Thousands of miles away from Jiankang, northwest, Tianshui.

Tianshui is not the most central position of the Han Dynasty in the northwest, and it stands to reason that it should not be used as a state seat, but it is connected to Hanzhong through the Qishan Road, which is an out-and-out northwest lifeline.

According to the agreement reached between Li Xinchen and Yang Jian before, the Han Dynasty did not go north out of Yangping Pass and Sanguan, but connected Tianshui obliquely to the northwest through Wudu County and Qiuchi County, so that the transfer of materials and soldiers, horses, grain and grass between Shuzhong and the northwest would become difficult, and it would be difficult for the Han to form any sharp offensive in the northwest, at least it would not threaten the safety of Guanzhong from the northwest.

Otherwise, the huge northwest is pressed behind him, and Yang Jian is afraid that he will really have trouble sleeping.

Li Xinchen does not go out of Yangping Pass and does not enter Xiao Pass, and Yang Jian does not fight the idea of the northwest, which can be regarded as a tacit understanding reached between Li Xinchen and Yang Jian.

It's just that this tacit understanding seems to be a bit precarious now.

Tianshui City has been lively in the past two days, and the grain and grass convoys from Shuzhong have been gathering in a steady stream, and the scale of the military camp outside the city is also growing at a speed visible to the naked eye. The army reinforced from Shu is encamping one after another.

It is almost mid-November, and it is already quite cold in the northwest, and even in Wuwei and other places further north, it has begun to snow. But fortunately, winter clothes are still sufficient - it is also a little helpless to say, with the backing of Shuzhong, a world-famous weaving center, the Han army really has no shortage of winter clothes, what is lacking is people who can wear so many winter clothes.

"Get out of the way!" Several horsemen rode their horses and galloped through the streets.

The original loess rammed street has been renovated in the style of Shuzhong, and the middle pavement is paved with blue bricks and bluestone. There is no shortage of stones and soil for burning bricks in the northwest, but the previous families worked independently, and there was nothing to talk about repairing the city and rectifying the people's livelihood.

After Changsun Sheng became the master of Tianshui, the first thing he did was to build Tianshui City into a qualified state, at least now Tianshui City really looks like a northwest Xiongcheng and a fortress town.

Restrained the war horse in front of the Tianshui Mansion, Xu Deyan took three steps and made two steps into the palace. If it weren't for the clothes on his body that could still show a little bit of identity, I'm afraid no one would dare to believe that this was the governor of a big man.

Xu Deyan rushed over from Hanzhong with a whip, and almost changed horses and people along the way, and people were almost tired and half dead, but Xu Deyan, the governor, gritted his teeth and persevered, and several entourages had nothing to say.

"Xiuyuan!" Seeing Xu Deyan striding in, standing in the council hall and discussing something with several military commanders and the chief bookkeeper, he was pleasantly surprised, it was the general of the Han Dynasty's Zhengxi - Cao Zhong, who was also privately known by many people as the most unworthy of the name of the four generals.

Xu Deyan came all the way through Qishan Road, with a little mud on his face, not to mention his clothes, and even his legs were slightly apart, trembling, and those who had experienced it knew that this was the result of a long-term horse gallop.

And Cao Zhong's appearance is actually not much better than him, originally the two of them were in Hanzhong, Cao Zhong rushed to Tianshui first, and Xu Deyan was responsible for coordinating the grain and grass, so it was late.

"Now there are 20,000 soldiers and horses gathered outside Tianshui City, plus Anding, Wuwei and Jincheng, there are 40,000 or 50,000 people." Cao Zhong said in a deep voice, "Can the grain and grass keep up?" People eat what horses chew every day, and there can be no mess. ”

"You can rest assured, this year's grain harvest in Shuzhong, there is a lot left, and now it is being transferred one after another, and the grain trucks on this Qishan Road are endless." Xu Deyan is still very responsible for what he does, but he immediately realized something, "What about the eldest grandson?" ”

Looking around, he didn't see Changsun Sheng's figure, and he was suddenly a little strange.

"I went to Wuwei, and Hou Mi went to Anding." Cao Zhong said helplessly, "After so-and-so came, these two guys threw the things in hand to so-and-so and ran away." ”

"He's a civilian on the front line." Xu Deyan snorted dissatisfied, "What's going on over there with Wuwei?" ”

"The Turkic rangers have been found in the north." Cao Zhong said as he walked to the map, "Xiuyuan, you see, we are now deployed along the line of the Great Wall, but the Great Wall has fallen into disrepair, and even many city walls have been stripped off, and what we can defend is a few passes, and the Turkic rangers have appeared in the northeast of Anding and Wuwei counties, and there are more and more people, which shows that the imperial court's worries are not unreasonable." ”

"The Turks are trying to pinch soft persimmons." Xu Deyan sneered.

"The wolves of the steppe will only talk to their old and weak opponents." Cao Zhong was not surprised by this, "The Great Wall is unreliable, and the rest is the big river and the Gaopingchuan River (now Qingshui River in Ningxia) to barrier the north side, but ······"

"But this is equivalent to cutting out Wuwei County." Xu Deyan said lightly.

Tianshui County, Anding County and Jincheng County (present-day Lanzhou) form a triangle that extends to the northwest, and it is important to have Liupan Mountain and the Great River as its backing, even if the Great Wall cannot be relied on, it can still be defended against danger. However, Wuwei County is lonely, and Wuwei County continues to the northwest, which is already the range of activities of Tuyuhun, and it still has to go through the long Hexi Corridor from Jincheng County to Wuwei County.

Now the Han Dynasty is able to control Wuwei County, mainly because of the support of the local family, and the main power of Tuyuhun is still limited to the south and west of the Qilian Mountains, and does not extend to the southern section of the Hexi Corridor in the northeast of the Qilian Mountains, but once the Turks go south, then the slender throat of the Hexi Corridor is very likely to be cut.

"Wuwei can't be lost." Cao Zhong said decisively, "Wuwei is adjacent to Qilian Mountain, which is the source of our war horses, if Wuwei is lost, we will only be left with Liupan Mountain Horse Farm, which obviously has no way to meet the needs of the current imperial court." And one of our hands to the west of the river was cut off. ”

"The eldest grandson is very accurate." Xu Deyan sighed, Changsun Sheng was in such a hurry to go to Wuwei, obviously he also saw the importance of this place.

The Hexi Corridor has always been a battleground throughout the ages.

"Report!" A scout walked in quickly, "General Qiyu, Governor, we have encountered a group of Tuyuhun people, who claim to be messengers!" ”

"Oh?" Cao Zhong and Xu Deyan were stunned.

Tuyuhun, although it is a force that most Han people are not very familiar with, but since it is in the northwest, they cannot be underestimated. The development of Tuyuhun can actually be called bumpy, Tuyuhun originated from Xianbei in Liaodong, is a pure bloodline of Murong clan, moved west to the Shanglong area, entrenched in Caohan County (now Linxia), submitted to the Northern Dynasty.

This Tuyuhun is one of the few khanates with the name of the founder as the name of the country, and because of the name of Khan, it was driven out of Caohan County by the Northern Zhou Dynasty, and can only continue all the way west along the Huangshui to the upper reaches of the river, and now the basic activities are in the range south and west of the Qilian Mountains, roughly the western part of Qinghai and the eastern part of Xinjiang in later generations.