'The north wind swept the ground and the white grass folded, and the snow flew in August! ’

Winter in the Mobei steppe always comes earlier, not to mention that it is already November, and the war-torn South and Western Oceans are still hot as summer at this time, but the Mobei steppe has already covered a thickness of one or two feet with heavy snow, not to mention that the Beihai (Lake Baikal) located north of Mobei is even colder.

The cold wind that penetrated the bone marrow swirled and raised large snowflakes, and then splashed the snowflakes on the snow like a goddess scattering flowers, and there was no figure on the vast grassland at a glance, so that even the Tiele people, who were known for their cold tolerance, did not dare to go out to fight.

Under the heavy snowfall, a vast body of water comes into view, and the clear water of the lake no longer looks as blue as usual in this gloomy weather, because of the presence of hot springs in the lake, a considerable part of the lake water has not yet frozen, and the steaming water of the lake hits the solid ice on the shore in the strong wind.

In the wind and waves, you can still see the ice that is up to two feet thick near the shore.

This is a shore on the eastern shore of the North Sea, where the rich pastures of spring and summer have been covered with heavy snow, and three or four miles from the lake, a city that can accommodate at least 50,000 people stands, which has been built for eleven years.

When Han Zigao established the shepherd city, the city wall was built with a combination of civil engineering, only one and a half zhang in height, after eleven years of continuous construction, although the scale of the city has not been expanded, but the city wall has a height of two and a half zhang, and the thickness has also increased by two zhang.

It can be said that although this city is still a remote small city, in addition to its small scale, the other facilities are not much different from any ordinary county town in the Xia Kingdom, even in the face of the attack of the Turkic army, it is not afraid at all.

The cold wind howled through the city, and there was not a single figure on the city, but if you think that the city was lax, it would be wrong, although there were no soldiers guarding the city, but at the four corners of the city wall and on the three gate towers, there were soldiers with binoculars on the sentry.

In the flat snow, any figure within twenty miles would be spotted by them in time, and then the soldiers on duty hiding in the houses under the city walls to keep warm would be ready for battle as soon as possible, and this arrangement has made the Turks suffer for the past ten years.

In winter, the day in Beihai is only about two hours, and just when the night is about to come, the soldiers on duty at the East Gate Tower suddenly noticed a black dot in the east, and only when they got a little closer did they realize that it was a messenger of their own.

Although he knew that his messenger was not in any danger, but under the strict military regulations, the soldier on duty still reported the situation to the captain on duty as soon as possible, and soon a hundred heavily armed soldiers entered the combat position, after all, it was also possible that the enemy disguised himself as his own messenger.

At the same time as night came, the messenger finally arrived at the city gate, fortunately he was a real messenger, and soon entered the city led by several soldiers, and headed for the castle guard.

The buildings of the castle guard are not gorgeous, but they are very delicate and comfortable to live in, and the small windows are even made of double windows made of still precious glass, and through the foggy glass, you can see that the inside is bright.

A dozen large butter waxes illuminated the whole room very brightly, and a small fireplace near the west wall was burning, and a dozen arm-thick pine firewood were squeaking under the pressure of the flames, burning a room warm.

After receiving the letter brought by the messenger, Han Zigao, who was dressed in civilian clothes, read the letter for a while with the bright candle in the hall, and then took the letter to Yan Xiaowu, and said with a smile: "General Fang and General Cao have made great contributions this time, compared to them, our achievements this year are a little unmatched!" ”

"General Han said he was laughing!" Yan Xiaowu took the letter and read it carefully, and replied with a smile to Han Zigao, "Although we are not as angry as the Nanyang battlefield in Mobei, it is already very good to be able to fight with the former grassland overlord in the grassland field and still have an advantage!" ”

"That being said, the Avant-garde Army and the Blue Wolf Army combined are only forty or fifty thousand people, and it is already beyond our expectations that they can achieve today's results!" Han Zigao praised Fang Lei and Cao An, "Although Nanyang is not the cornerstone of our Xia country, it is also the guarantee of the country's prosperity and strength!" ”

Han Zigao understands Wang Ze's intentions very well, the rich and productive land of Nanyang can cultivate grain all year round, as long as this place is reclaimed, this can ensure that even if there is a big famine in the Xia Kingdom, there will be abundant food to relieve the disaster, and the Xia Kingdom will no longer have the risk of famine.

In addition, the land of Nanyang is also a good supply base of raw materials, not only the crops are abundant, but also a large number of mineral resources, just a rubber, tin ore, copper mine has made Xia Guo inseparable from the treasure land of Nanyang.

If you lose Nanyang, although Xia may have some economic difficulties, it will not affect Xia to continue to be strong, after all, the entire east of the Great Xing'an Mountains occupied by Xia is extremely rich land. First Chinese Network

However, now it can occupy a large grassland between Yangwu City and Shepherd City on the east coast of the Beihai Sea, and there are also grasslands here with Dangbo, Gonglushui, and Difficult Water, which is a guarantee for the Xia State to be more powerful, and it is the front for the Xia State to gain strategic superiority over the Turks.

The status between the two is not the same, so Han Zigao, who is a little proud in his heart, will not be jealous of Fang Lei's exploits at all.

"It seems that the battle situation in the South and West has settled!" Yan Xiaowu put down the letter and said with a light in his eyes, "Now that the east-west route has been opened, then Your Majesty's vision will return to the battle situation in this desert north, and then it is time for us to behave!" ”

Han Zigao smiled slightly: "This year's battle is just an appetizer, now the snow is nearly two feet thick, even if you want to fight, you have to wait until next year's ice and snow will be civilized, at that time we have gathered hundreds of thousands of cavalry, and there is a winter concentrate feed to maintain the physical strength of the war horse, but the Turks are grass and yellow horses are thin, and they must not be our opponents when they fight!" ”

In the previous series of battles, more than 400,000 Xia cavalry swarmed in, and they rushed all the way along Wanshui, Zhuanshui, and Gonglushui, beating the soul of Dulan Khan, who only had more than 300,000 cavalry, and fled like a lost dog.

Soon the Xia army will occupy a large grassland downstream of Gurong Bo and Gonglushui and Zhuanshui, if it were not for the heavy snow this year too early, I am afraid that these hundreds of thousands of Xia cavalry would have already attacked the Turkic tent at the foot of Yudujin Mountain.

Now the 110,000 cavalry of Han Zigao of the Sixth Army and Yan Xiaowu of the Fourth Army are stationed in Shepherd City on the east coast of the Beihai Sea, which is full of this small city.

The first cavalry corps' lieutenant general Xunyun and the seventh army's Lu Shishan were stationed in Xuanwei City, the second army's Ge Wei and the eighth army's Miao army were stationed in the difficult water basin, and the third army's Ji Xiang's department was stationed with the ninth army's Pei Jie's department in the grassland near Gurongbo.

The cavalry of the more than 300,000 Xia troops were separated, but they echoed each other from afar, so that Dulan Khan was unable to deal with it at all, and Wang Ze was also very careful to arrange the Yang Wu Department of the Fifth Army and the Li Hongyu Department of the Tenth Army around Yangwu City, in case the Turks bypassed the front line to attack this important city.

After listening to Han Zigao's words, Yan Xiaowu thought about it and said with some concern: "Although Datou and Daluo had a falling out with Anluo because of the position of Khan before, they are a family after all, if we force Dulan Khan too much, and he turns to these two people for help, we will not be able to deal with it!" ”

Although the Western Turks had lost a lot of troops in the attack of the Great Sui before, after all, he occupied the more fertile Western Regions and the land in the middle of the river, and the Western Turks rarely fought outside the country in recent years, so the lost troops had long been replenished.

So far, according to the intelligence of the detailed espionage, the Western Turks have at least more than 300,000 cavalry, so that the cavalry of Dulan Khan is 500,000 or 600,000 cavalry, and if you add a part of the small tribes attached to Dulan Khan, you can also make up more than 100,000 cavalry.

In this way, the threat to the 400,000 cavalry of the Xia Kingdom is not small, and it is not an easy master to deal with!

Han Zigao heard Yan Xiaowu's worries, but couldn't help laughing: "Yan Tieyi, you are really, if this Western Turk wants to help his own people fight, it is impossible not to leave a little force to defend the house, the Western Turk can support 150,000 cavalry is the maximum!" ”

Saying that, Han Zigao said with a straight face: "In this way, even if you add all the cavalry of those small tribes that are attached to Dulan Khan, Dulan Khan can only mobilize 500,000 cavalry!" ”

"500,000 cavalry is not a lot!" Although Yan Xiaowu didn't have any fear, he was still a little bottomless in such a big battle with the Turks in the desert, "Do you want Your Majesty to mobilize another part of the cavalry?" ”

Han Zigao smiled and waved his hand: "Why bother, the Turks have small tribes attached to them, and we don't have such small tribes yet, as long as we mobilize all the armies of these tribes, we will naturally be much more powerful than the Turks!" ”

After more than ten years of strategy, all the small tribes east of Beihai and between Yangwu City have long been no different from the people of Xia State itself, including the leaders of the large and small tribes of the Ximurwei people and the Guligan people have long been sent to the East China Sea to enjoy their blessings.

Only the unqualified subordinates were left to be extremely envious of this, but in the Xia Kingdom over the years, the sugar-coated cannonballs and the erosion of the spiritual opium of the Haotian God Sect, these herdsmen who had never seen much of the world had already become loyal believers in the Haotian God.

At this time, as long as the Taoist priest in charge of local religious affairs said that it was only a sentence to let them join the army, it was just a sentence to hack their past leaders to death, and these subordinates had long been envious of the Xia army's generous combat allowance and the trophy management method.

Han Zigao roughly estimated that even with the most basic mobilization, the Xia State could recruit more than 100,000 cavalry in its dependent tribes, so that together with other cavalry in the Xia Kingdom, more than 600,000 cavalry could also be mobilized.