The old handsome man of the Bai family held a short stick in his hand and looked at the topographic map on the table with a stern face.

This topographic map contains a clear and detailed record of the border cities of the Yizhou Prefecture in the west and the Xikun Dynasty in the south, as well as some military camps on the surface.

However, even these Xikun Dynasty military camps on the bright side were obtained at a considerable price during the period of Nanli, so to speak, this topographic map has a record of any detailed locations of the Xikun Dynasty, and behind each one there is at least one human life as a price.

Due to the domestic topography of the Xikun Kingdom, even if the Xikun Dynasty and the Nanli Empire had been at war for so many years, the Nanli Empire's understanding of the domestic topography of the Xikun Dynasty could still be said to be a blank.

In the past hundred years, there have been a total of six large-scale wars between the Xikun Dynasty and the Nanli Empire, and there are countless small-scale frictions.

However, in the wars between the Xikun Dynasty and the Nanli Empire in the past hundred years, whether it was a large-scale war or a small-scale friction, it was the Xikun Dynasty that took the initiative to provoke trouble every time.

The military strength of the Xikun Dynasty is indeed the highest among the mainland dynasties, but it is inferior to the Nanli Empire after all, but why is it the Xikun Dynasty that takes the initiative to provoke a war every time?

First of all, because of the most important reason, topographical reasons, the Xikun Dynasty is located in the southwest, in the southwest of the ancient period is a barren and uninhabited land, but after experiencing the liberation of the Suiren clan on the mainland, this barren and uninhabited place in the southwest gradually because of its soil quality, slowly got better, and then because of a famous water conservancy boss who has been handed down to this day, the appearance of Li Bing, has changed all this.

Li Bing successively governed a place in the southwest, and while developing the people's livelihood, he also presided over and excavated and improved several important water conservancy projects such as Dujiangyan, which made the southwest a fertile land for thousands of miles, and was called the country of abundance by later generations.

This also led to the fact that although the population of the Xikun Dynasty was not large, the population was very large, which made the Xikun Dynasty's military reserves always in a state of abundance.

In addition, the terrain in the country of the Xikun Dynasty is too rugged, and at the same time it is known as the country of abundance, the Xikun Dynasty is also an easy place to defend and difficult to attack, and it is difficult to attack from the outside, and similarly, it is not so easy to kill from the Xikun Dynasty.

But compared to the former, the aggressiveness of the Xikun Dynasty itself is extremely vigorous, different from the style of the Nanli Empire for a while, the Xikun Dynasty has always been a militaristic country, and the domestic military merit title system has also made the Xikun Dynasty a country that will only provoke wars, no matter whether the war is won or lost, the Xikun Dynasty does not care, even if it is the price of the annihilation of the army, the Xikun Dynasty can also withstand the consequences of several times.

In other words, every time the Xikun Dynasty provoked a war with the outside world, no matter whether they lost or won the war, they would not reach the point where their vitality was greatly damaged, and the desire of the people of the Xikun Kingdom to treat the war was also controlled by the military merit title system.

In the Xikun Dynasty, the most effective way to climb up and enjoy the glory and wealth is to participate in the war and exchange your military exploits for the corresponding titles on the military merit system.

Once the drawbacks brought about by this system occur, whether it is an empire or a small country, even if it is a 5,000-year-old Nanli Empire, it is difficult to control the country at that time, and it can only be forced to watch their country being devoured alive by this beast called the military merit title system.

Because of the extent to which this beast longs for war, once it is completely ignited, it is impossible for those in power to stop the people in the country from wanting to climb up.

You see, as long as you go to the battlefield to kill a few people and get some military merits, you can exchange for a knighthood and can exchange for your own land, which is not much better than staying in the original living environment and working hard all your life and being poor?

Everyone is cheap, go to the battlefield and fight hard, in case they are killed, then there is glory and wealth waiting for them.

It was after the Xikun Dynasty also used this system that the national strength began to rise rapidly, and finally in just a few decades, the Xikun Dynasty became the head of the five major dynasties.

The emergence of this system also made the people of the Xikun Dynasty the most belligerent among the citizens of the mainland countries.

Most of the people of other countries do not want to join the army and then go to the battlefield, unless there are some cases of crisis that they will take the initiative to join the army, which makes the standing army of each country, whether it is an empire or a dynasty or a small country, the number of garrisons will be five to one of the population.

For example, the population of the Nanli Empire is about 10 million, so if the Nanli Empire reaches the point of ruin, it can raise nearly two million troops, but this data is just an idealization.

Because how many of these tens of millions of people are old people and children? In addition, there are several countries on the continent that will have women in their armies?

Therefore, the Nanli Empire's army will only have just reached the million threshold at most, but even if it is this million threshold, the Nanli Empire will not easily recruit these troops to this number.

Because in this million army, it contains the youth and strength of the whole country of the Nanli Empire, in other words, if all these million troops are wiped out on the battlefield, then even if there are two more uneven winds, Nanli will not be able to escape the fate of being annihilated.

Therefore, the current national army of the Nanli Empire has always fluctuated around 400,000, and even if this number, more than half of the 400,000 troops are veterans over 30 years old.

The total number of troops is 400,000, plus the garrison army of the thirteen states in charge of the Nanli Empire, the number of garrison troops is 170,000, the number of naval troops is 90,000, plus the army left in the capital of Jinling is more than 10,000, so it seems that there are only 130,000 troops left in Nanli who can be driven at will, and the 40,000 people who are used by Nanli to serve as troops in the tuntian will be removed from these 130,000.

In the end, the 90,000 or so troops that the Nanli Empire could spare constituted a total of six Nanli main battle legions.

This is the military strength of an empire in the south.

This is already the best state in the Nanli Empire over the years, like when it was besieged by the coalition forces of various countries more than ten years ago, the army of the Nanli Empire was only in the early 200,000s, and the 200,000 were all handed over to Zhou Dunyi to command, and the other state garrisons at that time were all withdrawn, and the people responsible for garrisoning the state departments were all temporarily recruited militias, and they had little combat effectiveness.

The armies of other countries are also similar to the situation of the Nanli Empire, everyone is half the same, not that the countries do not know the benefits of the military merit title system, but all the countries are not interested in this system, because this system is not so easy to bring benefits to their own countries, and the ensuing disadvantages are also frightening.

Over the years, it is not that no one has implemented this system in imitation of the Xikun Dynasty, but in the end, it is uncontrollable to catch the rolling wheels, and finally end up with a country ruined and a family ruined.

Xikun is a special case.

And what the old marshal of the Bai family has to face this time can also be said to be a complete Xikun army.

The Xikun army with and without the command of the black-robed Saint Monarch is completely in two states, after all, unlike Zhou Dunyi, the old handsome of the Bai family still fought with the black-robed Saint Monarch once, so he naturally knew that the other party's means should not be underestimated.

What's more, there are no less than two top combat power cultivators in the Xikun army this time, and there is no one on the Bai family's old hand.

This is a natural disadvantage.

But fortunately, the old marshal of the Bai family is better at defense than Zhou Dunyi, and the strategic policy of this southern departure The old marshal of the Bai family has already been conceived in his heart.

As long as his side firmly resists the offensive of Xikun, wait for Zhou Dunyi's side to find a breakthrough and retreat the Dongxun army first, and then turn to the Central Plains, cooperate with the new army to defeat the Central Plains coalition army, and finally assemble the army on three fronts, why worry about not being able to defeat a Xikun?

When the news of the formation of the new army was formed, the old marshal of the Bai family also received the news from Jinling for the first time.

Bai Qi him, sure enough, was reactivated by His Majesty.

Ten years have passed since that incident, Your Majesty, and finally swallowed that bad breath, and sure enough, the edict left by the first emperor made us of the older generation ashamed of ourselves.

The corners of the old handsome Bai family's mouth rose slightly, he was very happy to hear about Bai Qi being re-entrusted with the important task, no matter what Bai Qi said, he was also half of his apprentice, Bai Qi's military talent was completely enough to give him the potential to become the third marshal of the Nanli Empire, such a talent, how could His Majesty be willing to continue to hide it?

Dispute between the North and the South.

Thinking of this, the old handsome of the Bai family simply threw away the short stick in his hand, sat on the chair behind him, and fell into a long contemplation.

The dispute between the northern and southern factions is also the reason why Bai Qi was so desperate at the beginning, as a master, how could the old handsome of the Bai family not see Bai Qi's original thoughts.

But think about it, since the commander of the new army is Bai Qi, the old commander of the Bai family no longer has to worry about the offensive of the Central Plains coalition army.

Bai Qi's ability, he couldn't be clearer.

If this kid hadn't met Zhou Dunyi at the beginning, I'm afraid that no one would have been able to steadily press this kid at that time.

Since there is no need to worry about the offensive of the Central Plains coalition army, what he needs to think about now is how to resist the offensive of Xikun in order to delay until the moment when Zhou Dunyi leads the army to support.

The number of garrisons in Nanli Yizhou is the number of two armies, that is, the full establishment of 12,000 people, including another 4,000 sailors and some warships, plus the right of Emperor Li to the old commander of the Bai family to deploy a Nanli main battle corps.

The old commander of the Bai family can now use the troops in his hands to almost 30,000 troops.

And the number of Xikun's vanguard offensive forces has reached more than the number of the Seventh Army, and the number of follow-up troops will only far exceed the vanguard army, so it seems that the threat that the Bai family veteran is about to face is not much easier than Zhou Dunyi, and it can even be said that from the outsider's point of view, the opponent that the Bai family veteran is going to face is far more dangerous than Zhou Dunyi's opponent.

After all, one is the Xikun Dynasty, which has been in war for a long time and is famous for its military strength on the mainland, not to mention the methods of the black-robed Holy Monarch.

And the other is the Dongxun Empire, which has not participated in foreign wars for a hundred years, and was almost beaten to the point of annihilation against a northern barbarian, if it weren't for the reinforcements sent by the Nanli Empire, it would be a mystery that the Dongxun Empire still exists.

Compared with the two, it is obvious that the Xikun Dynasty is more threatening.

This is also the point where the first dynasty is better than the empire.

But this is inevitable, after all, the incident that happened in the Dongxun Empire at the beginning was simply a huge scandal that could not be covered up.

An empire on a continent, one of the three major empires, was beaten by a barbarian tribe and could not parry.

It's hard to say that the Dongxun Empire is in this matter, and it is not worthy of the title of empire at all, and even the dynasty is a little unworthy.

That's a barbarian, it's not a shame to be beaten like this by a barbarian.

You look at your two rogue boss brothers.

Nanli and Beigen, the two hooligan leaders, could cause this scandal?

If it weren't for the reason of Taihao Fuxi's clan later, as well as the words of the emperor of that generation, the condemnation that came to his face would be enough to make the Dongxun Empire ashamed and ask the Feng family to take off the title of their empire.