Tibet.

Chapter 1470: The King’s Wrath Arrives

Linqiong County of Qiongzhou is the seat of Qiongzhou. It is close to Baizhu River in the south and Xiejiang River ten miles away in the north. Linqiong County is located in a basin between the two rivers. To the west of the official road ten miles northwest of the county seat, there is also a small basin with hundreds of households forming a small town called Beiqiong Town.

The town is located in front of the most important official road, so there are many shops on both sides of the road, selling food, drink, entertainment, accommodation, grocery stores, dry food stores, etc., basically everything.

But the real customers of these shops were not the merchants traveling from north to south, but a military camp on the other side of the official road.

The military camp covers a large area and is surrounded by a fence. Judging from the flags, it is the military camp of the Qiongzhou state army, but in fact it is the private army of the Jia family. The main general is Jia Xiu, the younger brother of the head of the family, Jia Yuan. The other generals are either children of the Jia family or Jia Xiu's confidants.

The two thousand soldiers were also local militia recruited by the Jia family. In fact, they were just those brave and fierce scoundrels from various villages in Qiongzhou gathered together. Each of them received a monthly salary of five strings of cash. Although they were far away from the county town, there were many shops around them, and they had everything from eating, drinking, whoring to gambling, allowing the soldiers to live a very happy life.

To the north of the military camp is a low hill about ten feet high. The hill is covered with big trees, like a long green wall that surrounds the town and the military camp. The official road passes through the gap in the middle.

This low hill, which is over 20 miles long, is where the military camp was set up. It is a natural earth wall. The north side is very steep and it is impossible to climb up the hill. There are many mountain roads on the south side.

A three-meter-high watchtower was built on the top of a mountain next to the official road. The sentries on the tower could detect any movement several miles away. Once there was a situation, the two thousand soldiers in the barracks would immediately take action, blocking the intersection of the official road with huge rocks and trees. The soldiers would go up the mountain to defend with bows and arrows. The official road was surrounded by bumpy and uneven ground on both sides, and there were many rocks. The gaps were filled with shrubs and trees, making it difficult to walk, let alone to the battlefield. People had to take the official road.

More importantly, this place is ten miles away from Linqiong County. Once a fight breaks out here, Linqiong County will get the news immediately, and the Jia family will have time to retreat.

The main general Jia Xiu was originally the military commander of Yazhou of the Jiannan Army. He was an important supporter of Yongwang Li Lin and was later purged. After Yongwang's failure, Jia Xiu also lost his military power. However, in order to appease the Jia family, Li Ye did not completely purge Jia Xiu, but instead appointed him as the military commander of Qiongzhou and a guerrilla general.

There were no garrisons in Qiongzhou originally, so the Qiongzhou Military Commander was actually a nominal position. However, it was also this Qiongzhou Military Commander that made the two thousand people led by Jia Xiu legal.

If there were no conflicts, the Jia family of Qiongzhou would have maintained the status quo for a long time. However, an abolition order caused the relationship between the Bashu nobles and the imperial court to begin to deteriorate.

Dongguo and Xijia were known to the people of Bashu. Both of them made their fortunes from salt and controlled more than half of the salt wells in Bashu. Of course, mining salt wells required a large number of salt workers, but the Jia and Guo families had no salt workers, only salt slaves. The Guo family had more than 20,000 slaves, and the Jia family also had nearly 20,000 salt slaves, who worked day and night in the salt wells throughout Qiongzhou.

The abolition order can be said to have hit the vital interests of the Bashu nobles, and of course it also touched the vital interests of the Jia family.

Jia Wei, the governor of Qiongzhou, was the first person in Jiannan Road to make a public statement that the abolition order was invalid for Qiongzhou. Soon after, Yazhou, Meizhou, Jiazhou and Zizhou also followed suit and stated that the abolition order was invalid for their states.

This statement was undoubtedly a declaration of war against the imperial court and the emperor. On the day when Jia Wei's public statement reached Chang'an, Li Ye issued a military order to Li Sheng, ordering him to annihilate the army in Qiongzhou and exterminate the entire Jia family.

At night, an army of 20,000 people gradually approached Linqiong County. Twenty miles away from Beiqiong Town, the army stopped, and then a caravan consisting of more than 30 donkeys went to Beiqiong Town.

Leading the group was the Tang army's scout captain Zhu Yong, a native of Chengdu. He was traveling with four of his men, and as they gradually approached the intersection of the valley, they were stopped by soldiers because there was a roadblock.

"Who is it?" several soldiers asked in a shout.

Zhu Yong said nothing but made a few gestures, and the soldiers immediately understood that the smugglers of salt always traveled at night.

The leading team was about to make a gesture, and Zhu Yong took out a bronze medal from his arms and handed it to him. This is called the Jia medal, an identity card made by the Jia family. If you want to buy Jia's salt, you must have this bronze medal.

The leading soldier saw that the number on the bronze plate was five, so he smiled and said, "Master Zhan's men?"

Mr. Zhan refers to Zhan Hongda, a wealthy businessman in Chengdu. He has a hand in almost all profitable businesses, both black and white, and has a close relationship with the Jia family.

However, no matter how deep the friendship is, it is not as important as one's own life and property. Seeing that the situation was not good, Zhan Hongda decisively defected to the court and sold out the Jia family.

Zhu Yong nodded. The leader of the team was returning the bronze medal to him and said, "The county gate is closed. There is no accommodation ahead. It is better to stay in Beiqiong Town for one night and set off tomorrow. When we reach Linqiong County, we don't have to travel at night."

"Thank you!" Zhu Yong took out a two-liang silver coin and threw it to the team leader. The team leader was overjoyed and quickly waved his hand to move the roadblock away.

The five men continued to move forward, leading the donkey. They didn't even bother to search their bodies. There was no need for that. How could those who were smuggling salt not have weapons with them?

The group stayed in an inn. The inn they chose was right in front of the military camp gate, and the watchtower on the top of the mountain could be seen from the side.

The wind was very strong during this period, and Jia Xiu also strengthened the defense. There were people in the sentry tower monitoring the official road at all times. However, the weather was clear at night these few days, and the moonlight illuminated the official road as bright as day.

It was difficult to break through from the front, so Li Sheng decided to attack from the inside.

At two o'clock in the morning, the military camp finally quieted down. Zhu Yong set out with four of his men. They ran along the back of the shop. The five men split into two groups. Zhu Yong and one of his men rushed up a mountain road.

The other three moved towards the intersection, where there were three soldiers on duty.

The mound was only a dozen feet high, and the two men soon reached the bottom of the wooden watchtower. Zhu Yong and his men climbed up the tower without hesitation.

In just a moment, they climbed up to the watchtower. The tower was like a pavilion, with a circle of baffles around the lower part and an octagonal roof on top. There was no obstruction in the middle. Two sentries took turns standing guard. There was a bronze bell next to it. As long as the rope was pulled, the bronze bell would ring.

There were two sentries, one of them was sitting on the ground and taking a nap, while the other one had his back to them, holding a spear and watching the official road in the distance vigilantly.

Zhu Yong made a gesture to his men, telling them to deal with one person at a time. Two men took out crossbows and loaded them with short crossbow arrows. Zhu Yong raised the crossbow and aimed at the back of the neck of the soldier on guard, while his men aimed at the face of the dozing soldier.

The two men pulled the trigger on their swords at the same time. "Swoosh!" Two crossbow arrows shot out at the same time. One of the crossbow arrows hit the back of the soldier's neck. The soldier screamed and fell to the ground.

Another arrow hit the dozing soldier's face, but it hit his open mouth. The arrow penetrated the skin and exited from the cheek, but did not kill him. The dozing soldier could not shout out, so he struggled to get up and reached out to grab the alarm rope. Zhu Yong jumped up and swung his sword, cutting the dozing soldier's throat. The soldier fell on his back, blood splattering everywhere.

After destroying the watchtower, Zhu Yong looked towards the intersection and saw a flame flickering three times over there, indicating that the intersection had been taken.

Zhu Yong immediately lit the torch, used the baffle below as cover, and waved the torch back and forth.

Soon, the Tang army appeared, running in a black mass on the official road. They quickly rushed across the intersection and headed towards the Jia family camp.

The soldiers standing guard in front of the camp discovered the approaching Tang army and were so scared that they shouted loudly, but it was too late. The Tang army rushed into the camp like a tide.

A cunning rabbit has three burrows. The commander Jia Xiu was extremely cunning. His tent was located in the southwest corner. A few dozen steps away from the tent was a hidden door. Outside was a small path that led directly to the depths of the dense forest.

When he heard that the Tang army had broken into the camp, he knew that something was wrong. He drew his sword and rushed out of the rear tent, jumped on his horse, slashed the reins with his sword, and rode straight to the back door. The situation had been tense these days, so Jia Xiu had secretly conducted drills.

Several personal soldiers had cooperated to open the small door. Jia Xiu rushed out on his horse and soon disappeared into the dense forest. Several personal soldiers also ran out and locked the secret door with an iron chain from the outside. They also fled into the dense forest.

When the Tang army couldn't find their commander Jia Shen and finally discovered the secret door in the southwest corner, half an hour had passed.

These are the local tyrants. Even a fierce dragon like Li Sheng may not be able to subdue them.

Li Sheng was furious and ordered the execution of all 2,000 soldiers to prevent any future troubles. He personally led 10,000 cavalrymen to attack Linqiong County.

(End of this chapter)