The Flourishing Tang Dynasty: Beginning with Marrying Yang Yuhuan

Chapter 202 Enemy Attacks Camp
Ge Luofeng met with Enlan Dazhalugong. After communication, the two determined their respective troop routes and division of interests.

Geluofeng fought for Yaozhou and the Yuanhe River basin for Nanzhao, while Tubo wanted Xizhou and Lizhou.

Yaozhou and the Yuanhe River Basin are adjacent to Nanzhao and are the core interests of Nanzhao's border expansion.

Tubo wanted Yizhou and Lizhou because Yizhou had salt-producing areas, and Tubo had coveted these salt areas for a long time.

After Geluofeng and Enlan Dazhalugong reached an agreement, they sent people to contact the Cuan family secretly and request a marriage alliance with them.

The Cuan family had been flirting with Nanzhao over the years and had long wanted to deepen cooperation with Nanzhao. Now that they were at war, the marriage with Nanzhao was a timely help for them, so the Cuan family agreed without a second thought.

The three parties reached a cooperation agreement and acted independently.

On the Tang army side, Li Lin left Yang Guozhong in the rear to transport food and grass, and led his troops southward. When they arrived at Ma Hu, Rongzhou (now Yibin, Sichuan), they encountered the troops of the Cuan clan. The Cuan clan could not resist and retreated.

Li Lin was overjoyed at the victory in the first battle. He stayed at Mahu that day, rewarded the soldiers of the three armies, and continued his march the next day.

In the next half month, Li Lin won victory after victory and fought all the way to Zhuti.

Zhuti is the northern gate of Yunnan. As long as we take Zhuti, we can advance into the hinterland of Yunnan.

Li Lin thought that the Cuan clan would organize an army in Zhuti to put up a stubborn resistance, but unexpectedly, the Cuan clan retreated.

Li Lin felt that winning was too easy and became suspicious, so he called his trusted subordinates to discuss the matter.

Hun Weiming, Li Lin's top general, said, "Your Highness, we have indeed not encountered any fierce resistance along the way. This may be the enemy's strategy to lure our troops deeper into the territory. But even so, it is a strategy that the enemy has no choice but to use. Our troops must also go deeper into the territory."

"Why did the enemy have no choice?" Li Lin asked.

Hun Weiming said: "The core area of ​​the Cuan clan is in the Yuan River Basin south of Zhuti. They don't have much business north of Zhuti, and the city of Zhuti is not strong and not suitable for defense, so they can only retreat to the south of Zhuti."

"Then why must our army go deeper?" Li Lin asked again.

"The strategic goal of our army in suppressing the rebellion this time is to destroy the Cuan family, so no matter how the enemy is deployed, we must penetrate deep into the Cuan family's heartland," Hun Weiming explained.

Hun Weiming's words may seem like nonsense, but in fact they are not.

The point of his words was to show that the Tang army would only be victorious if they eliminated the Cuan clan and occupied the Yuan River basin, so no matter what kind of trap the Cuan clan set up, they had to fall into it.

Li Lin agreed with this and thought for a moment before saying, "In that case, let's discuss how to advance."

Hun Weiming said: "South of Zhuti, the mountain roads are rugged. Our army will be easily surrounded if we march on a large scale. It is best to advance in different directions. However, if we advance in different directions, our military momentum will be weakened and we will be easily broken through one by one."

What Hun Weiming talked about was the difficulty of mountain warfare.

Fighting in the mountains is different from fighting on the plains.

If fighting on the plains, the army can be arranged horizontally, which can play the role of a large-scale army. But in mountainous fighting, because the roads are narrow and rugged, the army can only be arranged vertically, so if they are attacked by surprise, it is easy to lose sight of both ends.

Therefore, the best way to fight in the mountains is to conduct "scattered fighting" in small teams.

However, this type of combat method requires soldiers to be very familiar with the terrain and have certain mountain combat experience.

And this is exactly what the Jiannan Tang army lacks.

Li Lin began to feel a little irritated. He forced himself to calm down, thought for a while, and said, "It is disadvantageous for us to divide our forces. We must make full use of our advantages and use a large force to directly capture the Cuan family's capital, Shicheng. Then, we will use the Cuan family's capital as a stronghold and make breakthroughs one by one."

Shicheng is today's Qujing, Yunnan.

Li Lin's strategy seemed to be the best at the moment, so none of the generals objected and said in unison: "Your Highness is wise."

Having made up his mind, Li Lin led his troops to rest in Zhuti for two days before continuing to advance southward.

But just two days after entering the south, other problems arose.

Three out of ten soldiers felt flustered and short of breath, and two out of ten soldiers suffered from serious illnesses. The reason for this was that Li Lin and his men overlooked two important issues.

The first is altitude.

The altitude of Zhuti is 1700 meters, and it gets higher as you go south. When the Tang army from Jiannan arrived at Zhuti, some soldiers had already felt unwell, but people at that time did not know about altitude sickness, so they ignored the problem.

The second is miasma.

North of Zhuti, the climate is warm and covered with dense forests. There are many mosquitoes, birds and beasts in the mountains. The Tang army soldiers are not used to the environment here. If they are bitten by mosquitoes or drink unclean water, they can easily get malaria.

This is something that Li Lin and other noblemen who came from Chang'an did not understand.

Li Lin didn't expect that there would be so many troubles during the march, and he had no solution for the time being, so he could only force the army to march.

After another three days' journey, Li Lin and his party arrived at Dongchuan County, which was already the territory of the Cuan clan. However, Li Lin and his party still did not encounter any resistance from the Cuan clan.

But even though there was no resistance from the Cuan clan, the Tang soldiers were already resentful.

As more and more people suffer from altitude sickness, malaria is becoming more and more serious.

One tenth of the Tang army soldiers died without even seeing the enemy.

In order to stabilize the hearts of his generals, Li Lin adopted the suggestion of another confidant, Ji Guangchen, and organized a human sacrifice in Dongchuan.

The human heads used for the sacrifice were from the people of Dongchuan.

This move slightly stabilized the morale of the army, but it aroused hatred among ordinary people in Dongchuan.

However, Li Lin did not think that the hatred of ordinary people was important. He believed that as long as the morale of the army was stabilized, he could take over Shicheng together with Nanzhao in a few days and occupy the entire Cuanshi area.

Therefore, after the sacrifice, Li Lin settled down in Dongchuan and prepared to capture Shicheng.

……

That night, Li Lin was annoyed by mosquitoes when the guards suddenly came to report, "Your Highness, Cuan Chongdao led his troops to attack the camp!"

"What?" Li Lin was surprised, and then overjoyed.

He felt that Cuan Chongdao was courting his own death.

Li Lin quickly got up and ran out of the tent, listening to the sounds of swords and horses in the distance, feeling relaxed and contented.

Not long after, Hun Weiming, the general of the central army, and Ji Guangchen, the general of the left army, came back to report the good news of successfully blocking the enemy.

Li Lin praised the two men and asked, "Where are the two generals of the right army?"

The scout replied, "Your Highness, the two generals of the right army, Yuan Jingyao and Yan Jingzhi, have defeated the attacking enemy and are chasing them out."

Li Lin was furious and asked, "Who asked them to chase?"

The scout didn't know how to respond.

Hun Weiming said: "Your Highness, these two are the guards of the army. They are used to being free, so when they see a fighting opportunity, they are prone to act on their own."

"I will deal with them when they come back!" Li Lin said in a bad tone.

At this time, another scout came to report, saying: "Your Highness, the Nanzhao army was spotted ten miles away on the right wing."

Upon hearing this, Li Lin turned from anger to joy and said, "The Nanzhao is coming from the right wing. They must have pacified Yaozhou and are coming to join our army."

(End of this chapter)