When the main force of the Tang army fought fiercely on the front line, the rear did not become leisurely.

As more than 100,000 combatants continued to advance, the logistics tasks became more and more heavy. Although the army would carry some supplies and supplies when it was set off, a considerable number of them still needed to be transported from the rear.

On the one hand, it is naturally to ensure the safety of materials, and on the other hand, some materials need to be raised in stages. In particular, both sides of the Tang and Tan war invested as many as hundreds of thousands of troops, and the war had a great chance of falling into a war of attrition that confronted each other, and even logistics was very likely to become the biggest factor affecting the outcome of the war.

In the past period of time, the Tang Army Base Camp in the rear has also been constantly adjusting the material retrieval plan based on the war reports sent back from the front line. Although there was no fierce battle here, the pressure it was under is also considerable.

Especially when the foreign army implemented the plan to cut off the current and block the enemy, the main force of the Tang army was slowly advancing, and the pressure under the rear base was unprecedentedly huge. Not to mention the baggage convoy that was constantly moving towards Qinghai every day, even the prime minister Liu Youqiu, who was in charge of logistics affairs, was worried about cutting off his beard, which was rare every day.

When all the consumption meter books were summarized and placed on the saint's desk, Li Tong was shocking to look at the amazing numbers. These numbers themselves are already very impactful, and if you think of the hard work and production of the thousands of people gathered behind them, it will inevitably make people feel even more distressed.

In the Middle Ages, productivity was already low, and these materials were hard-workingly produced, and then they were put into the huge incinerator of war, which was quickly consumed.

When Li Tong thought of this scene, he couldn't help but feel a little convulsive and painful, and even felt a kind of compassionate question: Why do there be such terrible things as war in this world? Can you thieves be able to lie down and let me be so costly to conquer it!

As the cost of war increases day by day, the desire for returns becomes more urgent. A war without interests is like a firework, shining for only a moment, but it cannot last.

So Li Tong was also very busy during this period, and once again used his talent as a small expert in making money, hoping to squeeze out considerable amounts of oil and water from the land of Qinghai.

When it comes to the benefits of war, the most direct plundering of bones and marrow is to destroy the enemy's resistance through war, and then plunder it with all your heart. The second is to possess the land and population, and to obtain profits through continuous enslavement and production.

There are three models that have been learned from the land of Qinghai in modern times, namely the conquest and rule model of the former Sui Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty and the Tubo.

The biggest of these was naturally the former dynasty Emperor Yang of Sui. After the Tuyuhun destroyed the country, he directly established counties and counties to rule, but for various reasons, he only ended up feeling lonely.

After the Tang Dynasty conquered Tuyuhun, it did not intervene too deeply and still gave Tuyuhun nobles great autonomy. This not only reduced successive investment, but also maintained the stability of the border to a certain extent.

But the facts proved that the original rulers of Tuyuhun had become out of place. Especially in the geopolitical situation of Tubo's strong rise, Tuyuhun's rulers were no longer worthy of enjoying this land.

When it comes to rule and gaining interests in Qinghai, Tubo did better than the Tang Dynasty. Although he still supported a Tuyuhun puppet regime, he did not give much power, but Tubo sent ministers to rule directly. Tubo also benefited a lot from several Tang-Tibet wars.

But the ruling ills of Tubo are also very obvious, that is, the Gar family, which is in charge of Qinghai, has grown stronger and even become separatist.

Combining the previous experiences of all parties and the current situation and needs of the Tang Dynasty, Li Tong gradually had a relatively systematic and complete concept plan in his mind.

Although the war in Qinghai has not yet ended completely, it has entered the stage of profit. Although the Tu Qiang tribes are not the main war rivals, since they did not stand on the side of the Tang Dynasty before the war began, they naturally have to pay a certain price to obtain personal safety.

Although these Tu Qiang gradually became extremely poor under the rule of the Gar family, the population base is still considerable. After careful scraping, there was still some oil and water. After the army entered Qinghai, the cattle, horses and animals that were searched for in the Tu Qiang tribes alone had hundreds of thousands of cattle, horses and animals.

Compared with the massive investment of the Tang army, although this part of the gains are not considerable, it is always better than nothing. When it comes to the capture of cattle and horses, Tubo is actually the big one. Although Tubo’s special logistics method can greatly reduce the cost of war, once it is defeated, it is a complete transport captain.

In the past, when the Tang Dynasty fought against Tubo, a single battle of slightly larger size could capture tens of thousands of cattle and horses. The Tang Dynasty had swept over half of Qinghai, but it was only after obtaining such a small amount in Tuqiang, which shows how ruthless Tubo's plunder in Qinghai for many years.

Although Qinghai has a very important border defense significance for the Tang Dynasty, it needs to pay attention to long-term development to avoid fishing out of the lake. However, seeing the Tubo plundering the Tuqiangs, these Tuqiangs could still bear it and dare not carry out large-scale rebellion, Li Tong felt that it was nothing to be strong at all. The traitors were plundering, but I couldn't plunder it?

Most of the cattle and horses seized from Qinghai were directly invested in the subsequent war consumption, while others were transported back to the Longbian land for rent as official stables to compensate for the insufficient labor force caused by the war.

In addition to cattle, horses and livestock, another big gain is population. Although Qinghai is vast and sparsely populated, the number of Qiang people who have reproduced and lived here in the era is still quite considerable.

The war is not over yet, and there is no systematic statistics on the number of Qiang people collected by the Tang army. However, during the period when Haidong households were organized, nearly 30,000 Qiang people have been counted. Others have followed the army to use it as labor service.

In this era, population is the primary productive force. The Tang Dynasty's war investment is already quite heavy, and it will not take long to raise idle people. Therefore, after these Qiang people were completed, they were immediately organized by the government to organize labor and production.

The person in charge of this work is the Prime Minister Wang Fangqing, who is in charge of the journey. A sentence that Wang Fangqing has been saying recently is: "The Qiang people are stupid and difficult to tame, and they are close to the horses, and they are really unbearable to use!"

Li Tong still disagrees with Wang Fangqing's prejudiced evaluation. The Qiang people have lived in this realm for so long and have not been erased and eliminated by the vast river of history. There are always some advantages. They are at least better than those Kunlun slaves.

But when he inspected the field, he had to say that the shortcomings of the Qiang people's abilities were indeed very obvious.

The registration of households and broad land in the Haidong area are carried out at the same time. Some of the registered households are put into cultivation and production after completion, but the efficiency is really low. After all, although Qinghai also has certain cultivation conditions, these lands suitable for cultivation have been controlled by the great masters for a long time. Most ordinary Qiang people have almost no experience in farming.

It seems that if the Tang Dynasty wanted to set up prefectures and counties in Haidong and establish a foundation for an official garrison, it would be reliable to migrate some people from the territory.

However, these Qiang people are not useless. As long as they have hands and feet, they are in their prime, and their strength will always be used. Moreover, due to the living environment in Qinghai, most Qiang people are born good at animal husbandry and can be used to expand the scale of official horsemen in the Tang Dynasty.

The horses produced in Tuyuhun have always been of extremely high quality. Nowadays, a considerable number of the types of excellent war horses assigned by the Tang army are produced in this realm.

In the future, the Tang Dynasty will occupy Qinghai for a long time, and the development of animal husbandry will undoubtedly be one of the most important sources of interests. The horses produced in Qinghai will not only follow the Tang army to fight towards a more distant territory, but also flow into the Tang people in large numbers to inspire and maintain the martial spirit of the Tang people.

In addition, the southwest of Qinghai also has quite rich natural resources, such as good-quality salt ponds and minerals that are not difficult to mine. These resources are also the main bargaining chips for the original Gar family to control Qinghai, and even the salt in Qinghai was sold to Longbian as a commodity. Many Qiang tribes were salt slaves controlled by the Gar family, and now they are naturally taken over by the Tang Dynasty.

In addition to the benefits brought by population and land production, Qinghai's recovery has another very important significance, that is, the stability of border order. The Tang Dynasty can increase the scale of exchanges in trade, military and other aspects with the Western Regions.

Li Tong is in the rear of Shanzhou and is always addicted to the expansion and management of the empire territory. Even the Hu Ji Jiali presented by Zhu Hu has no time to enjoy it. Women will only suck my ambition and empty my body. Only conquest is a higher level of enjoyment!

When the time came to early June, the battle report in front finally came back: The Tang army won a great victory!

"Since the army advanced westward, it has killed more than 50,000 foreign troops, captured 110,000 Tubo and Hu Hu... In the battle of Jiyu City, it killed more than 30,000 enemies, captured more than 70,000 prisoners, seized nearly 70,000 cattle, horses and livestock, and countless weapons and staffs..."

Following the envoy who received the victory, Liu Youqiu, the prime minister in Haidong, was responsible for logistics. Liu Youqiu held the battle report in his hand and entered the saint with an excited expression and a high tone. The beard that had not left much under his jaw was even more trembling and electricity was trembling.

A big victory! A real, unreduced victory!

When Li Tong heard these battle reports, he was determined to learn from Xie An of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. He said calmly that the young man had broken the thief, but the Adam's apple trembled for a moment, and finally couldn't help it. He punched the table hard, and laughed: "What a magnificent army! After this day, I and all the good guys can speak loudly, and I will live up to our ancestors and the people!"

Seeing the saint being so excited, Liu Youqiu couldn't help but burst into tears. The rest of the officials who came to worship together worshiped and shouted: "The country will not fall, the Tang Dynasty will be prosperous, and the saints will be of great achievements! I am lucky that the horse follows the hero, take this special kindness and leave a name for the history of the greatness..."

As the ministers congratulated each other, the sounds gradually spread outward, and the soldiers guarding the outside were all cheering happily. For a moment, the entire Shanzhou city was bathed in this sea of ​​sound waves of celebrating great victory.

Li Tong sat in the seat, closed his eyes and listened to the cheers of the people inside and outside, and was also savoring the joy of victory in his heart. After a while, he opened his eyes and said with a smile: "The army has not yet been in charge, so there is no need to celebrate freely. After the war, we still need to finish properly. We must not waste this prosperity. After returning to the court, I will have fun with you and the people!"

When everyone in the hall heard this, they temporarily suppressed the ecstasy in their hearts, adjusted their mentality, and prepared to devote themselves to the next final work.

"It's a pity that the army has besieged Jiyu City, but it still failed to capture the Venus Lord alive..."

Liu Youqiu browsed the battle report again and couldn't help but sigh.

Li Tong opened the detailed battle report and read it, and only then did he know that when the army attacked Jiyu City, the foreign lord had abandoned the city and fled. Although the army immediately sent people to pursue it, and initially found the route of escape from the foreign lord, he was still lost and had to return without success.

Originally, the best route for the foreign ruler should be to escape along Jishi Mountain and defect to Xikang, where he rectified the rear corps. However, for some reason, after escaping Jishi Mountain, the foreign ruler did not go to Xikang, but turned straight west and went to Qiangtang.

According to Zan Po, who was cast in Jiyu City, it is very likely that the fugitive team of the foreign rulers had a disagreement, or the foreign rulers did not believe in the Shannan army left behind in Xikang, and were worried that they would be held hostage by these Shannan people, so they bypassed Xikang and returned to Lusa City to stabilize the situation and prevent backlash from all parties.

Although Li Tong did not know the situation inside Tubo as detailed as Zanpo, as a king, he was very able to immerse himself in the current state of mind of the British ruler and felt that Zanpo's guess should be more in line with the facts.

Li Tong was naturally a little regretful that he was unable to capture the foreign lord alive in Jiyu City. This dog ran too fast and even had to trouble him to send troops to Luosu City. However, he had no obsession with whether to capture the foreign lord alive. Even in his heart, the life and death of the foreign lord was not as important as Qin Ling's life and death.

Moreover, if Zan Po’s guess is close to the truth, it would be better to leave the lord of a lord in Jiyu City than to let the despaired dog flee back to the country.

Although Zanpu was the supreme ruler of Tubo, in actual situations, Zanpu's life and death had an impact on Tubo as a whole as imagined.

After all, even the prestige is as strong as Songtsen Gampo, whose prestige has not caused Tubo to fail to recover. Moreover, after Songtsen Gampo's death, Tubo has almost no serious royal power in power. Therefore, if you want to kill Tubo Zampo, you don't have to give too high hopes.

On the contrary, such a great ambition and talented Zanpu returned to the middle school, which would bring a lot of possibilities to the future trend of Tubo.

In short, the Tang Dynasty had already obtained enough on the battlefield in Qinghai, and even far more than Li Tong's expectations before the war, and it took a certain amount of time to digest and consolidate the results.

The generals on the front line were sent away in the battle of Jiyu City. All the generals on the front line felt that they were not happy enough, so they sent them back with the battle report, hoping that the saints would allow them to continue to march towards Xikang after a little rest in Jiyu City, recover Xikang in one fell swoop, and even attack Luosu City.

But after some consideration, Li Tong decided to temporarily retreat and not continue to march. The current victory is already brilliant enough. If the war continues, not to mention whether the surge in costs can be supported, just the risks brought about by the lengthening of the front line, the Tang Dynasty has no plan to prepare for it.

Of course, Xikang would not give up, but if he wanted to take it back, war may not be the best way. War is the most important weapon of the country. After passing through the Qinghai war, Li Tong had a deeper understanding of this. The Tang Dynasty has a vast territory and there are also many border hidden dangers. If all hidden dangers must be solved in a high-cost way like war, no matter how strong the national strength is, it cannot last long.

Moreover, in theory, Tubo also has a certain threat, which can also make these local wealthy chiefs in Qinghai feel fear and fear, and dare not resist the Tang Dynasty's adjustment and reconstruction of Qinghai order.

After pondering for a while, Li Tong revealed some of his thoughts with the ministers who followed him. After hearing that the saint did not intend to continue the war, everyone was obviously relieved when they could see it.

Different people's positions are different, and what they think and think are naturally different. What the soldiers on the front line feel is the idea of ​​using the remaining bravery to chase the enemy. However, the ministers in the rear have to consider the relationship between logistics investment and people's livelihood. Just looking at Liu Youqiu's beard was almost cut off, we can see how much pressure he was under during this period.

At this point when the war was in progress, in addition to the previous raising, most of the grain warehouses in the Longbian prefectures had been exhausted, and even a considerable part of the savings for preparing for wasteland and disasters had been misappropriated. Now, there are still a few months before the autumn grain is entered into the warehouse, and there are already huge unstable factors in the people's livelihood in Longbian.

Therefore, the ministers also expressed their support for the idea that the saint could stop, thinking that this was the best way to do it.

So, Li Tong took the officer to record his order: the front line of Jiyu City will no longer continue to advance, except for a left-behind man, the other troops, including the servants of the Hu tribe, withdrew their troops in sequence.

Although the frontal battlefield was no longer advancing, Li Tong did not intend to let go of the opportunity of the defeat of the foreign army. He then ordered Cao Ren's troops in Longnan to enter the Xishan Mountain to search and escort the Xikang monks who had been expelled by the foreigners earlier back to Xikang, and organized local foreign slaves in Xikang to carry out extensive infiltration into the lower-class people of Xikang, and if necessary, send troops directly to help these monk soldiers recover Xikang City.

Although there are more than 100,000 foreign troops stationed in Xikang, they are all from far away from Shannan. With the defeat of the frontal battlefield and the foreign ruler fled to return to China, these people will definitely not be stationed in Xikang for a long time.

The Tang Dynasty was able to seize the destruction of these people's livelihood on the local people of Xikang, strengthen the propaganda and infiltration of Buddhist teachings of the lower-class people of Xikang, and at the same time stimulated their spirit of resistance and had a deeper break with the Tubo local area.

At the same time, Li Tong appointed Li Guangshun, the elder brother who had been sent to Shuzhong, as the Great Protector of Annan, Li Yang as the Deputy Protector of Annan, and the troops of Shannan advanced to southern Yunnan. The southern barbarians in the other side often jumped repeatedly between the Tang and Tibet, and now they can teach a painful lesson when Tubo was too busy to take care of themselves.
Chapter completed!