"My lord, General Shao has come to report that he has successfully taken Yehu Ridge!" In Shengle City, Feng Yi was introducing the military situation to Wei Shuo.

"Really? General Shao moved very fast, and if he took Yehu Ridge, he could threaten the grassland on the dam, and now the Xianbei people should panic. ”

Listening to Feng Yi's report, thinking that the armies from all walks of life had been progressing smoothly since the start of the war, Wei Shuo was in a very happy mood.

While staring at the huge sand table in the house, he muttered to himself: "Next, the Shao Yuniang Department and the Weixiong Department of the Right Route Army should not stop, they should continue to march north along the left and right sides of the Great Xianbei Mountain, and strive to fight until they reach the Murong Xianbei tribe in the depths of the Monan Grassland." ”

"In the future, in order to better protect the safety of Shanbei, Daijun, and Shanggu, the Right Route Army must continue to advance northward and take the grassland area at the foot of Yanshan Mountain (now Bashang grassland). It is the southern part of the Monan grassland, surrounded by the remnants of the Yinshan-Yanshan mountain range, with abundant water and grass, and an important location. ”

"If it is occupied by Hulu, it is equivalent to having a southward Youyan frontier base, which can go south through the wild fox south to the upper valley and generation. On the contrary, if Liaodong is in his hands, he can not only protect the Dai and Shanggu, but also go forward to threaten Monan, which will completely sweep away the threat of Hulu. ”

As for Wei Shuo's grand concept, everyone here is well aware that his own lord is bent on completely eradicating this stubborn disease in view of the fact that he has been threatened by the northern steppe peoples for generations. Now the Liaodong Army is moving north in a big way in order to realize Wei Shuo's strategic concept.

Wen Qiao pondered for a moment and said: "My lord, in fact, as early as the era of the Great Qin Empire, the Qin army had already advanced the Great Wall to the northern part of the Bashang grassland, and incorporated the grassland springboard at the junction of Yanshan and Yin Mountain into the scope of imperial rule. If Liaodong wants to control the grassland on the dam, it is necessary to rebuild the Great Wall of Qin. ”

Hearing this, Wei Shuo raised his eyebrows and said categorically: "Repair!" It has to be repaired! In order for Huaxia to no longer be threatened by the northern Hulu, even if you smash the pot and sell iron, you have to repair it! ”

In later generations, many people criticized the Great Wall of the North as a kind of passive defense, which played a very negative role in ancient national defense. But after staying for so long in ancient times, Wei Shuo discovered the importance of the ancient Great Wall to the safety of the north through careful understanding. It can be said that it is precisely by relying on the Great Wall that the agricultural civilization can withstand the rolling iron horses from the northern grassland peoples.

Therefore, after Wei Shuo recovered the northern states, he has been actively renovating the Great Wall left over from the Qin and Han dynasties, and then relying on the Great Wall to establish a complete set of defense systems.

In the past, Liaodong did not have the strength and ability to push the defense line north, so it could only temporarily stabilize the defense line south of Yehuling.

But now it is different, with the Liaodong Army launching a comprehensive counterattack, Liaodong already has the strength to rely on the former site of the Great Wall of Qin in the northern part of the Bashang grassland to control the Bashang grassland, so that the strategic security of the northern Yanjin and Jin Dynasty can be fully guaranteed.

In other words, it is almost impossible for the northern steppe peoples to go deep into the interior of Mayi, Pingcheng, Dai, Zhuolu and other inland areas as if they had entered a no-man's land.

"Everyone, as long as the Right Route Army progresses smoothly, Youyan's safety will be guaranteed in the future, and then it's time to talk about Liu Yao's division of the Left Route Army. Send someone to send an order to Liu Yao, telling him to deal with the Xianbei tribe on the Houtao Plain as soon as possible and advance the battle line to the line of Gaoquesai. ”

The sneak attack on Yehuling opened the prelude to the Jin people's all-out counteroffensive against the northern grassland peoples, and the Shao Yuniang division of the Right Route Army entered the Bashang grassland (the southern part of the Monan grassland) in later generations after coming out of the upper valley of Yehuling, and attacked and advanced to the northeast along the foothills of Yanshan Mountain.

As for Wei Xiong, who commanded the other part of the Right Route Army, he went north from Xiangping, Liaodong County, passed through the Great Wall of Yueyan North in Gaoxian County, and went north along the Liaohe River to the plain on the east side of Daxianbei Mountain, threatening Monan Zhuhu from the flank.

And the main force of the Middle Route Army, which had just taken Shengle, suddenly stopped moving forward under the command of Wei Shuo, and instead eyed the area around Yinnan and Hepi.

At the same time, after the offensive of the Liaodong Army on the center and the right was gradually launched, the center of gravity of the war began to shift to the west, and a large-scale battle, also under the leadership of Liu Yao, was about to be launched on the battlefield of the Houtao Plain.

If it is said that the southward movement in the past when the autumn is high and the horses are fat, it is a festival for the grassland people, then the passive counterattack in the early spring is even more a manifestation of helplessness.

In the spring of the second year of Taixing, after being successfully counterattacked by the Liaodong Army at Shengle and Yehuling, Tuoba Yulu especially hoped to achieve a victory over the Liaodong Army, so as to boost the declining morale.

In the case that Monan Zhuhu has not yet prepared a decisive battle in the south, only the Xianbei tribe in the Houtao area is suitable for counterattacking, and the result is just to hit Liu Yao's troops who are advancing north. Suddenly, the Hu and Han sides fought fiercely on the Houtao Plain north of the Yellow River and south of the Wolf Mountain in order to compete for living space.

The importance of the Hetao Plain is self-evident, and this land that can be protected by the Yin Mountains and moistened by the river is of great significance to the nomads of the Mongolian Plateau and the farming peoples from the Loess Plateau.

At present, the Liaodong Army has occupied the entire Xitao Plain and is launching a counterattack against the Xianbei people who occupy the Dongtao (divided into front and rear sets).

If the Xianbei people were completely expelled from the Hetao area, then they would also lose the most fertile grassland in Monan, and Liaodong would no longer have to worry about the supply of horses in the future, and at the same time, they would be able to completely protect the safety of Guanzhong.

In the spring of the second year of Taixing, a major battle on both sides of the Yellow River also kicked off, known as the "Battle of Henan" in history. In order to distinguish it from the Battle of Henan in the former Han Dynasty, later generations called this battle the second Battle of Henan after that.

The so-called Henan land, literally, seems to point to the area south of the Yellow River, but it is not entirely accurate. In addition to the Ordos Plateau in the Yellow River, the real Henan Land also includes the plain south of the Wujia River and sandwiched between the Yinshan Mountains and the present-day Ordos Plateau, which is the so-called "Houtao Plain".

Henan is less than a thousand miles away from Chang'an, and the cavalry occupying this place can reach it in only one or two days. Therefore, if this place is not recovered for a day, Chang'an will not be stable for a day, and it will always be under the threat of Xianbei Iron Cavalry. For Liaodong, Xianbei occupies the land of Henan, like a sharp knife stuck in the back, making Liaodong like a man's back, and it is difficult to sleep and eat.

This time, the Liaodong Army, which went north out of Shuofang, first attacked the area in front of the Wula Mountain, that is, where Baotou is located today, in the eastern part of the Houtao Plain. After the Battle of Henan, together with part of the Ordos Plateau on the south bank of the Yellow River, it became the "Wuyuan County" of the Western Han Empire.

The battle in front of Wula Mountain went smoothly, and the local Xianbei tribe was unable to resist the attack of the Liaodong Army, and Liu Yao entered the core area of the Houtao Plain with almost no effort.

Immediately afterwards, the Left Route Army, under the leadership of Liu Yao and Yang Hu, made a great detour to the west, and the two divisions first advanced westward along the north bank of the Yellow River, and then rapidly advanced to Gaoque under the cover of the Great Wall of Qin, cutting off the connection between the Xianbei tribe stationed in the Houtao Plain and Tuoba Yulu at the northern foot of Yinshan Mountain.

After cutting off the retreat of the Xianbei people, the main force of the Left Route Army quickly moved south, completed a roundabout outflanking of Houtao and the area south of it, and suddenly covered the Xianbei tribe stationed there, and defeated them in one fell swoop.

Except for a few Xianbei people who fled, the Liaodong army annihilated more than 10,000 enemies, captured tens of thousands of Hu people, and hundreds of thousands of cattle and sheep, and recovered all the land in Henan.

The Battle of Henan, the troops invested by both sides were not large, and the scale was not large, but it was an important turning point. Liaodong's recovery of Henan caused the northern border defense line of Guanzhong to be pushed further north to Yinshan, adding a barrier to Chang'an, thus removing the direct threat of the grassland peoples to the Guanzhong region to a large extent.

After the Left Army successfully conquered the Houtao Plain, Liu Yao had already begun to restore the Great Wall built by the Qin Empire on the Yin Mountain, just as the captured Hu Lu could be used as labor.

If the sneak attack on Yehuling opened the prelude to the strategic counterattack in Liaodong, then the battle of Henan is equivalent to a key, which directly opened the tragic battle between the enemy and us.

Since this battle, the battles of Liaodong and Xianbei have entered a tragic stage of tug-of-war militarily, and there will be battles every day. It's just that, unlike the previous situation, Hu Lu is no longer always the one who takes the initiative to attack, and Liaodong began to follow his own pace, step by step, forcing Xianbei into a corner. (To be continued.) )