In my dream of returning to the Tang Dynasty, I snatched Wu Zetian from my lap.

but!

This was another trap set by Li Yuanchang.

As soon as the three thousand men arrived, torches were lit everywhere and shouts of battle filled the air. A large number of Far Eastern troops, who had been waiting for a long time, began to mop up the ground with Han Lei.

The tremendous noise and the wails of the Tibetans echoed throughout the entire Gongwang Plateau, reaching even the highest peaks.

Dayan Mangbuzhi's legs gave way on the mountain, and he fell down.

We've fallen for their trap again!

"General, General Kunamu has been ambushed!"

"We need to go down and reinforce them right away!"

"General!"

"General!"

"Shut up!!" Dayan Mangbuzhi roared, his eyes already bloodshot.

The Tibetan generals were startled and dared not speak.

"The Han people have Han thunderbolts; going down now is tantamount to suicide!"

The plateau was deathly silent.

The once arrogant and barbaric Tibetans were frustrated and helpless. In the end, no one mentioned it anymore, and they all watched helplessly as the three thousand troops were surrounded and wiped out.

Dayan Mangbuzhi was heartbroken and stared intently down below, hoping to be able to retreat.

But the explosions and screams only lasted for a little over half an hour before gradually subsiding. Except for a few hundred people who escaped back to the plateau, all the others were wiped out.

This was not only a wake-up call, but it also pushed the entire remaining Tibetan army into the abyss of despair.

Throughout the night, the Gongwang Plateau was filled with the smell of gunpowder, with black smoke billowing into the sky everywhere.

The Tibetans endured a painful night.

The next day.

Dayan Mangbuzhi withdrew his troops completely to the plateau above 2,000 meters above sea level, abandoning all defenses below the mountainside and further shrinking the territory.

The Far Eastern Army thus suffered almost zero casualties and advanced to an altitude of 2,000 meters on the plateau!

But Dayan Mangbuzhi had learned his lesson thoroughly. In the following days, no matter how the Far Eastern Army challenged them, tried to win their hearts, or revealed any weaknesses, they did not come down.

Like a group of hedgehogs, they curled up and waited for the Far East army to attack.

As the altitude continued to rise and the terrain became steeper, the Far Eastern Army lost the feasibility of approaching the enemy's defenses to shout messages.

After conducting an on-site inspection, Li Yuanchang ended his psychological warfare efforts and no longer expected the tens of thousands of elite troops to surrender.

Early November.

Li Yuanchang formally formulated a plan for a strong offensive, and began the encirclement and suppression of the Gongwang Plateau.

"kill!!"

The shouts of battle echoed across the plateau.

On the rugged mountain road, the Far Eastern Army abandoned its cavalry and launched an attack with infantry as the main force, braving altitude sickness, and engaged in fierce fighting with the Tibetans.

The two sides fought fiercely in every valley, every slope, and every hilltop.

Sometimes, the two sides would fight over a single hilltop more than ten times.

The Tibetans, with their high-altitude advantage and large numbers, initially posed a significant obstacle to the Far Eastern Army.

However, this resistance did not translate into any significant gains for either side. Every day, the Tang army was able to advance more than fifty meters and occupy numerous passes.

The pre-prepared measures, such as using Rhodiola rosea, ensured that the Far East Army did not suffer from altitude sickness; at most, they were engaged in high-altitude combat, which was physically demanding.

At the beginning of the offensive, the Far Eastern Army did experience some difficulties adapting to the new environment, but they quickly adapted.

Even after Han Lei was brought to the plateau by the gunpowder expert, he remained a bug in the system, with explosions echoing across the Gongwang Plateau every day.

The vast plateau was charred beyond recognition. From the air, countless large black craters were visible, and many towering trees were snapped in half, leaving behind a wasteland.

The bodies of the Tibetans were scattered everywhere, unclaimed, left to be devoured by vultures.

Of course, the number of casualties among the Tang army was also increasing day by day.

Attacking from a low position is bound to come at a greater cost, and even with Han Lei clearing the way, casualties are still inevitable.

In just six days of fierce fighting, the number of wounded soldiers in the Far East Army surged from a few hundred to more than three thousand, most of whom were injured by stones, with very few even suffering knife wounds.

On the seventh day of the encirclement and annihilation battle, the two sides fought fiercely on the plateau. More than two hundred wounded soldiers were sent to the wounded soldiers' camp, where they were wailing in pain and the military doctors were busy.

"Your Highness!"

"Your Highness!"

"Don't worry about me, continue with your work." Li Yuanchang appeared at the wounded soldiers' camp.

Upon hearing this, everyone turned around and went about their own business.

Li Yuanchang personally inspected the area and comforted some soldiers suffering from broken bones. His appearance and visits were more effective than any magic pill; his mere presence would stabilize the wounded soldiers' camp.

Upon closer inspection, he noticed that the proportion of wounded soldiers with sword and knife wounds was significantly higher today than usual.

This was probably because as the altitude increased, there weren't enough stones left for the Tibetans, forcing them to engage in mountain warfare.

"What's the situation up there?" he asked, looking at a wounded officer of the rank of lieutenant.

In other armies, this situation is rare. The commander-in-chief is in charge of nearly a thousand men and will not be injured. Once injured, the entire army will basically be wiped out.

However, the Far Eastern Army's rule was that generals did not necessarily have to be the first to charge, but they had to be in the lead and command from the front. They had to be with their soldiers when they charged, and it was absolutely forbidden for generals to watch from the rear while fighting at the front.

This is a key reason why the Far East Army's mobilization capabilities are comparable to those of the theocratic Tibetan army.

The commander grimaced in pain, "Your Highness, when I was carried down injured, half of Mount Pomi had already been taken."

"But this pass is the only passage to the top of the Gongwang Plateau, and it is also the key point that the Tibetans relied on to defend, so they resisted fiercely."

It's unclear whether they managed to get it or not.

Li Yuanchang frowned; it was the same situation again.

At this moment, the military commander said, "However, if we can use explosives, we should be able to take it down quickly."

"This mountain pass forms a natural mountain fortress, allowing the Tibetans to attack from both sides, putting our army under great pressure."

Pomi Mountain was the most difficult point in the long-running siege. After Dayan's army abandoned its positions below 2,000 meters, the Far Eastern Army made rapid advances for the first three days.

However, upon reaching the position at Pomi Mountain, which the Far Eastern Army called Hill No. 3, the offensive momentum was severely hampered. After three days of attrition, no progress was made, and most of the casualties were caused here.

It wasn't that Li Yuanchang didn't want to use gunpowder to directly blast through the Tibetan positions, but the risk was too high.

Although he didn't understand much about physics, he knew that any explosion would require a large amount of black powder, and the powerful shockwave would inevitably cause mechanical imbalance in the mountain, posing a risk of landslides and avalanches at the summit.

Current methods are not yet sufficient for completely safe demolition.

If such a thing were to happen, the Far East Army below would have no chance of escaping; at least half of them would die.

Li Yuanchang dared not gamble with such a heavy price. He only dared to use small-caliber explosives for black powder, and he controlled the amount used every day. He even sent many people to monitor the mountain, fearing some kind of "butterfly effect".

Although the plateau, formed over thousands of years, only has snow on its summit, and the probability is actually small, as a commander, you have to be on guard. If it happens to you, you won't have a chance to turn the tide.