General Qin

Henan.

It is the fertile land surrounded by the Yellow River "shaped" to the north of Beidi County and Shang County, which is often called the Hetao area in later generations.

The so-called Yellow River has all kinds of harm, but the only one is rich.

From Helan Mountain to the foot of Yin Mountain, the Yellow River irrigates a fertile wilderness in the hinterland of this desert and grassland. The water and grass are luxuriant and the land is fertile. Whether it is farming or animal husbandry, it is a heaven-sent land.

This place was occupied by the Xiongnu, and their tribes lived and grazed here. In history, it was not until Meng Tian attacked the Xiongnu in the north in the 32nd year of Qin Shihuang and took over the land of Henan that it was brought into the hands of the Qin State.

Now, everything has changed.

The tribes of the Xiongnu who were grazing in Henan were driven away by the Yuezhi from the west.

According to the information obtained by Taiwei's Mansion, after being attacked by the Yuezhi, the Huns in Henan were defeated, retreated north, crossed the Yellow River, and are now entrenched in the Yangshan and Gaoque areas in the north of Henan.

"It's the butterfly effect again, and this pot really belongs to me."

Zhao Tuo shook his head helplessly and sighed.

What happened in the north was really related to him.

In the original grassland, the Donghu was strong and the Yue clan was prosperous, while the Xiongnu began to grow under the integration of Touman Chanyu. It can be said that the three powers stand side by side, and no one can kill the other.

In this situation, it was not until more than ten years later that Mao Dun killed his father and took the Huns to defeat the Yuezhi in the west and swallow the Donghu in the east, so that the Huns became the real overlord of the grassland.

But all of this is now in chaos. The reason is that the Huns were invited by King Xi of Yan to go south to intervene in the Qin Dynasty's demise, and Zhao Tuo came to a night attack to break it.

In that battle, the Qin army's goal was to attack Touman Chanyu and capture Yan Wangxi back. Under the guidance of Li Shiqi, who had entered the Huns' camp, the main direction of the Qin army's attack was where Shan Yu was.

In a night battle, Touman Shanyu's elite suffered heavy losses, and more than 10,000 Huns were killed and captured by the Qin army.

Such casualties are actually not big for the Huns' 100,000 army. The real point is that all the people who were damaged were Touman Chanyu and his cronies.

The Huns are not good men and women. They have always had the custom of honoring the strong and the strong and despising the old and the weak.

When the Shan Yu was strong, all the tribes would naturally bow down and submit to his orders.

But when Touman Chanyu's tribe suffered heavy losses, but the soldiers and horses of each tribe did not suffer much losses and were still strong, at this time, ambition was born irresistibly.

Just like the alpha wolf in a pack of wolves, after being injured and aging, young wolves will immediately stand up to challenge and intend to replace him.

The Xiongnu after World War I faced this situation.

Ambitious tribes jumped out and accused Touman Chanyu of his mistakes in the battle with the Qin army, so as to compete for the position of Chanyu and attack each other with Touman Shanyu's supporters. Others took the opportunity to occupy the fertile grassland and sit on the mountain to watch the tigers fight.

When the civil strife began, the strength of the Huns suddenly dropped, and the Huns' neighbors couldn't help it.

Because Li Xin led the Qin army to recover Liaodong, the Donghu was restrained. In addition, Touman Shanyu sent his son as a hostage to show his weakness to the king of Donghu and surrendered. Therefore, there was no move to invade the Xiongnu in the west.

But the Yuezhi in Hexi has no such scruples.

Seeing the civil strife of the Xiongnu, the main force of the Xiongnu ran to the vicinity of Yinshan Mountain, and there were only a few scattered nomadic tribes left in Henan. King Yuezhi, who had long coveted the fertile pastures in Henan, led his troops to invade and drove away the Xiongnu in Henan. People occupy this fertile land fed by the river.

Such actions fully demonstrated the profound meaning of taking advantage of the fire and looting.

However, this brought some troubles to Zhao Tuo who was about to attack the Huns in the north.

"The enemy has changed from the Xiongnu to the Yuezhi, and the previous strategic plan will be changed."

Zhao Tuo glanced at the stack of yellow papers on the desk. It was the plan he had written in the past few days to attack the Huns in the north and collect the land in Henan.

His original battle plan was to concentrate the main force of the Qin army, go northward from Shangjun via Yuzhong, quickly capture the northern area of ​​Hetao, catch the Huns by surprise, and control their northern return route.

At the same time, the Qin army stationed in Beidi and Longxi counties also launched an attack on the southern part of Hetao.

The east and west advance side by side, and the north and south attack.

Soon the Xiongnu army within Hetao will be defeated, the Henan land will be conquered in one fell swoop, and Qin's territory will be pushed to the south bank of the Yellow River.

At this time, the Huns should react and gather a large army to the north of the Yellow River to confront the Qin army.

Then enter the second phase of the war.

Zhao Tuo asked the Qin army to cross the river and launch a general offensive after a slight revision. In the battle, they defeated the main force of the Huns, captured the areas such as Gaoque and Beijia located north of the Yellow River, swept across the entire Yinshan area, recovered the original territory of Zhao, and sent the Huns Go to the north of Yinshan Mountain.

In this way, the strategic task of attacking the Xiongnu in the north and seizing Henan, Gaoque, Beijia and other areas is considered complete.

On the whole, facing the Xiongnu who had been defeated by Zhao Tuo once and were at a disadvantage in terms of numbers and equipment, the Qin army's military conquest should be relatively easy, at least much better than the southern expedition to Baiyue.

But now because of Yuezhi's intervention, the situation is completely different.

First of all, the Qin army must fight down the places such as Gaoque and Beijia near Yangshan, which are located north of the "Zigzag" of the Yellow River.

This is the fortress established by King Zhao Wuling in the past, and it is also an important reason why Zhao Tuo was able to persuade Qin Shihuang to give up the Southern Expedition and give priority to the Northern Expedition.

Recover the land of Zhuxia that fell into the hands of the Huns!

Therefore, the Qin army will definitely go to war with the Xiongnu. According to Zhao Tuo's original attack plan, first attack Henan, and then cross the river to recover Gaoque and other fortresses. Everything is logical.

However, the Yue clan inserted into the Henan land and lay between the Qin army and Gaoque, which meant that the Qin army had to break through the Yue clan first before they could take the old land north.

The Yuezhi is a big country in the West, and its army strength is at least 100,000 to 200,000 cavalry, which is stronger than the Xiongnu who were caught in civil strife.

Once the Qin army sent troops to attack Henan, they would definitely start a full-scale war with the Yuezhi. At that time, they would have to finish fighting the Yuezhi before crossing the river to fight the Xiongnu. This completely messed up Zhao Tuo's plan for the Northern Expedition.

Zhao Tuo glanced at the map laid out on the case again, staring at Yueshi's location.

"The Yuezhi occupies the Hexi Corridor, and its influence extends to the vicinity of Dunhuang in later generations. It is the only place that the Central Plains leads to the Western Regions."

"Silk Road..."

There was a strange brilliance in Zhao Tuo's eyes.

In history, the Qin Dynasty did not occupy this area. It was not until the Han Dynasty defeated the Xiongnu that it occupied Hexi and completely connected the Western Regions.

The Hexi Corridor, the value of this place, is much more beneficial to the Central Plains than the Baiyue in the south and the prairie in the north.

"If Yuezhi is destroyed, the Western Regions will be connected."

"Wusun Tianma, sweat horse, alfalfa, grapes, sesame, walnuts, garlic..."

Thinking of this, Zhao Tuo suddenly had real motivation for war.

If this war can be won, occupying the Hexi Corridor will benefit the Central Plains a lot.

However, Zhao Tuo glanced around on the map, and couldn't help smiling wryly.

Centered on Qin State.

In the southeast, although the plan of the 500,000 Qin army to conquer Baiyue was blocked, the First Emperor still ordered Feng Wuze to take part of the army to build roads in Yuedi, with a plan to delay the attack on Baiyue.

In the southwest, Li You, the lieutenant of Shu County, was leading the soldiers of Shu County to pass through the Southwest Yi and attack the Dian Kingdom in the south.

In the northeast, Li Xin led the Qin army to attack the barbarians in the northeast, fought against Donghu, and recovered Liaodong.

Now, Zhao Tuo is about to launch a war in the northwest against the Yuezhi and the Xiongnu.

Zhao Tuo shook his head.

"Fighting in all directions, southeast, northwest, and all directions, this is really an all-out war in Great Qin."