I am not Yuan Shu

Chapter 371 Tan Shihuai Goes South
Tan Shihuai planned to conquer Shuofang County, Wuyuan County, and Yunzhong County.

This is the minimum goal to be achieved in this battle. If the battle goes more smoothly, taking Yanmen County is not out of the question.

Although Yuan Shu possessed formidable martial prowess, Tan Shihuai believed that his own armed forces were even stronger and more numerous.

Moreover, Yuan Shu certainly didn't expect that he would stay after going south; he must have thought that he would just withdraw after gaining benefits.

No, this time, once we're here, we're not leaving!

He wanted to change his strategy, occupy and manage Han lands, and thus rule Han lands!
Therefore, he decided to personally lead the main force to fight Yuan Shu in Yanmen County, and also arranged for three trusted confidants to lead three armies to attack Shuofang County, Yunzhong County and Wuyuan County.

The humiliation of being defeated in Yanmen County must be wiped away in the same place, and the enemies that we failed to defeat before must be defeated this time!
So they immediately began a full mobilization.

Similar to the Han Empire, the Xianbei people did not maintain a large standing army, or rather, they did not have any orthodox concept of a standing army. Soldiers were herdsmen, and herdsmen were soldiers. When fighting, they were soldiers, and when not fighting, they were herdsmen.

Therefore, their tribe can be described as a huge military armed group with no mobilization barriers, and migration is a normal and fast occurrence for them.

Compared to the Han Empire's series of actions involving settlement, household registration, ascension to the throne, and troop mobilization, the Xianbei people's actions were indeed more efficient and less costly.

The number of troops to lead depends on the specific needs. If the enemy is strong, more able-bodied men will be converted into soldiers; if the enemy is weak, fewer able-bodied men will be converted into soldiers.

The soldiers provided their own warhorses.

The soldiers provided their own weapons and equipment.

They even provided their own food rations.

Because every time they went out to fight, it was like the Great Khan was leading them to make money, and a lot of the supplies they captured belonged to them.

These supplies are both daily necessities and war preparations for the next expedition. Besides acquiring the most spoils, the Great Chanyu's greatest responsibility is to lead them to find suitable opponents and achieve victory and capture.

So once the decision to go to war was made, no matter where your tribe was located, for the Xianbei people it meant going to work and make money, and no one was unwilling.

They rode their horses, carrying weapons and rations, to the royal court at Tanhan Mountain to assemble.

For the Xianbei rulers, there was no cost to be paid.

The Han Empire was different. It had to prepare weapons, food supplies, plan routes, conscript laborers, and transport materials. The cost of war was far higher than that of nomadic peoples.

This is also one of the reasons why the Han Empire disliked waging war.

However, nomadic peoples may not necessarily enjoy large-scale wars.

Because in small-scale wars, they can have their soldiers bring their own rations and then sustain themselves by fighting to support the war effort. They can loot and run away with little expenditure.

However, if the number of people increases and the war lasts for a long time, it will be difficult to maintain the soldiers' own rations and the way of sustaining the war by fighting. The Great Chanyu and others will have to provide a certain amount of war rations to keep them going.

Previously, Tan Shihuai generally waged wars with fewer than 10,000 troops, maintaining a relatively easy existence by using a small amount of food to sustain the war effort. This was how he dealt with the Buyeo and Goguryeo kingdoms.

However, facing the Han Empire and Yuan Shu, he would have to mobilize 60,000 Xianbei and 20,000 servants, and the food supply for 70,000 people and the consumption of an even greater number of warhorses could not be provided by plundering Han lands to sustain the war.

Without prior preparation, the entire army would starve to death.

Therefore, Tan Shihuai also went all out, deciding that the royal court of Tanhanshan would provide 180,000 cattle and sheep, as well as 200,000 catties of dried meat and dairy products as reserve rations.

In addition, the Xianbei leaders of each tribe were required to provide varying quantities of fresh cattle and sheep, as well as dried meat and dairy products, as reserve rations, depending on the size of their tribes.

In contrast, Tan Shihuai publicly promised that after conquering Han territory, the leaders of various tribes would receive Han county towns and farms of varying sizes as fiefdoms, depending on their contributions, and would enjoy all the resources provided by the Han people in those areas.

The more you give, the more you earn!

"Although we will spend more, we will surely achieve a great victory! What we ultimately gain will be far, far more than what we spend!"

Tan Shihua's declaration is inspiring.

Finally, Tan Shihuai made a decision to launch an attack on Bingzhou and Yuanshu when the livestock were at their fattest in the autumn.

Such a large-scale operation on the grasslands naturally did not escape the eyes of Han merchants and the scouts dispatched by Yuan Shu. News of this large-scale operation kept reaching Yuan Shu's ears in late July, when he was still paying attention to news from Luoyang.

Upon learning of the large-scale mobilization on the grasslands, Yuan Shu was basically certain that Tan Shihuai would definitely march south to attack Bingzhou this autumn. Therefore, he was somewhat worried that something might happen in Luoyang, which would distract him.

Fortunately, Yuan Feng worked hard enough, and Cheng Li, Jia Xu, and others cooperated well enough to successfully quell the situation and stabilize public sentiment before Tan Shihuai marched south.

Therefore, Yuan Shu was able to unleash his full potential and properly test his skills against Tan Shihuai.

He wanted to see just how strong this guy who had humiliated two generations of Han emperors really was. In early August, Yuan Shu sent out orders to prepare for war throughout Bingzhou, especially the five northern commanderies, ordering the cities and farms in the five northern commanderies to immediately enter a state of war preparedness.

There's no need to worry about not having enough food on the farm. Each county is required to store enough food for two months to avoid any shortages.

The able-bodied men in the city were to be mobilized, weapons were to be distributed, and the local county garrison was to be responsible for temporary training, and the scorched-earth policy was to be implemented.

The farm's defense force also needs to be mobilized and put on a state of first-level combat readiness.

Furthermore, since the autumn harvest was about to begin, in order not to delay the harvest, Yuan Shu ordered the Tianxiong Army to dispatch thirty troops from various units to disperse into the farms of the five northern prefectures to assist in the defense work.

In addition, Yuan Shu ordered the Southern Xiongnu Chanyu Tu Te and General Zhang Quan to organize 10,000 Xiongnu cavalry under Zhang Quan's command as a mobile fighting force, to rush to the aid of Shuofang County and Wuyuan County if they were in danger.

Yuan Shu himself reorganized the Tianxiong Army's 30,000 cavalry and the remaining 14,000 infantry, and prepared for battle.

He convened a military staff meeting, instructing his staff to discuss and assess the scale and strategic objectives of the Xianbei people's southward incursion based on available intelligence.

After a brainstorming session, Xun You's team of advisors concluded that the Xianbei's southward invasion would be on a very large scale, possibly exceeding all records of the previous decade, and that the Xianbei would deploy infantry capable of siege warfare for the first time.

In short, they will be facing an opponent who is completely different from the past.

This opponent's tactics, strategies, and equipment may have been significantly improved.

It's an uphill battle.

Say so.

However, under Yuan Shu's leadership, no one thought they would lose this battle, no one thought the Han army couldn't win this battle, and there were no defeatist strategists in Yuan Shu's entire staff team. Everyone was a staunch believer in the Han army's inevitable victory.

Who told Yuan Shu to be the leader of this army?
So this battle may seem like a defensive counterattack, but to put it more directly, everyone was fighting it as a war of annihilation.

Everyone hoped to lure the Xianbei people into the defensive line, then close the gates and annihilate them. The more Xianbei they came, the better; the more they came, the more they were wiped out, and the greater the blow to the tribal alliance.

If a tribal alliance of hundreds of thousands of people loses 50,000 or 60,000 able-bodied men in a single battle, it's practically time for a funeral.

Zhong Yao, who greatly trusted and admired Yuan Shu, even made the audacious statement that he would "secure decades of peace in the northern frontier with a single battle."

Yuan Shu agreed.

More than three years have passed since their first encounter. Tan Shihuai was prepared, and Yuan Shu was not standing still either. He had made all the necessary preparations. Tan Shihuai's mistake was that he should not have given Yuan Shu so much time to reorganize Bingzhou.

Now that he has turned Bingzhou into an impregnable fortress, it would be quite difficult for Tan Shihuai, with his size and resources, to win a battle against him.

Moreover, what Tan Shihuai failed to realize was that there was a generational gap in productivity and technological level between the two sides.

Therefore, Yuan Shu looked forward to war.

And Tan Shihuai did not disappoint Yuan Shu's expectations.

On August 29th of the first year of Yande (176 AD), Tanshihuai, the leader of the Xianbei tribal alliance, formally swore an oath at the royal court of Tanhanshan before setting off on his expedition.

This time, he mobilized a total of 60,000 Xianbei cavalry, plus 20,000 Buyeo and Goguryeo auxiliary troops, carrying a large number of captured and self-made siege weapons, and marched south in a large-scale campaign, with a total force of more than 80,000 people, which can be regarded as an ultra-large-scale expedition.

In a sense, this can also be considered a battle for the fate of the nation.

Tan Shihuai divided his forces into four groups.

One group, led by Yu Jian, one of the leaders of the Western Xianbei, consisted of about 8,000 cavalrymen and 2,000 auxiliary troops, and invaded Shuofang County.

One force was led by Duoluo, one of the chieftains of the central Xianbei, with about 7,000 cavalrymen and 2,000 auxiliary troops, and their main attack was on Wuyuan County.

One group, led by Tan Shihuai's son and Commander Lian, numbered around ten thousand, with six thousand retainers following them, and was responsible for Yunzhong County.

The remaining 35,000 cavalry and 10,000 infantry were personally led by Tan Shihuai and launched a fierce attack on Yanmen County.

On September 6, Yu Jian led 8,000 Xianbei cavalry to invade Woye County in Shuofang Commandery. Lian Da, the governor of Shuofang Commandery, had received the news long ago and had made ample preparations.

He deployed 500 county soldiers in Woye County, and together with the existing able-bodied men in Woye County, the defensive force reached more than 1,000 people, which was enough to defend the city.

Furthermore, since Woye County is located in the Hetao Plain, it was a key area for Yuan Shu to build farms. There were three farms around Woye County, each with its own armed forces for defense. Therefore, all things considered, it was enough to give the Xianbei people a hard time.

(End of this chapter)