Cross the Sea in the Red Chamber

After crossing the Yanmen Pass and entering the territory of the Beiman Kingdom, looking at the endless grassland in front of you undoubtedly makes people feel a lot more open-minded.Jiang Yuan rode at the front of the team, looking at the army he had trained behind him, he only felt that he had a youthful spirit that he hadn't felt for several years.

Although he has fought against assassins, princes, noble families, and even turned the entire Jiangnan upside down over the years, what Jiang Yuan likes most is the battlefield.During the San Francisco Rebellion, the feeling of waving the mast and scull into ashes will never be forgotten decades later. Isn’t the man who chased after him just lifting the three-foot sword and making an indelible feat?

The Beiman Kingdom should have sentries at the border to monitor the movements of the Jing Dynasty, but because Da Jing hadn't crossed the Great Wall for decades, he was leaving the customs and entering the territory of the Beiman Kingdom, which inevitably made people feel paralyzed.In addition, during the recent Muzhe Conference, all the tribal powers have shrunk, and the strong are being taken to Qingli Lake to participate in the competition, so there are fewer guard posts ambushing outside the pass.

Therefore, under the leadership of the Yuezhi people, many sentry posts on the border were captured by Jingjun before they could even run away. It catches them all.This also made Jiang Yuan lead the troops out of customs for several days, and the news was not leaked.

Generally speaking, it wasn't that the Jing army was too powerful, but that the northern barbarians didn't pay attention at all.If one side came prepared and one side cared about everything, then the Beiman Kingdom would have to suffer the consequences.

The grasslands and deserts are too vast, and the population density is too sparse.On the land of Dajing, there is no uninhabited place for hundreds of miles. Farming peoples are always used to developing the land within their ability to grow food and obtain wealth.

But here in Beiman country, it is not uncommon to see hundreds of miles of deserted people.The population reproduction ability of the nomads is still poor. With the same land area, Dajing raised tens of millions of people, while in Beiman there were only a few million people.Not to mention that all the northern barbarians are gathering near the Qingli lake, even in normal times, 10,000+ people from Dajing might not necessarily be able to bump into the northern barbarian tribes.

In this era without good communication capabilities, such scattered living has weakened the resistance to external forces a lot.When the northern barbarians were strong, this was of course no problem, but once they weakened, the northern barbarians, who had no city protection at all, would become vulnerable and vulnerable.

After traveling steadily for several days, Jiang Yuan finally received a message from the Yuezhi people from the Qingli Lake with the golden eagles they raised—the conflict between the northern barbarians and other races became increasingly fierce, and there were constant frictions between the two sides. It's about to start a fight!

"...a mess." After reading the message, Jiang Yuan could only make such an evaluation.The strength of the Northern Barbarian Kingdom is based on their unwillingness to submit to the weak, and they will always strive forward and strive for self-improvement. But the so-called success is also Xiao He, and failure is also Xiao He, but if it becomes stronger, it must also become weaker.

If the Beiman Kingdom still had the most powerful tribe at this time, making all the small tribes willingly obey him and unite and work together, then the Beiman Kingdom must be one of the most powerful countries in the world.But now the Great Khan of the Northern Man Kingdom is dead, his tribe is falling apart, and there is no longer a strong man who can convince everyone. This once powerful country has also become falling apart in an instant.

Unification, this is the most essential belief rooted in the hearts of all Han people since the Qin Dynasty.Although there are points, they must be combined and unique.As long as you accept Chinese civilization, you all believe in this.The northern barbarians only believed in being strong, and their root thought rejected unification, so they were doomed to be able to dominate for a while, not to be permanently strong.

This is a rare and good opportunity, Jiang Yuan urged the army to move forward quickly, to approach Qingli Lake as quickly as possible.

When the snipe and the clam compete, the fisherman wins, and the opportunity is fleeting.Dajing's army must rush out to meet the enemy when they are fighting the worst, and they must not let this opportunity pass by!

Confucius once said such a sentence: People from afar cannot come because they are disobedient, and when a state is disintegrated, they cannot defend it, but they plot to fight within the state...

These words really hit the fragile knee of Beiman Kingdom, and an arrow was stabbed hard!People from afar are unwilling to submit, but they cannot be recruited by civilized education; the country is fragmented, but they cannot be preserved; in such a situation of internal and external troubles, they want to use force within the borders of the country.What are the consequences of these three points?

Confucius then gave the correct answer - the crisis is not external, but the disaster caused by Xiaoqiang!

The Zuoxian King and Youxian King of the northern barbarians did not like each other at first, but in order to obtain food for the winter from the aliens, they rarely let go of their old conflicts and tried to cooperate.Just working together for now...

And what about the aliens?

In addition to the descendants of the Northern Barbarians and the Jingren, there are also several tribes composed of nomadic peoples and attached Western Regions people in the Northern Barbarian Kingdom.At this time, these tribes also gathered together to protect their winter livestock from the northern barbarians. Although there were a total of six different ethnic groups, the relationship between them was so close that they were still fighting over each other. The left and right virtuous kings of Khan.

These alien races knew one thing very well, they had to be closely united, they couldn't be scattered, and they couldn't plot against each other, otherwise none of them would be an opponent of the northern barbarians and would just be eaten one by one.

Maybe they chose to join the Beiman Kingdom like those traitors from the Jing Dynasty, but that was because the Beiman Kingdom was extremely powerful at that time and could bring them sufficient benefits and security.But now that the northern barbarians have handed their knives in front of them, how can they dream of peaceful coexistence with the northern barbarians?The king regards his ministers like dirt, and the ministers regard the king as a bandit. Then, if the king regards his ministers as a bandit, will he still send his head to be chopped off?

At this time, it is definitely not safe to hand over the livestock in your hands.According to the insatiable greed that the northern barbarians have always shown, killing chickens and taking eggs, once the foreign race retreats, all the supplies will be taken away by force, or even captured and turned into slaves by the northern barbarians.

Having lived in the Northern Barbarian Kingdom for so many years, they have already thoroughly understood the habits and practices of the Northern Barbarians, so the foreign races did not take chances at all, and they were all focused on preparing to deal with the enemy.

There is almost no difference in the number of troops between the northern barbarians and the foreign races. Both have tens of thousands of soldiers capable of fighting, and the difference in population is not very big.The two sides were at war with each other at this moment, but neither of them dared to strike first, because neither of them was sure of victory.

If this delay can continue, of course the foreign race will prevail.They have all the livestock and plenty of food and grass, and they don't mind procrastinating at all. In fact, they hope that the northern barbarians will not dare to take action. The later they start, the less food and grass the northern barbarians will have, and the less hope of victory. , the balance of victory will be tilted towards the alien race.

The foreigners know this truth, and the Northern Barbarians certainly know it well, so on the fifth day of this stalemate, the left and right sage kings of the Northern Barbarians finally couldn't sit still, they secretly assembled a large army, and prepared to take the lead in attacking in the middle of the night The camp where the aliens camped.

The idea of ​​the northern barbarians is indeed very good. They want to sneak attack on the tents of the foreigners while they are asleep in the middle of the night.But they can think of it, can't the foreign race not think of it?

Before the sneak attacking troops had time to get close to the camp of the foreign race, the overwhelming rain of arrows had already shot at the northern barbarian soldiers who came to sneak attack from the darkness.Accompanied by the dense rain of arrows, countless bonfires were lit around the alien camp, illuminating the battlefield like daylight. The northern barbarian's idea of ​​sneak attack hit the empty space immediately, and it didn't play its due role at all.

Since the sneak attack failed, let's make a blatant frontal attack.The food and grass in the camp became more and more insufficient, and the northern barbarians had no more opportunities. They had to obtain food as quickly as possible.At this time, King Zuoxian and King Youxian were forced to forget about the struggle for the position of Khan. They had to win the food and grass of other tribes first and keep their own tribes!

Seeing that the northern barbarians were discovered and refused to back down, the leaders of the several foreign races were all heartbroken, knowing that they had completely torn their skins and refused to let it go.These leaders quickly gathered all the people in the clan who could use bows and arrows to the fence around the camp, preparing to guard the camp and prevent the northern barbarians from attacking.

The cavalry of the northern barbarians rushed forward according to the order of the left and right wise kings. While charging, they used the speed of their horses to fight back with bows and arrows.However, in the offensive and defensive battle, the defenders had the upper hand, not to mention that the foreign tribes mobilized all the tribesmen who could shoot arrows to fight back. Even the slaves of the tribe were sent to the battlefield, and their numbers were much larger than those of the northern barbarians Few, relying on the protection of the camp to fight against the northern barbarians desperately, so even if the northern barbarians launched several attacks, they failed to break into the foreign camp.

After one night, the sun rose again, and the northern barbarians launched eight attacks in succession, all of which were stopped by the aliens.The northern barbarians had stormed into the alien camp three times, but they still couldn't maintain the battle.The knights who rushed in were shot back by the crazy rain of arrows, and except for losing more soldiers, they failed to achieve any results.

The foreign race's practice of distributing weapons to the slaves did have an effect. The northern barbarians could not resist such a powerful firepower, so they could only choose to retreat temporarily.The two warring parties left many corpses on the battlefield, and finally ended the battle.But this is just the beginning of a great war, and the northern barbarians will never give up the food they put on their lips!

Although the foreign races kept their camp, these leaders were not happy at all, and even fell into deep depression.Because although the northern barbarians stopped attacking temporarily, they sent a large army to stop them between the alien camp and Qingli Lake.This move was really ingenious, and it directly forced these leaders to a serious degree.

Nomads are not used to carrying dry food, but drive livestock and feed on the milk or meat of livestock. This is indeed an advantage on the battlefield, because they do not need a large number of auxiliary soldiers to transport food and grass, and they do not need to guard against the enemy's food shortage. , and livestock are all living things, they will automatically move around with the troops, so their marching speed can be guaranteed, compared with the migration speed of farming peoples, they are more capable of long-distance raids.

However, if there are advantages, there will inevitably be disadvantages. This is a problem that no one can avoid.Since their "food" is all living things, these owners not only need to solve their own food and clothing problems, but also need to ensure that they can continue to survive.In short, provide drinking water.

The problem of food is easy to solve. Anyway, the livestock they drive are herbivores, just let them gnaw some crops and grass, but the problem of drinking water is a big problem... All animals have to drink water, they Raising cattle and sheep, not camels...

Now the alien race has been caught by the northern barbarians.It is true that they have a complete range of foreign livestock and they did not die from the plague, so they can ensure sufficient food for the foreign race, but the livelier the cattle and sheep, the more food they need.In terms of food, the foreign race prepared a lot of hay for the winter at the station, which was enough for the cattle and sheep to eat for a long time, but the water had to be supplied by the nearby Qingli Lake.

To supply drinking water for so many livestock, it is impossible to store the drinking water.The water saved by the alien race is not enough for the people in the tents to drink. How can it supply so many livestock?This is also because nomads such as foreign races are not good at defense. If it was the Jing army, they would have thought of this problem a long time ago and dug wells in advance as a precaution.

If the foreign races didn't want their livestock to die of thirst, they couldn't continue to avoid the war. They had to fight the northern barbarians head-on.

Either defeat the northern barbarians and completely drive them out of Qingli Lake so that the livestock can drink water.Either defeat the northern barbarians, so as to lead the livestock to leave Qingli Lake calmly, find other suitable water sources to station, and allow the livestock to thrive.Otherwise, you can only choose to die in battle or surrender...

This tactic of the northern barbarians was very effective. It just hit the seven inches of the aliens, forcing them to no longer hide in the garrison, forcing them out of the "guard" position, and had to fight head-on.And once the advantage of "guarding" is lost, the two sides will stand on the same starting line again, and the advantage that the foreign race has finally established will disappear.

The northern barbarians need food, while the foreign races need water, and neither of them can afford to wait, so now both sides have no room to back down, and there is only a big battle to decide the winner!

In the alien tent, the leaders of the six ethnic groups, namely Hu, Di, Yi, Wei, Rou and Qiang, gathered together.At this time of life and death, any prejudice is unnecessary, and all contradictions can be put aside.There is no life-and-death enmity among the several ethnic groups, so they must unify their beliefs and find a breakthrough point, otherwise what awaits them is the disaster of genocide!

Although the individual population of these six ethnic groups is smaller than that of the Northern Man and the descendants of the Jingren, and they belong to small ethnic groups in the Northern Man, they can also be divided into large and small clans.Compared with Wei, Rou and Qiang, the number and strength of the other three ethnic groups are obviously much stronger, and the Hu ethnic group is the most powerful among these six ethnic groups, so the leader of the Hu ethnic group has become their alien race. Temporary leader of the coalition forces.

The leader of the Hu tribe said with a serious expression: "The purpose of calling everyone here today is to discuss how to fight the northern barbarians. Now the war between the two sides is inevitable, and the northern barbarians forced us to go out of the camp to fight against them. So I would like to ask you all, is there any clever plan to defeat the northern barbarians."

As soon as he finished speaking, the leader of the Di Clan spoke while the others were still thinking, "Everyone, I sent someone to contact the Yuezhi people!"

This sentence was simply earth-shattering and shocked all the leaders present!

They all knew about the Yuezhi ethnic group. They were expelled from the territory by the northern barbarians decades ago, robbed the pastures, and beheaded their leaders.Now this ethnic group has become the number one bandit in the territory of the northern barbarian country, robbing the supplies and livestock of the tribes of the northern barbarian country, and has enmity with all their tribes.None of them thought that the leader of the Di clan, who was usually silent, would speak surprisingly at this time, and even contact Yuezhi without telling them!

"Everyone, don't think about the enmity with the Yuezhi. The Yuezhi is indeed the enemy of the Beiman Kingdom, but even more so. For the Yuezhi people, only the Beiman people have a life-and-death enmity with them. It's just a little bit of friction with us ethnic groups, it's not a big deal at all."

"Now we seem to have the same military strength as the northern barbarians, but in terms of military strength, we may not be the opponents of these desperadoes. Instead of sitting still, it is better to find allies, so I contacted the enemy of the northern barbarians, Yue Zhi, and decided to fight with them Is it wrong to form an alliance?" the leader of the Di clan continued.

Everyone fell silent, bowed their heads in deep thought, and had to admit that what the leader of the Di clan said made sense.These people have already torn face from the northern barbarians, and they are no longer willing to be loyal to the northern barbarians.Now that they are enemies of each other, what face is there to talk about?It is not impossible to make the enemy of the enemy an ally, and it is indeed a good idea to contact the Yuezhi people.

"How did they reply?" Everyone asked anxiously.The Yue clan has a large population, with tens of thousands of soldiers. If this powerful ally joins them, the chances of defeating the northern barbarians will be a little higher.

The leader of the Di clan smiled and said: "The leader of the Yue clan has agreed to flank the northern barbarians with us, but he asked us to give them some of their livestock as a reward for sending troops. Of course, their army has rushed to the vicinity of Qingli Lake , hidden in the nearby mountains.”

His voice was a little drawn out, and there was a deep meaning in his words, "It seems that the Yuezhi people are still unwilling to give up, they have long wanted to attack the northern barbarians! Hehe, after so many years, they have not forgotten that the leader was killed Is it a great shame?"

Everyone understood what the leader of the Di tribe meant. The Yuezhi people had already arrived near Qingli Lake, and they brought the army here on purpose. What else could it be for?They must have been looking for an opportunity to strike at the northern barbarians before the shepherd's meeting, but they didn't do it because the time was not enough, so they agreed without hesitation when the leader of the Di tribe contacted them for a while.Hmph, why are you pretending to be innocent?

But what does these things have to do with them, alien races?In the past, they would still need to worry that the war between the Northern Barbarians and the Yuezhi would bring them to Chiyu. Now that they themselves have fallen out with the Northern Barbarians, do they still care about these things?The more the Yuezhi people hate the northern barbarians, the better, and the more they hate, the more they will contribute!

The leader of the Hu tribe stroked his beard, "The Yuezhi people are indeed a powerful foreign aid, but we can't just rely on the Yuezhi people. We haven't contacted the Yuezhi people in these years. Who knows what they are thinking now. They want to Take the opportunity to defeat the northern barbarians for revenge, or to take the opportunity to raid the camp to rob livestock and gold and silver when we are fighting the most fiercely? The Yue clan is different from Jingguo. Although there is hatred between them and the northern barbarians, who knows that this hatred will last How long? Has it lasted until now?"

What the leader of the Hu tribe said was right.In order to survive in the prairie, these nomads are more realistic than each other.Although it is not to the point where the northern barbarians turn their faces and deny people at any time, they will succumb to their interests and put all the feelings in their hearts aside.

It may be rare for a son to kill his father to compete for power/power in the Central Plains, but it is quite normal on the grasslands, and they don't even bother to cover up the matter of brothers killing each other.Since even relatives can become strangers, even enemies, how can hatred for enemies compare to immediate benefits?

The Yuezhi people really hate the Northern Man, but who knows whether they put hatred first or interests first?

There are no more livestock on the northern barbarian side, and they don't know how many materials and treasures are left.But these alien races have enough livestock, and they definitely have accumulated a lot of supplies. If the Yuezhi people think that it is better to rob them of these alien races to gain more benefits, then not only have they not found a strong ally, but one more may come from A formidable enemy with a knife in his back.

The leader of the Yi tribe kept silent all the time, but at this moment he said: "I don't think the Yuezhi people will easily intervene in our struggle, they will just stand aside and watch, but in the end they will never stand The northern barbarians. They are not friends, but they may not be enemies."

"How do you say that?" the leader of the Di clan asked.

The leader of the Yi nationality pursed his lips and said: "The Yuezhi may have more people and soldiers than any of us, but it is not enough compared to the two forces composed of the northern barbarians and us." Yes. Any one of us can swallow them, so Yuezhi will never stand up to be an enemy of any one until the critical moment. Because they are also afraid of provoking a strong enemy for no reason, and they will have a hard time for several years. "

"But no matter whether the leader of the Di tribe has contacted them or not, since they have already arrived at Qingli Lake, how can they return empty-handed and take nothing?"

"If we were the leader of the Yue Clan and wanted to gain the maximum benefits in this war, what would we do? Should we kill them immediately, or stand aside and watch?"

"Wait and see!" Everyone looked at each other, they were not stupid, so they immediately understood what the leader of the Yi tribe meant.

Yue Zhi is not an opponent of either of them, what should they do if they want to get the maximum benefit?The answer is to wait and see, sit and watch the two sides fight, and then decide what to do next.

If there was a war between them, the Yue clan would immediately take action to snatch the livestock of the foreign race.So even if the Yuezhi people succeed, will the foreign race and the northern barbarians let them go?The Yuezhi people will only become the object of hatred of the more than 20 armies on both sides because of these livestock, and they will become the target of public criticism, and they will even be united to eliminate them.

So they must not be in a hurry, they must wait slowly, and only when the two sides get into a ball can they decide how to make a move.