Changle Palace.
"Your Majesty, the Great General has sent a battle report. Our army fought fiercely against the King of Loufan's forces for five days and crushed them, then swept northwest to wipe out the remnants of the King of the White Sheep's forces. They captured the King of Loufan alive, captured or killed fifty-two Xiongnu nobles, including household chiefs, commandants, ten-thousand commanders, and state chancellors, took twenty-two thousand Xiongnu heads and thirty thousand prisoners, and seized a million cattle and sheep, tens of thousands of warhorses, and countless other supplies.
"Piaoyao Commandant Huo Qubing and Eagle-Raising Commandant Luo Wuji encountered the forces of the Xiongnu Right Guli King while advancing west to the Mo Yan River. The two sides fought fiercely, the Right Guli King fled, and our army took ten thousand Xiongnu heads.
"The Great General has since led his officers and men back toward Chang'an to await your inspection.
"Your Majesty, another great victory!"
The succession of good tidings sent Liu Che into hearty laughter. He walked over to the map, surveyed the situation between Han and the Xiongnu, then swept a finger westward from Henan Land. "Henan Land has returned to our Great Han's hands, and they have even swept the Western Desert clean. I had planned to launch the Western Desert campaign next year, yet my generals settled it in a single campaign.
"Now I can act without restraint, using Henan Land as a base to raise horses here. One day, I will tell the Xiongnu that wherever Great Han's iron cavalry rides is Great Han's territory!"
Liu Che had two reasons for such confidence.
First, he believed Luo Wuji and Huo Qubing were the men he had been waiting for all along. With these two peerless divine swords working alongside Wei Qing, the empire's