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The preparations before the expedition had been completed, and Wang Yuan reported to Xuanzong and asked for an order to go on the expedition. Xuanzong attached great importance to this expedition, and took Wang Yuan and other important ministers to worship the ancestors of heaven and earth and ask for protection. I hope that Wang Yuan can break the rebels and quell the chaos in the world.

In the early morning of March 25, Wang Yuan led an army of 50,000 troops to leave Chengdu and rush to Tongzhou in the eastern part of Jiannan Province.

Xuanzong led hundreds of civil and military officials to send him off in person, even with all kinds of unhappiness, at this time, everyone's hearts still hoped that Wang Yuan would be able to defeat the rebels' attack and turn back the trend of decline. Especially Xuanzong, he looked forward to Wang Yuan's victory more than anyone else, although he was very puzzled by Wang Yuan's insistence on leading his troops to Tongzhou, where there was no sign of the enemy, but because of the lessons of the past, Xuanzong knew that he was not talented enough in military affairs, and he no longer pointed fingers.

Wang Yuan also knew the importance of fighting the rebels this time, and this time he could only win and not lose. If it is defeated, Chengdu will be over, not only will Xuanzong have to flee, but he is afraid that he will also have to leave this base that has been operating for many years, which must not happen. For this reason, Wang Yuan used almost all his belongings, more than 300 Shenwei cannons and more than 20,000 thunder bullets were all carried with the army, and this time Wang Yuan was never willing to take out the 250 elephant cavalry to fight was also included in the team.

These elephant cavalry are treasures, when fighting with Nanzhao that day, they were almost scattered by hundreds of elephant cavalry in the formation of tens of thousands of troops, if it were not for the bows and crossbows of the Nanzhao elephant cavalry were not good enough, they could not shoot a large number of approaching Jiannan troops, and finally were captured alive by Wang Yuan in the form of rope siege, the victory or defeat of that battle is not yet known.

But it was because of that battle that Wang Yuan became interested in these elephant cavalry. He positioned it as a moving turret. The elephant cavalry can be called almost invulnerable, and the secret of the Nanzhao Kingdom's training of the elephant cavalry is to smear them with layers of secret mixture of slime and dust from an early age. When these elephants grow into behemoths, they are covered with thick armor, so they can charge into battle without fear of blades and arrows. After capturing these elephant cavalry, Wang Yuan spent a lot of time designing around these moving fortresses.

One is the equipment on the elephant's back. War elephants can carry thousands of pounds, but after long periods of charging and fighting, they quickly become tired and slow. The soldiers on the elephant's back are not always better equipped to crush the war elephant to the extreme. In the end, the result of Wang Yuan and others' test was that with a weight of 2,000 catties, the war elephant could hold out for more than an hour. With this hour of combat time, the war elephant will be enough to crush the battle formation that tramples the enemy. However, the weight limit is about 2,000 catties, which means that it is impossible for the elephant to carry too many soldiers on its back, and the problem is that the firepower is not enough.

This problem can only be solved in three ways. An elephant constellation needs to be made of the lightest material, which must ensure that the personnel have a foothold, but also not take up too much heavy space. In the end, after experimenting with a variety of woods, Wang Yuan returned to the basics and chose bamboo to create the Elephant Constellation, because bamboo is light and tough, which is the best Elephant Constellation material in comparison. This problem can be solved by hanging a detachable wooden shield on the perimeter of the bamboo constellation as armor to prevent arrows from accumulating.

After the problem of Elephant is solved, it is the problem of personnel. This problem is not difficult to solve, and if you want to increase the number of people you carry, you only need to choose those soldiers who are thin and lightweight. Most of the local soldiers in Jiannan are thin and capable, and it is not difficult to select. This would allow eight to ten soldiers to be carried on the elephant seat, in addition to the elephant rider.

However, because these soldiers are thin and small, they are not suitable for strong crossbows, and the space on the back of the elephant is narrow, which is not conducive to large-scale action of opening the bow and arrows, and there is only one weapon suitable for the soldiers on the back of these elephants, and that is the light repeater. Although the range of this melee crossbow arrow evolved from the Zhuge repeater is short, the shooting distance is only within eighty steps. But the advantage of it is that it is equipped with a magazine of ten short crossbows, which eliminates the need for arrows one by one, which can reduce a lot of unnecessary consumption time. In a short period of time, more than two hundred elephant cavalry can form a rapid attack of thousands of crossbow arrows.

What's more, this kind of arrow box can carry multiple pieces, which is lightweight and easy to carry and install, and can form a huge lethality in a short time. Of course, the short range is its flaw, but in a situation where rushing into enemy lines is almost like hand-to-hand combat, this flaw is almost negligible. Everything has its advantages and disadvantages, and in order to make use of its greatest advantages, it is also acceptable for Wang Yuan to pay the price of some defects.

There is another problem that remains to be solved, and that is the armor of these war elephants. Although the body is coated with a mixture of secret juice and earth, it can be called invulnerable. But that's not to say that a strong crossbow blade can't hurt a giant elephant. In order to protect the giant elephant from being besieged to death by ants and elephants in the enemy formation, Wang Yuan had to free up a large part of the load space to coat the war elephant with heavy armor. And since he wanted to put on heavy armor, Wang Yuan did it to the extreme, and he put on a heavy iron armor weighing seven or eight hundred catties with nails and spikes. The spikes, several feet long, were laid over the elephant's body, arming the elephant like a giant porcupine with long, dense iron spikes. Just looking at the elephant in armor is chilling.

The elephant cavalry in such armor is like a meat grinder, and when they rush through the crowd, they must be left behind a road paved with blood and minced meat, and with the attack of the repeater on their back, it is simply a mobile killing machine.

These were originally the things at the bottom of Wang Yuan's box, and Wang Yuan did not hesitate to carry them all into battle. And these elephant cavalry, even when fighting against Tibet, Wang Yuan was not willing to use them, because they were too precious. A well-trained elephant cavalry takes more than ten years to cultivate, and he can only become an elephant cavalry when he reaches adulthood. Although these were captured from the hands of the Southern Zhao Kingdom, Wang Yuan knew their preciousness.

In addition, Wang Yuan's expedition this time also brought him some other valuable things, that is, several wives and concubines in the family who knew martial arts. Needless to say, Gongsun Lan will definitely be by Wang Yuan's side. And this time, Li Xin'er, Princess Aluo, Zi Yun'er, Qing Yun'er and others also accompanied the expedition. This is not Wang Yuan's greed for pleasure and taking his wives and concubines to enjoy himself with the army, but for the sake of the war.

The training of generals in the Jiannan Army has always been a big problem. In the past few years, the scale of the Jiannan Army has expanded too quickly. From the 30,000 troops under its jurisdiction, it suddenly expanded to only a hundred thousand troops, and it was inevitable that the problem of leading generals would be disconnected. Although Wang Yuan has been trying to solve such a problem, the training of a general is not a short-term achievement. Moreover, the Jiannan Army had not experienced any battles since the Battle of Tubo, and could not train on the battlefield to find generals suitable for leading the army. And in order to better control the Jiannan Army and the Longyou Army, Wang Yuan made a big change of blood for the middle-level generals in the army. This is even more of a lack of leaders. This is like a double-edged sword, without the exchange of blood, the absolute control of the army cannot be guaranteed. With absolute control, the generals in the army will break again.

Wang Yuan brought these wives and concubines who could fight and kill in his family, just to make them come in handy at a critical time. They are all people with martial arts, and if the war is unfavorable, sometimes some special means are needed to defeat the enemy, such as assassination, such as infiltration and other special means, which require people with martial arts skills to execute. In Wang Yuan's opinion, no one is as reassuring as his own wives and concubines.

This move also shows Wang Yuan's attitude of breaking the kettle. Bringing all the wives and concubines to the battlefield is an attitude of victory or the end of the family.

As a result, only Lan Xinhui and Gao Moyan were left behind at home in Chengdu, and the two of them also became the role of nurses who took care of the three children. Wang Yuan even explained to Lan Xinhui in private that once the war was unfavorable and he was defeated in front, he asked Lan Xinhui to immediately flee Chengdu with the three children and Gao Moyan to Nanzhao, and Wang Yuan had already written a letter to Ge Luofeng and handed it to Lan Xinhui before leaving.

All kinds of actions have shown Wang Yuan's determination to fight to the death, whether in terms of armament or action, Wang Yuan has achieved the extreme. Of course, only Wang Yuan and the people around him understand that in the eyes of outsiders, Wang Yuan is really not like words, and it is really unacceptable to go to quell the rebellion and kill the enemy and bring his wife and concubine there. Especially in the small court of Bi'an, there was a lot of discussion about this matter, and Fang Xuan took this matter out as soon as he saw Wang Yuan away, and said that Wang Yuan was extremely unbearable.

However, Wang Yuan had no distractions, and led a large army to the east, and while marching, he sent people to inquire about the news from the north and east. In the northern Longyou Road, Gao Xianzhi, who arrived at the front line in Ningzhou, had not sent news for a long time, which made Wang Yuan very worried. In the Bashan Valley on the Tongzhou front line in the east, there was no news of the enemy. Could it be that your judgment is really wrong? The rebels are really attacking Longyou Dao with all their might?

On the evening of the 27th, the army arrived in Zizhou. It is more than 100 miles away from Chengdu and is the east gate of Chengdu. Wang Yuan ordered to rest here for the night, and then head east tomorrow. It is two hundred and forty miles away from Tongzhou, and there is no other state capital to settle in, and it has entered a large mountain range, and the road ahead will be even more difficult.

Under the sunset in the evening, Wang Yuan climbed to the head of Zizhou City, under the warm evening breeze, looking at the continuous mountains and mountains in the east, looking at the green mountains, rivers and earth under the sunset, his heart was deeply touched.

Just as Wang Yuan was intoxicated by the sunset, there was a noise from under the city wall. More than a dozen guards stopped a man under the city walls, and the two sides were arguing and shouting.

was disturbed Wang Yuan frowned, and before Wang Yuan could speak, Zhao Qing, the commander of the guard battalion, hurriedly pressed his sword and went down to the city tower to ask what happened, and hurriedly returned to the city soon after: "Dashuai, the person below is clamoring to see you, saying that he is an old friend with Dashuai." ”

Wang Yuan was stunned for a moment, frowned and said, "Old friends? ”

"Yes, he said his surname was Du, and said that Dashuai must know who he was."

"Surname Du?" Wang Yuan frowned and thought for a while, his eyes suddenly lit up, and he shouted with a smile on his face: "Please, please come up and see me." ”