Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

Jianzhou City is not only defended by soldiers, but also has a lot of food!

The military rations from Jianmen Pass must first be transported to Jianzhou City, and then the civilians will be organized to transport them.

Let's put it this way, as long as the guard's mind is okay, he won't be afraid even if Jianmen Pass is bypassed.

The enemy who rushes around will be stuck between Jianzhou and Jianmen. There is only one road to go there, and there are no villages along the way. You can't even go to the countryside to grab food. If you wait for a month, you will become a starving soldier.

Moreover, troops can also be sent from Jianzhou and Jianmen to attack the enemies from the north and south.

Li Jinyi led a thousand elite soldiers, carrying only a few days of dry food, to speed up and pioneer the way.

To the north of Cuiyunlang, there is a depression sandwiched between mountains, covering an area of ​​only 0.1 square kilometers. The place where caravans usually stayed overnight has now been turned into a small station for transporting grain. A stockade has also been built on the northern mountain to guard against a sneak attack by rebels coming to Su Xiaodao.

While Li Jinyi was still at the foot of the mountain, he was discovered by soldiers in the village, and billowing smoke quickly ignited.

"Soldiers are so valuable that they don't care about their lives. The whole army abandons their armor and follows me to attack them!" Li Jinyi raised his gun and shouted.

A thousand elite soldiers took off their rattan armor and began to accelerate forward. Affected by the terrain, they formed a long winding snake formation and went up the mountain.

There were only three hundred officers and soldiers defending the stronghold. Seeing Li Jinyi rushing up desperately, the officers abandoned the stronghold and ran away. Anyway, the smoke has been ignited, and the mountains here are not steep. It is better to retreat to the dangerous Cuiyun Corridor and defend again.

Again, there is no need to fight against bandits for a few military pay!

Li Jinyi captured the stronghold without losing any troops, but continued to pursue: "Don't stop, rush all the way to Cuiyun Corridor!"

A thousand elite soldiers fought desperately to fight from Hanzhong to Jianzhou. They were all winning and no longer regarded the officers and soldiers as human beings. Some people were still scared when they abandoned their armor and attacked the mountain just now, but when they saw the officers and soldiers escaping, they were all excited and their morale was bursting.

But the officers and soldiers were so frightened that they couldn't understand at all. Why did they pursue the thieves after they broke through the stronghold?

One chased and the other fled close to the depression at the foot of the mountain.

Hundreds of stones of grain have been piled up at the small grain transport station. There are about a hundred officers and soldiers guarding the grain transport station, and five to six hundred grain transporters are resting.

They saw the smoke in the mountains ahead and became panicked. They didn't know how many rebels were coming, and they didn't know whether Jianmen Pass had been breached.

"Run away!"

The three hundred defeated soldiers in the village rolled and crawled down the mountain, and some fell and fell to pieces on the way.

"run!"

The grain transporters were the first to react and fled in a swarm to Cuiyun Corridor.

Immediately afterwards, the officers and soldiers guarding the grain began to flee.

Li Jinyi led his troops and rushed to the small grain transportation station. He didn't bother to look at the grain and continued to chase the broken troops ahead.

There is also a cottage built halfway up the mountain to the north of Cuiyunlang.

The garrison defenders had no idea what was going on. As soon as they lit up the smoke to convey the message, they saw nearly a thousand defeated troops fleeing in confusion. As a result, the officers of this mountain stronghold also fled with their soldiers in a daze.

As expected of the Sichuan officers and soldiers who were defeated steadily by the barbarians...

Li Jinyi rushed up to the Cuiyun Corridor in one breath, but he couldn't catch up anymore. He was so tired that he put his hands on his knees, bent his waist and gasped for air.

His soldiers were also lying on the ground in twos and threes.

After resting for a while, Li Jinyi divided his troops to defend Cuiyun Gallery, and sent the remaining soldiers back to get rattan armor, and also received hundreds of stones of food in the depression.

Without waiting for the arrival of the main force led by Shi Yuangong and Deng Chun, Li Jinyi rested for a day, assigned dozens of people to guard the food, and then led the troops to move forward.

After passing Cuiyun Corridor, there is a small town four or five miles ahead, which was later named Hanyang Town.

The place prospered due to the Shu Road trade. There were many inns, and the guest rooms were mainly Datongpu. Now it has become a grain transportation station, but when Li Jinyi arrived, the grain had been evacuated, and even the residents of the town fled in large numbers.

…

But it is said that the officers, soldiers, civilians and people who escaped from Cuiyunlang area spread all kinds of news along the way.

Some people say that the thieves came to kill Su Xiaodao.

Some people say that the bandits have broken through Jianmen Pass.

Some people said that the defenders at Jianmen Pass had surrendered and took the initiative to release the traitors.

Regarding the number of bandit soldiers, there are various random theories: three thousand, five thousand, ten thousand, twenty thousand, thirty thousand, fifty thousand...

The actual distance from Hanyang Town to Jianzhou City is nearly 30 miles, and there are several military villages along the way. There were not many officers and soldiers stationed there, and they mainly focused on delaying the enemy and delivering messages. They all lit up the smoke and abandoned the stronghold and fled. They felt that it was safe to hide in Jianzhou City.

More and more soldiers and civilians fled back to Jianzhou City, and panic quickly spread in the city.

Huang Gai, the transportation envoy of Chengdu Fuludu and the transportation envoy of Sichuan, personally led troops to garrison Jianzhou. As for Jianmen Pass, Gao Jingshan was responsible for the defense, and Huang Deyu, the prefect of Lizhou, was also there.

The Bashu region continued to recruit troops and food, but Huang Gai couldn't wait any longer, so he headed north with the soldiers he had recruited. He blocked 3,500 men at Jianmen Pass and led 5,000 men to form a stronghold to guard Jianzhou.

"Zhi Envoy, the sword gate has been lost, so it is better to retreat to Lutou Pass (Mianzhu Pass)."

The speaker was Lu Shizhao, the commander of the Sichuan Forbidden Army.

Not only did Sichuan have forbidden troops, but there were also a large number of them, reaching more than 20,000 at its peak.

Of course, these are all paper numbers.

Decades ago, the imperial court carried out a clean-up, reorganization and dismantling, leaving only about 10,000 people in Sichuan's Void Forbidden Army.

Huang Gai said angrily: "Who told you that Jianmen has been lost?"

Lu Shizhao replied: "Many of the defeated soldiers who fled back said so. Moreover, Gao Jingshan, the commander-in-chief of Jianmen, has an old relationship with the Zhu family father and son, so he might have led his troops to become thieves."

"No, the high deputy is loyal to the emperor and patriotic. He will definitely not be a thief." Huang Gai shook his head repeatedly, but he was actually a little worried.

Lu Shizhao said: "Knowing people but not knowing their hearts, the bandits have already occupied Lizhou. If they go to Jianmen Pass again, they will separatize Bashu and Hanzhong. If Gao Jingshan surrenders with Jianmen Pass, the bandits will be reused and appointed as the commander-in-chief." It’s possible to fake the appearance. He’s just a deputy envoy, but he doesn’t want to be the prime minister?”

"Don't say that again. I, the deputy envoy of the Song Dynasty, can't compare with thieves and bandits?" Huang Gai scolded sternly, "You should go back to defend the city. Don't let the thieves and bandits come in!"

Lu Shizhao left angrily, muttering something in his mouth.

But the more Huang Gai thought about it, the more frightened he became. What if Gao Jingshan really turned the switch and surrendered?

Gao Jingshan had friendship with the Zhu family and his son, so he was not suitable to lead troops to defend Jianmen. But among the many officials in Sichuan, none of them dared to go to Jianmen Pass, not even Huang Gai himself. He could only push Gao Jingshan, the most daring one, up.

Huang Gai began to wonder, should he defend or retreat?

If Jianmen is lost, there is no point in defending Jianzhou. It is better to retreat to Lutou Pass.

But what if the Sword Gate is still there, wouldn't it mean to abandon the friendly forces and run away?

…

Jianzhou City was built at the intersection of two rivers, facing the river on one side and backed by mountains on three sides. It was easy to defend but difficult to attack.

To the northwest of the city, two mountains stand across the river, and Huang Gai each built a fortress. The mountains and rivers are steep and connected with the city to form a three-dimensional defense system.

If they can't win by surprise, the 5,000 rebels, let alone capture the city, will all be killed here if they're not careful.

However, when Li Jinyi's thousand vanguards arrived, nothing was done. The officers and soldiers on the hilltop in the north actually abandoned the stronghold and fled, scrambling to cross the river and escape to the city.

Li Jinyi was dumbfounded. He had never seen anyone so afraid of death!

He took advantage of the situation to seize the mountain village and then waited for the main force to arrive.

Two days later, Shi Yuangong and Deng Chun arrived with their troops. Fortunately, several hundred stones of grain were seized along the way, otherwise their military rations would have been almost exhausted.

Moreover, the defeated soldiers did not have time to take away the food in this military stronghold...

When there is sufficient food, there is no need to attack elsewhere immediately. You can play with the officers and soldiers in Jianzhou.

"There are a large number of officers and soldiers in Jianzhou, and they cannot be captured easily." Li Jinyi said.

Deng Chun had been here before, and of course he knew that it was easy to defend but difficult to attack: "You can try a feint attack. Most of our soldiers have rattan armor. They pretend to be defeated and jump into the river. The rattan armor can float. The officers and soldiers must have thought that our army was defeated. We may go out of the city to pursue them. Let the soldiers without rattan armor go to the lower reaches to cross the river in advance to ambush them and catch the pursuing officers and soldiers off guard! If we really can’t defeat them, go to the west and capture Yinping County.”

Two months ago, Deng Chun would never have dared to use this strategy, because feigning defeat would most likely turn into a rout.

However, the rebel army, which has won consecutive battles, not only has high morale among the entire army, but also has a sense of psychological superiority in front of the officers and soldiers. As long as each soldier is told clearly in advance, it is very likely to succeed by pretending to be defeated and luring the enemy.

Li Jinyi suddenly said: "I led the troops all the way here, and all the officers and soldiers along the way fled. Even the current military stronghold was captured without even a single soldier."

Shi Yuangong's eyes lit up when he heard this, and he shook his feather fan and said: "The morale of the officers and soldiers is so low, it can be a scare. Many flags are planted in the military stronghold in the mountains, and grass-roots men wear armor as soldiers, so that the civilians can be seen every day in the stronghold. Beating drums and making noise during the day. The soldiers would go down the mountain and leave at night, and then swagger back into the mountain during the day!"

Deng Chun and Li Jinyi were filled with admiration after hearing this, and they all praised: "Mr. Shi is really smart for being able to come up with such a clever plan!"

The premise of the intimidation strategy is that the morale of the officers and soldiers is not high and they have long been frightened out of their wits.

On that day, they played drums in the army camp as a show. The officers and soldiers of Jianzhou on the other side of the river thought that the rebels were going to cross the river to attack, and they were so frightened that they quickly dispatched troops to defend.

However, the rebel soldiers and civilians were planting grass in the stronghold, and the soldiers went to sleep one after another.

When it got dark, four thousand soldiers went down the mountain in the dark, leaving one thousand soldiers and civilians to defend the village.

After walking for a few miles, they turned around a mountain col and the rebel soldiers stopped to rest. In the middle of the morning, they swaggered back. Under the watchful eyes of the officers and soldiers on the other side of the river, the lineup returned to the military camp on the mountain.

For several days in a row, sometimes I came back in the morning, sometimes in the afternoon, and sometimes in the evening.

The defenders in Jianzhou City became more and more frightened, because the bandit army on the opposite mountain had "increased" their troops to 20,000 to 30,000 people!

Lu Shizhao, the commander of the imperial army, was frightened and ran to Huang Gai to plead: "Zhi Envoy, withdraw your troops quickly. Jianmen must be gone. Gaojingshan has surrendered to the bandits!"

Huang Gai stood at the top of the city, staring blankly at the mountains on the other side.

He was already suspicious, but now Lu Shizhao was encouraging him again. Huang Gai was basically sure that the Jianmen defenders had surrendered.

"Withdraw the troops and retreat to Lutou Pass (Mianzhu Pass)!" Huang Gai finally made a decision.

Shi Yuangong's unreliable trick was so damn successful that it was so outrageous that he opened the door to outrageousness - it was so outrageous!

Gao Jingshan and Huang Deyu were still holding on at Jianmen Pass. How could they have thought that the coach at the rear had fled?