"Is the news conclusive?"

Lygazpi walked around a little anxiously in the cottage of the mine, asking his subordinates to verify the authenticity of the information. + He had just received a report from his men that the Matsue Army had delivered a shipment of siege weapons from the direction of Manila, which would reach the Ifugao region in three to four days at most.

This bad news made Li Yashibi a little uneasy.

"Back to my lord, the news has been confirmed."

It was not easy to break through the blockade of the Songjiang Army at night, and the face of the henchman who took the trail to deliver the news was also not good-looking. Anyone with some brains knows what this means.

"How many troops are there in the escort? Is there a possibility of a sneak attack? ”

Feeling threatened, Legazpi considered whether to organize a small group of elite troops to try to sneak attack and destroy the siege weapons sent by the Songjiang army. Otherwise, if the Songjiang army is allowed to transport them up, the pressure on the cottage defense will be greater.

However, his men's answers discouraged him.

The actions of the Songjiang Army were far more thorough and rigorous than Li Yashi imagined. Even if it was only to transport a batch of siege weapons and 2,000 stone of food, the Songjiang army left behind in Manila still sent 1,000 infantry troops and 100 cavalry to escort them, and they were very cautious whether they camped at night or marched during the day. There are fewer people in the Lai Ya Si faction, and it will not have any effect at all. There are too many people to be sent, and it is impossible to hide from the Songjiang army outside the cottage.

Is there no way but to watch the siege weapons brought by the Songjiang army?

Ryashbi frowned, feeling a vague sense of unease in his heart.

After waving his hand to signal the henchman to stand down, Legazpi was alone in the stone house for a moment. For the first time, I felt a little more annoyed. He knew that he had plundered and expanded without any restraint or restraint. Offended the chiefs and nobles near the Ifugao region. Otherwise, he can get the support of the local forces, coordinate internally and externally, and never be as passive as he is now.

Even, even if he sent his subordinates out to find out the news of the Songjiang Army, he had to be careful, and while avoiding the Songjiang Army, he had to beware of the locals telling the news. Imperials from afar. It's more like playing at home than they are.

After sighing, Lysibi forced himself not to think too much. looked at the height of the sun outside the window and greeted a team of henchmen. I got up and went on a routine inspection once a day.

Probably because the Songjiang Army has barely launched another large-scale attack in the past two days, the defenders in the cottage have been somewhat relaxed, and the reinforcement progress of the second reserve defense line in the cottage has also slowed down a lot. It's just that ordinary lower-level soldiers who have no way to know the inside story. The real balance of power between the two sides is not known. They only know. Although the Songjiang people caused them a lot of casualties, they were not able to attack the cottage lightly.

Because of this factor, the morale of these motley armed men seems to be quite good. Everyone thinks that if they continue to fight like this, they dare not say that the cottage of the mine can hold on for at least another month!

This made Li Yashi a little more steady.

………

While Legazpi was patrolling, Ho Shixiang was also hurrying to perfect his new offensive plan.

This new plan is thanks to the continuous collection of intelligence and the help of old local miners. After having a hand-drawn map by a few old miners. Combined with the investigators sent by He Shixiang himself, he found a winding path that could be hidden around the mine cottage. Although this meant that the soldiers had to walk at least twenty miles more mountain roads. But once successful, you can climb to the top of this mountain from the back cliff of the cottage, and then use the rope to lower a height of dozens of meters, and suddenly slide down to the innermost side of the cottage!

If this idea can be realized, the effect will be excellent. It doesn't take much, just a few hundred elites to throw the entire Legazpi army into chaos. But the question is, how not to let the other party find out!

Throughout the process, concealment is a top priority. Otherwise, if the suddenness is lost, the soldiers who raid will fall into a very dangerous situation, and may even be completely annihilated.

It can be said that this is a special operation of a clear nature.

In order to reduce casualties as much as possible, he did not rush to launch this plan. Instead, they stepped up reconnaissance and perfected their plans while continuing to wait for the arrival of siege weapons.

Ho's ultimate plan was to rely on siege weapons to attract the attention of Legazpi's forces. As the elite defenders in the cottage gathered in front, hundreds of soldiers suddenly slipped from the rear. Under the combination of inside and outside, the entire cottage was broken in one fell swoop. Compared to relying solely on siege weapons, this plan was effective in reducing losses - not only for the Matsue army, but also for these motley forces who were destined to be taken prisoner.

After another two days of preparation, more than 1,000 reinforcements from the Songjiang Army escorted this batch of siege weapons to arrive.

Among them, there are thirty bed crossbows, four torsion stone throwers.

The arrival of these siege weapons greatly strengthened the offensive capability of the Songjiang Army. The reason why I didn't carry too many stone throwers was because I played from low to high, which was very unsuitable for stone throwers. Even if you try to adjust the angle, the range will be greatly reduced. In comparison, the effect of the bed crossbow is much better. This matching giant arrow is like a javelin, and each bed crossbow can fire three arrows in unison, and it has superior range and lethality, which is enough to make those ragtag soldiers of Legazpi fearful!

After this batch of siege weapons entered the stone fortress built in advance, the Songjiang army immediately launched a new attack.

Huge arrows whizz down, even if the accuracy is not as good as that of flat shooting, when the density reaches a certain distance, it can still cause good casualties. Especially when those sharp giant arrows pierced people's bodies with terrifying penetrating power, and the remaining half could still sink into the ground, the vast majority of the untrained manor servants and miners fell into a deep panic.

If it weren't for the fact that Li Yashibi chose a group of henchmen to serve as the overseers, all those who dared to fight were killed, and the rewards were raised a lot again, I am afraid that the defenders would have stepped on the verge of rout.

However, the return of the Matsue Army's offensive was essentially just a feint. A truly deadly attack, behind their backs!

Five hundred carefully selected elites, led by scouts who explored the route in advance, quietly bypassed the cottage yesterday. Raided the long way to the back of the mountain. One of the soldiers was armed with bows and arrows and would support them from a high position. The other part was armed with crossbows and swords, and they would be the first soldiers to rush to the front. There were also some soldiers who wore long coiled hemp ropes. It is used to slide down from the mountain to the innermost side of the cottage.

一qiē is carried out quite smoothly.

The people of Legazpi did not expect that someone would climb up behind them. Or even if they were initially on guard, they relaxed their vigilance as the Matsue army continued to attack head-on. When the frontal assault attracted all attention, six ropes were nailed to the trees or rocks, allowing the assault soldiers to accomplish the feat of divine soldiers!

It's not that no one found out, but those who dared to step forward to stop were all shot by archers. After the soldiers with strong crossbows formed a team of dozens of people one after another and began to deploy the defense. Legazpi no longer had any chance of turning the tables.

"What did you say?"

Upon learning that the enemy had climbed up the hill behind the cottage, Legazpi was shocked. Aware of the danger, he decisively gathered two hundred reliable Medan legions for rout. Personally led the team to kill the past. It's just that when these soldiers under his command were brought down by a volley of crossbow arrows fired by the Songjiang army, Lyaspiti immediately understood: he was gone!

More and more soldiers slipped down the ropes, forming a two-hundred-man formation. Took the initiative to kill from the rear.

Legazpi had no time to think about how the enemy would surprise him, or how he would find the way. All he knew was that the situation was already in jeopardy. After retreating first, while preparing to flee, he urgently ordered his henchmen to gather more men and try to delay the attack from the innermost side of the cottage.

At least until nightfall!

If it was daytime, it would be impossible for him to escape, after all, the Songjiang army was accompanied by a small number of cavalry. In the evening, it was different, and the packed gold had already been transferred to the bottom of the mountain in advance. Horse-drawn carriages and a small number of henchmen were also arranged. One night was enough for him to take the gold with him and fly away—as for the unrealistic ambitions and fantasies of his former leisure. After seeing the strength of the Songjiang Army, it has long since disappeared.

It has to be said that Legazpi was very well prepared. If you change your opponent, you might really let Shun Lì get out.

However, he faced the Matsue Army!

This careerist, who had once struggled with more than 5,000 miscellaneous armed forces, could have evacuated early before the Matsue army surrounded the mine, but he underestimated his opponent and eventually paid the price for his carelessness and greed.

The soldiers who were temporarily co-opted by him had a cottage to defend before, and the Songjiang army did not bring decent siege weapons, but they could still hold on. But when hundreds of elites of the Songjiang Army suddenly appeared from the rear, making the place where these ragtag soldiers thought they were absolutely safe instantly become dead, and there was a greater risk of being flanked from the front and rear, the cowardice and fear in the hearts of these soldiers regained the upper hand.

Without terrain advantages, it was an impossible task to defeat the Matsue Army in a head-on collision. What's more, the carefully selected Songjiang soldiers also brought a killing weapon like a strong crossbow. After a few rounds, the defenders who tried to counterattack were bleeding, and there were many who dropped their weapons and fled directly or even surrendered. Once this collapse began to spread, especially when the Warlords also began to panic, the fall of the entire Ifugao Gold Mine was inevitable.

Without waiting for dark, Legazpi found that several thousand defenders had been completely defeated, and the cottage was full of soldiers from the Songjiang Army.

In this case, he didn't care about the hidden gold, so he took advantage of the chaos to escape down the mountain from the trail, and immediately rode his horse and fled. Although the Songjiang army failed to capture the thief, with the fall of the entire cottage, several of Legazpi's henchmen surrendered, and the location where Legazpi hid the gold was also found by the Songjiang army.

More than a ton of mined gold, along with the entire Ifugao gold mine and thousands of prisoners, all fell into the spoils of the Matsue army.

The news was transmitted back to Manila, the royal capital, which lifted Lou Liuzhong's spirits. He completely captured the Ifugao gold mine, and immediately organized manpower to restart production, and took the entire southern part of the Quezon Plain, which was a good start for his new official to take office.

The next thing to do is to fully capture the whole of North Luzon.

In front of He Shixiang, there are still two choices. The first is to concentrate forces to deal with the Cebu Army on the west side of North Luzon, and connect the west of the island with the Quezon Plain; The other is to advance eastward first and deal with the leaders of the Sulu region who are hostile to the Songjiang army and the remnants of the principality of Davao Province.

Comparatively speaking, the order of the two is actually similar. But no matter who comes first and who comes last, at present, the Songjiang army has occupied an absolute advantage and initiative in this Northern Luzon.

The local forces in Luzon, which had been divided into eastern and western parts and had lost their unified leadership, had completely lost the ability to compete with the Songjiang army!

………

On the island of North Luzon, Lou Liuchong rejoiced in the success of the Ifugao gold mineAt the same time, the civil war of the empire finally broke out completely.

After the eldest prince returned to Yanyun County unknowingly, the two imperial parties completed the preliminary preparations for the civil war almost simultaneously after months of intensive preparations.

The battle for the Qinghe Army also came to an end half a month ago. This veteran legion, which has a long history and participated in many battles, was finally reduced to a split situation under the pull of the two princes. Five of the divisions, along with the division commanders of the Qinghe Division, went south and chose to take refuge in the Five Princes. The other four divisions retreated to the northeast of Qinghe County, bordering Beiyuan County, and joined the sequence of the Great Prince.

In just a few days, the comrades who had been comrades for many years split into two mutually hostile camps, with their respective spheres of influence along the Shangyu and Lingang lines, and fell into a confrontation.

As the dust of the Qinghe Legion fell, the other forces of the empire also made their own choices.

May 4, 677 in the continental calendar.

The five princes worshipped their ancestors in the Taimiao, and then proclaimed themselves emperor under the persuasion of his important ministers, and succeeded as the fifteenth emperor of the empire. With Zhongzhou as the center, the nearby counties of Wuhu, Guang'an, Danyang, Hetao, Anqing and other counties have written in response to the loyalty of the five princes Qian Minghao!

Only eight days later, the eldest prince Qian Mingde also proclaimed himself emperor in Yanyun County, and issued a document to crusade against the fifth prince Qian Minghao. The governors of Yanyun County, Beiyuan County, Yuanshan County, Taiping County and other counties also recognized the legal system of the eldest prince Qianmingde for the first time.

Both sides claimed to have received the will of the former emperor and accused each other of being puppet emperors, and a full-scale civil war broke out.

On the side of the five princes, while continuing to overdraft the finances and recruiting troops, they moved the City Guard Legion and the Yingyang Legion eastward and divided them into the middle and south routes. The middle road led to Guò Anqing County to the east and advanced to Yuanshan County, the southern road attacked Taiping County, and the half of the Qinghe Army on the north road maintained an even balance with the other half of the Great Prince.

There is no doubt that the focus of the attack of the five princes is on the south road, trying to take Taiping County first!

Not to be outdone, the eldest prince dispatched troops to deal with it, and at the same time, he also sent an envoy to Matsue again. One was to urge Chen Wu to send troops, and the other was to honor Donghai County and the previously agreed king with a different surname.

What kind of title to give himself has become a small problem in front of Chen Wu. (To be continued.) )