou already lay on the Great Han's western frontier, while the Western Regions farther beyond almost bordered on lands beyond civilization.
No one had ever regarded the Western Regions as an opponent!
But now the King of Central Xia had used bloody reality to tell Ma Chao that the Western Regions were no dispensable bit player.
The great army of the Western Regions attacked Liangzhou, and the defending general Ma Chao had stationed there sent three reports a day.
Because Ma Chao had withdrawn Liangzhou's main army, the Western Regions forces advanced like a blade splitting bamboo. If this continued, all Four Hexi Commanderies would fall.
Those were the crucial link to the Western Regions. Once they were lost, Ma Chao's Yong State would