Fenghou

The faces of the two of them changed, and they said bitterly with livid faces: "Then just wait!"

The two grooms turned and went back, and the one beside them turned their heads and said to Yang Rui in a low voice: "These two bastards will definitely mix croton powder into the fodder."

Yang Rui sneered and said, "Not only will they mix in the croton, but they will also have a very bad attitude. They will definitely starve our camels until midnight before letting us get the fodder by ourselves."

They all came to their senses, and gave a thumbs up and praised: "It's still a brilliant commander!"

……

At three o'clock, Yang Rui finally saw the small door on the east side of the warehouse open, and he shouted in a low voice: "They are here!"

Everyone woke up one after another, and pulled out spears and swords from the long bamboo tubes, and bows and arrows were also taken out from the interlayer of the cargo box.

At this time, two grooms came over and said in a bad mood: "Go and move the fodder yourself, I don't have the strength to serve you!"

As soon as the words fell, two black figures jumped up behind them, covered their mouths, and stabbed the dagger hard into the back of their hearts.

The two grooms fell limply to the ground, Yang Rui waved his hand, and thirty of his men followed him and ran towards the small east gate. The warehouse gate was heavy and there was no high wall to climb over, and the small gate of the stable was most likely a loophole. If the stable still doesn't work, then they can only go to the roof.

Another group of soldiers, led by the head of the capital, Chen Shuibing, rushed towards the checkpoint...

Jinniubao has the largest number of troops among the five checkpoints, with about 200 troops, but it is not in a state of war now, and there are not many soldiers at the checkpoint at night, only a dozen or so, and the rest of them hid in the warehouse to sleep.

At this time, the third watch had passed, and more than a dozen soldiers were sleeping with their heads tilted on the sandbags, leaving only one soldier staring sleepily into the distance in a daze.

There was nothing to do at night, and no one would be so stupid to ask these soldiers to stand up all night in good spirits.

Thirty scouts were the best of the elite. They approached the mudbag wall, and suddenly pounced on them like wolves and tigers, instantly killing more than a dozen of them, leaving only the guards to ask for confessions. Most of the soldiers were cut off in their sleep Throat.

The scouts threw the corpse into the ravine, put on their armor, pretended to be the defenders and continued to stand guard. At this time, the soldiers on guard gave the password: it will rain.

Things were not going well in the stable. After Yang Rui led his men into the stable, he realized that the stable and the warehouse were two completely independent spaces. There were [-] war horses in it, and there was a fodder room, and then there were thick walls. .

Apparently the builders had thought very carefully and didn't give any loopholes to the raiders at all.

Yang Rui cursed secretly, it seemed that the commander was right, Wu Ling's defensive measures were really impeccable, such a great general was transferred away, which shows the stupidity of the court.

Now he can only think of a way to trick the door open.

The soldiers inside the gate also slept all over the floor, and only one soldier was left on duty.

At this time, there was a fierce sound of horseshoes in the distance, and someone rode towards this side. The sound of horseshoes stopped in front of the gate, and then someone shouted: "Urgent military order!"

"Password!" shouted the soldier on duty.

"It's going to rain!"

"Wait, I'll notify the commander!"

When the soldiers on duty went in, not long after, the heavy gate creaked! ’ With a sound, a general in his thirties walked out and asked, "Where is the military order?"

"it's here!"

Yang Rui, who was hiding under the wall, yelled, the general turned his head, a cold light flashed in front of his eyes, and a spear appeared in front of him instantly, and before he could react, the tip of the spear had pierced his throat.

The general clutched his throat and fell slowly. Yang Rui kicked him down the steps, brandished his spear and rushed in, followed by dozens of Yang Rui's men...

If the time is turned back two hours, at one o'clock, Tang Qian led a caravan of [-] camels to the Bison Ridge checkpoint. This is the last checkpoint on the Jinniu Road entering Shu. This checkpoint was built on the mountainside, and it is characterized by a wall-cut road on a cliff, about one foot wide, and on the other side is an abyss tens of feet high.

If it's just a cliff road, the problem is not too big, and it's not dangerous, but there is a plank road about a mile long to the south of it, and the plank road is the key. If the enemy army from the north is unable to resist the attack, the soldiers will quickly head south Evacuate and burn down the plank road.

Although the plank road can also be repaired, it is too late in time, and Li Qiong will mobilize an army to block it.

Tang Qian led the caravan through the plank road. He let go of his heart a little and kept the plank road, but the danger was still there, and he couldn't let one person run away.

"Stop!" the head of the capital called to stop him.

Tang Qian didn't have time to chatter with him, so he stepped forward and clasped his fists together with a smile, "We have something urgent to go back to the north, so Wanwang can do it conveniently!"

As he said that, a ten tael silver ingot had already been stuffed into the opponent's hand, he weighed the silver for the capital, and waved his hand, "Let's go!"

"You go first!"

Tang Qian beckoned, the team moved quickly, and the guys led the camels across Daoka.

The front and back roads were blocked, and the time was ripe. Tang Qian slowly took out the dagger, put it behind his back, pointed at the top of his head and exclaimed: "Look, general!"

Wei Capital's head instinctively looked up, but before he could react, a cold light flashed, blood spurted from his throat, Wei Capital's head clutched his throat and fell to the ground on his back.

"Go!"

Tang Qian yelled, and more than a hundred of his men fought together. A dozen soldiers were all killed. Tang Qian led his men to continue northward. After a while, Liu Qiong led thousands of troops to kill them, quickly occupied Bison Ridge, and continued to advance northward.

……

Before four o'clock, Chen Qing's [-] troops arrived at Jianmen Pass. They did not show up directly, but stopped a mile away, watching the situation in the pass.

According to the agreement, after the fourth watch, three gunpowder arrows will be fired inside Guancheng.

After waiting for about a quarter of an hour, three gunpowder arrows suddenly flew up behind Guancheng, flashing dazzling lights in the night sky.

"Dutong, they're here!" the soldiers said excitedly, pointing at the gunpowder arrow.

Chen Qing nodded, "Notify General Yang that it's time to attack!"

Yang Zaixing received the order, and he immediately shouted: "Heavy Shield Army!"

Commander Zhao Wei immediately led two thousand heavy shield soldiers to Jianmenguan. The heavy soldiers held large shields, short spears and crossbow arrows. Among them was a battering ram weighing several thousand catties. Soldiers run.

At this time, the alarm bell rang at the gate of Jianmenguan, and the guards found the Shaanxi army rushing.

Jianmen Pass itself is not big, and can only accommodate 200 people at most. The key is that it is dangerous, and one man guards the pass, and ten thousand men cannot open it. Rolling logs and stones alone are enough to make it difficult for the attacking army to move forward.

There are about 1000 guards at Jianmen Pass, most of whom are stationed in a barracks hundreds of steps away from Jianmen Gate. Once the Jianmen Gate is closed and an alarm is issued, the army will come to support immediately.

Currently the chief general of Jianmen Pass is Pan Ping. According to the rules, a new batch of troops is changed every ten days. Today is the last day for Pan Ping's army to be on duty.

The alarm bell at Jianmen Gate woke up Pan Ping from his sleep. He didn't know what happened, but the alarm bell hadn't sounded for a long time, so something big must have happened.

"Let's go to Guancheng!"

Pan Ping yelled, and five hundred soldiers who hadn't had time to line up followed him to the gates, but just after they ran less than a hundred steps, arrows rained down like a storm, and the soldiers running in front were hit by arrows one after another. He fell down, and Pan Ping's war horse was also shot by more than a dozen arrows. He hissed miserably and fell to the ground dead, knocking Pan Ping heavily to the ground.

Liu Qiong led [-] soldiers to block the reinforcements from the barracks with crossbow arrows, while Tang Qian led [-] soldiers to attack the back of Guancheng.

The 180 soldiers on the Guancheng were attacked from the front and back, and they lost sight of the other. Especially the [-] soldiers who attacked from behind had already reached the bottom of the Guancheng, and began to climb up the Guancheng with ropes. Many soldiers had already climbed the city.

The crisis in Guancheng was imminent, and the soldiers on the top of the city hardly cared about the army in front, and began to fight with the soldiers on the back.

At this moment, there was a heavy muffled sound from Jianmen closing the main door, "Boom—"

This was the first time a huge battering ram hit the city gate, and the gravel and sawdust on the top of the city fell down, causing the entire city to shake. Many soldiers were unstable and fell to the ground.

"Go and block the door! Block the gate!" The city commander shouted hoarsely.

"Boom-"

There was another extremely dull crashing sound of thunder, and the gate of the closed city could no longer hold up, and it was knocked open, and two thousand soldiers swarmed in...

Chapter 576 Entering Shu

Jianmenguan fell, and the defenders at the top of the city surrendered one after another. The chief general Pan Ping also ordered to stop resisting, and the whole army surrendered.

Why was the Jianmen Pass, which the Jin soldiers could not break through repeatedly, so easily broken by Chen Qing's army?

The reason is also simple. When the Jin soldiers attacked, the Song army was always in a wartime state. The soldiers were highly vigilant and closely monitored every move of the Jin soldiers. The Jin soldiers could only attack Guancheng head-on. .

This is the main reason, the defenders are in a state of war, but not now.

The second is the guards. Before that, Wu Jie and Wu Lin guarded the Jianmen Gate. All kinds of defensive measures were impeccable. Basically, there would be no loopholes to be caught by the golden soldiers.

If Wu Ling was still guarding the pass this time, Chen Qing would not have any chance at all, so he did not hesitate to use black-bellied means to alienate the court and send Wu Ling out of Bashu.

This is the top priority of Chen Qing's attack on Bashu this time. After sending away the extremely shrewd Wu Ling, only Li Qiong, who is about to resign and has no intention of guarding the pass, is left. Which of these guards will be serious and responsible?

The third reason was the tactics, sending [-] elite troops into Bashu first, and then cooperating inside and outside to seize Jinniu Dao. This kind of superb tactics, Li Qiong's army couldn't resist at all.

In fact, it was the perfect combination of climate, location, and harmony that enabled Chen Qing to finally capture Jianmen Pass and the entire Jinniu Road at the least cost.

The [-] troops marched into the Longqing Mansion along the Jinniu Road. Chen Qing sent people to deliver a letter to Li Qiong first, and then the soldiers divided into three groups to kill Langzhong City...

Langzhong was Li Qiong's old nest, and Wu Ling was transferred to Jianghuai. He took away [-] troops, and then another [-] troops were stationed scattered in various counties in northern Sichuan.

On the contrary, the 2 soldiers in Langzhong City have relatively strict military discipline and are well restrained.

In the big camp, Li Qiong had just received a message from Feige from Longqing Mansion that Chen Qing led an army of [-] troops into Shuzhong, which surprised Li Qiong.

He couldn't believe it was true, wasn't Chen Qing in Jingzhao?Why did he suddenly lead an army into Bashu?

But Li Qiong immediately understood that Chen Qing drove Wu Ling away with a divorce plan, and then took advantage of his unpreparedness to lead an army into Bashu. It turned out that Bashu was Chen Qing's real goal.

At this time, a soldier reported at the door of the tent, "Report to Dutong, Chen Qing sent someone to deliver a letter!"

Li Qiong hurriedly said, "Bring him to see me!"

Not long after, the soldier who delivered the letter was brought in. He cupped his fists and saluted, "See General Li!"

He took out a letter and presented it to Li Qiong, "This is a personal letter from my family's envoy to the general, please read it!"

Li Qiong quickly took the letter, and it turned out to be Chen Qing's notes. He sent the sender away, and then sat down to open the letter and read it carefully. As a result, the people in the states in northern Sichuan are full of dissatisfaction. As a minister of the Song Dynasty, he will never sit idly by and must rectify the source and restore order.

At the end of the letter, he was given three days to evacuate from Bashu, and at the same time warned him that there must be no crime during the evacuation. If he robbed the people along the way, he would chase them with [-] cavalry and wipe out their entire army, leaving no prisoners of war.

"Bang!" A slap slapped the table. This letter made Li Qiong feel ashamed and annoyed. Chen Qing reprimanded him in a condescending tone.

"Dutong, what does Chen Qing mean?" Zhong Minghui, the staff member, asked from the side.

"See for yourself!"

Li Qiong handed the letter to Zhong Minghui. After reading the letter, Zhong Minghui sighed, "Actually, I thought about it, but I didn't expect his target to be Bashu."

"Think of what?"

"At that time, I was thinking, what does his 20 troops rely on to support? Shaanxi Road alone is obviously not enough. I thought he was going to attack Hedong Road, but I didn't expect that his target was Bashu. That's right, the Western Army has always been Relying on the support of Bashu, it is normal for him to want to seize the taxation land of Bashu."

"It's useless to say this, the key is what should I do now?" Li Qiong said angrily.

Zhong Minghui thought for a while and said: "Now the only way is to evacuate from Bashu. The general can say anything to the court, just say that Chen Qing's 10,000+ army came to kill, and some generals of the Western Army joined forces inside and outside to sacrifice Jianmen Pass, but the general only has [-] troops. The army couldn't stop Chen Qing's army of more than [-], so he had to withdraw from Bashu!"

Li Qiong nodded, "The question is... where do I retreat?"

"Of course we evacuate from the Three Gorges Road. The Jinzhou Road is more difficult and dangerous!"

Li Qiong finally made up his mind, and he immediately ordered: "Beat the drums and gather the generals!"

Li Qiong ordered the soldiers to carry ten days of dry food and evacuate towards the Three Gorges Road overnight.

He restrained military discipline all the way, Qiu did not commit any crimes, and Chen Qing's army did not embarrass him. A cavalry followed his army and sent him out of the Three Gorges Road.

Chen Qing immediately ordered the large-scale arrest of civilian soldiers. Within two days, more than 750 people were arrested, and a large amount of looted wealth was seized. Among them, more than [-] soldiers who committed murder and participated in raping women were publicly executed. All of them were sent to the mines, and they were punished for mining for five years to atone for their crimes.

Chen Qing punished criminal soldiers severely, and was warmly welcomed by all kinds of people in northern Sichuan.

Chen Qing then led the army to continue marching towards Chengdu...

On the Meizhou section of the Minjiang River, a fleet of more than [-] large ships has been sailing southward. This fleet is all [-] stone cargo ships, some of which are local ships from Bashu, and some are transferred from the direction of Jingzhou. The fleet went south along the water, and opened the sails again, at a very fast speed.

Every big ship has a triangular official flag, which means that this fleet is an official ship, and other ships along the way have to avoid it.

Standing on the prow of the leading ship was an official in his sixties, with a medium build, dark and thin, but in good spirits. This man was called Zhao Kai, and he was the transfer envoy of Sichuan and Shanxi. Zhang Jun admired him very much. It was under his planning that a steady stream of money and food from Sichuan could be transported to Hanzhong to support the Western Army in fighting against the gold.

The reason why Chen Qing chose to do it in mid-October was also related to this Zhao Kai. He received news from Li Jiong that Zhao Kai was mobilizing ships to transport part of last year's taxes to Lin'an.

The annual salt, tea, sugar, wine and horse tax in Sichuan is about 300 million guan, plus household tax, land tax, exemption money, etc., adding up to 500 million guan. Of course, there are other incomes, mainly land rental income, and The operating income of government and business, etc., is also as much as one million yuan a year.

And this time, what was going to be transported to Lin'an was the 300 million salt, tea, sugar and wine tax from last year. Originally, Zhao Kai planned to leave a few days later, but when he heard that Chen Qing's army had entered Bashu, he was so shocked that he didn't dare to stay another day , and set off ten days earlier.

"Senior officer!" The boss of the boat suddenly shouted.

Zhao Kai turned around, "What's the matter?"

"listen!"

Zhao Kai listened intently, and faintly heard rumbling thunder coming from the north.

He looked up at the sky, the sky was overcast, and there was no sign of rain.

"Is it going to rain?"

The face of the boss of the boat changed a little. He is well-informed and knows what kind of business this is. "Your official, it's the cavalry running. Didn't you hear it?"

Zhao Kai's eyes widened suddenly, and he hurried to the stern to look north, at this moment he faintly saw the sky in the north turned red, Zhao Kai's face changed drastically, it was dust flying.

"Can you speed it up?"

Zhao Kaixin was very anxious, this must be Chen Qing's army chasing him.