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g. The reward of the two brothers of the casual ronin. ）

In any case, this battle can be regarded as a victory. Conquering the city of Dom in one day is what Wang Zhonghei wants to achieve. Although more than 4,000 soldiers and horses were killed, which was an astonishing number, Wang Zhongsi felt that it would be cost-effective to take a city at the cost of thousands of soldiers and horses.

It's just a little strange that when he led his army to attack Doma City, the Tubo soldiers and horses in Antelope City in the east of Ngoling Lake and Shibao City in the west of Zhaling Lake did not make any changes. This made Li Guangbi and Ge Shuhan, the two leading commanders of the left and right route armies, who were on a posture to start a battle with the Tibetan reinforcements, very unhappy.

The city of Doma fell, and the next target, Wang Zhongsi, chose the nearest Antelope City. The city is in the east of Ngoring Lake, only fifty miles away from the city of Doma. There was another reason for the attack on Antelope City, that is, the remnants of the Tibetan army of Wang Zhonghe's Doma City evacuated from Zhaling Lake in reed boats, and they could only go to Shibao City on the west side of Zhaling Lake. In other words, the number of defenders in Antelope City is smaller than that of Stone Castle City, and it is easier to take it in one fell swoop.

In line with the idea of capturing the area of the two lakes and three cities before the heavy snow fell, Wang Zhongsi made a slight adjustment, left the wounded soldiers in the ruined city of Doma, and led 30,000 Chinese troops to join up with Li Guangbi's left army and attack Antelope City.

This time, Wang Zhongji was invited by Li Guangbi to use his army on the left as the main force to attack the city. Li Guangbi led an army of 50,000 on the left and couldn't wait to pounce on Antelope City.

Antelope City was built on the high ground east of Lake Oro, a hill of red earth and gravel. In fact, it is not a hill, but the terrain is much higher than the surrounding Gobi wasteland. Antelope City was originally a small village near the east of Zhaling Lake, because there are many wild antelopes and wild yaks living here in the Gobi Desert on the left. The dignitaries and nobles of the Tubo country like to come here to hunt thousands of miles away, and over time they build a city here, and the name is simply called Antelope City. What I didn't expect was that after Tuyuhun returned to the Tang Dynasty, this city and Shibao City became two barriers in the Lianghu area, one east and one west, and became a fortified city for the garrison of the army to defend the Tang Dynasty, which was never expected when this city was built.

The first challenge Li Guangbi faced when he approached Antelope City was not the siege of Antelope City, but a large river north of Antelope City in the east of Ngoling Lake. The river is wide and deep, rushing abruptly across the Gobi Desert and heading straight to the east. Locals call the river the Sediment River, but it is actually the upper reaches of the Yellow River, which runs eastward to the sea. The Yellow River flows thousands of miles into the sea, and countless tributaries flow into it, but its source is caused by the large amount of melting snow flowing from the Kunlun Mountains into Zhaling Lake and Ngoling Lake.

Although it is the source, this sediment river is turbulent, the river surface is not very wide, but the turbid waves are rolling, and the water is very violent. The Tang Dynasty army did not carry ships with the army. In addition to low shrubs and moss, the Gobi Desert has only sporadic and strangely shaped trees, only arm-thick, which are not enough to build boats or bridges to cross the river.

Moreover, what makes people desperate is that along the south bank of the mud and sand river, the defenders of Antelope City have built stone arrow towers, and more than fifty arrow towers are distributed along the south bank to block the relatively gentle flow of the mud and sand river for several miles. If you want to cross the river from the gentle water, you must accept the fate of being shot by these dozens of arrow towers, but if you don't cross the river from here, the turbulent river makes it impossible for the Tang soldiers and horses to cross the river at all.

In the face of such a problem, Li Guangbi had nothing to do, and the 50,000-strong army was trapped on the north bank of the sediment river and sighed. A day later, Wang Zhongsi led the Chinese army to arrive here, and he was also worried when he saw this situation. After reconnoitring dozens of miles along the riverbank, I found that the river was wider and wider the further downstream, and it was impossible to swim across. If the army swims gently upstream, it will have to bear the baptism of the arrow tower on the opposite bank. What's more, heavy supplies such as horses and catapults could not be transported across the river, and there was no way to siege the city.

The momentum that was supposed to take Antelope City suddenly cooled down, and things seemed to have reached an impasse. After urgently convening the generals to discuss, Wang Zhongsi had no choice but to order the logistics troops and horses to bring timber from the camp of Jishi Mountain, which was nearly two hundred miles away, and he wanted to build a bridge over the river so that the army could reach the nearby city of Antelope.

Of course, this takes a lot of time, and a large amount of timber is transported from 200 miles away, and the time is wasted at least ten days. The weather is getting colder and colder, and he feels more and more that the cold is approaching, but Wang Zhongsi has no choice but to wait for the arrival of the materials for building the bridge in the rear.

Wang Zhongsi did not give up, he decided to leave the task of building a bridge to capture Antelope City to Li Guangbi to complete, and he led 30,000 soldiers and horses to turn around and go west along the Ngoring Lake to the northwest of Zhaling Lake, and joined up with Ge Shuhan's 50,000 right army, and turned to attack Shibao City. Although it was a long way to go, it would take three days to reach Stonecastle City, but it was better than being stuck still. To complete the idea of solving the battle in a month, a two-pronged approach is required.

It has to be said that Wang Zhonghe's adaptability is very strong, and in this case, making this choice should be the most time-saving and correct approach.

……

On the evening of the day Wang Zhongji took the city of Doma, Wang Yuan returned to Chengdu. The war in the north of the Tubo Kingdom had begun, and Wang Yuan did not have the slightest respite, he needed to immediately send troops to attack Bison City. Fortunately, in the more than 20 days since they left Jiannan, Song Jiangong and Liu Jun had already assembled 30,000 Jiannan troops from all over Yazhou in accordance with Wang Yuan's request when he left.

Wang Yuan did not have time to reunite with his family, so he led his personal cavalry to Yazhou in the early morning of the next day after arriving in Chengdu. Luo Feng, the lord of Nanzhao Kingdom, was still alone in Chengdu, and after a few days of wandering, he felt bored and returned to Nanzhao by himself.

The small city of Yazhou was suddenly filled with tens of thousands of soldiers and horses, making this state city suddenly noisy. The streets were full of vehicles transporting supplies, and the infantry cavalry of the Jiannan Army were running back and forth, and there was a tense atmosphere of impending war in the city.

On the night of Wang Yuan's arrival, he immediately summoned Song Jiangong, Liu Jun, Liu Dehai, Wei Guang and other generals, and issued a death order that he must go on the expedition in three days. Song Jiangong was very depressed, this time the troops were not the same, this was a march to the depths of the desert, and the supplies had to be brought enough, because in addition to the materials carried by the army, there was no supply at all. The commander was in a hurry to go on the expedition, and it was obviously very difficult for these supplies to be done in detail within three days.

But the order fell like a mountain, and Song Jiangong had to drive his generals to speed up and prepare for the expedition. And Wang Yuan rushed into Liu Jun's cavalry camp and discussed an extremely important matter with Liu Jun. That is the question of how war horses march and fight in the desert.

In Wang Yuan's view, the supply of water and food cannot be regarded as the biggest difficulty, and it is completely possible to bring enough of these materials with the army. The reason why Xingshi mobilized the army with 30,000 troops to attack the 5,000 defenders of Bison City was not that Wang Yuan wanted to crush the opponent with a numerical advantage, but that this march needed to carry a large amount of supplies, and 10,000 soldiers and horses would be used to undertake the logistics of carrying food and supplies tents. The problem of the direction of the march into the desert was also easy to solve, and more than 100 local people who often entered and exited the desert were found from Yazhou as guides. With these guides, you won't get lost and find the route of the march.

In Wang Yuan's view, the biggest problem is not the above problems, but the problem of how to make the cavalry march on the desert, the horse is not unable to run in the desert, but the speed is simply too slow. Unless it's a BMW like its own mount, an ordinary war horse can walk slower than an ox in the desert. This is detrimental to both operations and carrying materiel. This battle may lead to a fierce battle in the desert with the camel cavalry of Bison City, and if the cavalry is unable to fight, the 5,000 camel cavalry of Bison City will inflict great casualties on the army. Paying too much price in order to take down the small Bison City, Wang Yuan would never want to see it.

After two days of studying, Wang Yuan seemed to have found a solution. Wang Yuan believes that camels can run freely in the sand, while horses walk slowly in the desert because of the different shapes and sizes of their feet. So at Wang Yuan's suggestion, the horse officer in the army asked the blacksmiths accompanying the army to make camel-shaped horseshoe, nailed several war horses and tested them on the sand. It turns out that although this kind of horseshoe looks awkward, it is very good for walking on sand. As a result, all the 5,000 cavalry of the Jiannan Army immediately began to change their horseshoe. For a time, the fire in the army was roaring, and in order to make these tens of thousands of horseshoes, the soldiers and blacksmiths in the army were busy all night.

After three tense and busy days, Jiannan's 30,000 troops finally started on time, leaving Yazhou City and heading straight for the border desert west of the city. In the afternoon of the same day, the army stepped into the vast sea of sand and marched in the direction of Bison City.