My Chinese ancestors

Chapter 567: General mobilization of Xia Kingdom, Wu An rises with sword in hand
Above the court, there was a buzzing sound of discussion.

Su Chen turned around and waved to them: "Don't get excited. The expedition to the west will take some time. I need to make a good plan during this period to mobilize the elite troops from various states and stir up the hearts of the people. Is it better for a country to fight a war?" Without the support of the people of Daxia, the great battle will only fail."

After saying that, he slowly walked down the stone steps, one step at a time: "Since you have decided to fight, then don't just show it. Even if I kill a generation of Daxia in this battle, I must completely plant the dragon flag of Daxia in the world." That land in the west.”

"When you came, I had already thought about it."

After walking through the crowd, Su Chen winked at a eunuch at the door, who quickly brought someone in.

It was Li Chaofu. He changed his outfit, his hair was neatly combed, and he came in wearing a navy blue brocade robe and bowed.

"Your Majesty, Li Chaofu, pays homage to your Majesty."

"Show everyone your sketch."

After Su Chen returned to Yanjing, he summoned this person into the palace and gave him a job. Then he asked him to draw the western cities, foothills, and rivers he passed one by one, starting from Tianfengling.

After returning to Beijing, the painting was not completed until today.

Li Chaofu went from being a merchant to standing in the Great Xia court. To say that he was not panicked would be a lie.

Fortunately, during the three years he followed Zhang Dongshan, he had a lot of experiences. Faced with such a scene, he could quickly recover and calmly explain to the civil and military officials in the court what he had seen and heard in the West.

At this time, a eunuch came in from outside, holding a scroll in his hand. He untied the red silk rope on it, unfolded the scroll bit by bit, and then raised it above his head to show it to the surrounding civil and military officials.

The Xueyuan slave general in the second column on the right came out.

"Chaofu, go to the side and join the queue." Su Chen raised his hand and waved to Li Chaofu below. This move made Li Chaofu ecstatic. He held his hand again and hurriedly stood aside.

As Li Chaofu explained, the Chinese generals among the civil and military officials stared unblinkingly at the terrain, place names, and some Western city names traced by each other's fingers.

As for the hatred between family and country, it had disappeared after the Jinsa barbarians were slaughtered that day. Now he and Zaha have followed them to Yanjing.

"Since they covet us, why can't we take their land? Our people and soldiers still need more soil to grow crops. What do you think about that?"

"The Ministry of War will be very busy next. The soldiers and horses are no longer limited to the few armies under my command that are accustomed to fighting. I will recruit soldiers from Yuezhou and Liangzhou to form a team specialized in mountain and forest warfare. Wuzhou All the shipyards there are rushing to build as many ships as they can. In September, they will all gather at Feiyun Port. "

With a guide, the first step towards conquering the West has been taken.

Su Chen grinned and his smile became even brighter.

"Some places in the picture were added based on hearsay, but most of them are places where I and my master, as well as the national master Zhang Jiao, walked."

Su Chen turned back to the dragon chair and sat down, his voice getting louder and louder.

"After crossing Tianfengling for more than two hundred miles, we will enter a plateau where there is the Satsuma Kingdom and many cities. When my master and I escaped back, the Satsuma Kingdom was being invaded by another barbarian army. What happened now? have no idea……"

"The raw slaves in the snowy fields also need to be recruited. There may be cold places in the west. Then their role will come, Anuhu!"

"Chen is here!"

This was the emperor's approval of his performance, how could he be unhappy.

Zaha was also assigned to a horse farm in the western suburbs and was responsible for feeding the horses.

In the scroll, Tianfengling in the Western Region is marked. To the west, there are rolling mountains, as if there are hundreds of thousands of mountains standing in the wilderness.

"My dear friends, I have finished listening and saw the map. The land in the west is quite large." Su Chen stood on the imperial steps and glanced at everyone's faces.

"The place names in this painting may be a little off, but the location will probably not change. In the future, His Majesty will conquer the West, and I am willing to serve as a vanguard and lead the way for the front army!"

"Convey my will to the snowy plains and tell your chiefs that I want an army of fifteen thousand slaves. They will be ready for me in the second half of the year!"

"Yes!"

When Anuhu retreated, Su Chen turned his attention to everyone: "Convey my order to Grand Master Dong Zhuo, Li Jue, and An Lushan in Liangzhou to mobilize the Xiliang army and recruit 20,000 Qiang people."

"Recruit thirty thousand people from across the state."

"The Qingzhou Army from Luyang was mobilized to join the Western Expedition. Before the expedition order came, all veterans were recruited and new soldiers and horses were trained. In addition, notices were posted in the Central Plains. Anyone who wanted to join the Western Expedition could go to Xia Houyuan. Register."

"The Northern Fleet and the Central Plains Fleet have entered wartime training and prepared more troop transport ships. This time I will move forward on both land and sea."

"——I want the people in the west to see how powerful the army is in the east. I want to take their land. I'm determined!"

Su Chen slapped the dragon case and stood up. His heroic words brought with him a murderous intent that would cut off everything. With the high-pitched and heroic voice, everyone in the hall seemed to have seen the scene of an iron horse.

In the next few days, imperial edicts came out of the imperial city at high speed, and carrier pigeons flew across the sky, conveying them in all directions through land and air channels.

The scholars in Wang Lang's hands were also brewing news about the ferocious side of the Western barbarians and their desire to conquer Daxia, and then fermented and exploded in various places.

At the end of the first month, the news that the emperor was going to war with the barbarians had spread across the Hun River and into the Central Plains.

By mid-February, Bingzhou, Liangzhou, Yue and Wuzhou also knew the news. While everyone was still in shock, the emperor's recruitment order followed closely.

In Huizhou, Central Plains, Meng Tuo looked at the notice brought by his subordinates, raised his head and glanced at the memorial tablet of his old master Zhao Guangshi, held the notice, knelt in front of the altar table, and lit the notice.

He shed tears and kowtowed three times respectfully to the memorial tablet.

"Old General Zhao...Tuo wants to lead the Tiefeng Yijie Army this time and build meritorious deeds so that the officers and men in the army can also get good land and beautiful houses. It also proves to the world that the soldiers and horses in the hands of the old general are not just a bunch of wine and rice bags. I hope The spirit of heaven bless the old general!”

In Wuzhou, Zhao Kui'an sat silently at the banquet, with the early sun shining across the sea level on his face. After a moment, he whispered softly: "I am old, and there is such a big battle, so I should go to it personally!"

The family members came after hearing the news, but he scolded them back.

"How can a man be born in heaven and earth and end up sick in bed and depressed?" He pulled out the sword from his waist and chopped off a piece of the corner of the table. The children and old wife who came to persuade him all turned pale with fright. white. "I am looking for a future for my descendants, and also to fulfill my long-cherished wish to conquer other countries. Now that Your Majesty has issued the decree, I only want to be happy. You are my relatives and cannot be stopped, otherwise it will be like this!"

Soon, he summoned the Wuzhou navy for an overnight meeting, and then issued two orders. One urged all shipyards in Wuzhou to make every effort to build warships, while the other issued an order to recruit Wuzhou's men and women who were familiar with water skills to join the army.

In the Central Plains, Xiahouyuan, Xiahoudun, Zhang He and Lejin drank heavily all night. Early the next morning, while the recruitment orders were issued to all counties, the granaries in various places, except for the official warehouses for disaster relief, began to transport large packages out. grain.

Various workshops also received orders to build six-wheeled carts or rush to produce dry food for military use.

At this time, Liangzhou was also in full swing. Anlu Mountain's fat body was riding on a war horse, traveling between various tribes for half a month. A large number of young Qiang people walked out of the mountains and headed for Xiliang, which was stationed outside the Western Capital City. Military camp.

At the same time as the army took action, the civilian literati group and lower-level officials, following the instructions of Hongwen Hall and the Fang family, began to publicize among the people, erecting a war against the Western barbarians with punishment and revenge. the concept of.

The clamor of various campaigns grew louder and louder day by day, spreading from city to city, and states and counties large and small fell into a frenzy.

Countless people began to appeal for such a war. Scholars jointly petitioned the government to resist foreign enemies. Most of the talk in the streets was about conquering the Western barbarians.

The impassioned speeches of various literati on the streets and in restaurants and tea shops made frequent appeals, adding even greater momentum to the matter.

"...Many small countries in the Western Region are now our city-states in Great Xia, how can we allow the Western barbarians to covet them! That's right, it's the border.

But that is also what our own children fought for with swords and guns. Even the emperor of Daxia personally conquered it. It is already our land and cannot be allowed to be tyrannized by outsiders. "

"That's right. The people in the Western Region over there, no matter what, they don't deal with us every day or two. Although they look different, they have become the people of Daxia after all, just like us. If we let outsiders bully us, we will have to Avenge them!"

"My younger brother was doing business in the Western Regions. He almost died in the desert several times. It was only the people from the Western Regions who helped lead the way that he came out alive. Since the Western Regions are already the land of the Xia Kingdom, we have to fight for our reputation. One of our own was beaten. , we must save face for them!”

In the restaurants and cafes, faces were full of anger, and the literati who spoke spoke sharply about brotherhood.

However, unlike the impassioned people, the aristocratic families or wealthy gentry who have been suppressed see a different picture.

It was an illusion of countless gold and silver piled in front of me.

The war is raging in other countries. As long as they win, there will be countless lands and wealth that can be plundered. As the mainstay of the Xia Kingdom, they have a natural keen sense of smell and know that this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

When someone began to contact the local yamen and was willing to contribute funds, the entire middle-level civil society in Xia State had already begun to take action on their own.

However, what they didn't know was that their profit-seeking actions were all led by Jia Xu of Yanjing. With the help of the bottom power of Hongwen Hall and the Fang family, they spread profits to drive the wealthy families who valued wealth and slaves.

This is also to reduce the burden on Xia State. After all, the granaries of these aristocratic families and wealthy gentry are still very rich.

For a time, on the official roads between all the cities from Wuyue to Yanjing, countless luggage teams continued to go north, and at the south gates of each city, people who signed up to be logistics workers also lined up in long queues to register. The clerk of the government office was extremely busy, and registration papers had piled up in the government office.

In April, the Shengnu people on the snowy plain said goodbye to their families after the sacrifice of Chief Nayan Duo, and set off for Yanjing with a group of Shengnu soldiers under Anuhu.

On the 15th day, young men recruited from far away Yuezhou entered Luyang in the Central Plains to reorganize into an army, and veterans of various armies who had retired returned to the school grounds to conduct fierce training for these new recruits.

In June, 27 counties in the Central Plains sent 60,000 troops, and then went north to Yanjing. Under Li Ru's momentum in Bingzhou, where literati flourished, they also gathered 30,000 troops and set off.

In Liangzhou, Dong Zhuo's Xiliang army and the Qiang army trained by An Lushan, a total of 50,000 people, left Liangzhou.

People bidding farewell to their loved ones spread across dozens of miles of official roads, waving their hands feverishly on the roadside, or handing over water from their hometowns, and telling their children to fight the enemy bravely.

At the end of August, the Wuzhou Fleet and the Central Plains Fleet set off. Their sails covered the sky and the sun, and warships as huge as a colony of ants traveled across the sea.

Various armies gathered in the north, and the emperor's embroidery department and the elite scouts in the army began to travel between the Western Regions and the Snowy Mountains.

With the help of Li Chaofu's map, they continued to spread westward, inquire about various information there, and even look for opportunities to learn the local language.

In the Western Regions where the scouts and embroidery department spies came and went, the Protectorate of the Western Regions had completed the registration of hundreds of names, and issued household registrations and land deeds. With these guarantees, the former people of the Western Regions had officially become the subjects of the Xia Kingdom.

At the request of the Western Region Protectorate, a large number of people were busy building a straight road in the Gobi. From Tiele, Changkang, to Tianfengling, the road was more than 1,200 miles long and spanned two deserts.

This involved almost all the people from the city-states in the middle and southern roads of the Western Region. With the help of craftsmen transferred from Liangzhou and Bingzhou, the work started from the east and west at the same time. After several months, only the last 500 miles were left.

A large army marched for a long time, and a good road allowed a large number of six-wheeled personnel carriers to carry soldiers and set up camp in Tianfengling as quickly as possible.

When everything was proceeding in an orderly manner, Su Chen had just finished the court meeting and came to a side building on the side of the middle palace from the front palace.

It had just rained heavily and the ground was still very wet.

Su Chen dismissed the soldiers who were following him, and only led Dian and Xu in. Wu Zixun and Zheng He could only wait outside.

Walking into the attic courtyard, the water vapor is lingering, making the place appear hazy and mysterious.

The light red peonies and green old pines seem to isolate this place from the noise outside.

In the courtyard in front of the attic, the raindrops formed a bead curtain on the eaves and fell drop by drop. Su Chen stepped on the wet stone steps and walked into the attic.

There was a dim light inside, a man with a slender figure, a long mustache and a short beard, a majestic face, sitting on the chair at the head, and as the lights flickered, his whole person seemed to be immersed in shadow.

Hearing the footsteps, the man in the light and shadow raised his face slightly, with a faint smile on his face.

"Wu Anjun, are you still used to this place?"

Su Chen took off his cloak and threw it to Dian Wei. With his other hand, he handed the Daxia Dragon Bird to Xu Chu. Then he walked over and greeted the man who stood up.

"I came here this time to ask Mr. Wu An to help."

In the shadow, the man's eyes were dull, his Adam's apple rolled up and down, and he asked in a faint voice.

"Are there many enemies?"

(End of this chapter)