Prince of Song Dynasty

Chapter 959 Sun Moon Mountain

However, when the residents of this small town on the northwest edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau looked up, all this became reality, because the city was already covered with the banner of the Xiangfu Army.

The three or four thousand adult Tubo men in the city, no matter whether they surrendered or resisted, were all killed by Han Tao's order. Now that the city gates are closed, it is difficult for Tibetan women and children in the city to leave, and they dare not go to the streets, so they shut their doors one by one.

The lord of Huangyuan City, Shangbo Mabi, was caught up by the cavalry sent by Han Tao on the way to Huangtangguan, and was captured after a bitter battle.There are only more than a hundred people guarding it, and the main purpose has long been to collect customs duties on business travelers. The Huangtangguan natural barrier also infiltrated the special warfare camp over the mountain. .

And when the Tubo tribes of the seven tribes around Huangyuan City gathered nearly [-] troops left behind to take back Huangyuan, what surprised the Tubo people inside and outside the city was that the army of Xiangfu Kingdom that captured Huangyuan City last night had already gone crazy. Unknowingly left Huangyuan City!In addition, they searched and took away the food and grass in Huangyuan City, and then left no one behind.

Some Tibetans swore that they were going to Huangtangguan in the southwest, and he saw a large number of flags on that road.Only then did the seven Tubo tribes in Huangyuan City realize that the Xiangfu army was going to Qingtang City, the royal city of the Tubo Kingdom.Each of their tribes wanted to work hard for the king, but they didn't have many troops left behind, barely enough to guard their own tribe.

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Huangyuan City Ancient Road, in front of Huangtang Pass.

Han Tao Zhuma looked up at the dangerous pass leading from the Qilian Mountains to the depths of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in front of him, sighed slightly in his heart, and drove his horse out of the pass without stopping.After Han Tao walked away, a military officer also stopped in front of the pass, smacked his tongue, and sighed: "It's a fluke! If I can't catch up with that Shangbo Mabi..."

But before he finished speaking, he was interrupted by another military officer beside him disapprovingly, "Commander Su, do you think our brigade commander has no way to defeat the enemy? It's just Huangtang Mountain!"

The military officer who spoke first was the company commander Su of the catapult company assigned to Han Tao. They captured Huangyuan City just by launching gunpowder packets from the catapult before, and made the first contribution. when.The person talking to him next to him was one of Han Tao's marching staff officers, called Wu Jinxiu.The two have known each other for a long time, so they speak very casually.

Although he admired Han Tao very much, he looked at Huangtang Pass in front of him again. Company Commander Su was still skeptical about Wu Jinxiu's confidence.This Huangtang Pass is actually a canyon between two mountains. A small river passes through this valley, flows southeast and converges at the source of the Yellow River.This canyon is about thirteen or four paces long and no more than six or seven feet wide. It's really too crowded if two horses walk side by side.Huangtang Pass is holding this natural danger, although the structure is simple and it is not convenient to station troops and food for a long time, but it is very difficult to escape into this pass with hundreds of string control men led by Shangbo Mabi before and defend it here.

"According to what our brigade commander said, as long as you pass Riyue Mountain, Qingtang City will be within your reach." Wu Jinxiu said while riding his horse forward.

Company Commander Su looked curious, and said, "Riyue Mountain...is the Riyue Mountain in the story of Princess Wencheng in the Tang Dynasty."

Wu Jinxiu knew that although Company Commander Su had also read books, the books he had read were probably limited. He smiled and said, "300 years ago, Princess Wencheng of the Tang Dynasty married far away to Tibet. Tang Taizong sent Jiangxia King Li Daozong from Chang'an Going west, passing Qinzhou, Lanzhou, entering Qingtang Ledu, passing Huangzhong Town Haibao, Huangyuan Riyue Mountain, Qingtang City, passing Daotang River, and finally sending Princess Wencheng to Tubo. There are many people on this road. Most of the dangerous passes are forts that are difficult for flying birds. Compared with these places, Gaizhu City in our Xiangfu Kingdom, including Daxia Pass in Yinzhou, is really nothing. The Tang Emperor Li Shimin was such a hero. The biggest reason for the thorn in the flesh of Tubo is that the terrain of Tubo's border is too dangerous."

Company Commander Su was stunned for a moment, and said, "Then why did we come here so easily?"

Wu Jinxiu said: "The reason why we were able to easily come to the hinterland of the Tubo Hehuang area is mainly because we came from Liangzhou through the secret road in the mountains. However, even if we came to Huangyuan, going to Qingtang City is still dangerous. First of all, from All the way from Huangyuan City to Qingtang City is going up. Since ancient times, attacking from a low place to a high place is called an upward attack. One or two natural moats may be calmed down. Eight, ten, dozens of natural moat passes, just It's not manpower capable. It's just that now Yingcheng Linbuchi has taken away 1% of the troops in Jiaosiluo Tubo Kingdom. A few days ago, the Ministry of Security reported that there are ten or nine of these natural moat passes, even if there are soldiers stationed there One is also because it has been peaceful for hundreds of years, and no foreign enemy has ever hit here, so we have no vigilance. And our brigade commander ordered to speed up the marching speed to the greatest extent, regardless of day and night, to rush the time, and even shot in Huang Before the messengers of the seven tribes in Yuancheng. In short, without the above factors, even with the bravery of our brigade commander, how dare we lead a mere [-] people to Qingtang."

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Han Tao finally arrived at Riyue Mountain, which has been famous in the northwest since ancient times.

Riyue Mountain is a very beautiful place and a place with many stories, most of which are about Princess Wencheng of the Tang Dynasty.

According to legend, Princess Wencheng once passed through this mountain when she married Songtsen Gampo.Looking westward from the top of the peak, she felt the melancholy of being far away from home, and she couldn't help taking out the "Sun and Moon Mirror" given by the queen when she was leaving to look at it, and the charming scenery of Chang'an suddenly appeared in the mirror.

Princess Wencheng was full of sorrows and joys, accidentally missed, and broke the "Sun and Moon Mirror" in half, which happened to fall on two small hills. The east half faced west, reflecting the afterglow of the setting sun, and the west half faced east. According to the rising moonlight, Riyue Mountain got its name from this.

There is also a piece of red sandstone, which is obviously the red soil after years of precipitation and was finally lifted up by orogeny, but it is said that this red mountain with a radius of about ten miles is melted by the blood and tears left by Princess Wencheng.And that pool of water is obviously formed by the collection of snow-capped mountains and rivers, but it is said that it is a piece of lens on Princess Wencheng's "Sun and Moon Mirror".

In short, the rubbish thrown away by Princess Wencheng, such as the comb, was endowed with a more magical and magnificent fate in Riyue Mountain.

This is caused unintentionally by the lonely and romantic Tibetans. They like those magical stories, and they will automatically use their imagination to perfect these stories. After the stories have been circulated among the people for a long time, they seem to become Things that actually happened.

Han Tao wasn't interested in these stories at all. What he cared about was whether there were Tibetan troops stationed in Riyue Mountain.

Riyue Mountain is located more than 80 miles southwest of Huangyuan County, on the east side of Qinghai Lake. It is a branch of Qilian Mountains (a branch of Qilian Mountains), running from northwest to southeast, with a length of 500 miles and a width of 5000 miles. meters, and the highest peak, Al Dawan Mountain, is nearly [-] meters above sea level.

In addition, Riyue Mountain is also a very important dividing line in natural geography. It is the dividing line between the outflow area and the inflow area, the monsoon area and the non-monsoon area, the Loess Plateau and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau since ancient times. Regardless of ancient times, Or later generations, it is the dividing line between the agricultural area and the pastoral area, and of course it is also the place that must be passed to enter the real Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

On the east side of Riyue Mountain is the agricultural area of ​​the Tubo people, who grow highland barley and other grains. Although it does not have the scenery of the south of the Yangtze River, the amount of rice fields is good.On the west side, there are endless pastures and grasslands. The grasslands are vast, with flocks of cattle and sheep. It is a scene outside the Great Wall.There is such a big contrast on both sides of the mountain, which is really rare in the world.The top of Riyue Mountain is composed of Tertiary purple sandstone, and the mountain is red. It has been called "Chiling" since ancient times.
The most important thing is that Riyue Mountain has always been the throat from the mainland to the hinterland of Tubo.As early as the Han, Wei, Jin, Sui, and Tang dynasties, they were the outposts and barriers of the Central Plains dynasty.It has always been known as "Xihai Screen" and "Gateway of Grassland".In the first year of Shengui, Emperor Ming of the Northern Wei Dynasty, monk Song Yun traveled westward from Luoyang to seek scriptures, and he went to Tianzhu via Riyue Mountain.

Historically, Riyue Mountain was also the boundary between the Tang Dynasty and Tubo. More than 200 years ago, the Tubo Yalong tribe headed by Songtsan Gampo merged other tribes and established the Tubo Dynasty in a place called Luoxie (Lhasa). Chiling was the boundary with the Tang Dynasty at that time.Today, the Tubo Dynasty has been disintegrated and divided into more than a dozen large and small forces, and there are even four Tubo kingdoms, and the Jiaosiluo Tubo Kingdom, which occupies Hehuang, Hezhou, Wushengjun (later Lintao) and other places, is the most powerful among them. One.

Since ancient times, the Han Dynasty and a small number of nomadic peoples have conducted mutual markets in the transition zone of agricultural and pastoral areas. The Chiling trade between the Tang Dynasty and the Tubo Dynasty was a more famous one.Even at that time, Tang and Tubo set up a mutual market in Chiling, and exchanged one horse for one horse.In the "tea-horse trade" carried out by Tang Suzong, a large number of horses and cattle on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau were exchanged to the inland; tea, silk, etc. in the inland were also exchanged to the pastoral areas.

It's just that now, taking advantage of the troubled times in the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, the Tubo people have already left the Sun and Moon Pass, occupying Hezhou, Wu Shengjun, and the previous Liangzhou, and even the entire Hexi Corridor including Lanzhou was once occupied by the Tubo people. occupy.Therefore, Riyue Mountain is no longer the junction of the Chinese Han Dynasty and Tubo, but has become the hinterland of Tubo forces.Because of this, there is no market here, and there is no garrison here.

If it weren't for the fact that the Ministry of Security had inquired about the information a long time ago, and now he saw it with his own eyes, Han Tao would have found it hard to believe that the Tubo people had no garrisons and no military camps in such an important military location.

After thinking about it for a while, Han Tao figured out some of the reasons. For example, he thought that the reason why the Tubo people were so slack was because this was the hinterland of Tubo, and since the end of Tang Dynasty, Tubo has been powerful in the northwest for nearly a hundred years and has never had any enemies. The reason for calling here.This principle has an extremely important connection with Baiyun Mountain in Luoyang, but the Song Dynasty will never establish a military camp and garrison in Baiyun Mountain.

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(End of this chapter)