Even if the Bingzhou bandits had no ties to the foreign tribes, Bai Xiaowen still needed an excuse to deal with those tribesmen.
After all, Grand Unification Main Quest 2 still had not been marked complete! What did that mean?
It meant Bai Xiaowen had yet to achieve the strategic goal of "securing the north"!
Zhang He had four awakened teammates at his side—Qiao Rui, Cecilia, Li Shuyi, and Han Xu. Their campaign against the Xianbei should go smoothly. Zhang He was capable enough on his own; in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, he was a commander skilled in both strategy and warfare.
Bai Xiaowen personally mustered thirty thousand troops and marched to Youzhou to campaign against the Wuhuan.
The Yuan Clan had always taken a conciliatory approach toward the Wuhuan because Cao Cao had been a formidable enemy to the south.
Now that the Cao Clan had been defeated and the Yuan Clan Faction had grown far stronger, why would it keep up its policy of annual gifts?
There was a saying: "Spit out what you took from me." The Wuhuan would repay, twice over, every benefit they had taken from the Yuan Clan Faction in recent years!
It had nothing to do with keeping faith. It was simply a matter of political and military strategy.
Even if the Yuan Clan's relations with the Wuhuan were reasonably good, Bai Xiaowen did not want to leave a threat to his north when he marched south. His base in Jizhou was too close to the Wuhuan and the other foreign tribes.
When Ma Chao heard that Bai Xiaowen intended to lead the campaign against the Wuhuan himself, he grew anxious and came to the Grand Marshal's Office again to ask for troops.
Bai Xiaowen said, "Once I return from this campaign,