I, Altria, only want to rule China.

"King Ruoqiang, do you think that our Han army is deceiving you? As far as I know, there are only thousands of you Laoqiang people. If we wipe out all of you here, won't you Ruoqiang people suffer a devastating disaster?" Mulan frowned.

"We understand. After we go back this time, I will lead everyone in the tribe to the city of Loulan. Please don't go back on your words, General." King Ruoqiang thought about it and felt that what Hua Mulan said was not wrong, so he made up his mind and said with gritted teeth.

"Don't worry, King Ruoqiang. We will never treat you unfairly. From now on, you just need to be an ordinary citizen and focus on farming and grazing." Mulan said.

So they ordered people to open a passage to allow these Ruoqiang people to leave.

"Do you know the general's name? This way, when our tribe goes to Loulan, the people there will know that we have surrendered to the Han army." King Lao Qiang thought of something and asked Hua Mulan again.

"My surname is Hua Mulan. King Lao Qiang can rest assured. I will write a letter to let the people in Shanshan know. They will make proper arrangements for you." Hua Mulan said.

"Thank you, General Hua." King Lao Qiang nodded to Hua Mulan and left with his troops.

He also knew that he had to choose between the Han army and the Rouran. If he listened to the Rouran people, he would have to accept the severe exploitation every year. As for the Han army... at least they were not as excessive as the Rouran people.

After resolving the issue with the Lao Qiang people, Hua Mulan said to the old city lord beside her: "City Lord An, you heard what I just said clearly."

The old city lord was also very shrewd and said directly: "General Hua, we already know that as long as those Lao Qiang people don't make trouble, we will follow General Hua's orders."

Hua Mulan also understood what the old city lord meant, and continued, "Those Lao Qiang people often graze in the mountains and don't know etiquette. If something goes wrong, you can only arrest them at most, and you can't judge them privately. When the time comes, everything will be settled after our army returns."

The hatred between the Loulan people and the Lao Qiang people is deep. If we let them handle it, all kinds of problems will arise.

"I understand." Seeing that Hua Mulan was not willing to give in on this matter, the old city lord could only nod.

"I also hope that Lord An can understand the greater good. This time is different from the past. Our dynasty sincerely wants to manage this area of ​​the Western Regions as a province under our jurisdiction. We even have a name for it. It's called the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, or Xinjiang Province for short!" Mulan said solemnly.

Seeing Hua Mulan's serious tone, the old city lord no longer doubted the actions of the Han army this time. Perhaps it was really different from the past. They wanted to control the Western Regions not only in name but also in reality.

After resolving the issue of the Ruoqiang people, Hua Mulan headed south. After seeing the Han army, the countries along the way basically chose to surrender. There were also some who refused to surrender, and Hua Mulan did not hesitate and killed them on the spot.

Regarding this trip to the Western Regions, Leah has made it very clear that the people in the Western Regions must know that there is only one voice here, and that is the Han army.

If there is any other sound, kill it immediately.

There is no other way. For the future stability of the Western Regions, we have to cut the Gordian knot. In this way, there will only be one voice left in the Western Regions, and it will be much easier to recruit people from the Western Regions to deal with the Rouran in the future.

However, these Western Regions countries may have been kneeling to the Rouran and Han army for too long and have no intention of resisting at all.

When they saw Hua Mulan leading her troops and realized that they were the Han army, they all chose to surrender without any resistance, which saved Hua Mulan a lot of energy along the way.

As for Liya, she went from the north road and led her troops directly to Yanqi.

At this moment, Yanqi had already been controlled by the Rouran people. After hearing about the affairs of the State of Xingshan, the Rouran people realized that the Han army was going to compete with them for the Western Regions this time.

Therefore, the Rouran side also sent several thousand Rouran soldiers to Yanqi this time, determined to stop Liya's army.

According to the intelligence Liya received, nearly 5000 soldiers had gathered in Yanqi. Yanqi itself had more than 5000 people and soldiers of its own. In addition, the Rouran people sent cavalry, which would pose a great threat to Liya.

Fortunately, the 5000 soldiers she currently leads are all cavalry. The Yanqi Kingdom can only defend, and the Rouran people will not use 5000 cavalry to confront her head-on. After all, if they are killed, their control over the Western Regions will be greatly reduced.

In this way, she would have much more freedom. Ten days later, Leah brought her soldiers to the front of Yanqi Kingdom.

Liya first asked people to shout a few times to see if the Yanqi Kingdom would surrender.

However, the Rouran people were already in someone else's city, so it would be impossible for them to surrender. So after shouting a few times, the people on Liya's side were driven back by a hail of arrows.

A general of Yanqi pointed to the tent that Liya had set up outside the city and said, "King Ganwu, please look, those people outside the city are the Han army, and their number is no less than 5000. As long as we defend the city and prevent these Han troops from attacking, they will definitely retreat when they run out of food."

The Rouran King Ganwu had a hard time these days. He did not expect that if they were to meet at Yumen Pass, the Han army would come directly to the Western Regions.

According to the information we received, these Han troops brought 10000 soldiers and horses directly to the Western Regions. According to the intelligence obtained by scouts, 5000 soldiers and horses have already set out to the south.

This means that during this period of time, the Nandao will completely side with the Han army, and as a result, their tribe will lose a lot of slaves and supplies.

But now is not the time to consider these things. If they cannot repel the Han army, even the countries in the north that obey the Rouran people will have to turn to the Han people again.

Although these people in the Western Regions listened to the words of the Rouran, they were actually just like the Han Dynasty, relying on the remaining power of their ancestors. In fact, their tribe only had tens of thousands of people.

Otherwise, the Khan would not have allowed him to bring so many troops.

For the people of Yanqi, perhaps they thought that as long as they defended the city walls and prevented the Han army from coming in, there would be no big problem.

Although the Rouran were not good at attacking cities, they had no problem helping the Yanqi people defend the city.

When Leah arrived here, she was not in a hurry to attack the city, but assembled cannons on the spot. The Yanqi and Rouran people had never seen these things, so they could only look at the Han army with confusion, not knowing what they were doing, watching them assemble these thick black tubes one by one.

Chapter 84 These are called Leah Cannons!

After conquering Chang'an, Leah immediately asked the craftsmen to upgrade the pinewood cannons. In order to deal with the problem of the city walls in the Western Regions, she took away four of the eight cannons she had made with great difficulty, the "Liya Cannons", which were later known as the French cannons.

She has given two of them to Hua Mulan, and she kept two for herself. This is the time for these Liya cannons to show their true power to these natives!

When these natives saw Leah pushing out two Leah cannons, they looked at each other. They didn't know what these things were and could only look confused.

Then they saw several Han soldiers doing strange movements in front of the black and thick cannon, and finally the two cannons were aimed at their city walls.

After all these tasks were completed, a wooden box was brought over. When it was opened, it was full of black shells, hundreds of them.

With Leah's voice: "Release!"

The two cannons were lit, and several soldiers next to the cannons immediately squatted down and covered their ears.

With a bang, the artillery made a deafening sound, and black shells were fired directly at the city wall of Yanqi Kingdom.

With a loud bang, the cannon hit the city wall at a speed invisible to the naked eye. With a bang, the city wall hit by the cannon was like tofu, and a big hole was blasted out of it with a loud bang.

As for the soldiers behind the big hole, their upper bodies had long disappeared, leaving only their bleeding lower bodies proving that they had existed.

"Keep going!" Leah's face was expressionless.

As Leah spoke, the artillery continued to fire. Although there were only two cannons, they were more powerful than thousands of troops, because these soldiers found that it was useless even if they hid behind the city wall.

In front of the cannons, the city walls were like paper and were easily torn apart.

I saw a soldier hiding behind the city wall and shivering. Suddenly, with a loud bang, the city wall behind the soldier was torn apart again. Before he could even utter a scream, only the lower half of his body was left there.

A soldier was hiding under the eaves, and a shell fell into the eaves right after. Although the shell did not hit him, the whole house collapsed and buried the people in the house.

Because it was difficult to control the precise landing of the shells, these shells either hit the city walls or inside the city. In short, under the continuous bombardment of artillery, Yanqi City had become chaotic and everyone was shouting.

Because no one knows whether a shell will suddenly fall from the sky and kill them.

"What the hell is this thing!" A general among the Rouran people was shocked when he saw this scene.

One of the shells flew towards him. Seeing this, he snorted coldly, drew out his mace weapon, and shot directly at the shell.

The moment the shell and the weapon came into contact, there was a sudden explosion, a burst of fire, and he was caught in the explosion.

"Wu Nai Yin!" Gan Wu Wang said hurriedly when he saw this scene.

When the smoke from the explosion cleared, the man's face was completely black, his hand holding the weapon was trembling, and there was a trace of blood at the corner of his mouth.

"Gan Wu Wang, I'm fine. These black things are really powerful." Wu Naiyin wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. The shell just now almost dislocated his internal organs. If he was not strong enough, he might have been blown to death on the spot.

After these artillery bombardments fired dozens of times, Leah chose to stop the attack.

At this moment, the walls of Yanqi City had already been beaten into pieces and were like a slope, and could no longer be used for defense. All Leah and the others had to do was rush up the slope.

However, Leah did not do so. Instead, she asked someone to go up and make a speech.

"Listen, people of Yanqi. My king will give you one day to think about it. If you don't choose to surrender, we will bomb you again tomorrow and directly attack the city!"

After shouting, the soldier retreated.

Although we can definitely defeat the enemy by directly attacking the city now that the enemy has lost confidence, the best option is to defeat the enemy without fighting.

Now the enemy has lost confidence due to their cannon fire, and would rather avoid a fight than engage. As long as the enemy understands that there will be no good end if they go against the Han army, the situation of the Rouran people staying in the city will become precarious.

Once she attacks the city directly, both sides will put aside their prejudices and cooperate with each other. When the battle comes, there will be many casualties on her side, which is not a good thing.

Liya believes that the other party will make a wise choice. Now these countries are helping the Rouran people only because they are forced to do so due to the strength of the Rouran people.

These Rouran people had bullied them a lot in the past, and they had all the resentment in their hearts. Once they discovered that the Rouran were no match for the Han army, these oppressed countries would explode in an instant.

Seeing the Han army retreating slowly, the people of Yanqi and the Rouran looked at each other and saw deep fear in each other's eyes.

In the evening, all the Rouran generals had gathered together because of today's events. At this moment, King Ganwu of the Rouran people had recovered from the fear of the artillery fire during the day. He directly summoned a group of his men and began to discuss.

"What do you think we should do now? Should we retreat directly, or look for an opportunity at night to break through the enemy's camp? Will the outcome be decided in one battle?" Gan Wuwang asked expressionlessly.

"Your Majesty, isn't this too reckless? The Han people are extremely cunning. Will they prevent our attack and set up an ambush?" After all, they have been fighting with the Han people for hundreds of years, and they know the Han people's cunning better than anyone else.

Not only were the Han people cunning, the Rouran people were equally cunning. In their battles with the Han people, they would set various traps and ambushes for each other.

At night, everyone argued with each other, discussing whether to launch a surprise attack on the Han camp.

Finally, the Rouran people made a decision, which was to attack!

Because if they don't take advantage of the opportunity at night, the chances of those frightened guys in Yanqi helping them will be very low, and they will definitely choose to open the city and surrender tomorrow.

This would put their situation in great danger.

But if they succeed in their attack at night, not only will they be able to defeat the Han army, but they will also be able to obtain their two extremely powerful siege weapons. If they have these things in the future, will they still be afraid of the Han people's city walls?

Regardless, this sale is worth a try!

Chapter 85: Conquering Yanqi

At three o'clock in the morning, the gate of Yanqi Kingdom was quietly opened. Looking at the flickering lights in the Han army camp, the Rouran people sent out 1000 people to sneak up quietly.

The gate of the camp was closed, and no soldiers were seen moving around inside. Only the crackling sounds of some matches that had not yet burned out could be heard.

Seeing this, the Rouran leader became more cautious. In the Han-Rouran War, the Han people used many tricks, so they had to be on guard.

Some Rouran masters immediately turned around and entered the camp. Although for some reason there was not even a soldier guarding the gate, it was very strange, as if telling you clearly that I have an ambush tonight.

But they still secretly opened the gate of the camp. No matter whether it was a trick of the Han army or not, they had to give it a try. If they failed, they would only lose 1000 people at most.

If successful, the 4000 Rouran cavalrymen behind them could rush over and kill them, and even the Yanqi soldiers who had been frightened would regain their confidence!

Of course, if they failed, they would abandon Yanqi and flee overnight to avoid being attacked from both sides by Yanqi and the Han army. No matter how powerful the Han army was, could they still chase them to the desert?

Forget it, let's just throw this idea away, lest the Wei Huo incident happen again!

After the gate was opened, 1000 Rouran soldiers rushed in directly.

When they all rushed into the camp and entered the tents, they found that there was no one inside, but there didn't seem to be an ambush.

"What's going on?" Seeing 1000 Rouran soldiers rushing into the camp without any incident and no shouting or killing, King Gan Wu in the distance became confused.

"Your Majesty, those Han troops must have been afraid of our surprise attack, so they withdrew last night, which is why we came up empty-handed." said one of King Gan Wu's subordinates.

"Those Han soldiers are really cunning. Let's go and see if there is anything left in the camp." King Gan Wu shook his head and led the remaining 4000 soldiers towards the camp.

You know, the Rouran people never return empty-handed. Seeing that the tents and other items in the camp were intact, King Gan Wu shouted to everyone outside to take away everything they could in the camp, and finally burned it!

Just when the Rouran people were laughing and slacking off, a deafening shout of killing suddenly came from behind a small mound two miles away from the camp. It turned out that 1000 cavalrymen rushed out together, waving swords and spears in their hands, and charged towards the camp.

"This empty camp is indeed a trap." King Gan Wu was shocked and immediately called on the Rouran people to organize the soldiers and prepare to meet the enemy.

These 1000 cavalrymen quickly rushed to the periphery of the camp, took out grenades from their arms and threw them directly at the camp.

At this moment, the camp was filled with Rouran soldiers. In addition, the wooden door of the camp was not big, so these Rouran soldiers could not run out quickly.

Grenade after grenade exploded in the camp. The Rouran people only heard the sound of red light constantly ringing and lighting up in the camp.

Countless Rouran people would scream and then fall to the ground.

King Gan Wu was already alert, and when he saw his soldiers falling down in large numbers as if they had been bewitched by some kind of magic, he did not dare to stay here for a moment, and hurriedly mounted his horse, left the camp, and ran into the dark night.

As King Gan Wu ran away, more and more Rouran soldiers also chose to flee.

In fact, Liya herself did not think that the other party would definitely come, but she thought about what she would do if she were a Rouran?

The soldiers on the front side have lost their confidence. If they still want to win at this time, the only way left is a sneak attack.

Then raiding the camp in the middle of the night is naturally the best option. It can be said that Liya knows this and the Rouran people also know this, but they have to do this, otherwise they will have to withdraw today.

So in order to win, the Rouran people had no choice but to gamble that the leader of the Han army was a fool and that they would be able to successfully raid the camp at night. However, it turned out that the leader of the Han army was not a fool, and they failed to raid the camp, so they had no choice but to retreat.

However, the Rouran people had been driven out of the Western Regions by the Han people many times, starting with the Xiongnu, so this time would not be a big deal. If they could not PP the Western Regions, they would go somewhere else to PP other people.

Therefore, after the struggle between the Han army and the Rouran people, the ownership of the Yanqi State returned to the hands of the Han army again.

As for the King of Yanqi this time, Liya did not make things difficult for him after he opened the city and surrendered.

After seeing the strength of the Han army again, the Yanqi Kingdom has completely turned to the Han people.

The nobles of Yanqi nodded in agreement to whatever Liya said. Even when Liya proposed land reform, the nobles of Yanqi did not say anything. It seemed that they were really afraid of Liya's army.

Of course, the biggest possibility is that the Yanqi Kingdom has always been oppressed by the Rouran people, and the value of the things they were forced to pay is far higher than Leah's land reform system.

Leah felt that the biggest reason was the last one. The Rouran people’s exploitation was too cruel, so cruel that the nobles could not get much money from the people.