(a)

By the time you return to the grasslands, the weather has gotten colder.

Your horse team made their way north in the cold wind of hunting and reaching the Han army base camp on the north shore of Lake Drew.

The middle and senior generals of the Han army led by Yang Biao are already waiting for you outside the camp gate. See your horse team galloping from afar, and all the generals dismount. As you approached the base camp, the whole army erupted in an earth-shattering cheer of "Long live the general".

Hearing this familiar voice, your eyes moisten a little.

Yang Biao came up, you also dismounted, and you approached each other again. You looked at each other for a moment. Then you hugged each other tightly.

Yang Biao said: "Seeing the general recover, the whole army is very pleased. ”

You say, "You guys are playing well on the northern front." King Han was very satisfied. ”

(b)

On the morning of your return to the base camp of the Northern Front, you convened a military meeting of all the generals of the Northern Front.

You gave a brief account of the situation on the Southern Front and the future battle plan.

Yang Biao reported to you on the situation on the northern front.

At noon, you invited the chiefs of the various ministries to a banquet, and everyone reunited after farewell, and the atmosphere was warm.

After the meal, you invite Yang Biao to go out for a walk.

You and Yang Biao walk side by side along the shores of Lake Drew.

The guards lead your horses and follow you from a distance.

Yang Biao looks at your legs. He said, "What? After all these days, hasn't the general's leg injury fully recovered? ”

You say, "This is incurable." That's probably the case for the rest of the day. ”

You said to Yang Biao: "Look at the battle report, you also hung up the lottery in the battle?" ”

Yang Biao said: "It's okay. It's just a little bit of flesh and skin, and it's almost all healed. ”

(c)

Yang Biao said: "The general did not enter the city after passing through Yunzhou twice, and hurried back from the southern line. ”

You say, "Yes." Judging from the battle report, the progress of the establishment of your winter camp on the northern front is too slow. The weather will be cold right away. Without winter camps, it was difficult for the Han army to survive the winter on the steppe. Are you experiencing any difficulties? ”

So, Yang Biao asked you the question that made him feel difficult in the establishment of the winter camp. This is also an issue that Liu Shen expressed concern about at the Yangquan meeting.

Before you, the Han army had never penetrated so far into the enemy's territory, and had never dreamed of spending the winter in the middle of the steppe, so naturally there were no such problems.

While you were recuperating in Yangquan and commanding operations on the southern front, Yang Biao was ordered to set up a winter camp in the Dru Lake area, where water was abundant and the climate was relatively warm. He sent a request to the state capitals of the Northern Han border passes to collect grain, grass and winter clothing, and soon after, the first transport army sent by the Northern Han Dynasty set foot on the grassland where the temperature was getting colder and colder.

The Northern Han army, which was stationed at various checkpoints in the country, sent a large number of horse teams to escort this transport army along the way. However, before reaching the base camp, they were repeatedly outflanked and attacked by the Bejima team.

The Beji people took advantage of their familiarity with the terrain to attack transport convoys on the long supply line of hundreds of miles from the Northern Han checkpoint to the winter camp. When the transport team finally joined Yang Biao's troops, who had come to meet them, the losses of the escort troops were not light, and nearly half of the materials transported were also lost.

Since then, the two sides have carried out many rounds of repeated struggles around the issue of defending and cutting off the supply lines of the Han army.

When Yang Biao threw his forces into finding and fighting the nearby harassing Beji, the Beji suddenly attacked a large winter material storage site set up by the Han army on the grassland. After the Beji attack was successful, they killed all the Han soldiers defending the place and lit a raging fire there.

As the climate continued to get colder, the Han cavalry showed more and more disadvantages in field combat in cold weather. Many soldiers began to suffer from frostbite on their hands and feet, which affected their ability to fight, and some troops suffered from collective diarrhea and stomach typhoid fever because they could not adapt to the harsh life of chewing raw ice.

The horses of the Han army are not as good as the war horses of the Beji people can adapt to the winter weather of the grassland, and in the case of more and more frozen soil on the grassland and less and less grass, the horses of the Han army are obviously not as hungry and hard-working as the war horses of the Beji people.

So, by the time you return to the northern front, the Han army has already begun to lose ground in the dispute between the two sides over supply lines and storage sites. This affected the stability of the Han army's presence throughout the winter. Whether the Han army could persist in spending the entire winter in the southern part of the grassland was very important for the Northern Han to achieve long-term occupation of this area.

(iv)

Yang Biao explained to you in detail the various unsatisfactory performances of the Han army in the winter field battles. He believed that because of the national way of life, the Han army could not cope well with the living environment of spending the winter in the wild. He felt that the best way to solve this problem was to build a fortress on the grassland.

Yang Biao hoped to build more than 10 small fortresses along the supply line from the Han army's winter camp to the Northern Han checkpoint. The Han army could be stationed in these cities, waiting for work to meet and defend the convoy station by station, and the supply line could be reduced from a long length of hundreds of miles to tens of miles per station. The scattered stationing of the Han army can also alleviate the difficulty and defensive pressure that materials must be stored in the field on a large scale.

The most important thing is that the existence of the city wall can effectively withstand the increasingly biting cold wind on the grassland and the rapid onslaught of the Beji people, so that the Han army can live in its familiar combat environment again.

But Yang Biao didn't know how to build so many fortified cities in the Dru Lake area, which was relatively lacking in tall trees and hard enough rocks.

Yang Biao hesitated whether the whole army had to endure the losses and insisted on spending the winter in the southern part of the grassland.

You say, "Absolutely." Holding on is not necessary to win a war. However, for the Han king to establish a new state, and to eradicate the long-term northern border troubles of the Han land, our perseverance was very necessary. ”

Yang Biao said that if all the materials for the construction of the fortress were transported from the territory of the Northern Han Dynasty, at least 100,000 migrant workers would need to be sent to the prefectures and counties along the route. Moreover, the enemy will certainly not sit idly by and watch such transports. The fighting between the two sides will become more brutal. The losses of cavalry and horses may outweigh the benefits of holding on to the Begi steppe. Also, if the northern front is still fighting a large scale during the winter, you won't be able to send more troops to reinforce the southern front.

You say, "That's why I'm inviting you to come and take a walk with us today." These forts can be built. Materials, right in front of your eyes. ”

Yang Biao looked at you in bewilderment.

You point to Lake Drew, which is beginning to freeze in the cold wind.

You say, "It's right there." ”

You look at Yang Biao, you smile and say, "We use ice." ”