It’s all in the longevity!

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Take the main road directly to Liangzhou, then force your way through the heavily guarded Yongji Pass ancient road, and finally force an attack on Thang Long, the capital of the Li Dynasty?

After hearing Di Qing's words, Nong Zhigao felt his head buzzing, his eyes were blurry and he felt a little dazed.

I've seen arrogant people, but I've never seen anyone as arrogant as this.

You have to know that the Li Dynasty was not as powerful as the Western Xia and the Liao Dynasty. Perhaps there was some gap between the Li Dynasty and them in terms of combat power, but in terms of terrain, the Li Dynasty had an absolute advantage.

He couldn't help but say to Di Qing, "General, isn't this a bit too rash?"

Nong Zhigao pointed to the map and drew a line around the Yongji Pass. He said, "After leaving Yongji Pass, we reach Menzhou, a border town of the Song Dynasty. Behind it is Menzhou Pass, controlled by Jiaozhi. A road leads directly to Liangzhou. Although this road is relatively smooth, it is surrounded by high mountains on both sides, with a straight road in the middle."

"We have spies in the area. According to their reports, General Guo Shengyi of the Li Dynasty has already stationed a heavy force here. If they were to force their way through the pass, they could simply set up ambushes on the mountains on either side. Wouldn't that be tantamount to committing suicide?"

The terrain was flat against the Western Xia and Liao, so neither side had much of a geographical advantage. Even the Song, with its cities, might have had an advantage in a non-field war.

The Li Dynasty side is full of mountains. Although after passing the mountains in the northern part of the Red River Delta, there is the endless Red River Plain.

However, it is these mountains that are sad.

After all, since ancient times, roads with only one path have always been extremely dangerous.

This kind of road is so powerful that a single man can block ten thousand. By simply occupying the key throat, a small number of soldiers can block a huge army from entering.

The most typical example is Jiang Wei's occupation of Jianmen Pass, which prevented Zhong Hui's army of over 100,000 from advancing. If Deng Ai had not led 5,000 troops across the Yinping Pass and directly captured Chengdu, even another 100,000 troops would have been difficult to destroy.

The same is true for the Yongji Pass Ancient Road.

Although the combat effectiveness of the Li Dynasty's troops may not be high, with such a dangerous terrain, unless the army marches south, how can they forcibly break through such a difficult road without much advantage in terms of military strength?

But Di Qing also had his reasons. Wars nowadays are not fought with cold weapons like in the past. If the enemy occupies the mountains, then they can occupy the mountains. With so many mountains along the way, can they all be occupied?

As long as we set up cannons on the opposite mountain, no matter how many fortifications the enemy has built, how steep the pass is, or how many troops they have, they can all be flattened with one shot.

So Di Qing just smiled and said, "You may not know this, my friend. Although we only have 10,000 men, our fighting power is extraordinary. We are also good at fighting in the mountains. They like to stay in the mountains, and we can defeat them without hiding."

"Forehead"

Nong Zhigao was even more puzzled, but seeing Di Qing's confidence, he did not dare to argue with him and could only say, "General, please don't be careless."

"Don't worry, I have my own strategy."

Di Qing responded and then said, "Although we have a plan to attack the enemy, we still need to observe the terrain. The Tongzhi is familiar with the enemy's situation. I hope he can take me to see it tomorrow."

"Are you going tomorrow?"

Yang Cha couldn't help but ask, "Yongzhou is still 400 miles away from Yongji Pass. General, you've been traveling all the way here. Don't you want to rest for a while?"

"That's fine. We can advance ahead and station in Guanzhong. Once I've surveyed the terrain, we can officially launch our troops. Your Majesty and the Prefect both want a quick victory, and I don't want to drag it out too long."

Di Qing waved his hand.

It is June now, and it is a very hot time in Guangxi. There are also a lot of mosquitoes. He is worried that an epidemic will break out in the army, so it would be best to resolve it quickly. He does not want to drag it on.

Seeing Di Qing's insistence, Yang Cha had no choice but to respond, "I hope the general will prioritize the overall situation and not take risks lightly."

"That's natural."

Di Qing responded, and then everyone chatted about some other things before adjourning the meeting.

After the meeting, everyone had different moods.

Yang Cha knew that firearms were powerful, but he had never seen them on the battlefield with his own eyes, so he didn't know whether these 10,000 firearms troops could really play a role.

As for Nong Zhigao, he had never seen or even heard of firearms. Transportation in the southwest was inconvenient and information was blocked. Especially since he was not a court official before, but just a leader of a minority ethnic group on the border, it was even more impossible for him to know the existence of firearms.

Therefore, seeing that only 10,000 people came from the court, they could not help but feel a little pessimistic about this expedition.

However, Di Qing seemed full of confidence, as if he felt that with just the tens of thousands of people in Guangxi and the few people in Dali, they would be able to defeat the important pass of Jiaozhi, which was guarded by tens of thousands of troops.

This made Nong Zhigao inevitably think of him as arrogant.

"Okay."

"This Di Qing thinks the Song Dynasty has defeated the Liao and Western Xia, so he's so arrogant. Let him get hurt and he'll know how powerful he is."

"When the time comes, the case will be reported to the court. Since I have already dissuaded them, it will have nothing to do with me."

"Then, when the imperial court sees that they can't defeat Jiaozhi with just 10,000 men, they might become even more furious and send an army of 200,000. Only then can Jiaozhi be completely destroyed."

After leaving the provincial government office and returning to his own office, Nong Zhigao was thinking to himself.

So, the night passed with everyone having their own thoughts.

The next morning, Di Qing set out lightly with 300 men, and under the leadership of Nong Zhigao, headed towards Pingxiang Cave.

Pingxiang Cave is the Pingxiang City in later generations.

On the border between Song and Yue, there were quite a lot of vassal states, more than ten in total, among which Menzhou was the later Dongdeng Town in Vietnam.

Like Dali, Song Dynasty and Vietnam were not directly connected, but there were a large number of ethnic minority tribes in between. The towns formed by these tribes nominally belonged to Song Dynasty, but were actually autonomous.

My dear, there is more to this chapter. Please click on the next page to continue reading. It will be even more exciting later!