My younger brother Lü Fengxian

Chapter 178 Going North
The Xianbei, like the Wuhuan, were descendants of the Donghu who were defeated by the Xiongnu.

The two tribes were named after the two mountains where they lived, Xianbei Mountain and Wuhuan Mountain.

When the Xiongnu was still powerful, the Xianbei people were their vassals.

In addition to sending troops to help the Huns during wars, the Xiongnu also had to pay annual tribute to the Xiongnu, transporting large quantities of cattle, horse and fur every year.

Especially the fur tax.

In order to suppress the development of the Xianbei people, the Huns often demanded large amounts of furs.

This forced the Xianbei people to kill large numbers of cattle, horses, sheep and other livestock for their furs in order to meet their annual tribute to the Xiongnu. Without these livestock and food, the Xianbei population was suppressed by the Xiongnu for a long time, making it difficult for them to pose an effective threat to the Xiongnu.

Later, the Xianbei people took advantage of the weakness of the Southern Xiongnu and conquered the area south of the desert, thus establishing contact with the Han Dynasty.

After this, the Han Dynasty and the Xianbei people established an alliance. The Han Dynasty rewarded the Xianbei people with 200 million coins every year to hire them to fight against the Northern Xiongnu. The Xianbei people would exchange the heads of the Xiongnu people for the reward money.

For decades, the two sides lived in peace. Although there were small conflicts, they were all controlled within a certain range.

However, after Dou Xian of the Eastern Han Dynasty defeated the Northern Huns, they moved westward to avoid the attack of the Han army.

At the same time, Tan Shihuai was elected as the leader of the Xianbei people because of his bravery, strength and strategy, and he unified the entire Xianbei.

The cunning Tan Shihuai immediately seized the opportunity and led his troops to seize the Mobei area, which was in a power vacuum after the Northern Huns moved westward. He obtained tens of thousands of backward troops left by the Northern Huns and greatly increased his strength, almost comparable to the Huns in their heyday.

At this point, Tan Shihuai, whose appetite had grown, immediately tore up the alliance with the Han Dynasty and invaded Bingzhou and Youzhou in the south almost every year.

Unfortunately, Bingzhou was one of the thirteen states of the Eastern Han Dynasty, but its official population was only a few hundred thousand.

It’s not as good as any county picked at random in the mainland.

The population is not even as large as that of a county in Wei County.

All this is thanks to the Xianbei people.

Although Emperor Ling Liu Hong was incompetent, he was very annoyed to see his own territory repeatedly harassed by the Xianbei. So more than two years ago, in the sixth year of Xiping (177 AD), he ordered Xia Yu, the commander of the Wuhuan Guard, to defeat the Xianbei Lieutenant General Tian Yan and the Xiongnu Lieutenant General Zang Min, who each led more than cavalrymen in three groups and penetrated miles into the northern border to attack the Xianbei.

However, Tan Shihuai ordered Budugen, Kebinen and other leaders of the three Xianbei tribes to fight the Han army separately. However, the Han army fought disadvantageously and was defeated by the Xianbei. Not only were all the baggage and supplies lost, but seven or eight out of ten Han soldiers were killed. Only three commanders each led dozens of cavalry to flee south in panic. Finally, they were imprisoned by Liu Hong and redeemed as commoners.

At this point, the Han army was severely damaged, and the Xianbei people became more unscrupulous after their victory over the Han, and they no longer took the Han people seriously.

Therefore, the Xianbei people invaded the south with their entire tribe, causing countless atrocities in Hebei, which are too numerous to list.

However, although the Han Dynasty was gradually declining, a lean camel is still bigger than a horse, and its foundation is far beyond the reach of the Xianbei people who had only risen for a few decades.

After three months of preparation, he immediately mobilized an army of 100,000 to march north.

The Han Dynasty appointed Lu Zhi, Huangfu Song and Zhu Jun as commanders respectively, and divided the 100,000-strong army into three routes.

Among them, Lu Zhi led 30,000 troops into Bingzhou to quell the rebellion.

Huangfu Song led 30,000 men into Jizhou to quell the rebellion.

Zhu Jun led 40,000 troops into Qingzhou and Youzhou to quell the rebellion.

When the Xianbei people learned that the Han Dynasty had sent a large army to attack them, they immediately stopped their brutal and chaotic looting. The Xianbei leaders of the three tribes, East, West and Center, all withdrew their forces to deal with the attack of the Han army.

In fact, logically speaking, although Lu Zhi, Huangfu Song, and Zhu Jun were famous generals in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, the most suitable commander was someone else. Like the Xiongnu, Xianbei, and Wuhuan, the Western Qiang was also a major concern for the Han Dynasty.

Moreover, to a certain extent, the Qiang people, who had been causing chaos in the northwest for more than a hundred years, posed a greater threat to the Han Dynasty than the Xiongnu, Xianbei, and Wuhuan peoples combined.

Most of the wars against the three tribes were fought outside Han territory.

However, the Western Qiang was close to Xiliang, and at the most dangerous time they had even captured Chang'an, which was only separated from the imperial capital Luoyang by a wall.

The Western Qiang rebelled for a hundred years, causing great damage to the vitality of the Eastern Han Dynasty. All the famous generals were unable to quell the rebellion.

Only the famous general Duan Xing, who was later enshrined in the Temple of Martial Arts, had fought more than a hundred battles, big and small, more than a decade ago and finally put down the Qiang rebellion.

However, although Duan Xing had outstanding martial arts skills, he was a member of the eunuch party and had always been on good terms with the Palace Attendant Wang Fu. Last winter, he was implicated by Wang Fu and was imprisoned. He later drank poison and died in prison.

If Duan Ying were here, he would be able to put down the Xianbei rebellion.

But the dead cannot be resurrected, so Liu Hong could only choose other generals.

Fortunately, Lu Zhi, Zhu Jun and Huangfu Song were also famous generals. Therefore, the Han Dynasty was very optimistic about them and placed their hopes of defeating the Xianbei people on them.

Lu Zhi, Zhu Jun and Huangfu Song did not disappoint the world's hopes.

As soon as they crossed the Yellow River, they launched a fierce attack on the Xianbei people.

The Han Dynasty was far from having a corrupt horse administration like the later Song Dynasty. There were a large number of horses throughout the Han Dynasty, numbering in the hundreds of thousands.

There are more than 100,000 horses in the royal horse farm near Luoyang alone.

Some of these were purchased from merchants such as the Zhen family in Zhongshan, and some were naturally bred by Ma Zheng.

In short, except for the first few years after the founding of the Han Dynasty by Emperor Gaozu Liu Bang, there was no shortage of horses at any time thereafter.

Therefore, the mobility of the three generals was not much slower than that of the Xianbei people, whose main force was light cavalry.

Moreover, the Han people were fighting at home in Hebei.

The Xianbei people committed numerous bloody crimes in Hebei again. At this moment, the whole of Hebei put aside all party disputes and hostility, responded to the call of the three generals, and vowed to defend Hebei to the death.

Therefore, as soon as the battle started, the Xianbei people's momentum was stunned by three heavy punches.

They didn't understand why the Han people, who had been so cowardly that they could only hide in the city, became so fierce after the arrival of an army of no more than 100,000 people.

Many Han soldiers fought without fear of life or death, and would rather die together with the Xianbei people on the opposite side.

This desperate momentum immediately frightened the Xianbei people, and they were no longer as arrogant and conceited as they were a few months ago.

Countless originally honest Han people also grabbed weapons from their homes and spontaneously gathered together to attack and kill small groups of Xianbei people, making it difficult for the Xianbei people to defend themselves.

Upon seeing this, Tan Shihuai, who was in charge of the rear, immediately and wisely ordered the three Xianbei tribes to retreat from the front lines such as Jizhou and Qingzhou plains, and to defend Bingzhou and Youzhou.

Now the Xianbei people's dream of completely occupying Hebei was shattered by the iron fist of the Han army, and they could only take a step back and fight against the Han soldiers in Youzhou and Bingzhou instead.

At this point, a battle that will determine the fate of northern China is about to begin!
(End of this chapter)