Big man: I am the Champion Marquis!

Chapter 157 Political and Military
Are the Cheshi people thinking of responding to ever-changing situations with the same strategy? Huo Xian is just thinking about dealing with the situation head on, so there is no need to be particularly anxious. I have the advantage now!

The army continued to march forward, seemingly slowly and orderly, towards Cheshi.

Kangda came with some excitement. He had sent troops to Luntai before. This captain of the guard army and Ren An, the captain of the guard west, were the two major garrisons in the northern part of the Western Regions, controlling Cheshi, Qiemi and other places.

Seeing the imperial army coming, it is not just a matter of thinking that they are reinforcements, nor can it be considered that this will relieve the pressure on the military governors. For the garrison, there will be opportunities to make meritorious deeds.

The soldiers of the Han Dynasty are all warlike and eager to achieve more military exploits, and now their chance has come.

In the main camp, Huo Xian summoned Ren An and Kang Da. There were some things that needed to be carefully questioned to these two captains, as they had a better understanding of the situation in the Western Regions, especially the situation in countries like Cheshi.

Straight to the point, Huo Xian asked, "Although there have been military reports before, I still want to talk about why the Cheshi suddenly sent out troops."

Kangda immediately replied, "Grand Marshal, my troops have cultivated land and stored food, following the Grand Marshal's military orders. We often have conflicts with the Cheshi and Yanqi troops."

The conflict is understandable, because these forces are fighting for territory. These forces are all close to Lake Bosten, so it is normal for them to fight for territory.

The so-called abundant grass and water cannot change the nomadic nature of most countries in the Western Regions, nor can it change the reality of their slavery.

After the Han army destroyed the Cheshi, they were busy cultivating fields and storing food, while also following the local customs to graze, not to mention robbing pastures. In order to ensure support for the army, it was also normal to stockpile fodder.

Kangda continued, "At the beginning of this year, my tribe wanted to graze after the spring, but the Cheshi people tried to drive away my horse slaves."

Huo Xian didn't take it seriously. He had other concerns. "The Cheshi nobles killed the horse slaves and robbed the cattle and horses, and then your tribe fought back?"

He certainly said as a matter of course, "A horse slave escaped and reported it, so I led my troops to intercept and chase him, killed the Cheshi people and took back the cattle and horses. The father of the Cheshi nobles came to provoke us, and we killed them too."

Gongsun Ao and others nodded in satisfaction. Since it was the Cheshi people who started the incident, the Han army needed to make the strongest response. If Kangda did not respond, he should be tied up and taken to Chang'an for questioning.

Ren An also hurriedly said, "Grand Marshal, I received a request for help from the captain of the guard army, and immediately led 500 cavalry to help. The Cheshi people are rebellious and dared to send thousands of troops to attack our city."

Huo Xian was very satisfied and said, "Okay, your two divisions are the guard horns. If one division has problems, the other divisions should come to the rescue."

Ren An and Kang Da were naturally aware of this. It was not necessarily because of their deep brotherhood, but simply because of the Han army's military system, they had to do something.

Everyone tacitly agreed not to care whether the Han army had expanded the area of ​​military farms to too large a size, or had driven the cattle and sheep to pastures that had previously belonged to countries such as Cheshi. There was no need to care.

The past is the past, and the present is the present. There are naturally big differences here, and of course we need to look at these things in a new light.

Before, there were no Han troops here, so naturally the pastures were divided according to the rules of the Western Regions. But now the Han troops have come, with a large number of cattle and sheep, and many soldiers, all of whom need to survive.

Therefore, it is only natural to fight for more land and more pastures, and countries like Cheshi must also accept such new changes.

Huo Xian then asked seriously, "Since the Cheshi army has launched an attack, will they still seek trouble after being repelled?"

Kangda said somewhat embarrassedly, "Reporting to the Grand Marshal, the Cheshi and other countries have raised troops, and our army can only defend the city. The Cheshi often sent small troops to harass us, and our cattle and horses have become weak."

Huo Xian sneered and said, "That's good. It seems that these Cheshi people want to graze our cattle. Since the cattle and sheep are starving, they should also think about how to compensate them."

Huo Xian would naturally not blame Kangda and others for not taking the initiative to attack. After all, although they had a certain level of strength, a group of captains only had a thousand people, and even if they had slaves, it would not improve their combat effectiveness much.

Facing the massive invasion of Cheshi and other countries, there is no need to blame the passive defense at this time. On the contrary, it would be the stupidest thing to do to rush out of the city to fight to the death.

Ren An also said quickly, "Grand Marshal, it's not just Cheshi. Yanqi, Weixu, and Yuli have also sent troops one after another. The enemy is so powerful that we dare not fight them head-on."

Huo Xian sneered, "So, these people from the Western Regions have really made progress. Several countries have already sent troops. Well, these people may have forgotten that our Han Dynasty conquered Luntai, and they want our Han Dynasty to station troops again!"

The former Luntai Kingdom has now become the place where the Han Dynasty stationed its troops. So the next choice is Jiaohe City, the capital of Cheshi, which will also become the place where the Han Dynasty stationed its troops.

Not only Huo Xian was very angry, Gongsun Ao and others also shared the same hatred and wanted to hurry up and prepare to leave. If the Cheshi were not destroyed, the prestige of the Han Dynasty would naturally be lost. These things were naturally intolerable, but Huo Xian still asked, "How much food and grass do you have stored now?"

Kangda quickly replied, "Grand Marshal, my army has stored a lot of hay. If it can supply the army for more than a month, it will be difficult to supply more."

Huo Xian now roughly understood why the Cheshi people were anxious. This year, Kangda's troop of captains basically could not go out to graze, and they were basically consuming dry grass. This didn't seem to be a big deal, because there were not many war horses, cattle and horses.

But now the imperial army has more than 15,000 war horses, plus a lot of cattle, sheep, camels and other livestock. However, Kangda's military farm can supply more than a month's worth of food and fodder, which is a bit exaggerated.

It is no exaggeration to say that Kanda has been cultivating fields, grazing and harvesting grass in the past two years, so he now has such a huge "inventory".

Ren An was a little embarrassed and said, "Grand Marshal, our army is having trouble grazing this year. We only stored some grass in the autumn of the year before last, but it can only supply the army for less than seven days."

Kangda was busy stockpiling food and fodder regardless of the season. He was resolutely carrying out the task of stockpiling food and fodder and supporting the army that Huo Xian had previously ordered.

Ren An actually did a good job, but compared to Kangda's stubbornness, he was obviously not that outstanding. He could only be considered qualified, not excellent.

As for the fact that Kanda grazed his livestock at other people's doorsteps and worked day and night regardless of the season to harvest and store grass so that others could not graze their livestock, there is nothing much to say about it. Everyone will just think that Kanda's execution is excellent.

Huo Xian was quite relieved and said, "That's not bad. When the army is out there, what I worry about most is not having enough food and grass."

Kangda said quickly, "The Cheshi people still have a lot of fodder. These people from the Western Regions have stored fodder for at least several months. They don't have many people, but they have many cattle and sheep, which can feed the army's horses for one or two months."

After conquering Cheshi, there is basically no need to worry about fodder. There is no need to worry about food. At most, we can kill all the cattle and sheep of the Cheshi people, and basically guarantee the logistics of the army.

Huo Xian then asked, "I think the Cheshi people knew that my army was coming to help. How did they react?"

Kangda said quickly, "The Cheshi people retreated to the city to defend themselves half a month ago. There were also scouts before that. The Cheshi people dug trenches in front of the city."

Hearing what Kangda said, Huo Xian and the others were relieved. It seemed that the Cheshi people were not completely unresponsive. They also realized the pressure from the Han army, so they tried hard to protect themselves.

However, Huo Xian obviously would not think that everything was fine. These reactions of the Cheshi people were natural, but it did not mean that these were all possible actions of the Cheshi people.

Huo Xian immediately looked at Zhang Gui'an and said, "You should send envoys to question the three kingdoms of Yanqi, Weixu and Yuli. They sent troops to help Cheshi rebel. It's really hateful!"

"The Han army is coming, don't dare to move!" Huo Xian said calmly, "If you move, the country will be destroyed!"

Zhang Guian and others firmly believed that Cheshi must be destroyed. However, Yanqi, Weixu, Yuli and other countries should not think that they can stay out of it. Since they sent troops to help Cheshi, they need a reasonable explanation.

If their explanation could not satisfy the Han Dynasty, the Han Dynasty obviously would not mind destroying one or two more Western Regions countries.

Luntai was the first, and Cheshi might be the second soon. As for whether the third one would be one of Yanqi, Weixu, or Yuli, it all depends on how the rulers of these three countries explain it!

Huo Xian then said to Zhang Gui'an, "Go to Wusun in person and ask the king of Wusun to send troops to help. I have a letter, you can personally deliver it to Princess Jieyou."

Attack Cheshi and deter other Western Regions countries, but also win over those who should be won over. Trying to completely bring Wusun to the side of the Han Dynasty this time is also one of Huo Xian's tasks.

Although these are indeed some challenges, and some things may not always go as planned, we must still try what we should try, and these things cannot be delayed, as this is serious business.

Huo Xian thought that he had done what he should do in terms of political arrangements. After all, military affairs were a continuation of politics, and he was well aware of this.

What's more, some tasks were arranged by the emperor, and the strategy was formulated from the beginning. Even if sometimes things were not done completely according to the original arrangement, it did not mean that everything should be done recklessly.

Now that the political arrangements are over, the next thing to do is naturally military means, which is the real big deal!
For Huo Xian, the Grand Marshal and General of Cavalry, fighting was his most important job, which was also the reason why he led his army to the Western Regions.

Fighting a taxi driver is imperative. Not only do you have to fight, but you also have to fight beautifully and complete certain strategies!

(End of this chapter)