"General Qiyu, the Jiamu Corps has entered the alert range." A hilly area in the northwest of Jiaohe City was originally supposed to be a valley that had just melted the ice and snow and the valley where everything was recovering, but at this time it was densely packed with lurkers A cavalry corps of 30,000 people, this cavalry corps from the warriors to the war horses at this time stayed quietly in place waiting for the order of a general who was over fifty years old in front of him.

Tuoba Siji looked at the horizon in the distance as if he was deaf to the report from the front line, but the oldest general of the front-line combat unit of the Tiance Army did not relax for a moment, compared to the young people in their twenties from top to bottom in the Tiance Army, he was indeed old, and Tuoba Siji was still a member of the Dang Xiang clan, in the military and political system of the Tiance Army, the highest-level general of the Dang Xiang clan was his own general general, so he was more eager than young people to make meritorious contributions. Because the tactical talent of the younger generation of generals such as Toyota is not good, in this increasingly fierce competition and promotion depends on their own system, Toyota They have always been difficult to change the tactical characteristics of cavalry operations in the past, so Tuoba Siji will be so desperate, he needs to wait for the new blood of the party to grow up before he can be relieved to break away from the front-line main battle generals.

"Order the whole army to prepare, and immediately charge after half an hour. At the same time, the commander was informed that our army attacked as planned. Tuoba Siji waved his hand and told the herald to immediately set off for the camp to contact Wan Yi.

As soon as Tuoba Siji gave the order, all the officers and men of the cavalry regiment began to get up and reassemble from the original sitting next to the war horses, check the weapons and equipment, count the bullets, and the mortar detachment accompanying the army also began to beckon the ammunition men of the logistics department who followed their actions to count the number of mortar shells. After the mortar was "invented" by Li Xuanqing, the cavalry artillery also came into being because of this kind of ability to carry it alone. Although the mortars at this time were very primitive compared to later generations, not only were the barrels cast and then polished manually, but even the most important elastic counter-shock and aiming and adjustment devices were only recently solved. And the most important thing is the problem of artillery shells, because the mortar shells use firing touch fuses, which is too difficult for the equipment department of the Tiance Army, which has just established a military industry, even if Li Xuanqing transmits the knowledge of future generations about this aspect by hand, there are still a large proportion of mortar shells equipped by the Tiance Army itself that cannot be exploded. However, recently, Qin Yao has found a new way to solve this problem.

Tuoba Siji's side was ready to act according to the plan, and Wan Yi's side was also ready, but Chai Jia directly arranged the 50,000-strong Eleventh Corps out of a zigzag position when he was transferred from the front army to the rear army, and used the three interconnected positions that had been dug up by the logistics team of the rear army before to build a solid defense line. Chai Jia slightly regretted that because he wanted to conceal his tactical intentions, he could not arrange anti-cavalry assault weapons and mines in front, which made Chai Jia regret a little, but he quickly adjusted his mentality, and a complete artillery capital appeared in his rear, and a full fifty cannons had adjusted their firing range, and the ammunition man also pushed out a cart of shells from the camp and put them on the gun position, these artillery fires were enough to make these northwest cavalry understand that the era of relying solely on cavalry charges and cold weapons to conquer the world has passed, He is the top existence that represents the current war.

"Shuai, Xuan Yingwei sent a piece of information, which was brought by Hammoud. He has mastered his old division, and I hope that we will treat his men differently from Kogi, and he will attack from the rear of Kogi when the time is right, and cooperate with us. In addition, he said that he has a way to solve the current problems of our army. "Wan Yi originally didn't go to the rear army, because Chai Jia was originally an infantry general, and there was almost no difficulty in fighting this kind of defensive counterattack operation, as long as he didn't cling to the three-stage method of warfare, 50,000 Chinese formal rifles were enough to ensure that even before the appearance of Li Xuanqing's ultimate firearm, the infantry position could block the impact of the cavalry, not to mention that fifty cannons were mobilized to go over. Therefore, after Chai Jia left, he began to stay with the artillery, preparing to see if the remaining artillery battalion could replace the 11th Corps and continue to maintain pressure on Jiaohe City. To be honest, the artillery side is also implementing its own latest tactics, saturated artillery bombardment and barrage attacks from the artillery high command. It's just that Wan Yi doesn't have much interest in barrage attacks, Jiaohe City is a city, and there is no room for barrage attacks at all, I'm afraid that this is also an excuse for the artillery to show their abilities.

However, the information handed over by Liu Xuan made him slightly stunned, Hammud's decision to assault the rear of Jiamu at a critical moment was really within his expectations, and Chai Jia's 50,000 people plus the covert attack of Tuoba Siji was enough to make Hammud have no effect even if he deceived himself. What really surprised Wan Yi was what Hammoud said could solve the current problem. The current problem of the Tiance army is the problem of water source, at present, it is because the Uighurs in the city have suffered heavy losses by themselves, so there is no way to send a large-scale force to destroy the water source, if Gao Siji's Seventh Corps is unable to form a main force of reinforcements from the west, and can let Jiaohe City get support, I am afraid that the other side will definitely use this tactic to the end. And in fact, Wan Yi never expected the Seventh Corps to be able to block all the reinforcements, as long as Gao Siji could rely on the way of covert raids to eat the main force of the reinforcements, then his Gaochang strategy would be able to be implemented smoothly.

"Did he say what he could do?" Wan Yi raised his head, walked to Liu Xuan's side, and asked loudly during the interval between the artillery firing beside him.

"Qanats." Liu Xuan's concise two words made Wan Yi not understand what it was for a while, but although Liu Xuan didn't understand, he quickly found a wounded soldier from the previous Anxi battalion from the camp and asked why, this veteran of the Anxi battalion was originally injured in the previous battle, so he didn't follow Zhang Sheng into Khotan, and the veterans before the Anxi battalion were all locals who Zhang Sheng had worked hard to pull out from the northwest, so when he heard that Liu Xuan asked about Karez, he immediately understood what was going on. So Liu Xuan smiled bitterly when he returned to Wan Yi's side: "We are dark under the lamp, and the well canal was originally a water conservancy measure invented by our Han people in the northwest when they were stationed in Tuntian, but what I didn't expect was that we, the high-level generals, actually forgot the invention of our ancestors after being lost for a hundred years, and finally had to be reminded by a foreigner to react." I think we're really sorry for the Heavenly Spirit of our ancestors. ”

"It turned out to be a well and canal in the historical records." Wan Yi also looked emotional, but then ordered Liu Xuan to immediately take the veteran to start looking for the people in the villages of Lishui River who had been dismissed by him before. Most of these people were from other tribes, except for some Uighurs, and some were even descendants of the Han people and the nine surnames of Zhaowu. Therefore, with Liu Xuan's efforts, he quickly found some people who were willing to cooperate with the Tiance Army, but Liu Xuan still kept an eye on it, and announced that he planned to recruit people to clean up the battlefield, clean up the corpses and filth in the river, and dredge the river as soon as possible so that the people could return to normal life, which made Liu Xuan quickly gain the trust of the people, after all, if the water river and Xi'er River could not complete the cleaning of them in one day, the people born along the river would not be able to live with peace of mind.

Qanats are a kind of horizontal water collection building system for irrigation agriculture of various ethnic groups in Northwest China, which has a unique role in desert areas and foothill areas. And in fact, the karez is recorded in the historical materials of the Central Plains, and Sima Qian described this irrigation system that he named "well canal" in the earliest historical records.

In fact, there are qanats near Jiaohe City, and in fact, the Gaochang area is the area centered on Jiaohe City is the area with the most karez, except for the north near Daze, almost all the water transmission systems in other places rely on the qanats, this underground culvert water is not affected by the seasonal wind and sand, the evaporation is less and the flow is stable, the local people also fully consider the influence of the terrain and altitude when building the qanats, almost all the qanats can be irrigated by artesian water all year round.

Therefore, after Wan Yi and Liu Xuan reacted, they almost forgot about the current war, and began to mobilize logistics troops and the people recruited by Liu Xuan to find the nearest qanats in the southeast wasteland of Jiaohe City, and then began to inspect the terrain along the way, preparing to see if they could connect the original qanats to the vicinity of Daying, so that they could put aside the restrictions of the Lishui River and the Xi'er River, and rely on the water supply needs brought by the qanats.

"Dashuai, I have arranged for the logistics team to start the construction according to the local people's method of building the qanats, according to which the nearest qanats are about five miles away, the logistics team checked the terrain, the construction is not difficult, if there is no accident, we can get rid of the dilemma of directly drinking the water of the Lishui River and the Xi'er River tomorrow." Seeing that Wan Yi didn't even care about the frontline battle, Liu Xuan hurriedly wiped the sweat from his head and said with a smile: "Moreover, the water flow of the qanats is complex, there are various tributaries along the way, and at the same time, countless water outlets bring the water out of the desert, this is a huge underground water flow system, and the Uighurs cannot destroy it at all." ”

"Bring the troops to guard against vandalism while assisting in the construction, the faster the better." Wan Yi nodded, relieved. Those of them from the interior of the Central Plains would not have thought of this Northwest characteristic if it weren't for Hammud's reminder. At the beginning, the transfer of all the members of the Anxi battalion also caused almost no one in the Western Expeditionary Army to find that the use of this kind of karez is faster and less difficult than digging wells. The logistics department in the camp of the Western Expeditionary Army has drilled more than a dozen wells, but only three or two outlets have water, and such a small amount of water cannot supply the needs of the 100,000 army. The Uighurs lived here all year round, and naturally understood that once the water supply of the Tiance army was cut off, it would directly lead to the loss of combat effectiveness.

"In fact, we also have this qanats in the mainland, but we have not paid attention to it, and we basically relied on the oasis river for supply all the way to the army, and there was no large-scale water shortage at all, so we didn't even have a basic countermeasure to this. This time it was really thanks to Hammoud, if it weren't for his reminder, I was afraid that our army would be in a bad situation. Liu Xuan said with a little palpitation. In fact, there are qanats in the interior, that is, Sima Qian's wells and canals, but the inland is generally abundant in rainwater and groundwater, even in Hexi, there is at least no shortage of drinking water, and relying on the snow water supply of the plateau snow mountains such as Helan Mountain and Qilian Mountain, Hexi Province has even developed irrigation agriculture extensively, and the vegetation in the territory depends on the snow water, more than it year by year. So all of them are not mentally prepared.

"It seems that we should pay more attention to these northwest characteristics further west in the future." Wan Yi also took a long breath and said, "After the battle of Jiaohe City, send a message to the Anxi Corps to speed up." They are basically natives of the Northwest, and it is much less difficult for us to enter the Northwest with them. ”

"Okay, you keep an eye here, I'll go and see the battle situation on Chai Jia's side, just rush Hamoud's suggestion, even if he doesn't really surrender, I will leave him a glimmer of life." Wan Yi waved his hand to let Liu Xuan stare at the matter of Karez, and he quickly approached Chai Jia's rear army blocking position with his personal guards, as for the Jiaohe City side, in the face of the powerful firepower of the Modao battalion and the artillery unit, the defenders in the city are now worried about when the Tiance army outside the city will rush in. Shi Jian was even able to divide his troops at this time to take over the cruising mission of Liu Xuan's troops before.

However, when Wan Yi arrived at the rear army position, it was also the time when the battle was most intense, Jiamu knew that he didn't have many opportunities, and he had to take advantage of the opportunity of the Tiance army to divide his troops to attack Jiaohe City, and he must go all out to attack the defense line of the Tiance army, if he could rush in, then the lethality of the cavalry to the infantry was still very considerable, and in the previous battle, a small number of cavalry were lucky enough to break into the opponent's position, and the damage caused to the opponent by Jiamu could be seen clearly in the rear, so at this time, Jiamu not only urged all the troops under his command to step forward, He also urged Hamoud to lead the last 20,000 cavalry left of the Uighurs to join the battle.

Hammud could not refuse this suggestion at all, Jiamu was originally a guest army, and now the guest army has gone all out, as a landlord, if the Gaochang Uighurs themselves do not do their best, it will be too much to say. However, although Hammoud sent his troops to the front, it is clear that he also has his own plans in mind. The reason is that Liu Xuan made him hesitate that day, and his personal honor and disgrace and the rise and fall of the clan have been spinning in his mind for the past few days. Although in Hamoud's heart, he solved a big problem for the Tiance army and could be regarded as repaying the other party's kindness to him, but as the Tiance army continued to advance, the future of the Uighurs became more and more slim. Hammoud felt that he was not a leader, but he also knew at this moment that the fate of the entire Uighur people of Qocho was waiting for him to say a word.

"Go and give it a go." Hammoud nodded slightly to the captain of the guard beside him, who understood what his commander meant, and turned around and walked forward with his troops. Hammoud looked at the cold expression of Jiamu beside him and sighed imperceptibly.