Tibet

Linqiong County, Qiongzhou, is the administrative seat of Qiongzhou. It is close to the Baizhu River in the south and the Xiejiang River ten miles away in the north. Linqiong County is located in the basin between the two rivers, to the west of the official road ten miles northwest of the county. It is also a small basin. There are hundreds of households here, forming a small town called Beiqiong Town.

The town is located in front of the most important official road, so there are many shops on both sides of the official road, including food, drink, entertainment, accommodation, grocery stores, dry food stores, etc., basically everything is available.

But the real customers of these shops are not merchants traveling from north to south, but a military camp on the other side of the official road.

The military camp occupies a large area and is surrounded by a fence. From the flag, it looks like the Qiongzhou state military camp, but in fact it is the private army of the Jia family. The leader is Jia Xiu, the brother of the family leader Jia Yuan. The other generals are either descendants of the Jia family. Either he is Jia Xiu's confidant.

The two thousand soldiers were also recruited by the Jia family at the expense of the Jia family. In fact, they gathered together the brave and fierce scoundrels from various townships in Qiongzhou. Each of them received a salary of five guan per month. Although they were far away from the county town, there were many shops around them. , food, drink, whoring and gambling are all available, making the soldiers live a happy life.

To the north of the military camp is a low and gentle hill about ten feet high. The mountain is covered with big trees, like a long green wall that surrounds the town and the military camp. The official road passes through the gap in the middle.

This low and gentle hill that is more than 20 miles long is the reason why the military camp arranged it here. It is a natural earth wall. The north side is very steep and cannot be climbed up the mountain. There are many mountain roads to the south side.

A three-foot-high sentry tower was built on the top of the mountain next to the official road. A sentry looked out from the sentry tower and could detect movements several miles away. Once there was a situation, the two thousand soldiers in the military camp immediately took action and blocked the official with huge rocks and trees. At the road intersection, soldiers went up the mountain to defend themselves with bows and arrows. There were uneven ground on both sides of the official road, and there were many rocks. The gaps were filled with shrubs and trees. It was difficult to walk, and there was no way to clear the battlefield. So they had to go to the official road. road.

What's more important is that this place is still ten miles away from Linqiong County. Once a fight breaks out here, Linqiong County can get the news immediately, and the Jia family still has time to retreat.

General Jia Xiu was originally the Yazhou military envoy of the Jiannan Army. He was an important supporter of King Yong Li Lin. He was later liquidated. After King Yong failed, Jia Xiu also lost military power. However, in order to appease the Jia family, Li Ye did not send Jia Xiu to power. Xiu was completely liquidated, but instead named him Qiongzhou's military envoy and guerrilla general.

There was no garrison in Qiongzhou, so the Qiongzhou military envoy was actually in vain, but it was this Qiongzhou military envoy who legitimized the two thousand people under Jia Xiu's command.

If there were no conflicts, the Jia family in Qiongzhou would maintain the status quo for a long time. However, with the abolition of slavery, the relationship between the Bashu nobles and the court began to deteriorate.

The people of Dongguo and Xijia in Bashu know that both of them made their fortune from salt and controlled more than half of the salt wells in Bashu. Of course, mining salt wells requires a large number of salt workers, but the Jia family and the Guo family have no salt workers, only salt slaves. The Guo family has two There are more than 10,000 slaves, and the Jia family also has nearly 20,000 salt slaves, working day and night in salt wells across Qiongzhou.

The abolition of slavery can be said to have directly hit the vital points of the Bashu wealthy family, and of course it also touched the vital interests of the Jia family.

Jia Wei, the governor of Qiongzhou, was the first to publicly declare in Jiannan Road that the abolition of slavery was invalid for Qiongzhou, followed by Yazhou, Meizhou, Jiazhou and Zizhou. They also stated that the abolition of slavery was invalid for their own states.

This statement was undoubtedly a declaration of war against the imperial court and the emperor. On the same day that Jia Wei's public statement reached Chang'an, Li Ye issued a military order to Li Sheng to annihilate the Qiongzhou army and exterminate the entire Jia family.

At night, an army of 20,000 people gradually approached Linqiong County, still twenty miles away from Beiqiong Town. The army stopped, followed by a caravan of more than 30 donkeys heading towards Beiqiong Town. go.

The leader was Tang Army Scout Captain Zhu Yong, who was a native of Chengdu. He and four of his men walked all the way. As they gradually approached the intersection of the mountain col, they were stopped by soldiers. There was a roadblock here.

"Who?" several soldiers asked scoldingly.

Zhu Yong said nothing and made a few gestures. The soldiers immediately understood that private salt dealers all walked at night.

The leader of the team was making a gesture. Zhu Yong took out a bronze medal from his arms and handed it to him. This is called the Jia brand, an identity card made by the Jia family. To buy salt from the Jia family, you must have this bronze medal.

When the leading soldier saw that the bronze medal number was five, he smiled and said, "Master Zhan's people?"

Mr. Zhan refers to Zhan Hongda, a big businessman in Chengdu. He is involved in basically all profitable businesses, takes both black and white, and has a deep friendship with the Jia family.

However, no matter how deep the friendship was, it was not as important as his own wealth and life. Seeing that the situation was not good, Zhan Hongda decisively defected to the court and sold the Jia family.

Zhu Yong nodded, and the leader of the team returned the bronze medal to him and said: "The county gate has been closed, and there is no accommodation further forward. Why not just stay in Beiqiong Town for one night, and set off again tomorrow. When we get to Linqiong County, we don't have to go any further." It’s night time.”

"Thank you!"

Zhu Yong took out a piece of silver weighing two ounces and threw it to the captain. The captain was overjoyed and quickly waved his hand, and the roadblock moved away.

The five people led the donkeys and continued forward. They didn't even need to search themselves. It was unnecessary. How could someone transporting smuggled salt not have any weapons with them?

A group of people stayed at an inn. The inn they chose also happened to face the gate of the military camp, and the watchtower on the top of the mountain could also be seen from the side.

During this time, the wind was very close, and Jia Xiu also strengthened his defenses. There were people monitoring the official road at the sentry tower at all times. However, the weather had been clear these past few nights, and the moonlight illuminated the official road like day.

It was difficult to break through from the front, so Li Sheng decided to start from the inside.

At two o'clock, the military camp finally quieted down. Zhu Yong set out with four men. They ran along the back of the shop. The five men split into two groups. Zhu Yong led one of his men and rushed up a mountain road.

The other three went to the intersection, where there were three soldiers on duty.

The mound was only a dozen feet high. Soon the two men touched the bottom of the wooden sentry tower. Zhu Yong and his men climbed up the sentry tower without hesitation.

In just a moment, they climbed up the sentry tower. The sentry tower was like a pavilion. There was a circle of baffles around the lower part, and an octagonal top on top. There was no shelter in the middle. Two sentinels took turns to stand guard. There was a bronze bell next to it. As long as the rope was pulled, the bronze bell would ring.

Two sentinels, one sitting on the ground and dozing, the other with his back to them, holding a spear and paying vigilant attention to the official road in the distance.

Zhu Yong made a gesture to his men, one to deal with one, and the two took out the crossbow and loaded the short crossbow arrow. Zhu Yong raised the crossbow and aimed at the back of the neck of the soldier on guard, while his men aimed at the face of the dozing soldier.

The two men pulled the trigger on their swords, and two crossbow arrows shot out at the same time. One crossbow arrow hit the back of the soldier's neck. The soldier screamed and fell to the ground.

The other arrow hit the face of the dozing soldier, but it hit his wide-open mouth. The arrow penetrated his face and shot out from his cheek. It was not fatal. The dozing soldier couldn't shout, so he struggled to get up and reached out to grab the alarm rope. Zhu Yong jumped up and swung his sword horizontally, cutting off the throat of the dozing soldier. The soldier fell on his back, blood splattered everywhere.

After killing the sentry tower, Zhu Yong looked at the intersection and saw a fire flickering three times on the other side of the intersection. The intersection was also taken.

Zhu Yong immediately lit a torch, covered it with the baffle below, and waved the torch back and forth.

Soon, the Tang army appeared, running on the official road in a black mass, and soon rushed through the intersection and killed towards the Jia family camp.

The soldiers standing guard in front of the camp discovered the Tang army coming and were so scared that they shouted loudly, but it was too late. The Tang army rushed into the camp like a tide.

The cunning rabbit has three burrows. The commander Jia Xiu was extremely cunning. His tent was located in the southwest corner. There was a hidden small door a few dozen steps away from the tent. Outside was a small path that led directly to the depths of the dense forest.

When he heard that the Tang army had entered the camp, he knew that something was wrong. He drew his sword and rushed out of the back tent, jumped on his horse, swung his sword to cut the reins, and rushed straight to the back door. The situation was tense these days, so Jia Xiu secretly conducted drills.

Several personal soldiers had cooperated to open the small door. Jia Xiu rushed out on horseback and soon disappeared in the dense forest. Several personal soldiers also ran out and locked the secret door with an iron chain from the outside. They also fled into the dense forest.

When the Tang army could not find the commander Jia Shen and finally found the secret door in the southwest corner, half an hour had passed.

This is the local snake, even a fierce dragon like Li Sheng may not be able to subdue them.

Li Sheng was furious and ordered the execution of all 2,000 soldiers to leave no future troubles. He personally led 10,000 cavalry to attack Linqiong County.