On the other side, Ma Teng led his Imperial Guards to a breakthrough point. Looking at the tribe not far ahead, Ma Teng immediately ordered a halt to the advance and sent out scouts to investigate the situation.

Before long, the scout hurriedly returned.

"General, that small tribe ahead seems to have been attacked; not a single person has moved from there!"

"Oh?" Ma Teng was somewhat surprised. "Come with me and take a look."

With that, Ma Teng led his men stealthily toward the tribe.

Upon closer inspection, the tribe was littered with corpses lying haphazardly and women kneeling and weeping.

Seeing the devastation in the tribe, a soldier couldn't help but ask, "General, could this have been done by Dong Zhuo and his men?"

Ma Teng shook his head with a solemn expression: "No, they started from Jiuyuan. They shouldn't have been able to get here if they were heading north. Moreover, the bodies of the able-bodied men are concentrated here, so they must have been killed in a voluntary attack!"

"Could there be someone else?"

His subordinates were somewhat puzzled.

"Just go ask around and you'll find out!"

Then, at Ma Teng's call, the Imperial Guards charged toward the small tribe.

In the tribe, a woman, who was immersed in pain, suddenly felt the ground tremble. Looking up, she saw a group of cavalry charging towards her.

The surviving women looked at Ma Teng and his men rushing towards their tribe, and a look of despair immediately appeared on their faces.

Approaching the woman kneeling on the ground, Ma Teng asked coldly, "Who attacked your tribe? How many of them were there?"

The woman said in a trembling voice, "There was...there was only one boy!"

"Do you perhaps think my knife is ineffective? How dare you try to deceive me like this?"

Upon hearing this, Ma Teng flew into a rage and swung his long sword at the woman, but he stopped the blade abruptly just before it reached her neck.

"Let's go!"

Seeing the woman's despairing expression, Ma Teng sheathed his long sword, turned his horse around, and led his Imperial Guards away from the scene.

"Why did the general soften his heart just now?"

Halfway there, a soldier from the Imperial Guard looked at Ma Teng with a puzzled expression.

“We are, after all, the Han army, not beasts like them!” Ma Teng said quietly.

"But...."

"No buts. Although we are pretending to be Southern Xiongnu, we should have our own bottom line. I think even His Majesty wouldn't want us to be like them, would he?"

Ma Teng looked at his subordinate and knew that this subordinate was someone who had come from Hejian with the emperor, which was why he had said so much to him.

"Since His Majesty has appointed the general to lead the team, I will naturally obey all orders."

Ma Teng smiled and said, "Let's go to the next place. We can't fall behind Gongsun Zan."

"What kind of young man is he?" Ma Teng wondered to himself as he rode the horse.

News of the attacks on many tribes had already reached the ears of the old Chanyu (ruler) of the Xiongnu royal court.

"Damn traitors! It's one thing for them to defect to the Han people, but they dare to ravage and harm the people of our Great Xiongnu! It's truly hateful! If we don't avenge this, we will be unworthy to be descendants of the Heavenly Wolf God!"

Then the old Chanyu looked at a middle-aged man on his right and said angrily, "Left Wise King, I hereby order you to gather eight thousand warriors to attack the southern bandits and avenge my dead people!"

"Rest assured, Great Chanyu, I will make them pay for their crimes in blood!" The Left Wise King replied loudly with a joyful expression.

At this moment, the Right Wise King on the other side hurriedly advised, "Great Chanyu, think it over. The power of the northern slaves is growing stronger. If we rashly send troops south, they may take advantage of us."

The Left Wise King sneered, then mocked, "Hmph~ Right Wise King, I think you've been reading Han Chinese books and gotten yourself stupid, haven't you? What are you afraid of, you mere servant?"

"you..."

The Right Wise King, trembling with anger, pointed at the Left Wise King and rebuked him: "You warriors, what do you know about important matters? Now, our Great Xiongnu are besieged by the Wuhuan in the east, our own traitors in the south, and the Xianbei in the north. If we make a wrong move, we will fall into an abyss of no return."

The Left Wise King angrily said, "That's precisely why we must send troops. If we cower and do nothing, everyone will come and trample on us, and that would be true annihilation!"

"This brute is utterly unreasonable. Even if we are to send troops, we must first appease the north and the east."

"Hmph~ Once we've appeased them, they'll slaughter all our people!"

The two refused to give in and started arguing.

"Enough, all of you, shut up!"

Upon hearing the Chanyu's angry shout, the Left and Right Wise Kings immediately stopped arguing.

Seeing that the two wise kings had stopped arguing, the Great Chanyu looked at a scholar dressed in Han Chinese attire beside him.

"Does the sir think we should send troops?"

This scholar was one of those who had served under Dianxian. When Dianmu suffered a major defeat, he immediately fled north and sought refuge with the northern Xiongnu.

The scholar smiled slightly, "What the Right Wise King said makes sense. We really must be wary of the east and the north!"

"Your insight is brilliant, sir!"

Upon hearing the scholar's words, the Right Wise King glanced smugly at the Left Wise King, whose face immediately turned extremely ugly.

"However... if we do not send troops, I fear the Great Chanyu will be ridiculed!"

Hearing the scholar's words take such a roundabout way, even the Chanyu couldn't help but frown: "What do you mean by that, Mr. Han? Can you finish your sentence at once?"

“Yes! You Han people, always dawdling and complaining, what’s there to show off?” The Left Wise King glared angrily at the scholar.

Looking at this group of brainless Huns, the scholar felt a surge of contempt, but he still wore a smile on his face.

The scholar said, "While the Great Chanyu is about to send out troops, he has also dispatched a cavalry force disguised as Xianbei to launch a surprise attack on the Wuhuan."

"Oh? What do you mean, sir?"

Seeing that the Great Chanyu still looked puzzled, the scholar felt a pang of disappointment. This old Chanyu was not even as good as the Dianmu father and son. There was no point in relying on such a person. He began to think about how to escape.

Although he thought that way, the scholar patiently explained, "If the Wuhuan people are attacked, they will definitely retaliate. At that time, the Wuhuan and Xianbei will fight each other, and the Great Chanyu will have nothing to worry about!"

"Haha~ I see, you are indeed a great talent, sir!"

The Great Chanyu then realized what was happening, and burst into laughter, praising the scholar highly.

Soon, with an order from the old Chanyu, the Left Wise King led eight thousand cavalrymen away from the royal court and headed straight for the gathering place of the Southern Xiongnu, while the Sun Chasing King led two thousand cavalrymen disguised as Xianbei people to raid the Wuhuan people's encampment.

Even Liu Hong, who was far away in Deyang Palace, could not have imagined that he had only sent out two thousand men, yet he had turned the entire northern grassland into a complete mess.

On the other hand, since Dong Zhuo learned his lesson last time, he began to lead his Xiliang soldiers to fight in various places, targeting small tribes.

Because Dong Zhuo's troops were elusive, the five thousand cavalrymen sent by the Southern Xiongnu were unable to find them. When they heard that a thousand cavalrymen had appeared on the northern border, Yufuluo, the leader of the team, headed straight for the northern border without hesitation.