Standalone Northern and Southern Dynasties

Chapter 436 Flying across Yinping
Wang Sengbian was not ignorant of military affairs, and his decisions were actually correct in terms of strategy.

The most important thing when fighting out of Shu Road is to occupy both ends of Shu Road, so that you can form a battle formation and transport logistical supplies safely from the rear to the front line.

Therefore, while Hou Jing was still unstable, Wang Sengbian immediately left Shu Road to occupy the exit, establish a stronghold and confront Nanzhong City. This was indeed the best military strategy.

Wang Sengbian's decisive dispatch of troops did cause trouble for Song Zixian.

The government troops mobilized by Liangzhou have not arrived yet, and the ones guarding the city are the original defenders of Nanzhong City, whose combat effectiveness is not as good as that of the government troops.

Originally Song Zixian's best option was to leave the city and block the Shu Road, but after seeing the quality of his soldiers, Song Zixian decisively gave up this idea.

These defenders in Nanzhong City are good for defending the city, but if they go out of the city and fight Wang Sengbian’s elite troops from Jingzhou in the field, they will be doomed if they are defeated.

Therefore, Song Zixian urged the palace soldiers to gather, sent out cavalry to harass, and took the main force to repair the city wall in Nanzhong.
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Yang Jia and his group of soldiers finally arrived at Dazhong.

The commander of the Zhecho Brigade breathed a sigh of relief. His mission was to bring the soldiers of his Zhecho Mansion to Dazhong. After returning the military book, the commander of the Zhecho Brigade would have completed his mission.

The soldiers were handed over to the officers, and Yang Jia was incorporated into the camp. Then officers came to the army to take martial arts tests.

Yang Jia's martial arts were outstanding and he quickly stood out in the army.

The soldiers who passed the test were gathered in a separate barracks, and an old soldier with white feathers in his ears appeared in front of them.

Facing the old man, several young soldiers were contemptuous, but Yang Jia was respectful.

The aura of this old soldier was something that only the veterans of several tribes had when Yang Jia was already on Qiuchi Mountain. From the calluses on the old soldier's knuckles and his completely deformed fingers, it was known that he was an old soldier with superb archery skills.

"My name is Su Ji. I will train you before we set out."

Su Li (the old Bai Li soldier) looked around with cloudy eyes. Several young soldiers were laughing and did not take his words to heart at all.

Su Li didn't care. These were all selected from various camps. How could they not be young and vigorous?

Su Bi decided to show off his skills first to calm down these arrogant soldiers.

Just at this moment, a flock of birds flew through the air. Su Li took out a cloth bag from his sleeve, put one hand into the pocket, and took out four bullets.

Then Su Bi took out his slingshot, pulled the bow and let go. Four bullets flew into the flock of birds, and then four birds fell from the sky!

All the soldiers who were whispering to each other were stunned at this moment. Yang Jia also looked at the old man. The army worshipped the strong. The old man's skill with the slingshot was so amazing that he naturally stunned everyone.

Slingshot is also a weapon. During the Han Dynasty, Ban Chao was sent as an envoy to the Western Regions. "Ban Chao is a envoy abroad, and he is willing to bring thirty-six men with him to use the slingshots, arrows, and projectiles." Ban Chao's recruitment of these followers who were good at using projectiles shocked the countries in the Western Regions.

And if you are good at using a slingshot, your shooting skills will naturally not be bad.

After Su Bi calmed everyone down, he began to talk about his teaching plan.

"Starting tomorrow, we will go to the nearby mountains. Each person must carry ten days' worth of food. We can only go down the mountain when we can run as smoothly as on flat ground."

The Bai Li soldiers were a group of elite infantrymen who were good at mountain warfare. They were originally the personal soldiers of Liu Bei, the Emperor Zhaolie of Han. When Lu Xun burned the camps, it was the Bai Li soldiers who escorted Liu Bei back to Baidi City.

Hou Jing was going to take the Yinping Road, so he didn't have to worry about any logistical supplies.

Of course Su Ze also made arrangements. When he was repairing the Yinping Road, he also buried some dry food and fresh water nearby so that they could dig out these reserve supplies for replenishment during the march.

But these can only be used for emergency situations. When Deng Ai took the Yinping Road, he relied on soldiers to carry food up the mountain. In the end, they had run out of ammunition and food. If the Jiangyou defenders had not been frightened by the divine soldiers descending from the sky, Deng Ai might not have been able to enter the city at all.

Marching with heavy loads consumes physical energy, let alone marching in the mountains.

That’s why this military camp was built to allow soldiers to complete adaptive training for mountain marching.

Going up the mountain?

Yang Jia was not afraid of going up the mountain. He had lived in Qiuchi Mountain since he was a child and could walk in the mountain as if it were flat ground.

With his limited geographical knowledge, he had no idea where he was or what kind of mountains he had to cross.

But out of trust in Su Ze, the soldiers began training hard.

Su Ji did have real skills. Although his beard was gray, he looked like he was decades younger once he went up the mountain. He could always find a way up the steep rocks and walk faster than a young and strong man like Yang Jia.

In addition to training, Su Li also taught some mountain warfare techniques, as well as practical wilderness survival skills such as camouflage, hunting, and path-finding. Although Yang Jia also knew how to use many of these techniques, Su Li explained them in a simple and easy-to-understand way, and Yang Jia still gained a lot after listening.

Two thousand soldiers had been training in the mountains for more than 20 days. A monkey-faced general rode into the barracks on horseback. Hou Jing had finally arrived in Dazhong! Hou Jing had overestimated his opponent, but he still didn't expect Wang Sengbian to arrive so quickly.

Shortly after Hou Jing set out, Wang Sengbian began to cross the Shu Road. Song Zixian did not dare to leave the city to intercept Wang Sengbian, so he could only fortify Nanzhong City and wait for the Liangzhou troops.

Counting the days, Wang Sengbian’s main force should already be under the city of Nanzhong.

At this time, the Yizhou soldiers have also gathered in Jiange. In the next period of time, Nanzhong City will face tremendous military pressure.

Hou Jing was not worried about the fall of Nanzhong City. Song Zixian was a general he trained. Hou Jing had defended Nanzhong City in the past. Yang Kan had been strengthening the city, storing food and digging wells in the city. It would definitely take a while for the city to be captured.

What Hou Jing was worried about was that once the Southern Liang army started attacking Nanzhong City, he would not respond at all, which might arouse the Southern Liang's vigilance.

The sneak attack via Yinping Road relies on a surprise attack. If the enemy is prepared, as long as elite troops are deployed in Jiangyou City, Hou Jing's soldiers will be defeated in vain.

Therefore, it is necessary to cross Yinping Mountain immediately before Yizhou can react.

Although according to the report of Su Ji and others, this group of soldiers are not qualified mountain infantry, but even if Su Ze is fighting, it is impossible for him to wait until his side is fully prepared before going out. The situation on the battlefield changes rapidly, and it is impossible to do the best. The only thing that can be done is to be a little better than the opponent.

Hou Jing did not rest. He began to inspect the military camp the next day, met with officers, and ordered the logistics officers to prepare the food and fodder they were going to carry.

On the third day after Hou Jing arrived, the entire army beat drums to gather the troops and swore to go to war.
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Chengdu.

Xiao Ji, the governor of Yizhou in Southern Liang, received military intelligence from the front line that Wang Sengbian's five thousand elite soldiers from Jingzhou had crossed the Shu Road and were preparing to attack Nanzhong City.

Xiao Ji was overjoyed when he heard the news. They were indeed the elite soldiers of Jingzhou and they acted swiftly!
He hurriedly gave orders to his Yizhou troops, requiring them to cross the Shu Road immediately after resting in Jiange, and not fall too far behind the Jingzhou troops fighting away from home.

The progress on the front line was going smoothly, and Xiao Ji felt like rejuvenating himself. He took his subordinates to leave Chengdu City and go to Qingcheng Mountain near Chengdu to escape the summer heat.

When Xiao Ji was leaving Chengdu, the people of Chengdu gathered outside the city to watch. Xiao Ji thought that these people were reluctant to leave him, so he put on a show in front of them before leading his confidants away.

When the people of Chengdu saw Xiao Ji's carriage driving away, they burst into cheers. The people of Chengdu had tolerated Xiao Ji for a long time.

Unlike his predecessor, Xiao Wei, who was also a member of the Southern Liang royal family, Xiao Ji has been in endless trouble since he came to Shu.

The most important contradiction, naturally, is that of official appointments.

Shu was a remote area, so no influential noble families were born there. These local nobles were rooted in the land and formed a fierce competition with foreign nobles.

When foreign nobles came to Shu to serve as officials, they would be resisted by local nobles, and the conflict between the two sides would become more serious, causing many contradictions.

Before Xiao Ji took office, he gathered a team of close ministers in Jiankang. As he began to take charge of government affairs personally, these close ministers rose to prominence and were appointed to important positions in Shu. On the contrary, local gentry were left without official positions and were exploited by these foreign officials.

This situation of fierce competition between local and foreign talents in Shu has existed since the Shu Han period of the Three Kingdoms.

When Xiao Yan first founded the country, there were many vacant positions and he did not have so many close ministers, so the conflicts were not intense.

As the Southern Liang Dynasty enjoyed peace for a long time, this contradiction became more intense.

The Shu nobles had been suppressed for a long time, so how could they not resent Xiao Ji?
As for the people of Chengdu, they were not completely in agreement with the gentry, but after Xiao Ji entered Shu, he happened to coincide with Xiao Yan's promotion of iron coins.

As an important silk producing area in Southern Liang, Shuzhong had developed commerce and naturally used iron coins.

Xiao Yan specially gave Xiao Ji a coin model, allowing him to mint iron coins in Shu to cooperate with Jiankang's national policy of replacing copper with iron.

As a result, after Xiao Ji got the money model, he minted iron coins day and night, causing the value of iron coins in Shu to fall even faster than that in Jiankang.

As the iron coins in Shu depreciated too quickly, merchants transported the iron coins out of Shu for consumption, used them to purchase supplies, and then transported them back to Shu for sale for arbitrage.

The result was that the Bashu region, which did not have abundant iron resources to begin with, suffered an iron shortage. People went back to using wooden farm tools for farming, and even their kitchen utensils were no longer made of iron.

On the one hand, Xiao Ji made iron coins indiscriminately, and on the other hand, he only collected silk as tax in Shu. The cronies brought by Xiao Ji also followed him in plundering the people. The prosperous city of Chengdu was actually brought into a state of depression by him.

Although Xiao Ji only went out of the city to escape the summer heat this time, the gentry and people of Chengdu were still very happy. They just hoped that Xiao Ji would never return to Chengdu.

It was not just Chengdu. Many counties in Shu were in a state of fierce confrontation between foreign officials and local nobles.

Just three days after Xiao Ji left the city, a ragged army appeared outside Jiangyou City.

(End of this chapter)