To the sea!

To the sea!

Since the first year of Xingqian, almost every day, almost all voices have told the Chinese people that they have a vast world overseas, and that the land overseas is more fertile than the barren interior.

We will build a new land of fish and rice in the south, in Xinxia, and in the Americas, which is the promised land of our Han people.

In 18 years, a generation, many things have changed.

On the other side of the sea, many people do not doubt that they can get a new life there, whether it is the crisis of North America, or the hordes of slaves of the Cape of Good Hope, it is a kind of microcosm of overseas life, from the initial suspicion, to the present Han people on the immigration ship, like thousands of years ago when Zhou Tianzi divided the summer season, scattered all over the world, they are ragged, fighting in foreign lands, changing the once barbaric.

When the Ming Dynasty is in the voice of "going to the ocean and opening up overseas", it wants to achieve a great cause in the new era all over the world. Daming did not relax his desire for land, after all, no matter how he went to the sea, he could not change that Daming was still a continental country in his bones, and the tradition of land made it impossible to forget land in Daming, especially when there were enemies on land.

War will always break out inadvertently, just when everyone in the Ming Dynasty thought that war would never break out in the Western Regions. However, the war broke out suddenly in the Western Regions, and the Western Route Army of the Ming Dynasty finally broke through the difficulties and ushered in an exciting victory.

On the sixth day of the seventh month of the eighteenth year of Xingqian, Yu Shujie personally led nearly 40,000 troops from two towns through Mongolia, crossed the desert by camel, and raided Hami City.

After hearing the news, the Manchu Qing Dynasty immediately mobilized about 50,000 horses led by Tuhai to try to recapture Hami City, but when it arrived at Hami Wei, it was too late - to seize Hami City, Yu Shujie immediately ordered the troops to build field fortifications and fortresses outside Hami City, although it was only a simple field fortification, but it still made the Qing army full of blood, and Tuhai, who had nothing to do for a while, had to shrink his forces and build fortifications across the city from Hami.

Correspondingly, although it was a lone army, the army of the two towns led by Yu Shujie was still actively preparing for war to consolidate the occupation of Hami. The Qing army is constantly deploying troops, trying to recapture Hami, the Manchu Qing are very aware of the importance of Hami - Hami may not be important, but it is the only way to go to Xingxing Gorge, if Hami falls, even if Xingxing Gorge has a strong fortress, it will not be able to stop the attack of the Ming army, after the ammunition is exhausted, the more than 10,000 Qing troops in Xingxing Gorge will have only one choice - either surrender or die.

And this is also the reason why Li Dingguo, who is the commander-in-chief of the Western Expeditionary Army, chose Hami - if you want to attack the Western Regions, you must pass through Xingxing Gorge, and if you want to occupy Xingxing Gorge, which has several fortresses, you must either use the lives of soldiers to gnaw, or you have to find another way, in the end, Li Dingguo chose to take advantage of Mongolia, seize Hami, cut off the connection between Xingxing Gorge and the rear, and isolate Xingxing Gorge.

And the key to this is Hami.

As far as this operation is concerned, Yu Shujie's surprise attack was undoubtedly successful, and it took almost a single soldier to capture Hami - after all, the war has been over for eleven years, and there is the blocking of Xingxing Gorge, no one thought that the Ming army would suddenly cross the desert and enter Hami.

"The war never stopped, and the Western Expedition never ended, the so-called end is just the words of outsiders......"

Again, Yu Shujie thought of Li Dingguo's words before departure. This attack, without even informing the cabinet, was directly deployed by His Majesty - the deployment carried out three years ago, waiting for the opportunity to attack, with the least cost, to seize the Star Gorge first!

Now Hami has taken it.

The next step should be the Western Regions!

Thinking of this, Yu Shujie's heart couldn't help but be shocked, those eyes were full of desire for the Western Regions, of course, there was also a desire for military merits, as the Imperial Honorable Longping Marquis, he was also eager to be promoted again, of course, deep down, he also had a selfish heart, hoping to be able to shadow a second son with military merits, which is one of the privileges of the Imperial Honor, although what he got was not a hereditary title, but at least he could keep his youngest son from being exiled.

"Report to the general, Jiannu sent a messenger to deliver a letter."

The staff officer who arrived in a hurry interrupted Yu Shujie's thoughts.

"Oh? The messenger of the Qing army. ”

Yu Shujie, who came back to his senses, was surprised.

"Yes, General."

The staff officer opened the envelope and read aloud.

"Under the command of the commander Shujie. The general's lone army went deep into Hami, defended the city for 15 days, the courage of the soldiers under his command is really beyond the imagination of the world, the bloody battle of Hami is even more earth-shattering and crying ghosts and gods, today, my Qing Dynasty 100,000 troops have gathered in Hami, and a full-scale attack will be launched soon, although the generals are brave, and then the war continues, there will inevitably be tens of thousands of brave men buried on the battlefield......"

"Oh, it's a shocking fight, how come I don't know."

Listening to the content of the letter, Yu Shujie not only did not feel the pressure, but his mood became more and more relaxed. When he smiled like this, the people around him immediately laughed, and Han Wu, the chief soldier of the sixteenth town, laughed even more when he listened to the words of the chief soldier.

"If I'm not mistaken, we fought from Tuhai, and we had a fight three days ago."

"Three days, and they will learn a profound lesson!"

"Keep reading!"

In the laughter of everyone, Yu Shujie motioned to the staff officer to continue reading.

“…… The general really couldn't bear to see the brave soldiers under the general's command buried in Hami in vain, so he proposed to the general, or the general promised to withdraw from Hami, the general swore that he would never stop it, let alone send a single shot to disturb the army, and send the general and his soldiers out of the country to preserve the friendship between the two countries. Wang Huaxing, the general of the Great Qing Dynasty, paused. ”

"It's Wang Huaxing!"

When he heard this name, even Yu Shujie's face changed slightly. Wang Huaxing is a famous general of the Qing army, and in the Governor's Mansion of the Five Armies, the report about Wang Huaxing is half a foot thick, which is nothing more than mentioning how brave and good he is.

"Wang Huaxing is here, it seems that this 100,000 army is true."

Yu Shujie sneered.

"It seems that the intelligence of the military department is still insufficient, doesn't it mean that Wang Huaxing is attacking the Bukhara Khanate now? Why are we here now, and we haven't received any information? ”

"Sir, the capital of the Bukhara Khanate was occupied by the Qing army last year, and the Khan King Abdullah Aziz also died in the capital, and now there is only unconditional resistance in the Bukhara Khanate, so there is nothing strange about Wang Huaxing returning to Shengjing from Bukhara."

What he said was that Li Renyu was the right military commander of the army, and unlike the left military leader, he was in charge of intelligence, and at this time, he naturally looked at the problem from the perspective of the military chief department.

"No one cares how Wang Huaxing came here!"

Yu Shujie shook his head, and then said.

"What I care about is intelligence!"

Staring at Li Renyu, Yu Shujie continued.

"This incident shows that our preparation for intelligence work in the Western Regions is still very imperfect, this is a taboo for soldiers, without sufficient intelligence, military operations will be subject to various restrictions, Wang Huaxing is a famous general of the Qing army, we still don't know where he went, so what about other intelligence? Therefore, the Military Department must strengthen its intelligence work against the Manchus. ”

Yu Shujie was not worried about whether Wang Huaxing was a famous general at all, and even hoped to fight with the other party in his heart, after all, defeating the enemy's famous general was full of temptation for anyone.

"This Wang Huaxing can be regarded as a famous general in the world, he thinks that such a letter can let me give up Hami, but he really underestimates my Ming official army!"

Sneering, Yu Shujie turned to the table and picked up a pen to write a few words, then stuffed it into an envelope and said.

"Send the letter to the Jiannu messenger."

"General, this ...... Not quite right. ”

Han Wu saw the contents of the letter.

"Will he be annoyed?"

"All I want is for him to be angry!"

But he listened to his decisive command.

"Give the order to all battalions to hold their positions, and not to attack without my orders. Violators will be dealt with by military law! ”

"Yes, General."

As a veteran of the battlefield, Yu Shujie knew that the key to this battle was not whether he could defeat the Qing army, but whether he could hold Hami, as long as he held Hami, he would make a great contribution.

"Commander, do you think Wang Huaxing will attack first if he wants to attack?"

Han Wu stared at the sand table, his tone a little nervous.

People are famous, trees are shadows, Wang Huaxing's fame in the Qing army is even far greater than Tuhai and others, he is especially good at tackling fortifications.

"It doesn't matter where he attacks."

Yu Shujie looked at the sand table, his brows slightly locked.

"It's not important to Hami now, even if he has an army of 100,000, we have 43,000 people, plus well-prepared fortifications, there are no 150,000 people, he wants to capture Hami, it's just a dream, now, I'm not worried about this!" Casting his eyes on the map and staring at the Star Gorge on the map, Yu Shujie said.

"The most important thing is the Star Gorge, as long as our army captures the Star Gorge, then the entire Western Regions will open the door to us, as for the gains and losses of Hami, it is not important, why did Your Majesty instruct the opportunity to seize the Star Gorge and open the door to the Western Regions three years ago?"

Yu Shujie looked at Han Wu and asked rhetorically.

"Because, after all, from Guazhou to Hami, there are still more than a thousand miles of land. This section of the railway, without a year, cannot be built, so it is always necessary to advance. ”

Then Yu Shujie smiled again.

"However, it took us three years to find a way for a large army to pass through the desert, otherwise, it would not have dragged on until now...... In short, the Star Gorge was captured, and then, it was the entire Western Regions! ”