Late Han Zhao Tang

Chapter 117 Offering suggestions
The fifteenth day of the first lunar month in the fifth year of Zhongping.

When the day for dispatching troops arrived, Zhang Yu led his army from Pingcheng southward.

Compared with the shabby conditions when he first took office, the Yunzhong Yicong cavalry are now luxuriously equipped. Not only do everyone have furs to keep warm, but now everyone has two horses to travel, and even scouts can have three horses on one horse.

As the number of horses increased, the army's mobility naturally improved. It only took the Yunzhong Yicong a day and a half to capture the city of Mayi.

After resting for a day in Mayi, Zhang Yu met up with Zhang Yang who came from Chanhewu, and then led the cavalry south to Taiyuan.

Because the counties along the way provided food and fodder, Zhang Yu's troops marched quickly and even surpassed the county soldiers led by Yanmen Prefect Wang Ze. Despite the obstruction of the north wind and heavy snow, the Yunzhongyi cavalry took only five days to travel 600 miles and arrived at the provincial capital Jinyang.

Upon learning that Zhang Yu had led his troops to Jinyang, the governor Zhang Yi went out of the city in person to greet him as a sign of respect.

Seeing that except for the professional volunteer cavalry, the rest of Zhang Yu's subordinates had uneven equipment, Zhang Yi, in order to show goodwill, ordered people to send a large amount of supplies, such as arrows, bowstrings, spears, etc., to arm the miscellaneous Hu cavalry under Zhang Yu.

In addition to the basic supplies, Zhang Yi, seeing that his cavalry were short of iron armor, specially sent people to deliver 100 sets of high-quality leather armor, 50 sets of iron armor, and 10 sets of horse armor.

Compared with the 150 sets of armor, Zhang Yu valued the ten sets of iron horse armor more. Although there were armored cavalrymen in his Yicong cavalry, there were very few horse armors. There were only three or four sets of leather armor in the army. The rest of the horses were either covered with fur or with simple leather to protect the chest of the horses, which was considered a defense that was better than nothing.

Now with ten sets of iron horse armor, coupled with the brave armored cavalry under Zhang Yu's command, the ten cavalry acted as the vanguard, and once they charged, they were like a torrent of steel. Zhang Yu was not polite about such a heavy gift, and accepted it all at once!

Zhang Yi was willing to bleed for no other reason than to strengthen his own military strength and win over Zhang Yu. When Zhang Yu was ordered to recruit soldiers, Bingzhou dragged its feet in providing them with equipment, and it took almost a year to provide them with enough equipment. If Zhang Yi was not more generous, he was afraid that Zhang Yu would not be able to fight for him wholeheartedly.

With the settlement in the prefectures and counties, the Yi Congqi were arranged to camp 20 miles away, and the food and horse fodder for the army were provided by Taiyuan County. The soldiers and officers just needed to concentrate on training and wait for the order to go out.

As the deputy general, Zhang Yu was invited by Zhang Yi to the city to discuss the plan of attacking the Huns.

In the prefecture, Zhang Yi, with gray hair on his temples, sat in the main seat, and the governors of each county sat separately. Among them, Zhang Yu and Wang Rou were both deputy generals, but Zhang Yu regarded himself as inferior to Wang Rou because of his young age, so Wang Rou sat in the right seat, which symbolized the second in command, while Zhang Yu sat in the left seat.

Zhang Yi looked at everyone with a kind face and said, "Your Majesty has issued an edict to prevent the Xiongnu from joining forces with the Liangzhou rebels in the west and the Xianbei Qianman in the north. He has ordered our Bingzhou soldiers to go out to suppress the bandits, so I hope you will work together to suppress the Xiongnu."

"May I ask, sir, what is the current situation of the Xiongnu rebels?" asked Wang Ze, the governor of Yanmen.

Zhang Yi pondered for a moment, looked at his deputy Li Jin, and said, "Lao Bosheng will explain the situation of the rebels to you all."

"promise!"

Li Jin was a member of the Shangdang Li clan. After he saluted everyone, he stood up and said, "Among the Xiongnu rebels, the three tribes of Xiutu, Zuowang and Xubu have the largest number of bandits. There are also other Xiongnu tribes, the largest of which has 6,000 to 7,000 tribes, and the smallest of which has 1,000 to 2,000 tribes. So, in total, the number of rebels is no less than 30,000 to 40,000."

"The people of various tribes are scattered between Xihe and Shangjun. The terrain is rugged, with scattered river valleys and numerous mountains. It is difficult for those who do not know the geography to attack them. The current situation in Xihe County is that the rebels are rampant, and the cities have collapsed. The people are fleeing."

Zhang Yu frowned slightly. The intelligence Bingzhou had gathered about the Xiongnu was too rough. The exact number of troops and horses was unknown, and their tribes were not clear where they were scattered. How could they fight this war?

"May I ask Li Beijia if you know the name of the Hu chieftain? Are the Hu people in Zuoguo City now?" Zhang Yu asked.

"Chief Hu's name~"

Li Jin hesitated for a moment and said, "Now I only know that the fake Chanyu is Xubu Guduhou, the leader of the Dugu tribe of Xiu Tuhu is named Qubei, and the leader of the Zuowang tribe is Luan Timoche. I don't know the rest!"

"I wonder if General Wang could explain the details to us?" asked Guo Yu, the governor of Dingxiang.

Wang Rou racked her brains and said, "Luan Timoche was the former Left Wise King, and the former Qiangqu Chanyu was the Right Wise King. According to the Xiongnu etiquette, he could not succeed to the throne, but he was able to succeed to the Chanyu position thanks to the support of the former Zhonglang General Zhang Xiu. Luan Timoche was dissatisfied because his Chanyu position was taken away from him."

"Xubu Guduhou was the leader of the Xubu tribe. He had a high reputation and his tribe had more than 4,000 tribes. Therefore, he was respected by the Xiongnu people. Because the Xiongnu people regarded him as Chanyu, they gave him more prestige. As for Qubei, I have heard of his name, but I don't know much about his tribe. I only know that he was the King of Guli."

When everyone in the hall heard what Wang Rou said, they looked at each other, not knowing what to say. They didn't expect that Wang Rou, as the Lieutenant General protecting the Xiongnu, didn't know much about the internal affairs of the Xiongnu.

"Go, I've heard a little bit about it!"

Zhang Yu came to Wang Rou's rescue and said, "Qubei's ancestors intermarried with a Han princess, so he took Liu as his surname and was named Liu Qubei. But because his people grazed on Gushan Mountain, their tribe can be called Dugu. When the two kings Xiutu and Hunxie migrated south, the Dugu followed them."

"So the Xiutu Hu had the Jihu, Dugu and other tribes, and the Dugu tribe was the most numerous, with about six or seven thousand tents. They lived along the Sheshui River, distributed between Shangjun and Xihe, and lived in the gullies of Henan. The terrain was rugged and difficult to find, and the people of the tribe were fierce and should not be underestimated."

Everyone nodded slightly, knowing where the Dugu tribe lived, so they had a purpose for sending troops to fight. Zhang Yu looked at Zhang Yi and reminded him, "Sir, west of the Yellow River, the land is thousands of miles wide, with many Qiang and Hu tribes, and the roads are rugged, making it difficult for the troops to move. If we rush in, we will easily suffer a defeat!"

At that time, Wang Rou left Zhang Yu unattended for several months, but Zhang Yu did not rest. Instead, he socialized with Xiongnu nobles and learned a lot about the internal situation of the Xiongnu.

Xiutuhu first migrated to the border areas in the south. At the end of the Western Han Dynasty, taking advantage of the chaos in the prefectures and counties, they migrated to the northern Shaanxi Plateau and the Ordos Plateau in later generations. As they were the first to absorb Han culture, Xiutuhu had learned to farm, their leaders could read and write, and lived together with the Han people.

The eight tribes of the Xiongnu migrated southwards, experiencing the same experience as the Xiutuhu. They first guarded the border, and then migrated south to Henan in the past ten years. During the period of displacement of the Southern Xiongnu, the Xiutuhu absorbed the knowledge of the Han people and became increasingly powerful.

Therefore, among all the Xiongnu tribes, the strongest one was the Xiutuhu. Also, because the Xiutuhu lived on the plateau, even if the Xiutuhu rebelled, it would be difficult for the Eastern Han army to completely suppress it. They could only kill the leader and appease his tribe.

The power of Xiutuhu gradually overshadowed the lineage of Chanyu. Liu Yuan and Helian Bobo were both descendants of Xiutuhu. Liu Yuan simply forged his identity and united the Xiongnu people by claiming to be a descendant of Chanyu; Helian Bobo claimed to be a descendant of Qubei and forged his ancestor Liu Jinbo as the great-grandson of Liu Xiu.

Zhang Yi pondered for a long time and asked, "Given the current situation, what advice does Captain Zhang have?"

Zhang Yu frowned and thought for a moment, then he clasped his hands and said, "Sir, the Hu bandits have tens of thousands of people, while our army has less than 20,000. The enemy is numerous and we are few. In terms of terrain, the roads are rugged and the mountains are intricate. Our army does not have the advantage of terrain, so we should not advance without authorization."

"The bandits are worried about our army's attack, so they are gathering their troops. However, the bandits have no food and grass, so they need to eat their own food, so it is better to accumulate strength and hold on. They want to fight but cannot, and they cannot attack either, so the bandits will surely disperse. Later, our army will select elite troops to rush in, kill the bandit leader, and occupy their vital points, then the enemy can be defeated."

It's funny to say that the Huns originally lived on the grasslands, but hundreds of years later, they now live in the vast mountains. In the past, they lived by the water and grass, but now they live in ravines and reproduce.

If the Han army wants to completely wipe out the Huns now, it will not only have to recapture Zuoguo City, but will probably have to go deep into the fragmented plateau with ravines and gullies. The difficulty of this can be imagined.

Zhang Yi stroked his beard and thought deeply, then said, "Captain Zhang is right. The Xiongnu rebels have gathered in Xihe County. We need to send troops to fight them now. But our army has fewer soldiers than the rebels, so we should not rush into a battle with the enemy."

Taiyuan Governor Feng Bo asked, "In your opinion, how should our army be deployed now?"

"The army will first arrive at Zishi, and then the vanguard will advance to Yuli to observe the changes of the Xiongnu rebels!" Zhang Yi said.

"No!" everyone responded in unison.

Today, Zhang Yi listened to Zhang Yu's advice and could be considered a man who knew military affairs. The Xiongnu nobles killed the Chanyu, and then swore an oath of blood to establish a new Chanyu, gathering the people of the Xiongnu tribes. Their morale was high in a short period of time, and they could not be easily confronted head-on.

Unless the Bingzhou army is much stronger than the rebels, we can lead the army straight ahead and fight a decisive battle with the rebels. But now our army is smaller than the rebels, so for the sake of safety, it is best to adopt Zhang Yu's strategy.

Since it was the correct choice, the generals followed Zhang Yi's arrangements.

After Zhang Yi discussed the specific military situation with everyone in detail, he ordered the troops of Taiyuan County to be the vanguard and to be stationed in Zhili first, while the troops of other units would go to Zishi (now Fenyang City) to station.

Soon, Zhang Yu returned to the military camp from Jinyang and conveyed the military order to everyone.

The next day, Feng Bo led 4,000 infantry and cavalry from Taiyuan and marched south from Jinyang first; on the second day, Zhang Yi led troops from Shangdang and Yanmen counties south to Zishi.

Zhang Yu's troops were combined with Guo Yu's into one army. Zhang Yi took into consideration that the two armies came from the farthest end of Bingzhou, so he let them rest for one more day and set out on the third day.

The two armies, with a combined force of more than 3,000 people, marched south along the Fen River. Along the way, there were traces left by the preceding troops, so although the wind was freezing and the snow was falling, the march was convenient.

It took Feng Bo and Zhang Yi five days to walk the nearly 300 miles from Jinyang to Zishi, which made Zhang Yu couldn't help but complain that the marching speed was too slow.

On the way, Zhang Yu met his father's nephew Lu Bu because he was in the same army with Guo Wei's troops.

Regarding this expedition, Lu Bu's words were full of desire to achieve great things. He expressed the hope that Zhang Yu could give him more support and introduced his brother-in-law Wei Xu to Zhang Yu.

Although he despised Lü Bu's character, Zhang Yu still maintained a friendly face and communicated with Lü Bu enthusiastically. After all, no matter what, Lü Bu's ability was well-known among the heroes of the late Han Dynasty.

On the 28th day of the first lunar month, Zhang Yu led his troops to Zishi County.

Unlike Jinyang, Zishi was only a hundred miles away from Zuoguo City, which had been looted by the Huns before. The city was quiet inside and outside, and few people were seen. The air was filled with the smell of war.

(End of this chapter)