Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

Ju Ming glanced at Huang Deyu's body. He had eaten too much during his life, and his appearance in death was really ugly.

"What are his last words?" Ju Ming asked.

Gao Jingshan replied: "I was buried with my wife in Jianmen, and my old servant was buried next to me."

Ju Ming ordered: "The tomb can be made larger. Our military resources are limited and we have to rush to march, so we will not give him a grand burial for the time being."

"General, benevolent and righteous," Gao Jingshan said flatteringly.

Once people break through their own bottom line, their style of doing things often changes, and they actually learn to flatter others.

Gao Jingshan had been a road transport judge in Lizhou for many years. The transshipment envoy and deputy envoys often ignored common affairs. Hanzhong was actually managed by Gao Jingshan, the third-in-command.

In terms of ability, he is still very strong.

This man surrendered at Jianmen Pass and did not explicitly say that he wanted to become a thief, but he followed Ju Ming all the time. Even a fool knew what he wanted to do.

Ju Ming was very surprised by this, even a little unbelievable.

Gao Jingshan is an extraordinary Jinshi. In terms of dispatch, he is the second-in-command in Chengdu Prefecture. In terms of post, he is a true third-grade official.

A third-grade official, taking refuge in a rebel like himself?

The army advanced slowly along the mountain road. When they reached Jianzhou, Ju Ming couldn't bear it anymore and asked, "Sir, what do you think of the current situation?"

Gao Jingshan said: "Sichuan has no troops to fight, and Bashu is already in the pocket of the general. All the roads in the world are exhausted, and the people are complaining. The Imperial Army and the Western Army are in Hebei to attack Liao Dynasty again. It is impossible to return to Hanzhong within this year. . Jingxiang is vast and sparsely populated, and has been subject to heavy taxes for many years. The emperor is likely to ask Jingxiang to recruit troops to attack. The more the better, they can be defeated in one battle, and they can also consume the government's money and food. Even if the Western Army comes back, there will be no food. Tune.”

Zhu Ming finally understood why Gao Jingshan was willing to take refuge. This old guy was sure that he could separate his territory.

Ju Ming asked again: "After conquering Hanzhong and Bashu, what advice do you have, sir?"

Gao Jingshan said: "Secure the main roads and resist the elites of the imperial court with strong passes and dangerous terrain. Once the imperial army is defeated once or twice, it will be difficult to do anything. At that time, we can learn from Li Jiqian of the Western Xia Dynasty and submit to the imperial court of the Song Dynasty. Please seal Sichuan It is also possible to appoint an envoy to observe the Gorge, or to entrust the envoy to the Sichuan Gorge. It is best to use three to five years to establish a system, train elite soldiers, and digest the local area. Then, according to the time, move out of Kuimen in the east, attack Shaanxi in the north, sweep the world, and arrive in Set the course!"

Ju Ming smiled and was noncommittal.

The army approached Zitong all the way. The mountains to the north of Zitong were also called Cuiyun Corridor and stretched for thirty miles.

Shi Yuangong, Deng Chun, and Li Jinyi garrisoned the fort in Qiqu Mountain to resist the attack of the officers and soldiers with inferior forces.

Gao Jingshan asked about the process carefully and asked in surprise: "You retreated again and again without attacking the officers and soldiers, and gave up all the dangerous places such as Wu Company?"

Shi Yuangong said: "It's really weird. The commander of the officers and soldiers is a capable man. He withdrew the troops in Jianzhou in an orderly manner. I still don't understand why he kept retreating, so he didn't dare to pursue immediately, for fear of luring the enemy. The plan. Every time I sent people to investigate, confirmed that there was no ambush, and then occupied the city he gave up. The officers and soldiers even withdrew from Zitong at one time. After I sent people to inquire, I was about to capture Zitong, but the officers and soldiers came back again. , reoccupy Zitong City."

Gao Jingshan was also confused and muttered: "What does Huang Gai want to do?"

Shi Yuangong said: "After the officers and soldiers returned to Zitong, they remained stationary and didn't know what they were doing."

Of course it's training.

Huang Gai distributed all the fine soldiers and armor to the young soldiers sent by the rich clans.

Especially those whose families have a lot of land, soldiers from rich families often bring their own tenants with them.

The number of tenants ranges from a few to dozens.

The children of the Wang family, the Fan family, and the Yuwen family, the most arrogant among them, directly brought hundreds of tenants, all of whom were strong and powerful young men.

Moreover, the big clan continues to send troops!

Huang Gai inspected the military camp every day, and when he saw the troops training in the school field, he felt more excited than ever.

Is this really considered a soldier? What the hell were they recruiting before?

No need to go to the battlefield, you can see the difference during training.

The soldiers and tenant troops were actively trained, had high morale, and obeyed orders.

The previous Xiang soldiers and rural soldiers were lazy throughout the whole process. A military order was sent out, but there was no movement for a long time. When there was movement, it was chaotic. It was like sleepwalking during the drill. Huang Gai had already had enough when he was pulled out to defend the stronghold, only to flee every time.

"Ta-ta-ta-ta!"

A fast horse came from the south, and the messenger shouted along the way: "Eight hundred miles, hurry, eight hundred miles, hurry!"

Huang Gai felt panic as if on conditioned reflex. He opened the express delivery carefully and almost fainted just by reading the first few lines.

Hezhou is gone!

It is true that Huang Gai also serves as Sichuan's production and transportation envoy. In name, he can mobilize Sichuan's troops, money and food, but the specific work depends on the various transportation envoys.

He can only truly control the Chengdu Fu Road, and Li Bao's march route, Bazhou belongs to the Lizhou Road, Dazhou belongs to the Kuizhou Road, and Quzhou and Hezhou belong to the Zizhou Road.

Huang Gai has ordered all parties to recruit troops and food to prepare for war. As for whether the transport envoys will listen or not, only the devil knows.

…

Let's say that Li Bao led five thousand troops and went south along the Micang Road.

The first target is the five counties of Bazhou, which belongs to the boundary of Lizhou Road. The chief officer of Lizhou Road had long been defeated and captured in Xingyuan Mansion.

The governor of Bazhou heard the news and fled.

Among the five counties, only the magistrate of Zengkou County tried to resist. However, as soon as the rebels began to attack the city, the rural soldiers turned against them and rebelled. The county magistrate was killed by the rebels inexplicably.

Li Bao detached hundreds of soldiers and went to take over Tongjiang County.

He had no civil servants available, so he directly asked local subordinates to take over the prefectures and counties, then took away the money, food and soldiers in the warehouse, and recruited 500 young men and women in each county to expand the army.

Along the way, thieves and bandits kept coming, and... private salt dealers!

Those guys are all big salt lords. They are divided into three forces based on the different tributaries of the Bajiang River. Each of them occupies the water transportation channel without interfering with each other. The private salt dealers who have long-term cooperation with Daming Village are the lower-level distributors of these salt lords.

The three major salt lords alone came with more than a thousand soldiers to join the army.

When Li Bao left the territory of Bazhou, he had increased his troops to 9,000. Counting the civilians who accompanied the ships to transport grain, the total strength reached 13,000.

They followed the Bajiang River and passed through the edge of Dazhou.

The Dazhou prefect, who was affiliated with Kuizhou Road, pretended not to see this and only sent troops to block the entrance of the gorge. There are dangerous mountains and rivers to block it. Only a few thousand soldiers are needed to garrison this entrance. No matter how many bandit soldiers there are, they cannot threaten Dazhou.

In this way, Li Bao's tens of thousands of troops passed through Dazhou without encountering any attacks. Instead, several groups of bandits and water bandits came to seek refuge.

The governor of Quzhou further ahead, knowing that he could not resist, led his troops to retreat to Guang'an Army.

Nominally, the Guang'an Army has a large number of garrison troops, and even a small number of Forbidden Forces. However, the troops of Quzhou and Guang'an armies merged, and the total strength was only more than 8,000, many of whom were temporarily recruited.

The salt owl Pang Dingzi volunteered: "General, I'm going to recruit the troops and navy to surrender!"

"Let me go, I know them."

"I recognize him too, and I promise to recruit him."

The other two salt lords, named Qiu Shanshui and Li Jiang, all asked to take over the job.

Li Bao said: "The three of you go there together. If you can recruit someone to surrender, you will all be credited with a meritorious service."

The three salt owls brought boats to deliver the salt. There were not many large boats, and the majority were small boats transporting salt.

They approached with troops, and the government's navy also came to fight.

Pang Dingzi, Qiu Shanshui and Li Jiang all asked their subordinates to wave flags at the same time. This was a secret code among private salt dealers and was usually used to convey messages to avoid officers and soldiers.

Among the officers and soldiers in the navy, there were patrolmen who cooperated with private salt dealers, as well as private salt dealers and fishermen recruited temporarily.

When they saw the signal from the flag, they all stopped to think about the pros and cons.

Should he choose to join the rebel army or continue to be an officer and soldier?

The private salt dealers made a quick decision and turned around and rushed towards the patrolling soldiers.

The inspection commander Qi Gongkui was horrified when he saw this, and quickly shouted: "Don't attack, I am willing to be a thief. Quick... wave the flag quickly, surrender, surrender!"

The magistrates of Guang'an and Quzhou fell into silence when they saw the fighting on the river.

As soon as the fight started, their navy was gone.

Qi Gongkui, the patrol commander who had just surrendered, took the initiative to offer advice in order to achieve meritorious service: "There are salt merchants in the city. I am familiar with them. I can shoot a letter to ask them to respond internally. The government has been increasing the salt tax and distributing salt indiscriminately. These salt merchants usually They also sell private salt. A lot of the private salt sold by Bazhou salt lords is from them."

"Very good, let's use this trick." Li Bao followed suit.

The private salt dealers carried the inverted boat all the way to the city, and the archers shot letters towards the city.

The governor of Guang'an and the governor of Quzhou were shocked when they opened the letter and ordered the soldiers to burn all the letters.

Li Bao sent people to chop down trees to make siege equipment. The next day, he continued to shoot letters into the city. He also asked the soldiers carrying small boats to guard against arrows to shout: "Kill the corrupt officials and eat good rice! Kill the corrupt officials and eat good rice!"

For several days in a row, I shot books and shouted.

The atmosphere in the city became weird, and the officials felt that there was something wrong with everyone.

Li Bao had built two flat cannons, and couldn't wait to build more, so he took them out to throw rocks to cheer.

Not much damage was done to the walls, but the morale of the defenders plummeted.

The salt merchants in the city were in trouble. They raised fire as a signal at night and set fires in the city to create chaos.

Li Bao personally led his troops to attack the city and climbed up on a flying ladder in the dark.

Zhijun, Zhizhou and other officials did not organize resistance, but took their families to escape at night. The fact that they have been able to defend until now is worthy of the imperial court, at least they did not flee after hearing the news.

Guang'an City was in chaos. A large number of rural soldiers defected and many took advantage of the situation to rob. Even the gangsters in the city were robbing everyone.

Li Bao first occupied the state government, county government and warehouses, and then sent troops to suppress the chaos, which lasted until dawn before stability was restored.

More than two hundred robbers were caught, some of whom were Li Bao's own soldiers.

He has expanded his army too quickly, and military discipline is a serious problem.

Li Bao ordered: "Cut them all and hang them on the top of the city to show the public!"

More than two hundred heads were floating in the wind, and the scene was extremely spectacular.

The newly attached bandits, water bandits, salt lords, officers and soldiers were all scared and sweating, because some of them also participated in the robbery last night, but they were not caught.

Li Bao decided to capture Hezhou. No matter how well the military discipline was improved, the troops would have to be reorganized.