What's more, the place where they are now fighting is in the plateau region, which was once considered a cursed land and a forbidden area for the Han Chinese. The Han army www.biquge.info underwent a long period of adaptive training before entering this area.

But even so, many fighters were eliminated one after another because they could not adapt to the climate here, and these fighters were still young, and they still had a certain elimination rate. And Zhang Fei is the oldest person in this legion, and it is indeed not easy for him to persist until now.

In addition, the Han army marched all the way in the Tibetan region, and Zhang Fei's headquarters continued to relocate, gradually moving to higher altitudes. In this era, there was no altimeter, and it was impossible to measure the altitude of a place, so before he knew it, Zhang Fei went to a place at a very high altitude.

Here, Zhang Fei's aging body was finally overwhelmed, and he suffered severe altitude sickness and fell ill. This time, it was not only him, but other soldiers also suffered from altitude sickness. The soldiers, along with Zhang Fei, were rushed down the plateau and moved to a lower altitude for treatment.

Most of the soldiers sent down to the lower altitudes recovered quickly, but some of the more seriously ill ones developed pneumonia and are still being treated, including Zhang Fei. Liu Hou learned more about the situation and found that the situation was not very bad, and there were about 1,000 soldiers who had severe altitude sickness.

There are about 50,000 people who go up to high altitudes, and the attrition rate due to altitude sickness is not too high. This was due to the fact that the Han army had a lot of acclimatization training before entering the plateau, and in addition, there was a large medical team to follow the troops.

Those doctors who are full of research spirit have done their best to find various ways to deal with altitude sickness. Another point is that penicillin has been mass-produced, and these panaceas are of course prioritized for the army that is desperate for the country on the front line.

With the anti-infection of penicillin, coupled with the efforts of the medical team accompanying the army, these 1,000 soldiers who suffered from severe altitude sickness died very little in the end, of course, there are many people who can save a life, but they have left more serious sequelae, not suitable to continue to stay in the army, and have to be demobilized early.

Zhang Fei and Guan Gong were both very important to Liu Hou, they were not only important ministers of the Zhu State, but also one of his few relatives. They were Liu Bei's sworn brothers, both his uncle and his father-in-law, so Liu Hou attached great importance to them.

Liu Hou sent an ultra-luxurious medical team, escorted by Yulin Army, to quickly meet Zhang Fei, before leaving, he personally went to see off this medical team, and repeatedly explained to them that he wanted to save Zhang Fei's life at all costs.

That's all Liu Hou can do, the rest is only waiting, and the final result can only depend on Zhang Fei's own creation.

As the king of a country, Liu Hou has too many things to deal with, even if most of the government affairs have been handed over to the cabinet, but there are still many things that need to be finally decided by him, after all, the current Han is not a real constitutional monarchy, so there is no time for him to grieve now.

The first thing he had to deal with was the question of the commander of this Tibetan army. Regardless of whether Zhang Fei can be rescued this time or not, Liu Hou does not plan to let him go back to lead the troops on the battlefield, although it is an honor for a soldier to die on the battlefield, and the horse leather shroud sounds very poetic, but after all, Zhang Fei is too old to do such a romantic thing.

He has long reached the age of retirement, especially for a soldier, he is too old, it can be said that he has never lived a few days in his life for the sake of the Liu family, and it is time for him to settle down and enjoy the blessings.

The determination of the commander of the army along the way cannot be determined by the emperor's words, the strong emperor may do this, but even if he must appoint someone as the commander, he must summon the ministers to discuss it symbolically, otherwise, the emperor will be too irresponsible.

Liu Hou was a very contradictory emperor, sometimes he was very strong, but sometimes he was very thorough. In terms of national affairs, he is now gradually delegating power to the cabinet, and more often than not, he only plays the role of an observer, and from time to time he also makes a few remarks from the side.

In terms of military affairs, although he is gradually delegating power to the General Staff, in general, the army is still firmly in his own hands. The appointment and dismissal of important personnel in the armed forces is generally discussed and recommended by the General Staff Headquarters first, and finally the list is submitted to Liu Hou, who makes the final decision. Of course, as the emperor and chief of the General Staff, Liu Hou can also be nominated, but in the end, the list of nominations must be submitted to the General Staff for analysis and discussion, and its feasibility can only be decided.

Of course, the current General Staff is far less powerful than the General Staff of later generations, and their main responsibility is to analyze certain specific situations or formulate some strategies. In the end, the decision-maker is still the emperor.

For example, if the commander of the Tubo Army needs to be changed this time, then Liu Hou only needs to tell the General Staff about this demand and ask them to draw up a suitable candidate, and they will hold a meeting to analyze and discuss, recommend a suitable person, and report the reasons for the selection of this person to the emperor.

As for whether to use this person in the end, it is up to the emperor to decide. Of course, if they think that more than one person is suitable for the position, they may also nominate multiple candidates, and list the strengths and weaknesses of these people one by one for the emperor's reference and choice.

There is also a situation, that is, the emperor directly nominates someone, however, the emperor does not know whether this person is really suitable for the position, whether there is anything lacking in consideration, and he can also throw this question to the General Staff.

The General Staff will analyze the feasibility of this person holding this position, and the places where this person is suitable and those places that are not suitable can be listed for the emperor's decision-making reference.

Therefore, at this time, the General Staff was still biased towards the role of an advisory body, and in the language of later generations, this was a think tank, a Han version of the RAND Corporation. The backbone members of the General Staff are mainly teachers and students of the former Military Research Institute, and they are the ones who do specific things.

Among them, several ministers in the cabinet who understand military affairs, such as Zhuge Liang, Bu Qi, Guo Youzhi, etc., also serve part-time as advisers, and when they encounter some major strategic decisions, Liu Hou will also convene them to participate in discussions.

According to Liu Hou's original plan, he wanted to separate government affairs from military affairs, and the cabinet should be in charge of government affairs but not involved in the military field. The military is under the command of the General Staff. The separation of military and political affairs has a certain positive effect on preventing the rebellion of officials below.

However, the current situation is that the students of the original Military Research Institute are still too young, and their experience and resourcefulness are not enough to take on heavy responsibilities. The Han Dynasty still lacked enough loyal military advisers to use, so they could only let Zhuge Liang work part-time in the General Staff.

There is also a group of personnel in the General Staff, that is, the former vassals of Wei and Wu. Some of them have real skills, but they may not be very loyal to the current Han, Liu Hou doesn't want to waste their talents, but he is wary of them, so he puts them here as advisers.

Although these people have access to some military secrets of the Han Dynasty, they have no real power, and even if they want to do something, they have no way. The typical representative among them is Sima Yi.