Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

"Prepare for battle, the enemy is coming!"

Hearing the captain's order, Nong Zuxing quickly cheered up.

He is a Zhuang from Sicheng Prefecture (Lingyun). Because they have lived next to the Han people for a long time, many tribesmen in the tribe can speak Chinese.

The relationship between them and the court is very delicate.

Most of the time, they are willing to obey the orders of the government. Even in the pre-Song Dynasty, they sent troops and food to help the court conquer Nong Zhigao and resist the invasion of Annan.

But when the government levies heavy taxes, they may rebel, and the contradiction between officials and the people turns into a national contradiction, thinking that the Han people down the mountain are bad guys who should be killed.

The current Ming Dynasty court is highly supported by all the Zhuang tribes.

They even endured the government during the Song Huizong period and did not rebel. Now the administration has become better, the exploitation is not as heavy as before, and they are taught to grow corn and sweet potatoes, so they naturally think that the emperor of the Ming Dynasty is a good emperor.

Therefore, these tribes actively join the army!

They also served in the army in the former Song Dynasty. Since Wang Anshi's reform, they have been organized into baojia and assisted the Guangxi government in suppressing the rebellion in Guangdong and Guangxi.

Now they can join the regular army, but unfortunately there are not many places for recruiting soldiers, and the proportion of non-Han soldiers cannot exceed 15%.

This makes some tongs very disappointed, because serving as a soldier for the Ming Dynasty court is more promising than digging in the mountains.

Eat better, earn more, and have the opportunity to become an official.

Some tongs have been promoted to generals of 100 people. It is said that they can be promoted higher according to their military merits, but they are blocked from promotion because they are illiterate.

Guangxi generals all say that tong soldiers are easy to use, they can cross mountains and ridges as if they were walking on flat ground, they can endure hardships and diseases. Therefore, they all want to recruit more tong soldiers. Yang Zaixing also has this idea and has applied to the court for two consecutive years.

"Here they come!"

The first wave of enemies that Nong Zuxing faced were the barbarians from the Aning tribe.

The name of Anning City in later generations originated from the Aning tribe, and Aning was changed to Anning by homophony.

The Aning barbarians holding round rattan shields and two-foot short knives crouched and rushed to climb the mountain in the front row. Behind them followed some Aning spearmen and some Aning archers.

These barbarians also had rich experience in mountain warfare. The formation originated from hunting in the mountains and gradually evolved into a military formation.

The formation was relatively scattered, with soldiers more than three meters apart.

On the not-so-steep slope, the Aning barbarians climbed quickly.

"Bang bang bang bang!"

The flintlock gunners in the firearm version of the mandarin duck formation began to aim at the enemy and shoot freely.

The rattan shields in the hands of the Aning barbarians could not stop them at all, and they were constantly overturned by the muskets from above.

Seeing the large number of rattan shield soldiers killed, the Aning barbarians were terrified. They climbed a few more meters with gritted teeth, and finally turned around and fled because of the increasing casualties.

Nong Zuxing, holding a spear, relaxed immediately, and a smile reappeared on his face. He made a bet with his comrades: "When do you think the enemy will come to us for close combat?"

"It will take at least six or seven times." Ding Man, the halberd player next to him, laughed.

Nong Zuxing said: "I estimate it will take more than ten times. Do you want to bet?"

"What do you bet on?" Ding Man asked.

Nong Zuxing said: "The loser will drink corn wine."

Ding Man said: "Okay."

The Ming army only banned alcohol during training, marching, and fighting. It didn't matter whether they drank alcohol or not at other times.

Soon, the enemy's second attack came, and they were also shot back by muskets halfway through.

Both sides were testing.

Gao Zhenshou was observing the Ming army's troop deployment, and Yang Zaixing was weighing the combat effectiveness and morale of the Dali soldiers.

There was no morale at all!

The internal struggle among the Gao family princes led to a serious consumption of Dali's national strength, and the treatment of the army was getting worse and worse.

Moreover, thirty-seven barbarian tribes in the east rebelled, and even occupied Shicheng County and established an independent country. In the south, the Jinchi barbarians rebelled, and seized Xishuangbanna and Pu'er.

The Dali army could not even recover these lost territories, and even those barbarians did not dare to conquer them. What kind of combat effectiveness and morale could they have?

After several unsuccessful attacks on the mountain, Gao Zhenshou called the generals and said: "Those who died in the attack on the mountain will be compensated with five strings of coins. If you take down the outer stone wall of the mountain stronghold, the first person to climb will be rewarded with five hundred strings of coins, and the next person to climb the wall will be rewarded with twenty strings of coins. If you take down the second stone wall, the first person to climb will be rewarded with one thousand strings of coins, and the next person to climb the wall will be rewarded with fifty strings of coins!"

Many tribes in Dali were still bartering, and even using shells as currency.

But there were also a lot of copper coins.

Yang Zaixing also sent people to tell the generals: "You can get closer, and when the enemy army flees, take advantage of the situation to chase and kill them for a while. But if you get close to the foot of the mountain, or meet the enemy army to support you, quickly retreat and continue to defend the stone wall."

There must be brave men under a heavy reward.

Moreover, Gao Zhenshou used his own clan soldiers this time.

The Dali Kingdom had three types of soldiers: regular army, local soldiers and foreign soldiers.

The regular army was similar to the imperial army and the wing army of the Song Dynasty.

The local soldiers and foreign soldiers, like the Song Dynasty, were temporarily recruited.

As the treatment became worse and worse, these soldiers were unwilling to fight, so the real elite were the private soldiers of the princes.

It can also be understood as the "house servants" of the generals!

However, Gao Zhenshou invested 200 private soldiers at one time. All officers and above wore iron armor, and ordinary soldiers also had leather armor, and there were iron plates on the key parts of the leather armor.

They let the miscellaneous soldiers attack the mountain first, trying to consume the bullets and gunpowder of the Ming army, and they hid behind and seized the opportunity to attack.

The north and east of the mountain stronghold were full of Dali's attacking troops. It was hard to find two hundred private soldiers hiding among them... Well, they were discovered very quickly.

With a telescope, this trick is easier to expose.

A lookout said to the sentry behind him: "Go and report quickly, an elite enemy force has sneaked in from the northeast. All members are wearing armor, the generals are wearing iron armor, and the soldiers are wearing leather armor."

In less than a moment, twenty tiger squat cannons were carried over, and several reserve teams also took action.

Two groups of miscellaneous soldiers over there were defeated, and the Ming army gradually reduced the frequency of shooting, and finally only fired a few sporadic shots.

"The Ming army has no medicine!"

"Follow me to kill!"

The morale of the Dali soldiers here was greatly boosted, and even the local soldiers shouted and charged.

Gao Zhenshou's two hundred private soldiers rushed fast, climbing the hillside as if walking on flat ground, and in a blink of an eye they had rushed to the first stone wall.

"Run!"

The Ming army defending this section of the low wall fled in panic.

Nong Zuxing was also running away, but there was no panic on his face, and he even smiled after turning around.

The acting skills are not up to standard.

Behind the first stone wall here is a relatively flat valley, which is used to hide soldiers and pile up materials such as rolling stones and wood.

Gao's private soldiers quickly climbed over the low wall, and with high morale, they rushed towards the second stone wall.

"I climbed it first!"

A soldier shouted.

The Dali officer next to him scolded: "I climbed it first!"

The soldier stopped talking and continued to charge with a belly full of resentment.

As long as they rushed to the second stone wall, the reward would be even more generous.

Several Dali reserve troops at the foot of the mountain had already discovered that the first stone wall had been breached, and immediately some generals led their troops to expand the results of the battle.

Yang Zaixing had already reached the highest point in the northeast corner of the mountain stronghold, licking his cracked lips and observing the battle situation with a telescope.

The Ming "deserters" fled to the bottom of the second stone wall in panic.

Then, they turned around and fought the enemy with weapons.

It was not until this time that Gao's private soldiers who rushed to the front discovered that there were twenty tiger squatting cannons deployed there!

"Go back quickly!"

"Boom boom boom!"

The enemy closest to the tiger squatting cannon was only more than ten meters away.

The gentle slope, the guns fired from a high position, and shotgun shells were fired at the enemy 10 to 20 meters away...

Many hay leaves flew out with stones. The hay was used to stuff into the barrel to prevent the shotgun shells from slipping, after all, the barrel was tilted downward. The gravel was shotgun shells, the big ones were like goose eggs, and the small ones were about the same as quail eggs.

A large number of enemies fell down in an instant, and many of them were seriously injured but not dead, rolling on the ground and crying in pain.

Nong Zuxing, who escaped to the back of the tiger squat cannon, followed his comrades to kill back.

"Bang bang bang bang!"

The Ming army's war drums sounded.

Not only this place was charging, but several sections of the stone wall next to it also launched a counterattack.

Several reserve teams suddenly joined in, and the number of fire guns increased exponentially. After they defeated the enemy in front of them, they suddenly jumped over the low wall to chase, and then rushed to the side.

On the northeast slope of the mountain stronghold, the remaining Gao family private soldiers fled with the miscellaneous soldiers behind them. They were so frightened that many of them slipped and fell down the hillside. When they escaped the first stone wall, they were horrified to find that the Ming army was coming to attack them on both sides.

The Dali troops who came later to expand the victory rushed to the mountainside and found that something was wrong. There were countless friendly soldiers in front of them, and the enemy troops were about to attack them on both sides.

"Go!"

The Dali follow-up troops turned around in a hurry. At first, they just retreated. As they retreated, they didn't care about anything. From time to time, people fell down the mountain.

Gao Zhenshou was shocked and said to his younger brother and eldest son: "You lead the cavalry to support them!"

He also said to a general of the Yang family: "You lead the infantry to form a formation and move forward slowly. If you encounter a fleeing soldier, kill him without mercy. You must stabilize the defeat!"

Gao Zhenming and Gao Shouchang, uncle and nephew, each led hundreds of cavalry to go around to both sides.

The generals of the Yang family led the infantry to form a formation and move forward.

"Dangdangdangdang!"

The sound of the gong sounded, and Yang Zaixing called back the troops.

At this time, the Ming army was almost at the foot of the mountain. Seeing that the enemy's infantry and cavalry came to support in a steady and orderly manner, and his own troops were too scattered because of guarding the village, Yang Zaixing did not choose to rush all the enemy troops in one go.

The Ming army that was chasing out heard the gong and obeyed the order.

Some of the scattered Ming soldiers even formed a small team nearby and returned.

And on the way back, they kept poking at the enemies lying along the way. No matter whether they were dead or not, they would make up for it, and deliberately not make up for the vital parts.

The battle stopped temporarily.

After fighting for several hours, the number of Ming army casualties was still zero. More than a dozen people were injured in the pursuit just now - some were sprained, and some were injured by falls.

Such outrageous casualties were because the two sides had not fought directly until now.

The morale of the Dali Kingdom's regular army, local soldiers and barbarian soldiers was too low. They rarely won battles in the past ten years, and were defeated by the barbarians again and again, and the military pay and rewards were much less than before.

Therefore, everyone cherished their lives and was unwilling to fight.

The first two waves of people who attacked the mountain rushed quite far. Later, they found that rattan shields could not stop bullets. Everyone was trembling when attacking the mountain. The whole team retreated after a few people were killed by fire guns.

Fighting on flat ground might be better, but they really didn't dare to attack the mountain stronghold.

Gao Zhenshou was also counting the number of casualties. The reports that kept coming in made his face pale.

In fact, not many people died in the initial attack on the mountain. More than ten attacks were repelled, and there were only two or three hundred casualties in total, including those who fell and sprained.

But the previous wave suffered heavy losses, with nearly a thousand casualties at one time!

At this moment, there were still wounded soldiers fleeing back from the hillside. They pretended to be dead when the Ming army made up for them, and now they were crawling back, and their knees were all stabbed.