The battle in Hexi is imminent.

Whether from the perspective of smooth trade routes or from the perspective of military strategy, Qin must make a fight.

Li Yuan's idea has been decided.

Of course, the final decision to send troops also required a formal court discussion. During this court discussion, different voices appeared in Qin for the first time.

The outside of the soil must first be settled inside.

This is the opinion of old-school soldiers such as Zhang Han and Xin Sheng, represented by conservatives. They believe that when there is still a strong enemy like Xi Chu in Guandong, they will send troops to the Hexi Corridor and fight against the Huns who are coming and going on the grassland without a trace. If the army is surrounded and annihilated by the enemy, the fundamentals of the Qin Dynasty will be shaken.

This view of Zhang Han and others was also approved by Li Si, Wang Li and others, and formed a force in the court against sending troops to Hexi.

Corresponding to the conservative forces are those young officers, Bai Guangji and Li Zhongxiang, fighting alone in the Western Regions, facing a hundred or even a thousand times his enemies. In this way, they watched their brothers be surrounded by the enemy and then fought hard, such as Luo Jia, Cao Xin, and Feng Xuan, who were young generals, could no longer hold back.

Li Yuan's eyes were clear.

After becoming a father, his vision seemed to have broadened a lot, and many unsolved mysteries of history were also answered in the summary of information from all parties.

This pampering book by Bai and Li sent back an important signal, that is, one day in the future, when Maodun completely pacified the resistance of the Western Regions, his troops would immediately go south. At that time, Li Yuan would face the same choice as Liu Bang during the Battle of Baideng.

If we choose to fight, it is an unknown whether the Qin army can still achieve the same results as in the civil war when facing the unfamiliar Huns.

If he chose to avoid war, then Qin would have to bow to the Huns like the Western Han Dynasty in history, admitting his mistakes, and select princesses to marry the Huns, sending wine, cotton wool, silk, food, fodder and other condolences that the Huns urgently needed.

Such a result is definitely not what Li Yuan wants.

The strong and strong Qin Dynasty did not allow him to do this, and the soul from the time traveler was not allowed to surrender to another barbarian king when he had strong troops. In that case, even if he finally won the supreme position, he would eventually leave a shameful mark in the history books.

Finally, with Li Yuan's insistence, Qin State issued a mobilization order to go to Hexi, and a new round of war was about to begin.

At the same time, due to the strength of the Huns, the Wang Li army in Jiuyuan area had to stay and hold their troops in the northern border. In the Guandong area, the Qin army had to face increasing oppression from the Chu army. In the Zhao area, the Han Xin army in Sanchuan County could not move, and the Feng Xuan army in the Nanjun area also had to bear the responsibility of guarding the Hanzhong gate. It should not be moved lightly.

When the situation on the eastern border of Qin was unstable, these several armies could not be mobilized to the western front. Li Yuan finally decided to appoint Han Xin as the general of the Eastern Route Army and Jiang Yu as the deputy general. The Qin army on the eastern front was unified and Wang Li as the general of the Northern Route Army. Su Jiao was the deputy general, commanding the Qin cavalry in Jiuyuan and Yunzhong County, appointing Wang Shang as the general of the Southern Route Army, and Feng Xuan as the deputy general, commanding the Qin army in Nanjun, Nanyang County, Ba and Shu.

Without using these main forces of habitual warfare, the Qin army's western expedition troops consisted of 60,000 soldiers, mainly composed of Luo Jia's 30,000 cavalry, Cao Xin's 5,000 Yuezhi infantry, and 20,000 were composed of newly recruited baggage troops ruled by veteran Zhang Han and Xin Sheng. In addition, the 5,000 infantry and cavalry of the central army led by Gan Yong.

Gan Yong was in Qin and Zhao after the Battle of Zhao, he could have led a single army like Wang Shang, Cao Xin and others, but when Li Yuan solicited his opinion, the rising star in the Qin army refused.

At the same time, in this Western Expedition Army, what is surprising is that Zhang Han and the two veterans Xin Sheng came out again.

Although he was reserved for Li Yuanyi's insistence on the Western Expedition during the court, after the matter of going to the expedition was settled, Zhang Han and Xin Sheng showed the demeanor of a long-time general.

"Wuhou, although I am not Lian Po, I still have the power to fight ten battles. The land in Hexi is vast and sparsely populated. The Xiongnu cavalry comes and goes to control the tragedy. The safety of the baggage should be cautious. Therefore, Han asked for 20,000 new soldiers to defend the rear, thinking that Wuhou Zhang Gu is a straitor." Zhang Han loudly asked for the general in the court.

"Old man Zhang, you are not old yet, how can Xin survive in the world?" Before Zhang Han finished speaking, another Qin army general, Xin Sheng, was also full of morale.

Judging from age, Zhang Han and Xin Sheng are nearly 60 years old. The grey beards are already white. The success of the Qin army's victory over the past few years has made the two old guys unable to sit still.

"Wuhou, during this battle to expand territory, during the First Emperor, General Meng Tian led an army of 200,000 to expel the Huns north of Hetao. Today, our army went out again. If we and the other two could stand on the land of a foreign country in this life, even if we closed our eyes, we would be enough." Seeing that Li Yuan was reluctant to respond, Zhang and Xin were so excited that they burst into tears. I urgently asked him to tell me.

Expand territory.

It is the dream of every Qin soldier.

Whether old or young, the Qin army was fighting against the vicious jackal-like Huns.

——.

In the sixth year of the Xinli period of Qin Dynasty, the spring of the first lunar month.

Longxi County, Didao.

After a long period of silence, the bridgehead city on the western border of Qin State became busy again, and various Qin troops gathered here, waiting for the order to go to the expedition.

The first person to arrive here was the 30,000 cavalry of Luo Jia's troops who had been stationed in Longxi. After nearly three years of rest and recuperation, under Luo Jia's full training, the combat effectiveness of the Qin cavalry was able to compete with the Hun cavalry.

After Luo Jia was ordered to fight the Hexi Corridor in the West, he was overjoyed. Over the years, as a general in the Qin army, he had to stay in Longxi for many years because of the situation in the Western Region, so he was unable to participate in many battles. Now, he finally has the opportunity to go into battle.

In fact, Luo Jia has made no achievements in Longxi in the past two years. You should know that the Qin army could not even be protected by Longxi, and the Huns broke through the Great Wall and entered the hinterland of Guanzhong. Now, the Jincheng area near Longxi in Hexi has been completely occupied by the Qin army, and the Jincheng on the other side of the river has even become a frontier camp for the Qin army's attack.

The sixth day of the first lunar month.

Li Yuan personally led a large army to Didao, and the Qin army immediately swore an oath here. At this conference, Li Yuan's mobilization order made the Qin army soldiers excited.

"The soldiers of the Great Qin, you are the pride of the Great Qin and the warriors of the Great Qin. Today, you are about to embark on the battlefield of the expedition to cut off the right arm of the Huns and open the left wing of the Great Qin. You are going to fight with the Huns who have brutally looted our Huns to avenge their revenge for the brothers and sisters who died tragically at the hands of the Huns. Are you all ready?"

"No, Nono!" The answer to Li Yuan was the 60,000 soldiers shouting in unison, and the blue veins were exposed, eager to prove their faces on the battlefield.

"You must understand that Hexi is not Guanzhong, not the warm Guandong, but the cold and cold north of the snowy sky. Where, our enemies are not only the Huns, but also the evil God. Perhaps, one day, you have to smash the ice surface and drink a sip of the bone-broken snow water. One day, you will hold your shoulders tightly and hide in the snow and shivering. One day, you will shed your blood and lie in the ice river and slowly die. Are you ready?"

Li Yuan's voice was like a low and powerful battle song. When he narrated this, the Qin soldiers seemed to see a series of tragic battle scenes in front of him.

"No, No, No, No, No No!"

"Big Qin, Da Qin, Da Qin!"

"Random Old Qin, let me regain my rivers and mountains, and my blood will not flow dry, and I will never stop fighting."

"There is a great Qin in the west, as if the sun is rising. The national hatred for a hundred years is difficult to calm down. The world is in chaos, how can we get peace? There are sharp soldiers in Qin, who will compete for power!"

The war songs and the shouts of 60,000 soldiers made Didao's sky change color, and the rushing river seemed to stop, making the nomadic aliens on the grassland change their colors.

After the oath.

The Qin army led 20,000 cavalrymen as the vanguard, set out from Jincheng and rushed towards the Huns' old nest Gazang City in Hexi. At the same time, Li Yuan's central army also moved forward to Jincheng and marched westward step by step with the direction of the Qin army's advance.

While the Qin army was attacking westward, the envoys sent by Li Yuan also arrived in Loulan first and met with Bai Guangji and Li Zhongxiang's delegation who were staying here.

In his letter to Bai and Li, Li Yuan asked them to persuade King Loulan to kill the Xiongnu envoys, and then raise an army from Yanze to echo the Qin Western Expedition Army's important stronghold in the Hexi area: Dunhuang, Lingju, and finally realize the strategic intention of meeting with the Qin army in Gaizang City.

In terms of courage, this strategic concept is very important. After being captured by the Huns, it quickly became an important source of funds for the Great Khan of the Huns. If merchants traveling between the Western Regions and Qin State want to pass here, they must pay a large amount of passers-by to the Huns.

It is precisely with these rewards that Maodun defeated other tribes that resisted him in a short time and unified the grassland tribes. Now, the Qin army directed the attack target to Hexi. For the Qin and the Huns, it was a critical battle that determined the future prosperity or decline.

For the Loulan people entrenched in the Yanze area, they also faced a dilemma. On the one hand, they could not bear the exploitation of the Huns and were eager to reopen the Silk Road so that the Loulan Kingdom could continue to absorb the nourishment of the Silk Road. On the other hand, they were worried that the Qin army would not be able to defeat the Huns' cavalry. If the Huns failed to attack the Huns, then the Loulan Kingdom, which faced the Huns' cavalry alone, would be very likely to be destroyed by the Huns.

Whether to survive in stagnation or seize the opportunity to resist desperately, the situation in Loulan became more and more strange. Bai Guangji and Li Zhongxiang's Qin delegation were very difficult to complete the task of persuading the King of Loulan.
Chapter completed!