stubborn thief

Chapter 251 Confrontation
On the banks of the Zhaqu River, the Nangsuoqian Mo Palace of King Nangqian stands majestically on the top of the mountain, guarded by stone forests, overlooking the land ruled by the Zhu family for fifteen generations.

Nangsuoqianmo Palace was built in the second year of Kublai Khan's Zhongtong reign.

When the Yuan army crossed the Lancang River, the ancestors of Gama offered a great gift and were given the power to command [-] households in six places. The emperor also sent Xixia craftsmen for them to build this castle.

Monk Gama looked up at the familiar mountain castle by the Zhaqu River, his eyes were sad and full of hatred.

Last summer, his elder brother Luo Zhou refused the request to fight for King Baili's household, to demolish the Genbang Monastery and drive out the monks, and a war between the two sides was inevitable.

In this land, the army of the earth kings is strong or weak in terms of composition of troops, army organization, weapons and equipment, tactics and tactics, treatment of soldiers, level of training and will to fight, but there is no qualitative difference.

Quantity has become an important factor in determining victory or defeat.

Nangqian is located on the main road to Tibet. I don’t know how many Mongolian Taijis came and went and led the army into Tibet. With their four thousand households, even one household has three households. The wives and children go to battle, and the battle is nothing more than a few more Just a corpse.

Therefore, they attach great importance to economic development, brew wine and stew meat, pay more attention to the Buddha, and all the friends who come here are good friends.

The military system they implemented was one monk per household and one soldier from ten households.

However, the militaristic King Baili Dunyue Duoji implemented the practice of sending out one soldier from each household. All men can either ride or shoot, or can shoot on foot. They really can't play with bows and arrows. Knife cut people.

Although Nangqian's soldiers are more elite, there are even fifty plateau heavy cavalry, but only the elite force does not have a large enough base of soldiers, and it is nothing more than dust and sand in the wind and snow to concentrate them on the battlefield.

From the beginning of the war, the division of labor between the two was very clear.

Bai Li was in charge of attacking cities and territories, and Nang Qian was in charge of crying for his father and mother.

King Baili sent [-] troops, six hundred miles from Changdu to Nangqian Palace, and the tribes he attached to rebelled and defected to the enemy. On the [-]th, the whole territory collapsed, and [-] Baili troops came under the palace.

Almost ran over the mountains and ridges, exhausted.

The final decisive battle took place where Monk Gama was standing at this time.

He is at the Genpeng Monastery at the foot of the mountain. It used to be such a good temple. It was built in the eighth year of Emperor Taizong of the Yuan Dynasty and was the foundation of the Patrong Kagyu Sect.

At this time, the magnificent temple, once divided into upper, middle and lower floors, supported by 120 stone pillars and able to accommodate [-] monks to chant scriptures, has been completely destroyed in the war.

More than [-] monks were under heavy siege, unable to break out, and were finally burned to the ground by a fire.

As for the palace on the mountain, his elder brother Luo Zhou defended the palace city on the top of the mountain with [-] defenders for eight days and eight nights, but was finally captured by the traitors, outnumbered, and the castle fell in the afternoon of the ninth day.

At this moment, the palace is still there, but the people who live in it have become King Bailey's ministers.

Ga Ma turned his head, and between the ruined ruins and the huge Mani stone pile, there were Mongolian felt tents stretching to the sky and the ground, and the huge siege camp surrounded the entire mountain fortress.

But the situation is not as good as it looks.

There are a large number of Mongolian shepherds. They climbed the mountains and snowfields, and they endured hardships and endured hardships like the mounts under their crotches from the desert.

They are better fighters than the bloody natives who know nothing about war.

But no one is willing to throw their lives on this mountain where nothing grows except stone forest and loess.

The commander of the siege camp is Baiyan Taiji. Thousands of Mongolian soldiers under his command have been besieging here for twelve days, and they are helpless against the six hundred Baili soldiers occupying the palace.

Except for the tentative attack at the beginning, for the next eleven days, Yan Taiji used the excuse of waiting for the generalissimo to besiege and not attack.

In fact, only nine people were killed in that attack. Later, eleven people were shot dead trying to climb up the mountain platform to grab the bodies.

This mountain is eighty feet high from the river valley, and there are two directions to go up the mountain. There is no road on the west route, but a small muddy ditch washed out of the mountainside by melting snow.

There are stone steps on the east line, and there is a small platform at a height of [-] feet, but it is very narrow, and only three people can climb side by side.

There is no fulcrum for erecting ladders in other places.

To put it bluntly, he built a catapult, but it couldn't hit it that high or that far. The stones thrown on it rolled down the mountain and destroyed a felt tent.

Monk Gama couldn't wait any longer, he was going to ask Baiyan Taiji about his plans.

"Let me tell you the truth, Monk, even the Generalissimo's Han army can't help this Shanbaozi. His small cannons can't hit that far, and the big cannons can't be sent up. Anyway, there are too many people, just one word, consumption."

It is said that more than 3000 people have dispersed in the past few days, let them attack the nobles who surrendered to King Bailey from all over the place, collect information, and snatch all the farm tools by the way.

"When it's warm, I'll dig a seven-mile-long trench at the foot of the mountain. If we can't go up, they can't fucking come down."

He said it viciously, but in fact he was so happy that he didn't want to attack the city.

Having already reached the gate of Tibet, the gathered Mongolian herdsmen are full of enthusiasm. They have no interest in storming the living kings in the mountain castle.

In the past few days, he has released more than 3000 people, including Xie Erhu, to attack the noble manors that surrendered to King Baili. The main purpose is to maintain morale by plundering the enemy.

As for the secondary purpose, it was to collect trench-digging equipment and to give Liu Shizi an explanation.

As for this mountain fortress that can't be mounted up and arrows can't shoot people, even if you Liu Shizi come, what can you do?There is no way.

How annoying this fortress is. The bottom is a stone foundation made of irregular stones, and the top is a Bianma wall, a kind of wall made of red willow branches and rammed concrete.

When the arrow shot up, it was nailed, and the people on the castle could pull the arrow away calmly and shoot it back.

Although this kind of wall is not as strong as a pure stone wall, there is no way to destroy it on the top of the mountain.

Therefore, Taiji's countermeasure is to dig a deep ditch, and there will be hard work without credit.

In this way, when Liu Shizi came, he could calmly leave two thousand Mongolian shepherds to deal with King Baili in the east, and lead the army into Tibet by himself.

Maybe when King Baili's territory is robbed by Mongolian herdsmen, he even came back from Lhasa, and the mountain fortress has not yet been breached.

Anyway, just leave a thousand people around it.

It is said that it is not once or twice to fight against the Tibetan Fanbing. Except for some heavy cavalry who are really powerful, the other conscripts of farmers and soldiers are not even as good as the Naliang Fan near Han.

As for Monk Gama, he was in a hurry, and he was in a hurry, so he said he didn't care.

Liu Chengzong's army came slowly, it was really slow.

Ever since he passed Gannan and Heka Grasslands, Liu Chengzong was busy receiving those Fanbu chiefs who brought presents to him.

There are 23 clans here and 46 tribes there.

There was an endless stream of little nobles and small heads who lined the road to greet each other.

Some knew that he opened a market in Haibei, and wanted to pay tribute in exchange for the status of being able to do business.

Some heard about this military group with Han Chinese as the main body, and paid tribute as soon as possible to prevent being beaten.

There are also some disputes with neighboring tribes, so they rush to pay tribute, and want to borrow two hundred from the master of the king to avenge the world.

None of this is outrageous.

What's more, I don't know who he is, what he does, let alone what he wants to do, but he just passes by the territory and returns with a gift.

Too many, so much that it seriously delayed the speed of marching, and even so much that after entering Guoluo, the Lions no longer suffered from altitude sickness.

After a day of marching, the altitude climbed 20 meters, and the Yunnan bowl of sugar prepared by Sufan was useless, and the highest place on the flat land on the Yushu side passed slowly.

But it's not that Liu Shizi didn't do anything serious, his people were busy running around in various affiliated tribes, counting their population and specialties.

It made many vassals very unhappy... We just saw you pass by and pay tribute, who wouldn't pay homage after entering the temple?It makes sense.

At the time of our ancestors, the Tubo Empire did not have this group of Han people who cared about us so much.

Grandma's, it's too scary, what do you want to do?

Fortunately, Liu Chengzong didn't plan to do anything. He asked people to forget about the specialties of the population. After seeing the mountains and rivers, he led his troops to continue southward. He didn't accept or reject the request of these local small heads to inherit the land. Just talk about bringing the troops back.

Some people attached one after another, and he was indeed a little flattered at first.

But this is the case everywhere, even in places far away from the traffic cut off in the Han Dynasty, the tribal leaders are still like this.

This journey has made Liu Shizi grow a lot, and he understands it.

In recent decades, Mongolian aristocrats have entered Tibet one after another, counting all the tribal leaders along the way as one, and the whole education has become hob meat in terms of tribute.

Their tribute is the same as what Beijingers say about you. It seems to have a lot of meaning, but it doesn't seem to have any meaning.

To a large extent, it is a habit. You have brought troops here, and I will not pay you a tribute. Is this appropriate?

If he wanted to understand this matter, Liu Chengzong understood why King Baili would fight with King Nangqian.

There are too many legal principles in this land. Some people rely on the fiefdoms of the Tubo period, some people have the seal of the Great Yuan Emperor, some people hold the title of the Dharma King of Wei Zang, and some people hold the imperial edict of the Yongle Emperor.

There are also people who hold all of the above land certificates at the same time.

Everyone has the law, which means there is no law.

As long as the power is strong enough, anyone can easily rule this land, at least in name.

But when they need to contribute, as for any nobles in this land, they can only provide all support other than their contribution.

Loyalty is not absolute, absolutely not loyal.

When Liu Chengzong arrived at Nangqian's besieged camp, it was already the afternoon of the sixteen-day siege of the palace on the top of the mountain.

On the sixty-mile road approaching Nangqian, Monk Gama and Baiyan Taiji kept chattering in his ears.

The two repeatedly reiterated the importance of capturing the Nangqian palace to rule this land.

The other kept explaining the many difficulties in attacking this mountain fort.

You are right.

Liu Chengzong felt numb when he saw this mountain fort.

On the way, he thought to himself, the Lion Army moved to northern Shaanxi, what kind of Shanmao Fortress has he never seen?

Come and see, I've never seen anything like this.

It is true that there are mountains everywhere in northern Shaanxi, but there are few high mountains in northern Shaanxi, let alone people who build castles on such high mountains.

What's more, this is a mountain castle with a Tibetan fortress and the local atmosphere of Xixia, which is to build the gate tower of Xixia on the top of the Tibetan fortress.

His cannon really couldn't go up.

Even if it is the lightest lion cannon, even if the cannon carriage is removed, it is impractical for soldiers to carry it up the mountain.

The snow-hardened stone steps were very slippery, and the soldiers who carried the cannon could not step on them steadily. A copper cannon weighing more than 200 kilograms could smash half of the headquarters along hundreds of stone steps, making parents cry.

After being equipped with the lion cannon, they did not install small cannons such as Yongzhuhusquat, and attacked the mountain fort with their heads up. The difficulty was not so high.

Moreover, according to reports from the Mongolian leaders sent by Taiji, Dai Qing, Xie Erhu and others, there were successive battles in the southeast direction, and their arrival had been known by Baili King Dunyue Duoji.

When the Mongolian nobles sent the formation of the Baili army into the besieged camp, and Liu Chengzong's officer corps drew it into a picture, the situation was clearly presented to Liu Chengzong.

From the Nangqian Zhaqu River in the northwest to the Tongtian River Basin in the southeast, Bai Li's army is increasing its troops to Qamdo.

Dunyue Dorji gave way to the gate of Tibet, which is located in Leiwuqi, west of Qamdo and Nangqian.

On the surface, he gave up part of the occupied land, but in fact he used the fortress of the noble manor along the mountain as a fulcrum, and set up a formation. In the confrontation with the Mongolian army, it was easier to defend and counterattack.

Especially Dai Qing of the Khalkha tribe led more than 300 people to encounter the Baili army when attacking the manor. , even Dai Qing himself was almost kept.

The way Dunyue Duoji's troops dealt with Dai Qing was very simple.

With a small group of Fanbing, they rushed forward and scattered. Daiqing's troops found that the enemy was vulnerable.

Dai Qing used blood lessons to quickly educate all the Mongolian herders. They were not familiar with the terrain here, and they used stragglers to deal with stragglers. They could defeat the enemy with superb skills and tactics.

But when the enemy is organized, even if it is only a group of peasants and soldiers and a small number of elites, it is difficult for them to win in a confrontational positional battle.

In the tent of the Chinese army, Yan Taiji looked very anxious.

Dunyue Dorji has something. He knows what the Mongols want. They want to go to Tibet, so they gave up the way to go to Tibet.

This will make the Mongolian shepherds lose their mind to continue the confrontation here, but now they dare not leave.

Liu Chengzong had no plans to go to Tibet. If he said he would go to Tibet, if Dunyue Dorji pushed the front line forward, they might cut off their retreat at any time.

At this time, the Mongols under him generally developed fear of war.

"What are you afraid of?"

Liu Chengzong was very relaxed: "Three days, three days to take this palace city, he gave up Leiwuqi, we occupied Leiwuqi, and pushed the front all the way to the southeast."

Yan Taiji shook his head and said: "There are so many hilltop fortresses, how can we push them? You can't see one surrounded by another?"

"You don't need to push it, I will give you one day, find me fifty blacksmiths, thirty carpenters, five hundred catties of iron and ten big trees. I think there are a lot of cedar trees, and they will be delivered before noon tomorrow. You don't need to worry about it."

After Liu Chengzong finished speaking, he turned his attention to Monk Gama: "I will capture this fort within three days. After that, your family will build a village at the foot of the mountain, and the fort on the mountain will be my garrison camp."

　good evening!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)