The three armies of the Western Xinjiang Alliance, left, middle and right, set off almost simultaneously under the command of the Prince of the Turkic Temple to embark on a crusade against the Metasequoia.
Since then, the famous "march competition" in the history of Xijiang Ghost Desert has officially begun.
However, this marching competition is not about who can walk faster, but who can walk slower. The three-pronged crusade legion almost unanimously advanced at a tortoise speed.
Yes, you read that right, it’s slow.
The only thing that is not very accurate is that the actual marching speed may be slower than that of the turtle.
Although Shule Kingdom did not sign a written agreement with the Metasequoia Corps, it did not prevent them from constantly setting new records in marching competitions: As a force mainly composed of pure cavalry, the distance traveled in a whole day was only two miles.
"Two miles?! This is so damn shameless!" After learning about this, Marshal Alek Jiang of the Central Route Army immediately said to his subordinates with righteous indignation: Brothers, let's walk one mile tomorrow!
As for Marshal Geerhan of the Left Army, he did not have the ambitions of Loulan King Alekjiang, so he simply stopped leaving.
When Gerhan's military report that "there was a heavy rainstorm during the march and all the soldiers and horses had to rest on the spot" was sent back to the King's Court of Chechi, the Marquis of Durham and General Doron couldn't help but look up at the sky, hanging high above their heads. The bright sun above made the two of them dizzy.
You know, at this moment, the left army led by Geerhan was only five miles away from them.
What are these grandchildren doing? !
The Turkic generals couldn't help but ask desperate questions. It had been nearly a month since the army set out, but the three groups had not been able to complete even one-fifth of the journey.
"Even if we let a turtle out, it would have crawled under the Metasequoia City by now." Duolun teased.
Of course, not all of the entire expeditionary army were cowards like Alekjan and Geerhan. There are still brave men in Western Xinjiang!
This brave man refers to the king of Qiemo.
Qiemo is a small country in Western Xinjiang. Although the country is small, it does not delay the ambitions and pride of its people. In order to make a mark in this crusade and win the favor of the Turks in exchange for more benefits, King Qiemo led the entire country to participate in the war, a total of three thousand troops!
Faced with Marshal Geerhan's timid performance on the left, he felt extremely dissatisfied, so he decided to throw away the large troops and attack Dabancheng first to seize the lead!
In this way, the Qiemo Army, which was mainly infantry, took great strides and advanced rapidly, approaching the boundary line set by the Zhenjiang Army.
At the border line, King Qiemo personally kicked off the wooden boundary marker erected on the ground, brandished his sword and roared: "Children, follow me to kill the enemy!"
Then, there was no more.
Qiemo's heroes had just crossed the border when they ran into Xu Youchang's First Armored Cavalry Corps.
In just one meal, three thousand Qiemo infantrymen were torn to pieces by ten thousand cavalry. After another meal, all the soldiers and horses, including King Qiemo, were killed.
Two meals, and the end is gone.
At this point, the Qiemo Kingdom became the first country in history, but by no means the last, to be directly removed from the "Xijiang Map" by the Metasequoia Army.
The soldiers of the First Army tied the corpses of the Qiemo people with ropes and dragged them behind their horses until they were far away from the border. Then they threw them away like garbage and drove away.
Along the way, countless stumps of limbs, broken arms, intestines and internal organs were left behind.
All the coalition spies who had witnessed the entire battle were so frightened that they quickly ran back to report to the general. They did not add fuel to the fire or deliberately exaggerate. They simply described what they saw and heard simply and straightforwardly, which made all the coalition forces feel horrified.
In the minds of the Western Xinjiang countries, the previous Zhenjiang Protectorate had never acted in such a cruel manner.
This is so scary!
With Qie Moguo as an example, this time not only Geerhan on the left, but also the center and right armies completely stopped.
We are also experiencing heavy rain here, so whoever wants to go can go!
Not only that, on the night when the battle report was received, two neighboring vassal states quietly led their troops out of the camp and embarked on the return journey.
They were not scared away, but rushed back to seize Qiemo's territory in order to seize the time. Among them, one belongs to Loulan's camp, and the other is from Shule camp.
As a result, the morale of the Western Xinjiang Alliance's crusade army became even lower.
Seeing the reports sent back from all walks of life that "the march was postponed due to heavy rain", the Marquis of Durham's beard trembled with anger and he couldn't help but cursed on the spot: Western Xinjiang cowards treat war as a child's play!
Duolun seemed very indifferent to this. He touched the pattern on the base of the wine glass and asked Durham: "Master Marquis, I wonder if you have thought about a question. Back then, the enemy we faced was so powerful. Zhenjiang The Protectorate and the Fierce Blade Legion are all the most heroic and capable soldiers of the Holy Tang Dynasty. Even the Turks dare not underestimate them. But the group of Western Xinjiang softies you mentioned actually started a bloody fight with each other, and the corpses Ji Rushan refused to give in, and fought against the elites of Shengtang until the last drop of blood was shed. To be honest, including the Prince of the Temple, who among us did not admire them at that time? But now, why would they? What if he becomes a complete wimp?”
Durham put away his anger and looked at Doron curiously: "That's really what you said. So, why is this?"
"Because people's hearts!" Duolun looked at Durham with burning eyes: "Because people's hearts have changed. At that time, Loulan Kingdom, Shule Kingdom, and Geerhan's horse thieves gang had nothing, not even There is no final retreat. Failure means complete destruction. Therefore, they will fight without hesitation and burst out with surprising power. However, now, they already have everything they can. , so they don’t want to fight anymore, and they don’t dare to fight anymore. They are afraid that if they spell it wrong, they will throw away everything in front of them.”
Durham nodded thoughtfully: "Well, little pigeon, this does make sense. Even I, once the comfortable life has passed for a long time, sometimes I will be reluctant to climb on the horse again."
"So, my Lord, the Great Khan once taught us that if the Turks want to never fail, they must keep conquering! Conquer! Conquer again!" Duolun said proudly: "We will always be here. Fight on horseback until the day you die!"
"Yes, yes, that's what it means!" Durham shook his head and said: "The Great Khan told me that if you want to maintain the vitality of the Turks... yes, the Turks, you must constantly look for the enemy and fight forever!"
Duolun smiled and said: "Yes, Lord Marquis, you are right. When it comes to Western Xinjiang, it is useless for us to force those weaklings with our mouths. They will only cheat and play tricks, but they will not work hard." .The only way is to create a sense of crisis for them."
"A sense of crisis? What kind of sense of crisis?"
"That sense of 'if he doesn't do this, he will perish'."
Seeing that Durham still didn't understand, Duolun gritted his teeth and said fiercely: "Let's form a supervising team and kill those who are timid to fight as a warning to others!"
"What do you mean, let the garrison patrols kill those disobedient and ineffective Western Xinjiang expeditionary troops?" Durham said excitedly.
Duolun waved his hand quickly: "No, no, no, Lord Marquis, you know that those men under me can patrol, post sentries, and conduct investigations, but they can't do that kind of decisive killing." Come. I think you can ask His Highness the Prince to send some golden-armored troops. It doesn’t need to be too many. Two or three thousand people are enough. They can be used as a supervising team under your command."
Hearing this, Durham nodded slightly, stroking his beard and said happily: "What a great idea. My cousin will definitely not refuse this small request!"
Just do it, Durham immediately ordered someone to write a letter and sent Pegasus to the two camps to request the Prince of the Temple to mobilize troops to form a supervising team. After receiving this letter from her cousin, Ronya immediately hesitated.
Previously, he had also heard about the three-pronged expeditionary army deliberately avoiding the battle, and believed that Durham's suggestion on supervising the battle team was indeed necessary. However, the current problem is that the Turks and the Western Xinjiang countries are still formally equal allies. Although the protection fees of various countries were paid, they also obeyed the Turks' orders when fighting, and even the throne of the leader of the alliance had to be designated by Talonia.
But allies are allies after all, and since that fig leaf is still there, it cannot be removed easily.
The so-called supervising team has always been used internally by oneself, reflecting the absolute authority of superiors over subordinates. If the Western Xinjiang countries are put a war team on their heads, it means that they are no longer allies, but have completely become subordinates of the Turks and have lost their autonomy.
Is this appropriate or inappropriate?
After thinking about it, Ronya's inner balance finally tilted towards the side of "victory in the war". The sudden outbreak of domestic Turkish rebellion has now been completely suppressed. Khan Ashina Zhijin may send his army eastward at any time. Judging from the current war situation in Western Xinjiang, if the problem of Metasequoia City continues to be delayed, I am afraid it will really happen in the end. If something bigger happens, once the Khan is blamed, Talonia will be in big trouble.
Therefore, the Prince of the Temple felt that it was still necessary to use the Supervisory Team to force the various crusade armies in Western Xinjiang and let them quell the Xinjiang Army as soon as possible.
Moreover, this time the Western Xinjiang Alliance dispatched a total of 200,000 troops, and Durham only asked for 3,000 golden armored cavalry. It was probably just a symbolic role and would definitely not cause any big waves.
Considering this, Ronya finally agreed to his cousin's request and sent him a golden-armored war team.
However, the prince never expected that Durham wanted these three thousand gold-armored troops with the intention of causing a huge wave.
