Almost at the same time that Liu Bao rushed to the Yufuluo tribe, Ma Chao also rushed to the tribe of Chiwule. Chi Wule knew Ma Chao, and was deeply impressed by Ma Chao's martial arts, and saw the Yehan tribe token that Hemur handed over to Ma Chao, so he couldn't help but believe it.

Knowing that Yehan was dead, his plan with Yehan must have been leaked, and Chiwule was even more determined to take refuge in the Han Dynasty and become a submissive citizen. And Ma Chao is the general of the Han Dynasty, that is the official of the Han Dynasty. Chiwule is a citizen, Ma Chao is an official, how dare he not listen to Ma Chao's words? Since Ma Chao said that he should "strike first", let's start first.

At that moment, Chiwul immediately arranged a few guides to lead Ma Chao's men and horses to the camp of Yufuluo, and he himself sent some people to the camp of Huchuquan to report the news, and sent people to the seventeen tribes such as Hemur whom he had contacted, asking them to send troops to gather here in advance.

Ma Chao did not refuse Chiwule's kindness to arrange a guide for him this time. Last time, he didn't need a guide because he was originally going to come to Chiul's tribe, and he had already made a certain understanding of the path here, but now he went to Yufuluo's tribe, but it was an unplanned operation, and having a guide to go with him could not only avoid a fork in the road, but also learn other important information about the Yuvro tribe.

There were pros and cons to everything, and the presence of a guide would certainly slow down the march of the whole team, because the snow was too deep for the horses to gallop quickly, and the speed was not much better than on foot. Although skis can increase speed, Ma Chao doesn't mind giving up a few pairs for the guide to use, but without special training, it is really not good to manipulate the play, and when the time comes, the speed is not mentioned, but a few guides are thrown to pieces, but the big thing is wrong.

Since the speed could not be fast, Ma Chao simply proposed to Chiwule to borrow some horses. The Xiongnu are a people who live on horseback, regardless of men, women and children have a superb riding skill, and there are naturally many good horses in the tribe of Chiul. But Ma Chao did not borrow these horses for riding. His subordinates also had a lot of cavalry, but the cavalry of the Han Dynasty were accustomed to war horses equipped with stirrups, and although they could also control these horses provided by Chiule, due to the level of horsemanship, the improvement of their combat effectiveness was not great. He asked for these horses from Chiul to be used as a means of carrying grain and grass.

This time, the Han army braved the heavy snow to enter the grassland, and the supplies they carried were the war preparation grain "invented" by Ma Yun - fried noodles, but the amount of fried noodles that each soldier could carry was limited. Because these fried noodles look inconspicuous, but they are very valuable, with Liu Xin's current economic strength, even if the soldiers can eat fried noodles every day, there is no need for this. Now, the speed of the march has slowed down, and the number of days of the march has also increased, and Ma Chao and the others are not enough to eat, so they need to buy grain and grass from Chiul.

The food of the nomads is those cattle and sheep, and if they march in peacetime, they will set off with the cattle and sheep, and slaughter the cattle and sheep when they are hungry. But now that the snow has covered the pastures, coupled with the severe cold climate, it is impossible to drive the cattle and sheep on the road together, so they can only slaughter a large number of cattle and sheep and set off with beef and mutton. However, cold weather also has the benefit of not worrying about these beef and lamb going bad.

The tribe of Chiul was only a small tribe, and it was still very difficult to feed 15,000 people at once. However, Chiwule understood that if he could not defeat Yu Fuluo, such a small tribe as him would be eaten by Yu Fu Luo and Liu Bao's people. Chiwule gritted his teeth and ordered all half of the cattle and sheep to be slaughtered and supplied to Ma Chao as military rations.

Ma Chao saw Chi Wule's painful look, laughed, and said, "You don't have to worry, I have already asked people to register the number of these cattle and sheep, and when they settle down, my family lord's guild will compensate you according to the price." ”

The cattle and sheep of the nomads are as important as the fields of the farming people, half of the cattle and sheep are slaughtered, and after the consumption of this cold winter, the tribe of Chiwule can be said to be greatly damaged, even worse than the loss of the white plague that is rarely encountered. Hearing Ma Chao say that he could compensate them according to the price, Chi Wule was overjoyed, and was about to thank him, when he suddenly remembered that Ma Chao was just a partial general in the Han army, and couldn't help but hesitate again, and said: "General Ma, so many cattle and sheep are not a small amount, can you be the master?" ”

Ma Chao laughed and said: "My lord said that the general will be outside, and the monarch's order will not be affected, and the lord and general have done this." ”

Now, Ma Chao simply loves Liu Xin's "will be outside, the king's order will not be affected", if there is no "will be outside, the king's life will not be affected", he will definitely stay in the tribe of Chiwule honestly, where is the opportunity to end Liu Bao's nest, and now how can he hit the idea on Yu Fuluo's head.

There are indeed many famous generals in history who dare to make the move of "the general is outside, and the monarch's order is not affected", but like Liu Xin, who took the initiative to explain that his subordinates could "be outside, the monarch's order is not subject to it" at a critical moment, it is really unprecedented and unprecedented.

Liu Xin has his own reasons for doing this, the transmission of information in this era is very slow, even if Liu Xin vigorously develops post station transportation, and begins to train a large number of carrier pigeons, but still can not ensure the timely transmission of information and intelligence. However, the situation on the battlefield is often changing rapidly, and if the commanders and generals are not given sufficient autonomy, the fighters will be delayed.

However, Liu Xin also took a lot of risks in doing so. If these generals are stubborn and misjudge the situation, it will often lead to the annihilation of the entire army. Or if a general suddenly has ambitions, it is also possible that he will have self-respect and not listen to the dispatch.

Therefore, Liu Xin will always think twice when deciding to lead the army. In addition, he carried out rotational training, changed guards, and dismissed veterans in the major army regiments, uniformly recruited and distributed new soldiers, and improved the soldiers' sense of honor as Han soldiers through various methods, improved the treatment of soldiers, and gave preferential treatment to the families of soldiers. It is precisely because of these prerequisites that Liu Xin dared to take the initiative to delegate the power of the army, otherwise, without the constraints of the system, even if these generals are all loyal now, who can guarantee that there will not be a few careerists and conspirators in the future.

When everything was ready, it was already approaching dusk, and Ma Chao declined Chiul's request to let them rest for another night, and ordered the army to set off immediately. With a large number of horses and baggage to follow, it is definitely not possible to rush overnight, but in order to hurry, Ma Chao also has the mentality that he can walk a moment more, and strives to reach Yufuluo's tribe as soon as possible.

In fact, Ma Chao is so anxious that he is playing his own little Jiujiu. Ma Chao is not as impatient as recorded in history, in fact, he is also very strategic and has the ability to lead troops. Now, since he already knew that Liu Bao had gone to Yu Fuluo's tribe, he could certainly deduce that Yu Fu Luo was likely to take action against Hu Chuquan, Chi Wule, and Gu Tu'an. And among these three people, Hu Chuquan is the strongest, as long as Hu Chuquan is defeated, the other two are not worth mentioning at all, even if they contact some small tribes, they can only be regarded as a group of rabble. Therefore, Ma Chao can be sure that the object of Yu Fuluo's action will definitely be locked in the direction of Huchuquan.

This time, the Han army entered the grassland in three ways, and it was Zhao Yun who led the army to the Huchuquan tribe. Ma Chao knew that with Zhao Yun's skills, if Yu Fuluo went to attack the tribe of Huchuquan, he would definitely be defeated. In that way, it was Zhao Yun who made the first contribution. Although he has now completely annihilated Liu Bao's tribe, compared with Yu Fuluo, one is the Xiongnu Shan Yu, and the other is just King Zuoxian, which is more important at a glance. Ma Chao was determined to make great contributions, so he naturally refused to let go of this opportunity, he wanted to rush in front of Zhao Yun to face Yu Fuluo and attack him.

However, the weather on the grassland changed as it should, and from the evening onwards, the sky began to fall again with snowflakes, and the snow became heavier and heavier, and the surroundings were so white that even the guides could not make out the direction. Although Ma Chao had a compass, those guides relied on the characteristic terrain on the grassland to determine the direction, and just knowing the southeast, northwest, and northwest was useless to those guides. And Ma Chao did not have a more detailed map in his hand, and there was no way to rely on the compass to determine the direction of progress. As a result, the army had to stay put.

The snow had been falling for a day and a night, and there was no sign of stopping, and the snow on the grassland was two feet deeper. Ma Chao looked at the tired soldier and felt anxious. Although they did not travel for a day and night, the soldiers were not idle.

This time, they entered the grassland, carrying only a few tents and horses, and the soldiers were resting in sleeping bags. However, the snow was so heavy that if you got into your sleeping bag and lay down, you would be buried in the snow in the middle of the night. Therefore, the soldiers had to take turns to rest, and the soldiers who did not have their turn to rest had to be on guard and constantly clear the snow in the camp, which was a staggering amount of work because the snow was constantly falling.

Now, there are three paths in front of Ma Chao for him to choose from.

The first way was to retreat to the tribes of Chiul. Since they set out from the tribe of Chiul near dusk, although they set up camp very late, they did not walk fast because of the snow, and it was only more than thirty miles away from the camp of Chiul, and it was not difficult to retreat, which was also the safest option.

The second way is to camp in place and wait for the snow to stop before moving on. Although a sleeping bag is an excellent piece of equipment for marching, it is far from being a tent on a snowy day. Although Chiul also gave them some materials to build tents, and the tents they had brought with them were only enough to hold three or four thousand people, and many of them had to be used to store forage. As a result, the vast majority of soldiers were still resting in sleeping bags. Sleeping bags have a fatal heel, once wet, they lose their warmth. As long as they continue to stay in the snow, it's only a matter of time before these sleeping bags get wet.

Ma Chao gritted his teeth and decided to choose the third path.