A thousand-year-old family begins with one fighting against ten thousand.

Huo Qubing led his 1000 men into the vast grasslands.

Huo Qubing soon got lost.

None of the 1000 men he led had ever been to the northern deserts, nor were they veterans who had fought against the Xiongnu. Although they had a rudimentary map, they couldn't even distinguish east from west in this place where there was nothing but grass.

With only a rough map and no landmarks, they couldn't confirm their location, let alone find the direction to advance.

"Captain, which way do we go next?"

"Zhao Ponu, a general who was by Huo Qubing's side, asked."

"That's a good question, I'd like to know too."

Huo Qubing complained.

He originally wanted to achieve a great feat, just like the Loyal King of the past, by launching a surprise attack on the Xiongnu's Longcheng.

However, Dragon City is heavily guarded now, and he can't defeat it with his strength alone.

He planned to wander around the tribes of other powerful Xiongnu nobles to see if there were any weaknesses he could find, and launch a surprise attack to relieve the siege of Wei.

This prevents these nobles from fighting well on the front lines, as they are always thinking about their hometowns.

He originally intended to rush directly to the tribe where the Right Wise King was located, following the map, but unfortunately, there was nothing else on the grassland except grass.

They couldn't tell which way to go at all.

Wei Lu thought that Huo Qubing was so confident that he must have prepared someone in advance to help him find the right direction. Huo Qubing, on the other hand, was blindly confident, thinking that finding a direction was not difficult. Since Wei Lu did not mention it, it meant that anyone could do it.

If he were to ask for a mentor again, wouldn't he be contradicting himself and becoming a laughingstock?

Huo Qubing couldn't afford to lose face like that.

This wonderful misunderstanding caused Huo Qubing to lose the guide who led him forward.

Fortunately, there was no guide. The Right Wise King of the Xiongnu was also a victim back then. While he gathered a large number of troops to participate in the Han-Xiongnu War, he also left a large number of troops to protect his tribe.

It was no less than the royal court, and also had a full 3 elite troops.

The Xiongnu were soldiers, a far cry from the Han Dynasty, whose elite cavalry was far more numerous.

If Huo Qubing had charged straight in, he would have been crushed to pieces by these 3 men.

"Let's go, let's head in that direction."

Huo Qubing found a direction by instinct and led his army in a swift march toward it.

One can only say that he truly deserves the title of Huo Qubing; he was destined for greatness.

After walking in this direction for a short while, we discovered a small tribe.

The differences become apparent.

One person can wander aimlessly in the vast grasslands without getting lost, while another person with a precise destination in the near future will get lost.

That's right, I'm talking about that unlucky guy, Li Guang.

Historically, Li Guang came very close to being granted the title of marquis on two separate occasions.

One instance was when he followed Zhou Yafu to quell the Rebellion of the Seven States. Because of this political idiot, he accepted the seal of the King of Liang and lost the opportunity to be enfeoffed as a marquis.

In this life, Wei Yu's interference overshadowed Li Guang's brilliance, preventing the incident from happening and allowing Li Guang to be directly granted the title of king.

The second time was when he followed Wei Qing on the Northern Expedition. Wei Qing had already calculated everything. As long as Li Guang marched eastward according to the original strategy and completed the encirclement, he could kill the Xiongnu Chanyu and annihilate the main force of the Xiongnu.

As a result, Li Guang got lost, which not only prevented him from being granted a title, but also completely ruined Wei Qing's strategy, allowing the Xiongnu Chanyu to escape.

Huo Qubing and his men crouched in the grass and, taking advantage of the fact that several herdsmen were out, ordered them to detain them.

"Which noble family rules your tribe? How many soldiers are currently in your tribe?"

Huo Qubing asked.

The herdsmen looked at Huo Qubing with suspicion, as they could not understand Chinese.

Huo Qubing also realized this problem; he hadn't studied it either.

He looked behind him, and Zhao Ponu repeated the sentence in the Xiongnu language.

"We belong to the Right Guli King's command. I don't know how many soldiers he has. We are just ordinary herdsmen."

These were the answers from the herders.

Zhao Ponu noticed the glint in their eyes, picked up his Han sword, and killed one of them.

Then, pointing to the second person, he said, "Did you give the same answer as him?"

"It's different, it's different."

The Xiongnu herdsman, whose sword was pointed at him by Zhao Ponu, waved his hands repeatedly, saying, "All the able-bodied men in our tribe have been conscripted, leaving only a few hundred people to guard the tribe."

"A heartless and treacherous traitor doesn't deserve to live."

Zhao Ponu was about to stab this person to death as well, but Huo Qubing pretended not to see it.

He also looks down on such spineless people.

Since there were only a few hundred people, he swallowed the entire tribe.

Huo Qubing mounted his horse and led his 1000 soldiers at breakneck speed toward the tribe.

This person was not lying; the tribe indeed only had a few hundred able-bodied men left. Huo Qubing's 1000 soldiers were Emperor Wu of Han's personal troops, with the best equipment and treatment. The tribe was easily wiped out by Huo Qubing.

Huo Qubing thought about it and realized that with his current forces, it was impossible for him to attack the main territories of the great noble families of the Xiongnu.

Although he could capture these Xiongnu soldiers, he could not subdue them.

After all, given the Xiongnu's nature, if they were to turn against them, things would get really messy.

Huo Qubing thought for a moment and found a few more spineless people in this tribe. He then led Huo Qubing to sweep through the surrounding small tribes, burning down all their camps and injuring their people. Ordinary herders were lightly injured, while soldiers were seriously wounded. Finally, they were driven to larger tribes.

Taking advantage of the chaos in the medium-sized tribe, we stormed in.

Instead of killing too many enemies, they set fire to the fleeing soldiers, causing chaos among them and the ordinary herders. Once the chaos was large enough, they withdrew.

Once things feel stable, repeat the same actions.

If the Xiongnu came out to pursue them, they would circle around them.

With the addition of many soldiers and herders from other tribes, the tribe, being only a medium-sized one, already had very few troops left, and with the need to guard these people, its military strength was stretched thin.

There weren't many who could be spared to deal with Huo Qubing, and Huo Qubing was perfectly capable of handling them.

Sometimes they can even turn the tables and win.

Time and again, Huo Qubing exhausted the people of this tribe.

Then, taking advantage of the fact that they did not have night blindness, they attacked the tribe again, aiming only at destruction, not at killing.

In a short time, a medium-sized tribe was ravaged by Huo Qubing. They had no choice but to take their remaining resources and go to another medium-sized tribe to help each other. At the same time, they sent someone to the Youguliwang tribe to report the news and seek their support.