Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 354 0349 [Fight of Trapped Beasts]

The first mountain abandoned by the officers and soldiers was named Wolong Mountain, where Zhuge Liang once stationed troops.

The second mountain abandoned by the officers and soldiers is called Changqing Mountain.Li Yan of the Shu Han Dynasty was demoted to a commoner, so he moved to live at the southern foot of this mountain.The source of its name is that Sima Xiangru once studied here.

If you want to guard Zitong, you must guard Changqing Mountain.

In other words, you must guard the surrounding hills.

For example, during the Long March of the Red Army, when they attacked Zitong, they first attacked a bunch of hills.However, the Sichuan Army and the Red Army fought fiercely on Changqing Mountain. The Red Army called it "the bloody battle on Changqing Mountain", but no battle broke out in Zitong City.

Attacking Zitong City from the direction of Changqing Mountain requires crossing the river to fight, which is very difficult.

Why not attack from the direction of Qiqu Mountain?The terrain there is the most flat and open, and there is no need to cross the river to attack the city.

Because it is not easy to capture the hills there, if the attacker does not take all the hills, he will always be in a situation of being flanked by several sides.

Standing in front of Sima Xiangru's study room, Zhu Ming admired the calligraphy inscriptions left by literati of past dynasties.

A group of captives were escorted over, all of whom were middle and low-level officers of the township soldiers.

"Have you read my call to action?" Zhu Ming turned around and asked.

No one answered.

Zhu Ming smiled and said, "Didn't watch it? Then I'll show you guys to watch it again."

"No, I've already read it." An officer named Wang Yu said.

Zhu Ming asked, "How is the writing?"

Wang Yu replied: "The sentences are wonderful, the scolding is free and dripping, and the voice of the people is expressed."

Zhu Ming asked: "Then why do you still work for the government?"

Wang Kui said: "Your Excellency is a rebel after all. No matter how well-disciplined a rebel is, he will also search for military rations and forcibly conscript soldiers. Don't quibble, Your Excellency, are those tens of thousands of rebel soldiers and countless military rations created out of thin air? It is impossible to get so much food from the hands of the government and officers and soldiers. We petty people, who are drafted for food anyway, might as well serve the court, and it sounds better than joining the rebels."

"That makes sense." Zhu Ming nodded.

Wang Yu said again: "Since I have been captured by Your Excellency, if you want to kill or cut into pieces, please let me know. If you don't kill or let go, I... I am willing to surrender."

Zhu Ming couldn't help laughing: "You are straightforward."

Wang Yao said: "Although the Wang family has been prominent for generations, it also has a small family. My family only owns more than a hundred acres of land, and it has long been unbearable from the heavy government taxes. I complain in private on weekdays, and I have even done things to curse the emperor."

There is really no psychological burden for such a small landlord to follow a thief.

Zhu Ming asked the other captives to think about it, and they were all willing to serve as thieves.

Changqing Mountain is on the edge of the Zijiang River, the officers and soldiers fled away from the stronghold, the escape was too fast and bizarre.The rebels were unable to catch up, so they only captured hundreds of people, all landlubbers who were blocked by the river and could not board the boat.

Some officers and soldiers fled across the river by boat, and more officers and soldiers threw off their armor and jumped into the river to escape.

Zhu Ming not only rescued a lot of food and grass, but also picked up a lot of cloth armor, leather armor, and a small amount of military weapons.These soldiers are just assigned to the young and strong auxiliary soldiers.

Standing outside Sima Xiangru's study room, Zhu Ming picked up the binoculars and looked at Zitong City across the river.

This place is less than two miles away from the city wall, and the view is very good, overlooking the entire Zitong County.

in the city.

Huang Gai pulled Zhao Yu and tried to dissuade him, saying: "General system, you can't kill them! These are soldiers from Chengdu who killed an officer, and the soldiers in several nearby villages will feel resentful and unwilling to fight again. Your Excellency will kill more than a dozen at a time. This, I am afraid that everyone will be in danger, and the army will be in chaos if there is no battle."

Zhao Yu said angrily: "If you don't obey the military order, you won't be executed. Who will obey the order in the future?"

"It's enough to be punished with a military stick, please think twice!" Huang Gai was still dissuading.

Zhao Xun changed from anger to silence, and then became depressed again. He hunched over and turned away: "You can punish the army stick, I will go to rest for a while."

This battle can't be fought, he can't even control his own army.

Zhao Yu returned to the mansion, sat in the hall, stared at the big tree in the yard in a daze.

Zhao Xun was born in a clan, from Kaifeng.

He felt that the life of the old Zhao family might be numbered, and it could not be restored by manpower.

Two days later, Zhu Ming divided his troops and crossed the river downstream, occupying a hill in the southeast of Zitong City, preparing for the next attack on Zitong.

The officers and soldiers attacked the mountain many times, but they were all defeated and fled back to the city.

Anyway, there are hills everywhere outside the city, so let the bandits occupy one, and the officers and soldiers will stick to the city and never come out.

In the blink of an eye, it was early winter, and the temperature dropped suddenly.

Zhu Ming had already prepared a lot of winter clothes, unless it was snowing all over the sky, he would not be afraid of the soldiers being frozen.

The officers and soldiers are very nonsense, and there are not enough winter clothes for local operations.And give priority to the Xiang army and subordinate soldiers. As for the rural soldiers recruited by Huang Gai at first, they can only wear autumn clothes to carry them.

Detained by the logistics officer!
The transshipment envoy along the way is often the head coach. If there are senior officials such as economic envoys, appeasement envoys, and general commanders, the transshipment envoys will automatically become deputy commanders and general logistics officers.

As the general logistics, Huang Gu is really not corrupt, but it is normal for the materials to be transported along the way, and there will be less inexplicably.

I don't know which smart ghost in the rear, or a group of smart ghosts, is taking the opportunity to steal and sell the winter clothes of the frontline soldiers!
Zhao Xun inspected the barracks and saw the village soldiers who were suffering from the cold, so he went to Huang Gai with a dark face, "Your Excellency can survive the winter without clothes?"

Huang Gai knew what was going on: "The matter is being investigated, and the subordinate officials have sent another batch urgently."

Zhao Xun was so angry that he walked away.

A few days later, the courier came to report urgently that Zizhou was successfully attacked by rebels.The rebels took Zizhou and only rested for half a day, then galloped to besiege Mianzhou at starry night.

Before Zhao Xun could respond, another messenger came to report that Yanting County was besieged by bandits.

Officers and soldiers are about to be made dumplings!

Zhao Xun's plan is to defend the city as much as possible to procrastinate until Zhu Ming's army rations are exhausted, and wait until next year to wait for reinforcements from the Western Army.

But obviously, he couldn't wait for that time.

Zhao Kui had already sent orders to all walks of life to recruit troops and food to suppress the bandits, and especially told Kuizhou Road to hold back Li Bao.

However, most officials are disobedient or incapable of carrying it out.

The transfer envoy on Zizhou Road knew the advantages and disadvantages, and he no longer cared about Lu Nanyi, so he transferred half of the "elites" from the south to the north, intending to attack Li Bao's rear.But as soon as the officers and soldiers left, Lu Nanyi rebelled.

The entire Zizhou Road was disturbed by rebels in the north and barbarians in the south. Only the middle part of the state and county is still in the hands of the government.

What's even more ridiculous is that many Luzhou Han people rebelled against the government and army with the barbarians!
These Han people have feuds with the barbarians.

"Our army has been besieged on three sides," Huang Gai said in a daze, "either go north to Jianzhou, but there must be bandits guarding the city, and if you go there, you will be completely blocked in the mountains. Or cross the river from the direction of Qiqu Mountain and cross the hills to Changming, then cross the hills and bypass Mianzhou to return to Chengdu."

Zhao Wei shook his head: "If the officers and soldiers cannot do it by marching for hundreds of miles, if the bandits chase after them, they will be defeated. If you don't want to stay in Zitong and wait to die, you can only go out of the city to fight a decisive battle before the bandits from Mianzhou come!"

"Then let's fight," Huang Gai sighed, "If you win, you will win all the games, and if you lose, you will lose Sichuan."

The officers and soldiers were finally willing to go out of the city to fight, leaving thousands of people to guard the city.The rest were all pulled out, some of them lined up in the southeast outside the city, and some of them went to attack the bandits and occupy the hills.

Zhu Ming was afraid of being hit by half-crossing, so he led the main force to cross the river further downstream.

Deng Chun led [-] Chang Jie troops and [-] auxiliary soldiers, and stood on the hillside to wait for the reinforcements.

Xie Jianzhong, who had abandoned the village and fled before, was ordered to commit crimes and make meritorious service.If he knocks down the mountain, his crime will be forgiven, and if he can't beat him, he will have his head chopped off.

Xie Jianzhong led the main attack, and another general named Shi Fangping led the troops to help attack the mountain from the side.

The mountain is gentle and narrow, not a dangerous place.

But Deng Chun had more than a dozen leveling cannons, and when the officers and soldiers were still at the foot of the mountain, they were attacked by small leveling cannons.There were not many casualties, but mainly to the morale of officers and soldiers.

"The captain dies in battle, and the whole team beheads! If you want to avoid death, the bloody battle will not retreat!"

Deng Chun reaffirmed military discipline in person on horseback.

The captain is the core of the mandarin duck formation and is protected by the whole team.Unless you are particularly unlucky and killed by long-range fire, basically nothing will happen.

Something happened to the captain, which means that the formation of mandarin ducks has been broken, and this team has no combat power left.

The soldiers of the four battalions were deployed in various places for defense.

Deng Chun led a battalion of soldiers and two battalions of auxiliary soldiers, as a reserve team in the middle.In addition, there are hundreds of non-combatants, all of whom are clerks, accountants, carpenters, stonemasons, doctors, tailors, etc., and they also belong to the regular establishment of Chang Jie's army.

Mu Hengshou was in the main attack direction of the officers and soldiers. As the rebel army continued to expand, among the 12 of them, Hua Rong became the leader of the Musketeers, and Yang Zhi, Li Jinyi, Lin Chong, Guan Sheng and others all led the army alone.

Only Mu Heng, Zhang Qing, Li Ying, and Wang Xiong were the worst. They were all battalion commanders with 500 men.

Mu Heng wanted to do meritorious service even in his dreams and shouted: "Come on, everyone, whoever dares to retreat in a cowardly manner, does not need to be dealt with by the officer, I will kill him first!"

The whole battalion was divided into dozens of mandarin duck squads, and the four squads formed a large group, which was arranged in various places on the mountain.

The rugged terrain does not affect the formation of the army, and it can always change slightly according to the situation.

The officers and soldiers who attacked the mountain were affected by the terrain.

After arriving halfway up the mountain, it was already difficult to form an formation, fighting in twos and threes.

Xie Jianzhong was not afraid of death, he did not hide in the back, and commanded the officers and soldiers under his command to attack the mountain from all over.

Before the two sides met in hand-to-hand combat, dozens of small captains greeted each other with bows and arrows.

Immediately afterwards, the cane player and the long player throw javelins, each of whom has three javelins, which are to be thrown before reaching the enemy.

There were also a small number of archers among the officers and soldiers, who bowed their waists and shot upwards.

"Whoa, whoa!"

The squad leader's bamboo whistle sounded one after another, and the first battle finally started...well, it was over.

I saw wolves messing around everywhere. The officers and soldiers were attacking on their backs, but they were swept away by wolves and it was difficult to move forward.In a daze, a few long spears stabbed at him, and some officers and soldiers who rushed to the side were backed up again and again by the rakes, and then a long spear stabbed them.

The rebel army obviously has fewer soldiers, but they can always fight more and less in some battlefields.

Only one face to face, the officers and soldiers of each team retreated one after another.

"Blow the horn!"

"Wave the flag!"

The trumpets sounded and the flags were waved. Mu Heng's battalion of rebels charged down the mountain, and 500 people charged back against more than 1000 people.

The two battalions next to Mu Heng also began to charge back.

Because the fighting time was too short, Xie Jianzhong didn't realize it, and found that nearly half of his soldiers had been routed.After being charged by the rebels again, those who were not defeated will also be defeated.

"Let's go!" the soldiers yelled.

Xie Jianzhong ran away without the soldiers reminding him.

It was a crushing defeat, and he didn't even know how he lost.

(End of this chapter)