Grain, grass, arrows and other consumable materials were distributed into the camp, other materials were supplemented into the army, and new recruits were organized into the camp. The location of this city is very important, and it is to be used as a transit base for food and grass materials leading to the front battlefield, so it needs to be defended by leaving troops.

Wang Yuan originally wanted to allocate 2,000 soldiers and horses from the army to Li Mi, but Li Mi did not approve of it, because the real war was imminent, and Li Mi did not want to divide people from the army to defend the city. So after discussion, the two decided to follow Li Mi's idea, to use 2,000 barbarian prisoners as coolies to transport supplies, and to detach 2,000 people from Li Mi's original 5,000 soldiers and horses to escort grain and grass to garrison the city. In this way, the team transporting supplies from Yaozhou to Nongdongcheng consisted of 3,000 Jiannan troops and 2,000 barbarian prisoners.

This method was also a last resort, and Wang Yuan actually didn't agree with this method in his heart, because Wang Yuan actually had a headache for the two thousand barbarian soldiers captured by Nanzhao. Kill and can't kill, Wang Yuan doesn't want to do such a thing. I can't let it go, because once these guys are let go, they will run to serve Ge Luofeng again. It is possible to try using them as coolies, but when he thinks of the complex alpine woodland environment of the road from Yaozhou to Nongdongcheng, Wang Yuan always feels that something is wrong.

But because Li Mi insisted that it was no big deal to do this, Wang Yuan didn't want to refute his face too much. In addition, Li Mi's starting point was not to weaken the strength of the westward army, and it was also for Wang Yuan's sake, so Wang Yuan could only advise and agree to Li Mi's proposal.

At midnight, Wang Yuan led the generals to say goodbye to Li Mi and others, and the army drove out of Langdong City and marched westward. Tens of thousands of troops stretch for miles on the plateau plains, waving flags, shining armor and blades, thousands of chariots, thousands of hooves trampling, the momentum is indispensable.

Wang Yuan sat upright on his horse and watched a team of soldiers and horses pass by, and he was in a very happy mood.

"Did Erlang ever think about the day when he would lead tens of thousands of troops to fight? I must be very proud. Gongsun Lan Zema, whose left arm was wrapped in a gauze to wrap the wound, stood aside and smiled softly.

Wang Yuan looked back and smiled: "I really didn't think about it, everything is like a dream." But that's not what makes this dream so exciting. ”

"What's that?" Gongsun Lan asked sideways.

"It's you." Wang Yuan stretched out his hand and pointed at Gongsun Lan and Ziyun'er and Qingyun'er, who were riding horses behind them.

The three girls were stunned, and their faces were shy. Gongsun Lan said: "I don't mean it, but it's ...... It's gratifying that you can say such things. ”

Wang Yuan laughed, patted the horse's back and said, "I'll go and run for a while, this beast is already in a hurry, it's easy to have such a flat plain, how can I live up to it." Zi'er Qing'er accompanied her cousin and walked slowly, and I went. ”

Wang Yuan let go of the reins, and the black horse couldn't bear it anymore and galloped out. A moment later, a man and a horse disappeared into the vast army, and disappeared without a trace.

……

More than two hundred miles southwest from Nongdong City is a flat terrain, and the trend of the peaks of Cangshan Mountain is also slightly biased to the southwest, like a jade belt around the edge of this plateau. It wasn't until the middle and peak of Cangshan Mountain, two hundred miles away, suddenly crossed and intercepted the terrain of this plateau. And the sheep and the city are under the Zhonghe Peak.

If you want to reach the city of Taihe, the capital of Nanzhao on the shore of Erhai Lake, you must conquer the city of sheep and baa. It's a little strange to say, Yang and Baa City is on the west side of Taihe City, and it stands to reason that the Jiannan Army should be able to attack Taihe City directly from the east. But the terrain in the mountains is so amazing. In the east of Taihe City, it is the tall Cangshan Zhonghe Peak, which is the reliance of Taihe City, and it is impossible for soldiers and horses from the east to cross Zhonghe Peak to directly attack Taihe City. Their only passage was to continue westward from the valley at the northern foot of Taihe Peak, through Zhonghe Peak, and arrive at the west foot of Zhonghe Peak. After taking the sheep and the city, you can go east to Taihe City on the shore of the Erhai Lake. The entire route of the march will take a 180-degree turn.

The march on the plateau was still very smooth, and there was no nuisance from Ge Luofeng's soldiers and horses along the way, which was actually expected. It was absolutely impossible for Ge Luofeng to fight a decisive battle with the Tang army on flat terrain, that was not his strong point. But even on flat terrain, the march of the army was very difficult, and a hidden worry that Wang Yuan had been worried about when he sent the Southern Zhao also broke out at this time.

On the second day after leaving Nongdong City, Song Jiangong and Liu Jun both came to report that a large number of strange phenomena had appeared among the infantry and cavalry, and many soldiers had symptoms such as headaches, insomnia, not wanting to eat, fatigue, difficulty breathing, etc., and the number was increasing. Many people fell to the ground as they walked, and they were bruised and unconscious, and there was also a phenomenon of death.

Song Jiangong suspected that the water taken along the way and the path passed by the Nanzhao people were manipulated, whether the army had unknowingly fallen into some evil trick or suffered some unknown attack.

Wang Yuan immediately realized that what he was worried about had happened, which was altitude sickness. Nanzhao is located in the Yunnan Plateau, the higher the altitude of the southwest terrain, because the march is too fast, in the city of Langdong actually belongs to the plateau, but the altitude is not too high, plus in the city of Langdong for two days of rest, the soldiers are basically adapted. At that time, Wang Yuan did not have time to take this into account, and in the past two days, the more he marched to the southwest, the more steep the altitude rose, and the symptoms of altitude sickness finally occurred on a large scale.

Wang Yuan ordered the march to be stopped immediately and camped in place to rest. There is no good way to treat altitude sickness these days. I couldn't get any pure oxygen for the soldiers to breathe in. The only way is to stop the army here and let the soldiers rest well, so that the body's functions can slowly adapt to the thin oxygen of the plateau.

What does it mean to be quick that you can't reach it, Wang Yuan can be regarded as understanding its meaning, the more you rush to enter the army, the more you will make mistakes, this is another terrible place in the land of Nanzhao. Wang Yuan didn't want to forcibly lead his army to the city of Yang, and then let a group of soldiers who were weak and dizzy attack the fortified city. Although it is already the first day of March, and the time before the end of March is very short, we have to make necessary adjustments.

Yanghe Baa City and Taihe City are within reach of more than 100 miles to the southwest, but now they are out of reach. Although the army was suspended here to recuperate, the number of soldiers in the army with altitude sickness continued unabated, and almost half of the soldiers successively suffered from symptoms of difficulty breathing, physical weakness, and dizziness. More than 100 soldiers died in the camp overnight.

The soldiers, who did not understand the reason, panicked, and rumors of a plague in the army spread rapidly, and in less than half a day, rumors spread in the army, and the people's hearts fluctuated, and everyone was in danger.

Wang Yuan immediately ordered people to refute the rumors, while severely punishing the people who spread the rumors, and on the other hand, proving that the rumors of the plague were wrong with his own actions, he personally took the guards around him to carry away the bodies of the dead soldiers and bury them, telling everyone that this was not a plague and would not infect people. At the same time, the middle and senior generals of the various armies explained to them the cause of altitude sickness with difficulty. Although the generals could not understand what kind of air composition and the thinness of oxygen caused difficulty in breathing, resulting in insufficient oxygen supply, Wang Yuan still tried his best to explain the cause of the disease with an analogy, telling them that they did not need to panic, and that they could naturally adapt to Yunyun after a few days of rest.

An interesting analogy made by Wang Yuan is to compare the air of Nanzhao to the abalone. When you first enter it, you will be dizzy and even vomit and sick, but after a long time in it, you will not smell its smell, and you will not feel any discomfort. This statement was quickly understood by the generals in another way, and it was also in line with the conjecture that they had always guessed in their hearts that the air in Nanzhao was full of poisonous miasma. They suspect that a thin miasma in the air is responsible for all this.

So the soldiers of the whole army began to put gas masks on their faces in addition to eating and drinking, and wore masks when they walked, talked, and slept. But Wang Yuan did not stop it, as long as it could calm the morale of the army, Wang Yuan would not stop it. Moreover, from the next day, many soldiers with altitude sickness began to recover, and their bodies became vigorous, and by the evening of the next day, most of the soldiers had eliminated their symptoms, which made them attribute all this to the work of masks. Faced with such a situation, Wang Yuan could only smile bitterly and shake his head.

In any case, the crisis has finally passed, and the mass death caused by altitude sickness, which Wang Yuan feared most, did not appear, and if that were the case, this march would probably be aborted halfway. The physical fitness of people in these years is still on the post, and in two days, they have changed from crooked heads to lively and idle people. It's just that from then on, everyone's mask never left their faces, and a good Jiannan army became a soldier and horse from an alien planet, a masked man with a long pig arched mouth, which Wang Yuan didn't expect.