As soon as Li Ye returned to the palace, Guo Ziyi hurried over.
Guo Ziyi bowed and presented an express report, "Your Majesty, this is the latest news about Broken Leaf that I just received."
Li Ye finished the report and waved his hand: "Guo Aiqing, please sit down!"
"Thank you, Your Majesty!"
Guo Ziyi sat down at the side, and Li Ye opened the express. There were only a few sentences, and the letter he should have received was also an eagle letter.
'Zuiye was attacked by an unknown army. The garrison suffered heavy casualties and was forced to evacuate!'
Li Ye nodded. This report from the Privy Council brought a glimmer of hope. The garrison was forced to evacuate, indicating that there were still survivors. It was very likely that Guo Xin was not dead. Generally, as long as the entire army was not destroyed, the generals could survive.
"Your Majesty, I am willing to lead the army to the west to realize your Majesty's grand plan!"
Li Ye smiled and said: "I am very touched that Guo Aiqing has this intention, but establishing a complete and efficient military system is more challenging. I hope Guo Aiqing can help me complete this great cause!"
Guo Ziyi is already old, and Li Ye can no longer let him go to the Western Regions, especially those snowy plateaus with an altitude of five or six thousand meters, which will be fatal to Guo Ziyi. He can no longer let Guo Ziyi go.
Guo Ziyi sighed in his heart and stopped insisting. He immediately stood up and left.
Li Ye came to the window with his hands behind his hands and looked at the gloomy sky in the west. His thoughts were thousands of miles away.
Anxi and Lingshan have been hit by blizzards since October. The roads have been blocked by heavy snow, and horses and carts have become impassable. Only camels have a chance to cross Lingshan when the weather is clear.
In December, a team of 300 people arrived at the foot of Lingshan Mountain. The leader was Li Chenghua, the commander of the inner guard. She led 300 elite inner guard soldiers to prepare to investigate Suiye. After more than two months of long journey,
Li Chenghua's team finally arrived in Lingshan.
The team was all made up of strong camels. In addition to the tall camels they rode, there were also thousands of camels carrying food and supplies.
Li Chenghua looked at the majestic snow-capped mountains in front of her. Although she had walked through the mountains several times, they were all in summer, and this was the first time in winter.
Li Chenghua turned around and shouted: "Please come over, guide!"
The guide was a local who specialized in taking people through Lingshan. He could speak fluent Chinese. Soon, the guide came forward on a camel.
Li Chenghua pointed his riding whip at the snowy mountain and asked, "How can we get over it?"
The guide pointed to the mountain col above and said: "We will spend the night at the mountain col above and set off as soon as the sun comes out tomorrow. We will try to climb over the main peak before dark."
"Can't we camp at the foot of the mountain?"
"no!"
The guide rejected it flatly, "It takes exactly one day to climb over the main peak. If you spend the night at the foot of the mountain, it will get dark halfway to the main peak. If you spend the night on the main peak, people and animals will freeze into popsicles."
"We have leather tents and can light a fire to keep warm!"
The guide shook his head, "Camels will also freeze to death. The temperature on the main peak during the day is already the limit that humans can bear. At night, the temperature drops sharply. No one has ever survived to cross the main peak at night."
Li Chenghua nodded, "Then follow the guide's arrangements!"
The team reached halfway up the mountain. This is a large mountain col, which happens to be in the lee of the wind. At night, the temperature here is a little better than at the top of the mountain. The key is that the camels can bear it, and people naturally have to hide in tents.
At this time, it was getting dark, so everyone hurriedly unloaded the goods, built tents, and dug fire pits. Burning wood and charcoal in the tents was easy to cause poisoning. Generally, dry cow dung was burned for heating, so poisoning was less likely. This is thousands of years of experience.
.
Thousands of camels huddled together against the cliff, relying on each other's body heat to stay warm.
As night fell, the temperature dropped sharply, and the wind and snow roared outside the tent. A dozen soldiers crowded into a tent. Everyone was silent. They wrapped their bodies in thick blankets, drank hot milk tea, and ate fried rice.
Juicy meatloaf.
Milk tea was simmering in a hot pot on the stove, and the fire was burning brightly. The cow dung smoke had a grassy fragrance, which kept the tent warm.
Early the next morning, when the first ray of morning glow shone on the snow-capped mountains, the snow-capped mountains became glittering and dazzling. The temperature on the top of the mountain began to rise. The team quickly packed their luggage and continued to set off.
The team did not dare to rest. The camels spread their long legs and trudged through the one-meter-deep snow. They walked for a whole day and did not dare to stop to rest. At dusk, they crossed the mountain pass and began to descend.
The guide shouted: "The temperature is about to cool down, everyone speed up! Go quickly!"
Even the camels felt the crisis. They speeded up one after another, and finally reached a safe place when night fell. It was also a leeward col halfway up the mountain. The temperature was slightly higher than the top of the mountain, and the camels could withstand it.
The team was sheltered in the lee all night, and set off again the next morning. They were completely down the mountain before dark. There were still five or six days to go from here to Suiye.
The team continued towards Suiye.
There is a newly built military city on the east coast of Yibo Sea, called Yibo City. It was built less than five years ago. There were usually only a hundred soldiers stationed there, but now there are six to seven hundred people crowded into it.
The nearly 600 extra soldiers were none other than the Tang army that had retreated from Suiye, led by Guo Xin, the governor of Hezhong. Suiye was attacked by an army of 20,000 Saints in the middle of the night. There were also 500 enemy soldiers pretending to be merchants in the city.
Soldiers should cooperate inside and outside.
The two thousand defenders in the city suffered heavy casualties. Nine hundred Tang Army soldiers broke out in three groups. One group withdrew westward to Julan City, and the other group went to Gongyue City along the Yili River Valley. The main force was 600 people led by Guo Xin, who retreated to
Yi Bo City.
It is winter now, covered with heavy snow, and the army is now facing the biggest crisis. There is insufficient food for the winter. The food stored in Yibo City is not enough to support 700 people, and the food supply is about to be cut off.
More than a dozen generals sat in front of the campfire to discuss countermeasures. Some proposed hunting to see if they could encounter the winter deer herds, while others proposed fishing and digging holes in the thick ice of the Yibo Sea. However, this was a small fight.
It makes no sense.
A general said: "Captain, I heard that Lingshan can be climbed over in winter. Why don't we go over Lingshan and retreat to Anxi?"
Another general objected: "You can cross Lingshan Mountain in winter, but you must have a camel and ride a camel to cross it. The war horse cannot withstand the severe cold at night on the mountain and will freeze to death, and the snow on the road is very thick.
Even war horses can't get through."
At this time, Guo Xin coughed slightly, and everyone stopped arguing and looked at him together.
Guo Xin slowly said to everyone: "There is only one way at the moment, and that is to ask for help. We have twenty camels, and let twenty soldiers go to Anxi to ask for help. It will take about a month to go back and forth. We also have more than a hundred horses, which can be
Killing horses, and then supplementing with hunting and fishing should last for a month."
Everyone also felt that it made sense, and other methods were futile, and the only way was to ask for help.
The next morning, the young scout captain Wei Chi Xi'an set out with nineteen soldiers. Yu Chi Xi'an was the son of Beiting Governor Yu Chi Guang and the descendant of the founding general Wei Chi Gong. The young man was only twenty years old and had been in the army for five years.
, was promoted to Scout Colonel, very agile and experienced.
They rode twenty camels towards the Suiye River Valley. The Suiye River Valley was also covered in heavy snow up to three feet deep, so they would not encounter enemy troops. However, this was not necessarily the case when they arrived at Atami, because Atami did not freeze.
, there is not much snow around, so it is easy to encounter enemy patrols, but there is no other way but to be as careful as possible.
The camel team of 20 people set off, and everyone stood at the head of the city to watch them go away. The lives and hopes of 700 people were pinned on them.