In the middle of winter, the cold northwest wind whistled by, blowing yellow sand from time to time, covering the low and muddy city with a layer of mud and cloth.

The Xiliang Army stationed in Dunhuang City and the Blue Wolf Army in the interior of Longle City, which was not far away, were not intimidated by the bad weather here, and still maintained strict discipline and neat military appearance, patiently waiting for the arrival of a legendary figure.

During the day, when there is no wind and sand, the soldiers will come out to walk their horses and stretch their muscles, and at night when the wind is howling, they will go into the low adobe barracks to wipe the blades in their hands, or they will gather in groups to drink and play cards with canned yellow croaker.

In order to avoid the soldiers from being bored after training, Zhao Xing thought about all the games he could play in the barracks in his previous life, and then found that playing cards were the most economical and playable, so he asked the Commercial Press to produce a large number of playing cards and distribute them to soldiers as standard game props in the army.

From a deck of cards of "eighty points", "digging pits", "playing black A", two cards of "tractor", "double buckle", "fighting landlord", four decks of cards of "enough", "Qingdun", "royalist", all Zhao Xing can think of poker play, he patiently and meticulously wrote down the rules of the game on paper, and also went to the barracks to teach a group of high-level generals how to play poker first. Of course, in Professor Zhao Xing's poker games, there are no gambling games such as stud and blackjack.

Playing cards well can greatly alleviate the resistance and antagonism of grassroots soldiers to the boring and boring barracks life, and even enhance friendship and trust between them. But if gambling is allowed to prevail in the rank-and-file troops, it will completely destroy a strong force in a very short time. This is something that Zhao Xing will never allow to happen, so from the very beginning he issued a very strict ban on gambling, once someone is found to have violated the order, he will be expelled from the military at least and executed at worst!

Nowadays, in the Xiliang Army and the Blue Wolf Army, it is popular for six people to play with four decks of playing cards. This kind of three-on-three game has been warmly welcomed by the grassroots soldiers, and outside of normal drill time, everyone can play together for half a day, which can be a good way to pass the time of boring waiting. The person who loses the card game either washes the clothes for the winning side or takes out the canned beef he has hidden and shares it. In short, everyone is doing everything possible to have fun and distract from the emotions of missing their families and women.

In the days of waiting for the arrival of Lord Taifu, because of the playing cards invented by Lord Taifu, everyone from the generals to the soldiers did not feel how difficult it was.

Finally, there was news from the direction of Wuwei, saying that Lord Taifu personally led the team, escorted by 10,000 cavalry of the Han Army, and brought a large number of logistics supplies to the 50,000 soldiers of the Blue Wolf and Xiliang Second Army who were on the expedition, and had arrived at Wuwei Guzang, and it was expected that they would arrive at Yumen Pass in another half a month.

Hearing this news, the two armies were boiling, and the soldiers began to fold their fingers and hope that Master Taifu would come as soon as possible.

For the vast majority of ordinary soldiers, there are really not many opportunities to see the legendary Zhao Xing in this life, let alone Zhao Xing personally escorting the car to the front line to inspect and comfort the troops.

Master Taifu is a real person, and he doesn't like to rely on just one mouth to fan a few times in front of the team, even if he has comforted the officers and soldiers. He said where to go to condole, it will definitely bring unexpected surprises to the soldiers, this is Zhao Xing's style of acting, for more than ten years, it has always been like this.

This time, in view of the fact that the 50,000 soldiers of the Western Expedition were about to leave their homeland and fight abroad for a long time, Zhao Xing brought them mainly the top Changhe Daqu (which can drive away cold, disinfect and sterilize, and make fires in the wild); individual first-aid medicines and company first-aid medicine boxes (the medicines in them were personally prepared and developed by Hua Tuo and Zhang Ji, and have a good effect on hemostasis, resistance to wind and cold, and detoxification); a large number of high-energy compressed dehydrated foods (the best dried yellow beef, Black pork jerky, easy to carry, can quickly replenish energy), a hundred firearms devices that can fire "swarms" and "flamingos", and a hundred firearms use leaders, and some other necessary materials for expeditions, etc., in short, it seems that Zhao Xing has moved half of the good things in the Jin treasury to Yumen Pass.

The reason why Zhao Xing made such a big move was because he attached great importance to this western expedition. As long as the 50,000 soldiers can keep sending back good news, these materials are nothing, and Zhao Xing does not mind selling treasury bonds to the whole country again.

With such a large amount of logistical equipment and materials, of course, it is impossible for two cavalry units to carry with them. They only need to carry a certain amount of supplies to the expedition, and Dunhuang City in Yumen Pass will be used as an advance base to store most of the materials brought by Zhao Xing this time. The 10,000 Han cavalry divisions brought by Zhao Xing will have 5,000 people left behind at Yumen Pass, responsible for taking care of this extremely important military material.

Once Ma Chao and Zhang Xiu gained a foothold in the Western Regions, the subsequent supplies could be replenished from the local area, except for some special equipment and materials, such as "thunderstorms" and military arrows, other daily necessities could be taken from the fertile and rich southern and northern Xinjiang.

When Zhao Xing arrived at Yumen Pass, it was already approaching the Spring Festival. He ordered the two armies to first prepare for the New Year with peace of mind, and to maintain normal combat readiness and vigilance before the fifth army set out for the first month of the first month.

Next, Zhao Xing, accompanied by the beautiful and charming Jin Bao beauty reporter Miss Cai Yan, offered condolences one division after another, and was confused by the enthusiastic and excited soldiers every day. Even if Zhao Xing drank the 25-degree Yaxiang Changhe mixed with water, he still couldn't resist the enthusiastic persuasion of grassroots officers from division commander to regiment commander to battalion commander, and even company commander.

In any case, Zhao Xing has to drink this wine. Because many soldiers who have touched him may not be long before they fall on the road to the west. They went out to realize the dream in Zhao Xing's heart, so every soldier should be remembered by Zhao Xing, and every bowl of wine full of sincerity and blood needs to be drunk by him personally.

On the fifth day of the first lunar month, the jade gate closed the flag and waved the flag, and thousands of horses were together. Zhao Xing stood on top of the gate, waving over and over again to the soldiers who passed through the gate in a neat formation. Every time the soldiers shouted: "Taifu is mighty!" Zhao Xing would respond loudly: "The Western Expedition will win!", until finally when he shouted bloodshot and couldn't speak, Cai Yan snatched the loudspeaker from his hand without hesitation, and shouted at the soldiers under the city: "Taifu is mighty, the Western Expedition will win!"

As a result, I don't know which of the narrow ghosts in the city first shouted: "Madam is beautiful, Taifu is mighty!", and then the soldiers who have not yet left the customs actually think that shouting like this is more catchy than "Taifu Weiwu", so everyone went wild, and Cai Yan on the pass made a big red face.

On the night after sending off the Western Expeditionary Army, the mighty Zhao Taifu lost his body sadly.

Yes, everyone is not mistaken, not to lose your voice, but to lose your body......