Linqiong County, Qiongzhou, is the administrative seat of Qiongzhou. It is close to the Baizhu River in the south and the Xiejiang River ten miles away in the north. Linqiong County is located in the basin between the two rivers, to the west of the official road ten miles northwest of the county.
It is also a small basin. There are hundreds of households here, forming a small town called Beiqiong Town.
The town is located in front of the most important official road, so there are many shops on both sides of the official road, including food, drink, entertainment, accommodation, grocery stores, dry food stores, etc., basically everything is available.
But the real customers of these shops are not merchants traveling from north to south, but a military camp on the other side of the official road.
The military camp occupies a large area and is surrounded by a fence. From the flag, it looks like the state military camp of Qiongzhou, but in fact it is the private army of the Jia family. The leader is Jia Xiu, the brother of the family leader Jia Yuan. The other generals are either descendants of the Jia family.
Or he is Jia Xiu's confidant.
The two thousand soldiers were also recruited by the Jia family at the expense of the Jia family. In fact, they gathered together the brave and fierce scoundrels from various townships in Qiongzhou. Each of them received a monthly salary of five guans. Although they were far away from the county town, there were many shops around them.
, food, drink, whoring and gambling are all available, making the soldiers live a happy life.
To the north of the military camp is a low and gentle hill about ten feet high. The mountain is covered with big trees, like a long green wall that surrounds the town and the military camp. The official road passes through the gap in the middle.
This low and gentle hill that is more than twenty miles long is the reason why the military camp arranged it here. It is a natural earth wall. The north side is very steep and cannot be climbed up the mountain. There are many mountain roads to the south side.
A three-foot-high sentry tower was built on the top of the mountain next to the official road. A sentry looked out from the sentry tower and could detect movements several miles away. Once there was a situation, the two thousand soldiers in the military camp immediately took action and blocked the official with huge rocks and trees.
At the road intersection, soldiers went up the mountain to defend themselves with bows and arrows. Both sides of the official road were filled with uneven ground, and there were many rocks. The gaps were filled with shrubs and trees, making it difficult to walk. There was no way to clear the battlefield, so they had to go to the official road.
road.
What's more important is that this place is still ten miles away from Linqiong County. Once a fight breaks out here, Linqiong County can get the news immediately, and the Jia family still has time to retreat.
General Jia Xiu was originally the Yazhou military envoy of the Jiannan Army. He was an important supporter of King Yong Li Lin. He was later liquidated. After King Yong failed, Jia Xiu also lost military power. However, in order to appease the Jia family, Li Ye did not send Jia Xiu to power.
Xiu was completely liquidated and instead named him Qiongzhou's military envoy and guerrilla general.
Qiongzhou had no troops stationed in the first place, so the Qiongzhou military envoy was actually in vain, but it was this Qiongzhou military envoy who legitimized the two thousand people under Jia Xiu's command.
If there were no conflicts, the Jia family in Qiongzhou would maintain the status quo for a long time. However, with the abolition of slavery, the relationship between the Bashu nobles and the court began to deteriorate.
The people of Dongguo and Xijia in Bashu know that both of them made their fortune from salt and controlled more than half of the salt wells in Bashu. Of course, mining salt wells requires a large number of salt workers, but the Jia family and the Guo family have no salt workers, only salt slaves. The Guo family has two
There are more than 10,000 slaves, and the Jia family also has nearly 20,000 salt slaves, working day and night in salt wells across Qiongzhou.
The abolition of slavery order can be said to have directly hit the vital points of the Bashu wealthy family, and of course it also touched the vital interests of the Jia family.
Jia Wei, the governor of Qiongzhou, was the first to make a public statement in Jiannan Road that the abolition of slavery was invalid for Qiongzhou. Soon after, Yazhou, Meizhou, Jiazhou and Zizhou also stated that the abolition of slavery was invalid for this state.
This statement was undoubtedly a declaration of war against the imperial court and the emperor. On the same day that Jia Wei's public statement reached Chang'an, Li Ye issued a military order to Li Sheng to annihilate the Qiongzhou army and exterminate the entire Jia family.
At night, an army of 20,000 people gradually approached Linqiong County, still twenty miles away from Beiqiong Town. The army stopped, and then a caravan of more than 30 donkeys headed towards Beiqiong Town.
go.
The leader was Tang Army Scout Colonel Zhu Yong, who was a native of Chengdu. He and four of his men walked all the way, and gradually approached the intersection of the mountain col. They were stopped by soldiers. There was a roadblock here.
"Who?" several soldiers scolded and asked.
Zhu Yong said nothing and made a few gestures. The soldiers immediately understood that private salt dealers walked at night.
The leader of the team was making a gesture. Zhu Yong took out a bronze medal from his arms and handed it to him. This is called the Jia brand, an identity plate made by the Jia family. To buy salt from the Jia family, you must have this bronze medal.
When the leading soldier saw that the bronze medal number was five, he smiled and said, "Master Zhan's people?"
Mr. Zhan refers to Zhan Hongda, a big businessman in Chengdu. He is involved in almost every profitable business. He takes both black and white and has a deep friendship with the Jia family.
However, no matter how deep the friendship was, it was not as important as his own wealth and life. Seeing that the situation was not good, Zhan Hongda decisively defected to the court and sold the Jia family.
Zhu Yong nodded, and the leader of the team returned the bronze medal to him and said: "The county gate has been closed, and there is no accommodation further forward. Why not just stay in Beiqiong Town for one night, and set off again tomorrow. When we get to Linqiong County, we don't have to go any further."
It’s night time.”
"Thank you!"
Zhu Yong took out a piece of silver weighing two ounces and threw it to the captain. The captain was overjoyed and quickly waved his hand, and the roadblock moved away.
The five people led the donkey and continued forward. They were not even searched. It was unnecessary. How could someone transporting smuggled salt not have any weapons with them?
A group of people stayed at an inn. The inn they chose also happened to face the gate of the military camp, and the watchtower on the top of the mountain could also be seen from the side.
During this time, the wind was very close, and Jia Xiu also strengthened his defenses. There were people monitoring the official road at the sentry tower at all times. However, the weather had been clear these past few nights, and the moonlight illuminated the official road as bright as day.
It was difficult to break through from the front, so Li Sheng decided to start from the inside.
At two o'clock, the military camp finally calmed down, and Zhu Yong set off with four of his men. They ran along the back of the shop. The five soldiers were divided into two groups, and Zhu Yong led one of his men to rush up a mountain road.
The other three people walked toward the intersection, where there were three soldiers on duty.
The mound was only a dozen feet high, and soon the two of them reached the bottom of the wooden sentry tower. Zhu Yong and his men climbed up to the sentry tower without hesitation.
In just a moment, they climbed up to the sentry tower. The sentry tower was like a pavilion. There was a circle of baffles around the lower part, and an octagonal roof on top. There was no shelter in the middle. Two sentries took turns to stand guard. There was a copper bell next to it. Just pull the rope.
, the bronze bell rang.
Two sentries, one sitting on the ground and taking a nap, the other with his back to them, holding a spear and paying careful attention to the official road in the distance.
Zhu Yong made a gesture to his men, one person to deal with each other. The two men took out their hand crossbows and loaded short crossbow arrows. Zhu Yong raised the crossbow and aimed at the back of the neck of the soldier standing guard, while his men aimed at the face of the sleeping soldier.
The two of them pulled the hanging knife together, "Whoosh! Whoosh!" Two crossbow arrows were shot out at the same time. One crossbow arrow hit the back of the guard's neck. The soldier let out a muffled scream and fell to the ground softly.
Another arrow hit the dozing soldier's face, but unexpectedly hit the open mouth. The arrow penetrated the face and shot out from the cheek area. It was not fatal. The dozing soldier couldn't scream, so he struggled to get up and reached for the alarm rope.
, Zhu Yong jumped up, swung his sword horizontally, and cut off the throat of the dozing soldier. The soldier fell on his back, blood splattering everywhere.
After killing the sentry tower, Zhu Yong looked towards the intersection and saw a fire swaying three times on the other side of the intersection. The intersection was also successful.
Zhu Yong immediately lit the torch, used the baffle below to cover it, and waved the torch back and forth.
Soon, the Tang army appeared, running in darkness on the official road. Soon they rushed through the intersection and headed towards the Jia family camp.
The soldiers standing guard in front of the camp discovered the Tang army coming to kill them. They were so frightened that they shouted loudly, but it was too late. The Tang army rushed into the camp like a tide.
In Cunning Rabbit Three Cave, the leader Jia Xiu is extremely cunning. His tent is located in the southwest corner. There is a small hidden door dozens of steps away from the tent. Outside is a small path that leads directly to the depths of the dense forest.
When he heard that the Tang army had entered the camp, he knew something was wrong. He drew his sword and rushed out of the back tent. He jumped on his horse, cut off the reins with his sword, and rushed straight to the back door. The situation was tense these days, so Jia Xiu secretly carried out
exercise.
Several soldiers had cooperated to open the small door. Jia Xiu rushed out on horseback and soon disappeared into the dense forest. Several soldiers also ran out and locked the secret door with iron chains from the outside. They also went into the dense forest.
Escape.
When the Tang army couldn't find their general Jia Shen and finally found the secret door in the southwest corner, half an hour had passed.
These are local snakes, and even a fierce dragon like Li Sheng may not be able to subdue them.
Li Sheng was furious and ordered all 2,000 soldiers to be executed. Without leaving any further trouble, he personally led 10,000 cavalry to Linqiong County.