My life is like walking on thin ice

Chapter 482 Finally, it’s still…

At the same time, on the top of Gaoque wall.

Looking at the river surface outside the wall that was completely frozen and shrouded in fog, the Xiongnu right general Hu Yandangtu couldn't help but have a hint of uneasiness on his face.

As one of the 'Right Four Pillars' under the command of the Right Wise King Yizhixie, and the new generation of military force of the Huyan tribe, Huyan Dangtu's battlefield sense is naturally more acute than that of other chiefs and nobles who are accustomed to taking the initiative but have almost no concept of 'the Han people might attack'.

In fact, in the Hetao-Mayi battle last year, Huyan Dangtu was the first noble to raise the possibility of changes in Mayi during the military meeting in the Chanyu court.

It’s a pity that at that time, Junchen Chanyu still believed in the past experience that the Han people only knew how to defend the city and would never fight in the wild, let alone take the initiative to fight outside the border.

In addition, at that time, the Right Wise King Yizhixie had just experienced the "defeat" at Chaonasai.

As for Yizhixie's fierce attack on Chaona Pass but his failure to take it, the Xiongnu Chanyu's court is still filled with exaggerated remarks like "What a piece of rubbish, it wouldn't be like this if I were in his place" and "If it were me, I would reach the Han capital Chang'an in three days at most."

Naturally, Yizhixie, who was despised by the entire Chanyu court for his poor combat performance, had almost no say at that time.

Huyan Dangtu, one of the four pillars on the right, was also affected by this and lost the last chance to remind Chanyu Ting.

Later, the Han people really set foot in Hetao from the north, and Huyan Dangtu's strategic prediction was verified.

As a result, Shanyu Ting still did not pay enough attention to it at the first time.

Because in the eyes of the vast majority of Xiongnu nobles and leaders at that time, this was nothing more than the Han people's strategy of "encircling Wei to save Zhao". It seemed that they were attacking and seizing Hetao, but in fact, they were using this method to break the siege of Mayi.

What was most puzzling to Huyan Dangtu was that after realizing that the Han people were besieging Wei to save Zhao and besieging Hetao to save Mayi, the Xiongnu Chanyu Ting finally made the battlefield decision to continue to attack Mayi!

Because in their view, since the Han people did not come directly to support Mayi, there must be some unknown obstacles that prevented the Han people from sending troops to Mayi.

The Han people, who had always been submissive and liked to hide within the city walls, were unexpectedly "forced" to go out of the border and launch attacks from the north to Gaoque and from low terrain to high terrain. This can only mean that Mayi was in danger and the Han people were anxious!

That being the case, what else is there to say?

With one move, we captured Mayi, and then marched towards Daibei!

Everyone in the world knows the final result of this wrong decision.

——The Huns lost the most important and indispensable piece of treasure on the entire grassland.

The Han people, who had suffered from a shortage of war horses, oxen and land for raising horses for more than 50 years, finally acquired this epic and fertile grassland called "Hetao"!
From then on, the Huns lost their best choice for wintering, their most abundant food, and at the same time, they were separated from the strategic location of Han and Hexi.

The Han people owned land for raising horses and had the ability to directly face the Mu'nan grassland and Hexi region and pose a direct military threat to these two areas.

As one side gained strength while the other lost, the strategic situation in which the Han and the Huns, each having their own strengths and disadvantages, with the Huns having a slight advantage in overall strength, also underwent subtle changes that were visible to the naked eye.

——The Han people are becoming more and more powerful, and the speed at which they are becoming stronger is accelerating.

In a few years, the Hetao region will be completely absorbed by the Han people, and the last material shortcoming restricting the Han army: war horses, will disappear.

By that time, the comprehensive national strength of the Han and the Xiongnu would show a huge gap.

Whether in terms of population, wealth, military strength or logistical support capabilities, the Han people will completely crush the Xiongnu warriors who once galloped across the northern border of Han as if they were in an empty land.

The bows of the Han people had a longer range and greater power than those of the steppes;
The various types of standard crossbows of the Han people only existed on the grassland as "gifts from the Qin Great Wall Legion", and most of them were impossible to repair and maintain, so if one broke, there would be less.

In terms of short weapons, the Han people mainly used bronze weapons, while the warriors on the grassland mainly used blunt weapons made of bone and stone.

Even if there were occasional bronze weapons, they were unexpected gifts from the Qin Great Wall Legion, as well as a small amount that flowed from the Han area to the grassland over the years.

In terms of long-range and short-range weapons, the Han people have an overwhelming advantage.

Over the past few years, the Huns were able to gain the upper hand in the strategic struggle between the two sides. The most important and also the only thing they could come up with was the dimensionality reduction attack of the cavalry cluster on the infantry corps.

Now, with the Han people occupying Hetao, the Xiongnu have actually lost this last key advantage.

——At least, the progress bar called "losing strategic advantage" is gradually coming to an end as the Han people's control over the Hetao region becomes more and more solid...
"That battle really shouldn't have happened..."

Huyan Dangtu shook his head and sighed as he sighed, his eyes still fixed on the other side of the river outside the wall, whose outline could not be seen at all.

Over the past year or so, almost every day, Huyan Dangtu felt regretful for the Xiongnu's loss of the Hetao region.

At the same time, Huyan Dangtu also saw clearly that the Han people built Bowang City, an important military town, in the northernmost coastal area of ​​Hetao, which was only separated from Gaoque by a river.

If the rule and control of the Hetao area is successful, then Bowang City will be the strategic fulcrum for the Han people to cross the river to the north and attack Gaoque!
On the contrary, if the Han people's rule and control over the Hetao region encounter obstacles and become a little difficult, then Bowang City will become the frontline fortress for the Han people to protect the Hetao region and prevent the Xiongnu army from crossing the river from Gaoque and setting foot in the Hetao region.

In fact, even Huyan Dangtu, a nobleman who was "unique" among the Xiongnu Khans and believed that the Han people were becoming increasingly powerful and bolder and would take the initiative to fight outside the border more frequently in the future, still did not believe that the Han people would dare to attack Gaoque.

Huyan Dangtu even thought about what would happen if Gaoque was breached one day.

In the end, Huyan Dangtu came to the conclusion that the only way for the Han people was to set foot on the grassland from Shangjun and Yunzhong, and then sweep westward all the way to the gathering place of the Right Wise King's tribe: Nanchi.

After a bloody battle in Nanchi, the forces of King Youxian were completely annihilated, or at least severely damaged, and the Mu'nan area was turned upside down. Only then would the Han have the opportunity to advance from north to south and from Mu'nan to Gaoque, blocking Gaoque along the banks of the river and forcing them to fight a passive "battle with their backs to the river".

If it really came to that - if there were the Han army that had just swept across Munan to the north of Gaoque, and the Bowang garrison in the Hetao area on the other side of the river to the south, then Huyan Dangtu might really give up resistance.

But in Huyan Dangtu's opinion, that was impossible.

——Now, even though the Han Dynasty had made considerable gains in the war between the two sides, first it tried its best to protect Chaona Pass, and then took advantage of the opportunity when the main force of the Xiongnu Chanyu Ting was fully deployed to attack Mayi, and seized the Hetao area, but the restraint between the two sides' troops still existed.

Furthermore, these two victories alone are far from enough to completely reverse the strategic balance between the two sides.

The Huns were still powerful, and were even in the heyday that nomadic regimes on the grasslands had ever experienced!

In Hexi, in the Western Regions, and even further to the west, the Huns' control and influence were at their peak.

It is no exaggeration to say that if the Hetao area had not been lost, the Xiongnu Empire would have reached a peak that no feudal dynasty in China had ever reached.

On the other hand, the Han people did not become completely powerful after this war. Rather, decades of endurance and secret development allowed them to gradually acquire the ability to compete with the Xiongnu army.

Huyan Dangtu was also helpless about this.

——In the grasslands, if a tribe wants to become strong, it can only go through constant wars to annex and conquer surrounding tribes, and eventually merge into a powerful tribe. Even after becoming strong, whether it wants to become stronger or retain its current strength and status, it still needs to continue to fight and plunder.

In contrast, the Han people were able to quickly grow stronger through the so-called "rest and recuperation" after unifying the Central Plains, or even a part of it.

What does rest and recuperation mean?

For nomadic civilization, it means doing nothing!

In the eyes of the nomadic peoples, the Han people strengthening themselves by recuperating was equivalent to doing nothing, and thus became strong for no reason.

But as one of the top nobles in the court of the Xiongnu Chanyu, Huyan Dangtu understood: this is the natural advantage of the Central Plains agricultural civilization when facing the grassland nomadic civilization.

——If nomadic civilization wants to become stronger, it can only do so by stealing other people’s cattle, sheep, livestock, and even horses and people.

As for the natural growth of livestock herds, it is only the icing on the cake, but it can never be the main means of strengthening the tribe.

But the Han people are different.

They only need to work hard on the farm and in just half a year they can grow enough food to feed their families for a whole year.

Even on this basis, they can contribute a portion of it to the country as the cost of maintaining the army.

This natural advantage of the civilized system made Huyan Dangtu feel more and more sad and upset.

"If everything continues to develop like this, I'm afraid that one day, the Han people will become so powerful that we nomadic people can no longer look directly at them."

"Just like the Qin people who made the nomadic people afraid to go south to herd their horses a hundred years ago, and fled when they saw their flags..."

Thinking of this, Huyan Dangtu slowly raised his hand, clenched it into a fist, and gently smashed it down on the wall.

——This Gaoque was built by a branch of the Han people called "Qin people".

The nomadic people of the grasslands would probably not be able to build such a magnificent pass even in another hundred years.

"Right General, are you worried about the Han people in Bowang City?"

While he was thinking, a slightly childish whisper came from behind him, and Huyan Dangtu turned around in the direction of the sound because he was so hot.

Seeing that he had no idea what kind of relationship he had with him, and only thought that he was probably his nephew, Huyan Dangtu shook his head slowly and once again thought about the ice outside the wall - or the endless thick fog.

"Age has been to the Han area."

"Age is well aware of the Han people's insidiousness and cunningness."

"——In such cold weather, even the warriors of our Great Xiongnu can only hide in their tents and shiver. It is naturally impossible for the old and weak soldiers of the Han people to leave Bowang City."

"But the Han people like to resort to some shameful means in such situations."

"The more we think something is impossible, the more likely the Han Chinese will do it."

"Because this will catch us off guard and allow the Han people to gain a ridiculous advantage."

As he spoke, Huyan Dangtu's eyes were still fixed on the outside of the city wall.

——I don’t know why, but today, Huyan Dangtu always feels inexplicably uneasy.

Speaking of the weather, Gaoque usually has this kind of weather every winter.

The river freezes over for nearly two months, and foggy days occur almost every three to five days.

But in the past, Huyan Dangtu had never felt so uneasy.

It was like a lone wolf that had separated from the pack and was walking in the jungle where he had lived since childhood. He saw nothing and heard nothing, but he instinctively felt a sense of danger.

On the grassland, no one would regard this instinctive anticipation of danger as cowardice or exaggeration.

Often, it is the foresight of danger that allows nomadic people to avoid difficulties and survive...
"Age."

"I have not been able to sleep well these past few days."

As Huyan Dangtu finished speaking, he heard the chuckle of his nephew Tu Ge beside him.

"Right General, do you think I came here to blow the cold wind because I have nothing to do or because the tent is too hot?"

These words made Huyan Dangtu's heart alarm bells go off!
If only one person sensed the danger, it might still be an accident.

But if more than one person senses danger in the same place, then it is almost certain that there is real danger!

This is an instinct that nomadic peoples have learned through bloody lessons over thousands of years, and that has finally been summed up and engraved deep into their souls.

"Age, go in person and check on the warriors to see if any of them are sick."

"——Especially those with abnormal colors or pus, you must take a closer look!"

"Last winter, the grassland was hit by a white disaster."

"According to past practice, this year, there will be a plague..."

Perhaps it was because of the high walls of Gaoque and the fact that the Han army had been afraid of fighting for decades.

In the end, Huyan Dangtu's ominous premonition in his heart fell from outside the Gaoque back into the Gaoque.

But after Tuge left, Huyan Dangtu almost completely followed his instinct and sent a light cavalry to the Youxian King's tribe in Nanchi.

——Request for support!
——Gaoque, a plague may break out!
Huyan Dangtu certainly didn't know at this time: this was the only correct decision he would make in the next ten days.

At the same time, on the ice surface that Huyan Dangtu had instinctively forgotten, figures in white cloth had gathered on the river bank near Gaoque...

(End of this chapter)