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Chapter 735 Westward Expedition (2)

The various tribes of Qiang cavalry originally joined forces in a hurry and did not have much fighting spirit. In addition to not wanting too strong external forces to intervene in Chengzhou, when they gathered together, they mostly listened to Hou Mo's words of waiting for work in leisure, thinking that they could get some benefits.

With this kind of mentality, it may be okay for the Qiang cavalry to fight with the wind, but they did not expect that the Liangzhou army who came from afar would be so brave, and their armor was also very strong. In just two sticks of incense, they killed more than a hundred of them. ride.

Seeing that there was no hope of victory, all the Qiang cavalry retreated in panic. No one was willing to stay at the east entrance of Niuwei Gorge and compete with the Liangzhou army with their own elites.

When Zhang Song and Li Zhigao arrived at the same place, they saw thousands of enemy cavalry abandoning more than a hundred corpses and fleeing into the canyon on the west side.

Although the Liangzhou Army also suffered hundreds of casualties, it could be said to be a great victory because they attacked the cavalry with foot and the rest with hard work.

Most of the generals did not expect that the Qiang cavalry would be so vulnerable. At this time, they felt that their fatigue and sleepiness had been swept away. Many generals and military attachés who had not won the battle just now crowded around Li Zhigao and asked for leadership. The troops went to pursue the enemy cavalry.

"Commander Commander, Luoyang armor is so damn tough. Look at the dozens of bumps on the armor. They were all shot by the Qiang people with strong bows at close range. They didn't even break a single hole. The Qiang generals are so brave. I used a spear to poke two holes in the armor, but they didn't penetrate too deep, so I was stabbed open in the thigh..." Zhang Song was so tired that his hands and feet couldn't help but tremble after taking off the strength. So soft, he sat down on the muddy road. He didn't care about etiquette in front of Li Zhigao, banged his helmet sonorously and shouted excitedly.

The vanguard troops and horses who advanced westward this time were also responsible for opening up the road. They did not have a large number of troops, horses and camels to transport supplies, and the generals were all lightly armored.

Luoyang sent more than ten pairs of full-coverage plate armor this time, each weighing about fifty kilograms. Although it is much heavier than ordinary leather armor, it is still a bit lighter than full-coverage armor.

Li Zhigao thought that this kind of armor would have weaker protection against spears and spears, but he did not expect that its protective performance would be superior to that of gold-covered armor.

At this time, Li Zhigao didn't care to listen to Zhang Song's nagging as if he was offering a treasure. He led the generals Dong Zehai and He Yan to lead the 1,200 generals who had not fought just now and had recovered to a certain extent, and continued along the post road to the mouth of the canyon. Move forward, take advantage of the enemy's cavalry to flee in panic, and the formation is unstable. You must control the Xixiakou of Niujiyi before nightfall.

That was the exit into the hilly area at the western foot of the Qinling Mountains. As long as he occupied it first, he would not have to worry about being blocked by the enemy to the east of Niuwei Gorge and unable to enter Longyou.

The former army generals who had just participated in the fierce battle stayed where they were to rest.

The entire battle did not seem to last long, and only took two sticks of incense. However, for the former generals who had been traveling for days and were severely exhausted, their physical strength was stretched to the limit at this time.

The medical team also came forward to bandage the wounds of the injured generals. The seriously injured set up tents on the spot for rescue. More than 30 war dead also had to be buried on the spot. More than 60 enemy horses that had fled to the river beach were collected. When we come here, we will capture more than a dozen injured enemy soldiers. The results of the first battle are quite good.

After interrogating the wounded enemy soldiers, Li Zhigao and Zhang Song learned that just seven days ago, Wusu Dashi sent an envoy from Taiyuan to formally appoint Mo, the chief of the Hou clan of the Xiang tribe of the Qiang party, to be the governor of Chengzhou, and accepted it. The temperance of the newly conferred king Xiaoxian of Longyou County.

Only then did Li Zhigao and Zhang Song realize why they had not noticed the anomaly in Chengzhou in advance. The scouts they sent had left Chengzhou ten days ago. Maybe the Mongol secret envoys had not formally contacted the Hou family at that time.

, but they also felt very lucky.

If Hou Mo had accepted the appointment of the Mongols a month or two earlier, and united the Qiang tribes in Chengzhou more closely, and even led Wang Xiaoxian's troops to station in Chengzhou, they would have wanted to enter Chengzhou through the Niujiyi dangerous road.

It's definitely not going to be that easy.

It was just a few days after Hou Mo accepted the appointment from the Mongol people that the Qiang tribe and several Han people did not necessarily agree with this so-called appointment. When four days ago they detected that the Liangzhou army troops were marching westward along the ancient road on the north bank of the Rhinoceros River, Hou Mo

Mo invited all the tribes within the territory to form an alliance. Shanglu City just scraped together more than 1,500 cavalry, and hastily pulled out two-thirds of the troops and rushed to the Niuwei Gorge to intercept them. However, they did not expect to be severely beaten in the first battle.

defeat.

This was definitely a heavy blow to the reputation of the new Chengzhou governor.

Just after the interrogation here, Dong Zehai, the commander-in-chief of the Chinese Army, sent people over to report that they had chased them to the west entrance of Niuwei Gorge. The Qiang cavalry tried to gather forces to fight back, but the Qiang cavalry were divided and had their own agenda.

In less than a stick of incense, the battle at the mouth of the Xixiakou was forty or fifty Qiang cavalrymen who were killed and dismounted, and the rest dispersed in a swarm.

They captured seven wounded enemy soldiers and more than 30 horses at the mouth of the West Gorge of Niuwei Gorge. Their casualties were less than half of the enemy's.

Xiangbei was short of war horses in the early years. There were only more than 10,000 war horses. After being defeated and fleeing to Liangzhou, Li Zhigao had more than 3,000 war horses left in his hands. At the beginning of the year, almost all of them were killed to make up for the shortage of military rations; there were even more war horses left.

Less than a few horses.

Even the guard beside Li Zhigao was Feng Yi. After Lu Ze arrived at Mianyang, he first distributed more than fifty war horses to serve as mounts.

Unexpectedly, when he first entered Chengzhou, he captured more than a hundred good war horses. Zhang Song happily planned to form a riding camp so that he could ride in the hills, deserts and grasslands of Longxi and win over the tribes.

Li Zhigao asked Zhang Song to stay and lead more than 700 generals who had just participated in the war to camp and rest on the spot. Surrounded by his guards, he rushed to the west entrance of Niuwei Gorge to meet Dong Zehai, He Yan and the others...

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After Feng Yi and Lu Ze learned that the forward troops and horses were engaging the enemy, they led two hundred light cavalry over early the next morning to meet up with Zhang Song first. Although Deng Tai led the main force of the rear army and was already on the road, the rear army was not ready.

The main force is infantry, and there are also baggage and supplies accompanying them. The speed is not fast, and it will take at least six or seven days to arrive.

Feng Yi, Zhang Song, and Lu Ze led more than 900 generals into Niuwei Gorge and rushed to the west entrance.

Li Zhigao did not continue to kill Shanglu County, which was only forty miles to the northwest. Instead, he followed Dong Zehai and He Yan and set up camp on the valley plain at the foot of Moliang Mountain outside the west entrance, where a stream was almost exhausted after winter.

Before Tanihara.

"The enemy army is weak and the people are not united. We defeated them in both battles. It can be said that they are completely vulnerable. Hou Mo, the traitor commander, is probably regretting coming forward to accept the appointment of the Mongol people. Why didn't the supervisor go to Shanglu City in one go?"

Kill them and rest after taking Shanglu City?" Zhang Song, Feng Yi, and Lu Ze walked into the tent and saw Li Zhigao treating several captured soldiers as guests and asking about the situation in Chengzhou. They couldn't help but

asked confused.

Li Zhigao invited Feng Yi, Lu Ze and Zhang Song to sit down and talk together, explaining why he was not in a hurry to send troops to attack Shanglu County:

"The hearts of the Qiang tribes are divided, even the Mongol people who have just been appointed as the governor of Chengzhou

Hou Mo didn't want his elites to fight us in a bloody battle, so he fled back when he encountered slight resistance in the field battle. This is not surprising, but Shanglu City is small and strong, and it belongs to the Hou family.

The fundamental point is that they cannot give up easily. And we have no siege weapons to use, and it is difficult to persuade the Hou family to surrender in a short period of time. It is difficult to capture Shanglu City suddenly at this time."

Feng Yi nodded, expressed his understanding for Li Zhigao's consideration, and asked: "What are you going to do next?"

Although Han Qian asked Feng Yi not to interfere with Li Zhigao's decision-making as much as possible when setting off from Luoyang, as the military envoy of the capital, it was impossible for him to say that he was completely indifferent to Li Zhigao's military strategy.

Li Zhigao replied: "After Hou Mo defeated Niuwei Gorge yesterday, he sent people to Tianshui to ask for help. Wang Xiaoxian didn't have many troops stationed in Tianshui. Even if the whole army went out, it would only be 4,000 horse infantry. We rested for two days, but in

Shangliangxia will first face the enemy's reinforcements. As long as the enemy's reinforcements are broken, I believe that every family in Chengzhou will have their own choices..."

Chengzhou is sandwiched between the southwestern foothills of Longshan Mountain and the western foothills of the Qinling Mountains. Wang Xiaoxian did not send reinforcements. If he sent reinforcements, they would go south from the west foothills of Longshan Mountain, and then quickly move eastward along the Niujiyi Ancient Road from the southern foothills of Longshan Mountain to Shangliang.

The gorge is the only way it must pass.

As long as they can ambush the reinforcements coming from Tianshui in Shangliang Gorge and defeat them, they will be able to frighten and surrender the Qiang tribes in Chengzhou, and then they can capture Lucheng without a fight.

Feng Yi nodded and said worriedly:

"When the generals and soldiers first enter Chengzhou, they will have to fight one after another without adequate rest and recuperation, and the losses will probably be considerable."

"It will be difficult to gain a foothold in Longyou without fighting hard at this time, but as long as we can repel the enemy's reinforcements, we can open up the situation slightly." Li Zhigao said.

"The main force of Commander Li's forward force will guard the mouth of Shangliang Gorge. I can lead the cavalry to ambush in the valley on the flank. When the time is right, I can attack as a surprise force!" Lu Ze heard Li Zhigao tell him about his military strategy, and then looked at the terrain map of Shangliang.

There are many peaks and valleys on the left and right sides of the gorge, and there are many places where two hundred cavalry can be hidden, so I asked for a battle route.

"good!"

Lu Ze, the two hundred cavalry led by Yang Mu, came from Luoyang with Feng Yi. They can be said to be Feng Yi's guards. Li Zhigao would not take the initiative to use these two hundred cavalry to charge into the battle, but Lu Ze took the initiative to ask for a fight and would not refuse.

.

After all, the combat effectiveness of these two hundred elite cavalry cannot be underestimated at this time.

After discussing the details of the ambush operation, Li Zhigao sent Zhang Song to lead his troops to Liangxia to prepare for the war.

Then Li Zhigao ordered all the captured soldiers from the previous two battles to be brought over. Except for the captured soldiers from the Hou family, he and Feng Yi decided to release all the captured soldiers from other tribes. They even personally presented a bunch of jewelry and jade to the prisoners.

They brought back the tribe to show their intention to win over.

Feng Yi saw that Li Zhigao was not worried about the news of the ambush of enemy reinforcements in Shangliang Gorge being leaked in advance, so he naturally had no objection. Besides, they had already entered Chengzhou at this time, and their every move on the north bank of the Rhinoceros River could not be hidden from the nearby tribes.

Now that Zhang Song has led his troops to enter Shangliang Gorge in advance for deployment, anyone with a little military knowledge can figure out what their intentions are.

Now it depends on whether these tribes will assess the situation.

Besides, even if some tribes are determined to surrender to the Mongols and are determined to leak their plan to ambush enemy reinforcements in the Shangliang Gorge to the Tianshui defenders, this will only slow down the Tianshui defenders' southward reinforcements.

This not only gave them more time to build fortifications in Shangliang Gorge, but also gave them time to wait for subsequent troops to enter Chengzhou.

Their ultimate goal was to conquer the tribes and Han people in Chengzhou, rather than to annihilate all the local forces in Chengzhou.

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Hou Mo accepted the reward from the Mongols. In addition to coveting the gold and silver jewels sent by the Mongolian envoys, he also wanted to use the name of the Mongols to rule Chengzhou, which had been fragmented over the years. At this time, it can be said that he was riding a tiger and was unable to get off.

But when other tribes saw the Liangzhou Army's westward advance, they were horrified and almost all chose to wait and see.

Three days later, Tianshui guard Yuan Shou personally led 3,000 troops to reinforce Chengzhou and arrived at Shangliang Gorge.

At this time, the main force of the rear army led by Deng Tai was still halfway, but the Qiang tribes in Chengzhou chose to wait and see. Even Hou Mo, who accepted the appointment of the Mongols as the governor of Chengzhou, led his troops to guard Shanglu City.

Send troops to fight.

Li Zhigao personally led his troops to dig trenches and build protective walls at the western mouth of Shangliang Gorge to resist enemy attacks.

The enemy failed to capture Shangliang Gorge after two days of strong attack, so they thought of retreating to Fangzhong Mountain to the west to rest.

Taking advantage of the enemy's intention to retreat to the west, Lu Ze personally led two hundred elite cavalry to rush out from the valley where they had been ambushed four days in advance. Like an extremely sharp knife, they pierced the enemy's flank from the flank.

The 3,000 men and horses led by Yuan Shou were all horse infantry. When they arrived at Shangliang Gorge, they gathered their horses together. More than 3,000 soldiers dismounted and formed many formations. They took turns to attack the Liangzhou army defending Shangliang Gorge.

Realized that there was an ambush hidden in the valley to the north.

Seeing that the strong attack was fruitless and his generals suffered heavy casualties, Yuan Shou decided to temporarily withdraw his troops and retreat westward.

At this time, except for leaving a force of troops and horses to block the Liangzhou Army's counterattack at the west entrance of Shangliang Gorge, the other soldiers needed to retrieve their troops and horses before they could quickly withdraw westward. The chaos and disorder inside was also evident.

Lu Ze led his troops to charge out. Although the enemy was alert in advance and organized more than two hundred sword and shield soldiers on the flanks to intercept them, they were faced with powerful crossbows that could penetrate wooden shields at close range and wielding halberds and long swords.

The horse shield soldiers were killed and routed without even being able to withstand half a cup of tea.

The enemy army panicked, and the small group of brave soldiers could not intercept Lu Ze and the others. Lu Ze focused on the flag of the enemy general Yuan Shou and ran rampant deep in the enemy's formation.

At this time, Li Zhigao also led the main forward force to cross the trenches and charge out.

The enemy general Yuan Shou could not hold on for long. Seeing that the situation was hopeless, he fled in a panic surrounded by his cavalry. The remaining Shu soldiers collapsed completely. They either knelt down and surrendered, or were shot and killed mercilessly by bows, crossbows, spears and halberds.

.

By dusk, Li Zhigao withdrew his troops and horses into the Shangliang Gorge. They had killed thousands of Shu soldiers and captured more than 900 Shu soldiers. The total casualties of the Liangzhou Army and Luoyang Cavalry in the two days were less than 500.

.

If the main force of the rear army had not taken the Rhinoceros Road slowly, the bulk of the supplies would have lagged even further, and they did not have enough troops. They took advantage of the enemy's rout and rushed to Tianshui, captured most of Qinzhou, and completely blocked Wang Xiaoxian's headquarters.

To the east of Longshan, it is not unimaginable.

Although the journey from Mianyang and Lueyang was only 300 miles, Rhinoceros Station was too narrow and dangerous, and the soldiers were trapped and did not get enough rest. Nearly 600 casualties accumulated, and for the time being, they could not continue to pursue and defeat the enemy.

The combat effectiveness of attacking a city and seizing a stronghold.

After gathering his troops back to Shangliang Gorge, Li Zhigao was not in a hurry to attack the Qiang tribes and Shanglu and Tonghe cities between Shangliang Gorge and Niuwei Gorge and north of the Rhinoceros River. Instead, he and Feng Yi formally attacked Daliang Long

You Xuan comfort envoy, sent in the name of the military envoy of the Duyuan Supervisor

He personally rode to the villages of the Qiang tribes and Shanglu and Tonghe cities, and ordered the Hou family and other Qiang tribes to surrender to Daliang.

Of course, in addition to letting bygones be bygones, the conditions for accepting vassalage from the Qiang tribes such as the Hou family are also quite generous. In addition to the need to allocate people to the cultivated land for unified grain and tax collection, they only require the cavalry of the Qiang tribes to accept the Longyou Xuan Comfort Envoy.

With the moderation, you can even be exempted from other taxes.

Another point is that the Longyou Xuanwei Envoy will directly set up trading points in each Hanzhai and Fanzhai. Citizens of Chengzhou counties, especially Han people, regardless of their status, can directly trade goods with the trading points, and Qiang people.

Tribes are not allowed to interfere.

Although Chengzhou was occupied by Tubo for more than a hundred years in the previous dynasty, and the forces of the Qiang tribes who surrendered to Tubo became stronger in Chengzhou, the southwestern region of Longxi, including Chengzhou, Wuzhou, Qinzhou and other places, has been close to the Central Plains Dynasty since the Qin and Han Dynasties.

As the ruling center of the Central Plains, it accepted the rule of the Central Plains Dynasty, and countless Han soldiers and civilians moved in to live and multiply.

In terms of population ratio, at this time, Han people accounted for more than 70% of the total population in the Shanglu Valley west of Shangliang Gorge, and they had a relatively complete farming foundation.

During the Tubo occupation, the Han people had a low status and were enslaved. During the Zhaozong period of the previous dynasty, the Guanzhong troops recovered the southwestern Longxi region and mainly used the Qiang tribe to rule these areas. The Han people were still in a enslaved position.

Even though the Qiang tribes did not have a tradition of annexing fields, in addition to forcing the Han people to pay grain and maintaining local political power, the Qiang tribes also completely monopolized local commerce and trade.

At present, the Western Expeditionary Army has taken over local political power, but direct land taxes and levies cannot solve the food supply problem of the Western Expeditionary Army. This requires further breaking the Qiang tribe's monopoly on local trade.

Although the Qiang tribes were surrendered and a well-regulated cavalry unit was assembled in a short period of time, the larger the cavalry unit, which was dominated by Qiang cavalry, became difficult to control.

However, relying only on the narrow Rhinoceros Station, the supplies delivered are limited, and the transportation costs are extremely high, and cannot be controlled from logistical supplies. It is difficult to imagine the possibility of the assembled Qiang cavalry being reorganized into the elite of the Daliang lineage.

Although Han Qian did not impose too many restrictions on Li Zhigao, and even after marching into Longyou, he decided that Li Zhigao would be responsible for recommending local officials. However, he asked Li Zhigao to try his best to solve the problem of oppression and enslavement of the Han people in Longyou.

At that time, it was particularly emphasized that the Han people of Longyou must be able to directly participate in the trade between Rhinoceros Station and the Longyou area.

In these years, Han Qian implemented the fundamental principles of the new system. In the case of limited space for the development of productive forces, he mainly tried every means to squeeze the space for the middle rentier class to occupy social production interests through various means.

The advantage of this is that it can not only give the common people at the bottom a breath of relief, but also protect the central income; in fact, the benefits held by the rentier class in the middle will be distributed as much as possible to both ends.

The people will be safe if they have food to cover their bellies and clothing to cover their bodies, and the affairs of the military and state are nothing more than money and food.

No matter who has the talent and scheming of gods and ghosts to solve this fundamental problem, they will not be able to turn the tide and resolve the real crisis; and to solve this fundamental problem, not to mention Han Qian, Shen Yang, The ability of Huang Hua and others can also govern a country in an orderly manner.

In Daliang, Han Qian broke the monopoly of local forces on grain trade and implemented a policy of unified sales and purchase of key materials such as grains. He has successfully suppressed grain prices to 600 yuan per stone.

This not only solves the problem of food supply balance within Daliang and solves the problem of famine among the poor at the bottom, but it is also extremely important. Even if Han Qian decides to leave the food tax collected from the traditional field tax to the states and counties for their own use, the central government cannot With less than one-third of the money from the Jianghuai region, enough military rations can be purchased from the local area to support the war effort.

Grain prices in the Jianghuai River have always been quite high. A very important reason is that clan and township lords mainly occupy most of the local surplus grain through annexation of land, and then have a near-complete monopoly on the local grain trade.

In fact, most of the huge profits generated by high food prices have been taken up by old and new landowners such as clans, township lords and so on.

Over the past dynasties, in order to obtain cheap, sufficient and stable food, the central government has levied physical taxes, mainly on food, from various places and transported them to the central government and military garrison regardless of the cost. This has actually caused huge losses. Loss.

Longyou, especially the three prefectures of Chengwu and Qin in southwest Longnan, has abundant rainfall and a large number of valleys and dams between the mountains. After thousands of years of reclamation, it has a good farming foundation and large tracts of pasture to supplement the source of meat. There is no problem in obtaining sufficient supplies on the spot for 20,000 soldiers and horses.

The problem is that the three prefectures and nine counties have a population of less than 200,000. They have been able to collect full land taxes and taxes, and they can only collect 100,000 shi of grain and grain, which can only meet less than half of the supply needs of 20,000 soldiers and horses. The rest needs to be How to solve the problem through trade is the first issue that the Western Expedition Army must consider.

The Rhinoceros Trail is narrow and dangerous, and there are mostly solid rock cliffs along the way. It is difficult to expand it in a short period of time like the Songnan Plank Road regardless of cost. Currently, only high value-added products such as tea, porcelain, medicinal materials, cotton cloth, and salt can be expanded. Freight enters Southwest Longnan for trade.

If the Han people at the bottom, who actually farm and produce food, are not allowed to directly participate in trade and continue to watch the Qiang tribe monopolize trade, huge profits will inevitably be taken up by local tribal forces, and the living conditions of the Han people at the bottom will not be substantially improved. If the customs were changed, the profits shared by the Western Expeditionary Army from trade would not be able to make up for the gap in food and grass supplies.

However, if the Han people can directly participate in trade, the Western Expeditionary Army can purchase grain and grass cheaply from the trade. On the one hand, it can also intercept more profits and purchase more grain, cattle and sheep and other meat, and truly improve the local economy. Only by improving the living conditions of the farming Han people can we truly gain the support of the Han people who make up the majority of the population in southwestern Longxi.

Feng Yi, the military envoy of Longyou Dudu, did not impose any restrictions or restraints on Li Zhigao in other aspects, but even though he was using old officials from Liangzhou, he insisted on setting up as many direct trade points as possible within the Shanglu Valley. Special emphasis was placed on allowing Han people to directly bring grain to trade, and must not continue to allow the Qiang tribe to monopolize local trade for the sake of convenience or to win over the Qiang tribes.

Of course, the Hou family and other Qiang tribes should not be particularly sensitive to the subtleties of this in the early stage. However, Feng Yi stressed this point with Li Zhigao, Zhang Song, Deng Tai, Dong Zehai, He Yan and others in the military meeting, and he was also worried about Li Zhigao.

The officials under them do not have a clear enough understanding, and they will try to save trouble during implementation or they will be bribed by local forces later, and will not firmly implement this.

Zhang Song, Deng Tai, Dong Zehai, He Yan and other generals knew more or less about political affairs, but when Feng Yi explained these principles and the goals behind them at the military meeting, they were all shocked and thought to themselves, no wonder these years

No one can defeat the king. Who the hell would have thought there was such a deep conspiracy behind this?


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