Late Tang Dynasty: I

Chapter 147

Since ancient times, there have been only two passages for the army to enter Sichuan, one is the Jinniu Road from Hanzhong to Chengdu in the north, and the other is from Jingxiang in the east along the Yangtze River, passing the Three Gorges, and entering Sichuan by water.

As for trails, there are many, such as Yangba Road, Micang Road, and the Lychee Road opened by Tang Xuanzong for Yang Yuhuan during the Tianbao period, and the Yinping Road that Deng Ai took when he destroyed Shu during the Three Kingdoms period. The car cannot supply the logistics of the army.

Although Deng Ai used Yinping Road to destroy Shu, his method was not admired. This is the reason. If the defenders in Jiangyou could persist for several days, Deng Ai's thousands of soldiers would have only one ending, and that would be to starve to death.

Li Ye wanted to enter Sichuan, but he had no conditions to go by water, so the only choice was the Jinniu Road.

This road, also known as the stone cow road, is named after the story of the king of Qin conquering Shu, stone cow dung and gold, and five Dings opening the way.

From Mian County, go to Yangping Pass, Yang'an Pass, Baishui Pass, Jiameng Pass, Qipan Pass, until Jianmen Pass (Jiange). After leaving Jiange, you can reach Chengdu without obstacles.

From Yangping Pass to Jianmen Pass, the total length is more than [-] miles, and the logistics is not that the people send food from Yangping Pass to Jianmen Pass all the way, but divides more than [-] post stations along the way, and every two post stations are separated from each other. For more than twenty miles, each post station is responsible for the transportation of a section of the road.

Usually, there are only a few people in the post stations. When the army is marching, there are as many as a thousand people in each post station. On the entire Jinniu Road, tens of thousands of people are transporting food and grass day and night.

It is also because the road is rugged and too long, so it consumes a lot on the way. It is not bad to be able to transport 100 shi to Jianmen for 20 million shi of grain.

Although the loss was huge, the hundreds of thousands of stones of grain and grass transported from Guanzhong, as well as the more than 100 million stones of grain and grass in the treasury of Hanzhong, were not short of military rations, and there were enough civilians along the way.

But this road is really difficult, and only one person and one horse can pass through the narrow place.

When we arrived at the horse barrier, we heard the gurgling water, where the Xiliu River separated the mountains on both banks.

It is necessary to open a road on both sides of the bank, first descend to the bottom of the deep valley, cross the Xiliu River, and then climb rocks to the top of the mountain.

The cliffs on both sides of the bank stand thousands of feet high, the rocks are all light red, and the vegetation is dark green and emerald.

From time to time, mist floats, as if in a fairyland.Looking around, an ancient road is like a streamer that connects cliffs, flowing water, strange rocks, jungles, peaks, caves, and ditches into an excellent landscape picture scroll.

Most of the soldiers went to the stream to fetch water.

"You can drink the water directly!"

The guide was a native of the Qiang nationality, named Tan Yao, and it was the first time in his life that he served as a guide for the emperor.

His Majesty is not afraid of the emperor, what is afraid of is the soldiers next to the emperor, who will flash their knives at every turn.

Fortunately, Tan Yao also understood in the past few days that as long as he is ten steps away from the emperor, everyone is a good friend, and within ten steps, the way those soldiers look at him will change.

Hearing the emperor's question, Tan Yao immediately said: "You can drink it, we have grown up drinking water from the mountains since we were young."

Li Ye looked towards Juefeng, where there was a fence village.

"Is there someone on the mountain?"

"Yes, this is the village of Yuxiu people, and his patriarch Hanqing is a good man."

Li Ye saw more than a dozen people in the valley carrying bacon, and the prey came over and tried to talk to the soldiers, but no one understood what they said.

"Your Majesty, they want to use the meat on their hands to exchange some knives and horn bows with you for hunting."

Li Ye saw soldiers chasing these mountain people away, so he stopped them immediately, and said to his servant Zhang Xi, "See how many bows, arrows and knives they want. You can exchange some."

"promise!"

Tan Yao said: "Your Majesty, I also have a lot of bacon at home, can I exchange it for a bow?"

This horn bow looked much better than the wooden bow they used. It was light and could shoot far, making it very suitable for hunting.

Li Ye smiled and said, "I'll give you a pair."

The production cost of a horn bow is around [-] guan, or even [-] guan for good ones. His Majesty the Emperor rewards a hundred guan, which is quite normal.

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

Forward Zhu Zhen sent someone to report that the army had arrived at Cuiyun Corridor, and Wei Yu, the guard at the Jianmen Gate, did not dare to specialize in opening and closing, so he sent someone to report to Yang Shouzhen, the envoy of the Dragon Sword Festival.

Jing Xiang said: "Your Majesty, if Yang Shouzhen refuses to switch, our army should send a small team to detour into Jianmen from the Mi Cang trail."

Li Ye said: "Yang Shouzhen doesn't dare to do this, come here, pass on my words, let Yang Fugong, the king of Xiping County, Yang Shouliang, Yang Shouzhong, the commander of the left and right Hanzhong Army, and the three of them only bring their personal guards, and go to Jianmen at full speed."

"promise!"

"Since the Jianmen Pass was built by Marquis Wu, it has been guarded by one man and cannot be opened by ten thousand men. Throughout the ages, it has never been breached from the front, and it stretches for hundreds of miles of plank roads. As long as the defenders set fire before leaving, the army will have no way to advance or retreat. Dangerously!"

Li Ye laughed and said: "Although the sword gate is dangerous, since Gongsun Shu of the Han Dynasty proclaimed himself emperor in Xichuan, then Liu Bei became king and emperor in Xichuan and Hanzhong, and after the Shu Han, there was the Cheng Han regime. Let me tell you, Ai Qing, these regimes are all in danger, why haven't their reigns exceeded 50 years?"

Jing Xiang replied: "This is because the country's danger lies in people's hearts, not in mountains and rivers!"

That's right, smart!
……

Jianzhou, Jianmenguan.

Yang Fugong's family watched and helped each other, and they had long agreed to advance and retreat together. Yang Shouliang decided to return to the court, and he used pigeons to spread the news to Longjian, Mianzhu, and gold merchants.

When Yang Shouzhen received the news, he still didn't believe it. Father Yang Fugong named Xiping County King and had already announced it to the world, but it was well known that he was imprisoned in the palace by the emperor. cheat it.

Unexpectedly, as soon as he received the news, there was someone invading the Guan. This Zhu Zhen was not familiar to him, and the report was the name of Zuo Huwei, the imperial army. Yang Shouzhen had never heard that there was Zuo Huwei among the imperial army, so he still had doubts.

He was afraid that something unexpected would happen to Yang Shouliang, and the court would try to cheat and open the door, which would be bad for him.

After sitting in Jianmen for seven days, I saw Yang Fugong, Yang Shouliang, and Yang Shouzhong all arrived.

Yang Shouzhen yelled from the Guanlou, "Father, there must be some deceit."

Yang Fugong yelled, "My prince is here, do you think there is any fraud?"

"..."

The Jianmen Gate is wide open, the passage to Shu is opened, and the army passes through the Jianmen Gate and gathers in Jianzhou.

Li Ye issued an imperial edict to Gu Yanlang, the envoy of Dongchuan Jiedu in Jiannan, ordering him to provide food, grass and equipment for the army.

There is food in the two rivers, so naturally there is no need to transport grain and grass from Hanzhong to supply the army.

His Majesty the Emperor was not afraid that Gu Yanlang would not agree, if he did not agree, he would have an excuse to flatten Dongchuan as well.

"Your Majesty, there should be confidant generals stationed at Jianmen Pass."

Li Ye nodded and ordered the Zuo Shenwei Army to guard the Jiange and the Baili plank road with 2000 and [-] troops in the three capitals and four capitals.

Jianmen Pass is narrow, so not many people are needed, 2000 people are enough, and no more people can be accommodated.

(End of this chapter)