526: Chapter 526 Arrival at the Kaibor Pass

Several days passed quietly. Under Zhao Xuan's highly inflammatory recruitment strategy, the number of people signing up as mercenaries snowballed, eventually reaching as many as two thousand.

The composition of those who came to sign up was quite complex, including not only the impoverished masses from every corner of Qianni City but also villagers from the surrounding areas.

Most of them were idle loafers who flocked there one after another.

There were even some from other cities; having heard the news of the recruitment and seeing the generous benefits, they were tempted and came to sign up.

The total population of the Kingdom of Loulan was around one hundred thousand.

For the Kingdom of Loulan, these two thousand people were not a small number.

However, surprisingly, the fact that these people were leaving the Kingdom of Loulan to become mercenaries did not cause much of a stir among the Loulan upper class.

To the nobles, those living in the slums were merely dispensable beggars in the city.

Usually, the nobles of Qianni City couldn't squeeze any profit out of these people; instead, they occasionally had to give them alms to show off their "benevolence."

Therefore, the nobles were naturally indifferent and unconcerned about their departure.

For the Huaxia Pioneer Group, this was undoubtedly a welcome turn of events.

With almost no trouble, they successfully gathered these two thousand people and prepared to set out on their journey.

After successfully taking two thousand mercenaries from the Kingdom of Loulan, Zhao Fusu made a prompt decision to lead the Huaxia Pioneer Group and the mercenaries—totaling over twenty thousand people—broken up into various caravans to head toward the Mauryan Empire.

If they weren't broken up, twenty thousand people would be too conspicuous and would surely cause panic among the countries along the way, making them think an invasion was imminent.

Zhao Fusu had personally led these Remnants of the Six States out of Great Qin with a profound plan in mind.

He knew well that these people were restless elements within Great Qin.

Taking them out of Great Qin was, in fact, laying the groundwork for his future campaigns against Mobei and the Thirty-Six Kingdoms of the Western Regions.

As the saying goes, "to resist foreign aggression, one must first stabilize the interior." If these potential unstable factors weren't eliminated one by one, then when he went to war with Mobei and the Thirty-Six Kingdoms of the Western Regions and was spread thin, these people might very well seize the opportunity to cause trouble, preventing him from fully committing to the battle. This was a massive hidden danger for him.

Therefore, Zhao Fusu decided to personally lead these people to the Mauryan Empire; only by letting them get bogged down with the local forces of the Mauryan Empire could he truly feel at ease.

His previous nationwide bandit suppression was also to cut off their retreat.

Among these bandits, many were actually Remnants of the Six States.

Thus, Zhao Fusu and his group embarked on their long journey.

After months of arduous travel, braving the elements along the way, they crossed desolate deserts and scaled steep mountains, finally arriving at the essential passage to the Mauryan Empire—the Khyber Pass.

The Khyber Pass is a natural fissure only 600 meters wide, deep within the folds of the plateau.

It is like a key thrust into the lifeblood of the Subcontinent where the Mauryan Empire is located.

This narrow passage, only 53 kilometers long, is the throat that dominates the Mauryan Empire.

Zhao Fusu stood before the pass, privately pondering his next plan.

He knew that once they entered the Mauryan Empire, what awaited them would be a fierce struggle.

Determination shone in the eyes of Xiang Liang, Xiang Yu, Xiang Zhuang, and the others.

Especially Xiang Yu, who possessed double pupils; he intended to spread his name as the Hegemon-King across this Subcontinent.