Although Zhao, Chen, and Yan are the lower states of the country, they have already taken over the mortal enemy because of the battle of Luye, and they joined forces with the defense of the country, which is undoubtedly to send the defense to death, not to mention that Xiaochi and Xu Tu are both patriotic cities, and the three kingdoms cannot get any benefits.

On the contrary, the Jin State stationed troops in the Qi State, although it was said that it was exploiting the economy of the Qi State, but the good Jin State was in the East China Sea, thousands of miles away from the ocean, and once the national strength was weak, it was a matter of time before the troops were withdrawn. It can be used to combat the arrogance of patriotism. In this way, the three kingdoms of Zhao, Chen, and Yan joined forces with the Jin State, Wang Yanfei had to take care of the mentality of the Three Kingdoms to some extent, and he didn't dare to do anything.

In this way, Cao Chi took the lead by taking the lead, first leveling the Xian army and the Qi army, rejecting the ambitions of Jin and Wei, and then ordering Zhao, Chen, Yan, and Jin to join forces, isolating Wei Guo, and getting the cooperation of the four countries.

Zhiguo, as the overlord of the Central Plains, fought a first battle in September ago, and there was no reason to take the lead again, retreating to the second line and joining forces with the country, the two countries are both landlocked powers, neither has access to the sea, and there is no border, at present, there is almost no geopolitical conflict, so it balances the concerns of Zhiguo, if Shen Bi does not know each other, then he will become a loner.

Cao Chizheng once again succeeded in persuading the armies to send troops westward, and the question of staying or staying soon became the second point of contention.

After the first battle in September, Tiannan City has 2560,000 coalition troops, nearly half of which are cavalry, but the quality is uneven, especially the five countries of the West Sea.

Zhao, Chen, Qi, and Yan were blockaded by the country all the year round, and the cavalry of Qianyue Mountain was not the main force, and they were all extremely inferior war horses in the Central Plains, almost no different from pack horses. Compared with Jin Xuedi's hundreds of thousands of high-headed horses, it is a world of difference.

After the cavalry was exhausted, the defenders of Tiannan City were only 140,000 people, and the young and strong people in the city were 30,000 or 40,000 people.

In the end, Wang Yanfei and Gong Liangwen led the army out of the city, and Shen Bi stayed behind to guard Tiannan Pass. Du Zhen led the Weiguo cavalry to the west on behalf of Shen Bi, Tao Yong took charge of the Tiannan Guan Zhi Army for Gongliangwen, and Liu Huang and Lin Qi stayed behind for Wang Yanfei.

The meeting dispersed, and the general Ji Yao chased forward:

"General Wei Xian, hehe......"

Seeing Ji Yao's flattering face, Bai Liyan (Wei Xian) pretended to be kind and said:

"It was General Ji, I don't know what advice you have?"

"Don't dare, General Wei's young hero is famous in the Central Plains, how dare Ji talk about the word advice. It's just that this time you and my two armies are combined, and our Qi army is weak, and I hope that General Wei will think of his mother country and work with our army to defeat the barbarian army. ”

"Hehe......" Bailiyan smiled incomprehensibly, as if she had agreed, but she didn't seem to say anything, and then the conversation changed: "King Qi is good." ”

Ji Yao was stunned at first, knowing in his heart that Bai Liyan had already made up his mind and did not intend to serve Qiguo, and most of his words were polite.

"Everything is fine with my king, if General Wei is fortunate enough to come to Qiguo in the future, my king will definitely treat him with courtesy."

"Oh, maybe. Wei said goodbye first, and will meet at the north gate tomorrow. ”

"General Wei walks slowly."

Ji Yao was also obedient, and sent Bai Liyan out of the military and political institute respectfully.

Compared with Bailiyan, Ji Yao is only the general of Zhennan and worships the doctor, which is far inferior to Bailiyan's worship of the doctor, the position of the general of the Southern Expedition, and the Sima envoy of the Xianguo State and the history of governing Su, and the record is even worse. Ji Yao was thinking more about how to preserve the strength of the Qi army at this time, and obviously he couldn't force Bailiyan on seniority.

Back at the station, all the generals and officers of the Southern Expeditionary Army gathered in the underground bunker to deploy the combat mission after the division of troops.

"This time, all the princes' armies did not count the pack horses and horses, and all the cavalry were dispatched, including Lu Gao, Sikong Nan, Bai He, Su Hong, and including Lu Cheng's scout battalion, all of them went out of the city with me. Jiang Jie led the logistics and wounded battalions to stay at Tiannan Pass, and the infantry army was temporarily replaced by Xu Wei, the governor of the right capital, and Lu Zhao, Jiang Zhan, Wu Deng, etc., were not allowed to disobey the order. ”

"The last will obey." Everyone said in unison.

Xu Rong has a calm and conservative personality, usually doesn't talk much, is not easy to be impulsive, has followed Jiang Rong for many years, and is extremely sleek in the family affairs inside and outside.

In addition to the training of archers and physical fitness, Lu Zhao's other abilities are more average, he is a medium general, but he is not a handsome talent, and the position of metropolitan governor is basically the limit of his military career. Bai Liyan even considered that it might be more suitable to form a reserve in the future, transfer him to the reserve, and serve as the second-line governor, who would be responsible for preparation and training for a long time.

The Xian army came here to accompany 14,000 war horses, 1,500 as reserve horses, and more than 4,000 pack horses and horses. For the cavalry, there were only 1,500 spare horses, which was really not a lot of money.

The cavalry of the large corps fought in a small way, and it was by no means Shao Ping's cleverness in the previous small fights. Tens of thousands, tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of cavalry fought fiercely, and the losses of horses would be higher than that of people. If a person is injured, it can be saved, and if a horse is injured, even if it survives, it basically cannot be used as a war horse again for life, so the amount of resources of the war horse determines the cavalry.

Xianguo did not produce good horses, the high-grade war horses borrowed from Liang back then, all of them were returned to Antaihou last year, and the war horses that went out this time were concentrated in all the good horses of Xianguo, and they were all gone, and there was no replenishment at all, and there was no money to buy horses.

Early the next morning, more than 100,000 horses and horses gathered in the north of the city, and the princes' armies brought enough pack horses and loaded the supplies needed to accompany them.

Black smoke from the lit beacon can be faintly seen along the way, after deciding to send troops yesterday, Cao Chi is giving the order to the direction of Mingzhou City, and it is obviously too late to send people.

Five days ago, the heavy snow stopped, and the snow was still very deep, not to mention one to one and a half meters, and locally reached two meters. Horses have a hard time walking.

Yuke also imitated the barbarian army, let the tall head pull a very short sleigh, after the sleigh is a bronze snow plough, while pulling, while removing the snow along the way, and it is twenty horses, two batches for a group side by side, behind is the second row, a total of forty horses, tired of changing horses continue to pull, although the effect is far less than the barbarian unicorn, but it is better than not stronger. In this way, one can only walk seventy miles in a day until dark.

Tiannan City is nine hundred miles away from Xiaochi, and at this speed, it will take twelve or three days to reach Xiaochi at the earliest.

That night, all the armies camped, the horses were all kept in captivity, and the horses were covered with two sheepskin blankets sewn from sheepskin, and the horses' hooves and legs were wrapped in cotton sleeves to prevent frostbite at night temperatures.

"Sikong Nan, how is the situation of the battalions?" Baili Yan asked, roasting an alcohol lamp.

"It's all okay, there are jerky and dry cakes, just the snow balls, it's okay. It's that we all come from the north, and when it's cold, the cat doesn't feel it in the underground of the city, and it sleeps in the wild in the middle of the night, and the bones are cold. ”

"Everyone is crowded, and it will be warm when you squeeze."

"It would be nice if you hugged a girl and slept with her."

Su Hongkou said without concealment, and immediately exchanged Baili Yan's cold face:

"Beware of freezing your meat cutter and making you unhappy."

"Hahaha......" Lu Gao touched his beard and laughed, and the sheepskin hat on his head exaggerated to cover most of his head.

The laughter dissipated, and Baili Yan said:

"Listen, a sheepskin blanket and a quilt for each person, if it is not enough, two or three people huddle together, dig a snow hole and drill inside, leaving a large hole in the vent to warm up, how to teach in the city before, do what you do. The water bladder is in my cotton clothes, don't freeze it tomorrow morning, and pierce the ice. Immediately go back to each battalion to check the situation, and one person will freeze to death tomorrow morning, and I will ask you questions. ”

"No!"

The next day, thanks to thorough preparations, no one in the Xian army froze to death, but some caught a cold. More than 80 people froze to death in the other princes' armies, and the Qi army froze to death the most, with 21 people freezing to death in one night, which is heartbreaking.

The Xian and Qi armies accompanied each other on the way as the vanguard, and Ji Yao took the opportunity to test the details of the Xian army, and Bai Liyan found that Ji Yao was duplicitous, and what he said was often inconsistent with his actual behavior.

Of course, in the face of national interests, there are one thing in front of one person and one thing in the back, and there are few people who are inconsistent in words and deeds, but Ji Yao's duplicity often shows external strength and middle work, and even hypocrisy, and the most typical thing is grain and grass.

Excluding the nearly one million slaves captured by the Patriotic Empire, the native population of the country was the least populous of the vassal states. In recent years, it has been exploited by Jin and Wei, and the decline in national strength has been extremely serious. This time in the south, the Qi army only brought rice with grain and grass, meat reserves were extremely scarce, medicines and clothing were scarce, and cash was even more scarce.

When Bailiyan asked about the national strength of Qiguo, Ji Yao's mouth was full of vain and exaggerated words, but in fact, Bailiyan had already made people secretly watch and feel clearly.

The logistics of a country's strength can best reflect the problem. The other vassal states, even the most isolated Zhao state, still purchased a large amount of wintering materials and cattle and sheep reserves after entering the southern border.

In addition, Qiguo has been short of iron weapons several times, and the weapons equipped by the soldiers and horses in the south this time are all bronze weapons except for the personal soldiers, but Ji Yao still wants to buy steel blades from Bailiyan at a friendly price with a shy face, which shows how hypocritical this person is.

On the fourth day after leaving Tiannan Pass, Cao Chizheng received the latest news from Xutu that it was believed that the barbarian army had sent 100,000 reinforcements outside the city of Xutu and had not yet arrived. As a result, there were at least 350,000 barbarian troops outside Xutu City, while Xutu only had 150,000 defenders, and the situation became sinister.

In Bailiyan's view, in the era of farming, it is undoubtedly an incredible miracle on the earth to make 350,000 people travel thousands of miles to the boundless wasteland and snow. But the world has done it, and it's not just 350,000, maybe 1 million, 1.2 million. Without such an animal as the unicorn, it would be almost impossible to do so.