Shuofang County, Dingxi City.

On both sides of the road below the city, there are rows of hundreds of wooden stakes, some of which are empty, but there are also many skulls hanging from them, and many of the white bones can be seen under these stumps.

These bones were none other than the rebels who had invaded the Huns a few months earlier.

Before the Xiongnu invasion, these rebels launched a rebellion in advance under the leadership of the Aries King, causing great chaos in the two counties of Hetao and Shuofang.

According to the statistics afterwards, the destruction of the two counties of Henan by these rebels even exceeded that of the Huns, after all, the army of the Huns had been besieging the city under Dingxi City and had not caused much damage.

A large number of the people of Hetao County and Shuofang County were not harmed by the Huns, but died at the hands of this rebel army.

Therefore, when Li Mu, the envoy of the northern state of Zhao, sent a letter to Handan and obtained his consent, 457 rebels were inserted on both sides of this road.

It is worth mentioning that at the very front of this road, about five zhang from the city gate, there is a specially erected wooden pole, on which a skeleton hangs alone.

Whenever the autumn wind blows, the skeleton will sway with the wind.

This is the corpse of the Aries King.

After all, Xianshan was unable to find a place for his father to bury his bones.

It was already late autumn, and the biting cold air was gradually condensing in the air, and the people in Dingxi City had begun to wear thick leather jackets and boots, eager to completely wrap the whole person.

Suddenly, the sound of horses' hooves sounded, and a horse came at a gallop on the distant road, splashing puffs of dust and smoke on the road, passing between the stakes on both sides of the road, and carrying a strong wind into the city gate.

The largest official residence in Dingxi City is definitely the official residence of the county guard, and opposite the official residence of the county guard is an official residence of almost the same size, which is the official residence of Li Mu, the envoy of the northern economic strategy of Zhao State.

From the perspective of geographical location, Li Mu, who was in charge of the seven northern counties of Zhao State, actually set his official residence in Shuofang County, the westernmost of these seven counties, which seemed a little unreasonable.

You must know that from Shuofang County to the easternmost Dai County, even if the fast horse gallops without sleep, it will take at least four days and four nights, and it will take about half a month for a normal march.

But if someone could enter the study of Li Mu, the envoy of the scripture, and see the huge map hanging on the wall of the study, he would not have such doubts.

In addition to the existing seven counties, there is also a large, very dark, and very thick line that crosses the Yellow River, along the Helan Mountains and Qilian Mountains all the way to the west, and includes the entire Hexi Corridor and even the hinterland of the Wusun tribe in the northwesternmost part of the Qilian Mountains.

In this way, an extremely long and narrow strip of land stretches from the border between Yan and Zhao in the east to the end of the Qilian Mountains in the west, spanning thousands of miles from east to west.

The right flank of this narrow strip was the original five northern counties of the Zhao state, while the left flank was the Hexi Corridor that was divided by the black line, and the Dingxi City of Shuofang County was located in the very center of this entire panhandle.

If you stare at this map for a long time, you will even feel that this narrow strip of land is almost like an eagle soaring with its wings. Xicheng is where the brain of this eagle is!

Since taking office, Li Mu, the envoy of the Northern Economic Strategy of the Zhao State, has never limited his attention to defending the country, because his eloquent monarch has given him another task.

Open up the Hexi Corridor and connect the Central Plains and the Western Regions!

Western Regions, this word is a very unfamiliar word to Li Mu.

But Li Mu learned from Zhao Dan that as long as he occupied the Hexi Corridor and opened up the Western Regions, he would encounter a powerful empire.

That empire was one of the legacies of a division of an empire founded by Alexander the Great, called the Seleucid Empire.

The territory of this Seleucid Empire is even larger than the sum of the Seven Heroes of the Warring States combined!

After hearing the news, Li Mu felt that the blood in his heart was completely burning.

It turns out that in the far West, there is still such a powerful country!

Although Zhao Dan also told Li Mu very clearly, at least before the general trend of the Central Plains was decided, Zhao State probably did not have much energy to take care of the Western Regions or even the more western Seleucus, after all, Zhao State still needed Li Mu's border cavalry army to go south, and secondly, it was not a good idea to border such a powerful empire in advance.

However, after Li Mu returned from Handan, he had already begun to send some spies to cross the Yellow River to the west and begin the process of collecting intelligence.

Know yourself and know your opponent, and you will not be defeated in a hundred battles.

Li Mu had a hunch that he and Zhao Guo would use this information one day!

A sound of footsteps came from outside the door, followed by a loud announcement: "Scout Hundred Generals Tu obliquely asks to see!" ”

Li Mu, who was sitting in the study, raised his head slightly: "Come in!" ”

Tu stalked into the room, bringing in a cold autumn breeze.

Li Mu looked up at the dusty Tu Xian, and said calmly: "Something?" ”

This warrior of the Aries tribe made great contributions in defeating the main force of the Xiongnu, and was transferred to the armored cavalry as a hundred generals by the returning Li Mu at a glance, but because there was no war at the moment, the armored cavalry had no room to play, so Tu Xian took the initiative to ask Ying to go to the west bank of the Yellow River to investigate the intelligence of the Xiongnu, Yueshi and Wusun.

"Big deal!" Tu Xian sat down and said excitedly to Li Mu: "According to the intelligence at the forefront, Wusun and the remnants of the Yue clan have just fought a big battle at the foot of Yanzhi Mountain, and the remnants of the Yue clan have almost been wiped out, and the vitality of the Wusun people has been greatly damaged!" ”

The expression on Li Mu's face moved slightly, and he said, "Do you have specific information?" ”

Tu Xian shook his head and said, "After all, I am not a Wusun person, I can only roam around the battlefield, so I don't have any specific information. ”

After a pause, Tu Xian continued: "However, I caught a guy who claimed to be the commander of the Yue Clan, and he told us that the Yue Clan royal clan had completely fallen into the hands of the Wusun people! ”

The expression on Li Mu's face moved again, and he said, "What about the commander?" ”

Tu Xian's face showed a regretful expression, and he said, "He was too seriously injured and already dead." ”

Li Mu shook his head and was silent.

If the information brought by Tu Xian is true, then there is no doubt that the Yue people's rule over the Hexi Corridor has come to an end.

Next, this land is probably going to belong to the emerging Wusun and Xiongnu.

Tu Xian suddenly spoke: "After a little envoy, in fact, ...... This is a great opportunity for us! ”

Li Mu's eyebrows raised slightly, and he said, "What chance?" ”

Tu Xian said: "Now that the Huns have just been defeated by us, and the Wusun people have suffered a great loss of vitality in the war with the Yueshi people, if we take the opportunity to advance westward at this time, then a large area of land from Helan Mountain to Qilian Mountain may be taken by us!" ”

After Li Mu heard Tu Xian's words, he couldn't help but feel a little moved in his heart.

Speaking of which, Tu Xian's words are really quite reasonable.

The current Hexi Corridor is an incomparably fertile land, but what occupies it is only a group of weak chickens that are not vulnerable to Zhao Guo at all!

If you can take the opportunity to attack and take this land into your pocket, then wouldn't the grand scene of "two wings flying together" on the huge map behind Li Mu be achieved immediately?

Li Mu was silent for a moment and said, "Okay, you go down first." ”

As soon as Tu Xian heard Li Mu's words, he was anxious, and hurriedly said, "But ......"

"Nothing." Li Mu interrupted Tu Xian's words and said to Tu Xian: "It's winter soon, do you want our troops to fight against the Xiongnu and Wusun people in the ice and snow of winter?" ”

Tu Xian was stunned for a moment, then bowed to Li Mu and withdrew from the study.

Li Mu looked at Tu Xian's departing back, and couldn't help but shake his head, although this Hun who was originally a condor archer had more or less changed the innate casual habits of some nomads, but that impatient character could not be changed overnight after all.

In fact, as far as Li Mu is concerned, why doesn't he want to be able to immediately send troops to the west of Helan Mountain and completely seize the entire Hexi Corridor.

But the problem is that it is not only Helan Mountain that is blocking Li Mu's westward march, nor is it just the coming winter.

According to Zhao Dan's previous order, in the absence of foreign enemy invasion, Li Mu could mobilize up to 3,000 troops to take the initiative to attack the direction of the grassland, and if it exceeded 3,000 people, it must be approved by Handan.

So Li Mu quickly picked up the pen and began to write the recital.

Moments later, one of the henchmen was summoned into the study and left with the piece in hand.

This piece will be sent to Handan as soon as possible, and the content on it is actually very simple, that is, Li Mu hopes to get Zhao Dan's approval after the beginning of spring next year, and mobilize the main force of the northern border cavalry army of Zhao to launch a large-scale attack on the Hexi Corridor.

In order to win more support from Handan, Li Mu specially clarified two points in the recital.

First, the Frontier Cavalry Corps does not need any troop support from Handan, but only needs 30,000 cavalry from the headquarters of the Frontier Cavalry Corps.

Second, if this battle is won, then the entire Hexi Corridor is expected to be decided in one battle and completely subsumed into the territory of Zhao.

Even so, Li Mu is still unsure whether this plan can be approved.

When he returned to Handan to attend the New Year's Day dinner a while ago, Li Mu had visited a large number of senior military generals of the Zhao State, including Lian Po and Pang Xuan, as well as other high-ranking Zhao officials, including Zhao Sheng, the king of Pingyuan.

Judging from the feedback received from these visits, it is clear that the current top management of the Zhao State is not very enthusiastic about the act of expanding the territory in the northern grasslands.

But this opportunity is indeed very rare now, and if you miss it, you don't know when the next time there will be such an opportunity.

Li Mu walked out of the door, looked at the bleak autumn scene in front of him, and thought silently in his heart.

"Perhaps, I can only do my best to obey the fate of heaven."