Chapter 403 Pre-war Meeting

At the beginning of Song Nan's appointment as the governor of the thieves, he had already replaced the new Ning Bo Tan You who took over the position of Gu Da to take office as the governor of the thieves on the West Road. Although the new Ning Bo Tan You did not have anything extraordinary, and he took over for only half a month without any success. However, this person is the best friend of Xu Guangzuo, the Duke of Dingguo. Song Nan naturally can't let him be the governor of the West Road. He casually gave a reason and replaced him. At that time, Xu Guangzuo was unlucky because of the inability to suppress the bandits and could not stop it.

After Dingbian Bojiang Bin became the governor of the West Road, he was already the third. The middle officer sent by the inner court was Ma Yongcheng, so the whole army of the West Road was firmly controlled by Song Nan.

According to the original strategy agreed by Song Nan and Jiang Bin, the West Road army mainly besieged the three out of the mountain passes in the southwest of Shandong. In the mountains of the Taihang Mountains, it is really difficult and unrealistic to send a large army into the mountains to eliminate these 5,000 thief soldiers.

However, although it is easy for thief soldiers to hide, it is also difficult to escape on a large scale. There are only three ways to get out of the mountain. One is to follow the original road to return to Yizhou and Zijingguan. The other is to move south and enter the boundary of Zhendingfu by capturing the horse pass. The third way is to go straight to the west and cross the Taihang Mountains to enter the Shanxi boundary.

When the battle against thieves on the East Road was in full swing, the Western Front was very calm. When Liu Qi and Zhao Hao entered the mountain, they looted a large number of food supplies and brought them into the mountains. In a short period of time, the supply was safe and they would not appear easily. Naturally, the officers and soldiers would not enter the mountain easily, so the two sides were safe and sound.

At the pre-war meeting, Song Nan saw several familiar faces. Tan Zhang and Liao Ping, the commanders of Zijing Guanwei and Maoshanwei, were listed, and the other was the former Weiqianhu Ma Ming. This person was rewarded for his achievements in the Battle of Xinping Fort. Together with Jiang Bin, he was transferred to Datong General's General and promoted to Datong guerrilla General. This time, he led Datong's two soldiers. Ma followed Jiang Bin and stationed west of Taihang. This time, the governor led a large army to the west. Jiang Bin couldn't take off his way to attend the meeting, so he appointed Ma Ming to represent himself to attend.

It is natural to greet acquaintances. Song Nan is still the same. Ma Ming and Tan Zhang Liao are very reserved. When he met Song Nan before, he was also the commander of Jinyiwei. Although he is also a senior official, he is not a military man after all, and there is no need to be too restrained. Now goodbye, Song Nan is already the leader of suppressing thieves, and he has swept the power of 50,000 to 60,000 thieves on the east road, which is even more unavoidable.

"Let's talk about the situation. What has happened to the thief soldiers in the mountains in the past month?" Song Nan saw the tension of the people and asked gently.

Liang Chong, the commander of the Shenwu right guard of Zhendingfu, who led 3,000 soldiers and horses to garrison the inverted horse gate guard, first said: "Since September, the governor, the humble position has been ordered to garrison the inverted horse pass. There is calm in the gorge, and the thief soldiers have never emerged in the canyon at the gate. However, most of the people after I fell into the horse pass rely on the mountain to eat mountains to hunt and cut wood for a living. When they enter the mountain, they were ordered to pay close attention to the presence of thieves. Instead, they gathered a lot of information. Because it was unconfirmed, the people only dictately learned whether it was useful or not, but they did not know whether it was useful.

Song Nan opened his eyes wide and said, "Oh? What have you found?"

Liang Chong took out a small notebook from his arms and opened it with his thick fingers stained with saliva and read: "On the fourth day of October, Yu Dabao, a hunter in Yamaguchi Village, found dozens of suspicious people north of Lianhua Mountain, carrying weapons tents and other things. Yu Dabao did not dare to observe. On October 9th, Wu Erhu, a hunter in Houpo Village, found traces of camping in Lianhua Mountain Pass. Judging from the number of bonfires, many people should have camped there.

Song Nan scratched his head, and Liang Chong suddenly patted his forehead and said, "by the way, there are many local drug farmers who often go to the mountain to collect medicine. Sometimes they don't return for months. They must be much more familiar with the terrain. It's better to call a few."

Song Nan was overjoyed. Liang Chong ordered people to invite him. Song Nan and the generals drank hot tea and waited. Half an hour later, the three drug farmers took their backs into the hall. They saw that the hall were full of military masters with sharp tigers and bear waist armor. The drug farmers were scared enough. Song Nan ordered people to get 30 taels of silver and ordered them to describe the terrain. Liang Chong took two thousand households in On the sand table. Restoration of the terrain.

After the modification all morning, the three drug farmers were indeed seniors, with footprints crossing the east and west of Taihang. The mountain terrain with a radius of nearly 200 miles was finally restored with the three people's memory. Song Nan and the people stood by the sand table with their hands behind their backs to point, marveling at the majestic depth of Taihang Mountain. At the same time, they also saw it clearly. The general terrain orientation.

The area of the Inverted Horse Pass is the interruption of the Taihang Mountains. The mountains and rivers are dense, the canyons are horizontal, and there are countless streams in the mountains. However, the reason why the Inverted Horse Pass became a barrier is that before the Ming Dynasty, there was a road built along the mountains and canyons west along the Inverted Horse Pass, which was built here. The southern end of the road is to defend against the enemy from the northwest through Taihang.

In today's Ming Dynasty, the effect of the inverted horse pass is not great, but because of the existence of this so-called channel across Taihang, it has not been abandoned. The purpose of its existence may be with the worst intentions. In case the Shanxi town falls and the first line of the Great Wall is broken through, at least there can be the Bauhinia Pass south of Taihang Shandong. The existence of a series of passes that block the way out, such as the inverted horse pass, can effectively defend against other places.

From the bird's eye view from the sand table, Jinpo Town, where the thief soldiers enter the mountain, is a mountain road, and another one extends from the inverted horse gate to the northwest. The two canyon mountain roads converge on the north side of the fairy peak in the middle section of Taihang, which is called by locals, and the two extend west repeatedly to Guangchang County in Shanxi.

Thieves may hide in dozens of large and small peaks and canyons passing through this herringbone passage, but it can be concluded that they will not climb too many peaks and leave the passage too far away, because according to drug farmers, although the passage is abandoned, it was once a road that can still be passed. The dangerous peak canyon near the left is You must not walk over it. The mountain people who have been collecting medicine and hunting for many years have to rely on ropes to fly and catch them to climb over the cliffs and valleys. Naturally, these thieves will not take such risks.

After fully understanding all the situation, Song Nan made a bold decision.