Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 290: Pontoon Bridge
Yuan Zongdi and Wang Shixiu led [-] supervisors to the Jinshui River first, and the troops temporarily stopped at a small town called Hekou. The so-called Hekou is the junction where the Jinshui River flows into the Yangtze River from the south.

Hekou Town faces the Yangtze River in the north and the Jinshui River in the east. The water network is well developed and the farmland is easy to irrigate. The villagers can not only get delicious fish from the river, but also use the water from the river to irrigate the farmland. It should have been a peaceful and prosperous place. But the war made the town dilapidated.

After Chen Zilong raided Suzhou and robbed the grain transported by the Qing army to Huguang, Luck Dehun and Tong Yanghe sent a large number of Qing soldiers to rob grain in order to defend Wuchang. Hekou Town also suffered a serious crime, not only the whole town was looted At that time, the middle-aged laborers in the town were also arrested and sent to Wuchang to help the Qing soldiers build the city.

At this time, only a few old and weak women and children were left in the originally lively town. When they saw a large group of officers and soldiers pouring into the town, they immediately trembled with fright.

Yuan Zongdi approached the elders of the family and asked: "Old man, I am a vanguard officer under the account of the Duke of Chu. I want to cross the river to attack the Qing soldiers. Your town is close to the Yangtze River. There must be some boats. Can you let me know for you?" The army crosses the river?"

The old man heard the words and knew that the person in front of him was the Marquis of the imperial court, so he quickly knelt down and said, "My lord, there are no boats in the town."

Wang Shixiu on the side frowned slightly when he heard the words. Wuchang was originally guarded by Zuo Liangyu. He claimed to have 80 soldiers, and how much it would cost to raise 80 soldiers. Wang Shixiu could not estimate, but one thing is certain , the land of Huguang must not be able to support it, and the people must be very poor under his rule, and they do not have a good impression of the officers and soldiers.

At this time, Wang Shixiu saw that the old man said that there were no boats in the town, so he thought it was because the people were worried that the officers and soldiers would requisition their ships for nothing, and they were unwilling to hand them over. Army, you are going to fight the Tartars, you find the boat, we will exchange it for food, and after the army crosses the river, the boat will still be returned to you, how about it?"

The clan elder was lifted up by Wang Shixiu, feeling panic in his heart, he had never seen such a kind general, but the more kind Wang Shixiu was, the more frightened he felt, so he wanted to kneel down again, but was held back by Wang Shixiu, so he had to say quickly : "The grassroots dare not lie to the general. The Qing soldiers rushed into the town a few days ago, and all the fishing boats were snatched away by the Qing soldiers."

After the clan elder finished speaking, Yuan Zongdi and Wang Shixiu couldn't help but glanced at each other, "It seems that the Qing soldiers were already prepared, we can only cut wood and build bridges."

Jiangxia County is located in the east of the Jinshui River. As a forward, Yuan Zongdi first needs to build a pontoon bridge for the army to quickly cross the river.

Originally, he wanted to use fishing boats to connect them, and then pave them with planks, so that the amount of work would be reduced a lot, and multiple pontoon bridges could be built in a short period of time, but now he had to cut wood to build them, which made the time immediately urgent.

The Ming army had an army of [-]. Yuan Zongdi originally planned to build at least five pontoon bridges, but now he had to give up his previous idea and decided to build a pontoon bridge across the river at the exit of Hekou Town.

Yuan Zongdi was an experienced general. Although there were no boats in Hekou Town, he sent soldiers to search for boats in the Jinshui River, and sent scouts to swim across the Jinshui River and scout around the river bank to prevent the Qing army from crossing the river. The attack was launched from time to time, and soon the scouts came to report, and there was no abnormality around.

At this time, the soldiers who were in charge of collecting the boats also returned to Hekou Town. They ran southward for thirty miles without finding a single boat. Sure enough, as the old man said, the Qing soldiers had captured the Jinshui River along the Jinshui River a few days ago. All the ships were collected and left.

This news made Yuan Zongdi a little vigilant, but the most important thing right now is to build a pontoon bridge. Since there are no boats, there is only honest logging.

Yuan Zongdi discussed with Wang Shixiu, and each of them led 5000 troops to build a pontoon bridge on the Jinshui River before Wang Yan's army arrived.

After some arrangements, night fell quietly. Yuan Zongdi led [-] soldiers into the woods along the river bank, and took advantage of the bright moon in the sky to cut down trees with the soldiers, and then carried the trees back to the river.

On the other side of the river, a few black figures were lying in the woods, carefully looking at the Ming army, and saw thousands of soldiers on the west bank busy in full swing, and the blazing torches on both sides illuminated the tens of acres of ground like During the daytime, there were soldiers dragging back big trees one by one, and soldiers carrying the tied rafts and walking along the floating bridge to the river. Some people jumped into the water and drove wooden stakes into the water on both sides to connect them together. The rafts are fastened to form a very strong pontoon bridge.

"It seems that Wang Yan will arrive at Jinshui River tomorrow, otherwise Yuan Zongdi wouldn't be in such a hurry to build a floating bridge."

"During the day, the Ming army scouted along the river to investigate, and it really didn't get close to the back of Yangmao Lake. After Wang Yan crossed the river tomorrow, he will definitely not be on guard. This time, my Qing Dynasty will defeat the Ming army."

"You continue to observe here, I will go back and tell Lord Belle to find someone to replace you in the middle of the night."

In the woods, several black shadows whispered for a while, and then left a few people behind, and the rest left quietly.

The river in the south is wide, and the construction of the pontoon bridge is a huge project, but Yuan Zongdi is quite satisfied with the current progress. According to the speed of construction, the pontoon bridge will definitely be completed before dawn, and according to the marching speed, Wang Yan's army will be in Arriving at Estuary tomorrow morning, he would see a fully solid pontoon.

Yuan Zongdi cared very much about Wang Yan's opinion of him. If Wang Yan asked him to lead the pro-supervisor army, the trust was self-evident, but it was Wang Yan's trust that made him want to express himself more and prove that Wang Yan Not mistaken.

Where there are people, there are rivers and lakes, and there are struggles. Within the Ming Dynasty, there is the dispute between Tang and Lu; The battle between the Heshun army.

The Yangzhou Department is Wang Yan's most important support. Although he treats all troops equally in the army, Wang Yan is not a saint after all. As long as he is careful, the generals can still appreciate the subtle differences between Wang Yan and the two.

Nowadays, although many generals are in high positions, they are not at ease in their hearts, because they don't have any achievements worth boasting about to match their Marquis, so they are eager to prove themselves.

Liu Fangliang won Wang Yan's approval by fighting Huarong in naked clothes. Gao Yigong and Liu Tichun guarded Xiangyang.

He suggested that Dai Zhifan stay behind in the army this time because he was worried that Dai Zhifan would take away his chance to make meritorious service.

At this time, it was already the third watch, and Wang Shixiu led 5000 troops out of the temporary camp near the town. Seeing that more than half of the pontoon bridge had been built, Yuan Zongdi immediately took the soldiers back to the camp with satisfaction. ?
　Thank you for the rewards of Juzhanzhishang and Yuedongwoxin,

　　
　
(End of this chapter)