Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

The Yuexi River in later generations is now called Qiongbu River.

Its downstream section, the Niger River, is more commonly known as the Luo River by the two forest barbarians.

The Lizhou army marched along the Luo River. When they encountered villages in the valley, they persuaded them to surrender. Those who were unwilling to surrender immediately attacked them.

At the same time, Yu Wenchang continued to send envoys to the mountains far away from the river valley to deliver messages.

Those mountain tribes and villages usually obey the orders of the Sichuan barbarians of Qiongbu and are obliged to recruit warriors to fight for the Great Ghost Lord of Baimandu.

However, their obligations are many and their powers are few. Even if they win the battle, they can only get a small amount of spoils, and the little soup they drink can barely make up for the losses in the battle.

Many small tribes could not understand Chinese, and the envoys sent by Yuwen Chang were mostly barbarians who had surrendered along the way.

The envoys only conveyed one message: There are benefits to going down the mountain to help the Han soldiers fight. Even if you don't help the Han soldiers to fight, you are not allowed to fight for Ju Meng!

Except for Ju Meng's feudal relatives, most of the tribes along the way were watching. They were afraid of both the Great Ghost Lord of Baimandu and the army sent by the government. Especially when they heard that there were 100,000 Han soldiers, they were close to the limits of mathematical understanding of the little Ghost Lords.

"Prefect, the village ahead is empty!"

"Explore again!"

Ju Ming and Yuwen often encountered a problem. They were advancing so fast that the Qionbu Sichuan barbarians had no time to gather troops.

However, except for the initial capture of a few villages along the river, all the villages further ahead fled. These barbarians did not fight against the Han people, but fled into the mountains with their families.

Going into the mountains to pursue them is a waste of time.

If you don't go into the mountains to pursue, after the army passes, the barbarians will come out of the mountains and gradually gather to cut off the Han army's retreat.

Ju Ming suggested: "Tear down the cage forts in the villages by the river. Don't worry about these empty villages anymore. Speed ​​up and advance to fight Ju Meng. Many barbarian tribes are not united. As long as Ju Meng's main force is defeated, the barbarians in the rear will surrender." .”

"You don't care about the grain road?" Yuwen Chang asked.

"Follow-up food does not need to be transported," Ju Ming said. "We captured several villages before and obtained some food and livestock. Some of the food in these empty villages was too late to take away. Our current military rations are maintained at two The month is more than enough.”

Yu Wenchang asked: "If Ju Meng delays the fight and cuts off our army's food route, what will happen in two months?"

Ju Ming said: "There is a big ghost lord ahead named Busu, who is the younger brother of the big ghost lord Zhu Meng. The territory he controls has the intersection of three rivers, and the land along the banks is fertile. It was the core territory of the two forest barbarians. There is a place there. A Han man named Qiao Huan, whose heart is devoted to the imperial court, once secretly told me that Busu had a large amount of grain and grass in reserve."

"Fight down to grab food supplies?" Yu Wenchang was a little excited.

Ju Ming said: "It is best to persuade him to surrender. Busu's strength is second only to Ju Meng, and he controls a large number of surrounding villages. If you give him enough time to gather troops, he may be able to gather tens of thousands of barbarians. If you give him benefits, Does he want to be independent?"

Yu Wenchang thought about it and said, "I can promise and ask the imperial court to confer him the title of Great Ghost Lord of Baimandu."

Ju Ming smiled and said: "There are too many barbarians south of the Dadu River, and there are too few Great Ghost Lords. After this battle, we can establish three Great Ghost Lords of the Hundred Barbarian Capitals."

…

Luo Luolong was the seat of Ganluo County in later generations.

Buyu called his sons and said to Qiao Huan, "Read the Han official's letter again."

Qiao Huan did not repeat the content of the letter mechanically, but took the initiative to help fill in the details:

"Respected Great Ghost Lord Bu Su, you are not only the Great Ghost Lord canonized by the imperial court, but also the Huaihua General canonized by the imperial court. More than a hundred years ago, the strength of the Qiongbu Sichuan Barbarians was far inferior to that of the Lianglin Barbarians. It is precisely because of your The imperial court canonized and traded with the Han people in Lizhou to grow rapidly, drive the two forest barbarians to the south, and occupy the most fertile land of the two forest barbarians..."

"Nowadays, the Great Ghost Lord of the Hundred Barbarians and General Guide, Ju Meng, does not know how to repay the kindness of the imperial court. Instead, he repeatedly sends people to plunder the Han people and even intercepts and kills tribute envoys from various tribes. The Emperor of the Song Dynasty was very angry and sent a hundred thousand troops. Come to conquer, five thousand vanguards are about to arrive now. If we can't win, we will send another three hundred thousand troops next year."

"The Great Ghost Lord Bu Su has always respected the imperial court. If you can lead your troops to surrender, the Lizhou magistrate will ask the Emperor of the Song Dynasty to confer you the title of Great Ghost Lord of Baimandu and General of Guide. Bu Su's sons can also do so. Become the master of ghosts..."

"If you refuse to surrender, the Han soldiers will definitely crush Luo Luo Cong when they arrive!"

After Qiao Huan said this, he voluntarily withdrew. He was not qualified to participate in the tribal leaders' meeting.

Buyu's second son spoke first. He owned four villages: "You can't believe what the Han officials said. In the past few years, when I went to Hanyuan Town to trade, I didn't get enough money every time. It was said that it would be replenished in the second year." , I keep delaying payment, and the Han officials owe us more and more money."

The barbarians here also use Song coins, and they are Sichuan iron coins.

However, only large tribes are willing to accept money, and most of the time they directly exchange things for things. Or they sold the money in Lizhou and bought goods directly back in Lizhou.

They don't know how to weave, so they wear sheepskin clothes in winter and summer cloth woven by Han people.

By the Ming Dynasty, Han people generally used ramie to weave linen. But in the Song Dynasty, rattan weaving was still very popular, and many rattan species, including kudzu, could weave cloth.

Kudzu summer cloth is cheap and high-quality, and is very popular among the barbarians.

But Busu's eldest son said: "Even if the Han people are not trustworthy, they are coming with a large army. How should we resist them? If we offend the Han officials and they will no longer allow trade with each other, where will we buy cloth? Where will we buy salt?" "

Yanyuan County and Yanbian County farther south are now the territory of Dali Kingdom, and are not under the jurisdiction of the powerful Gao family.

The north channel of salt there was blocked by Baozhaiman. Qiongbu Sichuanman wanted to buy Dali salt, but the price was far more expensive than Sichuan salt.

Several sons had different opinions, and Busu had difficulty making a choice.

Han soldiers were about to attack, and if he didn't surrender, he would have to hold the front for Ju Meng first. Even if you can win, you will definitely suffer heavy losses.

But if he surrenders, if the Han people are defeated, he will definitely be punished by Ju Meng.

Just as he was hesitating, a subordinate suddenly came to report that Ju Meng's eldest son, Piao Li, had arrived with troops.

Buyu hurriedly went to greet him but found that Piao Li only brought 1,500 people. He couldn't help but ask: "Are there only so many soldiers?"

Piao Li explained: "This is the vanguard. My father is still gathering troops and they will arrive in a few days. Uncle, hurry up and gather your troops. As long as you hold this place, when father comes with the army, you will definitely be able to defeat the Han people." The soldiers were defeated and fled."

"I am already gathering troops. The villages in the mountains are too far away and it will take time." Bu Su said.

Piao Li asked: "How far are the Han people?"

"It will take two or three days to arrive." Busu replied.

After the Lizhou army crossed the Dadu River, there were dozens of miles of dangerous valleys, which were most suitable for barbarians to set up ambushes.

However, Yu Wenchang and Ju Ming sent troops without warning, which made the barbarians unable to react.

The most dangerous place has long been passed. Although there are high mountains and deep valleys here, it is still a bit difficult to set up an ambush. Ju Ming is not a fool, how could he not send a mountain search team to explore the road?

Especially in Busu's territory, there are river valleys that are more than ten miles long, and they are all relatively open and flat land. This allowed Busu to harvest a large amount of food every year, and at the same time, it also left him without any danger. He could only defend his lair, which faced rivers on three sides and mountains on one side.

Piao Li came with his troops and asked Busu, who was hesitant, to hold on for the time being.

The Han soldiers arrived very quickly, and after a day and a half, they arrived at the downstream villages.

"It's an empty village again." Yu Wenchang looked at the village by the river.

Ju Ming said: "Abandoning the stronghold and fleeing, taking away the population and food, Bu Su is unwilling to surrender."

Yu Wenchang said: "We came so quickly, Ju Meng must not have gathered many troops yet. There should not be many barbarians in the Luo Luo cage in front."

Not much, indeed, but not much either.

The fertile valleys of more than ten miles can support many barbarians. Even without recruiting the tribes in the mountains, Busu can quickly gather five or six thousand young men.

Including the 1,500 elite soldiers brought by Piao Li, Luo Luo Lung's barbarian soldiers exceeded 7,000.

However, there are not enough weapons!

There are actually rich iron ore resources here, but many of them are hidden in the mountains and have not been discovered.

Moreover, the mining and smelting technology of Qiongbu Sichuan Man is relatively primitive, and very few iron tools can be made every year.

What is smelted is still pig iron and needs to be forged repeatedly before it can be made into weapons.

At present, among the more than 7,000 barbarian soldiers, less than 4,000 have iron weapons, and many of them only have iron spear points attached to wooden sticks. There are more than three thousand barbarian soldiers left, still using bone spears and stone spears...

His homemade clay bow does not have many iron arrows.

Buyu and Piaoli commanded their troops to build fortifications on the river bank. There were more than 10,000 old, weak, women and children in total. They built low walls with stones and soil to prevent Han soldiers from crossing the river easily.

Ju Ming checked the terrain last time he came and chose to cross the river due north.

There is a small river, less than eight meters at its widest point and only five or six meters at its narrowest point.

You can also take a detour and sneak out from the south.

But it's not necessary!

The focus of the barbarians' defense was also this small river. A long section of low wall was built along the river.

Ju Ming observed with a telescope for a while and then ordered: "Stand back a mile and camp on the mountain, cut down more trees to make flat cannons, and start crossing the river tomorrow to attack!"

In the previous attack on the villages along the river, some flat cannons had been damaged. After all, they were not elaborate things. But only broken parts can be quickly replaced.

Now we need to build more. Ju Ming plans to fight here and waits for Ju Meng to lead his army.

Immediately, Ju Ming called Guan Sheng again: "You led ten teams to go around the upper reaches of the river, and after crossing the river, they hid in the mountains. When we fight tomorrow, we will go down the mountain from behind the village. If there are enemies on the mountain, they will be destroyed if they are small in number. Come back if you have more.”

Ju Ming is making arrangements here, but the barbarians are already quarreling over there.

Piao Li said: "The Han soldiers have just arrived and are not familiar with the terrain. We can sneak attack at night and burn the Han soldiers' camps. Maybe we can defeat them all."

Busu said: "The village is surrounded by rivers on three sides, and it is backed by a mountain on one side, and there are many cage forts. We don't want to take risks. We only need to hold on for a few days, and the Great Ghost Lord will come with reinforcements."

"The Han people also have reinforcements, I heard there are a hundred thousand reinforcements," Piao Li said. "There are not many Han soldiers on the opposite side. We should seize the opportunity and eat up all these Han vanguards!"

Buyu said: "Go ahead, my soldiers won't move."

"I'll go, I'll go!" Piao Li looked down upon this uncle, thinking that he didn't know how to fight.

Of course Bu Su knew how to fight, but his focus was not on whether to defeat the Han soldiers, but on trying to preserve his own strength.

Guan Sheng led more than a hundred elite troops to ambush from the northwest.

Piao Li led eight hundred barbarians to cross the river from the southeast and circle around, intending to rob Ju Ming's camp.

The two will not collide because the directions of sending troops are completely opposite.