The vast northern prairie has nurtured the growth of thousands of living beings, as well as endless ambition and greedy desires.

After the siege of Mayi, the 100,000 gathered Hun cavalry returned in vain, and after that, it was a difficult spring.

It's really hard! At the turn of spring and summer, when there was a great drought, the tribes had to migrate in order to survive, and the conflicts over the water and meadows did not know how many times there had been.

There are so many resources on the grassland, and the population of the Xiongnu tribes is multiplying day by day, and there is no way to ensure the survival of their own ethnic groups, and they compete with each other.

The neighbors to the south have also strengthened their vigilance since the last time, and it is difficult to achieve results in the previous situation where small groups of cavalry could suddenly attack.

The Huns are like those hungry wolves on the steppe, looking for everything to survive. At this time, even if there is a glimmer of hope, they will try their best to fight for it.

Da Dan Yu Yi is young, and the crown obtained by bloody means is a little heavy. For the sake of the survival of the people of the grassland, and in order to maintain his own majesty, Yi Zhiyi did not hesitate to launch several foreign wars, pouring out the anger of the entire grassland on the heads of several small neighbors in the west.

Four or five small ethnic groups were wiped out under the iron hooves of the Hun cavalry, the scimitars were shining, the chickens and dogs were not left, and the yellow sand was buried in the bones, leaving no traces.

Such plundering can only delay the crisis, and these small countries are too scarce in resources. If you want to get more nutrients, you still need to go to your neighbor to the south, and only then can you get endless wealth.

Therefore, a few days ago, when a team of envoys sent by the Han royal family, the feudal prince, brought the news of secret cooperation, Yi Zhixie was overjoyed. This Huainan prince had cooperated with the grassland several times before, but with the death of Lao Shan Yu, the original relationship was terminated.

Since Yi Zhixie ascended the throne, this is the first time Huainan has come to contact. This line must be grasped, whether it is for the current predicament faced by the grassland royal court, or for the future invasion of the neighbors of the Han Dynasty, it is of great significance.

The envoy of the king of Huainan was a man of eloquent speech, who not only brought full sincerity of cooperation, but also brought to Da Danyu and his people, the rice millet, cotton cloth, salt, and a large number of daily necessities.

This kind of gift of a long drought and a rain made the ministers of the royal court extremely excited, looking at these things of the Southern Dynasty, and reminded them of the days when they had plundered horses and had them at their fingertips, and the desire in their hearts made everyone want to move.

Da Shan Yu convened a meeting of the tribal kings and announced his decision to invade the Han Dynasty again, and this time, his proposal was enthusiastically embraced. The last time Ma Yi's affair was remembered, in everyone's heart, as a shameful memory. The young emperor of the Southern Dynasty dared to use such a means to deceive the great Hun warriors, the lessons his ancestors had suffered, and they had to be repeated on him once, so that they knew that they were powerful!

With such a consensus, all the steppe tribes, after returning home, are vigorously preparing for it.

The nomads, who are all soldiers, have once again issued an all-staff mobilization order. In less than two months, the elite forces of the various tribes were gathered, and the troops were divided into three routes, attacking from the three directions of Yunzhong, Yuyang, and Yanmen.

In the original plan of the prince who laid out the world, the three places of northern Xinjiang, southern domain, and southwest Yi should be launched at the same time, and the war was raging, so that the imperial court could take advantage of the chaos, which was originally the most perfect situation.

It's a pity that people are not as good as heaven, and before the other two places were launched, Liu Shaoju, the prince of Wu, was eager for revenge, so he took the lead in encouraging Dongyue to raise troops.

On the grassland, due to the severe drought in spring, the tribes migrated and flowed in search of water, and the distance between them was too far. When Da Danyu ordered the assembly of troops and horses to be completed, the delay was longer, so there was a time difference.

What everyone didn't expect was that the war in the south had just been ignited and had not yet become a climate, so it was quickly extinguished, and even the elites of the Han Dynasty were not mobilized, but only the local troops stationed in Wu were used, and the territory of nearly two Fanbang countries was divided into the territory of the Han Dynasty, which made some people who heard the news very discouraged.

The elite of the Han army stationed in northern Xinjiang did not use a single soldier, breaking the original assumption. However, now there is no way to control so much, the iron hooves of the Huns have stepped out of the steppe again, this time, I hope they can make the noise as loud as possible.

Sure enough, the hungry wolves were the most terrible pack in the world, and the Huns launched an unprecedented and brutal attack on the towns and villages on the border of the Han Dynasty with the spirit of breaking the boat.

The Hun cavalry came and went like the wind, plundering and plundering, sometimes they gathered in large parts and slaughtered larger cities, and sometimes they were scattered into pieces, turning into small squads, wandering around and harassing, which caused the defenders of the Han Dynasty a great headache.

For a long time, the soldiers of the northern border of the Han Dynasty were afraid of the Huns, and after all, there was still existence. This is a magic obstacle that has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the generals since the siege of Emperor Gaozu Baideng.

This is not a question of courage or bravery, nor is it a question of fear or death, but an inevitable factor determined by the time, place, and people.

In recent years, the Han army has always taken a defensive posture, rarely stepping out of the Yanmen Pass to fight, let alone enter the grassland. The unfamiliarity of the terrain, the unadaptability of the climate, the gap between the horsepower...... And so on and so forth, and all of this is not something that can be changed in a day or two. What's more, before the siege of Mayi, the imperial court's attitude towards the Huns had always been ambiguous, which also led to the fact that the front-line soldiers could not formulate the most accurate strategic goals, and it was very difficult to achieve a victory.

The Han army on the frontier is naturally a good man. However, the long-inherited idea of half-guard and half-resistance has seriously limited their combat capability. Especially this time, no one expected that the offensive of the Huns would be so crazy, and as a result, in a very short time, they suffered heavy losses.

Yanmen Pass, which was attacked most frontally, the guard general Liu Gongyou fell into the strategy of the Xiongnu Zuo Dadu Governor to lure the enemy. The Huns first dispatched a small number of cavalry, killed people and set fire to the people, captured the people, and escorted the vast booty and prisoners not far from Yanmen Pass, Liu Gongyou really couldn't bear it, and rashly rushed forward, thinking that he could completely annihilate the enemy and save those border people of the Han Dynasty.

However, he was wrong. When he led the thousands of elites stationed at Yanmen Pass to cover the past with lightning speed, he found that at the foot of the mountain, there were already large groups of assembled Hun cavalry waiting quietly.

The result of the battle was tragic, the Han army lost nearly half of its men, Liu Gongyou was seriously wounded, and under the desperate cover of the remaining Han army, he fled back to Yanmen Pass in embarrassment.

The Hun cavalry then covered up and killed, trapped in Yanmen, tens of thousands of rockets were fired into the city, and the houses turned into a raging sea of fire. If it weren't for the deputy general Feng De, who desperately commanded the army and civilians to defend the city, Yanmen Pass would have almost been lost.

Rao is so, this time the loss is not light, more than ten border towns near Yanmen have been burned to rubble, this time it has really become flat, and the population and property have been plundered to the grassland. The Yanmen Gate at the forefront was broken, and when Liu Gongyou, who had half his life left, looked at the border city that he had guarded for several years, and became what it is today, he couldn't help but mourn in his heart, and a few mouthfuls of old blood spurted out, and he died of hatred.

Li Guang, the cavalry general who was in Youbeiping, was shocked when he heard the news, and did not dare to slack off, and entrusted the right Beiping to the deputy general, and he galloped in the starry night and came to Yanmen to preside over the overall situation.

The Huns, who had tasted the sweetness, did not retreat immediately as before, but continued to expand their gains, intending to make the situation in the north even more chaotic. After dozens of battles in a row, Li Guang personally went into battle in blood, and both sides suffered casualties on each other, and it was not easy to repel the Hun cavalry.

And Yuyang is not much better. The main commander of the town guarding Yuyang is the general Han Anguo of Zhenbei, who was also a general with great strategy when he was young, but later entered the court and became a civilian, from the right internal history to the imperial history doctor, and he can be regarded as a person with both civil and military skills.

It's just that he is too old, and his long-term officialdom career has worn off his edges and corners, and he has long lost his sharpness and become a good old man bureaucrat in the twilight.

He was also sent to Yuyang as the general of Zhenbei after the siege of Mayi last time, and temporarily guarded the fortress here. Originally, this was only a transitional position, and after the Xiongnu crisis was resolved, he should still be recalled to the court.

However, this General Han, don't look at the sleek and sophisticated work of an official, but he is still a good person on the whole. Especially for the suffering of the people, he has some compassion.

The spring drought in the north naturally did not escape Yuyang County. Han Anguo, who also served as a county guard and general, saw that a large area of civilian land was almost barren, and his heart was very unbearable. Since after the war, the garrison Han army was idle, so the Zhenbei general came up with a good idea.

Han Anguo divided his garrison into two parts, taking turns to help the people under his rule to settle the fields, carry water and irrigate seedlings, and the army and the people worked together to overcome this difficulty at the turn of spring and summer. In fact, his idea is still very good, but he uses it at the wrong time and not in the place.

As a result, although the people praised this old man as a good official, the relationship between the military and the people was greatly improved. However, there are advantages and disadvantages, and if the armament is abandoned and there is less training, the combat effectiveness will naturally decline significantly.

Therefore, in the face of the sudden arrival of the Hun cavalry, when the Yuyang defenders re-grasped their weapons, they found that their unfamiliar tactics and poor organizational skills had become their fatal flaws.

The Yuyang defenders were defeated, not only the fields that had been painstakingly trampled into wasteland by the Huns some time ago, but also the army's morale was defeated, and they no longer dared to go out of the city to fight against the Huns, so they could only watch them show off their might everywhere, burning, killing and looting.

Han Anguo, who was in his sixties, followed King Liang Xiao to fight against the rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms since he was in his prime, and made great contributions. Later, he entered the court, and as an important minister of the country, he planned and decided many major court affairs. It can be regarded as a generation of celebrities.

But today, he has felt shameless to face the Son of Heaven and Huanghuang Weiyang Palace, and he has no shame to enter Chang'an again.

These two places are so miserable, and the cloud side is also fighting very hard. Fortunately, the generals here were more cautious, and they did not dare to rush into the light of the rules, but they firmly guarded the defensive line, and no matter how the Huns burned and killed outside, they just held the city to the death, and they did not suffer too much loss.

When the documents of the three emergencies had not yet reached Chang'an. The beacons along the line had already lit up black smoke, and an ominous premonition rose in the hearts of everyone who saw it, and such a signal had been seen several times before. The Huns have done evil again!

Liu Che, the emperor in the Weiyang Palace, had just tasted the joy not long ago. Although the news of Nanxiyi has not yet arrived, the victorious team in the south has already begun to divide the division, escorting the prisoners on the way to Chang'an, and the prince of Nanyue who has entered the pledge also follows the team. Everything seemed to be perfect.

However, this is when the bad news came. Three fortresses are in an emergency, and the two lords will die! Tens of thousands of Xiongnu iron cavalry lingered, ready to attack the empty places of the border counties at any time. This kind of situation is very similar to the most serious invasion in the last years of Emperor Wen.

At that time, the Hun cavalry attacked in five ways, and the invasion was like fire, and the Han army everywhere could not be intercepted by fighting bitterly. One of the iron horsemen drove straight into the hot spring valley in the northwest of Chang'an, less than fifty miles away from the Han Emperor, and the situation can be described as extremely critical! Later, thanks to the dispatch of the elite whole army of the Xiliu Battalion, this group of Huns came to attack the cavalry.

Could it be that this time it will be such a bad situation? Liu Che's mood began to become heavy again. The death of the two generals is of course deplorable, however, a more grim reality is in front of us, there is no one in the Han army, and there is no talent who can be a general. Such a fact made him feel helpless.

Thinking of this, the emperor couldn't help but secretly scold the nobles who had become the souls of the sword. It's all to blame that these people have been in the army for many years, selling their official positions, installing the children of their cronies, and blocking the way of many good men!

Of course, it can't be said that there is no young talent, like the one of the Cao family and the one of the Li family, they are still good. However, although there are these good seedlings, their qualifications and experience are still too shallow, and they dare not put such a heavy burden on them!

If only Yuan Zhao were older...... Thinking of Yuan Zhao, the emperor suddenly seemed to have some hope in his heart. It's just that I haven't seen him for a few days since I last told him about teaching novelty. I don't know how he's preparing for that now.

His memo is still on Liu Che's desk, a detailed plan for the creation of a place for higher education. In Yuan Zhao's words, it is to run a university. "The way of the university is in Mingmingde, in being close to the people, and in stopping at perfection." Yes, the development of the Han Dynasty to this day has begun to show a prosperous atmosphere, and it is indeed necessary to establish such a venue for educating higher talents.

After reading the book, the emperor approved it without saying a word. and handed over this matter to Yuan Zhao to plan and prepare. As long as this kid wants to do something, no matter what he does, he will fully support it. Let him toss it, that kind of sharpness, I hope it will be maintained in him forever.

The smoke of the beacon fire from the north, Yuan Zhao, who was on Changle Plateau, naturally saw it. Time has changed, and it has reached the end of summer at this time, and the coolness of early autumn is faint. It is the time when the horses are fat, and the nomads in the north have come to the time for them to nourish their spirits and show off their might, right?

Yuan Zhao has been back to Changle Plateau for a long time. The bloody atmosphere of Chang'an City was too heavy, and he didn't want to stay there. In the past summer, homes were raided, murders were made, crimes were reckoned, and the world was revealed...... This kind of thing is repeating itself again and again.

Yuan Zhao has always been compassionate about the death of his kind, regardless of whether he is an enemy or a friend, or a good person or a bad person. The population of this era was not very large, and it was distributed over a vast land, and some of the wild lands had not yet been touched by human footprints. The undead are the best, so why not convert the criminals into labor? is like the group of Liuyun Gang prisoners who first helped him open up Changle Yuan.

It's just that he can't do anything about this kind of thing now. Since ancient times, the supreme authority of the Central Dynasty has been maintained by means of murder. "With the constitution of heaven in your mouth, you will decide life and death!" This sentence is not as simple as saying, it is explained by a surging sea of blood.

If I had such a right in the future, would I have made a different change? When he saw the scene of a murder in the execution ground, he had already made a decision in his heart.

Soon after the news of the victory in southern Xinjiang came, Yuan Zhao received a secret letter from Sima Xiangru. The letter told him that the situation in the southwest was actually under control, dividing, disintegrating, luring, and co-opting...... Each one is broken, the preliminary work has been completed, and now it is time to carry out the final blow to the tribal country ~ Min country led by it. As long as the most stubborn Min Kingdom is eliminated, this land in the southwest can be quickly pacified and the original plan can be completed.

Compared with Yan Zhu and the final army, Yuan Zhao is the most confident, but Sima Xiangru. The pacification of the southwestern countries should be a matter of course for him. Because he is a native of Bashu County, he is familiar with all the habits of those barbarian Yi people, and he has a deep reputation and connections in the local area. In the original history, when he did this, it was also very easy, not to mention that now he has his own guidance, and he can get twice the result with half the effort, without any problems.

It seems that this autumn, another way to make money can be paved again. Sugarcane can be transported by water, and the speed of shipbuilding must be accelerated, so as not to delay their own sugar industry!

As for the smoke and dust of the beacon fire in the north...... Yuan Zhao watched for a long time, turned his horse's head, and headed towards the garrison in the northeast corner of Changle Plateau.

"Wei Qing, your time has finally come, lead your men and sisters to go, and start ...... this time!"