Chapter 178 Drunk Mantra
That day, Fengling Ferry.

Boats were coming and going, and Black Bear led the cavalry across the river.

There were only ten cavalry centuries crossing the river this time, which were formed by a mixed group supplemented by the Eagle Strike Knights.

Another two thousand cavalrymen have arrived in Weibei and will cross the river from Pubanjin.

I haven't taken a boat ride for a long time. There has been heavy rainfall in the upper reaches of the Yellow River, so the river is very turbulent and the boat is bumpy.

The black bear was already used to the bumps and sat steadily in the boat.

He looked at the knights who were leading their horses across the river. Many brave warriors who dared to gallop on their horses were now frightened by the turbulent river.

Going ashore, a tall and sturdy chariot was parked near the dock.

Cui Yan was waiting on the shore. He was now wearing a crown and a black official uniform. His thick beard made him look very resolute.

Black Bear boarded the carriage and looked at the knights who came ashore through his mask. He then asked Cui Yan, "Mr. Ji Gui, what do you think is the difference between elite cavalry and ordinary knights?"

Cui Yan was stunned. He did not expect such an unexpected question, so he asked back: "What do you think, General?"

"It's not about whether the equipment is good or not, nor is it about whether the man and the horse are well coordinated."

Black Bear pointed his right index finger at his heart and said, "It's the mentality. Elite cavalrymen are not afraid of life or death. When fighting in battle, they will show as much ability as they can."

No matter how well-trained an ordinary soldier is or how good the armor he uses, if he faces battle, he will be overwhelmed by fear, his legs will tremble and his movements will become slow, and he will not be able to display even one-third of his full abilities. If you don't die, who will?
This is just like when you are fighting a favorable battle, everyone is an elite.

The mental state is different. There is no psychological burden when fighting, and you can give full play to your strength and skills!
Cui Yan frowned after hearing this and said, "General, what you said makes sense."

He had already noticed that something was wrong with Black Bear's condition. Although he was wearing a mask, he always felt that the current plan would be ruined by Black Bear.

But Black Bear only has 3,000 cavalrymen who enter Hedong through two ferry crossings. What can they do?
These are new cavalrymen from Guanzhong, not Qingzhou soldiers or Gan Ning’s troops. What can they do?
The more than 4,000 people of Yuan Tan in Wenxi City alone are not something a black bear can handle.

Black Bear stopped talking and watched the dock. Soon, Sun Qian and Wang Xiu arrived at the dock by boat respectively.

The Han Dynasty had a strong tradition of disintegrating and controlling the Southern Xiongnu mercenaries.

As I accumulated more experience in dealing with the leaders of the various Hu tribes, I became familiar with their habits.

Kill or capture the enemy leader and things will always be easy to handle.

If you kill the enemy leader, the enemy's tribe will quickly elect the original leader's brothers, nephews, or confidants, and the new leader will be more cooperative than the original leader.

As for revenge for the former leader, is that a joke?
The same applies to arrests. The organizational methods and cohesion of the various Hu people are different. It is easier to control the enemy's followers by capturing their leaders.

Anyway, after so many years of the Han Dynasty, the Hu people would be more obedient after accumulating a lot of experience of being tormented by Han army generals and envoys.

Especially the Southern Xiongnu, they have even richer experience.

Therefore, when the border counties dealt with the problems of the various Hu people, there were very few cases of killing surrendered tribesmen or deceiving and killing them.

There may be underlying rules that everyone is embarrassed to break.

If this bottom line is broken, things will be difficult to deal with in the future.

Anyone who attempts to break it, or has already done so, will be severely punished.

The last person who broke this rule was called Duan Ying.

Duan Xing killed more than 60,000 Qiang people in the battle line, and Huangfu Song killed at least 600,000 Taiping Dao followers.

What Black Bear wanted to do was so crazy that even he, who was always outspoken, had to control his mouth and avoid leaking information.

For Cui Yan or the vast majority of scholars, killing a few barbarians was as insignificant as killing a few slaves, cattle and horses.

If you can kill thousands or tens of thousands of barbarians, the meaning will be completely different.

Killing tens of thousands of rebels in the mainland was just an ordinary event that was mentioned by celebrities from all over the country at banquets.

But if we kill tens of thousands of barbarians, these people will never forget it.

In particular, if the root of the problem is eliminated, it will cause great shock to scholars everywhere.

It’s not the iron-blooded Song Dynasty yet, but some strange examples have already appeared.

They said they were eager to punish the various barbarians, but when it came to actually dealing with them, they were often lenient.

On the contrary, the refugees who rebelled in the mainland were often killed without distinction, regardless of age or gender.

Black Bear was thinking about this question on the chariot. He was wearing a mask and didn't speak, which made Cui Yan and others feel quite uncomfortable.

The carriages and horses continued northward and stayed overnight in Puban.

Another two thousand cavalrymen had already crossed the river, and Black Bear spent the night outside the city with his army.

He came to form an alliance with Yuan Tan only to cooperate with Qian Zhao to disintegrate and reorganize the Xiongnu vassal army.

At least now Cui Yan, Qian Zhao, Yuan Tan, Wang Xiu and Sun Qian all think so.

At night, Black Bear paced alone in the camp, thinking about the different attitudes of the imperial court towards the barbarians and the people in the interior over the past hundred years.

After thinking for a moment, I finally figured it out.

The barbarians are in the border counties. They cannot defeat you, so they are temporarily dependent on you. If you want to kill them all, it will be too difficult.

Precisely because it is so difficult and costly to wipe them out, it seems a bit conniving.

The people in the mainland are different. They are like birds in a cage, with nowhere to run. When you are hungry, instead of just shut up and wait to starve to death, you actually dare to make a noise and resist?
This is simply unreasonable!

There are too many people in the mainland, and we must not tolerate them, so if we can kill them, we will kill them severely!

Otherwise, it would set a bad example, and if others followed suit, how would the court survive?
In the final analysis, the difference between governing the Hu people and governing the common people lies here: the cost of killing is different!
If more than 100,000 barbarians in the border counties asked for surrender, the imperial court could kill them all with just one imperial decree. Do you think the decree would be issued?
I thought it was a disagreement and distortion of Confucian ideas, but after all the calculations, it was just a simple economic account.

There is no humanity at all, everything is limited by the cost of action.

But after more than a hundred years of differential treatment, economic accounts have become political traditions.

It can also be understood that internal heretics are far more hateful than external pagans.

Heretics will be obsessed with killing your entire family and dividing up your property; external pagans are more kind-hearted and at least there is room for negotiation or surrender.

"It's an eternal truth." "It's not new at all."

The night sky was dark blue, and the black bear couldn't help but let out a long sigh.

Looking up at the starry sky, Black Bear felt that his image was like a fish with wide eyes.

He always felt that waves of murderous intent were converging towards him from the past and the future, making it difficult for him to control himself.

The rhythms of breathing and heartbeat mixed together. Black Bear took a deep breath, and the armor and helmet on his body disappeared all at once, turning into cards that he took away.

The night wind blew on his face and ears, as if countless dead souls were whispering.

He let out another long breath and felt a little cold.

With a thought, the armor and helmet cards appeared on his body again, and he finally felt warm.

After being exposed to the cold wind for a while, Black Bear's thoughts returned to normal and he no longer thought about those meaningless things.

Now you get to hold the knife yourself and decide how many people to kill.

Do the troops of Yuan Tan and Cui Yan dare to fight against me?
And there is Qian Zhao. Isn't this guy just trying to create a catfish effect, forcibly recruit the Southern Xiongnu mercenaries, and cause the Xiongnu and Wuhuan vassal armies to fight each other?

Qian Zhao did not care about the long-term future of the Xiongnu tribe. What he cared about was whether he could have an obedient Xiongnu vassal army that could motivate the Wuhuan vassal army.

Therefore, the probability of Qian Zhao turning against you is not high after you take action yourself.

Hebei cannot afford to lose such a high-quality ally as himself. In terms of the quality of allies, he is much better than Liu Biao and his ilk.

If Qian Zhao doesn't turn against us, the 5,000 Wuhuan vassal troops will be the hidden danger.

Thinking about it, the black bear returned to the tent, lay down on a bear skin, closed his eyes and fell asleep.

Inside Puban City, Cui Yan and three other people were toasting each other and drinking happily.

People in troubled times suffer from the pain of separation between life and death, and are emotionally depressed, so they tend to revel in order to release stress.

The three of them were feasting and drinking. Cui Yan was burping and had no dignity like an elder. He asked curiously, "Gongyou, is that Taishi Wengong a human or a ghost?"

"Not a living person."

Sun Qian's cheeks flushed, his elbows resting on the table, his hands supporting his chin like green leaves against a flower: "Taishi Wengong and his mount are extremely powerful and tireless, without a word or a cry, and neither drink nor eat."

"Zhao Zilong of Changshan has fought with Taishi Wengong several times, but he could not detect any changes in this man's aura."

"Also, after the Battle of Bowangpo, many people asked to breed with Taishi Wengong's mount, offering a large sum of money, but there was no response."

Sun Qian said as he looked at Wang Xiu drunkenly: "If Shuzhi works under Black Tiger Fang in the future, maybe he can find out the truth."

Even though Wang Xiu was drunk as a puddle of mud and humming in the blink of an eye, he was very curious at the moment and did not agree to Sun Qian's request.

Sun Qian thought for a moment and said, "Xu Si from Xiangyang was once a staff member of Marquis Lü Wen. Once when I was having a banquet with him, he said that the back view of Grand Historian Wengong was similar to that of Marquis Lü Wen."

Cui Yan was drinking from his cup when he heard this and choked. He coughed a few times before saying, "How could it be Lü Wenhou?"

Sun Qian raised his chin and looked at him seriously: "I am not familiar with Lü Wenhou, so I told this to the lord. The lord then asked Guan Junhou and the three generals, and they all said that Taishi Wengong's walking posture is quite similar to Lü Wenhou."

Pursing his lips, Sun Qian felt a little thirsty, so he signaled to Cui Yan.

Cui Yan wanted to continue listening, so he offered Sun Qian some wine and offered it with both hands: "Gongyou, please."

Sun Qian didn't stretch out his hand. He opened his mouth, bit the golden wine glass, tilted his head upward, slurped the wine in the glass, and then loosened his teeth and the golden wine glass fell and bounced on the table.

After taking two sips, Sun Qian patted his sweaty neck and said, "When Taishi Wengong takes off his visor, we will know his identity. But seeing that he wears the visor all day, it means that his appearance has a great impact on him and he cannot meet people."

"Gongyou is right."

Cui Yan turned around and helped Wang Xiu up, raising his hand to slap him, but Wang Xiu immediately opened his eyes: "Yeah, yeah, Gongyou is right."

Wang Xiu was supported and sat with his back against the beam, not daring to lie down again. Then he heard Cui Yan say, "Whether it is Lü Wenhou or not, if Taishi Wengong is really not alive, then this matter is very interesting. This news is as heavy as Mount Tai."

Wang Xiu nodded reluctantly: "Brother Ji Gui, do you mean that I should go to Guanzhong to serve?"

"Millions of family wealth, which you cannot bring with you when you are born and cannot take with you when you die, is like dust compared to this matter."

Cui Yan sat cross-legged in front of Wang Xiu, trying to suppress his drunkenness and said seriously, "Shuzhi, think about it carefully. If you were in Guanzhong, even if Black Tiger Fang didn't have any magical powers, with his abilities, Guanzhong would be our retreat."

Seeing that Cui Yan was still trying to persuade him, Sun Qian crawled over, rolled over, rested his head on Cui Yan's thigh and said, "Brother Ji Gui doesn't know Shu Zhi's true nature. He won't agree to your persuasion even if you do."

Sure enough, Wang Xiu's smile seemed a little unnatural.

Cui Yan then heard Sun Qian continue to say: "I have a plan that can drive back Cao's troops from Liyang."

"Gongyou, are you talking about Taishi Wengong?"

"Yes, although this is our guess, it is also a coincidence."

Sun Qian closed his eyes, feeling sleepy. "When Liyang was in danger, he spread rumors that Black Tiger Teeth was the son of Marquis Lü Wen. Marquis Lü Wen was still alive, and was following his son under the pseudonym Tai Shi Jin. This way, Black Tiger Teeth's mysteries became clear, and Cao Cao had no choice but to believe it."

Cui Yan nodded after hearing this, and immediately pushed Sun Qian's heavy head away, got up to find a brush, ground the ink, and wrote down this guess and trick so as not to forget it after he sobered up.

Sun Qian slammed his head on the felt carpet, pouted his lips in dissatisfaction, and wanted to curse, but his consciousness was quickly eroded by drunkenness and he fell into a deep sleep.

Cui Yan picked up the pen and wrote. Looking at the two words "Black Bear", a flash of enlightenment came into his mind.

This is obviously a pseudonym, but it is not a random pseudonym.

Holding the brush, he wrote "hiding in winter and reviving in spring" under the word "black bear".

What Lu Bu's son? Cui Yan concluded that the rumor in Xu Du was absolutely true.

Cao Cao must have dug too many graves and dug out an ancient immortal who had faked his death, just like Xiong Dongri who had faked his death and was sleeping forever.

After burping, Cui Yan suddenly felt enlightened and cheerful. He rolled up the silk book in front of him, folded it and put it in his arms, then turned over and lay on the ground to sleep.

Wang Xiu looked at Cui Yan's movements with a sidelong glance, then slid to the ground along the beam, bent over and lay on his side on the felt blanket and fell asleep peacefully.

(End of this chapter)