sweeping the world

Chapter 795

The scope of the grassland currently ruled by the Han Dynasty is probably a little bit further outside the Inner Mongolia of the later Celestial Dynasty. The territory is not completely controlled, and there are still some "blank" areas with some uncontrolled tribes.

The grassland is too big and too wide, especially without obvious landmarks, just rely on the stars, sun and moon to identify the direction, or have a compass as a tool, really don’t expect how accurate the route can be, a little bit on the map The deviation, in actual walking, may be more than ten miles away, and how big the range of ten miles should be. It is not difficult to hide some people.

In the era when cavalry ruled the roost, it was not actually how cavalry were able to fight, but that they fought as they wanted, and were far more mobile than infantry if they wanted to escape.In the military, the deterrent power of cavalry has never been placed on the frontal battlefield. It is their excellent mobility that can be ruthless when people are not paying attention, and they can quickly evacuate after the attack.

The most tangled thing about the nomads is not how powerful they are on the frontal battlefield. It is usually difficult for farming people with infantry as the main force to find them, and it is also difficult to find opportunities for decisive battles with the main force of nomads.

If you look at the history books, you will find that when the nomads fought against the Central Plains dynasty, even if the pure cavalry group had fought a frontal battle, it can be counted that the farming people with infantry as the main force won the most times. The loss of the defeat is also quite limited, but as long as the Central Plains Dynasty with infantry as the main force fails, it will be a heavy defeat.

"We controlled part of the grassland based on the premise that they (the nomads) would move south."

The reason why Liu Yan thinks this is a good era is that all the nomadic tribes on the grassland who should go south have gone south. When they go to the Central Plains, they lose the biggest advantage of the nomadic people. They don't have the grassland as a cover, so they can't find a nook and cranny. If you hide, you won't be found.

The most capable and aggressive group of nomadic tribes went south, and those who stayed on the grassland were basically the less enterprising group. In fact, most of those left behind were the old, weak, sick and disabled. The biggest difficulty in controlling the grassland was not fighting. How to find them if you want to kill or capture them.

"The Hulu we dealt with is fundamentally different from the Hulu dealt with by the former Han."

In the early Western Han Dynasty, the Huns were still in the semi-lithic age. They seldom owned iron tools. Their melee weapons were indispensable for stone axes, stone spears, and maces. The arrowheads of arrows were either bones or stones, but they still suppressed the newly established The rise of the Western Han Dynasty.

Until the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, in fact, the nomadic peoples on the grasslands did not enter the complete Iron Age. Even though the number of metal weapons in the hands of soldiers increased, the various forces in the Central Plains were able to gain advantages over the nomads. In addition to the impressive lessons, it is also an overall leader in weapons and equipment.

To put it bluntly, arrows with bone or stone arrowheads will have a certain killing effect on people without armor, and will blind people wearing leather or iron armor.

From the Western Han Dynasty to the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Han Empire had wars with the nomadic peoples on the grasslands. The Han army was always harassed by the cavalry of the nomadic peoples or cut off the supply line, resulting in food shortages or weapons that could not keep up, or being trapped or retreating. Or surrender, other than that, there is really no example of an "army" unit being wiped out in a forceful battle.

The Han Empire will be suppressed by the Xiongnu Empire. It is the Han Empire’s ignorance of the mobility of the Hun Empire’s cavalry troops. Even if they know where they are, they will disappear after chasing them. What often happens is that the chasing troops are occupied instead. Mobility advantaged enemy forces intercept or ambush.

The nomadic people after the Western Jin Dynasty fundamentally completed their evolution and finally integrated with the times and entered the era of large-scale use of iron tools.That's when they finally entered the Central Plains. When they won the territory, they also had enough labor force and production capacity. Before, they didn't even have armored cavalry equipment, and the number of assault cavalry was pitifully small. Yu Ting Wang Weijun was equipped with iron.

Liu Yan seems to have read an article somewhere. The mastery of a complete set of smelting technology by nomads happened during the period of the Five Huranhua. That tribe was the Khitan after the Yuwen Xianbei split.

The Khitan inherited the legacy of the Tuoba Dynasty on the grasslands, and then picked up the territory left behind by Murong Xianbei after he went south to the Central Plains. During this period, he acquired a considerable number of Han slaves.They fully mastered the smelting technology but obtained it from Goguryeo. Since then, the Khitan has become the first nomadic people who can master a complete set of smelting technology.

In fact, the stage of Wuhuranhua is really important to the nomads. They completed their first entry into the Central Plains in this era, and taught the following nomads a valuable enough lesson.

If it is spiritual wealth to inform the later nomads that they can also enter the Central Plains, the first time they ruled the Central Plains left a considerable legacy. It was also from that moment that the nomadic society began to have the shadow of farming peoples, such as military system and some techniques.

It was the first time that nomads were able to rule the Central Plains, and it gave any overlord who ruled the grasslands a goal. That goal was no longer an unattainable dream, but that they could really enter and become the masters of the Central Plains.From then on, the nomads regarded the Central Plains as a place no longer simply for looting. It was a small goal to grab and run, and the big goal was to kill them and rule the Central Plains.

What is the opposite?It is because the Central Plains Dynasty has never been able to occupy the grassland, even if it occupied a part of the grassland for a certain period of time, but it really did not understand what benefits the grassland can bring. Control over the grasslands retracted.

"In this generation of widows, we must complete the rule of the grassland." When Liu Yan spoke, he stretched out a hand and made a pulling gesture: "Many talented and strategic people once said that troubles will not leave descendants. The widow will do it."

The rule of the Han State over the grassland is based on blood. Every moment, there are cavalry or reconnaissance cavalry of the Han army sweeping the grassland. Only those who are willing to become a part of the Han State and accept management can live on the grassland. go down.What has to be said is that blood is very useful on the grasslands, forcing tribes that are unwilling to surrender to flee far away, and they can only be digested by the Han Dynasty if they cannot escape and do not want to die.

"The big man's operating income in the grassland is very good." Li Tan is not wrong to be in charge of military affairs in northern Xinjiang. Because the army plays an extremely important role, he also has a clear understanding of other things: "The grassland provides a steady stream of meat to the hinterland. , also developed textiles.”

The most important thing is actually weaving. Wool was considered worthless before, and shepherds herded sheep purely for dairy products and meat. Waiting for wool weaving to be created would open the door to a new century.

Nomads are not naturally poor and vicious, in fact, they have only so many means of survival, and the income from grazing is far more unstable than that of farming. When a plague of cattle, sheep, and horses comes down, an originally huge tribe will die. Directly lost the food needed to survive.If you don't want to starve to death, of course you have to rob, and that's the only way.

In comparison, even if natural disasters break out in farming, farming people are far more resistant to stress than nomadic peoples. At least farming peoples can still store grain, and nomadic people don’t have any food reserves at all.In addition, the farming people also know that in addition to serious food, some plants can also survive, and there are many ways to survive, and brutal methods are not the first choice.This is one of the reasons why farming peoples are considered relatively mild.

Within the scope of the grasslands ruled by the Han Dynasty, herding is no longer just for dairy products or meat. Shepherds pay more attention to the benefits brought by the wool, or sustainable benefits, not just killing and eating the meat. It is the sheep that can grow again after shaved hair, generating benefits again and again.

From the northwest to the grassland, you need to pass through another mountain before entering Junji Mountain.That mountain used to be of considerable significance to some nomads, and its name was Mount Khan.

Mount Tanhan is the place where Li Ling of the Western Han Dynasty was defeated and surrendered. After surrendering, Li Ling became the Righteous King of the Xiongnu and followed the Han army who was forced to surrender and became a tribe of the Xiongnu.For a long time, the place where Li Ling trained troops for the Huns was near Tuanhan Mountain, and was a neighbor to the tribe of Weilu, a Changshui Hu who originally served for the Han army and surrendered to the Huns.

As time goes by, even tragic or tragic past events will become topics of conversation. For Liu Yan, who visited this place, he learned about the remaining foundations of some buildings left over from the Li Ling period.

Drought and locust plagues have not affected this area yet. Looking around from the high ground, you can see some scenes of sheep grazing. If it were more poetic and picturesque, groups of white sheep wandering around, maybe you can imagine it. White clouds are floating one after another.

This area is close to the territory of Xigaoche, and locusts are raging in Xigaoche. After all the edible food there is eaten up, if some accidents don't happen, the area will soon be swarmed with locusts.

"We have cleared an interval of more than two hundred miles to the north of this place." In order to give Liu Yan a more intuitive impression, Li Tan took out a chapter of schematic diagrams.He pointed at the picture and continued: "From here to here, when ready, the fire will be lit, burning a scorched earth strip about five miles wide."

Liu Yan knew about this matter in advance, or it was an order signed by him himself.

The locust plague in Xigaoche is really exaggerated. The information sent back by the spies repeatedly used the adjective "no grass can grow." No one knows whether burning a scorched earth zone can prevent the locusts from moving south, but we must try it no matter what.

The Han State will not allow the withdrawal of troops or civilians from the grasslands. Once they withdraw, it will not only be troublesome to come back, but there may also be a price.But if the locusts are raging, they will not be able to withdraw, otherwise keeping people in the grassland is letting them die.

"How far is Yu Jiulu Bati from here?" Liu Yan got the answer, pondered for a while and asked, "When will it be ready?"

Clearing out a blank area is not an easy task. Enough livestock have been mobilized to gnaw on it, and huge manpower needs to be used to clear it carefully. It has been going on for three or four months, but the completion of the project is still far away.

"You can't let Yu Jiulu Bati find out why we did that." Liu Yan is not sure whether it is useful or not, as long as there is a one-ten-thousandth feasibility, Rouran people shouldn't learn it: "Yu Jiu After Lubati came over, he set off immediately."

Rouran is now in a vague position between an ally and a non-ally to the Han State. The Han State needs Rouran and makes it difficult for Dong Gaoche, Tuoba's remnants, and Murong's remnants to find Rouran, and it is wary of Rouran itself. That's because Han's rule in the grasslands was still weak.

Yu Jiulubati was the ruler of Rouran after all, and he had to be forced to a certain extent to do the thing of bringing only a thousand cavalry into the Han territory.The Rouran he ruled was also affected by the locust plague. The border bordering Xigaoche in the west was not ravaged by densely packed locusts, but too many Dingling people were attacking the border of Rouran.

Of course, Rouran was definitely frightened by the locust plague in Xigaoche, and she didn't know how afraid she was that the place where she lived would also become a scene where there was no grass for Dingling people.

The Han country has done research on Yu Jiulubati's adventure into the Han territory, and there must be something to deepen the relationship, and most of them are asking Liu Yan for help in person.

Liu Yan was Yu Jiulubati whom he met at Dahan Mountain, and it was the first time that the two met face to face.

Yujiulubati must have been taught in advance... or restrained in what way he should meet Liu Yan, but he didn't know whether he couldn't remember or didn't take it seriously. The proper interview process was not in order. After a conversation, if you say it's nice, it's straight to the point, if you say it's ugly, it's unreasonable.

"Is there anything wrong with your ears?" Liu Yan wondered if he heard it wrong just now: "At least 20 shi of plant grain, no less than 20 sheep and [-] cows; [-] bows, [-] swords, and guns Fifty thousand...", he couldn't read any more, looked at Yu Jiulu Bati with a look like an idiot, then looked back at Li Tan and asked: "The widow's army has been defeated by Rouran, and the capital is about to die. Was captured?"

There was the sound of weapons being drawn out in the military tent. Every one of them was staring at Yu Jiulubati with eager eyes. If Liu Yan allowed it, they would pounce on him and cut his body into pieces.

The Rouran people in the tent were more tragic. Except for Yu Jiulubati who was able to bring weapons in, the rest of the Rouran people were disarmed. They looked at the Han people who suddenly became fierce in fear, as if they didn't understand what happened.

Yu Jiulu Bati didn't seem to understand either. He looked at Liu Yan in bewilderment, and said doubtfully, "We are allies. Isn't it normal to ask our allies for help when we are in trouble?"

At that moment, Liu Yan finally knew why the rest of the nomads called the Rouran people "Zhuzhu people". Is it because they are mentally retarded, they only rely on force to fight, they don't need tricks, and they lose more than they win... Han people don't know much about it yet, but like It seems that he is right about being an extremely incapable of thinking bug.

(End of this chapter)