In the early morning of March 15, Zhao Ziliang opened his eyes, and under the shouting, the soldiers got up one after another, washed their faces with snow water, and the men began to make a fire to cook.

Soon, Ma Lu came over with a sad face and handed over his hand to report: "General, there were still thirty-four people who died last night due to too severe altitude sickness, and the pills couldn't save them!" ”

Zhao Ziliang's face changed, and he immediately walked towards the concentration area of altitude sickness soldiers, and soon came to an open space, a simple camp with some camp tents, and three rows of thirty-four corpses lying side by side in the open space in the middle of the camp.

Zhao Ziliang came to the side of these corpses, looked at them one by one, the expressions of these soldiers' corpses were very painful, some of the corpses had a lot of vomit on their chests, it seemed that a large amount of vomiting had occurred before the temporary, there were originally more than 100 people who had altitude sickness, but only thirty-four people did not survive after taking the pill, although this pill is not a special medicine, but it still works, at least it allowed more than 70 other people to survive.

After reading it, Zhao Ziliang sighed and said: "These soldiers all died before they left the army, take off their waist cards, register them in the battle death list, and let them be buried in peace!" ”

Ma Lan arched his hand and agreed: "No! ”

Most of the soldiers of later generations have soldier nameplates, which are generally made of metal, worn with chains and hung on the chest, on which there can be the name and number of the soldier, and the soldiers in the ancient army also have the identity of the waist card, the material is varied, generally wood, and the name and number of the sergeant are also engraved on it.

The record officer quickly brought people over to collect the waist cards of these dead soldiers, and registered their names on the death list, and then instructed other soldiers to bury the bodies of these comrades in snowdrifts, the reason why they were not buried in the ground was because it was all frozen soil, and they did not agree to dig up the frozen soil, and buried the corpses with snowdrifts on the one hand to prevent them from being discovered by the Tibetans, and on the other hand, to prevent the corpses from being eaten by wild beasts. Push up the daisies.

After the soldiers were full of food and drink, Zhao Ziliang gave an order, and the army continued to march westward, and after resting and eating hot food and drinking hot soup, the soldiers recovered their spirit and physical strength as before, and the speed of the march was greatly accelerated, and they crossed the Haluwu River in the afternoon of the same day.

On the morning of 16 March, the army crossed the Nomuhong River again, but fortunately it was only March, the ice and snow on the plateau had not yet begun to melt, and the several rivers that the Tang army passed along the way had not yet thawed, and the army passed through the ice of the river, all the way unimpeded.

On March 18, the army arrived at the location of the later city of Golmud, where the rivers converge, located in the alluvial plain of the Golmud River in the south-central part of the Qaidam Basin, with an average altitude of only more than 7,000 feet, much lower than the altitude on the previous march.

In this place where the rivers are dense, the Tang army rested for a long time and then turned to the south, the further south, the higher the altitude, on the march, the Tang army passed through a lot of Qiang and Tuyuhun villages, saw a lot of Qiang and Tuyuhun people, Zhao Ziliang and his subordinates Tang army soldiers all expressed friendship to these Qiang and Tuyuhun people, and asked the route to Kunlun Pass, Zhao Ziliang also used ten horses and some property to ask a Tuyuhun strong man to lead the way for the army.

With a guide is different, the army has taken a lot of detours, and the road is much easier, and the speed of the march has accelerated.

On the morning of 19 March, Zhao Ziliang and Ma Lu finally arrived near the Kunlun Pass with 2,700 cavalry, and more than 200 people died due to altitude sickness and cold along the way.

"My lord, three miles ahead is the Kunlun Pass, there is a Tubo army stationed in the mountain pass, the villain will not go up, the wife and children in the villain's house are still waiting, so he will leave!"

"Wait!" Zhao Ziliang stopped him, and the chief of the guard next to him, Brehan, widened his eyes, put his hand on the hilt of the knife, and pulled out half of the horizontal knife to prevent the guide from leaving.

Zhao Ziliang waved his hand to Brehan, signaling him not to scare the guide, and then said to the guide: "Don't be afraid, you only need to answer a question and leave, how many Tubo troops are there on this mountain pass?" ”

The Qiang guide hesitated, stretched out three fingers and said, "I don't know the specific number, it should be no less than three hundred!" ”

Sending away the Qiang guide, Zhao Ziliang climbed to a slightly higher hill next to him, and Brehan, Ma Lan and others immediately followed. Zhao Ziliang asked Ma Lan as he walked: "Have all the guide markings along the way been done?" ”

Ma Lan replied: "Yes, General, the guide markers are all very visible, even if it snows heavily, they will not be covered, and the next three thousand men and horses should soon be able to follow according to these guide markers!" ”

"Good!"

Since it is necessary to sneak attack three strategic places, of course they must hold them after they are defeated, and of course it is impossible for these cavalry to stay here as garrison guards, so Zhao Ziliang also arranged for 3,000 infantry to follow behind, and when the three strategic places are defeated, they will each send 1,000 infantry to garrison, in this kind of dangerous place, as long as they do not relax their vigilance, it is very difficult for the enemy to capture them.

It belongs to the desert tundra landform, the bottom of the mountain is full of hills and low mountains and hills, and the slopes of the mountain are full of plateau permafrost desert plants such as Dip plum, Tiger Claw ear grass, Green Velvet Artemisia, Pseudonose flower, Artemisia maxiana, etc.

The terrain on the Kunlun Pass is towering, the climate is cold and damp, the air is thin, the surrounding mountains are undulating, the snow peaks are abrupt and forested, the grassland meadows are vast, there are abrupt and craggy ice hills and unpredictable ice cones and the plateau permafrost layer that does not melt all the year round, some of the ice hills are several meters high, some are more than ten meters high, and under the ice mounds is the trickle of water that never dries up, if the ice layer is uncovered, the groundwater often gushes out, forming fountains, and some of the ice cones are as high as seven or eight meters.

The east and west sides of the mountain pass not far away are the Yuxu Peak and the Yuxian Peak that are towering into the sky, with an altitude of more than 6,000 meters above sea level.

Zhao Ziliang climbed to the top of the hill and looked up at the Kunlun Pass and the peaks on the east and west sides, and couldn't help but sigh: "This is Kunlun Mountain, where the legendary Heavenly Court Yao Pond is!" After that, he picked up the binoculars and looked at the mountain pass.

On the east and west sides of the mountain pass there is a row of stone houses, from time to time there are Tibetan soldiers with spears walking back and forth on the mountain pass, although this is already the hinterland of Tibet, but the Tibetan still deployed troops here, according to the guide, there should be about 300 people.

The altitude on the mountain pass is too high, the air is thin, and there will be a great burden on the war horse, but I am afraid that I will be out of breath before I ride to the top of the mountain, Zhao Ziliang thought for a long time, and said to Brehan and Ma Lan: "Pass the order, let the soldiers take off their armor outside and dress up as the Tubo army to rest at the bottom of the mountain for half an hour, and set off to the mountain pass after half an hour!" ”

"No!"

It doesn't work to rush up with cavalry, the speed of the war horse climbing is not fast, and the road is not flat, the altitude of the mountain pass is too high, let the war horse rush up and definitely die a large piece, it is better for the cavalry to give up all the horses, disguise themselves as the Tubo army to climb the mountain pass, as long as they are close to the mountain pass for 200 miles and are not recognized by the Tubo army in the mountain pass, the operation of storming the mountain pass will be successful.

After resting for half an hour, the soldiers of the Tang Army had all taken off their armor and revealed the fur clothes inside, the style was the same as that of the Tubo army, plus they were wearing Tubo hats on their heads, so they were afraid that they would not be seen if they did not enter the range of fifty meters.

Zhao Ziliang waved his hand: "Let's go"

The army slowly climbed the mountain road and slowly moved towards the mountain pass, and under Zhao Ziliang's order, no one was allowed to speak, so as to prevent the sound of speech from reaching the mountain pass and being heard by the Tubo army.

The view of the mountain pass is very broad, Zhao Ziliang and others set off not long after, the Tubo army on the mountain pass found this army of soldiers and horses, although it is not clear to see, but from the clothing banner it should be the Tubo army, so the Tubo soldiers of the mountain pass did not warn after finding it, but went to report the situation to the top officer here.

After listening to the report of his soldiers, the 500 Tubo troops in the mountain pass were very puzzled: "Your own people? How many centaurs are there? ”

"About 3,000 people, the leading general is riding a horse, and he can't see the flag clearly, and even if he sees it clearly, we don't know him! Who knows where the horses came from? ”

Da Wubai said: "Since it is from the north, it must be from Qaidam, but a few days ago, some people fled back from Qaidam one after another, saying that the Tang army attacked there in a big way, and many people were killed." How could so many people come back this time? Let's go, let's see! ”

When I came to the mountain pass and looked down, I saw a long team, the team was very scattered, there was no formation at all, it seemed that it had walked a long way, but at this time the distance was still far away, and I couldn't see which soldier and horse it was, so I could only wait for the other party to walk in and take a closer look.

The Tubo people did not expect that the Tang army would travel thousands of miles to attack the Kunlun Pass, and it would go deep into the hinterland of Tubo, walking along the way with glaciers and lofty mountains, because this was impossible in the eyes of the Tubo people.

The team of 3,000 people on the hillside got closer and closer, and it was not until the two sides approached 50 meters that the Tubo troops in the mountain pass realized that something was wrong, the banners were simply some symbols drawn randomly, not Tubo characters, and when they walked into 50 meters, they could faintly see the faces of the other soldiers.

Da Wubai immediately pulled out his waist knife and shouted: "It's the enemy, tell everyone to prepare to meet the enemy!" ”

Zhao Ziliang, who was riding a Wuli horse and walking in the front, saw the Tubo army on the mountain pass pull out their weapons and shouted, and knew that his side had been recognized, and immediately shouted: "It has been discovered, soldiers, it is only a stone's throw away from the mountain pass, and they will all follow this general to kill, kill-."

"Kill!"

Everyone pulled out their weapons and threw off their arms, strode towards the mountain pass, Zhao Ziliang rode Wuli fast, and soon rushed to the top of the mountain, saw a strong man standing in the middle, and immediately rode his horse and rushed over and brandished the golden nail jujube yang lance to cut it into two sections. (To be continued.) )