To the west of the Alxa League was the vast Gobi Desert. In this day and age, no one would venture there for no good reason as that was a truly deserted place.
So when the war began, even though everyone knew the distance between Fortress 178 and the Zong Consortium's Stronghold 146 was not particularly far, very few people would even have any ideas about using the Gobi in their plans.
If a military unit wanted to pass through there, it was basically a pipe dream.
However, the Zong Consortium had been plotting to take over Fortress 178 for a long time.
The territory the Zong Consortium occupied had far fewer resources than Fortress 178, the Qing Consortium, and the Yang Consortium. In fact, the level of their resources could not even compare with that of the Li Consortium.
Therefore, expanding to seek further resources was something the Zong Consortium had to do. Only with a large amount of resources could they support their ambitions.
