Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

The Tian family has few free months, but in May people are twice as busy. At night, the south wind blows, and the wheat is covered with yellow.

The wheat growing area in the Northern Song Dynasty was very large, and wheat was also grown in Nanyang and Xiangyang. If it comes to the Southern Song Dynasty, wheat will be grown on a large scale in the south.

Taking advantage of the wheat harvest, Ju Ming first summoned the wealthy families around Xiangyang, and then went to Nanyang to summon those wealthy families.

Use gentle words and kind words to persuade the wealthy people to hand over the new wheat to the government.

Part of it is bought with money, and part of it is borrowed in bonds. In conjunction with the reduction and exemption of exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes, the wealthy families are also willing to provide food. In their eyes, this food appearance is at least much better than that of the Song Dynasty court.

The Zhu family and his son had no intention of dealing with the wealthy families in Nanyang and Xiangyang.

Compared with the Chengdu Plain, the wealthy families here are not called wealthy families at all. At most, they are just relatively wealthy local rich people. Because there is no big annexation here, there is land everywhere, but there is a lack of people to cultivate it.

After the summer harvest, new wheat is put into storage, and a small-scale battle can be fought.

In fact, while the wheat was still being harvested, the rebel cavalry was already dispatched.

Deng Chun led three thousand light cavalry to plunder everywhere outside Jiangling City.

It cannot be said to be plundering, but the people in Jiangling were not allowed to transport the new wheat they collected into the city and were ordered to send it to the north. Ju Ming sent officials to receive it and then transport it to Jingmen. As much grain as the people gave them, the officials issued IOUs and promised to return it after they captured Jiangling.

If any Chu officials go to the countryside to collect grain, they will all be killed!

Two or three miles outside Jiangling City, all the cavalry sent by Deng Chunsa were sent out. Officials of the Chu State were not allowed to go out, and the people of the Chu State were not allowed to enter the city.

Chen Ziyi also took more than a thousand cavalry to do this outside Zhijiang City.

"Commander of the Brigade, we found a bandit altar at the foot of Longshan Mountain!"

"Let Yang Yun lead five hundred soldiers to destroy them!"

"yes!"

Deng Chun's military rank was colonel and his military position was cavalry brigade commander.

After Ju Ming reformed the military system, various common names also emerged. The division commander is called "division commander" and the brigade commander is called "brigade commander". Anyway, no one usually calls them division commander or brigade commander seriously.

Yang Yun is currently the commander of the cavalry. This young Qiang from the Five Barbarians, after serving as a soldier with the Han people for a year and a half, he can no longer tell that he is a foreigner. He originally had a Han name and a Han surname, and he could speak Chinese, but his customs had just changed to those of the Southern Barbarians.

Five hundred Han and Qiang mixed cavalry rushed towards Longshan.

The rural Dharma altars of Da Chu were both grassroots religious centers and grassroots tax centers; they operated like missionary organizations and civil mutual aid societies.

When Yang Yun arrived with his cavalry, nearby people were paying food to the altar.

Seeing the cavalry coming, the people dispersed, leaving only a few fanatical believers who took up arms.

"The light is universally pure, and there is always happiness and silence without movement and curse. He enjoys happiness without troubles. If there is suffering, it is of no use..."

The altar owner here looked horrified, but he was still reciting Manichaeism's "Sighing the World" and leading the believers to take up weapons to protect the food.

Yang Yun raised his arm to make a gesture, and the messenger immediately blew the trumpet.

Not only have they been practicing for more than a year, but they also fought against Dali last year. After the order was sounded, the cavalry on both sides quickly dispersed and circled around. Although they could not be uniform, the formation change was very smooth.

Whoosh!

Hundreds of arrows were shot out one after another. These unarmored believers immediately collapsed because they had been hit by arrows and fell to the ground. Even the altar owner who was reciting scriptures was shot and injured.

Before the altar owner was hacked to death, he was still shouting: "Master (Zhong Xiang) is the Great Ming Zun who has descended to earth and will kill all of you descendants of the Dark Lord sooner or later!"

What bullshit?

Yang Yun rushed over with his horse, raised his gun and stabbed him to death. He ordered: "Gather the local people and transport all the new wheat to the north!"

Only a few dozen miles apart, the respected rebels in Jingmen and Dangyang turned into shameless invaders in Jiangling.

The nearby people were forcibly summoned and escorted the food reluctantly, with resentment in their eyes.

The rebels' war actions quickly attracted Zhong Xiang.

Yang Yao's elder brother, Yang Qin, was already the garrison of Jiangling at the age of twenty due to his valor in battle.

Currently, Yang Yao is serving as the captain of his brother's personal army.

Yang Qinhui reported: "Your Majesty, there are cavalry outside the city, but our army has no cavalry. I really don't know how to deal with it."

"Lead troops to expel!"

Zhong Xiang personally led the troops out of the city. He brought thousands of people from the south, plus the Jiangling garrison, a total of ten thousand people.

Among them, only Prime Minister Zhong's two thousand "imperial troops" had excellent armor. Although the rest of the troops also had armor, their weapons and armor were of all kinds.

Deng Chun was stationed in a small town. When he heard that tens of thousands of Chu troops were coming to attack, he immediately abandoned his food and grass and fled, and sent people to blow trumpets everywhere to gather the troops.

Although Zhong Xiang robbed Deng Chun of his food and grass, he had nothing to do next.

He had occupied most of Jinghu Road and ordered to search for horses, but there were still less than a hundred cavalry.

Three thousand Qingqi scattered in the countryside of Jiangling are beyond what Zhong Xiang can handle.

Zhong Xiang sent the only cavalry out to investigate, and soon a dozen of them escaped, followed by more than 200 cavalry in pursuit.

Zhong Xiang sent infantry to respond, and more than two hundred Teng Xiang's cavalry immediately retreated.

In desperation, Prime Minister Zhong had to lead his troops back to the city.

However, Deng Chun's cavalry gathered more and more, and the number of cavalry recalled from all over the country was close to 2,000.

The Chu army had not carefully practiced military formations. It was a mess when marching and it was also chaotic when forming formations. Two thousand Qingqi took the opportunity to run back and forth and fire arrows, making the Chu army formation even more chaotic. If it were not for the bonus of religious fanaticism, it is estimated that a few more rounds of shooting would have caused the entire army to collapse.

"Boom!"

The remaining one thousand cavalry were finally brought back by Yu Dian.

Yu Dian was originally the commander of the Lizhou Xiang Army. He followed Ju Ming to conquer the barbarians, but his military exploits were corrupted by traitors. Now he serves as the commander of the cavalry regiment like Yang Yun.

Deng Chun, Yu Dian, and Yang Yun each led a thousand cavalry. Taking advantage of the chaos of the Chu army, they began to travel in different directions and shoot arrows.

This was the first time that Zhong Xiang encountered a large group of cavalry. He had no means to deal with it and could only let the archers shoot arrows continuously. However, there were not many archers under his command, and it was difficult to effectively execute military orders in the chaos.

The nearly 10,000 Chu troops were shot to the point of collapse by 3,000 Qingqi.

If it were a city defense battle or a water battle, they would never be so passive, but this was when they encountered a large group of cavalry in the wild.

"Second brother, what should we do?" Yang Yao asked anxiously.

Yang Qin replied: "I don't know either. The Red Thief's cavalry is so powerful!"

Yang Yao said: "If we don't fight back, the soldiers will be shot and run away."

In fact, not many Chu soldiers were shot to death. Most of those hit by arrows were only injured. After all, no matter how bad the armor is, it is still armor. The cavalry under Deng Chun's command have not yet completely changed their standard bows and arrows, and many soldiers are still using native bows.

Making bows and arrows on a large scale is more difficult than making armor on a large scale.

Even if there are enough craftsmen and materials, it will still take time, and what can be speeded up to create can only be a sample product.

Prime Minister Zhong ordered two troops to attack. As soon as the Chu army took action, Deng Chun led his troops to other directions to shoot arrows.

The Chu army was forced to turn to respond. After several more attacks, the formation became increasingly chaotic.

"Woooooo~~~"

The horn sounded, and Deng Chun led a thousand light cavalry to charge towards the chaotic enemy formation.

"Raise the gun!"

Yang Qin shouted.

Deng Chun rushed to the vicinity and found that the enemy troops were not defeated, so he immediately turned and passed in front of their formation.

They had practiced this change of direction countless times, just like water washing through a solid rock, passing through both sides of the stone.

The typical cavalry tactic of cutting corners, unable to charge head-on, becomes diagonal cutting at two corners. With a few more cuts, the corners of the infantry will become thinner and thinner, getting closer and closer to the collapse of the formation.

Moreover, Deng Chun's men were all light cavalry, and they implemented corner-cutting tactics to avoid close combat.

They bullied the Chu army because there were not many archers. They shot arrows close to each other when they cut two corners to make up for the weak power of the earthen bows.

Just as Deng Chun made a diagonal cut, Yang Yun led his cavalry to rush over again, still using the same tactics.

When Yu Dian continued his third charge, the Chu army finally collapsed.

Brothers Yang Qin and Yang Yao were trapped by the defeated troops and fled.

Deng Chun, who turned around again and returned, drove his broken troops to attack Zhong Xiang's main formation. When Yang Yun also led his cavalry to fight back, all the Chu army's troops collapsed one after another.

When Zhong Xiang led his troops out of the city, he believed that he could drive away the enemy because of his large number of troops and high morale. He was also fighting on the mainland. Now they were defeated in a confused way, with no way to fight against the cavalry.

This man's military ability is really poor. He is far inferior to those generals of the Song Dynasty, and even far inferior to Tong Guan.

"Your Majesty, leave quickly!"

"Master, run quickly!"

"Master" is the nickname of the believers for Zhong Xiang, and only old believers before the war can call the Emperor of Chu this way.

Zhong Xiang rode fast among the rebels, and the remaining thirty or forty horses under his command escorted him all the way to escape. If the pursuers got too close, some cavalry would immediately stop and sacrifice their lives to fight for Zhong Xiang and the rear.

The battlefield was very close to Jiangling City, and soon the defeated troops fled to the moat, jumping down like dumplings.

All the Chu soldiers were good at swimming, and their armor was mostly made of leather or cloth, so not many people drowned.

Even Zhong Xiang abandoned his horse and jumped into the moat.

The emperor wore a pair of armor and sank to the bottom of the river like a weight. However, his water quality was so good that he half-swam and half-walked on the bottom of the river. He held his breath and advanced for more than ten meters, then took off his armor on his own directly at the bottom of the river.

The several bridges on the moat were completely crowded with defeated troops.

The archers who stayed behind in Jiangling would shoot arrows in that direction as soon as they saw a large group of enemy cavalry.

The city gates were also opened, and the defeated troops rushed into the city.

Deng Chun did not dare to lead his troops to pursue him because there was a barbican city in Jiangling.

The defeated troops just fled into the barbican city, and it was impossible to open the city gate inside.

If they dared to pursue Wengcheng, they would immediately lose their cavalry advantage and be crowded inside with countless broken troops. The defeated troops have no way to escape in Wengcheng. It is very likely that they will counterattack on the verge of death. If they are not careful, they will be caught in the urn.

Deng Chun personally guarded the prisoners and asked Yang Yun and Yu Dian to lead troops to capture the defeated troops who fled to the surrounding suburbs.

Zhong Xiang sometimes swam in the moat, sometimes surfaced, and chose a safe place to go ashore.

Until two days later, there were still broken troops fleeing back one after another.

Zhong Xiang counted the number of people and found that more than 5,000 people were lost in the battle.

If they were not very close to their own city, and the entire army collapsed after being killed like this, the limit of being able to gather a few hundred remaining soldiers would be the limit.

The morale of the Chu army was low. It was only one aspect that they suffered a defeat. The more serious situation was that they discovered that the reincarnated emperor, Daming Zun, was so frightened that he jumped into the water and fled at the critical moment.

Isn’t “Master” very powerful?

Zhong Xiang was filled with hatred and extremely fearful of the cavalry. He vowed never to fight with the Zhu bandits' troops on open and flat terrain again.

Then, to appease people's hearts, Zhong Xiang declared that Zhu Guoxiang was the reincarnation of the Dark Demon King, and Ju Ming was the Dark Demon Prince who descended to earth.

Zhong Xiang also said that although he was the reincarnation of the Great Ming Zun, his magic power had not been fully restored, and he was accidentally plotted by the Dark Demon Prince...