It was only more than two months after returning to Xianyang from the Bailing tribe, and the plateau had completed all the preparations for the expedition to the Jiuli tribe, and he could go on the expedition immediately.

However, this time, it is necessary for Gao Yuan to briefly explain the reasons for the expedition to the ministers of the six cabinet departments, and of course, it is also necessary to reveal some secrets about Chiyou and the Jiuli tribe. After all, the last time Gao Yuan insisted on going to the Bailing Clan, regardless of the opposition of many officials, it had already caused the dissatisfaction of many ministers, and now it has only been less than three months since he returned, and Gao Yuan is going out again, and he is still leading the army to go out, if he does not come up with some good reasoning, there is no way to convince the minister.

Although Gao Yuan is the monarch and has extremely high prestige, no matter how high the prestige is, it also needs the support of the ministers to maintain effective rule over the country, not to mention that Gao Yuan also knows that in this era, the authority of the monarch has not reached as absolute as the Song and Ming dynasties.

And after listening to Gao Yuan's words, most of the ministers were skeptical, after all, the reason put forward by Gao Yuan was too unbelievable, and he even pulled out Chi You. However, the ministers did not dare to say that Gao Yuan was talking nonsense, not because Gao Yuan was the king, but because Gao Yuan and Hehua did have some things that could not be explained, so it cannot be said that these reasons for Gao Yuan were all false. But one thing the ministers can be sure of is that this time the plateau will definitely go again, and even if it is opposed, it is useless.

But with the last time the plateau went to the Bailing tribe, in the case of the official system has not been completely unified, Xianyang still maintained good administrative efficiency, even when the Guanniu rebellion occurred, Xianyang did not have chaos, on the contrary, it was very timely to quell the rebellion, indicating that Li Yinghong's backup system of acting as a supervisor is very effective, so even if the plateau leaves again this time, it will not have much impact on Xianyang's administration, and now that Xianyang's official system has been completely adjusted, there will be nothing to do.

As a result, the ministers also accepted Gao Yuan's decision very calmly, and said that after Gao Yuan left, they would do their best to assist Li Yinghong and manage the country well, and wished Gao Yuan a successful victory in sending troops this time and returned as soon as possible.

Seeing that it was easy to persuade the ministers, the plateau was also a lot easier, and this time on the expedition, Li Yinghong still stayed in Xianyang, and Chunyu Zhongxiu naturally had to stay to assist Li Yinghong, first, Xianyang really needs people with enough weight to sit in charge; Second, now that Li Yinghong is pregnant, it is not suitable to participate in the expedition, and at the same time, she needs more help.

After dealing with the affairs of Xianyang, Gao Yuan gave the order, set off in a team, and officially launched an expedition against the Jiuli tribe.

Because the number of troops sent this time was small, and all of them were cavalry, and the grain and grass materials along the road were supplied by the Han State, so the speed of the march was extremely fast, and it only took more than ten days to reach Yingchuan County. And further south from Yingchuan County, there is Shangcai County of Chu State.

Since the defeat of the Battle of Handan, only more than 20,000 people remained of the 300,000 Chu troops who fled back to the Chu State, and the Chu State was shocked, and the government and the opposition were in a mess, for fear that the plateau would take advantage of the great injury of the Chu State to send troops to attack the Chu State.

Because these 300,000 troops are all the elite troops of the Chu State, although the Chu State is known as the one million armor and theoretically speaking, the entire south is the territory of the Chu State, and the actual area is larger than the current Han State, but the Chu State can really control the area, in fact, only an area from the Huai River basin to the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and a small part of the territory on the south bank of the Yangtze River. In the vast southern region, there are dozens of large and small Tibetan vassal states.

In a certain sense, the current composition of the Chu state is very similar to that of the Zhou Dynasty, with a single suzerain-state controlling a large number of Fan vassal states, but although these Fan vassal states are all vassals to the Chu State in name, the Chu State has very limited control over the Fan vassal states. It was almost impossible to mobilize the forces of the Tibetan vassal states to compete with the Han state. Therefore, if Gao Yuan really sent troops to attack Chu at this time, the only way for Chu to deal with it was to move the capital for the fourth time.

However, the first three moves of the capital have caused the actual territory of Chu to lose most of it, and if the capital is moved, I am afraid that the actual territory of Chu will be completely lost, and at that time, Chu will actually lose the country.

Before the Battle of Handan, there was a coup d'état in the country of Chu, and the three clans of Zhaojingqu, the traditional family of Chu, joined forces to defeat the Xiang clan who were now in charge of the government of Chu and regained the power of Chu State, but at this time the three clans were also very nervous, because they didn't want the power to just arrive, and it was gone before they could cover the heat. Therefore, he also hurriedly recruited troops to prepare for a decisive battle with the Han State.

However, the more than 600,000 Chu-Qi coalition troops were almost wiped out by the Han State, and the elite army of the Chu State was also lost.

However, after the victory in the Battle of Handan, the main goal of the plateau was to consolidate the results of the battle, to incorporate all the land of the Qin State into the territory of the Han State, and to stabilize his own rule over the Qin State, and indeed did not have enough strength to attack the Chu State, so after more than half a year, the monarchs and ministers of the Chu State breathed a sigh of relief and determined that the Han State would not come to attack the Chu State in a short time. As a result, the tense situation was relaxed, and the army collected was immediately disbanded, and the three clans of Zhaojingqu also shifted their attention to the state of Chu, busy buying land in the country and expanding their power.

At this time, the plateau launched an expedition against the Jiuli tribe, and entered the territory of Shangcai County of Chu from Yingchuan County.

Due to the small number of troops and the lack of logistical burden, the preparation time for the dispatch was extremely short, less than a month, and when the Han army crossed the border between Han and Chu, the state of Chu was indeed not prepared for this at all. The Chu army stationed at the border was killed by a charge by the cavalry of the Han army, and they were scattered and fled.

Fortunately, the plateau was not aimed at destroying the Chu State, but only to pass through the Chu State, so it did not pursue, but led the army and went straight to Shangcai City.

Shangcai City is the capital of Shangcai County, and it is also a large city of Chu on the border of Han and Chu, although in recent decades, there has been no large-scale war between Chu and Han, and the two sides have joined forces to attack Qin many times, but after all, it is a border city, so the city wall is still quite tall, and the city defense facilities are relatively complete, and more than half a year ago, in order to prevent the Han State from attacking, the city defense facilities of Shangcai were also repaired, in this era, it is a relatively strong city.

After the Chu army stationed at the border fled back to Shangcai City, Shangcai Taishou Qu reported the Han invasion. When Qu Qi learned about it, he couldn't help but be shocked, he didn't expect that the Han army would launch a surprise attack on the Chu State, and there was no news at all before that.

Qu Beggars are Qu's disciples, and they can become Shang Cai Taishou, naturally relying on Qu to regain control of the Chu State's government, but Qu Beggars are not incompetent, and he also knows that his responsibility to garrison Shang Cai is heavy, once Shang Cai is lost, the Han army can drive straight in, go east along the Huai River, and take Shouchun, the capital of Chu, so he must defend Shang Cai. So Qu immediately sent people to Shouchun, the capital of Chu State, for help, and at the same time ordered to close the four gates of Shangcai, send soldiers to guard the city wall, and mobilize materials to defend the city, and at the same time recruit young and middle-aged people in the city to support the city at any time.

After making these preparations, coupled with the city defense facilities of Shangcai City itself, Qu Qi still had a little confidence in holding Shangcai City, thinking that he could hold it for more than ten days and wait for Shouchun's reinforcements to arrive.

And at this time, the Han army also arrived in front of Shangcai City.

After receiving the report, Qu Qi did not dare to be careless, because now the Han army has just arrived, and the morale is flourishing, so if he is not careful, it is really dangerous, so Qu Qi immediately went to the city in person and commanded the defense of the city.

Coming to the city tower, Qu Beggars looked around, only to see that the Han army was about fifty or sixty thousand, the number was not small, but there seemed to be no large-scale siege equipment in the formation, so Qu Beggars were also relieved a lot, if the enemy did not have tower cars, crash cars and other large-scale siege equipment, only relying on cloud ladders to attack the city, then the defending side was of course much easier. So in Qu Begging's heart, he didn't feel a little more sure.

At this time, I saw that in the array of the Han army, an extremely tall and majestic red horse jumped out, a person sat on the horse's back, and a single person rode in the direction of Shangcaicheng.

Qu Qi couldn't help but be surprised, what was the Han army going to do, was it so difficult to send someone to shout to him? This is also a common occurrence.

But as this person gradually approached the city wall, he was about to enter the range of the bow and arrow, and a Chu army general beside Qu Qi suddenly said: "Isn't this person the King of Han?" That's right, it's the King of Han. "This general had participated in the battle of the Three Kingdoms to attack Qin, so he had seen the plateau several times, and he recognized him at this time.

Qu Qi was stunned for a moment, and immediately said: "Nonsense, how could King Han come forward alone?" Did you recognize the wrong person? ”

Na Bo said: "Taishou, there is absolutely no mistake, he is the king of Han, even if I recognize the wrong person, but this horse will never admit mistakes, such a tall red horse, in the Han army, there is only one, absolutely not wrong." ”

Qu Beggar listened, and couldn't help but believe a little, such an extremely tall and majestic red horse is indeed very rare, it is difficult to admit mistakes, is this person really a plateau, so what did he do when he rode alone to the city wall? Even if you want to shout to the city, there is no need for Gao Yuan to go out in person, isn't it over if you send someone to shout?

At this time, the horse had already entered the range of the bow and arrow, and was only about fifty paces away from the city wall, and if he wanted to shout to the city, he should stop and show his identity, and then move forward. But the ride did not stop, nor did it speak, but continued to move on.

Qu Qi frowned, what was going on, and immediately ordered, regardless of whether this person was the king of Han or not, to shoot an arrow to warn the other party first.