Jinting Han people

Chapter 149: Encirclement and Suppression of Liangshan Bandits (4k)

Liu Xian is indeed in trouble now. He is leading all the county soldiers to wipe out the Liangshan bandits, but now he is stuck in a stalemate.

Liangshan is not actually the abbreviation of a mountain range, but a collective name for all the peaks northwest of Xiayang. Because this foothill is located at the southernmost end of the Luliang Mountains and the mountains are all in the shape of a horizontal beam, it is called Liangshan, and Xiayang was also called Shaoliang in ancient times.

The Liangshan bandits were so called not because they occupied the entire Liangshan area, but because Du Gan and his group operated only in Liangshan. Compared to the other three groups of horse thieves in Xiayang, they were located in a remote area and would not even take the initiative to rob the Xiayang Township Pavilion, but they were no less harmful to the people.

No matter what kind of farmer, it's difficult to make a good living relying solely on a few acres of land. Therefore, once the slack season arrives, they inevitably need the help of mountains, forests, and water bodies to improve their lives. Whether picking wild vegetables and fruits, hunting wild animals, or even cutting wood for firewood, entering the mountains and forests is inevitable.

This is precisely the impact of the Liangshan bandits. They roamed Liangshan, plundering civilians who entered the area. Those who entered the mountains often endured days of hard work, only to be robbed and held hostage by the Liangshan bandits. This terrified the common people, yet they were forced to take the risk. The county government also struggled to intervene, allowing them to continue their rampant activities to this day.

After Liu Xian eliminated the other three gangs of horse bandits, he naturally had to completely eliminate the Liangshan bandits, so as to fulfill his promise.

But Liu Xian also understood that the Liangshan bandits were probably the most difficult of the four bandits to eliminate, and a hasty approach would not be enough. Therefore, he spent a month specifically reorganizing the bandits left behind by Hu Yanchang.

Liu Xian first beheaded some of the most vicious of the bandits in public to establish his authority and appease public anger. He then handed the remaining men over to Sun Xi, who trained them alongside the Longmen thieves and the newly recruited county soldiers from Xi'an. Those who performed well were rewarded, while those who failed to keep up were eliminated and sentenced to hard labor, such as repairing the city walls.

In this way, by late November, Xiayang had 300 county soldiers.

According to the current military system, a team consisted of 200 men. Liu Xian divided them into two teams, one led by Xi An and the other by Sun Xi. Although they couldn't even equip swords, let alone crossbows or armor, at least judging by the number of people, it did seem like they were on the right track.

After finding out where Du Gan had set up camp inside Liangshan, Liu Xian felt the time was right, so he led 300 county soldiers to advance at night, intending to sneak up on Du Gan's camp and launch a surprise attack, catching him by surprise.

But the plan failed halfway through, for a simple reason. With the remaining two gangs of horse thieves in Xiayang already dispersed and one group already fleeing, even Du Gan, despite his negligence, realized something was amiss.

He did not repeat Hu Yanchang's mistakes, but instead took Liu Xian's promise to suppress the bandits in March seriously. While repairing the stronghold and strengthening the defense, he was also gathering information in Xiayang.

As a result, Liu Xian was only halfway there when he was spotted by Du Gan's scouts. A flurry of gunfire ensued, startling a flock of birds that could be heard for miles around. Du Gan's camp was informed, and the surprise attack plan was foiled.

Fortunately, the change that Liu Xian was most worried about did not occur.

According to Liu Xian's idea, Du Gan had three strategies: good, medium and bad.

The best strategy is to abandon the camp directly and leave Liu Xian with an empty camp. If Liu Xian cannot find Du Gan, he cannot stay in Liangshan for a long time and can only withdraw his troops back to the county. In this way, Du Gan can return calmly and play an endless whack-a-mole game with Liu Xian.

The middle strategy is to directly fight with Liu Xian in front of the stronghold with swords and sabers. Liu Xian is a newly formed group of new recruits. Although there are more people, the discipline is not yet trained. If Du Gan wins in one battle, Liu Xian will definitely lose his prestige, and he will definitely not be able to encircle Du Gan again within this winter.

The worst strategy is to use the geographical advantage of one's own stronghold to hold on, with both sides wasting time to see who can hold on first. This way, casualties may be minimal, and the family property can be saved for many years, but if they fail, there will be no escape and the whole army will be annihilated.

As for Liu Xian, the situation he would like to see most is naturally Du Gan holding his ground; he has a plan to deal with it, but he is not completely sure of it, which is to fight with Du Gan; what he least wants to see is naturally Du Gan abandoning the camp and running away.

After all, Liu Xian had just seized two thousand shi of grain from Hu Yanchang on Gaotai, so he was not afraid of fighting with others; although the new soldiers were not very useful, they were numerous, and there were also the Longmen thieves to help them; but if they were to play hide-and-seek in this ravine, he would have no way out.

All we can say is that Du Gan was a horse thief after all. He was greedy for the little property in his own camp and didn't want to fight with Liu Xian. He watched helplessly as the Xiayang County soldiers blocked the hole and didn't send anyone out to challenge him. Instead, he let his men draw their longbows in front of the camp, as if to say, "What can you do to me?"

It must be said that Du Gan's choice of location was truly excellent. His settlement was situated at the end of a mountain ridge. The Ling River flowed through this area, forming a large lake in the valley. This lake completely surrounded the ridge on the east, west, and south sides, with only a small path on the north for access. Because the shape of the lake surrounding the ridge resembled a crane's beak, the locals called it Hezui Lake.

This path was low on the north and high on the south, and extremely narrow, only nine feet wide at its narrowest point, enough for three people to pass side by side. Du Gan only needed to block the path from the heights, and he could truly defeat ten with one. It was no wonder he remained entrenched; it seemed he had already calculated that Liu Xian could not break through his Liangshan stronghold.

So when Liu Xian was still observing the terrain of Liangshan Stronghold, Du Gan personally went to the ridge to speak to Liu Xian.

Du Gan's voice was so rough that it could be heard clearly even from a distance of over a hundred feet. He said, "My Lord, why bother with this useless effort? I have built my camp here to make it impregnable."

"I have always admired heroes. As long as a hero like you doesn't go into the mountains, I will be safe! It's better to go back early!"

"Du has already sent a letter to Chief Wang, asking him to return as soon as possible. If the county lord doesn't return to resist, I'm afraid even the county city will be lost!"

He then burst into laughter, and the accompanying county guards erupted in a commotion. The "Chief Wang" Du Gan was referring to was clearly Wang Lin, who had frightened Xiao into fleeing to Hedong a month earlier. Now that Liu Xian had brought all the county guards to the mountains to suppress the bandits, if Wang Lin returned and caused a scene, wouldn't all their efforts be wasted?
Therefore, someone immediately suggested that it would be a good idea to transfer some people back to defend the city, but Liu Xian sternly rejected it.

Liu Xian refuted, "If Wang Lin really had the guts, why would he have fled overnight? Du Gan is of Xianbei descent. If he wanted to call for help, he would definitely call his fellow Xianbei first. Why would he go looking for Wang Lin? He's just using Wang Lin's reputation to scare us."

He then issued an order, "Besides, the county magistrate is still in the city. He will report any problems. From now on, no one is allowed to leave this place without my order!"

With that, he immediately set up camp at the mountain pass and assigned tasks to the county soldiers: one group to set up camp, one to defend. He himself led a dozen or so men to Hezui Lake to further observe the terrain. The so-called three essentials for military operations are weather, terrain, and people. Weather is known but uncontrollable, people must be cultivated before battle, and the difference between generals lies in their ability to utilize terrain.

So the first thing Liu Xian thought of was to see if there were any hidden entrances or exits to Liangshan Stronghold.

The weather had cooled by then, and a thick layer of ice had formed on Hezui Lake, allowing for easy walking and a wide view. Liu Xian circled the ice twice and discovered that Liangshan Stronghold was surrounded on three sides by sheer cliffs, the lowest point a mere five feet high, leaving no paths to speak of.

Perhaps some skilled climbers could reach the top without weapons, but considering the freezing weather, the soldiers' hands and feet would be frozen after climbing up, and they couldn't carry armor or weapons, so a harassing attack wouldn't be effective.

So after repeated consideration, Liu Xian gave up the idea of winning by surprise and instead adopted normal tactics, which was to proceed steadily and advance step by step.

But this was not a wasted trip. At least Liu Xian had a better idea of what was going on, and the people in the village had no other way out.

Early the next morning, Liu Xian took out the county government's only ten suits of armor and had the ten strongest soldiers don them. Then, each armed with a wooden shield, they formed three teams and advanced. He then arranged for Sun Xi to watch from behind with fifty Longmen bandits. As long as these ten armored soldiers could successfully advance to the village gate, the remaining horse bandits would rush forward and engage the Liangshan bandits in hand-to-hand combat, leaving them helpless.

Liu Xian’s idea is good, but there is always a gap between ideas and reality.

During the first attack, the soldiers, having just reached the enemy's arrows, quickly became timid in the face of the overwhelming rain of arrows. They lacked the courage to advance further, and even under Liu Xian's harsh rebuke, they quickly retreated, complaining to him, "County Master, there's only the principle of dodging arrows in this world, not the principle of facing them head-on. You should find another way."

Liu Xian had originally imagined soldiers like Yang Ji's Qinzhong warriors, possessing the tenacity to grit their teeth and advance even when their bodies were covered in bullets and skewered like hedgehogs. But now he realized that this kind of tenacity required training, and it was difficult to develop in a hurry.

If he had to force his way through, Liu Xian would probably have to follow Wang Dun's example and execute anyone who disobeyed his orders. But Liu Xian was so poor that he couldn't bear to part with his wealth. Furthermore, he knew that his request was indeed a bit unreasonable. So after thinking for a while, he came up with a solution and said, "It's not a big deal. Just follow me."

Yes, then Liu Xian changed into a new set of armor and personally led the soldiers to launch a second attack.

This time he walked farther, almost a hundred steps further than the first time, and then was dragged down with injuries.

The armor of Luoyang and Xiayang was simply not of the same caliber. While the quality of Luoyang's imperial guards varied, their armor was forged to the highest standards. The full-body iron armor of Mingguang Iron was a must, even the lower-tier two-leg armor was a blend of leather and iron. Only armor of this quality could withstand a hail of arrows and engage in fierce combat.

However, the two suits of armor that Liu Xian found in the county government were obviously made of shoddy materials. They were made of cowhide, and the armor plates were not the fine iron used in Luoyang, but a mixture of iron plates, stone plates and even lead plates. Their defensive power was probably less than half of that of the Eastern Palace armor.

So Liu Xian, who was at the front, was suddenly shot by an arrow through the leather helmet on his head. The tip of the arrow penetrated the flesh and blood flowed out immediately. The accompanying soldiers were so scared that they said there was a long time to go and quickly carried Liu Xian down, which caused laughter in the Liangshan stronghold.

When the accompanying county soldiers saw Liu Xian coming down with blood all over his face, they were all very worried and gathered around to watch.

Liu Xian angrily said, "Why? You're a human being too, you've never seen anyone bleed! This little arrow wound is nothing! The most important thing is the embarrassment! If any of you really care about me, shoot it back immediately and help me get back at my wit's end!"

As soon as these words were spoken, the fear and anxiety of the county soldiers immediately dissipated, and they all volunteered to compete in archery. Then, the two sides exchanged arrows in front of Liangshan Stronghold, arrows flying back and forth like migratory birds and covering the ground like spring grass. It was a very lively scene. Unfortunately, not a single person died, and only a few, like Liu Xian, suffered minor injuries.

Liu Xian felt incredibly helpless. For the first time, he realized how difficult it was to lead his troops to victory, even to make the battlefield feel less like a joke. He'd previously been responsible for too few things, and now that he thought about it, it was because he hadn't gained enough experience. He had to learn a lot from scratch.

In this case, a frontal assault was probably out of the question. If they wanted to capture Liangshan Stronghold, they had to find another way.

After thinking about it all night, Liu Xian made two preparations.

He first informed Xi'an and asked him to prepare arrows and transport them here. At the same time, he continued to let the county soldiers compete with the Liangshan bandits in shooting, pretending to waste time here.

He then ordered the remaining county soldiers to cut down the trees around Liangshan Stronghold, then peel and shave the bark off the wood to make ladders, wheelbarrows for pushing, and large wooden shields to protect against arrows. It seemed he was either planning to build ladders up the mountain from the icy lake, or to mount the wooden shields on carts and have them pushed to attack the stronghold.

Du Gan, who was in the camp, saw this and thought Liu Xian was at his wit's end. He said to his men, "Hu Yanchang is such a loser, he was defeated by such a brat."

"If he sets up a ladder, we'll pour boiling water down on it and make these people lose their skin right away."

"If he wants to charge through this wooden wall, my arrows won't be able to penetrate it, but wouldn't it be enough to prepare for some falling rocks?"

"Wait until he attacks a few more times and loses his fighting spirit. Then we'll spurt on our horses and counterattack, catching him off guard! After that, Xiayang will be ours!"

Upon hearing this, the Liangshan bandits all laughed and agreed, feeling that they had secured victory, as if they had already seen a future in which the Liangshan bandits would dominate Xiayang.

It was at this time that Li Ju, entrusted by the county magistrate Xi'an, brought a batch of food, fodder and arrows to meet Liu Xian at the foot of Liangshan Stronghold.

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(End of this chapter)