Chapter 484 Dali City

Seeing that Meng Zhang was so old and still working hard, whether he was selfish or not, I was quite moved: "Old man, I have worked hard for you."

Meng Zhang smiled and said: "The emperor is polite, the grass people are old, and they can contribute to the emperor and the country, and the grass people feel very happy in their hearts." ”

I nodded and said, "Okay, old man, if the people of my Great Song Dynasty are like you, why worry about the country not prospering?" ”

"The emperor has won the award."

"Haha." I laughed loudly, "Mr. Meng, the ancestors of your Meng family have followed Yue Shuai to fight in the east and west since a hundred years ago, and they have been models for my Great Song army from generation to generation. ”

Meng Zhang hurriedly knelt on the ground and said, "Your Majesty, the grass people are here." ”

"Meng Zhang, as the contemporary head of the Meng family, I have crowned you as the captain of the light car, and Meng Ying as the captain of the cavalry, and the royal gold medal is given, but in the future, if there is anything, you can use this gold medal to go straight to the palace to see me, this gold medal is hereditary, and it can be passed on to the descendants of your Meng family."

Meng Zhangsan kowtowed and said, "Thank you for the emperor's grace." ”

Captain of the light car, captain of the cavalry are the title of the commander, and there is no real power to take charge of the army, which is equivalent to the honorary title of later generations, the name of the commander began in the Northern Dynasties period, is the honor of the military general, there is a sentence in the "Mulan poem" "Twelve turns of the Order", referring to the commander. Slightly different from the honors of later generations, the honors of the Song Dynasty could receive monthly salaries according to their ranks.

The officers were divided into 12 ranks, and the lieutenants of the upper light chariots and the lieutenants of the upper cavalry were listed in the fifth and seventh classes respectively.

Most of the 500 soldiers brought by Meng Zhang were Meng Gong's former subordinates, these young people followed their fathers to practice bows, horses, guns and sticks since they were young, and they were skilled in martial arts.

"Mr. Meng, please get up."

"Your Majesty."

"Everyone, come with me to see these five hundred new generation of loyal soldiers."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

On the afternoon of 15 June, in the Shenggong Cave in the mountain behind Bangyuan Village, all the high-level leaders of the Heavenly Dao Alliance were holding a secret meeting. Fang Chenqian, who was sitting on the main seat, first said: "Elders, the great battle between Song and Mongolia has lasted for several months, and there are less than 20,000 troops left in Lin'an. This morning, the leader of this alliance received instructions from Lord Shenzun, asking me to send troops to Lin'an and destroy the gunpowder supervision of the Song Dynasty. According to the information obtained by Lord Shenzun, the Gunpowder Supervisor is located outside Lin'an City, and its guards will not exceed 1,000 people together, as long as we are fast enough, rush in and ignite the gunpowder stored inside, we can successfully retreat, after that, my Heavenly Dao Alliance immediately started an incident, the defenders of Lin'an City will not easily go out of the city, and there are no soldiers in other places, and our space is very wide. ”

Great Elder Wang Shangyuan said, "Alliance Leader, it's finally time to wait for this day. ”

"Yes, the Spirit of the Fathers will bless us." Fang Chenqian laughed, "High Priest Yang Lian Zhenjia, you come to lay out a specific plan of action. ”

"Yes, Alliance Master."

For Fang Chenqian, who has been cultivating for several years, changing the veins against the sky**, every time the width of a meridian is expanded, his gratitude to Yin Tianya increases by one point. Although after all the veins were expanded, Yin Tianya still needed to personally teach the last form of changing the veins, the frequency of Fang Chenqian's regurgitation phenomenon was already very low.

After receiving the order of the Tianya Divine Venerable Yin Tianya, Yang Lian Zhenjia and Fang Chenqian made a slight total, leaving the second elder Fang Heping and the new fifth elder Fang He to garrison the Shenggong Cave and be responsible for recruiting troops and horses, while the remaining six elders accompanied 2,000 elite soldiers to travel in batches and were scheduled to assemble at the foot of Daci Mountain in the southwest direction outside Lin'an City on the night of June 28.

That night, under the leadership of Yang Lian Zhenjia and Fang Chenqian, 2,000 people quietly left the Shenggong Cave, divided into dozens of groups, and marched in the direction of Lin'an City.

The terrain of Yunnan is complex, the road is winding and rugged, there is a distance of about eight or nine hundred miles from Kunming to Dali City, many of which are mountain paths, and there is even no road to find, but fortunately, there is a familiar terrain of Duan Donglou to lead the way, and it did not take much trouble, tens of thousands of troops came to Dali City in the early morning of June 17 and smoothly came to the outside of Taihe Town, which is about ten miles away from Dali City.

Dali City is located in the central west of Yunnan Province, is the capital of the original Dali country, is now the seat of Dali Road of the Yuan Dynasty, its territory is vast, rich in resources, beautiful mountains and rivers, the four seasons are like spring, the city is inhabited by more than 10 ethnic groups such as Bai nationality, Yi nationality, Han nationality.

The ancient city of Dali seen in later generations is not a building in the late Song Dynasty and early Yuan Dynasty, but was restored and built on the basis of Yang Tho Baa City (the old city of Dali City) in the early years of the Ming Dynasty.

Taihe town is an ancient town, located at the northern foot of Cangshan Mountain, its history is long, compared with Dali city is more ancient, before being the founding capital of Nanzhao, it is already a river barbarian city with considerable scale, Nanzhao built the capital here, named Taihe City, later destroyed in the war, only Taihe town remains.

"Gao Shuai, General Tian, there is Taihe Town in front." Duan Donglou grabbed the reins and said, "There are no enemy troops in Taihe Town, according to the plan, the five hundred soldiers lurking in the Cangshan area of our department should have already controlled Taihe Town." ”

After the signal was sent out in Duan Donglou, the same echo came from Taihe Town, and immediately, as soon as the town gate opened, more than a dozen black-clothed people with red cloth bands on their arms walked out.

The leader said: "The last general, Duan Yun, has seen the general, and Taihe Town is already in the hands of our army. ”

Duan Dong downstairs got off the horse and said, "Duan Yun, it's hard work." ”

"It's not hard, general, please."

"Okay." Duan Donglou turned to Gao Da and the others, "Gao Shuai, please." ”

Duan Yun brought Duan Donglou and Gao Tian Xiuyan to the center of Taihe Town, and walked into a brick house and said, "General, this is the temporary command post of our army, please." ”

After taking his seat, Duan Donglou first said: "Duan Yun, give the generals a brief introduction to the current situation in Dali City." ”

"Yes, General." Duan Yun took out a simple map from his arms and said, "Generals, please see, this is a map of Dali City. At present, there are 23,000 garrisons in Dali City, including 5,000 Mongolian troops, commanded by Hudun, the commander of 10,000 people, and 18,000 Dali troops, commanded by Duan Qing. Hu Dun and Duan Qing are strong in martial arts, and they both have the courage of ten thousand people. Look at the layout of Dali City, Dali City is divided into the new city and the old city, the old city is the city of Tho, the new city is in the west of the old city, the two cities are connected. More than 10 years ago, since the Mongols stationed, the new city gate was changed from the original six gates to four gates, divided into four gates in the southeast, northwest and northwest, each gate has about 2,000 Mongolian troops and Dali army to guard together, and the old city still only has two gates in the south and north, and the same troops are also stationed, the west is Cangshan, and the right is Erhai. ”

Gao said: "The city walls of Dali City are solid, and our army has no long-range weapons such as stone throwers, what should we do?" ”

Duan Donglou said: "Gao Shuai, although in Dali City, our department is not as strong as in Kunming City, and the Mongols know that our army has taken Kunming, and it is bound to strengthen the vigilance, so our army staying in Dali City should basically not play a role, however, the city guards Hu Dun and Duan Qing are brave and unscrupulous people, the last general suggested, after our army rests for a day, early tomorrow morning, the end will lead the Xingfu army to the north gate to challenge in the name of relics, and Gao Shuai is hidden in Yongping Slope, five miles from the north gate, and the last general is waiting for the opportunity to defeat and attract it, Gao Shuai commanded the army to attack from both sides of Yongping Slope, encircled and annihilated, if the enemy army did not come, it was not too late to slowly try again. ”

"Yes, that's possible." Gao Dao said, "Repair your face, order all the armies, camp on the spot, and let General Fan Wenhu, General Long Zaitian, and General Hong Sheng come here, and we will discuss the battle for tomorrow together, General Duan Yun, you will send more scouts to inquire about the situation everywhere." ”

"Yes, handsome."

About half an hour later, the generals gathered in the temporary command post to discuss the plan for attacking Dali City.

Gao Gao said: "Generals, although the number of our army is more than the enemy, but Dali City has been in operation for a long time, easy to defend and difficult to attack, according to common sense, our army can take the way of siege to force the enemy to fight a decisive battle with our army, however, Your Majesty has an order, our army must be quickly decided, everyone speak freely, see what is the best strategy?" ”

Early the next morning, before dawn, Hu Dun, the commander of Dali City, who was accustomed to getting up early, called Kudu and Duan Li to the Shuaifu.

"Hudu, more than 10,000 troops in Shanxian City were broken overnight, what should you be guilty of?"

Suddenly, he hurriedly said: "Big brother, ah, no, the marshal, it was really because of the fact that the relics were in the city as an internal response, our army was caught off guard, and the Song army had a large number of people, so there was such a defeat." ”

"Yes, Sir." Duan Li also echoed, "The army of the Southern Dynasty is no less than 50,000 people, and they are rushing forward, although our army is desperately resisting, but the relics are helpless to open the city gate, it is really helpless, and I hope that the marshal will be clear." ”

Hu Dun scolded: "Nonsense, the army of the Southern Dynasty is fighting with our dynasty in its border land, where will there be as many as 50,000, is it not the demon monk Relic Wei is doing it again, and a small number of Song troops are mixed in it." ”

Kudu said: "Dashuai, it should be the Song army, the accent sounds like the Sichuan army of the Southern Dynasty, and the leader seems to be surnamed Tian." ”

"Sichuan Army? Surname Tian? Hu Dun snorted and said, "The Sichuan Military Region of the Southern Dynasty only has more than 60,000 people in total, and 50,000 horses came at once, is this credible?" Besides, it seems that the generals above the first-level commander of the Southern Chaochuan Army don't have the surname Tian, right? ”

"Dashuai, this ......"

"There are more than 10,000 soldiers, and now there are less than 2,000 left, how can I explain to the emperor?"

Duan Li said cautiously: "Marshal, judging from the combat effectiveness of the enemy army, it is far above my Dali army, and it is indeed not a rebel army of relics. ”

Kudu said: "Dashuai, give the last general another 5,000 soldiers and horses, and the last general will go to recapture Shanxian City." ”

Hu Dun sneered, and was about to speak, when he heard a rush of footsteps outside the door, and then heard the captain of the guard, Long Shan, say outside the door: "Report, big marshal, there is an enemy situation outside the north gate." ”