On the other side, after receiving Li Liangzuo's military order, Li Bingchang immediately began to arrange for the crossing of the Green Ridge, the so-called Green Ridge is the Pamir Plateau, which is the necessary place for the southern section of the Silk Road, with an average altitude of more than 4,000 meters, and the Green Ridge is not a plateau flatland, but is composed of rugged mountains, basins and river valleys, and there are no roads at all in many places, and most of them are no man's land, so it is simply unthinkable to march in this kind of place.
For the iron cavalry from the East, the Green Ridge has always been an insurmountable natural obstacle, in ancient Chinese history, only the army of the Han and Tang Dynasties crossed the Green Ridge to Central Asia, but that was only twenty or thirty thousand cavalry, Xiang Li Bingchang this time led a hundred thousand troops across the Green Ridge, this is the first time in history, in order to cross the Green Ridge, Li Bingchang made sufficient preparations before departure.
First of all, before departure, Li Bingchang prepared a large number of pack horses, and at the same time, the 100,000 troops all threw away their heavy equipment and marched lightly, each carrying only a pair of leather armor, bows and crossbows, knives and guns, and the rest of the things were all thrown away, and each person carried a month's worth of dry food, all of which were made of rigid compressed biscuits, because there were enough pack horses prepared, so when they set off, basically everyone could have three or four horses.
In addition, there is a very serious problem that there is no map about the Green Ridge in the Xia army's database, that is to say, Li Bingchang and the 100,000 army need to travel by themselves, and the only thing Li Bingchang can identify the direction is the compass, but due to technical problems in this period, the compass is easy to fail, so Li Bingchang has prepared a large number of compasses, and there are a group of craftsmen in the march, which are responsible for building weapons and heavy siege equipment for the whole army.
The status of craftsmen in the Great Xia Kingdom is very good, especially these craftsmen who accompany the army, every time they win on the battlefield, the craftsmen have the right to enjoy the fruits of victory with the soldiers, and in the army, the soldiers will also be randomly inspected, mainly to ask about the use of weapons, these are also the standards for assessing craftsmen, craftsmen in the Great Xia Kingdom are highly respected industries, especially blacksmiths; Under the promotion of Li Liangzuo for many years, soldiers and craftsmen are no longer inferior people, and now these two professions are the most popular.
To get back to the point, Li Bingchang led the 100,000 Xia army to enter the Green Ridge when it was relatively smooth, but the more you go inside, the more complicated things become, unconsciously more than ten days have passed, according to Li Bingchang's original calculation, this time should have been about to cross the Green Ridge, but now in front of Li Bingchang is still a series of mountains, there is a high snow peak in the distance, looking at the dazzling sun in the sky, Li Bingchang's heart is very uncomfortable.
The weather changes very quickly, the morning is mild and sunny, but at noon suddenly dark clouds, after more than ten days of experience, Li Bingchang understands, the snowstorm is coming again, the weather here is too weird, I don't know what will happen in the next moment, because I didn't know about this place before, so far the 100,000 army led by Li Bingchang has lost more than 1,000 people, and there are still many wounded soldiers among the people who have survived.
"Report, report, report to the prince, my general found a cave in front of him, and asked the prince to lead the army to escape the blizzard."
A cavalryman hurried to report.
"Got it, this king will go."
In order to facilitate Li Bingchang to better command the whole army, before leaving, Li Liangzuo specially sent a deputy marshal to Li Bingchang, this person is Li Yanze, as Li Liangzuo trained among the top ten generals, Li Chahan and Li Yanze are both children of the royal family, according to the seniority of the royal family, Li Yanze is still Li Bingchang's cousin; Li Liangzuo sent Li Yanze to Li Bingchang's side because he valued Li Yanze's steadiness in his work, and Li Liangzuo hoped that Li Bingchang would be able to stop him when he made radical acts.
Li Bingchang came to this cave under the leadership of the sentry horseman, the entrance of the cave is very hidden, but the inside is very spacious, before Li Bingchang led the army to arrive, Li Yanze has already prepared here, this cave is very large, there is no problem with accommodating 100,000 troops, after entering the cave, Li Bingchang took a torch around the cave wall, Li Bingchang found that the cave wall had been chiseled.
"Lord Wang, what have you discovered?"
Li Yanze walked up to Li Bingchang's side and asked.
Li Bingchang said to Li Yanze: "You look at the traces of the cave wall being excavated, which means that this cave is not naturally formed. ” "What the prince means is that this cave is built artificially, how much manpower, material and financial resources will be spent on such a large cave?"
"It's not all artificially built, you see that the top of the cave is naturally formed, this cave should be expanded by the predecessors according to the original natural existence of the cave, but what makes the king wonder is who built such a cave here, such a huge cave, it is obvious that it is used to garrison troops only us, and our 100,000 troops have come in, and we have not even occupied half of the cave."
"Such a big cave, all dynasties have the ability to build it, and only the Han and Tang dynasties have the ability to build it."
"No, in addition to the Han and Tang Dynasties, it is also possible in Tibet; Since the Anshi Rebellion of the Tang Dynasty, the Tubo Dynasty has developed to the extreme, expanded westward to the Green Mountains, occupied the four towns of Anxi, and even once controlled the grassland areas in the north, so it is possible that Tubo is also possible, no matter who built this cave here, it doesn't matter anymore, now the question is how we get out of this vast mountain."
"Lord Wang, what the last general means is that we rely on the sun and compass during the day and the purple microstar at night, all the way to the west, and one day we will be able to go out."
"Let's hope so" "Lord Wang, it's not good, it's not good, we have dozens of wounded soldiers because they can't stand the cold, I'm afraid they will be," a junior officer came to Li Bingchang and said.
Li Bingchang came to the front of these dozens of wounded soldiers under the leadership of a junior officer, Li Bingchang looked at these dozens of people and said: "Do you still have any unfulfilled wishes, say it, and this king will satisfy it for you." ” One of the wounded soldiers said to Li Bingchang: "Lord Wang, the little one has never read and doesn't know any big truth, the little one only knows that our Royal Forest Legion has never lost a battle, and the little one only hopes that the prince can take his brothers out of the Green Mountains and fight a beautiful battle, so that we, the dead brothers, can enter the Sword Hall and glorify our ancestors." ” Li Bingchang looked at this person firmly and said, "Don't worry, you will all enter the Sword Hall after you die, and you will receive the eternal incense of future generations."
Li Bingchang twisted his head to the side after speaking, and then said to the attendants beside him: "Let the brothers go on the road, don't let them endure more pain." ” The attendant nodded and left, and Li Yanze asked Li Bingchang, "Lord Wang, what did you mean by what you said just now." ” Li Bingchang didn't answer, Li Yanze only saw that the attendant just now was wiping the necks of those wounded soldiers one by one with a knife, Li Yanze just wanted to stop it, but was stopped by Li Bingchang and said: "Their fate is already doomed, instead of letting them die in pain, it is better to give them a good time." ” Ask for support, ask for recommendations, please support us: