Before Sun Bi led his troops to set off, he told Li Ling about his views and strategies on the Northern Expedition of Guirong.

In his opinion, whether it is the current Dayue or the earlier Central Plains courts such as the Han and Tang dynasties, the biggest difficulty in defeating the enemy in the Northern Expedition was never the level of combat effectiveness of both sides, nor even whether logistics support could keep up in time. The biggest difficulty was that after going deep into the grassland, you might not be able to find the target of the attack.

The grassland in northern Mobei is so vast, but the number of nomadic foreign tribes is only less than one percent of the people in the Central Plains. They always live by water and grass, without a fixed place. Unlike the cities in the Central Plains, they always stand there, and as long as the enemy comes, they can invade at any time.

However, the Guirong tribes were scattered all over the grassland, and it was not easy to find their whereabouts. It was also very likely that because the army was too large, they discovered their whereabouts before they even approached the Guirong tribe community and fled away.

Therefore, the Northern Expedition became an action with patience and luck taking the main position, but the imperial court invested a lot of manpower and material resources, which was really a deal that was not worth the money.

However, Sun Bi believed that the Northern Expedition must be fought. If the Guirong people cannot be killed or crippled this time, they will still make a comeback in ten years. At that time, the northern border of Vietnam will face threats, and countless soldiers and more innocent people will be killed or captured, and then there will be endless battles, repeated again.

"So if you want to make it all, you must fight this battle. No matter how much you pay, it is worth it. Not for the present, but for the future!" When Sun Bi said this, his eyes were not only determined, but also a deep and strong murderous intent. "So this time I led my troops into the grassland not only to fight against Gui Rong's combat power, but also to eradicate the roots, completely destroy the soil for their survival, and uproot the Gui Rong's troops!"

Li Ling didn't know much about his words before, but at this moment, after looking at the good news from the north, he really understood that Sun Bi was not just talking about it this time, but really putting all his ideas into practice.

Shortly after entering the grassland, more than 100,000 troops marched into three groups on the left, middle and right, and followed some clues that had been found before and rushed to several settlements of the Guirong tribe near the northern border.

However, this time, only the Jizhou army on the right side made some achievements and attacked a small tribe with only more than a thousand people. Although there were more than two hundred young and strong men on the other side who could fight, they really had no chance when facing hundreds of times the enemy. With just one round of charge, the small tribe was flattened.

Not only the young and strong men who stood up to resist the Vietnamese army were killed on the spot, but even the elderly, weak, women and children who fled and begged for mercy were ordered to be massacred by Yue Lin. This is the so-called eradication of the roots, and no one is left behind!

As for the wealth of this small tribe, cattle, sheep, horses and so on, they naturally fell into the hands of the Vietnamese army. After replenishing the needs of the army, they advanced north again and maintained a certain amount of contact with the other two armies.

As a result, the three armies headed forward together and advanced all the way. In the next two months, they broke through more than a dozen small and medium-sized tribes and seized property from each tribe, but also executed all the people of these tribes, both young and old. Even if some escaped, there were only a few people.

It was precisely the fierce conquest of the Vietnamese army that finally made the grassland tribes completely scared. They did not dare to face the enemy head-on, so they could only flee deep into the grassland in a hurry. At the same time, the tribes were connected to each other, looking for the final protection, which is now recognized by them as the Khan and Tie Lezhen.

It was also during this tribe extermination that the soldiers of the Vietnamese army also discovered a major weakness of the grassland tribe. Compared with the cities in the Central Plains, the weakest point is that the tribes are too dispersed and it is difficult to help each other.

Once a tribe is attacked, even if other tribes are stationed around, they dare not help. Moreover, if they really have the combat power of both sides, unless they combine the power of the entire grassland, they will not be able to compare with the Vietnamese army that gathered the elite troops in the northern border.

However, with the progress of these genocide and killings, after the winter moon, the Vietnamese army could not find a suitable target. The army had already penetrated into the hinterland of the grassland and even found many ruins of the settlements of the large tribes, but they all ended up being empty and not even visible.

Obviously, after knowing the Vietnamese army's ruthless measures, the grassland troops also felt fear, so they began to avoid the north and try to stay away from the Central Plains. Moreover, they should have already mastered the direction of the Vietnamese army's march and were also deliberately avoiding it.

However, even so, in the past few months, the Northern Expedition Army still captured a lot, more than a dozen small and medium-sized tribes were destroyed, more than 30,000 herders were killed, and Gui Rong was hit hard. In addition, the cattle, sheep, horses, and other food and other materials seized from various tribes made the logistics of the Vietnamese army quite guaranteed.

But at this point, the entire army seemed to have reached its limit.

If we could always fight the enemy along the way, no matter those small tribes with hundreds of thousands of people, larger tribes, or even the main force of the Guirong, the Vietnamese army would not have any fear and would fight the enemy to the end.

However, after late October, in nearly twenty days, the army divided into three groups did not encounter a single target again, which made all the soldiers feel indescribable fatigue. It is not scary to fight with the enemy, but what is scary is that in a completely unfamiliar environment, there is always no enemy to be found. The feeling of uneasiness that is always on standby but has nowhere to vent is the most tormenting.

Even the generals such as Sun Bi felt that it was getting harder and harder, and even more so for the soldiers below. In addition, the military rations for the Northern Expedition were about to be exhausted, and many people had already begun to have the idea of ​​Southern Hui. It was not that the soldiers refused to use their lives, but that the enemy was too cunning and kept hiding and could not touch them.

When the news of the victory was sent back, even Sun Bi was a little shaken. However, these real ideas and questions could not be really written into the news of the victory, and the content was actually in his private letter to Li Ling.

After reading the good news and reading the letter, Li Ling's heart also became anxious. The difficulty of the Northern Expedition was indeed far beyond the imagination of ordinary people. After all, there were only a few who could seal the wolf's servants since ancient times, and only Huo Qubing could defeat the Huns alone.

"In fact, with this good news, relying on their victory, it is not a problem to return to the army at this time." Li Ling held the letter in his hand and considered it in his heart, "But if this happens, he will not do his best in the end. I am afraid that there will be a thorn in the hearts of the soldiers of the Northern Expedition.

"And, such a good opportunity cannot eradicate the border troubles. In those ten years, decades, Gui Rong will make a comeback again, and the harm will probably be far ahead of this time. I think the prince understands this and is so hesitant. But the facts are right in front of him, and he has to come back first..."

Li Ling thought, and got up and came to the map of the north, with his fingers constantly slashing on the slightly rough grassland terrain, guessing where the army should be now and where the remaining main forces of the Gui Rong would hide.

"Actually, according to what the prince said in his letter, they had swept through most grasslands and searched carefully the area with the most abundant water and grass. The situation of the remaining Guirong people must be very difficult. Especially now that winter is now, the grass withered, and there is no place to retreat. Going north, it is..."

Li Ling thought about the world map that he was familiar with in his previous life. There was a real snow and ice over there, and it was absolutely impossible for the nomadic people to survive.

"No!" Thinking of this, Li Ling couldn't help but scream, "I can even know that going north will lead to death. How could the grassland tribes not know? They all die at all, and they can't do the last battle, but why have they never appeared in front of the army in the past few dozen days?

"In fact, according to the combat power of the Guirong cavalry, as long as they really gather together and fight to the death, they may not necessarily lose. They cannot even lose the courage to fight again because of their previous defeat in northern Xinjiang. The only possibility is..."

His face suddenly changed drastically, and a very bad idea emerged: "Are they deliberately consuming our army and waiting for the opportunity to arrive? No, not only that, there is also a logistics and food route. Now the army has penetrated thousands of miles, and the logistics route has long been extremely fragile. Once they run out of the gaps between the army and break the food route between our army, it will be difficult for the army to turn back!

"If they were smarter, they would simply ambush the elite on the road to retreat south, and then let another army stare far from the north, and use a move to attack forward and back... Once the army really returns south, it will be the time for them to be defeated!"

Li Ling, who suddenly realized the key points, was shocked and sweated in this cold winter.

He doesn't understand military affairs, but he understands human nature and the current situation. If he is a member of Guirong and Tie Lezhen, who can seize the position of Khan by himself, then under the threat of extermination, he may bet on this hand.

If he loses, he will be killed by a dead clan. But if he wins, he will eat more than 100,000 most elite troops in the Great Vietnamese border army in one bite, which will be enough to quickly restore his vitality. Then, taking advantage of the empty troops in the northern border, he will enter the Central Plains again and double the previous losses!

"What should I do? If this is the case, what should I do?" Li Ling was a little panicked and paced back and forth in the hall, thinking that he should immediately send a letter to the front line to remind him, and then wondered whether he should write to the court and ask them to send more troops to him as soon as possible.
Chapter completed!