This is Liu Ze's first meeting with Wu Ju after 20 years, when he was in the fifth school of the Northern Army, Wu Ju was still a heroic young officer, this reunion, Liu Ze saw that Wu Ju was already white, and his body was obviously a little blessed, and the momentum of forging ahead and moving forward in his eyes was gone, and it was more of a sophisticated sleekness.

Wu Ju was full of excitement when he saw Liu Ze, not only that Liu Ze had saved his life in Qingyun Mountain, but more importantly, when Wu Ju was doing Cangwu Taishou, the original backer Liu Biao fell, and he was simply unable to resist the crazy counterattack of Jiaozhou Hao Qiang Shixie, just when his life and death were on the front line, Liu Ze not only sent troops to relieve his siege and kill the enemy Xie, but also entrusted him with the important task of Jiaozhou Assassin History, and was deeply favored by Liu Ze twice, how Wu Ju was not grateful to Liu Ze.

Liu Ze visited Jiaozhou for the first time, and Liu Ze also attached great importance to this extremely southern land under his rule, and inquired in detail about Jiaozhou's customs, products, resources, economic development, etc., and Wu Juyi told them one by one. Liu Ze affirmed Wu Ju's governance in Jiaozhou, and also told Wu Ju to attach importance to the relationship with the Yi people such as Nanyue, and do his best to ensure the stability of the southern border; On the basis of stabilizing the current territory, it is necessary to send troops south in due course to open up the land route to Malacca. The Strait of Malacca is known as a golden waterway and an important part of the Maritime Silk Road, and if a stronghold is established on the Strait of Malacca, it will definitely strengthen the control of this golden waterway.

There is also the western expedition to Bashu, Liu Ze faced the biggest difficulty or from the logistics supply, stretching thousands of miles of marching routes, the road is difficult and dangerous, the logistics supply will be an unprecedented test, although Liu Ze from Jingzhou to transport a large number of heavy materials, but completely to meet the 50,000 army for several months or even longer logistics supply. The long supply line is obviously not enough to support the entire Western Expedition campaign, so according to the principle of proximity, Jiaozhou will be responsible for the main part of the grain supply, and the responsibility of Jiaozhou Assassin Wu Ju will be the logistics chief.

Wu Ju naturally didn't dare to slack off, and obeyed Liu Ze's requests one by one, and swore an oath. We must do our best to ensure the supply of grain and grass for the special task force, and although the poor people in Jiaozhou are poor, it is not too difficult to cope with and support the food expenses of the 50,000 troops.

After a short stop at Jiaozhi, Liu Ze sent his troops to the northwest, all the way along the Red River Valley, the terrain gradually rose, and the wide and flat plains disappeared, replaced by low hills. The road is also starting to bump. Until a high mountain lies in front of them, the guide Liu Ze, this mountain was originally nameless, the local Yi people called it Laoshan, it is the junction of Jiaozhou and Yizhou, over the old mountain, it entered the boundary of Yizhou.

In the Nanzhong region of Yizhou, there are many tribes living in it. Among them, the larger tribes include Yelang, Yunnan, Qiongdu, Zhuyun, Kunming, Xi, Xiaodu, Ranyu and Baima, collectively known as the Southwest Barbarians. These barbarians survived on this land for a long time, until Qin Shi Huang unified the six countries, opened the five-foot road, set up counties, and the footprints of the Central Plains Dynasty were the first to step into the land. On the basis of Qin Shi Huang, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty further opened Yelang Road, Nanyi Road, and Bonan Road. In Nanzhong, counties and vassal states such as Qike County, Jianwei County, Yuewang County, Yizhou County, and Yongchang County were set up successively, and the entire Nanzhong region was included in the territory of the imperial court. Later, when Wang Mang was in turmoil, he implemented a harsh policy of heavy taxation against the southwest barbarians, and the southwest Yi rebelled until the Eastern Han Dynasty. It can be regarded as being re-placed under the jurisdiction of Yizhou. Since Dong Zhuo, the Central Plains has fallen into chaos, and the rule of Liu Yan and Liu Zhang's father and son in Yizhou is not very peaceful, there was Ren Qi's rebellion before, and then Zhao Wei's rebellion, just the land of Bashu is enough for Liu Zhang's father and son, and the southwest border has long been beyond the reach of the whip.

When Yizhou Mu's dominance over Nanzhong was declining, Meng Shu rose strongly, unified the southwest barbarian tribes in one fell swoop, proclaimed himself the southwest barbarian king, drove out the subordinate officials of the Han Dynasty, divided the territory and became an independent kingdom south of Lushui.

Since Liu Zhang's sphere of influence has been limited to the north of Lushui, and the south of Lushui has completely become Meng Shu's sphere of influence, Liu Ze's plan to detour into Nanzhong and enter Bashu is extremely low, even so, Liu Ze is also cautious, after entering Nanzhong, Liu Ze made people withdraw the banner of King Jing, and raised the banner of Jiaozhou Assassin History, and at the same time, the 50,000 army also died down, and only claimed more than 10,000 soldiers and horses to the outside world, even if Liu Zhang learned that there was a war in Nanzhong, It is only thought that the regional military operation of the Jiaozhou Thorn History Department, which borders Nanzhong, intends to infiltrate the Nanzhong region, and it is not thought that this will be a large-scale military operation against Yizhou.

After crossing the old mountain, Liu Ze took Gao Ran as the vanguard, commanded 8,000 elite soldiers to open roads and build bridges in the mountains, and he personally led the army to march later. Meng Huo set up his barbarian rule in the central area of Dianchi, the center of the south, Meng Shu was very strict on the north road, and was negligent in the southern area bordering Jiaozhou, not to mention sending troops to garrison, that is, there were not even a few large tribes, in the southern region, there were only some scattered small tribes. With the strength of these small tribes, wanting to block the pace of the Jing army's advance is tantamount to using the mantis arm as a car, so Gao Ran led the army all the way in, and the barbarian tribe fled in despair.

For the Jing army, the greatest difficulty in the march obviously did not come from the barbarian tribes, but from the miasma, poisonous swamps, dense jungles and steep mountain roads in the southern and central regions. Between the deserted mountains, there are large and small tropical jungles, as if no one has set foot in them for thousands of years, thick fallen leaves rot into mud in the forest, and in some places even as deep as several zhang, if someone carelessly steps into the poisonous swamp, it will disappear without a trace in an instant. The miasma diffused in the forest is a terrible invisible killer, under the light of the noon sun, the miasma is like a cloud of steam, permeating the forest, within a hundred steps, it is difficult to distinguish the human figure, and what is even more terrible is that once someone inhales the miasma, he will immediately fall to the ground and die. In this vast primeval forest, poisonous snakes and beasts are frequently infested, and even many unknown and inconspicuous small insects may become deadly killers.

Xishuangbanna is a tourist mecca with beautiful scenery in later generations, but in the Han Dynasty, it is definitely a daunting road to death, and the word beautiful has absolutely nothing to touch, so no one will believe that Liu Ze marched into Bashu from here, whether it is the enemy of Yizhou or the own side of Jingzhou, it can be attacked by surprise, and the army from the enemy's unexpected place can receive twice the result with half the effort, not to mention that Liu Ze has made careful and detailed arrangements for this march.

First of all, in the choice of time, Liu Ze avoided the hot and sultry summer and autumn, the miasma in the south is the most abundant in summer and autumn, and the winter is relatively light. Secondly, in order to deal with the miasma plague, Zhang Ji and Hua Tuo spared no effort to develop the "miasma pill", after testing, the miasma pill on the prevention and treatment of miasma poisoning is very obvious, the effective rate is as high as ninety. In this expedition to the west, Liu Ze also equipped a large number of medicinal materials, especially for malaria, typhoid fever and other epidemic diseases, and made full preparations. At the same time, Liu Ze strictly ordered all troops not to drink raw water, not to eat undercooked food, to avoid contact with decomposing animal carcasses, and to bury the remains of dead people and livestock in a timely manner. Through these measures and means, the danger of epidemic diseases can be fundamentally eliminated.

As for the difficulty of the road, for this army that has been good at fighting for a long time and has always been famous for fighting tough battles, this is nothing, Liu Ze believes that even if this road is unprecedented, there will be no shortage of people in the future.

After passing through the vast primeval jungle, Liu Ze's army appeared in the Fuxian Lake area, and just when Liu Ze secretly breathed a sigh of relief, the barbarian king Meng Shu, who was only a hundred and ten miles away from here, was stunned. (To be continued......)