With the cooperation of the tribes on the Qianzhong Road who obeyed the imperial court and had the same ancestry and origin, it was much easier to find out the background of the tribes who took the initiative to submit. And after entering Dali Kingdom, the climate was not so unbearable due to the terrain. The most critical one is Shanchanhou Mansion, which deploys troops in the direction of Qianzhong Road, mainly concentrated around Jianchang Mansion facing Qianzhong Road and Sichuan East Road.
Marquis Shanchan also made certain preparations for the possible attack by the Qi army. From the original support to the current intervention, he knew very well that he would incur revenge from the Qi army. So after Guo Chen's troops entered Qianzhong Road, he began to deploy. Almost all the elite soldiers of his Shanchanhou Mansion were dispatched. Only in Jianchang Mansion of Dali State, which borders Qianzhong Road, 20,000 troops and horses were deployed.
But he didn't expect that Guo Chen would be under the guidance and cooperation of the local tribe. Before the attack, there was a secret shift in the universe. He only used his deputy to lead part of the troops to attract and distract the attention of the Jianchang Mansion defenders. He himself commanded the main force of the army and made a detour at night to attack Dongchuan County, which caught the defenders off guard. Defeated 1,500 defenders in one fell swoop and captured Dongchuan County.
Guo Chen's department is progressing relatively smoothly, but Zhao Wushu is not so lucky. The tribes on Guangnan West Road are not trustworthy themselves, and some of them are cooperating with the rebels, whether they are enemies or not friends. Even after entering the territory of Dali Kingdom and encountering tribes that came to surrender on their own initiative, he did not dare to take them in without knowing the basics. Plus, the number of defenders in front of them.
It’s not surprising that Zhao Wushu’s progress is slow. Even a few times, he encountered local tribes who cooperated with the defenders to ambush him, and suffered considerable losses. Even under the favorable counterattack of the defenders, Zhao Wushu could only retreat to Guangnan West Road for a time. If the defenders hadn't thought they had taken advantage and risked following him in pursuit, Zhao would have been unable to catch Zhao off guard and defeat thousands of his troops.
Chengxu turned around and re-entered Shicheng County. Taking advantage of the frightened defenders, they all retreated back to Shicheng County and surrounded the city. This time, Zhao Wushan's face was almost completely humiliated. However, Zhao Wushu, who had suffered a lot, also made it clear in the memorial that Dali's troops and horses in Shicheng had long been prepared. The quantity is definitely not used only to defend against the imperial court's counterattack.
The Dali army and horses that he fought with were not only very powerful in combat, but also fully equipped with both foot and horse. It was obvious that they were not only the elite of the Shanchanhou Mansion, but they also had eight thousand-jin cannons in their hands, although the number was not large. If it were not for the imperial court's pre-emptive attack, they would be the first to invade the territory of Dali. Maybe these Dali troops in Shicheng County will cooperate with the rebels to directly attack Guangnan West Road.
Judging from the confessions of captured military attachés affiliated with Shanchanhou, the Shanchanhou Mansion in Shicheng County had enough food, grass and horse materials for 50,000 people for two years, as well as a large number of bows, arrows and other ordnance. Just after the rebel army was defeated on Jiangnan West Road, Hou Shanchan began to recruit soldiers among the tribes, as if they were consolidating the land and fishing. Now the Shanchan Marquis Mansion has expanded its military strength to more than 90,000 people.
The grain, grass and material reserves currently concentrated in Shicheng County were all mobilized in the shortest possible time after the rebels started their troops. Currently, the Shanchanhou Mansion in Shicheng County has more than 40,000 troops and horses. After entering Shicheng County, I found that these troops and horses were deployed in an offensive manner. This shows that the Shanchanhou Mansion has been spying on Guangnan West Road for more than a day, and is even preparing to intervene.
I originally thought that the false emperor would not be so stupid as to leak cannons and firearms to the Dali Kingdom. But judging from Zhao Wushan's memorial, that guy not only leaked firearms, but even directly sold cannons to Dali. That idiot really wants to fight for the world and will do anything. He is really not afraid that the so-called Shan Chanhou will take his way out when he thinks he needs it.
Naturally, Huang Qiong still believed Zhao Wusha's judgment. However, this was somewhat beyond Huang Qiong's expectations. Huang Qiong originally thought that the Shanchan candidate had gone to the extreme by sending his own military attache to take over the command of the rebels and intervene in the Guangnan West Road rebellion in disguise. But Huang Qiong didn't expect that the master didn't know what the gust of wind was, and he was clearly preparing to use force.
I really don’t know who gave him the courage to intervene at this time. Did he really think that he was Tang Xuanzong and that he was the original Nanzhao King? He really thought that he could do these things with impunity. Or do you think that the court is now focusing on suppressing the rebellion and has no time to take care of them? Or does he really think that the so-called elite soldiers are really the best soldiers in the world?
In fact, Huang Qiong didn't know that there was only one reason why Shan Chanhou was so willing to do anything and intervene at this time. The second daughter of the Liu family became Huang Qiong's concubine, and Duan Jin became Huang Qiong's concubine. The Shanchanhou had been notified by the puppet emperor. He learned that the goddess he had been begging for to no avail had become Huang Qiong's concubine. What's more, even his two wives have become Huang Qiong's women.
How could that man be able to bear this? This Shanchanhou has since sent troops to quell the Yang family's rebellion for the Dali royal family. From the Marquis of Yue to the Jin Dynasty, he was granted the title of Marquis of Shanchan, and acquired almost the entire eastern part of the Dali Kingdom, becoming his own direct territory. Since Bu Xie was promoted to the throne, the government of Dali has been almost entirely in the hands of his father and son. It can be said that the Dali royal family has become a puppet of their Gao family.
After taking control of the power, the journey has been smooth sailing. The concubines in the mansion are almost all children of various tribes in Dali. Among his brothers, there are also several princesses from the royal family who have been married into the mansion. Nowadays, he is powerful and arrogant, but he never thought that Huang Qiong, the Emperor of Qi, would wear a hat, and it would be a double hat. How could he accept this?
What's more, this Shan Chanhou has been thinking about Guangnan East-West Road for more than a year. The Gao family is now so powerful in the Dali Kingdom that they are almost holding the emperor to order the princes. The Shanchan Mansion, the richest in the Dali Kingdom, has become the direct territory of his prince's mansion, but they are still a little dissatisfied. Guangnan West Road, under the painstaking management of successive Guilin kings, is now becoming increasingly prosperous, and he has been coveting it for a long time.
The superposition of old and new grudges made the Shanchan Marquis unable to care about anything. The most important thing is that he is more worried that if the pseudo-emperor fails, the things he has done in collusion with him will cause the court to retaliate. In this case, in line with the principle of taking advantage by starting early and suffering disaster by starting late. He then mobilized almost all the troops and horses under his command, and recruited troops on a large scale in his territory.
It's not that he was really defeated. He is not stupid, how could he not know the huge gap in strength between Daqi and Dali. What's more, the Dali royal family behind him is now increasingly wary of him. The honeymoon period achieved by both sides when they first suppressed the rebellion has already quickly disappeared due to the struggle for power. The current emperor of Dali Kingdom, who is Duan Jin's nephew, is not an economical person.
When the time comes, don't talk about sending troops to help, just don't stab him in the back. He concentrated so many troops not only to prevent the Qi army from retaliating, but also to take advantage of the chaos. The hat was put on, but it was still a double hat, which was certainly hard to accept for the Lord Shan Chan. But after all, there are people who can achieve this status, and there are those who are really impulsive because they lose their reason for a moment.
But at this time, Huang Qiong naturally didn't know the reason why Shan Chanhou was so desperate to raise troops to intervene. At least a large part of it is because he not only took possession of the goddess that he couldn't pursue. He also took his two wives, front and back, into his hands. Not to mention Shan Chanhou, who was in power in the Dali Kingdom, even an ordinary person couldn't stand it.
Huang Qiong looked at the map and cursed an idiot in his heart. But he returned to the throne and picked up the records of Zhao Wuye and Guo Chen, as well as the records of Cao Rui who was currently besieging Wuzhou, and looked at them carefully. Apart from reporting these things, Zhao Wushu didn't complain at all. Guo Chen also reported good news but not bad news, but Huang Qiong could still see that the situation they faced was very complicated.
The two of them almost unanimously talked about the same issue in their articles, which was the extremely complex tribes in Dali Kingdom. The relationship between these tribes is even more chaotic than that in Daqi. Today, we can become allies with each other through marriage. Tomorrow they can fight each other on a large scale for territory or other interests. Moreover, almost no one in these tribes is convinced.
He was half-hearted about the royal family of Dali and the original Shanchanhou Mansion. It's just that the original Shanchanhou Mansion was able to barely suppress it by relying on its own elite troops, which even surpassed the Dali royal family, and the various methods it adopted to divide and disintegrate, annex small surrounding tribes, and serve for itself. But in fact, these tribes did not really obey the jurisdiction of the Shanchanhou Mansion from the heart.
Both said that if the imperial court wanted to completely destroy the Shanchanhou Mansion, it could start with these tribes. Especially those who can use these tribes to obey the royal family of Dali and want to take advantage of the chaos to stand on their own. There are also those who are just outsiders and obey whoever is stronger. In short, they have different mentality. Rewarding some titles to win over these people is not a monolithic tribe for their own use.
After knocking on the table, Huang Qiong did not draw an immediate conclusion. Although neither of them said it clearly in the excerpt, the meaning was very clear. Neither of them agreed to actually control the territory of Shanchanhou Mansion. Because in their opinion, if the imperial court controls this place, it may lead to fatigue of the division and veterans, or even collapse. In fact, both of them suggested that it would be better for the court to support a puppet.
Moreover, both of them suggested that grain and grass should not be requisitioned locally, but should be transferred from the rear as much as possible. So that no matter what decision the court makes, it will not cause too serious consequences. The previous meanings of the two men were in line with Huang Qiong's thoughts. But the suggestions that followed made Huang Qiong a little difficult to make a choice. The reason why he was so tired at this time was because Chang Chaoshi had a quarrel over this matter.
Fu Yuanshan made it clear that the imperial court could not produce much food and grass now to ensure the supply of the officers and soldiers who invaded Dali Kingdom. The current grain reserves in Liangchuan have dropped to a very low standard. If they are mobilized again, the court will really have no emergency measures. And Lu Duan actually had the same opinion. Since the imperial court had originally decided not to occupy the Shanchanhoufu territory for a long time, it was appropriate to obtain food and grass locally.
The current Minister of Household Affairs is even more fiercely opposed. In the words of the Minister of Household Affairs, there is still not much food left in the two rivers. Although this year's autumn taxes have been collected, there are too many places where money and food are needed. What's more, we still don't know what will happen next year. If the court repeatedly uses the already limited grain reserves, what will happen if there is a natural disaster next year?
The Minister of the Ministry of Revenue vaguely pointed out that without the annual income from the Guilin County Prince's Palace, relying on the remaining money and grain income from the court would simply make ends meet. In the past two years of suppressing the rebellion, the imperial court has always been willing to pay attention to money and food. Even for a long time, it was barely able to survive by relying on the inner treasury. We really can't afford the supplies for a new battlefield.
