The Shu army marched south through Yuzhou, occupied the Wuchuan Valley, and advanced to the northern border of Shixian County on the west flank of Sizhou. The impact was multifaceted.
Sizhou did not dare to abandon Shiqian County, which occupied the river valleys on both sides of the middle reaches of Qianyang.
On the one hand, regardless of whether the Shu army's troop dispatch this time was a secret collusion with Xuzhou, since the Shu army has entered the Wuchuan Valley, it will definitely have the opportunity to occupy Shiqian County and open up the passage to the states and counties in central Guizhou to the south.
Won't miss it.
For Sizhou, the truth is the same.
Shiqian County, which occupies the valleys on both sides of the middle reaches of the Qianjiang River, is the core area where Sizhou connects central Guizhou to the south and Sichuan to the north. Once lost, Sizhou will be completely blocked deep in the southern foothills of Wuling Mountain, with no access everywhere.
A remote place.
For Sizhou, it would rather give up Jinhe in the east than Shiqian in the west.
The geographical location of Shiqian is so important.
Anji Xiang, Fu Gengwen and others understood the mountains and terrain in the southwest and the complex relationship between the various Fanzhou forces, and they would never dare to take the responsibility of watching Shiqian County in danger of falling without doing their best to save it.
Especially since they represented the imperial court and Hunan Province at this time, they were in Sizhou.
Although Da Chu's control over the Jisi Prefectures in central Guizhou is much weaker than that over Chenxuyesi Si Prefecture, and it can be said that it does not gain much benefit every year, the Jisi Prefectures in central Guizhou are still subordinate to Da Chu.
Fanzhou territory.
Once Shiqian falls into the hands of the Shu army and the Shu army opens a direct channel to central Guizhou, with Chu's weak control over central Guizhou, these Fan states may fall to Shu in any minute.
The fluctuations and fluctuations here have extremely huge control and influence on the southwest direction of Chu and Shu.
If Anji Xiang and Fu Gengwen dare to do nothing and return to Jinling, they will be targeted by the admonishers at the Yushitai.
After learning that Shuzhong occupied the Wuchuan Valley and had the intention to continue to advance south, Anji Xiang and Fu Gengwen rushed to Hukian Pass and met with Yang Xingfeng and Xishe Peng, but they were unable to speculate in detail.
Whether Han Qian was involved in this matter or not, he immediately advocated that Xishe Peng lead the Chenzhou Fan soldiers and the Eight Hundred Village slave soldiers to advance westward quickly to strengthen Shiqian's fragile defense.
Even if the powerful Shu army vanguard cannot be driven back in a short time and the Wuchuan Valley is recaptured, Shiqian must be defended first.
The Xi clan itself wanted to use Chu Ting to suppress Xuzhou's ambitions. Xi Shepeng had no choice at this time but to take care of the overall situation first.
In the past three months, the uprising army was like a prairie fire, but Yang Xingfeng reacted very quickly. He immediately contacted Yezhou and gathered troops to suppress it. After several battles, seeing that it was difficult to suddenly capture the dangerous mountain stronghold, he again
He quickly adjusted his strategy, built a large number of fortresses at the key pass leading deep into Panlong Ridge, and stationed elite soldiers to blockade the rebels and wait for backup.
The rebel army was very powerful, gathering more than 20,000 troops in just two or three months, but most of them were old, weak, women and children who had no strength to restrain themselves. Although there were as many as 5,000 to 6,000 adults, they lacked enough
Even with the armor and necessary training, it is difficult to compete with the troops from two states in an open area.
At present, based on the difficult terrain, more than a dozen mountain strongholds within Panlong Ridge are being defended. Within two or three months, there will be a shortage of supplies. Several attempts to break the blockade of the Tibetan soldiers in the two states have failed, and even suffered a lot.
casualties.
In less than three months, the rebel army's initially buoyant morale began to decline.
The news that the Shu army had sent troops to occupy the Wuchuan Valley reached Panlong Ridge. Most of the generals of the rebel army had no concept of home and country. They just thought that the Yang family in Sizhou had been stabbed in the butt by the Shu army. Their future was unstable and they must be
The situation was in chaos, which gave them hope of victory, and their morale was greatly boosted for a while.
Even though An Xiang and Fu Gengwen sent people to Tanzhou to meet with the newly appointed envoy Huang Hua, they strongly advocated transferring the elite left Shenwu army from Shaozhou to Sizhou for reinforcements, but the Sizhou generals may not dare to fully realize their hopes.
Count on reinforcements from the Left Shenwu Army.
If the Left Shenwu Army wants to enter Sizhou, they have to cross the Xuefeng Mountain Post Road and then pass through Xuzhou. Even if Xuzhou doesn't do anything, the main responsibility of the Left Shenwu Army is to guard against the two groups of rebels retreating to Yongzhou in the south. How many can be mobilized?
Soldiers and horses coming?
Xuanwei envoy Huang Hua weighed the pros and cons, and it was not impossible to compromise with Xuzhou and sacrifice Sizhou's interests.
Huang Hua finally wants to mobilize soldiers from Xuzhou to aid Sizhou. How should Sizhou deal with it?
Previously, Emperor Yanyou and all the princes in the court were on guard against Xuzhou, and ordered Xuzhou to hold their troops stationary, and sent troops from Chenzhou into Sizhou to help suppress it, because what happened in Sizhou at that time was not significant in the eyes of the princes in the court.
In a critical situation, the slaves who are relatively easy to exterminate will riot, and they can't break the sky.
Now that the Shu army is taking action without permission, the situation is completely different.
If the military defense deployment of the entire southwest is fundamentally changed just because of suspicion that Han Qian has the ambition to annex Sizhou, and it may even make the military defense situation of the entire southwest region confused, then it is not just a matter of directly annexing Sizhou.
Entering Xuzhou.
The pros and cons here are easy to weigh.
The best result is that Sizhou has wiped out the rebels before the Xuanwei envoy makes a decision. He has enough soldiers and horses to guard Shiqian, the gateway, and keep the Shu army from outside the country. Naturally, there is no need
I am worried that there will be a wolf entering the house later.
Therefore, while Yang Hu led the 800 slave soldiers of the village and Xishe Peng's troops quickly marched westward to reinforce Shiqian, Yang Xingfeng, Yang Shouyi and other Sizhou generals also immediately adjusted their deployment at the foot of Panlongling Mountain and concentrated their forces to attack.
Nanhuang, Shihezi and other villages.
The battle between the Sizhou soldiers and the rebels in Panlongling suddenly became fierce.
Shihezi Village is located at the western foot of Panlong Ridge, less than thirty miles away from Renshan, the city of Zhou. On a clear day, you can see the city of Zhou built on the banks of the Baiyan River.
Shihezi was built on a dangerous site, so the village was naturally extremely narrow. Even if half of the houses were demolished, only three simple cyclone cannons could be erected.
There is a shallow stream flowing through the valley. In October, the weather is not too cold, but it is still winter. The rain in the mountains has decreased, the stream bed is exposed, rocks are piled up, and only a very shallow stream is flowing.
In the past, there was a deep stream blocking the mountain pass, and three cyclone cannons took turns throwing stone bombs to block the mountain pass, thus suppressing the state soldiers outside the mountain pass and not daring to approach easily.
Tan Yuliang stood on the stone wall today and saw more than 200 Sizhou soldiers, surrounded by six or seven shield chariots, rushing towards the mountain pass along the open valley. His wrinkled brows became deeper and deeper.
stand up.
In the past, when the Sizhou soldiers blocked the perimeter, there was a shortage of supplies in the mountains, and the blockade could not be broken, the morale of the Tianping army was inevitably low, but Tan Yuliang actually had nothing to worry about.
The soldiers of Sizhou preserved their strength and did not dare to bear too many casualties and losses to attack, which showed that the situation was under Xuzhou's control.
At present, the Shu army is sending troops to occupy Wuchuan. Even if Tan Yuliang cannot guess how Han Qian persuaded the Shu army, he can guess that all this is Han Qian's arrangement. But the closer to the last moment, the more dangerous the situation will become.
, unexpected changes may occur at any time.
Because for the Sizhou Yang family, forced by the situation, it was time to give it a try.
The Sizhou soldiers themselves are good at mountain warfare, and they have spent more than a year attacking Wuliao people's mountain strongholds and have accumulated experience in uprooting dangerous strongholds.
They did not have a formal cast-iron shield cart. Instead, they mainly spliced thick wooden door panels together and mounted them on the wheels to create a shield cart. It looked heavy and clumsy, but was very sturdy and durable.
Hundreds of kilograms of stone bullets were thrown at it, and the giant shield made of door panels could not withstand it.
However, the current firing speed of large stone projectiles is slow. During the charge of the attacker approaching the walled city, the three cyclone cannons can fire at most three large round stone projectiles.
This kind of round stone bullet, which weighs hundreds of kilograms, was mainly used to attack large fixed weapons in the past. The generals approaching the city only need to pay attention to avoidance and disperse the charge formation, and the casualties will be quite limited.
Tan Yuliang could see that the Sizhou soldiers used chariot wheels to set up a giant shield made of thick wooden door panels, which was used to prevent them from throwing stone bombs and reduce their casualties when passing through the mountain pass.
By allowing the Sizhou soldiers to pass through the narrow mountain pass easily, they could take a stand in the valley in front of the stockade and then organize an attack on the Shihezi stockade.
After several tentative attacks, Tan Yuliang realized that the Sizhou Fan soldiers were very determined to attack this time, and he did not dare to let the Sizhou Fan soldiers so comfortably advance to the front of the village. He immediately ordered the gate of the village to be opened, and asked Lieutenant General Lang
Sandao, his son Tan Lang and others took turns leading their men and horses to fight out and drive the Sizhou soldiers who entered the village out of the mountain pass. They did not dare to suffer casualties and suppressed the Sizhou soldiers outside the narrow mountain pass.
After several bloody battles, the attacking troops were delayed at the mountain pass seven to eight feet wide, forcing them to form a dense formation, and then used the cyclone cannon behind them to exert more lethality.
Of course, the insurrectionary army was poorly trained and poorly armored. They relied on their bravery to stand in front and fought with the well-equipped and brave soldiers, resulting in heavy casualties. After fighting back and forth several times, the blood dyed the shallow stream flowing through the mountain pass red, and the corpses
The narrow valley in front of the mountain pass is covered with irregular shapes.
For the attacking Sizhou soldiers, the casualties of the soldiers in the forward line were not heavy, but among the rear ranks, more than 100 people were killed and injured by scattered stone bullets. Some of them could not hold on and had to retreat to the outside of the valley.
The camp is resting.
The Sizhou Fan soldiers were gathering on the outside, and the rebel army was also mobilizing troops and horses through the dangerous trails inside Panlong Ridge.
Zhao Zhixian and Pei Pu arrived at Shihezi Village before dusk. They were secretly shocked when they saw corpses strewn on the ground and blood flowing in rivers in front of the mountain pass.
Tan Yuliang saw that there was no sign of the enemy attacking at night, so he ordered his sons Tan Qiu and Diao Xiazi to watch the enemy's movements in front of the mountain on the wall of the village. Just as he was about to go into the village to talk to Zhao Zhixian and Pei Pu, he saw his cousin Tan Xiuqun.
With forty or fifty men and horses, they circled back from the mountain in the north.
Tan Yuliang waited for a long time, and when Tan Xiuqun and the others reached the wall of the village, he saw that Tan Xiuqun's shoulders and waist were covered with injuries. At this time, blood was still seeping out.
Asked: "What happened in Songfeng Village?"
"I heard that Shihezi Village was fighting urgently, and brought more than fifty people to support this side, but I didn't expect that there were more than a hundred soldiers lying in ambush in Shipangou waiting for me to bite the hook. Fortunately, Wenlin saw the situation.
No, I brought people out to rescue and finally managed to kill this group of people. We suffered more than forty casualties this time. How is the situation here?" Tan Xiuqun didn't care about his own injuries or the sudden and fierce offensive of the Sizhou soldiers.
Worried, he frowned and asked.
The village wall sloped slightly inward, and the stone wall was also rugged, making it easy to climb. Tan Yuliang directly pulled Tan Xiuqun up to the wall and let him see with his own eyes the casualties at the mountain pass.
"Fuck, Yang Xingfeng took the wrong medicine?" Tan Xiuqun spat.
There were rebel generals on both sides of the wall, and it was inconvenient to talk. Tan Yuliang, Tan Xiuqun, Zhao Zhixian, and Pei Pu went into the village to talk.
"Xuzhou won't pile us up here, right?"
There was no one in the hall except Zhao Zhixian's youngest son, Zhao Fangcheng, who was checking the arrow wound on Tan Lang's shoulder and back. Tan Xiuqun couldn't wait to express his worries.
Although Tan Yuliang was elected as General Tianping after the uprising, when he actually led the rebel army to fight against the Sizhou soldiers, they had differences with Dong Tai, Dong Ping, Zhang Guangdeng and other rebel generals on the tactical arrangements for running the army and commanding the troops for combat.
, the contradictions are becoming more and more prominent.
After a series of internal adjustments and compromises, Tan Yuliang, Tan Xiuqun and others led the Tan family's children, and Diao Xiazi and others led 1,5600 troops to guard Shihezi, Songfenggang and other several towers at the western foot of Panlong Ridge.
Stockade.
Shihezi was nominally the headquarters of the Tianping Army, but in fact, Dong Tai and Dong Ping were the direct leaders of two or three of the rebels.
Since the rebel army lacked suitable medical officers, Zhao Zhixian and Pei Pu still took their disciples to stay in Nanhuang, Quanshi and other villages at the eastern foot of Panlong Ridge to treat the wounded.
The fighting on the western foothills suddenly became fierce today. Several villages on the eastern foothills of Panlong Ridge have been fighting fierce battles for several days, with even more heavy casualties.
Although the rebel army had more than 5,000 and nearly 6,000 generals, it suffered between three and four hundred casualties every day. It is no wonder that Tan Xiuqun could not remain calm.
As long as they are human, no one will really be willing to become a pawn in the hands of others.
At this time, no movement could be seen in Xuzhou. It was abnormal for Tan Xiuqun not to have any resentment or worry.
Pei Pu first reported the news that Huang Hua was transferred to Hunan as the Xuanwei envoy, and that Xishe Peng and Yang Hu led the Chenzhou camp and 800 slave soldiers to Shiqian to resist the Shu army: "Your Excellency also expected that Yang Xingfeng might be worried about the Xuanwei envoy.
Huang Hua will make a decision that is unfavorable to Sizhou, so he will fight to the death at the last moment. Your Majesty wants you to persist for another half month."
"What if the situation cannot be changed by then?" Tan Xiuqun, who was less in awe of Han Qian, asked directly.
"Xiuqun." Tan Yuliang asked Tan Xiuqun in a deep voice to pay attention to his tone of voice.
Although Pei Pu studied medicine under Zhao Zhixian in his early years, he was delivering messages on behalf of Xuzhou at this time and was not their junior - and when the situation reached this point, they could only rely on Xuzhou, and even if they had doubts in their hearts, they could not express them.
Pei Pu said: "I also asked the messenger about this, and the messenger asked me in turn, when did you call Master Tan and Master Zhao was disappointed?"
Tan Yuliang and Zhao Zhixian looked at each other and both showed a wry smile. They had never given them hope, but they had once made them despair.