After capturing Ganzhou, Zuo Helin did not take much rest, did not even wait for reinforcements, and after only resting for two days, he continued to lead his troops to the west.

On November 20, Zuo Helin conquered Suzhou.

This time he encountered even less resistance than in Ganzhou, in fact, when his army arrived under the city, the local tribe simply took control of the city and surrendered directly to Zuo Helin.

Their only request is to be treated properly by Huaxia.

Zuo Helin didn't think he had the right to deal with these local landlords, but he had someone in his team who could handle them - Xu Shizhen, the clan general (actually a school official) in Huaxia.

Raising the identity of Xu Shizhen, the local tribes are all very convinced, and they have expressed their willingness to unite under the banner of China to create a better tomorrow .......

Zuo Helin had a bigger goal, so he didn't continue to waste time with the local tribes, and simply ordered Xu Shizhen to stay in Suzhou temporarily, and he himself led his troops to continue westward.

This time, the Zuohelin battle group was mixed with more foreign troops, including more than 2,000 local tribal soldiers from Ganzhou and Suzhou—including Dangxiang, Qiang, Uighur, and Tubo—and a few tribes claiming to be Han Chinese.

Zuo Helin had 5,000 cavalry at this time, and after supplementation, he still maintained one man and two horses, not to mention, and even had more than 500 camels in the team.

The only weakening point of combat effectiveness is that there are fewer and fewer real Chinese soldiers in the team - there are fewer people when they send troops, and they have to leave a few hundred people every time they occupy a place, waiting for the follow-up reinforcements of the battle group (for example, Xu Shizhen had to stay in Suzhou), so that when Zuo Helin set off again, there were less than 300 Chinese soldiers left.

Although the number is small, it is still Zuo Helin's most trusted army.

So he regrouped his team before he set off.

The 300 Chinese soldiers formed a separate battle group, which served as both a guard, a central army, and a warlord for other teams.

Followed by the local tribal soldiers with a certain Han blood - most of these people are Han orphans lost in the previous dynasty, although the customs of clothing and hats are very different from the Central Plains, and it is difficult to see how they are different from the local tribes, but Zuo Helin still intends to give them special trust - before leaving, the General Staff has already had a detailed manual, explaining how to divide the local tribes in this situation, emphasizing the blood of these Han people, and improving their status within a limited scope is one of the ways.

These people had about 500 people in the Zuohelin army, plus 1,500 early Tubo soldiers who had been following from the shore of Qinghai Lake, a total of 2,000 people, forming the second level of the New Western Expeditionary Army.

Next, of course, there are those new tribes, whether they are party or Uighur, Qiang, or Tibetan, all of them are counted as the lowest level of the team.

Zuo Helin clearly declared that the booty and merit they could obtain were the lowest in the whole army, but they had to undertake the heaviest duties, including camping according to Chinese standards, patrolling and feeding horses, and also being the vanguard during the siege and the rear of the palace when retreating.

However, if they were able to accumulate enough merits, Zuo Helin would elevate their status and replace them with newly conquered and surrendered tribesmen, while they themselves could rise to the second estate—which meant more loot and more merit.

For the local tribes, the more simple and clear the reward and punishment mechanism, the more effective, as for the class, this is not a problem, anyway, these small border tribes in the western part of the pseudo-Xia were also oppressed, and when the great nobles of Xingling recruited troops and grain from here, they would not consider whether they were party members or not.

……

There is only one way to go, and it is actually to follow the old Silk Road along the Hexi Corridor.

The road was deserted and covered with yellow sand, as if it was not suitable for human life at all, but the supply of the Left Crane Forest Belt was sufficient, and it could also be supplied by the tribes that lived in the nearby oasis—whether it was animal power, food, grass and manpower.

What's more, in order to maintain indirect rule over the Western Regions, the party members built a lot of post stations on this road, and now although the post station defenders have been withdrawn, the buildings are still left, and most of the post stations still have wells, which is enough.

The closer you get to the Western Regions, the more precious water becomes.

On December 20, Zuo Helin's army arrived near Guazhou.

He was greeted by more than 10,000 troops cobbled together by the puppet Xia Xiping Military Division.

Like Zuo Helin's subordinates, this is also a group of local and Western Regions ethnic groups and tribes, you 300 and 500 cobbled together a coalition army, of which there are very few party members (most of the party members of the Xiping Military Division have been killed by Zuo Helin in Liangzhou), most of them are Tubo, Han, as well as Uighurs and Gaochang from the Western Regions, and even the guards of the Pars caravan were forcibly detained and forced to participate in the war.

This guard's surname is Wei, although he is just a side line who made a mistake and was assigned to guard the border, but he is also a clan after all, and he still has more courage to sacrifice for the Great White Gaoguo than others.

But he has the courage to sacrifice, it doesn't mean that those allied forces of all ethnic groups who were forced to come by swords and guns also have this courage.

On December 21, as soon as the Xia army came into contact with Zuo Helin, those Pars in the ranks, who had no loyalty to the Great White High Kingdom, found an opportunity to flee the battlefield first, and then Zuo Helin seized this fleeting opportunity and ordered his cavalry to rush into the Dangxiang army through the gap in the line vacated by the Parsians.

The Xia army wanted to send troops to plug the gap, but the reinforcements from other directions were beaten by the Chinese army's muskets, killing and wounding hundreds on the spot, and by the time they arrived at their destination with losses, the entire main formation of the Xia army had been completely ...... strained.

The battle quickly turned into a one-sided slaughter, and the commander of the Xia army committed suicide and martyrdom when his troops collapsed and defeat was assured.

In the end, within half an hour, the Zuohelin battle group composed of pure cavalry troops basically annihilated the army cobbled together by the pseudo-Xia Xiping military division, more than 4,000 people were killed, more than 4,000 people were captured, and the rest were scattered.

The Pars who were the first to leave the battlefield returned to Guazhou a little earlier than in all respects, and after they entered the city, they quickly began to search for local wealthy families, loot gold and silver women's property, and cause chaos in the whole city - in this era, the merchants who dared to take the Silk Road for cross-border trade were originally merchants and bandits, and now there is such an unsuspecting city in front of them, of course, it is impossible not to make a profit.

It took Zuo Helin a little more time to clean up the battlefield, and it was only at dusk that day that he escorted the captive to Guazhou, but by this time Guazhou had already been half burned by the Parsians.

Those Pars people were happy, and immediately opened the city and surrendered when they saw the flag of the Chinese army - anyway, they robbed the enemy of the Chinese army, and the direct sacrifice of the city could even be regarded as a merit.

They felt that this should save their gains.

Moreover, didn't you leave half of the Chinese army?