Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 289 0284 [Conquest of Barbarians]

More than a hundred miles east of Lizhou City, the leaders of the five tribes were discussing.

They are all little old men in their 60s and [-]s. They were elected internally. They were not allowed to be hereditary in Qianshu, so they gradually adapted to the electoral system.

"The Han officials asked us to send troops, what do you think?" Liu Ali sat cross-legged on the cattail grass, fiddled with the fire in the pond with a branch.

A clay pot was set on the fire, and meat was being cooked in it.

Hao Pu said angrily: "The tea farm still owes us money, if we don't pay the money back, I will never send troops to help!"

"Yes, Han officials always don't give enough money when they buy things!" Wang Heiyi said angrily.

This is the fault of the tea horse department, and it is still good now. In the early years of the Southern Song Dynasty, over time, the Lizhou tea farm owed the five tribes tens of thousands of guan.

Feeling that the money would not come back, the five tribes simply "armed to ask for salary" and plundered eighteen villages, killing them from the west to 15 miles away from the state capital, and from the south to Hanyuan Town 3 miles away.

Then he was beaten up by the Southern Song Dynasty. Not only did he not get back the arrears, he also donated 300 horses to make amends.

The governor of Lizhou at that time was called Yu Yunwen...

Da Song didn't do it properly, but Yu Yunwen couldn't control the Tea Horse Department.

Most of the rebellions in the Southwestern Yi were forced by the Han officials intolerable.

Of course, they were not innocent. Once they ran out of food, they ran to rob the Han people and used the Han people as cash machines.

Right and wrong, it is difficult to speak clearly.

Yang Baozi said: "Don't refuse directly. The various ministries sent envoys to Zhoucheng, saying that we want to help but we don't have enough money and food to send troops. If the Han officials can pay the money owed, we will have food and send troops."

This proposal was very good, so the five tribes Hao, Zhao, Wang, Liu, and Yang collectively sent envoys to the state city to ask for money.

When Zhu Ming received the news, he couldn't help but ask, "How much money does the Tea Horse Company owe them?"

Yu Wenchang shook his head and said, "I'm not sure, it's a bad debt."

Zhu Ming said with emotion: "Oh, we are wrong about this matter, it's really not easy to ask the blame afterwards."

Yuwen often said: "It is the tea horse department that owes money. What do you have to do with the people of Lizhou? They should go to the tea horse department to ask for money, even if they don't want to pay back the debt, they just stop trading. Barbarians, but on the other hand came to plunder the Han people."

"What does the Ministry of Void and Hate say?" Zhu Ming asked again.

Yu Wenchang said: "The Department of Xuhen is willing to send a hundred troops."

Most of the Xuhen Department's territory belongs to Jiazhou, but with the westward expansion, a small part is also in Lizhou.

Yu Wenchang was already recruiting civilian husbands. In addition to recruiting a thousand Han people, he also recruited [-] Shuyi from the north bank of the Dadu River.

Soldiers plus civilian husbands, boatmen, carpenters, stonemasons, and one hundred barbarian soldiers from the Xuhen Department barely approached 3000.

On the second day after the troops were dispatched, the whole army had crossed the Dadu River, and Yu Wenchang wrote a letter condemning the Chuanman in Qiongbu and ordering them to immediately return the land of the Lianglinman.

……

Jumeng was in joy. He dispatched troops this time, broke through 14 villages in Lianglinman, and captured a large area of ​​mountains and valleys.

The main forces of the two forest barbarians came to rescue from the south, but were defeated by Jumeng in one fell swoop, and took advantage of the situation to seize two more villages in the south.

The fourth son, Ju A Fan, was sealed off by him and became the ghost master of the newly occupied territory.

In the next few years, Jumeng plans to continue to expand, entrusting the five and six sons together.

The tribes that participated in the battle also received some rewards and returned to their villages one after another.

A few days after the barbarians dispersed, Ju Meng received a letter of reprimand.

He didn't take it seriously at all, and directly threw the letter into the brazier and burned it.

Over the past few decades, Han officials only know how to reprimand, but never send troops.Ju Meng has long been used to it, just write a confession letter casually, and sacrifice a few livestock to make amends.

Two days later, the northernmost village sent someone to report: "The master of the ghost, the Han soldiers have come to kill, and it is said that there are 10 people!"

"10 people?" Ju Meng stood up in shock.

Zhu Ming knows mathematics, a few hundred soldiers would dare to call ten thousand, wouldn't three thousand soldiers be rounded up to one hundred thousand?
Jumeng called the Han Chinese Sun Shu: "Han soldiers came to attack with a hundred thousand, do you think it's true?"

Sun Shu laughed and said, "Where did you get the [-] yuan? Even if you count the civil servants, [-] yuan is not bad."

Jumeng called the eldest son again: "You send people to order the various ministries, within fifteen days, you must lead the troops to meet at Pugulong. Whoever dares to exceed fifteen days, I will go to conquer them next year!"

Fifteen days is enough for Zhu Ming to penetrate the valley on the south bank of the Dadu River!
The government army marched along the river valley, and all the luggage was transported by boats, and even the fishermen's boats were conscripted.

The parts were carried ashore one by one, and were quickly assembled into return guns by carpenters accompanying the army.

These return guns are made extremely rough, and the parts can be saved as much as possible. Except for the bracket and the throwing rod, the rest of the parts are made of ordinary wood.The cost of building a small return gun is about the same as building a few country wooden beds.

There are stones everywhere in the nearby mountains, and soldiers escort the masons to quarry the stones.

The first thing I looked for was broken stones. I chiseled them casually a few times to form irregular spheres, and asked the folks to move them to Huihuipao.

The village is a branch of Sichuan Man in Qiongbu, and it has been occupied for less than ten years. It used to belong to the territory of Lianglin Man.

The ghost master Qu Mang was extremely horrified. There are only three to four hundred people in his village.He lives by the river because he is greedy for the fertility of the valley. The other villages under his command are scattered in the nearby mountains.

It was too late to gather troops, and at most more than 300 people in the village were recruited to fight (including the elderly, weak, women and children).

Looking around, Qu Mang felt that he would definitely not be able to beat him, so...surrender.

Bringing his son out empty-handed, Qu Mang knelt down on the ground, saying in not-so-fluent Chinese: "Qu Mang pays homage to the Han chief!"

Yuwen often asked: "Jumeng, the leader of the Sichuan barbarians in Qiongbu, who are you?"

Qu Mang replied: "My father is brothers with Jumeng. Jumeng is the eldest brother, and my father is the third younger brother. Nine years ago when they captured this place, my father became the master of ghosts. Now my father is dead. , I became the ghost master.”

Yu Wenchang asked again: "How many villages do you have?"

Qu Mang replied, "There are six more in the mountains."

"How many members are there?" Yu Wenchang continued to ask.

Qu Mang said: "Some villages have dozens of people, and some villages have one or two hundred people. The land by the river is fertile and this is already the largest village."

Yu Wenchang ordered: "You take your son and go with me, and send people to other villages to summon warriors. You must gather 200 warriors to accompany the army! If you win this battle, I will ask the imperial court to make you a great ghost on the south bank of the Dadu River." Lord, and reward you with two more villages!"

Qu Mang was overjoyed, kowtowed and said, "Thank you for the gift, sir!"

This guy has made up his mind to follow the officers and soldiers to beat his uncle.If the battle goes well, you can take the opportunity to stand on your own, and if the battle doesn't go well, you can immediately defect!

The return gun that had just been assembled was disassembled and carried back to the ship.

The army continued to advance, and two days later, they encountered another village.

Qu Mang offered to provide information: "The ghost master here is on the mountain, and there is no ghost master in the village."

Yuwen often asked: "The ghost master here is a relative of Jumeng?"

Qu Mang said: "It's Jumeng's cousin, named Afu. He has eight villages, and he fought bravely. He was afraid that the river would be unsafe, so he lived in a village on the mountain."

The return guns were moved ashore again for assembly, and there were more than 40 of them.

Thirty of them are light return guns, which can only throw stone bullets weighing twenty or thirty catties.

Yuwen often sent people to shout to persuade them to surrender. The barbarians in the village were terrified, but they hid in the bunkers and could not come out.

Zhu Ming has already set up the "artillery positions". There are five cages in the village, and every eight cannons are assigned a target.He drew his sword and shouted: "Test the cannon!"

These return guns already have a slot device, so there is no need to cut the rope.

I saw the blacksmith cameo as the gunner, swinging a mallet and smashing it down, and forty cannons threw stone bullets one after another.

The trajectory was not calculated because the weight of the stone bullets was not uniform and the shape was extremely irregular.

Of the forty shells thrown, only three hit the Cage Fort, but they damaged a lot of nearby houses.

Carpenters acted as artillery surveyors, adjusting positions entirely by intuition.

The second round of shells was thrown, and this time six shells hit, and the houses in the village were smashed to pieces.

There was no need to wait for the third round of volleys. There was a cage castle that was hit one after another. The barbarians inside were frightened and fled frantically, because one of the castle walls was crooked and cracked.

"The horse army pursues!"

Deng Chun immediately got on his horse and led fifty cavalry from the Xiang army, and chased the barbarians around the village.

Those barbarians obviously wanted to escape to the mountains and seek shelter from the ghost master.

Holding two maces, Deng Chun rode his horse and galloped wildly, overtook the enemy at the foot of the mountain, and knocked a head off with one mace.

Leading the cavalry to kill more than ten people in a row, the remaining barbarians are already climbing the steep slope.Deng Chun ordered all the troops to dismount, and pursued them on foot, until they reached the half-hillside, and stopped when they saw the ghost master Afu's troops.

The ghost master Afu led the main force to the mountainside. In a hurry, he could only bring more than a hundred warriors, and sent people down the mountain to question the Han army.

Yu Wenchang sneered: "You refused to accept discipline, and wantonly captured the state. This is the land of the two forests, which was given to the two forests by the imperial court. Why do you not want to return it after occupying it for a long time? Surrender quickly, and you can spare your life !"

The ghost master Afu was unwilling to surrender, but he was afraid of the large number of Han soldiers, so he guarded the steep hillside and dared not come down to save the village.

"Boom boom boom!"

The third round of shelling began.

The ghost master Afu was terrified when he saw it, and Qu Mang, who had already surrendered, was equally terrified.

"Han soldiers are blessed by ghosts and gods!" Qu Mang's eldest son suddenly exclaimed.

These words reminded the barbarian warriors who had surrendered, and they bowed down to the return cannon in panic.

Qu Mang's complexion changed drastically, he knew he couldn't turn back, and his followers were already frightened.Even after the battle this time, the Han soldiers returned to Lizhou, his tribe would not dare to face the Han soldiers again.

More and more barbarians gave up the cage and fled. Deng Chun led the cavalry to chase them down.

Yu Wenchang was overjoyed and asked, "Does this cannon have a name?"

Zhu Ming replied: "Not yet."

Yuwen often said: "It's better to call it Pingyi Pao."

"Good name." Zhu Ming smiled.

The Han soldiers took advantage of the situation to occupy the village, and the ghost master Afu also retreated with his troops.

With Qumang as his guide, Zhu Ming went to check Afu's lair in person.It was found that the village was extremely dangerous and could not be attacked by flat artillery.

Zhu Ming went down the mountain and said: "Soldiers are precious and fast. You can't waste time here. I will leave two hundred soldiers and let Zhang Tong lead the troops to garrison this stronghold. In case Afu cuts off the rear, the main force of the officers and soldiers will continue to speed up!"

"Can two hundred soldiers hold it?" Yu Wenchang asked.

"I will definitely be able to defend it!" Ju Ming promised.

Yu Wenchang gave an order: "Take a full night's rest and enter the army tomorrow!"

(End of this chapter)