Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

The straight-line distance of Li Bao's surprise attack route was only 244 miles.

However, the river valley is winding and winding, and you have to walk through the mountains for a while. The actual distance may be 1,000 miles, which is a true thousand-mile journey.

Fortunately, you can take a boat directly over the hundred-mile journey from Zigui to Xingshan County.

We even passed Xingshan County and took a boat ride for a while.

In the last two hundred miles, you can see a large number of people and small towns appearing in the mountain basins.

Li Bao took a letter from the prefect Yang Jie and went to the city to persuade him to surrender. The magistrate of Xingshan County, who had no soldiers in his hands, immediately opened the city gate.

Moreover, after the Xingshan County magistrate was brought to justice, Xingshan County's custodians, postmen and other officials also helped Li Bao recruit grain transporters.

Zigui City was Wang Zhen's military grain transfer station, and a lot of grain was stored there. Not only is it enough to support Li Baoqi's attack on Fangling, but it can even be transported to relieve the hungry Badong County.

In the northern mountainous area of ​​Xingshan County, Li Bao also recruited several mountain people to serve as guides along the way.

These guides living on the edge of Shennongjia were of great use and even prevented Li Bao's entire army from being wiped out.

The most thrilling time was when the guide said to Li Bao: "The weather is very dull and the clouds are very low. We cannot rest on the river beach tonight."

When you are on the march, setting up camp is not so particular. If we strictly follow the normal process, one-third of our daily mobility will be wasted on setting up camp. Since there were locals to provide experience, Li Bao followed the advice of the mountain guide and set up the military camp halfway up the mountain.

It rained heavily for half the night that night. When I got up the next day, I saw that the river beach where we camped yesterday had been flooded by flash floods.

This is Shennongjia, if you are careless you will die!

Li Bao was so shocked that he sweated on his vest. He respected the guides even more and began to ask for knowledge about astronomy and geography in the mountains.

When we come to the intersection of Fenshui and Zhushui, it is already a big town in the mountains. When the people saw the rebels, they were frightened and ran away, thinking that officers and soldiers were coming.

It was too late to hide, so naturally no one went to the government to report the news.

Li Bao set up a pot to make rice outside the town, rested for half an hour, and headed towards Fangling in a swaggering manner. Towards evening, they went to the mountains beside the road to cut bamboos to make flying ladders. After nightfall, they immediately accelerated their march.

One mile east of the city, there is a delivery shop by the river.

The soldiers in the delivery shop were awakened and thought they were officers and soldiers. They quickly lit a fire to cook food for the generals who led the troops.

Faced with Pu Bing's warm invitation, Li Bao politely declined: "No, I have important business to go to the city."

Pu Bing reminded: "The city gate is closed at night, and you have to wait until dawn to get in."

"I can't wait any longer," Li Bao said.

In Pu Bing's surprised eyes, the rebels trotted with torches on, taking flying ladders to attack the city without any warning.

The magistrate, the magistrate, the governor, the county magistrate... all of them didn't know what was going on. After waking up from their dreams, they subconsciously ran away with their followers or family members, not even taking care of their belongings.

After capturing Fangzhou City, we rested for three days.

During the attack, some soldiers fell ill, and even more fell ill after successfully capturing the city.

In other words, if you have any headaches or fevers on the way, you will be completely relaxed when you get to the city, and all kinds of diseases will suddenly appear.

The number of patients reached 30% of the entire army, so Li Bao could only search for doctors throughout the city.

…

Chen Ziyi's Xiangjun cavalry unit was sent to Fangzhou to investigate the enemy's situation.

There are more than 800 cavalry in total, and Chen Ziyi has only 100 men under his command.

"Brother, why not join the rebels now?" Geng Zhongnian urged.

This guy had originally planned to become a thief, and when he learned of Xin Xingzong's defeat in Huanglongtan, he was even more determined to do so.

Chen Ziyi said: "You have to avoid other cavalry."

The sentry cavalry were about to disperse to investigate, but Chen Ziyi led twenty or thirty cavalry around to the hills in the northwest of Fangzhou. These cavalry have been screened, most of them are from Hebei, and they can be absolutely trusted.

Until dark, Chen Ziyi passed through the hilly areas and led his troops to the north of Fangzhou City.

The rebel captains at the top of the city had raised their bows and arrows.

Chen Ziyi rode alone to the city and said loudly: "An old friend is here to visit, please let me in."

A basket was lowered, and Chen Ziyi was hoisted to the top of the city, where he was quickly tied up.

Li Bao asked: "Who are you?"

Chen Ziyi looked around: "Not many people need to know."

Li Baoping retreated and did not let Chen Ziyi loose his bonds.

Chen Ziyi said: "When we attacked Heifeng Village, three archers were killed. One was Brother Zhu (Ju Ming), one was Brother Zhang (Zhang Guangdao), and the other one was me."

Li Bao also heard about such deeds and was surprised.

If Chen Ziyi had stayed in Hanzhong and followed Ju Ming in raising troops from the beginning, he might have been on an equal footing with Zhang Guangdao.

Li Bao quickly untied Chen Ziyi: "What is your surname? What is your current position?"

"Surname Chen, name Ziyi," Chen Ziyi quickly provided information, "Xin Qi Zong has about 20,000 to 30,000 people. Chen's soldiers are fighting and confronting Guan Sheng in the western mountainous area of ​​Zhushan County. The guard of Zhushan County is Xin Yongzong, who is responsible for arranging food and civilian labor. The county originally had a thousand rural soldiers. Recently, a thousand Victory Army cavalry and more than 800 Xiang Army horsemen arrived. I only have a hundred horsemen under my command."

Li Bao immediately had a clear understanding of the enemy situation nearby, and asked again: "Where is the main force of officers and soldiers?"

Chen Ziyi was free, squatted down and drew a map and said: "This is the Han River, this is the Wuling River. Tong Guan and Xin Qizong were stationed at the mouth of the Wuling River where the two rivers meet. There were about 20,000 soldiers and more than 10,000 civilians. Only six people could really fight. More than a thousand people defeated the victorious army. I heard that the rebel general's surname was Zhang, and he was stationed twenty or thirty miles upstream of the Wuling River mouth. I don't know how many troops he had."

This is equivalent to giving Li Bao a full map, and the entire battlefield becomes clear.

Chen Ziyi added: "Xin Qizong's troops are confronting Guan Sheng. They dare not withdraw their entire army to defend Zhushan. They can easily be chased by Guan Sheng and defeated. Therefore, when your Excellency captures Fangzhou, Xin Qizong can send at most two to three thousand troops." Return reinforcements. The strength of the troops in Zhushan County is about three to four thousand infantry, nearly a thousand cavalry of the Shengjie Army, and more than 800 horsemen of the Xiang Army. One hundred of the horsemen are under my command and can defect at any time."

Li Bao said: "Brother Chen, please go back first. I will send troops in ten days. At that time, Brother Chen will be best in Zhushan City. If you set fire at night, I will take the opportunity to attack the city."

"Okay!" Chen Ziyi raised his hand.

There are currently a lot of sick people in Li Bao's army, and less than 2,000 people can still fight. Maybe they can recover in another ten days.

Taking advantage of the time when the soldiers were recovering from illness, Li Bao commandeered the cloth shops in the city.

This is a state city with quite abundant supplies, and a large amount of cloth is used to make flags.

He also recruited many women in the city to sew garments out of pure black cloth and outlined pages of armor. If you're up close, you'll definitely see that it looks like a piece of armor, but from a distance, you'll mistake it for armor.

The next step was to recruit civilian husbands. Since Li Bao did not plunder heavily after entering the city, he encountered no resistance when recruiting civilian husbands.

Counting the people brought from Xingshan County, we directly took nearly 10,000 people and set off. Wearing false armor and holding countless flags, they followed Li Bao in a chaotic manner.

At this time, Li Bao's elite troops had recovered to about 2,400 men, and the wounded and sick who were unable to fight remained in Fangzhou to defend the city.

Li Bao led his army not far from the city when he was discovered by the horse army sent by Xin Yongzong.

These horse troops immediately retreated, some returned to Zhushan to report the news, and some stayed to observe from a distance.

Hearing that there were tens of thousands of bandits, Xin Yongzong was horrified. Not only did he temporarily recruit young men, he also pulled all the cavalry to defend the city, and sent someone to notify his elder brother Xin Qizong to quickly come back for reinforcements.

Li Bao did not attack the city, but camped in the mountains in the east of Zhushan County, across the river from the officers and soldiers of Zhushan County.

In the rebel camp, countless flags fluttered in the wind, and civilians wearing fake armor walked around every day.

These civilians were very scared, and some people ran away along the way, but after setting up camp, not many people ran away. Because the passage down the mountain from the camp was blocked by elite rebels.

Xin Yongzong watched across the Wuling River, and the densely packed flags frightened him.

The news brought back by the sentry riders was also varied. Some said that the bandits were marching in chaos and were all a mob. Some also said that the thieves and bandits were well prepared and should not be underestimated. It was normal for the thieves to march in confusion.

But he said that Xin Qizong was stuck in the mountains and it was difficult to make any progress.

After more than two months of repeated testing, Xin Qizong determined that Guan Sheng did not have many soldiers. But the two mountain strongholds stood there and he just couldn't knock them down. Moreover, the four artillery pieces and a large number of catapults made the morale of the officers and soldiers decline day by day.

"Ten thousand thieves attacked Zhushan City?"

Xin Qizong felt it was outrageous: "Where did the tens of thousands of thieves come from? Can they have wings and fly over? It must be a bluff to let my brother stick to the city and the bandits!"

Xin Qizong was not afraid, but Xin Yongzong was extremely frightened.

It's not that there are many thieves, it's that the soldiers under his command dare not fight!

No matter how Xin Yongzong explained it, the city defenders were frightened by the countless flags on the other side.

What kind of elite soldiers can be thrown back to defend the city?

The troops who can fight are all facing Guan Sheng on the front line.

A group of rural soldiers were frightened and trembled. While guarding the city, they kept looking towards the other side, fearing that the rebels would suddenly attack.

The more than 900 victorious cavalrymen were all young soldiers who were used to following Tong Guan to enjoy the blessings. Even when the troops came to the city, they still did not do anything themselves. Things like maintaining law and order and patrolling the streets are all left to the Xiang army and horse soldiers, while the young master soldiers themselves eat and drink well.

Even after entering the city, he started enjoying women.

First, the officers recruited prostitutes into the camp, and gradually the soldiers also began to recruit prostitutes. Finally, it developed into asking for women from good families, and then they went to extort money from wealthy households in the city.

On the fourth day of Li Bao's camp across the river, it was finally Chen Ziyi's turn to lead troops to patrol the streets.

In the middle of the night, fires suddenly broke out in many places in the city.

Chen Ziyi led his troops and shouted along the way: "The thieves have entered the city, the thieves have entered the city!"

Some people panicked and put out the fire, fearing that their houses would be set on fire. Some people fled with their families and blocked the city gates in an attempt to get out.

Li Bao saw the fire in the city and immediately led his troops across the river.

At the same time, the people were asked to hold torches and beat drums across the river to shout.

The gloomy city guards heard the sound of drums and shouts, saw countless torches on the other side, and the city was on fire again and fell into chaos. They were so frightened that they left the city wall and opened the door to escape.

The first reaction of the more than 900 victorious Czech cavalry was not to fight, but to leave the city to preserve their strength.

Some guys are even sleeping with women in their arms. They put on their clothes in panic, not caring about their armor, picked up their weapons and went in search of horses.

"General Bu, go this way, the city gate over there is blocked!"

Chen Ziyi has gathered his cavalry soldiers and even persuaded the other two cavalry soldiers to rebel. They all hate Bu Chang and have been waiting at the place they must pass.

Bu Chang had no doubt that he was there and followed Chen Ziyi to escape. He even praised him loudly: "If you can escape, I will repay you!"

"Thank you, General Bu. I have important military information..." Chen Ziyi rode closer and closer.

Just as Bu Chang was about to inquire about the military situation, Chen Ziyi suddenly accelerated his horse and stabbed Bu Chang's horse in the neck.

The war horse went crazy with pain. Bu Chang, who was wearing armor, quickly stabilized his body and calmed the horse.

Before he could stabilize his horse, Chen Ziyi had already passed by and killed the cavalry behind Bu Chang.

The cavalry troops under Chen Ziyi also outflanked Bu Chang from two directions. Bu Chang was instantly surrounded by three cavalry soldiers, and his horse was shot twice again.

The horse went completely crazy and threw Bu Chang off. He was trampled to death by several horsemen.