Five green fireworks were raised one after another, which meant that all five cavalry teams had succeeded, and Chen Yong, the captain who followed Wei Yan's side, arched his hand and said, "General Qiyu, do we still want to continue to kill?" ”

Wei Yan waved the big knife in his hand fiercely and said, "Kill, why don't you kill?" ”

Chen Yong glanced at the Xiongnu women and children who were gathered together and wept bitterly because their camp was burned to ashes by a fire, and said, "General, do you want to pick a few of these people out and let them be guides?" ”

The Huns are a people who live on horseback, although these people are only women and children, their riding skills are definitely not inferior to their Han cavalry, as long as they are given a horse, they can keep up with the speed of the procession.

Wei Yan glanced at those women and children contemptuously, took out a small gadget from his arms, held it in his hand and pondered for a while, pointed the big knife forward, and said, "Don't use these barbarians, let's just kill in the direction of due north." ”

This little toy is the compass that Liu Xin has worked so hard to develop. Although the records indicating the direction appeared in various myths and legends of the Han people a long time ago, it is said that the Yellow Emperor once broke through the fog with a guide car and defeated Chiyou, but Liu Xin has never seen the actual object of the guide car, nor has he found the relevant production materials. However, Liu Xin and Ma Yun both used the compass of later generations, and they also saw the replica of Sinan like a big spoon in the museum.

They all know the principle of the compass very well, and although there are not many natural magnets, it is not impossible to find them. However, to process a piece of natural magnet into the shape of a spoon, the craftsmen of the research institute had to work hard, and in the end, the magnet became smaller and smaller, and the spoon was still not processed. In the end, Liu Xin still followed the style of the compass of later generations, and asked the craftsmen to grind the natural magnet into a needle-like shape, making a compass very close to that of later generations.

In the absence of suitable machinery, the compass, like clairvoyance, was very difficult to process, and the use of high-quality crystal was expensive, making it impossible to equip the army in large quantities. On this expedition to the grassland, although several major generals were issued with compasses and clairvoyance, after the battle was over, they had to hand them back and not take them for themselves. Even so, being able to use it once, in the eyes of Wei Yan and others, this is not only an eye-opening problem, but it can even be said to be a blessing that they have cultivated in their previous lives.

The team had already been assembled, Chen Yong got the order, and was about to lead the team to leave, but he heard another captain say: "General Qiyu, do you want to take away those leftover beef and mutton?" ”

Although the fried noodles they carried with them tasted good and were enough to satisfy their hunger, they were not as delicious as beef and mutton, and many soldiers wanted to bring a little, but the military discipline was strict, and no one dared to make their own decisions without Wei Yan's order.

However, taking these beef and mutton will definitely affect the speed of the march, and it is inevitable to make a fire and barbecue for a while, Wei Yan remembered that several other teams have also succeeded, and he is not far behind, so he waved his hand and said: "Burn, even those forages, burn them all!" ”

All the Xiongnu tribes were the same, in order to survive the cold winter, they would accumulate a large amount of forage in the camp to meet the needs of cattle, sheep and horses throughout the winter. When the thousand-man team escorted the captured Xiongnu women, cattle, sheep and horses back to the territory of the Han Dynasty, they only took a small part of the forage, and their war horses ate a part, and the remaining forage here still accounted for the majority. Wei Yan's order was to completely leave no way for these women and children to live.

The winter of the steppe is difficult not only for people, but also for those hungry wolves. If these women and children did not want to lose their lives, they had no choice but to defect to other tribes as soon as possible. Of course, the other tribes will not help them for nothing, and all that awaits them is to become slaves of other tribes.

Wei Yan didn't care about the lives and deaths of these people, after he counted his men and made sure that no one was missing, and not a single piece of equipment was missing, he set off on the road and continued to complete his "arduous task".

Ten days later, the five cavalry teams sent out to participate in the battle against the Xiongnu tribes returned to the Han border one after another, and many of them had not yet finished their rations, because they had adopted the method of fighting to meet their supplies along the way. This sortie hit the steppe and hit a total of twenty-seven Xiongnu tribes. As if they had made an appointment in advance, each cavalry team captured 370 young Hun women, but they beheaded more than 28,000 people in total, which greatly exceeded the task target given by Liu Xin, because everyone wanted to complete the 4,390 places independently. As for the cattle, sheep and horses, there are countless of them.

What is surprising is that after such a long-distance attack, the casualties of the 50,000 Han cavalry were less than 300, and a considerable part of them accidentally fell off their horses during the impact and were trampled by the horses. Due to Liu Xin's strict order in advance, not a single piece of equipment of the 50,000 cavalry was lost, and there was not a single incident of ** women and hidden property, which shows how strict the discipline of this Han army is.

In fact, the losses suffered by the Xiongnu tribes were much more than that. Except for the cavalry led by Zhao Yun, every time a Hun camp was exterminated, a small number of cattle, sheep and horses would be left for those women and children, and the other four teams were burned clean. Having lost their cattle, sheep and horses, these Hun women and children, with the exception of a few lucky ones, fled to neighboring tribes, and most of them died of starvation or lost their lives. The neighboring tribes who had heard the news were also frightened by the menacing cavalry that had suddenly entered the steppe, and they strengthened their guard and sent to the royal court to report the situation to their Yuvro Shan Yu.

The Xiongnu were a nomadic people who did not build their own cities, and the so-called royal court was actually a camp, but this camp was relatively fixed and much larger than the camps of other tribes.

There was a huge tent in the middle of the royal court, which was the big tent of the lord of the Huns, Yu Flodanyu. If you look at it from the outside, this tent is no different from other tents, except that it is a little larger, but it also has a golden roof. However, the inside of the big tent is extremely gorgeous, and all kinds of utensils are available.

At this time, the three leaders of the Southern Xiongnu, Shan Yu Fuluo, Liu Bao, the king of Zuoxian, and Hu Chuquan, the king of the right Xian, were all in the big tent, and in front of them was a roast whole sheep with a golden color and an attractive aroma, but their faces were all solemn, obviously shocked by the surprise attack on the Xiongnu camp by the Han army. Indeed, the Han army has not entered this desert for nearly a hundred years. This time, they not only came, but also directly wiped out dozens of Xiongnu tribes, killed tens of thousands of Xiongnu young and strong, and abducted countless cattle, sheep and horses, this situation has never happened, even when Han Wu defeated the Xiongnu. Because the Han people worship Confucianism, they will not do such a random massacre of innocent people, even if the other party is of a different race, they will not do it, at least on the surface.

Yu Fuluo glanced at the people in the tent and said in a deep voice: "According to those who fled back, the reason why the Han army killed on a large scale this time was to retaliate for Tumulan for plundering a small village on the border of Liangzhou, and they wanted to make my Xiongnu repay ten times more. ”

Hu Chuquan said in surprise: "Ten times repayment? How could there be more than 2,000 people in that small village? In total, there are only a few hundred men left in Tumulan's tribe. ”

Tumulan was the leader of the Xiongnu tribe that attacked the border of Liangzhou this time, and his tribe did have only a few hundred men left. The people in the Liangzhou area are fierce, and in the past, the Xiongnu attacked the border and they would have many casualties, and the strength of the Tumulan tribe was simply not enough to deal with a village of more than 2,000 people. In fact, Tumulan chose this season to attack the Han realm, just to take advantage of the Han people's general belief that there would be Xiongnu in the spring without any precautions, and to catch them off guard, but he really let him succeed, but he didn't expect it to bring destruction to his tribe.

Yu Furo sighed, "Only Tumulan knows about this. ”

Liu Bao asked, "Where is Tumulan?" ”

Yu Fuluo snorted and said: "I have already let the Han people cut off their heads, and many clansmen have been victimized with him. I don't know where these Han troops came from, and they are ruthless, and they don't do it as usual. ”

Liu Bao suddenly realized and said, "I know where they came from. ”

The crowd hurriedly asked, "Where did they come from?" ”

Liu Bao gritted his teeth and said, "This must be Jingzhou Mu Liu Xin's army!" ”

In response to Dong Zhuo's call, Liu Bao personally led 100,000 troops into Guanzhong, originally planning to take the opportunity to get a vote, but the whole army was wiped out, and even his position in the entire Southern Xiongnu was shaken. For the battle with the Jingzhou cavalry in Guanzhong, Liu Bao still remembers it vividly. Imagine the entire Han Dynasty, except for that cavalry, who else can go deep into the desert, crisscross for more than ten days, and return with his whole body after destroying dozens of tribes in a row.

Yu Fuluo said angrily: "How can he come to Liangzhou as a Jingzhou pastor?" Who wants to send an envoy to the Great Han and ask their emperor for an explanation! ”

Although the Southern Xiongnu were attached to the Han Dynasty, they did not really put the Han Dynasty in their eyes, when the Han Dynasty was strong, they would keep to themselves, and when the Han Dynasty became weak, they would jump out and cause trouble, not only to harass the Han Realm, but also to compete with the Han for control in the Western Regions, and to make peace with the Han court. Now, when the Han Dynasty was in chaos, if it weren't for the fact that there were such and such problems within the Xiongnu, they would have made trouble against the Han Dynasty a long time ago, and how could they tolerate a Jingzhou pastor bullying them.

Liu Bao sneered: "Ask the emperor of the Han Dynasty for an explanation? I'm afraid that the emperor is now in Liu Xin's hands. ”

After he escaped from Guanzhong, he was busy fighting a Xiongnu civil war with the Marquis of Xubu Gudu, and he didn't know about the many changes that had happened in the Han Dynasty, and thought that Liu Xie had fallen into Liu Xin's hands.

Yu Fuluo also knew that the powerful ministers of the Han Dynasty were powerful, as if in the past few years, Dong Zhuo had the final say in the affairs of the Han court, and the emperor was actually just a decoration, so he said without thinking: "Since the Emperor of the Han Dynasty is in the hands of Liu Xin, then people will go to Liu Xin to ask for an explanation, who wants to serve as this envoy?" ”