The sky is high and the clouds are light, but the dust covers the sky and the sun, and the sound of horses' hooves rolls in like the muffled thunder of summer. In the vast and flat grassland, a long cavalry team that could not see the head and tail at a glance was like a long river, surging towards the south.

At the front of the procession, there is a flag that stands out, but although it is a flag, it is actually just nine white oxtails tied to a very long wooden pole, which can float high as the horses gallop. Because the steppe nomads do not produce silk cloth, things such as flags are generally made from the tails of animals as the logo of the whole army.

However, people living on the grassland know that although this banner is simple, it is by no means ordinary, and it is the royal flag of the Huns. And at this time, the person holding this nine-tailed white banner, an old man wearing a golden crown, although the crown is put on the felt hat often worn by the Huns, but he is equipped with silk clothes that are very rare among the steppe nomads, and also wears a set of bronze armor, just on the shoulder to see a felt made of sheepskin, straddling a white horse, although it is close to the age of the sixtieth year, but the horse gallops, but not inferior to the young man, and the hair is a little gray, but still the spirit is shining, from it is a pair of eyes, shining, It's quite intimidating.

At this moment, he saw several fast horses in front of him, galloping in the direction of this army, and when the old man saw this, he immediately stopped his horse, led hundreds of people out of the group, and stopped on the side. Because of the large number of troops, it was impossible to stop all of them at once, so they could only let the large group of people stop at the edge of the brigade.

The few fast horses came to the old man's approach, and a knight led by him said: "Shan Yu, we have received news that the army of the Dai army is rushing to reinforce Yanmen Pass, so King Zuo Gu Li asked Shan Yu to speed up the march, and he must arrive before the reinforcements, otherwise it will be difficult to wait for the Dai army to arrive at Yanmen Pass." ”

This old man is the current Xiongnu Yu Tou Manshan Yu, he received the Kalugu sent by Mao Dun, Fu Hu Luo two, together with Zhao Xin, Ma Yu, learned that the guards of Yanmen Pass are now empty, the strength of the army is insufficient, by Zhao Xin, Ma Yu two, because of the Xiongnu trade for many years, among the Xiongnu magnates, many people know them, and some of the magnates have established a good friendship with them, so the two of them show their statement, proving that Yanmen Pass is indeed empty, and at the same time the two of them also made up a trace of panic, For example, the Dai army suffered heavy losses in the battle with the Qin State, and the plateau suppressed Haoqiang in Dai County, which was unpopular, and now the garrison of Yanmen Pass is empty, and the two can also do internal response for the Xiongnu and so on.

Because there are many things, the Xiongnu tribe has also heard of it, so after listening to the two of them, Toumanshan Yu and the Xiongnu magnates also fully believe it, and at the same time are overjoyed. The things of the Chinese countries are very popular among the Xiongnu tribes, such as civilian cloth, salt, grain, and even bottles and jars, while the Xiongnu nobles like silk, jade, bronze vessels, wine and other things.

But in the past few years, because of the defeat of Yinshan, and the main energy of the Xiongnu is also on the grassland to compete for power, the number and scale of the southward raids are not large, and the harvest is limited, so the main way for the Huns to obtain Chinese goods is still through trade.

However, the number of caravans that could go to the steppe to carry out trade activities was limited, and the Qin and Yan states simply completely cut off normal trade with the Xiongnu, and only Daijun maintained trade with the Xiongnu, but the scale was of course far from meeting the needs of the Xiongnu. Moreover, the trade was reciprocal between the two sides, and the Xiongnu also needed to exchange their horses, livestock, furs and other goods with the merchants, of course, it was not easy to rob them. What's more, now that the basic overall situation on the grassland has been decided, the Xiongnu are dominant, and they have the ability to go south to plunder on a large scale, and the Yanmen Pass is empty, and there is an internal response, which is indeed a great opportunity.

So the Xiongnu nobles also made suggestions to Toumandanyu, asking Toumandanyu to immediately launch a large army to the south, break through the Yanmen Pass, and plunder.

Tou Manshan Yu also moved his heart, although the Huns have basically controlled the grassland in recent years, but the successive years of conquest, but also let the Huns lose a lot, because it is although annexed many grassland tribes, but the time is still shallow, the people are uncertain, the contradictions between the old and new Huns are still generated, so if at this time, can go south to plunder, not only can the contradictions of the old and new Huns be transferred, but also after grabbing the wealth, the old Huns can naturally make a fortune, and the new Huns can also get a few mouthfuls of soup to drink, This can also ease the antagonism within the Xiongnu.

But Zhao Xin and Ma Yu also made it very clear that the plateau had already sent reinforcements to Yanmen Pass, and if the reinforcements arrived at Yanmen Pass, it would be difficult to break through Yanmen Pass, after all, the siege ability was the weakest link of the Huns. Therefore, it is necessary to send troops as much as possible, but it is also very difficult to dispatch a large army immediately, because the Xiongnu are nomads, although it has entered October at this time, the nomadism is basically over, and the herdsmen began to look for a place to spend the winter, but the Xiongnu's station is also a star-falling flag, there is no fixed place, and most of them are not in the Xiongnu tribe, so it will take at least a month to find the Xiongnu army to assemble. But now the Huns obviously can't wait so long.

So Tou Mandan Yu immediately ordered, ordered Kalugu to lead a thousand men and horses, and immediately rushed back to Yanmen Pass overnight, and informed Mao Dun that he would lead the Xiongnu army to rush to Yanmen Pass as much as possible, and let Mao Dun pay close attention to the movements of the Dai army outside Yanmen Pass, and then ordered the Xiongnu magnates to rush back to their tribes to gather men and horses, and then rush to Yanmen Pass to assemble in front of the pass; At the Xiongnu headquarters, about 20,000 troops could be gathered at once, including the remaining men and horses left in the tribe by Maodun, and Tou Mandanyu decided to personally lead this part of the men and horses to Yanmen Pass. And let the Da Yan clan stay and continue to collect troops, and then rush to Yanmen Pass to converge.

If this part of the men and horses rushed to Yanmen Pass, plus the men and horses of Maudun, the total number of people could reach more than 25,000 people, and the troops would be greatly strengthened, as long as the reinforcements from the plateau had not arrived, then it would be more than enough to break through a garrison of Yanmen Pass. After breaking through the Yanmen Pass, he is waiting for an opportunity to move, maybe he can go to Daijun to loot.

After discussing the decision, the Xiongnu magnates immediately set off one after another, rushing back to their respective tribes to collect troops. And Touman Danyu also immediately gathered an army among the Xiongnu tribes. and instructed the Da Yan clan to let her do her best to recruit troops in the tribe and rush to Yanmen Pass.

Although the Da Yan clan also advised Tou Mandan Yu to let him wait a little longer, and it would not be too late to set off after gathering more troops, so that it would be safer. But Tou Manshan Yu didn't care, because now what he wanted was to rush to Yanmen Pass as much as possible and rob more wealth and population. According to the tradition of the grassland, the looted property and population are privately owned by the tribes themselves, that is, whoever grabs it belongs to whom, even if it is Shan Yu, it is not possible to keep the property and population of other small tribes for themselves, at most after the robbery, each tribe will give a share to Shan Yujin, but that is only a very small part of themselves, so whoever arrives first and plunders first, whose harvest is naturally the same. In this case, Tou Manshan Yu naturally had to rush to Yanmen Pass as much as possible.

And Tou Manshan Yu didn't think about anything else, because even if he rushed to Yanmen Pass with this part of the men, Mao Dun only had 10,000 men under his command, and his army had 15,000 people, so he didn't have to worry that Mao Dun would be unfavorable to him. In addition, it is not excluded that some tribesmen and horses will rush to Yanmen Pass first, so that their military strength will be stronger.

In fact, the Da Yan clan didn't really think that this time Mao Dun would be unfavorable to Tou Mandan, after all, Mao Dun's current strength was far from enough to seize Shan Yu's position, and the advice to Tou Manshan Yu was just based on a habitual mentality, and seeing that Tou Manshan Yu didn't take it seriously, he didn't persuade deeply.

So after gathering the army, Tou Mandan immediately led the men and horses to set out.

The Xiongnu's Shan Yu tribe station did not have the west side of the wolf Juxu Mountain, and it was also in the area around Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia in later generations, and the straight-line distance to Yanmen Pass was about more than 1,100 kilometers, if it was broken down into the numbers of this era, it was about more than 2,000 li, but the Huns were all cavalry, and the war horses they rode were Mongolian horses, although the size was not large, and the speed of running was not fast, but the gravity was strong, and the endurance was very sufficient, so after seven days of hurrying, more than 1,500 miles were completed, Enter the Yinshan Mountain area.

After crossing the Yinshan Mountain Range, it basically entered the intersection area of the grassland and the Chinese countries, because this is a rare mountainous area on the grassland, and the merchants of Daijun who trade on the grassland generally do not cross the Yinshan Mountain Range and go deep into the grassland. However, the Huns knew that there were many canyons in the Yinshan Mountains that could be passed, and they did not need to climb over the mountains.

After listening to their report, Tou Mandanyu thought for a while and said, "From here through Yin Mountain, which road is the closest?" ”

There is a humanitarian: "The closest to Jiashan Gorge, we rushed over through Jiashan Gorge to deliver a message to Shan Yu." ”

Tou Manshan Yu nodded, and said: "Okay, let's go to Jiashan Gorge, today we will cross Jiashan Gorge and camp to rest, and tomorrow we will catch up for another day, and we can almost reach Yanmen Pass, it should be in time, you will work hard, and immediately rush back to Sue Sù Maodun." ”

The man said: "Yes, we will go back immediately, and let King Zuogu Li prepare to meet Shan Yu." After saying this, several people immediately pulled out their horses, and then galloped on their horses, and disappeared into the distance in a short time.

Tou Manshan Yu looked at the sky, and now there is still a period of time before the sky is black, so Tou Manshan Yu said: "Everyone work harder, hurry up for a while, and then camp and rest after crossing the Jiashan Gorge today." ”