"Sigh the law ......"

"Check your guns, clean up the ones that should be cleaned up, and have all the bullets on your belts!"

"Yes!

！ ”

In May, Han rode out of the broken leaves, and let me go.

At the same time as the end of the Great Dynasty Meeting in Beijing, in the Gobi yellow sand west of the broken leaf water, tens of thousands of Han people rode out of the fortress and came to this ancient battlefield thousands of years ago.

The wicker in the south of the Yangtze River has become graceful, but the poplar in the middle of the river is like a sentinel guarding the endless Gobi Desert, obviously old, but not backing down.

A Ming soldier dressed in a mandarin duck jacket and paper armor was armed with a rifle and sat on a carriage pulled by a large horse.

With the growing strength of the Ming Dynasty, they also enjoyed perfect logistics support.

Six people sat on a carriage pulled by a large horse, a man driving the carriage, and five soldiers in a unit.

Although there were only six people, the armor and supplies carried by the five soldiers and their weight were not less than 1,000 catties.

Counting the weight of the carriage and the weight of the four stone beans on the carriage, the weight of this big horse (Shire horse) reached nearly two thousand catties.

But even so, the horses were still moving at a speed of twenty miles per hour.

There were no less than 5,000 such carriages on the road to Talas, of which nearly 2,000 were used to haul people, and 3,000 were responsible for carrying water, food, and ammunition.

At the rear of this team, there were more than 30,000 war horses that followed the western expedition.

These are the confidence of the Ming Dynasty to dare to cross the Yellow Sand Gobi and march westward.

"This carriage is much more comfortable to sit on, but I don't know if the northern captives in the west have escaped when they heard about our westward expedition."

On a carriage of the Chinese army, Zhu Ciyan smiled and chatted with Li Dingguo, looking at the vast Central Asia from time to time.

Right now, they were on their way to Talas, and the reason why they chose to send troops in May was because of the most important resource for fighting westward...... Water.

By May, most of the snow-capped mountains had begun to melt the snow, and the snow turned into snow water and flowed down the mountains, giving the Western Expeditionary Army a river to replenish its water.

Li Dingguo's hand slid on the map, and in addition to Zhu Ciyan, there was also a garrison sitting next to him, and the identity of this garrison was a former Heshute Mongol.

Heshute has repeatedly gathered the Oirat troops to conquer Kazakhstan in the west, and naturally knows where there is water in summer and where there is no water.

"Here in Snow Spring Mountain, there should be pasture grass popping up this season, and rivers should also appear."

Shou Bei pointed to a marker more than a hundred miles ahead, tapped it with the brush in his hand, and then continued to say:

"Further up, there will be a lot of water sources, and when you arrive at Kulan City, there will be grasslands and rivers on the way to Talas City, so the army will not have to worry about supplies."

"Whether it is Kazakhstan or Bukhara, their cities are all native cities, except for Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva, and Kumi cities, which are made of stone, which are somewhat difficult to attack, and the others can be captured as long as the artillery is fired."

"All the cities and routes in the river area are mainly along the three rivers of Wuhushui (Amu Darya), Yaozhishui (Syr Darya) and Shaye Water (Chu River)."

"The place where these three rivers join is the Aral Sea, and when they reach the Aral Sea, we go west to the West Sea, but there is very little water on the way, and we have not been there."

The garrison explains the topography of the river, and in general, the environment in the river in the Ming Dynasty was slightly better than in later generations.

The flow of the river is relatively large, the number of rivers is also relatively large, and the appearance is more frequent, although it is not as comfortable as the oases everywhere in the Han and Tang dynasties, but it is also enough for the Ming army to gallop.

Li Dingguo pointed to the medicine and killed the water all the way up to the Aral Sea, and then looked at the Ferghana Basin.

Looking at his gaze, the garrison also explained: "This is the territory of the Kangju Kingdom in the Tang Dynasty, an intermountain basin in the folded belt of the Tianshan Mountains, with a large area and enough to support a million people. ”

"At the beginning of spring, Tiger Rabbit Dun had already let his son Abu Nai move west with 100,000 troops in the northern Talas area."

"There are 400,000 Kazakh tribes in this valley basin who obey Hutudun, and if Hutudun wants to move west, he will definitely not abandon them, but will take them with him."

"If we go straight to the city of Felt north of Talas, we can stop their westward move."

The garrison officer did not know the intentions of this expedition to the west, so he expressed his opinion.

Regarding his thoughts, Li Dingguo also affirmed first: "Your idea is good, but the imperial court still needs Hutudun to live." ”

"The targets of this imperial expedition to the west are mainly barbarians such as Khiva and Turkmen, and the number of Khiva and Turkmen barbarians is not less than a million, so you need to be cautious."

Li Dingguo said the content of the information handed over by the Fusi of Beizhen, and Zhu Ciyan next to him also asked curiously: "Isn't this land in the river the most powerful among the Mongols?" ”

"Although the Beiyu is strong, the situation in the Hezhong region is complicated, and the Beilu is not a big clan in the Hezhong." Li Dingguo explained:

"At present, there are no less than two million people in the north, and nearly one million of them have surrendered to my Ming Dynasty."

"Hutudun's westward expedition caused the Western Regions and the northern captives in the river to suffer a blow, and now there are only seven or eight hundred thousand people under his command, which is why he is unwilling to start a war with the Khiva and Turkmens, but chooses to move west to annex the western captives in Eastern Europe."

"The Khiva and Turkmen people are barbaric, and they have invaded Bukhara, Kazakhstan and other western captives many times, and their combat strength is fierce."

"But you don't have to be too nervous, with the guns in our army's hands, even if there are millions of people in the west, you have to surrender."

Li Dingguo said very heroically, and the soldiers around him also stood upright, and seemed to approve very much.

Since the mass production of rifles, the Ming army has no opponents, and the only thing that can limit the Ming army is logistics.

However, even the logistics can be compensated for by the frantic speed of the tractor.

Thinking of this, Li Dingguo put away the map in his hand, and at the same time, he also put away the map at the same time as Subudi in the north of Talas.

As Li Dingguo guessed, Lin Dan Khan had already ordered to move west.

Not to mention the beauty of grass and water in Eastern Europe, just letting him be sandwiched between Khiva, Turkmenistan and Daming, which made him a little unbearable.

On the left are other tribes who believe in Yin**, and on the right is the Ming Dynasty, which has great martial arts.

Leaving the river as soon as possible was what he wanted to do, and what he was thinking about had already begun.

In February, when the snow on the main roads began to melt, Lin Dan Khan moved his troops westward.

More than 400,000 Bukhara and Kazakh Mongols in the Fergana Basin were driven by him to the plains of the Volga and Ural rivers.

After cracking some stone forts in Tsarist Russia, he acquired a number of craftsmen who could cast cannons and muskets.

These craftsmen, together with the Han blacksmiths he coerced, allowed Lin Dan Khan to annex the Crimean Khanate westward as long as he could find iron ore.

Of course, if it was only artillery, then he was not enough to give Lindan Khan the confidence to annex the Crimean Khanate.

What really gave Lin Dan Khan confidence was that he reached an agreement with Tsar Mikhayl.

The Mongols released 60,000 Russians who had been captured and plundered earlier, and the Russians recognized the land now occupied by Lindan Khan as Mongol ownership.

However, the Mongols needed to help Russia defend itself against the invasion of the Crimean Khanate, in exchange for which the Russians would pay Lindan Khan a fee before each military campaign.

In Lin Danhan's view, isn't this the "annual reward" given to him by the Ming Dynasty? It's just not fixed.

As long as it strikes the Crimean Khanate enough times, then Tsarist Russia will have to constantly give money to itself.

As for the Tsarist side, the nobles were building the Great Wall to defend against the invasion of the Crimean Khanate because they could not stand it.

If Lin Dan Khan's performance is good enough, then it is entirely possible to use the money from the Great Wall to hire Lin Dan Khan to fight the Crimean Khanate.

It is better to let their group of Tatars have civil strife than to invade Tsarist Russia with them.

Thus, the two countries reached a "friendly agreement" under the threat of the Crimean Khanate.

However, the newcomer did not know that he had offended more than just the Crimean Khanate.

Behind the Crimean Khanate stood the Ottoman Empire, with a population of more than 20 million.

"Great Khan! Ezhetaiji sent news that Muhammad and the Turks had attacked our camp. ”

When Subu closed the map, he looked up and reported the news he had just received to Lin Dan Khan, who was riding on a horse in front of him, and handed the map and parchment to Lin Dan Khan.

Lin Dan Khan's temper did not subside too much, and when he heard the news that the Crimean Great Khan Muhammad Gelai was leading the Ottomans to invade the camp, he immediately gritted his teeth.

Skillfully opening the parchment and the map, he compared the contents of the map and the parchment, and finally put his finger on the hills of the northern Caucasus Mountains.

It was a place where Lin Dan Khan had a thousand herdsmen grazing in Chahar, and now it has been looted, and it is clear that the 1,000 herdsmen there are more than lucky.

1,000 herdsmen can produce at least 1,500 soldiers, and for Lin Dan Khan, who only has 80,000 soldiers and horses, sacrificing 1,500 soldiers is an unbearable pain.

Since his expedition to the west, he has only attacked others, and no one else has attacked him.

Thinking of this, Lin Dan Khan put away the parchment and map, and shouted to Subu Di beside him:

"Speed up your pace to New Hara and Lin, and let the Ming army and Khivas eat dogs in the river!"

"Yes!" Subudi was very supportive of Lin Dan Khan's move to the west, after all, the combat strength of the Ming army was well known, and even if they had 80,000 Mongolian iron cavalry, they might not be able to withstand the first round of attacks by the Ming army.

Therefore, it would be wise to leave the right and wrong place in the river early, and right now, they are doing it......

Overlooking the land, hundreds of thousands of Mongols and millions of cattle and sheep stretched for hundreds of miles, and at this moment they were preparing to make a detour from the northern part of the Aral Sea to Novohara and Lin (Volgograd).

There, tens of millions of acres of land will welcome them, and there will be dense forests so that they will no longer have to go hungry.

As for the Gobi Desert and Yellow Sand behind them, then leave it to the Ming army and the Khivas as battlefields!

"Put!"

"Bang bang bang-"

"Peng! Peng! Peng ......"

On the same day, at the same time that the Ming army advanced into the river and the Mongols fled to Eastern Europe, the Ming army's guns were aimed at the city of Ob on the Ob River.

At this moment, 200 Yanshan five-pound cannons became a sharp weapon to measure the land area, and a cast iron bullet blossomed and bore fruit at the head of Ob City, beating Ob City to the ground.

"Damn it!"

"Peng! Peng! Peng ......"

As the governor of Siberia, Golovin cursed and dodged the whistling iron cannonballs.

After the Ming Dynasty came up, stone bullets began to gradually withdraw from the war, replaced by iron cannonballs.

Two hundred Yanshan five-pound cannons smashed Ebi City everywhere, and no one dared to take the lead.

The reason why they didn't dare to take the lead was simple, that is, as long as they tried to fight back, the more than a thousand Ming sharpshooters roaming outside the city would send them to God.

Compared with the troops of the Western Expedition, the Northern Route Army of Guan Fumin had to set off earlier.

They set out on the fourth day of the fourth month of April, and by now, the east of the Ob River has all belonged to the territory of the Ming Dynasty.

Once the city of Ob is captured, it means that the stone fortresses of Tyumen and Tara in the south are also about to fall.

In the twenty-second year of the Apocalypse, the Ming Dynasty will completely recover the Lingbei region and drink the Lingbei Mountains (Ural Mountains).

"Bang bang bang-"

The artillery of the Ming army was still ringing non-stop, and the Russian army at the head of the city was also in a trance.

Since Lindan Khan occupied the plains of the southern foothills of the Ural Mountains, they had almost lost contact with the Romanov dynasty of the Eastern European Plain.

The cut off roads left the army short of supplies, and the tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians living in Western Siberia seemed to be outcasts.

Homesickness spread everywhere, and when the Ming army launched an offensive against Western Siberia, the pressure caused many to have a nervous breakdown.

"Stop!"

Outside the city of Ebi, watching the end of a round of three shellings, Guan Fumin raised his hand to stop the continued shelling, but turned his head to Li Guo and Liu Zongmin and said:

"Each of you will take a battalion of soldiers and horses south to attack the two stone forts of Tyumen and Tara."

"The Rakshasas simply didn't have enough food to hold out for long, and after a round of shelling drove them back into the city, the siege was over."

"The last general commands!" The two of them responded, then turned around and mounted their horses, and with military orders, led the soldiers and horses to the south.

The rest of the officials looked at Ob City in the distance, he turned his horse's head with some interest, and shook his head in a low voice:

"This battle is really boring......

His words expressed the common problem of the generals of the Ming army at present.

Because the iteration of weapons is too powerful, many tactics in the past have become icing on the cake, and the Ming army is now facing almost any country, and one force is fighting a tough battle.

Hit it head-on, and then destroy the country, it's that simple.

In the Ming Dynasty of the Apocalypse, it seems that a country with a population of more than one million has never been destroyed, and they are embarrassed to say that they are military generals.

But this is also cultivated, from top to bottom in the Ming Dynasty, it is no wonder that it is no longer strange to fight and win battles.

For example, at the moment, it is clear that the battle between Hezhong and Lingbei is in full swing, but at this moment, many officials and magnates in Beijing are still mainly focusing on the Qi Palace, the Forbidden City.

More than ten days have passed, and the movement of the Qi Palace's mansion and the inner court is very frequent.

After Zhu Youxiao came back, he did not take back Zhu Ciran's power to supervise the country, but still let Zhu Ciran supervise the country, and he went out to hunt with Zhu Youzhen every day, or played chess in the Qianqing Palace.

Looking at this posture, the two brothers obviously will not turn against each other for the sake of the big position.

This has been a relief for many, and it has also made many sigh.

The war in the west seems to have nothing to do with the Ming Dynasty, nor does it have anything to do with Zhu Youzhen and Zhu Youxiao, who stepped on the train to Shanxi at the end of the month, ready to see how the people of Shanxi who have suffered from drought are doing this year.

"Woo-"

The whistle sounded on the railway, and the black train departed from the Beijing West Railway Station, and the destination was Datongfu, which had experienced a great drought and a plague.

Wu Youxing did not live up to Zhu Youzhen's trust, and he took more than 1,000 doctors specializing in plague, plus more than 3,000 plague doctors who came from all over the world, and successfully solved the plague in Datong and Taiyuan in early April.

Although Daming Chinese medicine has undergone many improvements and specializations, making it the only systematic medicine in this era, in the final analysis, for internal treatment, Daming Chinese medicine mainly activates and strengthens the body's immunity, allowing the human body to solve the virus by itself.

The after-effects of this are minimal, but the problem is that many patients with weak bodies have a hard time surviving.

"The number of people who died directly and indirectly in this plague in Datong and Taiyuan Province is 148,327."

On the train, listening to the whistle in his ears, Zhu Youzhen calmly said the string of numbers, and continued to say to Zhu Youxiao, who was sitting opposite him and looking at the "Plague Control Process" booklet:

"Datong and Taiyuan have already migrated due to the drought in recent years, resulting in the population dropping to 380,000 and 460,000 respectively."

"At present, the nearly 150,000 people who are dying of illness are not even 700,000 people."

"Counting the population of various prefectures and counties, the population of Shanxi is less than 4.5 million, a decrease of 3 million compared with the 12th year of the Apocalypse."

"Since the beginning of spring, Pingyang Prefecture, Lu'an Prefecture, Liaozhou, Zezhou, Fenzhou, Qinzhou and other two prefectures have received rainfall, rivers have emerged again, and the number of paddy fields and irrigated fields has increased."

"Even in Datong and Taiyuan Prefectures, which are still experiencing drought, some former rivers have also emerged, which will not increase paddy fields and irrigated fields, but at least maintain the number of paddy fields and irrigated fields."

"According to the report of the Shanxi political envoy in April, there are no less than 100 rivers that have been reflowed, and no less than 2 million acres of fields have been moistened."

"Looking at the posture, I'm afraid that after the autumn harvest, the price of rice in Shanxi can drop from one or two cents per stone to less than eight hundred."

Zhu Youzhen talked about the situation in Shanxi, and Zhu Youxiao also nodded from time to time to show that he understood.

After a while, he put down the plague book in his hand, and then looked Zhu Youzhen up and down.

Zhu Youzhen, who is already in his thirties, is still upright and his face has not changed.

Influenced by his previous life, and many people in the late Ming Dynasty did not grow beards until they were in their thirties, so Zhu Youzhen did not grow a beard.

In Zhu Youxiao's view, his younger brother is still the same as before he went to Nanjing.

"Woo-"

The whistle sounded again, this time more rapidly.

Not long after, a train passed by the track next to the train that Zhu Youzhen and the others were taking.

Looking at the train that was going away, Zhu Youxiao asked curiously:

"My brother said this train could be faster?"

"How fast does my brother want it?" Zhu Youzhen asked with a smile, but Zhu Youxiao said with a smile:

"Naturally, the sooner the better."

"If I can travel thousands of miles a day, then the dynasty will be able to firmly control the place, and I can also build a railway, and I will go to Qi to see my brother in the future."

Zhu Youxiao's words made Zhu Youzhen smile helplessly: "I'm afraid this railway is difficult to repair, my brother is still looking forward to taking a boat." ”

After responding helplessly, Zhu Youzhen also talked to Zhu Youxiao about the train:

"This train, Wang Zheng has studied and improved it several times, and although the speed of the new version has increased to one hundred and thirty miles per hour, the consumption has also increased."

"When he solves the problem of thermal efficiency, the train that runs 130 miles every hour will be on the tracks."

In the Ming Dynasty, one mile and six hundred meters were in the Ming Dynasty, which meant that the new version of the steam engine could run 1,560 miles in one day without considering stopping and filling fuel.

This means that it can reach Shenyang, Kaiping, Shuofang and other places in one day, and even if the time to fill the fuel is counted, it can reach Jinan, Taiyuan, Luoyang, Kaifeng and other places in one day.

At present, the longest railway in the Ming Dynasty is the railway from Beijing to the Cham province of Jiaozhi, with a total length of 7,300 li, followed by the railway from Beijing to the western seaport of Luchuan, with a total length of 6,700 li.

If the time for filling fuel is removed, the new version of the train can run at least 1,200 miles a day, that is, it will arrive at Cham in less than seven days, and it will arrive in Luchuan Xihai in less than six days.

Later, after the railway from the West Sea to Massa was repaired, the Ming army in the area of Beizhili only needed nine days to reach the northeast of India.

This is only for the south, the most important thing for the Ming land is the west, and the western railway continues to be built from the Jiayuguan of the Jingjia Railway, with the goal of reaching Talas, and then splitting from Talas in two.

One goes to the northern part of the Caspian Sea and the other to the Ferghana Basin.

This railway is 10,000 miles long, and even the national strength of the Ming Dynasty will take more than ten years.

However, once it is completed and the new version of the train is put on board, the distance of the Jingjia Railway will be 14,000 miles, and it will be possible to reach all parts of the river in 12 days.

Before the advent of telegrams and telephones, any country's notice to the frontier areas was limited, and the actual control of the dynasty was often less than a month's journey.

If the Ming can reach the Hezhong region within 12 days in the future, then the river will never disappear from the Ming Dynasty's territory again.

If it really disappears, then I am afraid it can only mean that the Ming Dynasty has fallen.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youzhen looked at Zhu Youxiao, but saw that he was also looking at himself.

Neither brother understood what the other was thinking, but instinctively made them smile at each other the moment they looked at each other.

"Woo-"

The whistle sounded continuously, apparently that they were about to reach their next stop.

"It's time to get off." Zhu Youzhen was the first to speak, and Zhu Youxiao, who heard the words, also nodded with a smile:

"Let's go, let's see how the people of Shanxi are doing now."

While the two were talking, the train had slowly entered Zhangjiakou Railway Station, and the last time Zhu Youzhen came here was six years ago.

Back then, he promised the people everywhere that he would come back to see them three years later, but he couldn't help himself, and the time dragged on and on, but it was already three years late.

Now that the drought has subsided, Zhu Youzhen is very worried and concerned about how the people are doing.

With these complicated feelings, he took Zhu Youxiao with him, and the two stepped out of the train door one after another......