When he saw the wolf smoke, Wang Xuance was making dumplings with the soldiers in Gandhara Fort. It was Chinese New Year's Eve day, Chinese New Year's Eve Chinese New Year's Eve www.biquge.info the day of the , and the generals of the garrison of Gandhara and the merchants here were ready to celebrate the New Year.

The Han merchants in the city took out a lot of goods to comfort the soldiers, including flour, rice, cattle and sheep.

Wang Xuance wore an apron, rolling dumpling skins, and learned art by King Zhao's side for many years, Wang Xuance not only learned a good art of war, but also learned a lot of cooking skills, rolling dumpling skins is not difficult for him.

was rolling out happily, but the wolf smoke rose.

"Five puffs of wolf smoke!"

The captain on duty strode in, his face solemn.

Wang Xuance slapped his hands and slapped the flour off his hands.

He has followed Li Chao to learn the art of war for ten years, and he has also fought a lot of tough battles, even if he heard that it was five puffs of wolf smoke, he did not panic. There have been more tough battles with King Zhao, whether it is to conquer the Turks or to fight Goguryeo, which battle is not as powerful as the current one.

"Du Hu, five puffs of wolf smoke, this means that the country is going all out to commit it."

Wang Xuance nodded, he naturally knew this. He only arrived in the second half of this year, and was recommended by his teacher Li Chao to take up the position of Xindu Ling. Originally, Li Chao proposed that the imperial court set up the Xindu Commander's Governor's Office, and that the governor, admiral and other official positions should be set up in Xindu to fully control the military and political affairs of the Xindu Commander.

However, for the time being, the imperial court has not agreed, and now it is still in a relatively primitive state, only he is the capital protectorate, and below are the three major fortresses, as well as several guard forts below.

Datang is in Xinduling, and there are three main fortress cities, one is Peshawar City in the pass of Daxue Mountain. The city is guarded by a mountain pass and is also a large trading city.

Then there are the two castles of the Xindu River, one north and one south, one is the Gandhara Fort, which is not far from Peshawar City in the north, and the other is the Xindu Port City at the mouth of the sea in the south.

"These damn guys, they actually picked such a time to make a mistake, so that we can't have a good New Year." A lieutenant cursed.

"Those guys aren't our New Year's Day." Wang Xuance snorted coldly.

"Okay, leave some people to continue making dumplings, and the others will go and make preparations. After eating this Chinese New Year's Eve dumpling tonight, we will leave tomorrow. ”

Gandhara Fort, approximately located in the capital of later Pakistan.

It is located landlocked, backed by the high Himalayas, facing the vast plains of the Xindu River, with the beautiful Lake Laval to the east and an open river valley to the west.

The mountains are undulating, the lake water is clear, the mountains and rivers here are beautiful, and the traffic is developed. It is also an important path from the Khyber Pass to the Ganges River basin.

The Tang army occupied here, not only to hold the main road, but also to the Xindu River Valley, and also to occupy the upstream trend.

Gandhara, originally one of the sixteen ancient kingdoms of the ancient Indian continent, existed thousands of years ago. It was once highly prosperous and was also a place where Buddhism flourished. At its peak, it controlled what would become Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as large swaths of northern India.

However, by this time, Gandhara had long since died out, and the Sada people, Turks, and Persians had occupied this place successively, and now the Tang Dynasty is the new master here.

Gandhara is not a small city, and like Peshawar, it was an important trade route on the trade route and was once an important spice trade route in ancient times.

However, in recent years, the Tang Dynasty has taken control of the spice trade and switched to trading by sea, which has shrunk this land trade route a lot. The war made the Gandhara Fort, which was originally more than 20 miles in circumference, also deserted for a time.

It wasn't until the arrival of the Tang Dynasty that trade here flourished again.

However, the time for the Tang Dynasty to control this place was very short, and the Tang Dynasty only had 8,000 soldiers in Xindu and only 2,000 soldiers and horses in Gandhara.

"Go and inform the lords, it's time to show your true strength."

The official army of the Tang Dynasty is indeed only 8,000, but in this Xindu River Valley, there are still a large number of feudal nobles. Because the land here is fertile, there are many nobles who are divided, and most of them are famous and powerful families.

For example, the Bashang Li family, the second of the Tang Dynasty, has three counts in this land.

"I'll leave some of the dumplings after wrapping them, and I'll go to the south first."

・・・・・

To the south of the city of Gandhara, there were three counties close together, each with a hundred miles of land. This is the fief of the three youngest sons of King Zhao of the Li family, because the children are too young, and this is currently under the custody of the Li family's family.

The bell is ringing.

Zheng Guozhu, the guardian knight of the new White Deer Castle, has already asked people to put on armor for themselves.

The navy blue plate armor is shining with a ghostly light, and the white tiger Xuanniao Li Shuzhi family crest of the Li family is tattooed on the chest.

When Zheng Guozhu put on his clothes and pressed the long sword at his waist to the council hall, the twenty territorial knights stationed in the fort had already arrived, all wearing plate armor.

"I've seen the Knight Chief!" The knights stood up and saluted.

Zheng Guozhu stretched out his hand and pressed it virtually to let everyone sit down.

"Brothers, the wolf smoke has risen, and as expected by the head of the family and the king, the country of the Ring Sun has indeed sent troops to come. As the lord and knight of the Li family, we have the duty to protect the territory, and the enemy is present, so we should unite as one. Now, according to our original training, we will gather the knights of the various manors and all the militia, and prepare for battle!"

"Whoa!"

The twenty knights stood up, their armor clanging.

At the same time, in New Lantian Fort, in New Ningmin Fort, the Li family's guardian knights, Li Guoshuan, Ke Badao, also made mobilization orders.

Everything is in order, and in the two years they have been here, they have spent a lot of time every year training the militia, and they have also drawn up mobilization plans and conducted drills.

Now the wolf smoke is everywhere, but they are not panicking.

Zheng Guozhu, the younger brother of Li Chao, the concubine of Li Chao, the king of Zhao, served Zheng Hongxian, and he was Li Chao's personal guard in his early years.

Qian Guoshui, the son of the chief butler of Zhao Wangfu, was originally Li Chao's long-term attendant and coachman.

Ke Badao, the villager of Zhangjiagou back then, Ke Wu's brother, more than ten years have passed, and the young Ke Xiaoba back then has now become the guardian knight of the Li family's castle in Xindu, taking care of this territory.

One hundred and twenty knights of the territory, all elite veterans, each with their own war horses and a set of plate armor. Each of them also has two attendant knights, and these people constitute the most elite force of the Li family in Xindu.

A cavalry force of three hundred and sixty men.

In addition to these three hundred and sixty men, each knight had a manor, and each of them had a militia of fifty men.

This is a militia force of 6,000 people, although the young and strong people who can really pull out may be less than half, but the three counties can also pull out at least 2,000 militiamen.

That's confidence.

When Wang Xuance arrived with a team of cavalry.

Zheng Guozhu, Qian Guozhu, and Ke Badao are sitting together and bragging.

One hundred and twenty knights, two hundred and forty knightly squires, had already arrived. In the square, there were also 2,000 assembled young militiamen, who were armed with muskets, bows and arrows, and spears, although they had no armor or horses.

Even these people changed into uniform blue burqas.

Very imposing of a regular army.

Thousands of people poured into the castle, and it must not be chaotic.

"You're fast!"

Wang Xuance said appreciatively.

Zheng Guozhu and the three of them stepped forward, "I have practiced many times." ”

The three are no strangers to Wang Xuance, and they have all worked together under King Zhao for many years.

Wang Xuance was not polite to them, "The army of the country of the country of the country is coming, and there are five wolf smokes, which means that there are at least 50,000 troops." I need your back! ”

Zheng Guozhu patted his chest and said, "Wang Duhu is not polite, we are all a family." Besides, if the country dares to come, we can't get used to them. You can rest assured, we have assembled all the troops, 360 cavalry, 2,000 militia infantry, we can all take and obey the royal capital to command. ”

Wang Xuance looked at this army and horses, and the more he looked at it, the more he liked it, and it was no weaker than the two thousand Tang troops under his command.

"Okay, I'm relieved to have your words. Today is the Chinese New Year's Eve, everyone will follow me back to Gandhara Fort, eat dumplings first, and after Chinese New Year's Eve, we will send troops tomorrow. ”

Ke Badao smiled, "Have you prepared so many dumplings, if not, you might as well stay and eat roasted whole sheep with us." We would kill the cow and eat the whole roast sheep at night. ”

"Hey, is your food better?"

"Let's go to the Li family, and we have always been generous. For the New Year, killing pigs and sheep should also be. Zheng Guozhu said with a smile.

Wang Xuance found that there were many natives in the militia.

"These people are reliable, aren't they?"

"Don't worry, although we are indigenous, after we came, life with us was much better. These people now almost all know Chinese, and they are very loyal to us. ”

"That's good." Wang Xuance nodded, there were still not many immigrants from the Tang Dynasty, and the lords who came also recruited a large number of local natives, divided land and granted them land, and encircled them greatly. For example, the Li family even set up a Confucius Institute here, giving free education to the children of the indigenous people, and even providing them with accommodation.

is also relatively generous to the natives, as long as they are willing to follow the Tang Dynasty and the Li family, life is not bad. These strategies have made the Li family more popular with the natives here.

"When you become a militiaman, you have a money and food subsidy every year, and you have an extra reward for each training. If you are called to fight this time, you will have more rewards, and if you can make meritorious contributions, there will be more rewards at that time. The indigenous militia are scrambling to come, and if we don't have to keep someone to watch over the house, we can pull out four or five thousand militiamen this time. ”

Even if the equipment is relatively simple, the militia of the Li family is not bad, at least the bow and arrow equipment rate has reached 100%, and the equipment rate of spears, horizontal knives, and shields is also quite high, but there is no armor. But even so, this equipment can be said to be better than most of the equipment of the king's forbidden army that quit the Japanese army.

"Since you eat better, then I won't take you to Gandhara Fort to eat dumplings, it's still early, I'll go back first, and tomorrow morning, we'll meet."

With more than 2,000 soldiers, Wang Xuance's strength doubled in an instant.

He had already sent people to inform the lords of other places, and by that time, a small number of troops would be sent by one or two hundred, and a large number of troops would be seven or eight hundred and one or two thousand, and Wang Xuance felt that he had not many soldiers available in his hands.

This time, you must break a few teeth of the Sun King!