It is said that being with a king is like being with a tiger, although in fact this is also the case.

But many times, reality is not just what the outside world sees.

First of all, the emperor is also a human being, and as a human being he will have his own unique ideas.

If a minister wants to go further, he also needs to have the ability to keep pace with the times.

We cannot always look at the emperor's ideas through old eyes.

Some emperors will confide in you and tell you what they want to do and what they don’t want to do.

But most emperors will not tell you directly. To put it bluntly, this is also a manifestation of ability.

If you can't even guess the emperor's thoughts, can you still be trustworthy in other matters?

At this point, at least the three people present knew that the emperor's mind had changed again.

However, this change is not sudden. In fact, many things can be traced.

As an emperor, it is possible to let his subordinates guess his own thoughts, but he cannot do it with a hammer and a stick, otherwise he will fail sooner or later.

If we were to make a table of Wang Buxian's changes in his mentality, it would probably be in three aspects.

The first one is when I first started my career, I was cautious and never took the initiative when I was not sure.

Next, the establishment of the Han Kingdom began. They continued to decompress internally and were highly cautious externally. Once there was any trouble, they would rather take the initiative than let the war burn their own country.

The last one is now. The internal attitude has not changed. It advocates light corvee, low taxes, encouraging farming, and the development of industry and commerce. The external attitude is that it would rather be slower, but also find ways to swallow it up, and it must not be done casually.

If you support a person to go up, he will fight against the big man in the future.

Therefore, if you are a minister, as long as you understand the emperor's current governing thinking and attitude, no matter what you do, if you follow this thinking and attitude, you will not go wrong.

It's a very simple thing, but it's also a very difficult thing.

Most of those who failed in this regard did not fully understand the emperor's intentions and repeatedly did things that displeased the emperor.

"Guan Ying, you have fought against the Huns, please tell me the detailed process. Judging from the results of these battles, it is difficult for me to apply His Majesty's evaluation to them!" After the meeting, Chen Ping took Xiao He.

Guan Ying and the two found a room and sat down.

There is also a room prepared for them next to the meeting hall. First, it is a place to stay while waiting, and second, it is a place where these big guys can discuss matters after the meeting.

Although it's not too far to go to the cabinet, it's still too much trouble to go back and forth.

So usually if there are not many people, the discussion will be held here, and if there are many people, we will go to the cabinet.

"How should I say it?" Guan Ying carefully recalled his journey to the expedition and the experiences he had summed up.

In fact, in many aspects, we still couldn't get along with the emperor, but everyone knew that the emperor was talking about potential, the future, and the Huns after unifying the grasslands.

But now they have not been able to unify the grassland, so what the emperor said must be discounted.

After thinking about it, Guan Ying said: "In terms of combat effectiveness, the Huns are indeed no match for the Han cavalry, but the Huns still have an advantage. In comparison, their equipment is just one weapon, a bow, and dozens of arrows.

, but we have to wear armor and helmets, and the weight the war horses bear is much greater than that of the Huns' war horses. A distance of several miles is not a big deal, but if it is far away, our shortcomings will become apparent."

"Isn't it true that one person is equipped with three war horses? Isn't it still possible?" Xiao He frowned.

"No, our load is always there at all times. Although we are equipped with three war horses, the Huns are also equipped with three or even more war horses!" Guan Ying shook his head.

Listening to Guan Ying's words, Chen Ping also scratched his head and had no idea what to do.

Yes, people can't beat you, but you can't run away from them either.

The best way is to reduce your own weight so that your horses can catch up with the Huns.

But is that possible?

Of course it is impossible. Where is the heavy burden of the Han army?

It’s not about the equipment anymore. If you remove those equipment, why bother with it?

It's possible to catch up, but the number of casualties will definitely increase exponentially.

In these battles in the past two years, the soldiers' response to armor has been very good. The army has even made statistics. Without armor, the battle losses in these battles would have been at least twice as high.

How is this data calculated?

After the war, just let the soldiers report it themselves. Only you know whether you were hit by the enemy on the battlefield. It is too time-consuming to check the armor one by one.

Basically, each item is counted and reported, then reported level by level, and finally summarized together.

Not to mention that all of them will die, but according to past experience, at least 20% of the reported figures are definitely going to die, and half of them can come back, which is considered good.

The Xiongnu's scimitar basically sticks to you on the war horse, leaving a big gash, and you can't even save it.

"It seems that the only way to annihilate them all is to continue to increase the deployment of northern cavalry..." Chen Ping sighed, he couldn't afford it.

The cost of cavalry is huge. Even though the military salary is only one level higher than other arms, war horses also cost money.

The cost of raising horses is not low at all. Basically, the cost of raising a cavalry is worth the cost of raising a corps.

This is still a light cavalry. If it were a heavy cavalry, it would not be able to defeat it at any cost.

"How can we still have the money to increase troops?" Xiao He simply quit. After all, isn't it all money?

"It won't work even if you have money, it's meaningless!" Guan Ying directly gave Xiao He a sure word.

"Huh?" Chen Ping looked at Guan Ying in surprise. You said that the other difficulties are understandable, but what the hell is this meaningless?

"We want to defeat the Huns in terms of speed. This is very difficult. It is not an exaggeration to say that once out of ten times, but it is not guaranteed to be feasible even out of five times. So if we set the goal of annihilation, then the only way is to increase the number of expeditions.

With a large number of people, we directly took action strategically. Before the war started, we surrounded them on all sides and surrounded them so that they had nowhere to escape."

"But on the vast grassland, it really can't be done. It is far more difficult than siege, and it requires more troops. To put it bluntly, even 100,000 people may not be able to surround 10,000 Huns cavalry.

Don’t let him escape.”

"So, the next step to deal with the Xiongnu should be to attack the Xiongnu multiple times and gradually eliminate them. We don't need to destroy them in one battle, but we can send troops every two or three years, or after a snowstorm. Killing tens of thousands of them is not too much. Kill them.

A few thousand is not too little. Through this continuous attack, the strength of the Xiongnu will be gradually reduced, thereby forcing them to flee or surrender."

"As for the military strength, we will increase it to 100,000 in the next few years, which will basically be able to cope with all situations!" Guan Ying explained in detail.

There are now 120,000 cavalry in Yunzhong County, and more than 140,000 cavalry around Yuyang County, of which 10,000 were left there last year from Yunzhong County.

An additional 100,000 are being added, which means a total of 367,000 cavalry.

Although this number did not give them an advantage over the Huns in total, the Han army had advantages in other aspects.

Cavalry fighting is different from infantry fighting. When the number of people reaches a certain size, the upper limit is basically there.

It is different from that kind of infantry corps fighting, because the cavalry has excellent maneuverability and does not need to make a life-or-death decision like the infantry to end the battle.

Of course, this is a data that Guan Ying considered based on Wang Buxu's instructions.

If Guan Ying followed Guan Ying's idea, the more the better. There was no guarantee that any time the Huns got confused and came over directly, the Han army would be able to catch them all in one fell swoop with their numerical advantage.

But Wang Buxu told him that the upper limit of the Han army's cavalry was 400,000, and any more would be unnecessary.

Even Wang Buxian had made arrangements for how to use these 400,000 people.

Two hundred thousand people were scattered along the long border, ready to defend against the Huns.

The remaining 200,000 people were divided into units of 50,000 and were stationed behind the border. Once the Huns came, the cavalry in these 50,000 units would be the first main force to attack.

What?

You say the number of people is too small?

Not useful?

hehe!

In history, the largest number of troops sent by the Han Dynasty to attack the Xiongnu was 200,000 Han cavalry led by Wei Qing.

To highlight the point, the largest number was 200,000 cavalry.

In the early days, the group was even more miserable. There were less than 50,000 people, so the four generals each led out with 10,000 people.

At this period in history, the Huns had already completed the unification of the grasslands and had a population of more than three million.

And all the people on the grassland are soldiers. Even if there is a further discount, if there is one soldier for every five people, that is still 600,000 people. Even if some are cut off, the main front-line force that the Huns can produce at their peak is only 400,000.

More than one person.

Thinking of this, Guan Ying continued: "Your Majesty said that the Huns are actually not difficult to fight. The difficulty is that they come and go without a trace, and it is difficult to catch their movements, so this must be a protracted war."

"A protracted war..." Chen Ping thought thoughtfully, feeling that this issue was a bit complicated, but there is no doubt that no matter who it is, they don't want to fight a protracted war now.

Then he thought about the purpose of looking for the two of them today, and said: "What do you think the purpose of the Huns' visit this time is?"

"Seek peace?" Xiao He said subconsciously.

I just beat them so hard that they can no longer take care of themselves.

They should now have a deep understanding of the strength of the Han army, so it seems reasonable to rush to seek peace now.

Guan Ying shook his head again.

He's been exposed to it, he's understood it.

For the Huns, you cannot understand them according to Han people's thinking, because there are some things that you cannot understand at all, let alone see their rationality.
Chapter completed!