Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

Wu Jie came from the Yao family army, and Sang Zhong came from the Zhong family army. Although they were both from the Western army, they couldn't urinate into the same pot.

Wu Jie's current biggest backer is actually Zhang Guangdao. He was reorganized during the years when he was stationed in Shanxi, and it was almost Zhang Guangdao who snatched him from Yao Pingzhong.

Sang Zhong's situation is much more complicated. He was first reorganized by Yang Zhi, then followed Zhang Bor to pacify Shandong, and then became Han Shizhong's subordinate. Han Shizhong was transferred to Lin Mansion, and he became Guan Sheng's subordinate again. When the imperial guards of the two capitals were selected, he was transferred back to Luoyang along with Guan Sheng. His immediate leader is Guan Sheng, and his backer is Yang Zhi.

Yang Zhi is a good old man who likes to keep things quiet, so being his faction general is actually a bit of a disadvantage.

"General Sang, our army has won a great victory on the banks of the Hongliu River, and even the Hongliu Village has been captured. There is no danger ahead, and the general can advance with confidence." The person who came to report the news was an officer. His words were somewhat eccentric, insinuating that Sang Zhong was just sitting back and watching. Friendly troops were surrounded but could not be saved.

Sang Zhong said expressionlessly: "I understand. Go back and tell Wu Xianfeng that Shankou Village is in a strategic location and I will stay here to protect the access to the mountain."

This reason is very upright, and it also cleanses his own behavior of not rescuing friendly troops, and it has no fault.

The officer who reported the news smiled and suddenly said: "If General Sang doesn't have enough drinking water, you can send someone to Hongliu River to get it. The water there is much better than the bitter spring water."

Sang Zhong retorted and said, "Please tell Wu Xianfeng to be careful of the enemy cutting off the river upstream!"

The reporting officer said: "Our army has limited strength and can only defend Hongliu Village and continue to open up the road. As for protecting the water source upstream, this is probably the responsibility of General Sang. General Sang was the first group of main force to come out of the mountain and suffered a lot. The military order is to help us stabilize the Hongliu River. My general said that if the river is cut off, General Sang will be dealt with by military law. "

"I understand, you can go back." Sang Zhong was too lazy to talk to a young officer.

If the Hongliu River is cut off when the subsequent army arrives, then Sang Zhong and Wu Jiexu will share the responsibility.

No one can escape punishment, they must cooperate.

In desperation, Sang Zhong left some auxiliary troops to increase the defense strength of Shankou Village, and then moved towards Wu Jie with the remaining troops.

After he arrived at Hongliu Village, he only met Wu Jie once as a courtesy.

That night he led his troops to rest outside the stronghold, and the next day they set off further upstream and camped near a red willow forest. The water source here is relatively rich, and there is even a tributary flowing into Hongliu Valley, about 25 miles away from Hongliuzhai where Wu Jie is stationed.

Two days later, 10,000 Ming troops came out of the mountain and stopped at Shankou Village.

It was also at this time that Xiao Chala'abu learned that Hongliu Village had surrendered. He immediately sent thousands of miscellaneous riders to go dozens of miles upstream of Hongliu Valley. Instead of cutting off the river, he threw livestock carcasses and various kinds of excrement into the river.

Sang Zhong led his army to drive away the enemy cavalry, and then cleaned up all kinds of filth in the river.

According to the advice of the military doctor, he sent someone to send a message to Wu Jie, telling him not to drink from the river in the past few days, but to drink all the stored water from the river. If the water storage is not enough, be sure to boil the river water before drinking, even for war horses.

The two generals were in conflict with each other, and no one dared to mess around in the military affairs.

The Xiliao cavalry was driven away once by Sang Zhong, and soon came again for the second time, and went further upstream to throw excrement.

I'm not afraid of poisoning.

If you want to poison the flowing water and overwhelm the Ming army downstream, there was no such poison in ancient times.

What's really disgusting are corpses and feces, who knows what germs are in them.

Aksuhe, who lived in Sang Zhongjun, took out a pen and paper and wrote:

"A general named Sang was very enthusiastic towards me. He was a very good general. The Black Khitans (Xiliao) were frustrated on the frontal battlefield, so they threw corpses and excrement upstream of the river. General Sang's response was to expel the enemy, Clean up the filth and make the soldiers, livestock and horses drink the boiled water."

"This place is extremely desolate, with gravel everywhere. Except for scattered low weeds, there is only a kind of tree called tamarisk by the river. In order to boil water for drinking, the tamarisk forest was cut down very quickly. It is estimated that in half a month It’s about to be chopped down.”

"Another friendly force came yesterday and camped by the red willow forest more than ten miles upstream. Together with the troops of General Sang and General Wu, there were a total of three Ming armies working together to protect the river from pollution."

"That General Wu is extremely brave. He led 5,000 soldiers to pull out seven Black Khitan fortresses and defeated tens of thousands of Black Khitan troops head-on. However, he himself only suffered a few hundred casualties. I don't know how he did this. I wanted to inquire more carefully but was treated coldly. General Wu is a cold soldier and he doesn't have a good attitude toward me."

"..."

When the regular troops of the Ming army gradually arrived at 40,000 people, the entire army began to advance towards Yizhou City (Hami).

At this time, the chief general of the Ming army automatically became Chen Ziyi, who came after him and had the highest military rank.

And finally, after all the hard work, two large-caliber artillery pieces were transported.

The goal of the invasion: to demolish the enemy's fortress thirty miles away and control the river there to ensure sufficient water supply.

The total number of 40,000 troops, plus auxiliary soldiers and civilians, was close to 100,000. There were also countless war horses and livestock, moving overwhelmingly on the Gobi Desert.

Aksukh was extremely shocked when he saw the troops unfolding outside the enemy's stronghold.

Before the fall of Asia Minor, the peak military strength of Eastern Rome was about 250,000. As Asia Minor was destroyed due to repeated battles, even though some of the population has now recovered, the total strength of Eastern Rome is still less than 100,000.

This so-called total force refers to the number of soldiers that can be recruited, not the standing army that always exists!

The first few arriving troops of the Ming Army's Western Expedition were already equivalent to half the strength of Eastern Rome.

"Boom boom boom!"

Two large-caliber artillery bombarded the village wall, and countless small-caliber artillery bombarded the war shed and arrow tower.

The one after another shelling made Aksukh feel like the ground was shaking.

"This...is this the artillery that Fatimid scholars call it?" Aksukh's mouth went dry.

Chen Ziyi smiled and said: "There are only two cannons, and the rest are small cannons. Marching all the way is too difficult, so we left all the cannons behind, otherwise the scene would be spectacular."

Until the fortress was breached, reinforcements from Xiliao did not appear.

That night, a nobleman from Illinois came in embarrassment and brought his family with him - his own family and the families of several elite cavalrymen.

They were all taken down and dragged to see Chen Ziyi.

The Yizhou noble bowed his head and said in awkward Chinese with a northwest accent: "In front of General Tomorrow, my name is Yue Nan (the transliteration of John Nan), and he is a nobleman whose estate is on the outskirts of Yizhou. I used to say Han merchants are very hospitable. I have always loved the Ming Dynasty, and this time I brought my whole family to join the Ming Dynasty! "

Chen Ziyi thought of the fact that the Western Liao reinforcements had never come to rescue Zhaibao, and asked: "Have the defenders of Yizhou City withdrew to the west?"

The Uighur-Nestorian nobleman named Yue Nan was stunned, and then hurriedly replied: "Everyone has evacuated to Gaochang City (Turpan). My manor is here, and my property is here. I don't want to abandon my home. Karma, so he ran away quietly."

"Are there many local nobles who are unwilling to withdraw westward?" Chen Ziyi asked.

Yue Nan said: "None of the nobles in Yizhou want to evacuate, but the families of the big nobles have been controlled by Liao officials. If they don't want to evacuate, they will have to follow. I am not a big noble, and the Liao officials are not strict with me, so I Escaped with a few loyal knights."

Chen Ziyi took out a map of Gaochang, pointed to the location of Barkol Grassland and asked, "Where is this place?"

After carefully identifying it, Yue Nan replied: "That place also belongs to the territory of Yizhou, but there is less farming and more grazing. In the battle with the Heavenly Soldiers (Wu Jie's troops) a few days ago, some of the tribal cavalry there died, and the leaders have been killed by the Heavenly Soldiers. They were afraid of the attack, but they did not dare to disobey the Liao officials, so they all withdrew from Gaochang City."

Chen Ziyi asked again: "How many of the nobles of the original Gaochang Kingdom were loyal to Xiliao?"

Yue Nan replied: "Half and half. Since Xiliao has been directly under the direct control of this place, many small and medium-sized nobles have been promoted, and they are still very loyal to Xiliao. But it is hard to say about the big nobles. Except for a few who have been reused, the rest have not been reused. What benefits can be obtained from the Liao people?"

"How many defenders are left in Yizhou City?" Wu Jie suddenly asked.

Yue Nan shook his head: "I don't know. I was in a panic when I escaped, and I didn't dare to get close to the city wall again."

Chen Ziyi asked Wu Jie: "What do you think?"

Wu Jie said: "Immediately send troops to Yizhou City and capture it. Then there is no need to advance in a hurry. The infantry will stay in Yizhou City, and the cavalry will go north to the grassland (Barkol) to sweep away the tribes. There should not be many young men left in the grassland tribes there. , capture the old, weak, women and children and then force the enemy cavalry to surrender.”

"It is estimated that the old, weak, women and children on the grassland are already moving westward along the northern foot of Tianshan Mountain. How could they wait for us to kill them?" Sang Zhong said with a smile.

Yue Nan said: "There are mountains on all sides, so it is not easy to go west. The women and children left behind by various tribes either temporarily hid in the mountains, or went south to Yizhou and then retreated westward. Due to the hasty withdrawal, it is estimated that they will not go south, but hide It’s hard to find it when you go into the mountains, there are countless valleys.”

Chen Ziyi said: "Since it is difficult to find, there is no need to disperse the troops and go north. First occupy Yizhou City and then go west to attack various water sources."

Aksukh was listening by the side, and Du Jushi was his translator.

Suddenly, Aksuhe wondered: "I heard that the Black Khitan army is very powerful. Why did they abandon the city and evacuate after only a small defeat? Will they set up an ambush in the middle?"

Sang Zhong said: "The main force of Xiliao has not yet arrived, and the enemy generals have few elites. Instead of defending Yizhou, they should take the initiative to retreat and lengthen our already extremely long grain road. When the main force of Xiliao arrives, we can rely on Jiancheng continued to consume us until it was difficult to transport food and grass in winter. "

Aksukh pointed to the ×-marked part of the map: "Are all these places desolate and uninhabited?"

Chen Ziyi nodded: "They are all deserts or Gobi."

"This damn battlefield and supply lines." Aksukh couldn't help complaining.

That night, midnight.

The Ming Dynasty reconnaissance cavalry that was sent out once again brought back a small nobleman and his subordinates who came to seek refuge.

Moreover, they discovered that there were flames blazing into the sky in the direction of Yizhou City. It must have been that Xiliao burned the city when they retreated.

Chen Ziyi led his army westward the next day and found many refugees along the way.

Xiliao not only burned down the city, but also sent troops to plunder the civilians. Firstly, it is a disguised form of strong wall clearing the country, and secondly, it is used to reward soldiers with grievances through looting.

"They are all civilians who have been robbed of all their money and food. Can we save them?" Wu Jie asked.

Chen Ziyi shook his head: "Our army is in trouble with supplies, and it is impossible to use military rations to save it. But we can do it for a show. We can choose hundreds of young men as auxiliary soldiers, and take in their families as well. The rest of the civilians will fend for themselves. Well, whether you survive or not depends on luck."

Sang Zhong said: "We can drive these civilians to the territory of Gaochang City. When the army attacks Gaochang City, we can organize the civilians who have not starved to death, give each of them half a cake and let them attack the city, so as to consume the defenders' defense supplies."

Chen Ziyi muttered: "If it turns out like this, the old land of Gaochang will probably be destroyed. There is no need to kill any nobles to rob land. After the war, there will be unowned land everywhere, which is more than enough to be distributed to the Han immigrants."