Half a month later, Qibi Heli's injury finally recovered. Although he was not fully recovered, he was still able to get on the horse. No one dared to delay any longer. If the arrival of Gaochang Kingdom was delayed until winter, resulting in doubled military casualties, no one would be able to do so.
There is no way to escape the wrath of His Majesty Li Er.
Qibi Heli led 10,000 soldiers from Guazhou to charge into the government, and served as the vanguard of the army, attacking Gaochang State.
Tie Le of the Qibi tribe is one of the nine surnamed Tie Le. Although they were forced into desperation by Xue Yantuo, another tribe of the nine surnamed Tie Le, and had to seek refuge with the Tang Dynasty, their tribe was also a powerful tribe on the border and had lived outside the Great Wall for generations.
, mobility and combat effectiveness are not inferior to the main force of the Tang army.
Hou Junji led the main force to travel day and night, marching westward along the old road to Hexi. The tribes in the western regions along the way were all frightened, fearing that the Tang army would find some reason to annihilate them, so they offered horses, money and food to express their loyalty to the Tang Dynasty...
Fang Jun was very depressed.
Hou Junji blatantly suppressed the troops and did not care about His Majesty Li Er's intention to hone the combat power of the Shenji Battalion. He firmly pressed the Shenji Battalion at the rear of the army and did not give Fang Jun any chance to make meritorious deeds.
He really doesn't need to care too much about His Majesty Li Er's intentions.
The general was outside, and the emperor's orders were not accepted. In this Western Expedition army, Hou Junji was the one and only presence. No one dared to question any of his decisions. Even afterward, His Majesty Li Er had some objections to his suppression of the Shenji Battalion.
He was dissatisfied, but after the illustrious military exploits of the Gaochang Kingdom, even His Majesty Li Er had nothing to say.
Fortunately, although Fang Jun had nothing to do with Hou Junji's actions, he did not miss the opportunity of the Western Expedition in vain.
He can play by himself...
The Shenji Battalion followed the baggage battalion and the sick and wounded battalion to the rear. Fang Jun played the training methods he had seen on TV in his previous life, including armed cross-country, midnight assembly, emergency marches, and emergency drills...
Completely treat the Shenji Battalion as an army for future generations for training.
At the same time, he is also more concerned about the situation in the injury camp.
The wounded and sick camps in the Tang Army were not independent, but were set up along the way. At regular intervals, a sick and wounded camp would be set up near the town fortress to collect the wounded for treatment and treatment. They would then be handed over to the local doctor from Zhechong Prefecture.
Responsible for taking care of it, and then set off with the army doctor to the next place to set up a new sick camp.
In this way, the sick and wounded camp will be set up all the way to treat the wounded to the maximum extent.
It will not be until the end of this war that the sick and wounded camps will be abolished one by one.
Fei Yu did not stay in Guazhou, but marched westward with the army. He worshiped Fang Jun's "stitching technique" to the point of worship. Along the way, he had learned a lot about the craftsmanship and was thinking about it.
A medical book should be compiled to spread this suturing method.
With such great achievements in writing books and theories, how can Ge Zhongxing be left behind?
After all, he is Fang Jun's "personal disciple". How can Fei Yu, a country doctor, be more beautiful than his predecessors?
Therefore, Fang Jun's journey is not too boring...
The army's march speed obviously accelerated, and after a few days, they passed Yumen Pass.
Strictly speaking, this is the first time that Fang Jun has seen what a building he had seen in his previous life looked like 1,500 years ago...
Yumenguan is built of rammed yellow clay, with two gates in the northwest. The city wall is ten meters high, with a parapet on the top and a horse track on the bottom. People and horses can go directly to the top.
The pass is surrounded by swamps, criss-crossed gullies, towering beacons, tall euphratica poplars, and the meandering Hulu River with clear water and vast mist. The red willows and swaying reeds complement each other's majestic appearance of the ancient pass.
Fang Jun couldn't help but be fascinated, with mixed feelings and nostalgia for the past.
There is a stone tablet erected by modern people at the entrance of Yumen Pass in the previous life. The seal script is engraved with "Liangzhou Ci" by Tang Dynasty poet Wang Zhihuan: "Far above the Yellow River, among the white clouds, there is an isolated city in Wanren Mountain. Why should the Qiang flute blame the willows? The spring breeze does not pass through Yumen Pass.
.”
In fact, Fang Jun felt that another poem could better reveal the temperament of Yumenguan.
"Qinghai is covered by long clouds and dark snow-capped mountains, and the lonely city overlooks Yumen Pass in the distance. The yellow sand wears golden armor in a hundred battles, and Loulan will never be returned until it is broken."
A modern person cannot understand the status of the ancient Yumen Pass in the hearts of the Han family.
At this time, Yumen Pass was not the ruins of an isolated city in later generations. As an important place on the Silk Road, not only were a large number of troops stationed, but also merchants were stationed in and out of the Xiongguan Fortress in the Central Plains. Teams of camels and horses hung bells inside and outside the pass.
, truckloads of Chinese and foreign supplies, Han and Hu mingled, Chinese and foreigners gathered together, prosperity and prosperity!
The army marched out of Xiongguan, and merchants fled one after another.
Fang Jun and Liu Rengui rode their horses to a stop. Seeing the Marquis's rapid thinking, the latter couldn't help asking: "Master Marquis, what's wrong?"
Fang Jun shook his head and said: "I just remembered a poem and had some feelings."
When Liu Rengui heard this, he perked up and said, "What kind of poem is it? Can you please give it to the general to appreciate it?"
He was a Confucian general who read a lot of military books and strategies, and read a lot of poems and classical meanings. He also knew that Fang Jun was known as one of the "seven talented people". How could he let him pass up the good opportunity to write poems and compose poems based on his feelings?
That's right, Liu Rengui naturally thought that this was a poem that Fang Jun composed because of something he felt in his heart...
Fang Jun did not correct the meaning of Liu Rengui's words. The poems he read a hundred years later are his own poems. Unless he never composes poems in his life, everyone will have to pin these unpublished poems on his head.
Besides, how could he let go of the soaring title of "the greatest poet of all time"?
He doesn’t have any so-called moral obsessiveness...
The Xiongguan Fortress in front of you, the desert next door in the distance, and the scorching sun above your head all embody a heavy atmosphere of time.
Fang Jun turned his horse's head and galloped towards the large army. His deep voice echoed in the wind: "The banners of the Han family are all over the Yinshan Mountains, and I don't want to send a horse to return them. If I wish to serve the country with this life, why should I be born in Yumen Pass!"
How many golden swords and iron horses, how many vicissitudes of the tombs and valleys, how many flying feathers, how many ambitions and tenderness.
How many fine garments sewn by delicate hands were transported by slow-moving camel teams from the Central Plains to this proud and majestic border?
The dense stitches were sewn with infinite lovesickness and blood and tears, and were distributed to every warrior guarding the border during the journey of thousands of miles.
The wind is like a knife, and the battle flag reflects the clouds. How many men fought bloody battles in the flying sand and gravel and rain of arrows, never to return, and the news was lost? How many territories and achievements have been eroded and dimmed by the passage of time?
Generation after generation of men of the Han family, they went to the pass with blood, just to be able to defend their homeland with majesty!
Fang Jun's figure had faded away, but Liu Rengui was still in a daze.
"If you want to live long enough to serve your country, why should you be born in Yumen Pass?!"
A feeling of heroism suddenly surged in my heart!
This is the way I want to go!
It may be full of thorns and bumpy, but so what?
If I wish to live long enough to serve the country, why should I be born in Yumen Pass?
Liu Rengui let out a long laugh, ignoring the astonished travelers and merchants around him, and rode his horse after Fang Jun's back.
Ahead is the boundless desert sand...
************
The army once again stationed at Puchanghai, which was the last stop before entering Gaochang Kingdom.
There are two ways from Yumen Pass to Gaochang State.
It goes north from Yumenguan, crosses Yizhou and enters Gaochang Kingdom. This road is a little more remote. The other one is along the Silk Road with endless flow of merchants to Puchang Sea, and then goes north into Gaochang Kingdom.
From a military point of view, taking the first road can achieve a more unexpected effect, and this road has relatively less desert, which can speed up the march.
But Hou Junji chose the second path without hesitation.
Why was the Tang Dynasty willing to bear a large amount of military expenses and send tens of thousands of troops to the expedition against Gaochang?
The Tang Dynasty paid little attention to the territory of Gaochang State.
The main purpose is to give the countries in the Western Region a shock!
At this time in the Western Regions, Gaochang was considered the king of monkeys, and the real tiger was the Western Turks.
But the heroic Majesty Li Er didn't think so. He believed that he should be the tiger, and there was no room for two tigers in one mountain. The master of the Western Regions could only be the Tang Dynasty!
However, the Western Turks are quite powerful and will not be easy to win in one fell swoop, and the submission of other countries in the Western Regions also needs to be further consolidated.
Since one bite cannot make you fat, then implement the cannibalization plan, step by step, and work steadily.
Due to the geographical location of Gaochang State, it was unfortunate that it was chosen as the key target of attack.
In Gaochang, Qu Wentai did not have a strong sense of crisis. Considering that there was a natural barrier of the desert between him and the Tang Dynasty, and that his country had signed an alliance with the Western Turks, requiring mutual support in the event of an emergency, he was naturally as stable as Mount Tai.
Ju Wentai's series of poor performances prompted His Majesty Li Er, who has always been competitive, to make up his mind to deal with Gao Changguo, and he couldn't wait!