Chapter 314 Blast It!

Between the mountains and ridges, countless figures were moving slowly along the not-so-wide official road.

One carriage after another was moving with difficulty. Sometimes, if the carriages and horses were stuck in the road and could not move, it might delay the progress of the large army in the rear.

This was already a relatively good road in the territory of the Song Dynasty. The ancient road was repaired during the Sui and Tang Dynasties, and it could pass through carriages and horses to ensure the smooth flow of supplies.

But even so, it was still very difficult for the Song army to walk, and they could only walk 20 to 30 miles a day.

It was only 400 miles from Yongzhou to Pingxiang Cave, but they walked for nearly a month. And if they entered the territory of the Li Dynasty in Vietnam, such a road would probably be even more difficult to travel.

Yang Cha rode on the horse and looked around. He saw dense mountains on both sides. Although the mountains were not high, the forests were so deep that they looked like they were in the ocean.

And such a situation can be seen all the time.

A soldier came from afar to report: "General, Pingxiang Cave is 20 miles ahead."

"Where is General Di?"

"The general is on the way."

"Okay, scout again."

"Yes."

The scout left the team again.

After more than two hours, Di Qing came to greet the arrival of the large army.

Not long after he left Yongzhou to inspect the terrain, the large army had already set out, but their speed was very slow.

There was no way.

The traffic conditions were like this. The ground was not only bumpy, but also had undulating slopes, and stones were everywhere, which was very uneven.

Yang Chade had to send people to repair the road ahead while rushing on the road, clearing the stones that were in the way, and filling the uneven places with rammed earth. It would be strange if he could move fast under such circumstances.

Next to the front team, several knights came slowly against the main force. When they approached Yang Cha, they dismounted and saluted, saying, "General Si."

Yang Cha also dismounted and saluted in return, saying, "General Di."

He said apologetically, "The road was difficult to travel, so it delayed me for a few days. I thought I could come here in half a month."

"General Si, don't blame yourself. I heard that the road was repaired after he took office, but even so, the road is still difficult to travel. You can see how bad the road was before."

Di Qing smiled.

Yang Cha put his hands behind his back and walked forward with him, shaking his head and saying, "Previously, officials in Yongzhou didn't care about road repairs at all, and even thought that the worse the road, the better, because this would hinder the rebellious border residents or the invasion of the Li Dynasty."

"As the prefect said, all officials in Yongzhou are afraid of trouble, afraid that there will be chaos in the country, which will lead to their careers being ruined, so they deceive their superiors and subordinates, and conceal whatever they can, and cheat whenever they can, so that the court has never thought about the situation in the southwest."

He said very dissatisfiedly: "If the prefect hadn't set up the Imperial City Department and sent the light and dark guards to conduct secret visits in various places to check whether the local government has concealed the report. The Li Dynasty has been raiding the border from time to time, and I am afraid that the court is still in the dark."

"Yes."

Di Qing felt He sighed, "Even though the prefecture has been punishing many unjust officials in the Song Dynasty all the time, there are still many officials who are not greedy or occupied, but lazy and negligent in their work. This is why the prefecture often sighs about the difficulties of the country."

"Okay, let's not talk about this."

Yang Cha was refreshed, and then said, "Your Majesty has an imperial edict and a handwritten order from the Political System Council."

Di Qing hurriedly said, "I wonder what your Majesty's order is?"

"Your Majesty asked us to attack boldly and not to worry. The Li Dynasty has invaded the border many times, and the crime is unforgivable."

Yang Cha said, "What's more, this time they sent people to attack you, which is already a capital crime. The Song Dynasty has a legitimate reason to go to war, and Jiaozhi must be destroyed."

"Yes."

Di Qing responded, and his heart became more confident.

The two walked and talked.

After about an hour, the team finally arrived at Pingxiang Cave.

At this time, Pingxiang Cave became extremely lively. There were about 8,000 Guangxi Xiangjun troops, and Nong Zhigao ran around and gathered about 30,000 people from various tribes.

Together with the 10,000 regular troops sent by the court, the total force was about 48,000, less than 50,000.

For this attack on Jiaozhi, the court also allocated 500,000 strings of cash. In addition to raising food and grass, it also hired a large number of local civilians to help transport food and grass.

There were more than 30,000 carriages alone, and the troops in front had already set up camp in Pingxiang Cave, and the carriages in the back were still dozens of miles away. The entire scale of employment in the southwest had reached more than 100,000 people.

The Song army arrived at the Song-Vietnam border on a large scale, and Vietnam naturally got the news quickly. Guo Shengyi hurriedly sent someone to quickly report the matter back to Thang Long and report to King Li Fuma of the Li Dynasty.

However, there is still more than 200 kilometers from Langzhou to Thang Long, and the road is rugged. It is necessary to go out of the Lang Son mountain road and enter the Red River Plain to speed up. Therefore, it takes at least three or four days to go back and forth, and it is naturally impossible to report in time.

Therefore, Guo Shengyi could only strictly control the official road, block the mountains on both sides, block the throat, and be ready.

He also quickly sent a messenger to the Song camp, asking the Song army what they wanted to do in a low-key manner. At the same time, he threatened them implicitly, saying that they had 70,000 to 80,000 troops in Annan, and hoped that the Song army would not be ungrateful.

This strategy of using both soft and hard tactics was not bad. Under normal circumstances, if the Song army did not have enough people, they might have to think twice when they saw that the other side was alert.

But now it would only make Di Qing and others laugh.

Yang Cha personally wrote a reply letter, denouncing the mistakes of the Li Dynasty over the years, expressing that the court was furious and wanted to destroy the Li Dynasty, and then asked the Li Dynasty messenger to take it back.

When Guo Shengyi saw the reply, his face was ashen, but he had no choice but to continue the strict blockade.

For a time, the border between the two sides was tense.

On the morning of July 26, this was the third day since the main force of the Song army arrived at Pingxiang Cave, and the food and grass in the rear had basically been in place.

The soldiers had also rested and took advantage of the recent Mid-Autumn Festival, when the temperature dropped slightly and was not as hot as in June, Di Qing was ready to officially march.

Early in the morning, the soldiers left the camp one after another, and the civilians began to close the camp, pull up the tents, and reinstall the carriages and horses.

Di Qing rode on horseback, accompanied by Yang Cha, Zhao Wenzuo, Nong Zhigao and other officials.

This time, Yang Cha and Zhao Wenzuo will be responsible for logistics, stationed in Pingxiang Cave, and transport food and grass for Di Qing on the front line.

Nong Zhigao, as the deputy general, led the ethnic minority soldiers and fought with Di Qing.

"Han minister, don't be careless on this expedition."

Yang Cha warned: "You must be careful and don't disappoint the court's expectations."

"Please rest assured, General!"

Di Qing bowed and said, "I'm leaving."

"Okay."

Yang Cha nodded.

With Di Qing's order, the large army officially set off.

The Dali army also marched with the Song Dynasty.

A few days ago, Yang Cha had sent people to notify Dali and asked them to send troops quickly.

However, the Dali army did not attack in Guangxi, but started from Xiushan County of Dali Kingdom, which is the area of ​​Gejiu City in later generations, went south along the Red River, passed Tierong and Ayue, and went straight to Jiaozhi.

The route was almost like starting from Gejiu City, Mengzi City and other places in later generations, going all the way from Yuanjiang to Hekou Yao Autonomous County, and attacking Laojie City in Vietnam.

Therefore, the Song army and Dali took the ancient Yongji Pass Road to the south, and the other took the Red River Road to the southeast, launching a pincer attack on Jiaozhi.

The Song army marched out of Yongji Pass and entered Menzhou along the ancient road.

This place is still nominally Song territory, one of the 48 vassal states of the Song Dynasty, but it is occupied by Jiaozhi people.

Upon learning that the Song army had arrived, the local Jiaozhi people had already scattered and fled.

The Song army successfully occupied Menzhou, which is the Dongdeng Town in Vietnam opposite the Pingxiang City Port in later generations.

The terrain here is relatively open and not suitable for blocking, so the Li Dynasty army will naturally not be stationed here. Therefore, after occupying Menzhou, the Song army continued to move south.

There are two forks from here. One is to the west, through Wenguan County and Beishan County in later generations of Vietnam, and enter Taiyuan Province, Vietnam.

The other one is naturally to go south to Liangzhou, and pass through Liangzhou directly into the Red River Plain.

The western road was the route taken by Guo Kui, a general of the Song army, during the war between Song and Yue in history. This place can pass through Xuanhua of the Li Dynasty to reach Ruyue River, and several battles broke out between the two sides here.

The reason for taking the western road is naturally because the southern road is heavily controlled by the Jiaozhi army, and it can only be attacked by taking a long detour.

However, Di Qing chose the southern road without hesitation.

The army continued to move south, and Nong Zhigao ordered those border minority soldiers who could cross mountains and ridges to explore the road ahead, and slowly move forward at a distance of 30 miles a day.

At the end of July, at noon on the 30th, when the army was still moving forward, the scout came to report: "Report!"

"What's the matter?"

Di Qing asked.

"The front has reached the Jiaozhi Pass, and they are building a stockade wall at the road entrance."

"Take me to see."

"Yes."

The scout took Di Qing to find Nong Zhigao.

When Di Qing came to Nong Zhigao, Nong Zhigao was looking out on a small hillside.

His minority troops acted as pioneers in the front, but there were not many people.

Because the real main force of the battle was the Song army's musket team and artillery team. If they deployed too many troops in the front, the Li Dynasty suddenly launched an attack, and they could not resist it, and they might be rolled back.

Therefore, the entire Song army's deployment was planned. Nong Zhigao led 5,000 of the most elite soldiers to explore the way in front, the firearms army was in the front as the vanguard, and then more than 20,000 ordinary soldiers were in the middle as the center, and the artillery followed with the civilians behind, pulling the cannon.

At this moment, the Song army was in a narrow mountain road, with dense mountains on both sides and deep forests like the sea.

Many of the 5,000 soldiers in the front went into the forest and looked around for Jiaozhi scouts. They even fought fiercely in the forest.

The main force of Jiaozhi was in the rear. Facing the attack of the main force of the Song army, the Jiaozhi scouts in the forest were defeated and finally retreated back. Therefore, this place was still quite safe, with only flags towering on the distant mountains.

At noon, the sun was high in the sky and the air was a little stuffy. Even though everyone in the firearms army carried mosquito repellent sachets, mosquitoes were still like dark clouds that could not be driven away.

The forests were dense and ridged, and century-old trees could be seen everywhere. Although the mountains were not high, bushes grew everywhere, and weeds were taller than people.

Nong Zhigao's hill was on the right side of the road, a small slope under the mountains. He was riding on horseback, looking at something in the distance.

"Tongzhi, what are you looking at?"

Di Qing came over and asked.

Nong Zhigao pointed to the mountains in the southwest and said, "General, the people of the Cross-breeding have built a camp in the south of the mountain."

Di Qing looked over and could vaguely see flags fluttering on the mountains.

He looked around and then said, "Is there any higher terrain here that can overlook the entire distance?"

"Yes, there is, but the mountain is steep and not easy to climb."

"It's okay. Let the army rest here first. We'll go up the mountain to see the situation."

"Yes."

Nong Zhigao responded.

Then the army stopped and he personally took Di Qing up the mountain.

The forest was too dense and there were almost no roads. They could only cut through the thorns and open up a path.

That is to say, Di Qing brought a large number of ethnic minority soldiers this time. Otherwise, if they relied on their firearms army alone, it would be difficult to even climb the mountain.

These ethnic minority soldiers often lived in the mountains, so crossing mountains and ridges was no problem, so they quickly opened up a road.

Even so, it took Di Qing more than an hour to finally climb to a small mountain that was only fifty or sixty feet high - this was already the highest mountain nearby. They looked around in the open space on the top of the mountain.

They saw thick fog in the distance. At the end of the road among the mountains, the Jiaozhi people built a pass. There were camps distributed on the mountains on the right side of the pass, and there were countless camps in the back, blocking the entire traffic route.

Obviously, if they attacked head-on, the Song army would not only be beaten to a pulp at the enemy's front pass, but also be attacked by the enemies on the mountains on both sides. Whether they used bows and arrows or rolling stones and logs, they would not be able to launch an offensive.

But Di Qing saw the weak point at a glance, that is, although the enemy occupied the mountains on both sides, the other nearby mountains were not guarded at all, especially within a few kilometers from the pass, there was a high mountain. If they occupied it, they could attack the pass from a high position.

So he pointed there without hesitation and said, "Send it down, set up camp at the foot of that mountain!"

"General, is that mountain too close to the enemy?"

Nong Zhigao was surprised.

Although the high mountain should be three or four kilometers away from the pass, in ancient times, camping would often choose a place with better terrain, such as the water source, or a little farther away from the enemy, so that they could react immediately to the enemy's actions.

Three or four kilometers may seem far, but in fact, if the Jiaozhi people came around from the mountains on both sides to attack, they would still be caught off guard.

"It's okay, it's right there."

Di Qing smiled and said, "As long as we occupy that high mountain, the enemy can be defeated in a snap!"

"Yes."

Nong Zhigao had seen the power of muskets, so he stopped refutation and followed the military order.

Soon the army continued to move forward and came to the foot of the mountain about four kilometers away from the wall of the Jiaozhi army. In fact, the end of the road could not be seen directly here.

The road was not straight, but winding, but both sides had people looking out on the mountain, so they naturally saw this situation quickly.

The Jiaozhi scout reported the news to Guo Shengyi. Guo Shengyi had actually received the news yesterday that Li Foma asked him to defend Lang Son to the death, and Li Foma had personally led the reinforcements on the way.

So he was very confident and climbed up the mountain on the right side of the camp to monitor the Song army's every move.

He saw that the Song army had camped at the foot of the mountain in the distance all afternoon, and a large number of civilians began to go into the mountain to cut down trees, so he didn't take it seriously. The opponent's position did not threaten them.

Especially, there was no water source in the Song army's place.

You should know that this place was carefully selected by Guo Shengyi. The water sources on both sides of the mountains were occupied by them, and the water from the mountain springs was all introduced into their own camp.

The closest water source to the Song army was indeed the mountain where they were stationed, but it was just a small spring, which could not meet the water needs of tens of thousands of people at all, and the water sources of the other mountains were far away.

So Guo Shengyi didn't care about the Song army at all. As long as he could hold on for a few more days, he would have to retreat when the water of the Song army ran out.

At that moment, Guo Shengyi continued to observe.

However, what he didn't know was that Di Qing had no intention of fighting a protracted war with him.

At this time, Di Qing spent the next few days building camps while sending civilians to cut down trees and build a small path from the foot of the mountain to the mountain.

By August 6, a large number of dismantled gun mounts were transported to the top of the mountain, and more than 10,000 civilians were used for this item alone.

Starting in the morning of the 6th, the Song army began to assemble the artillery on the top of the mountain. Twenty two thousand jin steel cannons were carried up, and 240 small steel cannons were placed.

You should know that the Song army's firearms battalion has two armies with 10,000 people, a total of six artillery battalions, 60 heavy cannons, and 360 small steel cannons.

This means that the artillery on the mountain is almost half of the Song army's firepower.

That is, the top of the mountain is not spacious enough, and there are too many trees, so it takes a lot of time to clear the weeds and trees, otherwise Di Qing would want to put all the cannons up there and carpet bomb the entire Jiaozhi camp.

Even so, it is enough.

Even in the war between Xixia and Liao, the artillery of the Song Dynasty did not play its true power.

After all, the Song Dynasty had not built so many artillery at that time, and there were not even muskets, so they could only use grenades to entertain Xixia and Liao.

Now the artillery of the Song Dynasty has improved in quality in terms of technology and steel production, which naturally leads to the sublimation of quantity.

More than 200 large and small cannons formed a terrible artillery position on the top of the mountain.

At noon, Di Qing stood on the top of the mountain and looked out. Nong Zhigao beside him was curiously looking at the nearby artillery positions. The surrounding trees and weeds were all cleared, which made the view on the top of the mountain wider.

"General, can these cannons really shoot ten miles away?"

Nong Zhigao still asked in disbelief.

This place is more than ten miles away from the enemy's position. Even if Di Qing told him, he still didn't want to believe it.

Di Qing smiled and said, "Of course. You don't know that the first time the cannon showed its power was in the war with the Liao Kingdom. It killed the Liao general Yelu Dilugu with one shot from several miles away."

"It's really the power of heaven."

Nong Zhigao couldn't help but say.

"General!"

At this time, the deputy general Qi Yun, the commander of Yongzhou, came up and said, "The cannons have been assembled."

"Okay!"

Di Qing's eyes flashed with a hint of coldness. He raised his head and looked at the Jiaozhi position in the distance. He raised the whip in his hand and pointed to the distance and said, "Fire!"

In an instant, the entire Song army artillery position immediately sounded a loud whistle.

This is the order to fire the cannon!