Chapter 185: Swift Attack
Temporary camp in the east of Zishi County.

There were no fences, no barriers, and no trenches.

The latest batch of captured Huns were being screened and from time to time they were taken to a low-lying area outside the camp for mass execution.

After the rescued women in the camp cried loudly, most of them calmed down and helped to organize various supplies with their children.

Black Bear rode back to the camp, and was greeted by three military officers. Black Bear asked, "What's going on in the Xiongnu Left Division King's Court?"

He had just gone out to assist the outer troops in clearing out the Xiongnu tribes to the east of Zishi, and only returned after conquering three tribes in succession.

Only by staying in the main camp can the morale of the main camp be guaranteed.

Now the Huns were stunned by his punch, their Chanyu was killed, and the royal court fled; and to the west of Zishi City was the royal court of the left wing of the Huns, and the Left Wise King Liu Bao was herding horses in the southeast of Luliang Mountain.

The strength of the Left Royal Court was not strong, with only more than 2,000 tribes, but the small Xiongnu tribes in the southeast of Luliang Mountain and west of Jiuze all belonged to the Left Royal Court.

The right royal court was located in the area east of Jiuze and west of Taihang Mountain, combining farming and animal husbandry.

Black Bear really wanted to lure out the main forces of the Xiongnu tribes in Xihe, that is, Luliang Mountains, for a decisive battle.

But he chased the Chanyu royal court all the way from Pingyang, and the left royal court had no time to mobilize.

The surrounding small tribes of only a few dozen villages could not withstand the attack of six or seven hundred cavalrymen, and the tribes of only two or three hundred villages would be subjected to targeted attacks by Lu Bu.

For example, early this morning, Black Bear went out and attacked three medium-sized tribes in the northeast.

Therefore, the small group below Wang Ting of the left wing has begun to flee towards Luliang Mountain, and the scale of this fleeing is increasing day by day.

He was now very concerned about Liu Bao's movements, and was afraid of scaring Liu Bao, so he only attacked the Huns in the northeast direction for the past three days, letting Liu Bao go, and only doing reconnaissance.

The Huns would run away when they couldn't win or when the situation was not right. This was an inherent survival tradition.

Black Bear was very worried that after defeating Liu Bao, the Xiongnu tribes in the Luliang Mountains would migrate collectively.

As the weather got colder, the cost of the Huns' migration increased day by day.

But compared with the survival of the ethnic group, these costs are bearable.

In order to continue their ethnic group, it is very likely that the various Xiongnu tribes collectively joined the central and western Xianbei.

There are only so many production resources. If both sides could share resources and survive together, they wouldn't have been fighting for nearly a hundred years.
The climate is bad now, and the Xianbei themselves are short of resources. Where can they get extra resources to support the Xiongnu?
In response to Black Bear's question, the military officer in charge of the investigation replied, "The left wing of the royal court is the same as yesterday, and is still recruiting nearby tribes. Now there are about 4,000 infantry and cavalry."

As the military officer spoke, he handed over a sheepskin.

This kind of sheepskin is shiny and glossy. It has absorbed enough oil and is coated with wax, so the surface is very smooth and does not absorb water.

The words written on the sheepskin can be wiped off, so it can be regarded as a writing medium that can be reused.

Black Bear took the sheepskin and read it. It recorded the twelve groups of young and strong men from the tribes who had gathered in the left royal court in the past two days. The fewest were fifty or sixty riders, and the most were over a hundred riders.

Another officer spoke up, "General, a small group of people near the royal court have already driven away the beasts and dismantled their tents, and are moving towards Liangshan. If one group does this, other groups will follow suit. The soldiers gathered by the royal court will certainly have no intention of fighting, so why would the royal court stay there to cover the retreat of the other groups?"

"You have a point. It has always been said that only the miscellaneous troops provided cover for the royal court. It is impossible for Liu Bao to sacrifice his own troops to cover the retreat of the lower troops."

Black Bear handed the sheepskin back and said, "We can't fight this way anymore. Where is Qian Zhao now?"

The officer took the sheepskin, thought for a moment and said, "According to the route we have traveled, Qian Zhao should still be in Queshu Valley south of Jiexiu at noon today."

Everyone went north along the Fenshui River Valley, and Queshu Valley was the only way.

Once Qian Zhao left Queshu Valley and entered the vast Taiyuan Basin, it became difficult to determine the direction of travel.

"Organize the women and children, and arrange 500 armed volunteers to set out early tomorrow morning."

During the pursuit, the tents captured along the way could not be carried away, but for the Huns, these tents were their mobile homes.

Tents are generally heavy because they are made of leather and have to withstand wind, snow and severe cold.

The tents seized along the way were stored near the road and were re-erected to become fixed supply and camping sites, forming a primitive supply line along the Fen River.

Two days ago, the transport teams consisting of women, children and armed slaves that had been arranged earlier moved south along these supply lines. They did not need to carry tents, but only needed to bring children to drive away the herds of animals and stay in such temporary stations at night.

These women who were abducted by the Huns have become accustomed to migrating and nomadic over the years. As long as they do not encounter attacks from strong forces, such a transport team can safely arrive in Anyi, and then Cui Yan will be responsible for reorganizing them into a larger transport team, and finally head towards Fenglingdu.

Currently, the latest wave of transport teams has just arrived in Anyi, and it is difficult to estimate the subsequent development direction.

But one thing is clear, the Xiongnu tribes south of Pingyang have been eliminated, and the only ones who can attack the transport team are powerful tribes and bandits.

At the same time, the offensive is going smoothly and the powerful forces in Hedong have no time to react; before their main forces fail, stagnate and are dragged down, the probability of these people jumping out and turning against them is not high.

Even so, we cannot be careless.

After processing all the information, Black Bear immediately led Lu Bu to the south and galloped about sixty miles until they arrived at Queshu Valley.

Near the exit of Queshu Valley is a temporary camp guarded by more than a hundred armed servants.

They were unable to resist the attacks and sabotage of the Xiongnu cavalry; the purpose of their existence was to warn the powerful and bandits in Taiyuan.

When the black bear arrived, the hundred or so armed servants were gathering for training.

Ten Guanzhong cavalrymen were also assigned here, half of them were resting and the other half were responsible for training.

We don't expect to improve any battle formations or coordination, but just enhance the obedience efficiency of the armed servants through training.

Even if you are attacked and need to flee, you must try your best to gather these servants together and escape together.

Keep the manpower; as for the other things, you can take them back at any time.

There were more than a thousand men from Qian Zhao's army and more than three thousand armed servants brought from Pingyang in this temporary camp. After a tiring march, these people were sitting around the fire roasting beef and enjoying the meal very much.

The morale of these more than 4,000 people also rose. The thing that was least lacking in the temporary camp was sick and dead cattle and sheep.

Apart from the cattle, sheep and horses that died of illness, the other cattle and sheep that died of illness were generally bulls and rams.

Keeping more cows and sheep in Guanzhong, as well as women with children, can directly increase the vitality of Guanzhong.

As the transport team continued to migrate southward, casualties were inevitable in the process of driving away the beasts. The armed servants, women and children in the transport team could eat as much as they wanted, and the garrisons in the temporary camp also had this benefit.

Naturally, Qian Zhao and his thousand men also enjoyed this treatment.

Qian Zhao was drawing on the ground with a burnt wooden stick, calculating the rapidly expanding Guanzhong troops, his brows furrowed.

He really didn't expect that fighting could be done like Black Bear.

He also knew that the servants and slaves within the various Hu tribes were definitely unstable factors within the tribes. Even if they were not loyal to the tribes, at least they would not be of the same mind as the various Hu tribes.

But no one expected that Black Bear could incite these lower-class people so quickly. Outside Wenxi City, Black Bear gave out three thousand gold cakes at once.

Not to mention the poor and pitiful Hun servants and slaves, this huge sum of 3,000 gold could easily destroy most armies of the same size in the world.

As a result, after less than half a month, the number of the 3,000 Guanzhong cavalry increased.

There is no need for the powerful people in Hedong and Taiyuan to send troops, as long as these people don't cause trouble.

The less these powerful people sent out troops, the more brilliant the results of the Guanzhong troops became.

Both dazzling and scary.

The Huns could still dismantle their tents, turn around and cross the Luliang Mountains to fight with the Xianbei people for survival resources, but the powerful people in Hedong and Taiyuan were wealthy and powerful, so who could escape?

Therefore, any powerful person who dares to cause trouble now will inevitably pay a terrible price.

These powerful people are also aware of this.

When Qian Zhao was calculating Black Bear's current strength, a personal soldier came quickly to report: "Sir, General Zhenbei is here."

After throwing away the stick, Qian Zhao stood up and wiped the traces on the ground with his foot.

When he stood up, he saw that the soldiers and armed servants who were grilling meat at the fires on the shore had all stood up.

Black Bear rode his horse slowly, wearing a mask on his face. He raised his hand to greet these people, motioning them to sit down and continue eating.

After calming down the troops, Black Bear jumped off his horse near Qianzhao and said, "Sir, the Left Wise King Liu Bao wants to lead his people to escape."

Qian Zhao was stunned: "Will he give up the royal nobles and the golden statue?"

"It's beyond my control. Northeast of the Zi clan and west of Jiuze, I have wiped out seventeen small tribes in the past three days and seized about 80,000 heads of livestock. I have rescued no less than 20,000 women, children and men, including more than 2,200 men who were equipped with armor and served as soldiers."

Black Bear sat down, took off his helmet and handed it to Lu Bu, then took off his visor, reached out and grabbed a skewer of barbecue and took a bite.

The meat pieces were about the size of eggs, slightly charred after being grilled, and without any salt.

While chewing the meat, the black bear took the bamboo tube handed to him by Qian Zhao, poured out some salt from it, and pinched a pinch to put it in his mouth to chew.

Qian Zhao frowned: "There are about 7,000 tribes in the left wing of the royal court. Does that mean that the general has already destroyed half of them?"

"About 4,000 strongholds were conquered, and it's hard to count the number of heads killed."

Black Bear took out his dagger, cut the meat, pinched a small piece of meat, dipped it in salt powder and ate it, chewed it slowly and said: "The men and women who were abducted were very resentful. My original intention was to kill the older ones and let the younger ones go according to the tradition of the Xiongnu and Xianbei. But many women suffered a lot and took their anger out on me, so fewer people survived than expected."

Qian Zhao nodded. He estimated the number of tribes destroyed by the black bear based on the existing population.

But I didn't expect that some women would be so emotional that they would give up raising their original children.

After so many years of fighting, those who are soft-hearted cannot survive until now.

He didn't know what to say in detail. Even if it was Cao Cao, Yuan Shao, Lu Bu and the like, their entire families would be killed if they were defeated. There was no reason for him to have any extra emotional fluctuations towards the Huns.

Qian Zhao was originally from a border county, and had seen, heard, and experienced a lot in this regard, so he was not at all surprised.

After thinking carefully for a moment, he asked, "General, are you going to attack the right royal court again?"

"Yes, I will hunt down Liu Bao after I return. I hope to change the previous battle plan and have the envoy lead the troops to surround the Zi family and lure the Xihe Xiongnu to rescue them. After I defeat Liu Bao and capture his people, I will attack the right-wing royal court."

"If the Xiongnu in Xihe refuse to come to our rescue, wait for me to return, and you and I will join forces to defeat the Zi clan. I will lead my troops to attack Xihe, and you can govern Taiyuan. I will go around Yulin to Shangjun, meet up with military advisor Liu Ye, and retreat back to Guanzhong."

"Then I will not care about Taiyuan and Hedong. When the decisive battle of Liyang comes, I will send troops from Shanjin and go down the river to reinforce the Liyang battlefield."

Black Bear blinked and whispered, "Please apologize to the general on my behalf. I will accept this Hongnong. If Linghu Shao is plotting rebellion, I will handle it beyond my authority."

"General, please be at ease. If Linghu Shao rebels and destroys the alliance between the two families, he will be punished even if he dies."

Qian Zhao made a promise and said, "General, if you capture a brave Xiongnu man, can you give me three thousand men? I will ask the general to redeem them with five thousand gold coins."

The Guanzhong army is too wasteful. The Huns are brave and well-trained, and are also good at breaking through enemy lines.

Qian Zhao really needs a cavalry strike force of his own, which will be an important bargaining chip for governing Bingzhou, rescuing Hebei, or interfering in Youzhou.

According to the market price during the reigns of Emperors Huan and Ling, a brave slave was worth about two or three gold cakes.

Qian Zhao actually got a great deal by buying three thousand naked Hun prisoners for five thousand gold coins.

After all, Hebei has no shortage of equipment and machinery, and by obtaining this elite cavalry, one can easily earn back five thousand gold.

These 3,000 Xiongnu cavalrymen, whose original social relations had been broken up, were well trained and could become the backbone of the Yuan family.

Although Hebei and Youzhou have a lot of troops on paper, most of these troops are affiliated with generals and captains. In fact, the forces directly under the Yuan family suffered heavy losses in Guandu and are now very weak.

Just like in Yuan Tan's case, there were only more than 4,000 people who could follow Yuan Tan and flee.

"I can give you five thousand, but you have to make it clear that after the training, only three thousand can survive, no more. In the future, I will capture Xiongnu prisoners of war and give one gold to each one. If you need any, please send someone to my Zhengbei Shogunate to discuss it."

Black Bear proposed a strange delivery condition, and Qian Zhao agreed without thinking: "The general is a kind person, no wonder he can be on good terms with Liu Yuzhou."

"That's easy to say. If there is no war in winter, I will invite Liu Yuzhou to visit Guanzhong. If you are free, you can also come to Chang'an for a chat."

Black Bear made a suggestion, and it depends on whether Qian Zhao dares to come up with it.

Anyway, as long as this battle is fought well, Qian Zhao's rule will be very peaceful this winter and no one will dare to cause trouble.

(End of this chapter)