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The Yellow River is far above the white clouds, a lonely city and ten thousand mountains. Why should Qiang Di complain about the willows, the spring breeze does not pass the jade gate.

The Han family is full of Yin Mountain, and they don't send Hu'er back. I am willing to serve the country with this length, why should I be born into the Jade Gate Pass.

Qinghai Changyun dark snow mountain, lonely city looking at Yumen Pass. The yellow sand wears gold armor in a hundred battles, and Loulan will not be returned if it is not broken.

Yumen Pass, is one of the passes of the Great Wall of the Han Dynasty, which was placed when Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty opened the road to the Western Regions and set up the four counties of Hexi. During the Yuan Ding or Yuan Feng period, the Great Wall between Jiuquan and Yumen was built, and the Yumen Pass was set up, and it was the border pass of many dynasties after the Han Dynasty, and many poems describing the border pass will mention this Xiongguan.

Now, Li Cun and his entourage have also come to this Xiongguan.

Soon after the surrender of the Uighurs led by Bilgo, the Great Qian Expeditionary Force, guided by the small tribes and small forces that had taken the initiative to serve the Great Qian, easily swept through all the territory of the Uighurs in Gaochang.

However, here in the Western Regions, in addition to the Qocho Uighurs, the Daqian Dynasty had another enemy, the Qarakhanid Dynasty.

The Qarakhanid Dynasty was a local government created by the Uighurs who moved west to the west of the Green Ridge and joined forces with other ethnic groups and tribal alliances operating in the area at the time, such as the Khamli, Qarluq, and Samma.

Its territory reached the southeast to Ruoqiang (southwest of Lop Nur) in later generations, and was adjacent to Western Xia; Due east to the later Aksu and Baicheng, bounded by barren mountains, the Gobi and the Uighur kingdom of Gaochang; northeast to the Altai Mountains, adjacent to the original Liao State; due north to the first line of Lake Balkhash; Due west to the Aral Sea, including Khorezm, which was lost by the Qarakhanid dynasty after the occupation of Khorezm by the Kochenin dynasty; to the southwest is bounded by the Amu Darya River and the Gojinn Dynasty; Due south includes the Wakhan Corridor, bounded by the Hindu Kush Mountains, and bounded by the Karakoram Mountains, Kunlun Mountains, and Altun Mountains to the east of the Green Mountains.

As long as the Great Qian Expeditionary Force was able to defeat the Qarakhanid Dynasty, it could cross the Amu Darya River through the Wakhan Corridor and attack the Gojining Dynasty near Ghazni in later generations.

It is known as the crossroads of Asia, located at the intersection of East Asia, West Asia, Central Asia and South Asia, and has an extremely advantageous strategic position.

Therefore, in history and even in later generations, it has been the focus of the competition between the great powers.

As long as the Great Cadre Expeditionary Force seizes there, it will be able to fight wherever it wants.

And seizing it is precisely the strategic goal of the first stage of the Great Cadre Expeditionary Force.

However, before that, the Great Qian Expeditionary Force had to defeat the Qarakhanid Dynasty first.

It is said that after the Great Qian Expeditionary Force defeated the Gaochang Uighurs, the local Turkic tribes came to join the Daqian Dynasty one after another, and the leaders of some slightly larger tribes and forces even had the opportunity to take the train of the Great Qian Dynasty to Chang'an City to meet Li Cun and pay tribute to Li Cunlai.

These small tribes and small forces generally don't have too good treasures, but fortunately, they all know that Li Cun likes beauties, so they all offer beauties to Li Cunjin.

Li Cun, on the other hand, usually gave rich gifts in return, such as tea, glassware, fine porcelain, fine clothes, bicycles, pots and pans and other light industrial products, and other specialties of the Daqian Dynasty.

For these dirt buns in the Western Regions, these things are all good things that can greatly improve their lives, and they all feel that they have made a lot of money.

More importantly, Li Cun allowed them to send armed forces to march west with the Great Cadre Expeditionary Force, and promised that as long as they made meritorious contributions, he would definitely not be stingy with rewards.

Of course, Li Cun also put forward a condition, that is, the clansmen they stayed in the Western Regions to live must accept the demolition and relocation of the Daqian court.

These small tribes and small forces, there are many tens of thousands of people in each family, and if there are few, there are only a few thousand, or even only a few hundred or dozens of people, how dare they not listen to Li Cun's words?

What's more, Li Cun said that they would move their people to rich areas or richer interiors, which they didn't want to do.

As a result, a large number of nomads from the Western Regions joined the Great Qian Expeditionary Force.

From the mouths of the local nomads, the Great Dry Expeditionary Force learned that the Qarakhanid Dynasty was now also suffering from internal and external troubles, and it was the best time to eliminate it.

Therefore, under the leadership of the local nomads, the Daqian Expeditionary Force continued to advance westward after crossing the Tianshan Mountains.

When the Daqian expeditionary force advanced westward to the Kuyu area, it encountered resistance from more than 100,000 horses led by Mahmud Khan of the Qarakhanid dynasty in the west.

The two armies fought, and the 100,000-strong Qarakhanid army was easily routed by the Great Qian Expeditionary Force, and Mahmud Khan fled back to the capital Samarkand.

This greatly alarmed the inhabitants of the Qarakhanid dynasty, and panic and frustration increased, and they simply waited for the arrival of the Great Expeditionary Force, as did the inhabitants of Bukhara and other cities in the river.

Perhaps because the Great Qian Expeditionary Force was under too much pressure, the Qarakhanid Dynasty broke out again in ethnic conflicts between the Khamli and Qarluqs.

Mahmud Khan felt that the expeditionary force would not rest on his laurels, so he appealed to his suzerain, the Seljuk Turkic Sultan Sanjar, for help.

Prior to this, after Mahmud Khan was defeated by the Great Expeditionary Force and fled back to Samarkand, he had actually sent envoys to Sultan Sanjar for help, saying that Central Asia had encountered a catastrophe and encouraged him to defend Central Asia.

Sanjar had just ascended to the throne of sultan, so he also wanted to consolidate his throne with a hearty victory, so he rejected the minister's suggestion to send envoys to negotiate peace with the Daqian dynasty, and began to organize a coalition army to prepare for a holy war.

At Sanjar's appeal, the kings of Khorasan, Sigistan, Ghazna, Mazanland, and Ghor joined with their troops.

Sanjar concentrated more than 300,000 cavalry, and then personally led these more than 300,000 cavalry across the Amu Darya.

When Sanjar heard about the conflict between Mahmud Khan, he attacked the Qarluqs with the strength of his army.

The Qarluq people knew that this was a decisive battle for the survival of their clan, so they singled out all the beauties of the clan and sent them to Li Cun, and asked Li Cun for help.

Li Cunzheng was worried about what excuse he was looking for to be a Seljuk Turk who originally had some friendship with the Daqian Dynasty.

——At the beginning, when Li Cun went to the Prince's Continent for the first time, he passed by the Seljuk Dynasty and was warmly received by the old sultan of the Seljuk Dynasty, and the old sultan of the Seljuk Dynasty also gave Li Cun a lot of gifts.

Now when I was sleeping, I came to the pillow.

Li Cun immediately ordered the Great Expeditionary Force to continue westward, cross the Green Mountains, enter the Qarakhanid Dynasty through the Wakhan Corridor, and attack Samarkand, the capital of the Qarakhanid Dynasty.

Located in the southeast of Central Asia and the westernmost tip of China, it is a huge mountain junction where the Kunlun Mountains, the Karakoram Mountains, the Hindu Kush Mountains and the Tianshan Mountains meet.

Li Cun's territorial demarcation of the territory of the Daqian Dynasty was bounded by the Ural Mountains, the Green Mountains, the Himalayas, the west of the Indochina Peninsula, and the Strait of Malacca.

- There are two exceptions to this, that is, Qiongzhou Island and Liuqiu Island, although they are not connected to the mainland of the Daqian Dynasty, but they are also included in the mainland of the Daqian Dynasty by Li Cun.

As for the rest of the Daqian Dynasty, they were all vassal states divided by Li Cun, and in principle, these vassal states defended the Daqian imperial family, and the princes had to obey the orders of the Daqian Emperor, pay tribute on time, and fight with them to defend the Daqian imperial family.

The Wakhan Corridor was the only land access to the western part of Central Asia at this time, and it was strategically important, and it was supposed to be controlled by the Qarakhanid dynasty.

No, the last time the Qarakhanid Dynasty was defeated, even the soldiers and horses stationed in the Wakhan Corridor were withdrawn, allowing the Great Qian Expeditionary Force to enter Central Asia through the Wakhan Corridor without any danger.

At Katwan, north of Samarkand, the Great Expeditionary Force met the Central Asian coalition led by Sanjar.

Yue Fei set up camp in the Dalgam Gorge, Han Shizhong and Wu Jue each led 50,000 horses to attack the right flank of Sanjar's army, Zhao Li and Li Yanxian each led 50,000 horses to attack the left flank of Sanjar's army, and Yue Fei personally led the rest of the troops to attack the middle army of Sanjar's army.

On the right flank of Sanjar's army was General Kumaji, on the left flank was the king of Sigistan, and the central army was led by himself.

After the start of the battle.

Although the Sanjar army took the lead in launching the attack, the Daqian Expeditionary Force became more and more fierce and soon defeated the Central Asian coalition army with red-coated artillery.

I won't go into detail about the process.

In a nutshell.

Sanjar's wife, the commander of the two wings, Kumaji, and the king of Sigistan were all captured on the battlefield by the Great Expeditionary Force, and Sanjar escaped.

According to a rough post-war statistics, the Central Asian coalition forces suffered heavy casualties, not counting the wounded, and the total number of dead alone was as high as 100,000.

After the war, Yue Fei only sent a cavalry division to occupy Samarkand, the capital of the Western Qarakhanid Dynasty.

The Seljuk Sultan Sanjar took the Qarakhanid Mahmud Khan with him and fled to Telmi and crossed the Amu Darya River into Khorasan.

From then on, the Seljuk dynasty withdrew from the Transoxiana region, and the Great Qian Expeditionary Force officially entered Central Asia.

The good news and the captives were soon sent back together, and since the Great Qian Expeditionary Force had already eliminated the Gaochang Uighurs, they marched west to Li Cun in Xingqing Prefecture, the original capital of Western Xia.

Li Cun unceremoniously included Sanjar's wife and the royal daughters and clan daughters of the Qarakhanid Dynasty into his harem, while the royal men and clan men of the Qarakhanid Dynasty were sent back to the City of Nations by Li Cun to be imprisoned.

After this, Li Cun decided to continue his westward march to the city of Gaochang, the winter capital of the Uighurs in Gaochang.

At this time, the railway to Gaochang City through the Hexi Corridor had actually been built.

Li Cun can directly take the train to Gaochang City.

However, because the Great Qian Expeditionary Force had annihilated all the resistance forces in the Western Regions, and the officials sent by the Great Qian Imperial Court had also successfully taken over the Western Regions, that is to say, the Western Regions had been completely incorporated into the territory of the Great Qian Dynasty, and there was no danger at all.

Therefore, when he arrived at Yumen Pass, Li Cun ordered to stop, and then took his concubines, children and a group of entourages to take a look at this thousand-year-old Xiongguan.

It is worth mentioning that Li Cun brought many poets and painters with him on this trip.

Li Cun is going to ask the former to write some poems and songs to praise himself and the Daqian Dynasty, and engage in propaganda;

The latter is purely to record the places Li Cun has been, for example, Li Cun stood on the jade gate, and they painted many portraits of Li Cun, some of which Li Cun also posed as scissor hands very middle-class.

In terms of painters, Li Cun brought hundreds of famous painters of the Daqian Dynasty, such as Zhao Ji, Zhang Zeduan, Li Tang, Liu Songnian, Xia Gui, etc.

In terms of poets, the more famous later generations brought out by Li Cun this time include Li Qingzhao, Lu You, Xin Qiji, You Yuan, Yang Wanli, Fan Chengda, etc. - in addition, there are more than 1,000 literati who boast of their good poetry talents and take the initiative to sign up to go west with Li Cun.

Li Qingzhao doesn't need to say more.

Although Li Qingzhao is now almost sixty years old, Li Cun still brought Li Qingzhao out, and also prepared a train for Li Qingzhao alone, so that Li Qingzhao could continue to preside over the compilation of the "Hongwu Grand Canon" on the train.

——Those literati who compiled the "Hongwu Canon" with Li Qingzhao were also on the same train with Li Qingzhao.

Speaking of this "Hongwu Grand Canon", there is a part about the Daqian Dynasty, which has actually been compiled, and has been widely praised by all parties, and has become a landmark representative of the Daqian Dynasty at the cultural level.

Even the collections of those countries that were destroyed by the Great Qian Dynasty before, such as the Great Liao Empire, the Jin Kingdom, the Western Xia, the Mongol Tribes, Dali, the countries on the Indochina Peninsula, Japan, including the tribes on the Prince's Continent, and the small countries on the Indochina Peninsula, have been compiled into the Hongwu Canon.

This time, Li Qingzhao and Li Cun went on a westward expedition in order to collect the scriptures, histories, sub-books, and collections of various countries, involving books and records on astronomy and geography, yin and yang medicine, divination, interpretation of Tibetan Taoist scriptures, drama, crafts, agriculture, etc., and compile a set of world-wide encyclopedias, so as to make the most systematic summary of human cultural inheritance and better inheritance.

Lu You was born in a famous family and a family of book collectors in Jiangnan. Its ancestor Lu Zhen was a scholar in the Song Zhenzong Dazhong Xiangfu period, and the official was in the Ministry of Langzhong; Grandfather Lu Dian, under the tutelage of Wang Anshi, proficient in scriptures, official to Shangshu Youcheng, the book "Spring and Autumn Biography", "Erya Xinyi" and other important classics of Lu's family learning; His father, Lu Zai, was one of the earliest officials of the Daqian Dynasty.

- Lu You's family is one of the Jiangnan clans who were forcibly tied to their chariot by the Li Gang, Lu You's aunt Xiuyi Lu was one of the concubines who was accepted by Li Cunqiang at that time, and Lu Zai was also one of the Jiangnan literati who was ordered by Li Cunqiang to come to the Daqian Dynasty to be an official, but now no one mentions this stubble anymore, even the Lu family only thinks that Xiuyi Lu entered the palace voluntarily, and Lu Zai took the initiative to come to the Daqian Dynasty to be an official.

Lu You has been brilliant since childhood, and has studied under Mao Dezhao, Han Yougong, Lu Yanyuan and others, and at the age of 12, he was able to write poems and essays.

Later, Lu You was lucky to be transferred by Li Cun to his side to serve as a living room.

Xin Qiji, who is still only a seven-year-old child, is accompanied by his father, Xin Zan, a subordinate official of the palace.

Of course, this is also what Li Cun instructed.

As for the other poets, I will not go into details.

In short, Li Cun brought a large number of literati with him on this trip.

These literati were happy to obey orders that they could go to a strange world at public expense, and that they had the opportunity to perform in front of Li Cun and then obtain official positions.

This was the cause of the famous Cultural Expedition to the West.

Ah, yes, forgot to say it.

For a period of time, Li Cun especially liked those talented women, and once sighed: "There is only one Li Qingzhao in the world, but it's a pity that Li Qingzhao is old!" ”

As a result, there is something good at the top, and there must be a follow-up to the bottom, and those who like to drill camps, when they heard that Li Cun wanted a young Li Qingzhao, all tried their best to find those talented and good-looking beauties and dedicated them to Li Cun.

Li Cun, as everyone knows, would rather kill the wrong person than let it go.

As a result, a large number of talented women entered Li Cun's harem.

This includes Tang Wan, the only daughter of Tang Hong, the only daughter of Lu You's ex-wife Zhengzhou Tong sentenced Tang Hong.

- She was given to Li Cun by her grandfather Honglu Shaoqing Tang Yi, or it can be said that she was given to Li Cun by her family.

Not to mention that Li Cun knew that after Lu You and Tang Wan got married in history, Tang Wan's talent and Lu You's delay in love caused Lu's mother to be dissatisfied, and Lu's mother thought that Tang Wan had delayed Lu You's future and had not been pregnant for a year, so she ordered Lu You to take a leave of absence from Tang Wan.

Taking a step back, Li Cun knows that Lu You and Tang Wan can live happily together, and Li Cun, who can make anything but a woman can't, will definitely take love and possess Tang Wan.

Therefore, what I didn't say, after Tang Yi recommended Tang Wan to Li Cun, Li Cun happily included Tang Wan in his harem.

In addition to Tang Wan, there is also Zhu Shuzhen, a famous female lyricist in the Southern Song Dynasty, and one of the most abundant female writers in history since the Tang and Song dynasties, who also entered Li Cun's harem.

- Similar to Tang Wan's situation, Uncle Zhu was also sent to the palace by her relatives in the eunuch's house.

In addition, Wu Shuji and dozens of other talented women have also entered Li Cun's harem.

Among them, some are from the families of high-ranking officials and nobles, some are from the families of famous and wealthy families, and some are simply from the Qinglou (of course, the women who are dedicated to Li Cun must all be first daughters).

Because of the travel, these talented women are naturally more loved by Li Cun and have become the women who accompany Li Cun the most.

While enjoying the beautiful scenery and listening to the poetry of the beauties, not to mention, it is really a unique flavor.

However, Li Cun really has no artistic cells, and he can't fit into this kind of artistic atmosphere.

If Li Cun was allowed to enter, Li Cun would think that if these talented women lined up on the jade gate, he would be behind them......

"I wonder what kind of poems they can make?"

All in all, Li Cun has gathered a large number of cultural people around him, and Li Cun is ready to take them through the whole world, let them witness their own glory, compose their own achievements, and promote the culture of our Han people.

These literati are also gearing up, and here in Yumen Pass alone, they have composed hundreds of poems and dozens of paintings......

……