In March of the first year of Daguan in the Song Dynasty, Shazhou City.

Shazhou, also known as Dunhuang, is a famous city outside the Great Wall, a channel connecting the Hexi Corridor and the Gaochang Uighurs, and is also the pearl on the Silk Road. After the rise of Western Xia, the Silk Road was forced to divert due to years of war in Song and Xia. Shazhou, which had lost its past caravans, inevitably weakened and no longer had its former prosperity.

However, due to the defeat and subjugation of Xixia a few years ago, the Hexi Corridor became busy again, and Shazhou once again became an important center for the exchange of "upper peach blossom stone" and "downer peach blossom stone".

The whole city suddenly became noisy and noisy, with people from various ethnic groups intersecting. Teams of camels and teams of carriages and horses kept passing through the city, bringing fur, livestock, silk and porcelain from the Western Regions.

But what attracts the most attention in Shazhou these days is the army that drove from the east!

The Tie Yaozi from Liangzhou and the Xiliang Cavalry, the so-called Xiliang Cavalry, are the original garrisons. Xixia has become the Hexi Army, so naturally no longer has the name of "garrison". "garrison" can mean to defend the emperor, so the garrison was renamed Xiliang Cavalry. It became the name of the light cavalry unit under the Hexi Army.

By the way, the Hexi Army now also adopted the organization method of the new Song Dynasty military troops, and standardized the formation of "generals, divisions, battalions, teams, fires" and other units. However, the proportion of cavalry is very high, usually a light cavalry department plus two infantry departments, and then a Iron Harrier Battalion (or may not be given) to form a general.

Because the cavalry battalion has fewer soldiers, only 300 cavalry, the maximum number of soldiers of one general of the Hexi Army is 4,200, which is 800 fewer soldiers than the Song army's new palace soldiers.

In addition, the Hexi Army also has a cavalry general, which is composed of three cavalry departments and one Iron Harrier Battalion, with a total number of soldiers being only 3,000.

After several months of reorganization, the entire Hexi Army formed 7 generals, 4 cavalry generals (one of which did not have the Iron Harrier Battalion), and a 2,000-man personal army. The total force was about 43,000.

Now, except for one cavalry general (the one without the Iron Yaozi Camp) and Zhao Qianshun's personal military department are still in Liangzhou, the remaining 7 infantry generals and 3 cavalry generals, a total of about 38,400 combat soldiers have all been concentrated in Guazhou. In addition to the accompanying auxiliary soldiers (the proportion of auxiliary soldiers of the Hexi Army is not as high as the original Xixia Army) and tribal nomads, the total number is as high as 70,000!

In addition to these 70,000 troops, the Dajiaohui Regiment also gathered a large army, including two generals assigned to the engineering battalions and baggage battalions, no generals assigned to the cavalry battalions, and 2,000 heavy cavalry. In addition, the Dajiao Regiment also equipped the two infantry generals with 5,000 auxiliary soldiers and 4,000 auxiliary cavalry for the heavy cavalry. A total of more than 19,000 people were reached.

On the basis of nearly 90,000 troops in the two armies, there is also a general army that includes dozens of military opportunities, hundreds of commanders, hundreds of guards and a large number of auxiliary soldiers. It is the "headquarters" of the two commanders Zhao Zhongshun and Zhang Yuan.

The formation of the General Central Army was of course the result of the Lingzhou Conference. The two originally noisy aspects were quickly reached under the pressure of Gao Qiu and Wu Haogu (Wu Haogu is the representative of the creditors), and a "collegial system" command model was established, with Zhao Zhongshun, Zhang Yuan, Xiao Heda, Ma Zheng and Li Yongqi jointly taking over the supreme command power. When there was a disagreement, the five-man group voted to make the final decision... It was a bit like the General Front Committee!

Although this is a bit messy, it is not as good as a commander-in-chief, but it is still more reliable than arguing between the two sides.

...

"Everyone, the weather is getting hotter now. If you don't march, it will be difficult to pass through the desert!"

In Shazhou City, the original Wuzun Palace has now become the garrison of the General Army. In a not-so-wide pavilion, Zhang Yuan sat in the middle, smiling at Zhao Zhongshun, Xiao Heda, Ma Zheng and Li Yongqi sitting on both sides, and spoke.

The "Five-man Group" must always have a presidency. Zhang Yuan was a civil servant in the Song Dynasty and a great instructor of the Great Education and Reform Group, so he should naturally "use his literature to control the military."

"It is not easy to march together with ninety thousand troops," Zhao Zhongshun, the former King Chage of Jin, said, "Although we have prepared a large number of cattle and sheep, the grassland on Qinghai Road is limited, and now is not the season for the fattest water and grass. The 90,000 troops will advance at the same time, which may exhaust the vitality of Qinghai Road. It is better to go in batches by dividing the road."

The principle of marching and fighting is of course to concentrate troops, but concentrating troops sometimes increases the pressure on logistics and roads.

It takes more than a month to travel from Qinghai Road to Yutian City. It is unrealistic to rely on logistics to transport it, and only a thousand miles away can drive cattle and sheep to accompany you.

When cattle and sheep are accompanied, they will encounter problems that water and grass are difficult to supply along the way. If cattle and sheep are starved to death and thirsty, the army will have to go home.

"In addition," Zhao Zhongshun said, "The black khan rebels are likely to be strong in the walls of Gutian. If the army gathers, it will be difficult to collect grain and grass."

"What should I do?" Zhang Yuan looked at Ma Zheng and Li Yongqi, who were the generals sent by Wu Haogu and Gao Qiu to assist him! Although they were not his team, they must have the ability.

"You can select elites to advance quickly," said Li Yongqi. "With 1,500 armored cavalry, 1,500 light cavalry, two battalions of engineers and one general of infantry, it is enough to occupy the city of Khotan! If you take down the city of Khotan, you should be able to seize a lot of food and grass, which is enough to cope with the subsequent supply of the army."

"Just 8,500 soldiers?" Zhang Yuan frowned, "Is it enough?"

"Enough!" Xiao Heda said, "As long as there are few troops from the Western Turkic Kingdom, how many war soldiers can the Black Khan Rebels have? According to investigation, the elite soldiers of the Black Khan Rebels are the Gulam soldiers, all of which are made by buying young men from the Qincha grassland. The number is up to one or two thousand, and the rest are not enough to worry about."

Only such a elite?

Zhang Yuan didn't believe it very much.

Xiao Heda also said: "At the same time, you can also send out a soldier to cross the desert and enter the Gaochang Uighurs. This soldier is best dominated by light cavalry. It is enough to have three cavalry generals of the Hexi Army. A certain ruling will take him to blast the old nest of the Hei Khan rebels."

The three cavalry generals had only 9,000 combat soldiers, including 900 Iron Harrier... Just this one went to conquer the capital of the Black Khanate? Zhang Yuanxin said: No wonder the Western thieves were beaten into the Hexi Army by Gao Qiu. Their generals were at this level, and it was difficult not to lose!

"Xiao Junji," Ma Zheng asked, "Are the Gaochang Uighurs ready to send troops? What benefits did you give them?"

Xiao Heda smiled and said, "Of course, the Gaochang Uighurs worked with us! After the work was completed, Balashaguen and Kucha belonged to the Gaochang Uighurs, and our Hexi army took down Yutian and Shule."

Balashaguen gave Balashaguen to Gaochang Uighurs in the territory of the former Four Anxi towns. Given Balashaguen to Gaochang Uighurs is equivalent to giving them the Saiye. Kucha is the homeland of Gaochang Uighurs, which was captured by the Heihan Uighurs decades ago. Shule Town is the control area of ​​Kashgar, the deputy capital of the Heihan Uighurs in Kashgar, extending to most of the Pamir Plateau, bordering Afghanistan controlled by the Gazni Dynasty.

If the Hexi Army could occupy the entire Kashgar region, then they could open the passage to Afghanistan!

In addition, there are also Pamir (Pamir Plateau) and Tianshan between Shule (Kashgar), the two towns of Khotan and other areas of the Hei Khan Uighur, which is very inconvenient for the entry and exit of the army. After capturing the two towns, only a small amount of troops were needed to defend the Turuatidaban Pass, which could prevent Seljuk's reinforcements from attacking Shule and Khotan.

Therefore, it seems to be a wise move to give up Balashaguon and not take it.

...

"Dalang, the Hexi Army and the Dajiao Regiment have finally sent troops, but..."

"What's wrong? Brother Gao, is there anything wrong?"

In Lingzhou, the Xuanfu Envoy Department of the Third Northwest Route, and in the inner hall, Wu Haogu and Gao Qiu were surrounding a map station to study the report of the General Army Corps that had just received. Wu Haogu was stranded because he had just received orders to sort out the orders of the new generals of Lingzhou. He didn't need to ask about the matters of the army, and he had his own general army computer room for the general army.

So he and Gao Qiu studied the military newspaper sent back from the front line.

"Of course it's wrong!" Gao Qiu said, "The soldiers are divided into two groups, one by one, 8,500 combat soldiers, one by one, 9,000 combat soldiers... and one by one, there are less than 20,000 people. They have 43,000 combat soldiers! Why did they dispatch such a little? How can they use troops like this?"

Wu Haogu thought to himself: 43,000 people were concentrated to print the three... 17,500 people should be enough to deal with the Black Khan Uighurs.

"And there are also people who have been to copy Balashaguen!" Gao Qiu said, "Balshaguen is in Suye Town, so far away..."

Wu Haogu immediately found the location of Balashagu on the map, and now his brows frowned.

"Who is going to Balashaguen?"

"Xiao Heda," said Gao Qiu, "they were all the elite troops in Hexi, and there were also several of our military opportunities to accompany us."

"Who are they?"

"Liu Dashi, Han Dagou, Xiao Tieniu."

Liu Dashi is Yelu Dashi! Of course, Wu Haogu couldn't let him use the surname Yelu to show off everywhere. This is too sensitive, so it was changed to Yelu's homophonic "Liu".

Han Dagou, Xiao Tieniu, and Wu Haogu also knew each other. One was a child of the Han family in Yutian, and the other was a child of the Xiao family in Khitan, both of whom were from Liao.

"Xiao Heda is also from Liao!" Wu Haogu murmured to himself, "Does the Liao Kingdom want to interfere?"

"How could the Liao Kingdom intervene?" Gao Qiu shook his head and said, "Although they bordered the Hei Khan Uighurs, there were no soldiers on the border. Moreover, they are not at peace in the country now, and they have to work hard to expedition. What are the benefits? Could it be that they still want to occupy a piece of land on the Hei Khan Uighurs' territory? Do they have the strength to defend?"
Chapter completed!