After arranging the personnel of the court, Liu Jun gave an order, "The royal driver is personally recruited, the troops are out of Jiayuguan, and the west is to march to Dzungaria!" ”

On 16 May, Liu Jun led the southern suburbs of Wenwu to worship the queen of heaven and went to the north of the city to inspect the troops sent out, and hundreds of thousands of people from Beijing came to watch and see them off.

The flag guards of the pro-army honor guard were dressed in red and blue uniforms, marching neatly, escorting the military flag to the front. Then the guards and the Praetorian Guards appeared in phalanx.

Infantry, cavalry, artillery, and sappers passed through one by one, and their neat and majestic military appearance amazed the people.

The total number of troops mobilized in this western expedition reached nearly 200,000, but it was composed of troops from many aspects, including the cavalry of the Mongol princes in Mobei, and the militia of the fishing and hunting tribes of the Evenks and other western Poltunguska tribes. There are also the cavalry of the Mongolian princes in Monan, the Han garrison in Monan, and the Heizhen tribe from the northeast.

In addition, the Han armies of Wusizang and Qinghai will also be dispatched, and the newly annexed Moxi Mongols and Shuote troops will also be recruited.

However, these units do not come together, but are divided into multiple battlefields with their own missions. The elite field troops mobilized from Shaanxi, Gansu, Lianghu, and the Central Plains have also been on standby at the front line of Jiayuguan long ago.

This time, Liu Jun went on an expedition, and the soldiers and horses led by the Beijing division were actually only his own guards and janissaries, with a total of only 30,000.

Only 10,000 people participated in the parade, and the other two foreign countries had already taken the lead and stood ahead.

10,000 guards and pro-army reference, can show the military momentum, but not weaker than 35,000, a neat phalanx, the military appearance is neat, the pace is calm, the armor is bright, more than 100 phalanxes before and after pass in turn, so that the people watching in the passionate drum music, always think that the past is 100,000 troops.

"The morale is high, and the morale of the army is usable."

Liu Zongzhou, the imperial historian, looked at this imposing army and couldn't help but admire.

"The people rushed to see them off, and there was no sorrow or tears, but only joy." The senator next to him also nodded in admiration, not only the military will be available, but the people's will will is also available. Among these people who saw them off were the families of the soldiers who went on the expedition, including their parents, wives, children and sisters, but everyone was not sad, only joyful.

From the court to the people, from the aristocratic officials to the peddlers and pawns, the entire Han Empire now seems to have revived the blood of martial arts in their bones. They are no longer afraid of war, they are no longer afraid of war, and even many people yearn for it.

For ordinary people, the war seemed to have turned into a bustle, very far away from themselves. The professional military system of the imperial court basically made them not have to worry about going to the battlefield, and soldiers became a profession, and only the best young people were selected to be soldiers, and ordinary people couldn't be even if they wanted to. Especially those officers and technical soldiers, it is to select those good seedlings who are more than ten years old and cultivate from an early age, if the children of which family can be selected into the junior military academy, or which young guys can be selected to enlist, this is a great joy for their whole family.

Professional soldiers have now become the most enviable profession for young people, and it is also the profession that young girls are most willing to marry.

If you can become a soldier, you will have better treatment, and there will be opportunities for learning and education in the army, even if you can't be a non-commissioned officer in the end, you can't be promoted to the head of the coach, and after a few years, you can return to your hometown, with this experience in the army, you can also find a good way out, and even be able to enter the government as an official.

Being a soldier is one of the best ways out for many young people from ordinary families, and being a soldier is equivalent to finding a bright road, even if the family was poor before, there will be girls who are willing to marry without high courtesy. If you can be promoted to non-commissioned officer, you can stay in the army for a longer time, and even regard this as a permanent career, and you will have the opportunity to be promoted to the head of the coach, and enjoy generous salaries and benefits.

And for most people who don't have the opportunity to enter the barracks again, it's also a good thing. They don't have to go to service or fight, they can live their lives with peace of mind, even if the imperial court keeps fighting one battle after another, this year's southern expedition and next year's northern war, the next year's eastern expedition and the next year's western war, it has nothing to do with them, and it will not affect their lives.

When the imperial court fights a war, they don't have to be forcibly conscripted to the battlefield, nor do they have to be people's husbands, those who have special personnel to do it, and they don't even have to raise taxes because of the war. The imperial court has money, and there is no need to levy more taxes on them to fight a war, and even the more you fight, the more you earn.

On the contrary, the experience of the past few years tells everyone that the more the court fights, the better the people's livelihood will be. The more it fights, the more economic growth is stimulated, all walks of life seem to become busier, all kinds of raw materials and commodities need to increase, factory orders are busy, overtime, and workers are getting more and more wages. Even ordinary farmers have seen a surge in sales of many of their agricultural and sideline products and increased their incomes.

The common people do not know what the war economy is, nor do they understand the pull of the military industry on the national economy, they only know that the imperial court fights every day, which does not affect everyone, but makes everyone's life better and better. The income also increased, and life was better, and the imperial court would always encourage the people to immigrate after each piece of land, and the bold past would be able to get a large tract of land of their own. Even if you are more timid and stay, you can buy or rent the land of those who leave.

War also has casualties, but also sacrifices.

However, the Han Dynasty was established for several years, and the wars continued, but the casualties of the army were very small. Many of the more dangerous combat missions were undertaken by those who were released from abroad. In particular, the imperial court also has a very good pension system, which makes those people have a lot less worries.

The merchants also supported the war, and the war of the imperial court was a war of expansion, and for the merchants, expansion was also the continuous expansion of business opportunities.

Officials also supported the war, especially military generals.

For these professional soldiers, without war, their promotion will become extremely slow, and they will have to endure for many years. It is extremely difficult to get promoted just by staying up for seniority. Under normal circumstances, each level of promotion has a specified number of years, and one level up the ladder, there is no way to know when it is the day of emergence.

But if you rely on military merit, you can break through this limitation. What's more, in addition to promotion, you can also make a fortune in a war. Although the army has always said that soldiers are to protect their families and defend the country, in fact, if they are not well treated, who is willing to charge into battle. The soldiers of the Han Dynasty are not short of loyalty and bravery, but when they are willing to give their loyalty and bravery, they also hope to live a better life.

Usually the treatment and benefits are good, but when there is a war, this reward is not the same.

War is also a rare opportunity for many soldiers from ordinary backgrounds to be promoted to sergeant or even to head coach by virtue of their military merits. Even in times of war, sergeants and instructors have a very low chance of breaking down the barrier between soldiers and officers in the army and making an exception for promotion to officer.

Seeing that the imperial court has been disarming, many soldiers hope that there will be a war, let them continue to stay in the army, and let them kill the enemy and make meritorious contributions.

Many middle- and low-level officers, most of whom came from ordinary backgrounds, earned their positions by fighting wars and dying. If disarmament is cut on their heads, they don't know what else to do. Most of them have little education, and even if they are demoted to civilian officials, most of them will not be able to do it.

They have long been accustomed to this in the army, and they can't do anything other than fighting. Maybe you can become a police officer, but so many officers have transferred to the police system, and it is already full.

Going to do business? Go to the frontier to buy a piece of land and become a landlord?

Many officers were terrified of this future life, they were used to the army and were reluctant to leave.

War in the Western Regions, a new war, a war with the Mongols of Moxi. This excited many officers and enlisted men. The South China Sea is basically stable, and although the war in Indochina has not yet ended, there is no need to send more troops.

The Western Regions are different, the Western Regions are so vast, and the enemy is still very strong, and this war will not end so simply as soon as it starts.

That place in the Western Regions is actually very ordinary in the eyes of many Han soldiers. It is not as rich as Japan, which is full of gold and silver mines, nor as rich as Korea, nor as rich as the Indochina Peninsula, which has endless fertile plains, and even worse than the Northeast and the desert and north.

In the minds of many people, the Western Regions is both distant and unfamiliar, and it seems to be a desert.

However, the Han Dynasty now has neither a shortage of arable land, nor a shortage of population, nor even mineral deposits.

Therefore, it doesn't matter whether there is arable land, mineral deposits, or population in the Western Regions, the important thing is that the Moxi Mongols threaten the imperial court, so the imperial court should fight them.

Isn't that what the army should be?

Soldiers are not pioneer teams, and these things such as land mining can be left to those immigrants, expedition teams, companies, etc.

The soldiers of the Han Dynasty need a war, they need an object of war, and since the Dzungars are disrespectful, then kill them.

The Qinghai Army led by Zhang Huangyan was stationed in Lhasa, and the Southern Tibetan Army led by Ma Wannian was rising from Shannan, both of whom were very lucky and had just been promoted to the chief military officer, and they were both very enviable and were awarded the title of Marquis of Kaiguo County.

Even if it's a county marquis, it's a marquis.

Even if you don't have a fief or a lord, you can have a marquis that you have earned with your own hands, what an honorable thing.

Those two lucky guys.

Zhang Huangyan and Ma Wannian were promoted to the rank of knight, which detonated all the soldiers up and down the Han military circle, and now who doesn't want to be the next of them, I hope that I can also make a great contribution, and then be knighted?

The soldiers of the guards and the Praetorian Guards who were about to go out on the expedition in Beijing were still worried, for fear that Zhang Huangyan, Ma Wannian, and those princes of Mobei and Monan and even Xipol would have destroyed Batur before they could rush to the Western Regions.

Although Dzungar was very arrogant and always shouted that he was very strong, he was not also virtuous by Tulu Baihu, the Gushi Khan of the Heshute Department before, and as a result, he was betrayed by his own son.

The Praetorian Guards marched first, and Liu Jun gave them the route to march to the northwest after leaving Beijing, out of Juyongguan, to Zhangjiakou, and then out of the fortress, taking Ulanqab, ******** to Baotou in Hetao, and then along the Yellow River through Yinchuan and Lanzhou into the Hexi Corridor, and finally to Jiayuguan.

This route is also a highway built by the imperial court with a lot of manpower and material resources in the past two years, which belongs to the strategic planning, and this road is also an important passage connecting the outer defense network in the northwest of Beijing.

Beijing also has another important passage of the same level to the east, that is, Beijing goes out of the Great Wall to the northeast, connecting Chengde, Chifeng, Chaoyang, Shenyang and other places.

Datong, Shuozhou, Taiyuan, Shanhaiguan, Jinzhou, Liaoyang, etc., belong to the second line of defense.

These defensive lines are connected by the points of important city fortresses, and the points composed of castles and fortresses are connected into lines, and the fortress lines are intertwined with each other, and finally form a strategic defense network in depth.

In this great net, the roads that connect the cities are very important, they have been widened and connected, and many places are new.

After the Praetorian Guards left Beijing, they moved quickly, they themselves had a lot of cavalry troops, and a large number of carriages, mules and horses, for fear of being robbed of their military merits, they marched extremely fast, and along the way there were various fortresses, fortresses, towns, and military stations that had already prepared to receive supplies, which made their march more delayed.

Liu Jun's side sent troops to inspect just after the parade, but the vanguard of the Praetorian Guard had already arrived in Zhangjiakou.

"I wish the horse success and early triumph!"

Yuan Jixian and other left-behind officials were sent all the way out twenty miles away.

"Let's go back." Liu Jun was dressed in a military uniform and waved to the ministers.

On the same day, Liu Jun led the guards to the south. There were no too many guards of honor, no eunuchs and palace maids, and no concubines, just like before, Liu Jun put on a military uniform and became a general again.

The marching routes of the guards were not the same as those of the Praetorian Guards, in fact they took two completely different routes. The Praetorian Guards took the northern line, Juyongguan and Zhangjiakou, all the way to the west.

However, the guards led by Liu Jun left Beijing and went south directly to Baoding, passed through Shijiazhuang and then crossed Taihang, arrived in Taiyuan, and then went south along Fenshui, crossed the Yellow River at the southwest end of Shanshan and entered Guanzhong, and then along Weishui until they reached Longxi, and finally joined the Janissaries in Lanzhou, and then went west through the Hexi Corridor until they reached Jiayuguan.

The 30,000 horses were also divided into two routes, which was also done to reduce the burden of supply along the route.

In this dispatch, the 30,000 people who set out from Beijing did not carry logistical supply troops, but relied on supplies along the way. The imperial court had been preparing for this war for more than half a year, and had recruited many people to transport supplies, and had already transported a large number of materials to Jiayuguan in advance. Those people are now on standby at Jiayuguan, and when the army leaves the pass, they will follow behind to transport supplies.

But now, the 30,000 soldiers and horses that came out of Beijing had to rely on supplies along the way. This is also done to speed up the march, if you bring your own logistics troops to transport supplies and follow, the speed is too slow, and the consumption is even greater. Since it is a domestic march and supplies can be supplied along the way, there is no need to bother to bring a civilian brigade with the army.

All the troops and horses have been mobilized at the same time, and Liu Jun hopes that he can quickly reach Suzhou, Gansu.

?

(To be continued.) )