In February of the following year, the warm breath of early spring spread throughout the Hexi Corridor with the southeast wind, and a team of 5,000 camels and 6,000 carts was returning to Ganzhou on the south road of Suzhou near the Qilian Mountains.

Ten days ago, when the team went west to Shazhou, it was loaded with food and other supplies, and the team was escorted by 3,000 cavalry.

In fact, such large transport convoys appeared on the road to Shazhou several times after the harvest ended last autumn, only to be interrupted by the onset of winter, and reappeared as the snow and ice melted.

The soldiers and horses did not move, and the grain and grass went first, which was the preparation of the Hexi Army for the westward expedition.

At the same time, the 5,000 Shazhou Tang Army, under the leadership of Yao Jin, the soldier and horse envoy, is building a large camp covering an area of hundreds of hectares on the south bank of Puchang Sea. Greatly reduce the burden of land transportation.

The camp was almost built, and the walls were two feet high and six feet thick, and even people could stand on them, and the soldiers were busy putting the finishing touches on it.

Yao Jin was discussing the distance between the watchtowers with several generals, there was an extreme lack of trees, no wood, and the watchtowers were made of stone, a bit like a fort.

"Fifty steps is too dense and unnecessary."

Yao Jin said to several generals: "First of all, we have to understand one thing, where will the enemy come from? The Tibetans must have come along the Jimo River, and it is impossible for them to march in the desert, so we only need to set up beacons along the Jimo River and report the news in time, instead of surrounding the camp and building a guard tower every fifty steps, the resources are limited, and we must use the resources in useful places. ”

Yao Jin's words were the final decision, and everyone no longer insisted on it, and changed the guard towers that originally surrounded the camp to build beacons along the Jimo River, and then properly built more than a dozen guard towers.

At the same time, the first batch of 3,000 stone grain, transported by a thousand camels, also arrived at the camp of Puchanghai.

.........

Zhangye, the day of departure for Anxi has finally come.

Xue Tao packed her husband's luggage again, she has been used to it in the past few years, and this time it will be at least half a year, but her two-year-old daughter Xiaowei is not used to it, she is lying on her father's back and bargaining, asking her father to take her away together.

"I can ride a horse with my father! Or Daddy would put me in a bag and carry me behind my back, and I'd be very well-behaved! ”

God knows where she learned so much.

"Daddy promised me to take me to Chang'an to play, I'm going!" Xiaowei shook her father's arm desperately.

Guo Song patted her little head and smiled: "This time Daddy is not going to Chang'an, but to Anxi, a far, far away place, when Daddy goes to Chang'an next time, he will definitely take you there." ”

"I don't want to go to Chang'an, I want to go to Anxi!" The little one began to sobble and cry.

Guo Song hurriedly picked up his daughter and coaxed her: "There is a big bad wolf where Daddy goes, and it will eat Xiaowei's, so Daddy can't take you there, and if you are eaten by the big bad wolf, Xiaowei will never see Daddy again." ”

Xiaowei's eyes showed fear, and she asked to become weak.

"Daddy wants to protect Xiaowei."

At this time, Xue Tao walked in and said with a smile: "Telling the story of the big bad wolf all day long to scare children, how can there be so many big bad wolves?" ”

Guo Song hurriedly gave his wife a look and explained, "Why not? The snowy mountain trails are full of wild wolves, and I've encountered them a few times. ”

Xue Tao ignored her husband and smiled at her daughter: "Don't listen to your father's nonsense, there is no big bad wolf." ”

"There is no big bad wolf, I want to go to Anthy with my father."

"Don't go!"

Xue Tao had a rough attitude and vetoed his daughter's request.

Xiaowei's little mouth deflated, "Wow! He burst into tears.

When Guo Song hurriedly wanted to coax his daughter, Xue Tao's eyes widened, "Don't cry, let's go!" Mother taught you to draw. ”

Xiaowei's crying slowly stopped, she sobbed and wiped her tears, and obediently followed her mother.

Guo Song was dumbfounded, one thing fell to another, he had no way to take his daughter, but his wife said so casually that he stopped his daughter from drinking.

Seeing his daughter holding her mother's hand and jumping away, Guo Song had to smile wryly and shake her head.

........

Early the next morning, 20,000 Tang troops who were about to go out to fight were assembled in the camp, which was the 20,000 Tang troops who were about to march west, including the most elite Modao army and heavy crossbow army in the Hexi army, after the end of the war, 10,000 troops would stay in Anxi, of course, and would not always defend Anxi, but implement a rotation system.

On the high platform, Guo Song, wearing armor, was making the final mobilization of 20,000 troops.

"From today onwards, I will go out with you to Anxi, this is a march to defend the glory of the Tang Dynasty soldiers, our countless predecessors also set off from here, expedition to that distant land, from the beginning of the Han Dynasty, we have established the Anxi capital, countless soldiers died there, sleeping in a foreign land, and now, the foundation they exchanged for blood is about to be annihilated, then we have the responsibility to stand up and re-erect the monument that our predecessors once established, we want to let the world know, to let the old Tang army of Anxi know, There is still an army in Datang that has not forgotten Anxi, they are coming! ”

The 20,000-strong army and a large number of logistical baggage teams left Zhangye and marched westward, and the soldiers all rode horses, the procession stretched for more than ten miles, and followed by the baggage team that went north together, and the baggage team was the 5,000 camels and 6,000 carts that had just returned from Shazhou, and they once again worked tirelessly to follow the Tang army westward.

They can transport 100,000 stone of grain at one time, they have already transported 300,000 stone of grain for Shazhou before, and this time westward, 5,000 camels will also transport Shazhou's grain to Puchanghai, and the cart will return to Zhangye, the vast desert, the cart can not walk.

"Envoy, the news from Shazhou says that the people of Shatuo seem to be a little ready to move." The soldiers and horses made Li Bing say in a low voice.

Guo Song groaned and said: "It's not surprising, Gelulu Khan died, several sons broke out a battle for the throne, they have withdrawn from Jinshan, whether it is the Shatuo people or the Hui people, there are no worries, the first thing is that the Sijie Department is in danger, they occupy too much grassland rich land, how can the Hui people let it go?" ”

"The lowly officials pay more attention to Shatuo, will they think that the Tang Dynasty is also split?"

Guo Song smiled faintly, "If Zhu Zhu is not called the emperor, the Tang Dynasty is indeed divided, since ancient times, as long as there is civil strife in the Central Plains, the surrounding nomads will inevitably invade, the two Jin and Northern Dynasties have left too many lessons, from the Turks to the Hui to the Tubo, as well as Shatuo, there may be a party in the future, they are all wolf nature, once they find an opportunity to take advantage of, they will never give up the opportunity." ”

"So you think that Shatuo will definitely tear up the armistice agreement and invade Shazhou?"

Guo Song nodded, "It's inevitable, but I believe we're ready!"

........

When Guo Song's army of the Western Expedition arrived in Shazhou, Yao Jin had already led the city building team back to Shazhou, leaving 1,000 people on Pu Changhai's side to guard it.

Guo Song ordered the army to camp on the spot, and he and Yao Jin entered the city of Dunhuang.

"The Humble Rank has received definite information from the Sogdian merchants, and the Council of Elders of Shatuo has agreed to transfer troops, and now wait for the approval of the Khan of Shatuo to send troops."

Guo Song asked, "Do you have enough troops, do you want me to keep some troops to support you?" ”

Yao Jin shook his head, "The lowly army is enough, 12,000 troops are more than enough to defend Dunhuang City, not to mention that we also have powerful weapons to defend the city." ”

"I'm mainly worried about the local soldiers, who were still very short the year before last."

"In the past two years, they have made great progress and trained very hard, especially in these two months, in order to defend their homeland, the morale of the soldiers is high."

"So be it! I still sent 8,000 cavalry over and waited on the border of Suzhou, and once Dunhuang was in need, they would immediately kill and come to support. ”

The two of them said, walked on the Dunhuang City, Dunhuang City is made of bricks, two feet and five feet high, tall and strong, the same only two city gates in the north and south, the circumference of the city wall is about thirty miles, the city wall is full of soldiers on duty, it can be seen that it is not the regular Hexi Army, but the Shazhou regiment training army, but all the soldiers stand straight, eyes are resolute.

At this time, Guo Song unexpectedly saw Yang Jun, who was now the general of the firearms battalion, and he led 500 soldiers to aid Shazhou, and he was leading a group of soldiers to measure the distance at the head of the city.

Guo Song walked over, Yang Jun saw the coach coming, and hurriedly knelt down on one knee to salute, Guo Song smiled and asked, "What is this measuring?" ”

"Returning to the envoy, the height and throwing distance of each city are different, so we must master the timing of the throw, and then draw a red mark on the firerope."

"Will the arquebus be so accurate?"

"So that you don't know, what we are most sure of is the fire rope, we have tested thousands of times, and the explosion point has been mastered more accurately."

Yang Jun's iron-shelled fire thunder has not yet been developed, and it is too difficult to succeed once, but war is no longer waiting for anyone.

They changed their thinking and developed a large porcelain pot mine, making the wall of the tank an inch thick, huge in size, very much like a gas canister, which would not be broken when thrown from the city, and then the gunpowder was mixed with a large number of quenched iron nails, which were equally powerful when exploding, and could even blow up the city gate, and the quenched iron nails were extremely lethal.

Guo Song nodded slightly and said: "When you say this, even I want to stay and see the first use of firearms in the war!" ”