Chapter 1 Foray into the Northern Grasslands

For Chi Lei, the northern grasslands weren’t any more unfamiliar than other places. As the commander for many years of the Frost Wolves and Silverwings, now undoubtedly the most powerful battlefield reconnaissance forces in the world, Chi Lei had seen countless reconnaissance reports and maps of the northern grasslands, to which his Frost Wolves and Silverwings had contributed greatly. Especially the maps. The Intelligence Bureau never had enough reconnaissance personnel with mapmaking skills. They were good at intrigue and espionage, but never really mastered this kind of reconnaissance work that tested basic skills. The elite scouts of the Frost Wolves and Silverwings always cooperated with the Intelligence Bureau in basic searches of the northern grasslands. The Intelligence Bureau tried every means to cover for these scouts, while these scouts had to complete the mapping and marking of relevant information in the shortest possible time, without arousing the vigilance of local residents.

While the aborted hunt was drawing to a close in a friendly and slightly flawed atmosphere, and everyone was taking this rare opportunity to discuss basic political and economic affairs with Ye Tao, Chi Lei had already led his advance troops into the northern grasslands. At this moment, he commanded a battalion of Frost Wolves, two battalions of Jingyun cavalry, a logistics battalion-sized team, and a battalion of light infantry, totaling less than fifteen thousand men. On the other side of the grasslands, near Meng Su’er and those tribes who were close to Meng Su’er and had also turned to Yun Province, there were still about a thousand troops patrolling. Subsequent troops would arrive in the area where Chi Lei was within a few days, and by then, Chi Lei estimated that he would be able to observe the Korka tribe from the furthest reconnaissance distance with his advance troops.

Although Chi Lei had been in the army for many years, he was generally not considered a war general, even though his skills were quite good, at least not the kind who could single-handedly break through barriers and defeat generals. But this time, he took the lead, spreading the military might of Yun Province to the northern grasslands. Even including the Central Plains Great Tang Empire of that year, this could be regarded as the first time. Moreover, this time it wasn't the infantry that the Central Plains people were good at, pushing forward layer by layer with superior forces, but a covert and powerful raid using the tactics of the grassland tribes, striving to determine the situation in the shortest possible time. Then, Chi Lei would lead his troops to defend against enemies further to the northwest in the shortest possible time...

The training standards of the Yun Province armies had improved in recent years, but actual military operations were constantly decreasing. Although they stirred things up on the eastern and western lines and with the Northern Liao and Western Ling every year, both sides always tried their best to avoid accidental clashes. And Gao Senqi was even more interesting. He knew that he couldn't fight with Yun Province for the time being, so he arranged various feints on his own as a kind of near-actual combat training, but he always ran to Ye Family Fort to drink and chat with Ye Tao when the two armies were facing each other. The content of the two people's bickering about military affairs, strategy, and tactics, when put together, was quite brilliant. But Gao Senqi's attitude made the Yun Province military quite helpless. Even if they knew they couldn't fight, well, everyone was still hostile, okay?

This time, the Yun Province military only conducted internal mobilization for the advance into the north, and said nothing to the outside world. Anyway, the Yun Province military's main combat battalions were constantly training, and there was no need to explain their whereabouts to anyone irrelevant. They had a very complete secret mobilization system and strong guarantee capabilities. Sixty thousand troops were successively assembled in a short period of less than five days and entered the northern grasslands. This scale finally could not be kept secret for a long time, and was finally discovered by the Korka tribe's sentries. Just as the Korka tribe was fearfully calling for allies to prepare for a battle, the Korka tribe finally discovered this time that the situation had really changed. The Korka tribe had spent a lot of effort in its relations with various tribes over the years, precisely because it knew that its strength had declined and could no longer rely on complete strength to convince everyone. At least, the Masa tribe and the Kyrgyz tribe had always been very unconvinced. But after all, they were still the most powerful tribe on the grasslands. But this sudden intrusion of sixty thousand troops shattered everyone's superficial peace.

And the key really wasn't whether these sixty thousand troops were outsiders, whether everyone should unite to defend their grasslands, but who could make the grasslands prosperous. The Masa tribe gathered its troops, but remained hesitant, and even explicitly refused to support the Korka tribe, which was at odds with them. As for the Kyrgyz tribe, they quietly retreated to the northeast and sent envoys to contact Chi Lei, seemingly preparing to submit.

Chi Lei did not refuse to contact them, but he did not stop deploying his troops. Chi Lei knew that he was here to win, not to engage in any large-scale battles, he had no interest in that. And the troops he brought this time were not a suitable combination for engaging in decisive battles. Although the cavalry was powerful, they lacked heavy infantry as the backbone of the battlefield, and casualties would be extremely heavy once a fight broke out. Chi Lei mixed the Jingyun cavalry, Tieyun cavalry, and Frost Wolves, forming several detachments ranging from one or two thousand to five or six thousand men, and conducted deep penetrations, with the Korka and the tribes that followed the Korka tribe as the main targets. And Chi Lei issued an order that showed everyone his determination: the food and fodder for each army would be self-sufficient, and consumables such as medicines and arrows would be replenished by the airship team. When purchasing food and fodder from the tribes, all payments would be settled in Yun Province gold notes, and no arrears would be allowed in any way... However, if the tribe took hostile actions, the commanders of each team had the right to take any necessary measures to ensure the safety of the soldiers' lives and property.

The regulations issued by Chi Lei were not limited to this one, but also included how to deal with tribes that surrendered, and various activities allowed and not allowed in military operations, etc., but this one was the most critical. This meant that Chi Lei actually tacitly approved extreme actions such as attacking, or even exterminating, tribes that dared to take hostile measures, which was completely different from the kindness towards surrendered tribes in the regulations. Chi Lei's attitude was also very clear: whether to be friends or enemies, please think clearly before fighting us.

At the same time, Chi Lei issued an ultimatum to the Korka tribe. The Korka tribe refused as expected. They gathered troops from various pastures, but Chi Lei's troops seemed to be everywhere, defeating the tribal armies that were still in a state of scattered assembly one by one.

Meng Su’er also began to act at this time. Several tribes in the southeast of the grasslands jointly announced their surrender to the Northern Frontier Pacification Commission and gathered their troops. Meng Su’er even took drastic measures, directly swallowing the ten-thousand-man team that had been used by the Korka tribe to monitor and deter him, not far from his tribe... Although the tribal coalition forces gathered by Meng Su’er suffered casualties of about fifteen thousand men, which was not small, the tribes participating in the coalition strengthened their confidence with this battle. In terms of strength, after a rapid rearmament, although they were not familiar with the new swords, the increase in strength was beyond doubt. If the ten-thousand-man chief of the Korka tribe hadn't seen through the surprise attack at the beginning of the war and turned the tables, forcing them to turn the surprise attack into a frontal battle, it wouldn't have been too much of a loss. Twenty thousand people fought eleven thousand people, completely killing the enemy without anyone escaping, at the cost of four thousand seven hundred deaths on their side and about ten thousand people lightly and seriously injured, which did not hurt everyone too much. On the other hand, this battle was also a declaration of allegiance to the Northern Frontier Pacification Commission. They couldn't turn back even if they wanted to.

After this battle, the entanglement of forces on the grasslands became more and more complicated. Although Meng Su’er was called a traitor to the grasslands by some people, there were more and more people who wanted to go through his back door both openly and secretly. Those small tribes that had been living on the fringes even surrendered directly to the coalition forces. Meng Su’er did not dare to accept them casually at this time... If it had been before, he would have taken in these people who had come to him without hesitation to strengthen the tribe's strength, but now, he was carefully controlling his methods. He did take in some extremely poor tribes that were on the verge of starvation, but left those tribes that could still be independent alone. After thinking about it a little, Meng Su’er simply brought out Yilan, saying that he wanted Yilan, the bloodline successor of the grassland lord, to bring a new life to everyone...

Bringing a new life was a very gentle statement. And Yilan publicly said that he wanted the grasslands to return to peace, to allow every herdsman to eat meat, drink mare's milk, have salt, have tea, be able to trade fairly, and be able to see a doctor. Within a day's journey of their tents, there would definitely be veterinarians, doctors, and craftsmen. When disaster came, someone would stand up for them... Yilan somewhat understood Ye Tao's intentions for him, and also understood the meaning of Meng Su’er's various actions. He felt that if he could become the governor of these northern grasslands, he would not disgrace his bloodline after all, and it would be a way to restore the glory of the bloodline of the grassland king. Indeed, the governor was not a position that could be inherited, but this was the first time in many years that the entire northern grasslands had been unified under the rule of one person...

The vision narrated by Yilan could move some people, and the coalition forces in Meng Su’er's hands could defeat some people, while the Korka tribe was a little confused. Although they were trying their best to fight and delay the time for Meng Su’er's army and Chi Lei's main combat troops to meet, although it caused a lot of trouble for both armies, in general, this goal was difficult to achieve...

At this moment, Chi Lei had already set his sights on the more northern regions. From the moment Meng Su’er led his army to advance, he had quietly led his mixed troops north. Leaving behind about ten thousand people to protect the supply line and carry out various feint operations, Chi Lei held twenty thousand men in his hands and set up defenses on the northern line. And one month after Chi Lei began to set up the defense line, when the desert bandits reacted and began to move south, the Masa tribe finally made up its mind. The Masa tribe's army slowly approached Chi Lei's troops. When the scouts under Chi Lei deliberately showed themselves in the distance, three knights from the Masa tribe ran out, the middle one holding a white flag high...