Almost at the same time that Liu Bao rushed to the Yufuluo tribe, Ma Chao also rushed to Chi Ule's tribe. Chi Ule knew Ma Chao and was deeply impressed by Ma Chao's martial arts. Ma Chao's Yera tribe keepsakes, which is why Chi Ule doesn't believe them.
After learning that Yehan was dead, the plan between himself and Yehan must have been leaked. Chiwule was even more determined to join the Han Dynasty and become an obedient citizen. And Ma Chao was the general of the Han Dynasty, so he was an official of the Han Dynasty. Chiwule He is a citizen and Ma Chao is an official. How dare he not listen to Ma Chao's words? Since Ma Chao said to "strike first to gain strength", then strike first to gain strength.
At that moment, Chiwule immediately arranged for several guides to lead Ma Chao's troops towards Yufuluo's camp. He himself sent some people to Huchuquan's camp to report the news, and also sent people to the people he contacted. Hemur and other seventeen tribes asked them to send troops to gather here in advance.
This time Ma Chao did not refuse Chiwule's kindness in arranging a guide for him. The last time he did not need Hemuler to arrange a guide was because he was originally coming to Chiwule's tribe and had a certain understanding of the route here. Going to Huvrault's tribe now is an unplanned move. Going with a guide can not only avoid going astray, but also learn other important information about the Huvrault tribe.
Everything has advantages and disadvantages. The addition of a guide will definitely slow down the marching speed of the entire team. Because the snow is too deep, the horses cannot run very fast, and the speed is not much better than walking. Although skis can increase the speed, Ma Chao doesn't mind. A few sets were made available to the guides, but without special training, they were really not good at controlling the equipment. If the time came, they would not have picked up the speed, and they would have knocked several guides to pieces, and missed a major event.
Since the speed could not be increased, Ma Chao simply asked Chi Ule to borrow some horses. The Xiongnu are a people who live on horseback. Both men, women and children have superb riding skills. Naturally, there are many good horses in Chi Ule's tribe. Horses. But Ma Chao did not borrow these horses for riding. He also had many cavalrymen under his command. However, the cavalry of the Han Dynasty were accustomed to war horses equipped with stirrups. Although they could control the horses provided by Chiwu Le, they had to rely on their riding skills. Depending on their level, it did not greatly improve their combat effectiveness. He asked Chiwule for these horses to be used as tools for carrying grain and grass.
This time the Han army braved the heavy snow and entered the grassland. The supplies they carried were fried noodles, a war preparation food "invented" by Ma Yun. However, the number of fried noodles that each soldier could carry was limited. Because these fried noodles looked inconspicuous, but But it is worth a lot of money. With Liu Xin's current economic strength, even if the soldiers can eat fried noodles every day, there is no need. Now, the marching speed has slowed down, and the number of marching days has also increased. Ma Chao and the others are carrying There is not enough fried noodles, so we need to buy food and grass from Chiwule.
The food of the nomads is the cattle and sheep. If they are marching in peacetime, they will set out with the cattle and sheep. When they are hungry, they will slaughter the cattle and sheep to satisfy their hunger. But now the snow has covered the pastures, and the climate is very cold, so it is impossible to drive the cattle and sheep together. You can only slaughter a large number of cattle and sheep and set off with the beef and mutton. However, the cold weather also has an advantage, that is, you don’t have to worry about the beef and mutton going bad.
Chiwule's tribe is only a small tribe, and it is very difficult to support 15,000 people at once. However, Chiwule understands that if he cannot defeat Yuvluo, a small tribe like his will be defeated by Yuvluo. He and Liu Bao's men ate until there was nothing left. Chiwu Le gritted his teeth and ordered half of the cattle and sheep to be slaughtered and provided to Ma Chao as military rations.
Ma Chao saw Chi Wule looking in pain, laughed, and said: "Don't worry, I have already registered the number of these cattle and sheep. When things settle down, my master will compensate you according to the price."
The cattle and sheep of the nomadic people are as important as the fields of the farming people. Half of the cattle and sheep were slaughtered. After the consumption of this cold winter, the Chiwule tribe can be said to be seriously damaged, even more than the white disaster losses suffered by Yehan. Even more powerful. When Chiwule heard that Ma Chao said that he could compensate them according to the price, Chiwule was very happy. Just as he was about to say thank you, he suddenly remembered that Ma Chao was just a partial general in the Han army. He couldn't help but hesitate again and said: "General Ma , so many cattle and sheep are not a small number, can you make the decision?"
Ma Chao laughed loudly and said: "My lord once said that if you are outside, you will not accept your orders, but my general can still do this."
Now, Ma Chao loves Liu Xin's words so much that "if you are outside, you will not accept your orders". If there is no such thing as "if you are outside, you will not accept your orders", he will definitely stay in Chiwule's tribe. There was no chance of destroying Liu Bao's home, and how could he possibly set his sights on Humphrey now?
There are indeed many famous generals in history who dared to do things like "if they are outside, the emperor's orders will not be accepted", but like Liu Xin, he took the initiative to explain to his subordinates that at critical moments, they can "if they are outside, the emperor's orders will not be accepted". , it is truly unprecedented and unprecedented.
Liu Xin had his own reasons for doing this. The transmission of information in this era was very slow. Even if Liu Xin vigorously developed station transportation and began to train a large number of carrier pigeons, he still could not guarantee the timely transmission of information. And the battlefield situation often changes rapidly. If the commander-in-chief is not given sufficient autonomy, the opportunity to fight will be wasted.
However, Liu Xin also took great 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 any general suddenly becomes ambitious, he may support his own troops and not listen to orders.
Therefore, Liu Xin would always think carefully when deciding to lead the army. Moreover, he conducted rotation training for all major legions, changed defenses and dismissed veterans, uniformly recruited and distributed new soldiers, and used various methods to improve the soldiers' sense of honor as Han soldiers. The implementation of this series of systems, including improving the treatment of military personnel and giving preferential treatment to military families, is to prevent the military from becoming the private soldiers of certain generals and ensure that the military will always be loyal to the country. It is precisely because of these prerequisites that Liu Xin dared to take the initiative to decentralize the military. Otherwise, there is no institutional restraint. Even if all these generals are 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. Ma Chao declined Chi Ule'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 following, it was definitely not possible to travel overnight, but in order to catch up Time, Ma Chao also had the mentality of walking as long as possible, trying to reach Yuvrou's tribe as soon as possible.
In fact, Ma Chao is so anxious because he is playing tricks on his own Xiao Jiujiu. Ma Chao is not as impatient as recorded in history. In fact, he is also very good at strategy and has the ability to lead troops. Now, since he already knows Liu Bao After going to Yufuluo's tribe, we can of course infer that Yufuluo is likely to take action against Huchuquan, Chiwule and Gutu'an. Among these three people, Huchuquan is the strongest. As long as he defeats After Huchuquan, the other two people 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 target of Yufuluo's attack will definitely be in the direction of Huchuquan. .
This time the Han army entered the grassland and was divided into three groups. The one who led the army to the Huchuquan tribe was Zhao Yun. Ma Chao knew that with Zhao Yun's skill, if Yu Fuluo went to attack the Huchuquan tribe, he would definitely come back defeated. In this case, Zhao Yun was the one who made the first contribution. Although he has now wiped out Liu Bao's tribe, compared with Yu Fuluo, one is the Xiongnu Chanyu and the other is just King Zuoxian. Which one is more important? It was obvious at a glance. Ma Chao wanted to make great achievements, so he naturally refused to let go of this opportunity. He wanted to get ahead of Zhao Yun and give Fuluo a severe blow.
However, the weather on the grassland suddenly changed. Starting from the evening, snowflakes began to fall in the sky again. The snow became heavier and heavier, and the surrounding area was completely white. Even the guides could not tell the direction. Although Ma Chao took the Compass, but those guides rely on the characteristic terrain on the grassland to determine the direction. Just knowing the southeast, northwest, and northwest is of no use to those guides. And Ma Chao does not have a relatively detailed map, and there is no way to rely on the compass to decide the direction. direction. So, the army had to stay where it was.
It snowed heavily all day and night, with no sign of stopping, and the snow on the grassland was two feet deeper. Ma Chao looked at the tired soldiers and felt anxious. Although they did not rush all day and night, the soldiers were not idle. With.
This time they entered the grassland, carrying only a few tents and war horses. The soldiers all got into sleeping bags to rest. However, the snow was so heavy that if they got into sleeping bags and lay down, they would be dead most of the night. The soldiers and their sleeping bags would be buried in the snow. Therefore, the soldiers could only take turns to rest. The soldiers who did not take their turn to rest, in addition to being vigilant, also had to keep clearing the snow in the camp. Since the snow kept falling, the workload was heavy. It's really astonishingly big.
Now, Ma Chao has three paths for him to choose from.
The first road was to return to the Chiwule tribe. Since they set off from the Chiwle tribe near dusk, although they set up camp very late, they did not walk fast because of the snow. This place is only more than thirty miles away from Chiwule's camp. It is not difficult to retreat. This is also the safest option.
The second way is to camp in place and wait for the snow to stop before moving on. Although sleeping bags are excellent marching equipment, they are far less useful than tents on days with heavy snowfall. Although Chiwule also sent They were given some materials to build tents, and the tents they originally carried were only enough to accommodate three to four thousand people, and many of the tents had to be used to store fodder. As a result, the vast majority of the soldiers only had sleeping bags. Take a break. Sleeping bags have a fatal weakness. Once they get wet, they will lose their thermal insulation effect. As long as they continue to stay in the heavy snow, it will only be a matter of time before these sleeping bags get wet.
Ma Chao gritted his teeth and decided to choose the third path.