The Li Dynasty adopted strategies such as luring, dividing, and exploiting these border tribes, which made the local people very disgusted and they rose up in rebellion, which led to the rise of Nong Zhigao.
It’s just a bit embarrassing to say.
These areas have been the territory of the Central Plains dynasty since ancient times, but important passes such as Yongji Pass were guarded not by the Song army, but by ethnic minorities on the border.
They were caught between two countries and were unable to stop the attacks of the Li Dynasty, resulting in frequent losses of borders.
In history, before the Li Dynasty conquered Yongzhou, the Li Dynasty had sent troops to harass border checkpoints many times and plundered the border vassal states of the Song Dynasty, such as Menzhou, Dongzhou, Xiashi, Pingxiang, Xizhou, Shangshi, and Xipingzhou, posing a serious threat to border residents.
If not for this, Nong Zhigao would not have been able to raise his arm and receive hundreds of responses, and in a very short period of time, the army of only a few thousand people would have grown to tens of thousands of people.
They were all border ethnic minorities who rose up in resistance against the oppression of the Li Dynasty.
Nong Zhigao's prestige on the border is actually average today. In history, he had to rebel against the Li Dynasty many times, recruit soldiers many times, and become increasingly powerful before he was respected by the surrounding border tribes such as the Nong and Huang families.
At this time he had not yet reached the point he later reached.
However, his father Nong Quanfu had a high prestige and was the largest ethnic minority force in the border area. He led the tribes to resist Li Yue.
Therefore, Nong Zhigao knew many tribal leaders on the border. For the sake of his dead father, the leaders of the various cave tribes would basically give him face.
With him leading the way, the journey was very smooth.
Di Qing left Yongzhou and walked for about ten days, passing through large states such as Guwan (Fusui), Taiping (Chongzuo), Siming (Ningming), and finally arrived at Xizhou, more than ten miles away from Pingxiang Cave.
The roads along this route are actually all wide, and there are many plains. For example, Taiping Prefecture and Siming Prefecture are places with many plains and fertile soil. Many tribes live here, and there are even many Han people. They form a situation of mutual support with these border ethnic groups.
But Di Qing still walked for more than ten days, not because the road was difficult to walk on, but because there were too many forests, and every time he arrived at a place, Nong Zhigao would introduce him to the local leader, so it took some time.
It must be said that even though it was a plain, there were too many trees. In later times, Ningming's 3,705 square kilometers were mostly plains. But at this time, most of the area was forested, a boundless sea of trees that seemed to stretch as far as the eye could see.
No wonder in ancient times, all the timber presented to the imperial court had to be transported from Guangxi in the southwest. The richness of the timber resources is truly astonishing.
Di Qing was born in Fenzhou, Shanxi Province. At the age of 16, he was drafted into the Bianliang Imperial Guard for a brawl. He had never seen such a boundless forest before, and he marveled at it the entire way. He also took this unique terrain to heart, wondering how he would deploy his troops if he were to fight here.
By early July, he and Nong Zhigao arrived in Xizhou.
Just by hearing about the names of caves on the border, I thought these ethnic minority tribes all lived in caves.
But in fact, "dong" can also be said to be "dong", which is a local administrative name. It is a bit like a township in the Song Dynasty, and its scale is not much different from that of a town.
Xizhou was a town consisting of a single street, with local villagers living in the mountains and farming. Huang Yingwen, the chieftain of Xizhou's ethnic minorities, could not be described as a leader of an ethnic minority, but rather as a local landlord.
He wore the same silks and satins as the Han people, lived in a large mansion like the wealthy Han people, and his behavior and way of speaking were no different from those of the Han people.
This is also the norm for leaders of ethnic minorities in the southwestern border areas.
Except for the ethnic minorities who still live in the mountains and lead traditional lives, the ethnic minorities who came down the mountains have been largely assimilated into the Han culture. In later generations, many Han people with the surname Huang in the southwest actually have ancestors from these ethnic minorities.
Huang Yingwen warmly entertained Di Qing and Nong Zhigao, and then personally took them to Pingxiang Cave, where he met with the cave owner Qin Dafu and introduced the local situation to them.
On the morning of July 9th, at noon, on the official road north of Yongji Pass, a group of over a thousand people, riding horses, slowly advanced.
Di Qing raised his head and looked at the surrounding mountain ridges. The surrounding mountains were actually not very high, only a few dozen meters high and small hills less than a hundred meters high. However, the forests were lush like the sea, and the roadside was overgrown with weeds. Although the official road was wide, it was ups and downs, making it very difficult to walk.
Mule and horse caravans can often be seen on the Song-Vietnam border, but it is not very prosperous.
However, even when the Song Dynasty fully opened up trade and encouraged commercial development, many Guangxi merchants still went to Vietnam to purchase spices, ivory, and jewelry and brought them back to their country to sell.
The appearance of this group of Song soldiers on horseback at the border naturally attracted a lot of attention, but as a general, Di Qing naturally couldn't be so foolish as to be unprepared. The outer circle was defended by Nong Zhigao's local troops, while the inner circle was guarded by the musket team.
Once a battle breaks out, unless Nong Zhigao suddenly rebels, as long as the outside troops delay for a few seconds, the loaded musketeers will open fire immediately, which is enough to deal with any force except the main force of the Li Dynasty.
Now that Nong Zhigao had been rewarded by the court and became a local official, it was naturally impossible for him and he was unwilling to rebel - how could being a rebel be as comfortable as being an official appointed by the court?
So Di Qing was very safe.
The local natives did not attack them, but instead got along very well with them.
They inspected Yongji Pass, and Di Qing saw the dilapidated pass. Although the city walls were still there, they were mottled and cracked. Many places had simply lost their barriers and turned into ruins.
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