The smoke and dust gradually dispersed, and the last blurry figures of the soldiers of the Western Expedition could still be seen.
Song Qing looked at Liu Mingzhi's melancholy eyes staring at the West, with a sad expression, and patted Liu Mingzhi's shoulder with a slight smile.
"I dare to slap His Majesty on the shoulder!
Your Majesty, aren't you extremely disappointed that you were unable to take part in the expedition as you wished?"
Liu Mingzhi came back to his senses, retracted his gaze towards the west, shook his head silently at Song Qing, waved his hand to Song Qing, and asked him to order the hundreds of escorting soldiers under his command to return to the city first, and then slowly carried his hands behind his back.
Walk slowly towards the city gate.
Seeing this, Song Qing waved to his lieutenant and followed Liu Mingzhi silently.
“I can’t say that I am extremely disappointed, but it would be false to say that I have no regrets at all.
To be honest, brother, I am the Emperor on Horseback. This is the first fierce collision between the countries of the East and the West. Brother, I, the Emperor on Horseback, cannot personally participate.
There is inevitably some regret.
After all, not only the millions of elite soldiers in the frontier army are about to fall apart, but also my brother, my bones are about to fall apart.
Rather than guarding the capital to deal with those troublesome memorials, brother, I would rather command my soldiers to fight on the battlefield, leaping on horseback and whipping my whip.
Put our dragon flag in every corner of the world.
It's a pity that God didn't give me this opportunity.
Compared with the regret of not being able to lead the expedition in person, I am more worried.
We know too little about these two countries, Tianzhu and Dashi.
We can only know some trivial information from the oral accounts and descriptions of Liao Fan and Lu Fengshuang.
In the expedition against these two countries, which are more distant than the countries in the Western Regions, my brothers resented the two countries for massacring the subjects under my rule, and at the same time, they also had a touch of worry.
I have no doubt that the fighting ability of our brothers is not as good as these two foreign barbarians.
What I'm worried about is the problem of food and grass, and the problem of acclimatization.
Man-made disasters can be prevented, but natural disasters can be avoided.
In fact, I originally planned that within five years, my dragon would no longer start a war.
However, things are unpredictable, and even after three years, our army went out to fight on the battlefield again.
In order to unify the world, we fought for twelve years among the Three Kingdoms.
Although the world is unified now, the young and strong people among the people can be recruited as soldiers at a time when they are young and old.
After the imperial court streamlined its troops and horses, although it still retained 1.2 million elite troops, the current situation meant that there would be fewer troops for a battle.
The countries in the West are so ambitious that they have been eyeing our dragon for a long time, and there is a possibility of invading the country from the east at any time.
What about the north? There are also Tsarist generals Slav and Spismult whom we intend to put back, who may come back at any time.
Can there be less pressure on brothers?
In the past, Pan Yun, Pan Aiqing, the left minister of the Ministry of Revenue, once said, "Brother, I am so anxious to open up new territories and expand my territory that I am going too militarily."
At that time, the imperial court was powerful and capable of conquering the two countries of Jin and Tujia.
It's not considered militaristic at all.
However, if it is a Western country and Tsarist Russia attacks and invades the border again, it would not be in line with the character of a brother to not take revenge.
What about revenge? If this continues, it may really lead to military violence."
Song Qing was silent for a long time and nodded clearly: "I thought that after the world was unified, I would be able to live a stable life.
Now when I hear you tell me, it can be said that we are enemies on all sides!
It’s just that Brother Wei doesn’t seem to see any worry in you?”
"Do you still remember those tall soldiers and horses wearing plate armor similar to ours that we encountered during our Western Expedition?"
Song Qing thought for a while and nodded slightly: "I still have the impression that the combat effectiveness of those soldiers and horses is not strong, but they are not too weak either.
However, our artillery shells were almost exhausted at that time, and we allowed them to escape from the encirclement and suppression.
Today, my army for the Western Expedition is different from the past. At that time, we only had a few dozen artillery pieces. For this Western Expedition, we have prepared a total of 1,300 artillery pieces.
I'm a bit arrogant, brother, as long as the barbarians of these two countries don't have such weapons as our artillery.
Without a large army to attack the city, as far as artillery is concerned, the small gates and towers of Parthia can be razed to the ground.
Brother Wei and Cheng Kaibing personally attacked the border town of Parthia in two groups.
The combat effectiveness of their soldiers and horses is not bad, but as for the defensive strength of the city!
Just don’t mention it!
If you hadn't ordered the troops to stop and return to Ershi City in Dayuan Kingdom.
Give Brother Wei and Cheng Kai three more months to ensure that the territory included in our Dalong map will be an additional three hundred miles.
Why do you bring this up so well... Hiss... You're not going to tell me that the soldiers and horses of Dashi are the soldiers and horses of the Parthian Kingdom, right? Or something like that.
?”
Liu Mingzhi smiled lightly and nodded: "That's exactly what I said. Nine times out of ten, it's like this!"
"No way? If that's the case, what do you have to worry about with the combat power of those two swords?
I have to say something arrogant for my brother, if the fighting power of the Dashi Kingdom is almost the same as that of the Parthian Kingdom, we don’t even need to send troops from the mainland. Commander Zhang Mo and the 300,000 allied troops from the Western Regions can defeat them.
"
"What about Tianzhu? Have you considered it? As far as I know, this is a country where one motorcycle...and one horse can ride ten people!"
"Ah? One horse riding ten people? How about fun?"
"It's just a joke, a joke, just a joke. In short, we know very little about the country of Tianzhu.
It is better not to underestimate the enemy if you can.
But my worries have never been about the two countries Tianzhu and Dashi.
Have you ever thought about where is the west side of Dashi?
Are there any countries we don’t know about? Will they become Dashi’s helpers?
What is the national strength? What is the military strength? What is the combat power?
How many countries may exist?
Let me tell you this, my Dalong expeditionary army has never faced only two barbarian states, Dashi and Tianzhu, from the moment it started dispatching troops.
There are more potential enemies and opponents that we don’t know yet.
Just like before the Slavs crossed the Yinshan Mountains with Murt, we saw Tsarist Russia on the map I drew, but before they actually appeared, who guarantees that there really is such a country in the far north?
Therefore, by analogy, who can guarantee that there is no powerful country to the west of the Great Eclipse that can become the helper of the Great Eclipse?
Dear brother, this is the source of my worries.
It’s not impossible that this army’s western expedition will last for two or three years at the earliest, or more than ten years at the earliest!”
Song Qing took a breath and looked at Liu Mingzhi who looked worried:
"Brother, I really haven't thought about these things you mentioned.
If it is as you said, this army's western expedition is really a big problem.
After all, potential enemies are the most terrifying!"
"However, brothers' worries about these people are only secondary after all.
As you just said, our expedition troops have prepared more than a thousand artillery pieces this time.
These barbarians say that 100% of them don't have artillery. Brother, I can't guarantee this, but the possibility of having artillery is really slim.
I still have a good idea of the troops and horses going on this expedition.
But once there are enemies on all sides.
Brother, I am worried that the embankment of a thousand miles will be destroyed by the ant nest!"
Song Qing frowned and thought for a moment, seeming to understand the true meaning of Liu Mingzhi's words.
"It seems that the real source of your uneasiness is ultimately within our court, such as the spy force that you mentioned in the palace earlier that seems to have disappeared from the world."
"To be honest, that's true.
Once there are enemies on all sides in the future and all the troops and horses are exhausted, my brother, the emperor, will be nothing but an empty frame.
Faced with the huge power, the endless spies of masters, and some ministers with ulterior motives in the court, I can't help but feel worried!
It has been more than half a year since Li Tao took power in the Palace of Ten Kings.
But there was no sign of the missing spy figure being revealed.
The more they act like this, the more uneasy I feel!
I also hope that they can truly stay away from the dispute, but I don’t dare to bet!
I can’t even afford to gamble!
I hope Chengzhi and the others can take charge of their own business as soon as possible.
Let’s not talk about this anymore and go back to Beijing directly.”
"Why don't you meet with the officials from the three governments?"
"Forget it, let them take care of people's livelihood, it is better than flattering me, the emperor, and go back to Beijing directly!"