A thousand-year-old family that began with the Battle of Makino

Chapter 1016: The various tribes of Dali joined forces to fight against the Chu army.

February 1, the second year of the Great Xiapingning

Daxia appointed Bai Wang, the prince of Qian, as the "Marshal of the Southwest Camp to Suppress Dali".

Chen Hong, the commander-in-chief, and Bai Xuan, the assistant minister of the Ministry of War, were appointed as the "deputy marshals of the Southwest Camp to attack Dali".

Governor Su Wenjun was the "chief commander of the Southwest Campaign to Suppress Dali".

The four people, namely Yang Bao, the leader of Wumeng tribe, Bai Jianying, the leader of Rende tribe, Bai Qiangwu, the leader of Luoxiong tribe, and Meng Yongan, the leader of Yushi tribe, were the "vanguard officers of the camp".

He led the Chengdu Left and Right Guards, Rongzhou Guard, Yazhou Guard, Kunzhou Guard (formerly Luzhou Guard), 31 tribes of the barbarians, and eight temples including the Tianlong Temple, totaling 42,800 people, to attack Dali.

Among these 42,800 people, there were 12,000 garrison soldiers, 30,000 tribal soldiers, and 800 monk soldiers.

Kuncheng is more than 400 miles away from Dali. The journey requires crossing mountains and passing through dozens of tribes, and the journey also requires constant vigilance against ambushes by the Dali army. Therefore, the march is not fast, and the journey is approximately 30 miles a day.

February
The vanguard of the Xia army of 4,000 people arrived at the Dali Guowei Chu Mansion and encountered the Dali defenders at Xiaobai Village.

The Dali army relied on the military camp built on the mountain, and hundreds of people threatened the Xia army's path like fish bones.

Xiaobai Village is located in the mountains between Daju River and Chenjia River. The Xia army needs to move west along Chenjia River to Weichu Prefecture.

If it is not eradicated, it will pose a great threat to the army's retreat.

So Yang Bao, Bai Jianying, Bai Qiangwu and Meng Yongan began to discuss how to attack the stronghold.

After a short rest, the four men, each leading hundreds of people, took turns to launch a feint attack from two directions.

Because the four were vanguard officers, Bai Wang equipped their troops with iron weapons and leather armor for the first time.

Therefore, their equipment is not much different from that of the Dali army.

The battle lasted for half a day, and the four men were unable to capture the village after leaving behind more than a hundred corpses.

After discussion, the four decided to leave Yang Bao, Bai Jianying and Bai Qiangwu to lead their troops to continue the siege.

Meng Yongan led his troops to continue forward to explore the way for the army.

February 15th

Just as the follow-up army was about to arrive at Xiaobai Village, Yang Bao and his two companions finally captured the small village after suffering thousands of casualties.

Although the loss was great, they were appreciated by Bai Wang.

In order to make up for their losses, Bai Wang allocated them another 5,000 tribal soldiers, adding up the remaining 2,000 people, a total of 7,000 people. After a short rest, they continued to open the way for the army.

February 17

Yang Bao and his two companions led 7,000 men to the city of Weichu and joined forces with Meng Yongan, who had been gathering information there for a long time.

According to Meng Yongan, at this time, Weichu City had received reinforcements from Dali, with a garrison of approximately 5,000 men.

Moreover, according to reports from soldiers who crossed the mountains to investigate in Dali, the Dali Emperor Duan Siping was continuously summoning various tribes to gather in Dali.

If they could not quickly capture Weichui and move to Dali, where the terrain was wider, for a battle, their army would be blocked in Weichui.

February 18

The four men launched a tentative attack on the city, but were repelled by the Weichu defenders.

After discussion, they decided to ask for help from the army.

February 19

Bai Wang, who received the request for help from Yang Bao and his four companions, ordered 2,000 men from Kunzhou Guard to rush to Weichu immediately to capture the city before the main army arrived to clear the way for the main army.

Hou Wenjian, commander of Kunzhou Guard, obeyed the order, left the army in the afternoon of the same day, and rushed to the city of Weichui overnight.

February 20

Hou Wenjian took over the command of the vanguard army, and Yang Bao and four others became adjutants.

But looking at the two thousand elite soldiers of Kunzhou Guard who were marching in an orderly manner, they had no other thoughts. Instead, they hoped to gain some military merit under Hou Wenjian.

When the war is over in the future, we can break free from the constraints of our hometown and step onto a higher stage.

At the time of Shen on February 20th, just before nightfall, the soldiers of Kunzhou Guards, who had just finished their rest, began to attack Weichui City, holding up the simple siege equipment that Yang Bao and others had built a few days ago.

Under Hou Wenjian's arrangement, 2,000 Kunzhou guards and 2,000 Yang Bao attacked the south as the main attack direction. The terrain in the west was not good, so Bai Jianying led 2,000 people to make a feint attack.

The terrain in the east is relatively wide, so Bai Qiangwu and Meng Yongan led 4,000 people to attack.

To the north is the Longchuan River, which is surrounded on three sides and left open on one side, just to let them go.

After the arrangements were made, the battle began, with Yang Bao leading two thousand men in the first battle.

Hundreds of archers under Hou Wenjian provided cover for them from behind.

Although the Dali army was better equipped and trained than these tribal soldiers, they were no match for the regular Xia army.

Under the rhythmic volleys of the Xia army's archers and the cover of subsequent point-blank shooting, Yang Bao's troops approached the Weichu earthen city earlier than yesterday.

Bamboo ladders were placed on the low earthen wall. The tribal soldiers began to climb up, biting the backs of their knives, braving the stones, wood and boiling water thrown down from the top of the wall.

“Praise to Lord Mahakala!!!”

With roars, the tribal soldiers who climbed onto the city wall engaged in a desperate fight with the Dali soldiers.

Although the tribal soldiers were poorly trained, they had sufficient morale and faith.

However, no matter how hard Yang Bao's troops fought, they were unable to break through the small earthen city of Weichu.

Yang Bao, who was somewhat exhausted, stepped down from the city wall and came to Hou Wenjian. Before he could complain, he heard the other party say, "Kang Biao, take your men and press on. We must take this city today."

Kang Biao, the left captain of Kunzhou Guard, who had been standing aside and watching the battle, grinned after hearing this, and ignoring the jealousy of Du Zheng, the right captain beside him, he went to prepare his thousand men and march towards Weichu City.

"Captain Yang, wait until the troops under the Zuo Qianhu arrive at the city, then you can let your men withdraw."

"Yes."

Upon hearing Hou Wenjian's order, Yang Bao immediately returned to the front line.

As soon as Kang Biao's troops were replaced by Yang Bao's troops, the Dali army felt the pressure.

Although Kang Biao's troops were garrison soldiers, it was a time of chaos and Shu had only been pacified not long ago, so these soldiers had fought on major battlefields.

Officers are either veterans promoted from the battlefield or warriors who have passed the military examination of the Governor's Office. Take Kang Biao for example, he is a military examinee who graduated in the eighth year of Chengqian and is also a member of the Kang family.

The imperial court had already decided to use military force in the southwest, otherwise he would not have volunteered to come to this small Luzhou Guard and serve as a thousand households.

Being the commander of a battalion of 500 men of the Kaifeng Imperial Army is better than being a captain of 1,000 men of the fifth rank here.

He speculated that after the war, he would be able to be promoted to the commander of the First Guard, and then seek to be transferred to the capital, and then he could serve as the commander of the First Guard.

But he decided to stay in Yunnan.

After all, there were many things to be done in Yunnan and great opportunities for fighting. Just by suppressing the rebellions of the Dali Kingdom and other barbarians, he could accumulate a lot of merit for himself.

If what my cousin said is true, the current imperial court is in urgent need of recuperation, and it will not launch a major war to the south without three to five years.

After three to five years, when the southwest is somewhat pacified, it won’t be too late to seek transfer.

Thinking of this, Kang Biao's men swung their swords with greater force. They took the lead and, relying on their strong armor, killed several people in a row.

As night was about to fall, vision was gradually impaired.

The Dali army on the Weichui City finally couldn't hold on any longer, and taking advantage of the twilight, the generals secretly left the city and fled to the north.

At this time, outside the south of the city, Hou Wenjian could no longer see the details of the battle on the city, and could only hear the sound of fighting.

But the sound of fighting was getting quieter and quieter. Hou Wenjian was getting anxious. Just as he was about to order someone to send torches to the city, a flagman came up to him quickly and said excitedly:

"Commander-in-chief, Wei Chu has been defeated. Commander Zuo Qianhu led his men to pursue the enemy to the north of the city. The enemy army rushed across the river and fled to the north."

"Okay, come here, tell the prince about the victory."

After breaking through the Weichui City, the Xia army occupied the ferry crossing of the Longchuan River that night.

Afterwards, the journey was smooth all the way until we reached the outskirts of Dali City.

March 29
The 32,800 men led by Bai Wang arrived at the southeast of Dali City and joined the 9,000 men of Hou Wenjian who had already arrived there and set up camp.

April 6
After a short rest, Bai Wang led his 41,000 troops to the vicinity of Ciyu Temple and confronted the 70,000 troops led by Dali Emperor Duan Siping.

(End of this chapter)