Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

After traveling for several days, Ju Ming came to Pugu Long.

The sight in front of him surprised him. This was not a village, but a small city, and it even had earth and stone walls.

If Ju Ming carefully reads "New Book of Tang" or "Zizhi Tongjian", he can know the origin of this city.

It is the Xin'an City built by Yan Qingfu, the Zhongwu General of the Tang Dynasty, to resist the Nanzhao Kingdom.

The Qiongbu Sichuan Manwu Deng tribe occupied this place, repaired the collapsed city walls, and built many watchtowers in the city. It was renamed Utuolku, that is, "Utuo City"; according to the tribal name, it was also called "Wedeng City"; or "Pugu City" or "Pugu Long".

The barbarians south of the Dadu River are actually the descendants of the Qiang people who were transformed into Yi people.

To be more specific, their ancestors were Baima Di, also known as Baima Qiang.

As for Qiongbu River, this is the name of a river, and the tribes living along the river are collectively called Qiongbu River Barbarians.

Along the way, Ju Ming's little notebook was almost full. He briefly recorded the mountains, rivers and tribal conditions along the way, and also drew simple maps of key places.

For the Song Dynasty, this is unprecedented information.

Because since the founding of Zhao Kuangyin, the Song Dynasty court had never sent envoys south, and only let Lizhou officials deal with the barbarians.

Lizhou officials, however, only focused on the area north of the Dadu River and never thought of going to the south to find out the truth.

Inside the city.

The houses of the Han people in the Tang Dynasty have long since disappeared and were replaced by various barbaric houses.

The Great Ghost Lord of Baimandu lives in the center of the city, and his cage castle has five floors. The top floor is filled with food and weapons. The ghost owner and his wife and concubines live on the fourth floor. Their children and grandchildren live on the second and third floors. The ground floor is where the ghost owner works.

There are also some cage forts scattered around this cage fort, most of which are three-story and a few are four-story.

Interspersed between the cage forts are ordinary two-story buildings, and there are even livestock on the ground floor. Hmm... It's a bit like moving a village into a city. There are few shops and the lifestyle is similar to that in the village.

"Master Du Dagui, Han officials are here!"

Ju Meng, the Great Ghost Lord of Baimandu, was feeding his war horse himself, and his subordinates hurried over to report.

Ju Meng was stunned for a moment, frowned and said to himself: "What are the Han officials doing here?"

Han officials have not set foot here again for more than two hundred years.

Ju Meng returned to the bedroom, neatly combed his hair, put on a robe that symbolized his status, and led his sons to the city gate to greet him.

When Li Jien met, he scolded him: "This is Zhu Ming, the magistrate of Hanyuan County in Lizhou. He came here on the order of the magistrate. Why did you delay for so long and keep Magistrate Zhu waiting?"

"Who are you?" Ju Meng asked.

Li Jien said: "I am Shabang, the son of the Great Ghost Lord of Lianglin, and my Chinese name is Li Jien!"

Ju Meng was too lazy to talk nonsense with the young man and said to his son: "Call one of the Han people in the city."

Li Jien said: "I can speak Chinese, so there is no need to look for Han people."

"Can I trust you?" Ju Meng sneered.

Ju Ming was invited to be a guest in the largest bunker. Not long after, a Han man named Sun Shu came.

When Zhu Ming met, he asked: "It is understandable that I came to live in a barbarian land. Why do I abandon the Han people's hair bun and wear the Yi people's hair bun instead?"

Sun Shu replied: "Just follow the customs."

Ju Ming took out Yu Wenchang's letter, handed it to Sun Shu and said, "Read it to this barbarian leader."

Sun Shu opened the letter, turned to Ju Meng and said, "Honorable Du Dagui Lord, this is a letter from the Han official in Lizhou."

"Read it," Ju Meng said.

Sun Shu translated classical Chinese into barbarian language: "Han officials in Lizhou said that the Qiongbu Sichuan barbarians have been favored by the Song Dynasty court for generations and accepted the canonization of the court..."

"Your line was originally just a great ghost master. Seventy years ago, the great ghost master of all the barbarians, Me Mo, was ungrateful and plundered Lizhou. Sun Gu, the prefect of Lizhou, sent troops to conquer, and your grandfather took the opportunity to kill Memo and himself He usurped the throne and became the Great Ghost Lord of the Hundred Barbarians."

"The imperial court of the Song Dynasty recognized your grandfather's meritorious service and recognized his status as the Great Ghost Lord of the Hundred Barbarians. The imperial court was kind to your whole family for promotion and reconstruction. Why did you often harass the Han people after you succeeded to the throne, and also blocked the exchange of tributes and trade between the barbarians? aisle?"

"The Lianglin Barbarians are also barbarians who surrendered to the imperial court. Why do you keep attacking them, taking away the land and population of the Lianglin Barbarians, and not listening to the admonitions of many prefects in Lizhou?"

"I heard that you robbed the tribute horses and goods of the two forest barbarians last year, and also plundered hundreds of men and women and a lot of food from the two forest barbarians. The government was magnanimous and did not pursue the previous mistakes. The population and food robbed last year must be as follows. The numbers will be returned to the two forest barbarians."

"If you still don't obey the order, the Han officials will go to the Emperor of the Song Dynasty to deprive you of all titles and take back your position as the Great Ghost Lord of Baimandu!"

Ju Meng immediately laughed after hearing this: "My grandfather snatched the Great Ghost Lord of Baimandu himself. What does it have to do with the emperor of Song Dynasty? If my grandfather hadn't helped, how could the Han official named Sun Gu at that time have done it?" Can you defeat the barbarian army?"

There were quite a lot of conflicts among the barbarian tribes. Ju Meng's grandfather was a usurper, and during the Qingli period, he took advantage of the Song Dynasty's invasion to kill his master and establish himself on his own.

Li Jien immediately translated Ju Meng's words and added more words: "Your Majesty, this person doesn't take the imperial court seriously and is disrespectful to the Emperor of the Song Dynasty."

Ju Ming said: "Ask him if he will return the population and food of the two forest barbarians."

Sun Shu quickly translated and admonished in a low voice: "Master Du, the two barbarian princes are sowing discord and trying to attract the imperial army to attack us. Although the Han soldiers in Lizhou are weak, the Song Dynasty has a more powerful army. , and can send hundreds of thousands of troops. Don't anger this Han official, pretend to agree for the time being, and return a few old and weak, a few sick horses, a few stones and old rice at will. The Han officials in Lizhou will not pursue it anymore if they have face. This matter."

Ju Meng developed the Qiongbu Sichuan barbarians to their peak, and he looked down on Han officials and soldiers from the bottom of his heart. In recent years, he has become a little drifting. But his basic sense was still there, so he said: "Tell this Han official that I will return the population and food."

Sun Shu did not give Li Jien a chance to provoke him, and quickly translated and said: "Your Majesty the County Lord, Du Dagui Lord has realized his mistake and is willing to return the population, war horses and food of the two forest barbarians."

Ju Ming said: "Let him prepare immediately, and within ten days, I will watch him return it!"

After being translated by Sun Shu, Ju Meng was filled with anger.

He felt that he had given himself a lot of face and could just return a little to get rid of it, but Ju Ming insisted on watching him return it within a time limit.

Forcibly suppressing his anger, Ju Meng said: "I will return it within ten days, and treat the magistrate to meat and wine tonight!"

Eating meat and drinking wine is fake, but showing strength is real.

There was an open space in the city, and as night fell, torches were lit.

Ju Meng recruited many tribal warriors, all of whom were equipped with armor.

He wanted to scare Ju Ming, but he just gave Ju Ming a chance to observe the barbarian soldiers.

These elite barbarians all wore leather armor, and their weapons were mainly spears. Their bows and arrows were homemade earthen bows, and a few of them carried shields and daggers.

As the great ghost master of Baimandu, Ju Meng personally presided over the ghost sacrificial ceremony.

A human animal was brought to the altar, disembowelled alive, the heart was taken out, the head was cut off, and the bloody sacrifice began.

"vomit……"

A Lizhou cavalryman beside Ju Ming vomited directly because of nausea.

Li Bao said in disgust: "They are really barbarians, and they actually kill people for sacrifice."

Zhang Boring said: "If we send out troops to suppress them and continue to educate them, the achievements of a hundred years may be reversed."

Ju Meng kept staring at Ju Ming. When he saw one of Ju Ming's men vomiting, he suddenly felt even more proud and felt that the Han people were weak and even afraid of killing animals to sacrifice ghosts.

At the end of the ghost sacrificial ceremony, the barbarians present cheered in unison, as if they had been blessed by ghosts and gods.

"Dong dong dong dong!"

Tribal priests beat leather drums.

More than a dozen elite barbarians began to dance around the bonfire, doing war dances that were used to sacrifice ghosts and gods and celebrate victory.

Ju Ming watched the whole process with cold eyes.

After the war dance, they then competed in martial arts, with the barbarians wrestling in pairs.

Ju Meng pointed at the barbarian soldiers: "How are my warriors?"

Ju Ming nodded: "It's acceptable."

Sun Shu translated: "Han officials said he was very brave."

Li Jien immediately exposed it: "The Han officials said that the warriors of Wu Deng's tribe were not very good, and they were just barely passable."

"Um?"

Ju Meng's eyes suddenly widened and he said angrily: "The Han people are weak, and the Han officials are even more powerless. They actually look down on my warriors. You, a Han official, came with weapons, do you dare to compete with my warriors?"

Li Jien and Sun Shu rushed to translate. The former deliberately provoked, while the latter tried to soften it, but the general meaning was the same.

Li Bao was furious when he heard this: "What kind of status do you have, sir? How can you fight with the barbarians? Let me teach these bastards a lesson!"

Ju Ming smiled and said: "Zhang Bor will go to test the weapons first."

Zhang Bor's formation fighting ability is average, but his foot fighting skills are top-notch.

Ju Ming said to Sun Shu: "Wrestling is not interesting. To compete is to test weapons. It doesn't matter life or death!"

Li Jien rushed to translate: "Han officials said that children only wrestle, but real warriors fight with weapons. They deserve to be beaten to death!"

"That's not what the Han officials said." Sun Shu quickly corrected him.

Li Jien asked: "Did the Han officials say that they would use weapons to compare life and death?"

Sun Shu defended: "It's a competition like this, but I didn't say that only children wrestle!"

Ju Meng understood what he heard and called a warrior: "Aji, go and test weapons, kill the Han man, and let the Han officials see the bravery of our men!"

The wrestling barbarians retreated one after another.

Zhang Bor walked into the field holding a sword, and Aji also walked over, holding a short spear and a shield in his hands.

There were many barbarians watching the fun, and there were also many women with disheveled hair.

"Dong dong dong dong!"

The barbarian priest began to beat the leather drum again.

Aji bent forward and slapped his shield with his short spear, as if he were hunting a wild beast.

Zhang Boring has two swords, a long one and a short sword. The short sword is inserted into his waist and has not been drawn out.

Aji bent forward and started moving around Zhang Bor, but Zhang Bor just stood there and adjusted his direction.

"drink!"

Aji roared, trying to intimidate with his voice, and at the same time made a feint of attacking with his short spear.

Zhang Boring remained unmoved and just stood with his sword in hand.

After testing for half a minute, Aji finally couldn't bear it any longer and lunged forward with his shield, thrusting with his short spear hidden behind the shield.

Zhang Boring is accustomed to one-on-one duels like a knight-errant, immediately pulling away and going to the side.

Aji thought that his opponent was scared, so he immediately attacked more fiercely and pursued him step by step.

This barbarian warrior is quite difficult to deal with. Although his shield is not big, he always shrinks his body and hides his vital parts. His spear is like a poisonous snake waiting for an opportunity to move.

If it were Ju Ming, he could just hit it with his mace. Even if he didn't break the wooden shield, he would still be able to make the opponent's jaw go numb!

The two sides struggled for a while, and Zhang Bor deliberately used a flaw to lure Aji to stab him with a spear.

The moment the short spear thrust out, the shield finally revealed its gap.

In the midst of the lightning and flint, Zhang Bor struck the spear with his sword with his right hand, and pulled out the dagger with his left hand and threw it.

The dagger flew into Aji's exposed thigh. Zhang Bor took the opportunity to step sideways and wiped Aji's neck with the long sword.

Aji was shocked and pained. He raised his shield and retreated. A gash was cut in the leather armor on his right shoulder.

Zhang Bor was unyielding and attacked continuously with his sword.

Aji was hit by a sword in the thigh, and his steps became more and more chaotic. Finally, Zhang Bor lured away the shield, and stabbed his throat accurately with the sword.

The beating of the drums ceased, and the shouts of the barbarians disappeared.

Aji fell to the ground, blood pouring from his throat.

Zhang Bor drew back his dagger, returned it to its sheath, walked up to Ju Ming, cupped his hands and said, "Fortunately Bor has lived up to his command!"