Chongzhen Daming: Starting from Coal Mountain

Chapter 178 Eight Banners Han Army Trapped
The time soon came to the beginning of December.

Li Zicheng's army has stayed in Luochuan County for ten days.

Ten days later, Li Zicheng still has not made up his mind and is still hesitating between going north and going south. This is really a difficult choice.

But today, Li Zicheng finally made a decision to go south!

The reason that prompted Li Zicheng to make up his mind was very simple. The news of Xiashiguan's defeat had already reached Luochuan.

Knowing that Yuan Zongdi and Chen Yongfu's army were defeated at Xiashiguan, and Yuan Zongdi died in a fierce battle, Li Zicheng no longer dared to take chances. If he insisted on going north at this time, the Dashun Dynasty might perish.

So Li set up an army of more than [-] troops from the breaking point of his achievements, and returned south in a mighty way.

In addition, Li Zicheng also ordered Liu Fangliang to take [-] elite soldiers to defend Tongguan first.

Li Zicheng is not the grassroots bandit before, and he knows that Tongguan is very important to Dashun.

After receiving the order, General Liu Fangliang of the Zuoying System immediately led 2 elite soldiers from his headquarters to rescue Tongguan day and night.

The straight-line distance from Luochuan to Tongguan was only [-] miles, but the actual mileage was nearly [-] miles. Liu Fangliang's troops marched for four days and nights, sleeping less than three hours a day, and finally arrived at Tongguan on the fifth day.

Almost as soon as Liu Fangliang's army arrived at Tongguan, Jiannu also arrived behind.

……

Looking at the densely packed Dashun army at the head of Tongguan city, Duoduo knew that he had no chance.

It seems that the Dashun Army has received the report of defeat, and has dispatched reinforcements from Xi'an.

In this case, it is no longer possible to sneak attack, so we can only attack from the front, but if we want to attack by force, we must rely on the power of the red cannon.

Times have changed.

So the siege tactics are quite different.

In ancient siege, all kinds of siege equipment were built, and ants attached to siege.

But now, this kind of tactic is outdated. The current siege tactic is to use red cannons to bombard the city wall.

Compared with the ants attached to the siege, the red cannon siege not only has less losses, but also seriously weakens the morale and fighting will of the enemy, and the subsequent battles will become easier.

Duoduo immediately ordered: "Send the order, the army will retreat ten miles and set up camp!"

"Hey!" A team of cavalry scattered and left, and soon, the slave-building army lined up in front of Tongguan slowly retreated.

……

At this time, in a canyon in Hongnong County.

Yi Ding is hunting for two messengers riding Jian slaves.

Yi Ding who participated in the hunt had seven or eight riders, and his riding skills were obviously better than those of the Jiannu Messenger. More importantly, Yi Ding's horses were also more handsome and faster than those of the Jiannu Messenger.

Soon, Yi Ding approached within thirty steps.

Immediately, the two Yi Ding fired three-eyed guns while galloping.

"Boom!" There was a loud noise, and the gunpowder smoke filled the air instantly.

Thirty steps ahead, the horse of one of the slave messengers fell down.

The Jiannu courier on horseback also fell down, but this Jiannu was also very skilled. After landing, he rolled all over, and then let go of the huge inertia, jumped up and galloped forward.

However, after running not far, Yi Ding caught up with him from behind. One of them, Yi Ding, turned his three-eyed blunderbuss upside down and hit Jian Nu's vest.

Another few riders stepped on Jiannu's body with their horses, and one of the iron hooves stepped on Jiannu's head. With a puff, Jiannu's head shattered like a watermelon.

"Chasing, don't let the remaining one get away!" Yi Ding chased after him.

He continued to chase and intercept the remaining Jiannu messenger.

The rest of the cavalry Jiannu panicked and beat the horse under his crotch with a whip.

Jiannu's horse hissed sadly, and started the final sprint with all its strength.

But unfortunately, Yi Ding, who was chasing after him, also began to sprint decisively, so instead of widening the distance between the two sides, they were still slowly approaching.

……

Geng Jimao was completely impatient.

Yes, the rest of the Jiannu messengers are Geng Jimao.

Ten days ago, Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming sent messengers for the first time. Together with Geng Jimao, they sent a total of more than [-] masters, but they were hunted by the Ming army as soon as they left the camp.

In the end, less than half of the messengers were left to break through the interception of the Ming army.

However, the cavalry of the Ming army did not give up and continued to pursue endlessly.

In order to avoid being chased and killed, Geng Jimao and the remaining Jiannu messengers tried all kinds of means, including detours, hiding, night travel and even pretending to be refugees, but they were still hunted down one by one by the Ming army.

Geng Jimao, the grandson of the turtle, is still a little clever. He took another Jiannu messenger with him. After breaking out of the siege, he didn't go directly towards Tongguan. Instead, he walked back for hundreds of miles, and then turned south and walked more than a hundred miles , After making sure he got rid of the pursuit of the Ming cavalry, Geng Jimao still kept an eye on it.

Geng Jimao did not choose the official path, but a small path.

After ten days of walking in the deep mountains, nearly hundreds of miles, it was estimated that he had already reached the border of Hongnong County. Geng Jimao finally brought another Jiannu back to the official road, thinking that the journey from Hongnong to Tongguan would only take more than a hundred years. No matter how crazy the cavalrymen of the Ming army were, they would definitely not be able to catch up here, so Hongnong should be safe.

Then, the two were hunted down by Yi Ding.

At this moment, Geng Jimao really wanted to cry, he was so bullying.

Chongzhen, you dog emperor, you really don't give people a way to survive.

This has already reached the boundary of Hongnong, and there are still Yi Ding haunting?
However, whether crying or cursing, it was useless, Yi Ding was right behind him.

"Boom!" Suddenly there was a loud noise, and then Geng Jimao heard the wailing of the horse under his crotch, and then the whole person flew out, and the horse was shot to death!
Fortunately, Geng Jimao is also skilled in arching horses.

As soon as the person reaches the air, he curls up into a ball.

So after landing, it rolls forward like a ball.

It takes more than a foot to get rid of the huge inertia.

Then he got up and ran forward in a daze.

But after running a few steps, Geng Jimao stopped abruptly.

Because there is a cliff ahead, I almost fell down just now.

Shuqi Yiding, who was chasing after him, also realized that there was a cliff ahead, so they slowed down one after another, stopped ten steps away, and then raised the three-eyed blunderbuss in their hands to point directly at Geng Jimao.

Gritting his teeth, Geng Jimao jumped off the cliff.

Anyway, staying on the cliff is certain death.

If you jump off the cliff, there may be a chance of survival.

Only then did Yi Ding, who rode several horses, urge his horses to come to the cliff.

One of them, Yi Ding, said, "Do you want to find the way down and have a look?"

Another Yi Ding said, "Forget it, if you fall off such a high cliff, you will die."

Immediately, the barbarians didn't stay any longer, and Gu Zi rode away, and the whole cliff quickly returned to its original silence.

After a long time, a cluster of bushes about ten meters away from the top of the cliff began to shake, and then a disgraced Geng Jimao crawled out from under the bushes.

Although he didn't die, Geng Jimao had fallen into a desperate situation.

Because one arm and one leg of Geng Jimao had been broken, the cliff more than ten meters high became an insurmountable natural danger. How to climb it?
……

Geng Jimao fell into a desperate situation, and Geng Zhongming, Kong Youde, and more than [-] Eight Banners Han troops also encountered big trouble.

At this time, the Eight Banners Han army had been trapped by the Ming army in a canyon in Xin'an County. Xin'an County was only more than a hundred miles away from Luoyang. That is to say, the Eight Banners Han army had only traveled more than a hundred miles these days.

Well, it is not really appropriate to say that the Eight Banners Han army was trapped.

Because Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming decided to stay in this canyon on their own initiative.

The reason for staying in this canyon is because the terrain here is good.

The canyon here is like a small city, the hillsides on both sides are the city walls, and the entrances and exits at both ends are like two city gates, which can be used by the Eight Banners Han troops at any time.

Staying in this canyon can avoid being harassed by the Xiangyang artillery of the Ming army.

In the previous ten days, the Han army of the Eight Banners really suffered from the Xiangyang artillery of the Ming army.

Because the Ming army would use the Xiangyang artillery to launch attacks almost every night, and the Ming army could always find suitable terrain, so that the Xiangyang artillery could hit the Eight Banners Han army camp, but it could avoid the red cannon.

The ten consecutive days of harassment caused the Eight Banners Han army to lose a lot of supplies.

The loss of grain and grass is actually still there, and the loss of gunpowder is the most troublesome.

Although the Eight Banners Han army has taken a lot of protective measures, such as scattering gunpowder, and even hiding gunpowder under grain, armor, arrows and other baggage, the effect is not good.

Ten consecutive days of harassment still caused the Eight Banners Han army to lose less than half of their gunpowder.

If this continues, by the time they get to Tongguan, there will be very little gunpowder left, so why not shoot a bird?

So Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming stopped decisively and waited quietly for Duoduo to send cavalry to help.

……

"This terrain is really troublesome."

On the high mountain in the distance, Chongzhen was using a telescope to observe the canyon guarded by the Eight Banners Han army.

This canyon is not really steep, nor is it very high, but it is more troublesome because of this, because the Han army of the Eight Banners can easily seize the high ground on both sides by virtue of its superiority in strength, and then suppress the Ming army with the firepower of the bird guns. The catapults of the Ming army became decorations because they could not go up to the commanding heights on both sides of the canyon.

Zhu Cijiong scolded: "The two old dogs, Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming, are really difficult to deal with."

Hu Guozhu took the initiative to invite Ying again and said: "My lord, why don't I let the minister lead the troops to charge once? I just want to take this life, and I want to take the high ground in the south of the canyon, and then Lord Jin can set up the catapult on the top of the hillside." , to bombard the Jiannu hiding in the canyon below, in this case, the canyon will become the burial place of Jiannu instead!"

"No." Chongzhen flatly refused. Forced attack cannot be forced, absolutely not.

Jin Xuan's [-] cavalry are precious, and they must not be used to fight for their lives until the most critical moment.

And right now is obviously not a critical moment, because this place already belongs to the west of Henan, not far from Xi'an.

If his memory is correct, it is only [-] miles from Luoyang to Xi'an, and it is estimated that it is more than [-] miles from this unnamed canyon to Tongguan, and the rapid march will only take three days.

(End of this chapter)