Chapter 240: Surprise Attack on Chengdu (Part 1)

Tubo and the Tang Dynasty have been in war for nearly a hundred years. It mainly fought fiercely with the Tang army on four battlefields. The main frontal battlefield was Longyou, centered on Hehuang to attack the Helong area of ​​the Tang Dynasty; the second battlefield was the Western Regions, mainly attacking Anxi and competing with the Tang Dynasty for Dabolu; the third battlefield was the attack on Wenshan County, Tonghua County, Jiaochuan County in Jiannan, which is today's Aba and Wenchuan area; and the fourth battlefield was to compete with the Tang Dynasty for control of Nanzhao in the south.

Among them, the Tubo people attacked Hehuang and Jiannan with the Jiuqu area as bases. After the Anshi Rebellion broke out, Tubo invaded Tang in a large scale, not only occupied Anxi, Hexi, Hehuang, and the Wenshan, Tonghua, Jiaochuan and other Qiang counties affiliated to Jiannan, also belonged to Tubo, while the nearest Tonghua County was only more than 300 miles away from Chengdu.

Jiaochuan, Tonghua and other counties have always been the place where the Qiang people live. The mountains are steep and the rivers are rushing. Hundreds of miles west of the west are deserted and people. One day at the end of September, a Tang army of 50,000 people traveled thousands of miles and arrived in a canyon thirty miles west of Yishui County from Jiuqu area.

This is naturally the main force of Zhang Huan's southern expedition. Since Yuechu broke up with Wang Siyu in Jiuqu, Zhang Huan led a 70,000 army to the southwest. He ordered Lin Jiuhan to lead 3,000 cavalry to pioneer the way for the vanguard, and ordered 15,000 people to provide logistics supplies. He personally led 50,000 elite troops to drive towards Shu.

The army rested in Jiaochuan County for two days, then went south. In front of it was Yishui County, which was occupied by the Tubo army. The army stationed at the entrance of the canyon. Zhang Huan climbed to the top of the mountain under the guidance and looked into the distance. The mountains in the distance were vast, shrouded in fog. A big river at the foot of the mountain winded among the mountains and winded to the southeast.

The guide pointed to a majestic mountain in the distance and said, "Did the general see that? Walk south along the Wenshui River, and then cross the mountain in front is Yishui County, where there are usually hundreds of Tubo soldiers stationed there."

Zhang Huan's guide was an old Qiang man in his sixties who collected herbs for a living. He often went to Chengdu to sell medicinal materials since he was young, so he could speak fluent Chinese. Along the way, the terrain was complex and the road was dangerous. Tang Jun changed more than a dozen guides to get here after going through hardships.

Zhang Huan put on the curtain and visited the distance for a moment and asked again: "How much time does it take to travel from Yishui County to Chengdu?"

The guide thought for a while and said, "Walking through Yishui County and then south is Maochuan County in Tonghua County. When Maochuan County arrives, it is not far from Chengdu. I remember that when Jiannan Jiedushi Zhang Qiuqiong led the Tang army to fight against the Tubo people in Maochuan County, it took only two days to march from Chengdu."

Zhang Huan looked at the journey again and returned to the camp. As soon as he arrived at the commander's tent, a personal soldier came up to him. He handed Zhang Huan two orange pigeon letters, "Governor, this is the letter that the logistics messenger just sent from Jiuqu."

Zhang Huan took the pigeon letter and walked back to the tent. These were two letters from different places. One was signed ten days ago, transferred from Chengdu. It was a map of the city defense distribution in Chengdu, indicating that 200,000 people were stationed in Longyou. The other was Hu Yongfa, who was left in Longyou. It has been confirmed that Zhu Li's 200,000 troops stationed in Jiangyou. Li Na from Hanzhong was also ready to take advantage of the situation and was very likely to take advantage of the situation. The letter mentioned that the court's attitude was ambiguous, hoping that Zhang Huan would take action after Zhu Li launched an attack on Longyou to win public support.

Zhang Huan suppressed his excitement and paced back and forth in the room with his hands behind his back. Everything happened as he expected, but the more he did, the less impatient he could not be. He kept hinting that he wanted to calm down. After lunch, Zhang Huan simply found a book, sat on the rock and read it carefully. Time passed by little by little. By dusk, he had completely calmed down from the excitement of receiving the news.

As the sky got dark, a personal soldier came in to report: "Governor, the scout who went to Yishui City has returned and is waiting for him to see him outside the tent!"

"Send him in!"

Soon, a thin and strong scout, Captain Guoyi, hurried in from outside the tent. He was Liu Shuai, the scout soldier who fled back from Hehuang to report the news. Like Li Guozhen, he also entered the military academy for a year and was sent to Tubo after coming out to be responsible for the production of sand tables in the Tubo area. He was promoted to the third scout camp Guoyi. This time he turned to the southwest, and as the scout leader, he was responsible for the investigation of the enemy situation ahead.

As soon as Liu Shuai came back from the front to explore, he knelt down on one knee and said, "Liu Shuai, the commander of Guoyi, the third scout camp, met with the governor."

"Are you up?" Zhang Huan asked in a deep voice: "Tell me what the situation in Yishui County is?"

"Reporting to the governor, the county town of Yishui County is very dilapidated, not even the city gate. Thousands of Qiang people live in it, no Han people, and more than 600 Tubo troops garrisons. They are not prepared for our arrival."

The problem of the six hundred people is not big. The key is that they cannot leave and reveal the news. Zhang Huan nodded and asked again: "Can information be found in Maochuan County?"

"Report to the governor, his subordinates came back from Maochuan County. The journey was quite difficult, and the infantry was faster than the cavalry. If you had a good rest, you could arrive in one day. At present, there was no Zhuli garrison in Maochuan County. It was an empty city. His subordinates were afraid of leaving news, so they led their brothers back and did not dare to leave anyone there."

Liu Shuai's caution obviously made Zhang Huan applaud. He pondered for a moment and said to Liu Shuai: "Collection of information from Chengdu and Jiangyou is the top priority now. I will temporarily take the captain of the scouts' independent battalion and be fully responsible for the intelligence collection in Jiannan area. I will let you decide according to the situation!"

"Sir, obey the order!" Liu Shuai bowed deeply to Zhang Huan, turned around and strode away. Seeing Liu Shuai walking away, Zhang Huan immediately ordered: "Self-Pilot Camp Lin Jiuhan took Jiaochuan County to me before dawn. If anyone escapes, let him come and see you!"

．

．

．

．

．

．

．

．

．

．

On the last day of September of the sixth year of Xuanren, Zhu Li's 50,000 vanguard troops arrived in Wen County and launched a fierce attack on the 5,000 Xiliang army stationed in Qushui County, an important town in Wen County. However, the Xiliang army was obviously prepared for a long time, with sufficient food and grass, and sharp arrows. With the natural danger built by the city backing, Zhu Li's army firmly suppressed it. He failed to capture Qushui County for three consecutive days, but instead suffered nearly 10,000 troops.

At the same time, the 10,000 vanguard army of Li Na in Hanzhong also launched an attack on Fengzhou County in the east, and was also hit by the Xiliang army, which was prepared for a long time, with more than half of them being killed or injured.

At this time, Zhu Li personally led an army of 100,000. He heard that the army was not good, and he was furious. He beheaded the commander of the front army and showed it to the public. He ordered the army to press the entire line, but unexpectedly won easily. It turned out that the Xiliang army guarding Qushui County had already evacuated overnight when he saw that the enemy army had arrived.

It was dawn, and Zhu Li's king's chariot slowly drove into Qujiang County under the escort of thousands of cavalry. Next to his treasure chariot, military advisor Qi Lu followed closely. As soon as he entered the city gate, an officer came forward to report: "Report to the prince, there is no one in the city. Before evacuation, the Tang army burned all the food!"

"No one is the best, so that I can't cut my knife and order my brothers to go to the city to bury the pot and cook, and set off in the afternoon!"

The officer agreed to leave, and the military advisor Qi Lu called him again, "Be careful whether the well water is poisoned, and then remove all the fire-induced objects in the room."

"Yes!" the officer agreed and went down quickly.

"The military advisor is considerate." Zhu Li smiled slightly in the carriage.

Qi Lu shook his head, and he looked at the empty streets and alleys, and a trace of worry flashed in his eyes, "Your Majesty, I'm afraid something is wrong."

"What's wrong? Are you saying that Tang Jun was prepared in advance?" Zhu Li snorted coldly and said, "Of course, we stationed 200,000 troops in Jiangyou, how can the enemy not be alert?"

Qi Lu sighed. The key to attacking Longyou was the speed of soldiers, but Zhu Li had been dispatching troops for too long. It was obvious that the other party had been fully prepared. Zhang Huan, who was most worried about the logic of the expedition, rushed back after hearing the news. The matter would be troublesome. Although he did not say it, the worries on his face were fully displayed.

Zhu Xi glanced at him and said coldly: "Does the military advisor want me to withdraw my troops now?"

Without waiting for Qi Lu to answer, Zhu Li sternly said: "I order the army to rest for only one hour, and march immediately!"

An hour later, Zhu Li continued to lead more than 100,000 troops to advance north. His next target was Wu County, the throat-stricken area of ​​Longyou. He took Wu County and opened the gate of Longyou. But here, Zhu Li encountered the most tenacious resistance of the 30,000 Xiliang Army, which not only failed to attack Fujin County, but also the grain transport fleet that went up against the Qiang River was also attacked by the enemy, and all 150,000 stones of military rations were burned.

Zhu Li was furious, but he had no choice but to go back to Wenjun on one side, and on the other side, he issued an urgent order of 800 miles to order Chengdu to stay in Zhu Fengge to quickly transport food and grass to the front line.

．

．

．

．

．

．

．

．

．

．

Zhu Fengge, who guards Chengdu, is a brother of the Zhu Li clan. Since the Li Na rebellion broke out, Zhu Li realized that he had an irreconcilable conflict with the court. Under the pressure of rebellion, other generals would inevitably surrender to the court. In order to eliminate this possibility, Zhu Li decided to develop in the direction of aristocratic family.

From the fifth year of Xuanren, he spent almost a year to clean the army. After several rounds of his major purges, some veterans with heavy troops were found to be eliminated one by one by one by him. Zhu Li immediately handed over the military power to some of his clan brothers. Although doing so would reduce his strength, his advantages were also obvious. The promoted Zhu family's children were absolutely loyal to him, which was exactly what Zhu Li needed the most.

Before Zhu Li became rich, Zhu Fengge was a small landlord in Shandong. He racked his brains to get more land rent every year. After Zhu Li became rich in Chengdu, he was afraid that his tribe members would be implicated, so he secretly sent people to take dozens of clans to Shu County. Zhu Fengge became the marching Sima in Zhu Li's army who was in charge of military ration dispatch.

With his stinginess and careful calculation, he was competent for this position. Under his careful management, Zhu Li's military rations were greater than his output, and he accumulated nearly one million stones in several years. Zhu Fengge was also deeply trusted and valued by Zhu Li. This time, Zhu Li personally led the troops north and ordered Zhu Fengge to stay in Chengdu and take control of the military and political power in Chengdu.

Zhu Fengge is the nature of protecting wealth. Good food management may not lead the soldiers well. Besides, he has never fought a war. Zhu Li also understood this point. However, no war will happen in Shu. As long as Zhu Fengge firmly grasps the army, everything will be fine. Zhu Fengge's more important responsibility is to ensure the food and logistics supply of the army in the Northern Expedition. Therefore, Zhu Li did not appoint any deputy to assist him before leaving, and everything was completely dispatched by him.

Therefore, after Zhu Li's northern expedition, Zhu Fengge devoted all his energy to the supply of food and supplies, ensuring that the food and grass were transported to Jiangyou every day. His 20,000 left-behind troops became a transportation team, taking turns to escort the food and grass north.

On this day, Zhu Fengge received a 100,000-strong order from Zhu Li, and ordered him to immediately transport 200,000 stones of grain to Wenjun within five days. Otherwise, Zhu Fengge, who had always lived in leisure, was frightened by his elder brother's order. It took two days to go from Chengdu to Jiangyou. How could he do it five days to Wenjun, which had a difficult journey?

No matter how scared he was, Zhu Fengge ordered the soldiers to load the car overnight and set off overnight. Without having time to catch the civilians, he asked 10,000 soldiers to act as civilians to send 100,000 stones of grain to the north first.

Zhu Fengge was scared to send the grain team away, but he panickedly arrested the civilians, collected carriages, and prepared to transport the second batch of 100,000 stones of grain.

Night gradually fell, and Zhu Fengge, who had been tired all day long, could not hold back and go to bed, but the huge grain warehouse square was still crowded with people. Thousand butter torches shone brightly on the square. Nearly 10,000 men arrested from various counties in Chengdu were still carrying grain bags to the carriage tiredly, and more than a thousand soldiers were closely monitoring them to prevent them from escaping.

Among the busy civilians like an ant colony, there are more than a hundred strong men. They are all strong and have agile steps. They are caught from the outskirts of Chengdu. Time is tight and no one cares about their origin. As long as they are healthy, it doesn't matter if they are robbers. Otherwise, they will not be able to catch people and they can only serve as civilians.

Among this group of people, the leader was a thin little man who looked very smart. He was carrying food and grass while paying attention to the situation around him. Needless to say, he was naturally the scout General Liu Shuai.

Suddenly, the sound of the gong of "Dang!Dang!" sounded, and the time for dinner was up. Of course, it was not the people who were having dinner, but the time for dinner for soldiers guarding around them. The hungry and tired soldiers could not wait to change their guards and ran to the other side of the square.

At this moment, when Liu Shuai saw the opportunity coming, he immediately waved his hand and whispered, "Let's go!" More than a hundred subordinates seemed to be in harmony, and ran away. They were as fast as flying, and disappeared into the thick night. Some of the surrounding men also wanted to run away, but they were afraid. Just as hesitated, the soldiers who had changed their guard had already come to line up and take them into close care again.

Let’s talk about Liu Shuai leading more than 100 people to run along the streets and alleys, and soon left the Liangku Square far away. In order to reduce the goal, they broke up into five teams and went to Wangjiang Restaurant to concentrate.

Since the war broke out in the north, people in Chengdu generally no longer went out at night, and every family closed their doors for fear of causing trouble. Major restaurants with cold business also closed early, and Wangjiang Restaurant was no exception. Not only did it have a light business, but more than a dozen friends were arrested, which made it have to close its doors and close its business.

At this moment, the lights in the restaurant lobby were weak, and Manager Qian was registering the account book restlessly. After the war in Longyou began, he had more worries than ordinary people. He didn't know if Longyou could be prepared.

Suddenly the door was knocked on, anxious and fast. Manager Qian was shocked and blew out the lights in a slight manner. Then he tiptoed to the door, poked a hole in the window, and looked out quietly. He saw more than a dozen people standing under the eaves. They knocked on the door and looked around vigilantly.

"Who is it?" Manager Qian asked softly.

"Let's find the shopkeeper of money!"

"What are you asking him for?"

There was no movement outside the door. After a while, someone whispered: "There are fairy mountains in the north, and the winter wind brings me."

Manager Qian's heart fell to the ground. He immediately opened the door. He saw a thin man standing at the door. He took out a waist sign and shook it in front of him, "I am Manager Qian, who are you?"

Liu Shuai smiled and bowed to him and said, "We are the scouts of the Xiliang Army, and the governor sent us to Chengdu first."

"Xiliang Army?" Manager Qian was shocked. How could the Xiliang Army appear in Chengdu? Without thinking about it, he quickly let more than a dozen people in. Liu Shuai turned around and whistled. He saw countless black shadows running out from the alleys around him under the bridge, and rushed into the lobby together. After a moment, he squeezed the lobby full.

'One hundred and eleven people, a lot of each one.' Liu Shuai was relieved and turned around and apologized to the stunned shopkeeper Qian and said, "There are a lot of people, I'm sorry!"

"It's okay! It's okay! Please come inside." Manager Qian hurriedly invited them to the inner room, but Liu Shuai stopped him and asked, "I heard that Manager Qian has many guys hidden here, I wonder if they are still there?"

"Yes! Yes!" Manager Qian responded in a panic: "There are weapons hidden by the boss in the cellar, which are enough for you to use."

He brought everyone to the cellar. The cellar was well ventilated, and it looked dry and cold. It lit the oil lamp on the wall. A dim light spread out in the cellar. This was the place where Wangjiang Restaurant stored wine and some debris. The things were placed in a mess, making it difficult to get it. But the shopkeeper Qian was familiar with it and pushed it away. Behind the barrel was a black square hole, both of which were five feet long and wide. He pointed inside and said, "The weapons are all in the box inside, very heavy, you can get it yourself!"

Liu Shuai waved his head and immediately three or four big men came up, dragging out four large boxes from the cave, and opened them. It was indeed filled with military weapons, mainly horizontal swords and crossbow arrows, with more than 200 pieces.

Liu Shuai nodded, looked at Jianguan Qian and smiled, "Finally, I would like to ask Jianguan Qian, where are the mansion and military camps of Zhu Fengge? What roads must we go through? Can you draw a picture for us?"

．

．

．

．

．

．

．

．

．
Chapter completed!