Li An was very satisfied with the performance of this ironclad artillery car, and felt that his hard work was not in vain, the ironclad artillery car was already an invincible army with extremely strong combat power, with such an invincible army, Datang will definitely dominate the whole world, and no armed force in the world can defeat Datang. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

"Li Shilang, what about these captives, you can't march with them!"

Guo Yang found a very serious problem, that is, the disposal of prisoners is more tricky, if you march with prisoners, it will seriously reduce the speed of the army, if you leave some soldiers and horses to guard these prisoners, you will disperse your own forces, after all, the ironclad artillery brigade is all elite, the strength is very weak, it is not suitable to divide troops to guard the prisoners.

Li An is also aware of this problem, and it is indeed tricky to deal with these captives, but if they are all killed, it will be too cruel and unkind, and once it leaks out, it will seriously affect the prestige of the Tang Empire.

"Don't worry, just wait! Let's see if the ironclad reconnaissance vehicle can catch all the fleeing Tibetan soldiers, and then make plans. ”

Li An felt that he had not considered it properly, he should have brought more troops in the first place, even if these troops were slow, it was still very good to follow behind and help him deal with tasks such as guarding prisoners, but now that things have happened, it is useless to regret it.

"Li Shilang, the ironclad reconnaissance vehicle is back, there must be good news."

Guo Yan trusted his subordinates very much and said happily.

"How's it going? Did the Tibetan soldiers who ran away catch it? ”

Li An saw the soldiers running over and hurriedly asked.

"Back to Li Shilang, the Tubo soldiers have been crushed into meatloaf."

The soldier replied rudely.

When Li An heard this, he was very happy, nodded and said: "Good job, now that all the Tubo soldiers have been controlled, the news of the sudden appearance of our army, the main army of Tubo is definitely not clear, the army immediately set up camp, sent an ironclad reconnaissance vehicle back to Minzhou, and asked the Minzhou defenders to send five hundred cavalry to guard the prisoners." ”

"Li Shilang, this time and again, is one night enough?"

Guo Yan was worried that the soldiers and horses in Minzhou would not be able to arrive in time, and he was a little worried.

"Don't worry, this official is giving a death order, even if the horse runs dead, they will arrive here tomorrow morning, besides, even if they can't arrive on time, we will leave a team of ironclad artillery trucks, and when the cavalry from Minzhou arrives, this team of ironclad artillery vehicles will chase after us."

Li An said.

"Well, what Li Shilang said is that he thinks it is feasible."

Guo Yang responded, and hurriedly issued a military order, so that an ironclad command vehicle under his command immediately rushed back to Minzhou to implement the military order issued by Li An.

At this time, there was still an hour before dark, and the soldiers were divided into several routes and prepared separately, some were responsible for setting up tents, some were responsible for preparing food, some were responsible for guarding the Tibetan prisoners, and some drove away some of the Tibetan prisoners and disposed of the corpses of more Tibetan soldiers.

Of course, the way to dispose of corpses on the battlefield is relatively simple and violent, just find a relatively low place, throw the corpse into it, and then bury a layer of soil on it.

After all, the conditions on the battlefield are very difficult, and it is impossible to use too many resources to take care of the people who have died in battle, let alone the corpses of enemy soldiers, and it is already a very benevolent act to be able to bury them.

The strategic point here is a vast valley mouth, and the terrain is not very dangerous, but the troops stationed on the mountainside still have a very big advantage, and can condescendingly attack the troops passing through the valley mouth, and can even release boulders to inflict heavy damage on the enemy army.

It's a pity that in the face of the steel torrent of the Tang Empire, these primitive defense facilities are too outdated, and the ironclad artillery carriage, with iron armor as protection, is not afraid of the attack of these boulders at all, and the artillery on the ironclad artillery carriage can easily destroy all these defensive settings.

The result of the battle is the best proof of this, after a very short exchange of fire, all the 1,000 soldiers and horses of Tubo were annihilated, and not even a single fish slipped through the net, while the Tang Empire did not even have a single casualty.

Zero casualties is the most morale-boosting for soldiers, after all, it is a very beautiful thing to be able to annihilate the enemy and obtain military merits on the premise of saving their own lives, and any soldier hopes that he can be so lucky.

While the army was encamped, Li An and a group of generals climbed to the top of the highest mountain, and looked down on the surrounding situation, and let out a heroic sigh.

"Tubo is mountainous, most areas are very barren, if you want to grow crops, I'm afraid it's not easy, however, there are many valuable minerals in the mountains of Tubo, these mineral resources are extremely rich, in the future, I Datang must make good use of Tubo's minerals, so that my Datang will become more prosperous and powerful."

Li An pointed to the large mountains in front of him and sighed.

The Tubo Empire is a barren land, the altitude is relatively high, the grain output can not be compared with the Central Plains and Jiangnan, but the vast land and sparsely populated also have advantages, that is, it is easy to annex, and, once annexed, the impact on the main ethnic group is not large, in addition, the vast land means that the resources are abundant, in the case of lack of soil resources, mineral resources must be very much, as long as you spend a little time exploring, the land of Tubo, there will definitely be countless mineral resources.

According to the exploration of later generations, there are nearly 100 kinds of minerals in the land of Tibet, and it is only the proven reserves, the unproven reserves must be more, the chromite quality is excellent, ranking first in China, the copper ore ranks second in China, a large mine has nearly 600 tons of reserves, which is very amazing, and the reserves of lithium are also very high.

Among the various non-metallic minerals, borax, magnesite, and barite are the third in China, and salt, trona, miscanthus salt, sulfur, phosphorus, potassium, diatomaceous earth, ice-island stone, marble, corundum, crystal, agate and other mines are all rich in reserves, which can be called a paradise for minerals.

The Tang Empire is now undergoing large-scale industrialization, it is a time when a large number of mineral resources are needed, and these rich reserves of minerals in Tibet will be a very important source of minerals after the industrialization of the Tang Dynasty continues, so the capture of Tibet not only has extremely important strategic interests, but also has very important economic value, which is an important guarantee for the sustainable economic development of the Tang Empire.

"Tibet is rich in mineral resources and has a large number of minerals? Li Shilang, how do you know that there will be minerals on this mountain except for stones or stones? ”

Li Yu said casually.

"Yes! Li Shilang, I have only heard that there are many stones in Tubo Mountain, but I have never heard that there are a lot of minerals in Tubo! ”

Guo Yang also joined in the fun.

"That's because Tubo is vast and sparsely populated, and there is a lack of exploration talents, so it is naturally not easy to find a lot of mineral resources. However, whether there is one or not, only after exploration, can be known. ”

Li An said.

In fact, any vast area may contain rich resources, but there is a lack of exploration talents, and these resources cannot be discovered in time.

For example, the country of camels in later generations is full of deserts, which can be described as barren and barren, but it is under this large desert that there are extremely rich oil resources, and oil resources are extremely important strategic resources in later generations.

Because of these oil resources, the original barren desert country can no longer be barren has become a country of local tyrants, a country is all local tyrants, and occasionally a poor person is found, then the rich of a country are all lined up to donate money to express their love.

At this time, Tubo gave outsiders the impression that it was a wild land, except for mountains and rivers and stones, there were almost no good things, but this was all caused by the lack of exploration talents.

As long as there are enough exploration talents, it can be found that this area of Tubo contains too many precious resources, so Tubo is not barren, but its resources have not been discovered.

"Haha, what Li Shilang said is all hypothesis! That is, it is impossible to be sure at all, but from the map, there is such a large piece of Tibet, and there may be a lot of treasures underneath this ground. ”

Li Yu felt that Li An was painting a cake, but he felt that this cake was very similar and real, and it was normal for a piece of land as large as Tubo to have treasures buried underground.

"There must be a lot of treasures in Tibet, but let's go down to eat first! I can smell the aroma of the food. ”

Li An smiled and walked down the mountain and went to eat.

Because the physical consumption of the march by car is not very large, the amount of food required by the soldiers will not be too much, but the ironclad artillery brigade is the elite army of the Tang Dynasty, so even if the physical consumption is less, the standard of food is very high, and there are meat and eggs at every meal, which can be eaten very comfortably.

As a senior leader, Ang Lee's food treatment is even higher, at least more than the four dishes and one soup of later generations, even when he is fighting, he can't treat himself badly.

But the Tibetan soldiers who had just been captured were not treated so well, and each of them was only given a small piece of the inferior food, which was good enough to ensure that they would not starve to death, and this was their own food.

After all, there were once a thousand Tibetan troops stationed here, so many troops, there must be granaries, and there are still a lot of grain stocks, which are used as rations for the five hundred cavalry in Minzhou, and of course, a little will be given to these captured Tibetan soldiers.

When resting at night, Li An arranged a large number of sentry posts to inspect the surrounding conditions, although this place is very safe, but after all, this is the former camp of the Tubo army, so it must not be taken lightly, everything is still better to be careful.

There was nothing to do all night, and early the next morning, 500 Minzhou cavalry were ordered to arrive, and immediately obeyed Li An's order to garrison here to guard the captured Tubo soldiers.

Li An withdrew and led the entire team to march in the direction of Stone Fort City.

At first, the road was fairly smooth, but the further you went, the more difficult it became, and it seemed to be uphill all the time.

This situation is very unfavorable for mechanical vehicles, and Ang Lee senses that the oxygen is becoming thinner and thinner, so he decisively orders the team to slow down the march to protect these vehicles and prevent them from malfunctioning.

As the altitude gets higher and higher, the speed of various vehicles also decreases again and again to reduce the probability of failure as much as possible.

Soon, as the altitude continued to increase, there were many soldiers with different degrees of altitude sickness, and there were more and more soldiers who were dizzy and nauseous, and the situation became more and more serious.

"Li Shilang, you're right, the further you go, the more breathless you get, it's so uncomfortable! Whew! ”

Li Yu gasped for breath with a painful expression.

"This is a gasp, and if you go further, it will be even more uncomfortable, can King Guangping stand it?"

Li An also felt uncomfortable, but his reaction was much lighter than Li Yu's, after all, Li An was a martial arts practitioner with a better physique, which was not comparable to a pampered person like Li Yu.

"The further you go, the more uncomfortable it gets, really? Isn't it very uncomfortable for the Tibetan people to live in such an environment for a long time? ”

Li Yu suddenly cared about the Tubo people, he really admired the Tubo people very much, how they survived in such harsh conditions.

"King Guangping, didn't I tell you? The Tubo people have lived here for a long time, and they have long adapted to the environment here, they will not feel uncomfortable at all, and besides, they will only feel uncomfortable when they arrive in Datang? ”

Li An said.

The Tibetan people have lived in the plateau for generations and are very accustomed to the thin air environment, but when they reach the lower altitudes, they also experience various discomforts.

Datang people will be short of oxygen when they arrive in Tubo, and Tubo people will be drunk with oxygen because of too much oxygen when they arrive in Datang, lack of oxygen and drunk oxygen, one is not enough, and the other is too much to use up, although the situation is completely opposite, but it will make people very uncomfortable.

"What Li Shilang said is that Xiao Wang understands that just like fish live in water, but people live on land, if you let the fish land, they will die quickly, and if you soak in water for a long time, you will also die."

Li Yu opened his mouth and gave an example.

"That's right, that's what it means, King Guangping is very right."

Li An nodded very affirmatively and looked at Li Yu with a painful expression.

Since the distance of the stone castle is still relatively long, it is necessary to march for several days in a row to get there.

Along the way, they encountered sporadic Tibetan troops, but they were all fired by the artillery of the ironclad artillery car, and none of them were allowed to run away, after all, even if the speed was slower, the speed of the ironclad reconnaissance vehicle was still faster than that of horses, and it was more durable.

"Li Shilang, twenty miles ahead is Shibao City, and I have already begun to see the Tubo soldiers there with my binoculars."

Guo Yan said while fiddling with the binoculars.