Chapter 313 The Great Song Heavenly Army!

Take the main road straight to Langzhou, then forcibly break through the heavily guarded Yongji Pass ancient road, and finally forcibly attack Thanglong, the capital of the Li Dynasty?

After listening to Di Qing's words, Nong Zhigao felt his head was buzzing, his eyes were blurred, and he was a little dazed.

I have seen arrogant people, but never such arrogant people.

You must know that the Li Dynasty is no better than the Xixia and Liao Kingdoms. There may be some gap between the Li Dynasty and them in terms of combat power, but in terms of terrain, Li Yue has an absolute advantage.

He couldn't help but said to Di Qing: "General, isn't this a little too rash?"

As he spoke, Nong Zhigao pointed to the map and drew a line around Yongji Pass: "After leaving Yongji Pass here, we have Menzhou on the border of the Song Dynasty. There is Menzhou Pass in the rear, which is controlled by Jiaozhi. The road leads directly to Langzhou, but although this road is relatively smooth, it is surrounded by high mountains on both sides and a straight road in the middle. "

"It's not like we don't have spies in the area. According to their reports, Lieutenant General Guo Shengyi of the Li Dynasty is already heavily guarded here. If they want to forcibly detain the border, they only need to set up an ambush on the mountains on both sides. Isn't it the same as committing suicide?"

The terrain of Xixia and Liao Kingdoms is flat, and there are not many geographical advantages for both sides. Even the cities owned by the Song Dynasty may be more advantageous in non-field wars.

The Li Chao side is full of mountains. Although after passing the mountains in the northern part of the Red River Delta, there is the endless Red River Plain.

But it is these mountains that are sad.

After all, since ancient times, there is only one path to the absolute path, which is very dangerous.

This kind of road cannot be opened by one man. Just by occupying the choke points, you can block thousands of troops from outside with a small number of troops.

The most typical example is that Jiang Wei occupied Jianmen Pass, and Zhonghui's army of more than 100,000 people outside the pass was unable to move even an inch. If Deng Ai had not led 5,000 men and horses to sneak across the Yinping Trail and take Chengdu, I am afraid that another 100,000 Ji Han would not be able to perish.

The same is true for the Yongjiguan Ancient Road.

Although the combat effectiveness of the Li Dynasty's troops and horses is not necessarily high, with such a dangerous terrain, unless the army goes south, how can it forcibly break through such a desperate way without much advantage in military strength?

But Di Qing also had a reason. Today's wars are not fought with cold weapons like in the past. If the enemy occupies the mountains, they will occupy the mountains. With so many mountains along the way, can they all be occupied?

As long as a cannon is set up on the opposite mountain, no matter how many forts the enemy builds, how steep the pass is, or how many troops the opponent has, it will all be destroyed with one cannon.

So Di Qing just smiled and said: "We know what we don't know. Although we only have 10,000 people, our combat power is extraordinary. We are also better at fighting in mountains. They like to be in the mountains, and we can beat them until they have nowhere to hide." ”

"Forehead"

Nong Zhigao was even more puzzled, but seeing that Di Qing was quite confident, he did not dare to argue with him, so he could only say: "General, please don't be careless."

"Don't worry, I have my own strategy."

Di Qing responded, and then said: "Although we have a strategy to attack the enemy, we still need to actually observe the terrain. Tongzhi is familiar with the enemy's situation. I hope Tongzhi will take me to see it tomorrow."

"Are you going tomorrow?"

Yang Cha couldn't help but said: "Yongzhou is still four hundred miles away from Yongji Pass. The general has been here all the way. Do you want to rest first?"

"It doesn't matter, we can go ahead and station ourselves in Guanzhong. Once I have observed the terrain, we can officially send out troops. Your Majesty and the Governor want me to fight quickly, and I don't want to delay it for too long."

Di Qing waved his hand.

June is the hot season in Guangxi right now, and there are a lot of mosquitoes. He is worried about an epidemic in the army, so it is best to solve it quickly, and he does not want to delay it.

Seeing Di Qing's insistence, Yang Cha had no choice but to respond: "I hope the general will put the overall situation first and not take risks easily."

"That's natural."

Di Qing responded, and then everyone chatted about some things before the meeting ended.

After the meeting, everyone was in different moods.

Yang Cha knew that firearms were powerful, but he had never seen them on the battlefield with his own eyes, so he didn't know whether an army of 10,000 firearms could be effective.

Nong Zhigao, on the other hand, had never even heard of it, let alone seen it. Transportation in the southwest was inconvenient and information was limited. Especially since he was not a court official before, but was just a leader of a border minority, it was even more impossible for him to know about the existence of firearms.

Therefore, seeing that only 10,000 people came from the imperial court, I couldn't help but be a little pessimistic about this expedition.

It's just that Di Qing seems to be full of confidence. He seems to think that with the tens of thousands of people in Guangxi and the manpower in Dali, he can destroy the important pass of Jiaozhi guarded by tens of thousands of troops.

Let Nong Zhigao inevitably evaluate him as arrogant in his heart.

"That's fine."

"This Di Qing thinks that the Song Dynasty defeated Liao and Xixia, so he is so arrogant. If he is allowed to have a bloody encounter, he will know how powerful he is."

"When the time comes, report it to the court. Since I have already dissuaded you, it has nothing to do with me."

"Then the imperial court saw that only 10,000 people could not defeat Jiaozhi. Maybe they were even more furious and sent 200,000 heavy troops. Only in this way can Jiaozhi be completely destroyed."

After leaving the prefecture government office and returning to his Tongzhi government office, Nong Zhigao thought to himself.

So, everyone had their own thoughts, and the night passed.

In the early morning of the next day, Di Qing took 300 people on the road lightly, and headed towards Pingxiang Cave under the leadership of Nong Zhigao.

Pingxiang Cave was Pingxiang City in later generations.

On the border between Song Dynasty and Vietnam, there were quite a few Jisi Prefectures in this area, more than ten, among which Men Prefecture was the Tongdeng Town of Vietnam in later generations.

Like Dali, Song and Vietnam are not directly connected, but there are a large number of ethnic minority tribes in between. The towns formed by these tribes nominally belong to the Song Dynasty, but in fact they are all autonomous.

The Li Dynasty adopted strategies such as wooing, dividing, and squeezing these border tribes, so that the local people were very disgusted and rose up in rebellion, which led to the rise of Nong Zhigao.

It's just a bit shameful to say.

These areas have been the territory of the Central Plains Dynasty since ancient times, but the guards of important passes such as Yongji Pass were not the Song army, but the ethnic minorities on the border.

They were caught between the two countries and were unable to stop the attack of the Li Dynasty, resulting in frequent border losses.

In history, before the Li Dynasty broke through Yongzhou, the Li Dynasty sent troops to harass border checkpoints many times, looting the border states of the Song Dynasty such as Menzhou, Dongzhou, Xiashi, Pingxiang, Xizhou, Shangshi, and Xipingzhou, posing a serious threat to the border people.

If not for this, Nong Zhigao would not have raised his arm and responded to a hundred calls, and in a very short time, he would have developed tens of thousands of troops from a mere few thousand people.

They were all border ethnic minorities who rose up in rebellion due to the oppression of the Li Dynasty.

Nong Zhigao's prestige in the border is actually average now. In history, he had to rebel against the Li Dynasty many times, recruit troops many times, and become more and more powerful before he was respected by the surrounding border tribes such as the Nong surname and the Huang surname.

At this time, he had not reached the level he would later.

However, his father Nong Quanfu had a high prestige. He used to be the largest ethnic minority force in the border area and led the tribes to resist Li Yue.

Therefore, Nong Zhigao knew many tribal leaders on the border. For the sake of his dead father, the leaders of the various tribes in the various caves would basically give him face.

With him leading the way, the journey was very smooth.

Di Qing left Yongzhou and walked for about ten days, passing through Guwan (Fusui), Taiping (Chongzuo), Siming (Ningming) and other large states, and finally arrived at Xizhou, more than ten miles away from Pingxiang Cave.

This road is actually all big roads, and there are many plains. For example, Taiping Prefecture and Siming Prefecture are places with many plains and fertile soil. Many tribes live here, and there are even many Han people. They form a situation of mutual support with these border ethnic groups.

But Di Qing still walked for more than ten days, not because the road was difficult to walk. It was because there were too many forests, and every time he arrived at a place, Nong Zhigao would introduce him to the local leaders, so it took some time.

It must be said that although it is a plain area, there are too many trees. In later generations, Ningming has an area of ​​3,705 square kilometers, most of which are plains. But at this time, most areas are forests, and the endless sea of ​​forests seems to have no end at a glance.

No wonder that in ancient times, wood presented to the court had to be transported from Guangxi in the southwest. The richness of this wood resource is really amazing.

Di Qing was born in Fenzhou, Shanxi. He was incorporated into the Bianliang Imperial Army for fighting at the age of 16. He had never seen such an endless sea of ​​forests, and he was amazed all the way. But he kept this peculiar terrain in mind, thinking about how to deploy troops if he came here to fight.

In early July, he and Nong Zhigao arrived in Xizhou.

Just hearing the name of the border cave, I thought that these ethnic minority tribes lived in caves.

But in fact, cave can also be said to be a cave, which is a local administrative name. Correspondingly, it is a bit like a town in the Song Dynasty, and the scale is not much different from a town.

Xizhou is a street as a town, and the local villagers live in the mountains to farm. The leader of the ethnic minorities in Xizhou, Huang Yingwen, the state lord, cannot be said to be a leader of ethnic minorities, but more like a local landlord.

He wears silk and satin worn by Han people, lives in a mansion where Han rich people live, and his behavior and way of speaking are no different from Han people.

This is also the norm for ethnic minority leaders in the southwest border.

Except for the ethnic minorities who still live in the mountains and lead a traditional life, the ethnic minorities who come down the mountain are basically assimilated. In later generations, many Han people with the surname Huang in the southwest actually have ancestors from these ethnic minorities.

Huang Yingwen warmly entertained Di Qing and Nong Zhigao, and then personally took them to Pingxiang Cave, met with the cave owner Qin Dafu, and introduced the local situation to them.

July 9, morning. On the official road north of Yongji Pass, a team of more than a thousand people rode horses and slowly moved forward.

Di Qing looked up at the surrounding ridges. The surrounding mountains were not high, only a few dozen meters and the highest was less than a hundred meters. However, the forests were lush like the sea, and the roadside was overgrown with weeds. Although the official road was wide, it was ups and downs, and it was still very difficult to walk.

Mule and horse caravans can often be seen on the border between Song and Yue, which is not very prosperous.

However, under the situation of the Song Dynasty fully opening up trade and encouraging commercial development, there are still many Guangxi merchants who go to Vietnam to buy spices, ivory, and jewelry to sell back to China.

This team of Song soldiers riding war horses appeared on the border and naturally attracted the attention of many people, but as a general, Di Qing could not be stupid and unprepared. The outer circle was defended by Nong Zhigao's local troops, and the inner circle was always vigilant by the musket team.

Once a battle breaks out, unless Nong Zhigao suddenly rebels, as long as the troops outside delay for a few seconds, the musketeers who have loaded bullets will immediately open fire, which is enough to deal with any force except the main force of the Li Dynasty.

Nong Zhigao has now been rewarded by the court and has become a local official, so it is naturally impossible and unwilling to rebel - how can being a rebel be as comfortable as being an official appointed by the court?

So Di Qing is very safe.

The local indigenous people did not attack them, but got along extremely well with them.

They inspected Yongji Pass, and Di Qing saw the dilapidated pass. Although the city walls were still there, they were already mottled and cracked. Many places had simply lost their barriers and were reduced to ruins.

Di Qing's attention was entirely on the terrain. In the next few days, he continued to observe the terrain, draw maps, and determine the main direction of attack on Li Chao.

At the same time, Yang Cha also began to mobilize troops and horses, contacting various ministries and asking them to send troops to gather in Xizhou.

The main force of the firearms army also began to move southwest.

It was just that a small Song army was stationed near the Yongji Pass, which naturally attracted the attention of Guo Shengyi in Langzhou.

After all, there were people coming and going across the border, and many Vietnamese went to Song Dynasty to do business, so the news quickly reached Langzhou.

Guo Shengyi was very surprised to learn that a Song army had arrived at the border, and that a large number of troops and horses were also mobilized within the Song Kingdom. Could it be that His Majesty's tribute to the Song Emperor did not calm the Song Emperor's anger?

He hesitated for a moment.

After hesitation, he decided to incite the rebellion of the ethnic minorities attached to the Li Dynasty on the border, attack the Song army team, and test the enemy's situation.

On July 19, at midnight, Di Qing's team was stationed on a hilly slope north of Pingxiang Cave, which would later become the Fort Scenic Spot in Pingxiang City.

After they set up camp there, each military camp was sealed with mosquito nets. When sleeping at night, they burned mugwort and mugwort to use smoke to repel mosquitoes, or spread patchouli and mint to prevent mosquito bites.

But even so, there are sometimes so many mosquitoes in this jungle that people can be carried away. It was barely okay when I was sleeping in the tent, but it was absolutely terrible when I got out of the tent.

In the evening, several soldiers in the camp were lighting mugwort. Someone scratched his itch and said, "There are too many mosquitoes in the southwest. I looked up yesterday and saw a cloud of mosquitoes above my head. It almost scared me to death." "

"The newspaper said that the disease is caused by the bites of these mosquitoes. In this hot weather, we must cover every part of our body, for fear that we will die from the heat even if we are not bitten by mosquitoes."

"The southwest is not a place for people."

They were complaining.

Suddenly there was a loud noise outside, and all kinds of shouts of killing were everywhere.

Everyone quickly ran to Yingkou to take a look.

I saw hundreds of people wearing local aboriginal costumes rushing in at some unknown time outside, slashing and killing everyone they saw.

Nong Zhigao's indigenous troops were stationed outside to protect them, and they were already in chaos.

Nong Zhigao himself was commanding the troops to defend. At the same time, someone hurried over and shouted: "General Di, General Di, the enemy is coming."

"Beep beep beep beep!"

Almost instantly, the whistle sounded loudly throughout the camp.

Then Di Qing quickly walked out of the camp and shouted: "Line up!"

Soon, three hundred soldiers of the Song Army formed a formation at the entrance of the camp in less than a minute.

They were based on one hundred people, with one hundred people squatting at the bottom, one hundred people standing in the middle, and another hundred people behind them, forming a square formation to block the entrance to the village.

Then Di Qing ordered: "Send a message to Nong Tongzhi and ask him to retreat to both sides and let the enemy in."

"yes."

Immediately, soldiers went out to deliver orders.

A moment later, Nong Zhigao, who was in a bitter battle, received the order. Although he didn't understand why Di Qing had the confidence, his troops suffered heavy losses and had to follow the order to evacuate to both wings.

As they left, the road leading to the hillside suddenly became empty, and more than a thousand people began to charge up the hillside with shouts.

The hillside is actually not steep. It is just a long steep slope with an oblique angle.

And because it is near the entrance of the cave, the local people cut down a lot of trees in the mountains, resulting in a wide field of vision. Except for the extremely lush vegetation, it does not hinder their sight.

At least one or two thousand people charged up the slope in a mighty manner, howling like wild wolves from their mouths, as if they were going to devour everything in front of them.

"shooting!"

Di Qing issued the order almost when the opponent was less than a hundred steps away from the entrance of the village.

"Bang bang bang bang!"

Flames erupted from the muzzle and a loud noise erupted.

The next second, the soldiers in the first row retreated to the back and started loading, the soldiers in the second row squatted down and continued to fire, followed by the third row, the fourth row, the fifth row...

Gunshots continued to sound, forming a dense fire network. All the enemies rushing in front were shot and fell down, wailing all over the field.

Less than a minute later, there was no one standing a hundred steps away from them. There were corpses or injured enemy soldiers everywhere on the ground. The remaining people were stunned, and then screamed as if they had seen a ghost. Run backwards.

Everything happened so fast, no one expected that the Song army did not even engage in close combat with the enemy. From such a long distance, these sudden enemies all fell down, and there were few survivors.

Nong Zhigao's troops among the grass on both sides were stunned, and they still didn't come back to their senses. They saw constant noises, and then the Song Army's position was shrouded in white mist. In the smoke, the enemy fell like this. They had no idea what was happening. It was as scary as magic.

"this"

Nong Zhigao was so dumbfounded that he even forgot to give the order to pursue after the remaining enemies escaped.

It was the sound of fighting coming from the bottom of the mountain that woke him up.

That was when Qin Dafu, the master of Pingxiang Cave, learned that someone was attacking, so he quickly brought his troops over to help and fought with the enemy.

After about twenty minutes, Qin Dafu led a group of prisoners up the mountain and reported the situation to Di Qing.

It turns out that these are the natives of the nearby Qiyuan Prefecture. Qiyuan Prefecture was the area around Wenlang County in Vietnam in later generations. It was controlled by the Li Dynasty of Vietnam. I heard that Song troops were coming to the border and was sent by the Li Dynasty to explore the truth.

After learning about this, Di Qing said angrily: "I didn't expect that there are border people who are acting as lackeys for Jiaozhi. Qiyuanzhou was originally the territory of the Song Dynasty, but they rebelled against the country and surrendered to the enemy. This tribe can be destroyed! I will send troops to destroy these traitors. Jiaozhi Li Chao must die for this and his country will be destroyed!"

"The general is mighty!"

Qin Dafu shouted repeatedly that they had had enough of Li Chao's anger.

Only Nong Zhigao, who saw the powerful firearms with his own eyes, came to his senses and hurriedly asked Di Qing: "General, are all our Great Song Heavenly Army so powerful?"

"That's natural."

Di Qing grinned and looked towards the north: "There are things more powerful than this!"

As soon as the artillery came out.

It doesn’t matter whether you have an army of one hundred thousand or one million.

All vanished into thin air!