Between the mountains and mountains, countless figures are slowly moving forward along the official road that is not wide.

One carriage after another walked with difficulty, and sometimes the carriages and horses were stuck in the road and could not move, which could delay the progress of the large army in the rear.

This is already a relatively good road in the Great Song Dynasty, the ancient road was repaired in the Sui and Tang dynasties, and it can pass through cars and horses to ensure the smooth flow of materials.

But even so, it still made Song Jun walk very uncomfortable, often only walking twenty or thirty miles a day.

From Yongzhou to Pingxiang Cave is only 400 miles, but they have walked for nearly a month. And if you enter the territory of the Ly Dynasty in Vietnam, such a road may be even more difficult.

Yang Cha rode on horseback and looked around, and he saw that the mountains on both sides were dense, and although the mountains were not high, the trees were so deep that they seemed to be in the middle of the ocean.

And this can be seen all the time.

A soldier came from afar to report: "Si Shuai, twenty miles ahead will be to Pingxiang Cave." ”

"Where's General Di?"

"The general is on his way over."

"Okay, let's see."

"Yes."

Tanma left the group again.

After more than two hours, Di Qing came over to greet the arrival of the large army.

Not long after he left Yongzhou to inspect the terrain, the large army had already set off, but their speed was very slow.

No way.

In terms of traffic, the ground is not only potholes, but also undulating slopes, and the ground is full of stones and is very uneven.

While hurrying, Yang Chade sent people to build the road in front of him, clear the stones that got in the way, and fill the uneven places with rammed earth, so that he could walk fast in such a situation.

Next to the front team, several knights came slowly against the large army, and before Yang Cha approached, they turned over and dismounted and saluted: "Si Shuai." ”

Yang Cha also dismounted and saluted back: "General Di." ”

Saying that, he said a little apologetically: "The road is difficult, but it was delayed for a few days, and I thought I would be able to come over in half a month." ”

"The commander doesn't need to blame himself, I heard that the coach has repaired the road since he arrived, but even then the road is still difficult to walk, so you can know how bad the road was before."

Di Qing smiled.

Yang Cha put his hands behind his back, walked forward with him, shook his head, and said: "In the past, the Yongzhou officials didn't care about road repairs at all, and even thought that the worse the roads, the better, because this would hinder the invasion of the rebellious border people or the Li Dynasty. ”

"As the prefect said, all the officials in Yongzhou are afraid of things, and they are afraid that there will be some chaos in the territory, which will lead to their careers, so they deceive the upper and lower levels, hide if they can, and deceive if they can, so that the imperial court does not think of the situation in the southwest at all."

He said very dissatisfiedly: "If it weren't for the establishment of the Imperial City Division by the Governor's Court, the Ming and Secret Divisions would be sent to make secret visits to various places to check whether the local government had concealed the report. From time to time, the Li Dynasty has neglected border matters, and I am afraid that the imperial court is still in the dark. ”

"yes."

Di Qing sighed: "Even though the prefect has been punishing many unjudicial officials in the Great Song Dynasty all the time, there are still many officials who are not greedy or occupied, but are lazy and lazy, which is also the reason why the prefect often laments the country's difficulties." ”

"Alright, let's not talk about that."

Yang Cha perked up, and then said: "Your Majesty has an edict and a warrant from the Constitutional Yuan. ”

Di Qing hurriedly said: "I don't know what Your Majesty's will is?" ”

"Your Majesty, let us attack boldly, don't have any worries, the Li Dynasty has repeatedly attacked the border, and the crime cannot be punished."

Yang Cha said: "What's more, if they send someone to attack you this time, they have already committed a capital crime, and the Great Song Dynasty is famous, so it is necessary to let Jiaozhi be destroyed." ”

"Yes."

Di Qing responded, and his heart was a little more confident.

The two of them chatted as they walked.

After another hour or so, the team finally arrived at Pingxiang Cave.

At this time, Pingxiang Cave became extremely lively, there were about 8,000 people in the Guangxi Xiang Army, Nong Zhigao was running around, and there were about 30,000 people gathered in various tribes.

Coupled with the 10,000 regular troops sent by the imperial court, the total strength is about 48,000, less than 50,000.

In order to attack Jiaozhi for this time, the imperial court also allocated 500,000 guan, in addition to raising grain and grass, it also hired a large number of local people to help transport grain and grass.

There are more than 30,000 carriages alone, the troops in front have been encamped in Pingxiang Cave, the carriages in the rear are still dozens of miles away, and the scale of employment in the southwest has reached more than 100,000 people.

The Song army arrived at the Song-Yue border on a large scale, and the Vietnamese side naturally got the news quickly, Guo Shengyi hurriedly sent someone to quickly spread the matter to Huilong, and reported it to Li Fuma, Taizong of the Li Dynasty.

It's just that there is still a distance of more than 200 kilometers from Langzhou to Thang Long, and the road is rugged, and you need to go out of Langshan Mountain Road to enter the Red River Plain to speed up, so once you come and go, the time on the road alone will be at least three or four days, and it is naturally impossible to get it in place in time.

Therefore, Guo Shengyi can only strictly control the official road, block the mountains on both sides, jam his throat, and wait for the battle.

And hurriedly sent a messenger to the Song camp, while asking the Song army in a low posture to visit and not know what to do. On the other hand, he faintly threatened, saying that they had 70,000 or 80,000 soldiers in Annan, and hoped that the Song army would not be ignorant.

This strategy of both soft and hard is not bad, if under normal circumstances, the number of Song troops is not enough, and when they see that the other party is alert, they may have to weigh it.

But now it will only make Di Qing and them laugh.

Yang Cha personally wrote a reply letter, denouncing the mistakes of the Li Dynasty over the years, saying that the court was furious and wanted to destroy the Li Dynasty, and then asked the Li Dynasty messenger to bring it back.

When Guo Shengyi saw the reply, his face was like ashes, but he had no choice but to continue to strictly blockade it.

For a time, tension raged on the border between the two sides.

In the early morning of July 26, this was the third day that the main force of the Song army arrived in Pingxiangdong, and the grain and grass in the rear were basically in place.

The soldiers have also finished resting, taking advantage of the recent Mid-Autumn Festival, the weather temperature has dropped slightly, and it is not as hot as in June, Di Qing is ready to officially march.

Early in the morning, the soldiers all went out of the camp, and the men began to gather up the camp, pull up the tents, and reinstall the chariots and horses.

Di Qing rode on horseback, accompanied by senior officials such as Yang Cha, Zhao Wenzuo, and Nong Zhi.

This time, Yang Cha and Zhao Wenzuo will be in charge of logistics, stationed in Pingxiangdong, transporting grain and grass for Di Qing on the front line.

And Nong Zhigao, as a deputy general, led the minority soldiers and fought with Di Qing.

"Hanchen, don't be careless when you go on this expedition."

Yang Cha advised: "You must be careful and don't live up to the expectations of the imperial court." ”

"Please rest assured!"

Di Qing arched his hand, and then said, "I'm leaving." ”

"Okay."

Yang Cha nodded.

With Di Qing's order, the large army officially began to set off.

Along with the Great Song Dynasty, there was also the Dali army.

As early as a few days ago, Yang Cha had already sent someone to inform Dali and asked them to send troops quickly.

However, the Dali army did not attack in Guangxi, but started from Xiushan County in Dali, that is, the area of the old city in later generations, and went south along the Red River, taking Tierong and Ayue, and taking Jiaozhi directly.

The route is almost from the old city of the later generations, Mengzi City and other places, all the way to the Yuan River to Hekou Yao Autonomous County, and attack the Lao Cai City in Vietnam.

Therefore, the Song army and Dali took the Yongjiguan Ancient Road to the south, and the other took the Honghe Ancient Road to the southeast, and launched a pincer offensive against Jiaozhi.

The Song army swept out of Yongji Pass and entered Menzhou along the ancient road.

Nominally, it is still the Song Realm, one of the forty-eight prefectures of the Great Song Dynasty, but it is occupied by the Jiaozhi people.

Upon learning of the arrival of the Song army, the local people of Jiaozhi had already scattered and fled.

The Song army successfully occupied Menzhou, which was later the town of Tongdeng in Vietnam, opposite the port of Pingxiang City.

The terrain here is relatively open, which is not suitable for blocking attacks, and the Li Dynasty army will naturally not be stationed here. Therefore, after occupying Menzhou, the Song army continued to move south.

From here, there are two branches, one is to the west, go to the later Vietnam's Wenguan County, Beishan County, into Vietnam's Thai Nguyen Province.

The other is naturally to go south to Langzhou, and pass through Langzhou directly into the Red River Plain.

The road on the west side is the route taken by Guo Kui, a general of the Song army during the Song-Vietnam War, which can pass through Xuanhua of the Li Dynasty to reach the Ruyue River, where several battles broke out between the two sides.

The reason why the western road was taken was naturally because the southern road was heavily controlled by the Jiaozhi army, so it could only make a surprise attack on a long way.

However, Di Qing did not hesitate to choose Nandao.

As the army continued to move south, Nong Zhigao ordered the border minority soldiers who were able to cross the mountains and mountains to explore the way ahead, and slowly press forward with a distance of thirty miles a day.

At the end of July, at noon on the 30th, while the army was still marching forward, it came to the Malay newspaper: "Report! ”

"What?"

Di Qing asked.

"The front has reached the Jiaozhi Pass, and they are building a wall at the crossing."

"Take me to see it."

"Yes."

Tanma took Di Qing to find Nong Zhigao.

When Di Qing came to Nong Zhigao's side, Nong Zhigao was looking out on a small hillside.

His minority units were at the vanguard of the front, but they were not numerous.

Because the real main force of the battle was the musket team and artillery team of the Song army, if they arranged too many men and horses in front of them, and the Li Dynasty suddenly launched an attack, they could not resist it, and it was possible to roll back.

Therefore, the layout of the entire Song army was planned, with Nong Zhigao leading 5,000 of the most elite soldiers to explore the road in front, the firearms army in front of the front army, and then more than 20,000 ordinary soldiers in the middle of the army, and the artillery in the back and the people together with the people pulling the cannon to follow.

At this moment, the Song army was in a narrow mountain road, with dense mountains on the left and right sides, and the forest was as deep as the sea.

Many of the 5,000 soldiers in front of them went into the forest, looking around for cross-toe scouts, and they even fought fiercely in the forest.

The main force of Jiaozhi was in the rear, and in the face of the attack of the main force of the Song army, the Jiaozhi Tanma in the forest was invincible, and finally they were defeated and retreated, so this place was quite safe, only the banner on the mountains in the distance was towering.

At noon, the sun was high and the air was a little hot, and even though everyone in the firearms army carried mosquito repellent sachets, the mosquitoes lingered like dark clouds.

The forest forest is full of trees, hundred-year-old trees can be seen everywhere, although the mountains are not high, but the shrubs are thick, and the wild grass and basil are taller than people.

Nong Zhigao's small hill is on the right side of the road, a small slope under the mountain, and he is riding on horseback, looking at something from afar.

"Tongzhi, what are you looking at?"

Di Qing came over and asked.

Nong Zhigao pointed to the southwest mountain and said, "General, the intertwined people have built a camp in the south of the mountain. ”

Di Qing looked over and could vaguely see flags fluttering on the mountains.

He looked around and said, "Is there any higher terrain here where you can see the whole distance?" ”

"Yes, there is, but the mountain is steep and not easy to climb."

"It's okay, let the army rest in place first, and let's go up the mountain to see the situation."

"Yes."

Nong Zhigao responded.

Then the army stopped, and he personally led Di Qing up the mountain.

The mountains and forests are too dense, and there are almost no roads, so you can only cut through the thorns and thorns to open a way out.

That is, this time Di Qing brought a large number of ethnic minority soldiers, otherwise if they relied on their firearms alone, I am afraid that even going up the mountain would be difficult.

These ethnic minority soldiers were already living in the mountains, and it was easy to climb over the mountains, so they quickly opened up a road.

Even so, it took Di Qing more than an hour to finally climb to a small hill no more than fifty or sixty feet high—this was already the highest mountain in the vicinity, and they looked around from the open space on the top of the mountain.

I saw that the mountain fog was dense in the distance, and at the end of the road in the mountains, the Jiaozhi people built a pass, and there were camps on the mountains on the right side of the pass, and the rear was even denser and did not know how many camps, blocking the entire traffic artery.

Obviously, if they attacked head-on, the Song army would not only be bleeding from the enemy's frontal pass, but would also be attacked by the enemy in the mountains on both sides, whether with bows and arrows or with rolling stones and wood, they would not be able to launch an offensive.

But Di Qing only saw the weak point at a glance, that is, although the enemy occupied the mountains on both sides, the other nearby mountains were not guarded at all, especially within a few kilometers from the pass, there was a rather high mountain, if it occupied there, it could condescendingly attack the pass.

So he didn't hesitate to point to that side and said, "Spread it down and camp at the foot of that mountain!" ”

"General, will the mountain be too close to the enemy?"

Nong Zhigao was surprised.

Although the mountain should still be three or four kilometers away from the pass, in ancient times, camping often chose a place with better terrain, such as a water source, or a little farther away from the enemy, so that the enemy could react immediately if he moved.

Three or four kilometers seems to be a long way away, but in fact, if the Jiaozhi people sneak around from the mountains on both sides, they are still a little caught off guard.

"It's okay, it's there."

Di Qing smiled and said, "As long as you occupy that high mountain, the enemy can break it with a snap of your fingers!" ”

"Yes."

Nong Zhigao had already seen the power of the musket, and he no longer refuted, but carried out the military order.

Soon the army continued to move forward, and came to the foot of the hill, about four kilometers outside the wall of the Cochin army, where the end of the road could not be directly seen.

The road was not straight, but twisted and turned, but there were people on both sides looking out from the mountains, so naturally they quickly saw the situation.

Jiaozhi Tanma sent the news back to Guo Shengyi, Guo Shengyi had actually received the news that Li Foma had asked him to defend Langshan yesterday, and Li Foma had personally led reinforcements on the road.

Therefore, he was very confident and personally climbed the mountain on the right side of the camp to monitor the Song army's every move.

He saw that the Song army had camped at the foot of the mountain in the distance all afternoon, and a large number of people had begun to go into the mountains to cut down trees, so he didn't pay attention to it, and the other party's position did not threaten them.

In particular, there was no water source in the place of the Song army.

You must know that this place was carefully selected by Guo Shengyi, and the water sources of the mountains on both sides were occupied by them, and the water from the mountain springs was all introduced by them into their camp.

The closest water source to the Song army was indeed the mountain where they were stationed, but it was a small water spring, which could not meet the water needs of tens of thousands of people, and the water source of the rest of the mountains was far away.

Therefore, Guo Shengyi didn't care about the Song army at all, as long as he could hold on for a few more days, and when the Song army's water ran out, he could only retreat.

At that moment, Guo Shengyi continued to observe.

However, what he didn't know was that Di Qing had no intention of fighting a protracted war with him at all.

At this time, Di Qing spent the next few days building a camp and sending people to cut down trees and build a path from the foot of the mountain to the mountain.

By August 6, a large number of dismantled gun carriages had been transported to the top of the mountain, and more than 10,000 people had been mobilized for this alone.

Beginning in the early morning of the 6th, the Song army began to assemble the fort on the top of the mountain, carrying 20 steel cannons of 2,000 catties and 240 small steel cannons.

You must know that the Song Army's firearms battalion has two corps of 10,000 people, with a total of six artillery battalions, 60 heavy artillery pieces, and 360 small steel cannons.

This meant that the artillery up the hill was almost half of the firepower of the Song army.

That is, the top of the mountain is not spacious enough, and there are too many trees, so it takes a lot of time to clear weeds and trees, otherwise Di Qing wants to put all the cannons on it and carpet bombard the entire Cochin camp.

Even then, it was enough.

Even in the Western Xia and Liao wars, the artillery of the Great Song Dynasty did not exert real power.

After all, at that time, the artillery of the Great Song Dynasty had not been built so much, and there were no muskets, so they could only use grenades to give the Western Xia and Liao States some fun.

Now the artillery of the Great Song Dynasty has been qualitatively improved in terms of technology and steel output, which naturally leads to the sublimation of quantity.

More than 200 guns, large and small, formed a terrible artillery position on the top of the hill.

At noon, Di Qing stood on the top of the mountain and looked out, Nong Zhigao beside him was curiously looking at the nearby artillery positions, and the surrounding trees and weeds were all cleared, which also made the vision of the top of the mountain a little wider.

"General, can these cannons really hit ten miles away?"

Nong Zhigao still asked in disbelief.

It was more than ten miles away from the enemy's position, and even if Di Qing told him, he still didn't want to believe it.

Di Qing said with a smile: "This is natural, you don't know, the first time the cannon was in the war with the Liao State, a few miles away, and killed the Liao general Yelu Enemy Lugu with one shot. ”

"It's really heavenly."

Nong Zhigao couldn't help but say.

"General!"

At this moment, the deputy commander of Yongzhou, Qi Yun, came up and said: "The cannons have all been assembled. ”

"Good!"

A trace of coldness flashed in Di Qing's eyes, he raised his head and looked at the Jiaozhi position in the distance, raised the horse whip in his hand, and pointed into the distance and said, "Boom me!" ”

In an instant, the entire artillery position of the Song army immediately sounded a high whistle.

This is the order for cannon firing!

(End of chapter)