Chapter Fifty-Four: Mustard Seed

  The inquiry process went very smoothly.

  Perhaps just like what this Xiongnu youth said, he was convinced in his heart and spoke out everything he knew, just like spilling beans.

  It turned out that the young Xiongnu's background was indeed not small, and he was the youngest son of this generation of Xubu Shi Bodu. Because of his eagerness to show off, he wanted to win the praise of his father Xubu Shi Bodu, so he volunteered to go to the White Water Marsh Xiongnu tribe, to persuade or coerce the tribesmen to pledge allegiance to Xubu Shi Bodu.

  As for why this is being done at this time, it has something to do with the Great Han imperial court.

  However, in August, Yu Yang Zhang Chun and Zhang Ju rebelled and proclaimed themselves emperors. The Han court issued an edict to the Southern Xiongnu to raise troops to go and quell the rebellion. The Chanyu of the Southern Xiongnu, Huyan, also known as Qiangqu, ordered his son, the Left Virtuous King, Yuanchen Yufuro, to lead 100,000 troops to go to Youzhou to quell the rebels.

  This move, however, stirred up undercurrents within the Southern Xiongnu.

  The main contradiction lies in the position of the Shanyu.

  At first, Qiangqu was the Right Virtuous King. The reason he could become Chanyu was not because of the promotion of various departments of Xiongnu, but in the autumn of Guanghe 2 (AD 179), Zhang Shu, a middle-ranking officer who guarded Xiongnu, beheaded the original Chanyu Huhanye on his own initiative. Because Qiangqu was close to Han, he established Qiangqu as Chanyu.

  Therefore, various Xiongnu tribes were dissatisfied with Qiangqu, but because of the pressure from the Han court above and Qiangqu's own strong forces, they had not taken action.

  However, now that Xiongnu has moved away 100,000 troops from his side, his own strength is not enough to suppress the various departments of Xiongnu. Therefore, the nobles of each department, the big and small kings, and the bone officials are all eager to move.

  Moreover, the various Xiongnu tribes were also worried that the Han court would recruit Xiongnu people to fight wars, which would not end for a long time, and even batch after batch of recruits would be sent to be cannon fodder, making the Xiongnu people very fearful and dissatisfied.

  So, with the right wing Xiongnu and Tuge Hu as the main force, they promoted the noble family's Susuotou Bone Duhou as the leader, secretly pulling in all the Xiongnu tribal forces that could be pulled in, preparing to launch a coup before the year was out and overthrow Qiangqu!

  After listening to Bo Xi's words, Li Zhēn's heart, which had been slightly lifted all along, finally calmed down completely. Although his vague memories told him that the Xiongnu would definitely experience internal turmoil during this period, because he couldn't recall the specific content, he was actually also a bit apprehensive.

  His current strength is indeed negligible for Xiongnu. It's actually not easy to bite off a piece of flesh from Xiongnu.

  But Li Zhēng had no choice but to do so.

  The war horse needs to grow and expand, how can it be separated from the grassland? The larger the area of the grassland, the faster the war horse can expand its scale. In his plan, taking advantage of the internal strife of the Xiongnu, he took down large tracts of grassland and quickly developed his forces. By the time the Xiongnu recovered, it would not be so easy to deal with him.

  Of course, the idea is good, but anxiety also exists.

  It can't be helped.

  Now that he had received specific news, Li Zhēn's anxious heart naturally calmed down.

  He can be sure that in such a situation, even if he takes down Baisuize, the Xiongnu will not have the energy to deal with him for the time being and will not do anything to him.

  Bo Li revealed the information he knew, and it wasn't that stupid after all. The internal strife of the Xiongnu had already been shot with an arrow and couldn't be retrieved. As for Li Jing, he didn't have the qualifications or power to intervene. Letting Li Jing know wouldn't hinder anything either.

  Looking at the young man from the Xiongnu nobility, whose name meant "wild wolf", Li Zheng's eyes flashed with a hint of inexplicable light.

  "General Han," said Li Jing directly, "you've asked your questions and I've answered them. What will you do with me now?"

  Li Zhēng chuckled and said: "I can let you go."

  "Huh?"

  Bo Li was taken aback and frowned, saying: "What conditions do you have?"

  "Conditions?" Li Zhēng chuckled and said: "Very simple, I just hope you can keep secret my plan to take over Baishuizhen."

  "Is that all?"

  Glass plow doubts.

  This time he failed, after going back, he naturally couldn't speak the truth, otherwise losing face would be minor, but losing points in his father's heart would be major.

  But Li Zhong's current request just happened to meet his psychological needs.

  "It's just that simple." Li Zheng chuckled and said, "However, I still have a request."

  "Say."

  "You are from the Wu Bei clan, whose territory is to the right of the Yellow River Bend, not far from here. I think we can trade with each other." Li Zhēn smiled and continued: "At the same time, I also want to ask for your help!"

  "Chinese general, how many conditions do you have?!"

  "Hmph! Let's get it all out in the open once and for all. We Great Huns don't like beating around the bush!"

  "Refreshing!"

  Li Zheng burst out laughing and said: "Regarding the matter of doing business with your Su Bu clan, I will send someone to contact you later. This requires a token from you."

  "As for asking you for help, hehe...” Li Zheng's smile was like a fox: “You know I want Bai Shui Chuan, and the Xianbei people's power is not small. Although I am confident that I can take them down, I don't want to lose too many men. So, I'll have to trouble you, Bo Li Gong, to follow me on a trip to Bai Shui Ze and help me take down Bai Shui Chuan!"

  "What do you want me to do!"

  Bo Li's face was calm and expressionless.

  The Baili tribe of the Xianbei, although a dependent of the Xiongnu, had suffered greatly under Li Qiang and was now defeated, so he no longer had the face or strength to go to the Baimen River to subdue the Baili tribe.

  Moreover, those Xiongnu people are nothing but a dog of the Huns, dead and gone, no need to mention.

  Moreover, he also had to conceal the fact that his entire army was defeated by the Han army, so destroying the Baishui River Jie tribe was also a good choice.

  When Li Zhong made his request, Bo Xi immediately agreed in her heart.

  "I will have my men disguise themselves as your guards, just as you had planned before, and head to Baishui River. In the name of the Xushe clan, gather all the Jie tribal leaders, then my men will take action at the right time and kill all the Jie tribal leaders."

  "As for me, I will bring all the infantry to follow closely behind. When the leader of the Jie people dies and the army is in great disorder, we will respond from both inside and outside, and complete our task in one battle!"

  Bo Li looked at Li Zhongyan's face and fell silent for a long time: "You Han people are really treacherous!"

  "Haha, all's fair in love and war, that's all!"

  "I agreed!"

  "Good!"

  The two of them slapped each other on the palm and made a promise.

  In the middle of the twelfth lunar month, Li Zhēng led thirty green armor battle cavalry back to Shénzhōu Grassland.

  From the middle of December to the middle of January, after a whole month of killing and rushing, Li Zhēng finally got what he wanted.

  A hundred miles around, with luxuriant water and grass, is the beautiful Bai Shui River!

  At first, after making a deal with Shi Bu Xiu, he was arranged by Li Jing like a puppet.

  Li Jing first had his 400 light cavalrymen dress up as Bo Le's guards. Bo Le then went to the Khitan army camp by the White Water River, according to plan.

  Facing the specially identified Xiongnu noble, Jie people, as a subordinate tribe of Xiongnu, naturally did not dare to be slow. Although surprised by the unusualness of Puli's guard, it was thought that it was just a new elite soldier of the Xiongnu people, and with Puli, the real big man in front, so the Jie people didn't mind.

  Then Shi Hu summoned all the leaders of the Jie tribes under the pretext of discussing the succession to Shi Zun's throne. In fact, because of the war with Li Shou, the leaders of all the Jie tribes had already gathered together, and so had their armies.

  The mobilization process went very smoothly.

  While Shi Hu was negotiating with the various Jie tribal leaders, his 400-strong cavalry suddenly attacked and killed all the Jie leaders in their tents.

  At the same time, Li Jing's various troops followed closely behind Bo Xi and launched a surprise attack on the Jie people's commander-in-chief!

  In an instant, the Jie people were thrown into great disorder.

  Nearly ten thousand cavalrymen couldn't find their leader and even accused each other of attacking. Faced with Li Zhong's pincer attack, they quickly collapsed, the rest scattered in all directions to escape for their lives!

  By then, the Jie people's power had been greatly weakened.

  In the following half month, Li Zhong's army galloped across this vast grassland, braving wind and snow, uprooting all the Jie tribes!

  Most of the Jie people who were young and strong were killed in resistance, while the remaining surrendered, along with the elderly, weak, women and children, were all captured by Li Jing.

  There were actually over 30,000 people!

  More than 30,000 people were sent to Shen State Grassland in batches.

  Among them, the strong and able-bodied were all used for mining and road repair work that was extremely physically demanding. The elderly, weak, women and children focused on opening up wasteland, farming or taking care of livestock.

  As for Baishui Ze, Li Cong left behind a thousand elite infantrymen, with Zhang Shan as the commander-in-chief, stationed here.

  They also want to build a city here as the management center of Baishui Zhe.

  Of course, this is not something that can be accomplished overnight.

  Li Zhong had planned this for a long time.

  He hoped that the mysterious shop could refresh the terrain conversion blueprint. As long as he could buy this blueprint, he could achieve his goal in an instant.

  Unfortunately, the mysterious shop in December still did not refresh what Li Zhong needed.

  As for Xubo Bowei, the noble prince of the Xubo clan, Li Jing released him after completing his conquest of Baishizhou, keeping his promise.

  Before leaving, Wu Bohui unexpectedly made a vow in front of Li Jing that he would definitely defeat Li Jing and wash away his shame.

  Li Zheng scoffed at this.

  The further back he went, the stronger Li Zhong's power became, far beyond what it is now.

  The sooner you defeat Li Zhuo, the better. The later it gets, the more desperate he will become!

  After settling the affairs of Baishui River, Li Zhēn led the Qingjia War Riders back to Shen Zhou Grassland. As for the Mountain Wolf Riders, they had returned one step ahead and were already in Fuping.

  With Lü Bu's threat from behind eliminated, he would have to face Han Sui's rebel forces.

  It's been a month now, and I don't know how the battle between the imperial court and the rebels is going. But Li Zhong can be sure that the imperial court will definitely not be able to defeat Han Zhuo, at most it will be a draw!

  Back in the Divine Continent's grasslands, Li Zhong spent a day on the grasslands, personally reviewing all of Zhao Wu's difficult tasks. Then he took all the raw materials accumulated in the Beast Taming Arena and synthesized them into corresponding war steeds before setting off towards Lingzhou.