With the unremitting efforts of the Intelligence Department of the Central Army and Kuai Yue, Li Yan and others, Wei Yan was finally moved and let him throw himself into the Central Army.

Lu Bu even specially approved Wei Yan to study directly at the Army University, and after graduation, he returned to the army for another important use.

Zhang Liao followed Lu Bu's instructions, and it was advisable to chase after the poor Kou with Yu Yong, and lead the central army to continue to pursue and kill Liu Bei.

Liu Bei and others had no foundation in Guiyang County, and the local people and wealthy families did not want to see Liu Bei at all.

Therefore, when the central army reached Guiyang, Liu Bei could not gain a foothold in the local area at all, so he could only continue to flee south.

Guiyang fled south again, but it was out of Jingzhou.

To the south of Jingzhou is Najiaozhou, which is remote and closed, and the land transportation is inconvenient.

Zhang Liao did not pursue further south, but was busy recovering the counties of Jingzhou.

With Liu Bei's escape from Jingzhou, the Central Army completely recovered all the counties in Jingzhou, except for Jiangxia County under the Eastern Wu strategy and half of Nanyang County occupied by Cao Cao.

In March 2066, the results of the 20th graduation examination of the Lantian Central Military Academy were announced, and finally another graduate with full honors appeared, and this person was a person everyone was familiar with.

It turned out to be Lu Bu's eldest son Lu Kang, Lu Bu was very happy, it seemed that the hard work paid off, and the stinky boy was worthy of the effort he spent on him.

Lu Kang then naturally entered the Army University to continue his studies, and now he has become very studious, and he is no longer the naughty teenager.

It was also in this month that a senior undercover agent of the Ministry of Intelligence sent back a top-secret piece of information from Wei at great sacrifice.

The content is that the two countries of Wei and Wu joined forces, and used the most powerful scholars of the two countries to imitate the flintlock pistol that they did not know from and through channels, and it has been successfully developed.

However, due to the gunpowder formula, paper shell bullets and the barrel rolling, there is still a big gap with the performance of the flintlock pistol of the Central Army.

After reading this information, Lu Bu was not as angry as Li Su imagined, because Lu Bu was not surprised by this.

The number of flintlock pistols and equipment of the Central Army is so huge, it is reasonable for them to get a few of them, anyway, they do not have the developed R&D capabilities and huge military industry of the Central Army.

Even if they want to make guns on a large scale, it is not something that can be done in a day or two, and the Central Army has never stopped its own military research and development work.

The artillery used by the Army, including the accompanying artillery trucks, has been tested and is in mass production.

All infantry divisions of the Central Army are forming a second artillery battalion, ready to receive new artillery.

There is also the development of rear-loading rifles, including copper-shelled bullets and copper-shelled shells.

In April, the 4th and 8th Infantry Divisions, 8th Cavalry Divisions, and 9th Cavalry Divisions of the Central Army officially entered the Western Regions Metropolitan Protectorate, taking turns to replace the 5th Cavalry Division, 6th Cavalry Division, 9th Division, and 10th Cavalry Division, which had been stationed overseas for half a year.

In the past few years, in addition to the regular garrison sent by the Central Army Headquarters, which rotates every two years, the Western Regions Metropolitan Protectorate has also established the First Garrison Division and the Second Garrison Division of the Western Regions Metropolitan Protectorate under its own direct jurisdiction and the nature of border guards.

The officers and soldiers of the garrison division were mainly Han Chinese, and they also recruited the local ethnic minorities in the Western Regions and the locals of Dawan and Kangju, and now the Han Empire has regarded the countries of the Western Regions as its own people, rather than as foreign states.

The officers of the garrison division were all recruited and transferred from the Central Army and the Central Military Academy, and their daily training was also in accordance with the standards of the Central Army, and their combat effectiveness was acceptable.

The 1st Garrison Division was stationed in Shule City, and the 2nd Garrison Division was stationed in Guishan City in Dawan.

Tensions in Central Asia have remained high lately, and the Kushan Empire's Wave King has once again defeated the country's unruly opposition such as the Western Viceroyalty.

Even after defeating the dynasty established by the Indians entrenched in the Ganges Valley, the empire expanded again.

The scholars of the Royal Academy of the Kushan Empire were not simple, not only did they imitate grenades, but they even copied a simplified version of the musket, which they named themselves Musket.

The standing army of the Kushan Empire specially trained a legion of 20,000 men to equip them with grenades and muskets, of course, the range, rate of fire and the life of the barrel were not as good as the Han muskets, and their technological level and the craftsmanship of the military workshop were not up to the quality of the original.

However, something is better than nothing, and it can be regarded as entering the era of firearms.

The firearms corps of the King of Poland has already tried its skills in the battle to suppress the opposition forces in the country, and it is very proud.

However, the backward military production capacity of the Kushan Empire, equipping such a 20,000-strong army is already the limit, and the production of gunpowder, and even the rolling of gun barrels, are relatively high-tech, and their output is really low.

However, when the Kushan Empire fought with the Han Dynasty, the Central Army was only equipped with a few thousand muskets, which caused a misunderstanding among the King of Bodiao.

He thought that although the muskets of the Han Empire were more advanced, they should be more difficult to produce, and the output was limited, so they could not be equipped on a large scale.

His own 20,000 muskets must be not a small amount, and if he encounters the army of the Han Dynasty, he will also have the strength to fight.

Alas, the intelligence agencies of the Kushan Empire were much worse than the intelligence department of the Central Army, not only could they not get accurate information about the Han Empire, but even their intelligence agencies were successfully infiltrated and bought by the intelligence department of the Central Army.

The king of the Wave could only get some false and outdated information, so he was still in the dark about the current situation of the Central Army.

Of course, the lessons of the last war are still in front of him, and the king of Bo Tiao does not dare to directly challenge the Han Empire again.

He still tested his former vassal and now an ally of the Han Dynasty, Khorezm.

A Kushan caravan was robbed by unknown forces in the territory of Khorezm, but the scene left a token of the Khorezm army.

If the king of Wave has obtained the treasure, he uses this as an excuse to announce that the Kushan Empire will maintain the safety of the caravan and suppress the bandits on its own.

He sent a cavalry division to invade Khorezm.

In the beginning, the Kushan army did not have the upper hand, and the equipment of the two sides was almost the same, the Kushan army was equipped with its own imitation grenades, but the army of Khorezm also bought a large number of grenades from the army of the Han Dynasty.

The cavalry on both sides threw grenades at each other and fought happily.

Later, the king of Botiao sent his army of muskets, which was a great success, and he restrained the cavalry of Khorezm very well, and fought all the way to the capital of Khorezm.

Naturally, Khorezm asked for assistance from the Western Regions Protectorate of the Han Empire, because the two sides had an alliance with the Central Asian Alliance in advance, and the Han Dynasty, as the leader of the alliance, was naturally obliged to help the invaded allies.

Fa Zheng sent the Eighth Cavalry Division, which had just arrived not long ago, to Khorezm as reinforcements, and Li Wei secretly touched the garrison of the Kushan army and launched a sneak attack at night.

(End of chapter)