The time soon came to April of the 12th year of Tempo (753).

The 8,000 Anxi elite soldiers led by Li Siye plus the 4,000 Tubo people's army have been walking in the Qiangtang no man's land for more than a month, and the journey has exceeded 1,000 miles.

Under Lu Xiaoning's guidance, the army came to a salt water lake again.

Seeing that it was almost evening, Li Siye immediately ordered to set up camp.

Lu Xiaoning pulled the lens up to the highest, and then opened Baidu Earth on the split screen for comparison.

After comparison, it was found that this salt water lake should be the Lagoco salt water lake in Gaize County, which is about 1,500 miles away from Lhasa, and the journey has already been halfway through.

At that moment, Lu Xiaoning lowered the camera again.

On the ground, the Anxi army has set up tents and is burying pots to cook.

The Tibetan people's army gathered together the cattle, sheep and horses scattered around grazing.

Li Siye led 300 guards to dig a ditch by the salt water lake to divert water, and covered the top of the canal with canvas, the canvas was pressed with stones and mud around the canvas, and a few stones were pressed in the center to form a funnel shape, and a container was placed at the bottom of the funnel, and after the sun rose the next day, fresh water could be condensed for people and animals to drink.

It's actually a distilled water collection device.

For modern people, this is common sense, and it is not worth a penny.

But for Li Siye and other Tang Dynasty people, this is an immortal method.

After the soldiers of the Anxi Army drank the fresh water condensed by this device for the first time, they couldn't believe their eyes, and they could turn the salty and astringent salt water into clear and drinkable fresh water, and only the immortal family had the means.

Cui He, who was busy, suddenly froze, and then seemed to have changed into a different person.

Li Siye knew that Lu Tianshi had already gone up, and immediately sang with a fork of his hands and said, "Has Lu Tianshi ever seen clearly? ”

"Well, I've seen it clearly." Cui He (Lu Xiaoning) nodded and said, "There are still about 1,500 miles from this place, and according to the current marching speed, it will probably take about a month to walk." ”

The average daily march was fifty miles, which was much slower than that of the Mongol cavalry.

On average, the Mongol army could travel 800 or even 100 miles a day on its westward expedition.

And this is not ten days and eight days, but a long march that lasts hundreds of days.

The Anxi army walked slowly, mainly because the altitude of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau was too early, and the oxygen was too thin.

Because the thin oxygen cannot support the high-intensity long-distance march, neither humans nor animals, otherwise emphysema will basically not be saved.

Li Siye breathed a sigh of relief when he heard this.

If you go for another month, you will have no problem at all.

The surplus food was enough for the army to feed for three months, and there was still a surplus.

What's more, most of the more than 20,000 sheep, more than 2,000 cows and more than 5,000 mares that went out with the army are still there, and they can produce nearly 100,000 liters of milk every day.

It's delicious, and it also makes the Anxi soldiers stronger.

Thinking of this, Li Siye cast an admiring look at Lu Tianshi again.

In the end, it was Lu Tianshi, and such a wonderful logistical supply could be thought of.

With this method, the expedition distance and ability of the Tang army were not improved a little, but there was a reborn improvement, if the Great Sui had mastered this method, it would never have been dragged down by Goguryeo, and Emperor Taizong would not have been able to conquer Liaodong three times and still couldn't help Goguryeo.

Li Siye couldn't help but imagine that with this logistics supply method, the Anxi Army's expedition to Dashi (Arab Empire) or even Fula (Eastern Roman Empire) would become possible.

Just when Li Siye was imagining the future expedition, Lu Wen walked over quickly.

"Whoa." Lu Wen sang a song and said, "All the animals accompanying the army have entered the circle, but after counting, there are several ewes missing, and it is estimated that they were taken away by wild wolves or snow leopards." ”

Soon after the army entered the Qiangtang, there were often predators trailing the march.

Most of the Anxi army will organize archers to hunt, but only for a while.

After a few days, wolves will reappear, and sometimes snow leopards.

Lu Wen said again: "Anyway, tomorrow we will camp here for a day to gather water, and at the end of the day, I will lead the archers to hunt again, and clean up the wild wolves, bears, and snow leopards nearby." ”

Li Siye suddenly raised his head, frowned and said, "It seems that the sky is about to change?" ”

Cui He looked up sharply, and sure enough, he saw that the sky in the northwest was already pitch black.

At this time, Tenzin Quzha also quickly rushed over, and said with a panicked face: "Li Yuanjun, seeing that this weather is going to snowfall tonight, you have to quickly find a sheltered valley to hide the livestock, otherwise you will all freeze to death." ”

"The valley?" Li Siye looked around and found that all of them were low hills.

Such terrain is useless, and if you drive livestock into a valley, you will freeze to death.

"Dig a nest! Hurry up and dig a nest in the ground! Lu Xiaoning immediately said, "Most of the ground here is sandy soil or meadows, and it is still easy to dig holes, so quickly order to dig holes, and then all people and animals hide in them." ”

"Whoa!" Li Siye answered with his hands and immediately ordered to dig the nest.

Lu Xiaoning pulled the camera high into the air, and then pushed it to the dark clouds in the northwest corner.

The camera quickly reached the limit of a thousand meters, but there was still some distance from the dark clouds, and according to this distance, it was estimated that the snowstorm should not have reached Lagoco before midnight.

That means there's still half a night.

……

Nearly midnight, the Anxi Army and the Tibetan People's Army dug thousands of ground nests.

The horses were driven into the deepest part of the nest, then the people, then the mares, the cows, and the nearest to the exit of the nest were the ewes, the exit covered with tent skin sacks.

As soon as 12,000 soldiers and nearly 50,000 cattle took refuge in their dens, the wind began to blow outside, and then snowflakes as big as goose feathers began to fall.

The blizzard fell for half the night.

……

The next morning, when Lu Xiaoning turned on the computer again and entered the Datang world, Qiangtang actually dawned early.

No, Qiangtang actually didn't dawn in advance, but the reflection of the snow gave Lu Xiaoning the illusion that it was already dawn.

Daring from a high altitude, except for the Lagoco Salt Lake, a radius of several hundred kilometers has been completely covered by snow, Lu Xiaoning stared at the snow field for a moment, and then quickly looked away.

Even though it's nighttime, you have to watch out for snow blindness.

Immediately, Lu Xiaoning pushed the camera and landed.

He plunged headlong into the snow and found a nest.

I saw that under the skin of the tent, the five ewes next to the exit of the nest had frozen to death and had turned into ice mounds.

Inside, there was a cow, shivering from the cold, and then there was a mare, and then there were two Anxi soldiers and a Tibetan people's army, and although the three of them were wearing leather jackets, they were still shivering from the cold.

In the deepest part of the nest are three war horses, which are well protected and are eating beans.

I looked at a few more nests, and found that most of them were about the same, and the ewes froze to death, but there were not many cows and mares that froze to death, and only a few people from the Anxi Army and the Tubo People's Army froze to death.

The tents of the nests were all swept away by the strong winds.

Seeing this, Lu Xiaoning's hanging heart also fell back into his stomach.

At this time, the sky was getting brighter, and the Anxi Army and the Tubo People's Army returned to the ground one after another.

Lu Xiaoning found Li Siye and briefly explained the situation: "I just saw that the scope of this snowstorm is still quite large, and it has been completely covered with snow within a radius of two hundred miles. ”

"That's fine." Li Siye breathed a sigh of relief, "One or two hundred miles is only two or three days, and not eating grass for two or three days is not a problem for livestock at all, as long as there is water to drink." ”

"It's easier to drink water, you don't have to rely on canvas to gather water." Cen Shen said with a smile.

With such a thick layer of snow, there is really no need to gather water with a canvas, just drink snow water.

"Then get ready to pull out, and I'll step out of the way for you." After Lu Xiaoning finished speaking, he gently touched Cui He on the LCD screen with his fingers, and in the next moment, consciousness descended on Cui He.

Soon, the sun was rising, and the snow reflected harshly in the sunlight.

The Anxi Army and the Tubo People's Army had long been accustomed to marching in the snow, so they immediately took a sweat towel or untied their heads, and then blindfolded themselves with black yarn, through which they would not get snow blindness.

Cui He also covered his face with black yarn and walked forward on the thick snow.

Soon, long footprints were made on the north shore of the Lagoso Salt Lake.