Zhao Po Nu was now completely confused. He had brought 20,000 people here this time with great ambitions and was determined to avenge his previous humiliation.

Among them was the empty return in the previous Battle of the Xiong River, and the humiliation of being crushed by the small Wusun when fighting against Dayuan.

Of course, he knew that the emperor asked him to come not to make him meritorious service, but to let him vent his anger on the King of the North.

Therefore, Zhao Po Nu felt somewhat proud, thinking that he was avenging the King of the Northern Territory and that the other party should treat him with courtesy.

As a result... he captured 20,000 people in the battle when he was made a marquis. What was the situation back then and what is the situation now?

If the Northern Border Kingdom's military strength was that strong, Shuofang City wouldn't have suffered such a terrible loss last year.

Moreover, along the way, Jiang Chong kept saying that they were few in number and playing the victim. Zhao Po Nu had already formed a fixed impression that there were very few people in the northern border. Since there were few people, there would definitely not be many people who could be sent out to intercept and kill the Huns when they had to build a city and do spring plowing.

So the other side is likely to win with fewer troops.

Wei Buyi, who was standing by, watched Zhao Po Nu fall into deep thought and doubt his life. He couldn't help but turned around and smiled silently after holding it in for a long time.

He was really impressed by Li Buyan's shamelessness. They did have 1,500 Hun prisoners, but the problem was that they only captured 500 people, and these 500 people were not all young and strong. Some of them were the elderly, the weak, women and children.

The remaining one thousand young men were given to their prince by the little Kunmi!

But in Li Buyan's mouth, he became their captive.

However, no one wanted to expose Li Buyan. After all, if you really want to talk about those 1,000 Xiongnu, it's not easy to explain. Why would the young Kunmi send them to you? Really digging deeper would be disadvantageous to their highness.

So they could only leave Zhao Po Nu there, shocked to the point of being speechless.

After a long while, Zhao Po Nu probably regained his train of thought and suddenly asked, "Five thousand prisoners, this is a great victory, why didn't you announce it to the capital?"

Li Buyan and Wei Buyi, who were smiling at each other, said: ...

The two people's smiles suddenly froze, and for a moment they didn't know how to explain.

Fortunately, there was still Jiang Chong. Jiang Chong said calmly, "Before Your Highness came, His Majesty repeatedly told him not to be impulsive and not to clash with the Xiongnu for the time being. Your Highness knows that His Majesty is worried about him, but he had no choice but to capture the Xiongnu, so Your Highness hasn't figured out how to tell His Majesty yet."

Zhao Po Nu said, "Why shouldn't I say that? His Majesty will only be happy, not angry." After a pause, he added, "Even if he's angry, he won't punish His Royal Highness the King of the Northern Territory. Report your achievements quickly. It wouldn't be a good thing for the Northern Territory Commandant position to remain vacant."

Zhao Po Nu said that before, Jiang Chong and others looked at him differently.

I'm still wondering if this guy is too proud no matter how good he is at fighting, his character is still okay.

But when they heard the second half of the sentence, they felt that this was Zhao Po Nu's true thought, and they were afraid that he had set his eyes on this piece of fat meat and wanted to take a bite.

It is impossible for him to become a captain with his qualifications, but Zhao Po Nu also has sons and nephews. What a good step for promotion.

The Northern Border Kingdom was able to capture 1,500 Huns despite being short of troops, so it is certain that they would capture more than that after they have recovered.

Even if Zhao Po Nu joined forces with the Left Grand Commandant this time, the best result would be to kill Wu Shilu, causing internal strife among the Xiongnu for a while, and then forcing the Xiongnu troops to continue withdrawing to the northwest.

But if we were in Shuofang City, we would always have the opportunity to confront the Huns, and that would be a military achievement.

Jiang Chong thought to himself that you may not look that good but you have beautiful thoughts. How could His Highness hand over the military power to someone else?

It is obvious that he is now training Li Buyan and Wei Buyi, and wants to choose one of them to serve as the captain.

The only flaw of these two people now is that they don’t have enough merits. Although everyone has merits, their foundation is still weak.

Jiang Chong said perfunctorily, "General, what you say makes sense, but this matter still requires your Highness and the Prime Minister to submit a petition."

Zhao Po Nu quickly said, "Yes, we still need to investigate first."

Zhao Po Nu also thought of it. He had to write a letter back and ask someone to make arrangements so that he could occupy this position before others could react. If he waited until the good news reached the capital, how could he still have a chance?

When he thought of this, he stopped urging her.

When they arrived at the post station, Jiang Chong kept his promise and showed Zhao Po Nu the horseshoe.

Zhao Po Nu was an old general after all, and he knew horses very well. He immediately understood the purpose of Ma Ti Te and said, "This can delay the wear of horseshoes. It's a good idea."

He said with some confusion: "Why have I never heard of this before?"

Jiang Chong's mouth twitched: "When we were in the capital, His Highness had already presented this item to His Majesty."

So if you have any questions, go to the emperor, don't ask us.

Zhao Po Nu didn't say anything else, but rubbed his hands and said, "Then... could you give my warhorse a pair as well?"

Li Buyan and Wei Buyi were shocked. Is he so unassuming?

Little did they know that these veterans would become so shameless that each one would be more powerful than the other, and would even throw tantrums and roll around when fighting for military supplies.

That is to say, Wei Qing and Huo Qubing had made great military achievements. Once they went on the expedition, even if others were wronged, they would not be wronged. Therefore, there was no need to fight at all. Other generals would really do everything they could.

What does an opening like this mean?

Jiang Chong probably had never experienced such a situation, but his advantage was that he was thicker-skinned than both Li Buyan and Wei Buyi.

After all, he had worked his way up from the bottom, so he couldn't be too proud. So he politely declined, saying, "These were all brought back from Chang'an. The Northern Border Kingdom doesn't have the time to do this right now, and other soldiers don't have them either."

As for whether it’s true or not…if you have the guts, go and turn over the hooves of our Northern Border horses and see for yourself.

If you really dare to look, I will really make sure that you can't even touch a single horse hair.

In fact, according to Liu Tan's temper, he would not be so stingy. What's the big deal about a pair of horseshoes? As long as it can help the Han army win, he might agree to build it for the entire army. However, Liu Tan's attitude may have influenced Jiang Chong, and he is not optimistic about Zhao Po Nu.

He felt uncomfortable when he thought that Zhao Po Nu was going to join forces with Zuo Da Duwei, and if things went wrong, the other party might see the horseshoe.

If they go one step further and lose, even if the other party cannot make horseshoes, they will be so angry that their prince will die if they have to take them off and put them on their horses.

Anyway, horseshoes are not the decisive factor in this war, so let's just forget about it.

Zhao Po Nu was not shameless. The main reason was that poverty was deeply rooted in the hearts of the people in the northern border country. He didn't even know that there were iron mines here, so he thought what the other party said made sense. These might have been brought from Chang'an.

After Jiang Chong rejected Zhao Po Nu, he said, "Although I don't have horseshoes, I still have another great gift for you, General."

Zhao Po Nu became interested: "Oh? What is it?"

Jiang Chong had a square lacquer box brought in, and then he had someone open it and take out the contents, saying, "This is the map that Your Highness prepared for the general."

Zhao Po Nu originally subconsciously wanted to say that they had prepared a map, but when he saw the map, he couldn't help but be attracted.

This map was more detailed than the one in his hand and looked more intuitive. No general about to go to war could refuse it.

The only thing that puzzled Zhao Po Nu was why the map highlighted each water source. Their troops were being dispatched to the grasslands, not the Gobi Desert.