It crossed Henan in June and split into Hubei in July. Although there were many twists and turns in the route of the marching and turning of the Twist Army, on the whole, it was a straight line to the south.

In Xiangyang, the Twist Army fought again with the Hubei Army and the Hunan Army. Heavy losses on both sides!

In the past, the twisted army that had been avoiding the real and attacking the false, and the guerrilla attack, this time it was expected that Wang Ba ate the scales, and he was determined to fight to the death with the Hubei army and the Hunan army. Regardless of the threat of the Huai army and the Yu army chasing and killing behind them to cut off the back road.

This battle was an unprecedented bloody battle in Hubei in recent years. Since the decline of the Taiping Army, Hubei has not had such a decisive battle for many years. The Qing army lost six or seven thousand people, two general soldiers, and seven staff generals and deputy generals were killed in battle. When the fighting was at its most intense, Peng Yucheng personally led the charge and fell into the encirclement of the Twist Army, almost dying.

It is rumored that Li Yuntai and Zhang Zongdao, the owners of the White Banner, also died in Hanshui, the second person Ren Huabang and Zhang Zongjue, the king of Youwo, were seriously injured, and the Five Banners Twist Army lost more than 10,000 foot horses. But they finally tore through the defense line of the Qing army in Hubei, first crossing the Han River and then the Yangtze River, leaving only 20,000 Xu Twist troops to pierce the Shinanfu in mid-July like a sharp sword.

"Shi Dakai is really a fragrant bun!" Liu Xian laughed. First Chen Decai and Li Lanyijun, and then the current Twist Army, Shi Dakai is a magnet, with his resounding reputation and strong prestige, the anti-Qing forces that lost their head after the fall of Tianjing were all attracted to the southwest.

"Maybe ......, Shi Dakai can become the second Li Dingguo." He really has that potential.

Since receiving such a letter, Gaxiunaoer's expeditionary army has entered a four-month period of isolation. The news and letters in Hanzhong could no longer be sent to Gaxiunaoer, and Liu Xian could not pass the letters back to Gaxiunaoer.

Because the wind and snow in the eastern part of Qinghai are already very strong, from time to time, or I don't know when there will be heavy snowfall. And the altitude of this place is four or five thousand meters or even higher, when the expeditionary army first entered Qinghai, altitude sickness does not know how much trouble the whole army suffered. Due to the extreme temperature and complex climate, even the local Mongolian and Tibetan herders rarely go out in winter.

Whether it is Hanzhong to Ga Xiunaoer or Liu Xian to Hanzhong to reply to the letter, the probability of accidents on the way is too great. Liu Xian could not think of wasting the lives of the most reliable part of his men on this, and after the letter in mid-September, the two sides suspended contact.

In October and November, when the time came to the last month of the sixth year of Tongzhi, the long-lost column of the expeditionary army finally sounded on the shore of Gaxiunaoer Lake.

Man is a very strange and durable creature. Excellent environmental adaptability should be one of the greatest strengths of human beings.

At the end of August and the beginning of September, the expeditionary army that shouted that it was too cold and too cold [the focus was on the Qin army], and in September and October, he was directly in the earthen house for two months, and the bones should be rusty. In November, when it was colder, many soldiers began to walk outside the mud huts. In September and October, the tiresome "digging ice and water" of thousands of people turned out to be a task that the squadrons vied with each other in November.

Obviously, the Qin army had slowly adapted to this winter, which was much colder than that of the Han land.

So in December, Liu Xian waved his hand, and the indispensable exercises in the past officially began.

The harsh winter exercises people's physique, but it also tempers people's will.

When the spring of the seventh year of Tongzhi came to the earth, when the expeditionary army that had stayed in Gaxiu Naoer for several months walked on the road to the northwest again, the 5,000 energetic Qin soldiers not only completely adapted to altitude sickness, but also showed that they did not spend this harsh winter in abandonment.

This is a much stronger force than last year. They have endured the trials of the harsh winter and withstood the temptation of loneliness. After a few months of isolation, the Qin army is still the same, the hussar battalion and the Dong army are all in their eyes, and there are few people who have violated military discipline during the Qin army of 5,000 people. The hussar battalion and Dong Fuxiang's department, which are only in their early 2,000s in total, have been arrested and imprisoned hundreds of times because of fights, and there are even evil things like losing red eyes due to gambling and slashing people with knives.

Military regulations and military discipline are the most reliable basis for reflecting a unit's combat strength. None of the strong armies in history have corrupt military discipline, at least they are absolutely disciplined internally. The Mongols, the Eight Banners, no matter how much they kill and plunder, they are also outsiders, and within them, they are all very well-behaved.

And the times have developed to the present, and this is even more true of modern armies that use hot weapons. Dong Fuxiang was so bad that he thought that his team had been mixed with the Qin army for more than half a year, and his mental outlook was like a new one, and the military regulations and military discipline had been strengthened a lot, but he didn't know that the goods were to be thrown away, and he was simply embarrassed.

Liu Xian has always been laissez-faire to Dong Fuxiang's department. What he values in his eyes is only Dong Fuxiang, not the little Dong Jun of 600 people. As long as Dong Fuxiang is self-motivated, the longer he follows him, the more dissatisfied he will become with the old-style army under him. When this dissatisfaction accumulates to a certain extent, when Dong Jun's pace of progress is really unable to move forward, this potential contradiction will naturally erupt. At that time, either Dong Jun's old forces retreated and Dong Jun took on a new look, or Dong Fuxiang left as a single, and no matter which one it was, it would be a great opportunity for Liu Xian to subdue Dong Fuxiang.

In April, when the first message packet of the new year from Hanzhong arrived in Liu Xian's hands, the expeditionary army had already arrived in Solkuri. This place takes a step further along the road to the west, that is, Khotan in southern Xinjiang, and along the way to the northeast is Dunhuang and Anxi Prefecture in Gansu. That's a road to the North!

Two thousand years ago, the north and south of the Silk Road were the current southern and northern Xinjiang.

Liu Xian can now wave his army to attack the north and south at will, because whether it is eastern Khotan or the Dunhuang area, there are very few rebels in southern Xinjiang and riots in Suzhou. Especially in Dunhuang, the footsteps of the Suzhou rioters have not really stood here at all, Ma Wenlu has rebelled for three years, and only occasionally his soldiers go to Dunhuang for a walk, and they go back to Suzhou after playing soy sauce.

There is also the former governor of Urumqi on the high platform near Suzhou, and now Urumqi is all in Chenglu. Even if Cheng Lu is a desperate waste, it has been three years since he sent troops from Inner Mongolia, and Beijing asked him to go out of the customs and enter Hami, and cooperate with Jing Lian, the deputy minister of Hami, to recover Urumqi. However, he rebelled with the Suzhou riot army, and the garrison did not come out. The annual levy was levied according to the quota, and the donations of grain, bran, coal, oil candles, and New Year's Festival rewards were made, but the soldiers never went out of the city. And in the high platform, he raised the opera troupe, and for the entertainment banquet, he also took his third aunt from Beijing to the army, and the barren and remote places were regarded as a nest of peace.

But no matter how waste Cheng Lu is, his soldiers and horses have always restrained part of Ma Wenlu's military strength. It also gave Jing Lian room to settle in the Anxi area of Dunhuang.

If Liu Xian entered Dunhuang, he would be able to enter Hami and Balikun, two places where the Ming forces were weak, through Anxi Prefecture, and some local small army leaders, such as the king of Hami [Hui-Wei] Division, the strength of Douding could not stop the rumbling iron cavalry of the expeditionary army at all.

When Jing Lian first served as the assistant minister of Hami, his subordinates only recruited more than 1,000 bravers, less than 100 horses, lack of food, and did not even have a decent place to garrison troops, so they could only camp in the ice and snow. But Jing Lian was reluctant to be loyal to his subordinates, paid a single account at night, burned the horse arrows, sat on the ground, and followed from time to time, so that the soldier's heart was consolidated. Ma Wenlu didn't want to see him gain a foothold in the Dunhuang area, so he sent a small force to attack, Jing Lian lured the enemy into the depths, and let the riot army fight until he was defeated in Anxi Prefecture.

In this way, he fought with the Suzhou rebel army for more than a year, the small force of the rebel army attacked, failed again and again, and the large army of soldiers and horses was unwilling to leave Suzhou, so that the Qing court could still maintain a little majesty in the Dunhuang area. Up to last year, Jing Lian had recruited more than 3,600 indigenous households and solicited more than 20,000 stone of miscellaneous grain, thus making his small army have no worries about food rations.

And in the battles he fought with the Suzhou rioters, the team leader Wen Lin was Jing Lian's most powerful assistant. In addition, Wenlin has served in northern Xinjiang for many years, and before the Xinjiang rebellion, he was stationed in the Qitai area for many years, and he knew the geography and local tribal forces of northern Xinjiang well.

If Liu Xian can get the help of these two people, it will be easy to occupy Hami and Balikun. Then his army can go straight to the ancient city, Qitai, and look at Urumqi from afar!

But in this way, there are two problems he needs to face: first, will Ma Wenlu in Suzhou raise a large army to attack?

After all, the expeditionary army and Jing Lian's small army of 1,000 people are completely two concepts, and the threat to Suzhou after gaining a foothold is self-evident. Not to mention that Liu Xian also had the evil example of breaking through Xining Mansion last year.

The possibility of Ma Wenlu sending troops is very big.

Second, after recovering northern Xinjiang, Liu Xian had to face Tsarist Russia. What if there is a strife? He is not the Zuo Zongtang army with smooth baggage roads, abundant manpower, and advanced weapons!

Zuo Zongtang had the entire Manchu Qing Dynasty as his backing, and he could force Tsarist Russia to cede Ili. Liu Xian's expeditionary army definitely does not have this energy. Although now the ruler of Ili is still Abutla. But you can think with your toes that Tuo Ming was destroyed, and when Liu Xian's soldiers entered Yili, Lao Maozi would definitely insert a kick. What will Liu Xian do then? Turn around and start fighting, or report to Beijing and let them negotiate with Lao Maozi? And after the start of the war, will Turpan and southern Xinjiang be recovered?

Or put aside the matter of Ili first and advance the army to southern Xinjiang. However, Liu Xian seems that this move is also very inappropriate. One is that there is no reason to do so; The second is that Tsarist Russia has long coveted Xinjiang, and Ili is the fat meat in their mouths, and they allowed Abutra to rise before, just to use this knife to kill the Manchus and put on a 'hypocrisy' skin for themselves. Make your appearance not too embarrassing. It's not that I don't have the ability to occupy Ili!

Historically, the Russians quickly seized Ili when they marched north in Aquba and completely defeated the Tuoming army. Now Liu Xian marched into the northern Xinjiang and destroyed Tu Ming, isn't it the same reason to go north with Agu Bai? R1152