Chapter 35 Seeking strategy

It is difficult to pass this valley road, but it is also difficult to stick to this passage by virtue of the terrain.To stick to it, you must deploy troops along the passage on the mountains on both sides for a long distance, and use bows and arrows and rolling logs and rocks to attack and block the troops who want to break through the valley.And here lies the problem. There are not many places where you can see the bottom of the mountain and attack directly on the mountains on both sides. Most places along the route are untenable mountains.There are two slopes in the middle of the valley road. The slope is not too steep, and you can climb up it with both hands and feet.The length is almost one mile, and you can use bows and arrows, rolling logs, and tackles to attack the bottom here.There is another way to stick to it, which is to choose the narrowest part of the valley road to block the passage.But in that case, if the Liao Kingdom wants to attack the Central Plains in the future, it will lose the only channel, and it will take a lot of effort to clear it.The reason why Yelu Hezhen led his troops out of the mountain pass to directly confront the Zhou army was also because the terrain was not very conducive to holding on.

Having lost the first opportunity to annihilate the entire Liao army, Chai Rong planned more carefully in order to create a second excellent opportunity. The Liao army has already suffered a big loss, which will make them suspicious and cautious, and will not be easily dispatched, so it is unlikely to lure the enemy out and set up an ambush to destroy them.If Zhou Jun adopts the method of forcibly breaking through Shuangbao Mountain, one is that there will be continuous blows in the valley passage.What's more, after reaching the other side, the situation was just the opposite of last time, and the Liao army set up a blockade to kill them.

Chai Rong wandered around Shuangbao Mountain for more than ten days, and then received suggestions from the army.Regardless of pawns or generals, anyone with a good strategy can enter the Jinding tent to discuss with Chai Rong.This is also one of Chai Rong's strengths. He believes that strategy has nothing to do with status.A dragon slayer may not be able to catch a seven-inch snake, and a tiger fighter may not be able to catch a wild bobcat.The last time he used a fire carriage to hide rats and birds smeared with fire oil to deal with the Liao cavalry, it was a strategy given by a groom.

Among the suggestions and strategies collected, two are very similar.One was presented by Hu Yanmu, the commander of Hujie Zuoxiang Battalion, and it was from the third round of the 108 rounds of Qi Men Dun Jia Shu "You Long Tuo Pao".This round was originally about the play of pearls in Youlong's mouth to attract the attention of others, but in fact he wore a Qiankun robe at the end, which could hide all the good things of others and take them away.The mythical story "The Earth Dragon Enters the Heavenly Court" is the prototype of this game. Later, some people said that the section "Monkey King makes a scene with the Queen Mother's Peach Banquet" was also adapted from this mythical story.The other one is "lure monkeys and steal wine" given by an old fellow leader, which is derived from a real incident in Shu.Mount Emei in the Shu region is prolific in monkeys. When the fruits are ripe, these monkeys will pick off many fruits and store them in stone pools in cliff caves.Over time, all kinds of wild fruits will naturally ferment into wine.This wine is extremely sweet and mellow, and is known as monkey wine.In order to steal the monkey wine, the Shu people let some people enter the territory of the monkeys, and went to the forest where the monkeys picked food to pretend to cut down trees, which would provoke the monkeys to fight with people.The deeper the fighters go into the woods, the more the monkeys will chase after them, with the intention of driving them out of the forest.When the monkey is far away from the nest, others can climb down the cliff to steal the monkey wine.

Almost a month before the last battle, Chai Rong decided on his next strategy to break through Shuangbaoshan.And this strategy is the subtlety of combining "traveling the dragon and dragging the robe" and "luting the monkey to steal the wine". The specific operation is like this, first use a fast cavalry team of 1,000 people to advance quietly into the passage, and after being discovered by the opponent, immediately rush in at the fastest speed.Don't fight back against any tackle on the hill, just keep going.When encountering an obstacle and being unable to overcome it, he dismounted and went to the cliffs on both sides to attack.These thousand light cavalry are the first step of the plan. They are actually bait and dead soldiers. In today's words, they are death squads.

Because of the desperate breakthrough of these thousand dead soldiers, under normal circumstances, the guards of the Liao Kingdom on the top of the cliffs on both sides would smash down the rolling logs and stones first, and then quickly attack those who failed to smash all of them to death and continued to rush forward. The cavalry carried out pursuit and shooting.And when the dead soldiers rushed to the position where they couldn't pass, dismounted and attacked the top of the cliff, the Liao defenders on the top of the cliff on both sides would definitely gather reinforcements towards the position where they attacked and resolutely prevent them from climbing to the top.

At this time, there will be such a situation in the defense of the Liao army. The Liao soldiers on the top of the cliff in the front attacked and killed the fast cavalry, and they had already used up the rolling logs and rocks.Continuing to chase and kill and gather reinforcements behind will lead to a sharp decrease in the number of people on the defensive front.In the absence of replenishing defensive equipment in time, and not having enough manpower to stick to the original position, the short-handed knife team of the Zhou army behind the fast cavalry team will immediately use climbing equipment to quickly climb to the top of the cliff to occupy these defensive vacancies The lot, and then attack the defending Liao army along the cliff tops on both sides.This is the second step of the plan.

The third step of the plan is to continue to give way to the archers and the armored swords team to climb the mountain from the defensive gap to support the small swords team while fighting on the top of the cliff.At the same time, the iron cavalry team was sent to open the way by hitting the city cart with iron oxen, and rushed across the valley road.On the other side, they immediately used chariots as a camp to form a defense to cover most of the Zhou army passing through the valley road.After the number of people and horses reaches a certain number, they will form an array to counterattack the people and horses encircled by the Liao army.

According to the saying that it is best to defeat the enemy without bloodshed, this is not a perfect plan.Because there will be a bloody battle, because the casualties of the Zhou army will be very heavy, even more than that of the Liao army.But in comparison, so far this is a plan with the highest probability of success, and it is a plan that can be implemented without too much preparation. It can rush across Shuangbao Mountain and go straight to Youzhou City in the shortest time, without giving the Liao army a chance to breathe . Since there is no better way, no one will object.The generals of each battalion immediately made preparations step by step. Five days later, the soldiers and horses were all arranged and their intentions were clearly explained.After another two days, all the weapons and tools needed were ready.Chai Rong immediately ordered the battalion to carry out the attack plan at five o'clock the next day after receiving the report that the battalions were ready.

But the plan doesn't always change quickly, the more urgent and the more successful the matter is, the chance of accidents is often the highest.The same is true for Zhou Jun's plan to capture Shuangbao Mountain the next day. The accident occurred when the sun had not completely set on the mountain the day before. At that time, Chai Rong led Li Chongjin, Hu Yanmu and other generals and advisers in the barracks to check the preparations again, when suddenly they heard the alarm bell on the tower of the camp gate ringing.They hurriedly got on their horses and rushed to the gate of the camp, only to find that the small team that came was Li Yan, the Food and Pay Superintendent of the Northwest Road of Da Zhou, and his guards.

What Li Yan brought was bad news. He went back to raise food and grass for supervision and transportation, but failed to raise it in several nearby state capitals.Recently, these state capitals not only have no food from the south in the official treasury, but also have a shortage of food in the market, and the people have rushed to buy and store it.Therefore, in the past half month, the price of food has skyrocketed, and at the same time, the prices of tea, meat, silk, salt, and copper and iron have also risen. Although they have not risen, there is no goods on the market.Later, according to the station report, the reason for this was that the Southern Tang Dynasty increased the tax on transit goods.The grain and salt of Wuyue and Southern Tang were no longer transported north, because it would be unprofitable to sell grain and salt after the transit tax was increased.There is absolutely no problem with Dazhou's self-sufficiency in food at ordinary times, but when encountering such a conquest, it not only needs the country's previous storage, but also needs to buy from other countries.Now not only is there nothing to buy, but there is also a phenomenon of panic buying and storage in the country, so it is impossible to raise the food and grass needed by the army. If the supply of food and grass is not available, it will be meaningless to capture Shuangbaoshan.There are no city defense residents here, and even if the grain and grass of the Liao soldiers were captured, it would only be enough to sustain the Zhou army for a few days.And after Shuangbao Mountain is the Golden Beach, although the name of the Golden Beach is nice, it is actually a desert.The Liao people generally use a large number of cattle and horses to carry water across the desert. The water is drinkable, and the cattle and horses are slaughtered for food.It is impossible for the Zhou army to drive a large number of livestock like the Liao people. They must carry a large amount of food, grass and water to go there.Although the desert area of ​​Golden Beach is not too large, the food and grass left in the army should be able to walk through the desert.But if you can't take Youzhou in one fell swoop after the past, or if something unexpected happens when crossing the desert, it will be like the last sandstorm, then the food, grass and water you carry will not be enough, and you won't need the Liao army to attack and kill. Thirst and hunger will wipe out the Zhou army. Chai Rong was depressed about the matter of grain and grass, and suddenly there was an urgent report from southern Xinjiang.When it was presented, Chai Rong couldn't help being furious when he saw it. It turned out that the soldiers and horses of the Kingdom of Shu protruded from the Xichuan Road, and brought a large amount of food and grass to the four prefectures of Qin, Cheng, Jie, and Feng, and they were planning to plot the Central Plains.These four prefectures were originally within the scope of the Central Plains. When the Khitan was destroyed and the Jin Dynasty was over, the Shu Kingdom took the opportunity to capture them.Dazhou has always regarded these four states as a confidant, because with the help of these four states as a foothold, Shu can invade the hinterland of Dazhou at any time.Before Chai Rong fought in the Northern Han and Daliao, he also considered the danger of Shu.But one is that the army of Shu is now strong and its territory is rich. It is not easy to conquer these four states.Moreover, the sudden use of military forces against neighboring countries is unknown, unlike the Northern Expedition, which can be used in the name of regaining Youyun Sixteen Prefectures from the Liao barbarians.So before the Northern Expedition, he sent special envoys to make good friends with the Shu Kingdom, and formed an alliance to jointly defend the Tubo Kingdom in the west. All he did was to prevent the Shu Kingdom from attacking his own vital points.In addition, he did not bring out the most powerful forbidden army in this expedition, but also to prevent changes in other aspects.But I didn't expect that the Shu Kingdom still didn't keep their promises, and at the critical moment of their own war, they took advantage of the turmoil in the Zhou Kingdom and acted viciously. what to do?All the generals and counselors were waiting for Chai Rong to make up his mind.Chai Rong sighed: "It seems God will not help me to recover the sixteen prefectures of Youyun, and let the Liao barbarians survive. Tomorrow, I will pull out the camp and withdraw the troops, and return to Shengjing to make further calculations." It is known in the world that Zhou Shizong Chai Rong was the first Ming monarch of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, and it can be seen that this reputation is not in vain.He is meticulous in thinking, can take in and let go, can swallow and spit out, and will never ignore the pain in his feet and buttocks just because of the food on the edge of his mouth. This time is the best record of Zhou Bing's northern expedition to Liao.A few years later, when Chai Rong attacked the Liao Kingdom again, although he conquered two passes and three states, he suddenly contracted a disease and was forced to return to the army again, and even failed to attack Shuangbao Mountain.Why this is so, the unsolved mysteries will be explained in detail later in the book. It is also because Zhou Bing has never been able to cross Shuangbao Mountain to reach the Golden Beach, and cannot understand the real environment, geographical characteristics and hidden dangers of the Golden Beach. This is why the Yang family was trapped in the Golden Beach in the Northern Song Dynasty. The tragedy of the two sons.