The Rise of History’s Most Powerful Empire

Chapter 77: Northern Expedition

Views:

A month after clearing out those noble clans, the entire Central Plains had slowly calmed down, and he finally started his Northern Expedition.

The first batch of 200,000 troops was ready, and the leaders of 20 of them were killed. The more famous among them was Gongsun Zan, a commander who was more proficient in grassland warfare.

There are also some more durable people like Cao Cao and Liu Bei, who were also photographed by themselves, and some Zhao Yun, Zhang Liao, and Lu Bu were also included, and these people who had lived in the border areas for a long time were used to achieve a more famous first victory. There shouldn't be much of a problem.

Of course, even if the entire army is wiped out, Zhong Yu will not be too sad, he just feels a little sorry for those talents. If his subordinates want to redeem such talents from the system, it will be impossible for each of them without him to have hundreds of luck points.

The mighty Northern Expedition began under the attention of all the princes and local nobles in the world. This was the first formal war after the establishment of the Imperial Kingdom, and the previous suppression of rebellions was nothing.

Only the current head-on collision with the nomads was regarded by the nobles everywhere as a truly large-scale war, a war worthy of the stage.

Nomads in various parts of northern Russia also received news of the Northern Expedition at this time. Some of them sneered and were very disdainful of the so-called Northern Expedition.

Some people also showed panic, feeling very scared about the first Northern Expedition of this newly established empire, because since ancient times, when the Central Plains dynasty was first established, the military strength was often the strongest.

And that period of time was often when the Central Plains dynasties were beating up the nomadic tribes. Now that Da Yu is heading for the Northern Expedition, even if we grassland tribes can win, we will definitely pay a high price.

And these costs are often brought about by the demise of most of the clans in the nomadic tribes. At this moment, it is often the time when those small tribes rise.

By devouring the defeated soldiers of the large tribes, the small tribes slowly gathered strong forces one after another, and in the process of fighting against the armies of the Central Plains dynasties, they trained elite soldiers one after another.

Then a new, strong new tribe arose. Become the overlord of an area on the grassland. If this overlord is lucky enough and can defeat the attack of the Central Plains Empire, then he may be able to extend his life span for decades or hundreds of years.

Of course, if you are unlucky, you may encounter a tough opponent of a Central Plains dynasty not long after you establish a new tribe, and they will be famous and be surrounded and wiped out.

All of this is full of uncertainty and countless opportunities. It just depends on whether people can be decisive enough and have enough luck to succeed.

The Northern Expedition was carried out in this way. The 200,000 troops set off on the journey to the desert under the tearful farewell of their families. From then on, they returned in horse leather.

The sky is clear, the fields are vast, and the grass is blown by the wind, and cattle and sheep can be seen low.

It was midsummer, when the water and grass were plentiful. Originally, at this moment, each tribe was busy fattening up their cattle and sheep, which had been hungry all spring and winter, so that they could grow enough fat this summer.

But at this moment, the shepherds were not seen letting out their cattle and sheep. I am a man, riding their steeds and carrying their hunting bows, gathering one after another to their tribal leaders.

They were brought by their leaders to other large tribes to join together, forming armies of hundreds or thousands of people, heading south.

Two nations born with irreconcilable conflicts started a life-or-death war in this summer. The winner will have everything, while the loser will pay his life as a bet in this war.

At the beginning, because the rebels were unfamiliar with the terrain, they had a lot of unnecessary troubles. They either got lost, or were defeated by the local nomads who took advantage of the terrain and fled.

Several armies whose generals were relatively incompetent or had bad luck were defeated. Thousands of tens of thousands of people were annihilated on the spot by the nomads' superiority on horseback. The remaining thousands of remnant soldiers also fled directly south. They were not abandoned by the nomads who were chasing after them until they fled the mirror.

Of course, there are also troops with outstanding performances, such as Lu Bu and Zhang Liao, who have been fighting against the nomads and have a certain reputation among the nomads, and Gongsun Zan, who is known as the White Horse General. These three people have achieved very great victories.

Each of the three of them captured several large tribes with tens of thousands of people. They annihilated tens of thousands of troops, but their own losses were only four to five thousand.

Others, such as Cao Cao, Liu Bei and others, although they did not achieve much results, their own armies did not suffer much losses. They killed one or two thousand of his nomadic troops, but they retreated to the frontier fortress with the loss of two to three thousand men.

In short, the Northern Expedition of the entire Yu Kingdom was a success for the first time. 200,000 people died and 120,000 to 30,000 of him died. He also killed 70,000 to 80,000 nomadic troops, and beheaded more than 200,000 women, children, old and weak people.

This time of the Northern Expedition, and even future Northern Expeditions, I had finally made it clear to the generals that no prisoners would be left, no matter men, women, old or young, all the nomads encountered would be killed.

It was not just men who could kill, but also the unarmed women who could herd sheep and provide food for the tribes that fought all year round.

It can also provide heirs to those nomadic peoples, continuously give birth to batches of warriors for them, and contribute every ounce of their value to the development and growth of those tribes.

And when the child grows up, he becomes a warrior and can kill people before he is even ten years old. Therefore, those nomadic peoples, regardless of age or sex, were a threat to the Central Plains dynasty.

In Zhong Yu's understanding, they could neither obey his orders loyally, but also often coveted the surplus of their Central Plains territory.

After conquering them, I can't collect any taxes and can only get some useless wool. So what's the use of keeping them? It's better to kill them all to prevent them from coming to harm me in the future.

Zhong Yu would rather let the grasslands in the north of him become a barren land thousands of miles away, than let any of those grassland barbarians live there.

Most of those generals were men of strong temperament. To put it bluntly, they were a bit cruel and easy to kill. They approved of Zhong Yu's order with both hands and feet.

With the order of their emperor, they can try to let go of the tyranny in their hearts and pursue their favorite hobbies to kill those grassland peoples, and they don't have to worry about being impeached by civil officials who like to meddle in their own business.

Because this is the emperor's order. Do you dare to question the emperor's order because you think your family has too many people? If you want to reduce it, our emperor is a more cruel person than those prairie barbarians!

Therefore, after this disaster of the Northern Expedition. The population of the Xianbei tribe on the grassland used to be more than two million, but this time it was completely reduced by more than 300,000, which can be said to be a great loss in strength.

However, they were not happy yet and repelled Yu Guo's attack. Cao Cao and his group of troops had just been replaced, and the second group of troops, led by Sun Jian and Dong Zhuo, these two powerful generals, started the second Northern Expedition with their troops.

(End of chapter)