The north wind was like a knife, whipping up the yellow sand from beyond the Great Wall and lashing it fiercely against the tattered felt tents of the Wuhuan royal court.
The sky was so overcast it was as if thick ink had been poured on it, making it hard to breathe, and even the daytime was shrouded in a gloomy, dreary atmosphere.
The few scattered figures in the camp walked by hurriedly with their necks hunched and their steps dragging, completely lacking the spirited and high-spirited energy they had shown a few years ago.
Five years...
In just five years, the landscape of the grasslands has undergone a complete transformation.
Li Ru's treacherous scheme of "driving tigers to devour wolves" is like a boulder thrown into a deep pool, and the ripples it created on the grassland have yet to subside.
The people of Qiangqu, the Right Wise King of the Southern Xiongnu, had long since turned into withered bones in the desert sands of the south, due to the Han army's scheming and the annihilation by Tanshihuai's Xianbei army.
Tan Shihuai, the powerful Xianbei ruler deliberately provoked by Li Ru, had his greedy eyes set on the Wuhuan, the last enemy to unify the grasslands, after completely crushing the remnants of the Xiongnu.
Inside Wugulu's tent, the charcoal fire crackled, casting flickering shadows, but it couldn't dispel the bone-chilling cold.
Wugu Lu leaned against the main seat, which was covered with several tattered wolf skins. His body, which was once as strong as a bear, was now as thin as an old man in his twilight years. His eyes were sunken, his cheekbones were prominent, and his thick beard was mixed with a lot of glaring gray.
He clutched a greasy lamb leg bone in his hand, nibbling at it half-heartedly, but his eyes were fixed on the gray sky outside through the crack in the tent flap.
"leader!"
Batu stood up, his voice full of exhaustion: "The Xianbei people have raided three small tribes in the eastern grasslands. They looted and killed all the cattle, sheep, old and weak. The able-bodied men in the tribes... were either killed or kidnapped."
The tent was deathly silent.
The few remaining veterans also lowered their heads, and none of them responded.
Each raid by the Xianbei was like tearing another piece of flesh from the Wuhuan, and the weakness caused by the long-term blood loss became increasingly severe.
"That insatiable wolf, Tan Shihuai!"
Wugu Lu slammed the sheep bone in his hand onto the low table in front of him, splattering greasy bits of meat everywhere.
His chest heaved violently as he breathed heavily, his eyes bloodshot, just like when he heard of Guli's death in battle. Only now, his anger was mixed with more of the frustration of being powerless and a deep fear.
"Sooner or later... I'll skin him alive and use his skull to make drinking vessels!!"
Wugu Lu's harsh words echoed in the empty tent, but they sounded so hoarse, so hollow and powerless.
No one answered from inside the tent; only the crackling of the burning charcoal was particularly clear, as if it were silently mocking them.
Over the past five years, Wugu Lu had uttered similar harsh words countless times, but each time he only received the scimitars of the Xianbei wolf cavalry and continuous losses from the Wuhuan people.
In the midst of this suffocating silence, a corner of the curtain was silently lifted, and a slender figure quietly entered.
The visitor was none other than Li Ru.
He was still wearing that faded, slightly oversized old Han robe. His cheeks were more sunken than they had been five years ago, his cheekbones were high, and there was more white frost between his temples.
He was only twenty-five years old at the time, but he looked like a fifty-year-old man.
Only those eyes remained as deep as a still pool, occasionally flashing with an elusive, piercing light that seemed capable of penetrating the heart.
He walked straight to a spot a few steps behind Wugu Lu, stood with his hands at his sides, and bowed slightly. His posture remained humble, yet he possessed an indescribable presence that added an air of mystery to the oppressive atmosphere in the tent.
"Mr. Li!"
Wugu Lu turned his head, his bloodshot eyes looking at Li Ru, his voice tinged with dependence: "The Xianbei traitors are pressing us closer and closer, the people of all tribes are in a state of panic, and our cattle and sheep have suffered heavy losses... If this continues, we will scatter on our own before they even come to fight us! Do you have any good ideas?"
As Wugu Lu asked for advice, everyone's eyes in the tent instantly focused on Li Ru.
Over the past five years, it has been this taciturn Han Chinese strategist who, through repeated schemes, has enabled the Wuhuan to repeatedly overcome the Xianbei's constant invasions and barely survive until now.
Li Ru's "wisdom" and "ruthlessness" had long been a source of reliance for the Wuhuan people.
Now, they are once again placing their hopes on Li Ru.
Li Ru slowly raised his head, his gaze calmly meeting Wugu Lu's anxious stare. His voice was low and steady: "Chief, do not worry. Although Tan Shihuai is strong, his ambition is to devour the entire grassland. How could he only be targeting my Wuhuan tribe?"
Their constant harassment is merely a tactic to wear down our forces and demoralize our troops. Their true aim is probably a much larger prey…
Li Ru paused, his gaze sweeping over the surprised and uncertain faces of the generals in the tent, and said in a deep voice, "If I am not mistaken, the main force of the Xianbei people must be scattered throughout the vast grasslands at this moment, both to intimidate other tribes and to guard against possible actions by the Han army. The elite troops of Tan Shihuai's main force will not easily gather in one place."
"Oh?" Wugu Lu's brow twitched, and he leaned forward instinctively. "Then what does Mr. Li mean?"
"The strategy of exhausting the army is also a strategy of creating an empty city!"
Li Ru's voice suddenly rose: "Why doesn't the leader turn the tables on us, gather all the elite troops of our tribe, and launch a surprise attack straight into the heart of the Xianbei territory?"
As he spoke, Li Ru pointed to a target point on a map behind him—Baimachuan.
"Bai Ma Chuan?"
Batu cried out, his face turning deathly pale: "That...that's a deep, precipitous valley deep within the Xianbei territory, surrounded by mountains on three sides, with a narrow entrance...once..."
"It is indeed a dead end!"
Li Ru interrupted him, his gaze intense: "It is precisely because that place is a dead end that Tan Shihuai never expected that my troops would dare to venture deep into the territory alone and directly attack the flank of his royal court."
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