Located on the west side of the Qianqing Palace, the Yangxin Hall is the emperor's palace. The Qianqing Hall is equivalent to Liu Jun's main bedroom, and the Yangxin Hall is equivalent to his side bedroom. The south study of Qianqing Gate is Liu Jun's study, and the three halls in front of the outer court are his main hall.

In the summer, Liu Jun usually goes to the palace in Xishan to escape the summer office. But in winter, Liu Jun is mainly in the daily management of the Heart Palace.

Although the palace of nourishing the heart is only the emperor's palace, but in fact it is not small, the I-shaped hall, the front hall is three rooms wide, the face is 36 meters wide, three rooms are deep, and the depth is 12 meters.

Yellow glazed tile rest mountain-style top, bright room, west indirect roll shed hugging building. The front eaves eaves column position, each room plus two square columns, the appearance of 9 rooms.

This temple was originally built in the Jiajing period, and the name comes from Mencius's preservation of his heart to nurture his nature to serve the sky.

This hall also has a feature, that is, it is equipped with a lot of glass to increase lighting, the emperor's throne is located in the middle of the Ming room, the east side is the East Warm Pavilion also has a throne, and the West Warm Pavilion on the west side is divided into several rooms, it is a small hall for Liu Jun to read and read and talk with the minister.

In addition, there are places to rest and eat such as Meiwu and canteen, and there are also east and west enclosures on the east and west sides, which are on duty for the guards.

The apse was the emperor's quarters, with five bedrooms, each with a bed. This is also a feature of the palace, in the emperor's bedroom, there are always five or six bedrooms in each place, all with beds, which can greatly increase the emperor's security.

However, at this time, Liu Jun was sitting on the throne of Dongnuan Pavilion, but he was a little distracted.

In front of him was a map of the situation in the Western Regions.

This is drawn by Jinyiwei after summarizing the intelligence of many parties, and the current situation in the Western Regions is clearly marked on it.

Liu Jun can understand this map at a glance, and the Western Regions on this map actually refers not only to the Xinjiang area in later generations, but also to the Pamir Plateau, the Seven River Basins west of the Tianshan Mountains, and the Hezhong region.

And now on this map, on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, there are the former Tibet and later Tibet and Ali Plateau of Moxi Mongolia and Shuote led by the king of Heshute Khan, Gushi Khan, and the Huangjiao, and the Qinghai region and the Kang region are the Qinghai and Xikang provinces of the Han Dynasty.

The Hexi Corridor is the Gansu Province of the Han Dynasty.

Outside the Jiayu Pass, the Tarim Basin and the Pamir Plateau were controlled by the Yarkand Khanate, who even controlled the Turpan and Hami regions. At the beginning of the Yarkand civil strife, there were Yarkand nobles who left Turpan to establish a small independent state, and later ruled the Hami area, and the southern Xinjiang region was basically controlled by it, but later Yarkand rose for a period of time and captured Turpan and other places.

It's just that with the rise of the Junggar Department in the Junggar Basin in northern Xinjiang, Turpan and other places are mostly controlled by the Dzungars, and now Yarkand and even the Tarim Basin are not as controlled as before.

Dzungaria was originally only a part of the Dzungar Basin, but it has prospered over the years, and they have seized the Ili River Valley to the west, and then the Seven River Valley.

The Seven River Basins are the seven rivers that flow from the Tien Shan Mountains to Lake Balghosh. In particular, the Ili River valley can be called the gateway of the Central Asian steppes into the new river.

A large triangular opening recesses into the northern frontier, and the valley of the Pingchuan River makes this area extremely difficult to defend. At that time, Yarkand first made his fortune in the Ili River Valley and the Seven River Valley.

Today, Dzungaria not only occupies the Junggar Basin, but also Turpan and Hami, and the capital of Batur Huntaiji is in Bokseri, north of the Ili River Valley, that is, at the southwestern end of the Junggar Basin.

Just looking at the location of the capital city chosen by Batur Huntaiji, you can see that it is ambitious.

Bokseri is in the southwesternmost part of the Junggar Basin, next to the Ili River Valley.

Batur set his capital here, obviously based on the Junggar Basin, and at the same time, he also grasped the Ili River Valley, and competed for the Seven River Basin and the Tarim Basin in southern Xinjiang, while the western part of Mobei and the Kazakh steppe were all within the radiation range of his capital.

And now on this situation map, it is indeed true.

Batur not only firmly occupied the Junggar Basin, but also controlled the Ili River Valley and the Seven River Valley, and then seized Turpan and Hami from Yarkand, and also pushed his influence into the oasis of the Tarim Basin.

And now they have conquered the Kazakh Khanate, and they have pushed their power to Central Asia.

The three khanates of Central Asia, Kazakhstan, Khiva, Bukhara.

Now the Dzungars have destroyed the largest of them, the Kazakhs, and what remains are the Khiva Khanate and the Bukhara Khanate in the river.

These two khanates were later known as Turkmen and Uzbekistan, and as early as the Tang Dynasty, China called this place Hezhong. Among the rivers are the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers, which originate from the Pamirs and eventually flow into the Aral Sea.

The three khanates of Central Asia, their strength is only average, they are all separated from the Mongol khanates established after the Mongol expedition to the west, these khanates also had glorious times, but now, all of them are backward.

To the west of the Three Khanates of Central Asia were the emerging Mughal Empire of India, the Safavid Empire of Persia, and the Ottoman Empire of Turkey, which was at its peak, and to the northwest was Tsarist Russia.

Around the end of the fifteenth century, major historical changes took place in the interior of Eurasia, when the Mongol khanate, which ruled Eurasia, collapsed and peripheral powers poured into the heart of Eurasia to divide up its legacy.

In the process, Genghis Khan's descendants established the Kazakh, Bukhara and Khiva khanates in Central Asia. At the same time, the Rus' principalities also got rid of the rule of the Mongol Golden Horde, and gradually formed three regional centers: Northeast Rus' dominated by the Vladimir-Suzdal principality, Northwest Rus' dominated by the Novgorod Republic, and Southwest Rus' dominated by the Galich-Volyn principality.

By this time, Tsarist Russia had basically completed its unification, and the borders of the three Central Asian countries had basically been determined.

The Kazakh Khanate occupied the steppes east of the Syr Darya River, north to the east of the Ural Mountains, and west of the Irtysh River;

The Bukhara Khanate, centered on the Zeravshan River basin, controlled the mid-river region between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers, as well as the Khorasan region south of the Amu Darya;

The Khiva Khanate was centered on the oases of the lower Amu Darya River and ruled the area from the Amu Darya River to the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea.

However, although the three khanates were once strong, because of the Mongol feudal system they inherited, they were like the Mongol tribes in the east, although they were able to prosper for a while when they met a strong man, but the feudal system quickly divided and weakened them, and even caused internal strife, and finally weakened.

The three khanates of Central Asia have also been in such a state of circulation, dividing feuds, centralizing power, dividing feuds, cutting feuds, and constantly fighting.

The war did not make them stronger and stronger, but only made them weaker and weaker, especially at this time, they were surrounded by three powerful dynasties of Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal dynasties in the west and south, and at the same time, the Rus were also unified, which squeezed their living space more and more.

However, after more than two hundred years of expansion, Muscovy formed a powerful Tsarist Russia and continued to expand outward.

However, Russia has also been relatively unlucky in recent years, in their north, west, and south, they were surrounded by powerful Sweden, Poland, and Turkey, so Russia has been annexing the Kazan Khanate, the Astra Khanate, the Nogai Khanate, the Siberian Khanate and other small khanates that were also separated from the Golden Horde all these years.

It's a pity that the Russians didn't expect that not only did Sweden, Poland, Turkey and other powerful countries in the West want to strangle him, but even the East has successively sent out the Great Han and Dzungaria to block him.

The wild land that Siberia fought down was actually snatched away by the Han, and finally the Dzungar group of Mongols stabbed them again, and they all directly trampled their iron hooves to the lower reaches of the Volga River.

The situation in Central Asia today is a mess.

Liu Jun was thinking about how to win in chaos.

Undoubtedly, these small khanates in Central Asia are already fat meat coveted by everyone, the Mughal Dynasty of India, the Safavid Dynasty of Persia, and the Ottoman Empire of Turkey are all strong on one side, and they are undoubtedly staring at the territory of Yarkand, Khiva, and Bukhara, which occupy the Pamir Plateau and the two river basins.

The weak eat the strong, and the weak will definitely be swallowed.

Kazakhstan has been swallowed, and so many small khanates before have basically been swallowed up by all countries.

Russia had just experienced a long period of war and civil strife, a new dynasty was established, and they were busy dealing with the Swedes and Poles, so they did not have time to fight for it for the time being, which is why they were able to sign a treaty with Dzungaria, willing to recognize Dzungaria's annexation of Kazakhstan, and cede all the territory east of the Ural Mountains to the Dzungars.

Tsarist Russia could not afford to fight on both sides, so it could only admit its cowardice to Dzungaria in order to form an alliance so that it could concentrate on dealing with Poland and Sweden. According to intelligence, Russia is now negotiating with the Ukrainian Cossacks to annex Ukraine into Russia. However, Ukraine is still controlled by the Poles, and the Russians want to merge Poland and unite the Cossacks against Poland, but I am afraid it will not be so easy.

But in any case, it is now certain that the Russians will not have the spare energy to take care of the affairs of the east for the time being.

In the battle for the Central Plains, Tsarist Russia has already been out of the game in advance.

Tsarist Russia is out of the game ahead of schedule, and the only countries that still have the strength to intervene in Central Asia are Persia, India, and Turkey, and Poland has to be busy with Ukraine now, and it will not have the energy to intervene in the river again.

The Ottomans were now in their heyday, but they were still mainly developing on all sides of the Black Sea, and in the direction of the Caspian Sea, they were only attacking the Caucasus, and they did not reach the shores of the Caspian Sea, let alone directly connect with several khanates in Central Asia.

The Ottomans can also be put aside, they don't intervene.

Both the Safavid dynasty of Persia and the Mughal dynasty of India bordered the Khanate of Bukhara, with the Mughal also bordering the two khanates of Yarkand and Hoshut.

However, considering the geographical and climatic issues, the Mughals in India do not have much opportunity and ability to intervene directly.

The only thing left to intervene in the river was the Safavid dynasty of Persia.

Now it is the two strong men of the Dzungar and Safavid dynasties who have sandwiched the two khanates in the river in the north and south, of course, although the Han is far away in the east, Liu Jun does not want to miss this opportunity.

Such a fat piece of meat in the river is placed there, such a good opportunity, when Tsarist Russia, Turkey, Poland, and Mughal have no time to intervene, how can the big man miss it.

In recent years, Europe, especially Western Europe and Northern Europe, have developed maritime trade, and they have developed rapidly and changed greatly. But Central Asia is blocked, everyone is in the era of commodity economy, but they are still the primitive handicraft nomadic era. Western countries began to build new types of armies, muskets and artillery, but these small khanates in Central Asia were still archers.

At present, the armies of the Great Han have even gone to the front of the European countries, and for these small khanates in Central Asia, of course, it is stronger.

However, the strength of Dzungaria is not weak, although they are still playing with sword and arrow cavalry, but as long as the number is sufficient, in a place like Central Asia, it is still not to be underestimated.

After the disarmament of the Han Dynasty, there were still more than 700,000 troops in the army. Even excluding the local garrison troops, there are still more than 300,000 field troops.

However, for the expedition to Central Asia, logistics were a big problem.

The army of the Han Dynasty is very dependent on logistics for equipment. And Liu Jun also had to consider that the Persians might intervene, and the Russians might also intervene.

It seems that in history, the Russians fought in the southern steppes in the war with the Poles, relying on fortress tactics, building forts along the way, not only to ensure supply and transportation, but also to be a strong defensive line.

It was with this fortress tactic that they defeated Poland, and later Turkey, and even finally annexed Kazakhstan by virtue of this tactic, and even their expansion in Siberia continued to advance and expand with this fortress tactic.

This kind of fortress tactic is indeed offensive and defensible, which means that it is a bit invincible.

Does the big man want this too?

Starting from Jiayuguan, all the way to the north, constantly building fortresses? But if you fight all the way from the Hexi Corridor to Xinjiang and to the Central Asian River, how many fortresses will have to be built?

Liu Jun had planned to send 340,000 troops next year, but he was only ready to use the tactics of quick battle and quick decision, first send an elite vanguard to break through the northern frontier, and then establish a solid base before he could transfer a large army to the west.

After calming down and thinking about it carefully, Liu Jun felt that he was a little inflated and too ambitious.

In this battle next year, it will be very good to only be able to fight the northern Xinjiang first, and to capture the Junggar basin of Hami and Turpan, as for the southern Xinjiang, and even the seven river basins of the Ili River valley and the Hezhong, Kazakh, and Caspian Sea, those places are too far away.

Even if it's a big man now, he can't do it.

The Han can go on an expedition to the South Seas, but there is a sea.

Liu Jun shook his head with some distress, he found that in this era, the biggest enemy is not the enemy's cavalry or the enemy's artillery, but those damn distant distances.

Liu Jun asked people to summon all the generals in Beijing to the palace for discussion.

Since it is a military matter, then find a professional person to discuss. The number of generals who can be hung up on the rank of general is limited, and these generals generally stay in Beijing unless they lead the army, and now at the end of the year, even those who command the troops outside have basically come back to report on their work.

Dozens of generals with five golden tigers were ordered to enter the palace, and the news immediately spread throughout the entire Beijing Division, whether it was officials or ordinary people, they all came to the spirit at once, and they all guessed what was going on, and they actually summoned all the five tiger generals into the palace at once.

Others are thinking, which small barbarian country does the emperor want to destroy? (To be continued.) )