Huge waterwheels stand on both sides of the Yellow River, rotating constantly under the impact of the turbulent river.

Two thick ropes stretched eastward, and a willow boat full of grain was pulled up from downstream and docked under a grass hut on the bank of the river.

From here further north, there is no trace of any waterwheels, and to the south there are only three or four scattered places, which occasionally come in handy, allowing mules and horses to rest for a while, and slightly speeding up the speed of some military ration transfers, but this is only a few, and more of a role has not been seen.

On the top of a mountain in the distance, an old stone fort stands resolutely.

Jishi Town, this is the key point of the army, even if the front line is lost, it can be held here; Similarly, once this place is lost, it will be difficult for Datang to kill again.

From then on, the lands to the west would become independent kingdoms.

……

Countless sounds of "nailing and framing" came from inside the stone castle, and I don't know how many craftsmen were busy in a hurry.

In the hall of the main general of the stone castle, Li Xuan looked at the sand table on both sides of the Yellow River in front of him, not knowing what he was thinking.

Beside him, there were several military newspapers, the breeze flashed, and the content of the military newspapers appeared clearly:

In the third year of Shangyuan, on April 17, Pei Xingjian, the head of the Lanshan Road march, sent 3,000 forwards out of Shanzhou, fought fiercely with the Tubo army on the shore of Qinghai Lake in the west of Shibao, and then retreated to Shibao, and the Tubo people chased after him, and was defeated under Shibao City, leaving 6,000 heads, and the army marched.

In the third year of Shangyuan, on April 17, Li Jinxing, the head of the Taohe Road march, sent two thousand forwards, out of Kambu Lake, under the colorful peak of Ashgon, and met the defenders of Tubo, the two sides fought for half a day, and then Li Jinxing led 3,000 troops to arrive, defeated the enemy, beheaded 1,000, and the army marched.

In the third year of Shangyuan, on April 22, Jianzha Donglongwu Village was attacked by the Tubo Tongren army very urgently, Li Xuan, the deputy chief of the Taohe Road march, sat in the town, routed the enemy with crossbow arrows, and the enemy's attack began to slow down.

Li Xuan stood in front of the sand table, also holding an official document in his hand, and four words leaked out between the opening and closing: "Please transfer the craftsman ......"

Li Xuan's breathing couldn't help but become heavy, and after the improvement of the grain routes on both sides of the Yellow River began, he rushed from Longwu Village to Jishi Town.

But one by one, countless things are complicated.

First of all, the people were chaotic and everything was out of order, Li Xuan quickly transferred the Hangzhou soldiers into the people and worked together with the people, which became orderly.

The second is that the materials are insufficient, wood, iron, and stone are all insufficient, and they hurriedly start the project, and they are unprepared, so they can only do it for a while and stop for a while.

But fortunately, their main task is to transport grain, and the military rations have been transported in the early stage, and there is no lack of threat for the time being.

Add to that iron, stone, and wood in place, and the speed is getting faster again.

Now, another thorny problem has arisen, the shortage of craftsmen.

Three thousand Hangzhou soldiers intervened in an orderly manner, and the people, wood, iron, and stone were all ready, but even among them, the number of craftsmen was still insufficient.

Now that the army was in full swing, all the craftsmen of the nearby states had been called into the army to build ordnance, carriages, and even warships.

It is becoming more and more difficult to mobilize more people to build waterwheels and roads.

The shortage of craftsmen has become a huge problem that restricts the tension of the project.

As for the transfer from Chang'an to the northwest, not to mention whether those craftsmen will come, even if they are willing to come, Chang'an may not be willing to let go.

Li Xuan sighed lightly and reached out to take out a drawing of a waterwheel.

He picked up the pen and finally gently drew a line outward on the axle and then downward......

"Bang bang bang" The sound of hurried footsteps sounded outside the door, Li Xuan's brows furrowed, and he instantly threw the drawings into the water basin on the side.

The water soon soaked the white paper completely, and immediately after, the basin began to rotate rapidly, and the white paper was immediately torn to shreds.

At this moment, Su Baotong, who was dressed in red and gold armor, walked in quickly from outside, but put an official document in front of Li Xuan with a solemn face.

Looking at the official document, Li Xuan raised his eyebrows and said softly: "The Tubo people have begun to try to cross the river again, and it seems that the general has killed the city of Guide." ”

Now it has been half a month since the departure of the army, and the Tubo people on the Guide side have been delaying along the way, making the army move forward very slowly.

They wanted to wait until the Tang Army's plateau miasma attacked, and then take the opportunity to attack, but they didn't know at all that the most advanced parts of the Tang Army were people who had already passed a plateau sickness, so they were not in a hurry to move forward at all, just waiting for the people who followed behind, and their first wave of altitude sickness passed, and then they attacked quickly.

However, no matter how slow it is, by now, Li Jinxing has led people to kill under the city of Guide.

Guide was originally owned by the Tang Dynasty, but was later taken away by the Tibetans, who migrated a large number of herdsmen from Tuyuhun.

Originally, some grain could be produced in that area, but after the Tuyuhun War, the farmland was completely abandoned and almost became a grassland land.

If it weren't for the narrowness of the valley in that area, which was not suitable for the army to gallop, otherwise the cavalry of Tuyuhun alone would be enough for the Tang army to drink a pot.

Li Jinxing began to besiege the city, and the siege and defense of the city was the most familiar tactic of the Han people.

But Li Jinxing will not easily enter the city, with the county seat as the thread, the Tuyuhun people will not easily lose the county seat no matter what, so that they can take the county as the center as much as possible, pull the Tuyuhun people left and right, and completely annihilate them under the city as much as possible.

At the same time, Li Jinxing was very patiently waiting for the plateau miasma to pass.

Altitude miasma, altitude sickness.

Nowadays, it is not considered to be too high, so even if there is altitude sickness now, the reaction will not be too strong.

But continue to go west, and who knows when a stronger altitude sickness will strike, and if one is not careful, half of the army will fall.

In addition, Li Jinxing also had to look at the back road and the grain road.

"There were a hundred Tibetan soldiers who went down the river from the upper reaches and tried to land directly on the shore, but they were shot directly by the crossbows, and those rafts should have crashed into the north bank in the turbulent river, and then all of them were shattered, but the south bank dragged it with ropes, and then connected in a line, trying to directly impact the opposite bank."

Su Baotong's expression was solemn, he looked at Li Xuan with a little worry, and said: "Lord Wang, this time the Tubo people seem to be regardless of the dead and wounded, and keep sending troops down the raft from the upstream, trying to use the raft to form a pontoon bridge on the river to impact Longwu Village, Li Lang will be worried about something happening upstream and downstream, so please go back to preside over the overall situation." ”

"He can handle such a thing." Li Xuan's brows couldn't help frowning, and his face was slightly gloomy: "No, Li Duozuo can handle these things, he doesn't need to ask for any reinforcements at all, unless he ......"

Thinking of this, Li Xuan's expression immediately sank, and said, "Let's go, take two hundred cavalry, and rush to Longwu Village immediately." ”

"Whoa!"

……

A large group of cavalry rushed into the camp from the east at great speed, and the fierce battle in front was fierce, Li Xuan immediately turned over and dismounted, and waved his hand backwards: "One hundred cavalry continue to patrol upstream to ensure the grain route, and the other hundred cavalry dismount and act as crossbowmen, up." ”

A hundred crossbowmen immediately rushed into the southern camp, rushed to the river bank, aimed at the Tibetan soldiers who came down from the river surface, and pulled the trigger without the slightest hesitation.

Under the hundreds of sharp crossbow arrows, the Tubo soldiers on the raft were killed and wounded in an instant, and only a few people escaped for their lives.

On the empty raft, a thin rope was immediately tightened, and then it was pulled directly to the south bank of the river by a strong force, and finally connected with the raft bridge that was already more than 60 meters long.

At this moment, upstream, a black press, and more than a dozen rafts fell downstream.

After the soldiers on it were completely slaughtered, a dozen rafts were immediately collected and quickly connected.

In one breath, the raft stepped forward more than twenty meters.

After repeating this, all of a sudden, hundreds of meters of rafts have been connected to the Yellow River.

"Is this man crazy?" Li Xuan stood on top of the watchtower, looking at the figure that appeared on the cliff on the opposite bank in the distance, and his brows couldn't help frowning.

Li Duozuo stood on the side and said to Li Xuan: "The last general also feels that it is wrong, but I can't say what is wrong." ”

Li Xuan shook his head and said: "A raft bridge like this, the further forward it is subjected to the impact of the river, the greater the possibility of breakage, so under normal circumstances, the raft bridge will break if it is not used in the middle of the river...... But now the guy on the other side obviously didn't think so, and he had a way to make the raft bridge smoothly connect the two sides...... But unless he can find a way to climb the north bank, and the north bank can only build this bridge by towing it, even if a large number ......of lives are piled up, it will be in vain in the end."

Li Xuan's voice suddenly paused, a sneer flashed at the corner of his mouth, and said, "I know what they are going to do." Order, prepare two catapults, stand by at any time, Brother Gaichuan, you will be on duty tonight, after the hour, no matter what, the catapult will throw stones at the middle of the river. ”

"Whoa!" Although Li Duozuo didn't know why, he still bowed down to receive the order.

Li Xuan waved his hand and said, "This king will take people upstream to take a look, so as not to be fished in troubled waters." ”

"Whoa!" Before Li Duozuo finished speaking, Li Xuan had already turned around and left, and a trace of surprise flashed in Li Duozuo's eyes.

……

In the dead of night, the offensive of the Tibetans did not know when, and it had completely stopped.

On the north bank, the torches were bright, but on the south bank it was dark for some reason.

Li Duozuo sat on the top of the watchtower, his eyes slightly closed, listening to all the sounds around him, especially on the other side.

Although what Li Xuan said today was not thorough, it also made Li Duozuo understand that the Tubo people were planning to do something tonight.

However, since dark, all the movement on the river has stopped, and the Tibetans seem to have really given up.

The turbulent Yellow River completely obscured all the sounds.

At the moment, the sound on the river suddenly became clear, Li Duozuo was startled, and then quickly stood up.

More sounds came from the surface of the river, but the firelight on the north bank was only a stone's throw away, and he couldn't see the situation on the other side clearly, but Li Jinxing knew that the movement of the Tubo people had come.

Patiently waiting for Zi Shizheng, Li Duozuo immediately turned his head to look at the side, the four catapults he deliberately transferred, he didn't think about it, and directly shouted: "Summons, throw two rounds of fireballs first, and then throw three rounds of rolling stones." ”

"Whoa!"

The huge fireball suddenly pierced the night sky and threw it fiercely over the middle of the Yellow River, and the flames were bright.

It was at this moment that a dense crowd stood on the surface of the Yellow River.

Li Jinxing, who saw this scene, had already stared at him in horror.

"Rolling stones, rolling stones, throwing rolling stones now!"

(End of chapter)