Tao Qian saw the tears on Liu Bei's face, and thought in his heart that Liu Bei was really worried about his illness, so why was he worried about handing over the position of state pastor to him? And Liu Bei waited for two years, and finally heard Tao Qian's words again, and his heart was surging. However, Liu Bei held back.

Liu Bei's face did not change, he waved his hand again and again, and said, "Absolutely not!" How can his subordinates dare to occupy the position of state pastor? Please take a leave of absence and bring it up again. ”

Tao Qian sighed and said: "Cao Cao's army is approaching, Tao is sick, if Xuande Gong refuses to take the position of state pastor, then the people of the whole city ......"

Of course, Liu Bei couldn't accept Tao Qian's abdication now. Tao Qian's health has improved, and he can't wait to take over the position of state pastor, what will the other officials think? What will the military and civilians in Xuzhou think? Liu Bei doesn't have much capital, he must maintain his tall image in order to win more people's hearts. Therefore, Liu Bei will not take over Tao Qian's big seal no matter what, unless Tao Qian is already so sick that he can't get up.

However, Liu Bei will not let go of such a great opportunity, he said with a straight face: "The master is good to recuperate, the soldiers will come to the generals, the water will come to cover the earth, and the subordinates are willing to lead the troops to fight against Cao Cao!" This position of state pastor is absolutely unacceptable to his subordinates! ”

Tao Qian wanted to give in again, but Liu Bei refused to accept it. Tao Qian had no choice but to order Liu Bei to control the soldiers and horses of the whole state and meet Cao Cao.

Back in the mansion, Guan Yu asked puzzledly: "Big brother, since Tao Qian once again gave up the position of state pastor, why didn't the eldest brother take over the situation?" ”

Liu Bei shook his head and said, "It's not that simple, besides, I have military power now, does it make any difference whether I am a state pastor or not?" ”

Having said that, Liu Bei really started the preparation work, he arranged the 30,000 horses withdrawn from Langya to serve as the city defense in Xuzhou City, and transferred the soldiers who were originally stationed in Xuzhou City out of the city, and set up two camps ten miles away from the city, and Xuzhou became a horn. Liu Bei couldn't figure it out, with such a good opportunity, how could Liu Xin and Yuan Shao not move?

In such troubled times, if you want to obtain information in all aspects, you can't do without the secret spy team, and maintaining the operation of the secret spy requires huge financial support. Liu Bei didn't have that much money, and in terms of collecting intelligence, he had no other way than to send out some scouts, so naturally there was no way to know about the agreement between Liu Xin and Cao Cao.

In fact, even if he did not enter into this verbal agreement of mutual non-aggression with Cao Cao, Liu Xin would not take this opportunity to use troops against Cao Cao. This is not only because Liu Xin wants to use the two years to recuperate, but also because his focus is now on the border of Liangzhou.

Liu Xin will not be like someone in later generations, who will implement the policy of "first securing the inside before the outside". It's good to be able to calm down internally, and you can concentrate your efforts on the outside. However, in Liu Xin's view, the contradictions between him and the princes can only be regarded as internal contradictions within the nation, and there is time to deal with them slowly in the future. And Liu Xin knows that the biggest threat to the Han nation still comes from the vast grassland, from the Xiongnu in the Qin and Han dynasties, to the Xianbei later, and then to the Khitan, Jurchen, and Mongolia, it has always been a sharp sword hanging over the head of the Han nation.

The biggest advantage of the steppe tribes is that they grew up on horseback and are good at riding and archery, and the cavalry is the most powerful class of troops in this era, and there is no one. When Liu Xin first arrived in Jingzhou, due to the lack of war horses, he had no choice but to try his best to study the tactics of using infantry to deal with cavalry, and designed such effective weapons as horse swords, long knives and axes, and horse nails. However, all this can only be used for passive defense, and in the face of the super-mobility of the cavalry units, there is only a sigh of hope. Therefore, the best way to defeat the steppe tribes is to use cavalry against cavalry.

When he was in Hejian, Liu Xin wanted to build a strong cavalry, and made great efforts to develop and produce stirrups, horseshoes, and sabers, but he didn't have enough war horses. When I arrived in Xiangyang, the situation was still the same, it took several years of hard work to save less than 30,000 war horses, and there were many inferior horses in it. Now, in the battle of Dong Zhuo in the Northern Expedition, the captured war horses alone amounted to 150,000 or 60,000, all of which were good horses in the Xiliang area, which made it possible to expand the cavalry.

It's not enough to have a good horse, you must also have a good knight. At this time, the training center set up by Liu Xin in the western suburbs of Xiangyang came into play. In the past, although there was a shortage of horses, Liu Xin did not relax his training in mounted archery for a moment, and even ordinary infantry had about a month to practice mounted archery every year. Therefore, when enough horses were obtained, Liu Xin was soon able to form the Sixth Army Corps, which was purely cavalry, and expanded the cavalry of the First to Fifth Legions to varying degrees.

If someone thinks that Liu Xin suddenly has more than 100,000 excellent war horses, just like an upstart, and dares to launch a counterattack against the Xiongnu in this winter that is not suitable for using troops, it is a big mistake. The reason why Liu Xin chose to use troops against the Xiongnu at this time was not a simple decision to pat his head, but a deliberate decision.

It is now early winter, although there have been several snowfalls in the north, but Liu Xin can be sure that the snow is not heavy, otherwise those Xiongnu tribes would not be able to attack and disturb the border of Liangzhou. Since the Hun cavalry can haunt the snowfield, his cavalry must also be able to do it. Moreover, as soon as Liu Xin heard that the Xiongnu had invaded the border, he immediately made the decision to counterattack, precisely because he knew that in previous years, in the spring, the Xiongnu and other steppe nomads would invade the border on a large scale. He wants to deal a severe blow to the Xiongnu tribes this winter, and beat them to the heart, subduing them, and beating them into fear, so that by next spring, there will be far fewer tribes that still dare to offend the border, and the people on the border of Liangzhou will be able to live a relatively peaceful life, and it will be more convenient for him to win over the hearts of the people in Liangzhou and consolidate his rule in Liangzhou. As long as Liangzhou is stabilized, it will be much easier to rebuild the Western Regions Protectorate in the next step.

Liu Xin has always paid attention to the collection of intelligence in all aspects, and has a relatively detailed understanding of the hydrology and geography of the grassland, even without the guide provided by Yang Biao, he will not worry that his cavalry will get lost in the desert. Although these cavalry were not formed for a long time, the application of a large number of sophisticated equipment, such as stirrups, sabers, and cavalry-specific armor and bows and arrows, could completely offset the advantage of the Huns in being proficient in horse archery.

In addition to sophisticated equipment, Liu Xin also attached great importance to the application of cavalry tactics. In his memory, the most successful use of cavalry in the era of cold weapons was the Mongolian cavalry under the command of Genghis Khan. After these cavalry were formed, in addition to practicing cavalry and archery, they were practicing this kind of long-distance outflanking and detouring, dividing and attacking together.

With these points, what else is Liu Xin worried about? What's more, his dispatch this time was not a decisive battle with the large army of the Huns, but was preparing to deal a devastating blow to the camps inhabited by some Hun tribes. The Huns, who had always only known about plundering the Han people, would never have imagined that the Han people, who were full of benevolence and morality, would one day come to plunder their tribes. With preparedness and unpreparedness, Liu Xin naturally has no fear.

After the Southern Xiongnu annexed to the Han Dynasty, it has been placed in the Hetao area by the imperial court, and over the years, the Southern Xiongnu have defeated the Northern Xiongnu many times with the help of the strength of the Han Dynasty, and accepted a large number of Northern Xiongnu descendants, and their strength has increased greatly. However, this has also caused its tribal composition to become increasingly complex, internally unstable, and difficult to control.

In the fifth year of Zhongping, there was a big rebellion within the Southern Xiongnu, and they no longer recognized Yu Fuluo as the Xiongnu Shan Yu, and set up the Marquis of Xubu Gu as Shan Yu. In order to appease Yu Fuluo's people, the Marquis of Subu Gudu made Yu Fuluo's son Liu Bao the king of Zuoxian. However, the power of the Yufu Luo clan was strong, and Liu Bao gradually grasped the power of the Southern Xiongnu. At the beginning of the year, at the beginning of the year, by Dong Zhuo's recruitment, Liu Bao led 100,000 Hun cavalry to attack Guanzhong, but was defeated and returned, almost all the army was wiped out, and Liu Bao himself escaped by hiding in the mud and pretending to be dead. The Marquis of Xubu Gudu took the opportunity to regain control of the Xiongnu and started a great battle with Liu Bao, but was wounded by a stray arrow and died. As a result, Yu Fuluo was re-elected by the clansmen and became a Xiongnu Shan Yu again.

Liu Bao originally thought that as soon as the Marquis of Xubu Gu died, the position of Xiongnu Shan Yu would be his turn to sit, but as a result, because he lost his troops in the Central Plains, he lost the trust of his clansmen, and Shan Yu's position returned to his father's hands, so there was a secret dislike between the father and son. Although Yu Fuluo was old, he saw all this clearly, and in order to consolidate his position, after he returned to the throne, he appointed his younger brother Hu Chuquan as the right sage king, and fought against Liu Bao. However, after this scene, the entire Southern Xiongnu finally stabilized temporarily.

Since the spring, there have been 100,000 Xiongnu men who participated in the war between Dong Zhuo and Liu Xin, and the battle lasted for more than half a year, and as a result, less than 100 Hun cavalry fled back. Immediately afterwards, the Xiongnu themselves had another civil war, and they fought for more than two months, and only then did they just calm down.

Although the Xiongnu women were very capable, they were not only able to herd horses and herd, but also could ride horses and shoot arrows, and were able to share most of the work, but the ten-month war still made the life of the Huns more and more difficult, especially the onset of winter, which made it even more difficult for them.

In previous years, they would also raid the Han border, as if it were a routine. However, the Huns usually disturbed the border in the spring, when it was more suitable for cavalry operations. But this year, some tribes can't wait, the war has killed many men, not to mention cattle, sheep and horses, if they can't loot some supplies from the Han people, many people in the tribe will not survive this winter.

This time it was a small tribe that invaded the border of Liangzhou, and only sent out more than 800 cavalry in total, many of whom were only half-grown children. Taking advantage of the darkness of the night, they quietly crossed the border, stepped on ankle-deep snow, and raided a small village on the border of Liangzhou.