In this battle at the foot of the mountain in half a day, the Han army suffered heavy losses, but because of the huge gap in equipment, the casualties and losses of the Huns who won the battle were not small there, just preliminary statistics, there were more than 6,000 Hun elite cavalry who closed their eyes forever, and there were two or three thousand Hun cavalry injured in the battle, and a considerable part of them were seriously wounded that were difficult to rescue, so the actual losses of the Hun army were conservatively estimated to be more than 7,000 people, which can be said to be a victory or defeat, just a disastrous victory.

With 100,000 elite soldiers besieging the Han army infantry with less than 15,000 people, the battle was still like this, such a result of course made Mao Dun very angry, so before dawn, the casualty and loss data had just been reported in front of Mao Dun, Mao Dun had already decided to deprive the Huns of the fifteen tribes of the Right Xian King with a black face, so as to punish the Right Xian King for not being able to directly defeat the Han army's infantry circle, giving the Han army a chance to break through the mountain at night.

Fortunately, the captured loot also quickly diluted Mao Dun's anger, a snow sabre has just been presented to Mao Dun, Mao Dun, who has long coveted this kind of horse combat weapon, can't wait to grab a few handles to play with and appreciate, and then see the mountains of sharp iron weapons, as well as a set of sturdy Han army armor, Mao Dun's gloomy face for a long time finally showed a little smile, nodded and said: "It's a bit of a harvest, Ben Khan's soldiers finally didn't die in vain." ”

The Hun nobles next to him also had their eyes shining, and several Hun nobles couldn't wait to ask: "Great Khan, how to distribute these weapons and armor?" ”

"All the sabers belong to Ben Khan's guards, and each of you will have a hundred iron swords and iron spears, and the rest will be given to Ben Khan's direct army. As for the armor, there is no division between Ben Khan's direct army, and you can discuss how to distribute it. ”

Mao Dun's decision disappointed the Hun nobles present, but he didn't dare to accuse Mao Dun of selfishness, a Hun nobleman dared to speak, and just begged Mao Dun to reward him with a saber, Mao Dun hesitated, or picked up a few sabers casually, and gave each of the Hun nobles present a reward, everyone was overjoyed, all of them were holding the snow bright sabre to appreciate and caress it, all of them couldn't put it down. Then another Xiongnu nobleman said: "Great Khan, why don't we transfer our main brigade and completely trap the Central Plains army on the mountain, listen to our scouts, the Central Plains cavalry on the mountain are all holding this kind of iron-beaten swords." ”

"Great Khan, I think we should also go all out to annihilate the Central Plains army on the mountain." Another Xiongnu nobleman also hurriedly echoed: "Although the Central Plains barbarians have held the high ground, it is difficult for us to attack it, but we only need to surround this mountain on all sides, or it will not be long before we can starve all the Central Plains barbarians on the mountain to death, so that their weapons and armor will all be ours." ”

All the nobles echoed one after another, and they all thought that they should go all out to annihilate the Han army surrounded on Bantian Ridge, but Zang Di, who was familiar with the situation in the Central Plains, said cautiously: "Great Khan, it's better to be careful, this is too close to the hinterland of the Central Plains, our main force has been stationed here for a long time, if the main force of the tyrant army suddenly kills, I'm afraid the situation will not be good." ”

Of course, the military genius Mao Dun was not willing to risk his main brigade for a tactical goal, nodded and said: "King Donghulu is right, this place is too close to the hinterland of the Central Plains, and there are too many cattle, sheep, livestock, old and weak women and children in our rear army brigade, once we arrive here, it will be difficult to quickly withdraw to the grassland, whether to surround the Central Plains barbarians on the mountain for a long time, Ben Khan has to think carefully before making a decision." ”

It was also a coincidence that when the nobles of the Huns were disappointed, there was a sudden sound of dense horses' hooves and shouts in the distance, and then it didn't take long for a guard to gallop to the front of Mao Dun and reported: "Qi Great Khan, the barbarians of the Central Plains suddenly arranged for two cavalry to go down the mountain, and rushed to the north and south directions respectively, but fortunately, our cavalry found it in time and had already split up to catch up. ”

"Pursue with all your might, and don't let anyone go!" Mao Dun decisively ordered: "Even if the barbarians of the Central Plains who go down the mountain are dead, they must bring their corpses back." ”

The Hun cavalry is indeed good, when the sky is light, the two Han army messengers who went down the mountain to deliver the letter were brought back to Mao Dun one after another, one of the messengers has been killed by the Hun cavalry, the other is seriously wounded, and the letters on their bodies have also been searched, and they are directly presented to Mao Dun without hesitation, and immediately let the leading party under the command of Zang Tu come forward to interrogate the seriously injured Han army messenger, and let Zhang Sheng, who is proficient in Chinese and Xiongnu, translate Li Zuoche's letter into Xiongnu and read it carefully to himself.

The content of the letter and the results of the interrogation of course made Mao Dun overjoyed, and learned that Li Zuoche was actually asking for help from the defenders of Ma Yi and Shanwu, and ordered Xiang Zhuang and Nie Zheng to send troops to rescue the trapped Han army, Mao Dun immediately slapped his thigh and said: "Good opportunity, immediately send an order down, from now on, if the Central Plains barbarians send messengers down the mountain again, they must no longer intercept them with all their might, and deliberately let them go if they pretend a little." Also, give an order to King Zuo Xian, asking him to lead the rear army brigade here to reinforce us. ”

"Great Khan, this place is too close to the hinterland of the Central Plains." Zang Di hurriedly reminded.

"It's okay, it's not dangerous." Mao Dun said with a cruel smile: "If the main force of the Central Plains barbarians is really coming to this side, Li Zuoche Barbarian will definitely not desperately order Shanwu and Ma Yi to send troops to save him from breaking through, since Li Zuoche Barbarian has done this, it proves that he knows that he can't count on the main force of the Central Plains Barbarian, even if our rear army brigade comes here, there will be no danger." ”

Zang Di thought about it carefully and found that this was also the case, so he also closed his mouth and said no more, while Mao Dun urged the guards to send someone to contact King Zuo Xian as soon as possible, while rubbing his hands excitedly, and said in a loud voice: "God bless, the opportunity has come, as long as we eliminate the Central Plains barbarians of Shanwu and Ma Yi in the field battle, it will be much easier to take these two cities." ”

In this way, in the case of having an absolute mobile advantage, the Xiongnu army gave up its shortcomings and learned from its strengths, and did not continue to attack other cities of the Han army in Yanmen County, and chose to surround Bantianling on all sides, trapping more than 10,000 Han soldiers on the mountain, and then it was not as expected by Mao Dun, the next night, Li Zuoche really sent two dead soldiers down the mountain secretly, and rushed to Ma Yi and Shanwu respectively to ask for help from the defenders there, and the Hun cavalry also strictly followed Mao Dun's orders, just pretending to send troops to intercept and pursue, In fact, the two messengers were deliberately let go.

Although the Han soldiers trapped in the mountains had dry food to eat and could take snow and water on the spot, they were not affected in terms of diet for the time being, but because the camp tent was basically lost, most of the Han soldiers could only sleep in the ice and snow, and the situation of freezing to death and frostbite was quite serious. Although the situation of the Hun soldiers who used animal fur as clothes was much better in this regard, they were not good at attacking fortifications, and they were not sure that they could directly annihilate the Han army on the mountain defending the danger by relying on a strong attack, and at the same time they had to always guard against the breakthrough of the Han army and the arrival of the Han army's rescuers, so they had to be vigilant at all times, and they were also tossed quite hard.

A few days later, when King Zuo Xian led a brigade of more than 350,000 Xiongnu rear army to arrive near Bantianling, although the Xiongnu old and weak women and children, cattle and sheep and livestock who went south with the army immediately solved the problem that the Xiongnu elite front team had been able to rely on dried meat to satisfy their hunger, and also provided Mao Dun with sufficient troops available. However, the Shanwu defenders and the Mayi defenders, who were only sixty or seventy miles away, had not moved, and there was no sign of sending troops to rescue Li Zuoche.

In this regard, Zang Di, who was familiar with the situation of the Han army, analyzed two possibilities for Mao Dun, the first is that Xiang Zhuang and Nie Zheng knew that they were not the opponents of the Xiongnu army, and they did not dare to touch the stones with eggs, so even if they received Li Zuoche's request for help, they did not dare to send troops to die in vain. The second is that the military situation of the Han army has changed, and a large number of Han troops are coming, so Xiang Zhuang and Nie Zheng are not in a hurry to send troops to save Li Zuoche.

Mao Dun nodded, first recognized Zang Di's analysis, and then frowned and said: "If it is the first one, it may be easy to do, as long as we encircle it for a period of time, and wait for the Central Plains barbarians on the mountain to eat up the food, we can completely annihilate the barbarian army without attacking the mountain." But if it is the second trouble, if it is delayed for a long time, and the main force of the barbarians arrives, we will be in great danger. How do you think this should be resolved? ”

"Back to the Great Khan, two ways." Zang Di immediately replied: "First, take the initiative to give up the siege of the mountain and take the army to fight other places. Second, forcibly attack the mountain and strive to directly annihilate the tyrant army on the mountain. ”

In order to annihilate Li Zuoche's headquarters and encircle the point to send reinforcements, Mao Dun not only wasted several days, but also pulled the rear army brigade in charge of logistics to the Bantianling battlefield, telling him to give up the siege of the mountain now. As a result, in a dilemma, Mao Dun suddenly had an idea and blurted out: "There is a way." ”

"What's the Khan's plan?"

Zang Di, who had learned a lot of Xiongnu language, hurriedly asked directly, but after Mao Dun quickly told Zang Di about his plan, Zang Di was also overjoyed, applauded and said: "Great Khan's clever plan, this will not only definitely deceive the tyrant army on the mountain down the mountain, but even if it fails, it can also prove that the tyrant army has a large number of rescuers about to arrive, so that we can take precautions in advance and prepare early." Please rest assured, His Majesty will go to prepare and keep the army of tyrants to go down the mountain! ”

…………

It was night, the heavy snow flew again, the snowflakes were fluttering, it was difficult to see the five fingers of the hand, at the time of the third watch, the snowflakes in the direction of the south of the Mayi suddenly shouted and killed, countless torches rushed towards the direction of Bantianling, the Hun cavalry hurriedly dispatched to intercept, the Han army sentry on the top of the mountain also quickly reported the news to Li Zuoche's face, Li Zuoche did not dare to slack off when he heard the report, and hurriedly rushed to the south to check the situation in his clothes.

Immediately after, of course, the deputy Xiang Guan also rushed to Li Zuoche's side, and checked the situation under the mountain with Li Zuoche, but saw the torches in the wind and snow in the south, Xiang Guan was immediately overjoyed, and blurted out: "The reinforcements led by His Majesty himself are coming?" ”

"Impossible!" Li Zuoche immediately shook his head and denied it, and said, "Today is only December 13, and it is impossible for the reinforcements personally led by His Majesty to arrive here so quickly." ”

"Whose army is that?" Xiang Guan was stunned at first, and then exclaimed, "Could it be Nie Zheng's army?" That Erlenzi forgot his agreement with Guangwujun and you, and was worried about our safety, so he really sent troops to save us? ”

"Impossible." Li Zuoche shook his head again and said: "Let's not say that Nie Zheng has a cautious personality and will not take risks easily, when he set off, I also told him again and again, telling him that no matter what happens, he can't risk sending troops north from the important town of Mayi." ”

"Not Nie Zheng? It's not an army under the personal command of His Majesty, so whose army is it? Xiang Guan asked suspiciously.

"Most likely, it was our army pretended by the Huns." Li Zuoche came to a conclusion and said: "The Xiongnu arranged for the army to carry the banner of our Han army, pretending to be our Han army, and deliberately rushed to meet us in the middle of the night to break through. ”

"The Huns are so cunning?" Xiang Guan said with some difficulty.

"Forget how that barbarian in Maodun deceived the Donghu people in the first place?" Li Zuoche sneered and said: "The Donghu people want a BMW, he gives it, the Donghu people want his beautiful wife and concubine, and he also gives it away with both hands, after deceiving the Donghu people to take it lightly, he suddenly sent troops to attack and killed Donghu in one fell swoop." With his ability, it is not difficult to come up with such a strategy. ”

"Then we can't be fooled." Xiang Guan hurriedly said: "Just stand still on the mountain, and let those fake Han troops act under the mountain." ”

Li Zuoche didn't say anything this time, and after thinking carefully for a while, Li Zuoche suddenly said to Xiang Guan: "General Xiang Guan, there is a very risky task to be handed over to you, I want you to lead the cavalry down the mountain now, rush to the south to contact those fake Han troops, and then pretend to quickly recognize them as fakes, and immediately take the cavalry back to the mountain." ”

"Why?" Xiang Guan asked in surprise: "If the Huns had been prepared, even if the last general turned around and killed him immediately, our cavalry would definitely have suffered heavy casualties?" ”

"Because the Huns did this, not only to trick us into going down the mountain, but also to test our false and real intentions." Li Zuoche said with a serious expression: "If we hadn't deliberately fallen for the trick, with the shrewdness of the barbarians, we would definitely have guessed that we had known that there would be no reinforcements arriving earlier, and then guessed that we were deliberately surrounded by him, so as to buy time for our main Han force to go north for a decisive battle, and flee to the north in advance." So for the sake of our Majesty's plan for a decisive battle, you must venture down the mountain with cavalry and pretend to be a trick! Do you understand? ”

After all, he was Xiang Kang's cousin, even if he knew that it was extremely dangerous to do so, and he was very likely to die, Xiang Guan still immediately clenched his fists and said loudly: "The last general understands, please rest assured that Guangwujun will immediately take the cavalry down the mountain." ”

Li Zuoche nodded, and said: "Remember, even if it is really our army that comes down from the mountain, and it is really the rescue soldiers that Nie Zheng risked out, you have to pretend to misunderstand that they are fake, and immediately take the cavalry back to the mountain." If nothing else, within three to five days, our main force will be able to cross the Juzhu Mountain and go north to the vicinity of Mayi, and there is no need for us to rush to break through. ”