Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 340 0335 [The dangerous stronghold is difficult to attack]

Mantian Village is divided into Damantian and Xiaomantian.

A section of plank road to the north of Xiaomantianzhai, about several hundred meters long, was demolished by Huang Deyu, the prefect of Lizhou.

After receiving the news from the vanguard, Zhu Ming immediately ordered elite soldiers to escort two hundred servants to go ahead.Choose a slightly open place as close to Mingyue Gorge as possible, and cut down trees to make trestles and planks.

It's all temporary material, and it breaks down in a few months.

If you want to build a long-term plank road, you must use special wood to dry in the shade and carry out some anti-corrosion treatment.

After cutting down many sky trees, Deng Chun led five hundred rattan armor elite soldiers, Hua Rong led fifty pro-army musketeers, and slowly approached with craftsmen and handymen.

On the edge of the intact plank road, build a few planks to stick out.

One end is fixed with a nail, and the other end is suspended in the air.The craftsman tied a rope around his waist, climbed over the plank, and measured the size of the hole in the plank road with a ruler.

After measuring the size, they returned and used a plane to straighten the temporary trestle beams.

Then the two dragged the trestle beam out, hung it up with ropes and stuffed it into the trestle hole.One person holds it up, and the other swings the hammer—the outer end of the trestle beam has a long triangular saw cut, and the triangular wooden block is inserted into it to hammer it in. The working principle is similar to that of expansion bolts.

This job is tiring enough, and it is especially dangerous. Fortunately, the storehouse hole in the cliff is still there.

After fixing the trestle beams and nailing the planks, the carpenters (and masons as well) took turns to push forward tens of meters slowly.

When the road was slightly recessed into the cliff, a few stones suddenly flew over.But at this angle, it can be attacked by the catapult on the opposite mountain.

The two craftsmen were so frightened that they scrambled and retreated, but the temporary trestle beam that had not been fixed, just dragged the rope and fell, hit the cliff several times and fell into the rolling river.

Holding an iron mace in his hand, Deng Chun said to the craftsmen: "If a person dies, he will pay thirty guan, and his family will reward three acres of paddy fields. After repairing all the plank roads, each person will be rewarded another ten guan! Duke Yuanzhang never lies when he speaks!"

The craftsmen looked at each other, discussed internally for a while, and began to draw lots to determine the order of work.

The accuracy of the catapult is very low. In order to ensure the range, those stone bullets are not as big as the head.Dozens of shells have been thrown without a single hit, but the momentum is quite scary.

Especially after the stone bullet hit the cliff above, it fell with the flying gravel.

Soon some craftsmen were injured, their heads were smashed by flying gravel, and they were dragged back by ropes bleeding to bandage them.

From noon to evening, the worst happened.

A stone bomb flew over and directly smashed the carpenter's head!
The craftsman who worked with him was scared out of his wits, and after being dragged back, he still sat down on the plank road with a terrified face.

Not only the craftsmen in the front are in danger, but also the people pulling the rope in the back are also exposed to the attack of the catapult.Deng Chun took out the huge shields of the long players and asked them to hold up the huge shields to defend, but he didn't know if they could hold them back.

Even if the giant shield can hold it, the arm of the person holding the shield will be broken by the impact.

Purely using human life to pile up!
The construction speed was getting slower and slower, until Zhu Ming arrived with the main force, the hundreds of meters long plank road was still unfinished.

Moreover, the more dangerous it is, the more dangerous it is, and it has entered the range of bows and arrows of officers and soldiers.

The musketeers led by Huarong hid behind the huge shield and fought back.The accuracy of the bird gun is very high. Whether it is a Chinese general like Qi Jiguang or a European general at the same time, they all say that this thing is more accurate than bows and arrows.

However, the officers, soldiers and archers are condescending and are still hiding behind obstacles. Whether they can hit depends on luck.

"How's the situation?" Zhu Ming asked.

Deng Chun replied depressedly: "Thirteen carpenters and masons died, five were seriously injured, and more than a dozen were slightly injured. Afraid that they would be shot by arrows, they all wore rattan armor, which made it very inconvenient to move, and repairs were very slow. The plank roads that have been repaired have also been attacked by artillery carts. Fortunately, only a few planks were broken, and the plank beams are not easily broken."

Zhu Ming was silent, and then said: "The army brought meat, call them back to eat meat."

There is no other way but to cultivate in this way.

The Chaotian Gorge was too steep, and even the guarding officers and soldiers could not throw rocks at the top of the cliff, so they could only use catapults to attack from a condescending position on the gentle mountain opposite.

It took another three days, and the plank road was finally repaired to the dead end of the catapult's attack, and even the archery lost sight.

The officers and soldiers could only fire at the repaired plank road, smashing some planks one after another, and two plank beams were also cracked.

"Follow me down and shoot arrows!"

A commanding officer, with more than 30 archers, went down the mountain to the plank road.

"Craftsman, come back!" Hua Rong ordered quickly.

The soldiers on both sides finally faced each other head-on, separated by 50 meters, which was the destroyed plank road.

There are at most two people standing side by side, and the archers of the officers and soldiers at the back can only throw.

On the side of the rebel army, the huge shield was laid flat, and the musketeer in chain armor and chain helmet stood at the front and took aim.

The archers of the officers and soldiers were still advancing, and the musketeers of the rebel army fired first.

"Boom!"

With two crisp sounds, an officer and soldier fell down.

The musketeers in the second row stood up, fired two more shots, then squatted down immediately, and the third row stood up and fired again.

"The magic trick, the thieves know the trick!"

"Run!"

The officers, soldiers and archers were in a great chaos, fleeing before firing an arrow.

Because the plank road was too narrow, they pushed and shoved each other in panic, and several people were pushed off the cliff.

Another day later, the plank road was finally completely restored, and more than 30 craftsmen were killed or injured.

Lizhou City can be reached directly ahead, but there is Xiaomantian Village on the mountain.

If the stockade is not pulled out, the officers and soldiers on the mountain can come down at any time to cut off the rear.

Zhu Ming said to Sun Lan and Xu Ning: "You take 3000 people and continue to march towards Damantian Village. Don't rush to attack and prevent them from going down the mountain and destroying the plank road!"

"Yes!"

The two took orders to leave.

Zhu Ming turned around and looked at Xiaomantianzhai, feeling a headache.

With a cliff over [-] degrees, there is a zigzag road going up the mountain.No guns are useless, the angle is too big, and people must use their lives to stack them.

Zhu Ming couldn't bear to lose his elite soldiers, so he organized miscellaneous soldiers to feign an attack and spend some time before talking.

For several days in a row, there were more than 20 attacks every day, and only 30 to [-] people were invested each time.

More than 300 miscellaneous soldiers were killed and wounded one after another, and the defenders finally stopped throwing the logs. It is estimated that they were almost exhausted.

After a few more days, the rolling stones dropped became more and more irregular, not polished at all, and also of different sizes.Most of these stones were recently moved, and I used them when I found the right ones in the mountains and plains.

So far, more than 500 rebels have been killed or wounded before the storm began.

Zhu Ming forced himself to become cold-blooded, and human life became a number in his heart.

It will be a success!

Fortunately, Xu Fuyan stuck to Xingyuan Mansion and did not lead troops to retreat to Lizhou.Otherwise, Zhu Ming would have to sacrifice a lot of lives to garrison dangerous places along the way to fight all the way to Jianmen Pass.

"Shi Biao!" Zhu Ming shouted.

"Here!" Shi Biao stood up.

Zhu Ming ordered: "In the middle of the night tonight, take [-] elite soldiers to go up the mountain."

"Yes!" Shi Biao took the order.

Zhu Ming said again: "Deng Chun!"

"exist!"

"If Shi Biao can go up the mountain, you can lead your troops to kill him!"

"Yes!"

Before nightfall, Sun Lan and Xu Ning sent people back and brought back a few heads: "General, Damantianzhai has been captured!"

"Huh?" Ju Ming was quite surprised.

The messenger said: "There are hundreds of officers and soldiers in Damantian Village. Before our army attacked, the village became chaotic on its own. A village soldier killed the guard for righteousness. General Sun and General Xu heard the movement and were afraid that the enemy would deliberately deceive them. They only sent 200 people to try to kill them on the mountain. The officers and soldiers in the village saw our army kill them and surrendered!"

"Okay, everyone will be rewarded!" Ju Ming was overjoyed.

Huang Deyu, the prefect of Lizhou, originally gathered heavy troops to defend the big and small Mantianzhai.

But the peasants in Zhaohua County rebelled, so he had to lead his troops back to wipe them out, leaving [-] soldiers in each of the two villages to garrison them.

In his opinion, only the damaged plank road is enough for Zhu Ming to repair for a month.

The Big and Small Mantian villages are steep and strong enough to hold out until he brings his troops back.

Moreover, he concentrated the elite soldiers in Xiaomantian village, and the Damantian village further back was dominated by rural soldiers.

Unexpectedly, the villagers in Damantianzhai felt resentful, and when the rebel army approached, they actually rebelled and started internal strife.

Zhu Ming immediately changed his strategy and asked people to go up the mountain with their heads to persuade them to surrender.

A miscellaneous soldier held up a bamboo pole with several heads hanging on it, and began to climb the mountain tremblingly.

The guard in Xiaomantian village saw only one person coming, and ordered not to shoot arrows or throw stones.

The miscellaneous soldiers climbed up panting, and the guard's face suddenly changed drastically. He had already recognized whose heads those were - Damantianzhai had fallen, and his place had become a lonely village, and it was absolutely impossible to wait for reinforcements.

"My general said that if you surrender, you will not die," said the miscellaneous soldier. "If you don't surrender, the village will be slaughtered!"

The general's willingness to let this miscellaneous soldier go up the mountain already shows that his attitude is not firm.

The main reason is that the plank road has been repaired, and the unknown weapon (firearm) frightened him.Moreover, the continuous days of attacking the mountain cost a lot of rolling trees and rocks, the defenders in the village have already been shaken, and if they continue to defend, they will change sooner or later.

At this moment, he looked at the soldiers around him and saw that all of them were panic-stricken. The guard pretended to throw away his weapons: "Oh, there is no way to recover, come down the mountain with me, please surrender."

Zhu Ming waited at the foot of the mountain, and finally heaved a sigh of relief when he saw the officers and soldiers descending the mountain road.

He's not afraid of fighting tough battles, but he doesn't fight like this, it's just a waste of life.

The guard knelt on the ground with a puff: "Huang Mengqing, the commander of the Xiang army in Lizhou, doesn't know the majesty of the general, and uses his arms as a chariot. He deserves death!"

Zhu Ming listened to his words and asked, "Have you read the book?"

Huang Mengqing replied: "I have passed the Wu Jinshi examination, but the article is not well written, so I didn't pass the examination. I am just a Wujuren."

"No wonder the deployment is calm, the defense is proper, and get up." Zhu Ming decided to accept this person, maybe he is still a general.

As for the hundreds of soldiers killed and injured, the swords on the battlefield have no eyes, so Huang Mengqing cannot be blamed.

Only the kind of guy who kills the prisoners or kills the good ones, Zhu Ming will never forgive him!

Leaving hundreds of soldiers guarding the Xiaomantian village, Zhu Ming led his troops to continue southward, passed the plank road area, and soon approached Lizhou City.

(End of this chapter)