At the same time that the Ming army captured Zhuzhen, the Wu army camp on the north bank of the Yellow River in Kaifeng, hundreds of miles away, was ready to go after a summer of rest, and was ready to go on the northern expedition after the autumn. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

Flags were displayed inside and outside the Wu army camp, and tens of thousands of Wu soldiers were dressed in bright armor and neatly lined up on the open ground. Wu Sangui stood on the platform of the generals, looking around at his tens of thousands of elite soldiers with great ambition. Everything was ready, and Wu Sangui was waiting, waiting for news from Fengyang.

"Report!" A fast horse galloped over, wearing white armor and a red cloak, and the knight went straight into the Chinese army camp, turning over and dismounting in front of Wu Sangui, "Fengyang Battle Report!" The Qiongzhou army won a complete victory, and the Tartars suffered a heavy defeat, losing more than half! The remnants of the Tartar turtles cowered in Fengyang City and did not dare to go out of the city! ”

"Good!" Wu Sangui touched his beard and laughed, "The main force of the Tartars has been hit hard, and our army can rest assured that the Northern Expedition!" Pass my order, order the three armies, and set off immediately! ”

Wu Sangui's army was mighty and slaughtered to the north of Zhili.

……

Thousands of miles away, outside Longxi City.

Since the surrender of all the green battalions in Gansu and Shaanxi, the loyal battalions swept through the northwest, and Gansu, Shaanxi and Ningxia have fallen into the hands of the loyal battalions.

To tell the truth, recruiting troops and expanding troops is what the camp is best at. However, developing the economy and engaging in construction are not Li Laiheng's forte. The so-called King Chuang came and did not pay for food under the guise of the camp, and the camp of the year relied on plundering the people, robbing the locals everywhere he went, and then coercing the displaced people, turning them into their own cannon fodder troops, and then attacking the city all the way. Now Li Laiheng is also adopting this method in the northwest, fighting with mobile warfare, coercing the displaced people to rapidly increase their strength, and finally making the invincible Ganshan Green Battalion crawl under his feet.

However, it is easy to expand the army, but it is difficult to build, but Li Laiheng is not good at construction.

Since the loyal battalion broke through Baoji and entered the Ganshan region, after nearly a year of continuous battles, the strength of the loyal battalion has swelled to a terrifying strength of more than 1.5 million people!

Of course, among the more than 1.5 million people, there are very few real soldiers, in addition to the 30,000 veterans brought out by Li Laiheng from eastern Sichuan, there are also 50,000 soldiers recruited later, including 30,000 Qing troops who surrendered, plus the 70,000 Ganshan Green Battalion that surrendered, the real combat strength is 150,000, so what is the remaining ninety percent of the more than 1.5 million people, needless to say, everyone knows, of course, they are all rabble.

In fact, even among Li Laiheng's real 150,000 soldiers, most of them were auxiliaries and the like.

Despite being a rabble, there are more than 1.5 million mouths to eat! The amount of food consumed every day is astronomical, and Li Laiheng is very troubled by this serious problem.

In the Ganxi area, everything that can be robbed has been robbed, and there is nothing to rob, and the remaining people have no food to provide them. And the Qiongzhou army transported grain from Sichuan and Huguang for thousands of miles, and it could not guarantee that so many mouths could eat. To rely on thousands of miles of land transportation to feed more than 1.5 million people, at least a million heavy troops are needed! Along the way, people eat horses and chew and consume astronomical amounts of food.

In a hurry, Li Laiheng asked Li Guangdi, who was sent to Ganxi by Wang Yu, for help: "Li Futai, you see, our loyal battalion has conquered Ganshan, the army has expanded, and the territory is so big. But food is a headache. You are a person from the king of Nan, can you send someone to Nanjing to say that you can transport grain from central Sichuan and Huguang? ”

"A baggage team of one million people, this is something that our handsome can't even think of!" Li Guangdi stroked his beard and shook his head and said, "Draw out a million people to serve as the people's strong, and Sichuan and Huguang don't want grain production!" It will take many months to walk this way, and how much food will be consumed on the way? This kind of thing doesn't outweigh the losses! ”

"Then according to Master Li, what should we do? More than 1.5 million mouths have to eat, and our food won't last long! This year's autumn harvest is almost non-harvesting! Li Laiheng was worried. The land in the northwest was already barren, the grain production was low, and the locals could barely eat enough, and throughout the spring and summer, they were sacked by the loyalty camps, only destruction and no construction, and a large area of land was barren, and there was almost no grain harvest this autumn.

Li Guangdi's eyes emitted a fine light: "Autumn harvest? We don't have an autumn harvest here, but what about further west? There must be a grain harvest in the west! It's better to fight all the way and rob them! ”

"Keep going west?" Li Laiheng was stunned, "Further west, is the Yarkand Khanate!" They are said to have a close relationship with Dzungaria, and that the Rakshasas are behind them. Both the Rumi and the Rakshasa are fighting for the power here, and if we get involved, I'm afraid we will offend both the Rakshasas and the Lumi! Heading west now, the time is not yet ripe. ”

Because according to Wang Yu's previous request, Li Laiheng's sphere of influence was in the west, so Li Laiheng went to learn about the situation of the countries in the Western Regions.

Now is no longer the era of the Han and Tang dynasties, when the countries of the Western Regions submitted to the feet of the Han and Tang courts. By the time of the Ming Dynasty, although the Rumi Kingdom and Afghanistan were both nominal vassal states, they were not really subordinate to the Great Tomorrow, and even the little Annam claimed to be the Emperor of Dayue in Southeast Asia, not to mention the powerful Rumi Kingdom and the Kingdom of Afghanistan, which was known as the cemetery of empires, they just came to pay tribute and get more rewards.

Li Guangdi made a proposal: "United with Dzungaria and attack the Yarkand Khanate!" ”

This plan was carefully considered by Wang Yu, and in real history, the Yarkand Khanate, which was supported by the Rumi State, that is, the Turkish Empire, later became hostile to the Dzungaria. Behind the Dzungaria was the Russian Empire, behind the Yarkand Khanate was the Turkish Empire, and relations between Turkey and Russia deteriorated in this era, and many wars broke out between Russia and Turkey. The Dzungars, supported by the Russian Empire, later destroyed the Yarkand Khanate.

Religiously speaking, the Dzungars believed in Tibetan Buddhism, while the Yarkand Khanate believed in the Heavenly Religion.

At this time, Hao Shaoqi asked a very mentally retarded question: "Why don't you unite with the Yarkand Khanate to deal with Dzungaria?" Many of our army returned, and like the Yarkand Khanate, they all believed in the Heavenly Sect. ”

"You think you can control the Celestial Cultists?" Li Guangdi snorted coldly, "They are fanatical, especially the Heavenly Sect from Central Asia!" Our return to the Western Regions is strong enough, but compared to the Heavenly Sect in Central Asia and West Asia, they are very gentle! ”

Li Guangdi's concept of deep hatred for the Tianfang Sect was naturally influenced by Wang Yu, and he did not have any deep hatred with the Tianfang Sect, at most he only learned from the history books that the Arab Empire had collided with the Tang Empire, and some countries in the Western Regions that originally believed in Buddhism died out and gradually became Tianfang countries. But after hearing that the extreme Heavenly Sect cultists were brainwashed and that they could go to heaven after killing the infidels, they hated the Celestial Sect deeply.