Tumeng: I am a national advisor in the Golden Family

That's a problem! Should I continue to fight westward?
If we end the Western Expedition now and start to return, it will take less than a year, about eight or nine months.

We should be able to go back to the East and then disband the troops in various places, which means that this expedition will take less than two years.

Now they entered the Kipchak steppe and destroyed the main force of the Golden Horde in less than three months.

The next battle can actually be completely left to the army of the Ogedei family and the other ethnic groups they have incorporated.

Should I leave or not? There seems to be no point in staying here, but if I continue to fight westward!

The main goal of this Western Expedition was to destroy the Golden Horde.

If they continued to attack westwards, they would need to consume more manpower and material resources. Moreover, Zhang Dingguan also noticed something. Although the Han soldiers under his command did not say it, they were so far away from home and no longer wanted to fight.

However, in stark contrast to the Han army soldiers, the Mongolian soldiers were very interested and seemed determined to continue the westward expedition.

The soldiers on both sides had completely different attitudes. There were 50,000 Han soldiers under his command and 50,000 Mongolian soldiers.

Half of the people wanted to fight, and half didn't want to fight, and the people of Ogedei's family actually didn't want to fight either.

Because they want to occupy this land as soon as possible and then start building their own country on this land.

Their father had promised them that they could establish a country here, and all the princes could obtain land. There might be more than one Khan born here.

In the war, only the 50,000 Mongolian troops had high morale. The other Han soldiers had destroyed the Kublai Khanate and the Golden Horde, which was equivalent to making great contributions. They all wanted to go home quickly and receive their rewards.

It turned out that what the emperor said was right. If there is a war, the Mongolian army cannot defeat the Han army in the plains. However, if there is an expedition, the Mongols will have to fight against the Han soldiers. Even if they are allowed to bring their families with them, they still want to go home.

In the next few days, Zhang Dingguan began to order his troops to attack everywhere and began to incorporate the entire land of the Golden Horde. Now that the main force has been destroyed by himself, the remaining Cuman troops can't make any waves at all.

As soon as his army arrived, there was only one thing they could do, and that was to surrender to him. There was no other way.

If they did not surrender, then the army of the Ogedei family and even the Russian army would destroy them without the need for their own Mongolian and Han troops to take action. These Russian troops were very brutal in killing people.

"The great eldest son of King John, your great achievements are admirable. The aura you bring is enough to make any enemy bow down before you. You are the sun in the sky."

"You bring the light of God, you illuminate our dark world, and you bring hope to Orthodox Christians."

"The Golden Horde was vulnerable to your attack, all of them failed, they were complete losers.

And you, son of the great King John, you are the true conqueror, you are like Alexander the Great, you are like Caesar."

Several Russian grand dukes knelt in front of Zhang Dingguan and kept flattering him.

They praised it with the most descriptive and imaginable language possible.

"Ahem! Just say whatever you want to say!" Zhang Dingguan coughed twice and spoke.

Are you kidding me? These Russians who come here to flatter me must have something to ask of me, right?
In the past few days, in order to please him, the nobles in the southern Ross region sent a large number of Ross beauties. But these so-called Ross beauties, to be honest.

Zhang Dingguan couldn't bear to look at them. From a distance, they were all very beautiful, and their figures were extremely hot compared to those of oriental women.

But once you get close, the strong smell on their bodies is a little unbearable. What's more, these women have a lot of hair on their bodies.

A Han general under Zhang Dingguan once said a famous saying: These Russian women look more manly than men.

"Great King John, now that the Golden Horde has been destroyed by you, we would like to ask, what is your next goal? Which area do you want to conquer?" a Russian archbishop asked openly.

It is so cool to follow a strong man into battle. They don’t even need to use their sniper feathers. They just need to follow behind and take advantage.

This battle was so easy to win that it even reminded them of the beautiful battle fought by Batu and Zhang Yong during their Western Expedition more than ten years ago.

"I don't plan to go further west. The western countries include Hungary, the Eastern Roman Empire, Serbia, and Bulgaria.

They are all my allies, and even the land of the Bulgarian Empire nominally belongs to my brother." Zhang Dingguan said.

If we fight further west, the only targets we can choose are Poland and Prussia. After defeating these two regions, we will be bordering the Holy Roman Empire again.

You know, the Western Pope now recognizes the identity of his father, King John, which is equivalent to Christians fighting the Golden Horde themselves. In that case, there will be no problem. But once they attack the Polish region, they will completely break with the other side.

After all, his younger brother Zhang Dingxia was attacking the Abbasid region, and there were many Crusaders in those places, and these Crusaders would become a help to his brothers.

If these Western countries were offended, the Crusader states might become neutral organizations or even attack their own brothers' armies.

If the troops of both sides were combined, there would be nothing to be afraid of, but now his brother only has an army of tens of thousands.

After all, his father had reached an agreement with the Eastern Roman Empire and some Western countries to jointly organize the Crusades to attack the Abbasid Caliphate.

Although his father will deal with them in the future, not now. Now is not the time to deal with them.

"Great eldest son of King John, we don't mean for you to attack Poland, Prussia, and the Holy Roman Empire. Instead, we hope that you can attack the Northern Rus region." A Russian lord said publicly.

Attacking Poland would be another expedition for them. Although the Russians were brave and good at fighting, they were, after all, an agricultural people.

If they were asked to attack the Golden Horde, which had been bullying them for a long time, these soldiers would be highly motivated, but if they were asked to attack those western countries, their morale would not necessarily be very high.

However, not attacking those Western countries does not mean that they will not attack the Northern Russia region. Now the Northern and Southern Russia regions are hostile to each other.

Moreover, the king workers in the Northern Rus region have an advantage in bloodline. They are the true descendants of the first generation of Grand Dukes of Kievan Rus, while his group is a force supported by King John.

There is a bloodline issue between the two sides, and in this land, bloodline means everything.

If your bloodline is noble, then you are born noble and people will think you are of royal blood.

Although these people ascended the supreme throne of Grand Duke by virtue of their military achievements and the support of King John, some grassroots people are still willing to support the bloodline of the former king.

The reason why they were able to strike at the Northern Rus region in terms of reputation and people's hearts was because the Northern Rus region surrendered to the Golden Horde.

This means that they are no longer the orthodox Russians, but lackeys who have surrendered to the enemy. Even the enemy's leader, Alexander Novsky, is Batu's adopted son.

Now, however, the situation has changed. Northern Russia has once again surrendered to the Mongol army, at least in the eyes of ordinary Russians, although they keep claiming that this is King John's army.

But King John's army did not wear the armor of the Crusaders, did not fly the banner of God, and did not wave the cross.

They also heard some news in the past few days and learned that King John's eldest son did not intend to launch a four or five-year westward expedition war like his father.

Instead, he planned to withdraw his troops and return to the East immediately after destroying the Golden Horde and stabilizing the situation here. This made some local Grand Dukes of Northern Russia very anxious.

If you leave, what will happen to our Southern Rus? Kievan Rus is the most important city, the mother of all cities, and the symbol of all Rus people. The Northern Rus must want to take back this city and reoccupy it. Now the Northern Rus has nominally left the Golden Horde.

And they once again restored their faith in Eastern Orthodoxy and once again became Orthodox Rus. And their Southern Rus region once again surrendered to the land of this grassland.

Things are a bit polarized now. Before, they could still gain the support of the grassroots people, but now the situation has changed.

Then the lower-class people will definitely support the Grand Duke of Northern Russia, because bloodline is more important than anything else.

The Grand Duke of Southern Ross and the seven Grand Dukes appointed by Zhang Yong will not allow the other party to do so. At least none of these nobles will give up the rights they have obtained.

They have been grand dukes for more than ten years and do not want to step down from this position and become an ordinary general or even a civilian.

So several Russian grand dukes discussed it together and decided to come to see Zhang Dingguan. It's okay if you don't continue the westward expedition, but before that, help us destroy the northern Russian region! This is not a difficult task for you.

"What you mean is that you want me to help you attack the Northern Russia region and completely destroy Northern Russia, right?" Zhang Dingguan asked.

After a long time, it turned out that these people were planning to borrow troops from me and let my army help them fight.

"That's right, the eldest son of the great King John, the Grand Duke of Northern Ross has always said that we are heretics and that we are not worthy of being the Grand Duke of Ross.

Because we do not have noble blood, we are not descendants of the first king of Ross."

"But we are also sacred, because we were canonized by King John himself. We represent divine authority and the name of King John. If we are overthrown...

That would be equivalent to overthrowing King John's rule, and there would be no one to spread the faith for King John in this land." A Ross lord said publicly.

“Back then, we followed King John in his conquests and made great contributions. Under the witness of God, King John made us Grand Dukes. Our status is sacred.

It is inviolable, but now the people of North Russia are unwilling to recognize us, saying that we are heretics and even slandering King John. Can you tolerate such a thing? "

"Yes, son of the great King John, can you bear it when these heretics come to exclude your father? They actually say that the great King John is not as good as the first Grand Duke of Kiev!

This is unacceptable. They actually say that we, the crowned people, are not worthy of ruling the city of Kiev." The Grand Duke of Kievan Rus said passionately.

The one facing the greatest pressure now is him, the Grand Duke of Kievan Rus. This position is equivalent to the suzerain of all the Grand Dukes of Rus, equivalent to the actual ruler. (Even equivalent to the Zhou Emperor in the Spring and Autumn Period.)
"Well! I roughly understand what you mean. The Northern Ross region is unwilling to recognize your status, and even unwilling to recognize the reward from my father, right?" Zhang Dingguan said with a smile.

He still had his eyes on these grand dukes in the Southern Ross region. At least after his army arrived, these people came to join him immediately, and when fighting, they also let their soldiers rush to the front.

He was also very respectful to himself, especially to his father, whom he worshipped to the extreme, even a little blindly.

To put it bluntly, these people are their die-hard fans. The Aberrus region once surrendered to the Golden Horde, but after their army arrived.

The Northern Rus’ region rebelled and now has revived the Orthodox Church and is pressuring them with bloodline.

"That's right, they are a bunch of heretics who blasphemed the great King John, and they are even unwilling to pay taxes to your father." The Grand Lord of the Principality of Minsk said.

"None of us are recognized. Even some of the Grand Dukes in the Northern Rus region, especially Grand Duke Vladimir, asked us to abdicate and let his son and nephew inherit the position of the new Grand Duke."

"The army is in your hands, and the people have accepted your rule for many years. Can it be changed with just one word and one bloodline?" Zhang Dingguan asked curiously.

It's really weird! The current Ross region is a bit like the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, before Chen Sheng and Wu Guang proposed the idea that kings, princes, generals and ministers should be of the same race.

Commoners are commoners, nobles are nobles, and the royal bloodline is sacred and inviolable, and is the supreme existence.

"The eldest son of the great King John, in fact, our status is not lowly at all. Although we do not have the blood of the first Grand Duke of Ross, we were canonized by King John, the servant of the great God." A Grand Duke of Ross said publicly.

"I understand. I will immediately send an envoy to Northern Russia to persuade them to surrender," said Zhang Dingguan.

"No, no! Great Prince John, if you send an envoy, Alexandernovsky, that despicable villain, will immediately agree to your terms.

Surrender to you, but as soon as you leave with your army, they will immediately rebel.

Unless you stay in this land with your army forever and never become weak, they are just a group of hungry wolves.

There are villains everywhere and at any time. They have done this many times. Don't you understand? "A Ross said.

It is easy to guess what they would do in this kind of situation. The grand dukes of Northern Russia must know that they cannot defeat the Mongolian army, so once the Mongolian army attacks, they will surrender immediately.

There was no need to even attack them. Just send an envoy to intimidate them and they would surrender. After all, the powerful Golden Horde had been destroyed.

But then! They will rebel.

"So you mean I should just go straight into battle?"

“That’s right, the great eldest son of King John, you led us directly into war and completely cut off the bloodline of the first Grand Duke of Kievan Rus.

From now on, only those appointed by King John can rule this land, and we will always be your servants." The Grand Lord of Kievan Rus said.

This is the purpose of their coming here. They don't want to see the surrender of the Northern Ross region. What they want is to completely cut off the bloodline of all the royal members in the Northern Ross region.

Kill them completely. In this way, no one will bring up the issue of bloodline or question their rule anymore.

Only then can their rule last long and continue.

"The great eldest son of King John, lead your army and our army. You don't need to send out too many troops. Only 50,000 troops are needed to cooperate with our army. A hundred thousand troops are enough to flatten the entire Northern Russia region. They can't stop us at all." The Grand Lord of the Principality of Ryazan said publicly.

If they led the army themselves, they would have no suitable reason to start a war. After all, they did not believe in Orthodoxy before, but now they have returned to Orthodoxy.

"I understand. You are all Grand Dukes appointed by my father. You have always been loyal to our family. It is reasonable for me to help you now. In this case, you should lead your army back to your territory.

I will lead the army to rest for two months. After two months, I will go out with you to destroy the Northern Rus region and completely cut off the bloodline of the first generation of Kievan Rus Grand Duke's royal family. "Zhang Dingguan said.

The father king of the Ross region has always been concerned about this land. He wants to rule it for a long time, so all unstable threats must be eradicated. In this case, Zhang Dingguan has decided not to persuade the Roffel Ross region to surrender, but to carry out a thorough massacre.

Hearing this, all the Grand Dukes of Southern Russia present were excited. They knelt down and kowtowed in gratitude, then left Zhang Dingguan's tent.

After conquering Northern Russia, I returned to the East.

"Coach!"

"what's up?"

"Our military doctor said that Batu has recovered under their treatment and has now regained consciousness. Do you want to go see him?" the soldier asked. (End of this chapter)