Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 346 0341 [Li Bao goes south]

Zhu Ming glanced at Huang Deyu's body. He had eaten too much during his life, and his death was really ugly.

"What last words did he have?" Zhu Ming asked.

Gao Jingshan replied: "I was buried in Jianmen with my wife, and the old servant was buried beside me."

Zhu Ming ordered: "It's okay to make the tomb bigger. Our military resources are limited, and we have to rush to march, so we won't bury it for the time being."

"General benevolence and righteousness." Gao Jingshan flattered him.

Once a person breaks through his bottom line, his style of doing things will often change, and he even learns to flatter.

Gao Jingshan has been in charge of Lizhou road transportation for many years, and the transfer envoy and deputy envoy often ignore the common affairs. In fact, Gao Jingshan, the third in command, is in charge of Hanzhong.

In terms of ability, it is still very strong.

This gentleman sacrificed Jianmenguan to surrender, and did not expressly say that he wanted to follow the thief, but he has been by Zhu Ming's side all the time, and any fool knows what he wants to do.

Ju Ming was very surprised by this, even a little unbelievable.

Gao Jingshan is not an ordinary Jinshi. In terms of dispatch, he is the second in command of Chengdu Fulu. In terms of Jiluguan, this is a real third-rank official.

Third-rank officer, relying on himself as a traitor?
The army marched slowly along the mountain road. When they reached Jianzhou, Zhu Ming couldn't bear it anymore and asked, "What do you think of the current situation, sir?"

Gao Jingshan said: "Sichuan has no soldiers to fight, and Bashu is already in the general's pocket. All the land is exhausted, the people are complaining, and the Imperial Army and the Western Army are attacking Liao in Hebei. It is impossible to return to Hanzhong within this year. Jingxiang is sparsely populated and has been heavily taxed year after year. The emperor is likely to let Jingxiang recruit troops to attack. The more you come, the better. If you can break it in one battle, you can also consume government money and food. Even if the Western Army returns, there will be no food to adjust."

Zhu Ming finally understood why Gao Jingshan was willing to take refuge in him. This old man believed that he could separate himself from the territory.

Zhu Ming asked again: "After all Hanzhong, Bashu, what advice do you have?"

Gao Jingshan said: "Stick to the main roads everywhere, and use the strong pass to resist the elite of the imperial court. If the imperial army is defeated once or twice, it will be difficult to do anything. At that time, we can learn from Li Jiqian of the Western Xia Dynasty and submit to the court of the Song Dynasty. It is also possible to ask Fengchuanxia for observation, and Fengchuanxia for a brief envoy. It is best to use three to five years to establish a system, train elite soldiers, and digest the place.

Zhu Ming smiled, noncommittal.

The army approached Zitong all the way. The mountain in the north of Zitong is also called Cuiyun Corridor, and it stretches for thirty miles.

Shi Yuangong, Deng Chun, and Li Jinyi garrisoned troops in the fortress of Qiqu Mountain, and resisted the attack of officers and soldiers with inferior forces.

Gao Jingshan inquired about the situation carefully, and said in surprise: "You didn't attack the officers and soldiers, so you retreated again and again, giving up the dangerous places such as Wulian?"

Shi Yuangong said: "It's really weird. The commander of the officers and soldiers is a capable man, and he retreated in an orderly manner in Jianzhou. I haven't figured out why he keeps retreating, so I dare not pursue immediately, for fear that it is a tactic to lure the enemy. Every time, I send people to investigate and confirm that there is no ambush, and then occupy the city he gave up. .”

Gao Jingshan was also confused, and muttered: "What is Huang Gai trying to do?"

Shi Yuangong said: "After the officers and soldiers returned to Zitong, they have been standing still, and they don't know what they are doing."

Of course it's training.

Huang Gai distributed all the excellent soldiers and armours to the younger soldiers sent by the big clan.

Especially those with a lot of land in the family, those soldiers from the rich family often bring their own tenants.

The number of tenants ranges from a few to dozens.

The children of the Wang family, Fan family, and Yuwen family, the most arrogant among them, directly brought hundreds of tenants, all of whom were young and powerful Kong Wu.

Moreover, the big clan is still sending troops!
Huang Gai inspected the barracks every day, and seeing the troops on the school grounds practicing, he was excited like never before.

This is considered a soldier, what the hell were they recruited before?

You don't have to take it to the battlefield, you can see the difference during training.

The soldiers and tenant troops are actively trained, have high morale, and obey orders.

However, those Xiang soldiers and country soldiers before were lazy throughout the whole process.A military order was sent out, but there was no movement for a long time, and it was messy when it moved, and it was like sleepwalking during the drill.Pulling out to defend the fort, Huang Gai had had enough of running away every time.

"Da da da da!"

A fast horse came from the south, and the messenger shouted along the way: "Eight hundred miles, hurry up, eight hundred miles, hurry up!"

Huang Gai felt terrified like a conditioned reflex, and opened the express delivery carefully, and almost fainted just reading the first few lines.

Hezhou is gone!

It is true that Huang Gai also serves as the Sichuan system and transportation envoy. In name, he can mobilize Sichuan's soldiers, horses, money and food, but the specific work depends on the various transshipment envoys.

He can only really control Chengdufu Road, and Li Bao's marching route, Bazhou belongs to Lizhou Road, Dazhou belongs to Kuizhou Road, Quzhou and Hezhou belong to Zizhou Road.

Huang Gai has ordered all walks of life to recruit soldiers and food to prepare for the war, as for whether the transshipment envoys will listen or not, only the devil knows.

……

Let's say that Li Bao led five thousand soldiers and went south on Micang Road.

The first goal is the five counties of Bazhou, which belong to the boundary of Lizhou Road.The chief officer of Lizhou Road was defeated and captured in Xingyuan Mansion long ago.

Bazhou prefect heard the news and fled.

Of the five counties, only the magistrate of Zengkou tried to resist.But as soon as the rebel army began to attack the city, the township soldiers turned and rebelled, and the county magistrate was killed by the rebels in a daze.

Li Bao dispatched hundreds of soldiers to take over Tongjiang County.

He had no civil servants around him, so he directly let the local subordinates take over the prefectures and counties, and then took away the money, food and soldiers in the warehouse, and recruited five hundred young and strong for each county to expand the army.

Along the way, thieves and bandits kept coming to vote, as well as... private salt dealers!
Those guys are all big salt lords, and they are divided into three forces based on the different tributaries of the Bajiang River, each occupying the waterway and not interfering with each other.The private salt dealers who have cooperated with Daming Village for a long time are the lower-level distributors of these salt lords.

The three major salt lords alone brought more than 1000 soldiers to join the group.

When Li Bao left the border of Bazhou, his troops had increased to 9000. Including the civilian husbands who transported grain with the ships, the total strength reached [-].

They followed the Bajiang River and passed through the edge of Dazhou.

The prefect of Dazhou, who was attached to Kuizhou Road, pretended not to notice this, and only sent troops to block the gate of the gorge.There are mountains and rivers that are dangerous to block, and only a few thousand soldiers are stationed here, and no amount of bandits can threaten Dazhou.

In this way, Li Bao's tens of thousands of troops swaggered past Dazhou without any attack, but a few bandits and water bandits came to join them.

The prefect of Quzhou, who was further ahead, knew that he could not resist, and led his troops to retreat to the Guang'an Army.

In name, the Guang'an Army has a large number of garrisons, and there are even a few forbidden troops.However, when the troops of Quzhou and Guang'an Army converged, the total strength was only more than 8000, many of whom were recruited temporarily.

Pang Dingzi, a salt lord, took the initiative to invite Ying: "General, I will recruit officers, soldiers and sailors!"

"Let me go, I know them."

"I recognize it too, I promise to recruit and surrender."

The other two salt owls, named Qiu Shanshui and Li Jiang, asked to take over the job.

Li Bao said: "The three of you go over together, if you can surrender, you will all get credit for it."

The three salt lords brought their boats to vote, and there were not many big boats, mainly small boats for transporting salt.

They approached with troops, and the government's navy also came to fight.

Pang Dingzi, Qiu Shanshui, and Li Jiang asked their subordinates to wave the flag at the same time. This is a secret signal among private salt dealers, and it is usually used to pass messages to avoid officers and soldiers.

Among the officers, soldiers and sailors, there are not only inspectors who cooperate with private salt dealers, but also private salt dealers and fishermen recruited temporarily.

When they saw the signal from the flag, they all stopped to think about the pros and cons of gaining and losing.

Do you choose to join the rebel army, or continue to be an officer and soldier?

The private salt dealers quickly made a decision and turned around and rushed to the inspectors.

Qi Gongkui, the patrol commander, was shocked when he saw this, and quickly shouted: "Don't attack, I am willing to follow the thief. Hurry... Hurry up and wave the flag, surrender, surrender!"

Guang'an Zhijun and Quzhou Zhizhou, seeing the battle on the river, fell into silence.

As soon as the fight started, their navy was gone.

Qi Gongkui, the inspection commander who had just surrendered, took the initiative to offer advice in order to make meritorious service: "There are salt merchants in the city. I am familiar with them. I can shoot a book and ask them to respond internally. The government has been raising salt taxes and indiscriminately issuing salt quotations. These salt merchants usually sell illegal salt. Bazhou salt lords sell a lot of their illegal salt."

"Very well, let's use this strategy." Li Bao followed the good advice.

The private salt dealers carried their upturned boats all the way to the bottom of the city, and the archers shot letters towards the top of the city.

Guang'an Zhijun and Quzhou Zhizhou were shocked when they opened the letter, and ordered the soldiers to burn all the letters.

Li Bao sent people to cut down trees to make siege equipment, and continued to shoot letters into the city the next day. He also asked the soldiers carrying small boats to guard against arrows to shout: "Kill corrupt officials and eat good rice! Kill corrupt officials and eat good rice!"

For several days in a row, he shot books and shouted.

The atmosphere in the city became weird, and the officials felt that there was something wrong with everyone.

Li Bao built two leveling cannons, and couldn't wait to build more, so he directly pulled them out and threw stones to cheer.

Little damage was done to the walls, but the morale of the defenders plummeted.

The salt merchants in the city moved, set fire to the city at night, and set fire to create chaos in the city.

Li Bao personally led the troops to attack the city and climbed the flying ladder in the dark.

Officials such as Zhijun and Zhizhou did not organize resistance, but fled with their families in the dark.They have been able to defend until now, and they are already worthy of the court, at least they did not run away upon hearing the news.

The city of Guang'an was in chaos, a large number of township soldiers defected, and many took advantage of the fire to rob, even the gangsters in the city robbed everywhere.

Li Bao first occupied the state government office, county government office and warehouses, and then sent troops to suppress the chaos, which lasted until dawn.

More than 200 looters were caught, some of them were Li Bao's own soldiers.

He has expanded the army too fast along the way, and military discipline is very problematic.

Li Bao ordered: "Chop them all up and hang them on the top of the city for public display!"

More than 200 heads fluttered in the wind, and the scene was extremely spectacular.

The newly attached bandits, water bandits, salt lords, and officers and soldiers were all sweating in fright, because some of them also participated in the robbery last night, but they were not caught.

Li Bao decided to conquer Hezhou. No matter how well disciplined the army is, the troops will have to be reorganized.

(End of this chapter)