The Xiongnu Zuo Xian Wang, who quietly sent people to negotiate with the Han army, is Mao Dun's half-brother, although he is a brother, but Zuo Xian Wang has always been afraid of Mao Dun's brother, and at the same time Zuo Xian Wang is also very clear that if this matter is known by Mao Dun, then Mao Dun, who can personally kill his father, stepmother and younger brother, will definitely not spare himself, so Zuo Xian Wang was so nervous that night that he didn't sleep well, he was afraid that he would leak the news, and Mao Dun heard the wind and asked him to settle accounts.

Fortunately, the sky was just dawning, when King Zuo Xian was still having breakfast, the guards outside came in to report, saying that the envoy had successfully returned to the Hun camp, and was not discovered by the people who had taken on the occasion during the period. Did the barbarian emperor promise me the conditions? ”

The envoy's expression was obviously a little wrong, and he replied hesitantly: "Returning to the king, the barbarian emperor refused to accept the conditions we offered, and he made another condition, asking the king to help him do one thing, saying that as long as the king you help him to complete this matter, he will promise to release our people and return to the grassland, and from now on not only will they live in peace with us and not invade each other, but they will also open the border ban and sell us grain, salt and cloth at low prices." ”

"Is this a good thing?" King Zuoxian, who didn't dare to put forward this condition, was extremely surprised when he heard this, and hurriedly asked, "What does the barbarian emperor want this king to do for him?" ”

The envoy looked hesitant and hesitated and said, "Great King, don't be surprised to hear this, the Barbarian Emperor wants you to join forces with the Right Xian King to kill our Great Khan and divide the grassland equally." ”

"What?" King Zuo Xian's surprise was not trivial, and he said in surprise: "The barbarian emperor wants this king and the right Xian king to kill the Great Khan together, and then divide the grassland equally?" ”

The envoy nodded, then took out another letter, and said: "This is a letter written by the Barbarian Emperor to King Youxian, and I heard him tell the king that you have also quietly concluded an alliance with the Central Plains army, so that King Youxian can rest assured that he will join forces with you to kill our Great Khan." ”

King Zuoxian, who barely knew a few Chinese characters, hurriedly grabbed the letter, and seeing that the content on the letter seemed to be the same as the envoy's dictation, King Zuo Xian couldn't help but be even more surprised, and blurted out: "Could it be that King Youxian has really quietly concluded an alliance with the barbarian army, and is ready to kill the Great Khan to divide our grassland?" ”

"Listening to the tone of the barbarian emperor, it seems to be like this." The envoy replied truthfully, and quickly added: "Also, the barbarian emperor also threatened that you can not accept the conditions he offered, but if you dare to give this letter to the Great Khan, he will kill all our people, and he will never let you go in the future." ”

King Zuoxian's face suddenly became extremely gloomy, and after thinking about it for a long time with a dark face, King Zuo Xian suddenly had an idea, and hurriedly instructed the envoy: "Quick, follow me to the Great Khan, give this letter to the Great Khan, and report your envoy to the Great Khan in person." ”

"King, you're not kidding, are you?" The envoy was taken aback and hurriedly said, "The barbarian emperor has threatened, saying that if you dare to hand over this letter to the Great Khan, he will never let our people go." ”

"If this king does not hand over this letter to the Great Khan, if the Great Khan makes up his mind to abandon our people and withdraw directly, will the barbarian emperor let our people go?" King Zuo Xian sneered very rationally and asked, and said with a sneer: "In this case, then we might as well take the initiative to tell the truth to the Great Khan, hand over this letter to the Great Khan, and show the Great Khan that this king is loyal to him, and then the Great Khan will consider the safety of our people for us, and will not listen to the bewitchment of King Youxian and throw our people to retreat directly." ”

The messenger woke up, and was busy praising the wisdom of King Zuoxian, who did not hesitate any longer, and quickly wiped his mouth and led the messenger directly to meet Mao Dun, and as soon as he saw Mao Dun, he fell to the ground and asked for guilt, and honestly said that he had sent the envoy to negotiate with the Han army privately, and Mao Dun was of course shocked and angry when he heard it, and said angrily: "King Zuo Xian, you are so bold!" Do you know what happens if you do this? With the cunning of the Central Plains people, they will definitely understand that we are already planning to abandon our people and retreat directly! The people of the Central Plains have prepared in advance, and the price we will pay when we retreat will definitely be greater! ”

"The elder brother forgives the sin, and the younger brother knows that he is wrong." King Zuo Xian hurriedly changed his title, and then paused and said: "But the junior brother also did this for the sake of our grassland people, and besides, the junior brother privately sent someone to contact the Emperor of the Central Plains this time, and inadvertently discovered an important situation, an important situation related to your life, brother!" ”

"What do you mean? Say it carefully! ”

Mao Dun immediately heard that something was wrong, and King Zuo Xian also presented a letter written by Xiang Kang to Mao Dun's other half-brother Xiongnu Youxian King, as well as the process of contacting Xiang Kang to Mao Dun, as well as the general content of the letter. ”

The guards went to find a translator according to the order, and Mao Dun hurriedly asked the envoy of King Zuo Xian about the details of the envoy, and the messenger of King Zuo Xian answered truthfully one by one, saying that Xiang Kang's tone was very much like King Right Xian had indeed betrayed Mao Dun, and Mao Dun, who had long been suspicious of King Youxian, inevitably had a gloomy face when he heard it, and then when the translator came to translate the letter into Xiongnu and recited it to Mao Dun, he heard that the content of the letter was indeed Xiang Kang to reassure King Youxian to believe in King Zuo Xian, Mao Dun was so angry that he slapped the case in front of him again, and roared angrily: "Someone, Go and call the Right Virtuous King to Ben Khan immediately! ”

The good show of the brothers' wall was soon staged, and in a moment, when the right virtuous king came to Mao Dun according to the order, Mao Dun split his head and covered his face, and directly threw Xiang Kang's letter on his face, asking him to explain, and then when the translator carefully recited the book to the right Xian Wang, of course, the right xian king was suddenly distracted, and quickly lay on the ground and paused his head, gambling and swearing that there would be no such thing, and scolded Xiang Kang for his shameless framing, Mao Dun roared and asked: "Then your tribe quietly does business with the Central Plains people, How do you explain the purchase of grain and salt from the Central Plains people at a low price? And how do you explain the fact that you quietly mobilized cattle and sheep, traded with the Central Plains people through the tribes on your frontier, and transferred them to Shan Yuting to earn a high price? ”

King Youxian froze, and only came back to his senses after a while, but he had to quickly pause and plead guilty, honestly admitting that he was greedy for profit, and indeed secretly connived at the secret trade between his tribes and the Han land, and swore an oath: "Great Khan, your subordinates are indeed sorry for you in this matter, but your subordinates are really loyal to you, and they definitely did not secretly collude with the Central Plains people to prepare to harm you." ”

"Then why are you desperately instigating the Great Khan to abandon our people and weaken the strength of our eastern steppe?" King Zuo Xian spoke, and said with a sneer: "According to the rules of our Shan Yuting, you are the second-ranked Shan Yu's heir, which has weakened me, King Zuo Xian, if there is any more accident in the Great Khan, Shan Yu's position is vacant, who else in the grassland can compete for you?" ”

"You ......, you talk nonsense!" King Youxian was completely anxious, and shouted with red eyes: "You are talking nonsense! I didn't mean that! I advised the Great Khan to withdraw his troops quickly, because I wanted to preserve our army, and definitely not to deliberately weaken you! ”

"Whether you mean that or not, only you know." King Zuo Xian sneered, then turned to Mao Dun and said: "Great Khan, for the sake of prudence, His Majesty suggests that it is best to temporarily withdraw the military power of the Right Xian King, and let the Right Gu Li King temporarily command the army of the Right Xian King, and then slowly investigate whether the Right Xian King has secretly betrayed you." ”

"You're dreaming!" King Youxian was furious, and hurriedly said to Mao Dun: "Brother, you must not listen to the nonsense of King Zuoxian!" In order to prove the innocence of the younger brother, the younger brother can hand over the military power, but now that the enemy is present, if I hand over the military power, once the king of the right valley cannot suppress the army under my command, the consequences will definitely be unimaginable. ”

At the moment of the great enemy, of course, the eloquent Mao Dun would not do the stupid thing of changing the commander in battle, but he continued to calculate with a gloomy face, and then it was a coincidence, at this time, a scout rushed in from outside the tent, and saluted Mao Dun and said: "Qi Great Khan, the barbarians of the Central Plains have sent a part of their army to the north, and they are hurrying towards our side. ”

"How many troops and horses were dispatched?" Mao Dun hurriedly asked, "Have you found out who the main general of the barbarian army is?" ”

"Back to the Great Khan, the Central Plains sent about 80,000 troops north." The scout gave an answer that surprised Mao Dun and the others very much, and then what surprised Mao Dun and the others even more was that the scout was so anxious to add: "The commander of the Central Plains army in the north is Xiang Kang, the emperor of the Central Plains!" ”

"The emperor of the Central Plains personally led his troops to the north, and only brought 80,000 troops?" The left and right Xian kings all suspected that their ears had heard it wrong, and then the left Xian king couldn't wait to ask, "Have you found out?" Is it really the emperor of the Central Plains who personally led 80,000 troops to the north? ”

"Back to the king, find out, it is indeed the emperor of the Central Plains." The scout replied truthfully: "The Emperor of the Central Plains is riding on a six-horse float flag, and he is still holding his dragon flag, it is absolutely impossible to make a mistake!" ”

The left and right Xian Wang was even more shocked when he heard this, and quickly turned his head to see Mao Dun's reaction, Mao Dun was extremely calm, and only after a moment did he ask: "How many cavalry did the Central Plains Emperor bring?" ”

"Back to the Great Khan, there are no cavalry." The scout immediately replied: "There are only a few thousand wagons, all of which are loaded with military weapons. ”

Mao Dun nodded slowly after thinking about it, and then ordered: "Continue to probe again, send more scouts, closely monitor the situation in the rear army camp of the Central Plains barbarians, and report to Ben Khan immediately if there is any movement." Again, blow the trumpet, raise the account, and gather all the generals to come here to discuss things. ”

After the order was delivered, the horn sounded immediately, and then it didn't take much time for the Xiongnu nobles who were part-time generals to rush to the Chinese army's tent to meet Mao Dun, Mao Dun was very calm, first patiently waited until the generals arrived, and then announced the situation that Xiang Kang personally led 80,000 troops to the north first, and the Xiongnu nobles were of course extremely surprised when they heard it, and they were all surprised and said: "The barbarian emperor is crazy? With more than 400,000 troops not needed, only such a small army to the north, what does he want to do? ”

"Quiet!" Mao Dun opened his mouth to drink, first stopped the noise of everyone, and then said extremely calmly: "The Central Plains Emperor is not crazy, on the contrary, he is still very cunning. He left the main army alone, and deliberately only led 80,000 troops to the north, with only one purpose, that is, to lure us to send troops to fight him, entangle our army, and then send his army to fight a full-scale decisive battle with us! ”

"If I'm not mistaken, the Barbarian Emperor must have guessed that we were going to retreat to avoid a decisive battle, so he deliberately took a risk, using himself as a bait to lure us into a decisive battle with him." Mao Dun said very calmly: "It's time to make a decision, you say, should we immediately withdraw our troops and retreat to the grassland?" Or seize this opportunity to fight this decisive battle with the Central Plains people? ”

Before Mao Dun's words fell, King Zuo Xian, who had a huge interest in it, couldn't wait to jump out, saluted Mao Dun and said: "Great Khan, your subordinates think that we should seize this opportunity to fight a decisive battle with the barbarians of the Central Plains, the barbarian emperor only brought 80,000 troops to the north, we only need to seize this opportunity to kill his front army, and also kill him himself, even if his rear army has more troops, it will only be a plate of scattered sand, and it is absolutely impossible to be our opponent!" ”

I already knew that King Zuo Xian would be the answer, and Mao Dun didn't pay attention to it, but turned his gaze to the second important minister of the Huns, King Youxian, who understood, and hurriedly thought in his heart: "What should I do?" Will this battle be fought? It should be fought, the barbarian emperor only brought 80,000 infantry to the north, and as long as our 300,000 iron cavalry seized the opportunity to kill him, the rest of the battle would definitely be easy to fight. And we are all cavalry, even if we can't kill the barbarian emperor, we can quickly retreat before the Central Plains army arrives. ”

Considering this, as well as Xiang Kang's repeated despicable frame-offs, as well as Mao Dun's suspicions about himself, the Right Xian King gritted his teeth and crossed his heart, and said to Mao Dun: "Great Khan, this battle should be fought, Bantian Ridge is more than fifty miles away from the barbarian camp, even if the barbarian receives the scout report and immediately sends troops, it will take at least half a day to reach Bantian Ridge, what we have is time to capture the barbarian emperor alive!" ”

Mao Dun nodded slowly, and somewhat eliminated some suspicions about the Right Xian King, and other Xiongnu nobles also echoed one after another, all of them thought that they should seize this opportunity to fight a decisive battle with the front army of the Han army, and strive to directly kill Xiang Kang in a decisive battle, Zang Di shouted in blunt Xiongnu language: "Great Khan, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, as long as you seize this opportunity to kill the tyrant Xiang Kang, the whole world will be yours." Our army is more than 300,000, even if one person spits on a mouthful of saliva, he can drown the tyrant Xiang Kang! ”

Uncle Zhou's plan to throw jade and lead bricks is really powerful, although he has seen Xiang Kang's shameless intentions at a glance, and he has always subconsciously wanted to escape this decisive battle, but considering the tempting consequences of directly killing Xiang Kang, the huge disparity in troops, and the subconscious hope of being able to protect all the people, Mao Dun finally made up his mind, and shouted with a hammer: "Fight!" Go all out to kill the Barbarian Emperor directly! ”

The Hun nobles who felt that they were sure to win were overjoyed when they heard this, and hurriedly took the initiative to invite Ying to serve as the forward, and took the initiative to go south to find a decisive battle with the front team of the Han army led by Xiang Kang himself. If the Barbarian Emperor wants to entangle us, he will definitely go directly north to the gate of our big camp, let our army stand in front of the camp, wait for work, and wait for the Barbarian Emperor to take the initiative to come to the door to die! ”

According to Mao Dun's order, more than 300,000 Hun troops quickly set out to assemble, in front of the army camp lined up a huge to almost terrifying battle formation, and the situation was reported to Xiang Kang by the Han army scouts, Chen Ping, who accompanied the battle, suggested that Xiang Kang immediately give Uncle Zhou an order, so that Uncle Zhou immediately led the main force of the rear army out of the camp to the north, but Xiang Kang shook his head and said: "Don't worry, wait until our army arrives in front of the Hun camp, the main force of the rear army is dispatched too early, if Mao Dun suddenly changes his mind and slips away directly, we will completely abandon our previous efforts." ”