Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 1087 [Go Straight to Kunming]

The dam in Luliang County is even bigger, but it is divided into two tribes, one called Luowen and the other called Pumo.

The center for the Yuan Dynasty to govern this vast area was in Shilin County further west, where they set up the "Luomeng Wanhu Mansion", where troops led by Pruhaha and Princess Mingzhu were stationed permanently.

That was because when the Yuan army arrived, the capital of the Qi State had already been moved to Shilin, and a city wall had been built for defense.

Luomeng tribe means "the majestic big tiger tribe".

Tribes with the word "Meng" in their names are mostly related to tigers.

Tribes with the character "Pu" in their names are mostly related to ancestors.

Yang Zaixing's main force arrived soon after and quickly captured the two tribes of Luliang. They then marched north to capture Shicheng County, apparently intending to attack Shicheng from the north and south with Bai Qi and Lin Chong.

Actually?

Yang Zaixing divided his troops!

Of the 7000 main forces, only 1000 were sent north, along with 900 tribal barbarians who were forced to surrender. The remaining 6000 soldiers marched westward, directly attacking the Luomeng branch in Yiling.

In addition, the tribes in eastern Yunnan further south were being attacked by the coalition forces of Guangxi chiefs, and it seemed that all the barbarian tribes were being attacked everywhere by Yang Zaixing.

There are many mountains here and information cannot be transmitted smoothly, so the enemy has no idea where Yang Zaixing is going to attack.

Kunming.

Gao Zhenshou urgently gathered his troops here and also sent people to negotiate peace with the thirty-seven barbarian tribes.

He knew that if the Thirty-Seven Barbarian Tribes were destroyed, the next target of attack would be Kunming.

Therefore, Gao Zhenshou asked the ruler of Dali for an imperial edict, claiming that as long as the thirty-seven barbarian tribes were willing to cooperate in resisting the Ming Dynasty, he would recognize the Luoluo Kingdom jointly established by the barbarian tribes, and officially award Shicheng County to the Luoluo Kingdom as its capital.

"Father, the barbarian envoys are here!" Gao Shouchang walked over quickly.

Gao Zhenshou immediately agreed to the meeting.

The messenger simply bowed and greeted, then said anxiously:
"Yushibu (Pu'an, Panzhou, Fuyuan area) has been destroyed, and all the villages along the trade route have fallen into the hands of the Ming army. The Ming army coming from the north is approaching Shicheng."

"The four tribes of Luoxiong, Shizong, Luowen and Pumo in the south were all conquered by the Ming army from Guangxi, and some even surrendered to the Ming army."

"Messengers from the Huimo and Shezi tribes further south also reported that they were attacked. The Ming army coming from Guangxi is estimated to be tens of thousands of people."

"If you don't send troops, Shicheng will be trapped from both north and south."

Gao Zhenshou asked: "Are you willing to submit to Dali again?"

The envoy said: "As long as the Dali Kingdom sends troops, the thirty-seven barbarian tribes will naturally surrender."

"Okay," Gao Zhenshou said, "Go back and tell your leader to abandon Shicheng and lead his troops to retreat to me."

The messenger immediately asked angrily: "How is it possible?"

Gao Zhenshou said: "Shicheng County will be attacked from both sides, and the city walls are low, how can it be defended? You should withdraw your troops first and join me in defending Shanchan (Kunming). The city walls here are strong and tall, and the terrain is more conducive to defense."

The messenger cursed: "You bastard, you have no intention of sincere peace talks!"

"I can't explain it to you clearly. Go back and tell your leader the exact words. He will naturally understand that only by withdrawing the troops to defend Shanchan can we win." Gao Shouzhen said.

The two were discussing cooperation matters when suddenly hurried footsteps were heard outside.

Gao Zhenming could not wait to report and rushed in and said, "Brother, the Ming army is coming from the east!"

Gao Zhenshou and the envoy were both surprised. Gao Zhenshou asked, "Didn't the Ming army from the east go north to attack Shicheng? And even if they were to attack westward, they should have been defeating the Mongolian tribe by now."

"I don't know about the Luomeng tribe, but the Luopu cage is definitely gone." Gao Zhenming said.

Luopulong is the Yiling County of later generations.

Instead of attacking the Luomeng headquarters in Shilin, they directly killed the Luomeng branch in Yiling, which was equivalent to exposing their backs to the enemy.

Once the Luomeng tribe sends troops, Yang Zaixing's retreat will be cut off.

But Yang Zaixing had no so-called food supply, so he was not afraid of being cut off from retreat. He conquered and subjugated four tribes along the way to replenish food and grass. Although food was still very tight, it was enough to support 6,000 troops to Kunming.

Gao Zhenshou asked in horror: "How many Ming troops have come from Guangxi?"

Gao Zhenming guessed: "It may be tens of thousands of people."

Tens of thousands of damn people.

Yang Zaixing had only 7,000 soldiers under his command, and the rest were all barbarian vassal troops, yet he managed to make it look like an army divided into three routes with tens of thousands of troops.

Gao Zhenshou had no time to take care of Shicheng County. He urgently arranged the defense of Kunming City and sent people to urge the princes of various surnames to send reinforcements. He also sent troops to his younger brother Gao Zhenming to guard Guandu City (Guandu Ancient Town).

Before the city defenses were even set up, a group of defeated soldiers arrived from the south.

"Prime Minister, our village is gone!" The barbarian general was wailing there, covered in blood.

Gao Zhenshou asked: "How many enemies are there?"

The barbarian general shook his head, "I don't know. Most of the warriors in our tribe were recruited to Shanchan (Kunming), and there were not many soldiers in the village. Suddenly, a group of enemies came to attack, and there was a constant sound of boom, boom, bang, bang, bang. The warriors who stayed in the village couldn't stop them at all!"

Gao Zhenshou asked, "Is it boom-boom-boom or bang-bang-bang?"

The barbarian general was startled, then replied, "Both."

These remnants of the defeated army came from the Jiazong tribe, located in Chenggong District, Kunming City. Although they were also one of the thirty-seven barbarian tribes, they were determined to help the Dali Kingdom fight and rarely joined in rebellion.

In this battle, the barbarian soldiers of Jiazong's tribe were transferred to Kunming for assembly, so their own village was naturally left undefended and was captured by a surprise attack by 800 people sent by Yang Zaixing.

Now, Chenggong District has become Yang Zaixing's camp, and some food and fodder have been supplied by the way.

The Shanchan City defended by the Dali army was half in Wuhua District and half in Guandu District.

The two armies were less than 30 miles apart. The old nest of the Gao family in Dali, Guandu City (Guandu Ancient Town), was only more than ten miles away from Yang Zaixing's camp!
"Da da da da..."

"Prime Minister, the enemy is approaching Guandu City!"

Gao Zhenshou asked hurriedly: "How many are here?"

The messenger said, "There are only a few hundred cavalry. The garrison commander (Gao Zhenming) was afraid of a trick and did not leave the city to drive out the enemy."

Gao Zhenshou roared in anger: "Don't those Ming soldiers sleep or rest? Two or three days ago, they were still fighting against the Luowen tribe, and today they are crossing mountains and ridges to Shanchan. They didn't even set up camp to rest here, and they broke through the Jiazong tribe's camp and came to spy on Guandu City! Gather the troops, I'm going to kill them!"

"Prime Minister, you must not act impulsively." A general named Gao Mingtai hurriedly advised against it.

Everyone, including Gao Zhenshou's son, spoke out to stop it.

Gao Zhenshou said, "The enemy is marching too fast, and they have to fight with the barbarians along the way. They have crossed mountains and rivers to get here in a hurry, so there can't be too many of them, at most only a few thousand. Moreover, they have been running all the way and fighting continuously, and they have no time to rest. We are alone and deep in the territory, and we are exhausted. We should fight them quickly!"

When the generals heard this, they all thought it made sense.

It does make sense. Yang Zaixing indeed only brought 6,000 soldiers, and they were indeed exhausted.

Gao Zhenshou continued, "These several thousand soldiers must be the vanguard of the Guangxi Ming Army. If we don't seize the opportunity to annihilate them, they will gain a foothold in the Jiazong tribe's stronghold, and it will be even more difficult to fight them when their main force arrives and joins forces. The opportunity for battle is fleeting, so you must not be afraid of the enemy and be timid in battle."

But this time he guessed wrong. That was not the vanguard, but Yang Zaixing's main force.

The Dali Kingdom's troops have not yet completed their assembly.

The troops from the westernmost states are still on the road, moving towards Kunming.

Gao Liangcheng's Chuxiong army did not send out any troops at all and kept complaining about insufficient food and fodder.

Gao Zhenshou currently has only more than 40,000 troops, including the recruited barbarians.

Eight thousand of them are defending Guandu City - it is Gao's private city, but it is larger than an ordinary Wubao and is the commercial core of the Kunming area.

Gao Zhenshou left 5,000 soldiers to guard Shanchan City, and the rest of the troops all headed towards Guandu City.

……

The small Guandu City was not much bigger than Wu Fort, but it had six Buddhist temples built in it.

Naturally, some were built outside the city.

Cao Xun led his exhausted cavalry to kill for the food in the Buddhist temple outside the city! If they didn't hurry up, they would definitely be moved into the city.

Sure enough, as soon as we arrived, we saw monks fleeing, and carts and carts from the temple were transporting food and fodder into the city.

"kill!"

Hundreds of cavalrymen rushed out on horseback, and the monks were so frightened that they threw away their belongings and fled in terror.

Gao Zhenming had an army of 8,000 under his command, but facing hundreds of Ming cavalry outside the city, he had no intention of fighting at all and just watched the monks flee.

"We don't want money, we just want food!"

"Throw away the money on the cart and put the bags of food on it!"

Gao Zhenming remained motionless as he watched the Ming cavalry dismount and carry food.

When the Ming army loaded dozens of carts (including ox carts, horse carts and mule carts) with food and began to transport them back, Gao Zhenming finally smiled and said, "The time has come. Let's go out of the city and kill the bandits!"

The city gate opened quickly.

"woo woo woo woo!"

The Ming army scouts immediately blew their horns, and the Ming cavalry mounted their horses one after another.

Then, no longer caring about the dozens of carts of food, they all headed east to assemble.

The first to leave the city were a thousand Dali cavalrymen, who came out from the south gate in an attempt to cut off the Ming cavalry's retreat. But Cao Xun fled directly to the east, avoiding the enemy cavalry and running to a small forest eight miles away.

Cao Xun's warhorse was quite tired, and due to the horsepower it ran slower and slower.

The general who commanded the Dali cavalry was named Gao Guangxiu. Seeing this situation, he was even more delighted and ordered his cavalry to pursue at full speed.

"Sound the horn and let Gao Guangxiu come back!"

Gao Zhenming quickly gave the order.

He wanted to stop the Ming cavalry here and annihilate them, but the Ming army was very alert and did not flee to the south at all.

Since he couldn't be stopped, there was no need to chase him.

The Ming army is elusive this time. What if there is an ambush?
Anyway, the food has been taken back, and all that remains is to defend the city honestly.

Gao Zhenming was very cowardly in fighting. He didn't even dare to retake Shicheng County which was occupied by barbarians. How could he dare to chase the fierce Ming army all the way?

Cao Xun gradually slowed down his horse, turned his head to look at the retreating enemy cavalry, and spat, "What a loser."

The Ming cavalry continued to move eastward and arrived at a mountainous area eight miles away, where Yang Zaixing personally led the main force and ambushed.

Yang Zaixing did not go to the Jiazong tribe's stronghold in Chenggong District at all, but only sent 800 infantrymen to launch a surprise attack.

He personally led the main force on a hasty march at night and arrived at the forest at dawn. Then the entire army rested for four or five hours and sent out the cavalry to lure the Dali army.

Unexpectedly, the defender of Guandu City was too cowardly and did not dare to pursue even hundreds of Ming cavalry.

Yang Zaixing sighed: "Everyone says that the Dali army is weak, but in fact they still have good generals. The commander of Guandu City is calm and measured, and he does not forget his duty to defend the city for a small profit. Retreat to the Jiazong tribe's mountain stronghold, rest for a day and then fight again."

There was not much time to rest, as Gao Zhenshou's army was about to arrive.

(End of this chapter)