At the moment of life and death, when the fate of the race was decided, the nomadic peoples of the steppe abandoned their previous grievances and gradually united.

They can't be blamed for this, because Gao Shun wants to exterminate all the nomads, and they have been frightened and have to do so.

Although Gao Shun and the others slowed down the pace of the attack, the killing continued, and those tribes that did not have time to make peace with the large army were easily wiped out; Everyone was killed, all the cattle and sheep were killed, and everything that could not be taken was burned.

The countries of the Western Regions received the news from Gao Wei and immediately prepared for war; They didn't want to attack, they just wanted to protect themselves, and it was a fluke not to be raided by the steppe nomads.

In the vast steppes of the north, there are many nomadic peoples, and after uniting with each other, they have formed a powerful army.

The most powerful were the Huns, who moved westward and returned to make peace with the Northern Huns, with a force of more than 200,000 troops; After the Xianbei people were defeated by the Han people, some of the Xiongnu tribes who originally belonged to the Xianbei people moved westward and returned to the rule of the Northern Xiongnu, and a large number of Ding Ling people and the Southern Xiongnu who fled west joined, making the strength of the Northern Xiongnu much stronger than in history, grazing in the eastern Altai Mountains, and gradually expanding their territory to the west.

The second is the Xianbei people, who also organized an army of more than 100,000 after absorbing the tribe of the Ding Ling people. The largest tribe in Xianbei is the Tuoba tribe, they did not go south and escaped the killing of the Han people, preserved their strength, and made mistakes, until the Han people retreated, they came out of the Xianbei Mountain, and constantly took in the scattered Xianbei people, the weak Xianbei tribe, and gradually became stronger.

The leader was Tuoba Liwei, and when they occupied the blank area of Mobei, he changed the tradition of the steppe tribes going south to raid in the past, and sent people to pay tribute to the Wei State, hoping to carry out trade, but the Wei State did not send troops to eliminate them, so that they got the opportunity for decades of development and gradually became stronger.

There are also the Jiankun people, who organized an army of more than 30,000; The pastures of Jiankun are quite vast, and they have occupied the very vast pastures of the Yenisei River valley, and live a nomadic life of hunting; There is also a certain amount of agriculture and handicrafts, and handicrafts are exquisitely made; It has economic and cultural ties with neighboring ethnic groups, and the economy and culture of the Han nationality have a significant impact on Jiankun.

During this period, the Jiankun people began to use bronze, iron, wood, pottery, and leather products; In addition to daily necessities, there are agricultural tools, weapons, etc., especially from the exquisite arts and crafts patterns on the utensils, it can be seen that the Jiankun people have high craftsmanship skills at that time.

Li Ling of the Han Dynasty served as the right king of the Jiankun region for a long time, and his descendants were integrated into the Jiankun people; In addition, the descendants of the Han Wang Zhaojun were also integrated into the Jiankun people.

The Kushan Empire had many remaining soldiers and horses, with an army of more than 80,000 men, but King Capunada was already frightened by the Han Chinese.

Together with other tribes, large and small, the nomads of the steppe amassed an army of nearly half a million men.

Of course, there are many tribes that are interested in the Han people, such as the Ding Ling people. Ding Lingren was not massacred by the Han Chinese, and later paid tribute to the Han people and conducted limited trade with the Han people, so he did not have a bad impression of the Han people.

Now the Han people come to the grassland to exterminate the nomads, in their eyes is a good opportunity, first, with the help of the Han people, they can use the power of the Han people to eliminate the Xiongnu, Xianbei and other ethnic groups that are stronger than them, so that they can avoid the fate of enslavement; Secondly, after making good friends with the Han people, after exterminating many tribes, the Ding Ling people can gain a broader space for development.

But now they are enslaved by the Xianbei people, so they dare not directly join the Han people, so they can only think of other ways.

After Gao Shun and others crossed the Kazakh steppe and entered the West Siberian plain, they were repeatedly blocked by nomadic cavalry, who hoped to delay time, as long as winter came, these Han troops would be trapped and killed in the steppe.

Their tribesmen moved to the southern mountains and deployed along the river valleys, only holding on and not fighting, hoping that the Han army would attack, so that they could strike with the superior terrain.

In view of this situation, Gao Shun did not want to attack the mountainous area, which would suffer heavy casualties, so he sent Li Qiang, Zhao Xiong, and Zhou Fei south from the Kazakh steppe, through the Wusun Kingdom, to Dongjimi, where the later Urumqi was located, where the Wei State had built the Great Han City, and the eastern Yiwu City, where the two places were reclaimed and garrisoned, blocking the route for the nomads to flee to the southwest, and having a large army stationed there, it could also stabilize the confidence of the Western Regions countries, preventing them from uniting with the nomads, or secretly providing support.

Li Qiang and the others took a total of 30,000 troops, and the rings of the three of them were filled with enough supplies for the army to consume for two years.

Sure enough, Wusun Guo saw that the Han soldiers were strong and strong, and they dared to divide their troops at this time, which showed that the strength was stronger and strengthened their idea of following the Han people.

The Dadu Protector of the Western Regions Metropolitan Protector was overjoyed when he learned that the Han cavalry had arrived, which strengthened his determination to resist, so he actively contacted the countries north and south of the Tianshan Mountains to defend in various dangerous places.

The heavy troops of southern Xinjiang were gathered at the Tiemen Pass to prevent the enemy from moving south; The troops of the eastern frontier were deployed along the passes and cities of the Tianshan Mountains.

Gao Shun and others had less than 20,000 cavalry on the surface; Before the decisive moment, he did not want to release too many cavalry in order to confuse the nomadic coalition army, but also to reduce attrition.

The Siberian Plain was previously the pastoral area of the Jiankun people, and the Sayan Mountains were the pastoral area of the Ding Ling people, but now their territory is either threatened by the Han Chinese or has become the garrison of the nomadic coalition army, and their people, livestock and pastures are looted and seized, and their hearts are even more unhappy.

When winter comes, the life of the nomads is even more difficult, not to mention dragging down the Han people, they themselves will be dragged down, so many people are concentrated in several river valleys, and there is an extreme shortage of materials.

Therefore, the tribes and troops of the Ding Ling people first approached the pastures of the Jiankun people in the northeast, hoping to be with the Jiankun people; In order to enhance their strength, the Jiankun people did not refuse.

The Xiongnu and Xianbei saw that Ding Ling took the initiative to give up the pastures and were still deployed in the east, and had no tendency to surrender to the Han Chinese, so they acquiesced in their migration.

The Jiankun people and the Ding Ling people had a good impression of the Han people, and after they united, they tested each other, and finally reached a consensus, so they sent personnel to contact the Han army, wanting to defect to the Han people.

The Jiankun and Dingling people are both white people, and they have a natural affinity with each other, which makes it easier to unite with the Xiongnu and Xianbei people.

Winter arrives, and the Siberian plain is very cold, reaching tens of degrees below zero.

The confrontation chosen by the nomads was exactly what Gao Shun and others wanted, so they stationed on the spot, built tall cities, built houses and horse sheds, all built with large stones, covered with thatch, and then splashed with water to form a layer of ice, impermeable; A fire tunnel was set up under the house, a fire kang was built on the ground, and there was a fire tunnel in the stable.

There is no shortage of tall trees here, and it is very convenient to cut them down to make a fire.

The cattle and sheep of the Otsuki clan that were slaughtered before became a good food for the officers and soldiers to replenish their physical strength in winter.

Before the arrival of winter, the Wusun people came to sacrifice the army and befriend the Han people; When they saw the tall building completed by the Han people in a short period of time, they were extremely shocked.

Gao Shun gave them 10,000 gold coins and told them to go back to rearm themselves for war, and never allow the Huns and Xianbei to escape from their territory.

The envoy of Wusun readily agreed.

Gao Shun felt that the coming winter confrontation would be very beneficial to him, and he estimated that after the cold winter, the nomadic army and tribesmen would be left with at most half of them.

For the Jiankun and Ding Ling, Gao Shun promised them that as long as they did not go to war, they would be allowed to continue grazing in the area after the war; Ding Lingren confessed to Gao Shun and was convinced of Gao Shun's promise.

At this time, the army led by Gao Wei had arrived in Luoyang and conveyed Gao Shun's will that they only needed to defend the border and avoid barbarian raids, and they did not need to fight.

Emperor Gao Hongtao immediately ordered the border states and counties to reorganize their armies and defend them.