Just as Ulebu Noyansukh had agreed with his three sons, the four led their armies to march in three directions.
The great chief of Ule, Noyansukh, dispatched his bodyguards to go north to defend against the guerrilla intrusion of the Gaole (Brown Hu) tribe, while the eldest son Delhei and the second son Ta Lai led their troops to the west to conquer the Olesu (Shahu) tribe. , rescue troops trapped in enemy-occupied areas and expand territory.
The last unit was naturally the third son Asier who had just returned to the prairie after serving as a hostage in the Sheng Kingdom. He took the initiative to ask Noyan Suhe to lead the army eastward in the name of gaining experience to conquer the troops entrenched in Wule. The large and small tribes on the eastern front.
At first glance, Asier seems to have given up the competition for Noyan's position, but in fact he has chosen the path with the highest risks and the highest returns - if he can conquer half of the dozens of small tribes, that is The greatest achievement can only be matched by Delhei and Ta Lai, who showed great power and drove straight in to wipe out the headquarters of Ersu.
But this is just thinking about it. Although the Ersu tribe is the most barren among the three Hu tribes, it still has a vast desert as a natural barrier. In addition, the Gaole tribe has an alliance with them to jointly resist the Wu Le tribe. If If he could wipe it out easily, then Noyan Sukh would not wait until today.
So after Azir proposed this idea ingeniously, the smartest Ta Lai quickly realized what was going on - but he also saw his father's preference for his third brother, so he remained silent.
Because the small tribes in the east are not easy to bully. Although they also maintain a chaotic fighting situation among themselves, if they unite to resist the attack of the Wule tribe, it will be a hard nut to crack - the same goes for the three Hu tribes. It took so many years of continuous conquests and annexations to achieve today's power. If those small tribes wanted to submit to the three major Hu tribes, they would have been annexed long ago. Most of those who remain independent to this day also have the dream of "becoming the Great Khan who unifies the whole country".
Let's put it this way... Ta Lai would rather believe that he can defeat his eldest brother Delhei and obtain the position of Nuoyan through calculation, rather than believe that Asir can conquer those big and small Hu tribes.
The source of Ta Lai's confidence is also very simple - he is almost a grassland version of "He Nan" who has personally experienced and commanded war.
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Unlike most Hu tribesmen who believe in or are even obsessed with conquering by force, Talai has been an outlier since he was a child. He always believes that at the level of war, a coach's wisdom is always greater than his strength, so even if he has never stepped into The land of Shengguo is still learning the culture of Shengguo.
In the history of the Hu tribe, it is not that there were no khans who conquered the Central Plains, but in the end the Hu tribe lost the right to rule there and had to return to the familiar grasslands. After several years of study and thinking, Talai finally figured out the reason for the failure of the Hu tribe - although the nomads with strong fighting power could conquer their land, they would also be conquered by advanced civilizations.
The culture of the Central Plains has strong cohesion, which means that no matter the change of dynasties or the invasion of foreigners, they will eventually be absorbed and influenced by their own culture, and produce a qualitative leap. This is the biggest reason why Ta Lai likes to study the culture of the Sheng Kingdom.
His excellent intellectual talent and strong learning ability molded Ta Lai into a very strategically minded man. Almost all of the advice he gave to his father before he went to war were true - to gather the army for a big war with the Olesu tribe. The Gawler Department will definitely stay put and watch the fire from the other side. As long as we do not threaten the Gawler Department and do not expose our weaknesses, the Gawler Department's intention to participate in the war will be very low.
This is exactly what happened. Until the powerful forces of Delhei and Talai successfully rescued the friendly forces and forced the siege network of the Ersu tribe to collapse and retreat, the troops of the Gaole tribe never made any move on the frontal battlefield. ——Although they took this opportunity to send out a small group of troops to continuously test the defense line to the north of the Wu Le tribe, they were all blocked by Nuo Yansuhe's army and could not take another step south.
The Ule vanguard force that successfully merged with the army also reorganized after being replenished with resources, and continued to march westward under the leadership of Delhei.
Although Delhei is a fierce general, he will not be easily calculated by Ta Lai. After all, Ta Lai's cleverness is well known in the Wu Le tribe, so he proposed that he is willing to open the door for the Pioneer. After the situation, conditions were added - he needed a number of people equal to one-third of the troops, and the cavalry troops allocated to himself must reach half.
This was also calculated by Delehei. Although the overall number was at a disadvantage, under these conditions he was not afraid even if his second brother turned against him - Ta Lai had his confidence as a general, and of course Delehei also had the courage to fight. Pai was confident that as long as he distributed the troops in this way, he could wrap up the troops including the outpost of Olesu and the second brother, and let the second brother go home crying to take care of his children.
To be fair, he definitely couldn't agree to such conditions. It was clear that the eldest brother wanted to make contributions on his own and serve as a support force for him, but Delhei responded with just one sentence: "Otherwise, you can be a vanguard. Anyway, I’m willing to give you these men.”
Although Ta Lai believes that wits are better than force, he has to admit that personal bravery can indeed play a very important role in small-scale battles, and he himself is not a pioneer, and cannot be like Delhei. He took the lead in boosting morale, but he definitely couldn't agree to such a condition of treating himself as a fool, so in the end the two of them finally agreed on the distribution of the number of people after some wrangling - Ta Lai could give Dele Black half of the cavalry, But accordingly, the total strength will be reduced to about a quarter of the total number.
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Compared with the anxiety of the battlefield in the west, the eastern front army led by Asier seemed very... idle.
It is more like a visiting envoy than an army on an expedition. Every time Asir leads a large number of people through the territory of a tribe, he will give a gift to the chief of the tribe, and then drink heavily for several days before returning. Go to your next destination.
This behavior, of course, caused dissatisfaction among many people - although not having to fight did reduce a lot of burdens, and living a life of eating, drinking and having fun every day was very comfortable, but deep down in their hearts, the warriors of the Ule tribe still yearned for fighting on horseback. Life. To take a step back, "Others are working hard, but they are wasting time." This is very detrimental to their future. In Hu's culture, military merit is equal to status, and men without military merit are always inferior to others.
The warriors who followed Delhei and Ta Lai could get more cattle, sheep, women, and land by virtue of their military exploits. But what else did they get besides drinking a lot of wine every day? Therefore, the warriors who felt happy at first have gradually developed dissatisfaction. They looked down upon Santaiji who came back from Shengguo more and more, thinking that he had learned a lot of bad habits of enjoying himself, and even developed Ah Sir offered to go eastward because he was cowardly by nature and avoided war.
You yourself are afraid of death and don’t want to be Nuo Yan, so it’s okay, but you are also causing us to be looked down upon by others?
The people below have this attitude towards him. Asier is very clear about it, but he doesn't care much. He still lives a life of drinking and feasting with the chiefs. Although the guard captain Xingge knows that Asier What exactly he was doing was forbidden by Azir's repeated orders not to be revealed.
After more than two months, fourteen sizable tribes have been drunk by Asir, but he didn't even pull out the scimitar he carried - except for performing at the banquet, the whole group He is just a second-generation ancestor who holds banquets every day and has no ambition to make progress.
"Uncle Xingge...how many days has it been?" It was three o'clock in the morning, and Asier had just woken up from his sleep. There was still a strong smell of alcohol on his body. He sat up from the mattress and looked at the man standing at the door with his arms folded. Brother Xing.
"There are still two days to go, it will be three months." Brother Xing opened the curtain of the camp tent.
Asier rubbed his eyes and washed his hands slowly with water in the basin - the water resources in Hubu were still relatively rare, but Asier always maintained the traces left by his life in the prosperous country for more than ten years. , he had to tidy up every day when he got up, and he did not walk out of the camp until he had washed and dressed neatly: "It seems that the time has come."
Brother Xing also nodded with joy from the bottom of his heart: "This moment has finally come."
Asier nodded slightly, then twisted his shoulders: "Let someone send a message to the chiefs of the fourteen tribes, saying that I, Asier, will invite them to the banquet here - and by the way, I will invite them to the banquet. Risong, Saihan... they called over."
The young Ultaiji reported twenty names in one breath, all of them were the strongest and steady warriors in his team. He had not just been an alcoholic nobleman in the past three months.
The living areas, approximate military strength, and financial situation of the fourteen tribes, as well as the personalities, preferences, abilities and other information of the fourteen chiefs were all secretly recorded in his heart, and the names of all the warriors under him could be spoken on his tongue. For them Everyone also has full understanding...
Although Asier is simple in nature, he has the blood of Wulenoyan after all. Coupled with the exquisiteness learned from the culture of the Central Plains and the people of Shengguo, he is now also a guy with a lot of wisdom and scheming, and he has become a wise king. In him the first appearance of majesty.
And all the preparations he made were for this day.
