Chapter 318: The Attack Strategy
Hail suddenly fell around Yulin Pass.

Black bears have no fear of abnormal weather, as long as it is not a major earthquake, a meteorite falling from the sky, or a big hole suddenly opening and closing under their feet.

He stood in front of the tent and watched the hailstones bounce up from under his feet and roll down to the lower ground.

Waves of cool air filled the air around, the horses in the camp neighed loudly, and the military dogs and hunting dogs also barked non-stop.

Zhang Liao accompanied him, but he only brought a hundred or so of his personal cavalry.

Seeing hail falling from the sky, Zhang Liao immediately ordered his knights to put on armor and wait for orders in the camp.

He hurried to meet the black bear. When he arrived at the black bear, Zhang Liao held a shield above his head and walked carefully.

The hail accumulated on the ground was two or three layers thick, like a thin layer of ice.

"This humble general pays homage to the Grand Marshal."

"General Wenyuan, there is no need to be polite. Come in quickly."

Black Bear stepped aside from the tent door. Zhang Liao handed the shield to Black Bear's guard and then entered the tent area. "I was worried about the chaos in the camp, so I ordered my men to put on armor without informing the Grand Marshal. I hope you will forgive me."

"The general's concerns are justified."

It was just a normal wearing of armor, and he was not leaving the camp, so Black Bear didn't care.

Anyway, Zhang Liao only has a hundred or so men, and it is currently impossible to break through his guards.

Those who can be selected by Zhang Liao to be by his side are all veterans; when the situation is critical, he orders Lu Bu to take off his mask, and Zhang Liao's threat will be greatly reduced.

After Black Bear characterized Zhang Liao's behavior with one sentence, he continued to look up at the hail.

Because the ground is already inlaid with two or three layers of hail that are like ice, the hail now bounces higher after hitting the ground and is more likely to slide to low-lying areas.

All you can see is a layer of white and slightly gray hail on the ground, flowing slowly like waves.

Zhang Liao also observed the hailstorm. After leaving his hometown for so many years, he had not seen such a large-scale hailstorm for a long time.

Suddenly, I noticed that the black bear three or four steps away from me tilted its head and turned sideways. Then there was a noticeable crisp sound, and an egg-sized lump of ice hit the black bear's feet and bounced up.

Zhang Liao immediately heard the screams of pain from some guards near and far, and the noise of various large hailstones falling also became more frequent.

The black bear retreated into the round tent at this time, and the others hurriedly followed.

The ceiling of the large tent was open, with a diameter of about four feet. Hail fell all the time, but it was not a problem.

Black Bear took off his boots and sat in the main seat, and the others also took off their boots and sat in their seats.

In order to prevent moisture in the tent, wooden boards were suspended in the air and covered with fine wool felt.

The wool felt was decorated with simple patterns. Black Bear looked around and said, "After visiting these few days, I have concluded that the tribes in the western part of the Hetao area, where Han and Hu people live together, have no intention of submitting to us. Even if they accept our conditions temporarily, it is only because they have no choice. If there is unrest in the future, they will definitely change their ways."

Among the officers present, only Zhang Liao and Zhang Xiu had the ability to fight independently. Each of them only brought with him a hundred or so close followers, and these talents were the foundation of their survival in the chaotic times.

Zhang Xiu was eager to show off. He straightened his back and bowed sideways. "Grand Marshal, there are many Xiongnu among the tribes in Hetao, most of whom are from the commanders of the vassal states of Zhangye. I am not talented enough, but I am willing to go and persuade them. This will break their united forces. If the forces are broken, their hearts will be scattered, and it will be easy to settle them."

"I'm afraid this can't be persuaded in just a few words."

Black Bear raised his hand to stop Zhang Xiu and continued, "I have given the Hetao people a chance, but they are a group of people pursuing freedom. In this case, we can only fight first. If the war is stalemate and they need to talk, then we can talk to them. Otherwise, we will not be happy fighting and talking at the same time."

Seeing that Black Bear was so tough, Zhang Xiu sat up straight and did not express his opinion any more.

In his opinion, fighting and talking at the same time is the normal thing.

At this time, Black Bear turned his head to look at Yang Fu and said, "Yishan, write down what I just said. In the future, when we go to foreign countries to fight, we should talk first. If we can't reach an agreement, we should fight. If we can kill them, we should kill them. When the war is at a stalemate, we can use negotiation again. If the negotiation fails this time, there will be no possibility of a third negotiation in the future."

"My original intention is to focus on solving the problem fundamentally, rather than treating the symptoms without addressing the root cause. Also, we should concentrate on doing things and do our best. If we talk and fight at the same time, both sides will fight for credit and benefit the foreign enemy, which will ruin the big things and benefit the foreign enemy. It is really annoying."

"Here."

Yang Fu took note and wrote it down immediately. If nothing unexpected happened, this war was inevitable. This would set an example for future wars in the border counties.

The officers and military officials in the tent were waiting quietly. They naturally supported this clear attitude of war and appeasement.

Soon Yang Fu handed the silk book to Black Bear, who nodded and said, "Okay."

Yang Fu refined his words slightly, but not too much. The meaning expressed in the words was consistent with his attitude, and Black Bear signed immediately.

After finishing this small matter with a great impact, Black Bear said: "For this battle, I can only send 7,000 people from Yulin Pass. In addition to my own troops, there are 2,000 Xiongnu volunteers and 2,000 Qiang volunteers. The rest of the soldiers under the Du Liao Camp will stay in Yulin. I want to see if the Xianbei people in Shuofang dare to join the battle."

He let Ma Teng guard Yulin, while he led Liu Bao, Ma Chao, Zhang Liao, Zhang Xiu and 7,000 knights to attack. The manpower of other Hun tribes would not be recruited or mobilized.

In this way, after the Xianbei people in Shuofang showed signs of mobilization, the various Xiongnu tribes could quickly retreat.

Now is a critical moment for nomadic production, and migration from pastoral areas cannot be separated from strong labor.

So from the perspective of the herdsmen's mentality, they don't like to enlist or fight at this time.

Even if they are going out to plunder... in fact, the enthusiasm of the herdsmen is not very high, unless they are on the verge of starvation.

After all, risking their lives to travel thousands of miles to plunder, the biggest benefits would go to the tribal leaders and chiefs, and had nothing to do with ordinary herdsmen.

Therefore, during the three months of June, leap June and July this year, the lower classes of the Xiongnu and Xianbei were not very interested in fighting.

The lower classes don't like it, and neither do the middle and lower-level nobles and leaders, which will lead to slow mobilization.

When Zhang Liao heard that Black Bear was only leading 7,000 men to attack the Hetao tribes, he immediately said, "Speed ​​is of the essence in war. This time, the Grand Marshal will surely be able to achieve a surprise victory by charging thousands of miles!"

"Yeah, I hope so."

Black Bear was quite patient and explained to Zhang Liao: "This is why I did not recruit the main force of the Xiongnu. I made a decision today and can send troops tomorrow. This is something that the Hetao people cannot predict and are unwilling to believe."

At this time, Liu Qingyi, the Green Banner Cavalry General, bowed his hands and straightened his waist: "Grand Marshal, our army is good at rapid raids. Don't the Hetao people have any defense?"

"There must be defenses, but their defenses are far from enough."

Black Bear smiled and explained: "The Hetao people are a mixture of Han and Hu people. Ultimately, the people who make decisions are the border residents, border troops and defeated soldiers who have fled to the border areas. The Xiongnu people believe in our raid, and the Xianbei people will also believe in it. It is precisely the Hetao people who question our raid."

It’s not that the Hetao people are backward, but rather that they are too advanced and maintain the tactical qualities of the Han army.

In their combat philosophy, any raid operation requires huge logistics and support work.

The reason why the Hetao people are firmly settled in the Xitao area is that the "farming" mentality is at work. They are really reluctant to give up the fertile land there, and also reluctant to give up this independent status.

Compared with the three tribes of the Xiongnu royal court, the Hetao people have the skills of building cities, even fortresses and camps, which are enough to cope with the suddenness of the attack. The thousand-mile attack is about surprise. It seems that in the understanding of the Hetao people, the camps they have already set up and established can inherently prevent the attack of black bears.

Therefore, from Hetao's perspective, in order to fight a decisive battle, Black Bear needs to mobilize the Huns, which is very time-consuming. During this period of time, the Xianbei people in Shuofang can also complete the mobilization.

Hetao is shaped like a Chinese character "J", and Shuofang is right in the middle.

In a decisive battle, the Xianbei people would not allow the Xiongnu to annex the Hetao people, so the Hetao people were fearless as they had the Xianbei people as reinforcements.

If you want to launch a surprise attack, the Hetao people’s own camp is not afraid of a surprise attack... No matter how good you are at launching a surprise attack, you can’t just ride your horse into the camp, right?
So Black Bear wanted to see if the Hetao people had any other plan to deal with him.

The meeting is over here and the hail is over too.

It was extremely cold outside the tent, so everyone rode their horses out of the camp and returned to their headquarters, beginning to make various preparations for the raid.

Black bears also came to Yulin Sai.

There are camps of various sizes inside and outside the Great Wall. Because they need to graze horses, these camps include their own pastoral areas.

Avoiding mixing of respective herds can effectively avoid meaningless conflicts and the spread of diseases.

Horses also have the problem of fighting in groups, and isolating them can avoid a lot of unnecessary losses.

Black Bear first found Ma Teng. When he found Ma Teng, Ma Teng was leading people to clean up the hail near the barracks.

Ma Teng put the cleaned hail into a wooden box, which also contained a jar of wine, which made Black Bear raise his eyebrows.

Chilled drinks really were a distant memory, he had almost forgotten them.

When Hei Xiong entered the barracks, Hei Xiong said, "The people of Hetao are very rude. I must punish them. I plan to ask you to guard Yulin while I, Meng Qi, Liu Bao and I will attack Hetao from three directions."

Ma Teng was not surprised. This time, to attack Hetao, which only had 70,000 to 80,000 households, Black Bear had to use 7,000 to 8,000 people to launch a raid, which was already a big move.

Ma Teng had naturally studied the black bear's raiding tactics. Among the three royal courts of the Xiongnu, the Chanyu, the Chanyu's royal court and the left royal court were destroyed in this way.

Even the right wing royal court hesitated between retreat and defense, and ultimately lost the chance to escape.

After thinking for a moment, Ma Teng asked a key question: "How to deal with the Western Xianbei in Shuofang?"

"It depends on how the Xianbei people choose. I have no choice."

Black Bear had nothing to hide: "If I give in to the Hetao people and the Xianbei people, then I have to give in to the Xiongnu people. I don't want to give in anyway. The Xianbei people have already regarded Shuofang as their own pasture, and they have no way out."

Ma Teng frowned, "This is too hasty. Guanzhong does not have enough reserves. If we go to war with the Xianbei this winter, we can only fight to support the war and eat at the hands of the enemy. If we can delay for another year, it will be easier during the battle, and we can also transport back most of the captured cattle, horses and sheep."

The current strategy of fighting to support the war is an alternative scorched earth tactic.

"Sir, how can everything be perfect?"

Black Bear remained calm: "If we fight the Xianbei one year earlier, Guanzhong will also be able to distribute cattle and horses one year earlier, which will be beneficial to Guanzhong's recovery. Overall, it is not a loss. And we can't just calculate the accounts of Guanlong and Shuofang, we also have to consider Liu Bei, Cao Cao and Yuan Shang."

Ma Teng understood now, and said without further ado, "Don't worry, Grand Marshal, with me here, Yulin will be as stable as Mount Tai."

There was no need to transport supplies from Yulin to the north. Yulin's biggest role was to serve as a transit point to reorganize the manpower, animal power and material resources seized from the front line, and then send them to Guanzhong along the Qin Straight Road.

The only role of the Yulin garrison is to maintain order here and serve as a warning.

If the Xianbei people dare to come, Black Bear will turn around and fight the Xianbei.

Hetao is such a fertile place that no one who has been here will give it up easily.

Therefore, the Hetao people and the Western Xianbei were actually bound by this land. The tribal leaders were reluctant to leave, and ordinary herdsmen were even more reluctant.

Once this war starts, it will continue until the will of one side is completely crushed.

They are not afraid of their opponents escaping. After weighing the pros and cons, the enemy leader can make up his mind to migrate, but his followers are reluctant to let him go.

If you go against the wishes of your people, you will lose your position as a tribal leader.

Besides, when the Xianbei people in Shuofang mobilize, their arch-enemy, the Xiongnu people in Wuyuan, can also mobilize.

Although the Huns had shed a lot of blood at their own hands, if the Huns now only defended and contained the Xianbei people, there would not be any problem.

There is really no need to worry about the Yulin defense line. Black Bear is not even planning to mobilize any decent army from Guanzhong.

The captain, deputy captain and deputy centurion were selected from various centurions to go north. These people were experienced and could complete the reorganization of the captured population.

Only in this way, when Liu Bei and Cao Cao were dragged to the Hetao battlefield, could they let go and fight freely in the Central Plains battlefield.

As for Hebei, Black Bear doesn't like Xian Yu Fu and his gang very much.

Now his main force is tied up in Hetao, and he is fighting and stalemate with the Hetao people and the Xianbei people. What attitude will Xianyu Fu, Tian Yu, Yan Rou and others who are on good terms with the Xianbei people take?

In the final analysis, it was just to give Yuan Shang a chance to beat Xian Yu Fu to death.

After defeating Xian Yu Fu, Tian Yu and their gang so severely that they lost their temper, it would be easier for him to rescue and recruit them.

Before declaring war on Hebei, it would be best to make Yuan Shang fatter and more confident.

In this way, when the decisive battle with Yuan Shang in the future comes, he will be able to make a big profit.

People can't just think about themselves, they also have to consider their allies.

By alleviating the concerns of his allies and allowing Liu Bei to pursue his dream with all his strength... I have done my best for him.

He only briefly mentioned diplomatic and strategic considerations to Ma Teng, and Ma Teng no longer asked any more questions.

Soon Liu Bao and Ma Chao also arrived. For these two people, Black Bear only needed to give accurate combat orders, and there was no need to explain to them the diplomatic and strategic considerations.

Ma Chao naturally had no problem. He led three battalions of Qiang cavalry to Yulin and had already made mental preparations for a surprise attack.

Ma Chao still regrets not being able to take part in the last battle. Now that the opportunity is right in front of him, how could he give up?

Not to mention Liu Bao, who just regretted that he brought too few direct troops.

Whether the battlefield is dangerous or not is a problem. It is difficult to achieve great success with insufficient troops. The division of spoils is also a problem.

However, the time set by Black Bear was too tight, and Liu Bao did not dare to express his opinion on such an important issue as the time of dispatch. He could only accept it with all his might, and even forced himself to put on a smile, sincerely congratulating and praying for the Grand Marshal's triumphant return in advance.

(End of this chapter)