Nourishing Heart Palace, in the East Warm Pavilion.

Liu Jun was dressed in civilian clothes and stood by the window.

A group of generals with five golden tigers stood behind him, making eye contact with each other from time to time.

After a while, Liu Jun turned around and said in a deep voice, "This means that you all think that the current imperial court is not capable of solving Dzungaria in one step?" ”

The left privy envoy Wang Qian nodded. Zhang Shan, the right privy envoy, and Cai Yuan, chief of the general staff, also nodded together, and Liu Jun looked at Fu Yuan, Liu Yunsheng, Zheng Zhilong, Zhang Guodong, and Zhang Guozhu, and they all nodded.

Liu Jun asked again: "Then what kind of goal do you think the imperial court should set when it uses troops next year, and to what extent will the war be fought?" ”

Cai Yuan, chief of the General Staff, replied, "According to the calculations of the General Staff, if we take half a year to prepare, then we will march in the early summer of next year, march out of Jiayu Pass, and go straight to Bokseri, the capital of the Dzungar Khanate, fast forward and attack, quickly decide, and immediately withdraw the main force after the war, as long as the battle is within three months, the logistics supply of this beheading battle can be guaranteed." ”

Liu Jun looked at Wang Qian, and Wang Qian replied, "The imperial court now has enough money, food, and ordnance to fight this battle, but it is difficult to keep up with the logistics and transportation supply. Out of Jiayuguan in the west, there is mostly the desert Gobi, which has been a place that the Central Plains Dynasty has not touched for more than 100 years, and we have neither a castle, nor a military station, nor even a popular base. ”

Jiayuguan, the actual western boundary of the Han people for hundreds of years. Although the Ming Dynasty also had de facto control in Hami, it soon retreated. Even within Jiayu Pass, it is difficult to control for a long time. In the late Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty's border nine, the northwest frontier has been on the Yellow River, to the west, basically there is no control, Mei Zhihuan served as the governor of Gansu, basically is to counter the rebellion, defense of the border.

Hami, Turpan to the west, and further west, were the territory of the Mongol Ishilan.

Now outside the Jiayu Pass, the northern Xinjiang is basically under the control of the Dzungaria, which is equivalent to the Han Dynasty entering the enemy territory as soon as it leaves the pass, but along the way, it is an extremely barren land, if hundreds of thousands of troops go out of the pass, the local area will not be supplied at all. It all depends on the rear transportation, not to mention the safety of the supply line, and the most important thing is the problem of transportation capacity. This is no better than the coastal or inland, there are developed water and land transportation, which in the northwest desert Gobi transporting grain and artillery, or thousands of miles long, is quite fatal.

Fu Shan said to Liu Jun: "Your Majesty, the ministers and others all think that the Western Regions must be conquered and stable, and if the Western Regions are unstable, then the southwest of Guanzhong will be unstable, and even the Beijing Division will be unstable." But to conquer Moxi, you have to go in steps. At present, the first battle should be a precise and ruthless straight into the heart, to the Dzungar to deal a heavy blow, but to hit the enemy hard, so this battle can not be greedy for more, only to raid Bokseri as the goal, if there is an opportunity, you can occupy Bokseri, if the opportunity is not ripe, then after the war retreat to Turpan, wait for the imperial court to spend a few years to operate Hami, Tufanbo line, transport enough money, food and ammunition over, when the time is ripe, and then launch a second round of attacks, in order to capture the Dzungar Basin and the Ili River Valley in one fell swoop. ”

Liu Jun was not surprised to listen to these adverse words at this time, the more information he got in his hands these days, the deeper he had a deeper understanding of Dzungaria, especially after understanding the pattern of Central Asia, he clearly realized that it was difficult to destroy Dzungaria in a war.

At this time, after he understood this, he became much more sober.

Liu Jun said calmly, "The situation in the Western Regions is more complicated, we have a million male soldiers, but it is difficult to use force for a while. I think we have to use our strength to fight for this. Dzungaria has now destroyed Kazakhstan, overwhelmed Tsarist Russia, united with Turghut and Heshuot, and has the potential to unify the rivers in the Western Regions. Their ambitions are so clear that it is believed that Yarkand has already felt their feelings, and even Khiva and Bukhara must have felt their threat. We have traveled thousands of miles to send troops to the past, and it is a little difficult, but now the three countries of the Western Regions still have some strength, if we are willing to support them and give them some support, they will be very happy, and they will be more resolute to resist the invasion of the Dzungars. ”

Fu Shan and other generals immediately woke up, "Conquer raze with raze? ”

Wang Qian also said, "Your Majesty, we can sell ordnance to the Three Kingdoms and give them muskets and artillery. ”

Liu Yunsheng also nodded hurriedly, "I think it's not just that, we can also send some officers over to help them train and command the army, so that we don't need to send a large army to go deeper, we can support a few forces in the Western Regions and train a few new troops to fight against Dzungaria." ”

Liu Jun was pleased with the reaction of the generals, this method is indeed very good, and he uses his strength to fight. If such an alliance can really be reached with the three companies, then Dahan can still sell a large number of arms to make a lot of money, after all, the arms industry is also one of the pillar industries of Dahan, and it is also the most profitable industry, and selling arms is the most profitable.

At the same time, support the Three Kingdoms, train the armies of the Three Kingdoms, use the money of the Three Kingdoms to buy equipment from the Han Dynasty to arm the soldiers of the Three Kingdoms, and then go to war with the Dzungars. Especially no matter how well you fight, you don't need the big man to send troops and pay for it anyway, and you don't want the big man's pension allowance if you die.

This is simply more cost-effective than sending mercenaries to fight.

Let them fight and make a pot of porridge, just so that the big man can take advantage of the situation to clean up and enter the Western Regions strongly.

After the Han and Tang Dynasties, the Han people have left the Western Regions for nearly a thousand years, and now it is time to return.

"We're going to have to do three things." Liu Jun sat down in front of the throne and said to the generals of the empire, "First, the mobilization preparations will continue, from Chang'an to Jiayuguan, widen the road, and add new forts along the line, which will be used as a military station, a granary, and an arsenal. Chang'an will be the rear base camp for next year's westward expedition, and Jiayuguan will be used as the advance base, with sufficient food and ordnance to be stored, and the customs defense must also be comprehensively reinforced. ”

"Second, immediately start contacting Yarkand, Khiva, and Bukhara, reach a cooperation agreement as soon as possible, sell ordnance to them, and send an officer advisory group to help them train a new army to fight and contain Dzungaria. By the way, we also sent someone to contact Tsarist Russia, if Tsarist Russia is willing to turn the other cheek with Dzungaria and stab them in the back, we can give them some benefits. Of course, at the very least, we must strive for them to remain neutral and not participate in our war. If the Russians are not tempted, then threaten them, and tell them that if they dare to mess around, then we will send cavalry regiments from Mobei to raid eastern Russia. ”

Speaking of threats, Liu Jun did not hesitate. The threat of the weak is useless, but the threat of a strong man, I believe the Russians will seriously consider it.

However, Liu Jun did not completely pin his hopes on the Russians being afraid of the big man, what if these Russian bears were stupid for a while, and they had to advance and retreat with the Dzungars?

Liu Jun doesn't like to put all his eggs in one basket.

"By the way, send an emissary to Poland and Sweden!"

Poland and Sweden at this time are definitely the fathers of Tsarist Russia, and the Russian that has been beaten again and again has come out. Sweden, in particular, dominates the Baltic Sea and regards the Baltic Sea as its own inland lake. The overlord of Northern Europe, although King Gustav is dead, Sweden's strength is still strong, and it can easily beat Tsarist Russia.

Poland was also very strong in this era, and later generations of Polish origin were unknown, and the fish belly was the same. But in this day and age, it was also a time of prosperity. Ukraine was basically in the hands of the Poles, and a few decades ago, Poland also annexed Lithuania, which was also strong at that time, so the official name of Poland at this time should be the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania.

It is a very peculiar country, it exercises an aristocratic democracy, the king is elected by the nobility, and anyone who is not a nobleman has no democratic power, and as long as they have one member of parliament against it, the bill cannot be passed. The king had no power to enact laws without the consent of Parliament.

The Polish cavalry is quite strong, but in recent years, the Ukrainian Cossacks have been very fierce with the Poles, rebelling at every turn, which has also made the Poles a little anxious, but they are still very strong than the Russians.

In the early years, Poland even sent a crook to Russia twice to inherit the position of Russian tsar, and the Polish king later even planned to make his son tsar altogether.

Now the Russians are plotting to pull the Ukrainian Cossacks to their side in order to annex Ukraine. This matter is definitely challenging the limits of the Poles, so Liu Jun believes that if the big man goes to Poland to talk about beating the Russian bear together, I believe that these Poles will be very interested, and maybe they can talk about a few deals by the way.

The situation is similar in Sweden, Sweden dominates Northern Europe in this era, Finland is basically controlled by them, and the Russians are even suppressed by them to the point that they can't even get close to the Baltic Sea, let alone mention the sea, and Russia is still a standard landlocked country at the moment.

Sweden is now the daughter of King Gustav II, the god of war, as a king, not a queen but a king, and this young woman is king as a man, which is a peculiar phenomenon.

Liu Jun believed that as long as the envoys of the Great Han took the lead in building an anti-Russian alliance, even if it could not be established in the end, the Russians could be scared to death. Sweden and Poland, pull any one out, and all the that can be beaten will come out, if the big Han pulls the two countries together, and the three countries want to fight Russia together, wouldn't it be to carve him up? I believe that no matter how bold the Russians are, this time they will have to consider the attitude of the Han Dynasty, as long as they are not crazy, they will not dare to arbitrarily intervene in the war of the Han Dynasty against Dzungaria.

Of course, if Sweden and Poland were really interested in building an anti-Russian alliance with the Han and carving up Russia together, Liu Jun would not object. He wished that Eastern Europe would do it, so that the Han could smoothly enter the Western Regions, and even enter the Transoxiana region.

Originally, everyone still felt that it was difficult for the Western Expedition, but now that they are discussing it, they feel that things have become simpler again.

Liu Jun just smiled, the great power game is like this, just like Russia, in the seventeenth century, everyone shouted and beaten, and anyone could bully him, Poland, Sweden, Turkey, and even Dzungaria. But why did several other countries fall later, but Tsarist Russia became stronger and stronger?

It's one thing for the Russians to be fierce, but it's also related to the clever use of relations between countries in the game of these countries. Historically, the Russians first abducted the Ukrainian Cossacks, and at first only half of them were abducted, triggering the war between Poland and Russia, fighting several times, losing and winning, but at least they succeeded in snatching half of Ukraine from Poland into the bowl.

Later, Ukraine went to war with Sweden, and at this time, Russia did not follow the Swedish father to beat the Ukrainian reservoir dogs, but allied with Ukraine and turned around to fight Sweden. Why? Because Ukraine is weakened, the threat to Russia is not as great as that of the Swedes.

The Russians pulled up the Northern Alliance and beat Sweden hard, and then Peter the Great finally hit the Baltic coast, had an outlet to the sea, and hurriedly established Petersburg to run the port with all his might.

After that, Russia fought with Turkey for the access to the Black Sea, and fought for more than 200 years and fought 12 Russian-Turkish wars. At the same time, they continued to expand eastward, destroying Kazakh and other khanates, occupying all of Siberia, Alaska, etc., and finally, Russia became a super-empire.

But Sweden, Poland, Turkey, etc., which rode on their heads back then, have all declined.

It can be said that the Russians are a bit like the Qin State during the Warring States Period in Chinese history, which was originally only a small country in Guanzhong, and was regarded as a hillbilly by the Kwantung countries, and was suppressed in various ways, but in the end, Russia finally unified the six countries and unified the world through various developments, and had the last laugh.

The Wei State, which had been riding on the head of the Qin State, was not destroyed by it in the end.

Geographically speaking, the Russians are also in Phnom Penh, they live on the edge of Europe, and they are backward because of this, but it is precisely because they are on the periphery, so when Europe is turbulent again and again, wars again and again, and attacks each other, the Russians have a stable rear, unlike France, Germany, Poland and other countries, there are always enemies from all sides.

The same is true of the Qin State in history, living in the middle of the river surrounded by mountains and rivers, and then first seized the same relatively closed Shu land, and then attacked Chu, so that Guanzhong, Shu and Jing Chu were connected, and finally had enough capital and strength to face the Kwantung princes, sweep Liuhe, and unify the world.

In this respect, Dzungaria is in an extremely disadvantageous situation before it has yet to fight. And Russia will not be at peace, and to the east they will have a powerful and unrivaled neighbor that has never existed before. Over the years, they have quietly gone to the eastern neighbor's house to steal and catch a lot of good things, but they never thought that now this neighbor would come to the door.

On the contrary, the geopolitical situation of Dahan has become more secure than ever. The east of the entire empire has been opened up to the two veins of Ren Du, Japan, Korea, Jurchen, Mongolia, and even Nanyang and Zhongnan, one after another either surrendered or was on the way to be conquered.

(To be continued.) )