Chapter 390 Difficult Choice
In early October, the Hehuang Qiang people, who had been waiting for a long time, finally took action, and it was a big one.

When Black Bear received the news and left the group and rode alone to Yuzhong, he was unable to get close to Yuzhong at all.

The entire Yuzhong City has been surrounded by hastily set up camps, and a steady stream of Qiang people continue to migrate out from the Hehuang Valley.

Either join the ranks that besieged Yuzhong, or drive the herd of animals northwest along the roads and fields.

The black bear went beyond Yuzhong and went deep into the country for dozens of miles, and saw that the Qiang tribe would split into two after migrating. The old and weak would drive the equally old and weak animals across the Yellow River, follow the official road eastward, and join the large settlement in the besieged city of Yuzhong.

The young men and strong women drove the strong herds of animals and headed north along the official road at the fork in the road. Their next stop was Wuwei County.

After Wuwei County, there are Zhangye County, Jiuquan County, and Dunhuang County.

After a brief observation, the black bear returned to the Hexi camp day and night.

The camp was already in a state of bustle, and the black bear returned to the camp as if he was out hunting.

Yang Fu brought various urgent reports from Liangzhou, his expression serious: "Your Majesty, the rebellious Qiang people have besieged Yuzhong with no less than 100,000 people!"

"There are 100,000 Qiang people. Yishan doesn't need to panic."

Black Bear reached out and grabbed a stack of official documents from the plate brought by Yang Fu to read. After flipping through a dozen similar urgent reports, he finally saw Ma Chao's letter requesting a fight.

Ma Chao believed that the Qiang coalition forces were not firmly established, so he should lead his army to launch a rapid and fierce attack. As long as the morale of the enemy's vanguard was crushed, the rest of the battle would be much easier.

Putting Ma Chao's letter of request for war aside, he looked through other official documents. All the counties and prefectures, including Han Sui, were frightened by the Hehuang Qiang.

This was too abnormal. According to the Liangzhou people's understanding of the Hehuang Qiang, only when they suffered a huge snowstorm would they send so many people out to plunder in order to survive.

If the Qiang people encountered a place where they could take root and develop during their raids, they would stay.

If they couldn't find a suitable place to stay, they would rob and survive the harsh winter before returning to Hehuang.

Therefore, in the perception of the people of Liangzhou, the Qiang tribes in Hehuang knew that the Grand Marshal had dispatched troops to besiege them, so they should naturally gather their people and defend themselves, and build more fortifications.

Now that all the Qiang people in Hehuang have come out in full force, it is definitely not a decisive battle. It is very likely that they are suffering from an unbearable huge snowstorm.

The Qiang people in this state were very crazy, and the people of Liangzhou did not want to have any conflict with them.

Even if we win, we're just defeating a bunch of poor guys, so it's a loss no matter how you look at it.

How could the scouts on the front line dare to conduct close-range reconnaissance when they saw so many Qiang settlements?

So much so that Yang Fu, who was responsible for implementing the pressure strategy, was frightened by the Qiang people. Or not really frightened, because his family business and clan were in Tianshui.

If the Hexi army was slow to act, the Qiang people would follow the Chidao all the way eastward to plunder, burn and kill people all the way to Tianshui, and the Yang family would inevitably suffer heavy losses.

Perhaps Yang Fu really didn't know the Qiang people's strategy of dividing the troops.

Black Bear once again read the urgent reports sent from various parties in Liangzhou, and finally confirmed that the contents of the reports were similar, and they did not notice the division of the Qiang people's troops or their strengths and weaknesses.

He didn't believe that with so many smart people in Liangzhou, no one would notice it.

He picked up Ma Chao's letter of request for battle and studied it. An opportunity was before him. Should he help Ma Chao achieve his unparalleled fame?

Now few people know that those who entered the siege of Yuzhong were only the old and weak Qiang people, the tail of the Qiang people trying to survive.

While deep in thought, Black Bear took out the map, spread it out and looked at it with his head down.

Ma Chao’s most difficult problem is that he easily becomes arrogant and out of control.

Allowing Ma Chao to defeat the "100,000 rebellious Qiang in Yuzhong" alone and defeat the coalition of the old and weak would greatly inflate Ma Chao's confidence, and his military prestige and influence would also increase.

In terms of Total War, the 100,000 rebellious Qiang people can make Ma Chao a famous victory and a famous general. In the eyes of the world, his command can be upgraded to seven stars, and his influence in the Liangzhou area can skyrocket to seven stars.

After repeated consideration, Black Bear was more worried about the main force of the Zhuqiang who were migrating westward. If he attacked too quickly, it would arouse the ferocity of the Han and Hu forces in Liangzhou. These people would fight against each other, and the main force of the Zhuqiang would suffer heavy losses, and then run to the Western Regions to become lackeys, which would be a bad thing.

The deep hatred and the fact that they had become a vassal of the Cheshi State were not conducive to the next plan.

Therefore, we must slow down the attack and give the main force of the Qiang people a chance to escape.

Compared with the long-term planning for the Western Regions, it is not so important for Ma Chao to obtain unprecedented merits.

As for the Hehuang area, the number of the migrated Qiang people was about 200,000 to 300,000. They migrated away from the mouth, and with the population of Liangzhou, it was impossible for them to deeply operate in Hehuang.

The favorable farming and grazing environment of the Hehuang Valley is bound to attract many Qiang people to migrate and settle in Hehuang.

The Qiang people live in a cold and miserable place, and their yearning for Hehuang is worth risking their lives for.

Without sufficient garrisons, it would be impossible to stop the Qiang.

Therefore, the Hehuang area will continue to be free-range for many years to come, like a fish cage.

In this situation, if Ma Chao's growth is accelerated, relatively few resources can be used to keep the raw Qiang at Hehuang. After pacifying the Western Regions in the future, Ma Chao will lead the integrated cooked Qiang into Hehuang and conquer these hard-to-reach raw Qiang.

Raw Qiang and cooked Qiang are relative concepts. Raw Qiang are brave and savage, while cooked Qiang are brave and savage but also have better tactics and equipment.

The raw Qiang could not compete with the cooked Qiang, so they had no choice but to survive in the bitter and cold land.

Using a cooked Qiang to fight a raw Qiang can save a lot of trouble.

After deciding on the idea, Black Bear closed the map and said to Yang Fu, "According to reports from all sides, the Hehuang Qiang have no less than 200,000 people. I will lead the front army to advance as planned, and the Xiongnu troops will have to wait until the snow falls before they can be deployed. The only thing we are worried about now is that the Qiang will cross Yuzhong and kill and plunder the people in Longxi and Tianshui."

Yang Fu asked, "Your Majesty, are the 3,000 Xianbei knights led by Budugen following the front army?"

"Of course I have to bring it."

Black Bear closed his eyes and thought for a while, then said, "I am also worried that the newly recruited Qiang people from the three counties under Meng Qi's command will take the opportunity to cause chaos."

Ma Chao had already penetrated deep into Liang Province and was currently stationed in Didao, Longxi, less than 200 miles away from Yuzhong.

During this period, Ma Chao had been integrating the Qiang, Di and miscellaneous Hu in Longxi, Tianshui and Anding, and Ma Chao's army was also dispersed for expeditions.

In the western area of ​​Fuhan, there is also the separatist and rebellious Song Jian. He is a veteran of the Han Dynasty Kingdom and Han Sui rebel group. Now he has established a country and calls himself the King of Heshou Pinghan. He is a senior anti-king.

Therefore, Ma Chao stationed in Longxi in order to cut off the connection between Song Jian and the miscellaneous Hu people in the three counties and prevent attacks from the Hehuang Qiang people.

The Qiang people in Hehuang migrated on a large scale, and Song Jian did not take any unusual actions.

At present, it may be difficult to maintain the situation relying solely on Ma Chao's headquarters and the coalition forces of the powerful local lords in various counties who are swayed by the news.

Black Bear weighed the pros and cons and said, "How about this? Send a message to Zhang Xiu and order him to lead 5,000 Xiongnu volunteers to go south first and cooperate with Meng Qi to stabilize the Yuzhong line."

Yuzhong and Jincheng were the frontline cities for defending against the Hehuang Qiang. Jincheng was strong and large, so the Qiang simply crossed over and surrounded Yuzhong behind Jincheng.

The current garrison commander of Yulin is Yan Xing, and Black Bear is still confident in this man.

There is also Zhang Xiu, whose native place is Wuwei... but Wuwei is very large, and Zuli County, where Zhang Xiu's hometown is located, is at the easternmost part of Wuwei, right next to Anding County and Tianshui County.

Geographically speaking, Zuli is still to the east of Yulin; in terms of regional accent, it is similar to Longxi and Tianshui.

You put Zhang Xiu and Jia Xu together. Both of them are from Wuwei, but they are too far apart.

In terms of culture, fellow villager ties and mutual identification, Zhang Xiu was actually very close to Dong Zhuo and the group of good families in the six counties, but was far away from the four counties in Hexi.

(End of this chapter)