I

  Chapter 911 907【Defend the Grain Road】

  By the Jinsha River.

   More than 3,000 Mongolian cavalry, one man and two horses, headed southeast along the river valley.

   "The whole army dismounts!"

  Handu gave an order, and the horn sounded.

  All the Mongolian cavalry stopped advancing, not only dismounted themselves, but also took off the armor and food on the horseback. The cavalry first fed the horses with salt and water, and when the horses were full, they took out dry food to fill their stomachs.

  Mongolian cavalry marching dry food, mainly dry cheese. The water taken from the Jinsha River is put into the skin bag, and it is not boiled, so it can be drunk at any time.

  Handu has already determined Huang Yao's position, and has also confirmed that there are no heavy troops in the rear grain road.

  He set off from Yushu and went south along the Jinsha River valley. When he reached Dengma, he could cut off the grain road. Deng Ma is near the later Deng Ke. According to archaeological findings, it is the site of the legendary King Gesar.

  A sentry cavalry had already gone to the front to explore the way, while the rest of the cavalry sat and dozed off.

   "Get on the horse!"

   After an unknown amount of time, Handu gave the order to set off.

  Armor and food were carried by one horse, and the Mongolian cavalry rode another horse and advanced quickly along the river valley.

There are still more than ten miles away from Dengma, and the sentry in front rushed back: "Taiji, the Han soldiers built a low wall in Dengma, and there is a beacon tower on the other side of the river. We were discovered by the Han soldiers when we were far away. We did not see the beacon tower on the other side, but the Han soldiers on the other side saw us, and we don’t know why their eyes can see so far.”

  Why can you see so far?

   Telescope chant!

  Han Du was a little depressed and said: "Han soldiers are in Zaquka (Shitang), Deng Ma has no Han soldiers at all, and there are only Han people there! How high is the low wall?"

   "How tall is a person." The sentry replied.

   "Is that called a low wall? That's a high wall!" Handu's lungs were about to explode, which meant that he probably made the trip in vain.

   Moreover, Han couldn't figure it out anyway.

  Half a month ago he sent troops to investigate, and Deng Ma still only had a grain and grass transfer station and civilian husbands. In a blink of an eye, there was a high wall, and there was a beacon tower on the other side?

  It is actually very simple, there is no beacon tower at all. Only a few sentries stood there, piled up firewood and yak dung, and covered it with a layer of tarpaulin to prevent it from getting wet.

  Han wanted to surprise the grain road, so he had to come along the Jinsha River. The sentinels were on the other side of the river and it was easy to see.

   There is no other shortcut to take, and you can take a detour if you want, at least for a month or two.

  Why is Huang Yao so clear?

  There are guides in the army. This surprise attack route in Handu is exactly the ancient tea-horse road that caravans often take. No matter starting from Yunnan or Sichuan, if you want to do business in northern Tibet, you can follow this road. Caravans have been walking for hundreds of years.

  As for a wall as high as one person, it is also easy to build.

  Choose one of the narrowest river valleys, use the sacks that have eaten the grain, fill the nearby earth and rocks, and carry them over by mules and horses, and the work will be completed after a few days of stacking.

  Handu still didn't believe in evil, and continued to lead his troops to kill. He determined that Deng Ma was only a civilian husband of the Han army.

   It is true that there are only civilian husbands, but these civilian husbands are all recruited from farmers and soldiers.

   "The Mongols are coming!"

  The leader of the civilians guarding Dengma saw the cavalry unit of Handu, instead of being afraid, he became excited.

  There are only 200 civilians guarding the earth and stone wall, but there are more than a thousand people a few miles behind them. Over there is the grain transshipment node. The peasants transporting grain from the southwest can rest for a day at the big station, while the peasants in the station continue to transport grain to the north. Anyway, the scale of thousands of people is maintained at any time.

  The smoke rose quickly, and the grain stations a few miles away also took action, leaving half of the peasants guarding, while the other half rushed to support.

   "This time I can finally make a contribution!"

   "Hey, if it was just a few years ago, now there is no division of military achievements."

   "If you have money, you can get it. You still want to appreciate the fields?"

"As far as I'm concerned, money doesn't matter. If you make great contributions this time, Sichuan will be recruited in the future, and you will definitely be selected among us. If you become a member of the Datong Army, you will eat imperial food. That Deng Liu in our village is not good at farming, nor is he good at work. No, I don’t know a lot of big characters. Hey, I’m a soldier and retired, and I’m a senior and return to my hometown, and I’m invited by the caravan to pledge the goods, and I can earn sixteen taels of silver for a trip back and forth!”

   "Really or not, bet on a trip of sixteen taels?"

   "I lied to you to get a hammer? Their caravan doesn't even need to go to India. They will come back when they arrive at Hanshegar (Dingri). They can make two trips a year."

   "Running twice a year? Isn't that like getting thirty-two taels!"

   "Don't be jealous. Deng Liu is very good. He learned archery from his comrades in the army."

   "Just brag, the Datong Army has no archers for a long time."

   "Hey, you still don't believe..."

  Two hundred civilians, hiding behind a wall of earth and rocks taller than one person, faced more than 3,000 Mongolian cavalrymen who killed them, and they were still in the mood to chat nonsense there.

  The ferocious Mongolian cavalry, in the eyes of these peasants, are all military exploits and silver rewards.

   On the contrary, Handu, who was leading the army, felt nervous at the moment.

  A soil-stone wall as tall as a person is really nothing, but he has no ladder, and no artillery to blast away.

   There are not too few trees on the canyon cliffs of the Jinsha River, but it is very dangerous to climb up and cut trees. Moreover, they did not bring axes, only scimitars and waist knives, so it was difficult to manufacture siege equipment in large quantities.

   This time I came here to surprise the grain road, not to fight a siege!

  But when he returned home without firing an arrow, Handu also felt unwilling, so he ran around for fun?

   "Chop down trees and build ladders!"

  The two hundred men were lying on the earth and stone wall, watching the enemy climb the cliff happily, and felling trees there with machetes and waist knives.

   It took almost an hour to cut down the nearest small trees and tie them up with leather straps to make seven or eight pairs of low ladders of more than two meters. Most of the main cliffs are meadows, and there are trees here and there, so it is not easy to climb up and down.

   After more than two hours of tossing, Handu finally made twenty pairs of ladders, and the reinforcements from the grain station are almost here.

  It is useless to build more ladders, because the terrain is narrow, and twenty or thirty pairs of ladders can be built at the same time.

Handu said to the soldiers under his command: "I have already found out that the main force of the Han people is in Zaquka, and all the people here are Han peasants. As long as they rush to the stone wall, the peasants will surely collapse! Then they went to grab the food and grass of the Han people. Burn everything that goes away!"

  The Mongolian soldiers cheered up. They have been active in Kham for a long time, and suppressing Tibetans is like beating up grandchildren.

  Before, Han all retreated step by step and lured the enemy to go deep. They still felt very aggrieved, so why not just kill them? Do Han people have one more head than Tibetans?

   Now, it's finally time to fight!

  The first batch of Mongolian soldiers who attacked the wall were only more than 300 people.

  Go to the front to raise the shield, and there are archers behind the defensive wall. Walking behind, several people carried a ladder, mainly because the newly built ladder was too heavy. The one who came last had a bow and arrow in his hand and was about to throw it behind the wall.

   "Is it useful for ten thousand enemies?"

"Use five first to strengthen your prestige. In case of danger, use ten more. Use sparingly, and only give us more than a hundred. Also, hold the bamboo hat steady, let me hide it, Mongolian Tatars You can shoot arrows."

   While speaking, the Mongolian soldiers were already shooting arrows.

  The only anti-arrow tools for farmers and soldiers are bamboo hats.

  Compared with ordinary bamboo hats, this kind of bamboo hats are densely woven, and they are all made of tough and good bamboo. The bamboo strips are double-layered, with coir rain leaves and brown hair (the material of the coir raincoat) sandwiched between them, which can provide shade and shelter from rain.

   Can also prevent arrows!

   Two layers of strips and one layer of brown hair, all of which are resilient. It is certainly impossible to defend against an infantry bow, but it is difficult to shoot through a horse bow.

  chop chop chop chop...

  The rain of arrows was thrown upwards, continuously falling on the bamboo hat. Occasionally, there were piercing arrows, but only half of the arrows could pass through.

  The Mongolian soldiers found that the peasants didn't shoot arrows, so they didn't raise their shields at all. Under the cover of their own arrow rain, they rushed forward with their ladders.

  Five civilian husbands holding thousands of enemies in their arms, holding ramie ropes that had been lit long ago, hid under the bamboo hats held by their comrades-in-arms, their hearts beating wildly. Most of them were on the battlefield for the first time, and only the leader belonged to veterans.

   To be honest, I am still quite scared.

  Seeing the ladder hit the wall, the five panicked and lit the fuse, and then pushed Ten Thousand Enemies down.

   Boom boom boom boom!

  Five explosions sounded, and the Mongolian soldiers who were climbing the ladder, together with the Mongolian soldiers behind the ladder, were immediately killed and injured.

  After years of improvement, Wandi canceled the messy additives, and even the chili noodles are no longer used. However, the amount of iron sand has been increased, and once it explodes, the iron sand will splash.

"what!"

  The Mongolian soldiers who were not killed on the spot, iron sand penetrated into their flesh, rolled all over the ground screaming in pain.

  The Mongols' first attack was repelled just like that.

  Do you want to attack a second time?

  Han has some troubles.

  The enemy is obviously well prepared. I don't know how much of this explosive thing is hidden. If hundreds of them are hidden, it is impossible for him to attack them.

   Moreover, Handu began to suspect that the information was wrong. This might be a soldier of the Han people, not a civilian husband who specializes in transporting grain. How could ordinary civilians be so well-trained?

  Thinking about it, Han Du gritted his teeth and said, "Withdraw!"

  The corpses of friendly soldiers dare not be taken back, and those who are seriously injured don't care, and no one dares to go over and suffer a few more explosions.

   "Win, we won!"

   "We have done a good job!"

   After confirming that the Mongolian soldiers had left, the peasants burst into cheers.

   One by one, they jumped down with their spears and killed the Mongols who were not dead yet. Immediately, I was a little disappointed. I only wiped out more than 30 enemies. This is a collective battle achievement, and there are not many rewards when shared equally.

   Fortunately, there are additional credits. They defended the enemy's surprise attack and successfully protected the grain road.

  At the grain station, hundreds of peasants came to reinforce them.

  Hearing that the Mongols have retreated, and looking at the corpses all over the ground, they all envy and hate. It would be great if it was instead them defending against the enemy, and the credit for Bai Jian flew away like this.

  As early as when Handu led people approaching, someone went to the grain station to report, and the grain station sent a fast horse to notify Huang Yao.

   Huang Yao got the news and immediately ordered to march. He wanted to go to Yushu quickly, and even if he couldn't block the retreat passage of Handu, he could still find the place where the Mongolian tribesmen were stationed.

   There are still too few soldiers, otherwise it would be so troublesome, just divide the troops to ambush in Dengma, and don't even think about leaving when the surprise attack troops of Handu come.

  The Kekang-Tibet area is too large, and it is difficult to transport supplies. Huang Yao and Ma Hongjie's 10,000 troops are already at their limit. If 20,000 troops were sent to Kham, all the ministers in the court and the central government would have to jump up and object.

   You must know that when the Manchu Qing army entered Tibet for the first time, its strength was only a pitiful 3,000 people. !

  (end of this chapter)