The Gaochang Uighur Khanate implemented a two-capital system.

On weekdays, Gaochang City, later known as Gaochang District of Turpan City, was the capital.

In the summer, the royal tent must be moved to Futu City, with Futu City as the summer capital.

Futu City is the Tingzhou City where the Beiting Protectorate of the Tang Dynasty was originally located. It is also the most important fortress for the Gaochang Defense Force to defend against enemies coming from the northern desert.

Historically, when Yelu Abaoji punished the Gaochang Uighurs, they crossed the desert from the north and directly attacked Tingzhou City. The decision was made in a single battle.

At this time, not only did the Gaochang Uighurs implement the two-capital system, the Khitans also implemented a more complex five-capital system.

This is actually a process in which the grassland fishing and hunting peoples located in the northern part of the Central Plains began to transform into semi-nomadic and semi-agriculture.

This situation is even more obvious in the Gaochang Uighurs.

The Khitans only turned to a semi-nomadic and semi-agricultural pattern after they took possession of the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun. Gaochanghui did so earlier than the Khitans.

Because after the capture of Qiuci, large areas of cultivated land in Qiuci, Yanqi, Xizhou, Yinzhou, etc. during the Han and Tang dynasties were all returned to the Gaochang Uighurs, giving them the conditions for farming.

Similarly, the great Khans of the Gaochang Uighurs regarded Tingzhou as their summer capital, which was the same idea as the Khitan people.

They wanted to maintain the combat effectiveness of the core tribes and prevent them from becoming corrupted through this large-scale relocation of royal tents and various competitions in riding, shooting, and hunting.

Moreover, compared with the Khitan people's five-capital system and the four-season nabao system in spring, summer, autumn and winter, it caused huge financial pressure on the Liao Kingdom.

Since Tingzhou and Gaochang are not far from each other, and there are also farms producing a large amount of grain nearby, it can be said that the two-city system of the Gaochang Uighurs was very successful.

Not only did this policy not have much impact on the finances of the Gaochang Uighurs, it also successfully allowed the Gaochang Uighurs to maintain a certain degree of combat effectiveness.

Historically, they were able to stand on their own from the servant Gujun in the seventh year of Xiantong in the Tang Dynasty, that is, 866 AD. They survived until the eleventh year of Jiading in the Southern Song Dynasty (1218) when the Western Liao Dynasty was destroyed, and they still existed for more than ten years.

Xiangguo has been around for more than 400 years, and it can be regarded as the strongest country in the chaotic era of Hexi and Anxi.

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After Zhe Deyuan's wedding, Zhang Zhao began to convene ministers to discuss attacking the Gaochang Uighurs.

Because although Jielibiga did not say that he would not give up the title of Heavenly King, he also did not say that he agreed. He gave me King Zhang a tug-zi trick.

Hey! I won’t tell you what I want to do. I’ll just close my eyes and not answer. If you call me, I’ll pretend I can’t hear you. If you ask me, I won’t answer. Let’s see what you can do to me. Just playing!

Of course, Zhang Zhao couldn't let the Gaochang Uighurs just do this to consume him, so he sent Guo Tiance to hoard supplies in Dunhuang while he began to select the army for the expedition.

Since this expedition was the first thousand-mile attack by the Liang army, the straight-line distance from Liangzhou to Gaochang alone was 2,800 miles, so Zhang Zhao was still very cautious.

For this purpose, he specially transferred all the Ma Shacai who were already stationed in Qingzhou and controlled the newly attached Qiang party units in the four prefectures of Hui, Qing, Wei, and Yan.

At the same time, Yan Jin was given full power, allowing him to serve as the envoy of the four states of Qin, Wei, Qing, and Hui, and to unified command the military forces of the four states of Qin, Wei, Qing, and Hui, which were stationed near Guanzhong, to prevent any changes in the later Jin and later Shu.

As for the cavalry, Zhang Zhao mobilized 500 knights from the capital of Hanshan, 3,000 Yulin Guards on the left and right, 5,000 elite cavalry from the Nine Towns, and 15,000 knights from all tribes in the four states of Lianglanshan River.

In addition, the newly attached Zhe family, Yang family, and Lingzhou party Xiang Tuoba Yanchao each also sent out five hundred elite cavalry.

Among them, there were 400 armored cavalry, 1,500 heavy armored cavalry, 12,000 light armored cavalry, and the remaining 10,000 or so were archers without armor or wearing only very little leather armor.

In terms of infantry, there are much fewer, because the Gaochang Uighurs are basically cavalry.

So Zhang Zhao simply transferred only two battalions of infantry stationed on the Ganzhou and Suzhou front lines, and Man Xiong and Wang Tongtong were respectively in charge.

Dunzup brought the five hundred jumping soldiers he had trained for Zhang Zhao.

These jumping soldiers are equipped with shields inlaid with steel plates and hold waist knives that are good for slashing.

This was made by Zhang Zhao based on the shape of the Yanling sword of later generations. It is much shorter than the horizontal sword, but it is lighter in weight and is more suitable for close combat.

However, the sharpest combat method of these Tiaodang soldiers is the fine steel throwing spears they carry on their backs.

This is Dunzup's unique skill. When facing the enemy, unless they wear two layers of cloth-covered iron armor, the lethality of a spear thrown by an elite harpooneer can be very terrifying.

In addition to these two thousand and five hundred men, the remaining infantrymen were the 1,000 heavy armored spearmen that Feng Hui established after arriving in Liangzhou, with more than 300 of them as a team to help Zhang Zhao.

These heavy armored soldiers trained by Feng Hui used the method of practicing silver spear effectiveness in the past. They used bows and crossbows from a distance, white silver spears at close range, and axes and hammers close to the body. Their combat effectiveness was also very terrifying.

Moreover, the organizational model of the Silver Gun Effectiveness Festival is actually the result of the military recruitment system going astray in the past.

From fighting for you if you give me money, to beating you if you don't give me money.

However, although the road has gone astray, in Zhang Zhao's vision, whether it is to continue to open up the west of the river, recover the Jinghai Navy, or defeat Wang's Korea and conquer the Japanese archipelago.

Mercenaries such as the recruitment system are actually more effective than the government army system.

The biggest driving force for foreign colonization is that it is weak in terms of national will alone. The main reason is to be profitable.

With profits, there will be the greatest motivation for colonial development. Feng Hui and his Silver Spear are just Zhang Zhao's exploration of the recruitment system.

After deciding on the number of troops to be mobilized, it is now time to decide on the route of march.

The marching bachelors of Qionglin Academy quickly took out the prepared sand table map of Gaochang Kingdom.

This was produced by the Hexi Sogdian Chamber of Commerce in the past few years. Jielibiga of Gaochang Uighur did not have such a detailed map in his hands.

Such a complicated thing as the sand table was of course made by Zhang Zhao.

However, unlike later generations of sand tables that were very precise in terms of longitude, latitude, contour elevation, etc., there was no such terminology and technical means at this time.

Zhang Zhao's sand table can only be regarded as a very crude original version. Its greatest function is to mark out the mountains, rivers and valleys.

But this is enough. To fight with the current cold weapons, this is the information you need to know.

After setting up the sand table and hanging up the map, the marching bachelors from Qionglin Academy began to introduce one by one to the generals in the room.

After Bai Congxin listened, he was the first to have an opinion.

As a former Kucha royal family, the Kucha Bai family and the original Kucha people have been separated, but Bai Congxin's longing for his hometown and his desire to restore the Bai family's past glory are growing day by day.

With such a desire, of course Bai Congxin had studied the situation in Anxi from all aspects. It is estimated that the elimination of the Gaochang Uighurs had been in his mind countless times.

"Please see, King of Heaven, in the fourth year of Tongguang reign of the Tang Dynasty, in order to punish the Gaochang Uighurs, the Khitan Lord Yelu Abaoji sent 30,000 cavalry across thousands of miles of yellow sand, and directly attacked Futu City from here."

Bai Congxin first marked the route of the Khitan's military attack on the Gaochang Uighurs in 926.

It means leaving Dahei Mountain, passing through the passage between Beita Mountain and Bogda Mountain, and appearing directly outside Tingzhou City.

Bai Congxin continued: "The reason why the Khitan people were successful back then was because before that, the Khitan people had tribes that were nomadic in the north.

The Khitan people had enough guides and logistical support, so they could succeed in one attack.

But we don't have these advantages. This road has to pass through thousands of miles of yellow sand, and it is very dangerous to enter rashly.

And you can’t carry much baggage, so you can only make a surprise attack. If you don’t succeed, you have to return, so you don’t have any capital for entanglement.”

Zhang Zhao nodded. He had also studied this route. Indeed, as Bai Congxin said, the Khitan's success depended most on their adequate guides and logistics in this area.

Moreover, the goals of the Khitans and Zhang Zhao are not the same.

The Khitans wanted to teach the Gaochang Uighurs a lesson, extort a large sum of money, and at the same time bring the Xijiasi people to the west and north under their rule.

But Zhang Zhao was not the one. He was going to destroy the Gaochang Uighurs.

If we rush forward with light cavalry rashly and fail to break open the city of Tingzhou or deal a fatal blow to the Gaochang Uighurs, we will be in trouble. The amount of baggage wasted alone will be astronomical.

"Bai Sanlang, please stop being so pretentious. You must have a solution. Tell me quickly."

They were all old brothers. When they saw Bai Congxin showing off, Fanshun, Huang Yingda and others immediately started to make noises.

Zhang Zhao also smiled and nodded, letting Bai Congxin continue.

Bai Congxin returned to the sand table and drew a line south of the Khitan advance route with his finger.

"This is north of Yinzhou, where the great dynasty established Pulei County in the past.

In the past, the trade route was cut off and this road was abandoned because it was too desolate. Now the King of Heaven reopened the trade route, so many merchants began to pass by.

Although this road also needs to pass through several sandy areas, since it is not far from the two states of Guasha, we can arrange it calmly, and we can also recruit merchants as guides, which is much better than taking the risk of taking the old path of the Khitan people!"

Zhang Zhao took a closer look and found that the road Bai Congxin mentioned was actually a road sandwiched between two mountains, located a little north of Yinzhou.

However, the more Zhang Zhao looked at it, the more familiar it became. Suddenly he saw a mark indicating a small lake on the sand table.

Bai Congxin saw that Zhang Zhao also noticed this small lake, and he continued.

"This lake is called Pulei Lake. It is only more than four hundred miles away from Tingzhou. We can also go here to replenish water, which is very convenient."

Pulei Lake? Zhang Zhao understood why he felt so familiar with this road.

Isn't this the G7 highway that entered Xinjiang from Ejina Banner during the Republic of China?

If nothing else, this Pulei Lake should be the Barkol Lake in later generations, and Zhang Zhao still has an impression of this road, because he drove himself once before crossing it.

However, this road is not easy to walk. Even when we get to Yinwu and Barkol, the environment is still relatively harsh.

When passing between the Barkol Mountain and the Moqin Ula Mountain, the surrounding area is either desert or Gobi. It will be more convenient to travel on highways in the future, but it is difficult to say at this time.

“This road passes through a large number of barren moraine, can it accommodate tens of thousands of troops?

If you still can’t carry more luggage, it seems that there won’t be much advantage over the route taken by the Khitans.”

Bai Congxin didn't expect that Zhang Zhao was somewhat familiar with this road, so he raised his hand.

"The Heavenly King's Holy Ming Zhuzhao, it is true that this road cannot pass tens of thousands of troops at once, otherwise the water supply along the way will be a big problem.

But fortunately, Pulei Lake is there, so we can pass in batches.

Please allow the King of Heaven to allow me to lead my own troops and horses and a group of Yulin Guards on the left and right to go first, and then divide them into groups of 5,000 soldiers and horses, passing through four times in total.

Forty miles northwest of Tingzhou, there is a salty spring on the edge of Shatuo Moraine. Although the spring water is salty, it is still drinkable.

There is a small town next to the spring, which is where the original Xianquan Town of Dachaoting Prefecture was located.

After the general occupied this place, he arranged defenses to isolate the Gaochang Uighur detectives.

When the King of Heaven gathers his army together and attacks Tingzhou with thunderous force, great things will be accomplished."

Shatuo Qi is part of the Gurbantunggut Desert, and is now the hometown of the Shatuo people in the Central Plains.

Zhang Zhao glanced at Bai Congxin and found that his cavalry warrior's eyes were full of desire, eager for him to fire the first shot to destroy the Gaochang Uighurs.

"This plan is feasible. We will pass it in batches and gather in Xianquan Town! After I believe you go down, make preparations and use you as the vanguard."

In an instant, Zhang Zhao made a decision that Bai Congxin could not be cold-hearted at this moment.
To be continued...