Time flies and it’s early February. After the initial fierce attack, the Mongolian army's offensive on the Jiading battlefield became increasingly exhausted, and both sides suffered heavy losses. Yang Dayuan's troops served as the vanguard - or cannon fodder in other words - and suffered particularly heavy casualties. On the one hand, as a newly surrendered army, they were eager to make achievements in front of their new masters and were particularly active in charging into battle. On the other hand, the Jiading army also hated these traitors and killed them without hesitation. On the other hand, Wang Dechen and Yelvmaizhu's losses were not great, and they had no intention of retreating, so the war turned into a siege state. After the siege, under the protection of Sangui Jiuding City and Lingyun City, Jiading City's defense had no flaws. The Mongolian army's repeated attacks were thwarted and they did not gain any advantage at the foot of Jiading City. The war was in a stalemate for a while.
Since the Mongolian army entered Jiading, Meizhou, Yu Xing has not ordered the Perak Army to send troops to help. On the one hand, it is out of guilt for ignoring the warning of the Perak Army, and on the other hand, because the infantry of the Perak Army has been harassing the Mongolian army everywhere in Meizhou. . Yu Xing also knew that the current river water was shallow and it was impossible for the Pili Army and Navy to go south to Jiading. Of course, the underlying reason why Yu Xing did not give the order was that after these few confrontations, he knew that Ouyang Xuan was not someone who could be easily manipulated. Instead of doing something uncertain, it is better to let the Pili Army hold the upper reaches, and then order the navy to go down the river when the spring warms and the water rises. As long as we work together to defeat the Mongolian navy, the Mongolian infantry and cavalry will have no choice but to retreat.
Of course, Yu Xing also sent an envoy to Chongqing Mansion with a letter. The letter first praised Ouyang Xuan broadly, and then made two requests. The first was to ask the Perak Army to send more firearms to help defend the city. The second is to ask Haosheng to take care of the refugees who fled into the territory of the Perak Army and send them back after the war is over. Regarding the first request, the Pili Army sent some old-fashioned grenades. These grenades were brought over by the special forces operating in Meizhou, and the number was not large. This is due to the decrease in production capacity after the relocation of the military factory, coupled with the rapid expansion of the number of troops, the various units of the Perak Army are also insufficiently equipped with firearms, and even the inventory of old-fashioned grenades is not large. Under the attack of the Pili Army's special forces, the small group of Mongolian troops in Meizhou did not dare to go out at all, and their control over the roads and countryside was greatly reduced. However, transporting these grenades to the Jiading Army also took a huge risk. As for the second request, Ouyang Xuan's principle is to respect the opinions of refugees. If the Mongolian army retreats and the refugees are willing to return home, they will be escorted back to Meizhou. If they are not willing, they will stay in the territory of the Perak Army.
During this period, the Pili Army's trade prospered. In the direction of Guankou Village, the trade demand of the Pili Army and Weimao Prefectures that had been suppressed by the Mongols was finally released and reached explosive growth. Judging from the types of transactions, the two states of Wei and Mao mainly purchased a large amount of food and daily necessities, while the Pili Army obtained a large number of mules and horses, as well as a small amount of copper, fire salt and other items. As for the war horses that the Pili Army longed for, they only purchased a dozen or so horses. Although there are a large number of alpine meadows in Wei and Mao prefectures, they can only graze cattle, yaks, mules and horses, and these livestock can only be used as meat livestock and pack animals. To obtain war horses, you must go to the grassland area north of Songzhou. Just a few days ago, the two states of Wei and Mao had sent people to accompany the Perak Army caravan to Songzhou City.
After Liu Heima had no news from Wei and Maozhou for a long time, he sent several groups of messengers to contact them. However, he was killed by the Perak Army cavalry in Guankou Village. The Mongolian army also sent troops to attack Guankou Village, trying to cover the messengers from passing through the checkpoints in the chaos, but the new checkpoints built by the Perak Army did not allow them to take advantage of them. In desperation, Liu Heima had to recruit dead soldiers to travel through the mountainous areas of Peng and Hanzhou during the heavy snow season. It's just that these messengers were either lost in the wilderness, died of cold and starvation on the way, or were eaten by wild beasts. In winter, prey is scarce in mountainous areas, and wild animals such as wolves and jackals in the mountains are extremely ferocious. A small number of Mongolian army messengers managed to reach the two prefectures of Wei and Mao after nine deaths. However, before they could rejoice, they were killed by the local Tibetan people. All the clothes and equipment were burned as usual, and the body was thrown into the river to feed the fish.
In the Chuejie Valley in Yandao County, Yazhou, the Pili Army also reached a mutually beneficial cooperation agreement with several villages in the valley, and quickly established a stable foothold. There are less than 200 mountain people in this ditch, including less than 100 strong laborers. They mainly grow food on the thin slopes of the mountain, hunt and collect medicines, and live a very poor life. After the Perak Army settled in, they provided a lot of daily necessities such as cloth and salt. In the early anti-rape operations, the Perak Army distributed a large amount of bandit property that could not be taken away to various villages, which greatly increased the goodwill of the mountain people towards the Perak Army. On the other hand, the Pili Army asked each village to organize caravans to follow the caravans to do business, and also attracted many mountain people into the caravans, integrating the villages together with economic benefits. This is a good thing for both parties. For the Perak Army, which is in the expansion period, there is an urgent need for labor everywhere, and the caravan is no exception; for the villagers, the income from those few acres of sloping farmland is too little. The family's survival from starvation depends entirely on God's reward. Now that I have joined the caravan, I can at least have food and clothing.
In front of the Lizhou City and Diaomenzhai checkpoints, dozens of Tibetan caravans coming from the direction of Dajianlu and from various tribes in the Western Mountains were blocked. After receiving the letter from Boss Qian, they rushed to the business in spite of the wind and snow, but when they saw the door was tightly closed, they couldn't help but get furious. There were insiders from the Perak Army among the soldiers at these two passes. They secretly told the Tibetan caravan that Boss Qian had already prepared goods for trading at the pass. However, the government refused to open the door, which caused the Tibetan merchants to become commotion. . These caravans brought a large amount of supplies, and of course they also had a large number of guards. In addition, they were fierce by nature and frightened the officials guarding the gates to explain and even plead repeatedly, but to no avail.
After negotiation with the Perak Army caravan waiting inside the customs, the Tibetan merchants agreed to give the customs officials some time to report to their superiors. Transactions with Tibetan areas not only involve simple economic exchanges, but are also a political means for the government to control Tibetan areas. Necessary items including tea are also subject to quota restrictions. This is also the reason why Tibetan merchants came excitedly after receiving the letter, fearing that they would It’s too late to buy what you need. In their view, these Han officials were really bullying people, and they only made things difficult on weekdays. If they could no longer trade today, the entire village might go bankrupt in vain. Therefore, as soon as the limited time came, they organized themselves and prepared to break through by force.
The officials guarding the Diaomen Village were scared to death. If these peasants invaded, it wouldn't be as simple as breaking the trading quota, it would definitely be a river of blood. At this time, some of his subordinates came up with the idea that it would be better to rob the goods of the Perak Army caravan and give them to Tibetan merchants in exchange for their withdrawal. The customs officer was not a fool. He slapped the person who came up with the bad idea and ordered the door to be opened. Originally there were 300 soldiers in the stronghold, but Cao Zhizhou drew 200 of them to Mingshan City. The remaining 100 soldiers could not defeat the hundreds of powerful peasants, let alone the seemingly harmless Pili. Military caravan. The soldiers in the village did not know the power of firearms, but the customs officer had seen its power. Since neither side has fought before, simply let them trade on their own. Not only can they save their lives, but they can also receive a large amount of "hard work money." As for whether Cao Zhizhou will punish him, he can only take it one step at a time.
Although the city in Lizhou is stronger and there are more soldiers guarding the city, it faces more Tibetan merchants. What's more terrible is that these Tibetan people coming from the direction of Dajianlu are not a mob, and they advance and retreat in an orderly manner. The orders were unified and looked more like an army than a caravan. Under pressure, Lizhou officials had no choice but to open the pass and allow the caravans from both sides to trade. In fact, the Lizhou officials' judgment was correct. Under the guidance of the Pili Army, Zelang had preliminary integrated the villages and tribes around Dajianlu and trained a standing army of 200 people. This time, Zelang also Came to Lizhou with the caravan.
