My life is like walking on thin ice

Chapter 314: Zhi Zhonglang, are you still brave?

The unexpectedly smooth progress of the Beidi-Hetao battlefield did not allow the Han generals to relax the tension in their hearts.

It’s just a good show.

In the first step of the battle, the Han army's strategic plan of tying up the main force of the Xiongnu Chanyu court in Mayi and at the same time launching a surprise attack to seize the Hetao area was certainly successful.

But this does not mean that the Han Dynasty has already won a complete victory at this point in the war.

——The topography and terrain of Hetao are very unique!

The terrain itself is relatively high, and compared with the Hanbei and Longyou areas to the east, it has a terrain suppression that is visible to the naked eye!
But now, after the Han Dynasty initially took control of the Hetao region, the situation is completely different.

In the past, the Xiongnu tribes in Hetao needed to guard against the Han Dynasty to the east and southeast, and the Hexi Corridor to the west and northwest.

The former has always been in a strategic defensive posture in the past few decades. If an attack comes, it will attack from low to high and from infantry groups to cavalry groups.

Therefore, since the death of Qin II, which allowed the former Xiongnu tribe to occupy Hetao, the Xiongnu people have never worried that this pearl outside the Great Wall would return to the hands of the Han people.

Unless the Huns voluntarily ceded it, it would be almost impossible for the Han people to retake Hetao by force.

This is also the main reason why the Han Dynasty's progress in the Hetao battlefield was so smooth this time - even too smooth.

As for the other direction, namely the Hexi Corridor to the west and northwest of Hetao, the Huns were even less likely to worry about it.

——The former Hexi Corridor was the territory of the Yuezhi people!
Where are the Yuezhi people now?

There are rumors on the grassland that the last surviving remnants of the Yuezhi people fled all the way eastward after the war and fled to the extreme west: west of the Kingdom of Dayuan!
As for the Hexi area that once belonged to the Yuezhi people, it became an area under the unquestionable control of the Xiongnu people, and a channel for communication between the Hetao area and the 72 countries in the Western Regions.

Therefore, in the past, the Xiongnu in the Hetao region only needed to symbolically guard against the Han people in the east and southeast.

Considering that the Han people have been preoccupied with taking care of themselves in the past few decades and have been unable to defend even the national border, this symbolic defense actually seems somewhat unnecessary.

But now, Hetao has changed its owner!

Those who occupied the Hetao area became the enemy that the Huns had never been able to guard against: the Han Dynasty!

After taking possession of Hetao, the length and depth of the defense line that the Han Dynasty needed to build were no longer as easy and comfortable as they had been before, even like the Xiongnu who possessed Hetao.

——After the Hetao region was incorporated into the territory of the Han Dynasty, the part of this area bordering the Han Dynasty was mainly in the east and south.

The eastern part of the Hetao is the Shangjun and part of the Beidi County boundary;
To the southeast is most of the Beidi County boundary and part of the Longyou County boundary.

Directly south of the Hetao area is the loess plateau.

This means that after taking control of Hetao, the Han Empire needs to build a defense line covering half of the circumference of Hetao in the direction of the Hexi Corridor on the west side of Hetao, in the northwest, in the direction of Munan on the side, and on the northeast side.

Especially in the northeast direction, sooner or later - no later than the beginning of winter, the main force of the Shanyu Court will launch a desperate counterattack!

Hetao was finally conquered.

But as the saying goes: It is easy to conquer a country, but difficult to keep it.

If the Han Dynasty wants to truly take over and digest the Hetao region, the Northern Front Army must first have a fight with the main force of the Shanyu Court that has returned to provide support before winter this year!
Unlike the Central Plains, where strategic locations are often surrounded by natural dangers such as mountains and water, and rely on city defense fortresses, the defensive fortifications on the grasslands are almost only rat holes that can serve as natural horse traps.

Apart from the big river that surrounds most of the Hetao area, the Northern Front Army has no other defensive fortifications to rely on.

With almost all infantry, facing hundreds of thousands of cavalry in an endless open grassland without any shelter or fortifications...

How to say it;

Whether in this era or in the next thousands of years, the only people who have the courage to do this are the Han people, who are tough and fierce.

Everything seems to be going well in Hetao, and even the "most important task has been completed", but in fact, the really difficult things have not yet come.

The situation on the Hetao battlefield was like this, so the situation on the Mayi main battlefield was naturally not much better...

"It's been five days..."

"If Henan really changed hands, then five full days have passed since today."

"At the earliest, today or tomorrow, or at the latest within three or two days, the old Junchen will definitely receive the news."

"Then, the Shanyu Ting army did everything they could to escape from Mayi and return to Henan to provide assistance..."

Yanmen County in the north of Dai, on the northern city wall of Mayi.

The battle to defend the city had only lasted for five days, but the entire northern wall of Mayi was already stained red with the blood of both sides.

——The Xiongnu people who came to Mayi were obviously not pretending to be awesome.
In this battle, the Huns were determined to prove how powerful they were!
He was determined to prove that the battle in the north at the beginning of the year could not explain why the Han and the Huns were no longer the "elder brother" and the Han was the younger brother.

Although they were mainly composed of cavalry and were not good at attacking cities, the Huns used every possible means they could think of.

What about digging tunnels, or bribing merchants and thieves in Mayi City, trying to trick the city gates open with internal and external cooperation?

Or they would go to great lengths to cut wood from afar, hundreds of miles away, and build ladders, battering rams and other siege equipment on site.

If someone who doesn't know the truth saw this scene, they would probably think that this time, the Huns were determined to use all their national strength to capture the small town of Mayi!
Fortunately, Cheng Buzhi was not frightened by this scene.

Back then, during the Rebellion of the Seven States of Wu and Chu, the main force of the rebel army led by King Liu Bi of Wu had been attacking the Liang capital Suiyang for a long time but failed, so they turned around and attacked Zhou Yafu's troops who were hiding in Xiayi.

The scene at that time was much more serious than the Battle of Mayi!

At the command of King Liu Bi of Wu, all the wood that could be used for carpentry within 300 miles east of Suiyang was cut down within a few days!
When the situation was most serious, the top of Xiayi City, where Zhou Yafu was stationed and Cheng Buzhi was commanding from the front line, was full of ladders - the entire city wall was covered with a 'ladder network' built by the rebels!
As for ladders, arrow towers, catapults, battering rams - even crossbows, they all appeared outside Xiayi during the Battle of Xiayi!

Compared with that battle, the scene before him, this Battle of Mayi with the Huns as the attacking party, looked like a mighty force of hundreds of thousands of people invading, but in fact, it could not scare Cheng Buzhi at all.

After four or five days of fighting, Cheng Buzhi was able to handle the situation with ease, like a fish in water;
The Huns outside the city still posed some threat to Mayi except for the three axes they attacked in the first two days. However, after the offensive in the past two days, they could not even reach the top of the city walls of Mayi.

As for the bloodstains that dyed the entire northern wall of Mayi red, most of them were caused by slave cannon fodder driven forward by the Huns to attract fire, as well as the unlucky guys who occasionally appeared on the top of Mayi City and were unfortunately hit by stray arrows from outside the city.

Defending Mayi was no problem for Cheng Buzhi.

As for what really gave Cheng Buzhi a headache, it was that Zhidu, who was stationed in Loufan County a hundred miles away and was the backup of Mayi, ventured to Mayi during the war and appeared on the top of the north city wall and next to Cheng Buzhi...

"In this battle, the general has done nothing wrong by defending Mayi."

"Even if you say it's a small contribution, no one can find fault with it."

"As for forcing the main force of the Shanyu Court to stay and give Henan enough time..."

As he spoke, Zhidu clenched his teeth with a solemn expression, took a deep breath, then raised his head with a serious expression and looked at Cheng Bushi's slightly bleak profile.

"The general has ordered our troops to leave Loufan to the northwest and set up camp at the entrance of the Zhao Great Wall."

"——Even though I don't know much about the general's plan, I can guess a little bit."

"It's just that, what if..." "Is it really worth it?"

"Is this battle really worth risking your life, property, and even your reputation, to gamble on such a possibility?"

···
"What if the general guesses wrong?"

"What if, by some chance, this old Junchen doesn't fall for it and still insists on withdrawing his troops to help Henan? What should the general do then?"

"What's worse, if the old military official is determined to go all the way south, the north will be ruined!"

"General, how can you afford this?"

He said these words with great sincerity. Seeing that Cheng Buzhi remained unmoved and still looked desolate, with his hands behind his back, gazing outside the city wall at the Huns who were retreating like a tide again, Zhidu's heart sank again.

Just as he was about to open his mouth to persuade him again, he saw Cheng Buzhi let out a long sigh, slowly stretched out his clenched fist, and gently hit the wall.

After a long while, Fang Youyou said, "No one knows whether it's worth it or not."

“Only when you do it and get results can you tell whether it’s worth doing.”

"——For me personally, doing this is extremely risky and the benefits are almost non-existent."

"But for my Han family..."

···
······
Cheng Buzhi stopped talking due to heavy thoughts, and his gaze fell on those Huns outside the city wall who were leisurely collecting the bodies of Hun soldiers and taking away the ownerless horses.

At this moment, if you ask Cheng Buzhi what he wants to do most, it is undoubtedly to lead his troops out of the city, bring back the heads of those corpses and the ownerless horses that are wailing after their owners died!
But Cheng Buzhi couldn't do that.

Because once this is done, the Huns will get an opportunity to take advantage, and the Han army will lose the protection of the city walls and will be forced to fight a plain encounter with the Huns' cavalry groups in the wilderness.

For the sake of the greater good.

Cheng Buzhi clearly had this impulse, but he had to suppress it for the sake of the overall situation.

The same logic applies: In this battle, Cheng Buzhi's most primitive impulse was to lead his troops out of the city and fight with the main force of Shanyu Ting outside the city!
With the existing military strength and his own military talents, Cheng Buzhi was confident that he could inflict an unspeakable blow to the main force of the Chanyu Court outside the city at the cost of huge casualties!

But Cheng Buzhi couldn't do that.

In order to consider the overall situation, Cheng Buzhi had to be patient and defend Mayi to the death.

Three thousand or five thousand of his soldiers died, and tens of thousands of them were captured, but they could not get back even one head outside the city.

Cheng Buzhi still had no choice but to endure it.

Everything is just for the sake of the overall situation...

"Your Majesty once said that Emperor Taizu Gao had appeared in your dream: at most fifteen years from now, a military leader will be born in our Han family."

"In another ten years, there will be another proud young man with amazing talent who, before he even reaches adulthood, will wipe out the barbarians for our Han family, ride into Longcheng, capture the leader of the Xiongnu, and bring him to justice in the Tai and Gao Temples..."

After a sudden whisper, Cheng Buzhi finally slowly turned sideways;

Facing Zhidu in front of him, a rare smile appeared on his expressionless face which had never changed for years.

It was just different from the smiles that Zhidu had seen on other people's faces in his life - at this moment, the smile on Cheng Bushi's face was something Zhidu could not understand at all.

Like bitterness;

Like desire;

Like relief?

And clearly, with a heroic determination...

"My mind is made up."

"In order to preserve the overall situation - in order to keep the main force of the Shanyu Court and continue to stay in the Yanmen area, I must do this."

"That's the only way..."

···
"If Junchen is still determined to leave, then the merits of my troops defending Mayi in this battle will be wiped out by my next move."

"If Junchen falls into the trap, the best outcome would be for you and me to work together to stop Junchen's main force north of the Zhao Great Wall."

"——At the cost of losing Mayi, we can leave enough time for Henan."

"But no matter success or failure - no matter whether Junchen leaves or stays, no matter whether we two successfully resist him, or whether he invades Daidi and destroys the northern wall;"

"Neither you nor I could possibly have done anything..."

Having said that, Cheng Buzhi finally raised his head slowly, with his palm facing up, and made a gesture similar to "please" to Zhidu.

Only those two eyes were fixed on Zhidu's still solemn face, without any hesitation or wavering...

"I'm planning to do something big~"

"This matter is really big, really big."

"——No matter whether we succeed or fail, absolutely no one will praise us."

"If it succeeds, then you and I will just be forgotten by the crowd from now on;"

"If the plan fails, it will leave you and me - and even the Cheng and Zhi families - with an infamy that will last forever!"

"Zhi Zhonglang, are you still brave and martial?"

Are you still brave?

Just this one question brought Zhidu, who had experienced the baptism of time, the ups and downs of officialdom and was no longer young and passionate, back to the beginning of his dream.

——Zhonglang Zhidu is extremely brave and valiant. If he joins the army, he will surely be a victorious general and a minion of the country!
"Is he still brave?"

"Shang, are you brave..."

He kept murmuring like this - murmuring over and over again, and finally, in a daze, he walked down the wall and walked away.

Although there was no reply, Zhidu's actions gave Cheng Buzhi the most understandable answer.

——In the first year of the Emperor’s reign, the twenty-sixth day of the eighth month in autumn;
Yanmen prefect Cheng Buzhi issued an order: reduce the number of troops and increase the number of stoves, and slowly retreat from Mayi!
On the 28th of August in autumn, the Han army in the Mayi battlefield completely abandoned Mayi and opened the entrance gate of the Zhao Great Wall!
On the same day, the Xiongnu Chanyu Luandi Junchen, who walked into the gate of Mayi city full of confusion, finally received the news from Hetao.

Hetao changed its owner;

The habitat of the Right Wise King: Nanchi, which has become a watering place for the horses of the Han Dynasty...

(End of this chapter)