Liu Tan had originally planned to rub Gungun and then return to the study, but Gungun held onto his legs and refused to let go. Finally, Liu Tan had an idea and said, "Go get a basin of milk. Hmm, goat's milk."
He had never raised a panda before, so he didn't know if there was any problem for pandas to drink milk, but he had helped someone raise kittens for a period of time, and it seemed that he was told that kittens should drink goat's milk, as drinking cow's milk would easily cause problems.
This time, we simply didn't test GunGun's tolerance to milk. Anyway, according to the current situation in the Northern Country, goat milk is not harder to obtain than cow milk.
The servants who were specially assigned to take care of Gungun quickly brought a bronze basin filled with goat's milk.
Liu Tan was almost scared to death when he saw the basin. Isn’t it too big?
In his memory, the basins of milk that GunGun drank from when he was little were all relatively small. Now this... wow, it might be the largest one in the entire palace, only a little smaller than GunGun.
Liu Tan didn't try to stop him and watched as Gungun directly lay down in the milk basin and gave half of his body a goat milk bath.
Liu Tan's mouth twitched, and he said helplessly, "Get a smaller one. If he drinks all this, he'll probably die of it."
The servant quickly changed the basin. Now the goat milk could only be turned into facial cleanser, not bath milk.
Gungun's attention was completely attracted by the pot of milk, and Liu Tan took the opportunity to slip away and returned to the study. At this time, Li Buyan and Wei Buyi were already waiting for him obediently.
After paying his respects, Li Buyan couldn't wait to ask, "Your Highness, what do you want us to do?"
Liu Tan took one look at the two men's expressions and asked, "What's wrong? Can't hold it in anymore?"
Li Buyan nodded immediately: "I've been too bored lately."
When they first arrived in the Northern Border Kingdom last year, Li Buyan and Wei Buyi were extremely busy and basically spent most of their time outdoors. At that time, what they most wanted was to have a holiday.
I once thought that if I had a holiday, I must sleep until I woke up naturally. Later, when I returned to the capital, I was unable to realize this wish. Li Buyan was taken care of by his mother, and Wei Buyi needed to manage his own network of contacts.
These days, it’s not easy even for the son of a great general or a great commander.
Now that I'm back in the Northern Kingdom, I can sleep until I wake up naturally. It's nice to have a break from my busy schedule, but if I do nothing all day, I feel like my life is wasted.
But Liu Tan is now unwilling to go to the mines anymore, well, he is unwilling to let them go to look for mines anymore, saying that he is afraid that there are not enough people, and if they find out, it may cause problems.
So Li Buyan and Wei Buyi could only wander around every day. They couldn't even train their soldiers because those soldiers had to go to work when they had nothing to do!
Not to mention, the soldiers under their command actually like working. Not only do they have enough food to eat, but they also get paid. It has more prospects than being a soldier.
Li Buyan and Wei Buyi were both almost going crazy. Now when they heard that Liu Tan had a task to assign to them, they jumped for joy and ran over without even stopping.
Liu Tan sat down and said, "My mission for you is very simple. Send out scouts to patrol the area south of Madam Fan City. If you see a single Xiongnu tribe, and if there are only a few of them, lead your men to attack."
Li Buyan and Wei Buyi looked at each other in surprise. They didn't expect that the task assigned to them was to go to the Huns. This task was really too difficult.
Li Buyan hesitated and asked, "Your Highness, are we going to attack the Xiongnu now? Didn't you say before that we wouldn't take action for the time being?"
It’s not that they were afraid of the Huns, but they had reached a consensus from top to bottom during the previous political discussion: now was not the time to fight the Huns.
Now Liu Tan changed his mind in a blink of an eye. The most important thing was that Huo Guang was not here yet. Maybe this time His Highness did it without telling the Prime Minister. For a moment, both of them were a little conflicted.
In terms of reliability, the Prime Minister and His Highness are actually about the same, but for some reason, everyone always feels that the Prime Minister does things more safely.
Their Highness often does things that are really confusing, and even if the final results are good, it still makes people feel a little uncertain.
But they were both really tempted to go fight the Huns. As military generals, who wouldn't want to?
Wei Buyi, in particular, dreams of recreating his father's glory. Of course, this dream was when he was a child. Now he admits that there is a big gap between him and his father.
But no matter how far away we are, we can still defeat the Huns.
Liu Tan knew what they were thinking from their expressions and smiled. "That's why I asked you to find isolated tribes, and be very careful. Either don't take action, or don't let them have a chance to call for help. Oh, and by the way, don't kill the young and strong. I have use for these prisoners."
No matter how stupid Li Buyan and Wei Buyi were, they understood something when they heard that Liu Tan wanted to take prisoners.
It is obvious that Shuofang City has a small population, and having captives is equivalent to having slaves.
Moreover, they couldn't bear to exploit their own people, but they had no reason to feel bad about exploiting these prisoners.
This may sound a bit far-fetched, but it is not impossible if you think about it.
Although the Xiongnu was powerful, it was actually the result of the integration of various tribes. Historical records show that the Xiongnu integrated Loulan, Yuezhi, Hujie and the other 26 countries during their westward migration. Well, originally in history, Wusun was also integrated into the Xiongnu, but at present, Wusun is still there, and it may not be time to integrate Wusun yet.
Even if different ethnic groups are integrated together, they still have different customs. Therefore, although the Huns are considered a whole by the Han Dynasty, they are actually governed in a dispersed manner. It’s just that the main body of the Huns is relatively strong, so these tribes all obey the leadership of the Huns’ Chanyu.
This leadership is more in the military and economic aspects. Due to the characteristics of nomadic peoples, many tribes will find pastures on their own and do not have a fixed residence.
However, there are good and bad pastures, so there is competition among tribes. The strong ones will occupy the good pastures, and the weaker ones can only go to the worse pastures.
As everyone knows, the grasslands near Lady Fan City are not necessarily the worst, but they are definitely the most dangerous.
Because it is so close to Shoujiang City, the reason why Mrs. Fan City is called this name is because a Han general was guarding the city here. After he died in the battle, his wife continued to guard the city for him, so it was called Mrs. Fan City.
This area was basically where the Han Dynasty and the Huns wrestled.
Generally, tribes with some strength would not come here. Those who come here are basically those who are forced into desperation. If they don't come here, they won't be able to feed their cattle and sheep, and their tribesmen will die. When they are so weak, their population will not be large, and even if they disappear for a short period of time, they may not attract the attention of the Huns.
When the Huns noticed... so what? They said they were captured by the Han. Do they have any evidence?
So the two most important points in this matter are, first, we must be familiar with the terrain and not give the targeted tribes a chance to ask for help, that is, we must not let the Xiongnu royal court know about this, and second, we must fight and decide quickly, and pack up everyone and take them away!
Li Buyan and Wei Buyi were very excited. If it were Huo Guang, he would definitely ask Liu Tan to make a more detailed plan.
However, the three people sitting in the study now are basically at the level of three cobblers in military terms.
After Liu Tan gave the order, he didn't think that the goal could be achieved in the short term. Anyway, there would be many places to use people in the future, so there was no need to rush.
Unexpectedly, ten days later, Li Buyan came back to report, "Your Highness, we have captured a tribe. The guard captain is escorting them back to the city. I asked you to ask where they are to be placed."
Liu Tan was shocked. "So fast? What did you do? How many casualties did we have?"
It's only been ten days.
Li Buyan said with a strange expression: "There are no casualties. They came with us on their own initiative."
Liu Tan: ????
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