Once Dorje was on the throne, she had to ask the general for permission to leave and find her monk man. The monk was older than her father, and it was estimated that he would not live long, and she wanted to see him one last time, hoping that he would be with her for a while longer.

Before coming to Longxing Temple, Ma Lan had already arranged everything. This time, in addition to more than 100 personal soldiers, there were dozens of Anxi spies and some eagle slaves. Qiangtang is also an important point in his sphere of influence, there were no eagle slaves before, so Li Gongbu has been dead for more than 20 days, and the news has only come from Qiangtang. And this time, the Eagle Slave will set up a stronghold in the surrendered city on the plateau, which will also change this situation.

After leaving Qiuzi City, he rushed directly to Khotan along the strange road in the desert. This road was originally not often taken, in recent years, Ma Lan main side of Anxi, business has become more developed, especially the Qiuzi - Khotan - Qiangtang line, has become an extremely important trade road, so this strange road is now taken by a lot of people.

The garrison of the surrendered city needs to supply supplies from Qiuci, most of the ordnance sold to the Qiang people is produced by Qiuci, and most of the things purchased from the Qiang people have to be sent to the large workshops of Qiuci for processing. Even though it was winter, it was still common to see merchants on the trade routes, and the trade routes through the desert to Khotan were dangerous, but danger often represented profits and opportunities.

There are a lot of Xinghu people in Anxi, not all of them are giant businessmen, in fact, this is simply impossible, most of the Xinghu businessmen are small businessmen, and the big business is controlled by those big businessmen, and they may not have a bright future after a lifetime of hard work. But in the past two years. Many Xinghu merchants made a fortune by taking the trade route of Qiuzi-Khotan-surrendered city, so as to get ahead and become new Xinghu wealthy merchants. It is dangerous to cross the desert, and it is even more dangerous to climb over the ice of Daban, and it is precisely because of the danger that there is a high profit. Whether it is the business of the Anxi Army or the business of the Ma family's workshop, it is extremely reliable, and for these profit-seeking people, no matter how big the danger is for profit, it cannot stop them.

The group did not carry any items, and galloped directly to Khotan non-stop, and the caravans continued along the way, and even the ancient desert road was also extremely lively. In fact, the danger of this road has been reduced a lot now, after all, there are many people coming and going, and even if they encounter any situation, they will generally meet help. As for bandits. There is no such thing here, the Xinghu merchants are different from the Great Maritime Merchants, they will never plunder other caravans, they are the purest merchants.

Soon after passing the town of Pishan, the group crossed directly from the vicinity of Khotan, and set foot on the mountain road to Sangzhu Daban. This road was the lifeblood of Khotan's connection to the surrendered cities, and troops were stationed everywhere along the way, and many of the steep places had been repaired. Enough to accommodate the passage of war horses and yaks for caravans. At this point, the caravans were even denser. A part of the Xinghu caravans that had gone to Shule-Khotan-surrendered cities also joined in. However, when they saw the banner of the army, the merchants tried their best to get out of the way and let Ma Lu and them go first.

Feng Changqing has been sitting in Anxi for several years, and everything is developing at a rapid pace, and this road is much better than when Ma Lan led the army to Qiangtang. Above the snow line. Under Bingdaban, it is the place where Ma Yong and Li Gongbu fought in the beginning, and now a fortress has been built in this place, and more than 200 Anxi men are stationed here all year round. In such a place, there is actually no difference between winter and summer.

Ma Lan is the chief general of Anxi. When you get here, you naturally want to see these athletes. His reputation in the west of the city is in full swing, and the athletes are naturally extremely happy to see the general here. Stationed here is a regiment of men and horses, according to the Tang Dynasty military system, a regiment is full of three hundred people, Ma Ling asked this captain named Han Lin, Han Lindao was indeed a full amount of three hundred people, and later because of the epidemic and avalanche, a total of thirty or forty brothers were lost, because there has been no war, so there is no supplement.

"General, it's nothing, we are all soldiers who eat food, and if we die, we can have a pension of one hundred and fifty yuan, which adds up to more weight than our own bodies, what else can I say! I also wanted to go into battle to kill the enemy, but Dr. Feng said that it was extremely important to defend here, and everyone would stay here. One hundred and fifty dollars is definitely not a disadvantage, it's not a big deal! An old man saw that Ma Luan's expression was a little gloomy, but he smiled and comforted. It was just a gang leader, but he looked like he was in his forties, and he seemed to be old enough to answer.

Ma Ling asked, the old soldier's name is Han Zhongwang, and the title of the commander is General Yunlu, which is also a great achievement. Looking at the old soldier, Ma Ling nodded. This place is extremely important, and naturally there must be an army stationed here, and although there is very little fighting here, it is impossible to do without these people.

Staying above the snow line all year round is definitely torture for people. But this kind of thing is always done by someone. Even in his previous life, there were a large number of such people, silently stationed on the lonely snow-capped mountains, waiting year after year for a war that might never happen.

Such a person, although he rarely has the opportunity to go into battle to kill the enemy, can definitely be called a hero.

According to Han Lin, most of the athletes who were damaged had accidents in the first year, and the past two years have been much better, and Pishan Town was ready to replace them, but everyone felt that they had adapted to it here, and if they changed a group of people immediately, they would inevitably lose dozens more, so they chose to stay here and prepare to stay here for a few more years.

With the Anxi Army stationed here, the Xinghu merchants in the past will also feel at ease. The materials here are all transported by Xinghu merchants, and because the caravans cannot be interrupted all year round, there is no shortage of materials.

If you want to climb over the ice of Tasaka, you need to make some preparations. The athletes who guard this place are already familiar with these things, the most important thing is to bleed the war horse, the war horse will also be affected by the air epidemic, at this height if you don't bleed, the blood pressure is too great, and you will fall down if you can't climb the snowy mountain.

The defenders were busy, Ma Lu's Qinghai Cong was extremely precious, and he didn't let others do it, he took a steel needle and stabbed some pinholes on Qinghai Cong's forehead, Qinghai Cong hissed happily, and it seemed much more comfortable.

As long as the preparations are done sufficiently, it is not impossible to climb over the snow-capped mountains in winter, when Ma Lan took the prisoners of war back from the Sa Mojian killing, it was to cross the green mountains in winter, not only brought back a large number of war horses, but also a lot of camels. At that time, this was possible thanks to the huge wealth plundered from the river, and even camels could climb over the snowy mountains as long as they were kept warm.

The Sangzhudaban is much higher than the Wakhan Corridor, of course, not the same, but the principle is the same. Bidding farewell to the defenders, Ma Xuan and his subordinates set off again and continued to trek towards Bingdaban.

This Bingdaban is the highest of several mountain passes, and the others are not so steep, and it can be said that more than half of the success has been achieved when it crosses the Sangzhu Daban.

Due to the adequate preparations, there were no accidents, and together with the Xinghu merchants who were running for wealth, they crossed several lower mountain passes and entered the boundary of Baishitan Beach.

It is a very desolate next door, surrounded by the Kunlun and Karakoram Mountains, and although it is a forbidden area for life, the geographical location is extremely important, and the Xin-Tibet Highway passed through this place in later generations. To the east is Qiangtang, which is the Tibet of later generations, and to the west is to cross several low mountain passes is Dabolu, that is, the Kashmir area of later generations, and to the north to cross Sangzhu Daban to Khotan. For Ma Lan, if the Tang Dynasty wants to continue to expand southward, it is extremely important to control this place.

The Anxi army wanted to enter South Asia, and this was an extremely important pass, and it was much easier to enter South Asia from here than through the majestic Himalayas. In fact, the Outer Zhangzhung are already in Kashmir, but the Zhangzhung people do not know that there are a large number of fertile plains to the south, so they do not have the consciousness of expanding southward.

Now the territory of the Anxi army has been extended to Fars, and the Dekhgans east of Fars until Herat have surrendered to the Tang Dynasty, and from the geographical point of view of later generations, it has covered most of Iran and a small part of Afghanistan, and it is natural to continue to expand from Fars to the west, and the place to the east of Herat cannot be let go, there are some vassal countries loyal to the Tang Dynasty, which will not be wiped out for the time being, but the fertile soil of the Indus River Plain and the Henghe Plain has always been coveted by Ma Lan.

Of course, this is all a matter of time, and it is only a matter of time, the elephant soldiers that Tianzhu people are proud of are just a joke, and it is only a matter of time before these places are conquered by the Tang Dynasty. Ma Lan now has time, and everything will go according to plan, but this kind of thing, naturally, the sooner the better.

The Qiang cavalry of the Zhangxiong Kingdom should also make a move. This is also Ma Lan's plan to go to Qiangtang this time, not only to send Dorje to the throne, but also to encourage the Zhangxiong cavalry to drive the Tang Dynasty forward and do something in the name of the Tang Dynasty.

Of course, it would be best if more Qiang tribes could be involved in this matter.

Baishitan is a no-man's land, and after seeing the blue Shiquan River, it entered the grassland again. At this time, the grassland was naturally not green, and the heavy snow covered the ground for a long time, and a black trade road led directly to the surrendered city.

The surrendered city is the stronghold of the Anxi army on the Qiangtang, and it is also the largest city on the plateau, and the scale is much larger than the original Zhangxiong King Duqiong Yincheng, and even more than the Luo City. After several years of operation, the city has been quite prosperous, faintly with the atmosphere of a big city in the Central Plains.

There was an endless stream of merchants, many of whom were caravans from various Qiang tribes who had come from the valley of the Rakhe River to sell their tribe's most precious cattle, sheep and livestock in exchange for all kinds of ordnance and some grain. Since Gongren occupied the city, it was more important to do business in the city, but the price here was fairer and the supply was more abundant, so the heads of the bulk business were still willing to come here. (To be continued......)