The weather on the Gobi Desert is almost unchanged throughout the year, and every evening, the afterglow of the sunset always spills the last bit of heat on the earth, while the deep blue sky is like a pure curtain, without a little white cloud to do those unnecessary embellishments.

If it's in winter, when the sun goes down, the lack of shelter will quickly dissipate the last bit of heat energy. The cold wind wrapped in yellow sand is like a roar from hell, and it is not just the thick fur of animals that can be resisted. Poor people often hold the lamb directly and rely on the heat of the animal's body to survive the long cold night; Those who have a little savings will dig a deep kang in the area where the sand and gravel have accumulated, use the strength of the entire tribe to accumulate enough fuel, and then gather everyone together and snuggle up to each other to barely spend the night.

Mak Linglong's outer circle pays great attention to these details. Over the years, it has not been common to die simply because of freezing, and even more often it is due to other reasons such as illness. The physical fitness of the people who can run to the country is not bad, and when they have just thrown themselves into the arms of the old people in the outermost Gobi, they will receive some food assistance from the old people, and the tenacious vitality of the bitter haha who can barely eat is completely beyond the imagination of normal people.

In short, the life here is by no means superior, but it is enough for those who have not been able to survive without basic security of life, and as the old people gradually expand outward, the original outer circle will become a relative inner circle, and the quality of life will also be improved.

In this place where there is security, and even barely there is hope for life, once someone wants to break it, then the power of these people to resist will be extremely strong.

After all, no one can stop the desire of the most ordinary people to live.

Therefore, it only took Mai Linglong more than two days to complete the basic mobilization: all the combat arms were arranged according to the prepared formation in advance, all the fortifications were further strengthened, all the arrow towers completed the highest degree of vigilance, and all the people in the outermost circle also used the most rudimentary weapons to form a human defense line around the arrow towers that could not be ignored.

This was the first sight that Sanjack, the envoy of Geldan, and Nalan Mingzhu, the envoy of the Qing Dynasty, saw - by no means spectacular, but definitely shocking enough.

This old clan, from the beginning of the layout planning, has always thought about how to defend, and today, the entire clan is a wild wolf armed to the teeth, even the back is full of steel needles, whoever wants to rush up and bite, must be ready to accept the mad wolf's dying and struggling counterattack.

With the strength and heritage of the huge empire of the Qing Dynasty, or the elite under the command of Geldan who is rampant in the grasslands, it is not that it cannot be attacked here, but how many teeth need to be broken to capture it!

No one wants to give an estimated figure, and neither Sanjack nor Nalan Pearl are willing. The outside world only estimated its strength according to the scale of the old clan, but what they didn't expect was that this insignificant small force actually became a thorn stuck in the throat, and under the rat trap, there was no way to properly solve it.

This is a completely unexpected variable.

In the face of this variable, the original attitude of the two has also undergone earth-shaking changes.

"It's ridiculous, just tens of thousands of miscellaneous soldiers, a few arrow towers made of broken stones, not to mention that my Eight Banners Iron Cavalry will immediately turn into powder, it is a second-rate general like Yue Zhongqi who commands a partial division, which is enough to wipe out this place to the point where nothing remains!"

Standing with his hands behind his back, Nalan Mingzhu, who had an originally friendly attitude, became more and more dignified as he walked with the pace of the old eight, and at the end, it was so cold that it could almost drip water. When he sat down again on the tower in the outermost circle, he reprimanded him unceremoniously, with a hint of contempt in his arrogant tone, and he seemed disdainful of the old clan's full swing posture, and he would break up if he didn't agree with each other.

He's right.

Zhao Gao looks bluffing here, but what can really be pulled out and fought is probably only the more than 1,000 Wei warriors in the core, more than 1,000 Hufu cavalry archers, hundreds of elite Xuanjia attendants under the command of Lao Ba and thousands of Mai Linglong's white knights. The rest of the soldiers under the command of the title pioneers who have attached themselves are either too low-level, too few in number, or both, and they are barely able to put together a number of poses, and they can't hold out even if they really go to the battlefield.

As for Zhao Gao's peasant beggar army, it is difficult to have any room for growth without enough battlefield experience.

If the Qing Dynasty really took Yue Zhongqi as the commander, commanded tens of thousands of elite soldiers, and had the protection of the national fortune of the Qing Empire, it was not impossible for the old clan to fall in a war.

Calculated in this way, the threat of Nalan Pearl is not alarmist.

"May the god of the steppe, the Celestial Wolf King, and the great Boshuotu Khan be willing to marry your brother forever!"

In contrast, the originally domineering Sanjack lowered his head at the first time, and the alliance he proposed to conclude this time was even commensurate with the state of brothers, which was regarded as putting the posture to the lowest - just this sentence, after it was passed out, could greatly improve the prestige of the old clan's forces, and become a member of many forces that could not be ignored.

What he saw was completely different from Nalan Mingzhu. No one can better understand than him that at this time, it is difficult to overcome the old people, and the need to win over the old people.

For the huge Dzungar Khanate, the so-called military power of the old people is still not worth mentioning. In the case of a frontal battle, Gerdan does not need to appear in person, and any vassal tribe such as Apak and Zhuo can fight the old clan and never turn over. In reality, however, this is simply not possible.

Because there will be no so-called battlefield at all!

Not to mention the scorching heat in summer and cold in winter on the Gobi Desert, even if people can barely bear the war horses and cannot fight in this environment, then they can only choose the spring and autumn seasons when the herdsmen are busiest. If this is the case, the Gobi Desert, which is more than 1,000 miles long, is the biggest natural barrier, cutting off everyone's desire to attack.

Because in the absence of any supplies, it is difficult for an army of any rank to have any combat effectiveness.

There is no pasture, no food, and even water is not guaranteed - how can such a war be fought?

Even if you overcome all the difficulties to reach the front of the old clan, facing the defensive circle formed by tens of thousands of arrow towers, the difficulty of advancing layer by layer can be imagined. What's more, with the compression of the capture circle, the increasingly dense arrow towers are human flesh grinding discs for the cavalry, and the sharp arrows of the Korean crossbowmen entrenched on the high arrow towers are only waiting for countless good men to fill with their lives.

Such a battle cannot be prolonged. The land in the outer circle of the old clan became poorer, and there would be no output at all after the battle. The old clan does not need to attack with their backs to the territory, they only need to stick to the defense and wait patiently, at this time the attacker needs to fight across thousands of miles of supply lines or simply without supplies, which is creepy to think about.

Therefore, unless it is a conquest with the strength of the whole country like the Han Dynasty, attacking the old clan is just a matter of losing both sides and making no sense.

Whether it is Sanjack or Nalan Mingzhu, they can be regarded as momentary masterpieces, although the angles seen by the two are different, it is because the forces behind the two are different, and the confidence is different, so the attitude of negotiation is different.

Nothing more!

Fortunately, this is no different for the old clan, according to the law of blood reward, when there is enough self-preservation, the next time is to seek compensation according to the destructive power.

PS: But I'm a little hardworking, aren't I?