My younger brother Lü Fengxian

Chapter 226 The eve of the decisive battle
In Pingcheng County, Yanmen County.

The Hu people were everywhere and the Han people had disappeared.

The Xianbei Great Khan Tan Shihuai set up the Xianbei royal tent in Pingcheng.

Inside and outside Pingcheng, the Xianbei army gathered in large numbers, with more than 200,000 soldiers!

A large number of cattle and sheep that migrated with the Xianbei people's southward invasion also settled in and around Pingcheng.

The area within and outside Pingcheng was filled with the stench of rancid meat, which made people feel sick and nauseous.

However, the Hu people lived with animals all day long and shared the same smell, so they did not find the smell bad. Instead, they felt it was friendly and comfortable, like the air of immortals.

It is already early July.

During midsummer, the temperature became increasingly hot, making it difficult for many Xianbei people to adapt.

Unlike the unstoppable momentum at the end of last year, the Xianbei people's recent fighting situation has become increasingly tense and difficult.

Not only were many of the territories that had been obtained conquered by the armies led by Lu Zhi, Zhu Jun and Huangfu Song.

Resistants like Lu Yi who spontaneously defended their hometown and fellow villagers continued to emerge, and many counties with insufficient defensive forces were successively recovered by local military and civilians.

Under the national justice, national hatred and family feud.

The Han people are united.

No matter they were from aristocratic families or common people in the countryside, they all took up arms and bravely and fearlessly resisted the atrocities of the invaders.

When the common people in the countryside fell into the hands of the Xianbei, men who refused to surrender and become slaves would be executed in public, women would become playthings of the Xianbei and be humiliated, and the elderly and weak who wasted food would be brutally killed.

Because Tan Shihuai wanted to rule Hebei, he had been trying to win over the aristocratic families in the occupied territories. Not only did he seldom send people to attack the aristocratic families' strongholds that were difficult to conquer due to their strong city defenses and sufficient food reserves, he also often sent people to spread the word of Xianbei to them and promised them all kinds of privileges and benefits after the Xianbei people completely controlled the Han area.

However, due to the natural sense of superiority of the Han nationality, except for a very small number of people who had forgotten their ancestors and misjudged the situation, the vast majority of Han people were hostile to the Xianbei people and refused to accept Tan Shihuai's appointment and rewards.

Even though Tan Shihuai generously promised the titles of marquis and king, no one was willing to accept it.

Moreover, the higher the social class of the Han people, the more they tended to despise the Xianbei, which was a great blow to Tan Shihuai, a self-aware and sincere person.

At this moment, Tan Shihuai, who was leaning lazily in the tent of the Xianbei Chanyu, was a little confused.

He didn't understand why he was so generous and provided so many privileges and benefits, but still couldn't win the loyalty of the noble families in the occupied areas?

"Ugh……"

He sighed silently, and suddenly raised his hands, palms facing himself.

Although these hands that have been with him for nearly fifty years are covered with calluses and scars, they are still as strong as ever.

It was with these hands that he conquered his tribe and was elected as the tribe's leader.

Later, he conquered all the Xianbei tribes with his own hands and became the leader of the Xianbei.

Later, he relied on these hands and, with the help of the Han people, defeated the Huns and successively occupied the lands north and south of the desert, covering a vast area!
It is more than 14,000 miles from east to west and more than 7,000 miles from north to south!

This is the end.

His army was invincible on the grassland.

His orders were carried out vigorously on the grassland.

His reputation resounded throughout the grassland, and he was revered as the Great Chanyu by all the tribes on the grassland, becoming the common ruler of the entire grassland!

Even the army sent by the Han emperor, who was invincible against the Hu people and was known as one man could defeat five Hu people, to the northern expedition was defeated by these hands.

The Han commander was killed by him, and the Han soldiers were wiped out by him. In the end, only one in ten people survived and returned to the Han land.

In the past, he had always trusted these old friends unconditionally.

It had brought him strength, power, honor and victory!

Now, ever since he led the Xianbei army into the Han territory last year, the old man’s magic seems to have disappeared... ?
After a brief victory, Tan Shihuai felt that he was trapped in a quagmire formed by the Han people.

The brute force that had once been invincible on the grasslands suddenly became useless.

Often a full-force attack feels like a punch on cotton.

The Hu people won one victory after another over the Han people, which was unprecedented.

At the beginning, a large area of ​​territory and a large number of cities were conquered by myself who suddenly appeared.

Under the unstoppable attack, his army actually drank from the Yellow River, and the whole of Hebei was almost completely annexed by him.

This is something that even the Huns, the former rulers of the grasslands, had not been able to do for hundreds of years.

The entire Xianbei people fell into a kind of crazy frenzy.

Everyone believed that this was a sign of the Han Dynasty's decline and a symbol that they were about to usher in an unprecedented era of prosperity for the Xianbei people.

The idea of ​​annexing Hebei and even whipping the Central Plains quickly replaced the original idea of ​​grabbing a few votes and then withdrawing to the outside of the Great Wall to spend the winter safely in the minds of most Xianbei people, especially high-level Xianbei nobles.

Under such fanatical group thinking, anyone, including the Xianbei Khan Tan Shihuai himself, who tried to utter words such as retreat or return north would be attacked by the Xianbei people who were dazzled by the colorful world of the Central Plains. Their noses and ears would be cut off, tied to horsetails, and dragged through the streets.

Because such people are sinners of the Xianbei, and are also enemies who prevent them from occupying the vast territory of the Han people!

Cutting off one's source of wealth is like killing one's parents.

Cutting off the Xianbei people's financial resources was more serious than killing their parents.

Because, they are the kind of people who, as children, dislike their old parents and take the initiative to kill their own parents so that the tribe can survive... No, such people cannot be called human beings at all, they can only be considered animals at best.

Therefore, even when he saw that the Han people had reacted, he sent three armies straight to Hebei.

The Xianbei people were not afraid at all. Instead, they looked forward to getting rid of this hastily recruited Han army once and for all, just like they did the year before, and completely conquering the Han people as they had conquered the Xiongnu before.

However, the development of things gradually deviated from the Xianbei people's fanatical plan.

From the beginning, they acted as if they were in an unruly place, but their atrocities gradually accumulated as they became more and more brutal.

The Xianbei people began to find that the Han people were becoming increasingly difficult to subdue.

At the beginning, one could easily capture a Han village by sending a dozen cavalrymen, and capture all the men, women, and children in it and bring them back.

Later, when the Han people discovered their atrocities, the intensity of the resistance began to intensify.

At the beginning, only the larger forts would actively attack the Xianbei cavalry.

Later on, even ordinary villagers would pick up knives such as iron forks and sickles and start sneak attacks on lone Xianbei cavalry.

As a result, even when facing a village, the Xianbei people had to send several times more warriors to conquer it with great difficulty. However, after conquering the village, they often gained nothing except corpses scattered all over the ground and burned food.

The forts that were even more solid, with no shortage of soldiers, weapons and even food, spread across Youzhou and Bingzhou undoubtedly made the Xianbei people even more frustrated.

Even with ten times the number of soldiers, it is extremely difficult to conquer a fortress built in a dangerous place. The outcome is usually heavy casualties with little effect, just like Luwu.

These forts have a long history that can be traced back to the period of Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty.

Or the position was extremely tricky, so that one man could block the passage of ten thousand, making it impossible for the Xianbei people to show their numerical advantage.

Therefore, it is extremely difficult to conquer.

There was no other way. Under the continuous looting by their big brothers, the Huns, for hundreds of years, the fortresses with poor defenses would not be able to withstand the Xianbei people's looting to the south this time.

This caused great suffering to the Xianbei people who were prepared to fight to support the war.

However, the fanatical Xianbei people did not blame it on their own brutality, but naively thought that it was only the Han army that came, which gave these Han people confidence and reliance.

Therefore, the vast majority of Xianbei people believed that as long as they could defeat the Han army again like they did the year before, all these problems would be solved.

And the Central Plains will become the most fertile pasture and paradise for the Xianbei people.

However, the amount of food looted last winter and this spring was decreasing, and it was unable to support the Xianbei people to continue to fight for a long time.

Seeing that he was unable to change the fanatical Xianbei public opinion, Tan Shihuai could only follow the Han people's rules and send a letter of request for battle to the three commanders of the Han army.

Although Lu Zhi, Zhu Jun, Huangfu Song and others were fighting at home, the daily food and clothing of hundreds of thousands of generals and horses was a huge burden on the court.

Moreover, Hebei is their own territory. If the conflict continues for a long time, they are worried that half of Hebei will be reduced to scorched earth by the Xianbei people. Therefore, they are eager to fight.

What is more crucial is that the urging and inquiries from the emperor became more and more frequent, and the wording became more and more severe.

All three of them understood that it was time for a decisive battle.

The biggest problem when two armies fight is how to find the opponent.

The Xianbei people came and went without a trace. The biggest problem for the Han army was not that they could not defeat their opponents, but that they could not find their opponents and force them to fight a decisive battle with them.

Now, Tan Shihuai, taking advantage of the momentum of the great victory the year before, actually took the initiative to hand over the initiative of the war to the Han army, so the three of them were more than happy to do so.

Therefore, he readily accepted Tan Shihuai's request for a decisive battle, and the two sides agreed to have a decisive battle in Yanmen County, Bingzhou.

The decisive battle will take place in the middle of this month.

It is rare to find open terrain that can accommodate hundreds of thousands of people for a decisive battle.

The plain area twenty miles south of Pingcheng was extremely suitable and was recognized by both sides as the battlefield for the decisive battle.

Therefore, the unfortunate Pingcheng, which was occupied by the Xianbei army, and the few people in it also suffered a great disaster.

"Ugh……"

Inside the Xianbei king's tent, Tan Shihuai sighed softly again.

If Tan Shihuai was just an ordinary old man, his sigh would naturally not attract anyone's attention.

However, as a great Xianbei Khan who created history, his every move would attract special attention.

"Why is the Khan sighing?" Budugen, who was standing next to Tan Shihuai and had been watching him silently, asked hurriedly with concern.

"It's nothing, I just feel a little unwell..." Tan Shihuai waved his hand and said casually.

The war is imminent, and anything that is not meant to encourage and affirm can actually be equated with discouragement.

The only thing an ordinary pawn would lose is his own death in battle.

And if the Xianbei people knew that their Great Khan was worried, it would have a great impact on their fighting spirit.

Tan Shihuai had been a soldier all his life, how could he not know this truth?
"The war is imminent, Khan, please take care of yourself!" As a descendant of Tan Shihuai, Budugen not only has Tan Shihuai's blood flowing in his body, but he also spiritually regards Tan Shihuai as an idol and god, so he immediately expressed his concern.

"Haha, my grandson is so thoughtful." Tan Shihuai touched Budugen's head lovingly and smiled with satisfaction.

As the saying goes, grandparents are close to their grandchildren.

Although he was very strict with his sons, he was very fond of his grandson Budugen, otherwise he would not have given him command of the western one-third of the Xianbei.

"Now that a great war is imminent, the king's tent is filled with the most valiant and skilled warriors of our Xianbei people. Do you have any strategies to offer?"

Now that Tan Shihuai had withdrawn his thoughts, he quietly calmed down and began to prepare for the battle in a few days.

Since the public opinion of the entire Xianbei people is to have a decisive battle with the Han army, then as the founder and creator of the Great Xianbei, Tan Shihuai, who is sitting on the chariot that is about to go out of control, can only try his best to control the direction and ensure that the chariot can reach its final destination before it falls apart.

"The Khan is so powerful, and we Xianbei are at the peak of our power. When the day of the decisive battle comes, all the men will fight with all their might, just like we did on the grasslands two years ago. We will surely defeat the Han dogs and make them flee in disarray!"

As the grandson of Tan Shihuai and one of the most promising contenders for the future Khan of the Xianbei, Budugen naturally took the initiative to speak and started to praise Tan Shihuai, not missing any opportunity to show off in front of his grandfather.

"My grandson is right..." Tan Shihuai smiled, but he was a little disappointed with Budugen in his heart.

If it were really that simple, why didn't the Xianbei army of 300,000 fail to occupy Hebei for more than half a year, and instead suffered heavy losses and lost tens of thousands of people?

When everyone saw this, they thought that Tan Shihuai was optimistic about Budugen and quickly agreed.

"That's wrong!"

Suddenly, an inappropriate voice sounded, making everyone in the account who were busy agreeing with it look embarrassed.

Some people slammed the table and wanted to yell when they heard the words, but when they saw the person who spoke, they were immediately shocked and quickly sat down in shame, not daring to say a word.

It was just because the person who spoke was Ke Bineng, the leader of the right wing of the Xianbei.

Kobe has a tall and strong build and a majestic appearance.

This is different from Budugen, who did not have much real talent or knowledge, but became the leader of the left tribe of Xianbei by relying on blood relationship.

Kobe, who came from the lowest class of Xianbei people, relied entirely on his own talent and hard work to climb up step by step to his current position second only to the emperor.

He treated people fairly and distributed things justly, and was highly respected by the lower classes of the Xianbei people. To Budugen, he was the biggest rival and competitor for the position of Great Khan of the Xianbei people.

What is even more commendable is that although he is a Hu man, he is not just brave and strong. Instead, he is very much envious of Han culture and is a rare knowledgeable person among the Xianbei people.

Seeing him stand up and speak, and even oppose the words of another Xianbei leader.

Everyone didn't want to get involved in the conflict between the two people, so they all stopped talking and looked at him.

The Xianbei Great Chanyu's tent, which had been bustling just a moment ago, suddenly became deserted...

(End of this chapter)