Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 1088 1083 [Switch from Offense to Defense]

On the east bank of Dianchi Lake, New China discovered an ancient Dian culture site and unearthed tens of thousands of bronze artifacts.

Later, the government used this as a basis for creating a cultural tourism project and turned it into the "Colorful Yunnan·Ancient Dian City Resort".

At this moment, the place is called Da Wu Long.

The Wu family of the Bai nationality in Dali also recognized their ancestor as Taibo, the uncle of Ji Chang and the founder of the State of Wu.

The Wu family was not very prosperous in the Dali Kingdom, so naturally they could not establish their own territory and were mostly retainers of various wealthy and powerful families.

The Wu family of Dawulong had been vassal of the Gao family for generations, helping the Gao family to manage Shanchan Prefecture.

In the Dianchi Lake, seven or eight speed boats were sailing in all directions.

One of the speedboats stopped at Dawulong. After a young man got off the boat, he quickly ran towards Wu's Wu Castle.

"Fourth uncle, the patriarch has issued an order!"

When the young man saw the person in charge of Wubao, he said anxiously: "Chenggong has been captured by the Ming army. My Wu family immediately gathered the clan soldiers to defend the Great Wulong as the top priority. The Juqiao (Jinning District) and Yangcheng Castle (Shangsuan Town, Jinning District) in the south have already sent ships to gather troops. The troops of all tribes and towns must gather here and wait for orders to go north to surround the enemy at any time!"

Wu Yizhen sighed and said, "The remnants of the Jiazong tribe escaped and reported the news. I already knew that Chenggong had fallen, and I had already ordered the troops to gather. But the young and strong men in the jurisdiction have been recruited, and even the tribe soldiers are mostly in Shanchan (Kunming). Now we have only gathered 200 soldiers. If we bring the old, weak, women and children here, we may be able to defend Wubao, but we may not be able to go north to encircle and suppress the enemy."

"Then we must defend Wu Fort to the death and prevent the Ming army from looting and fleeing southwards," said the young man.

……

Chenggong.

Six thousand Ming troops and more than a thousand auxiliary soldiers and civilian laborers were sleeping soundly, with only a few still standing guard inside and outside the mountain stronghold.

Li Shao, the son of Li Gong, a military scholar from Guangxi in the former Song Dynasty, bowed to Yang Zaixing and said, "General, we don't have much food here. It's only enough for us to eat for three or four days. After interrogating the prisoners, we learned that the troops and food of Jiazong's army had been transferred to Shanchan City two days ago. Even the remaining food and grass must be transported to Shanchan."

Yang Zaixing's eyes lit up when he heard this: "That is to say, the troops around Dianchi Lake are all in Shanchan, and the cities further south are all empty of defense?"

Li Shao nodded and said, "Yes, there are not many soldiers in the south. All the young and strong men who can fight have been taken away."

Yang Zaixing said: "The soldiers and horses are quite tired, so let them rest for two or three hours. Let the soldiers who have rested dismantle the wood in the village to make siege ladders, and then attack Da Wu Long at night!"

"Clerk!"

"exist!"

"Bring us the information related to Da Wu Long."

The military secretary immediately took out the box and searched through it, quickly unfolding a booklet and handing it to Yang Zaixing.

Yang Zaixing read:
"Dawulong, the Wu family of Shanchan has lived here for generations, and all their descendants are servants of the Gao family."

"There is Wu's Wubao in Dawulong, which faces Dianchi Lake to the west, a river to the south, mountains to the east, and flat land to the north. Wubao is relatively small, with a circumference of about 190 zhang ( meters) and a wall height of about feet (less than meters)."

"I don't know how many households in the Wu clan are. In all the previous military expeditions, the number of Wu clan soldiers was less than a thousand..."

Then, Yang Zaixing looked at other materials nearby, and after reading them, he smiled and said, "This will make it easier to fight."

About an hour later, the soldiers on guard by the lake reported that hundreds of boats had appeared in Dianchi Lake, and the large boats were full of enemy flags.

Yang Zaixing personally picked up the telescope and went to check.

Most of those ships were merchant ships and fishing boats, which were probably temporarily requisitioned for war. Guandu City, where Gao's old nest was located, was currently a commercial center with a radius of hundreds of miles, and countless merchant ships were docked there all year round.

Perhaps because they were afraid of the Ming army, or perhaps because they were waiting for the main force, the Dali army coming from Dianchi Lake did not land directly to attack.

Yang Zaixing gave the order: "The cavalry is divided into two groups, and they take turns to go out and scout the enemy. If you encounter a large group of enemies, do not engage them, just retreat. The cavalry who are not on duty should take the opportunity to sleep, and the auxiliary soldiers should help take care of the horses. The rest of the soldiers, except those on duty, should also sleep and recover their energy."

Hundreds of Dali troop transport ships were cruising in Dianchi Lake not far from the mountain stronghold, but the Ming army officers and soldiers ignored them and slept soundly.

What is elite?

The infantry and cavalry under Yang Zaixing all wore light armor, and the proportion of firearms was not very high.

Their equipment was inferior to that of the Ming army in the north, and even to some of the main garrison troops, but they were indeed an elite field army.

Being able to sleep peacefully even with the enemy at your side, this is called being an elite!
By mid-afternoon, scouts kept coming back with reports that tens of thousands of enemy forces were approaching by land.

Yang Zaixing didn't sleep and his eyes were bloodshot.

He personally rode around to familiarize himself with the terrain, and then returned to the stronghold to inspect it carefully. Then he called the generals and carefully arranged the defense tasks. The generals called the officers to make arrangements, but they did not disturb the sleeping soldiers.

Finally, the main force of the enemy was three or four miles away, and Yang Zaixing shouted: "Don't sleep anymore, get up and prepare for battle!"

One by one, the Ming army soldiers were awakened by their officers, yawning, and were led by the officers to their respective defense areas.

Outside the mountain stronghold, the Dali army gradually stopped. Gao Zhenshou personally led the generals and cavalry to approach the mountain stronghold to observe the situation carefully, and he also held a pair of binoculars in his hand.

"The enemy must be prepared, so we can only attack by force," said Gao Zhenming.

Gao Zhenshou said, "It will be dark in one hour, and we haven't even set up camp yet. If we attack the city now, there might be accidents. We can only surround it and fight tomorrow."

"Will the enemy break out at night?" Gao Zhenming said.

Gao Zhenshou smiled and said, "It would be great if the enemy could break through. They are alone and have been surrounded. How much food and grass can they take away if they break through at night? By then, this isolated army will not only be tired, but also hungry and running out of food! Tell the generals to guard the camp tonight to prevent the enemy from attacking or breaking through at night. All weapons should be kept by your side, and those who have armor should wear it to sleep."

Gao Zhenming was extremely cowardly and said, "We only have more than 40,000 soldiers in total. Five thousand stayed in Shanchan, and three thousand stayed in Guandu. Now there are only more than 30,000 left. The Ming army is very powerful. Even if there are only a few thousand soldiers, they should not be underestimated. Why not..."

"Not as good as what?" Gao Zhenshou asked.

Gao Zhenming said:

"Why not let the several thousand soldiers who came by boat from Dianchi Lake go south to guard Wu's Wubao. We will lead the troops eastward, set up camp on the mountain to block the east, and then wait for the reinforcements from the southern tribes to arrive. It would be even better if the reinforcements from the western tribes can arrive."

"By then, there will be Shanchan and Guandu cities blocking the way in the north, Wu's Wubao and Yangchengbao blocking the way in the south, and our main camp in the east. The Ming army here will be surrounded on three sides and can only jump into Dianchi Lake to the west to escape. When we gather 100,000 troops, are we afraid that we won't be able to capture a small mountain stronghold?"

Gao Zhenshou glared at his brother and said, "This is just the vanguard of the Guangxi Ming army. By the time you gather 100,000 soldiers, the main force of the Guangxi Ming army will have arrived. What's more, the Ming army from the north is attacking Shicheng County. Once Shicheng County falls, Shanchan Prefecture will be surrounded. The Ming army here must be eaten up as soon as possible!"

"Yes." Gao Zhenming said no more.

But he always felt something was wrong. Could the more than 30,000 Dali troops in front of him really take down the mountain stronghold where thousands of Ming troops were stationed?
Seeing that the Dali army was retreating slowly and the enemy in Dianchi Lake had landed after taking a long detour, Yang Zaixing probably guessed that the enemy was going to set up camp.

Yang Zaixing did not send troops to attack, nor did he plan to launch a night attack tonight.

"Don't build the siege ladders for now. Use the dismantled wood to reinforce the defenses of the stronghold." Yang Zaixing ordered.

Li Shao asked: "Do you want to attack at night?"

Yang Zaixing shook his head: "The enemy is definitely prepared, and it will be difficult to succeed in a night attack tonight. Moreover, our soldiers are too tired, so we should take this opportunity to have a good night's sleep tonight."

Cao Xun said worriedly, "We are running low on food and grass. We will run out of food in ten days or so. What should we do if the enemy is surrounding us? Why not pretend to attack the enemy tonight? When they start a disturbance, we can send 800 elite soldiers on horseback to attack Wu's Wubao, which is more than 20 miles away. There must be food and grass there, and it is easy to defend."

Yang Zaixing said: "I originally planned to capture Wu's Wubao, but now I have changed my mind. We don't need to do anything, just defend this mountain stronghold."

"But what if we don't have enough food and fodder?" asked a general named Zhang Zhongfu.

Yang Zaixing smiled and said, "Although we are alone in deep territory, we should still trust our allies. Tens of thousands of troops are coming south from Guizhou. They have either captured Shicheng or are besieging it. They will definitely be able to approach Shanchan before we run out of food."

"We're just getting closer, but we still can't get any food or supplies," Cao Xun said.

"I understand!"

Li Shao clapped his hands: "Friendly troops may go south to Shanchan at any time, so it is the enemy who should be anxious. These enemy troops in front of us must eat us up as soon as possible, so that we can go back to defend Shanchan with all our strength. We are like a nail nailed here. If we are not pulled out quickly, the Shanchan defenders will definitely be unable to sleep or eat. Therefore, the enemy will attack the mountain stronghold fiercely tomorrow, and we just need to defend it patiently."

"That's right," Yang Zaixing said, "The enemy doesn't know how much food we have, so they don't dare to gamble and wait for us to starve to death. If I were the enemy's commander, I would also choose to attack the mountain stronghold fiercely."

After this principle was explained, all the generals laughed happily.

Chenggong Mountain Stronghold had no proper castle, and the mountain was not high or steep. Only in some key places were stone fortifications built, and the rest were wooden fences.

Such a stronghold naturally has no defensive capabilities at all.

But these several thousand Ming troops were all mountain infantry and mountain cavalry, and the infantry were all trained in the firearm version of the mandarin duck formation. Even if there was no fortress, it was still a home battle!
Except for a few soldiers on duty, all the Ming soldiers slept soundly.

I wake up in the morning, full of energy, and all the fatigue from the previous few days is gone.

In the middle of the morning, more than 30,000 enemy troops approached the stronghold again, intending to attack from the east and north. Since Dianchi Lake was not far to the west, this was in line with the military strategy of surrounding three sides and leaving one side.

As the enemy troops got closer, the Ming auxiliary troops were still slowly moving stones.

They collected small stones from all over the mountains, carried them back to the village and broke them into pebbles - the shotgun shells they brought with them had been used up long ago, and it was not convenient to pick them up, so now they could use the broken stones as shotgun shells for defense.

I didn’t bring the thunder bomb.

If you carry too little, it will be useless; if you carry too much, it will be too heavy and not conducive for a quick march.

Thousands of Ming soldiers were either standing or sitting, wiping their weapons leisurely.

Some people were even taking a nap to recuperate. They were arranged as the reserve team and it was still a long way for them to go into battle.

Yang Zaixing stood on a low stone wall and watched the enemy troops deployed at the foot of the mountain.

He had several thousand elite soldiers at his disposal and also occupied a mountain stronghold.

Not to mention that he could not capture the enemy at hand, even if the enemy's strength doubled, Yang Zaixing was confident that he could defend Kunming until friendly forces besieged it.

(End of this chapter)