Guiyi Fei Tang

Chapter 162 East Valley Pass
"Wow—"

Eagles were crying on the plateau, and in the ravines of the mountains, a team was stretched for more than ten miles. Not to mention the difficulties of the march, a pass in front of them blocked them in the ravine.

In the ravine as narrow as a thread of sky, even carriages driving side by side was a luxury. The limp Sanchen flags, like the morale of the Longxi army, were difficult to boost.

"Sorry..."

The horses whinnied and the soldiers retreated to the sides with difficulty, leaving a path for the horses to move forward.

In front of the Hengma Army, Liu Jilian looked at the narrow pass, which was only four meters wide and leaned against the mountain more than a hundred steps away, and his mood sank to the bottom.

The terrain of East Valley Pass was not as bad as he thought, but it was definitely not much better.

The mountains here are no longer cliffs on both sides, but there are steep slopes on the left and right sides, which are difficult to climb.

However, the three-meter-wide official road was sandwiched between steep slopes, so how to build the catapult became the problem before them.

If there were not enough catapults to break down the pass ahead, he would have no choice but to fill the gap with the lives of his soldiers.

Thinking of this, Liu Jilong turned around and looked at the soldiers in his camp, only to see that they all placed their hopes on him, with an indescribable light flashing in their eyes.

They...are all soldiers that I have personally trained for more than a year. How can they be used to fill in the gaps...

Liu Jilong couldn't bear to turn his head and stared at the narrow pass in front of him that was three meters wide and two meters high.

"Beep--"

A shrill whistle came from the direction of the pass. With Liu Jilong's eyesight, he could roughly see their actions.

However, more than ten people stood on the horse path at the pass and blocked the more than 6,000 people outside the Daxia River Valley.

If they rush through, they will reach the vast and flat Daxia River Valley Basin, but how to rush through became the problem facing Liu Jilong.

"Step aside……"

On the horse trail at the pass, Lin Ruzhen pushed away the soldiers blocking his way, leaned against the stone wall and stared ahead.

The Longxi army was slow to act, and the Sanchen flag that had once fluttered also showed signs of decline.

Faced with a situation where he had the advantage of time, place and people, Lin Ruzhen's originally nervous mood suddenly relaxed the moment he saw the Longxi army.

The temporary stone wall of the pass is not very strong, but if you want to break it, you must pay the price of blood.

"Build the trebuchets right here, side by side!"

Liu Jilong spoke in a deep voice, and Shang Duoluo hurriedly said, "Governor, this place is only three meters wide, and at most we can build two catapults side by side."

"But at such a close distance, it's difficult for the soldiers to use their weapons, and it's easy to hurt our own people by mistake, Governor..."

Before he could finish, Liu Jilong turned around and looked at him with a resolute look:
“Draw lots from the civilians in Hezhou and have the soldiers teach them how to operate the catapults.”

"Each row of trebuchets is three feet apart. After the attack in front, the civilians will immediately retreat and deploy three rows first!"

Naturally, Liu Jilong was reluctant to let the soldiers he had trained for more than a year to fill the line, so he could only use civilian laborers and catapults to break through the pass.

It would be easy to accidentally injure our own people when using catapults in the narrow terrain, but there was no other way now.

If we don’t use this method, we can only let the soldiers fill the line.

While making the decision, Liu Jilong said in a deep voice: "If the civilians are unfortunately sacrificed, their families will be given 50 mu of land and 30 shi of grain!"

"I obey your command!" Upon hearing Liu Jilong's order, Shang Duoluo bowed in a deep voice, turned his horse around and went to dispatch the laborers.

The soldiers climbed up the steep slopes on both sides of the official road with difficulty, leaving the road to the catapults and civilian laborers.

Six catapults were lined up in the valley, and behind them was a team of laborers digging and throwing stones.

In this kind of mountainous and gully terrain, there was no shortage of trebuchets, so after several thousand people worked for an hour, they used horse-drawn carts to pile up a mountain of stones behind the catapults.

"Beep--"

The whistle sounded, and more than a hundred selected civilians began to operate the catapults under the guidance of the soldiers.

The operation of the counterweight trebuchet is not difficult, the difficulty lies in the combat location.

It is very difficult to use catapults in such mountain gorges and gullies, and all the laborers operate the catapults very carefully.

"Oh!"

Suddenly, the two catapults in the first row threw out stones, which flew over the gorge and ravine, and soon hit the mountain on one side, and then rolled down to the bottom of the valley.

Everyone stared at them with their breath caught in their throats.

"Get away!"

"Bang... bang... bang..."

At the camp behind the pass, when two rocks weighing seventy or eighty kilograms carrying soil rolled down from the mountain, the foreign soldiers and civilians in the camp shouted and tried to get out of the way.

"Bam—"

A dull sound was heard, and two fallen rocks hit the fence of the camp one after another, knocking the fence crooked and rolling into the camp along the fence, but fortunately no casualties were caused.

"Damn it, why are the stones thrown by these Han slaves so big?!"

At the narrow pass, Lin Ruzhen's ears were filled with the exclamations of the soldiers around him, and he himself had an ugly expression on his face.

Every move of the Longxi army was under his eyes, but the two sides were separated by nearly a hundred steps, and the terrain restricted the trebuchets, so Lin Ruzhen did not take the Longxi army's trebuchets seriously.

But now it seems that the power of the Longxi army's catapults is far beyond his imagination, and he must be on guard.

"Put up rails on both sides of the mountain...quickly!"

General Lin Ruzhen immediately gave orders, and the foreign soldiers and civilians at the pass also began to arrange inclined horizontal railings on the mountains on both sides of the pass.

They wanted the fallen rocks to roll down along the horizontal railing into the valley ahead, rather than rolling onto the horse trails between the camps and the pass.

"it works!"

On horseback, Shang Duoluo and others clenched their fists, with joy on their faces.

"Continue!" Liu Jilian ordered in a deep voice, and the catapults in front of the army began to attack in turns.

Due to the terrain, it was very difficult to deploy six catapults in front and behind at a distance of 30 meters.

If more were to be added, then if the stone was thrown wrong, it would destroy the catapult in front.

Liu Jilong did not order more catapults, but instead planned to rely on these six catapults to destroy the pass first.

Even if they cannot destroy it, they can use the fallen rocks to fill the height difference in front of the pass, which saves the step of cloud car charging.

"Bam—"

The catapults continued to operate, and after the first row was finished, they attacked the second row, and after the second row was finished, they attacked the third row.

In a quarter of an hour, each row of catapults can be operated twice. Although it is not as frequent as three times on flat ground, it is also very difficult.

The horizontal bars that Lin Ruzhen had people set up were simply unable to prevent the falling rocks from rolling into the camp.

In order to survive, the foreign soldiers and civilians in the camp had to retreat more than a hundred steps and wait for General Lin Ruzhen's order to rush to their rescue.

General Lin Ruzhen also withdrew from the horse trail at the pass because the falling rocks were too terrifying.

Most of the stones thrown by the catapults rolled down the mountain into the valley, but a small number of them rolled along the mountain onto the horse trail at the pass.

The feeling of watching falling rocks without cooling your hands and feet, your body becoming stiff and unable to move, and finally being crushed to death by the falling rocks is chilling.

But even so, General Lin Ruzhen still had to send armored soldiers and civilians to guard the pass to prevent the Longxi army from launching an attack.

"Send this handwritten letter to Daxia and let Qiliben and the others prepare!"

General Lin Ruzhen wrote a letter, mainly describing the power of the Longxi Army's catapults, and at the same time asked Shang Yanxin and others to take the opportunity to reinforce the Daxia City.

Originally, General Lin Ruzhen was confident of victory in defending the Donggu Pass.

But as the Longxi army's catapults continued to attack, this confidence was gradually declining.

The plan to block the enemy west of the pass was about to fail, and he could only hope to hold on to Daxia County.

"Oh!"

From afternoon to nightfall, the catapults of the Longxi army never stopped.

The people at the pass were so badly attacked that they dared not light a fire. Instead, Liu Jilong and his men lit one bonfire after another.

Liu Jilong, Shang Duoluo and others gathered around the campfire. Soon someone cut the roasted "Southern Musk Deer" into pieces, put them on a wooden plate, and brought them in front of them.

Southern musk deer is the forest musk deer. Because it produces "musk" on its body, it became a tribute to the three states of He, Lin and Wei.

In the East Valley, although it is difficult for humans to climb the mountains, the musk deer can do it as if they were walking on flat ground.

The soldier who shot the musk deer thought it was a wild deer, so he carried it to Liu Jilong to claim credit.

It was only after Shang Duoluo reminded him that Liu Jilong learned of its identity.

The musk has been taken out, so the musk meat naturally cannot be let go.

Although this meat is not as good as beef or mutton, it is good to have it in a place like this. "The three states of He, Lin and Wei are rich in musk, bran gold, red copper, wild horse skin, hemp and cloth."

While eating, Liu Jilong talked about the specialties of the three states of Helin and Wei.

"Provincial Governor, what is bran gold?"

Zhang Chang asked in confusion. Before Liu Jilong could explain, Shang Duoluo explained, "Brass gold is gold that is as thin as bran."

"The gold is mainly in the river water. Livestock that often drink this river water will occasionally excrete gold."

"Back when Tubo had not yet been involved in internal strife, the three states of He, Lin and Wei would send people to pan for gold in the river every year, or to mine red copper and refine bran gold in the copper mines."

"Shang Duoluo is right." Liu Jilong echoed:
"The gold in this river is mainly washed out from the mountains, and copper mines are accompanied by gold mines, so while smelting copper, a lot of gold can also be obtained."

"After we take over the three states of He, Lin and Wei, we will be able to mine copper and gold, and sell musk."

"As long as we have gold and copper coins, we can get many things, even buy slaves."

The slaves Liu Jilian mentioned did not refer to slaves from other countries, but to the bandits and their families captured by the army after suppressing the rebellion.

They are all Han people, but due to natural disasters and man-made calamities, they were forced to become bandits.

Although the court's attitude was to appease the rebels, the local governors and provincial governors were not so kind.

For example, last year, the imperial court's intention was to pacify the famine victims in Jishan. However, after Wang Zhihong, the governor of Guozhou, lured the famine victims down the mountain, he immediately sent troops to kill the men and captured their families, and sold them as slaves.

Although later generations called Li Chen’s reign the "Dazhong Reign" or the "Dazhong Temporary Reign", the roots of the Tang Dynasty were already rotten.

It was common for provincial governors to pretend to obey orders but actually disobey them, and the scenes of guards expelling military governors were even more frequent.

From Shuzhong to Guanzhong, and then to Henan and Jiangnan, there were starving people and bandits everywhere, but the provincial governors turned a blind eye.

Liu Jilong was not sure about the price of these "slaves", but he believed that as long as he was paid, many people would be willing to sell them to him.

"Oh!"

The sound of falling rocks woke him up, and he couldn't help but look at Shang Duoluo: "Do you know how many people there are in Duomai and Tuyuhun?"

"It should be around five or six hundred thousand." Shang Duoluo wiped the oil from his mouth and gave a rough number.

After hearing this, Liu Jilong did not continue to ask, but said: "Do you think that if we support Shang Bibi, can Shang Bibi take down Duomai and Tuyuhun?"

"Capture Duomai and Tuyuhun?" Shang Duoluo looked surprised.

"Governor, you are not joking, are you?"

"If Jiedushi Shang were to capture Tuyuhun and Duomai, he would be able to mobilize at least 30,000 armored soldiers and 100,000 troops."

“Even if he does nothing at that time, we will need to leave tens of thousands of people in Lanzhou and Hezhou to guard against him.”

Although Shang Duoluo used to follow Shang Bibi, now he has defected to Liu Jilong, so naturally he has to consider Liu Jilong.

He didn't understand why his own governor wanted to support Shang Bibi.

In response, Liu Jilong chuckled and said, "Do you think Shang Bibi and his son can manage so many people?"

"This... shouldn't be possible." Shang Duoluo didn't know much else, but he knew very well Shang Bibi's military ability and Shang Moyan's immaturity.

If Shang Bibi and his son had the ability to control Tuyuhun and Duomai, they would not have been defeated by Lun Kongre and forced to flee to Ganzhou.

If it weren't for Liu Jilong and Zhang Huaishen, this father and son would probably have died at the hands of Shang Yanxin.

"now it's right!"

Liu Jilong talked to everyone while looking at the bonfire: "Once we take over the three states of He, Lin and Wei, the Tang court will immediately notice us and even start to interfere with us."

"Although I don't take it seriously, the Tang Dynasty is still the Tang Dynasty. It is not so rotten that it will fall apart at the slightest touch."

"At a time like this, keeping the enemy at bay is what I need to do."

"Support Shang Bibi. Even if the Tang court wants to attack us, they will have to consider whether they have the ability to recover and hold Longxi."

Liu Jilong said half of the sentence and left the other half unsaid.

He needed Shang Bibi to threaten Jiannan Road. Only in this way could he help himself solve the population problem in Longxi when the Tang court and Nanzhao fell out in the future.

Of course, this does not mean that Shang Bibi should go and plunder Jiannan Road, and then he can follow the same pattern as before and exchange food for people.

What he wanted was to let Shang Bibi threaten Jiannan Road, so that Jiannan Road would increase its defense strength in the west and weaken its defense strength in the south.

In this way, when Nanzhao turned against the Tang Dynasty and invaded Jiannan, he would have a reason to enter Jiannan Road.

However, before that, he must first recover the seven prefectures in Longnan, so that he can send troops from Songzhou and advance to the Chengdu Plain in time.

The population of Jiannan Road was four million, and the population of the Chengdu Plain was nearly two million.

As long as he could repel the invasion of Nanzhao, he could not only gain a foothold in Bashu, but also relocate the people captured by Nanzhao to Longxi.

However, the Tang court regarded Bashu as a forbidden territory, and he needed to work hard before he could legitimately send troops to Jiannan.

Historically, Nanzhao sent troops to Chengdu too late. If Shang Bibi had attracted the main force of the Tang army on the west side of Jiannan Road, Nanzhao might have attacked Chengdu earlier.

Even if they attacked, Liu Jilian could ask Shang Bibi to find a way to join forces with Nanzhao to attack Chengdu.

If possible, Liu Jilian would naturally want to turn against the Tang court directly, but he was not strong enough with Longxi alone. Only this last resort could allow him to increase his strength.

"Bam—"

That night, the catapults of the Longxi army were constantly in operation. During this time, there was an accident in which a trebuchet in the rear row made a mistake and smashed the trebuchet in the front row. Fortunately, the army had many catapults prepared, and if one was damaged, they could just replace it with another one.

On the contrary, General Lin Ruzhen was overwhelmed by the stone-throwing attacks of the Longxi army, and he sent out light cavalry to Daxia City several times to report the situation.

At nightfall, Daxia City received his first letter, and then received several other letters one after another.

Shang Yanxin, Zhe Buhui and Lu Ruyue watched Lin Ruzhen change the duration of holding out in the letter from three months to one month, then to half a month, and finally to three days. They couldn't help but suspect that Lin Ruzhen was afraid of fighting.

They sent out light cavalry at night and arrived at the Donggu battlefield early the next morning.

At noon, the sun rises from the east, illuminating every corner of the Daxia River Valley.

General Lin Ruzhen led the light cavalry sent by Daxia City out of the tent and watched the East Valley Pass from more than a hundred steps away.

I saw that the ground inside the pass was covered with fallen rocks weighing eighty or ninety kilograms, which almost blocked the way to the pass.

At the pass, the newly arrived soldiers were collecting the bodies of the civilians and foreign soldiers who had been crushed to death.

Overnight, most of the sixty-odd foreign soldiers and a hundred civilian laborers stationed at the pass were crushed to death. The bloody scene was disgusting.

Seeing such a tragic scene, Xiaojie who was sent to monitor the scene was stunned.

"Xiaojie'er, you can go up to the pass and take a look now."

Lin Ruzhen spoke softly, causing Xiaojieer in Daxia City to shudder.

"That's not necessary... I've already seen it..."

Xiaojieer, who was sent from Daxia City, quickly explained: "The Hannu's catapults are indeed powerful. It is not easy for the Protector General to hold on until now."

"I will report the situation here to Daxia now. The three Qiliben will definitely understand you!"

After Xiaojie'er said this, he quickly turned around, mounted his horse and left, fearing that Lin Ruzhen would leave him here.

"drive!"

Seeing him riding away, Lin Ruzhen withdrew his gaze and looked towards the Donggu Pass.

Soon, a centurion came running from the other side of the pass. He ran to General Lin Ruzhen and saluted quickly:

"Protector General, the Han slaves' stones are almost filling up the front of the pass. What should we do?!"

He sounded anxious, but General Lin Ruzhen clenched his fists: "What can we do?"

"Let them cook and defend the pass!"

General Lin Ruzhen never expected that the catapults of the Longxi army could fill the gap in the pass overnight.

Now the gap in the pass is about to be filled up by falling rocks, and it will not be long before the Longxi army launches an attack.

Without the drop, throwing stones, wooden sticks and other methods would be useless.

There were only more than 900 armored soldiers and more than 1,800 civilians on his side. He didn't know how long he could hold out against the fierce and ferocious Longxi army under Liu Jilong.

He clenched his fists, and at the same time, in the valley more than 300 steps away from him, Liu Jilong also lifted the curtain of the tent and rode his horse to the back of the catapult.

The narrow pass more than a hundred steps ahead was almost filled with fallen rocks, but it was still very unfavorable for the attacking party.

However, continuing the "bombing" would not necessarily yield any results. Only hand-to-hand combat and seizing the Donggu Pass could allow the army to leave the Donggu.

Thinking of this, Liu Jilong looked up at the sunlight that could not shine into the East Valley.

"Pass on my military order. All soldiers, put on your armor and attack..."

(End of this chapter)