My life is like walking on thin ice

Chapter 293 The Battle of National Destiny!

Quiet.

An eerie silence.

The head of the East Seat, Hejian King Liu De, pretended to be calm and seemed to be sipping tea with his head down, but his hand holding the tea bowl was visibly shaking;
Beside Liu De, King Linjiang Liu Yu was breathing heavily, and his eyes looking up at the imperial bed seemed even more confused.

At the opposite table, Prince Liu Yu of Lu frowned, as if he was standing on the side of his younger brother Liu Fei, considering the intention of Liu Rong's words.

Next to Liu Yu, Liu Fei was dumbfounded and stood there in a daze when he heard Liu Rong talking about this important news in front of his brothers, which even the generals in the court might not have known yet.

"Take advantage of their own tactic..."

"Plot...Gulu!"

"He, Henan land?"

As if he was afraid that he had heard it wrong, he repeated Liu Rong's words with a confused look on his face. Liu Fei also turned his head slightly hesitantly, as if he wanted to confirm with his brother Liu Yu.

Seeing Liu Yu frowning and thinking, Liu Fei was sure that he had not heard wrong. Then he took a deep breath and considered the feasibility of this matter.

Henan, of course, does not refer to the Henan known to later generations, but specifically refers to the jewel of the Munan prairie: the Hetao region.

Because it is located south of the Yellow River - south of the "convex" shaped river channel of the Yellow River after it flows through the Hexi Corridor, it is now called "Henan" by the Han people.

In addition to the Hetao area known as Henan, there is also the Hexi Corridor known as Hexi, which is also named because of its low location west of the Yellow River basin.

After understanding this, let's look back at what Liu Rong just said: Taking advantage of the Huns' invasion of Shang and Dai in the north of the Han Dynasty from the north, another division will be sent from the northwest to the north - out of Chaona Pass, to plot against the Hetao area!

It has to be said that from a macro-strategic perspective alone, this plan is extremely feasible!
First of all, as a nomadic civilization, the Xiongnu did not, like the Han Dynasty does today, line up rows of "border kings" or border tribes on the Han-Hun border and station them in the same place for years as a standing border defense force.

Like every Xiongnu tribe, the nomadic tribes living on the Han-Xiongnu border and at the foot of the Great Wall also migrated back and forth from east to west according to the four seasons of the year.

Nomadic means that people will not stay in one place all the time, but will drive cattle and sheep to wander across the grassland in pursuit of water and grass, except for the spring, summer and autumn seasons in winter.

This means that the Xiongnu Chanyu Court at the foot of the Great Wall would not deploy tribesmen to stay in the same place all year round, ready to "warn the Han".

In spring, there are Jia, Yi and Bing at the foot of the Great Wall; in summer, there are Ding, Wu and Ji; and in autumn, there is another wave.

——In some extreme cases, there will even be a period of time when there are no Xiongnu tribes in the area hundreds of miles north of the Great Wall!

On the one hand, this is a production and living style that nomadic people cannot change;

On the other hand, since the founding of the Han Dynasty, not even a single Han cavalry had left the protection of the Great Wall and set foot on the Xiongnu grasslands with a military mission.

The soul-shaking shock that the iron cavalry of Yan and Zhao and even the black dragon flag of Qin brought to the nomadic peoples has long been forgotten by them with the passage of time.

Nowadays, it is a consensus among the nomadic peoples of the entire grassland that the Han people cannot and do not have the ability to send troops to conduct military operations outside the Great Wall.

Of course, after the Han Dynasty took the initiative to attack for the first time and achieved certain results, and the Huns inflicted a certain amount of damage, this consensus would immediately collapse.

But before that, the Han Dynasty still had at least one opportunity to launch a strategic offensive against the grassland by surprise.

Obviously, on the endless prairie, only the lost Jiangnan area outside the Great Wall of the Chinese nation: Henan, is worthy of the Han family's only once-in-a-lifetime precious opportunity.

In addition to geography and defense capabilities, military considerations also make Liu Rong's plan highly feasible.

——Just as Liu Rong said: At the end of last year and the beginning of this year, the Han and the Huns had a battle in the north, and the Huns suffered a great loss (if they didn't make any profit, it was a loss). Therefore, there will definitely be another battle between the Han and the Huns after the autumn of this year.

This battle was to avenge the Huns for last year's battle and to re-establish their strategic advantage between the Han and the Huns. It was also to make up for the supplies they had not been able to get back from the Han in that battle.

Considering that the Han Dynasty's northern wall was thousands of miles long, there were only a few passes available for the Huns to choose for large-scale invasion. The direction of the Huns' attack could basically be determined as: west of Yan State and east of the north.

To be more specific, it is Yunzhong, which is isolated outside the Great Wall, Shangjun, and Dai State, which are arranged from west to east.

After determining the direction of the Huns' attack, which was the main battlefield of this battle, and that the number of Huns' troops in this invasion was basically impossible to be less than 100,000 - these two key pieces of information, we can draw another important conclusion.

Most of the Xiongnu's military power in the south of the city would be drawn away by this main force coming from the previous generation.

Especially in the Hetao region, which is garrisoned or owned by the Right Wise King, there is a greater probability that half of the military forces will be withdrawn because the Right Wise King will accompany the army to the expedition.

This means that once war breaks out, the Hetao region will be short of troops.

The troops in the south of the Mu would be stockpiled by the Shanyu court on the Shang and Dai fronts, and the north and south of the Mu were separated by the Great Mu, the Mongolian Desert, so effective support could not be provided for the time being.

In other words: as long as we are willing to invest and win quickly, there is a great chance that the Han army will be able to recapture Hetao in this battle!
When he thought of this possibility, Liu Fei's warrior genes began to stir again. In the blink of an eye, his chest was heaving and his breathing was heavy - he was even more excited than his third brother Liu Yudu!
Others may view this matter from a political perspective, or like Liu Yu, from a purely personal perspective;
But Liu Fei, King of Jiangdu Liu Fei, a potential general who was able to go to war at the age of fifteen and lead the army to quell the rebellion, saw that the strategic situation of the Han Dynasty had improved greatly after it regained the Hetao area!

First, with the Hetao as a barrier to the northwest of the Han Dynasty, Beidi and Shangjun were no longer the front line that could be invaded by the Xiongnu at any time;

Longyou, which used to be the quasi-front line, will directly become the rear area. With the north and the Hetao area blocking it, the only threat to Longyou is the severe weather on the Loess Plateau!

Moreover, with Hetao filling the gap in the Han territory in the northwest, the Han-Xiongnu border will change from the current "厂" shape to a "一" shape!
Shangjun, which was originally threatened from two sides, namely the Yinshan Mountains in the north and the Hetao region in the west, no longer had to worry about the west and could focus all its attention on the north.

And one hundred and twenty miles north of Shangjun is Yunzhong!
In the past, the Han Dynasty's border defense line was in the shape of the Chinese character "厂", and the cloud was like the extra dot on the Chinese character "广";

But after the Han Dynasty recaptured Hetao and made the Han-Xiongnu border into a "one" shape, would the dot hanging above the "one" still be a nail isolated in the frontier with no help?
Liu Fei was very sure: No!

If in the past, Yunzhong was the nail, outpost, and strategic support point that the Han Dynasty inserted into the heart of the grassland;

After the Han Dynasty recaptures Hetao, Yunzhong will become a true frontier reconnaissance position and a stronghold for the Han Dynasty to go north through the Great Wall!
Shangjun has changed from being faced with enemies from the west and north to being faced with enemies from the north, and can also devote more experience to taking care of Yunzhong.

The entire northern defense line will be given a huge breathing space and the defensive pressure will be greatly reduced because of the loss and recovery of the Hetao area!

The strategic significance of the cloud - the strategic significance of the cloud that has been overlooked will also be completely illuminated and activated!
Moreover, these are all changes made to the northern wall defense line after the Han Dynasty gained control of Hetao;

That’s not even talking about the benefits that the Hetao region can bring to the Han Dynasty!

——Hetao is the pearl with the warmest climate, the most luxuriant grass and water resources, and the most suitable place for animal husbandry development in the entire Xiongnu grassland! With Hetao, the Han Dynasty no longer has to worry about herding cattle and sheep, or even the scarcity of war horses!
The only thing that needed to be done was to relocate the border defense forces previously stationed in Beidi and Longyou, and add more defense forces to ensure that Hetao would not be taken away by the Huns again.

But as long as you understand the topography of the Hetao area, it is not difficult to find that although the Hetao area is not a pass and has no natural barriers, it is easy to defend and difficult to attack.

——The Hetao region was formed when the Yellow River changed its course to the north after flowing out of the Hexi Corridor, making a "convex"-shaped loop.

The convex part of the word "凸", that is, the area inside the "套", is called: Hetao.

Why does the Yellow River, which flows eastward, change its course to the north at this place, making a semicircle and forming a "convex" shape?
The answer is: this place is a protruding corner of the Loess Plateau.

When the Yellow River flows here, it hits the edge of the Loess Plateau and cannot flow through, so it changes its course to the low-lying north side, bypassing this high ground in a "convex" shape, and then continues to flow eastward.

In other words: whether for the nomadic peoples on the grasslands north of the Yellow River or the river, or for the Han people east of the Hetao, the Hetao region is a highland with a steep rise in terrain that needs to be looked up to!

In the era of cold weapons, what do high ground and higher terrain mean?
This means that if he wants to attack, he has to dive from high to low, which will be twice the result with half the effort and he will be unstoppable!

This means that if he is defending, you as the attacker will need to attack from low to high, which will be counterproductive and extremely difficult!

What's more, the entire Hetao area, whether it is on the east side adjacent to the Han Dynasty's Beidi County or on the north side adjacent to the grassland, has large rivers serving as natural moats!

Before attacking from low to high and heading towards Hetao, you must first cross the turbulent river!

Not to mention the difficulty of a large army crossing a river in this era - just the fact that after crossing the river, they would inevitably face the well-rested Hetao defenders would be enough to make the Han people today and the Xiongnu people in the future rack their brains to come up with a better second plan.

That’s right;

The high terrain of the Hetao region, as well as the "moat": the big river, are also insurmountable natural barriers for the Han people today!
This is also the reason why the Han family has been coveting Hetao for so many years but has never taken any action.

——Hetao is very difficult to fight.

The army must cross the river first - cross the big river!

After crossing the river, you have to face the enemy's attack on the river beach, land on the beach, and fight a desperate battle on the beach!
That’s enough to cause headaches;
And after completing this extremely difficult task, the real highlight begins: the upward attack.

Using bulky infantry - an infantry group that had just seized the river beach and just ended a desperate battle - they attacked the Xiongnu cavalry group that was rushing down from the high ground.

It's really hard.

Just by imagining the scene in your mind, it is not difficult to understand the difficulty.

Even if Liu Rong's attack this time was based on the premise that the Hetao troops were weak and most of the Munan troops were attracted to the Shang and Dai fronts, and he took advantage of the Huns' stereotype that "Han people would never dare to go out of the Great Wall" to launch a surprise attack and catch them off guard, it would still be difficult.

According to Liu Rong's plan, Hetao might have a chance to be conquered;

But huge casualties are unavoidable no matter what.

However, from another perspective, even though the Han Dynasty had the best timing, location, and people, it still had to suffer huge casualties to conquer Hetao with great difficulty. How easy would it be for the Huns to take it back in the future?
When the Han Dynasty relied on the horse-breeding land in Hetao to deploy a cavalry group of "hundreds of thousands", how could the Xiongnu people still have the audacity to write the words "Born by heaven and earth, appointed by the sun and the moon, the Great Khan of the Xiongnu" in their letters of credence?

"Do all the officials and generals in the court think the same?"

After analyzing the feasibility of this plan from a military perspective and concluding that 'the losses will be great, but it's worth it', Liu Fei immediately sat up straight, with bursts of brilliance in his eyes!

——This battle can be fought!
There's something going on!
But on the imperial couch, Liu Rong just shook his head and smiled, then lowered his head mysteriously and pretended to take a sip of tea.

The brothers were all worried, especially Liu Fei, who was almost going crazy. Liu Rong then slowly said, "It is a military and national matter, so we must not be careless."

"It is another strategy of catching the enemy by surprise and attacking them when they are least prepared. I dare not let outsiders know about it..."

As soon as these words were spoken, an expression of emotion immediately appeared on the faces of the brothers Liu De and Liu Yu.

I dare not let outsiders know;

But I told my brothers so vividly...

"Your Highness, I am willing to be the vanguard!"

Just a moment later, the fifth son of Emperor Xiaojing, who was in high spirits and riding a fine horse, came back!
But compared to those days, when his face was still full of immaturity, his mind was full of fighting and killing - he even enjoyed the news of war and was bloodthirsty. Now, Liu Fei has become more mature in an indescribable way.

Liu Fei at that time simply wanted to fight;
I was so happy when I knew I could fight.

But at this moment, Liu Fei had a solemn expression on his face, and he had even begun to mourn for the thousands of soldiers who were buried in Hetao because of this battle.

Mourning aside, even considering the heavy casualties, Liu Fei still firmly believed that this battle would bring more benefits than disadvantages to the ancestral temple and the country!

"The vanguard..."

"Um……"

After pretending to hesitate for a while, Liu Rong finally couldn't bear to see his fifth brother Liu Fei suffer any more, and nodded heavily.

"In the past, when the king of Zhou granted fiefs to his relatives outside the country, he often used the fiefdoms to take the newly granted lands for himself."

"I want to crown the King of Mongolia in Henan. If Jiangdu is interested, then I must personally attend this battle."

“——It is better to teach a man to fish than to give him a fish.”

"Only the land that you conquered with your own sword and gun will be cherished by the other princes."

···
"In the past few months, Jiangdu will be in Shanglin, familiar with my Han family's Xinsui camp."

"In this battle, my Xinsui Camp has great potential..."

(End of this chapter)