Chapter 1413

Yufuluo clenched his fists, gritting his teeth as he looked at Chuchuquan: "It is good that you can remember that I became like this because of the water."

As he spoke, Yufuluo used his hands to support himself as he stood up, and the soldiers guarding behind Yufuluo immediately stepped forward to help him.

But they were pushed away by Yufuluo.

The eldest son of the dignified Xiongnu Chanyu, like a monster, hopped toward the outside of the camp.

Standing at the entrance of the camp, Yufuluo turned his head to look at the people behind him and Chuchuquan, and then disappeared from the entrance of the camp.

"Sigh..."

Chanyu Qiangqu sighed, waved his hand at Chuchuquan, signaling Chuchuquan to sit down: "You do not need to blame yourself too much."

"In war and struggle, there is no one who does not die. That your brother was able to survive back then was already the greatest fortune in misfortune."

"At the very least, he is still alive now."

"It is just..."

"It is just that his personality has become a bit eccentric over these years."

Chuchuquan looked at his brother's retreating back and nodded silently.

Chuchuquan could understand; as the eldest son of the Xiongnu Chanyu, he had to walk in such a way that invited ridicule.

"Father, the Prince of Liang has also said more than once that he is very sorry about what happened back then. For this reason, many of the things the Prince of Liang sends every year are to compensate my brother," Chuchuquan said with his head lowered.

Chanyu Qiangqu nodded.

Duan Yu's help to the Southern Xiongnu over these four years had been great.

If it were not for Duan Yu, the Southern Xiongnu would not know how many of their tribal people would have starved or frozen to death in these four years.

Every time Duan Yu sent supplies from Liangzhou, Qiangqu felt more and more that marrying his daughter to Duan Yu was a very wise choice.

Not to mention that the Southern Xiongnu were growing stronger day by day and had already annexed the Northern Xiongnu.

It is foreseeable that if Duan Yu can truly unify the Great Han in the future.

Then, not to mention whether the Southern Xiongnu can return to their peak, they will certainly be able to devour the current Xianbei as well.

"Is your sister doing well over there?"

After easing the atmosphere, Qiangqu asked: "And my little grandson."

Chuchuquan nodded and said with a smile: "Everything is good, everything is good. My sister is doing very well now, and little An has also grown up; he will surely be a warrior in the future."

"Also, the Prince of Liang heard from my sister that your health, Father, is not as good as before, so he specifically asked me to bring many tonics and medicines from Chang'an. The Prince of Liang said that whenever you are tired, Father, you can go to Chang'an, where the climate is suitable, and you can take good care of your health."

"The Prince of Liang's mansion is being built, the place is very large, and there is even a lake, where the Prince of Liang goes fishing every day."

"Father can go there to live, and my sister and little An will be there to accompany you."

Chanyu Qiangqu nodded.

After years of bitter cold life, plus fighting everywhere, his current health was already far from what it used to be.

"Alright, after this war is over, even if I don't live in Chang'an for a long time, I will go to see your sister," Qiangqu said.

A day later, the tens of thousands of Xiongnu troops gathered at Shoujiang City began to slowly assemble outside the city.

This time, Chanyu Qiangqu had gathered almost all the Xiongnu troops capable of fighting.

Without the worry of logistical supplies, and with brand-new weapons and armor, the current combat power of the Xiongnu was no longer what it used to be.

A total of fifty thousand troops.

Apart from the ten thousand Royal Tent cavalry of Qiangqu's tribe.

The remaining twenty thousand were all troops gathered from various tribes.

Among them, the most elite ten thousand Royal Tent cavalry were all equipped with weapons and armor sent by Duan Yu from Liangzhou.

Three thousand sets of armor.

One thousand sets of leather horse armor.

In the past, most of the arrows used by the Xiongnu were bone arrows.

But now, basically half of them had been replaced with iron arrows.

The bows were also excellent longbows.

Among them, there were also five hundred heavy crossbows.

These were also from Duan Yu's support from Liangzhou.

Over the past two years, every time Jia Dong transported goods from Liangzhou to Bingzhou, he would send a batch of support to the Southern Xiongnu.

These weapons and equipment had been accumulated over two years.

For fifty thousand cavalry, just the assembly took almost an entire day.

And these fifty thousand were all cavalry.

Of course, it is not to say that the more cavalry, the better.

If fighting on the grasslands, these fifty thousand cavalry would naturally be formidable, but entering the Central Plains and Bingzhou, the cavalry could only be used for field battles and encirclement battles.

The Xiongnu were not good at sieging cities.

This time, Chuchuquan returned with two main tasks from Duan Yu.

The first task was to contain the Xianbei.

Although Chanyu Qiangqu did not understand why Duan Yu wanted to send a portion of his troops to contain the Xianbei, since Duan Yu had said so, Chanyu Qiangqu could only listen.

And the second purpose was to cross the Yinshan Mountains and enter Bingzhou, but not to attack cities and seize territory.

It was just to divide the cavalry into several groups and then cut off the connections between the main cities of Bingzhou, especially between several commanderies.

This was the main purpose of the Xiongnu heading south this time.

Not attacking cities meant there would not be too many casualties.

In terms of field battles, Qiangqu still had great confidence in the Xiongnu.

At this time, the tens of thousands of Xiongnu troops were slowly assembling.

Chanyu Qiangqu, Yufuluo, and Chuchuquan were lined up at the very front of the army.

Chanyu Qiangqu was in front, and the brothers Yufuluo and Chuchuquan were on the left and right sides behind Chanyu Qiangqu.

Because he only had one leg, Yufuluo was not very convenient in walking, but riding a horse did not have much impact.

"Yufuluo, you lead twenty thousand cavalry and head east to contain the Xianbei."

Chanyu Qiangqu turned his head to look at Yufuluo behind him and said: "If the Xianbei have no unusual movements, you do not need to engage them in battle. Once the Xianbei have any unusual movements, you lead the twenty thousand cavalry to contain them and then quickly send someone to report to me."

Yufuluo, who was riding behind Chanyu Qiangqu, nodded silently.

Subsequently, following Chanyu Qiangqu's order, the fifty thousand Xiongnu troops were divided into two groups.

One group headed south toward the Yinshan Mountains, and the other was led by Yufuluo toward the territory of the Xianbei east of the Mobei grasslands.

Mid-March.

Hanzhong Commandery.

The "Classic of Mountains and Seas: Classic of Regions Within the Seas" records: To the southwest are the Ba state and the Shu state, whose people all live in stone chambers.

The roads of Shu are difficult to travel.

Since this land has been recorded, the earliest records concerning it are that the roads of Shu are difficult to travel.

King Huiwen of Qin wanted to attack Shu and lied that he would gift "golden cattle that defecate gold." The King of Shu sent five strong men to open the road to welcome the cattle, but the mountain collapsed and they died.

Sima Cuo's attack on Shu required "a thousand miles of plank roads," but at that time, the plank roads were simple, mostly relying on chiseling holes in the mountains and inserting wood, which would be destroyed upon encountering rain or snow.

The Qin Bamboo Slips from Yunmeng, "Book of Days," records: The Chu people passed through the Micang Road into Shu to sell lacquerware, needing to "carry baskets and climb vines, taking ten days to reach Hanzhong," with a death rate as high as thirty percent.

The roads of Shu are difficult; apart from the roads being hard to travel, many cliffs and precipices are simply impassable for people.

Back then, the Great Qin sent countless corvée laborers to build the Golden Cattle Road, which was the only way to carve out a path into Shu.

But as long as it was the rainy season or winter, it was impossible to travel.

Apart from being difficult for people to travel.

Transporting grain to the Shu region was also a huge problem.

Fighting a war requires soldiers, and soldiers need to eat.

The "Records of the Grand Historian: Book of the Balanced Standard" records: Transporting Shu grain to Guanzhong, "for every one zhong that arrives, ten zhong are spent."

One zhong is equivalent to six hundred and forty liters.

That is to say, to transport one zhong of grain to Shu, it requires consuming ten zhong.

To get one zhong of grain, one needs to transport eleven zhong to the destination to have one zhong left.

And apart from the difficult roads of Shu, the passes in the Shu region are also easy to defend and difficult to attack.

"Walls standing a thousand fathoms high, the danger of the land exhausted, the steepness of the road extreme" is a description of the first pass of Shu, Jianmen Pass.