Water Margin: The opening scene involves assassinating Emperor Huizong of Song and forcibly taking L

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The location of other stockades or watchtowers can be determined by the smoke signals.

Yue Fei and Han Shizhong also dispatched a large number of light cavalry to explore the deeper parts of the valley.

The light cavalry went for a while, but soon fled back in a sorry state.

"Generals, about seven or eight miles ahead, there is a winding valley with enemies lying in ambush at the bend."

"We had just rushed over when we were met with a hail of arrows, and then enemy cavalry charged in..."

The tribal nobleman in charge of scouting returned with great grievance, reporting that his cavalry had just suffered dozens of casualties.

Han Shizhong nodded and said, "I'll give you credit for this."

The elite troops responsible for attacking the mountains continued to traverse the mountains even after the smoke signals rose from the Western Xia beacon towers.

They came down from one mountain ridge, then climbed another, approaching their target before finding a suitable position to attack.

Extremely difficult!

The mountain is mostly composed of gneiss, limestone and shale. Over the years, weathering and erosion have caused some of the mountain walls to be 90 degrees.

Even the gentlest slopes are over 45 degrees.

However, there are some protruding rock formations that can be stepped on where the rocks are layered.

Wang Gui looked up at the platform in front of him. The mountain in front of him was several feet high, and the rammed earth walls of the platform were also more than ten feet high.

The makeshift stairs they brought were utterly useless for attacking the watchtowers.

It would take a tremendous amount of effort to climb up normally, and with enemy defenses, it would be impossible to break through unless the Ming army could grow wings and fly up.

Wang Gui went around to the back of the platform to check, and immediately cursed, "Damn it, this side is steep too."

"Those enemy soldiers up there had to climb up with great effort; they even had to hoist their food and water up with ropes!"

“It’s impossible to take it down. Li Zhen, take a few men back and report that I will hold the line here and ask the Protector-General to send some steppe soldiers.”

"Don't attack, just surround them and kill them. Let them starve! Let them die of thirst!"

……

It was just two watchtowers, garrisoned with two or three hundred soldiers, so Yue Fei and Han Shizhong were naturally not afraid.

As soon as they sent troops to attack the watchtower, several smoke signals rose from the mountains on both sides, and the approximate locations of those smoke signals have been marked.

Chapter 3786 Fortresses on the Map

After Wang Gui sent someone back to report the details...

Yue Fei pointed to the marked smoke signals and said, "The places with smoke signals are likely watchtowers used for observation and communication. The real enemy strongholds are probably hidden elsewhere."

Han Shizhong took out a map, which had been sent back to the court by spies.

The person who actually drew the map is currently hiding in Shengwei City, unable to travel north due to the war.

This thing is extremely crude; it belongs to an ancient travel map.

“North of Keyimen City, there is a ditch that can connect to the army. It is about twenty li long and its width varies.”

"Its width is about seven or eight li. Its narrowness is about three or four li... In the widest places, ravines and gullies crisscross..."

“Three miles north of Keyimen City lies Camel Ridge, upon which sits a fortified village…”

The fortress clearly marked on the map is located on Camel Ridge.

The rest of the places are marked with phrases such as "a ditch emerges from the mountain" and "cannot be entered, or hidden in a fortified village".

As seen on the map, the terrain becomes even more complex further south.

Moreover, there was more than one valley; the one used by merchants and soldiers was only the flattest one.

This is why Cao Yu, as the military supervisor, had traveled through this area many times but still couldn't understand the geography; he only knew that there were several stockades on the mountain ridge.

Before setting off, Yue Fei and Han Shizhong interrogated the prisoners, but their accounts were largely the same as Cao Yu's.

"Protector Han and Protector Yue, a Dangxiang chieftain has led his people to surrender!"

Just as the two were studying the simple map, combining their findings from the past few days, a soldier suddenly ran up to report important military intelligence.

More than a hundred people came!

The leader claimed to be the son of the chief of the Chage tribe, named Qie.

Han Shizhong was extremely surprised: "Where did you come from?"

Qi'e replied, "The west bank of the Yellow River."

Han Shizhong asked, "Weren't all the people there relocated?"

Qi'e explained, "We hid in the desert."

Yue Fei questioned, "The Chaoshun Army has been fortifying its defenses and clearing the fields for many days. How did you survive hiding in the desert?"

Qi'e explained in detail: "There is a salt lake west of the Yellow River, which can be reached by crossing ten miles of desert."

“There is a green area around the salt lake, but the fresh water cannot support too many people. Usually, only a few hundred salt workers are there to boil salt. This year, the salt workers were also relocated due to the scorched earth policy.”

"We brought food and water, hid in the desert for a few days, and then went to the salt lake that was no longer inhabited."

"Where did you live before?" Han Shizhong asked.

Qi'e replied, "Our place is called Jinshatan, which is about twenty miles north of here. We have farmland on both sides of the Yellow River."

“Last year, when Brother Richard conscripted men for war, he took many people from my unit and also arbitrarily requisitioned our grain.”

“My father also went to fight. There were more than two thousand people when they set out, but only three hundred or so came back.”

Cao Yu chimed in from the side, "To be able to muster over two thousand men for battle, you must be a large tribe."

Qi'e said, "We are the largest tribe under the jurisdiction of the Chaoshun Military Command!"

"They no longer graze livestock, but only cultivate fields on both sides of the Yellow River."

"The tribe doesn't have many warhorses, and most of the troops are infantry when fighting, so last year the losses were particularly severe. After suffering a defeat, they couldn't even escape back."

Yue Fei said, "If you can achieve merit, identify all the surviving prisoners in your unit and send them home. Where is your father now?"

Chapter 3787 So Rich

Qi'e said, "Brother Richard ordered a scorched earth policy, and my father, with most of his men, has retreated to the south of Keyimen City."

"Before my father left, he asked me to take more than a hundred able-bodied men and go to the desert to hide temporarily."

This tribe was both very lucky and very unlucky.

They lived in the most prosperous area around Keyimen, all of which was fertile soil washed out by the Yellow River.

All the pastures were reclaimed for growing crops, completely ending the herding lifestyle.

Moreover, the regular soldiers were unwilling to provide military horses for the court, so the army gradually became mainly composed of infantry.

They were too wealthy, and too close to the garrison of the Chaoshun Army.

In every war, the tribe that was conscripted the most soldiers and the most grain were levied from them.

Especially in recent years, with the famine, the Western Xia court has been frantically increasing its troop deployments, and the entire tribe is on the verge of collapse.

Qi'e complained, "My father said that the tribe suffered too many losses last year, and the tribe's food supplies are almost exhausted. We still have to fight for the court."

"If the fighting continues, the tribe will be wiped out. Let me hide and find an opportunity to surrender to the Ming Dynasty."

Han Shizhong asked, "Do you know the terrain of those valleys in Keyimen?"

Qi'e replied, "I have a general idea, but I'm not entirely sure."

"Many of the mountain valleys near Keyimen City were once used for grazing, but they gradually became deserted."

“There are also grasslands on some high mountains, and some people have fled to the high mountains to graze their livestock.”

"The mountains on the east and west sides have low walls on them, which are said to be the Great Wall built during the Tang Dynasty."

That's not the Great Wall built by the Tang Dynasty, but the Great Wall built by the Qin Dynasty!

The mountain range, stretching for over a hundred miles, is directly surrounded by three sections of the Qin Great Wall.

The longest section of the Great Wall is over 8000 meters long, located in the Subaiyin Valley, which Han Shizhong and Yue Fei planned to cross.

However, those sections of the Qin Great Wall have been abandoned for thousands of years, leaving only some ruins. The Western Xia built the Great Wall to defend against the Mongols, based on the foundation of the Qin Great Wall, but only built a very short section of it.

Yue Fei said to Han Shizhong, "It seems that the mountains further south are gentler, suitable for grazing, building the Great Wall, and of course, fortified villages to garrison large armies."

Qi'e said, "Generals, we can bypass Keyimen."

"Impossible!" Cao Yu shouted.

Yue Fei and Han Shizhong's eyes lit up.

In the stories of wars throughout history, there is always a plot like this: when the army is facing a formidable pass that it cannot conquer, suddenly a local villager runs up and says: "General, please take the side path."

Where is this path?

Qi'e squatted down and drew a simple map: "This is where we are. We need to retreat more than ten miles to the west to cross the Yellow River."

“There is a prominent riverbank there, and crops can be grown within a radius of five miles.”

“Going west from the riverbank, crossing about ten miles of desert, you will come across a salt lake. That is where I am hiding. The local people have been forcibly relocated.”

“Turn south from the salt lake and cross about ten miles of desert, and you will come across an oasis.”

“It’s very close to the Yellow River, but the Yellow River often floods, and the land along the way is sandy, so it’s impossible to grow crops there. The Yellow River has also flooded the area, creating messy river channels and small lakes.”

"South of the oasis, I heard that it used to be a place for grazing livestock, but now it has turned into a desert."

"That desert stretches for about twenty miles. Once you cross it, you'll see mountain ranges. The eastern side of those ranges is suitable for farming and grazing."

Chapter 3788 Taking the Detour

"It is the territory of the second largest tribe in the Chaoshun Military Command. They graze their livestock on the mountain and farm the land at the foot of the mountain."

"After crossing the desert, go south for another twenty or thirty miles, cross the Yellow River to the east, and you can get around to the back of Keyimen."

Yue Fei and Han Shizhong carefully examined the diagram and calculated the detour they needed to take.

He crossed the Yellow River twice.

I crossed the desert three times.

The total length of the desert area is thirty to forty miles, but there are two oases in the middle that can provide fresh water.

Yue Fei asked, "After crossing all the deserts, you mentioned places suitable for farming and herding. Are there enemy strongholds there?"

Qi'e replied, "The easiest place to cross the river is a fortified village, and there is a temple on the nearby mountain. I even went to the temple with my father to worship Buddha."

Han Shizhong said, "Shouldn't we be able to find other crossing points?"

Qi'e laughed and said, "Actually, you don't have to cross the river. You can go south along the Yellow River for three hundred miles, and that will take you to Xingqing Prefecture, the capital of the Great Xia Kingdom."

"These three hundred li are flat and smooth roads! Of course, there is Dingzhou City in the middle."

Han Shizhong pulled Yue Fei aside: "Do you believe him?"

"Perhaps it's believable." Yue Fei wasn't sure either.

Han Shizhong asked excitedly, "How about we take a gamble?"

Yue Fei asked, "You mean, lead the cavalry straight to the capital of Western Xia?"

“That’s right,” Han Shizhong analyzed. “The Western Xia Kingdom is small and its army is weak. It has to divide its troops to defend against us at Keyimen and also to defend against several large armies in Shaanxi.”

"So how many soldiers can be left in Dingzhou City and Xingqing Prefecture?"

"To use an inappropriate analogy, I am Zhong Hui leading a large army to confront the enemy here, while you are Deng Ai launching a surprise attack to take the capital of Western Xia."

Han Shizhong had actually read the Records of the Three Kingdoms.

Yue Fei, his blood boiling with excitement, nodded and said, "Good!"

Han Shizhong said, "Take six thousand elite cavalry with you, three horses for each of you."

"Of those six thousand elite cavalry, half are yours and half are mine."

"How about we split this incredible achievement equally?"