Shi Le, a member of the Qiang people, caught up with an excellent opportunity and grew stronger unexpectedly, and when the Jin army was unable to look westward, Shi Le conquered most of the Western Regions in one fell swoop and became the veritable overlord of the Western Domain. The so-called people who drink water and don't forget to dig wells can't help but express their gratitude to Tuoba Xianbei who single-handedly supported them.

So how do you repay the favor?

First of all, Shi Le immediately declared himself a vassal to Tuoba Pugen after conquering the Western Regions, saying that he had no intention of breaking away from the Xianbei people and going it alone. This is not that Shi Leduo is righteous, but he is very soberly aware that the Great Jin will never let the people of the Qian tribe dominate the Western Regions, and there will be a battle between the two sooner or later.

Then there was Tuoba Pugen who helped Mobei, and Shile selected a part of the large amount of materials seized in the Western Regions and generously gave them to Tuoba Pugen. These materials greatly alleviated the problem of material shortage in Mobei, and also made Tuoba Pugen relax his vigilance against Shile.

In the face of the doubts of the generals, Shi Le explained: "The stronger Mobei is, the safer we are. Only when the threat of Mobei is big enough, the eyes of the Jin people will not only stare at the Western Regions. Our strength is still very weak, and we still need to grow up under the wings of the Xianbei people! ”

"General, how should we develop in the future?"

"To the west, all the way to the west, only by conquering the countries west of the Green Ridge can we have the strength to wrestle with the Great Jin!" Since he came to the Western Regions, Shi Le's horizons have suddenly broadened a lot, and he used to only focus on Mobei and the Central Plains. Now he knew that there was still a lot of space in the west, and he felt that there was no chance to turn over, but now he thought that the future of the Qiang tribe was infinitely bright.

Thirteen years of Hongwu. In mid-March, Shile and Persia combined 100,000 troops to conquer the Dayue clan again, and the two sides carried the aftermath of the victory of the last decisive battle, and attacked all the way, invincible, and almost wiped out the Dayue clan. Divide the Otsuki clan into two parts, east and west, with Persia and Shile each occupying one.

After stabilizing the rear, Shile sent Huyan Mo to lead 50,000 cavalry to support Tuoba Pugen's war against Tuoba Biyan. Tuoba Pugen, who was supported by the wealth of the Western Regions this time, can be described as ambitious, and the 100,000 cavalry that was originally going to support the Western Regions was used to conquer Tuoba Biyan again.

After Tuoba Pugen received support from Schler. 150,000 cavalry marched south in three routes. Although this is not all the strength of Tuoba North, but the 150,000 cavalry is also a large number, it can be seen that this time Tuoba Biyan used 150,000 elite cavalry, it can be said that he is determined to destroy Tuoba Biyan in one fell swoop.

Originally, the progress of the coalition forces was good. But at this time, the sky is not beautiful. It rained heavily. It rained for dozens of days, and the road, which was originally unobstructed, became muddy due to the heavy rain. This rain may be a good thing for the people. It just so happened that spring ploughing had just ended, and it was the time when the rain was needed.

However, this rain was nothing less than a catastrophe for the attackers, and the cavalry was almost completely useless in such a heavy rain, and the battle could only be fought on foot. Tuoba Biyan waited for work with the help of the Great Jin, while the Mobei coalition army was frozen and tired because of the heavy rain march. As a result, at the time of the battle, the Mobei coalition army suffered heavy casualties and finally had to retreat.

Of course, this battle can end so tirelessly, thanks to the heavy rain, the vast majority of the nomads on the grassland are first-class strong soldiers, but if they get off the horse, the combat effectiveness will be greatly discounted, so in the face of the Great Jin reinforcements who are waiting for work, it is natural for the Xianbei people to meet and break the bloodstream.

After such a fruitless battle, Shi Le did not change his attitude towards Mobei, he still supported Tuoba Pugen's southern expedition, the purpose of which was of course to contain the westward advance of the Great Jin, while he himself turned to dominate the territory, looked at the Central Plains inside, sat on the mountain and watched the tiger fight, in an attempt to profit from it.

Friendly relations were established between Persia and Shile because of the partition of the Great Moon Clan, but the good times were short-lived, and the relationship between the two countries began to crack after the partition of the Great Moon Clan. There was a big dispute over the ownership of the Dawan Kingdom, and as a result, the Qiang people became angry, tore up the signed treaty, forcibly crossed the Wuhu River, and occupied all the areas that originally belonged to Persia, that is, almost the entire old territory of the Dayue clan was occupied by the Qiang people, so the relationship between Persia and Shile took a sharp turn for the worse.

In addition to the territorial problem, the more serious problem was the trade problem of the Silk Road, after the Qiang people controlled the Western Regions, the Sogdian merchants became the subjects of the Qiang, and their business income became an important economic source for the Qiang. Coupled with the similarity of the two sides, Shile was very tolerant of the Lither merchants.

At that time, Sogdian merchants were mainly engaged in the business of reselling silk from China to the West. At this time, Persia was in the middle of the obstruction, not only monopolizing the silk trade between the East and the West at that time, but also began to enforce the silk ban after learning the silk production technology. This was tantamount to cutting off the Sogdians' financial routes, and it also caused economic damage in the territory under Shile's control.

In order to open the Silk Road to Persia, Shile sent his henchman Kui'an to carry a large amount of fine silk to the Persian minister Psidore. However, after Pucidor showed the envoy the silk produced in Persia, he actually burned all the Central Plains silk that Kui'an carried. Not only that, Pusedor also blockaded the ports of the entire Persian Gulf region, and forbade merchant ships from the Great Jin to dock, and the trade volume between the Great Jin and Persia has dropped sharply since the beginning of this year.

Former allies turned enemies, and Schler once again played the same old game, uniting one side against the other to his heart's content. At this time, the people of the Qiang people were not looking for another country, but Eastern Rome. The Eastern Romans, also known as Byzantium, were located in present-day Asia Minor and the Greek Peninsula, and they inherited the political and cultural traditions of ancient Rome, and were rich and powerful in the army, but at the same time they were the old enemies of Persia.

Due to the efeud between the Eastern Romans and the Persians, Schle succeeded in forming an alliance with the Romans. The Eastern Roman Emperor Constantine the Great allowed Sogdian merchants to enter the country to sell silk without going through Persian intermediaries, and at the request of the Persians, he annulled the peace treaty with Persia, and war broke out again between Eastern Rome and Persia.

At this time, the relationship between Eastern Rome and Shile was close, and the envoys from both sides continued, and Persia also constantly sent troops to ambush the envoys of both sides, and even poisoned them, but they were unsuccessful. In this way, Persia fell into the quagmire of fighting on two fronts, and was attacked by Shile and the Eastern Romans. However, the Persians were also one of the superpowers at this time, although they were not destroyed, they resisted very hard.

In order to relieve his own pressure, Pusidore remembered the Dajin merchant who had been driven away by him before, and he had no choice but to invite the other party back again. This time, Psidor not only continued to agree with the merchants of the Great Jin Dynasty to trade in Persia, but also leased a port in the Persian Gulf, the port of Girov, to the Great Jin in order to form an alliance with the Great Jin.

Just when the world situation was abruptly changing, Sima Shu, who was far away in Chang'an, was also discussing with the cabinet ministers about forming an alliance with Persia. In the Garter Hall of the Royal Palace, several cabinet ministers sat around and expressed their views.

"Your Majesty, the minister thinks that it is not appropriate for my Great Jin to form an alliance with Persia, and the country is completely capricious and villainous, and it is really not trustworthy! Some time ago, in disregard of the covenant between our two countries, we wantonly expelled the merchants of our dynasty, and now they need me to be promoted, and they turn to me for help, Weichen has never seen such a despicable country! Yang Xuanzhi expressed his anger indignantly, of course he was angry, some time ago Persia expelled the merchants of the Great Jin Dynasty because of their mastery of silk technology, which caused the Yang family to suffer heavy losses.

"Hahaha, love Qing and don't be angry, isn't this just the right time for us to see the true face of the Persians? I have long told you that there is no credibility between countries at all, and that the intersection between the two is about the entanglement of interests! Let's talk about the pros and cons of my alliance with Persia. Sima Shu smiled and comforted.

"Your Majesty, it seems that the temporary alliance with Persia will be beneficial for us to threaten Shile in the Western Regions from the rear, according to the news from the Intelligence Agency, Shile now not only controls most of the Western Regions, but also includes the original Dayue clan and Dawan into its rule. If it weren't for Shile's desire to anger Tuoba Pugen in Mobei, I'm afraid he would have called Wang Jianguo a long time ago. ”

"The strength of Shile has greatly threatened the economic interests of our Great Jin, so getting rid of Shile as soon as possible is conducive to the development of Great Jin. But to get rid of Shiler, you can't do without the help of Persia. Therefore, the minister suggested that an alliance with Persia should be formed as soon as possible, and once the alliance was formed with the other party, Shile would face a two-front battle, which would greatly reduce the difficulty of our attack on the Western Regions. Dussi, on the other hand, was a clear advocate of an alliance with Persia.

"Well, well, since everyone has agreed to form an alliance with Persia, then I will approve it, and the cabinet will be responsible for signing the agreement with Persia." Seeing that everyone had reached an agreement, Sima Shu did not hesitate and quickly made up his mind, "By the way, Shizhi, has the Xiang army arrived at the designated position?" ”

"Your Majesty, the 126,000-thousand-chamber army has entered the Hexi Corridor according to the predetermined plan, and is making final preparations, and the commander Zhang Fang has arrived in Dunhuang and officially took over the command of the Western Expeditionary Army. In addition, the general Ma Xian also protected the nobles who had been exiled to the prison sea from various countries in the Western Regions, and they also officially sent a request to my Great Jin to send troops! Zu Ti bowed.

"Well, yes, tell Zhang Fang not to be careless, that Shi Le is not simple, each of the eighteen horsemen under his command is not simple, and his ability to sweep the Western Regions with 50,000 iron horses shows that Shi Le's ability is by no means low." Sima Shu didn't dare to underestimate Shile, this illiterate slave could grow into an emperor of a country, and he would definitely let anyone who underestimated him receive enough lessons.

"Yes, please rest assured, before this, the Privy Council has already transferred the intelligence coefficient related to Shile to General Zhang Fang, and this is done to prevent General Zhang Fang from making mistakes."

"Good! In this battle, we not only want to control the Western Regions, but also take down Kangju, Dawan and other countries in Central Asia! If we have the opportunity, we will recover Mobei to completely end the rule of the Xianbei people on the grassland! "Sima Shu's face is full of spirit, and he is unstoppable. (To be continued......)