"What? The Turks were defeated, and even the royal court was lost! ”

When the news of the complete defeat and escape of the Turks reached Chang'an City, Yang Jian, Emperor Wen of Sui, who was already a pot-bellied emperor, was so shocked that he almost threw the cherished East China Sea glass luminous cup in his hand on the ground.

He couldn't believe that the once powerful Turks had completely lost their ability and guts to contain the Xia Kingdom.

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

Yang Su was also full of gloom, and he said softly, "Who would have thought that Dulan Khan would even have the courage to fight against the Xia people gone, and on the side of the Turkic royal court, except for his son Dali Yehu who led the army to fight the Xia army, all the other departments fled in despair!" ”

In the previous planning of Emperor Wen of Sui and his ministers, the Turks were a powerful helper to help them contain the Xia State, and they could threaten and contain a considerable part of the Xia State's forces from the north, and they were still very confident in the strength of the Turks.

Therefore, the Sui Empire was wooed and wary of the Turks before, and while using the Turks to fight against the Xia State, they were also worried that the Turks would become strong and eat themselves, but they never thought that the extremely powerful Turks in their impressions would also be beaten by the Xia State with a devastating force.

"I heard that the Xia Kingdom has a total of six or seven hundred thousand cavalry this time!"

Yang Jian did not continue to pay attention to the problem of the defeat of the Turks, although the Turks still had the strength of more than 100,000 cavalry after the defeat, but they had lost their due position in the eyes of Emperor Wen of Sui.

Yang Jian walked uneasily in the hall with his hands behind his back and his head bowed, until now he couldn't believe that his neighbor in the northeast was actually so powerful, and he had mobilized six or seven hundred thousand cavalry just to start a war against the Turks, not even including any infantry.

According to the current intelligence of the Sui Empire, the Xia State currently has a population of nearly 30 million, although nearly half of them are minors under the age of 18, but according to the Xia State's war mobilization ability, the remaining 10 million people can still mobilize at least a million troops.

That is to say, Xia did not mobilize all its strength when it started a war against the Turks, and it was able to destroy all the Turks in more than a month without using all its strength, so when Xia used all its strength, how powerful was it?

Yang Jian was extremely heavy when he thought of this problem, and over the years, Yang Jian had also learned from the practice of Xia Guo and immersed himself in development, researching explosives, smelting steel, vigorously developing agriculture, and actively exploring trade routes to the Western Regions and Hezhong regions.

But after all these years of development, the Sui Empire is now not as good as the Xia State except for the population of the Xia Kingdom, and the intelligence that the Xia Kingdom can actually use steel to pave the road now makes Yang Jian worried, what a powerful iron-smelting power this is!

"Your Majesty, although the Xia Kingdom has mobilized so many cavalry, it is not necessary to worry about it when you come down to see it!"

"Oh? Why is that? Yang Jian looked at Yang Su curiously, among the ministers he trusted more, that is, Yang Su was more knowledgeable, although Yang Su had left the army because of Yang Jian's power factor over the years, but he still believed in Yang Su's analysis.

"Your Majesty, although there are many cavalry in the Xia Kingdom, but this is also because the Xia Kingdom is based on animal husbandry, although there are many cavalry, most of them are just rangers in leather armor!"

Yang Su said with a confident smile on his face, "And although I have only more than 300,000 cavalry in the Great Sui so far, half of them are armored cavalry, although fighting in the grassland is not our advantage, but in a head-on battle, armored cavalry can fight five in one battle!" Therefore, the minister thought that the cavalry of the Xia Kingdom was not to be afraid! ”

"Although the Turks are newly defeated, they still have more than 100,000 cavalry, and Your Majesty will contact the Western Turkic Datou Khan to send troops together, so that with my Great Sui, there will be five or six hundred thousand cavalry against the cavalry of the Xia State!"

Yang Su sincerely persuaded Yang Jian, "Your Majesty, now I, the Great Sui, must take advantage of the fact that the Xia State has not yet gained a firm foothold in the grassland to attack the Xia State with all my might, so that the Turks still have the hope and confidence to fight back, and my Great Sui can also take the opportunity to eliminate the border troubles from the north."

If you sit back and watch the Xia State occupy the Mobei grassland this time, the Turks will inevitably be afraid to flee westward, and then only my Great Sui will fight against the more powerful Xia State independently, and now there are still Turks to help, if you miss this time, I am afraid that no one will be able to fight against the Xia State again! ”

"What Aiqing said is extremely true!"

Yang Jian pondered for a moment and finally made up his mind, "When I first established the Great Sui Kingdom, the population of the Xia Kingdom was only 10 million, but at that time I had nearly 30 million people in the Great Sui, but now the population of the Xia Kingdom has increased to nearly 30 million people, and my Great Sui is only less than 50 million, and in the long run, our last advantage will disappear!" ”

In the development of the Xia State at the same time, the Sui Empire is also developing rapidly, in these years Yang Jian opened up a large number of mines in the heart of Guanzhong, Sanjin, Shuzhong and other hinterlands, so that the Sui Empire's steel output has also increased several times, but in any case, the development speed of the Sui Empire is still not as fast as the Xia State that has entered the initial industrialization.

Until now, Yang Jian could only rely on the population advantage of the Sui Empire to deal with the Xia State, and in his mind, he had a population of 50 million, and he could easily raise an army of two million no matter what.

In this way, the Xia State was pinned down in Liaodong, and thus fell into a war of attrition of national strength, so that the Xia State would inevitably suffer a loss due to its small population.

Thinking of this, Yang Jian suddenly remembered one more thing, so he said to Yang Su: "I just don't know where the Blue Khan has fled?" ”

Yang Su's face suddenly turned bitter: "Your Majesty also doesn't know where Nadu Lan Khan is now, it stands to reason that he should flee to the Dingxiang area of Hetao after defeat, but now it is more than 200,000 cavalry of Naxia State who are patrolling north of Dingxiang Qingshan, and I haven't seen any Turks appear in the Hetao area!" ”

"If you can't defeat the Xia people, they will be too much of a threat to my Great Sui!"

As soon as he heard that the Xia army had appeared north of Dingxiang, Yang Jian's face immediately became unpleasant, originally when the Xia State only occupied Liaodong, the Sui Empire only had Yan County and Liucheng County bordering the Xia State, and the national strength of the Xia State was not very strong at that time, so the Sui Empire did not feel any pressure at all.

However, after the Xia State gradually eliminated the Khitans and Kumoxi, the entire Sui Empire border east of Zhuojun was under the threat of the Xia State, but at that time, there were Turks to contain the Xia State, and the Xia State was unwilling to start a war with the Turkic Sui Dynasty on both sides at the same time, so it has been on the defensive on the border.

Now that the Turks have been defeated, even the last force to contain the Xia State has completely disappeared, and the Xia army has suddenly appeared on the grassland north of the Hetao, which means that the Xia army can threaten the security of the Great Sui at any time from the border stretching thousands of miles between Liaodong and the Hetao.

"We must find Dulan Khan as soon as possible, and send someone to contact the Datou Khan of the Western Turks, the Xia State is now approaching Jinshan, if he does not send troops this time, don't expect any of us to save him when the Xia people will point the finger at him!" Yang Jian was almost vicious at this moment.

"Your Majesty, the chief of the Longyou marching army, Dou Lu, came to report, the Turkic Dulan Khan suddenly led more than 100,000 cavalry, and hundreds of thousands of troops crossed the Hanhai to occupy the Juyanhai area north of Zhangye, and the governor of Doulu asked to send troops to expel him!"

"Your Majesty, Dulan Khan is now temporarily living in the Yanhai area, here is a letter written by him and Princess Qianjin asking for Your Majesty's assistance!"

The guards outside the hall suddenly brought two military reports, but Yang Jian relieved the anxiety in his heart, and at the same time, he was even more disdainful of Dulan Khan's timidity, and actually fled to Juyanhai instead of fleeing to the Hetao area, it seems that Dulan Khan is really bold.

In later generations, Juyanhai was only a large area of quicksand, and occasionally there were some small lakes and swamps, but on the whole it was already a desert unsuitable for human habitation.

However, during the Sui Empire, Juyanhai was still a vast lake with no end in sight, and during the Han Dynasty, Zhangye was established here, and until the Sui Dynasty, Juyanhai was surrounded by large forests and rich grasslands.

At this time, Juyanhai is still a pasture with abundant water and grass, and although the water in the lake is slightly salty, it is enough to ensure drinking water for cattle and sheep.

In the original history, whether it was the Han Dynasty or the Sui and Tang Empires, it has always been the frontier base for the Central Plains Empire to attack the Grassland Empire, and it is also an important springboard for the Grassland Empire to attack the Central Plains Empire, because from here is the closest place from the Hexi Corridor to Mobei.

Although Juyanhai is not as fertile as the Hetao region, but it is also far away from the threat of the Xia State, if Dulan Khan escapes to the River area, I am afraid that he will still have to face the Ji Xiang Department that fought all the way from the east along the Great Wall, and it can only become a knife in the hands of the Sui Empire against the Xia State.

Escaping to Juyanhai is different.

Dulan Khan could continue to flee westward at any time when the situation was not good, although Dou Luxian, the general manager of the Longyou march of the Sui Empire, kept threatening himself and asked him to withdraw his troops quickly, but Dulan Khan was not afraid of his threat.

Anyway, now the Xia State is the biggest threat to the Sui Empire, although his occupation of Juyanhai will make the Sui Empire's monarchs unhappy, but before solving the threat of the Xia Kingdom, the Sui Empire's monarchs and ministers will inevitably try their best to win themselves over, which is also a careful thought in Dulan Khan's heart.

The Eastern Turks still owned a part of the grasslands east of Jinshan before, but Dulan Khan did not dare to flee to the west at all, let alone ask for help from the Western Turk Datou, for fear that he would be annexed by the Datou Khan who was eyeing him, and he had to face the threat of the Xia army when he fled to Hetao, so escaping to Juyanhai became the only choice for Dulan Khan.

After finally settling down in Juyanhai, the first thing Dulan Khan did was to send an envoy to Chang'an to ask Emperor Wen of Sui for help, after all, Dulan Khan also married the princess of the Sui Dynasty, and the in-law relationship between the two sides was more or less a family, and it was better to wait for help from the Sui Empire at this time.

"Aid must be aid, but it also depends on whether the Turks listen or not!" Although Yang Jian made up his mind to unite with the Turks to attack the Xia State, this also required the Turks to have the courage to continue to wage war with the Xia State, otherwise it would be a wasted battle.

A month after the fall of the Turkic court, the Great Sui Empire, which had been silent for nearly ten years, suddenly began to recruit a large army, and everyone knew that the Sui Empire was about to go to war against the Xia Kingdom.