Big man: I am the Champion Marquis!

Chapter 44: Going out of the border
The army had been on the march for nearly two months, but it was about to reach Shuofang County and could already see the Qin and Han Great Wall in Yinshan Mountain.

Zhao Anguo followed Huo Xian with his horse Youjiang, "My Lord, I am about to leave the city!"

There is nothing wrong with this statement. Leaving the Great Wall of Qin and Han Dynasty means going out of the frontier or the pass. However, some people think that Guanzhong is the real "pass".

The current Shuofang County is also located in the western part of Inner Mongolia in the future. Some key passes are at the entrances of valleys. It can be said to be the gateway to the northwest, controlling the traffic bottleneck through Yangshan.

"Uncle Zhao is leading the army ahead, but I am still a little worried." Huo Xian said with some concern, "He is leading the army to Junji to provide support, which is a bit risky."

Junji is the area south of the upper reaches of the Outer Mongolian Tula River and the Orkhun River.

In history, it was here that Li Ling's entire army was destroyed, and he was defeated and captured.

It was impossible for Zhao Anguo to say that he had no worries, but he still said, "My Lord, it's a good thing that Aung can be the vanguard! If he can really help the Left Grand Commandant, Aung won't be afraid of being stripped of his title again."

Cao Zong joked, "An Guo, how can military merit be added up? If your uncle has made great achievements, most of his fiefdom will be increased. If you commit a crime and are stripped of your title in the future, your current military merit will not be taken into consideration."

"There are two marquises in our battalion!" Zhao Anguo muttered, "Marquis Pingyang is so glorious, Marquis Guanjun is so majestic, but I am just the son of a marquis!"

Cao Zong was the emperor's grandson and a descendant of Cao Shen. Needless to say, Huo Xian was the son of the Grand Marshal and General of the Cavalry.

In fact, Zhao Po Nu was not bad, after all, he was the son of the Marquis of Xuye. In the past, many people only thought of Zhao Po Nu as Huo Qubing's Sima, who was from the Marquis of Piao. But now, everyone thinks of the seven hundred men who conquered Loulan.

"We will take a few days off this time and provide enough horse feed." Huo Xian said, "Now my uncle has set out from the front, and since General Qi is already building the Surrender City, we must also prepare for battle."

In order to support the Left Grand Commandant of the Xiongnu, it was necessary to build the Surrender City, which was the place to accommodate the Left Grand Commandant's troops.

However, Shoujiang City was still too far away from the Xiongnu, so Zhao Po Nu had already led 15,000 cavalry out of Shuofang County to provide support.

Everyone also understood that on the one hand, it was to provide support, and on the other hand, it was to prevent the left commander's troops from mutinying. Without a sufficient number of troops, it would be difficult to hold the fort.

When Huo Qubing accepted the surrender of King Hunxie, he led his troops into the mutinous Xiongnu army and killed 8,000 Xiongnu people who were unwilling to surrender and plotted to escape.

Without benefits or deterrence, it would be difficult to get people to surrender.

As they were talking, a soldier came over and said, "The general has ordered Lieutenant Yao to lead his troops to enter Jilu Pass first."

Jilushai is the pass to the north of the Great Wall of Han Dynasty in the north and Tushen Lake in the east. It is the real key pass.

Huo Xian immediately clasped his fists and said, "I obey your command!"

"Sima!" Huo Xian said loudly, "Order your men to drive the horses forward, and hand over the remaining horses and weapons to the servants!"

Huo Xian's 800-plus men could be said to be very "wealthy", with two horses per person and extra, and they were all first-rate horses. The other cavalrymen looked at them with envy, but there was nothing they could do, because this was the army of the Marquis of Guanjun!
Chen Ju immediately became excited and urged his horse forward, "Sir, we have been here before with the general."

Zhao Hexi also stepped forward and said proudly, "Although this Jilushai is just a small square city, fortifications have been built at all four corners of the city. There are no missing urns, and the walls are as strong as a wall. More than a thousand soldiers stationed here can resist ten thousand cavalry."

Huo Xian looked at Liu Mo who was about to speak and said disdainfully, "Uncle Zhao, Uncle Liu, please forgive me, do I still have any shame?"

Zhao Hexi didn't understand, "Sir, how have we embarrassed you? Please tell me clearly!"

Zhao Po Nu and Cao Zong both lowered their heads and laughed secretly, while Huo Shan's three generals looked confused, afraid that they had done something wrong and would lose face for Huo Shan.

What else could it be? A marching army naturally has flags.

Zhao Hexi was short of an arm so it was difficult for him to raise the flag, so he tied a large flag with the words "Grand Marshal and General of Cavalry" on his back.

Liu Mo also lost an arm, and the flag he was carrying read "Marquis of Champion".

Chen Ju was not idle either. When he was riding his horse at a gallop, there was a flag with the word "Huo" tied to his back.

As if that was not enough, they felt it was a pity that their elder brothers could not come, so they let Feng Xu's son Feng Dan carry the banner of "Piao Yao Xiaowei".

They had no shame at all, and they had to fly flags and banners every day when they went to and from the army. "I am only a lieutenant now, not a general yet!" Huo Xian was very speechless and said, "Look at the army, except for the general flag and the command flag, who else is as ostentatious as me? Even the generals are not so ostentatious!"

Chen Ju was unhappy and said, "The general didn't say that either!"

The title of "Grand Marshal and General of Cavalry" was a bit beyond the standard, but no one in the army thought it was wrong except Huo Xian. Huo Xian went to the battle, and this banner could be raised.

"Forget it, you guys are in the front!" Huo Xian was defeated, if he couldn't win, he would join, "You guys enter the city first!"

Chen Ju immediately became very excited, turned around and shouted, "My men, I, the descendants of the Marquis of Guanjun, have always been at the forefront of the enemy and the battle. Follow me into the city!"

A dozen of Huo Xian's guards immediately put on bright armor and followed Chen Ju to rush towards Jilushai ahead.

Following closely behind were Huo Xian's eight hundred cavalrymen.

This group of people was in high spirits. They were originally at the rear of the team guarding the baggage, but now they broke away from the main force and moved forward quickly.

"He is the Marquis of Guanjun after all!" Looking at the smoke and dust in the distance, Gongsun He said with emotion, "It was the same with Qubing back then. When he leads his troops past, people will definitely look at him sideways."

"Keep an eye on Xian'er," Wei Qing warned, "Don't let him get away!"

Gongsun He's expression also became solemn, fearing that Huo Xian would follow the example of Huo Qubing, who had just gone into battle for the first time, and led 800 light and brave cavalry to abandon the main army and march hundreds of miles away, waiting for an opportunity to attack the Huns.

Huo Xian led the cavalry into Jilong Mountain, climbed up the city wall along the stone steps, and looked around. To the north were towering mountains, majestic and spectacular.

The front of the mountain is open and vast, with flat plains sloping down. To the east of the stone city, the valley mouth is wide and unobstructed, and passing vehicles and pedestrians can be seen at a glance, making it very easy to guard.

"Cao Zong, lead your men to guard the east of the city." Huo Xian immediately ordered after entering the city, "Zhao Anguo, guard the city gate until the army enters the city!"

Although they were still on the march and were in the Han territory, there should be no enemies around. However, Huo Xian still followed the procedures and executed some rituals and rules for the army to enter the city.

The stone city is more than 20 meters high, and is indeed easy to defend but difficult to attack.

Pointing at the canyon, Chen Ju said, "If we go north from here, we will enter the southern desert, and then we will see the Huns."

Zhao Hexi laughed and said, "How can there be Xiongnu people in the south of the desert? They say that the Xiongnu suffered a snowstorm last year, and countless cattle and sheep froze to death. That's why the chaos happened!"

The left commander of the Xiongnu wanted to surrender not only because Wu Shilu was easy to kill, but also because a large number of the Xiongnu’s cattle and sheep were frozen to death by a snowstorm.

Liu Mo also said, "All I know is to follow you to fight. If I see the Huns, I will kill them!"

Huo Xian smiled and said, "This time there are more infantry and fewer cavalry. I guess they will be stationed in Shoujiang City. The infantry is difficult to chase and escape, so we have to rely on the cavalry."

The number of cavalry was small, and this time, including the local troops, there were only 30,000 cavalry. However, Zhao Po Nu took away 15,000 cavalry, and the cavalry in Wei Qing's hands was now very scarce.

Huo Xian's eight hundred cavalrymen can only be said to be relatively small in number, and it is difficult to decide a head-on confrontation.

Chen Ju said, "Sir, we don't understand what you are saying. When the time comes, you just give the orders and we will just fight."

Zhao Hexi also said, "The general never said this to us before, because he knew that we were crude and didn't know military strategy. You just need to give the order, and we will fight. If we are incompetent, the general can just execute us according to military law!"

Huo Xian glared at Zhao Hexi fiercely, then said, "Forget it, there's no point in talking to you about this. Go prepare some meat and grill it."

They were about to enter the south of the desert and the grassland, where they might encounter the Huns at any time, or they might have to attack, come to the rescue, etc.

It was naturally difficult for Huo Xian to predict in which direction the war would develop.

Perhaps even Wei Qing could not be completely able to "predict things like a god" and it was impossible for him to truly know every step of the war.

But it’s better to be more prepared and think about various possibilities!
(End of this chapter)