After defeating the Naiman tribe, the Western Expeditionary Army of the Great Song Dynasty entered the Altai Mountains, and the road was already rugged and difficult, and I don't know how many people failed to get out of it. And God seemed to be on the side of the enemy, and it snowed heavily overnight, and the valley was filled with snow, making it difficult for cars and horses to travel. There are two paths in front of them, one is to exit the original way and wait for next year's ice and snow to melt; The second is to take the risk and continue to move forward, to climb over the mountains before the coldest time comes, but no one has yet succeeded in crossing the mountains when the snow covers them, which is a road with an uncertain future.

Gao Zhong and Zhao Li convened the generals to discuss where to go, and the generals thought that it was too embarrassing to return in vain, and they had to bear the emperor's favor, so they unanimously decided to take the risk of crossing. But soon they realized what a difficult path they had chosen, and they were not going to be able to speed up the road as they marched. In order to carry only weapons, ammunition and food, they dismantled heavy weapons such as artillery and carried them by mules and horses, and discarded carts and tents.

The army spent two months in the mountains before they got out of the mountains, and at the same time paid a heavy price, most of the livestock of the baggage team were lost, and they had to use war horses as pack animals, and the grain and grass were almost exhausted. At the same time, nearly 1,000 officers and soldiers froze to death or died of disease, and nearly 1,000 officers and soldiers fell off the cliff, and the number of wounded was even multiple. And the casualties of their fierce battles all the way were less than this, which made Gao Zhong and others sad, these soldiers followed them on an expedition of thousands of miles and did not die under the enemy's swords and guns, but died in the hands of bad weather.

"Marshal, our army has just come out of the mountain, and it is already exhausted and in urgent need of rest. Replenish the grain and straw, and it is not easy to rush into battle! "It was the first night the army came out of the mountains. The troops camped on the spot, and Zhao Li discussed with Gao Chong.

"Hmm. But this is the edge of the Gurbantunggut Desert, sparsely populated, it is difficult to recruit the needs of the army, and we still need to choose another camp! Gao Pet looked at the map and nodded.

The place where the army was located was in the southern foothills of the Altai Mountains, on the northwestern edge of the Junggar Basin. The terrain is oblique strips, long from north to south and narrow from east to west. It is bordered by the Gayir Mountains in the northwest, the northern foot of the Tianshan Mountains in the south, and the Gurbantunggut Desert in the east. The central and eastern parts of the country are open and flat, but most of them are Gobi Desert, and there is no sufficient water source and pasture for grazing, and this place is even more scraped to sustain nearly 100,000 people.

"We've been wandering around the mountains for more than two months, and we've missed the time and place to meet the caravan. At the same time, we are cut off from domestic news, and I don't know the next step of Emperor Ludao's arrangement, it is difficult to raise so much grain and grass with our strength! Zhao Li sighed and said, this sudden heavy snow disrupted their plans and put them in a difficult situation.

"Gaochang is a land of abundance. We don't have to worry about finding food, and the most important thing is to replenish ammunition, so we have to contact the people in the church to solve it! Gao Zhong said, and his eyes never took off the map.

"Hmm. The marshal is right, we have soldiers in our hands, and soldiers have guns in our hands. I'm afraid that I haven't eaten or drunk, so it's a big deal to rob his mother! Zhao Li understood as soon as he heard it. Said with a smile.

"Ha Luha, we really deserve to be taught by the emperor. Thinking of it together, besides, let's rob the enemy country, and the courtiers can't say anything! Gao Zhong Da Lang said with a smile, the emperor of Western Xia relied on this trick to solve the problem of food shortage, and recruited a large number of displaced people with the remaining grain.

"Dashuai must have chosen a good place!" Zhao Li and the two hit it off, and he must have had a score in his heart when he looked at Gao Pet's appearance.

"This is it!" Gao Pet nodded on the map and said.

"Eric Lake, this is indeed a good place, but we still have to cross a hundred miles of desert, and the enemy situation is unknown!" Zhao Li touched the stubble on his face and said.

Lake Eric is the only freshwater lake in the region, and the basin is surrounded by vast grasslands where many nomadic tribes have historically lived. In the Qin Dynasty, the territory of Karamay was a nomadic land for Sai and others; At the beginning of the Han Dynasty, the territory was controlled by the Dayue clan who moved westward; During the period of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the territory was the nomadic land of the Gaoche and Turkic tribes, and later the jurisdiction of the Turkic Khanate; In the Sui Dynasty, the territory was the land of the Western Turkic Tiele and other departments; At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, it became a nomadic land for the Western Turkic Wulu Land Department, Huluwu and other departments.

After the Tang Dynasty pacified the Western Turkic Khanate, it set up the Yanbo Governorate here, which was first under the jurisdiction of the Kunling Governorate under the rule of the Anxi Metropolitan Protectorate. Later, it was under the jurisdiction of the Beiting Metropolitan Protectorate. At the end of the Tang Dynasty, this area became a nomadic land of other Uighurs such as Qarluq, and later the northeastern border of the Qarakhanid Dynasty. When Yelu Dashi led his troops to move westward to Ye Mili, it was once divided into its territory, where it could be pastured and cultivated, and it was a necessary place for caravans to go to Beiting, and commerce was also relatively developed, and it had become a blessed land in the sand sea.

"The Gobi and the desert are not exactly the same, there is still a small amount of grass and trees on the Gobi Desert, and there may be people living in good places, and our food reserves can fully support the army to get there. And there will not be too many garrisons there, they are by no means our opponents, the cattle and sheep everywhere are not enough for us to eat, and the caravans that come and go are also convenient for us to inquire about Gaochang and the country! Gao Pet said.

After the agreement was made, the army set out again to move south, no one expected that the Song army would cross the Alatai Mountains in this season, and when they entered the Eric Basin after a three-day rapid march, the Goryeo army stationed there was completely defenseless, and only gathered more than 3,000 horses in a hurry. When they saw the mighty Song army influx, where did they dare to engage in battle, and they scattered without firing a single arrow, and the Western Expeditionary Army took Yanbo City lightly and quickly controlled the entire region.

Although Gao Zhong claimed to plunder Gaochang, he knew in his heart that he could not solve the problem by blindly killing, so he restrained the army from killing indiscriminately, and when collecting military rations, they traded fairly and paid according to the price. In just five days, the Western Expeditionary Army requisitioned 300,000 stone of grain and more than 50,000 heads of livestock, and swept away the felt and furs that were abundant in the local area, and at the same time requisitioned 1,000 carts, alleviating the shortage of materials to a certain extent.

At the same time that the Western Expeditionary Army was buying supplies on a large scale, they also sought out the news from the merchants who came from the Great Song Dynasty and sent scouts to understand the deployment of Gaochang, but the news they got was not much more than they knew. Just when they were at a loss, suddenly the soldiers came to report that someone came to visit, Gao Chong and Zhao Li were stunned, and now the merchants and people in the city were afraid to avoid it, how could they take the initiative to come to the door and hurriedly invite in.

"This ...... Isn't this a big shopkeeper? Looking at a fat man who came in in a hurry, both of them were surprised, and the person who came was Zhang Qu, the big shopkeeper of Sheng Hetang, and Gao Zhong said that he hurriedly got up to greet him.

"Gao Shuai, I've waited for you!" Zhang Qu was also excited when he saw the two of them, and Shi Li said.

"Shopkeeper Zhang, how dare you go out in person and send someone to contact you!" Gao Zhong also said politely, he and Zhang Qu are naturally familiar with each other as the old men in the mansion, but at this time, Zhang Qu is not the head of the caravan that only has a few thousand taels of capital and 100 people and horses that day, but is in charge of a super shopkeeper with tens of millions of wealth and travels all over the countries of the Western Regions, and he can affect the economy of a country with a single word, and no one dares to underestimate it.

"Everyone is working for the emperor, how can they divide each other, and this battle is very important, the emperor has personally asked, how dare I slack off!" Zhang Qu said with a slight sorrow, expressing deep dissatisfaction with Gao Zhong treating him as an 'outsider'.

"Shopkeeper Zhang, the domestic affairs have subsided, how is the emperor?" Zhao Li personally poured tea for Zhang Qu and said.

"Things in the country have calmed down, and Brother Yong has returned home with a large army, and they not only occupy Haolaidian, but also deceive Bao and Yuan Erzhou from the hands of the Goryeo, forcing Jin to sue for peace and return most of the courtiers captured by Jing Kangnian. It's just that there has been no news for more than two months after you defeated the Naiman Ministry, which made the emperor worry and issued several orders urging all parties to investigate! Zhang did briefly talk about domestic affairs.

"Alas, as soon as we entered the mountain, we encountered heavy snowfall and had to find another road, and the heavy snow closed the mountain and it was really impossible to send the news, which made Your Majesty and everyone worried!" Gao Pet said with a sigh.

"Speaking of which, you two are bold enough, since ancient times, no one has dared to climb over the Altai Mountains when the snow covers the mountain, and no one can come out of it, you can be said to be the first person in ancient times!" Zhang said with confidence, "I heard that the emperor heard that the army of the Western Expedition braved the snow to enter the mountains, and it was difficult to sleep and eat, and he was worried day and night, how can we, who are subordinates, not worry about His Majesty's subordinates, the Intelligence Department, the Military Intelligence Department, the caravans in the northwest, and even the special operations brigade have dispatched search detachments to search for your whereabouts with all their might!" ”

"Hehe, our action this time was indeed reckless and disturbed everyone, but if we didn't take the risk at that time, we would have to wait for the next year, more than 100,000 people were stranded in the northwest to consume money and food, and we also had the emperor's trust!" Zhao Li heard the resentment in Zhang Qu's words, and quickly explained, they didn't expect that one of their decisions would provoke the emperor to make a big move, and they were still very moved in their hearts.

"The emperor thought that you might want to enter Gaochang as soon as possible, so he suppressed all the impeachments of the courtiers. But it's a blessing in disguise that you venture into the march, otherwise you wouldn't have made it so smoothly! Zhang Qu just complained a few words, he knew his identity, and understood that the military aircraft major event was not something that he, a businessman, could participate too much in, so after complaining, he took the opportunity to change the topic.

"What did Shopkeeper Zhang say?" Gao Pet was really attracted and leaned over and asked.

"Gao Shuai fought in Mobei Lian Jie, defeated the Divination Department and captured Zhenzhou, the news quickly spread throughout the north and south of the desert, naturally Gaochang also knew, Brother Biler hurriedly asked Yelu Dashi for help, Xiliao mobilized a large army out of the Alashan Pass, blocked all the access to and from the Altai Mountains, and laid an ambush in the mountains to wait for you to enter the ambush circle!" Zhang Qu said...... (To be continued......)