Chapter 401 Liang and Lu Join Forces
After careful consideration, Qishan Dao only allowed more than a thousand Xianbei knights to participate in this war.

Budugen moved forward cautiously under the protection of the Xianbei knights.

It was the first time in his life that he walked on such a dangerous mountain road. He had someone to take care of his daily life and a mount to travel with.

He had no worries about food and drink along the way, and had new clothes all the time, so a normal march was not very difficult for him.

Therefore, the dangerous mountains along the way opened his eyes. As he entered Hanzhong, the temperature became warmer and he finally believed the various legends.

For example, Jiaozhou, which is far away and further south, is like spring all year round, with no harsh winters and no severe cold.

In many settlements in the mountains and dense forests there, men and women only use a few leaves and fabrics to hide their ugliness and survive throughout their lives.

This legend is unimaginable to the Xianbei people, who have long adapted to life in harsh cold environments.

Before Tan Shihuai, the Southern Xiongnu was still powerful. At that time, the Xianbei were trapped in the northeast, with scarce supplies and the winter was even more difficult.

After Tan Shihuai, the Xianbei invaded and occupied the fertile and rich areas south of the desert, such as Hexi, Shuofang, and Wuyuan, which allowed the Xianbei to rise rapidly and the lives of the tribe were substantially improved.

After all, environmental changes such as severe cold and heavy snow will not distinguish whether you are a powerful person or a slave.

The Xianbei people took about seven days to complete the Qishan Road, and when they arrived in Mian County, they felt a sense of sudden enlightenment.

They entered the camp built in advance by the front army and the Hanzhong people. Budugen led a dozen knights around the camp to observe the surrounding terrain.

Standing on a high place, looking at a cavalry camp in the distance.

Budugen's eyes were filled with envy and longing. No matter whether it was the battles in Shuofang and Hexi, or the turning back and breaking through the enemy lines to subdue the Qiang people in Yuzhong, the armed Han cavalry showed absolute suppression power on the battlefield.

The Han border army already had a tradition of developing and training armored cavalry. As old rivals, the Xianbei people were not unfamiliar with this type of army.

However, the Xianbei were relatively poor, and their people were more brave and fierce. The armored cavalry was not in line with the Xianbei's productivity and actual situation.

But now the Han army has obtained extremely excellent war horses that have been suddenly improved, which make up for the worst endurance and sustained combat shortcomings of the armored cavalry.

How could the Xianbei people not be envious of the armored cavalry that had no shortcomings?
Iron armor, horse armor and knights were easy to find, and even the tactics of cavalry forming a formation and charging posed no obstacle to the Xianbei people.

This kind of tactics is a matter of concept. Once you see it and experience the practicality of formation tactics, you will naturally learn it.

The biggest and only limitation now is how to obtain the Han army's excellent horse breeds.

Stealing is inappropriate. We are so far away from the border and with the terrain in Hanzhong, it would be almost impossible to escape if we stole the enemy's war horses.

As for requesting horse breeds from the Han army... Budugen simply could not bring himself to think of it.

It is not a question of whether the Xianbei is worth the price, but every nomadic leader knows that excellent horse breeds will have an absolute influence on the rise of a tribe.

Judging from the character displayed by that great Sima, Budugen felt that if he dared to ask for and beg for horse breeds, he would go to see his two brothers.

After all, my brothers are just dead, not the extinction of the family line.

Given the current situation of the Xianbei people, if they were killed, and the other side pushed out a pregnant woman, pointed at the other side and announced that the baby in her belly was their nephew, the Xianbei people would probably be happy to accept it.

Therefore, if you want to obtain horse breeds, you can only find a way to prepare a group of excellent mares.

Budugen and the Xianbei people believed that it was impossible for the Han army to sterilize and castrate the male horses of such a precious breed of horse.

If a dozen mares were obtained and bred for twenty years, the Xianbei people would also have excellent cavalry. Without the advantage of armored cavalry, how could the Han army suppress the Xianbei?

Even if the Xianbei, who possessed this unique advantage, could not defeat the Han army and move westward in the future to establish a huge country like their Qin and Hu ancestors did?
Budugen discussed the plan with his trusted warriors in Xianbei language. The warriors he trusted generally had little knowledge and most importantly, they did not understand Chinese.

Now, those Xianbei tribesmen who were good at business, had close relations with the Han army, actively learned Chinese, and even those nobles who were related by marriage or blood to the Xiongnu nobles were not trusted by Budugen.

Marching troops like the Xianbei were still advancing towards Hanzhong. Except for the front team of more than 10,000 people who carried armor, the subsequent troops were only allocated half a month's rations to save transportation capacity as much as possible and increase mobility.

As long as we arrive in Hanzhong, we can get new rations.

As a result, the middle and rear batches of troops got separated during the march, and they maintained the most basic team-level organization and arrived in Mian County one after another.

Here each team would report casualties suffered during the march and then be reorganized; finally they would be transferred to the vicinity of the counties and administrative districts of Hanzhong so that they could obtain food nearby.

In order to prevent the army from causing trouble and conflicts due to overeating, everyone except the core 8,000 people will be assigned jobs.

Throughout the winter, after these people have eaten their fill, they will start working on road construction, mining, smelting and other tasks.

The largest number of them were more than 30,000 Qiang captives, who were the main force in civil engineering work. Other military forces played a role of guidance, training and supervision.

On the banks of the Han River, a temporary military town was formed by wooden walls.

Here, Black Bear and Zhang Lu's groups feasted all day long.

The Zhang and Lu brothers lacked people from Lu, but they still spoke with Lu accents; Hei Xiong was similar, with a Liangpei accent.

Although Liang and Lu were neighboring states, their accents differed greatly, but at this moment they were just fellow villagers in the eastern part of Yuzhou.

What surprised Black Bear the most was that the entire Hanzhong force surrendered very quickly, and after meeting him in person, their attitude showed a clear improvement towards being positive and friendly.

After a little inquiry, I learned that Zhang Lu and others privately admired his appearance and temperament...

I don’t know how sincere these people are in saying these things, but they all praise and sigh so much, and they say it so often, so it must be true.

On this day, Zhang Lu was drunk and lying on the couch. Yan Pu pulled open a soft deerskin blanket and stood up to cover Zhang Lu from the waist down. He then said to Yang Fu, who was of similar status to him, "My master hated Liu Zhang for usurping the throne and killing his mother, brother, wife and daughter. The promotion of morality in Hanzhong was originally in response to Liu Yan's order, with the intention of cutting off the passage to Yizhou and isolating him from Dong Zhuo's false edict."

The two men sat together and drank. To Yang Fu, the abundance of resources in Hanzhong was no lie. The wine he drank in these three days alone was more mellow than what he had drunk in the first half of his life.

While drinking, Yang Fu did not speak casually, but hinted to Yan Pu to continue to state his request.

Yan Pu continued, "When Liu Yan was alive, my master had a father-son relationship with him. Later, Liu Yan's eldest son and second son formed an alliance with General Ma Gong of Du Liao to kill the traitors Li and Guo, but they failed and died. After this, Liu Yan was sad and weak, and his third son should have inherited the family business, and my master also had a good relationship with him. Unexpectedly, the big families in Yizhou recommended Liu Zhang to seize the family business, put his brother under house arrest, and forced my master to return to Shu."

At this time, Yan Pu said, "Given the situation at the time, if you return, you will be regarded as a dissident and killed by the Yizhou clans, and your family will never be saved. So you gathered people to protect yourself in Hanzhong, but you didn't expect Liu Zhang to be so cruel and stubborn that he killed your entire family. This is revenge for the murder of your mother, and you must avenge it."

Having felt Zhang Lu's bottom line, Yang Fu nodded: "I roughly understand. I will ask the Lord for instructions."

"Thank you, Mr. Yishan."

Yan Pu then said, "To be honest, Master saw that the Grand Marshal had an extraordinary appearance, like the sun and the moon sinking into a mountain pool, and he wanted to get close to him and become his in-law."

"That's easy to say. Master Zhang has been very kind to my Lord in relieving his troubles. My Lord is very clear about gratitude and resentment. Please be at ease."

(End of this chapter)