Just when Yang Zaixing's army was besieging Luoyang, Liu Qiong and Tang Qian led an army of 30,000 people and 30,000 healthy donkeys from Shangzhou to the southeast. They also formulated two plans. The first plan was to cross Xiong'er Mountain and enter Ru However, this plan was rejected by the review team. Their objection was that the risk was too high and the cost was too high.
But their second plan was successful, which was to enter Dengzhou along the Danshui Ancient Shangyu Road. The risk of this plan was greatly reduced. Even if it failed, they could return from the Hanshui Road in time, and the road was not that difficult. You can reach Dengzhou along the Danshui River Valley. Although you have to climb a small section of mountains along the way, the cost is generally much lower.
Crossing the mountains is mainly in the lower reaches. Wuguan is controlled by the Sichuan-Shaanxi Army, but there is also a very important pass thirty miles in front of Wuguan, called Longjuzhai, which is the ancient ferry crossing of Danshui. It used to be stationed by Yue Fei's army, but After Yue Fei withdrew to Xiangyang last year, Longju Village was controlled by the Jin Bing. The Jin Bing had a thousand troops stationed in Longju Village to defend against the Sichuan-Shaanxi Song Army's surprise attack on Dengzhou.
Liu Qiong didn't want to expose his army, so he found a hunter who was familiar with the road to guide them and climbed over the mountain from the side.
"General Liu, this mountain road is also called the Medicine Road. Since last year, the Jin soldiers have not allowed merchants from Sichuan and Shaanxi to go to Longju Village. Many medicinal merchants also go over the mountain from here to Dengzhou to buy medicine, and then return to Shangzhou."
The hunter's surname is Jin. He is a man in his thirties. He joined the army at the age of eighteen and served as a Song soldier for several years. After the battle in Fuping, he ran back to his hometown as a merchant, married a wife and had children, and made a living by hunting and collecting herbs.
Liu Qiong asked with a smile: "Can the Jin soldiers also attack Shangzhou from Dengzhou along this road?"
The hunter smiled and said: "The Jin soldiers don't need to take this dangerous road. They can just go to Longju Village. But there is no mountain road to Wuguan, so the Jin soldiers can't go to Shangzhou, but we can go to Dengzhou. However, there is a section of mountain road that is more than ten miles long and is very dangerous. Only donkeys can walk on it, not horses, so it’s just ahead!"
Everyone quickly arrived at the dangerous path. It was indeed very dangerous. It was almost a 70-degree hillside. Twenty miles away was Longju Village. A corner could be faintly seen. Everyone held on to both sides and slowly walked along the path. When going down the mountain, the donkey is very light and agile. It is like walking on flat ground. It is also carrying dozens of kilograms of grain supplies on its back.
The 30,000-strong army walked for a full day before walking down the mountain road of more than ten miles and bypassing Longju Village. By this time, it was getting late and the army was resting at the foot of the mountain. Tang Qian led the 3,000-strong army to attack Longju Village.
Although Longju Village is very important, it is not dangerous. The reason why Liu Qiong did not attack at first was because he was worried that someone would flee to Rangxian County to report the news, which would affect their plan to attack Dengzhou.
Now that we are attacking from the south to the north, we don't have to worry about the enemy escaping. It's also at night, and we don't have to worry about the enemy using pigeon signals.
The village gate is in the north, and there is a stone road to the south to enter the village. There are hundreds of households in the village and many shops. Business was very prosperous in the past. There are only three places where the enemy currently exists. The first is the village gate in the north. There are dozens of people there. The second one is the two brothels, where there are probably a lot of enemy troops. The restaurants are closed, so there will be no enemy troops, and then there is the military camp on the dam to the east.
Tang Qian divided his troops into three groups, and he personally led 2,000 men to attack the military camp.
As soon as we arrived at the gate of the military camp, a sentry on the sentry tower shouted: "Who is he?"
Tang Qian stretched his bow and shot an arrow, hitting the sentry in the throat. The sentry let out a muffled scream and rolled down from the sentry tower.
"There is enemy situation!" A patrol sentry in the military camp noticed and shouted.
Tang Qian yelled, "Kill!"
Five hundred people were left behind to block the escape route, and the remaining two thousand soldiers followed Tang Qian into the enemy camp.
Rang County is the prefecture of Dengzhou, and it is garrisoned by Zhang Zhongxiong with an army of 20,000. However, there are only 10,000 garrison left, and another 10,000 troops are led by the commander Wu Shengying, who rushed to support Henan Prefecture.
Zhang Zhongxiong is the second son of the famous minister Zhang Shuye. In the second year of Jingkang, Zhang Shuye committed suicide on the way to the Kingdom of Jin by Jin soldiers. The eldest son Zhang Bofen also committed suicide with his father, but the second son Zhang Zhongxiong was greedy for life and feared death and surrendered to the Kingdom of Jin.
Later he became a general of the puppet Qi army.
At that time in Jingzhao Prefecture, Zhang Zhongxiong fought against Chen Qing and was severely defeated. Soon he was transferred back to Bianliang and served as the defense envoy of Bianliang. Later, he followed Wanyan Wushu and Yue Fei's army to fight. After Yue Fei's army retreated south to Xiangyang last year,
Wanyan Wushu ordered Zhang Zhongxiong to lead 20,000 troops to guard Dengzhou and Tangzhou.
At two o'clock in the morning, Liu Qiong and Tang Qian led an army of 28,000 people to appear three miles away from the county seat of Rang County. The moon was bright and the stars were sparse, the weather was clear, there was no cloud in the night sky, and a crescent moon hung in the sky, spreading a layer of light on the earth.
silver.
The city is also very clear under the moonlight, but the distance is too far and the situation at the top of the city cannot be seen clearly.
Not long after, two scouts rushed back to report, "Please report to the capital, General Tang. The enemy's defenses are mainly on the north and south. There are many defenders on the north and south city walls. There are sentries on the city walls above the city gates. There are also sentries on the city walls."
There are two teams of patrolling soldiers each, but there are not many defensive soldiers at the west city head. We only saw three sentries and no patrolling soldiers."
It can be seen from the defensive deployment that the defenders in the city were worried about the Song army coming from the north and south, with Yang Zaixing's army in the north and Yue Fei's army in the south. Instead, they did not consider that the Song army would come from Shangzhou.
The Song army immediately divided into two groups. Tang Qian led an army of 5,000 to capture the West City and clean up the surrounding city garrison, while Liu Qiong led the main force to directly attack the enemy camp in the city.
The Song army began to move slowly towards the county town. After all, there were sentries at the top of the city. They could not get too close. They stopped advancing about two miles away from the city wall. If they moved forward, they would have no cover and would be seen by the sentries at the top of the city.
Tang Qian led five hundred soldiers in a circle to the southwest, using a forest and a dozen dilapidated houses as cover, and quickly approached the city wall. They were about three miles away from the sentry at the head of the city. They bent down and moved quickly. Under normal circumstances,
The sentry couldn't see them.
The soldiers brought long wooden planks and built a plank bridge across the moat. Tang Qian led thirty soldiers and quickly ran over and stood tightly against the wall.
Tang Qian was once the commander-in-chief of the scout army, and most of his men were also from the scout army, and all of them had unique skills.
A soldier held a flying tiger claw and threw it upwards. The flying tiger claw accurately grasped the city wall. The soldier carried a ladder on his back and pulled the rope to climb up quickly.
Not long after, the soldiers climbed up to the top of the city and looked in both directions. They happened to be at the end of the west city wall, and on the other side was the south city wall.
According to tradition, this should be a place where soldiers sleep, but he only saw two people sleeping against the wall.
The soldier made a gesture downward, indicating that only the two of them were sleeping. Tang Qian waved his hand to him, telling him not to alarm the enemy.
The soldier hung up the ladder and threw the rope ladder down. There was a reason why Tang Qian chose this corner to break through. The scout he sent before had drawn a sketch of the city wall. There should be an upper city corridor opposite the city head.
Tang Qian was the first to go to the city. He jumped up to the city and sat on the wall to sleep. Then the second soldier came up and also sat on the other side to sleep.
A company of five soldiers came up and surrounded the two sleeping soldiers.
A soldier guarding the city suddenly woke up, muttered a few words, stood up and was about to relieve himself, when a person suddenly appeared in front of him, frightening him out of his mind. Before he could shout, his mouth was covered by a hand and he was dragged away.
After returning home, another sleeping soldier suddenly woke up and took Song Jun to another for interrogation.
"What's the password tonight? Tell me!" A sharp dagger was pressed against the soldier's neck.
"The moon is bright and the stars are thin!"
Tang Qian winked, and his soldiers ran to check with another one. After a while, he came back and said, "That's it!"
"Thank you!"
A knife was inserted into the chest, and the soldier was killed immediately. Another soldier was also killed. This was a critical moment, and there could be no mercy.