Time soon came to April in the twelfth year of Tianbao (753 years).
Eight thousand Anxi elite soldiers and four thousand Tubo civilian troops led by Li Siye have been walking in the no-man's land of Qiangtang for more than a month, and the journey has exceeded a thousand miles.
Under the guidance of Lu Xiaoning, the army came to a salt water lake.
Seeing that it was almost evening, Li Siye immediately ordered the camp to be set up.
Lu Xiaoning raised the lens to the highest position, then opened Baidu Earth in split screen for comparison.
After comparison, it was found that this salt lake should be the Laguotso Salt Lake in Gaize County. It is still about 1,500 miles away from Lhasa, and the journey is already halfway done.
At that moment, Lu Xiaoning lowered the camera again.
On the ground, the Anxi Army had set up tents and was cooking pots.
The Tubo civilian army gathered together the cattle, sheep and horses scattered around.
Li Siye led 300 personal guards to dig a canal to divert water by the salt lake, and covered the canal with a canvas. The canvas was surrounded by stones and soil, and a few more stones were pressed in the center to form a funnel shape. The bottom of the funnel was placed Container, after the sun rises the next day, fresh water can be condensed for drinking by humans and animals.
This is actually a distilled water collection device.
To modern people this is common sense and worthless.
But for Li Siye and other people of the Tang Dynasty, this was a fairy trick.
After the soldiers of the Anxi Army drank the fresh water condensed by this device for the first time, they couldn't believe their eyes. Only immortal methods could turn the salty and astringent salt water into clear and drinkable fresh water.
Cui He, who was busy, suddenly froze, and then seemed to be a different person.
Li Siye knew that Master Lu Tianshi was already upper body, and he immediately crossed his arms and said, "Has Master Lu Tianshi seen it clearly?"
"Yes, I have seen it clearly." Cui He (Lu Xiaoning) nodded and said, "This place is still about 1,500 miles away from Luosu. According to the current marching speed, it will probably take about a month to go."
The average daily march was fifty miles, which was much slower than the Mongolian cavalry.
The Mongol army's western expedition could cover an average of eighty, ninety or even hundreds of miles a day.
And this is not a ten-day or eight-day march, but a long-distance march that lasts for hundreds of days.
The Anxi Army moved slowly mainly because the altitude of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau was too early and the oxygen was too thin.
Because the thin oxygen cannot support high-intensity long-distance marches, neither humans nor animals can do it, otherwise it will basically be impossible to save emphysema.
Li Siye breathed a sigh of relief after hearing this.
If I leave for another month, there will be no problem.
The remaining food is enough to feed the army for three months and there is still a surplus.
What's more, most of the more than 20,000 sheep, more than 2,000 cows and more than 5,000 mares that accompanied the army are still there. They can produce nearly 100,000 liters of milk every day. The 8,000 Anxi Army and 4,000 Tubo People's Army each day A person has eight liters of milk every day, and it is impossible to drink it all. In the end, most of it is made into cheese. Cheese is really good.
It's delicious and can make Anzai soldiers stronger.
Thinking of this, Li Siye cast admiring glances at Lu Tianshi again.
After all, it was Lu Tianshi who could think of such wonderful logistical supplies.
With this method, the expedition distance and capabilities of the Tang army were improved not just a little bit, but completely. If the Sui Dynasty had mastered this method, they would never have been overwhelmed by Goguryeo, and Taizong The emperor would not conquer Liaodong three times and still be unable to do anything to Goguryeo.
Li Siye couldn't help but imagine that with this logistics supply method, it would be possible for the Anxi Army to expedition to Dashi (Arab Empire) or even Fufu (Eastern Roman Empire).
Just when Li Siye was thinking about his future conquest, Lu Wen came over quickly.
"Here." Lu Wen crossed his hands and sang, "All the animals accompanying the army have been put into the pen. However, after counting, several ewes are missing. They may have been taken away by wild wolves or snow leopards."
Soon after the army entered Qiangtang, wild beasts often followed the march.
Most of the Anxi Army will organize archers to hunt, but they can only protect it for a while.
Because after a few days, wolves will appear again, and sometimes there will be snow leopards.
Lu Wen added: "Anyway, we will camp here tomorrow to collect water. At the end of the day, we will lead the archers to hunt again to clear out the wild wolves, bears, snow leopards and so on nearby."
Li Siye suddenly raised his head, frowned and said, "It seems like things are going to change?"
Cui He looked up quickly and saw that the sky in the northwest was already dark.
At this time, Tenzin Quzha also rushed over quickly and said with a panic look on his face: "Li Shijun, seeing that the weather is going to snow tonight, we must quickly find a sheltered valley to hide the animals, otherwise they will all freeze. die."
"Valley?" Li Siye looked around and found that they were all low hills.
This kind of terrain is useless. Driving livestock into the valley will freeze to death.
"Dig a nest in the ground! Dig a nest in the ground quickly!" Lu Xiaoning said immediately, "The ground here is mostly sandy soil or meadow, and it is very easy to dig holes. Hurry up and order the digging of holes, and then all humans and animals will hide in them. "
"Here!" Li Siye said, crossing his hands and immediately ordered the digging of the hole.
Lu Xiaoning pulled the camera to a high altitude and then pushed it towards the dark clouds in the northwest corner.
The camera soon reached the limit of one thousand meters, but there was still some distance away from the dark clouds. Based on this distance, the snowstorm should not reach Lagocuo before midnight.
In other words, there is still half a night.
…
Near midnight, the Anxi Army and the Tubo People's Army dug thousands of nests.
The war horses were driven into the deepest part of the den, then the people, then the mares, the cows, and the ewes closest to the exit of the den. The exit was covered with tent leather and sacking.
As soon as 12,000 soldiers and nearly 50,000 livestock hid in their dens, strong winds began to rage outside, and then snowflakes as big as goose feathers began to fall.
The snowstorm lasted for half the night.
…
The next morning, when Lu Xiaoning turned on the computer again and entered the world of Datang, Qiangtang actually dawned early.
No, Qiangtang didn't actually get dawn earlier, but the reflection from the snow gave Lu Xiaoning the illusion that it was already dawn.
Looking down from a high altitude, except for the Laguotso Salt Lake, the area of several hundred kilometers was completely covered with snow. Lu Xiaoning stared at the snowfield for a moment, and then quickly looked away.
Even though it’s nighttime, beware of snow blindness.
Then Lu Xiaoning pushed the camera down and landed.
Then he dived into the snow and found a nest.
I saw that under the tent skin and next to the exit of the nest, the five ewes had been frozen to death and turned into lumps of ice.
Then there was a cow, also shivering with cold, and then there was a mare, and then there were two Anxi soldiers and a Tubo civilian army. Although the three of them were covered with fur coats, they were still frozen. Got to tremble.
In the deepest part of the cave are three war horses. These three war horses are well protected and are eating peas.
I looked at a few more nests and found that most of them were similar. Many ewes froze to death, but not many cows and mares froze to death. Only a few people from the Anxi Army and the Tubo People's Army froze to death.
The tent skins of those underground nests were all blown away by the strong wind.
Seeing this, Lu Xiaoning's heart dropped back.
At this time, the sky was getting brighter, and the Anxi Army and the Tubo People's Army returned to the ground one after another.
Lu Xiaoning found Li Siye and briefly explained the situation: "I just saw that the scope of this snowstorm is quite large, and the area within a radius of two hundred miles has been completely covered with snow."
"That's okay." Li Siye breathed a sigh of relief, "One or two hundred miles only lasts two or three days. Not eating grass for two or three days is not a problem for the animals at all, as long as they have water to drink."
"Drinking water is really easy. You don't have to rely on canvas to collect water." Cen Shen said with a smile.
With such thick snow, there is really no need for a canvas to collect water, you can just drink the snow water directly.
"Then get ready to leave. I'll pave the way for you." After Lu Xiaoning said that, he gently touched Cui He on the LCD screen with his finger. The next moment, consciousness came to Cui He.
Soon, the sun rose, and the snow reflected dazzling reflections in the sunlight.
The Anxi Army and the Tubo People's Army had long been accustomed to marching in the snow. They immediately took out sweat scarves or untied their turbans, and then covered their eyes with black gauze. Through the sweat scarf or black gauze, they would not suffer from snow blindness.
Cui He also covered his face with black gauze and walked forward through the thick snow.
Soon, long footprints were left on the northern shore of Laguotso Salt Lake.
