Guo Song did not stay in the end, and after resting in Shazhou for two days, the army continued to march towards the Puchanghai camp, this time 6,000 carts did not follow, but 5,000 camels carrying 20,000 stone of grain followed the Tang army towards the vast sand sea.

Guo Song led the army to the northern route of the desert, which is their experience of crossing the sand sea many times, the northern end of the desert is only dozens of miles wide, and it can basically be crossed in one day, without spending the night in the desert.

Then there are hundreds of miles of Gobi rocky beaches, and the ancient kingdom of Loulan will disappear in this Gobi rocky beach.

Starting from Zhangye, the army has been walking for twelve days, the army marched along the foot of the Kuruktag Mountain, under the foot is a large alpine meadow, the ice and snow have begun to melt, the air is exceptionally cold and biting, camels and war horses are drinking the gurgling ice and snow meltwater, while gnawing on the thick and juicy grass roots, and groups of sika deer can be seen in the distance from time to time.

They walked on high places, in the south low depression is a large area of bare rock and soil bald mountains, strange rocky landforms, ravines and ravines, extremely desolate, more than a dozen small rivers have shown signs of river ice melting, but they are the best guides, follow them through the desert and mountainous areas, you can reach Puchang Sea.

"Envoy! There's a castle over there. The soldier shouted as he pointed to a military city in the distance.

The castle is planted with the flag of the Anxi Army, a yellow dragon flag, and three big black characters are written below: Anxi Army.

This is a fort established by Guo Song and the old prince Guo Xin together, and it is also to supply the caravans, although the Tubo army occupied Shule and cut off the southern route of the Silk Road.

However, merchants from Anxi countries still came to Zhangye in an endless stream to exchange silk, porcelain, tea and daily necessities from the Han merchants in Zhangye, and at the same time transported jade, medicinal herbs, sheepskins and other items from Anxi to Zhangye.

The establishment of this fort has brought great convenience to the merchants, who can get food and fresh water here, and see the fort in the long and boring journey, just like seeing the vitality in the cold winter, bringing great spiritual comfort to the merchants.

At this time, the town general of the fort came to greet Guo Song, "Zhou Yuan, the general of the Anxi Army, see the Jiedu envoy!" ”

"General Zhou, please excuse me!"

Guo Song smiled again and asked, "When was the fort built?" ”

"Returning to the envoy, it was the autumn of the previous year, and there are currently seventy brothers,"

"Did the Tibetan army appear?"

Zhou Yuan shook his head, "So far, no Tubo army has appeared, but there were horse bandits last summer, and we rescued a caravan that was chased by horse bandits. ”

Guo Song was stunned, "There are still horse bandits in Anxi?" ”

"Not before, it just appeared in the past few years, and we have always suspected that it was a horse bandit disguised by the Shatuo people."

It is very likely that the Shatuo people did this kind of thing in the Hexi Corridor.

After appeasing the garrison soldiers, Guo Song led the army to turn south, there was a small river next to the fort, and they could reach Puchanghai by walking along this small river for another day and a half, so that they walked from Zhangye to Puchanghai for a total of fifteen days.

By the time we arrived at Puchanghai, it was already late February, and Anxi had begun to enter spring, the lake was melting, the young grass was quietly growing, large white water birds were soaring on the lake, and groups of newborn deer were also beginning to jump and jump on the grassland to feed.

The 20,000-strong army entered the wall-type barracks that had only been built not long ago, and the originally deserted barracks suddenly became lively, and the 3,500 large tents had been set up in advance, including the soldiers' battalions, warehouse battalions, logistics battalions, wounded soldiers' battalions, and so on.

Guo Song didn't have time to rest, so he inspected this vast camp accompanied by dozens of generals.

Lang General Pei Xin was the chief general of the remaining soldiers in Shazhou, and after Guo Song's main army was stationed, he also had to lead the army back to Shazhou.

"Considering that the cavalry of the Tibetan army may use rockets to attack the camp at night, and all the big tents are one hundred and fifty steps away from the camp wall, their rockets do not have such a long range, unless they are transported trebuchets, but it is unlikely."

Guo Song's sentry tower was not many, so he groaned and asked, "Is the distance between the sentry tower and the sentry tower too far?" There will be a blind spot in the middle that cannot be seen on either side. ”

"Envoy Qiyu, we have also considered this problem, our solution is to build thirty beacons along the Jimo River and at the foot of the mountain, as long as the Tubo army comes, we can only walk along the Jimo River, we can immediately find the other party, if it is a small cavalry detour, in fact, there is no need to be afraid."

Guo Song nodded, this method is not bad, he knows the situation here very well, the Tubo army is coming, it is indeed necessary to go along the Jimo River, the south is the Altun Mountain, the north is the vast desert, they can't bear it, and more importantly, there are a large number of patrols on the periphery.

Guo Song arranged for the army to be stationed, and he led 3,000 cavalry and 1,000 camels, carrying 4,000 stone of grain to Qiuci City.

........

Seven days later, the team arrived in Qiuzi City, and Lou Wenda, the secretary of the Anxi Jiedu Mansion, heard of Guo Song's arrival, and personally led the soldiers and civilians of the city to meet Guo Song outside the city.

After Guo Xin's death, Anxi is currently governed by Lou Wenda, everyone seems to have lost their backbone, and they have spent a year in panic, especially Lou Wenda is a civil official, he is really not capable of taking on this burden.

The arrival of Guo Song undoubtedly brought hope to everyone, and they had received news that the imperial court appointed Guo Song to concurrently serve as the protector of Anxi and Beiting, and Guo Song became the new backbone of the Anxi military and civilians day and night.

"After the old prince died of illness, everyone's hearts gradually dispersed, and the calls for giving up Anxi and returning to Hexi came and went, but everyone was reluctant to give up the foundation of struggle for many years, and I heard that the Central Plains also broke out a civil war, so the call to return to the Central Plains was not as active as before, everyone was very confused, and they didn't know where to go in Anxi?"

Guo Song listened to Lou Wenda's narration quietly, and he smiled and said, "Does Lou Senjun know how many troops I brought this time?" I tell you, I brought 20,000 troops and stationed them in Puchanghai. ”

Lou Wenda was suddenly surprised and delighted, "Guo Yuanjun is going to stay in Anxi for a long time?" ”

Guo Song said lightly: "Why don't you say that I want to annihilate the Tubo army, completely expel the Tubo herdsmen, and restore the Anxi Jiedu Mansion?" ”

"Ahh Are you going to go to war with Tibet? ”

"In fact, the Hexi army has already started a war with the Tubo army in Longyou, we annihilated more than 10,000 Tubo troops and recaptured Longyou, and now it is Anxi's turn, I have been waiting for this day for ten years."

Lou Wenda couldn't help but burst into tears and said: "We have been looking forward to this day for decades. ”

"I need to know about the situation in Tibet now."

"Envoy, please come into the city and talk about it!"

Walking outside Qiuzi City, tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians rang out with cheers, everyone was very excited, they finally looked forward to a new boss, and this boss was second only to the old prince in their hearts, and was a leader who could really bring them out of the predicament.

Guo Song waved to the crowd and asked the soldiers to remove 4,000 stone wheat from the camels, and the cheers resounded in the sky, for the extremely poor soldiers and families of the Anxi army, there was nothing more precious than food.

Looking at the white-haired veterans, they were already old ten years ago, and now they are even older, the old people who should have been at home for a long time, still holding weapons to defend the country, and even the spears in their hands are about to become their crutches, Guo Song's heart was sour, and finally he couldn't help but burst into tears.

.........

In the hall of Anxi Jiedu Mansion, Lou Wenda hung out a huge map of Anxi, he pointed to the map with a wooden pole and said: "At present, we still have 4,000 troops, stationed in the three towns of Anxi, Yanji and Khotan, Qiuzi has 2,000 defenders, Yanji and Khotan each have 1,000, Shule Town has been ceded to Tubo, at present Tubo has 5,000 troops in Shule, 2,000 garrisons each in Xiaobolu and Dabolu, 1,000 garrisons in Jimocheng, and actually 10,000 garrisons in Anxi.

This is just the garrison, as well as their supplies, after they occupied Shule Town, they accelerated the occupation of oasis pastures in various places, it can be said that most of the oases in Anxi were occupied by them, at least 50,000 Tibetan herdsmen grazing in Anxi to feed the 10,000 troops. ”

"Then what is the attitude of the Anxi countries?" Guo Song asked.

"The countries of Anxi are only now aware of the terrible nature of Tibet, although they do not have to pay taxes to Tibet, but their pastures are occupied by the herdsmen of Tibet, they can only live on the edge of the oasis, it can be said that there are many complaints, last autumn, the king of Qiuci came to visit for the first time in many years, and wanted to discuss with the Tang army the plan to resist Tibet, I told them, you will come this spring, I estimate that all countries in Anxi will come to meet the envoy."

Guo Song nodded, "I want to meet them, and we must redistribute the post-war benefits, at least in the future, the Anxi Army will be able to be self-sufficient in food, and the elderly and children will no longer have to go hungry." ”

Lou Wenda was overjoyed, "When will the lowly post send someone to inform them?" ”

Guo Song groaned and said, "Wait until the battle of the end city is over!" ”

"Ignorance, understood!"

Guo Song said to him again: "From today onwards, Lou joined the army and officially served as the governor of Anxi Jiedu. ”