Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 406 0401 [bluff, inside and outside cooperation]

The straight-line distance of Li Bao's surprise attack route is only 244 miles.

However, the river valley is winding and winding, and there is still a long way to go over the mountains. The actual distance may be 1000 miles, which is a real rush for thousands of miles.

Fortunately, the hundred-mile journey from Zigui to Xingshan County can be taken directly by boat.

Even after crossing Xingshan County, I took a boat for a while.

In the last 200 miles or so, a large number of people could be seen, and small towns appeared in the intermountain basins.

Li Bao took the letter from the prefect Yang Jie, and soldiers came to the city to persuade him to surrender. The magistrate of Xingshan County, who had no soldiers in his hand, immediately opened the city gate.

Moreover, after the magistrate of Xingshan County lay down, the officials of Xingshan County, such as the secretary and post secretary, also helped Li Bao recruit grain transporters.

Zigui City was Wang Tin's military ration transfer station, where a lot of rations were stored.Not only is it enough to support Li Bao's surprise attack on Fangling, but even some can be transported to relieve the hungry Badong County.

In the northern mountainous area of ​​Xingshan County, Li Bao recruited several mountain people as guides along the way.

These guides living on the edge of Shennongjia played a huge role and even avoided the annihilation of Li Bao's entire army.

The most dangerous time, the guide said to Li Bao: "The weather is very stuffy and the clouds are very low. We can't rest on the river beach tonight."

Under the raid and march, camping is not so particular.If the normal process is strictly followed, one-third of the daily mobility will be wasted on camping.Since there were local people to provide experience, Li Bao followed the advice of the guide in the mountain and set up the military camp on the middle of the mountain.

It rained half the night that night, and when I got up the next day, I saw that the river beach where I chose to camp yesterday had been submerged by flash floods.

This is Shennongjia, if you are careless, you will die!

Li Bao was so startled that his vest was sweating, he respected the guides even more, and began to ask for knowledge of astronomy and geography in the mountains.

When you come to the intersection of Fen Shui and Zhushui, it is already a big town in the mountains.When the common people saw the rebel army, they ran away in fright, thinking it was officers and soldiers.

It was too late to hide, so naturally no one reported to the government.

Li Bao set up a pot to cook outside the town, rested for another half an hour, and swaggered towards Fangling.In the evening, I also went to the mountains beside the road to cut bamboo to make flying ladders, and immediately accelerated the march after nightfall.

One mile to the east of the city, there is a shop by the river.

The soldiers at the delivery shop were awakened, and they also thought they were officers and soldiers, and quickly lit a fire to cook food, which was cooking for the generals who led the troops.

Faced with Pubing's warm invitation, Li Bao politely declined: "No need, I still have important business to go to the city."

Shoping reminded: "The gates of the city are closed at night, you have to wait until dawn to get in."

"I can't wait." Li Bao said.

Under the surprised eyes of Pu Bing, the rebel army trotted with torches, and attacked the city with flying ladders without warning.

The magistrate, the judge, the prefect officer, the county magistrate... Everyone didn't know what was going on. After waking up from the dream, they subconsciously ran away with their entourage or family members, and they didn't even care about their property.

Take Fangzhou City and rest for three days.

During the raid, some soldiers also fell ill, and even more fell ill after successfully capturing the city.

In other words, I had to carry all kinds of headaches and fevers on the way, and when I arrived in the city, I was completely relaxed, and various diseases suddenly appeared.

The number of patients reached 30% of the army, so Li Bao could only search for doctors from all over the city.

……

Chen Ziyi's Xiang Army cavalry unit was sent to Fangzhou to inquire about the enemy's situation.

There are more than 800 riders in total, and Chen Ziyi has only 100 under his command.

"Brother, why don't you join the rebel army now." Geng Zhongnian suggested.

This guy had originally planned to become a thief, and learning of Xin Xingzong's defeat at Huanglongtan further strengthened his idea.

Chen Ziyi said: "We have to avoid other cavalry."

The sentry cavalry were about to scatter to investigate, but Chen Ziyi led twenty or thirty cavalry around to the hills in the northwest of Fangzhou.These cavalry have been screened, most of them are from Hebei, and they can be absolutely trusted.

Until it got dark, Chen Ziyi crossed the hilly area and led his troops to the north of Fangzhou City.

The rebel captains at the top of the city have raised their bows and arrows.

Chen Ziyi rushed to the base of the city on his own, and said in a loud voice: "The old man is visiting, let me in."

A basket was lowered, Chen Ziyi was hoisted to the top of the wall, and was soon tied up.

Li Bao asked, "Which old friend are you?"

Chen Ziyi looked around: "It doesn't take too many people to know."

Li Baoping retreated to the left and right, but did not let Chen Ziyi loose.

Chen Ziyi said: "At the beginning of the attack on Heifengzhai, there were three archers with heads. One was Brother Zhu (Zhu Ming), the other was Brother Zhang (Zhang Guangdao), and the other was me."

Li Bao had also heard of such deeds, and was very surprised.

If Chen Ziyi stayed in Hanzhong and followed Zhu Ming in the army from the beginning, he might be able to sit on an equal footing with Zhang Guangdao.

Li Bao quickly untied Chen Ziyi: "What's your surname? What is your current position?"

"My surname is Chen, and my name is Ziyi," Chen Ziyi quickly provided information. "Xin Qizong has about 3 people. Chen Bing is fighting against Guan Sheng in the western mountainous area of ​​Zhushan County. The guard of Zhushan County is Xin Yongzong. There used to be 800 township soldiers in the county seat. Recently, another [-] victorious cavalry cavalry and more than [-] cavalry soldiers from the Xiang army arrived, and I only have [-] cavalry soldiers under my command."

Li Bao immediately had a clear understanding of the enemy's situation nearby, and asked again: "Where are the main forces of the officers and soldiers?"

When Chen Ziyi was freed, he knelt down to draw a map and said, "This is the Han River, and this is the Wuling River. Tong Guan and Xin Qizong were stationed at the mouth of the Wuling River where the two rivers meet. There were about 1 soldiers and more than 6000 civilian husbands. Only [-] could really fight. Many victory over the Jie army. I heard that the leader of the rebel army is called Zhang, and he is stationed in the upper reaches of the Wuling River [-] or [-] miles away. I don’t know how many troops he has.”

This is tantamount to opening a full map for Li Bao, and the entire battlefield becomes clear.

Chen Ziyi also said: "Xin Qizong's troops are confronting Guan Sheng. They dare not withdraw the whole army to defend Zhushan. They are easily followed by Guan Sheng and defeated. Therefore, when you captured Fangzhou, Xin Qizong sent at most two or 3000 people back. Aid. The strength of Zhushan County is about three to four thousand infantry, nearly a thousand cavalry from the Shengjie Army, and more than [-] cavalry from the Xiang Army. Among them, one hundred cavalry troops are under my command, and they can turn against each other at any time."

Li Bao said: "Brother Chen, let's go back first, I will send troops in ten days. At that time, Brother Chen will be the best in Zhushan City, and I will take the opportunity to attack the city by setting fire at night."

"Okay!" Chen Ziyi cupped his hands.

There are a bunch of sick people in Li Bao's army now, and there are less than 2000 people who can still fight. Maybe they can recover in ten days.

Taking advantage of the time when the soldiers were recovering from illness, Li Bao requisitioned the cloth shops in the city.

This is a state city, and the supplies are quite rich, and a lot of cloth is used to make flags.

He also recruited many women in the city to sew clothes with pure black cloth, and to draw a piece of armor piece by piece.If you get close, you can definitely see it as a product, but if you are far away, you will mistake it for armor.

The next step is to recruit civilian husbands. Since Li Bao did not plunder extensively after entering the city, he did not encounter any resistance when recruiting civilian husbands.

Counting the civilian husbands brought by Xingshan County, they directly pulled nearly ten thousand civilian husbands and set off.They wore fake armor, held countless banners, and followed Li Bao in a messy manner.

At this time, the elite under Li Bao's command had recovered to about 2400 people, and the wounded and sick who were unable to fight stayed in Fangzhou to defend the city.

Not far from the city, Li Bao was discovered by the horse troops sent by Xin Yongzong.

These horse troops retreated immediately, some went back to Zhushan to report, and some stayed to observe from afar.

Hearing that there were tens of thousands of thieves, Xin Yongzong was shocked. He not only temporarily recruited young and strong men, but also pulled all the cavalry into the city for defense, and sent someone to inform his elder brother Xin Qizong to come back to help.

Li Bao did not go to attack the city, but camped in the mountains in the east of Zhushan County, across the river from the officers and soldiers of Zhushan County.

In the camp of the rebel army, countless flags were fluttering in the wind, and there were civilian men wearing fake armor walking around every day.

These peasants were very scared, and some people ran away along the way, but after setting up the camp, not many people ran away.Because the passage down the mountain from the camp was blocked by elite rebels.

Xin Yongzong watched across the Wuling River, and he was startled by the densely packed flags.

The news brought back by the sentry cavalry was also varied. Some said that the bandits marched in chaos and were all mobs.Some also said that the thieves and bandits were fully equipped and should not be underestimated. It is normal for the thieves to march in chaos.

But it is said that Xin Qizong's side is stuck in the mountains at the moment and it is difficult to make any progress.

After more than two months of repeated trials, Xin Qizong determined that Guan Sheng did not have many soldiers.But the two cottages stood there, and he just couldn't take them down. Moreover, the morale of the officers and soldiers was declining day by day with the four artillery pieces and a large number of catapults.

"Tens of thousands of bandits attacked Zhushan City?"

Xin Qizong felt that it was outrageous: "Where are there tens of thousands of bandits? Can't they fly over with wings? It must be a bluff to let my brother stick to the city!"

Xin Qizong was not afraid, but Xin Yongzong was extremely terrified.

It's not that there are many thieves, but that the soldiers under his command dare not fight!
No matter how Xin Yongzong explained, the guards were also frightened by the countless flags on the other side.

What kind of elite soldiers can be thrown back to defend the city?
The troops that can fight are all confronting Guan Sheng on the front line.

A group of town soldiers were frightened and trembling. When guarding the top of the city, they kept looking to the other side, for fear that the rebels would suddenly kill them.

More than 900 victorious Czech cavalry, all young soldiers, used to enjoy the blessings with Tong Guan, even if the soldiers came to the city, they still did not do things in person.Maintaining law and order and patrolling the streets were all handled by the cavalry soldiers of the Xiang army, and the young soldiers themselves ate and drank.

Even after entering the city, began to enjoy women.

First, the military officers recruited prostitutes to the camp, and gradually the soldiers also began to recruit prostitutes, and finally developed into asking for women from good families, and then went to extort money from wealthy households in the city.

On the fourth day of Li Bao's camp across the river, it was finally Chen Ziyi's turn to lead troops to patrol the streets.

In the middle of the night, fires broke out in many places in the city.

Chen Ziyi led his troops and shouted along the way: "The bandits have entered the city, the bandits have entered the city!"

Some people panicked to fight the fire, fearing that their houses would be set on fire.Some people fled with their families and blocked the gates of various cities trying to get out.

Li Bao saw the fire in the city and immediately led his troops across the river.

At the same time, let the peasants light torches and beat drums across the river to shout.

The defenders of the cup bow and snake shadow heard the sound of drums and shouts, saw countless torches on the other side, and the city was on fire again and fell into chaos. They were so frightened that they left the city wall and opened the door to escape.

More than 900 victorious Czech cavalry, the first reaction is not to fight, but to leave the city to preserve strength.

There are even some guys who are still sleeping with their arms around women.They panicked and put on their clothes, regardless of their armor, picked up their weapons and went to find their horses.

"General Bu, go this way, the city gate over there is blocked!"

Chen Ziyi had gathered his cavalry soldiers and even persuaded the other two cavalry troops to rebel.They all hated Bu Chang and waited early at the place they must pass.

Bu Chang didn't suspect him, so he ran away with Chen Ziyi, and even praised: "If you can escape, we will reward you!"

"Thank you General Bu, I still have important military information..." Chen Ziyi rode closer and closer.

Just as Bu Chang wanted to ask about the military situation, Chen Ziyi suddenly accelerated his horse and stabbed Bu Chang's horse in the neck.

The war horse went mad from the pain, and Bu Chang, who was wearing armor, quickly stabilized his body to comfort the horse.

Before he could stabilize his horse, Chen Ziyi had already missed the horse and charged at the cavalry behind Bu Chang.

The horse troops under Chen Ziyi's command also surrounded him from two directions. Bu Chang was surrounded by three horse soldiers in an instant, and his horse took two shots again.

The horse went crazy, threw Bu Chang off, and was trampled to death by several horse soldiers.

(End of this chapter)