When Tao Qian saw the tears on Liu Bei's face, he thought that Liu Bei was really worried about his illness. Why would he be worried about handing over the position of Zhou Mu to him? Liu Bei waited for two years and finally listened again.
When Tao Qian said these words, his heart was filled with excitement. However, Liu Bei held back.
Liu Bei's face did not change, he waved his hands repeatedly and said: "Absolutely not! How can I be so virtuous and capable as to dare to occupy the position of state shepherd? My lord, please stop mentioning it again."
Tao Qian sighed: "Cao Cao's army is approaching soon, and Tao is seriously ill. If Xuande Gong refuses to take up the position of prefectural pastor, then the people of the whole city..."
Of course Liu Bei cannot accept Tao Qian's resignation now. Tao Qian's health has improved, and he can't wait to take over the position of Zhou Mu. What will other officials think? What will the soldiers and civilians of Xuzhou think? Liu Bei is not too
With so 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 seal now under any circumstances, unless Tao Qian is already too sick to get up.
However, Liu Bei would not let go of such a great opportunity. He said sternly: "My lord, just rest in peace and recuperate. When the soldiers come, the water will come and the earth will cover them up. I am willing to lead the troops to fight against Cao Cao! This position of state shepherd has thousands of subordinates."
Absolutely unacceptable!”
Tao Qian wanted to give in again, but Liu Bei refused. Tao Qian had no choice but to order Liu Bei to control the entire state's troops to attack Cao Cao.
Returning to the mansion, Guan Yu asked in confusion: "Brother, since Tao Qian gave up the position of Zhou Mu again, why didn't eldest brother take over?"
Liu Bei shook his head and said: "Things are not that simple. Besides, I have the military power now. Does it make any difference whether I am the state pastor or not?"
Having said that, Liu Bei really started to prepare for the war. He arranged the 30,000 troops who had withdrawn from Langya to serve as city defense in Xuzhou City, and transferred the soldiers originally stationed in Xuzhou City out of the city, ten miles away from the city.
The next two camps were at odds with Xuzhou. Liu Bei couldn't understand why neither Liu Xin nor Yuan Shao made any move at such a good opportunity.
In such troubled times, if you want to obtain all kinds of information, you can't do without a team of secret spies, and maintaining the operation of secret spies requires huge financial support. Liu Bei doesn't have that much money. In terms of collecting intelligence, he can not only send
There was no other way except to go out to some reconnaissance outposts, so naturally there was no way to learn about the agreement between Liu Xin and Cao Cao.
In fact, even if there was no verbal non-aggression agreement 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 these two years to rest and recuperate, but also because of his current focus
It has been placed on the border of Liangzhou.
Liu Xin would not implement the policy of "reconciling the internal situation first before resisting foreign aggression" like someone in later generations. It would be good to be able to calm down the internal affairs and concentrate on the external affairs. But in Liu Xin's view, the relationship between him and the princes
The conflicts can only be regarded as internal conflicts within the nation, and there will be time to deal with them slowly in the future. And Liu Xin
It is clear that the biggest threat to the Han nation still comes from the vast grassland. From the Xiongnu during 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. If it cannot
If it is completely solved, you have no idea when this sharp sword will fall.
The biggest advantage of the grassland tribes is that they grew up on horseback and are good at riding and shooting, and cavalry is the most powerful branch of the army in this era. When Liu Xin first arrived in Jingzhou, due to the lack of war horses, he had to
, we can only do our best to study the tactics of using infantry to deal with cavalry.
They devised fairly effective weapons such as horse-cutting swords, long swords, and horse-piercing nails. However, all of these can only be used for passive defense. Facing the super mobility of the cavalry troops, they can only be disappointed.
.So, if you want to defeat the grassland tribes, the best way is to use cavalry to deal with cavalry.
When he was in Hejian, Liu Xin wanted to build a powerful cavalry, and made great efforts to develop and produce stirrups, horseshoes, and sabers, but he just suffered from not having enough horses. When he arrived in Xiangyang, the situation was still the same.
several years of work
Husband, he only collected less than 30,000 war horses, and there were many bad horses among them. Now, in the Northern Expedition to Dong Zhuo, the number of war horses captured alone reached 150,000 to 60,000, all of which were good horses from Xiliang.
This made it possible to expand the cavalry.
It is not enough to have good horses, you must also have good knights. At this time, the training center established by Liu Xin in the western suburbs of Xiangyang came into play. In the past, although there was a lack of horses, Liu Xin never relaxed for a moment in riding and shooting.
Even ordinary infantrymen have about one month each year to practice riding and shooting. Therefore, when enough horses are obtained, Liu Xin will soon be able to form a pure cavalry sixth legion, and will be the first to
The cavalry of the Fifth Army was expanded to varying degrees.
If anyone thinks that Liu Xin suddenly had more than 100,000 fine war horses, just like a nouveau riche, and dared to launch a counterattack against the Huns in this winter, which is not suitable for using troops, then they are totally wrong. The reason why Liu Xin chose
The decision to use troops against the Xiongnu at this time was not a simple decision, but a carefully considered decision.
It is early winter now. Although it has snowed several times in the north, Liu Xin can be sure that these snowfalls are not heavy, otherwise the Huns tribes would not be able to attack and disturb the Liangzhou border. Since the Huns cavalry can
His cavalry can definitely do it. Moreover, as soon as Liu Xin heard that the Xiongnu invaded the border, he immediately made the decision to fight back. It was precisely because he knew that in the spring of previous years, the Xiongnu and other grassland nomads would
He will invade the border on a large scale. He will give a severe blow to the Xiongnu tribes this winter, beat them, subdue them, and scare them. In this way, next spring, there will be far fewer tribes who still dare to invade the border.
The people will be able to live a relatively peaceful life, which will make it easier for him to win over the people of Liangzhou and consolidate his rule in Liangzhou. As long as Liangzhou is stable, it will be much easier to rebuild the Western Region 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 lose their way in the desert. Although these cavalry formations
It didn't take long, but the application of a large number of sophisticated equipment such as stirrups, sabers, cavalry-specific protective gear, and bows and arrows could completely offset the Huns' advantage in mounted 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 cold weapon era was the Mongolian cavalry commanded by Genghis Khan. If Liu Xin did not copy the tactics of the Mongolian cavalry,
Come on, that's really unreasonable. After these cavalry were formed, in addition to practicing mounted archery, they also practiced the tactics of long-distance outflanking, roundabouts, and combined attacks.
With these points in mind, what else does Liu Xin have to worry about? What's more, this time he sends troops not to fight a decisive battle with the Huns' large forces, but to prepare for a devastating blow to the camps where some Huns tribes live. It has always been The Huns, who only knew how to plunder the Han people, would never have thought that the Han people, who were full of benevolence, righteousness and morality, would one day come to plunder their tribes. Being prepared, Liu Xin was naturally confident.
After the Southern Xiongnu surrendered to the Han Dynasty, they were placed in the Hetao area by the imperial court. Over the years, the Southern Xiongnu relied on the strength of the Han Dynasty to defeat the Northern Xiongnu many times, accepted a large number of surrenders from the Northern Xiongnu, and their strength has greatly increased. However, in this way, It has also caused its tribal composition to become increasingly complex, internally unstable, and difficult to control.
In the fifth year of Zhongping, a major rebellion occurred within the Southern Huns. They no longer recognized Yufuluo as the Xiongnu Chanyu, and established Xubu Guduhou as the Chanyu. In order to appease Yufuluo's The tribe made Yu Fuluo's son Liu Bao the Xian King of Zuo. However, the Yu Fulu clan was powerful, and Liu Bao gradually took control of the power of the southern Xiongnu. At the beginning of the year, recruited by Dong Zhuo, Liu Bao led 100,000 Xiongnu cavalry to attack In Guanzhong, they returned with a huge defeat and almost the entire army was wiped out. Liu Bao himself escaped by hiding in the mud and pretending to be dead. Xubu Guduhou took the opportunity to regain control of the Xiongnu and launched a war with Liu Bao. As a result, he was injured by a stray arrow and died. As a result, Yuvluo was re-elected by his tribe and became the Chanyu of the Huns again.
Liu Bao originally thought that once Xubu Guduhou died, it would be his turn to take the position of the Xiongnu Chanyu. However, because he lost troops and generals in the Central Plains, he lost the trust of his people, and the position of the Xiongnu Chanyu returned to his old position. As a result, there was a secret rift between the father and son. Although Hufro was old, he saw all this clearly. In order to consolidate his position, after he took the throne again, he appointed His younger brother Hu Chuquan became the Righteous King and fought against Liu Bao. However, after this battle, the entire southern Xiongnu finally stabilized temporarily.
Starting from the spring, 100,000 Xiongnu men participated in the war between Dong Zhuo and Liu Xin. The battle lasted for more than half a year. As a result, less than 100 of the 100,000 Xiongnu cavalry escaped. Immediately afterwards, another incident occurred with the Xiongnu themselves. A civil war lasted for more than two months and has just calmed down.
Although the women of the Huns were very capable. They could not only herd horses and sheep, but also ride horses and shoot arrows, and could share most of the work. However, the ten-month war still made the lives of the Huns increasingly difficult, especially with the coming of winter. Make it more difficult for them.
In previous years, they would have plundered the borders of the Han Dynasty as a routine matter. However, the Xiongnu harassment of the borders usually occurred in the spring, because that time was more suitable for cavalry operations. But this year, some tribes could not wait any longer, and the war Not only did many of their men die, but their cattle, sheep, and horses also suffered heavy losses. If they could not rob some supplies from the Han people and bring them back, many people in the tribe would not be able to survive this winter.
This time, it was a small tribe that invaded the Liangzhou border, and only more than 800 cavalry were dispatched in total. Many of these cavalry were only half-grown children. They took advantage of the darkness to cross the border quietly, walking on ankle-deep Snow suddenly descended on a small village on the border of Liangzhou.