It’s all in the longevity!
There was complete chaos outside Zhiling Pass.
Hundreds of shells hit, and explosions and splattering of earth and rocks were everywhere.
Dust and smoke filled the air, and countless Vietnamese soldiers fled in all directions.
What a coincidence.
It happened that the musketeers on this side covered the artillery and went up the mountain, built the artillery position and fired, and the Vietnamese army on the other side immediately launched an attack.
The result was that tens of thousands of Vietnamese soldiers swarmed out of Zhileng Pass and rushed towards the battlefield outside the pass.
Then a sky full of artillery shells fell into their formation, and people and horses were immediately thrown to the ground.
The most important thing was that a shell happened to fall near the Dai Viet Emperor Ly Phoc, killing him and several ministers around him.
In an instant, the Vietnamese army's command system was paralyzed.
After losing the top-level command, the remaining middle and lower-level generals were unable to organize an effective formation, and all the soldiers fled in all directions.
Countless people were pushed down by their own people, trampled to death, and killed by artillery shells.
In the flat area of several kilometers outside Zhiling Pass, tens of thousands of Vietnamese troops were running around like headless flies, especially those heading towards the pass gate, which was so crowded that no one could get through.
Occasionally, a shell would land at the gate of the pass, killing dozens of people instantly. The entire battlefield was in collapse and chaos, and the Vietnamese army suffered heavy casualties.
Di Qing couldn't see the specific situation of the Vietnamese army from a distance, but after dozens of rounds of artillery fire, there was no need to see what was going on.
After the shelling ended, he gave the order for a general attack.
The firearms army did not move, and Nong Zhigao's ethnic minority troops rushed towards the Vietnamese army like a flood.
In this battle, the Dai Viet Emperor and several important ministers were killed in the bombing, thousands of Vietnamese soldiers were killed, and even more Vietnamese soldiers died in various accidents.
The Song army won a great victory, killing more than 20,000 enemies and capturing more than 30,000. Most of the troops of the entire Yue State were lost.
By mid-August, upon learning of the situation in Thang Long Prefecture, Ly Pho Ma's son Ly Nhat Tun hastily succeeded to the throne surrounded by the ministers who stayed behind, and called on the entire country to resist the attack of the Song army.
But how could the troops supporting the king gather so quickly?
They could only immediately withdraw all the troops from the nearby prefectures and barely gathered 30,000 people to defend Fuliang River.
In history, the Song-Yue Xining War took place here. Despite the spread of epidemics in the army, the Song army defeated the Yue army in one battle, and even the crown prince and princes of the Yue army were beheaded.
However, after this battle, the Song army found it difficult to continue besieging Thang Long Prefecture. Malaria was rampant in the Song army, more than half of the soldiers were killed or wounded, and the army rations were exhausted. As a result, although they could destroy the Yue Kingdom just across a river, they were unable to move forward and had to agree to peace talks with the Yue army.
However, the Song Dynasty did not send out many troops at that time. Although the army was indeed infected with the disease, the main targets were local troops and soldiers from ethnic minorities on the border.
The firearms troops strictly followed military orders such as boiling water and repelling mosquitoes, and the injuries were not serious.
So even though the weather was scorching hot, the roads were rough and difficult to travel on, and there were leeches and mosquitoes everywhere, they were still able to march.
In late August, the Song army arrived at the banks of the Fuliang River.
This river is the Red River in later generations.
The Vietnamese army and the Song army faced each other across the river. In addition to dozens of Vietnamese warships on the river, there were also elephant soldiers consisting of hundreds of elephants on the other side of the river.
This is Annan’s last trump card.
The reason why they were not used before was because the terrain of Liangzhou and Zhilingguan was not open, making it inconvenient to deploy elephant soldiers.
But the Song army had already entered the Red River Plain. The vast plain was fertile and peaceful, suitable for elephants to gallop.
However, in the face of the Song army's firearms, the elephant soldiers obviously became extremely ridiculous.
Cannons roared, elephants fled in all directions, and countless Vietnamese soldiers were trampled to death. Warships on the river were also destroyed, and the Vietnamese army retreated again to Thang Long City.
In early September, the Song army surrounded Thang Long, and countless dignitaries in Thang Long surrendered to the Song army.
Di Qing also took the opportunity to issue a notice stating that the Song Dynasty had no intention of annexing Annan, but the Ly Dynasty had no respect for its superiors and repeatedly invaded the Song Dynasty's borders. The power of the superior country was inviolable, so he had to punish it and overthrow the Ly Dynasty.
At the same time, he sent people to search for the descendants of the nobles of the previous dynasty and prepare to support them as the new emperor of Annan.
In fact, this was also Zhao Jun's special instruction.
Among the three dynasties currently in Vietnam, the Dinh Dynasty was the founder and enjoyed good prestige among the people.
The Ly Dynasty maintained peace in the country, which made the people of Annan at that time very supportive of the Ly Dynasty's rule and quite sympathetic to the Dinh Dynasty's plight.
Only the Le Dynasty not only usurped the throne, but the Le father and son also acted perversely and were extremely cruel. Even the Vietnamese historian Wu Shilian compared them to the ancient Chinese emperors Jie of Xia and Zhou of Shang, believing that "their demise was certainly caused by some reasons."
This shows that the Le Dynasty was not popular among the three dynasties.
The Song Dynasty used the excuse of supporting the previous dynasty to support the Le Dynasty. However, the Le Dynasty itself was unpopular and had to rely on the Song Dynasty to maintain its rule.
In this way, the Song Dynasty indirectly controlled Vietnam, providing a legal cover for their garrison in Annan and the protection of their own interests.
But the Yue people naturally don’t understand.
Many people believe that the current war was caused by the repeated attacks by the Emperor of the Ly Dynasty on Guangnan West Road of the Song Dynasty, which angered the Celestial Empire.
Therefore, although the Li Dynasty had good governance and was quite popular, it was still blamed by the princes and nobles.
Isn't it better to manage your own Yue Kingdom well? Why do you have to go to seek death?
It's okay now.
The enemy has already reached the capital, and the destruction of Dai Viet is imminent.
On September 8, although it was already late autumn, the weather in Jiaozhi was still very hot.
To be exact, it was very hot and stuffy.
The air was so humid that it seemed as if water could be wrung out of clothes.
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