Wait, please don't call me Emperor Zhaolie

Chapter 96: The Han Army Attacks the Xiongnu
Liu Bei used scouts to clear the way and tried his best to prevent any leaks, while allowing the infantry and cavalry to approach stealthily.

Along the way, the Huns thought there was a camp nearby, so the patrolling scouts only moved three or four miles to wait and see.

Yuan Jun's army also focused their attention on the side facing Yecheng, ignoring the two-mile gap between the camp and the river bank.

The Qingzhou army took advantage of the situation and rushed forward, directly attacking the less than a thousand Xiongnu cavalry who had crossed the river.

"Hoo ho ho..."

The Xiongnu scouts suddenly heard the sound of approaching horse hooves, and soon saw cavalrymen holding red flags, wearing iron armor and helmets with flying feathers, holding eight-foot-long spears, and hanging bows and arrows. When they saw them, they suddenly increased their speed, lowered the spear tips, and formed a wing shape and moved forward as fast as a spinning wheel.

Full of murderous intent, he rushed forward with unstoppable and indestructible momentum!
"It's the Han cavalry!" the Huns shouted in horror.

"The Han army is coming, blow the horn quickly!" a scout shouted in fear.

Looking at the cavalry on the opposite side with flying feathers on their helmets and the front row holding high the red flag.

Subconsciously, he did not call the other side the Qingzhou Army, but directly called them the Han Army.

It also aroused their deep-seated fear. How many of their people had died in hundreds of years of war with the Han people, and the tribe still sang that sad song: "The loss of Mount Qilian has caused our livestock to cease to reproduce; the loss of Mount Yanzhi has caused our women to lose their color."

The Han troops also held high the red flags and charged into Longcheng, directly destroying the holy place where their ancestors offered sacrifices to heaven.

"Hurry up and tell the nobleman that the Han army is about to attack. Leave the cattle and sheep behind for now and quickly grab the bows and arrows to fight the enemy!"

The Hun scout leader shouted to the people around him.

He ordered more than ten riders to go back and deliver the message, while he led the rest to slow down the Han army.

He also saw a large number of infantrymen behind him, and he was horrified. Not many of his tribesmen had crossed the river yet, and only the noble man had led his men across the river first.

If the Han cavalry suddenly arrives and we haven't even prepared our bows and arrows, how can we resist them?

"Look! There are Han cavalry behind us!" someone said with a shudder.

The scout leader was immediately horrified when he saw this. He was stunned and said incoherently: "It's over... It's over. All the tribesmen who crossed the river are finished. We can't escape."

There were actually two or three thousand cavalrymen rushing forward from behind the infantry.

They were discovered only after marching four miles. Given the speed of the cavalry's advance, there was no time for the more than a thousand tribesmen to separate the cattle and sheep, put on leather armor and draw their bows and arrows to meet the enemy.

They can only be slaughtered, just like they rode on horses and shot the Han people in the countryside of Hanoi County from behind, and they can only wait to be killed.

The Hun scouts shot arrows with bows while riding horses, but unfortunately the effect was not so good as the bows were too far away. When the arrows were out of range, no one dared to stop and turn around to shoot.

In particular, he saw the scout leader turn around and shoot back, but was stabbed through the chest by a bearded Han cavalry general with a horse spear and thrown directly off the horse's back. His hands and feet twitched as he tried to grab the spear, but the cavalry general waved his arms away, and the scout leader fell to the ground and died instantly. His death was extremely miserable.

The remaining people all covered their heads and fled, whipping their whips hard, fearing that they would be caught up by the Han cavalry behind them, who were moving faster and faster, and stabbed to death on the spot with their sharp spears and lances through their chests and backs.

The Huns clamped their legs around the horses' bellies, waved whips in their hands, and fled on their horses' backs to the sides of the Han cavalry.

Since the Han army was heading towards the tribesmen on the river bank, their scouts had tried their best to intercept them and had also sent people to pass on the message. The life or death of the tribesmen depended on their luck.

All the mistakes were the fault of the scout leader. It was his order to only patrol three or four miles, so they had to carry out the order.

The scout leader was appointed by the left commander, the son of the noble Chanyu.

The other Huns who were fleeing thought about it and realized that the chief scout and the left commander Liu Bao were the real culprits.

Their wives were not as noble as the tribal nobles, so they could cross the river to Yuanying for the banquet first. As for those who had not yet crossed the river, at worst they could quietly go back and pick up the people to seek refuge in other tribes.

Thinking that they had a way to retreat, the fleeing Huns had no more will to resist. They rode away on horseback at great speed and soon disappeared in the distance.

Taishi Ci frowned slightly when he saw this. He could not split his troops to pursue them now. The most important thing was to attack the main force of the Xiongnu. He was on the right side, and Yunchang was on the left side, each leading more than a hundred cavalry to attack.

Thinking of how Guan Yu had just provoked a Hun scout with a spear, he couldn't help but feel frightened.

He thought that even if he was in this situation of riding a horse, he would not be able to easily defeat the Xiongnu. He sighed in his heart: "I am afraid I cannot compare with Yunchang's might as a bear or a tiger."

……

On the other side, the Huns were still slowly crossing the river.

After driving some of the cattle and sheep across, the nobles and trusted cavalrymen in the tribe would cross the water. Generally, the servants and miscellaneous soldiers in the tribe would cross the river first to spy on the situation, with the trusted elite troops coming last.

In order to make the Huns return early, Wen Chou ordered the military officers to instruct the cooks to cook and slaughter cattle and sheep and set up a banquet in the camp to entertain them, and then let them march back to Yecheng in a hurry.

Wen Chou arranged to withdraw his troops a day or two later, but he didn't know that this measure actually saved him from disaster.

Left Grand Commandant Liu Bao stood by the Huan River. Many people surrounded him like stars surrounding the moon, chatting and joking in the Xiongnu language and praising him from time to time. He was silent most of the time, but sometimes he would smile and nod slightly.

Liu Bao had a complex personality and loved the Confucian classics of the Han Dynasty. He was a little resistant to the pure Xiongnu ways, but he was cruel at heart and liked to plunder other people's wives and daughters.

The tribesmen respectfully called him Luandi Bao, but preferred others to call him Liu Bao. They often told people privately that the Luandi and Liu families had been intermarried for a long time and must be brothers of the Han family.

Liu Bao looked at the river for a long time, and finally sighed: "It would be great if Jizhou, Bingzhou, and Qingzhou could all belong to the Xiongnu!"

"Han officials have been conquering constantly, but the Xiongnu have been unable to intervene and gain a foothold. If they can capture a city and hold a county and expand to the entire northern land, I am afraid that even our ancestor Maodun will find it difficult to catch up with such an achievement."

The other Xiongnu nobles were stunned after hearing this and looked at each other, not knowing how to respond.

The idea of ​​Zuo Daduwei would have been enough to bring catastrophic disaster to himself and the Xiongnu tribe he ruled during the heyday of the Han Dynasty.

Fortunately, the Han Dynasty had already declined and there were no outsiders here. Many nobles took out fine silk to wipe the cold sweat from their foreheads.

"No need to look at it. It's useless. Let's go to the banquet." Liu Bao turned around, took the reins from the servant, and jumped on the horse.

The rest of the people followed suit and mounted their horses, ready to go to the banquet.

Suddenly, someone shouted from a distance: "Left Commander, get out of the way! Left Commander, get out of the way! The Han army is coming! The Han army is coming!"

Liu Bao frowned and pointed with his whip, asking, "What are those people shouting?"

Because it's too far away, people here can't hear clearly.

The cavalrymen nearby hurried forward and soon came to report in panic: "The left commander has several thousand Han cavalrymen rushing towards us, but they are only one or two miles away."

"Cross the bridge and get out of the way!"

At this time, all kinds of panicked sounds were heard one after another. The herdsmen who were driving cattle and sheep and the cavalry were in chaos, and some people hurriedly put on their armor.

Some people hurried to grab bows and arrows, while others rode their horses and ran away.

Many people rushed in and pushed to lead the cows, sheep and horses back, but they were all blocked in front of the bridge and could not get on.

Liu Bao's personal guards used their horse whips to clear the way, hitting others and shouting angrily: "Get out of the way! The Left Grand Commandant is here, get out of the way!"

The shouting was impossible to hear in the chaotic crowd.

Liu Bao forced himself to calm down and said to his confidant: "Go and lead the cavalry to stop the Han army, otherwise it will be too late, go quickly!"

Then he drew out his saber and chopped off the head of the herdsman standing in front of him. He looked at the guards and said in a chilling tone, "You are still using a horsewhip at this time. Don't you have any sharp blade?"

(End of this chapter)