At the end of Qin, I became a son of the plane

Chapter 375: Loufan’s demise and thoughts on the desert
On the banks of the Anhou River, 50,000 Han cavalrymen took a short rest. A hundred miles away was the Xiongnu king's court.

Senior generals such as Han Xin and Fan Kuai sat on the grass, eating dry food and pointing at the map to discuss the plan of attacking the Huns.

At this time, the scout captain came running and reported the latest military intelligence to Han Xin.

"Commander-in-chief, the Xiongnu royal court ahead is in chaos, and their cavalry and tribesmen are evacuating northward."

Han Xin looked at the map and said in astonishment: "Maodun wants to escape to the North Sea!"

Fan Kuai said excitedly: "General, you can't let Maodun escape."

Now they have finally reached Mobei. If they let the main force of the Huns escape, not only will all their efforts be wasted, but it will also cost a huge price to capture them again.

Han Xin looked at the map and asked, "How many people are there in the Xiongnu royal court? Have they divided their forces?"

"From the smoke and dust, there are nearly 100,000 cavalrymen, and they have not yet been divided."

Han Xin thought for a moment and said, "Send a message to Lieutenant Yu Long, and order him to lead his troops to the Xiongnu royal court and cut off the Xiongnu's retreat route to the north. The speed should be faster."

"Fan Kuai, you lead two battalions to contain the main force of the Xiongnu."

"promise!"

"All troops march out and attack the Xiongnu royal court immediately."

The messenger quickly conveyed Han Xin's order.

War drums sounded in the Han army camp, followed by the neighing of war horses. Soon, Yu Long and Fan Kuai each led a cavalry unit and rushed out of the camp.

Deng Shuo, the military supervisor, was worried: "If Maodun escapes, our army will catch the main force that is not with the Xiongnu, and this battle in Mobei will be in vain. It is difficult for the court to launch such a war in a short period of time.

Han Xin said calmly: "The Xiongnu cavalry can run, but their tribesmen cannot. At most, our Han Dynasty will spend a little more to attack Beihai. By then, Maodun will only have two choices: one is to fight our army head-on, and the other is to watch our army capture all the old, weak, women and children of the Xiongnu. Although these people have no fighting power, as long as we capture these Xiongnu tribesmen, Maodun's army will collapse."

Han Xin said with a smile: "We will first take down the Xiongnu court, and then announce that the entire grassland court has been captured by our Han Dynasty. This will be a huge blow to the Xiongnu in the desert. The Xiongnu are originally a union of large tribes on the grassland. When other tribes on the grassland see that the Xiongnu are so vulnerable, will they still be willing to become Xiongnu? This will not only happen in the Central Plains, but it is also the norm in the desert."

The current Xiongnu Kingdom or Xiongnu Tribe is a tribal alliance. Although they all call themselves Xiongnu, there are actually many tribes within it, including Dingling, Donghu, Baiyang, and Loufan. Maodun's most core force is still the tribes in the grasslands around the royal court. They were the tribes before the Xiongnu rose.

The other tribes came over only because the Huns were powerful and could lead them to rob the Central Plains, but now that the Huns were in decline, the other tribes would naturally not follow them to death.

Maodun retreated very quickly. Even though Fan Kuai and Yu Long pursued him quickly, the Huns were more mobile in the desert. Fan Kuai and Yu Long only captured tens of thousands of Huns' rear guard, while Maodun's main force escaped.

The two men saw that the people who had gained military merit were escaping further and further away. He could only report the situation on the front line to Han Xin on the one hand, and occupy the Xiongnu royal court on the other hand.

There were not many buildings in the Xiongnu royal court. There were many tattered tents and stone buildings piled on the hills.

Fan Kuai said angrily: "It's a pity that this is called the royal palace. Even if we want to burn something, we can only burn a few tents."

Yu Long smiled and said, "General, there is still a Hun arsenal. Let's go and take a look."

So Fan Kuai and Yu Long came to the Huns' arsenal. They were extremely shocked to see the almost endless iron furnaces in this area, as well as the craftsmen's workshop area, which looked more like a royal court than the Huns' royal court.

Fan Kuai sighed and said, "From these iron furnaces, we can see Maodun's determination to strengthen the Xiongnu people. No wonder the emperor is so afraid of Maodun."

Yu Long was also thankful and said: "Fortunately, the Huns have not yet learned the blast furnace, otherwise we would have to face the Huns' armored cavalry."

In this era, the combat effectiveness of soldiers with armor and soldiers without armor was at two levels. The Han Dynasty was able to defeat the Five Barbarians because the weapons of the Central Plains dynasty were stronger than those of the Barbarians, which created a generation gap.

In later generations, iron tools became popular and the generation gap in weapons disappeared. In fact, due to the corruption of the Central Plains dynasties, the Hu people sometimes had the advantage in weapons and equipment.

Fan Kuai looked at the iron furnaces and said, "Order people to destroy them. There should be no ironware on the grassland."

The Han soldiers who received the order began to dismantle the iron furnace here.

August 15th, Western Desert

Li Feng Captain Chai Wu chased the Loufan tribe who wanted to escape westward.

The Loufan tribe, which numbered more than 100,000, was also reduced in number during the pursuit. The King of Loufan fled the desert for his own power, but the ordinary people did not want to leave the desert for the unfamiliar Western Regions, even though the King of Loufan had always said that the Western Regions were rich.

As a result, small tribes continued to flee from the Loufan tribe and fled to the south of the desert to surrender to Chai Wu.

When this situation first occurred, Chai Wu was extremely happy, thinking that the Loufan tribe was about to fall apart. He asked his subordinates to take these herdsmen back to the south of the desert, but he soon discovered that these people who kept surrendering to him seriously hindered his speed in pursuing the Loufan people. As a result, he chased the Loufan people for more than ten days but still failed to catch up with the Loufan people.

"Commander, two more tribes have surrendered to our army. What do you think we should do with them?"

Chai Wu said angrily: "It's not over yet, don't let them all block our way forward, let them surrender in Mo Nan."

"Will this work?"

"Why not? The most important thing for us now is to capture King Loufan." Chai Wu hated King Loufan to the core now. The main forces of the Han Dynasty were attacking Mobei, and he also had the idea of ​​capturing Maodun alive, but all of this was destroyed by King Loufan. Now he was thousands of miles away from Mobei, and even if he captured King Loufan now, he would not be able to catch up with the battle in Mobei.

Then a strange sight appeared in this Gobi Desert: the Loufan people stayed in front of the Han army waiting to be captured by them.

As a result, the Han cavalry shouted at them: "Open the road, we don't have time to accept your surrender, if you want to surrender, go to the south of the desert and surrender."

"Boom, boom, boom!" The tens of thousands of cavalrymen in the war army really didn't care about their tribe. They rushed all the way forward, leaving these hundreds of Loufan people with half an incense stick of sand.

Then they all looked at each other like the migrant workers.

"Chief, what should we do? The Han people don't seem to accept us."

"Keep going south. The old man Loufan Wang is unreliable. The sand in the Western Regions is more than the desert. If the old man really goes to the Western Regions, we won't even have grass to eat. The Han Emperor is a generous monarch. It is better to rely on him than on the Xiongnu."

So, under the leadership of this tribal leader, these hundreds of Loufan people continued to move south.

After Chai Wu refused to accept the Loufan tribe, the marching speed increased sharply. At the same time, the Loufan tribe also encountered big problems. After traveling west for thousands of miles, they were blocked by a desert.

The Loufan people, who were already in a panic, had been fleeing for a month. Their numbers were dwindling, and now only half of their original number were left. Now the desert had completely crushed the morale of the Loufan people.

They no longer believed in the fertile grasslands of the Western Regions. The Loufan tribe was unwilling to move forward and wanted to return to the south of the desert.

In the eyes of the Loufan people, this was originally a war between the Han people and the Huns. What did the Loufan people have to do with it? Since the Han people were so powerful, why didn't they just surrender to the Han and become Han people?

Join the stronger one, this has always been the rule of survival on the grassland. Why should they escape?
But King Loufan knew that if he returned to Mobei now, he would be dead and the Han army would not let him go.

"We will be safe after crossing this desert and reaching the Western Regions." King Loufan kept persuading his people to follow him and leave. But not many people were willing to listen to him.

One side wanted to leave, the other side wanted to stop, and the two sides argued here for three days.

Chai Wu finally caught up with them with tens of thousands of cavalrymen. When he saw the Loufan people, he immediately commanded his army to attack them.

"Kill that bastard King Loufan for me. Kill him!"

Chai Wu led the charge, and tens of thousands of cavalrymen were divided into two groups, left and right, to encircle the Loufan tribe.

The two battalions of cavalry rushed towards the Loufan people like a violent sandstorm. The King of Loufan was shocked when he saw the Han cavalry coming towards him.

"After all, I couldn't escape the Han people's pursuit." He now regretted not agreeing to Ji Xin's conditions.

The morale of the already exhausted Loufan tribe finally collapsed when they saw the Han cavalry. Although they still had tens of thousands of people and could have assembled 1 to 2 cavalry to resist, they had no such idea and instead fled in all directions. The entire battlefield was filled with Loufan people running around in panic and howling like ghosts.

Chai Wu's tens of thousands of troops quickly penetrated the Loufan tribe and divided them into several sections. At this time, these tribesmen fled in all directions like a school of frightened sardines.

Guan Yun shouted, "Father, let's run away quickly. If we flee to the Western Regions and find the Right Wise King, we can start over again."

King Loufan said bitterly: "I have no hope. The Loufan tribe will finally be destroyed in my hands. You still have hope. Take the tribesmen who are willing to follow you to the Western Regions."

Then he slapped his son's horse with the sword in his hand and said, "Go quickly."

Guan Yun could only lead dozens of cavalrymen to escape from the battlefield.

King Loufan raised the battle team in his hand and roared: "Loufan warriors, follow me and fight to the death."

The guards around him also made the same move and shouted: "Fight to the death, fight to the death!"

Under his encouragement, hundreds of Loufan soldiers regained their morale and followed him.

Then, under the leadership of King Loufan, they charged towards the Han cavalry without hesitation.

Chai Wu looked at the cavalry squad charging towards him and laughed, "Old man, you can't escape this time. Follow me and kill me!"

Under the command of Chai Wu, 5000 Han soldiers were like a torrent, instantly overwhelming hundreds of Loufan cavalry.

Chai Wu himself knocked King Loufan off his horse with a single halberd. He then quickly cut off King Loufan's head, raised his halberd high and shouted, "King Loufan is dead, surrender and you'll be spared."

"Lou Fan King is dead. Surrender and you will be spared."

When the Loufan people saw their king's head, they felt inexplicably relieved and then surrendered to the Han army one after another.

August 25, Eastern Desert
King Zhelan led 500 cavalrymen and galloped across the desert grassland. Looking at the Kerulen River beside him, he felt sad. This place was already the heartland of the Xiongnu. If he went miles further, he would see the Wolf Mountain, the sacred place where the Xiongnu worshipped their ancestors. Now the sacred place of the Xiongnu had become the front line of the Han-Xiongnu battlefield.

"Father, something bad has happened. The Han people have captured the royal court, and the Chanyu has asked us to go directly to the North Sea."

"What!" King Zhelan almost fell off his horse.

Although he was well prepared for the Han army's offensive, he also knew that this was a life-and-death battle for the Huns. After all, the Han emperor had assembled an army of more than 80, which was more than the number of men of the Huns.

When he and Maodun discussed how to deal with the Han army, they were extremely desperate. Their only chance of victory was to attack the Han army's logistics and force the Han army to retreat from the desert due to lack of food and grass.

But the final result was that even if they found the weakest point of the Han army to attack, they were still no match for the Han army. He wanted to turn the tide, but he was powerless.

It took King Zhelan a long time to recover from this shocking news.

Then he said dejectedly: "The gap between the two sides is too big, and the Chanyu is powerless to turn the tide."

The entire Xiongnu tribe retreated to the North Sea. Their livestock for this year were doomed. If they lost this battle, the Xiongnu would be destroyed. Even if they won, most of the Xiongnu people would surely starve to death this winter.

What is more important is that the Han State is different from other countries. Not only did they gain a firm foothold in the south of the desert, they also joined forces with other tribes to attack the Xiongnu. The Han emperor had too many Xiongnu, Donghu, and Fuyu people in his hands. Even if the Han people retreated, the Xiongnu would continue to fight these tribes. Would the Xiongnu, who had been severely damaged by the Han people, still have the ability to fight these people?

This desert will eventually be lost from their hands.

The next day, Maodun's envoy arrived at King Zhelan's army.

King Zhelan immediately asked the messenger, "What is the Chanyu's next plan?"

The messenger said, "The Chanyu intends to fight a decisive battle with the Han army in the Anhou River area south of the North Sea. The Chanyu wants the king to hold back the Liaodong Protectorate's princes' coalition forces in the Langjuxu Mountain area to buy time for the Chanyu to annihilate the Han army south of the desert."

Now the Han army has three armies attacking the Huns, and each main force has 5 cavalry. Although Maodun has the advantage in manpower, they are not at an advantage in equipment and combat effectiveness, so he wants to concentrate his forces to annihilate Han Xin's troops in the middle, severely damage the Han army's middle route, so as to deter the main force of the Han army that has entered Mobei.

After understanding Maodun's strategy, King Zhelan asked worriedly, "Does Chanyu have a chance of winning? These are 5 cavalrymen of the Han Dynasty."

Even though the Huns had improved their equipment in the past two years and even specially manufactured heavy weapons to deal with the Han people's armored vehicles, it was still difficult for the Hun warriors to defeat the Han army without a troop advantage of more than five times.

Maodun obviously could not muster 30 cavalrymen, let alone 5. He also had to face elite troops from the General Zhenbei's Mansion, even if he divided his troops to hold them back.

King Zhelan estimated that Maodun had no more than 10 soldiers, which was an extremely dangerous number as he did not even have a twice the strength advantage over the Han army.

The messenger said: "The Chanyu has already recruited all the Xiongnu children aged 14 and 50 years old. Now all the young and strong men who can fight in the desert are in the North Sea. We will definitely win this battle, and we must win."

When King Zhelan heard this, he could not stop feeling sad. The time had really come for the Huns to make a life or death decision.

He said firmly to the messenger: "This king will definitely drag the soldiers of Liaodong Protectorate to the east of Langjuxu Mountain."

August 27th, in the eastern part of the desert, at the Liaodong Protectorate camp.

Lu Chen stood on the land of the desert and looked at the towering mountains along the way. After arriving in the desert, he finally had a deep understanding of this land. The desert is really big, with big mountains, big land, and big Gobi.

This land is larger than the Central Plains, but it is also too empty and too barren. Even the grass here grows very sparsely. It is difficult for him to imagine how the Huns survived on this land.

They marched for more than a month and covered thousands of miles, which was enough to walk from Yuyang County to the river in the Central Plains, but here they were still on the outskirts of the desert, thousands of miles away from the Xiongnu's dragon court.

At this time, Liu Bang rode up on his warhorse and said, "General, Ke Hu and his men brought news that King Zhelan led his people to flee to Langjuxu Mountain and stopped there. The two sides are fighting fiercely."

Lu Chenyou was surprised and asked, "Can Ke Hu and his men fight the Xiongnu people evenly?"

The individual combat effectiveness of these barbarians is extremely strong, and many of them are even stronger than the fierce generals of the Han army. Take Ke Hu for example, even in the Han army there are few generals who can be his opponent. Liu Bang even said that only Ying Bu and Fan Kuai could fight with him.

But in stark contrast to their strong fighting power, their organization is extremely poor. They can be said to be scattered and guerrillas. Even the bandits in the Han Dynasty are more organized than them. As long as the Huns' cavalry reaches a scale of a thousand people, these savages will definitely be defeated.

Liu Bang laughed and said, "We have been fighting for nearly a month. The fools have long since died. Those who survived are all learners. They have already learned our military formations. Although they are still poor, their combat effectiveness has improved significantly."

After thinking for a while, Liu Bang whispered to Lu Chen: "Ke Hu and the others asked me if they could exchange their merits for land."

"Land!" Lu Chen became alert.

Liu Bang said: "During this period of interaction, Ke Hu and his men have learned about the military merit system of our Han Dynasty, and they also know that the princes of our Han Dynasty can establish a country. They also want to join the emperor and establish a country in the desert."

"Ke Hu said that his tribe originally lived in the desert. He led his people to escape to Liaodong because of the war between the Xiongnu and the Donghu people. However, they could not adapt to the life in Liaodong and said that they wanted to lead their people back to the desert.

Lu Chen glared at Liu Bang and said, "You didn't agree to this stupidly, did you?"

Liu Bang said: "How dare I? This is something only the emperor can do."

Lu Chen said: "That's good. The only place around the Han Dynasty that can threaten the safety of the Han Dynasty is the desert. This is why the emperor must attack the desert. This is to eliminate the enemy for future generations.

The emperor wants to use his own people to suppress the desert, and he does not allow foreigners to stay in the desert. So no matter what Ke Hu says, you don't care. After this battle, we will take them back to Liaodong."

(End of this chapter)