In fact, Liu Ziguang did not intend to rob Meng Dan's sweetheart, but this was just a part of his plan, the Hetao area was rich and fertile, rich in minerals, and it was a section that had to be occupied, and through the Hetao area, it could also penetrate into the rear of the Tangut people to catch them off guard.

Because of this, Liu Ziguang "reluctantly" agreed to Huo Lingyao's request, agreeing to recognize the independence of the Hui at the cost of marrying her, because he knew that the Han people in the Hetao area were scarce, and it was impossible to move the Han people in large numbers in a short period of time, so he had to rely on the local tribesmen, of course, this was just an excess, and how could Liu Ziguang, who was Han nationalist, allow a foreign regime to exist in the upper reaches of the Yellow River.

And marrying Princess Xiangxiang is the first step of assimilation, and the Hui Han intermarriage, religious freedom, sooner or later, the Hui will melt into the arms of the Han people.

For these reasons, Liu Ziguang took advantage of the fire to rob once, of course, even without the above high-sounding reasons, he was very happy to enrich his harem with an exotic beauty, as for the resentment of the young man Meng Dan in the Hui department, it was not in his consideration at all.

As for the risk of advanced weapons falling into the hands of the enemy, Liu Ziguang doesn't care about the fire guns without ammunition, and even the burning sticks are not as good as the fire sticks, and the current metal process of the fire guns is quite complicated, even if the drawings are handed over to them, they can't imitate them.

After the events of that day, Liu Zongmin was embarrassed and angry, it is said that he sent people out of the city to transfer troops overnight, Liu Ziguang was not idle here, and the cannons on the city were loaded, but after waiting for a long time, Liu Zongmin still did not dare to enter the city to find death, and the next day Yuan Chonghuan went to comfort Liu Zongmin finally swallowed the discount and took the brothers to the front line of Tianshui.

Now the Western Army and the Red Shirt Army are secretly holding their strength to see who will take Jiayu Pass first, Liu Zongmin's cavalry has more than a dozen battalions, and many of them are locals, so they have a relative advantage, so Liu Ziguang plans to find another shortcut, first take Ningxia, and then attack Lanzhou, and then rush all the way to capture Jiayu Pass, leaving Liu Zongmin far behind.

After half a year of preparation, there have been mountains of strategic materials near Chang'an City, enough to deal with a big war, and the recruits from all over the country have also come over, Liu Ziguang saw that the strength in his hand was almost there, so he decided to launch the Northern Expedition, in the name of recovering the country for Princess Xiangxiang, to conquer the Hetao area.

This operation is different from the past, it is the second appearance of the mechanized troops of the Red Shirt Army, although the combat unit is only 3,000 people, the logistics force is enough to have 30,000 people, the northwest is not more than the Central Plains, the traffic is very poor, the road is extremely uneven, no rain, dusty, rain, if it rains, it is a swamp, the vanguard of the Red Shirt Army is a powerful mechanized corps, crawler bulldozer while walking to clear the roadblocks, this bulldozer is made of the locomotive of the steamer wheeled car according to the proportion, the use of reliable technology and simple maintenance of the steam engine, burning the coke of Shanxi and the fierce fire oil of the Shengli Oilfield of Shandong, mixed fuel, horsepower is strong, can open the road and can press the road, two pioneers spray black smoke after driving overThe army road came out in a hurry.

There is also an engineer battalion in the vanguard unit, and the ability to open roads and build bridges in the mountains and rivers made the guides who accompanied the expedition stunned, and when they encountered strange rocks and mountain peaks blocking the road, the engineers buried explosives packets, and with a loud bang, the barricades that would have required thousands of people to work hard for more than ten days to move were blown up to pieces, and the steam crawler bulldozer roared over, pushing the scattered earth and stones aside, and the follow-up vehicles quickly followed.

When encountering the river blockage, the sappers will throw the iron pontoon tank loaded on the tracked car into the water, and put it together with a steel buckle, it is a ready-made pontoon bridge, the whole process is just an hour, the pontoon bridge is stronger and more durable than the wooden bridge that the locals took half a year to build, and the guides who witnessed all this were dumbfounded, and Huo Lingyao and others, who followed the Chinese army, were also greatly shocked, when did the athletes who bent the bow and shoot the eagle on the grassland desert have seen this kind of coal-burning and fire-breathing machine monster, although they don't understand the mystery, but the magical effectiveness of these huge machines has really taught them a lesson, and the future war may no longer be the world of cavalry。

Since ancient times, the cavalry of the nomadic people is the natural nemesis of the farming people in the Central Plains, the Han people have nothing else to do except the corresponding cavalry troops, the Han Emperor Wu Emperor devoted the strength of the whole country to raise horses, only to train a cavalry to defeat the Xiongnu, although the war was won, but the national finances were also on the verge of bankruptcy, to the Song Dynasty, the Han people lost Yanyun, 16 states and Hexi regions, lost the area of horse breeding, the cavalry needed to use the war horses, had to obtain from Yungui, even so, but also could not arm enough cavalry troops, in the face of Western Xia, Liaojin, The powerful cavalry of the Mongols, the Song Dynasty could only be beaten passively, and they were tightened everywhere.

The situation in the Ming Dynasty was especially worse, the areas north of the Yellow River in the former dynasties were all defeated by the enemy, the Ming Dynasty had no horses, and the horses in the Hetao area could only be purchased at a high price, and the Hui Department became rich by smuggling horses to the Central Plains, and they also knew the importance of cavalry in the war, and because of this, Huo Lingyao and her people stubbornly thought that the reason why the Han people wanted the Hetao area was to obtain sufficient and reliable horse production areas.

But in fact, it doesn't seem to be the case, except for the rangers on both wings, the Chinese army brigade is all fighting by car, which is a special military vehicle designed by the Academy of Sciences, the motive is still a mature steam engine, the wheels are huge double-layer hollow inflatable rubber wheels, the wheels are covered with uneven patterns, although the degree is not fast, but the torque is very high, each steam locomotive can tow ten trailers full of personnel and materials, this original version of the tractor is affectionately called the mechanical mule by the soldiers.

The three hundred cavalry of the Hui Department followed the Chinese army of the Red Shirt Army to move together, and everyone else rode in a car, as far as their small group rode horses, it seemed somewhat abrupt, the black smoke of the mechanical mule and the dust on the loess road covered the sky, and the Hui athletes all covered half of their faces with scarves, and marched hard, Huo Lingyao's yellow silk shirt was already covered with a thick layer of dust, and the show was also gray, but she didn't complain, just silently thought about what if the Han people's armament was so strong, if that person changed his mind at that time.

The person in Huo Lingyao's heart is naturally Liu Ziguang, at this time, the general of the expedition to the west is sitting in his command car, measuring the map with a group of staff officers, the command car is an improved mechanical mule carriage, made of aluminum alloy, light and strong, and there are high antennas on it to communicate with the sky-sounding airship, the tables and chairs in the carriage are also aluminum alloy, bolted to the floor, spread on the table is the terrain of the northwest region, the sand table, the mountains, the plains, the desert are marked with different colors, the three-dimensional map makes people clear at a glance, this is still made of map materials from the Song Dynasty, the Ming people themselves do not have the technical strength and patience to map such a remote area。

Liu Ziguang, who was measuring the map with a ruler, didn't think about it, when Huo Lingyao, who was marching hard outside, marched and fought, he didn't have the heart to pity Xiangxiang and cherish the little tears that his daughter cried before he went out to fight, fortunately, Dong Xiaowan appeared in time and coaxed the child, but the condolence group was ready to return to Beijing at this time, Dong Xiaowan immediately made an unexpected decision, she wanted to give up the fame and fortune of the capital, stay in Chang'an, take care of the family for Zhenwuhou, and take care of the children. Liu Ziguang saw that she was putting on a broken face, and she would never give up if she didn't become her real concubine, so he acquiesced in his heart.

After studying the map with the staff officers, Liu Ziguang climbed to the lookout platform at the top of the carriage, looked down at his army, and looked at the past, in the dust, there was a long convoy and a thick black pillar of smoke, no flags, no armor, only the reciprocating roar of the steam engine and the cannon muzzle of the black hole, this is a mechanized army that has evolved to the extreme, armed with the most advanced technology in the world, and they are about to face the king of the cold weapon era, the most powerful cavalry corps in the East- The cowardly Xue army of Western Xia has already made up its mind about the victory or defeat, no matter how powerful the cold weapon army is, it will only fail in front of this army, and this battle to attack Hetao is just a rehearsal for the future conquest of the Western Xia mainland, and through this battle, the Red Shirt Army will further improve its weapons and tactics and various technical equipment, to put it bluntly, it is to practice with the cowardly Xue army entrenched in Ningxia.

The traffic was billowing and the smoke was all over the sky, and Liu Ziguang couldn't help but pull the red scarf around his neck upward, looking around, suddenly a small cavalry team leader, the person was looking at a pair of apricot kernels, and it was Princess Xiangxiang, this girl didn't know the natural body fragrance, she would be covered in stinky sweat after such a long-distance march? Liu Ziguang speculated maliciously.

Seeing Liu Ziguang's gaze sweeping over, Huo Lingyao glanced at it coldly and shouted: "Drive!" Rushing out with the belly of the horse, the Hui soldiers followed closely behind, and quickly crossed the mechanical mule cart with the handsome flag, and ran into the distance, as if to show the last glory of the cavalry in this silent language.

At this moment, the steam car in front sounded the whistle, and then all the vehicles honked together, and the soldiers also cheered, Liu Ziguang put his hands on the pergola and looked over, it turned out that the army had arrived at the Great Wall.

This section of the Great Wall is built in the Wanli period, belongs to Yulin Town, Shaanxi, from Huangfu Chuan Fort in the east to Huamachi in the west, the total length is more than 1,000 miles, commonly known as "Dabian", respectively, by the east, the middle, the west, Gushan Fort, Qingping Fort, Yulin Baoning Fort six road generals guarded. Originally, the Great Wall was built with rammed earth into an outer brick wall, but the imperial court has retreated to the Great Wall for many years, many of the Great Wall has been buried by sand, and some wall bricks have disappeared, only the pier of rammed earth remains, but it is a kind of majestic momentum, the ancient city wall is still standing in the twilight, the silent wind is whimpering, as if responding to the cheers of this group of latecomers.

Liu Ziguang ordered the whole army to stop advancing, set up a altar on the Great Wall to worship the predecessors of the garrison, and in a hurry, the subordinates could only open a few canned fruits and beef, and then put an incense burner with three sticks of incense, and the whole jar of wine to let Liu Dashuai improvise.

Liu Ziguang climbed the mound of the Great Wall, the wind outside the plug blew his clothes, and when he looked up at the endless yellow sand, once upon a time, the soldiers on the border abandoned their families and children to guard the vast desert, defending the homeland of the Han people from the invasion of nomads, and the bones of the ancestors have turned into a cup of loess at the foot of the Great Wall, but their contributions should not be forgotten.

Liu Ziguang didn't want to talk nonsense about the country and the nation, and instructors had been arranged in the army to instill in the soldiers all day long, so he just silently raised the wine bowl and read on the spot: "Rest in peace, ancestors." ”

The officer on duty of the Chinese army behind him shouted hoarsely: "The whole army has saluted!" ”

The red-shirted officers and soldiers who had already gotten off the car and stood solemnly raised their hands in unison, and the movements were neat and uniform, which lasted for three minutes, during which nothing could be heard except for the sound of whimpering, and the solemn atmosphere and the strict appearance of the army made the officers and men who returned to the department also be infected, and they dismounted and stood solemnly together.

With a salute, the soldiers re-boarded the car, Liu Ziguang also turned to leave, and the moment he walked down the mound, he stared back at the north of the Great Wall, and the desert was still like snow.