More than a hundred miles east of Lizhou City, the leaders of the five tribes are discussing.
They are all young old men in their fifties and sixties, elected from within. The former Shu did not allow them to be hereditary, so they gradually adapted to the electoral system.
"The Han officials asked us to send troops, what do you think?" Liu Ali sat cross-legged on the cattail grass, flicking the pond fire with branches.
There was a clay pot on the fire, and meat was cooking in it.
Hao Pu said angrily: "The tea farm still owes us money. If we don't pay the money, I will never send troops to help!"
"Yes, Han officials always don't have enough money to buy things!" Wang Heiyi said angrily.
This was Tea Horse's fault. It was still doing well now. But in the early years of the Southern Song Dynasty, over time, Lizhou Tea House owed the Five Tribes tens of thousands of dollars.
Feeling that they would not get their money back, the five tribes simply "armed themselves to ask for wages" and plundered eighteen villages. They fought from the west to Zhoucheng, 15 miles away, and from the south to Hanyuan Town, 3 miles away.
Then he was beaten up by the Southern Song Dynasty. Not only did he not get back the debt, he even donated 300 horses to make amends.
The magistrate of Lizhou at that time was named Yu Yunwen...
What the Song Dynasty did was unethical, but Yu Yunwen couldn't control the Tea Horse Division.
Most of the rebellions by the southwestern barbarians were caused by Han officials who were forced intolerable.
Of course, they are not innocent. Once there is not enough food, they will rob the Han people and use them as cash machines.
It is difficult to explain clearly the right and wrong.
Yang Baozi said: "Don't refuse directly. The ministries send envoys to the city and say that we want to help but we don't have enough money and food to send troops. If the Han officials can pay the money they owe, we will have food to send troops."
This proposal was very good, so the five tribes of Hao, Zhao, Wang, Liu and Yang collectively sent envoys to the city to ask for money.
When Ju Ming received the news, he couldn't help but ask: "How much does Tea Horse owe them?"
Yu Wenchang shook his head and said: "I'm not sure, it's just a bad debt."
Zhu Ming lamented: "Oh, we were wrong about this matter. It's really hard to ask for guilt afterward."
Yu Wenchang said: "The one who owes money is the Tea Horse Company. What does it have to do with the people of Lizhou? They should go to the Tea Horse Company to ask for money. Even if they don't pay back the debt, they will just stop trading. But they continue to sell
The barbarians came to plunder the Han people."
"What did the Xuhen Department say?" Zhu Ming asked again.
Yu Wenchang said: "The Xuhen Ministry is willing to send a hundred troops."
Most of the Xuhen tribe's territory belongs to Jiazhou, but as it expands westward, a small part is also in Lizhou.
Yu Wenchang was already recruiting civilians. In addition to recruiting a thousand Han people, he also recruited 500 familiar barbarians from the north bank of the Dadu River.
The soldiers, the civilians, the boatmen, the carpenters, the stonemasons, and the 100 barbarian soldiers of the Xuhen tribe barely managed to reach 3,000 people.
On the second day after dispatching the troops, the entire army had crossed the Dadu River. Yuwen Changcai wrote a letter condemning the Qiongbu Sichuan barbarians and ordering them to immediately return the land of the Lianglin barbarians.
…
Ju Meng was in a state of joy. He sent out troops this time, conquered 14 villages of Lianglin Man, and captured a large area of mountainous valleys.
The main force of the two forest barbarians came from the south to rescue them, but were defeated by Ju Meng in one fell swoop. Taking advantage of the situation, they captured two more southern villages.
The fourth son, Ju Afan, was entrusted by him and became the ghost owner of the new territory.
In the next few years, Ju Meng planned to continue to expand and entrust the fifth and sixth sons together.
The tribes that participated in the battle also received some rewards and returned to their villages one after another.
A few days after the barbarian soldiers dispersed, Ju Meng received a letter of reprimand.
He didn't take it seriously at all and just threw the letter into the brazier and burned it.
In the past few decades, Han officials only knew how to reprimand and would not send troops at all. Zhu Meng had long been accustomed to it. He just wrote a letter of confession and offered a few livestock to make amends.
Two days later, someone from the northernmost village sent a report: "Master Du Dagui, Han soldiers are coming to kill them. They say there are 100,000 people!"
"One hundred thousand people?" Ju Meng stood up in shock.
Ju Ming understands mathematics. A few hundred soldiers can be called ten thousand. Wouldn't it be possible to round off three thousand soldiers to one hundred thousand?
Ju Meng called the Han Sun Shu over: "A hundred thousand Han soldiers came to attack. Do you think it is true?"
Sun Shu smiled and said: "Where did you get one hundred thousand? Even counting the common people, ten thousand is pretty good."
Ju Meng called his eldest son again: "Send someone to tell all the ministries that they must lead their troops to gather at Pugulong within fifteen days. If anyone dares to do so within fifteen days, I will conquer them next year!"
Fifteen days are enough for Ju Ming to penetrate the valley on the south bank of the Dadu River!
The government army marched along the river valley, transporting all the baggage by boats, and even the fishermen's boats were drafted.
The parts were carried ashore one by one, and were quickly assembled into the cannon by the carpenters accompanying the army.
These reciprocating cannons are extremely crudely made, and parts can be saved as much as possible. Except for the bracket and throwing rod, which are made of exquisite materials, the rest are made of ordinary wood. The cost of building a small reciprocating cannon is about the same as building a few country wooden beds.
The nearby mountains are full of stones, and soldiers escorted the stonemasons to quarry the stones.
The first thing I looked for was gravel. I randomly chiseled it into irregular spheres and asked the civilians to move it to the Huihui cannon.
The village is a branch of the Qiongbu Sichuan Barbarians, which has occupied this area for less than ten years. It used to be the territory of the Lianglin Barbarians.
Ghost Lord Qu Mang was extremely horrified. There were only three to four hundred people in his village. Because they were greedy for the fertile valley, they lived by the river. The other villages under his command were scattered in the nearby mountains.
It was too late to gather troops. At most, more than 300 people from the village were brought to fight (including the elderly, weak, women and children).
Looking around, Qimang felt that he definitely couldn't beat him, so... he surrendered.
He came out empty-handed with his son, Qi Mang knelt on the ground, and said in less fluent Chinese: "Qi Mang pays homage to the Han chief!"
Yu Wenchang asked: "Ju Meng, the leader of the Qiongbu Sichuan barbarians, who are you?"
Qu Mang replied: "My father and Ju Meng are brothers. Ju Meng is the eldest brother, and my father is the third brother. After we captured this place nine years ago, my father became the ghost master. Now my father is dead.
, I became the master of ghosts.”
Yu Wenchang asked again: "How many villages do you have?"
Qimang replied: "There are six more in the mountain."
"How many tribes are there?" Yu Wenchang continued to ask.
Qimang said: "Some villages have dozens of people, and some villages have one or two hundred people. The land by the river is fertile and this is the largest village."
Yu Wenchang ordered: "Take your son with me and send people to other villages to recruit warriors. We must gather 200 warriors to accompany the army! If we win this battle, I will ask the court to make you the great ghost on the south bank of the Dadu River.
Lord, I will also reward you with two more villages!"
Qu Mang was overjoyed and kowtowed: "Thank you sir for the gift!"
This guy has made up his mind to follow the soldiers to fight his uncle. If the battle goes well, he can take the opportunity to stand on his own feet. If the battle goes wrong, he will immediately switch sides!
The newly assembled cannon was dismantled and carried back to the ship.
The army continued to advance, and two days later, they encountered another village.
Qu Mang took the initiative to provide information: "The ghost master here is on the mountain, and there is no ghost master in the village."
Yu Wenchang asked: "Is the ghost owner here a relative of Ju Meng?"
Qu Mang said: "He is Ju Meng's cousin, his name is Afu. He has eight villages, and he is a fierce warrior. He is afraid that the river is not safe, so he lives in a village on the mountain."
The Huihui artillery pieces were moved ashore for assembly again, with a total of more than 40 pieces.
Thirty of them were light return artillery pieces that could only throw twenty or thirty kilograms of stone projectiles.
Yuwen often sent people to shout to persuade them to surrender. The barbarians in the village were very frightened, but they hid in the bunker and could not come out.
Ju Ming had already arranged the "artillery position". There were five cage forts in the village, and every eight cannons were assigned a target. He drew his sword and shouted: "Test the cannon!"
These return guns already have a slot device, so there is no need to cut the rope.
I saw the blacksmith as the gunner, swinging his mallet and smashing down, and forty cannons throwing stone bullets one after another.
The ballistics were not calculated because the weight of the stone bullets was not uniform and the shape was extremely irregular.
Forty rounds of artillery shells were thrown, but only three hit the Cage Fort, but they damaged many nearby houses.
The carpenter served as an artillery surveyor and adjusted the position entirely based on intuition.
The second round of artillery shells was thrown, and this time six shells hit, and the houses in the village were riddled with holes.
There was no need to wait for the third round of volleys. There was a cage fort that was hit one after another. The barbarians inside were so frightened that they fled frantically because one of the fort walls had become crooked and cracked.
"The horse army pursues!"
Deng Chun immediately got on his horse, led fifty Xiang army cavalry, and chased the barbarians around the village.
Those barbarians obviously wanted to flee to the mountains to seek protection from the ghost master.
Deng Chun, holding two maces, galloped on his horse, caught up with the enemy at the foot of the mountain, and blew off a head with one blow of his mace.
He led the cavalry to kill more than ten people in a row, but the remaining barbarians were already climbing the steep slope. Deng Chun ordered everyone to dismount and pursue on foot until they reached the halfway point of the hillside. They stopped only when they saw Ghost Lord Afu's troops.
Ghost Lord Afu led the main force to the mountainside. In a hurry, he could only bring more than a hundred warriors and sent people down the mountain to question the Han army.
Yu Wenchang sneered: "You are disobedient and wantonly occupy the prefecture. This is the land of Lianglin Barbarians. It was given to Lianglin Barbarians by the imperial court. Why have you occupied it for so long and refused to return it? Surrender quickly and you will be spared.
!”
The ghost master Afu was unwilling to surrender, but he was afraid of the large number of Han soldiers and guarded the steep hillside without coming down to save the village.
"Boom boom boom boom!"
The third round of shelling began.
Ghost Lord Ah Fu was horrified when he saw it, and Qu Mang, who had surrendered, was equally horrified.
"The Han soldiers are protected by ghosts and gods!" Qu Mang's eldest son suddenly exclaimed.
These words reminded the barbarian warriors who had surrendered. In fear, they all knelt down and worshiped Hui Hui Pao.
Qu Mang's expression changed drastically. He knew that he could not rebel. His troops had been frightened. Even if the battle was over and the Han soldiers returned to Lizhou, his troops would not dare to face the Han soldiers again.
More and more barbarians abandoned the cage fort and fled. Deng Chun led his cavalry to pursue them.
Yu Wenchang was overjoyed and asked, "Does this cannon have a name?"
Ju Ming replied: "Not yet."
Yuwen Chang said: "It's better to call it Pingyi Pao."
"What a good name." Zhu Ming smiled.
The Han soldiers took advantage of the situation and occupied the village, and the ghost leader Afu also led his troops to retreat.
Using Qimang as a guide, Ju Ming went to check Afu's lair in person. He found that the village was extremely dangerous and could not be attacked by Pingyi artillery.
Zhu Ming went down the mountain and said: "Soldiers are valuable and quick, so we can't waste time here. I left two hundred soldiers and asked Zhang Bor to lead the troops to garrison the stronghold to prevent Ah Fu from cutting off the retreat, while the main force of the officers and soldiers continued to accelerate forward!"
"Can two hundred soldiers hold it?" Yu Wen often asked.
"I can definitely hold it!" Zhu Ming promised.
Yu Wenchang ordered: "Have a rest for the night and advance the troops tomorrow!"