Since February, countless merchants from the Western Regions have been blocked from taking a step forward at the Jade Gate, and in addition to this, each of them has been stuffed with a declaration of war by the Yan soldiers. Pen, Fun, Pavilion www.biquge.info one for each country in the Western Regions, and no country has failed.

The content is all the same, they are all officially notified to all countries that the Yan Kingdom has officially declared war on the Western Regions Alliance. In the text, the Yan State announced that it would cut off all trade with the countries of the Western Regions during the war, and forbade the people of the Western Regions to enter and leave the territory of the Yan Kingdom, and those who violated the order would be killed!

The declaration of war did not cause much trouble in the Western Regions, after all, most countries in the Western Regions had expected this, and now it was just speculation that had been confirmed.

Among them, the powerful countries of the Western Regions, such as the Cheshi Hou Kingdom, the Yanqi Kingdom, the Khotanese Kingdom, the Qiuzi Kingdom, the Wusun Kingdom, and the Shanshan Kingdom, have already eaten the rudder and are determined to die not to let the Yan Kingdom return to the Western Regions, as for other small countries such as Yuli, there is no choice at all. Except for Shule, the rest of the countries are all controlled by the six major powers, and even if they don't want to get involved in the dispute, there is no way to get out.

In mid-February, after receiving the Yan declaration of war, the Western Regions Alliance officially announced the severance of relations with Yan.

At this point, the entire Western Regions was soon filled with a pre-war atmosphere of arrows and arrows.

Standing on the tower of the East Gate City, Deng Yue and Li Bai can overlook the entire city, and Gaochang is divided into three cities: inner city, outer city and palace city.

The outer city is roughly square, the wall is four zhang high, and the circumference is more than ten miles. Most of them are built of rammed earth, and some sections are repaired with adobe, and there are protruding horse faces on the periphery.

There are two gates on each side, and the gates on the east and west sides are the tallest, and there are urn cities with twists and turns.

Since the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Li Guangli's army set up Gaochangbi in Tuntian, and since then it has become the east-west artery of the Silk Road.

After hundreds of years of wind and rain, Gaochang City has become a heroic city that is easy to defend and difficult to attack, and it is the first stop of the Central Plains Dynasty to enter the Western Regions from Liangzhou. At present, since the former domestic annex of the Che Division, this place has been occupied by the Yan army, and the captain Deng Yueqin led 6,000 cavalry to garrison here, becoming one of the support points of the Yan State in the Western Regions.

Deng Yue and Li Bai received orders from the Changshi Mansion and the Liangzhou Governor's Mansion some time ago, asking them to assist the former king of the Cheshi Division to hold Gaochang before the arrival of the main force of the Western Expedition.

As the sun set in the west, Li Bai suddenly pointed to the north and worried: "Boshan, I heard that the Khan of the Gaoche tribe, Afu Zhiluo, has also joined the Western Regions Alliance, which is not a good thing for Gaochang!" ”

"Originally, there was a strong country in the northwest of Gaochang that was eyeing the former country, and now there is a strong enemy in the northeast, in case the other party takes advantage of the fact that the main force of our army has not arrived, and concentrates its forces to attack Gaochang first, we will be in danger."

Deng Yue was also worried, at the moment there were only 6,000 garrisons in Gaochang City, and even if the former country of the Cheshi Division was added, the total strength was less than 8,000 people. The enemy's Cheshi Houguo plus the Gaoche tribe has nearly 100,000 troops, and if you add the Yanqi Kingdom to the west, the enemy can send 100,000 troops to attack Gaochang.

"However, Master Li doesn't have to worry too much, there is a Heavenly Mountain Flame Mountain in the north, whether it is the Cheshi Houguo or the Gaoche Tribe, if you want to invade Gaochang, you must first cross the Flame Mountain Heavenly Danger."

The Flame Mountain is a red mountain with undulating peaks of more than 100 kilometers, its mountain body is majestic and twisting, and the mountain is even more grassless, bare rocks and often covered by weathered sand. In the middle of summer, under the scorching sun, the heat wave of the red mountain rocks rolls and the crimson smoke clouds are steaming, and the hot air flow is rising.

The Flame Mountain stands across the north of Gaochang City and is the natural barrier of Gaochang City.

Li Bai looked at the blood-red flame mountain under the remnant sun, and couldn't help asking, "Boshan, where do you guess the king is now?" ”

Deng Yue thought for a while and replied: "The declaration of war document was transmitted to the Western Regions in February, and more than half a month has passed since then, and the main force of the army has reached Guzang at most, and it will take at least more than a month to reach the Western Regions." ”

"In other words, we're going to hold out for at least a month!"

……

Similar to Deng Yue's guess, the Western Expeditionary Army was indeed about to arrive in Guzang.

Just after the Chinese New Year, in the second half of January, Yan Wang Weishuo personally led a total of 110,000 infantry cavalry coalition troops and 3,000 guards, Duyang Hu, Ran Zhan, Chen An, Suo Bao, Xun Guanniang, Yao Lan, Yao Yisheng and other generals, left Luoyang, and went west.

It took nearly a month for the main force of the army to enter the border of Liangzhou. In order to ensure the logistical supply of the army, Han Shou, the secretary of the Joint Logistics Department of the Privy Council, personally sat in Guzang, and with the cooperation of Liangzhou Assassin Shi Gaoxu, more than 100,000 mules and horses and thousands of four-wheeled carriages were dispatched to transport materials along the cement straight road from Guzang to Luoyang.

Among the entourage generals, except for Yang Hu and Chen An, who were the 'old men' who had followed King Yan in the southern and northern wars, the rest of the generals such as Xun Guanniang, Ran Zhan, Suo Bao and other generals were all acting with King Yan for the first time, and these people were also newcomers who were concerned by Wei Shuo.

When many young generals saw the majestic King Yan, in addition to being very excited, they would inevitably have the intention of competing.

At the beginning of the Western Expedition, five young captains, including Suo Bao, Xun Guanniang, Yao Lan, Yao Yisheng, and Ran Zhan, were eager to try and prepare to show their skills in the Western Expedition. They competed with each other, secretly holding their breath to see who was promoted to the rank of general because of their military exploits.

The Governor of Shuozhou, Yang Hu, rode on his horse, followed Wei Shuo, turned his head and asked, "King, are we mainly plundering or occupying this western expedition?" ”

"Yan Guo has spent such a big price, naturally it will not just plunder. The purpose of this expedition to the west was to occupy the east of the Green Ridge and set up counties and counties on the land of the Western Regions. Before his arrival, the cabinet had already divided the Western Regions into two states on the map with the Tianshan Mountains as the boundary. In the future, this land was the base for the Yan Kingdom to continue its westward expansion. ”

"Continue west? It's not easy to go further west, Dawan and Kangju are good to say, the two countries have long since declined, and they can't stop my powerful Yan army at all, only Persia can be worried. ”

As a martial arts academy, Yang Hu is familiar with the surrounding forces, and knows that there are countless countries beyond the green mountains. And some countries are not much weaker than Yan, as far as Persia is concerned, it has been established for a hundred years, has a population of 30 million, and its national strength is thriving.

"Persia is indeed not to be underestimated, but we still have a trump card in our hands that may play an unexpected role."

The trump card that Wei Shuo said was the fleeing Persian prince, who had not forgotten to return to the country over the years, and constantly asked Yan to send troops. This year, when the news of Yan's large-scale westward expedition came out, the Persian prince also asked to go west with the Yan army, but was later repeatedly persuaded by Wei Shuo before giving up.

"Let's not talk about Persia, this is still a shadowless thing, the most critical thing at the moment is to defeat the Western Regions Alliance as soon as possible and occupy the vast area north and south of the Tianshan Mountains. Moreover, since the countries in the Western Regions believe in Buddhism, when the Sect is stationed, it will inevitably cause turmoil, and there may even be a religious war. ”

"Wars of Religion? What is a religious war? Yang Crane said with a puzzled face.

"If Yan Guo wants to completely digest the Western Regions, only by extending the teachings to the Western Regions and letting the people of the Western Regions accept Yan Guo's thoughts, will the Western Regions accept and identify with Yan Guo. With the passage of time, the people of the Western Regions will slowly become our Huaxia people, and at that time, it will be impossible for the Western Regions to stand on their own without China. ”

"However, Buddhism has been passed down for hundreds of years in the Western Regions, so how could it be willing to give up its dominance? They will definitely resist fiercely, and then the two major religions are likely to break out into a war in order to compete for dominance in the Western Regions, that is, a religious war. ”

"Humph! Does Buddhism have the strength to confront our teachings? Yang Yu was a little skeptical.

"Don't underestimate the influence of Buddhism in the Western Regions, the lords of various countries have to give Buddhist monks a little bit of thin face. Now that this powerful Western Regions Alliance is being promoted by Buddhism, how can you think that the countries of the Western Regions with evil intentions can be so easily united? ”

Wei Shuo has more resources than Yang Ju and knows more insiders. According to the investigation of the Military Intelligence Agency and the Secret Intelligence Department, from the beginning of Yan Guo's expression of intention to go west, Buddhism in the Western Regions began to plan a joint confrontation early in order to deal with the imminent invasion of the teachings.

After a month-long journey, it was not until late February that Wei Shuo and the Western Expeditionary Army finally arrived in Guzang.

Liangzhou Governor Liu Yao, Assassin Shi Gaoxu, Joint Logistics Department Shangshu Han Shou, Captain Zhou Fu and other Liangzhou civil and military dozens of people went out of the city forty miles to greet King Yan and his party. (To be continued.) )