Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

At this point in the fight, Gao Zhenshou was already riding a tiger and was unable to get off.

He knew that the Ming army was strong, but he did not expect that the Ming army was so strong.

He knew that the Dali soldiers were weak, but he did not expect that the Dali soldiers were so weak.

When the strong and the weak meet and fight, a strange reaction occurs - the strong soldiers become stronger, and the weak soldiers become weaker!

But it won't work if you don't hit it. There's a nail stuck here.

Like a lump in the throat, like a awn on the back.

Just when Gao Zhenshou was in a dilemma, a fast ship came from the north and landed at the Dian Lake to report: "Xiangguo, reinforcements from Yunnan Fu, Pin Fu, Zhao Fu, Baiya Fu, Xi Fu and other places have arrived. The total strength is More than 14,000 people are currently waiting for orders outside Shanchan City."

Fu is the name given to the river by the barbarians in the south.

But here in Dali, you can actually access "Dian". For example, Pu'er is also called Buyirui and Buyidian.

"Let them all come over. Also, five thousand Shanchan garrison and three thousand Guandu garrison will be sent to reinforce each other." Besieged on all sides!"

Gao Zhenshou doesn't care if there are three missing ones.

Anyway, the Ming army with high morale could not escape. He had to give full play to his military advantage and launch continuous attacks from all sides of the mountain stronghold.

Towards evening, more than 16,000 soldiers came to reinforce Gao Zhenshou.

The general in charge of the army was called Gao Kaiming. He complained as soon as they met: "Prime Minister, Gao Liangcheng has evil intentions. When we passed by Weichu (Chuxiong) Mansion, Gao Liangcheng not only did not lead the troops to join us, but also gathered troops to stop us. For a long time!”

"What's going on?" Gao Zhenshou frowned.

Gao Kaiming said: "I just asked the leader of Shigufu to provide some food and grass. Gao Liangcheng insisted that we send troops to grab food in his territory."

Gao Zhenshou didn't ask any more questions and just said: "You have been traveling all the way, so go and rest first."

Gao Kaiming must have had dirty hands and forced officials or leaders to give him food along the way, which led Gao Liangcheng to find an excuse to gather troops to stop him.

Returning to his handsome tent, Gao Zhenshou was worried.

He suspected that Gao Liangcheng wanted to take the opportunity to cause trouble, but he didn't know what Gao Liangcheng would do.

Under normal circumstances, Gao Liangcheng would sit back and watch his defeat, then come to compete for the position of prime minister, and then lead his troops to join the battlefield to resist the enemy.

But this time the enemy is the Ming army, not the surrounding barbarians.

Does Gao Liangcheng dare to take risks like this?

If you don't pay attention, it will be self-defeating!

Gao Zhenshou suddenly had a more terrifying thought: Could Gao Liangcheng have defected to the Ming Dynasty long ago? If that's the case, once Gao Liangcheng sends troops in Weichu (Chuxiong), Shanchan (Kunming) will become surrounded by enemies on three sides.

For a moment, Gao Zhenshou felt cold all over.

He called his second son, Gao Shouhu, and said: "You immediately ride to Weichu and ask Gao Liangcheng to lead troops to help. Just say... just say, return my position as prime minister to him. Only he can command the army to drive away the Ming thieves." ”

Gao Shouhu was shocked and said: "Father, how can you give up the position of prime minister to others so easily?"

Gao Zhenshou said: "If he is not allowed to be prime minister, Gao Liangcheng will most likely defect to the Ming Dynasty. At that time, the Ming army will be in the north, the Ming army will be in the south, the main force of the Ming army in Guangxi may be killed in the east, and Gao Liangcheng will be in the west. How can those rebels fight if Shanchan City is surrounded by everyone?"

"If Gao Liangcheng secretly acted as a supporter of the Ming Dynasty, and now he is appointed as the prime minister and commander of the army, wouldn't he directly lead the army and city to surrender to the enemy?" Gao Shouhu expressed his worries.

Gao Zhenshou said: "If he can become prime minister again, he will be unwilling to surrender to the enemy again."

Gao Shouhu asked: "If we lose, everything will be over. But if Gao Liangcheng leads the troops to repel the Ming Dynasty, his prestige will definitely increase, and the position of prime minister will have nothing to do with our family."

Gao Zhenshou said: "We must get over it first. The Ming army is too strong. Even if there are thousands of Ming troops in front of me, I... I am not sure of winning, let alone tens of thousands or even more than 100,000 Ming troops who are yet to be defeated." So what if the position of prime minister is given back to him for the time being? I can always find a chance to take it back!"

All in all, Gao Zhenshou's troops were not enough.

However, Gao Liangcheng controlled the entire Weichu Mansion, but he kept delaying and refused to send troops to help. Dali had no chance of winning if this continued.

Only by bringing in high-quality troops to fight can it be possible to turn the tide of the war.

After all, Gao Liangcheng has been the prime minister for so many years, and the weapons and armor of his private soldiers are very sophisticated.

After the second son took the order to leave, Gao Zhenshou called the messenger again: "You arrange for the messenger to go to the south and order the leaders of Wenfuzhou, Buxiong tribe, Luojia tribe and other states to gather all the young men who can fight and fight with the best. Hurry and gather at Dawu Long. Anyone who fails to send troops will be deemed as treason!"

The next day, fight again.

At this time, Dali's military strength had increased to 50,000.

Even under the escort of cavalry, thousands of soldiers moved to the west and ran to the area between Shanzhai and Dianchi Lake to organize an attack.

As soon as the fight started, there were fierce attacks from all sides.

Moreover, supervising teams were sent to various places. If the officer fled before reaching the first stone wall, the officer who took the lead in escaping would be killed directly. If the officer did not escape and the team collapsed, the entire team would be killed.

After the first wave of offensives was repulsed, a total of eight middle- and low-level officers were escorted.

"Martial law!"

Gao Zhenshou gave an order, and eight heads fell to the ground, frightening the whole army.

Another remaining soldier from the mountain attack team was brought in. The officer of this team did not escape, but the soldiers fled and the officer died in the battle.

"Kill them all, and pass them on to all the ministries!"

A bunch of heads were chopped off, and a second wave of attacks was quickly organized.

This time it was obviously different. Each mountain attacking team rushed forward bravely, and more than half of them approached the stone wall under bullets.

The Ming army began to suffer losses caused by frontal fighting: one was seriously injured and more than ten were slightly injured.

Among them, twelve were shot by bows and arrows, and five were stabbed by spears.

"The enemy is starting to fight desperately," Yang Zaixing inspected two positions and said to the messenger, "Tell the generals that the next wave of enemy troops will be defeated, and they will fiercely counterattack and kill back. We must kill the enemy in fear, and make the enemy afraid of death like yesterday!"

The tiger squat cannon was also distributed to three positions that were convenient for firing.

Nong Zuxing was also injured. An arrow passed through his head, scratched his cheekbone, and shot his left ear.

The faint pain made Nong Zuxing more excited.

The wolf soldier blood awakened.

The enemy troops below were getting closer and closer under bullets, and several tiger squat cannons next to them were still waiting for the opportunity.

"Fire!"

As the cannon sounded, countless gravel flew out.

Amid the screams, Nong Zuxing heard the captain blowing the attack whistle. He and his teammates turned over and crossed the stone wall, jumped steadily on the hillside, and rushed over with a gun.

"Kill!"

The enemy in front of them was first shot by the musket, and then bombarded by the cannon and shotgun. When they met the charge of Nong Zuxing and his men, they immediately turned around and fled.

"Woo woo woo woo~~~~"

Nong Zuxing dived more than ten steps with a gun, knocked down two fleeing soldiers in a row, and suddenly heard the military horn on the stone wall behind him.

He ignored it.

Because he was a soldier, he only listened to the captain's copper whistle and looked at the deputy captain's flag.

If the captain and the deputy captain were both killed, a temporary captain would be selected according to the rank, and try to find scattered friendly troops nearby, and reorganize into the mandarin duck team as quickly as possible.

Finally, the captain's copper whistle sounded and the deputy captain's flag waved.

Nong Zuxing immediately slowed down, ran a few more steps and stopped. They did not continue to chase forward, but led by the captain, they killed the enemy who was attacking the mountain from the side.

The enemy there was on the verge of collapse. Facing the flank attack of Nong Zuxing and others, they were killed and fled without suspense.

Bugles and whistles also sounded at the side positions, and the Ming army on the low wall jumped out one after another.

Some continued to chase the enemy, and some continued to flank.

The Dali soldiers in front of various positions were defeated one after another and were chased and killed by the Ming army all the way to the foot of the mountain.

The battle stopped after the battle was called off, and a few screams were heard from the battlefield from time to time.

"Ten thousand wins, ten thousand wins!"

The Ming army on the mountain cheered and shouted, and their morale became higher and higher.

The Dali army at the foot of the mountain became depressed again. The little morale boosted by harsh military law was directly beaten back to its original form because of this defeat.

It was useless for Gao Zhenshou to continue to let the supervisory team behead. Not only could it not improve the combat effectiveness of the army, but it would also cause resentment.

After several more attacks, all the Dali soldiers returned to the way they were yesterday. A mountain attacking team was killed by only a few people by fire guns, and they didn't even touch the edge of the first stone wall, and they panicked and shouted and fled together.

"Prime Minister, we can't attack like this anymore." Yang Zhongsu rode to Gao Zhenshou.

Gao Zhenshou asked back: "Do you have a better way?"

Yang Zhongsu was silent.

As early as the Nanzhao Kingdom, the Yang family was the second largest family after the Duan family, and was also listed as the second noble family by the Dali Esoteric Sect.

Although it has declined now, the Yang family still inherits the management of Huichuan Prefecture (Huili, Miyi, Huidong), and has a great influence in their hometown Dongchuan County (Huize, Dongchuan, Qiaojia).

Of the 50,000 Dali soldiers at present, 6,000 were brought by Yang Zhongsu.

After two consecutive days of fierce attacks on the mountain stronghold, Yang Zhongsu's troops suffered more than 300 casualties, and his casualty rate has exceeded 5%.

Moreover, many wounded soldiers lost their mobility, and the Ming army liked to finish off the wounded soldiers at the bend of the knees behind them. Some were hit by bullets but not dead, and the lead bullets had entered the flesh and had begun to infect. The wounded camp was filled with cries and shouts, which seriously affected the morale of the army.

The sound of horse hooves sounded again, and this time it was Zhang Zheng who came.

The Dali Zhang family is mainly divided into two branches. One branch is from the royal family of the Baizi Kingdom during the Three Kingdoms period, and its descendants were named the King of Jianning in the Tang Dynasty; the other branch is from the royal family of the Nanzhao Kingdom, and the ancestor is Luo Bohai, the son of Xinuluo.

Zhang Zheng in front of him belongs to the former branch, and they have been passed down in Yunnan for more than a thousand years.

Zhang Zheng followed Gao Kaiming to help here yesterday. He had only 3,000 soldiers and horses under his command, of which 500 soldiers were organized into a mountain attack team to attack in turns. After several waves of attacks, these 500 soldiers had suffered nearly 100 casualties.

If there was any hope of victory, Zhang Zheng would have accepted it with a pinch of his nose.

But now it is obvious that the soldiers are being sent to die, and they can't even get close to the first stone wall outside the mountain stronghold. How can you fight like this?

"Prime Minister, let's withdraw the troops," Zhang Zheng suggested, "Leave a few thousand soldiers to guard Guandu City in the north and Wu's Wubao in the south, and the rest return to Shanchan City for defense. Can this isolated army still capture the city?"

Gao Zhenshou asked back: "If the Ming army in the north comes, how should we deal with the Ming army here? Let them mess up the rear of Shanchan Prefecture? Many of my soldiers have families in various states in Shanchan Prefecture. If they don't worry about the safety of their families, can they still fight wholeheartedly?"

Zhang Zheng said: "Why don't we pretend to withdraw and see if we can lure the enemy down the mountain to pursue. Fighting on flat ground is always better than attacking the mountain like this."

Gao Zhenshou began to think about the possibility of feigning retreat to lure the enemy.

Immediately afterwards, the sound of horse hooves sounded again, and generals from various departments came one after another.

Everyone can see that it is impossible to defeat the mountain stronghold in this way, and the morale of the entire army may collapse in the end.

In such a situation, the safest way is to besiege but not attack, and slowly use up the food and grass in the village.

But Gao Zhenshou didn't have that time, Bai Qi and Lin Chong's army was about to arrive!

Gao Zhenshou looked at the generals. Not only did the generals with different surnames not want to fight anymore, but also the generals of the Gao family passively avoided fighting.

The attitude of the generals represents the morale of the military.

A fast ship docked at the Dian Lake again. After the messenger got off the ship, he immediately mounted his horse on the lake and rushed to Gao Zhenshou to report: "Xiangguo, Shicheng County has been captured by the Ming army!"

Gao Zhenshou was shocked: "Tell me in detail."

The messenger said: "Stone City was bombarded by artillery, and cracks appeared in the city wall. The barbarians in the city were forced to go out to fight in the field. In less than an hour, they were defeated by the Ming army and fled. When the remaining barbarian soldiers fled back to the city, they discovered the pseudo-King Luoluo. , the prime ministers were all killed in the rebellion, and the surviving barbarian leaders surrendered the city after discussion. "

"When did they surrender?" Gao Zhenshou asked.

The messenger replied: "Two days ago, the barbarian soldiers from the Maitreya tribe who escaped came to Shanchan for help. They fainted from exhaustion as soon as they finished speaking. When the barbarian envoys came to Shanchan for peace talks two days ago, Shicheng County The barbarian soldiers have actually surrendered, but the barbarian envoys don’t know it yet.”

Gao Zhenshou opened his mouth but stopped talking.

If the Ming army in the north moves quickly, the vanguard is estimated to be within a hundred miles of Kunming.

After a long time, Gao Zhenshou gritted his teeth and said: "The entire army is withdrawing to Shanchanfu City. But we still have to try to lure them. If the Ming army in the village comes after us, we should immediately turn around and annihilate them in the field!"

He called all the generals together and began to lay out seduction tactics.

Yang Zhongsu returned to his camp and called his brothers and son: "The Gao family will undoubtedly be defeated. They can't even defeat the thousands of Ming troops in front of them. Do they still want to defeat the tens of thousands of Ming troops in the north? The Ming army is Gao's enemy. , but he is not necessarily the enemy of my Yang family, I am afraid it is still a good opportunity for my Yang family to stand up!"

The Yang family hereditarily controls the entire Huichuan Prefecture, and actually controls half of Dongchuan County through influence.

In the Dali Kingdom where the Gao family has exclusive power, how can we allow people with different surnames to exist who actually control one and half of the government?

Therefore, the Gao family has continued to suppress the Yang family, and Dongchuan County was taken away by the Gao family from the Yang family. It's just that the Yang family has too much influence there. Although the Gao family's children serve as county guards, many things still depend on the Yang family's face.

If this situation continues, the Yang family will lose its power sooner or later.

For example, in history, the Gao family took advantage of the Mongol invasion and took away all the Yang family's territory. From then on, the Yang family could no longer control a party and could only rely on their religious identity to develop silently. In the end, a quarter of the Bai people were surnamed Yang.

Yang Zhongsu continued: "Our territory is in Huichuan Prefecture and Dongchuan County, which is northwest of Shicheng County. After the Ming army takes Shicheng County, it may attack our Yang family's territory at any time, so it must express its attitude to join the Ming Dynasty early. !”

"Brother, you can contact Mr. Zhang." Yang Zhongyan suggested.

Yang Zhongsu smiled and nodded: "Yes, Zhang Zheng is definitely willing to surrender."

The Zhang family was suppressed even more severely by the Gao family. Their territory was around the Erhai Lake and belonged to the direct jurisdiction of the Duan family.

Even the Dali Palace was built under the leadership of the Zhang family.

The process of the Gao family's powerful ministers evading the Duan family was also the process of suppressing the Zhang family.

In history, the descendants of the Zhang family directly led the way to the Ming Dynasty and served as generals of Prince Mu's Palace for generations.

Everyone in the Dali military camp was busy withdrawing troops. After a while, Yang Zhongyan ran back and said: "Brother, Zhang Zheng is willing to surrender. I asked when he would switch sides."