Because of the jasper ring, as well as the shame of the Eight-Nation Alliance's burning of the Old Summer Palace left over from history, Zhao Tianyou's plan for the westward expedition must be carried out, but on the question of which direction to choose, the generals under his command argued endlessly, and it was difficult to unify their views. （）

If you follow the old path of Genghis Khan, the cavalry strength of the Song army is still very weak and cannot support such a long front, especially if you have to fight on this road, you must at least level three Mongol khanates before you can get close to the edge of Europe.

Unless the Song army followed the previous Genghis Khan's moves, and relied on fighting to feed the war, all the materials and food were snatched along the way, then no matter how long the battle line was, relying on the invincible combat power of artillery, the Song army could kill all the way and make these countries along the way submit to the countries from the east again.

Many of the fleet's commanders and captains proposed that the South China Sea Fleet should be dispatched along the former trade route to Africa, and then open up new shipping lanes to reach France by sea. This question was raised early enough because Zhao Tianyou had already drawn the general intercontinental territory, and the drawings between the sea and the continent were not very detailed, but the captains and generals of the navy had a non-standard nautical chart in their hands.

Only relying on Zhao Tianyou's memories in his mind to draw the nautical chart, the scale and image are slightly incorrect, there must be some non-standard places, but it is also hundreds of years earlier than the nautical chart of later generations, so these admirals and captains are not afraid of ocean voyages, but are looking forward to becoming the first batch of warships to go to sea to fight.

After Zhao Tianyou thought about it, the battleship that relied on oars and sails as the main power had the stability and long-distance sailing ability, but it could not make him completely reassured. The world's water and fire are the most ruthless, especially in the vast sea, any hurricane and tsunami can reimburse the entire fleet, Zhao Tianyou can't bear such a big risk at present.

In fact, he still has a wishful thinking in his heart, the principle and simple structure of the steam engine, he has already drawn it and handed it over to the technology center on Hong Kong Island, and is currently gradually overcoming the difficulties, and has spent a lot of manpower and material resources to make the first model.

The time of the western expedition plan could not wait, but there was no steam-powered ocean-going fleet, and he was still a little uneasy and dissatisfied, so he could only take a step back and seek a safe way, and began to reorganize the cavalry in the Great Song Dynasty, preparing to send troops along the road of Genghis Khan's western expedition.

The order issued from Guangzhou quickly spread throughout the territory of the Great Song Dynasty, which had just recovered its national strength, and basically the cavalry teams formed in various places took action after receiving the order, and assembled towards Yanjing one after another.

It was easy to say, but it took nearly half a year to do, and Zhao Tianyou formed a group army of nearly 300,000 people in Yanjing, of which 200,000 elite cavalry were the main force, and 50,000 infantry and 50,000 artillery were mixed and sat in the carriage.

In addition, tens of thousands of accompanying labor servants, carpenters, doctors and other logistics personnel of various professions, carrying countless materials, formed a mighty army, starting from Yanjing along the direction of Gansu to walk the Hexi Corridor.

This road to the countries of the Western Regions has been going for hundreds of thousands of years, and it is the most stable and fastest route, and Zhao Tianyou did not have the idea of finding another way, and under the leadership of the Mongolian guide who surrendered, he embarked on this road of westward expedition that had been walked three times.

The scale of this expedition was larger than the 200,000 troops dispatched by Genghis Khan himself, but it was also smaller than the 500,000 troops of the second Mongolian expedition to the west. This is also due to Zhao Tianyou's conservative idea, and the logistics auxiliary class of handymen brought a lot, in order to ensure that there is no non-combat attrition during the journey, and at the same time, the expeditionary force can live a less difficult life.

According to his thoughts, this expedition to the west should be as relaxed and comfortable as he led his army to travel, and should not and will not encounter big risks, the Duwa of the Chagatai Khanate never accepted the throne of Kublai Khan, and considered himself the heir of the orthodox golden family.

Before the siege of the Song army, Kublai Khan had sent troops to support Kublai Khan, and after the war, many soldiers fled back to the Chagatai Khanate in advance, bringing back the news of the powerful artillery of the Song army. Du Wow has already learned more or less about the power of the Song army's artillery, if he is smart and directly bows his head and admits defeat, maybe there will not be too much killing, but this guy who has been burning with fighting spirit in his bloodline, how could he not bow his head.

At this time, in the province of Gansu, there is a barren loess everywhere along the way, only along both sides of this trade road, there are not many ordinary people who live, living a very barren life, although it is hard to dig but can only barely survive.

Food is scarce, the land is barren, there are no suitable crops, and those wandering cattle and sheep are not enough to eat, and naturally there will be no abundant output, and the chances of living a good life are extremely slim. The Mongol army passed through here three times, and it did not bring much benefit to the inhabitants along the way, but after the formation of this passage, there were caravans of merchants passing back and forth, and the people would be left with some receipts.

There is a lot of process to go through in the process of changing from nomadic people to fixed-point farming, and of course, the most difficult thing is also these ordinary people living at the bottom, the sparse pasture cannot support so many cattle and sheep, forcing them to find another way to live.

Zhao Tianyou knew that it was caused by the climate and geographical location, and there was not much improvement here, what they needed, Zhao Tianyou couldn't give it at the moment, and he couldn't help anything, just left them a little food when they passed by.

The speed of the westward expeditionary army was about 100 miles a day, and hundreds of thousands of people did not stop and rest at the same time, but were divided into three major parts, the front and the back, and this speed had reached the limit of a large-scale march with sufficient horses and forage.

It's not that your light cavalry can rely on the speed of horses to be able to march 300 miles a day, and the soldiers who run in front of the enemy are exhausted and incapacitated, and once the battle begins, it will end up dead.

The team transporting logistics supplies should be a little slower, so as not to let this fateful gate come into contact with the intrusion of the war, and the enemy's generals have always used the first means of attacking the opponent's grain and grass, especially to deal with the Song army brigade attacking from afar.

The Song army passed through Gansu and crossed Jiuquan, approaching the border of the Chagatai Khanate, and every day there were scouts on fast horses in the distance watching the movements of the Song army, but the Song army broke through the territory of the Chagatai Khanate for fifty miles on the first day before camping, and was not hindered and resisted at all.

"General, we have captured a few of the original residents, and the pasture here was originally owned by them, but just now the Great Khan gave a death order, asking them to take all the cattle, sheep and horses, and flee here quickly."

"Wow, is this trying to be strong?"

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