The 80,000 cavalry of the Wehrmacht set out before dawn, and the envoys and the 30,000 auxiliaries of the Wehrmacht set out at the time of the rising sun.

"Mighty! Living in the plains, you can often see such scenes, which are the Sakya or Alans, nomadic tribes who migrate every year according to the weather and water and grass conditions. ”

"Where we stayed, we used to see nomadic tribes, but now ......"

Many people from Central Asia, whenever they see something, they always compare their past experiences, and then sigh for a while.

Well-informed people are often far more startled than those who don't, because they know how to compare and derive more truthful answers from comparisons.

"We also have cavalry with horses and men wearing metal armor, which are the royal guards, and the number is only 10,000."

"Ten thousand? If I hadn't come to the East, I would have lamented that your Parthian royal family was so rich that it was able to build 10,000 mounted cavalry. ”

"yes, I see what you mean. Almost all the soldiers of the Eastern Empire were equipped with armor, and I specifically inquired about it, and the soldiers' weapons, uniforms, armor, and food and drink were provided by their royal family, and they even had a salary to receive. ”

"Mercenaries are not like mercenaries, and volunteers are not like volunteers. What should they be called? ”

What is Mercenary? It is the army or soldiers who are hired at the expense, under Lu Zhe's system reform, soldiers will have a fixed salary, in the literal sense, all those who take a salary to become soldiers, they are really a group of soldiers who are hired.

In such an era, volunteers had no salary, and weapons, armor, and anything else had to be prepared by themselves. They join the army for some noble purpose, and they are willing to take risks to fight in order to accomplish a certain goal.

In BC, mercenaries and volunteers existed together, but they were not civilian private armed groups, but were under the command of the state. There are mercenaries and volunteers in every country, but only the absolute elite receive the ruler's salary. Volunteer soldiers are often the same generation as conscripts.

In such an era, in fact, there were very few people who volunteered to fight, and they were actually forced to be called up and then become soldiers in the army. Therefore, they usually do not have too high morale when fighting, and they do not appear to be very tough in the face of difficulties, and they will only be extremely fierce when they fight with the wind. It is only because they are victorious that they can plunder freely, whether it is against enemy countries or their own cities.

Because of Lü Zhe's reforms, the imperial army was the first collective in the world to fully popularize salaries, and they received basic military salaries in peacetime. There is also a combat allowance in wartime. Perhaps it is the simple relationship between people's thinking in this era, soldiers who receive military salaries rarely appear to only work but do not contribute, and most people feel that since they have military salaries, they should work hard, and the so-called "food for the king, loyalty to the king" The idea of "eating the king's fortune and being loyal to the king" occupies the mainstream.

"There was also a salaried army in the time of Babirim, which was flooded with gold by the enemy and refused to carry out the king's orders to resist the enemy, and even sided with the enemy. Together with Alexander's army, they fought their way into the Hanging Gardens. ”

"What do you mean?"

"It's hard to believe that an army that gets money to do things will have unwavering discipline. Whoever pays more will listen to whomever they want. Would the king of Babylon be the first victim? ”

"I see."

It should be understood that there are many examples of this kind of thing in history, and it was in the Roman Empire that that kind of thing happened most often. The Roman legions were to follow the orders of whoever paid more, and it was not unusual for them to turn around and kill their previous allegiances directly.

Because the Roman legions did not get the pay they deserved, they directly rioted and sacked the cities that should be defended many times, and each time the legionary soldiers rebelled. Their city is bound to be in a scene of ghosts crying wolves and flames.

Of course, there are not too many examples of paid armies directly defecting, the most famous of which is the former Babylonian Janissaries, because the Janissaries were so bad that they broke through the palace of the Babylonian king together with the Macedonian army. Therefore, it is more famous.

"It's hard to explain! The king of Babylon had been killed in the previous war, and the new king had not ascended the throne. In addition, the entire kingdom of Babylon has almost fallen, and the Macedonian army led by Alexander is destined to destroy the kingdom of Babylon, so ......"

"But they're still betrayals, aren't they?"

"Huh. Didn't the volunteers betray anything? There are too many, for example, Darius's 300,000 army was just because Darius fled first, and then his 300,000 army collapsed when Alexander only had 8,000 soldiers, and they did not return to Darius after the collapse, they were plundering the cities and villages that were supposed to be guarded, and finally Darius died alone. Is this an act of betrayal?

The Greeks like to use the history of Alexander the Great as an example, after all, Alexander the Great is the most powerful king of the Greek kingdoms, and he is the first great empire in Greek history to establish a great empire across Europe, Asia and Africa.

At this stage of history, there are too many places where the Greeks are active, and the Greeks are everywhere in distant Europa, Africa, and Central Asia, and they have brought too much knowledge and living habits to various places, and they have also spread "Greek thought" in a considerable number of places, and in Central Asia, they have established many political regimes because of the influence left by Alexander.

For example, in the countries of Central Asia today, Seleucus's vast empire is a legacy of Alexander's time, and most of the upper nobility that ruled Seleucid was of Greek origin, including Macedonia, while the Persians did not have much political status.

Now there are fifteen countries in Central Asia, close to the Greek peninsula, where Pergamum, Bithynia, Pontus, Cappadocia...... Most of these countries in the modern Turkish region are dominated by Greeks. Armenia, Atropne, Seleucus, including the newly independent Bactria, the upper nobility is basically of Greek origin, and only Parthia, Arakshia, Kashmir, Palpamaises, and Rakshashira are not countries where Greek people occupy the majority of political power.

In the whole of Central Asia, Parthia was considered a political power in Persia, with the exception of Parthia. Any country is either controlled by the Greeks or by the Hmong of the Mauryan Empire. So, although more than ninety percent of the population of Central Asia is of Persian origin or collateral peoples, the only country in power is Parthia.

"In other words, do you think Parthia will rise strongly in the future?"

"Yes, if the Parthian king was smart enough to use public opinion to get the lower strata of society to side with him, it would not be too difficult for the Parthians to unify Central Asia."

"Do you want that Assassis II of Parthia to be smart enough, or to keep it as it is?"

"It's not something I can think about. What to do, there are people from the Hongru Pavilion who will operate it. ”

"I think it would be good for our future conquests to let the Central Asians fight on their own, don't you think?"

Han Xin and Yu Fanjun were both riding war horses, and their communication was not loud.

The envoy group has already set off from the fertile field for half a day, and in about half an hour, it will enter the Tushenze realm. Tushenze is a large lake, it is also the only lake in the Hetao area, a small part of the water source comes from the surrounding rainwater, and most of the water comes from the Yellow River.

The terrain near Tu Shenze is strange. Except for most of the swamps in the southwest, the remaining three directions are flat grassland areas. It is precisely because of the suitable terrain. The first troops to go out of the fortress to fight, they built a fortress about twenty miles west of Tushen Jersey.

"The Hetao is such a place with a lot of terrain! There are too many Gobi and swamps we see along the way, so close, why is there a swamp on one side and a Gobi on the other? ”

"The Yellow River has nine meanders, and the number of tributaries is unimaginable. The Yellow River's watercourse has not always been the same, in fact it has been diverted many times. According to the historian, a long, long time ago, the estuary of the Yellow River was not at the confluence of Jibei County and Julu County, but directly to the south, from Nanhai County to the sea. ”

"A long, long time ago? How long will that be! ”

"It is estimated that it is the period of the Three Emperors and Five Emperors, right?"

"It's those fucking historians who are bullshitting, right? Is it still related to Dayu's water control? At that time, our ethnic group only inhabited the vicinity of the Yellow River Valley. Who knows what the south was like, at that time no one could climb thousands of miles of dense forests and mountains to the southern coast. ”

Han Xin doesn't know how to refute Yu Fanjun, like the existing "Classic of Mountains and Seas", most of the records in it are absurd, but if you study it seriously, there are a lot of real things in it, but the descriptions of each thing are different in each era, but the "Classic of Mountains and Seas" is basically exaggerated to the boundless description.

For example, there is a fish in Beiming, and its name is Kun. The Kun is so big that I don't know how many thousands of miles it is. Turned into a bird, its name is Peng. Peng's back, I don't know how many thousands of miles it is.

The empire already has a naval fleet, and it is found that the size of its body is really tens of meters or even hundreds of meters on the sea, but it is impossible to change into a kun, nor is it as exaggerated as thousands of miles, let alone a bird and become a peng.

"How many thousand miles? You think it's the earth, it's thousands of miles. ”

"Well, Your Majesty said that those fish with large bodies are called whales, and whales are also divided into quite a few species. There is really Peng in the world, and the wings can be as big as ten meters, which is a kind of alpine eagle, which is different from the relatively small eagle, so it is named Peng. ”

So, Han Xin really didn't use "The Classic of Mountains and Seas" to refute Yu Fanjun's meaning.

Idle all the way, when they arrived in the Tushenze area, Han Xin and Yu Fanjun didn't have so much idle time.

The imperial army's control over the Hetao area is very intensive, and there will basically be troops stationed in the place where it should be a garrison, for example, there are six imperial garrisons near Tushenze, each garrison has a maximum of 5,000 people and a minimum of 250 people.

Twenty miles to the west of Tu Shenze, there was a fortress with a garrison of 5,000 troops. The 5,000 garrison was also the largest garrison of the empire in the northwest region of the Hetao, and their commander told Han Xin that it was not long ago...... That is, three hours ago, 80,000 cavalry had just passed by, and those cavalry did not stop, but sent someone and left a message, asking him to tell Han Xin to load as much water as possible.

"From here all the way to the west, it's mostly swampy, but the water source in the swampy area is not edible."

"Captain Yan, does Wei Zhonglang (general) have any other explanations?"

"The vanguard troops have left traces along the way, and it is strongly recommended that you follow the traces left behind, and do not go to unfamiliar places for convenience."

"Understood, thank you!"

The people of the military are the people of the military, and the chief officer of the fortress didn't care too much about the chief and deputy envoys of the envoys, but he was closer to Han Xin, who was also a military.

Liu Bang and Chen Yu were actually not surprised by such a look, they could understand the thoughts of some people in the military, especially after the ceremony had Confucian students jump out to make trouble, the military had a more exclusive psychology towards non-military people, and it seemed that they no longer trusted those people who were not in the military collective.

"I didn't expect there to be so many swamps outside the plug, if there is no guide, it is a small matter to find the swamp while walking, and it is bad to be trapped directly."

What impressed the envoys the most when they arrived at the Loop? It's not an endless horizon, it's not green grass all over the ground, it's a depression or a swamp.

"I don't understand, why does Your Majesty attach so much importance to this? It doesn't seem to have much use for this place except for grazing, right? ”

Chen Yu didn't pay attention to Liu Bang, who was talking, in fact, if it wasn't necessary, he wouldn't have any communication with Liu Bang.

"Hey, old fellow, I'm talking to you!"

"Humph!"

Liu Bang was not angry when Chen Yu "snorted", but became interested in teasing Chen Yu, and then there was a burst of endless ridicule.

The men from Central Asia were already preparing to set up camp, and they were told that the party would stay here for the night tonight.

"We didn't take this route when we came, they should have listened to us and followed the route we had taken before."

"Does it work? The proud Empire will not listen to our advice, even if we are right. ”

In the face of the complaints of the accompanying merchants, the envoys of various countries had different views.

Taprati smiled and said to Angele: "Those fools who got into the eyes of money, the Imperial people chose this side, and that is because it is the closest to Wusun's territory. ”

Angle's response was a nod, and he looked into the distance to the west, where the sunset was bloody...... (To be continued.) )