A group of fast horses left Chang 'an City at a galloping speed.
After a quarter of an hour, the group arrived at the relay station. The leader of the horses shouted, "Six horses, urgent report."
The relay station staff brought out six horses as quickly as possible. The six of them changed horses and sped up. In a dozen breaths of time, they reached the fastest speed of the horses.
After another quarter of an hour, they arrived at the second relay station and shouted the same thing.
There were many relay stations in the capital government. In just an hour, the six people who came to deliver the news had covered a distance of more than a hundred and ten li.
This was because of the delay caused by the change of horses. Otherwise, they would have been even faster.
The people delivering the urgent report didn't feel tired at all. Instead, they were very excited. It was too satisfying.
After two hours, the urgent report rushed out of the capital and headed northwest.
The relay stations of the Anxi Protectorate hadn't been fully built yet. The group of messengers ran for eleven days.
This was after they had covered more than half the distance and encountered a relay station for ten li.
Otherwise, they would have to run for half a month. If all of them were to use a relay station for ten li, six days would be considered slow.
The current group was running the same way they came. To Liangzhou, this was a distance of more than 1700 li.
At this time, there were still four hours before the sky turned dark. The group wanted to reach Qinzhou before the sky turned completely dark.
Then, they would use a kerosene lamp to slow down their speed and reach Jincheng in Lanzhou in the middle of the night.
Crossing the Yellow River at night was still slower after reaching shore. At the same time, the sky was almost bright.
After another six hours of running, the letter arrived at Liangzhou around noon.
The longer the day, the faster the speed. It was indeed tiring to run for a day and a night, but it could be persevered.
The six of them didn't stop and weren't afraid of exhausting the horses. The horses probably wouldn't even be satisfied before they reached the next destination.
The messenger from the Anxi Protectorate was sleeping soundly. He didn't eat, only drinking a bowl of soup.
They changed horses but didn't change people. After eleven days of running, there were twenty of them. They were afraid that someone would intercept them.
When they fell asleep, the apprentices of the Imperial Physician Bureau massaged them to relieve their muscle fatigue.
In the past, they didn't receive such treatment. They didn't think that the messenger needed to be massaged and just needed to sleep.
Now that things had changed, they had to treat the soldiers well. In any case, the apprentices needed to practice and had their masters to guide them.
Normally speaking, the person who delivered the message would still feel uncomfortable sleeping and would need to rest for a few days.
Now, all of their eyebrows were relaxed, but they weren't snoring. After the massage, they would stop snoring as soon as someone touched them.
They had straws in their noses and oxygen bags to give them oxygen.
The massage apprentice changed the towel every once in a while. The wet towel.
The towel that was replaced was thrown into the basin of water. Within a few breaths, the water in the basin turned black.
His master was teaching him how to press the spot, thread, and face. The messenger was dirty, so it was just right.
If the towel was removed, that place would be darker than the other side.
The person who was sleeping soundly did not know that he had enjoyed an oxygen massage and even took a shower.
"If I'm not wrong, Guo Zhiyun will be able to launch his attack in five days." Bi Goo had a map in front of him. It was a map given to him by Li Yi.
Su Yi looked as well. "It doesn't look too far away. Two days, unless the local army isn't ready."
"These are the mountains. There are three mountains, Guzang South Mountain, Gold Mountain and Snowy Mountain. We have to go around them." Bi Goo pointed to the names of the mountains on the map.
He then asked someone to bring over a thick dictionary-like thing and started to look for it.
"Look, there's an introduction to the mountains, their relative heights and the situation of the river valleys." Bi Goo asked Su Yi to look.
Su Yi looked and nodded. "Yes, it will take five days. After going around them, we will be able to advance."
Song Jing pointed to the map. "There are troops stationed on the west side of Snowy Mountain. This year's supplies are pretty good. If some of the troops go around, the troops on the west side of Snowy Mountain will attack directly. Once the news is out, it will take two days."
"The locations are pretty good." Su Yi finished speaking and saw the two of them looking at him strangely. He then laughed.
He felt that his words were a little stupid. How could the Provincial Governor not know the local situation?
It was guaranteed that they would choose places that were easy to defend and hard to attack. For example, in the battle of Songzhou, there was a river behind Songzhou. If they wanted to attack Songzhou, they would have to cross the river.
If they didn't attack Songzhou, they would have to cross the river directly. If Songzhou sent troops to attack them, they would be able to attack them halfway across the river.
Therefore, if Tubo couldn't attack Songzhou, they would never cross the river. Otherwise, they would be attacked by the Military forces of the Tang Dynasty.
If there was no river, Songzhou wouldn't be able to catch up with the cavalry and would have to go around the city.
If Tubo wanted to attack Liangzhou, they would first attack the garrison of Snowy Mountain. If they wanted to attack the garrison of Snowy Mountain, they would have to cross a river called the Haomen River.
The Haomen River was the main stream of the Huang River, which flowed into the Yellow River.
This was the location they chose. If they wanted to attack, they would have to attack halfway across the river even if they had to pay a heavy price to defeat the army of the Tang Dynasty.
Would they be able to cross the Snowy Mountain afterwards? If they didn't, they would have to take a detour. If they took a detour, wouldn't the Provincial Governor of Longyou, who was very close below them, attack them from behind?
In fact, there was an army stationed on the west side of the Haomen River. The whole place couldn't be attacked at all.
That was why Wang Wei wrote the Liangzhou poem, "Lone smoke rises in the great desert, and the sun sets in the long river."
In the beacon towers of the Tang Dynasty, lone smoke represented peace. When a column of smoke rose, it meant that there was no war.
The two days that Song Jing was talking about were when Liangzhou sent the order to attack to the army on the west side of Snowy Mountain and sent troops from there.
Su Yi understood and was suddenly stunned. After a while, he said, "According to this, Li Yi has done a great service."
He thought of the steamship. It was easy to go against the current. Even from Chang 'an, they could send things to the front through the Yellow River.
He finally understood the power of the steamship and what it meant that the Hukou Waterfall could be navigated.
Steamships were slow, but they could be built to send things to the front continuously.
If there were any local specialties in the front, they could be loaded onto the steamship and sent back downstream.
Not only would they provide Baggage for the front line, but they would also solve the problems of the local people's livelihood and ensure that their income would increase a lot.
The local things couldn't be transported out, so they would all be thrown away, including fruits, animal skins, and wild herbs.
What was needed was an official team that could make profits from the Yellow River, which would be of great help to the front line.
"Xiao Yi is working for his own family. How can that be considered a contribution? When he can build a bigger kite and directly fly the things over, this old man will be convinced. "
Bi Goo was showing off again. I'm the best.
…
"Third Brother, look, there is less than 30 miles between these two rivers. If we dig it and connect it, we won't have to go through the Hukou Waterfall."
Li Yi showed Li Longji the map in Zhuangzi. Longshui was connected to Wei River, and there was another river above it.
That river was connected to the Yellow River and had a canal.
It was much closer to the Hukou Waterfall and had a man-made canal.
Li Longji pointed at the location on the map. "There are mountains."
"It's easier to have mountains. The valleys will naturally flow. If we connect the top and bottom, we won't even need to dig the valleys. The river is not very wide, so it's definitely not a problem to take the steamship."
Li Yi was not afraid of mountains. If there were mountains, there would be valleys. How many wells were there in Xinjiang? A horizontal mountain would blast through it.
"It's dangerous, right?" Li Longji was worried about death.
"Prisoners on death row either die or work. When we dig it out, the death penalty will be turned into a prison sentence. No matter what, they will benefit." Li Yi had a candidate in mind.
Ask those who needed to be shot. Would they rather live in danger for an indefinite period of time or be shot?
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