In mid-December, there are still lingering summer temperatures in the south, and the depth of winter has already entered in the north.
It snowed early in Mobei.
On Longyou Road, there is a river in the northwest of the desert called Suiye River.
Downstream of the Suiye River, there is a city named Suiye City.
The location of Suiye City is not exactly the same as that of Song Yang's original era. It is slightly southeast and closer to Atami.
Moreover, the scale of Suiye City is also larger.
Suiye City was built in the first year of Emperor Taizong's reign and was completed in the last year of Emperor Taizong's reign, which lasted more than forty years.
It is an important military town in the Western Regions and an important transportation hub on the commercial routes in the Western Regions.
The impact of natural disasters on Suiye City is not particularly great. At least more than 60% of the defenders and people in the city are left!
This is unimaginable in inland areas.
But this is the case in Broken Leaf City.
Otherwise, the building structure of Suiye City is a wooden structure. When the first wave of earthquakes came, the wooden structure had better ductility and the collapse caused was not too much.
When the sky fire came, because there were fewer people in the city and more open space, the people also had room to move and take shelter.
Although the wooden houses were almost burned down, more than half of the lives were saved.
Suiye is an important military town, where the Long Youwei Army of the Expedition to the West is stationed, and the General's Mansion of the Expedition to the West is stationed.
Song Hui, the general who conquered the West, was originally named Yuan Hui.
During Taizu's reign, he joined the army, and when he was young, he accompanied Taizu on his expeditions in the north and south.
During the Taizong period, he made military exploits, was granted the title of Governor-General, and was promoted to General of Anguo.
In the first year of Taihe, the Huns in the Western Regions rebelled, and General Zhengxi was transferred to Suiye City to quell the rebellion.
The Huns are an ancient nomadic people in the northwest. The Daqian period has flourished in the Western Regions many times.
He is the strongest opponent in the Western Region of Daqian.
"General, spies reported that the Huns are gathering troops and will invade eastward soon."
After a summer of reconstruction, Suiye City has basically sorted out a space that can support the survival of the soldiers and civilians in the city.
It is an important military town. There is a large amount of military rations in the city, all of which are stored in underground granaries. Natural disasters have little impact on the stored rations.
It is enough to last Suiye City for more than five years.
As soon as the natural disaster struck, Song Hui immediately sent people to Suzhou, the capital of Longyou Dao Prefecture, to report the news.
However, the strong earthquake caused several important rivers to change course or cut off their flow, especially the disappearance of several important water supplies on the edge of the desert.
Without water supply, the messenger would not be able to cross the desert.
Broken Leaf City became a lone boat hanging outside the Great Wall.
In the summer, the Xiongnu were ready to move, but the Xiongnu also suffered disasters in various places, so they did not act rashly.
After a summer of reconnaissance, the Huns also discovered that the passage between the Central Plains and the Western Regions was interrupted.
Therefore, as soon as autumn came, they began to encroach on the territory of the Daqian Western Region on a large scale.
It has only been more than two months, and they have already occupied Kunxu, Huoxun, Yuezhi, Dawan and other places.
Many small tribes that originally submitted to Daqian turned against the Huns.
Because of the gap in strength, the Zhengxi Army had to gather the strength of several peripheral guard posts and gather the main force in Suiye City.
The Huns lived by water and grass, and natural disasters had little impact on them.
Some Xiongnu tribes even only injured dozens of sheep!
Although the damage to the Western Expeditionary Army was not too great, it was still 30% to 40% damaged.
After such a comparison, there is a gap in strength between the two sides.
Song Hui also discovered this, so he did not let the few guard posts on the outside defend and simply retreated to destroy the front line of Yecheng.
The defense line of Suiye City is not just one Suiye City, there is one city, four forts and four villages along the line from Suiye River to Zhenzhu River.
It formed a large defense system and was the middle section of the second line of defense on the west side of Longyou to defend against the Huns' invasion.
It is integrated with the Gongyue City defense line in the north and the Shule Town defense line in the south.
The three formed an arc protruding to the west, with Suiye City at the far west and the first stop pointed by the Xiongnu troops.
As long as this is broken, Gongyue City and Shule Town will be defeated.
After all, these two places belong to the minority Jisi Prefecture and have their own local governments, which are not completely subordinate to Daqian.
It was only to intimidate and conquer the Western Army's military power, and at the same time have a long-standing feud with the Xiongnu that they could form a defensive line.
The Huns are currently stationed in Xiuxun Prefecture and are preparing to attack Suiye City.
Song Hui looked outside the tent and saw light snow falling in the sky.
This is already the seventh snow since the beginning of winter.
"Judging from the celestial signs, there will be heavy snow this winter. The Huns also know that, so they will definitely capture Suiye City before the heavy snow comes down."
Song Hui stood up, walked out of the tent and said calmly.
"The traffic in the Western Regions is blocked. Your Majesty must also be concerned about the safety of the soldiers in the Western Regions. Your Majesty will definitely find a way to the Western Regions."
"When the snow melts next spring, our messengers can use the melted snow water to replenish water sources and return to the Central Plains to report news."
Song Hui was talking to himself. There seemed to be no necessary relationship between these three sentences.
But in fact, he was cheering for the Western Army, and he was also cheering for himself.
This battle with the Xiongnu is related to the fate of the western part of Longyou Road and whether Daqian can preserve the vast territory of the Western Region.
Natural disasters caused Dagan's losses to be much greater than those of the Xiongnu, resulting in an obvious disadvantage for the Western Conquest Army.
However, the belief of the Xixi Army was to defend Daqian and prevent the Xiongnu from invading eastward. They must block the Xiongnu west of Suiye City.
If Broken Leaf is lost, the second line of defense will no longer exist, and the west side of Longyou Road will be completely controlled by the Huns.
"The Huns want to retake control of the Western Regions and invade the Central Plains. They want to take advantage of this natural disaster to occupy Longyou Road."
"But! Their idea is doomed to fail, because the Western Conquest Army is here!"
"Broken Leaf City! This is the cemetery of soldiers and Huns!"
Song Hui's eyes flashed with murderous intent.
He is sixty-two years old this year and has been in Suiye for three years.
In the past three years, he had fought against the Xiongnu more than a dozen times. Before the natural disaster, the strength of the Western Expeditionary Army was not compromised, and he almost overwhelmed the Xiongnu to fight again.
They were completely driven out of Daqian territory.
Three years later, the situation changed, but Song Hui was still confident of defeating the Huns.
Just in Suiye City, let the Huns never come back!
"Zhang Zhou!"
"The end is here!"
"Take five thousand cavalry out of the city, go northwest, go around the next door to Dawan, don't act rashly for the time being, and block the Huns' way after they attack!"
"The last general takes command!"
"Xu Wei!"
"The end is here!"
"Take five thousand cavalry out of the city and go south to Black Mountain Pass south of Zhenzhu Castle!"
"The last general takes command!"
"Zhang Kai!"
"The end is here!"
"Strengthen the defenses of the fortresses everywhere and arm the people!"
"The last general takes command!"
…
Generals were sent out one after another. Some generals received orders to go out for battle, and some received orders to set up defenses.
The arrangements before the war were tense and orderly.
After Suiye City was gathered, the garrison exceeded 60,000, of which more than half were cavalry.
The Western Expeditionary Army was originally based on cavalry, and fighting the Huns would not work with just two feet.
Da Qian invested a lot of financial and material resources in order to equip the Western Conquest Army with enough war horses.
Of course, it also created a powerful cavalry force of more than 40,000 riders.
After the natural disaster, the cavalry suffered some losses, but more than 30,000 horses were still retained.