"Damn, this god, why did you freeze-dry so early!"

Li Sanlang was dressed in thick clothes, and said angrily while trying to push a flatbed truck full of grain and grass, "If it weren't for the sudden freezing, these grains and grass would have been transported directly to Zhuojun by boat from the Qinghe River!" It can also save us a lot of effort! ”

"Stop talking so much nonsense, work hard! If you delay the time and can't catch up with Zhao Jun, our brothers will all be punished! ”

Li Dalang reprimanded softly, "We are just government soldiers, and the people see us as officers and soldiers, in fact, in the eyes of those officials, we are no different from those recruited people, if they hear your complaints, you will have to eat a whip!" ”

Originally, Li Dalang, Li Erbin and others, as officers and soldiers, could just march with the large army, but because of a sudden cold snap after winter, the river from Qinghe County to the north to Hejian County, whether it was Qinghe or Zhangshui, was covered with a thick layer of ice.

In this way, the water transportation that could have been relied on was immediately unreliable, but the increasing military baggage at the front could not be supplied in time.

In order to ensure the grain and grass of the front line and the hundreds of thousands of troops gathered, the Li brothers and these soldiers had to assume a certain responsibility for transporting grain and grass, and the time limit was very strict, and if it was delayed, it would be dealt with by military law.

"It would be nice if there was a Grand Canal from the Yellow River to Zhuojun!" Li Erbin stretched his somewhat sore waist, he didn't know that in the original world, Yang Guang, the good son of Emperor Wen of Sui, had built such a grand canal, and this canal had borne a large part of the reason for the fall of the Sui Empire in later generations.

"Don't talk about building the canal," Li Dalang said softly, "Even if it is a good thing to build a gallop road, the road we are taking now is said to have been built by Emperor Gaoyang of the Northern Qi Dynasty, if the imperial court can maintain this road well, we will not be so difficult to walk!" ”

I have to say that although Gao Yang is a bit of a bastard, a considerable part of the roads and other infrastructure built during his lifetime have been playing a good role, at least until the time of Emperor Wen of Sui, he is still enjoying the convenience brought by the various facilities he left behind at that time.

In the cold wind, the soldiers represented by the Li brothers complained while walking, but Yang Su and Gao Ying, who were in charge of the logistics of the Sui Empire's army, were helpless at this time.

There is no way, although the Sui Empire can easily mobilize millions of troops and millions of people with its strong national strength, but the road from the Sui Empire to the front line of Zhuojun is too poor, and the water transportation cannot be operated because of the cold weather, which further aggravates the difficulty of transportation.

Gao Ying felt a little aggrieved, because the military transportation did not achieve the expected goal, he was scolded by Yang Jian, after all, when Yang Jian was preparing to build the Chi Road, Gao Ying advised to launch less conscription and rest with the people, which eventually led to today's evil results.

After being reprimanded by His Majesty, Gao Ying was afraid that he would be involved in the crown prince Yang Yong, after all, Yang Yong had become more and more unlikable to Yang Jian in the past two years, so he was alone there in a daze thinking about coping strategies, but Yang Su secretly smiled and walked out of the palace in a hurry.

While the Sui Empire was still slowly preparing for war, the battle in the depths of the desert had already begun.

Dali Yehu, who led the army under the orders of Dulan Khan, led the last 160,000 Turkic troops to Wuyuan County in Hetao, where he joined Yang Jun, who led 150,000 Sui Imperial cavalry, where they confronted Ji Xiang's troops, who had just finished sweeping the Turkic tribes in Monan.

Facing the more than 200,000 Xia cavalry led by Ji Xiang, the Turkic cavalry that had been defeated one after another and the Sui Imperial cavalry, which had never been officially launched with the Xia State, were also quite worried, but what surprised them was that the more than 200,000 Xia cavalry on the opposite side retreated quickly after more than ten days of confrontation, and they did not even leave a scout.

Immediately afterward, good news came from the Western Regions, and more than 200,000 cavalry of the allied forces of the Western Regions and Hezhong countries, led by the Western Turks, crossed Jinshan at the end of November and launched an attack on the Xia cavalry stationed on the eastern steppe of Jinshan.

Although there has been no good news of victory so far, the more than 200,000 allied troops of the Western Turks can at least contain the hundreds of thousands of Xia cavalry stationed in the depths of the grassland, which is also a rare good news that Yang Jian has received.

The news of the attack launched by the Western Turkic coalition army made the Sui army feel a little more confident, it seems that the very powerful Xia State is just like this, the Turks will be defeated by the Xia people not because the Xia people are too strong, but because the Turks have fallen, this is the idea of every Sui Empire general.

Although the Xia army's previous easy victory was due to the gradual decline of the Turks, it could not deny the strong combat effectiveness of the Xia army, but when Changsun Sheng and Li Yuan's wife Dou died, few people could see the situation in the world clearly.

Although Changsun Sheng is very valued by Yang Jian, he has never become Yang Jian's important minister, and because he is sick and bedridden, he has long been cared for.

In addition, Li Yuan's wife Dou also sees the general trend of the world clearly, but she is also as smart as Changsun Sheng, and she has passed away a few years ago.

However, Li Yuan has an advantage, that is, he is very obedient to persuasion, of course, you can also say that he has soft ears, this time the Sui Empire attacked the Xia State, he did not take the initiative to ask to fight, but wrote a request to be the assassin of Yongzhou, and go to Longyou to prevent the Tubo people who have gradually become stronger from attacking the old land of Tuyuhun.

Although Yang Jian has always been suspicious, but Li Yuan is his wife's nephew after all, and he can be regarded as a very close relationship, so he didn't think much about it at this time, but he appreciated Li Yuan's insight very much, after all, the Xia Kingdom is still far away from Chang'an, and once the increasingly powerful Tubo occupies the old land of Tuyuhun, the threat to the land of Guanzhong and even Chang'an will be too great.

As the Sui army gradually gathered in Zhuo County, the weather became colder and colder, and soon after a cold wind, a snowy winter began, which brought more difficulties to the Sui army's baggage transportation, and even many of the requisitioned people were not prepared to die of cold and starvation.

The people who died along the way will not be valued by the big people, these people are just a piece of data, they have long been accustomed to life and death in the world, they will never shed a tear for this, at this time the eyes of the whole world are focused on Zhuo County, where the army gathers.

With the fluttering and sprinkling of large snowflakes falling, a lot of snow fell inside and outside the Great Wall, and the prairie outside the fortress that had long been withered and yellow was quickly covered with a thick layer of snow, making the entire grassland like a white carpet.

The snow was cold but could not extinguish the fiery atmosphere of the war, and everyone now knew that the fall of the Turks was only the beginning of a great war, and now the war between the two most powerful super-empires in the world was about to unfold.

After the analysis of the Xia State General Staff, the Sui Empire will inevitably concentrate on attacking the direction of Liaodong in this battle, which is not only the closest passage to the core hinterland of the Xia State, but also the most suitable direction for the Sui army to attack, after all, the north of Liaodong is the core area of the Xia State's rule.

The Sui Empire's claim of three million coalition troops is indeed a big threat, and even the people of Xia Kingdom, who have always been not afraid of war, are beginning to be a little worried.

In order to cope with the war mobilization of the Sui Empire, the Xia State also continued to expand its army on the basis of the original army this time, because the Western Turkic-led coalition forces of the Western Regions and Hezhong countries suddenly crossed the Jinshan Mountain to attack, so Shi Haiguang, Yan Xiaowu, and Li Hongyu's troops must continue to stay in the grassland.

While defending themselves against the Western Turkic coalition forces, they also had to take on the responsibility of protecting the newly migrated Xia herders.

Han Zigao led more than 200,000 cavalry under his command from the Turkic tent to Xiping County to join the main force of the Xia State, but they were not concentrated in the upper reaches of Luanshui, which was relatively close to the front line, but in the area of Xiaoluoshui in the upper reaches of Liaoshui.

Not long after Han Zigao arrived at Weak Luoshui, Ji Xiang, who had withdrawn from the north of Yinshan, also led more than 200,000 cavalry under his command to join Han Zigao's headquarters.

For the Sui Empire, which claims to have an army of three million, although Wang Ze was nervous at the beginning, he quickly regained his self-confidence, after all, there are not more people in the big war.

Although because of the attack of the Western Turks, the other party contained more than 300,000 Xia cavalry on the grassland, but thanks to the Xia State's reward farming and grazing system for decades, Xia could still easily organize more than 200,000 cavalry again.

These more than 200,000 cavalry, plus more than 200,000 people in Han Zigao's department, plus 200,000 in Ji Xiang's department, so that Xia Guo still gathered more than 600,000 cavalry on the Liaoshui line.

In addition, after the Xia State issued the mobilization order, it concentrated more than 500,000 infantry troops in the direction of Liaodong, and the Xia army arranged a solid defense line along the various cities on the east bank of the Liaoshui, and there was abundant logistics support behind it, which could fully cope with the all-out attack of the Sui army.

In this way, the Xia State and the Sui Empire each mobilized large armies, and the line from Zhuojun to Liaoshui became a strategic buffer zone between the two sides.

Of course, the Sui army will not know the military combat strategy of the Xia State, and at this time, any scout exchanges have become unrealistic, and the dynamics of the Sui army are also shrouded in clouds, so that the Xia State is confused for a while, and all in all, he is in a state of knowing himself and not knowing the other.

However, the people of Yan County in the lower reaches of the White Wolf can clearly feel the atmosphere of war enveloping them, but this time they have nowhere to escape, the Sui Empire has supported them for so many years, of course, they are not doing good deeds, they can only defend Yan County under the leadership of the leader Tu Diji.

Although Xia did not know why he had not launched an attack on Yan County in western Liaoxi, Tudi Ji still continued to ask for help from the rear every day, but the poor logistics of the Sui army were destined to make the main force of the Sui army only concentrate in Zhuo County at present.

It takes thousands of miles to travel from Zhuo County to Yan County, so no matter how Tu Di Ji asks for help, what he finally gets back is still a stubborn order, which makes Tu Di Ji gradually despair.

Although the Xia State has not yet built the railway to the Liaohe River, the railway built from Nanshui has been built to Liaodong City, and it is only a hundred and ten miles away from Liaoshui.

In addition, the Xia Kingdom has also built a relatively complete gallop network, although it is now snowing heavily, but the Xia Kingdom, which has long made all the logistical preparations, can easily mobilize more military materials from the rear.

Even so, the Xia State was still carrying out its own war mobilization, after all, this battle was the most powerful Central Plains Empire that the Xia State faced.

In addition to the 500,000 infantry troops that have been established so far, the Xia Kingdom has also mobilized nearly a million National Guards, and even the White Wolf Battalion, Lion Cub Battalion and other juvenile armed forces established in various counties have also been organized to maintain order within the Xia Kingdom, transmit news, and even capture spies.

The spies of the Sui Empire lurking inside the Xia Kingdom suddenly discovered that the Xia Kingdom had instantly turned into a huge war machine, and the country seemed to have been preparing for war since the day it was established, but when they wanted to pass on this information, they were desperate to find that they could no longer leave here.