The day after the news of the arrival of the sailors in Basra, when the vast majority of Luoyang people were still worried about the re-establishment of the world's chaos, Zhang Caiwei visited the Zhao Mansion.

She informed General Zhao's wife that the Southwestern Sea Division "should" arrive in Basra. Although in the current situation, it is impossible to reconcile the general's husband and wife, but Zhang Caiwei still brings news related to General Zhao to his wife from time to time, and the general's wife neither welcomes nor rejects such topics, but once Zhang Caiwei talks about Zhao Xingde himself, she will divert the topic. However, Zhang Caiwei could still see that in Madame's mind, General Zhao had considerable weight, and she was unwilling to talk about him rashly and pretend to forget that there was such a person in the world. But in fact, if the world forgets such a person, at least in the General's Mansion in Luoyang, there are still people who are thinking about him. Therefore, although she tried her best to match Zhao's husband and 'wife' again, Zhang Caiwei was still a little angry and worthless. However, she had not yet felt more and more worried and uneasy beneath Madame Zhao's calm and watery exterior.

The earth is round, as early as the founding of the dynasty there is a strange book to make this argument, the longer the sailor anchors out of Guangzhou, the closer to Luoyang.

After experiencing the kind of worry during the siege of Guangzhou, Li Ruoxue has been constantly thinking about how to treat Zhao Xingde during these days. She sometimes decided that if Zhao Xingde returned from the expedition, even if he personally went to the 'door' to ask for permission, she would definitely avoid it. From time to time, if you turn him away like this, it will be too rude and will have a bad impact on the children. She sometimes thought of the prince's husband's 'wife', and seemed to have some expectations for her and Zhao Xingde. From time to time, I warn myself not to spend the belly of a gentleman with the heart of a villain. In the end, she was reluctant to mention Zhao Xingde's name, a name that made her very embarrassed and had to think of it. However, this ambivalence is unconsciously changing, as if the thickness of the snow is slowly changing, and as time passes, some green weeds will always emerge from under the snow, which is 'messy' and annoying.

Today, when Zhang Caiwei inadvertently said that Zhao Xingde was likely to be ordered to lead the troops to quell the rebellion, Li Ruoxue turned her eyes to the window for a moment.

Under the bright sunlight, her face flushed with a faint flush, and although she tried her best to hide it, her eyes shone brightly.

"Has the matter of the expedition been decided?" She asked softly, as if she was just responding politely to Zhang Caiwei's topic. However, the sudden changes in the whole person from the inside out are like a 'fine' carved palace lamp, which was just quietly elegant in the dark night, but now it is flickering light, and suddenly makes Peng Shen shine, at this moment, even Zhang Caiwei can't help but be slightly stunned, Li Ruoxue like this, she hasn't seen it for a long time. She sighed secretly in her heart, pretending not to notice at all, and told all the news she knew about the Southwest Sea Division, during which she mentioned General Zhao several times, and each time, Zhang Caiwei secretly observed the other party. Although Li Ruoxue tried her best to show calm as usual, all kinds of vivid changes in her bright eyes and the tenderness that inadvertently flowed out of her smile were impossible to ignore. By the end, Zhang Caiwei had completely affirmed that the ice and snow had melted.

"General Zhao led his troops to the west this time, just in time for the heroes to use force, if he can make meritorious deeds, coupled with the general's popularity in the Kanto, the future will be expected by everyone."

Zhang Caiwei carefully said: "General Zhao's transfer to the world is also extremely rare in our dynasty, if he always lives in a corner, it is not only extremely incommensurate with the general's talent, but also makes the hero chill." Chen Chongchang said to me that General Zhao is the hope of the people in the Kanto and Kansai regions, and in the future, he will be the bull ear of the five prefectures, and he can settle the world. When she said these words, Zhang Caiwei was slightly embarrassed. As the 'daughter' of the Duke of Chu, Her Royal Highness the Crown Princess, she has always grown up in the stars and the moon, and she never needs to win over anyone in person. But now the situation is different, the three major hinterlands of the Xia State, Hezhong is in the hands of the rebels, and the attitude of the Guanzhong nobles is ambiguous, the distance between Shu and Zhong is far away, and the Shu people have always been outside the political disputes of the Xia State. Although the princes of Qin and Chu in northern Xinjiang supported the royal family, on the one hand, they were beyond the reach of the whip, and on the other hand, they were dragged down by the Rus and the Murbo people. Zhao Xingde and the power he represents are extremely crucial to the Xia Kingdom, not only now, but also in the future.

"Whether it's for General Zhao himself," Zhang Caiwei thought, "or for Ruoxue, this arrangement is the best." ”

However, Li Ruoxue just looked at the willow shade outside the window, her eyes changed, and she didn't say anything.

Zhang Caiwei naturally stopped mentioning that it would be best if Li Ruoxue took the initiative to move to Dunhuang with her children in the future, and if she didn't want to, she would naturally be inconvenient to make it difficult for her.

It's just that whether Zhao Xingde can return to Luoyang depends on the future situation.

After the defeat of the Northern Expedition of the Song Kingdom, the situation in the Kwantung region took a sharp turn for the worse. In less than two months after the Battle of Xiongzhou, all the lost land recovered by the Northern Expedition of the Song Kingdom was lost, and only a few cities centered on the Daimyo Mansion in Hebei were still holding on, but fortunately, the Song army withdrew most of the people in Hebei to Henan one step earlier, otherwise the losses were particularly serious. However, the ambitions of the Liao army do not seem to stop at Hebei, the military intelligence department got the news, Yelu Dashi personally sat in Youzhou, all the men over the age of 14 in the Liao country were requisitioned, and the soldiers of the Khitan, Xi people, 'female' Zhen and other ethnic groups were exhausted, the old and weak stayed in the rear, and the strong ones went south as cavalry, and the military intelligence department estimated that the Liao army in the south was at least more than 300,000, and the pioneer was already building the Yellow River pontoon bridge. On the other hand, on the side of the Song Dynasty, after the defeat of Xiongzhou, the Manchu Dynasty's civil and military, and the rivers and lakes seemed to have fallen into 'chaos' and 'chaos' all at once. On the other hand, there are still some people in the DPRK who refuse to let go of Lu Mingyu and other generals who retreated to the Daimyo's Mansion. However, the Song court 'wanted' Yue Fei to take over the soldiers and horses of Hebei and Henan, but it was also unlikely.

Just when the imperial court was struggling, the people of the Song Dynasty were unexpectedly active, the cavalry of the Liao army had not yet drunk the Yellow River, and the state and county volunteers in the north and south of the river had already risen. The headlines of the news every morning must be the latest progress of the war in northern Xinjiang, and the news on the news is even more prepared than the military department. Under the situation of all the grass and trees, up to the prefecture and county, down to the village, the city walls were being repaired everywhere, and the fire guns and fire 'medicine' were strange goods to live in, and the Chunyu Iron Factory in the Song State could not meet the demand for iron smelting day and night, and the business of selling sulfur from Dongying to and from Dongying actually exceeded the income from silver mining. In the Great Song Dynasty, as long as it is a weapon, whether it is a bow and arrow, a gun or a spear, or an armor or firearm, it is out of stock everywhere, and as soon as a new item arrives, it will be snatched up. The scholars of various states have written to the imperial court, asking to follow the example of the Liao army when it went south, and Yunzhou County to recruit regiments to practice against foreign aggression.

Hearing the drum and thinking of the good general, the Liao army once again drank the Yellow River, and the soldiers pressed the border, many people once again remembered Zhao Xingde, accusing the court of "banishing" the good general

When the 'chaos' in the Song Kingdom became a pot of porridge, Zhao Xingde was leading his troops to Huwen City.

Two thousand soldiers and horses marched along the main road through which the Western Expeditionary Army passed, from Basra to Tiemo Cliff, and across the entire Khorasan region to reach the city of Huwen.

Khorasan, the land of the rising sun. On the map of the General's Mansion of the Xia Kingdom, the towering Alai Mountain and the Hindu Kush Mountain stretch north and south, the Green Ridge is the big 'gate' key of the Western Regions, and the river is a fertile soil surrounded by city walls on three sides. It is a road that runs between snow-capped mountains, deserts, salt marshes and the Gobi. Originally, there were many villages and oases along the road, but most of them were abandoned after repeated wars. The oasis on the Gobi originally had nothing to do with people, but in the process of cultivating the oasis, the villagers burned the dense vegetation, built canals, and reclaimed farmland, which broke the original natural balance and established an artificial balance. If this balance is not broken, as long as there is no shortage of water, it can continue for generations. But once this balance is upset by war, and man-made aqueducts are destroyed or unmaintained, they cause the entire oasis to wither and disappear. During this march, Liu Zhijian, Ma Yuan and others encountered many such villages, and the houses were still there, but they did not know where the living people had gone except for the corpses, and at the same time, they saw the canals that were gradually drying up. Even if the marching and baggage divisions did their best to secure forage and replacement horses along the way, it would still be a long and arduous march for them. The only consolation for the Song people who participated in this expedition was that they had been marching in the direction of the sunrise, that is, with every step forward, they were one step closer to their homeland.

Just when Zhao Xingde was desperately marching eastward, the Hezhong Regiment Training Fire Gun Battalion, which was supposed to wait quietly to receive it, was not calm.

For the marching division, the regimental training fire battalion is the most important shadow to deal with the rebellion in the river, however, for the baggage division, this is the motherless child who ranks at the bottom of the grain and grass supply ranking.

From the point of view of these rabble-rabbles recruited from the workshops, they were left behind or even forgotten after the 'rebellion' in the river. They were like a pile of stones blown by the wind onto the vast Gobi Desert, rolling for a while, and then stopping. Worst of all, the place where the stone stopped was almost the most inhospitable place they had ever seen. In the Gun Camp, morale had dropped to the point of no return, and the worried officers were helpless. If it weren't for the fact that it was too far from the hinterland of the river and the roads in the midst of the turmoil were too dangerous, some people would have fled to nowhere. However, the meticulous activities of the 'chaotic' party in the river caused these firearm battalions to gradually break away from the control of the marching division, and the morale of the army gradually slipped to the brink of danger.