Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 1090 1085 [Everyone Wants to Be Clear]

At this point, Gao Zhenshou was in a difficult situation.

He knew that the Ming army was strong, but he did not expect it to be so strong.

He knew that Dali's soldiers were weak, but he didn't expect them to be so weak.

When the strong and the weak met and fought, a wonderful reaction occurred - the strong soldiers became stronger, and the weak soldiers became weaker!

But we have to hit it, a nail has been hammered in here.

Like a lump in the throat, like a awn on the back.

Just when Gao Zhenshou was in a dilemma, a fast ship came from the north and landed on the shore of Dianchi Lake to report: "Prime Minister, reinforcements from Yunnan Chen, Pin Chen, Zhao Chen, Baiya Chen, Xi Chen and other places have arrived together, with a total force of more than 14,000 people. They are now outside Shanchan City awaiting orders."

"赕" is the name given to rivers by the barbarians in the south.

But in Dali Kingdom, it can be called "Dian". For example, Pu'er is also called Burizhen and Buridian.

"Let them all come. Also, send 1,000 of the 5,000 Shanchan defenders and 3,000 Guandu defenders here to reinforce us," Gao Zhenshou had already given up everything. "The whole army should return to the camp to rest. Tomorrow, tens of thousands of troops will come together to besiege us from all sides!"

Gao Zhenshou didn't care about anything like the three being surrounded and one being missing.

Anyway, the morale of the Ming army was high and it was impossible for them to escape. He had to make use of his military advantage and launch continuous attacks from all sides of the mountain stronghold.

Towards evening, more than 16,000 soldiers arrived to reinforce Gao Zhenshou.

The general in charge was called Gao Kaiming. He complained as soon as they met: "Prime Minister, Gao Liangcheng has evil intentions. When we passed by the Chuxiong Prefecture, Gao Liangcheng not only did not lead his troops to join us, but also gathered his troops to block us for a long time!"

"What's going on?" Gao Zhenshou frowned.

Gao Kaiming said: "I just asked the leader of Shiguzhen to provide some food and grass, but Gao Liangcheng insisted that we allowed our soldiers to rob food in his territory."

Gao Zhenshou did not ask any more questions, but just said, "You have been traveling a long way, go and rest first."

It must be that Gao Kaiming had ulterior motives and forced officials or leaders along the way to provide food, which led Gao Liangcheng to find an excuse to gather troops and stop them.

Gao Zhenshou returned to his tent, worried.

He suspected that Gao Liangcheng wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to cause trouble, but he was not sure how Gao Liangcheng would do it.

Under normal circumstances, Gao Liangcheng would sit back and watch him lose, then run to compete for the position of prime minister, and then lead his troops to join the battlefield to resist the enemy.

But this time the enemy is the Ming army, not the surrounding barbarians.

Does Gao Liangcheng dare to take such a risk?
If you're not careful you'll end up making things worse!

Gao Zhenshou suddenly had a more terrifying thought: Could it be that Gao Liangcheng had already surrendered to the Ming Dynasty? If so, once Gao Liangcheng sent troops to Weichu (Chuxiong), Shanchan (Kunming) would be attacked from three sides.

In an instant, Gao Zhenshou felt cold all over.

He called his second son Gao Shouhu and said, "You must go to Weichu immediately and have Gao Liangcheng bring troops to help us. Just tell him... just tell him that I will give him my position as prime minister. Only he can command the army to drive out the Ming thieves."

Gao Shouhu was shocked and said, "Father, how can you give up the position of prime minister to someone else so easily?"

Gao Zhenshou said: "If he is not allowed to be the prime minister, Gao Liangcheng is very likely to defect to the Ming Kingdom. By then, there will be Ming troops in the north and south, the main force of the Guangxi Ming army may come from the east, and Gao Liangcheng's rebels will be in the west. How can we fight Shanchan City when it is surrounded?"

"If Gao Liangcheng has been secretly supporting the Ming Dynasty, and now he is allowed to be the prime minister and in charge of the army, wouldn't he just surrender to the enemy with his army and the city?" Gao Shouhu expressed his concerns.

Gao Zhenshou said: "If he can become prime minister again, he will definitely not want to surrender to the enemy again."

Gao Shouhu asked, "If we lose, then everything will be over. But if Gao Liangcheng leads the army to defeat the Ming Kingdom, his prestige will surely increase, and the position of prime minister will have nothing to do with our family."

Gao Zhenshou said: "Let's just hold on for now. The Ming army is too strong. Even with the few thousand Ming troops in front of me, I... I am not sure I can win, not to mention that there are still tens of thousands, or even more than a hundred thousand Ming troops who have not arrived. So what if I give the position of prime minister back to him temporarily? I can always find a way to take it back!"

No matter what, Gao Zhenshou still does not have enough troops.

Gao Liangcheng controlled the entire Weichu Prefecture, but he kept delaying and refusing to send troops to help. If the war continued like this, the Dali Kingdom would have no chance of winning.

Only by pulling Gao Liangcheng's troops to join the battle can the situation be reversed.

After all, Gao Liangcheng had been prime minister for so many years, and the weapons and armor of his private soldiers were very sophisticated.

After the second son took the order and left, Gao Zhenshou called the herald officer again: "You send a messenger to the south to order the leaders of Wenfu Prefecture, Buxiong Tribe, Luojia Tribe and other prefectures and tribes to gather all the young and strong men who can fight and rush to Dawulong as quickly as possible. Anyone who does not send troops will be regarded as treason!"

The next day, fight again.

At this time, Dali's military strength had increased to 50,000.

Even under the escort of cavalry, thousands of soldiers moved westward to organize an attack in the area between the mountain stronghold and Dianchi Lake.

Once the fight started, they attacked from all sides.

Moreover, supervision teams were sent to various places. If an officer took the lead in fleeing and tried to escape before reaching the first stone wall, he would be executed directly. If an officer did not flee but the team was defeated, all the officers in the team would be executed.

After the first wave of attacks was repelled, a total of eight middle and low-level officers were brought in.

"Martial law!"

At Gao Zhenshou's command, eight heads fell to the ground, shocking the entire army.

Another remaining soldier from a mountain attack team was brought in. The officer of this team did not flee, but the soldiers fled and the officer was killed in battle.

"Kill them all and send their heads to all the tribes!"

A bunch of heads were chopped off and a second attack was quickly organized.

This time it was obviously different. Each attacking team rushed forward bravely, and more than half of them approached the stone wall under bullets.

The Ming army began to suffer losses in direct fighting: one person was seriously injured and more than ten people were slightly injured.

Of these, twelve were shot by arrows, and five were stabbed by spears.

"The enemy is starting to fight desperately," Yang Zaixing inspected the two positions and said to the messenger, "Tell the generals that when the next wave of enemy troops is defeated, they should launch a fierce counterattack and kill them. We must scare the enemy into death and make them as afraid of death as they were yesterday!"

The tiger squat cannon was also distributed to three positions that were convenient for firing.

Nong Zuxing was also injured. An arrow flew past his head, grazed his cheekbone and pierced his left ear.

The dull pain made Nong Zuxing even more excited.

The wolf soldier bloodline has awakened.

The enemy troops below were getting closer and closer under the bullets, and several tiger squat cannons nearby were still waiting for the opportunity.

"fire!"

As the cannon sounded, countless pieces of gravel flew out.

Amid the screams, Nong Zuxing heard the captain blowing the attack whistle. He and his teammates flipped over the stone wall, landed steadily on the hillside, and rushed forward with guns raised and roaring.

"kill!"

The enemy in front of them was first shot by muskets and then bombarded by cannon and shotshells. When they encountered the charge of Nong Zuxing and his men, they were frightened out of their wits and turned to flee.

"Woooooooo~~~~"

Nong Zuxing dived more than ten steps with his gun in hand, knocking down two fleeing soldiers in succession, and suddenly heard a military bugle call from the stone wall behind him. He ignored it.

Because he was a small soldier, he only listened to the captain's whistle and looked at the deputy captain's flag.

If both the captain and the deputy captain are killed, a temporary captain will be selected according to their military rank, and they will try to find scattered friendly forces nearby and reorganize them into a mandarin duck team as quickly as possible.

Finally, the captain's whistle sounded and the deputy captain's flag waved.

Nong Zuxing immediately slowed down, ran a few steps and stopped. They did not continue to chase forward, but led by the captain, they rushed towards the enemy who was attacking the mountain from the side.

The enemies there were on the verge of collapse. Facing the flank attack from Nong Zuxing and others, they were killed and forced to flee in an instant without any suspense.

Bugles and whistles also sounded from the side positions, and the Ming troops on the low walls jumped out one after another.

Some continued to pursue the enemy, while others continued to flank.

The Dali soldiers in various positions suffered successive defeats and were chased by the Ming army all the way to the foot of the mountain.

The troops were called back and the fighting stopped, with screams occasionally heard on the battlefield.

"Wonderful victory, ten thousand victory!"

The Ming army on the mountain cheered and shouted, and their morale became higher and higher.

The Dali army at the foot of the mountain became demoralized again. The little morale that had been boosted by harsh military law was directly reduced to its original state because of this defeat.

It was no use for Gao Zhenshou to continue to order the supervision team to chop off heads. Not only would it fail to improve the army's combat effectiveness, but it would also cause resentment.

After several more attacks, the Dali soldiers all returned to their previous behavior. A team of attackers had only a few killed by muskets, and before they even reached the edge of the first stone wall, they panicked and shouted as the whole team fled.

"Prime Minister, we can't attack like this anymore." Yang Zhongsu rode his horse to Gao Zhenshou.

Gao Zhenshou asked back: "Do you have a better idea?"

Yang Zhongsu remained silent.

As early as the Nanzhao Kingdom period, the Yang family was a large family second only to the Duan family, and was also listed as the second most noble surname by the Dali Esoteric Sect.

Although it has declined now, the Yang family still inherits the management of Huichuan Prefecture (Huili, Miyi, Huidong) and has great influence in their hometown Dongchuan County (Huize, Dongchuan, Qiaojia).

Among the 50,000 Dali soldiers at present, 6,000 were brought by Yang Zhongsu.

After two consecutive days of fierce attacks on the mountain stronghold, Yang Zhongsu's troops suffered more than 5 casualties, and his casualty rate exceeded %.

Moreover, many wounded soldiers lost their mobility, so the Ming army liked to finish them off at the bend of the knees. Some were shot but not killed, but the lead bullets had already started to infect the flesh. The wounded camp was filled with constant cries, which seriously affected the morale of the army.

The sound of horse hooves rang out again, and this time it was Zhang Zheng who came.

The Dali Zhang family is mainly divided into two branches. One branch is from the royal family of the Baizi Kingdom during the Three Kingdoms period, whose descendants were named King of Jianning in the Tang Dynasty; the other branch is from the royal family of the Nanzhao Kingdom, whose ancestor is Luo Bohai, the son of Xinuluo.

Zhang Zheng in front of him belongs to the first branch, which has been passed down in Yunnan for more than a thousand years.

Zhang Zheng followed Gao Kaiming to help yesterday. He had only 3,000 soldiers under his command, 500 of whom were organized into a mountain attack team to attack in turns. After several waves of attacks, these 500 soldiers had suffered nearly 100 casualties.

If there was any hope of victory, Zhang Zheng would accept it.

But now it was obvious that they were sending their soldiers to their deaths, and they couldn't even get close to the first stone wall outside the mountain stronghold. How could they fight like this?

"Prime Minister, let's withdraw the troops," Zhang Zheng suggested. "Leave a few thousand soldiers to guard Guandu City in the north and Wu's Wubao in the south, and the rest return to Shanchan City for defense. Can this isolated army capture the city?"

Gao Zhenshou asked in return: "If the Ming army from the north attacks, what should we do with the Ming army here? Let them mess up the rear of Shanchan Prefecture? Many of my soldiers have families in various states of Shanchan Prefecture. If they don't worry about the safety of their families, can they still fight wholeheartedly?"

Zhang Zheng said: "Why don't we pretend to withdraw and see if we can lure the enemy down the mountain to pursue us. Fighting on flat ground is worse than attacking the mountain like this."

Gao Zhenshou began to consider the possibility of feigning a retreat to lure the enemy.

Immediately afterwards, the sound of horse hooves was heard again, and generals from various units came over one after another.

Everyone can see clearly that it is impossible to take down the stronghold by attacking it in this way, and in the end the morale of the entire army may collapse.

In such a situation, the safest way is to surround the stronghold without attacking, and slowly deplete the food and grass in the stronghold.

But Gao Zhenshou didn't have time for that, as Bai Qi and Lin Chong's army was about to arrive!

Gao Zhenshou looked at the generals. Not only were the generals of other surnames unwilling to fight anymore, but even the generals of the Gao family were passively avoiding fighting.

The attitude of the generals represents the morale of the army.

A speedboat once again stopped by the Dianchi Lake. After the messenger got off the boat, he immediately rode on a warhorse by the lake and galloped to Gao Zhenshou to report the news: "Prime Minister, Shicheng County has been captured by the Ming army!"

Gao Zhenshou was shocked: "Tell me in detail."

The messenger said: "Shicheng was bombarded by artillery fire, and cracks appeared in the city wall. The barbarian soldiers in the city were forced to go out to fight in the field. In less than an hour, they were defeated by the Ming army and fled. When the remaining barbarian soldiers fled back to the city, they found that the pseudo-Luoluo king and prime minister had all died in the chaos. The surviving barbarian leaders discussed and surrendered the city."

"When did they surrender?" Gao Zhenshou asked.

The messenger replied: "Two days ago, the escaped barbarian soldiers of the Maitreya tribe rode all the way to Shanchan for help, but fainted from exhaustion just as they finished speaking. When the barbarian envoys came to Shanchan for peace talks two days ago, the barbarian soldiers of Shicheng County had actually surrendered the city, but the barbarian envoys didn't know about it yet."

Gao Zhenshou opened his mouth, but hesitated to speak.

If the Ming army in the north moves quickly, the vanguard troops are estimated to be within a hundred miles of Kunming.

After a long while, Gao Zhenshou gnashed his teeth and said, "The entire army will retreat to Shanchan Prefecture. But we still have to try to lure them out. If the Ming troops in the mountain stronghold chase us, we will immediately turn around and annihilate them outside the field!"

He called the generals from various departments together and began to plan the tactics of luring them.

Yang Zhongsu returned to his camp and called his brothers and sons over: "The Gao family will definitely lose. They can't even defeat the several thousand Ming troops in front of them. Do they think they can defeat the tens of thousands of Ming troops in the north? The Ming army is the enemy of the Gao family, but not necessarily the enemy of our Yang family. I'm afraid this is still a great opportunity for our Yang family to turn things around!"

The Yang family inherited control of the entire Huichuan Prefecture, and relied on their influence to actually control half of Dongchuan County.

In the Dali Kingdom where the Gao family was in power, how could they allow a foreign surname to exist and actually control a prefecture and half a county?

Therefore, Gao family has been suppressing Yang family, and Dongchuan County was taken away from Yang family by Gao family. However, Yang family has too much influence there, and although Gao family members serve as county governors, they still have to look at Yang family's face for many things.

If this situation continues, Yang will lose power sooner or later.

For example, in history, the Gao family took advantage of the Mongolian invasion to seize all the territory of the Yang family. From then on, the Yang family could no longer rule the area and could only develop quietly by relying on their religious identity. In the end, a quarter of the Bai people had the surname Yang.

Yang Zhongsu continued, "Our territory is in Huichuan Prefecture and Dongchuan County, which is northwest of Shicheng County. After the Ming army takes over Shicheng County, they may attack our Yang family's territory at any time, so we must express our attitude and surrender to the Ming Dynasty as soon as possible!"

"Brother, you can contact Zhang." Yang Zhongyan suggested.

Yang Zhongsu smiled and nodded: "Yes, Zhang Zheng is definitely willing to surrender to the Ming Dynasty."

The Zhang family was suppressed even more severely by the Gao family. Their territory was around Erhai Lake and was directly under the jurisdiction of the Duan family's leader.

Even the Dali Kingdom's imperial palace was built under the supervision of the Zhang family.

The process of the powerful Gao family undermining the Duan family was also the process of suppressing the Zhang family.

In history, the descendants of Zhang family directly served as guides to the Ming Dynasty and served as family generals of the Mu Palace for generations.

The Dali army camp was busy withdrawing troops. After a while, Yang Zhongyan ran back and said, "Brother, Zhang Zheng is willing to surrender to the Ming Dynasty. When will he start to defect?"

(End of this chapter)