Although Gao Zhong followed the emperor to fight in the northwest for several years in his early years, he was transferred back to serve in the Beijing Forbidden Army and broke away from the Xiangyi military system, that is, he did not catch up with the battle to create and consolidate the Datong base area, nor did he catch up with the later expansion of the army and a series of battles against Jin. It was only many years later that when the Jin army was first moving south, he 'escorted' the emperor to the Jin camp as a hostage, and participated in a battle against the Jurchens, which was regarded as a return, but the emperor did not despise him because of his favor 'leaving the team' for many years, and reactivated and entrusted him with important responsibilities after ascending the throne.

After Gao Chong's comeback, he was immediately sent to the south of the Yangtze River to suppress bandits and reorganize the forbidden army, but he also missed several wars against Jin launched by the Song army during this period, and was only ordered to command the counterinsurgency operation against the Gao clan in Dali, but the emperor awarded him a high position according to this merit, ranking second only to Zhao Ren and Zhao Yong, and became the third person in the Great Song Army. In the face of the emperor's favor, although Gao Chong is a veteran of the founding of the army, he knows that it is difficult for a soldier to convince the public if he does not have the military exploits he can handle, so he also feels that he lacks confidence in the face of his old subordinates who have made great achievements in the past.

Let him preside over the battle of the Western Expedition, Gao Zhong understood that this was an opportunity for the emperor to establish his position in the army and avoid his own embarrassment. But this is the first expedition to the Western Regions since the founding of the Great Song Dynasty, this battle is not only related to whether the Western Regions can be included in the territory of the Central Plains regime, but also involves the security of the Central Plains. In a word, if the Western Regions are not stable, there will be no security in the north, and the entire national security will also face the danger of collapse.

Gao Zhong felt a great responsibility after being appointed to take full charge of the Western Expedition, and he was also well aware of the difficulties he faced. It's the most difficult thing in the world'. Not to mention anything else, just the civil servants in the court and the central government are enough. If the advance is a little slow, there will be all kinds of criticism, and the hats of "standing still" and "supporting the army with self-respect" will fly one after another. Although he has the emperor's trust, it is enough to make people troubled.

Gao Chong has been under huge invisible pressure since accepting this task, and there is also a lot of pressure in reality, he understands that the actual fight in the war is food, and the border operation is even more so, and sufficient military salary is the basic guarantee for entering Gaochang. Fortunately, with the help of the emperor and his brothers, a special fund of 5 million was allocated for this purpose, and Zhao Zhi transferred a large amount of grain and grass to him, and the transfer of troops and materials by various armies was not ambiguous. Coupled with the support of several caravans in the northwest, he was able to set up several supply depots on the march route of the Western Expeditionary Army, so that he would not worry about these trivial matters of money and food, and could concentrate on fighting the enemy.

As for how to fight, Gao Chong has already made a plan, with his research on the topography of the Gaochang area, coupled with the intelligence brought back by the Intelligence Department and the caravan and the map of Gaochang drawn, he thought that Gaochang was divided into north and south by the Tianshan Mountains. 'The north can control the south, but the south cannot control the north'. Accordingly, he formulated a strategy of first the north and then the south, which was approved by the emperor and the imperial court, and when the armies of the Western Expedition were convened to discuss specific combat issues, they set a strategy of 'slow advance and quick warfare'. After the troops were dispatched, they are now fighting several battles in the north and south of the desert, sweeping away the periphery, deterring the surrounding ethnic groups, and frustrating the enemy's spirit. After settling these tyrants, they will go south to fight a decisive battle with Gaochang.

After half a year of active preparations, in the spring of the twelfth year of rejuvenation. Gao Zhong left Datong and waved westward. He spearheaded the desert brigade, which was familiar with operations in the Northwest; The cavalry hunting brigade and the two archers of the Mengwu and Wanggu divisions were the two wings; with two infantry brigades, artillery brigades, baggage detachments and directly subordinate teams as the central army; With two dragoon brigades and Khitan and Dangxiang archers as the rear army, the army with a total strength of 70,000 troops stepped into the Uighur road, which had been walking for thousands of years. After more than two months of arduous trekking. The Western Expeditionary Army crossed the Yin Mountain and crossed thousands of miles of uninhabited land in the desert to reach Zhenzhou before the arrival of the wind and sand......

Zhenzhou was called Kedun City in ancient times, it was originally the hometown of the Uighurs, Tang Tianbao placed the Hengsai army here, moved the northern capital to protect the palace here, after the death of the Tang Dynasty, it was occupied by the Khitan, renamed Zhenzhou, and stationed heavy troops here. After Jin destroyed Liao, in order to continue Liaozuo, Yelu Dashi led a hundred horsemen here to gather all forces to resist Dajin's attack. At this time, the war between the Great Jin Dynasty and the Song Dynasty broke out, and the Jin State completely focused its attention on the Song Dynasty, and Yelu Dashi set out from the city of Kedun and defeated the Jin Dynasty troops twice. When Wu Qimai heard about this, he sent a general from the Liao Dynasty to attack Yelu Dashi, but the first time he failed to reach the city of Kedun, and the second time he was defeated.

Although he defeated the Jin army, Yelu Dashi realized that he could not stay here for long, and decided to rebuild the Great Liao from here, hoping to wait for the national strength to be strong before conquering the Jin country. But then the Song and Jin wars continued, the Jin State was unable to continue to operate Mobei under repeated defeats, and constantly shrunk the defense line to leave only the Khitan army to garrison, and the Jin State gradually withdrew from Mobei, which re-became the object of contention for the various forces of the grassland, and now it is controlled by the Tatar North Blockade Department after several battles.

The news that the Great Song Dynasty sent troops to the west brought back to Gaochang by the caravan as early as a year ago, and they were all taken aback, he wanted to extort some benefits, but he didn't expect to cause a big disaster. In the face of the approaching army, Biler understood that his small number of soldiers could not resist the 'invasion' of the Great Song Dynasty, and of course he would not stand idly by, so he sent an envoy to contact the surrounding departments to jointly resist the Song Dynasty, and bribed the leader of the Northern Blockade Bu Department Mo Shier with a large amount of money to let him block the road of the Western Expedition of the Great Song Dynasty and keep the enemy out of the country.

Mo Shier had to do things to collect money, and when he learned that the Song army crossed the desert and approached Zhenzhou, he hurriedly dispatched troops to meet the battle. There are two roads to go from the desert Zhenzhou: the road is flat, but it has to pass through the uninhabited Gobi for hundreds of miles, and the road is difficult and dangerous; The other road is along the Tuwura River, which has plenty of water, but passes through the important town of Fangzhou. Mo Shier deliberately released the news that Fangzhou City was heavily guarded, hoping that the Western Expeditionary Army would take the road into the Gobi, and he would lead the army to hide in the Gobi and wait for an opportunity to sneak attack, annihilating the Western Expeditionary Army in the vast desert.

Gao Zhong got the news through the scouts and passing caravans, but he thought there was a deception in it, and who wouldn't have to make a big deal about his battle plan! So he did what he planned, sent people to pretend to take the avenue, and sent the desert army to lie in ambush behind him. The actual army quietly went to the defense state, attacked the city, and cut off the enemy's way back. Moshier led his troops to ambush in the Gobi and was about to make a sneak attack, but the Song army came with a counter-sneak attack and suddenly killed under the city of Fangzhou, taking advantage of the emptiness of his troops to occupy the city of Fangzhou, and then meet the army of the Obstruction Army.

Under the sharp firearms of the Song army, the Zhubu army was defeated in the first battle, and the Western Expeditionary Army took advantage of the situation to pursue, and Moshier was defeated to the northwest. The Song army launched an attack under the city of Zhenzhou, bombarded the city with artillery for two days and nights, blew up the city and attacked the city, and annihilated more than 6,000 enemies at a very small cost. The next day, Gao Pet waved his army and drove a big advance, connecting the two cities of Victoria and Zhaozhou in a few days. After the defeat of Moshier, he gathered all the troops and horses, and contacted the Damiri and the Yashua to send reinforcements together, but before the assembly was completed, the three cities had been lost, so they could only retreat to the city of Woludo, where the palace of the Great King of Bu was located, and at the same time sent troops to harass the Song army and attack the baggage troops, hoping to make the Western Expeditionary Army overwhelmed and evacuate as soon as possible.

The Western Expeditionary Army was tired from far away and connected with the combat men, and Gao Chong ordered him to rest and recuperate, and once again affirmed military discipline, killing and plundering were strictly prohibited, and all units attached to the enemy army were treated leniently as long as they gave up resistance and sincerely surrendered. Those who were coerced into attaching themselves to the enemy during the battle were to be given clothing and food and returned to their places of origin, and were not to be held accountable. Because this place was the old Khitan land, and the Jurchens occupied it for a short time, they still have nostalgia for the old master. Gao Zhong also ordered someone to send a handwritten letter to the princess of the Khitan Shu Kingdom to all departments, persuading them not to be enemies of the Great Song Dynasty.

At the same time as implementing Huairou's policy, Gao Zhong sent a cavalry hunting brigade and tribal army to attack and destroy the remnants of the enemy and attack the attacking enemy army. Under the Song army's combination of soft and hard, some tribes were no longer enemies of the Song army, and Gao Zhong seized the opportunity to rest and reward the tribes who belonged to him, appoint local officials, consolidate the newly occupied land, and turn it into a logistics supply base for his westward expedition......

The city of Woludo is the only way to go west, and its gains and losses are related to the overall situation, so it must be captured. After a month's rest, the Western Expeditionary Army sent troops again. In order to stop the Song army from attacking the city, Moshier ordered the Wuguru River to be dug and the bridges on the river destroyed. The river flooded the road and blocked the road to the west, so Gao Zhong could only suspend the march and send people to find the road, but at this time, someone took the initiative to be a guide for the western expeditionary army and found the shallows of the Uguru River, and the army was able to cross the river smoothly and surrounded the city of Woludo.

It turned out that Moshier, the emperor of the soil, was not popular, and he relied on his strength and horses to oppress the ethnic minorities, forcibly occupy their pastures and fields, plunder their livestock and population, and monopolize foreign trade and collect heavy taxes, causing all ethnic groups to hate his brutal rule, just because they were weak and could not beat him. Now that there are strong reinforcements, these tribes have risen up to attack it, hoping to use the strength of the Song army to overthrow Moshier and get rid of the rule of the Divination Department. Seeing that the Song army crossed the Wugulu River under the guidance of the traitor, although Mo Shier hated itchy, he was not stupid and knew that he was invincible to the Song army, and ordered all armies to strictly guard the city and not fight.

Woluduo City existed as early as the Qin and Han dynasties, although the owner changed a few stubbles, but no one gave up repairing the city, and after a thousand years, it has become a strong city with high skin and thick skin. Gao Zhong and Zhao Li discussed, in the absence of heavy artillery support, if it is a strong attack, it will inevitably cause heavy casualties, but now it is difficult to replenish the soldiers far away from the locals, that is, one less to die, and the real battle has not yet begun, so you can't waste your strength here. So the Song army just bombarded the city with artillery fire to panic the enemy, and they went around the city and continued westward.

Just as the army was about to withdraw from the surrounding road, someone risked his life to send news from the city, saying that Mosher was terrified under the constant shelling, and was burning and looting all over the city, preparing to abandon the city and flee...... (To be continued......)