Chapter 197 The situation is not good
As the sky gradually brightened, Black Bear spent the night in a nearby garrison fort.

After falling asleep, I had a rare dream that I came to a valley surrounded by mountains.

Streams from each mountain converge and gather in the valley to form lakes. These lakes then wash away the steep cliffs between the two mountains, creating a turbulent river that flows outward.

There are fields crisscrossing around the lake, but there are no crops or houses, only two peach trees.

When the black bear saw the two peach trees, the distance between them instantly shortened, as if they had teleported. Or it might just be that his vision was focused and the observation distance was rapidly shortened.

I recognized the two peach trees almost instinctively, one was a longevity peach and the other was a blood peach.

The surrounding fields were covered with weeds, and in the distance two horses were happily grazing.

The black bear teleported again and saw a boy of seven or eight years old lying between the horses. He was sleeping soundly with a headband made of field weeds and decorated with small yellow and white flowers.

Looking further into the distance, there are rows of stone and wood sculptures holding spears and standing with their hands on their hips.

He recognized them immediately. The wooden sculptures were of Taoist servants of the first or second level, and the stone sculptures were of Taoist soldiers, with Gao Shun and Yuan Shu leading the way.

Apart from that, there is nothing else.

Other plants that are refined with white magic power, such as chrysanthemum, mint, mugwort, etc., are classified as weeds and buried everywhere, not worthy of being manifested individually in dreams.

It just turned around, and the black bear's body and the dream collapsed, and the fragments turned into white light.

When he opened his eyes again, it was already a new day.

He walked out of the earth building and saw golden sunlight shining on the mountain wall not far away.

Smoke rose from various places in the fort. Old men and young men who got up early were driving the herds of animals. They were all riding horses, and some young and middle-aged men followed on foot.

But judging from the clothes and temperament of these young and middle-aged men, their status is similar to that of the Huns' slaves.

After Wei Yue's introduction last night, Black Bear already knew that the people in the surrounding garrisons were all soldiers and civilians who had migrated from the four counties of Shuofang back then, and most of them were garrison troops.

Each garrison maintained a military management system, the chief was hereditary, and even the official position was passed down privately.

For example, here, the garrison was originally managed by the Lu family.

After Wei Yue returned injured and disabled, he was in charge of the family.

After Lü Bu's defeat, all his children were killed by Cao Cao, so Wei Yue inherited the internal title of "Yueqi Xiaowei".

The situation in the surrounding garrisons was similar. The young and middle-aged people followed Lu Bu and Zhang Yang to start their own businesses. After the demise of the two, the young and middle-aged people also suffered serious losses, and those who were able to return were mostly slightly semi-disabled.

Seeing that he had woken up, the servant informed Wei Yue, who came to invite him immediately.

Now the confrontation between the Han and the Hu people is becoming more and more intense. Some of the surrounding Hu tribes have begun to kill the men and women they looted and fled far away.

When these barbarians come back again, they will inevitably form a larger military alliance, which the garrison will not be able to resist.

When Wei Yue arrived, he saw Black Bear and Lu Bu sitting face to face in the earthen house. Lu Bu was using black and white chess pieces to deduce the battle situation on the map.

In fact, the Black Bear was doing two things at once. He was fiddling with a few chess pieces himself and controlling Lu Bu to fiddle with a few chess pieces.

Wei Yue was about to speak, but suddenly shut up and approached cautiously.

Now Lu Bu can't speak, but he has all his limbs intact and is even stronger.

Wei Yue had nothing to be afraid of Lu Bu in this state. At least Lu Bu could still stay awake for a period of time every day.

If this situation remains for decades or even hundreds of years.

What’s the difference between this and immortality?
Even though he couldn't eat or drink, and might not be able to play with women anymore, Wei Yue, who was in his thirties, was tired of all this.

If possible, he also wanted to become like his brother.

There were nearly a hundred young men of impressive stature in the various garrisons, and the number of "tall men" from the previous generation was even more limited.

Therefore, he has already done his best for his ancestors. If he can follow his brother and keep his body in the world for a long time, then what is there to regret in life?
Therefore, he was very earnest and paid more attention to his own affairs.

As he approached, Black Bear Lu Bu simply looked back at him and continued to deduce.

Wei Yue did not dare to disturb them, so he knelt beside them and watched the situation develop.

Seeing that the cowhide map was very large, it even included Jingzhou and Yangzhou.

What surprised him most was that Lu Bu actually regarded Liu Bei and Liu Biao as imaginary enemies and placed seven chess pieces at the southern end of Wuguan Road.

Through observation, Wei Yue has determined that one chess piece is roughly equivalent to two to three thousand men, which means that Lu Bu is always on guard against sneak attacks from Liu Bei and Liu Biao.

Of course, Liu Bei did not have this strength, and he had to rely on Liu Biao to borrow troops in order to gather an army of 20,000.

But would Zhang Jin, the governor of Jiaozhou, Sun Quan of Jiangdong, and Cao Cao just sit there and do nothing?
So this is just an extreme case estimate. The probability of such a thing happening cannot be ignored, but it cannot be taken too seriously either.

The peripheral forces were all in a state of mutual dependence and checks and balances, but what Wei Yue was most concerned about was the Xihe Xiongnu.

Liu Bao, the Left Wise King, had already fled to Lishi, where he was gathering troops from various Xiongnu tribes. Soon after, Liu Qubei also fled to Xihe, where he met up with the royal nobles in Zishi City and brought Liu Bao a golden man for offering sacrifices to the sky.

Black Bear didn't care about Liu Qubei's life or death, he was very interested in the golden man for offering sacrifices to the sky.

But he wanted to have a decisive battle with Liu Bao more, so this situation was caused by his indulgence.

After studying the map for half an hour, Wei Yue saw the final force for the decisive battle.

Liu Bao has 50,000 troops and 20,000 reinforcements, located in Zishi; Qian Zhao has 20,000 troops in Jinyang in the north; Hei Xiong has 20,000 troops in Queshu Valley in the south.

It was obvious that this was a gesture of retreat to lure Liu Bao to chase him.

Queshu Valley is the valley of the Fen River. It cannot be said to be very steep, but it is definitely the only way for the army to pass between Hedong and Taiyuan.

If Black Bear retreated into Queshu Valley with the spoils, no matter how large the number of Huns was, when they launched a pursuit, the width of the battlefield was limited and they would not be able to take advantage of their numerical strength.

They could only attack in turns, turning numbers into endurance and using continuous offensives to consume the enemy. Therefore, if Liu Bao wanted to take advantage of numbers, he had to seize Queshu Valley; but the earlier he seized it, the tighter Liu Bao's mobilization time would be, which would cause the front-line troops to be out of touch with the rear reinforcements.

There are two small paths in the mountainous area east of Queshu Valley, which are not suitable for large armies to pass through.

The battle in Queshu Valley is almost inevitable.

Unless the black bear gives up the spoils and quickly evacuates with the army.

If they evacuate now, Liu Bao will not have time to mobilize and will not dare to stop them due to lack of military advantage.

This was a battle for Liu Bao to establish his authority as the successor to the Chanyu. He had to fight, and fight hard, otherwise he would not be able to subdue the tribes in Hexi, let alone control the Huns who were in fierce confrontation with the Xianbei on the periphery.

The Huns on the periphery were almost as ferocious as the Xianbei.

If Liu Bao lacked military prestige, it would be difficult for him to mobilize and gather these peripheral tribes.

Black Bear will never give up his spoils, Liu Bao also needs this battle to gain a foothold in the throne, and what about Qian Zhao?

The troops of Taiyuan County were withdrawn, and the destruction of Wang Yun's family caused all the powerful families to feel insecure, so a joint army could be formed.

They didn't dare to approach the black bear easily, so they would just gather together first.

When Liu Bao and Black Bear's main forces were fighting each other and it was inconvenient to mobilize troops, Qian Zhao's troops would gather and move near the battlefield.

The battlefield of Queshu Valley is very interesting. The Fen River divides it in the middle, and the upper reaches of the Fen River are continuous swamps and various broken lakes.

During the decisive battle, the Huns were in the west and the Guanzhong troops were in the east.

The Taiyuan soldiers under Qian Zhao would not approach the battlefield from the east or west. The Huns no longer believed in the sincerity of the Han army, including the Taiyuan soldiers.

If the Taiyuan soldiers really approached the battlefield from the west bank of the Fen River and did not arouse the Huns' vigilance, it would mean that they really had a close and trusting relationship with the Huns.

This means that the accusation that Wang family colluded with the Huns, causing the Guanzhong soldiers to be ambushed by the right wing, can be proven.

As for the Taiyuan soldiers advancing and approaching from the east bank of the Fen River, given Black Bear's current reputation, I'm sure Qian Zhao would be willing, but the people of Taiyuan would not.

Therefore, Qian Zhao's Taiyuan soldiers could only wait until the weather turned cold and the lakes and swamps froze, then advance straight south along the Fen River and become the third force in the decisive battle.

There are also the fourth and fifth forces on the periphery. The fourth is a coalition army composed of soldiers from Hedong County and powerful people.

This army should wait and see which way the wind blows before making a decision.

The fifth force is the reinforcements from Guanzhong. Their number cannot be too large, so they can only threaten the Hedong coalition forces from the flank, increasing their mental burden of defecting on the battlefield.

If the Guanzhong troops at the northern end of Queshu Valley win the decisive battle and the Hedong coalition forces turn against them, they will have reinforcements from Guanzhong blocking their way from behind.

Only destruction awaits the Hedong coalition forces.

The cost of betrayal and rebellion is too high, so while the outcome of the decisive battle at the northern end of Queshu Valley is still undecided, the people of Hedong are likely to remain on hold.

If the Guanzhong troops were defeated, these people would turn into the most ferocious wolves, pounce on them, and cooperate with the Huns and Taiyuan people to annihilate them.

On the map, black and white chess pieces are arranged in an orderly manner.

Wei Yue secretly deduced that even if he himself was included, the number of soldiers in Guanzhong during the decisive battle would not be able to exceed 25,000.

The topography of the Taiyuan Basin is similar to that of Guanzhong, where the winner takes all. There is no such thing as losing half the battle by surrendering.

By the time the decisive battle broke out, it was already mid-to-late October. A few hundred cavalrymen who escaped into the valleys could survive, but a larger group would have starved to death or frozen to death.

This will be a war that determines the dominance of Bingzhou and northern Guanzhong, and will decide whether the people of Guanzhong will fight against the Huns or the Huns will fight against Guanzhong in the future.

Seeing that Black Bear and Lu Bu were staring at the chess game in silence, Wei Yue did not dare to say anything either, and even tried to breathe as slowly as possible.

After a while, Lu Bu stood up and took the initiative to stand guard outside.

Black Bear sighed: "Since I started to use the army, I have never fought such a rich battle. More than 20,000 people are under my command. It is really a burden."

Wei Yue, who was boasting about his closeness, did not want to ask in detail, so he asked: "How far can Qian Zhao go? Is he trying to blackmail the general, or is he trying to take advantage of the opportunity to establish his authority so that he can take control of Bingzhou?"

Then Wei Yue said: "There is another possibility. Qian Zhao and the powerful people have joined forces to send troops. They don't care about winning or losing. They come to the vicinity of the battlefield just to show off their power and disrupt the deployment of the general and Liu Bao. They are waiting for a balance of power to make it difficult for the general and Liu Bao to achieve complete success."

Come be a troublemaker.

Black Bear nodded and said, "He is the governor of Bingzhou. Xihe and Shangjun also belong to Bingzhou. He is indeed qualified to mediate the war. More than 20,000 people have arrived at the battlefield. Even if Liu Bao and I win or lose, the winner must give him face, and the loser will also have to accept his favor."

Black Bear raised his eyebrows and smiled: "If the situation develops to this point, it means Qian Zhao is gambling that I dare not take the initiative to break the alliance."

Wei Yue also laughed as he listened. After the Taiyuan Allied Forces arrived at the front line, they still had the strength to defend themselves.

However, it was most vulnerable when it left Jinyang and marched southward, and could not withstand the multi-directional attacks of large-scale cavalry.

The odds of a decisive battle in the wild are very high. If you lose even a little, the situation could snowball and the entire army would be destroyed.

Unlike siege battles and city defense battles, you can take your time and if you don't win, there is still a chance to rescue and make up for it.

So the question is, does the black bear dare to attack Qian Zhao actively?

If they attacked, it would be like breaking the alliance, which would cause Liu Bei and Liu Biao to break the alliance collectively.

If they don't attack, recruiting these 20,000 people to the battlefield will become the biggest source of interference in the decisive battle.

Pretending to be Huns to attack Qian Zhao... is meaningless. The fact that Qian Zhao and Taiyuan warlords dared to join forces to move closer to the battlefield means that there is no problem with the Huns anymore.

The Huns' goal was to stop him, and even a small victory would be enough for Liu Bao to stand firm.

So Liu Bao didn't mind Qian Zhao leading his troops to negotiate peace. As for Qian Zhao leading the Taiyuan coalition forces to attack the Huns' flank?
The probability of such a thing happening is too low. It is impossible for the powerful people in Taiyuan to attack their business partners.

The relationship of trust between them and the Huns was even stronger.

(End of this chapter)