Mao Dun did not necessarily have a reason to fight with the Han army, but as a Xiongnu, Shan Yu Tou Man had a reason not to fight, and as the Han army raged on the grassland became more and more severe, it was even more a reason to fight the Han army even if he paid a heavy price.

Since the Han army poured into the grassland from Yanmen County, the grassland near the south has basically fallen into the hands of the Han army, and the tribes that did not follow the south were either destroyed or subdued, which was a very depreciating thing for the head man.

The reason why a ruler is a ruler is not only to master the violent machine qì (army) is because of his prestige, once a ruler's prestige is insufficient, he is about to face a challenge from someone, and it is very likely that he will be defeated and become a lost dog when he meets the challenge.

To add insult to injury, the Han army's appetite was so great that it not only occupied the grasslands close to the mainland of China, but even marched in the direction of Junji Mountain.

The Hu people follow the rule of the weak and the strong, and they obey the Tou Man partly because of their bloodline, and partly because of the brutality and bloodiness of the Tou Man, and the vast majority of the factors are that the Xiongnu group under the leadership of the Tou Man has indeed been getting stronger.

It is human nature to follow the strong, but once it is found that the leader of the follower is no longer strong, there will be absolutely no hesitation for humans to give up or even turn their backs.

He didn't want to be the leader of the people who would be betrayed by his followers, which was one of the reasons why he was hesitant to lead his army at the source of the Yellow River and whether to break out.

Later, the news of the Han army wreaking havoc on the grassland gradually came, and the head man tried to lead the army to break through the blockade of the Han army in the direction of Woye and return to the grassland, but without exception they encountered strong resistance and were unsuccessful.

All kinds of pressure from his command make it impossible for Tou Man to simply leave his ass to the Han army to break through to the west, if they break through to the west, they don't know how long it will take to return to the grassland, and the detour may not have returned to the grassland, Junji Mountain has been occupied by the Han army? Then the head man can only stay in place and involve the strength of the Han army, so that the Han army does not have enough strength to invade the grassland. In this way, the various tribes on the grassland may be able to resist in the face of the under-armed Han army, and keep the Junji Mountain area, which is very important to the grassland people.

Of course, in addition to the forces that involved the Han army and prevented them from attacking the grasslands with all their might, there were many reasons why he had to stop where he was, one of which was that horses, cattle, and sheep had lost fat so badly, the second was the ethnic groups that suddenly appeared from the west, and the third was the hatred of the leaders of the big and small groups under his command and the leaders of other ethnic groups.

The tribes that suddenly appeared in the west were very unfamiliar to them, and who could have figured out what was going on with those people, and he wondered if the tribes that had come from the west would become an attack on them when he led his army to break through to the west. In order to avoid falling into another battlefield under the direct threat of the Han army, the head man had another reason to stay where he was.

In the subsequent development, Maudun volunteered to contact those ethnic groups that came from the west, and after communication, he became friends with some ethnic groups, but not all of them were ethnic groups that could be friends.

Until the discovery of the Han and Qin armies in the southeast, the ethnic groups that migrated from west to east were still no less than Mao Duncun zài. This kind of attack and killing became more and more severe as Maudun went westward, and it also made Touman think that his choice was not wrong, but fortunately he did not rush to the west to break through. Otherwise, we should be caught in another quagmire of war.

He had grown to like his eldest son, Mao Dun, and that was based on the premise that when he discovered the Han and Qin alliances, Mao Dun was able to persuade some hostile ethnic groups to send people to the east to observe.

"Let them see the strength of the Han army and the Qin army, as long as they see the strength and aggressiveness of the Han and Qin coalition forces. Those stubborn ones who want to continue to look east for a habitat have no choice but to unite with us. ”

There was something else he didn't say, and he had another purpose in inviting the many tribes to send people to observe, as long as those tribes were present on the battlefield. At that time, he had the means to make the Han and Qin coalition think that the Xiongnu had become allies with those ethnic groups, so that the Han and Qin coalition would regard those ethnic groups as hostile, and if the Han and Qin coalition regarded those ethnic groups as enemies. In the end, those ethnic groups could only be allied with the Xiongnu.

Tou Man received the good news from his eldest son, Maudun, and he also told Maudun a piece of news that he had been hiding.

The grasslands around China were invaded, and large areas of land were occupied by the Han army. As part of the Han army appeared on the other side of the Gobi, not only the Xiongnu who remained in the rear in the direction of Junji Mountain knew the unfavorable news of the war in the south, but the Xiongnu royal court was already gathering new troops to prepare to go south to rescue, and some ethnic groups that had nothing to do with themselves were also stimulated, such as Ding Ling and Jiankun, the two great grassland tribes, and like some tribes belonging to the Rong and Di tribes, the various races and tribes on the grassland are moving towards unity, preparing for the alliance to go south and the Han army that will dare to step on the grassland.

The first batch of troops of the grassland coalition army has been assembled in the direction of Yanran Mountain, the vast majority of them are the Xiongnu left-behind personnel, and the commander of the army is the youngest son of the Xiongnu Touman, that is, the Zhuo Tou Man's extremely favorite Zhuo Ji Tu, with the Zhu Tou Man as the nominal commander, with some tribal leaders in the Xiongnu tribe, gathered about 80,000 Xiongnu people, plus some of the Rong people and Di people who were close to the past, about 40,000 troops, a total of 120,000 troops.

Ding Ling and Jiankun, the two large races that inhabit the area around Lake Baikal in what is now the Beihai Sea and later became the Baikal Lake, also gathered most of the herdsmen in the tribe, gathered some tribal forces of other races in the surrounding area, and became the second echelon of about 150,000 troops to go south along the Wolf Juxu Mountain.

The third echelon on the grassland is from the northwest direction of the grassland Hujie and some Rong and Di people around Zhuo Evil Mountain, this echelon of the grassland coalition army is the smallest, about only more than 30,000 people, they assemble in the Zhuo Evil Mountain area, and then drive to the Junji Mountain area, according to the distance of the foot, it should become the second echelon of the second attack of the continuation of the south, but Ding Ling and Jiankun will fall behind because the distance is too far.

It was in the past few days that some Xiongnu people had risked their lives to cross the desert area that the Han army had not closely monitored. It can be said that it is the news that only comes from nine deaths.

The various ethnic groups on the grassland are gathering armies to prepare to fight the Han army that will expand into the grassland, which is exciting news for Suotouman, and it is also news that makes Suotouman feel that staying at the source of the Yellow River is the right choice, but it is mixed news for Maudun.

What is the total population of the grasslands today? To be honest, no one can say why, after all, it is not a unified country, and it is difficult to conduct a census. In addition to the fact that there are too many races to make population calculations, nomads are also constantly on the move, who can liquidate them? However, roughly calculated, the entire grassland outside the mainland of China does not include the Donghu side. The total population of all ethnic groups should be nearly 2.5 million?

Based on the population of 2.5 million, many races, including the group that were trapped at the source of the Yellow River in the early stage, and those who were gathered later, have gathered about 500,000 warriors before and after.

It must be noted that the armed forces of the Hu people have always had no strict restrictions on the source of soldiers, and the elderly, children, women, and young men are ...... As long as you can afford to ride a horse and hold a weapon, you are considered a member of the armed forces. In addition, the current grassland has not been unified by the Xiongnu in the battle to unify the grassland, a large number of people died, and the population of about 2.5 million is already small. It was until the Xiongnu unified the steppe. Even with the annexation of part of the Donghu people, the total population after the unification of the steppe by Maudun was only close to 2 million at the beginning, and the subsequent natural fertility growth and occupation of the Western Regions brought the population under Xiongnu rule to nearly 5 million.

Reinforcements are being gathered on the grassland to prepare for the south, which means that this group of Hu people trapped in the south is no longer alone. It was good news for all the Hu people who were trapped, but there were also people among them who did not seem so pleasant, and that person was naturally Mao Dun who heard that the commander of the army was Sulp.

According to the rules of succession of the eldest and youngest, Mao Dun would be the Xiongnu ruler after the death of Touman. It will also become a single Yu for the Xiongnu to unite with the rest of the ethnic groups. Of course, the Xiongnu did not have such a thing as primogeniture, and it was important for the Hu people to choose the bloodline of the chief. But what is more important is whether it is strong or not. However, in general, Morton is still the first in line of succession. The problem is that Touman doesn't think so, because Touman wants Jitu to inherit the throne because he likes his youngest son, which is something that the Huns and even their allies know.

Now, the army led by Sudunji is on the way to the rescue, even if he has not seen the shadow of a reinforcement, but because Sudge Jitu is the identity of the commander of the reinforcements, the prestige of Sudunjitu is skyrocketing, making Maudun gradually gain the influence of the people because of a series of efforts is fading, which is a fatal blow to Maudun who wants to become a single Yu.

Reinforcements on the steppe are coming, but it doesn't mean that they will appear in the next moment, not to mention the time spent on the journey, this season is the season of livestock mating, and livestock is not only property but also the key to survival for the grassland people, even if the people want to go south, the leaders and tribesmen of the various tribes will have to wait until the end of the livestock mating, so it will definitely not be possible to make the trip before the end of spring.

Because it is a livestock mating, some of the female animals that have been successfully conceived must not be able to become military food, and can only choose their own livestock as military food, and the grain of the grassland army is definitely a state of insufficiency.

Mao Dun understood why his father Touman stayed in the headwaters of the Yellow River, and it was out of understanding that he worked so hard to find help, wanting to show his abilities in this crisis.

The Han army's intention to march to the grassland is clear. The kind of advance of the Han army was not like most of the armies of the Warring States and then retreated, but with a very strong occupation goal, like the Zhao State in the Warring States period after laying down a piece of territory, such as Yanmen County and Dai County.

In the past, the Zhao State wiped out part of the dog Rong, wiped out all the remnants of the ghost side, and then fused the once powerful Zhongshan Wolf State, so the Chinese ethnic group also expanded its territory to the grassland. Now the Han army's movements are far greater than the former Zhao state, although the news is not so smooth, but some news has shown that the Han army is about to occupy the south of Yinshan, and the grassland east of the meanders of the river has also been captured by the Han army south of the desert.

The offensive of the Han army is based on the killing and enslavement of the grassland tribes, if anyone can defeat the Han army so that the pace of marching to the grassland is stopped, who will become the great hero of the grassland, the big hero will often have great prestige, prestige will make the heroes come to take refuge, many tribes will also take the lead, Mao Dun is extremely eager that the big hero is himself.

With mixed feelings, Maudun invited some representatives of ethnic groups who had migrated from the west to rush to the headwaters of the Yellow River.

There were quite a few representatives of the tribe that followed Maudun, and together with the necessary escort force, it must be between three thousand people. After Maudun brought the people there, he did not go to meet Touman, as if he did not want the representatives of those ethnic groups to come into contact with Touman too early, but took people to venture close to the Han and Qin coalition forces to find favorable terrain for observation.

At present, the Han and Qin coalition forces are more than 50 miles away from the location of Touman, because it is necessary to try not to attract attention as much as possible, Mao Dun just took a few people to prepare a number of war horses that could be replaced, climbed a hillside about 20 miles away from the camp of the Han and Qin coalition forces, and observed from a distance.

Twenty miles away from the look will not be clear, what can be seen is the vague outline of the Han and Qin coalition army camp, by the terrain they see is the camp area occupies at least twenty or thirty miles of huge camp, the whole camp distribution is a kind of "product" shape, overlapping "product" glyph and converge into a huge "product" shape, from a distance to see the person is just a small black dot, but the dense tent is very impressive.

Although it was not yet possible to see what the Han and Qin coalition forces looked like, or how sophisticated the weapons and equipment of the Han and Qin coalition forces were, the layout of the Han and Qin coalition forces had already made the representatives of various ethnic groups who came to watch frightened.

The huge camp and the large number of armies of the Han and Qin coalition forces are quite intimidating, but the camp set up by the Han and Qin coalition forces shows a unique civilization background, which can explain some problems...... (To be continued......)