You have truly caused me great suffering!

In early spring, the Yili River Valley is covered in ice and snow.

How do we prepare for this kind of weather?

All you need to do is fatten up.

Whether it's warhorses or soldiers, if my horses are fatter and my men are stronger when we go to war next year, that's an advantage.

So even though there were quite a few soldiers, the people who came to entertain the troops never stopped.

The cattle and sheep they brought were slaughtered early to prevent spoilage, and they weren't worried about them going bad in this weather.

In military camps, barbecue is generally not allowed, because doing so would result in too much loss of oil and waste.

Cooking meat in a large iron pot allows you to utilize every part of the meat, including the bone marrow and the broth.

A bowl of hot meat soup can provide a lot of energy.

Meng Nuan stood in the room, carefully reporting his plan to Chen Shao.

During this period, he planned to consume one-tenth of the supplies in order to maintain the army's combat effectiveness.

When spring comes next year, they will give Yelü Dashi a head-on blow.

Chen Shao nodded, finding his words quite reasonable. "Go and discuss it with the generals to see if there are any differing opinions. If not, then let it be."

He basically agreed, but considering that he wasn't an expert, he wanted others to review it.

Meng Nuan quickly clasped her hands in a fist salute.

He had met the emperor before.

But now the emperor holds a different place in his heart, especially after he was transferred to the Ili River Valley. He feels as if he owes His Majesty something.

When the secretary in the tent read to him, and he read about the kindness and support he had received, he suddenly understood.

When she couldn't sleep at night, Meng Nuan really did think about it seriously.

If His Majesty truly needed me, would I be willing to die for him in order to repay this so-called kindness of being recognized and favored?

He hesitated after much deliberation.

What Meng Nuan didn't know was that when he, a bandit from Yunnei, began to ponder this question and hesitated so much, the answer was already there.

He would fight to the death to serve the Emperor and the Great Jing Dynasty if they were in trouble.

Of course, given the current situation, it seems unlikely that this will happen.

After Meng Nuan left, Chen Shao began to review various military reports, all of which contained problems reported by the various battalions.

The biggest problem was that firearms malfunctioned in winter.

At low temperatures, components such as the barrel and hammer become brittle, posing an extremely high risk of barrel explosion.

The trigger wouldn't pull, the bolt was jammed, and a perfectly good firearm instantly became a fire poker.

The key firearms used in the Great Jing Dynasty were not the three-eyed muskets of the Ming Dynasty, which were not capable of being swung around and hammered.

Fortunately, the weather warmed up by the time the war started, and Chen Shao ordered that the gunpowder be prevented from getting damp and becoming unusable the following year.

Yelü Dashi sent large numbers of people into the Central Plains every year.

You wanted to learn by stealing knowledge, so this time I'll teach you what firearms are all about.

If you can really withstand this offensive next spring, then even if you are powerful, what's wrong with giving you the west?

The Central Plains are no longer embroiled in internal strife. Even when faced with setbacks, their ability to self-correct is unmatched by others.

The Battle of the Southern Wilderness has shown that war is no longer a luxury that only burns money without generating any profit.

The various prefectures in the South China Sea, especially Annam and Champa, had been supplying grain to the Central Plains for a very long time.

Yelü Dashi has to fight desperately and bet everything he has to to withstand this spring offensive.

Even so, the chances of success are slim, even if he manages to thwart it by sheer luck.

Then came the second and third rounds of attacks, each with undiminished power.

The Western Liao Dynasty possessed natural granaries and top-tier pastures, which may have been the reason why Yelü Dashi was unwilling to submit to the Liao.

This place is really nice.

The Chu River basin has fertile land, and the Ordo Pasture is rich in water and grass.

The monopoly on trade routes in the land occupied by the Western Liao Dynasty was incredibly lucrative, making it arguably the most profitable trade route in the world at that time.

The Silk Road since the Han and Tang dynasties was merely a preliminary stage to this trade route, with most of the price difference being earned by these foreign merchants.

That is, during the prosperous Tang Dynasty, there were foreign merchants and women in Chang'an.

If one could fully possess it, the profits would be incomparable to those of the current Silk Road.

After you take it down, it will quickly restore Da Jing's health.

Therefore, the investment in this battle was worthwhile, no matter how much.

The various forces in the Northwest were clearly well aware of this, and each fortress mobilized almost all its resources to share in this feast.

After this is over, there may never be another business in the world that is as profitable as this.

You'll never find a war this profitable again.

This would be far more profitable than developing the Americas, since the potential of Eurasia is incomparable to that of the Americas.

Chen Shao was engrossed in reading the intelligence, a feeling that made him feel very comfortable.

Especially when he thought about what he was going to do, he felt a faint sense of vengeful pleasure.

He even recalled a sentence he had heard long ago: "If you become successful, won't you bully me like I bullied you?"

Don't white people like to be bandits and like to promote their pirate culture?

Now, I'm here!

He picked up a slice of candied ginger, and his spirits lifted. Now, not only was he, the emperor, at the height of his power, but he was also at the peak of both his physical and mental well-being.

Even Da Jing is quite young.

How many more years will Da Jing, who is seven years old, be at his peak? And how far can he lead the Central Plains during this time?

As he rose from his seat, Chen Shao ignored the slight chill.

He walked to the window, opened it, and the young eunuchs gasped in surprise.

"Your Majesty, the cool breeze is bad for your health."

Looking at the courtyard, where the wind was swirling snowflakes everywhere, Chen Shao laughed and said, "What a nice wind!"
-
By the end of March, the ice and snow had melted.

The imperial procession has been in Yili for more than a month.

During this period, Chen Shao held intense meetings and secret discussions with his trusted civil and military advisors every day.

Everyone also realized one thing: what His Majesty wanted was never, or rather, never just, the Liao Kingdom.

This made everyone extremely excited.

During the campaign against the Southern Wilderness, His Majesty and the court never backed down, and even after the Southern Wilderness was basically conquered, they still used the banner of revenge.

Nominally, only Jianyili and Zhenla were mentioned.

His Majesty set the tone for this western expedition even before it began.

The destruction of the Western Liao was just the beginning. Although Yelü Dashi was powerful, his kingdom had been established for too short a time, and his core Khitan population was too small.

His foundation is unstable.

Today, the country that rules the Khitans the most is not the Western Liao, but the Great Jing.

After the Jin dynasty destroyed the Liao dynasty, the Jing dynasty destroyed the Jin dynasty. So many Khitans, under Chen Shao's rule, naturally became subjects of the Jing dynasty.

Moreover, because of their anti-Jin stance, many people even made significant contributions during the Jingjin War.

The Liao Dynasty had been established for many years, and the Khitans had always been the rulers. Although the Jurchens were brutal, they wouldn't have killed them all.

As early as when Han Shizhong launched a surprise attack on Yunnei, a large number of Khitan auxiliary troops became auxiliary soldiers of the Dingnan Army.

Among the Khitan captives were even many members of the royal family, whose bloodlines were far purer than Yelü Dashi's.
-
Husi Ordos, the capital of the Western Liao Dynasty.

Yelü Dashi rose to power through exile and understood all too well what it meant to save people but lose territory. Faced with the Jing army, which was poised to launch a westward expedition, he had no intention of fighting for every inch of land.

He deployed many scouts on the border to wear down Da Jing's morale and ascertain the enemy's strength.

Furthermore, they were strictly ordered to only use cavalry to harass the grain supply routes of Dajing, burn pastures, and use the terrain to resist step by step, and never engage in a decisive battle.

The main force was concentrated in the easily defensible Chu River Basin, relying on Husi Ordos and Lake Issyk-Kul to build a deep defensive perimeter.

In other words, he still has the idea of ​​fighting to the death and then turning the tide.

Looking around, he could not find a single possible or potential ally. He could only send envoys to appease or even bribe the Khwarazmian and Karluk tribes to prevent them from taking advantage of the chaos, and even try to win them over to attack the Great Jing from the flank.

These tribes, which had just been conquered by the Khitans, would naturally not dare to disobey on the surface, but if a real war broke out, no one could say for sure what would happen.

Even those who escaped with Yelü Dashi were former Khitan nobles. If they had been hardworking and resilient, they wouldn't have been chased and attacked by the Jurchens.

After occupying such a vast territory of the Western Liao, these people immediately relapsed into their old ways and began to indulge in extravagance and debauchery.

Inside the imperial city, Yelü Dashi had just ridden around to inspect the surrounding spring planting area.

It's slightly warmer here than in the Ili River Valley, and the spring floods caused by the melting snow and ice arrive earlier.

There was still some mud on his dragon robe.

A palace attendant stepped forward to wipe it, but he pushed him away.

"Summon Xiao Wulila and Yelü Songshan to see me."

After speaking, Yelü Dashi sat on the dragon throne, his face gloomy.

A short while later, Yelü Songshan and Xiao Wulila came in together.

"His Majesty."

Yelü Dashi didn't even lift his eyelids, and asked, "Emperor Jing, Chen Shao, relying on his superior military strength, wants to emulate the Jin invaders and swallow up our country. I ordered Xiao Duolu not to be the commander of the army, but to go to the Yemi area to lead scouts and raid. Why was he seen hunting outside the city today?"

Xiao Duolu was the son of Xiao Wulila, the Grand King of the Six Courts.

Upon hearing this, he broke out in a cold sweat and quickly explained, "He hasn't been feeling well lately, so he hasn't been able to make the trip yet."

"I'm not feeling well enough to go on a campaign, but I can still go hunting, and it's spring hunting!"

Hunting is generally not done in spring, as wild animals need to recover their strength after a winter of hunger.

At this time, the prey is small and weak, and mostly female animals with cubs.

Hunting at this time of year indicates that they are truly bored and are forcing themselves to have some fun.

Xiao Woduolubu was the son of Xiao Wolila, the first person under Yelü Dashi, and also the son-in-law of the Western Liao. He married Yelü Dashi's daughter, Yelü Pusuwan.

This princess was quite an extraordinary person.
She was a legitimate emperor, or perhaps her brother voluntarily passed the throne to her; she was known as 'Ju'er Khan'.

Historically, when Yelü Dashi, the hegemon of Central Asia, passed away, his son Yilie was too young. Dashi left a will for Empress Xiao Tabuyan to act as regent. Xiao Tabuyan called herself Empress Gantian and acted as regent.

Later, Yelü Yilie finally grew up and assumed personal rule at the age of nineteen, but he did not live long.

Yelü Yilie reigned for thirteen years and died in the thirteenth year of Shaoxing (1163), probably only 32 or 35 years old. Because his eldest son was young, Yilie bequeathed his sister Pusuwan the throne as regent.

Yelü Pusuwan's performance began. First of all, she was very capable, with a strong personality and ruthless and domineering methods.

At that time, the military power of the Western Liao had been controlled by Xiao Wulila. Yelü Yilie had realized that the loss of military power would lead to the decline of imperial power, so how could he dare to leave a will for the empress, who came from the Xiao family, to rule the court?

He directly chose his younger sister, Pusuwan, to take the throne, in order to defend the imperial power of the Yelü family and contend with the Xiao clan.

After Yelü Pusuwan ascended to the throne, she changed the era name to Chongfu and became the female emperor of the Western Liao Dynasty.

She did a remarkable job, using every trick in the book and her cunning to leverage Yelü Dashi's remaining prestige to suppress and subdue the various Central Asian tribes while simultaneously keeping the Xiao clan firmly under control.

She also had an affair with her husband's younger brother, Xiao Puguzhishali, which led to her husband being banished from the capital and subsequently framed and executed.

Unfortunately, she overlooked and underestimated her elderly father-in-law, Xiao Wulila, a founding hero.

Finally, he was killed by the old man with a sliver of health. Xiao Wulila surrounded the palace and personally shot his former daughter-in-law Yelü Pusuwan and her lover, Xiao Puguzhishali, the son who betrayed the family and sided with the royal family.

Before these messy things happened, Yelü Dashi saw that his handpicked son-in-law was not guarding the border at all, as ordered by the imperial decree.

He was already furious.

However, out of consideration for Xiao Wulila's feelings, he kept quiet.

Not many Khitan nobles came; they were all his confidants, his core group, and he needed to win them over as well.

Xiao Wuli was furious and told his son to keep a low profile and not to wander around, but the son secretly went hunting.

His Majesty even saw it!
He couldn't bear to let his eldest son go to the front lines.

Yelü Dashi's thoughts were simple: now was a moment of life and death.

Where is there any place that is safe anymore?

He hoped that his subordinates, at least his trusted Khitan confidants, would be of one mind with him and fight together against the incomparably powerful Jing army.

Create a miracle!

But it was clear that his men didn't think that way; they had been living a comfortable and wealthy life for several years.

They weren't exactly ambitious people; they were just a group of nobles from a fallen kingdom who had been driven out by the Jurchens.

Xiao Wulila's eldest son was clearly not an isolated case; many people did not actually go to the front lines.

Jing Jun's reputation was so great that no one wanted to directly confront them.

When the Jin dynasty destroyed the Liao dynasty, it was so violent that many Khitans trembled at the mere mention of the word "Jurchen".

Even such ruthless Jurchens were dealt with, which made them terrified.

Seeing the reactions of these two people, Yelü Dashi understood everything. He turned away helplessly, and only after he had fully turned around did he close his eyes, revealing a worried and helpless expression.

At this time, not the slightest bit of weakness can be shown.

Yelü Dashi certainly understood this principle, so he paid close attention to disguising his emotions and expressions.

I hope to set an example and give the soldiers confidence.

Emperor Dajing personally came to the Ili River Valley, even in late winter or early spring. This perseverance impressed Yelü Dashi.

Despite facing such a powerful enemy, he spared no effort in boosting morale and personally came to the icy front lines.

If this passage were read in a historical record, regardless of whether the person was from a different ethnic group, Yelü Dashi would applaud the other party.

Unfortunately, this very person is his rival.

Suppressing his anger, Yelü Dashi said, "Since you are unwell, let you rest for a few days. I will send someone else." (End of Chapter)