In the middle of October, the weather in western Sichuan became very cool, and the Shiquan Army, located in the northwest mountainous area of Mianzhou, was already late autumn, and the air in the morning and evening was already full of coldness. The trees that covered the mountains outside Shiquan City became colorful under the frost. As far as the eye can see, the peaks of the tall Shu Mountains in the distance have also accumulated white snow, which has become golden under the sun.

As soon as the sky brightened, the east gate of Shiquan City was slowly pushed open, and then a dense sound of horses' hooves sounded, and nearly a hundred soldiers lightly rode their war horses with white mist spraying their mouths and noses, and rushed out of the city gate, and galloped straight to the river valley two miles ahead, where there was a large white tent.

These more than 100 cavalrymen belonged to the cavalry brigade of the second division of the Perak Army, and the leader of the team was Dong Hu, the deputy division commander. Three days ago, he led his 1,200 horsemen to take over Stone Spring City. As an army at the same level as the state capital, Shiquan only has two counties under its jurisdiction, with a population of less than 10,000 and only 500 garrisons. Unlike the Song and Mao imperial courts, which only practiced loose governance, the Shiquan army was governed by the local Qiang chieftains, and the defense was handled by the Song army stationed there, assisted by local native soldiers. After the Shiquan army surrendered to Mongolia, these Song troops became new annexed troops.

Under the connection of the Qiangbo tribes in Weimao and Weimao, the local Qiangbo tribes of the Shiquan Army decided to follow their peers and take refuge in the Perak Army to live a good life. The new general of the annexed army stationed in Shiquan City was unwilling to surrender, on the one hand, the officers and soldiers of Perak were unanimous, and there would be no nourishment when he surrendered, and on the other hand, he slaughtered many anti-Mongolian officials when he surrendered, and the Perak army would not spare him. When he heard the news, he hunted down and killed the leader of the Qiangbo tribe who took the lead, in order to deter everyone. It's just that this bloody method angered the tribes, and they gathered the soldiers of various cottages to surround Shiquan City.

The people of Qiangbo are fierce, although the weapons are simple but the combat power is not bad, and the new annex army does not dare to go out of the city, but due to the lack of siege weapons, they can't attack the city. Shiquan City is backed by mountains and water, the city is made of hard bluestone produced locally, which is extremely strong, and there is a new harvest of autumn grain in the city, which is not a problem to support for half a year.

Seeing that it was difficult to seize the city in a hurry, the Qiangbo rebels had to surround the city and send people to contact the Thunderbolt army on the Mianshui front. Huang Dagen, who got the information, sent Dong Hu to lead the cavalry brigade to support. In fact, to attack such a small but strong mountain city, the cavalry did not play a big role, and the heavy field artillery equipped with infantry was the best choice. It's just that the military situation is urgent, and Huang Dagen is worried that the Qiangbo Righteous Army will gather temporarily, and if it drags on for a while, the weather will become colder and colder, and he is afraid that they will disperse on their own.

On the way to reinforcements, Dong Hu had been thinking about how to capture Shiquan City. In his vision, there are only two most effective methods, one is to recruit daredevils to blast the city gates and towers, as long as the city gates are opened, they can rush in, and with the fighting will of the new annexed army, there will be no bloody street battles. The second is to use the ultra-light artillery brought by the cavalry to shoot at close range, suppress the new annexed army on the city wall, and then use simple tools such as long ladders and ropes to climb the city wall with the Qiangbo rebels. It's just that the casualties caused by either of these two methods are beyond the reach of the cavalry brigade. The Thunderbolts lacked horses and trained cavalry.

When the Thunderbolt army appeared in Shiquan City, there were only scattered shacks in the open space in front of the city, and the banner of the Mongolian army was not floating at the head of the city, but the sheep's head banner of the local tribe, and the city gate was also wide open. When he was in doubt, several people came out of the city to negotiate, and one of them, Dong Hu, recognized that he was a platoon commander of his original special brigade, and after the army was expanded, he was promoted to a company commander in the Shizhong Tree Division.

According to the company commander, although all the new annexed troops in the city were Han Chinese, many of them were related by marriage to the local Qiang people, and the tough tactics of the guards also angered them. After the encouragement of the Thunderbolt spies lurking in the city, these new annex soldiers, with the cooperation of the people in the city, attacked and killed the defenders at night and opened the city gates. As soon as this guard died, the new annexed army, which was already panicked, was even more leaderless, and they surrendered one after another.

The soldiers captured the fortified city without blood, which made Dong Hu, who was already ready for a vicious battle, breathe a long sigh. The next thing is much simpler, first the local officials are elected by themselves, and then they are appointed by the Perak Army Joint Council after they are submitted to Chongqing Province. This is followed by the screening of captives and surrendering officers, who are dealt with separately according to the circumstances of the crime.

The most important thing is defense, Dong Hu selected more than 100 people from the surrendered army, and more than 300 people from the Qiangbo Righteous Army, and left more than a dozen cavalry without war horses as instructors - this gallop plus the rugged mountain road broke the legs of more than a dozen war horses, and made up 500 people. In view of the extremely important position of the Shiquan Army, Dong Hu had written to Huang Dagen, requesting that a company of regular troops be mobilized to come and equipped with heavy fortress artillery.

In a moment, Dong Hu and his entourage arrived at the cavalry brigade camp two miles outside the city. At this moment, the camp was filled with smoke, and there was a lot of people. In the distance, on the riverbank, a large herd of horses was drinking by the river, and they had eaten a large amount of concentrate this morning in order to store up strength for the rest of the long march. According to the battle plan, the cavalry brigade will continue to march to Longzhou City, 300 miles northwest of Mianzhou, after the men and animals have been fed.

At the beginning of September, Shi Zhongshu had already led the special battalion of the Mountain Brigade from Songzhou to Longzhou through the vast mountains and forests. This journey was extremely difficult and dangerous, even if there were local Qiangbo mountain people as guides to lead the way, and even if the soldiers of the special battalion were all elite trained in the mountains and valleys all the year round, and they were traveling lightly, it was not easy to arrive smoothly.

Longzhou is a state of bondage, and although the local tribal leaders agreed to join the Thunderbolt army on the recommendation of their Songzhou clan, there was no actual action. The special battalion led by Shi Zhongshu and the cavalry brigade led by Dong Hu went to make the Longzhou officials abandon the wait-and-see mentality at both ends of the snake and rat and suppress the local pro-Mongolian forces.

The geographical location of Longzhou is more important than the Shiquan army, the Mongolian army in Longyou can bypass Songzhou, cross the mountains and forests from the grassland area, and suddenly appear in Jiangyou, not taking Longzhou means that the Mongolian army can surprise the northern part of Tongchuan Fulu and even attack the west of Sichuan. Therefore, in the plan of the General Staff, Longzhou is a military important place that must be controlled, even if it is to be taken by force, it must be firmly controlled in the hands.

On the way to Shiquan Army, he was in a hurry and injured more than ten horses. There was no urgent military situation before this trip to Longzhou, so Dong Hu ordered to move forward at a normal marching speed, and only arrived outside Longzhou five days later. At this time, Shizhong Shubu had arrived in Longzhou for more than ten days, but did not get permission to enter the city, so he had to camp outside the city.

It turned out that although there were guides to lead the way in the Shizhong Tree Department, all the trails were inaccessible paths traveled by hunters and medicine pickers, and there were dozens of people who only fell off the cliff along the way, and in addition to the injuries of diseases and wild beasts, nearly 100 people were lost, and only 500 people remained. Due to the difficult and dangerous journey and the wind and food, everyone was wearing tattered clothes and armor, and their faces were yellow, and many weapons and equipment were lost.

When the leader of the Qiang tribe ruling Longzhou saw this, he already despised this thunderbolt army like fleeing from the famine, and did not mention anything about annexation, but only under the persuasion of the envoys of the Songzhou tribe, he reluctantly provided rudimentary drinking water. Just as he was about to expel these "guests", the cavalry brigade of the 2nd Division rushed to the city of Longzhou. The cavalry in front of him was clearly armored, the war horse was also fat and strong, and the general led by him was tall and loud, which was consistent with the situation of the Thunderbolt army described by the envoy of Songzhou. After being reminded by the envoy of the Songzhou tribe beside him, he hurriedly sent someone to invite Shi Zhongshu to enter the city.