A thousand-year-old family begins with one fighting against ten thousand.

In the twenty-first year of Emperor Qianming's reign, relying on its strong foundation, the entire Great Qian Empire was completely restored to its peak.

It has 250 million registered citizens, 16 million hectares of arable land, and hundreds of millions of hectares of large pastures. It also has a well-established political system and a well-developed education system.

Through the efforts of Emperor Qianming, the Great Qian Empire basically realized the tiered academy system of the central court, consisting of the Imperial Academy, state academies, prefectural academies, county academies, and township academies.

The school was officially moved from the county level to the township level, something that no emperor in previous dynasties had been able to achieve.

It was precisely because of this achievement that he was known as Emperor Ming in later generations.

It was also to complete the task of establishing local schools that Emperor Qianming refrained from expanding outwards for so many years.

He spent all his energy scheming and fighting with these powerful families.

These powerful families within the country have intricate connections with various vassal states abroad.

Emperor Qianming directly threatened the various vassal states: "If you don't allow me to establish village schools, I can free up my resources to expand outwards. If you don't want me to fight you, then support me in continuing to run the village schools; that will at least delay me for a decade or even several decades."

To prove his point, Emperor Qianming ordered Liu Yu to send troops to conquer two more fiefdoms.

All the vassal states of Tuzhou were somewhat fearful. They also wanted more time to prepare, so they contacted the powerful families in their respective countries, asking them not to openly prevent the establishment of village schools, but to secretly create some obstacles and delay the process.

However, Emperor Qianming was very shrewd. Even though these aristocratic families tried their best to delay, Emperor Qianming still managed to completely popularize rural schools within a dozen years.

In the process of popularizing rural schools, he also took the opportunity to kill several unruly aristocratic families, thus completing the transfer of imperial power to the countryside through the plan to popularize rural schools.

This extended the reach of imperial power from the county level down to the township level.

Since ancient times, imperial power has never extended to the countryside.

The imperial power could only directly reach the county level. All townships and smaller administrative regions had to be controlled by local powerful clans and organizations like the Three Elders.

However, with the help of the village schools, Emperor Qianming successfully extended the influence of the Great Qian Dynasty down to the village level.

This means that Emperor Qianming could mobilize the power of the entire empire; if he wanted, he could directly mobilize the township level.

Whether it's recruiting soldiers or collecting taxes, it's all the same.

His control over the empire reached an unprecedented level.

In the twenty-second year of Emperor Qianming's reign, Emperor Qianming announced the recruitment of 300 million soldiers.

Upon hearing the news, countless ministers stepped forward, saying that this was a waste of resources and manpower, an extravagant war that would not stop at Emperor Qianming, and pleaded with him to rescind his decision.

Emperor Qianming immediately threw the national treasury's money and grain into his hands, giving him a resounding slap in the face.

With the current national treasury, he can afford to support not only 300 million, but even 600 million.

Emperor Qianming used local schools to issue recruitment notices and had the students of these schools spread the contents of the imperial edicts to illiterate people.

People from all over the country enthusiastically signed up. Emperor Qianming treated the army very well and even revived the military merit system from the dustbin of history, having students from local schools spread its contents far and wide.

Countless young men who wanted to change their circumstances through military achievements eagerly signed up and joined the army of Daqian.

In just one year, Emperor Qianming recruited an army of 300 million. He dispatched his confidants to organize the training of this army, and divided a large portion of his Tiger and Leopard Cavalry, who were responsible for protecting him, into this new army, making them middle-level managers.

He would also frequently go to the training ground to personally mingle with the soldiers, ensuring that most of them would recognize him, thereby strengthening his control over the army.

In the twenty-third year of Emperor Qianming's reign, the allied forces of various countries, who had been preparing for more than a decade, learned that Emperor Qianming had expanded his army by 300 million. They knew that the peace they had maintained for more than a decade had been shattered, and that once this army was trained, they would be the first to die.

They decided to strike first, with more than a dozen countries each mobilizing anywhere from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of troops. In particular, the countries that occupied the Ganges River basin in southern Tuzhou each deployed an army of over 50.

They jointly formed a super coalition of over 400 million troops, but the problem was that no one could command such a large army.

Even Han Xin, the legendary military genius who was known for his numerous and varied military achievements, probably couldn't have commanded such a large army.

Although it is said that the more soldiers Han Xin commanded, the better, in reality, the most troops Han Xin ever commanded were no more than 60.

After the establishment of the Han Dynasty and the rise of King Zhongwu, Han Xin had even fewer opportunities to command large armies.

Based on Han Xin's ability to command 60 troops with fluid and effortless skill, he could definitely command at least 100 million troops.

To round it up to 200 million troops, the fact that Han Xin could directly command 200 million troops is terrifying enough.

People couldn't even imagine that he could command an army of 400 million. That's no ordinary person; he must be a celestial being descended to earth.

Don't be fooled by the fact that the Han and Qian dynasties later attacked the empire with armies numbering in the millions. These armies were not commanded by a single person, but rather by different individuals leading millions of troops.

Having one person in command will only cause chaos in the army's command, fail to make use of the army's numerical advantage, and be worse than dividing the army into several routes.

Another advantage of dividing the troops is that when one's own general is at a disadvantage in command, one force can be used to restrain the enemy.

The remaining troops can attack from other places, thus avoiding a direct confrontation with a powerful opponent.

By leveraging strengths and avoiding weaknesses, we can fully utilize our advantage of having a large and capable army.

The coalition's 400 million-strong army was divided into four routes, each with a million troops.

The first army set out from the Heng River basin, took the small road south of the Kunlun Mountains, and attacked Yizhou of the Great Qian Empire with the goal of occupying Yizhou.

The second army set off from the Kunlun Mountains. This army consisted entirely of troops from countries living in the Kunlun Mountains, and their specialty was high-altitude warfare. Their goal was to occupy the entire Kunlun Mountains and the Yongliang region.

The third army, which marched west of the Pamir Mountains, engaged Liu Yu, who was stationed there, in direct combat. The commander of this army was Han Li, a member of the royal family of the state of Han and a direct descendant of Han Xin. Their goal was the entire Western Regions.

The final army, mainly composed of cavalry, numbered a million and crossed the vast grasslands to attack Mengzhou of the Great Qian Empire, intending to bring the entire grasslands under its control.

Four armies marched out together, determined to crush the Great Qian Dynasty in one fell swoop and seize half of its territory.