Chapter 189 Repeated Warnings
After saying goodbye, Qian Zhao was about to return to the team and mount his horse when he heard the sound of running behind him.

A sense of horror arose spontaneously, and when he thought of Tai Shi Wengong's swiftness, a feeling of despair arose.

"Sir, my general wants to keep Liu Qubei."

The sound of footsteps approaching behind him made Qian Zhao's numb and stiff face suddenly come alive.

Liu Qubei, who had just mounted his horse in the team in front of him, staggered after hearing this and almost fell off his horse.

Liu Qubei managed to steady the saddle and looked eagerly at Qian Zhao.

Qian Zhao frowned slowly and turned to look at the guard who had caught up with him: "May I ask why the general wants to keep this man?"

"I don't know either, but the general ordered me to do so."

"Well, I will keep this person under the command of General Zhenbei for the time being."

After saying this, Qian Zhao returned to the team. His guards brought the horses and also stabilized the saddle from the other side of the horses.

Qian Zhao lifted his left foot and put it into the stirrup, then he grabbed the saddle with both hands and pushed the ground with his right leg to get on the horse nimbly.

After he sat firmly, he pulled the reins and turned around to Liu Qubei and said, "General Zhenbei kept you here because it must be related to the affairs of the right wing. You should contribute well and don't have any other intentions."

"Yes, Xiao Wang, I will obey your orders."

Liu Qubei felt bitter inside, but he could only bow his hands in agreement. A dozen Xiongnu knights followed him and watched Qian Zhao lead more than a hundred cavalrymen to retreat.

Seeing Qian Zhao and the others walking away, Liu Qubei dismounted, took off his helmet and went to meet Hei Xiong: "Little Wang Qubei, I pay my respects to the General Zhenbei."

"Come and talk to me. Some things confuse me."

Black Bear raised his hand and pointed, and a guard brought a stool to Liu Qubei. Liu Qubei stood up and sat down, very politely: "Thank you, General, for the seat."

Black Bear just looked into the distance and said, "For now, I should chase Liu Bao into Xihe and attack the Xihe tribes in a hurry."

Seeing the black bear looking back at him, Liu Qubei dared not say a word, neither the truth nor lies.

Seeing his expression, Black Bear continued, "The three royal courts are too close to each other, so I could only attack them quickly. It can be done once or twice, but not three times. Now the tribes of Xihe have initially gathered their troops. I have no advantage in attacking from a long distance. On the contrary, they are well-rested, have more troops, and have the advantage of terrain."

He stared at Liu Qubei and said, "You are from the Right Army. I just want to use you to warn the Right Army that I will not send troops to attack the other tribes in Xihe before I deal with the Right Army. Tell the Right Army not to take any chances and cooperate with Qian Zhao."

He raised his eyebrows and looked at the sky, then asked: "I will give you three days. If the Right Army cannot surrender unconditionally according to the agreement between me and Qian Zhao, then you'd better bring your relatives to find me. This is your only chance."

In an instant, Liu Qubei thought of many possibilities, and his expression changed repeatedly.

Even if he guessed what Black Bear wanted to do, he would pretend not to know.

Otherwise, if the news leaked out, he would definitely be hunted down.

Now the powerful men and bandits in Hedong have been mobilized, searching the mountains and plains for young and strong Huns. One corpse can be exchanged for an ox or a horse.

The small Xiongnu tribe south of Pingyang almost could not escape this encirclement.

Black Bear raised his hand and waved. Liu Qubei slowly stood up and bowed: "My young master will take his leave."

After taking five or six steps back and seeing the black bear withdraw its gaze, Liu Qubei put on his helmet and turned away.

Black Bear squinted at the other side's back and steps, and said to a military officer: "Bring up the nobleman and leader here."

"Here."

The military officer saluted and left quickly. Soon, more than 300 nobles and chieftains of the left royal court who had been waiting for most of the day were driven over and knelt in a group. Kneeling in the front were several clan elders who were leaning on deer-head sticks.

"You also know how I attacked the Chanyu's court. I wanted to execute you, but you surrendered. However, I still want to execute you."

"Now the Right Army has also asked for surrender. If I don't agree, they will ask for surrender from the governor Qian Zhao. So I negotiated with Qian Zhao and gave the Right Army a harsh condition."

"If the Right tribe accepts this treaty, then both you and them can survive. If they delay and try to wait for support from the West River tribes, then I will execute you in three days and then go to the Right tribe to attack and destroy them."

Black Bear did not feel any joy of victory when he spoke. This was a victory he achieved by stealing a chicken at great risk.

This is a rare victory, but I just feel a little unsatisfied and unhappy.

He was still hesitating about expanding the scale of executions, while these people had lived a comfortable life in the past few decades by looting and enslaving the people in a series of border counties, including the four counties of Shuofang, Xihe, Shangjun, etc. They were jackals in human form.

They will achieve victory without any hesitation.

They will classify all the population into different categories and kill them without any hesitation.

Seeing that most of these people could understand what he said, Black Bear suddenly shook his head and chuckled a few times, and said to the military officer who led them here: "Imprison them and only give them a bowl of water every day. As for the other troops, command them to slaughter the sheep. I want to make a lot of dried meat in the next three days."

On the road migrating southward, only the herds of animals driven by the first three transport teams could eat the autumn grass along the way. It was difficult for the migrating teams behind them to obtain fodder nearby. All they had in front of them were patches and lines of cattle and sheep dung.

While the sheep are still fat in the autumn, they are slaughtered in large numbers, salted and then dried in the sun.

Whether withdrawing troops or attacking the tribes in Xihe, they are all very excellent military rations.

After seeing these nobles being driven away and imprisoned in a huge wooden stable, Black Bear got up and entered Liu Bao's huge round tent.

The highest skylight in the tent had been opened, and the light inside the tent was bright, with a fire burning in the middle.

So deep in the tent, it was dry and warm. Black Bear threw his helmet to a soldier, sat cross-legged at the table, took out a quill pen and dipped it in ink.

After thinking for a while, he decided to write to Sun Qian and Zhao Yun respectively, inviting Zhao Yun to lead his 300-plus soldiers to Hedong.

In the letter, he promised Zhao Yun that if he showed the letter to Gan Ning, Gan Ning would allocate war horses for Zhao Yun. Probably when these documents were delivered to Zhao Yun, the first migration team would arrive at Tongguan.

The migration route was fixed. North of Wenxi was the Fenshui route. Every forty or fifty miles there was a temporary camp consisting of many Hun tents. Between these camps, there were various cities, abandoned towns, and villages.

The banks of the Fen River are now deserted. After the turbulent times, the closer to the transportation routes, the more desolate the population.

The Hedong section was guarded by soldiers from Hedong County, with a temporary camp every about forty to fifty miles.

After writing the letters to Zhao Yun and Sun Qian, he gave them to his personal soldiers to seal.

Black Bear was getting emotional again and wanted to write a letter to Ma Teng, asking him to come to Hedong to dispatch a transport team for him.

But what can I say? If he writes the letter and sends it to Ma Teng, Ma Teng will definitely help him.

But if we do this, it will give a sense of weakness, as if we are running out of energy and unable to control the situation, which will increase the probability of the powerful people in Taiyuan and Hedong taking risks.

It’s not that I’m afraid these people will take the risk of causing trouble, but I don’t have the time to argue with them right now.

If you kill a bug with a slap, you should wash your hands; if you kill many bugs, you should also wash your hands.

It would be better to continue to maintain superficial peace and wait for a better opportunity.

We must also give Qian Zhao a chance. There is a chance that Qian Zhao can use administrative means to regain control of the troops from the powerful people in Taiyuan and reorganize the troops in various places.

So they were invited. Cui Yan and Linghu Shao came from prominent families, and their close relatives had many guests and followers.

Therefore, these two people will not have similar governance concepts and will not take the initiative to attack the powerful troops.

Qian Zhao, who came from a poor family, had few concerns in this regard and was likely to take the initiative.

After repeated consideration, he gave up inviting Ma Teng.

However, Ma Chao had a very keen sense of smell. He only went to Pingyang to pay a visit to Yuan Tan once, and after returning to Anyi, he led his troops straight to Henei.

I don’t know what Ma Chao will think when I pass on my battle report.

Putting aside the quill in his hand, Black Bear sat down near the fire to warm himself, thinking about the possibility of inviting Guan Yu to Hedong.

This thought only flashed through his mind before he gave it up, although he really wanted to know how Guan Yu, who was proud of his superiors and close to his subordinates, would view his fellow villagers from the Hedong clan.

But once Guan Yu was invited to Hedong, it was not so easy to see him off.

Seeing Black Bear in deep thought, a personal soldier brought food and knelt beside him to fiddle with the dishes: "General Qu, the elders of the Xiongnu offered bribes and wanted to present a woman to you."

"I don't want to be distracted. You should go back and warn everyone. If you don't want to be infected with the disease, you'd better restrain yourself."

As Black Bear spoke, he looked at the personal soldier and saw that he had shaved his head and wrapped it with a green scarf, with his sleeves tied tightly, and his uniform was new.

Seeing that his personal hygiene was maintained well, Black Bear picked up the chopsticks and started eating the barbecue slices.

There wasn't even any decent whole grains, and he lost his appetite after eating three pieces.

I’m getting a little bored of eating meat every day.

If it weren't for the high-intensity round trips during this period, the black bear would have wanted to cook for itself.

The scene where a few sesame-sized lice fall out of the other person's sleeves when he or she stretches out his or her arms to pick up food with chopsticks... How should I put it, once you experience it, it's hard to forget.

When Qian Zhao and his hundred riders were retreating, they soon noticed that Liu Qubei and his dozen riders were chasing them from behind.

When Qian Zhao walked for another ten miles and dismounted to rest by the bank of a small river, Liu Qubei finally caught up with him.

Each of the riders was refeeding their horses and slowing down their speed.

Taiyuan is very unsafe now, and you have to stop and go frequently to ensure you have enough horsepower at all times.

Qian Zhao and Liu Qubei came to the edge of the team. Liu Qubei relayed Hei Xiong's words and expressed his own guess: "Envoy, since Hei Zhenbei started this war for Cai Bojie's daughter, you might as well send an order to the Xihe tribes, ordering them to hand over this girl and give them generous compensation. In this way, Hei Zhenbei will have no reason to raise an army, and we can enjoy peace."

"What you said makes some sense, but he is now at the peak of his power and will not give up easily."

Qian Zhao held the hilt of his sword with his left hand, and looked across the river with his right hand behind his back under his cloak: "But we can give it a try. It depends on how much the Xihe tribes can give in. If they refuse to give in, let them fight."

Seeing Liu Qubei thinking, Qian Zhao said, "I don't support Hei Zhenbei's expansion of the war. Cao's army from the Central Plains is attacking Hebei, and Hei Zhenbei needs to send troops to help. His being dragged in Xihe is not good for me and Hebei. But if you want to persuade him to withdraw, you Xiongnu people need to cede benefits, which cannot be borne by me or Hebei."

"Yes, I will tell the Right and West River tribes what you said."

Liu Qubei nodded, bowed slightly, and looked a little bitter: "My little prince has also seen that Hei Zhenbei wants to take back the women of each tribe. I am afraid that the tribes will find it difficult to agree. This war is not something that you can stop."

"Then let them fight. I can't help you persuade him. You also said very clearly that he wants to take back the woman you stole."

Qian Zhao turned around and looked Liu Qubei in the face: "If you voluntarily cede, you can still keep your young and strong, children and herds. If you fight and lose, it will snow soon and the roads will be blocked. The loser will freeze to death or starve to death."

Liu Qubei just bowed his head. Qian Zhao continued to warn him, "He has already won the battle. He doesn't mind the death of all the soldiers from Guanzhong and the followers he brought with him. As long as he returns to Guanzhong alive, he will be the king of the people of Guanzhong. He can afford the price of the annihilation of his entire army, but what about you?"

"I advise you only to end this war quickly. Don't expect anything from me. He is more important to us than you."

Qian Zhao warned again and again that it was easy for the Huns to cede their herds of beasts and gold, but it was too difficult to give up women, the key resource for the prosperity and development of the tribe.

Therefore, we must make our attitude clear, lest the Huns take chances.

When it is time to pay the price, we must face it head-on. If the Huns refuse to face up to it, Qian Zhao can only do what he says.

(End of this chapter)