Silver Fox of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 412 Kong Ming's First Battle
When Zhuge Liang went south from Hanzhong to Jiangzhou, he was not in a relaxed mood.

Now the big Han sits on half of the country and is not much different from Cao Wei in terms of strength. He has all the troops and horses, and the food and grass are complete.

But precisely because their enemy was Cao Wei, there were hundreds of thousands of troops on the border, and the two sides faced each other in Guanzhong, Nanyang, and Huainan, leaving the rear empty.

Now Liu Bei's military strength has exceeded 35 at its peak, reaching 40, of which 20 are stationed in Jingzhou alone. Except for the tens of thousands of soldiers in Jingnan and Jiaozhou, most of the troops are deployed on the front lines of Nanyang and Xiangyang .

Then there are about 10 people in Yangzhou and Xiliang each.

But still the same sentence, it seems that Liu Bei in history only occupied the dilapidated half of Jingzhou and the incomplete Yizhou, but he was able to lose more than [-] horses in the Battle of Xiangfan, Hanzhong, and Yiling. Zhuge Liang can also organize tens of thousands of soldiers and horses to guard against Soochow.

The number of troops dispatched does not represent the total force, because the rear still needs to stay behind, so at least one-third of the total force of the current Liu Bei Group's 40 troops is not the main force, but the county soldiers staying in the counties and counties.

For example, there are about 5 soldiers on the front line in Nanyang, and then there are about [-] Jiangxia Navy, and the remaining [-] people are distributed in Jingnan and Jiaozhou garrison counties. Shen Chen is an active overseas pioneer. He was in Panyu, Jiaozhou The county opened up a port and ordered the fleet to go east to Yizhou and south to Zhuyazhou to open up the offshore.

As for Yangzhou, Guan Yu has [-] soldiers, and the remaining [-] are distributed in the rear counties to maintain local law and order and discipline.

Since the problem of the Shanyue people had been resolved, Liu Bei went to Shanyue in person, met with many Shanyue leaders, and promised to give them loose conditions. Therefore, Shanyue all obeyed, making Yangzhou have fewer troops stationed in the rear, unlike Jingnan and Jiaozhou. Beware of barbarians in the south.

The situation in Liangzhou, Yizhou is much worse. Because the Caowei Group in Guanzhong is on the defensive, the front line does not need so many soldiers and horses, so there are only 2 troops in Hanzhong, and more than 1 cavalry and more than 2 infantry in Liangzhou. Only more than 5, less than [-].The rest of the troops are basically in Bashu and Ningzhou to guard against the ethnic minorities in the southwest.

In other words, even if the 28 sailors who have no influence on the northern war are included, the number of frontline soldiers of the Liu Bei Group is only about 23. If the sailors are removed, it will be [-]. The total force of the Northern Expedition.

Among them, there are about 12 local troops stationed in Bashu of Yizhou, Jianning of Ningzhou, Linxiang of Xiangzhou in the south of Jingnan, Nanhai of Jiaozhou, and Kuaiji of Yuezhou newly drawn from Yangzhou.

When Deng Fang was the governor of the Tuo surrender, he only had more than 1 troops. However, because he had a good policy in the southwest, he valued money and righteousness, and formed good karma, so even though he had a small number of troops, he still made the Southwestern Yi people and the people of the Southwest The local disobedient Gao Ding Zhu Bao and others did not dare to rebel and hid their ambitions.

As soon as Deng Fang died, Gao Ding, Zhu Bao and others immediately set off a rebellion, echoed Cao Weiyao, and established a separate regime.

Logically speaking, the Liu Bei Group is now far stronger than it was in history, with a large number of troops and a powerful presence in the south. No matter how stupid they are, they shouldn't be so dead.

But it's not that they want to seek death, but that one of them is colluding with Cao Wei, and they should cooperate with each other.The two are located in the remote southwest, the traffic is extremely inconvenient.The third is also the most important point. The Yi people refused to accept Wanghua and rebelled continuously for a long time.

In history, even though Zhuge Liang subdued the Southwest, there were still rebellions, but they were basically small fights, not as grand as before Zhuge Liang pacified Nanzhong, which shows how serious the rebellion of the Yi people is.

So in the face of this matter, Zhuge Liang also intends to act cautiously.

After he arrived in Jiangzhou, Wang Ping and Ma Liang were already waiting for him. Wang Ping led an army of 4 people, plus [-] Bashu soldiers, a total of [-] horses, and headed west along the Yangtze River to Bodao.

The boat was bumpy and mighty on the road. In the flagship building, Zhuge Liang sat cross-legged in the room. Although Shen Chen often said that sitting cross-legged like this is not good for the waist, legs and knees, and he should always sit on a wooden stool, but he is still used to sitting on the mat , it is difficult to change it.

There is a map on the table in the room, which is the map of Ningzhou. This map comes from when Liu Bei and Shen Chen fought the battle of Guanzhong and Jingzhou. Because of the heavy logistical burden on Bashu, the people's livelihood was in decline. The people were suffering, Yong Kai, a wealthy family in the southwest, took the opportunity to launch a rebellion, and Zhuge Liang sent Deng Fang, Zhuo Ying and others to put it down.

It just so happened that some of Shen Chen's disciples in the army were accompanying the army as documents. Apart from governing the scriptures, Shen Chen's disciples were also good at drawing drawings, so it was at that time that they drew some detailed maps of Nanzhong and handed them over to the court.

Sitting next to Zhuge Liang, Ma Liang saw that Zhuge Liang was studying the map carefully, so he asked, "Prime Minister, Nanzhong is far away, so I'll go there later, why do you want to go there in person?"

Zhuge Liang shook his head and said: "Nanzhong is the rear of our Han Dynasty. If we want to launch the Northern Expedition, the rear must be stable. There are many mountains and rivers here. According to Xiaoqing's words, it is suitable for independence. At this time, if they rebel again, they will threaten the land of Bashu."

"The prime minister intends to completely pacify Nanzhong?"

Ma Liang asked.

"Ah."

Zhuge Liangliang nodded and asked, "Ji Chang, do you have any clever strategies?"

Ma Liang thought for a while and said: "If you want to completely subdue the Nanyi, you can only use soldiers and horses to defeat them. You can only follow the prestige and not subdue their hearts. Therefore, I think, as General Hussars said, to conquer a country with people, you should attack the heart." For the top, attack the city for the bottom."

"Ah."

Zhuge Liang pondered and said: "That's right, Xiaoqing said the same thing before seeing me off. This Nanzhong rebellion was started by Zhu Bao, Gao Ding and others, and they also attracted Meng Huo, the leader of the Southwestern Yi tribe. Nanzhong is quite prestigious, if he can surrender to this person, perhaps Nanzhong will no longer be able to rebel."

Ma Liang said again: "Fighting soldiers with prestige, attacking hearts with kindness. Encouragement and power are the king's way. I heard that General Hussars was in Liangzhou. He attacked the rebellious Qiang Di from the big tribes and went down to the Hu people who were willing to submit to the small tribes. Maybe the prime minister You can use this method."

"Kill the big one, let the little one go?"

"Yes."

"Zhu Baogao decided that these two evil thieves cannot be tolerated, and only Meng Huoxing allows it."

Zhuge Liang nodded slightly.

Zhu Bao was the prefect of Cang appointed by the imperial court. When Yong Kai rebelled, it is said that he planned to respond. As a result, Yong Kai was quickly suppressed.

Because there was no proof of this matter, and it happened that Liu Bei and Shen Chen were fighting against Cao Wei at that time, Zhuge Liang was exhausted to maintain the logistics, and had no time to take care of this matter, so Zhu Bao was fooled by it.

It now appears that perhaps the original rumors were right.That is, it was Zhu Bao who wanted to rebel, not Chang Fang. Chang Fang found out about Zhu Bao's abnormality and wanted to report it to the court, but Zhu Bao killed him first.

As for Gao Ding, he is also the king of the Southwest Yi, and the leader of the Yi tribe in Yuexi County.The Yi people in the Han Dynasty were actually the Yi people of later generations. Yuexi County was the area around Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in later generations, and Qiongdu, the seat of government, was Xichang City in Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture.

There is a deep conflict between the Yi people here and the Han people who occupy the Sichuan-Shu Plain. In history, after Zhuge Liang pacified Nanzhong, there were rebellions many times, and he successively killed two Yueyi prefects appointed by the Shu Han court. This made the people appointed by the Shu Han court basically I dare not take office in the county.

At that time, Zhuge Liang had been on the front line of Hanzhong to attack Cao Wei in the north for many years, and he had no time to look south. The hatred between the Han people is very deep.

Therefore, both Zhu Bao and Gao Ding are staunch rebels. Zhuge Liang believes that these two chief villains should be dealt with, and the rest of the Southwestern Yi tribe leaders who followed them in rebellion can be released, but they must also be subdued.

The fleet followed the Yangtze River to Bodao. Zhuge Liang personally led a group of soldiers and horses to march from the middle road, starting from Nanguang to attack Zhuti County along the road; Finally, Ma Zhong, the subordinate governor, was ordered to attack the chaos in Zangke County from the right.

Zhuti County is the area of ​​Zhaotong City in later generations, and Zhuti County is the urban area of ​​Zhaotong City.When Zhuge Liang's army had just entered Nanguang County in Zhuti County, they heard the latest news.

When Li Hui first arrived in Nanzhong, he wanted to suppress the rebellion as soon as possible, so he went deep alone and was besieged in Dianchi County, Jianning County, which is later known as Kunming City, Yunnan.

Since the number of rebels in Jianning County was several times that of the Han army at that time, and there was no news from Zhuge Liang, the situation was very serious.Li Hui tried to deceive Nanyi, telling them that he planned to surrender, but he was worried that they would be unfavorable to him, so he hoped to relax their encirclement.

The Nanyi rebels believed Li Hui's words, so they slacked off on the defense of the encirclement.Li Hui seized the opportunity to take the initiative to attack, suddenly launched a surprise attack, defeated the Nanyi rebels, and chased them all the way to Panjiang, almost as far as Zangke County.

Upon receiving this news, Zhuge Liang was very happy and praised Li Hui. Then the main force changed direction and went west to take Yuexuan.

Because of the three-way attack, the main force in the middle is to go south from Zhuti County to Jianning County to rescue Li Hui, but now that Li Hui has defeated the Jianning rebels, only the Yuejuan and Zangke rebels are left, so naturally there is no need Go to Jianning again.

Zhuge Liang's army went west from Nanguang, crossed Qianjie and Mahu, and then raided Beishui.Under his personal command, the Beishui rebels were defeated, and then besieged Qiongdu with Zhang Yi on the West Road.

Zhang Ni captured Suqi County to the north of Qiongdu, and surrounded Qiongdu with Zhuge Liang's tribe to the east.

Qiongdu is said to be a city, rather than a simple walled city. The outer walls are only built with low rammed earth. Because the Yi people are not good at building cities, they have fallen into disrepair for a long time and have long been dilapidated.

At this moment, on the high slope in the wilderness to the northwest of Qiongdu, Zhuge Liang sat in a four-wheeled cart, protected by soldiers, and looked down the slope with Ma Liang.

Gao Ding, as the king of Yueyi Yi, has a high prestige. He not only recruited Meng Huo, but also some Yi tribe leaders such as E Huan joined him. He has more than 20 to [-] people, and his momentum is huge. The rebels combined had [-] soldiers and horses.

Of course, in Zhuge Liang's eyes, these soldiers and horses were nothing more than mobs, chickens and dogs.

On the east side of the slope, there are 1 Jin troops and [-] county soldiers led by Wang Ping, and to the north are more than [-] Bashu county soldiers led by Zhang Yi. Although there are many people on the opposite side, there is almost no formation at all. Messy and crowded together.

Although Wang Ping's and Zhang Yi's troops were small in number, their troops were neat and orderly, with more than 3 troops forming several phalanxes. Even the Jinren troops were neatly arranged under Zhuge Liang's training.

In the distance, with Gao Ding's shout, the melodious horn sounded, and the army of [-] to [-] barbarians rushed towards this side in a chaotic manner.

Zhuge Liang just sat on the four-wheeled cart and watched quietly, without giving any orders.

Soon the barbarian army came like a tide.

"Fire arrows!"

Wang Ping shouted.

The tall and powerful archers in the rear took out their arrows one after another and threw them with their heads up.

The overwhelming rain of arrows sprinkled into the formation, splashing countless blood.

But the number of opponents is really too many. With the speed of bow and arrow, they can only shoot two or three rounds at most, with tens of thousands of arrows, there are still very few who can really kill the enemy.

But after the second round of arrow rain, Wang Ping issued the military order again, and the crossbowmen in the front line immediately stepped out, crouched on the ground, and pulled the trigger.

"Shhhhhh!"

Several crossbow arrows are shot in a row, this small repeated crossbow is more suitable for such close collisions within 50 meters.

Tens of thousands of crossbow arrows were shot at the front row of barbarian people, and screams continued in an instant, and the barbarian people who rushed to the front were shot into hedgehogs, and one or two rows of people fell down.

The crossbowmen did not stop at all after shooting, and immediately withdrew to the formation, and then the shieldmen in front made up for it, and stretched out their spears from between the shields to prepare for the formation.

After several rounds of bows and crossbows, the barbarian troops suffered heavy casualties, many people's morale was low, and the momentum of charging dropped a lot.

But Gao Ding kept urging the soldiers to continue to attack from the rear, and the soldiers could only bite the bullet and charge. Their equipment was very primitive, no armor, only some leather armor, weapons were also cast iron, and shields were all made of wood.

In contrast, the equipment of the Han army was much better. Before the two sides came into contact, thousands of Yi people died in crossbows.

Soon the barbarians ran into their shield array like a tide, and the two sides fell into a stalemate.

But at this moment, Zhuge Liang on the hillside said: "Two wings outflank!"

"woo woo woo woo."

The specific sound of the horn on the mountain sounded.

Wang Ping, who was at the foot of the mountain, heard the sound of the horn and immediately asked the messengers to send orders to the two wings.

Immediately afterwards, Zhang Ni's troops in the north rushed to the southeast directly to the flank of the Yi army, and at the same time, Wang Ping's soldiers and horses deployed to the east also outflanked the southern flank of the Yi people.

At this time, the Yiren hadn't even rushed through the shield formation of the Han army's front army. The people in front were slashing and trying to break the formation, while the people behind were rushing forward, so that the troops swarmed forward and backward, and there was no formation at all. to speak of.

After Zhang Ni and Wang Ping's troops surrounded from the two wings, they were attacked from the side, and the barbarians on both sides instinctively retreated to the center.

Some of us are fleeing, some are crowding, and some are still fighting bloody battles. The orders cannot be unified, and a rollback is formed in an instant, and the army is defeated like a mountain!
And if you look down from the mountain, you will see that the original [-] to [-] Yi army was surging like a flood, but the flood seemed to have encountered an iron wall, and with a bang, it hit its head and broke its blood, and then it was smashed by people from both wings. The half-cut interception caused the front and rear to be out of touch, and the situation collapsed in an instant.

After that, things are much simpler.

The Han army immediately launched a counterattack, and the Yi people were defeated in an instant. Thirty thousand Han troops rushed all the way, and soon there were only corpses and messy weapons and equipment left on the ground, which was a mess.

"Congratulations, Prime Minister."

Seeing this scene, Ma Liang immediately bowed his hands to Zhuge Liang to congratulate him: "The prime minister will go over the mountain in the first battle, and he will defeat his army."

Zhuge Liang's face was very calm, but he just said: "Soldiers can surrender their bodies but not their hearts. If you want to prevent the southerners from rebelling, you should use kindness and power together. Pass the order, except for Gaoding, the rest can surrender. not die."

"only!"

The orderly went immediately to convey the order.

Soon the Yueyi people were defeated, and Zhuge Liang won the first battle out of the mountain easily.

(End of this chapter)