On the northwestern shore of the Caspian Sea, fifty kilometers outside the city of Astrakhan, in a river valley.

A mighty army slowly marched in. It was the main force of the Western Expedition led by the righteous king Shi Dakai who attacked the Caspian Sea region of the Chinese Empire.

This western expedition, nominally, was naturally led by the righteous king Shi Dakai, but in fact, it was divided into three armies.

Among them, the northernmost route was led by Luo Qiongshu as the backbone of the four infantry divisions of the Third Field Corps of the Chinese Empire's captive army, together with other Ughurs, Mongols, Sikhs, Kazakhs and Hui soldiers, a total of 140,000 soldiers, starting from Kokand City, passing through the Aral Sea to the north to attack Orenburg, and when the weather warmed up, they took advantage of the situation to march north to Yekaterinburg and Tyumen and other castles, and occupied the entire Siberia east of the Ural Mountains.

The southernmost road was led by Shi Xiangzhen, commander of the first division of the Fourth Field Corps, leading two infantry divisions of the Fourth Field Corps, together with 30,000 Kazakh troops, 30,000 Bengali troops and 10,000 Sikh troops, a total of more than 90,000 troops, first to capture the Turkmen region on the east coast of the Caspian Sea, and then collect and build ships, cross the Caspian Sea, and directly land on the peninsula with the town of Baku on the west bank of the Caspian Sea, and seize one of the main purposes of the western expedition - the Baku oil field.

The middle road, which is the main force of the western expedition, is personally led by the righteous king Shi Dakai, 1 infantry division in the 3rd Field Corps and 3 infantry divisions, 1 cavalry division and 1 artillery division in the 4th Field Corps, a total of 60,000 regular field soldiers, plus 60,000 Sikh troops, 20,000 Gurkha troops, 70,000 Bengali troops, 40,000 Kazakh troops, a total of 250,000 troops, scattered along the northern shore of the Caspian Sea for nearly dozens of kilometers of fronts. An offensive was launched to the northwest in the former Lesser Yuz and in the lower Volga basin in the lowlands along the Caspian Sea.

This western expedition can be described as a huge scale, even beyond the expectations of Shi Dakai, who advocated the launch of the western expedition.

As early as a year ago, he suggested to Feng Yunshan, the emperor of Shengjing, to send troops to the west, completely beating Tsarist Russia and making it dare not invade the northwest frontier of the Chinese Empire again and again. And the emperor Feng Yunshan also attached great importance to his suggestion, but he was a little worried that a small-scale dispatch of troops would not be able to defeat the Tsarist army, but would reduce his own strength, and a large-scale dispatch of troops would be somewhat difficult to bear such a big burden, after all, it was a huge number in terms of the number of troops, military expenditures, and logistics supplies.

The General Staff was not a loss to the Empire's combat machine, and soon worked out a detailed battle plan. When the emperor saw that he was happy with the plan, and just out of anger at Tsarist Russia, he gladly approved it and ordered troops to be sent into battle. The Chinese Empire only contributed part of its military expenditures, and the rest of the larger part of the military expenditure and all the logistical materials were provided by the nearby vassal states along the way.

As a result, less than one-third of the Chinese Empire's troops were actually dispatched, and most of the rest of the troops were provided by these vassals of the Chinese Empire. In this way, even if there is a loss of troops, it will not cause the empire's field corps to suffer heavy losses. Moreover, the actual war materials and civilian servants are close to zero, because in the order issued by Emperor Feng Yunshan to these vassal states, he directly singled out that in addition to the war materials of their respective armies, they should also share some of the logistics supplies of the Chinese Imperial Army, such as grain, grass and horses.

Such a request may seem excessive, but in reality, none of the vassal states opposed it. Of course, this is because of the strength of the Chinese Empire, and precisely because of the strength and deterrence of the field corps of the captive army, so that a number of vassal states bowed their heads and surrendered, and had to obey orders to send troops. Even, the original emperor Feng Yunshan only asked the Sikh Kingdom to send 50,000 troops, and the Gurkha Kingdom to send 10,000 troops, but these two countries were afraid of the imperial force and took the initiative to ask for more troops, the Sikh Kingdom sent 70,000 troops, the Gurkha Kingdom sent 20,000 troops, the Bengal Sultanate sent 100,000 troops, and the newly annexed Kazakh Khanate (except for the Kokand Khanate and the Bukhara Khanate) also took the initiative to ask for nearly 100,000 troops.

This made Shi Dakai, as the main general, a little shocked and proud: under the leadership of the emperor, the Chinese Empire really rose strongly, different from the false Wanbang Dynasty of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, this is the style of the real suzerain, this is the style of the Heavenly Empire.

Thinking of this, Shi Dakai raised his head, summoned his own soldiers and ordered: "Quickly spread the general of the staff of the Western Expeditionary Army, this king has a military situation to discuss!" ”

Soon, the generals Tao Jintang and Shi Mingkai hurriedly came, Shi Dakai nodded casually, asked people to open the battle map, and said: "The battle situation on the northern and southern fronts has not yet come. By the way, what is the situation of those enemy troops in front, are they still retreating? ”

Tao Jintang and Shi Mingkai were obviously led by Tao Jintang, and Tao Jintang replied: "King Yuyi, the enemy army in front has not changed much, and it has been retreating backwards, but it is no longer like before, our army has advanced for several miles, and they have retreated for several miles, and this time they retreated nearly thirty kilometers at once, and began to garrison on the northeast bank of nearly ten kilometers from the Volga River, as if they were building fortifications and preparing a defensive line.

Among them, the enemy's Caucasian Corps and Yergeny Corps, one south and one north, are less than ten kilometers apart, echoing each other, and there are many Tsarist Russian troops from the upper Volga River and the Yergeny Heights, but there are not many of them. Depending on the situation, the Russian army wants to rely on the Volga River as a front to block the offensive of our army. ”

Tao Jintang was the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom when it captured Wuchang when it opened a branch to take office, the first batch of Jinshi who was admitted, because of his talent, he was later accepted by Shi Dakai under the account to obey orders, and assisted his staff Zhang Suimou, after Zhang Suimou was personally ordered to be executed by Emperor Feng Yunshan because of corruption, Tao Jintang became Shi Dakai's chief staff and followed him all the way to the west. He arranged the specific marching strategy and logistical supply arrangements along the way of this western expedition. As for Shi Mingkai, although he is Shi Dakai's brother and he is also clever, he can only succumb to it and become his deputy.

Shi Dakai laughed and said, "Great! Since the Russians wanted to fight us there, we got their wish! The order was given to go down and slow down the march, all the officers and men only marched in the morning, and rested in the afternoon and night, so as to conserve their physical strength and prepare for the big battle in the coming day. Let the Russians build their fortifications well and enhance their defensive confidence, lest they run like rabbits all the way, so that the king has not fought much along the way, and let a group of soldiers of the Western Expedition panic. ”