Song Yichang suddenly remembered the Zhao Xin City built by Zhao Xin for the Xiongnu Shan Yu in the Han Dynasty. Zhao Xinjiao built a city at the foot of Hangai Mountain, with the original intention of avoiding the Han army and using the depth of the vast desert grassland to contain the powerful Han cavalry corps. But today, the Mongols have no opponents around Mobei, so naturally they don't need to avoid anyone.

The Great Khan's choice to build a city in the upper reaches of the Hangai Mountains and the Orkhon River was simply due to the lack of a suitable place to receive the envoys of the vassals.

He ordered tens of thousands of craftsmen from the Han region of the Central Plains to build a new city on the site of the Uighur homeland. This will be the heart of the vast land of Goryeo from the Black Sea in the west to Goryeo in the east. The lords as far away as the Persian border, and the different tribes as far as the steppe, all sent envoys to the Great Khan to pay tribute to the Great Khan as a sign of obedience.

In order to support the many attendants in the palace tent, the huge Praetorian Guard, and the scholars, craftsmen, and servants living in the city of Horin, it was necessary to transport 500 carts of grain and various expenses from the Central Plains to the outside of the fortress every day, and spent countless manpower and material resources on the way, just to ensure the luxurious life of the dignitaries and servants in the north of the desert.

Song Yichang and Hao Jing followed a convoy heading for He Lin on the road. Because Kublai Khan and Meng Ge had to lead the elite troops and horses to Helin in advance, and the advisors and officials of the kings and nobles came later with the caravan and convoy. Hao Jing and Song Yichang had an easy trip, after all, there was a transport convoy from Taiyuan every day to cross Yanmen Pass and march north. If the lords of the old land of Khorezm or the Balochistan region came to make a pilgrimage, they had to go on the road a few months in advance, and then they would have to go all the way to Mobei. The rush and fatigue of the journey is not something that Hao Jing and Song Yichang can imagine.

But even from the Central Plains to Helin, it is a very difficult journey. First through the vast desert, then along the Gobi all the way to the northwest, most of the middle is uninhabited wilderness. Not to mention other places, it is in this vast sea of sand that you can see the bones of people and livestock along the way, and you don't need to ask to know that the road is the ghost of the husband who was responsible for transporting food supplies along the road.

Since the convoy left Yanmen, because of overwork and the Mongolian officials who forced them too quickly, more than a dozen civilians had already fallen to death on the side of the road, but the Mongolian soldiers who escorted the convoy did not allow the convoy to stop for a while. The people didn't even bother to bury the corpses of their companions, leaving them on the side of the road to stink and attract wild dogs.

The white bones I saw along the way were probably all such encounters. Song Yichang ignored Hao Jing's dissuasion, and repeatedly defended bluntly with the Mongol officials, which finally eased the Mongols' urging a little, so that everyone could have some time to stop and rest and heal their tired companions.

"What is the difference between this kind of behavior and what happened to Huashigang back then!" Song Yichang said indignantly to Hao Jing: "Could it be that a few gangs of Liangshan heroes must be made in the end, and the Great Khan will stop this kind of behavior of working the people and hurting the money?" ”

Hao Jing said helplessly: "How can this be compared with Song Huizong's Huashi Gang, which is purely for fun." But the Great Khan is in Mobei, and he is accompanied by so many soldiers, palace maids, attendants and concubines, these people always need food, clothing, and applications, don't these things only rely on the original supply? And the more the Great Khan needs the grain and cloth of the Central Plains, the deeper his dependence on the Central Plains will be, which is good for us. ”

"If we can really get the opportunity to speak in front of the Great Khan, it will be nothing for the people to suffer at the moment." Song Yichang gritted his teeth and said: "I'm afraid that the Mongols will not completely rely on the power of a certain faction, but will play a balance among various vassals, and what the people of the Central Plains provide with blood and sweat is only one end of the scale." ”

"It doesn't matter on one end." Hao Jing said proudly: "The key is that our end is pressed on King Meng Ge and King Kublai Khan. Both of them were outstanding heroes of the younger generation of Mongolians, especially King Kublai Khan, who liked the customs of the Central Plains and was also polite to the Confucian scholars and scholars of Middle-earth, and he knew the significance of the Central Plains to Mongolia. As long as we can assist King Kublai Khan to inherit the throne of the Great Khan, we can withdraw all the palace tents and the Praetorian Guards to the Central Plains, and supply them on the spot. The people of the Central Plains will no longer have to suffer from losing thousands of miles. ”

"But on the other hand, if the sons of the Chagatai or Jochi families become Great Khans, then the people of the Central Plains will have to suffer." Song Yichang joked unhurriedly: "It's really fortunate that the Mongolians have the tradition of keeping this young son to give birth." ”

After a difficult trek, the convoy finally crossed the desert and traveled for more than ten days before seeing the water of the Orkhon River. If it had been before, I don't know how many bandits would have been carrying grain and all kinds of precious goods in the past ten days. However, after the rise of the Mongols, they managed the various tribes in the desert with harsh methods, and no one dared to rob the merchants without permission. Especially the convoy that carried food for the Great Khan.

It is the end of summer, the grass on the grassland is dense, a view of the vast, like the East China Sea, people's minds can not help but open up, under the sky a few eagles in the sky hovering and chirping, for this beautiful picture scroll to add a bit of heroic spirit.

"This is the root cause of the thousand-year-old calamity in the Central Plains." Song Yichang rode a horse and silently recited in his heart: "I hope that one day, the heroic heroes of the Central Plains can gallop in the vast world like Wei Qing and Huo Quai." ”

The convoy traveled all the way up the Orkhon River, and after more than ten days, it finally arrived at Hala and Lin.

Hala and Lin are at the southern foot of Hangai Mountain, and the so-called Yanran Mountain foothills in ancient times are also. The Eastern Han Dynasty chariot cavalry general Le Gong Yanran may refer to Hala and Lin.

Today's Hala and Lin have completely become a large construction site, not only craftsmen from the Han region, but also craftsmen from the Western Regions, craftsmen from Khorasan and craftsmen from Persia and other places, busy working day and night, stonemasons from Hangai Mountain to mine the white rock, and then fresh carving and chiseling, as the city wall masonry, the city wall is built with loess, all steamed first and then tamped. There are more than four miles in the north and south of the big city, and two miles in the east and west, which is more majestic and magnificent than many cities in the Central Plains. On the southwest corner of the city of Helin, the Wan'an Palace, where the Great Khan rested and lived, has been largely completed after a year of intense construction. It is said that the owner of the strongest empire in the world has now moved into Wan'an Palace and enjoyed the life of the palace.

The city is full of new construction sites, commercial districts with countless shops, mosques for Muslims in the Western Regions, Buddhist temples for the Central Plains, and even a church for Nestorian Christians to pray, because Wangu Khan, one of the Great Khan's concubines, and his Wangu tribesmen also brought this branch of Christianity to the city of Horin because of their belief in Nestorian religion.

Hao Jing and Song Yichang stayed in a newly built post house, which was obviously built in the same shape as the ten thousand post houses outside the old Jin Kingdom, and at a glance it was clear that the Dao was the masterpiece of craftsmen who had been captured from the capital. The whole post house is extraordinary, and the officials and various talents who come in and out from the Han land, including Taoist priests, doctors, astrological divination, and monks. Everyone was chatting and talking about the upcoming meeting of kings.

Song Yichang took advantage of the fact that Hao Jing was sorting out the four books and various scriptures presented to the Great Khan, and came to the main hall to listen to everyone's discussions. ‘

The plan for this autumn was to continue the crusade against the Song Dynasty, and the Han army in all parts of the Central Plains was already preparing for the war to be launched later. The Mongol headquarters will also send at least tens of thousands of elite heavy cavalry and light cavalry as the main force of the battle. This expedition still had the third prince Qu Chu as the supreme commander, personally leading the main force south to Jinghu, first conquering Xiangyang, then going down the river to sack and besiege Gangneung if possible.

The Western Route Army was still led by the second prince Kuoduan, with Liangzhou as the base, and mobilized the troops of various units in Ganliang and Shaanxi, including Wang Shixian's troops in Longnan, Qinghai's Tubo troops, Liu Heng'an's department, Fengxiang's Wang Jun department, and the generalissimo's department of Zhu'er, which was the vanguard of the western expedition.

The commander of the Eastern Route Army was Marshal Chahan, who led the Mongol army and more than 70,000 servant troops, first sweeping the prefectures and counties on the south bank of the Huaishui, and then waiting for an opportunity to invade Yangzhou.

However, there are also legends that there is a plan to attack the Goryeo kingdom in the palace tent.

At the earliest time, in order to conquer the Khitan general who rebelled against the Mongols in Liaodong, Genghis Khan Temujin once sent a large army led by the Liao king Yelu Liuge to the east, and Shoushe fled to the territory of Goryeo, so the Mongol army sent people to contact the king of Goryeo, and the king of Goryeo sent troops and transported grain, and joined the Mongol army to attack the house together.

After the attack and slaughter, the Mongols and Goryeo were brothers, and they made an alliance not to attack each other. The situation is roughly similar to that of the Mong-Song Clamp to destroy Jin. But how could the Mongols be allies? Since then, the envoys sent from the Great Khan have gone to Kaesong one after another, either to ask for money and food, or to ask for tribute. So the hatred in the country arose.

Twelve years ago, Genghis Khan's envoy to Goryeo died violently on the way for no reason, so Mongolia questioned Goryeo, and Goryeo denied that it was its own doing, which left a foreshadowing for the two countries to turn against each other.

In the third year of the Great Song Dynasty, that is, in 1231 of the Christian calendar, the Great Khan of Ogedai of Mongolia sent a large army to retaliate for the killing of the envoys in Goryeo. The Mongols then stayed in the town to guard the seventy-two officials in the capital of Goryeo and collected their troops.