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

Chapter 683: The End of the Military Affairs

When the news of Li Ji's capture of Seleucia spread, the whole world was shocked. Anyone with military knowledge understood that the allied forces had cut off the Huns' logistical supplies, and even if Jun Chen still had an army of 200,000, defeat was inevitable.

And this was indeed the case. After Junchen received the news, his blood rushed to his head, he spit out a mouthful of blood, and fainted.

This made all the Hun generals present at the scene bewildered. Their logistics were cut off and the Chanyu was unconscious. For a moment, they didn't even have anyone to make decisions. And this was exactly the time when the Hun army needed someone to make decisions the most.

When Junchen was taken away by the personal guards, the Xiongnu generals in the big tent were extremely frightened, and the shadow of failure began to hang over them.

"What should we do now?" became the question hanging over everyone's head.

Soon, the Xiongnu leader Xia Jie shouted, "We are not defeated yet! We have enough food and grass to last for half a month, and we have plenty of ammunition. As long as we take down Antioch, we will have the capital to bargain with the Han Dynasty."

"The most urgent thing is that we should block this news while we have sufficient food and grass, and command our soldiers to capture Antioch at all costs."

But another Xiongnu general, Jin Yu, was filled with anger and said, "You want to put our Xiongnu into an irretrievable situation. We have been attacking Antioch for more than half a year but have not been able to capture it. How can you be so sure that you can capture this city in just half a month? Even if you capture Antioch, there will be no shortage of food, but where will you find ammunition? Do you think this is the era of decades ago when you could conquer the world with just a saber? Without ammunition, our rifles are not even as good as firewood sticks."

"And it's useless to capture Antioch. We still have Damascus behind us, and Zhou Yafu has 6 elite allied troops. How can we fight?"

"If it weren't for you, an old man, who has been inciting the Chanyu, how could the Xiongnu have suffered such a terrible disaster today?" Another general, Lou Ban, said angrily. When these people knew that the Han emperor did not allow them to attack the Seleucid Empire, they did not want to fight, but Junchen was determined to capture the Seleucid Empire. Now that Junchen was in a coma, these generals could only vent their anger on Xia Jie, the radical.

"How dare you cowards bully me? When I followed the old Chanyu to conquer the world, you were still infants." Xia Jie said disdainfully. He was old and experienced, and he simply disdained these Xiongnu generals who were born after the war.

It is easy to say not to fight this war, but how to resolve the internal conflicts within the Xiongnu? Should we fight a civil war and kill each other?
"What did you say, old man?" Lou Ban immediately drew his sword.

Xia Jie also pulled out his sword and said, "Don't look at my old age, I can still kill you little kids with my sword."

"Alright, you guys are going to start a quarrel among yourselves and let all of us die without a burial place!"

"The most urgent task is to find a way to survive and bring the Xiongnu's elite troops back home safely."

Veteran Xin Ping's roar calmed everyone down.

At this time, the Hun general looked at the map to find a way out.

"Damascus in the south won't work. Zhou Yafu's 6 elite troops have been gathering strength for a year. It is said that the trenches of Damascus have been dug five miles outside the city. These rats are waiting for us to crash into them." The Hun general quickly rejected a direction.

A general looked towards the direction of Seleucia and asked, "What Li Ji has are just a bunch of scattered soldiers. How about we strike back and open up the logistics line?"

Xin Ping shook his head and said, "Prince Yu Shan has 5 troops. Even though they are dispersed to protect the logistics line, Li Shang can still capture Seleucia City in one battle. Obviously, Li Ji has a lot of soldiers and their combat effectiveness is not bad.

Not to mention that Liu Ruyi and Zhou Yafu would not watch us leave. If our army really retreats, it will be easy to be surrounded on three sides. Moreover, there are too many Seleucids in our army. They can maintain their stability during the attack, but as long as we retreat, they will know the weakness of our army. At that time, they will counterattack, and I am afraid that we will not be able to leave the Seleucid Kingdom. "

There are still more than 100,000 Seleucids in their camp. These people are fence-sitters. If they knew the situation of the Huns, they would definitely leave the camp.

Xia Jie said coldly: "We will go north to seek refuge in the fiefdom of King Yizhixie. This is our only way out."

The other Hun generals looked at the direction Xia Jie pointed. To the north of the Seleucid Empire was the territory of the Northern Huns.

It can be said that the Seleucid Empire was a great country in Daqinzhou, a war-torn land dominated by warlords, and had a great direct relationship with the Northern Huns.

At that time, the Seleucid Empire wanted to industrialize, and used industrial and agricultural scissors to brutally exploit serfs and civilians, which led to fierce internal and external conflicts. The entire Seleucid Empire was full of dry wood. At that time, Antiochus IV wanted to use external development to ease internal conflicts.

As a result, when they were expanding to the north, they came into direct conflict with Ichisha and were badly defeated. Almost all of Antiochus IV's central army was annihilated by Ichisha. This dealt a heavy blow to the central power of the Seleucid Empire, leading to the separatist forces of the Seleucid Empire taking the opportunity to establish their own kingdoms, and also led to the rise of the northern rebel army. The entire Seleucid Empire collapsed, which led to the Huns taking advantage of the opportunity to invade.

Xin Ping nodded and said, "The north is indeed our only way out."

Other generals also approved of this strategy and began to plan a marching route to break through to the north.

At the same time, in Antioch, Liu Ruyi and others also learned the news of the capture of Seleucia through telegram. Liu Ruyi said happily: "The Huns are doomed to fail. We have finally won this difficult war."

The rebel general Walker said excitedly: "Can our army fight back against the Huns?"

They have been waiting for this day for more than a year, and now they can finally fight back against the Huns.

Liu Ruyi calmly shook his head and said, "The Xiongnu still have hundreds of thousands of troops, and their strength is still preserved. We must not relax now, but prevent the Xiongnu from jumping off the wall in desperation. Now is the most dangerous time for us, and we must not fail. You must immediately send down the order, everyone must be on high alert to guard against the Xiongnu's fierce attack, and at the same time arrange scouts to monitor the Xiongnu's movements at all times.

Walker said: "Yes!"

After holding out for more than half a year, Liu Ruyi has won the respect of the entire Seleucid rebel army. At that time, their rebel army was already in danger, and Liu Ruyi came to Antioch regardless of his life, helped them reorganize the army, arrange the defense line, and held out in the most dangerous place for a full six months. He was also fair and just in his daily affairs. The Seleucid rebel soldiers all knew that Liu Ruyi was the son of a Han marquis, but he was also very generous to ordinary soldiers.

This was nothing in the Han Dynasty, but it had never happened in the Qin Continent, which valued bloodline traditions. There were few generals in the current Qin Continent who would respect their ordinary soldiers. Ordinary soldiers had to wait until after World War II to gain respect. Facing Liu Ruyi, who respected them, the soldiers of the rebel army already saw him as their leader.

When the news of Li Ji's successful capture of Seleucia reached the Allied Headquarters in Damascus, Zhou Yafu immediately ordered scouts to monitor the Huns from east to west, and then began to order the Allied camps to be ready to attack at any time. Now the Huns have few options left. One is to attack Antioch fiercely, but the probability of this is not high. If Antioch was so easy to break, the Huns would not have stopped for half a year.

The second is to change direction and attack Damascus, but this is a worse choice. After more than a year of construction, Damascus's defensive offensive will only be stronger than Antioch. If Junchen dares to come to Damascus, Zhou Yafu will be sure to kill him.

If a strong attack doesn't work, then the only option left is retreat. To the east of the Huns is the Mediterranean Sea, and to the south is a desert peninsula. These two places are dead ends, and the Huns will never choose these two routes.

The Huns had no choice but to flee north or west. To flee west meant retreating. Most of the Huns were Seleucids, who were good at fighting with favorable winds. If they knew the Huns were fleeing, they would probably blow up their camp. Moreover, Li Ji had tens of thousands of troops in Seleucia. If the Huns dared to choose this route, the allied forces could surround the Huns on three sides. So the only option left for Junchen was to lead the army to flee to his brother's territory. Therefore, Zhou Yafu judged that the Huns would soon flee north.

Sure enough, a few days later, the Hun army began to break camp and march northward. Zhou Yafu naturally could not let the Huns escape like this. On the one hand, he ordered Fan Kang to bring 5000 cavalry to delay the Huns' retreat. On the other hand, he ordered Li Ji to reorganize the army command and lead the Seleucia rebel army north to encircle and suppress the Huns.

On June 54, 6th year of the Han calendar, at the gates of Antioch.

The sun rises in the east and the sky gradually brightens. Although it is a fine day with clear blue skies, the city of Antioch is like a battlefield, with broken limbs everywhere. The blood of soldiers from both sides flows into streams and slowly seeps into the soil, turning the soil blood red. On this land one can see trenches with gullies, rusty wires, countless bullets and shell casings, and the smoke that is difficult to disperse in the fresh air and on the ground.

Zhou Yafu, who was leading the allied soldiers, saw such a battlefield scene and thought of the hundreds of thousands of people buried under this small piece of land. In particular, most of the two fighting parties were from the same ethnic group, but they were driven by the Huns and killed each other.

Zhou Yafu could not help but sigh: "In the age of firearms, wars have not only not decreased, but have become more and more brutal."

He simply couldn't imagine how cruel it would be if it happened to the Han people.

At this time, the gates of Antioch opened, and Liu Ruyi rode over on his warhorse. Seeing Zhou Yafu, he said excitedly: "Brother Yafu, I finally waited for you."

Zhou Yafu saw Liu Ruyi, with his scruffy beard and vicissitudes of life, who looked like his uncle Liu. He sighed and said, "Thank you for your hard work in the past six months. The allied forces defeated the Huns, and you were the first to achieve this. I will report this to the court."

Liu Ruyi said viciously: "It doesn't matter if you make achievements, the key is not to let the Huns escape. This time we must teach the Huns a lesson, let them feel the pain of the Seleucid people, and let them wail."

He had been on this land for too long. He was the one who established the Seleucid military system, political system, and land system. Although he was only an inspiration to the rebels in Seleucus, he was also a teacher to many people and a comrade-in-arms of the rebels. For more than half a year, he watched young and strong men being pushed to the battlefield by him. Now he could not tell whether he was a Han or a Seleucid, but his hatred for the Huns was unprecedented. Too many of his friends and comrades-in-arms died at the hands of the Huns, and now he just wanted revenge.

Zhou Yafu smiled and said, "Don't worry, this time not only can the Xiongnu not escape, but even Junchen can't escape either."

Then Liu Ruyi led 3 Antioch defenders to join the allied forces, and these people pursued the Hun army relentlessly.

At the same time, the news that the Huns were going to be defeated began to spread in their camp. After all, the Huns wanted to buy time and fled north very quickly, which aroused the suspicion of the Seleucid pseudo-army. Soon they knew that the Huns' retreat had been cut off by the allied forces and that the Huns were about to be defeated. Even the Huns' Chanyu Junchen was scared to death. All kinds of rumors were flying around in the Huns' camp. Even if the Huns kept killing, they couldn't stop it. This caused panic among the Seleucid pseudo-army. They kept fleeing, and the Huns had no time to pursue the deserters.

In front of them, the Seleucid guerrillas were chasing and intercepting the Huns. From the map, the Huns fled to the north, which was tactically correct. But they forgot the most important point, that the rebels originated in the north of the Seleucids, and the rebels had been operating in the north for several years, especially after Liu Ruyi came, who made a strong equal distribution of land and established a sound military and political system, all of which made the north the most powerful region for the rebels.

The Huns wanted to escape from here, but they were blocked by the local guerrillas who organized the people, destroyed roads and bridges, and dug trenches. It can be said that every step the Huns took, there were guerrillas ambushing them secretly, and every step required bloodshed and sacrifice. In less than half a month, almost all the Seleucid puppet troops had escaped. If the Hun soldiers had not known what they had done in the Seleucid Empire in the past year, and knew that they would die faster if they were separated from the main force, the Hun soldiers would have wanted to escape, but they knew that their only way to survive was to follow the main force and escape from the Seleucid Empire.

Unfortunately, this has become a luxury. The Huns once swept across the entire Seleucid Empire in less than half a month, but now they are stuck and surrounded by a 300-strong army led by Zhou Yafu, Liu Ruyi, Li Ji and others before they could escape 20 miles. The final decisive battle has finally arrived.

July 54, 7th year of the Han calendar, in the northern wilderness of Seleucus.

The Hun army had been completely surrounded, and they realized this. Generals led by Xia Jie organized elite soldiers to assault northward, trying to break out of the encirclement and fight their way out.

But the Seleucid soldiers were even more unwilling to let these bandits who had massacred their relatives go, and the two sides engaged in a brutal battle in this nameless wasteland, which was no less brutal than the battle of Antioch. In the end, the Huns were unable to fight their way out.

There were still some wounded soldiers on the battlefield who were struggling to climb northward, mumbling to themselves, "Go home, go home."

But their efforts did not produce much results. What greeted them was the Gatling gun fire of the Han army. They all fell on the way to the charge. This charge caused tens of thousands of casualties to the Huns. They could no longer fight.

The Xiongnu general Xia Jie also lay in the trench gasping for breath. This was the most tragic battle he had ever fought. In less than an hour, tens of thousands of people fell here. These were all elite Xiongnu soldiers, but they died meaninglessly under the muzzle of the Gatling machine gun. He himself was also hit by a rifle and could only linger here.
"It's all over!!!" Xia Jie said dejectedly.

He was not only depressed because of the failure of this war, but also felt regretful because he knew that the expansion plans of two generations of Xiongnu Khans were interrupted by the Han Dynasty. In the future, it would be impossible for the Xiongnu to have another Khan who dared to expand. The heyday of the Xiongnu was over.

Xia Jie slowly closed his eyes.

Once Xia Jie died, the last bit of courage the Huns had to resist disappeared.

Hun Command.

At this time all the generals were lifeless and unwilling to move. Now they were out of ammunition and food, and there were more than 20 Allied troops outside surrounding them. It could be said that they had no way to survive.

At this time, a person walked in.

"Chanyu!" The Hun generals looked at the newcomer in astonishment.

Junchen's face turned pale as he asked, "What's the situation at the front?"

Veteran General Xin Ping shook his head and said, "Grand Commander Xia Jie died in battle, and tens of thousands of elite soldiers died in front of the enemy's position. The Han army's Gatling machine guns were too powerful, so powerful that charging forward would be tantamount to seeking death."

Junchen smiled bitterly and said, "My father died to gain the Han emperor's forgiveness. Today, I will use my life to buy you a chance to live. Although the Seleucids hate us, the Han emperor only wants global order. Even for the sake of stability in Mobei, he will not watch you being slaughtered. If you join the Han army, you still have a chance to live. When I die, you can use my head to gain the Han emperor's forgiveness."

Then Junchen looked at his generals and said, "Tell Yu Shan not to challenge the authority of the Han Dynasty before it declines. This is the only advice I, as a father, can give him. You must also assist Yu Shan well and maintain the Xiongnu Kingdom."

After saying this, Junchen's long sword slashed across his neck, and blood splattered everywhere. The founder of the Xiongnu industry, Junchen Chanyu, died!

At the Han army position, Zhou Yafu inspected the Huns' position with a telescope. Although he had heard about the powerful firepower of the Gatling gun from battle reports before, this time he experienced the power of the Gatling gun in person and was extremely shocked. After the emergence of this powerful firearm, war would really become a way of competing in industrial production capacity.

Even the mode of war will change, and industrial capacity will play a major role in wars in the future. But then he thought that the Han Dynasty produced 3000 million tons of steel every year, accounting for % of the world's total, and only the Han Dynasty could afford to fight a war of this model, so he felt relieved for a while.

(End of this chapter)