There is a dim crescent moon in the night sky, and the stars in the sky are twinkling.
On the dark plank road, a soldier was crawling on the plank road.
This plank road is very narrow and can only accommodate one person.
They had ropes tied around their waists and were held tightly by their companions behind them.
He suddenly fell off the plank road without even shouting.
His body hit the mountain without making a sound.
He was just dragged up by his companions behind him.
The companion tied the rope to his body, bent down and crawled, groping for the direction of the plank road.
The wounded soldier turned sideways so that the two healthy soldiers could pass sideways.
The two men picked up the rope on the ground and turned it slightly. The soldier in front started to crawl.
These are the most elite soldiers of a brigade and regiment, who determine the direction of the plank road for the army.
Behind them, there was an army as far as the eye could see, walking cautiously on the plank road.
Most soldiers suffer from night blindness and cannot see at night, so they can only follow their comrades in front.
Everyone also carries a lot of supplies on their backs, and large items can only be taken apart.
Su Xiong and Su Zhuang were at the front, and they could communicate with each other through notes.
Su Zhuang wrote: "This plank road is too difficult to walk. We will be discovered by the Ming army and there will be no place to run."
He could see clearly ahead, stopped to write two words with a pencil, and then walked carefully on the plank road.
Next to it is a valley with no bottom as far as the eye can see. If you fall, you will definitely die.
"Don't be distracted, concentrate, and don't fall." Su Xiong wrote back.
The army lined up in a line, without any fire at all, and walked cautiously on the plank road.
They tried not to make any noise to avoid alerting the Ming Dynasty defenders 500 meters away.
The plank road ahead is wider, fully two meters wide.
They saw an official military post built on the plank road 300 meters ahead.
There are more than 200 officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty guarding here. They are the confidants of the prefect of Hanzhong in Taiwan.
Su Zhuang wrote on the paper: "Brigadier Su Xiong, what should we do?
We are fighting on this plank road, and we cannot alert the defenders.
According to the intelligence sent by Su Changsheng, this is the most difficult line of defense to conquer.
The top of the mountain is too high to climb, and the valley is deeper.
We can only attack this outpost by force, but we cannot attack it by force.
The officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty received orders not to resist when encountering enemy troops, but to directly burn the plank road with kerosene.
How can we occupy this post without alerting them? This is completely impossible."
Su Xiong stared at the plank road and thought about the battle plan.
He quickly wrote a reply.
Su Zhuang read the contents of the letter by moonlight.
"I'm going to use the Crouching Tiger Cannon to fire blazing shells and burn this post down.
It will destroy part of the plank road. Do your engineering battalions have the confidence to repair it?"
Su Zhuang wrote a reply immediately.
"If we burn the outpost, the gunpowder will also ignite the kerosene inside the outpost, and the plank road will still be burned.
I estimate that one to two hundred meters will be burned.
We have the tools in our hands, and my soldiers can repair the plank road.
But how can we build a plank road without wooden planks?
It will take a long time to wait for the wooden planks to be transported from the rear and the time to build the plank road."
Su Xiong sighed and wrote his own opinions on the paper.
"This is the only way. If we burn down the outpost and the plank road near it, we can still find a way to repair it.
When the Ming army discovers us and burns down the plank road as they retreat, there will be nothing we can do."
After Su Zhuang read the content, he felt that this was the only way.
This geographical location is too dangerous. Apart from artillery, there is no other way to destroy the outpost in a short time.
Su Xiong found the soldier who was the best at the Crouching Tiger Cannon in the army.
The cannonballs he fired seemed to have eyes, pointing where to hit.
Light the honeycomb briquette stove on the plank road and burn the iron bullets of the Red Tiger Crouching Cannon.
The soldiers used cotton-padded clothes to block the flames of the coal stoves.
Soon the iron egg was burning hot. The soldier adjusted the direction of the Crouching Tiger Cannon and put the hot bomb into the muzzle with the iron claw.
There was a crisp sound of artillery, and the blazing bullet accurately hit the outpost.
The wooden building was very flammable, and a fire soon broke out in the post, and a large amount of kerosene stored in the post was ignited.
The fire was burning brightly, lighting up the entire valley.
The Ming Dynasty officers and soldiers on duty at the outpost shouted loudly to put out the fire, but it was too late and everyone was burned to death by the fire.
"It is finished"
Su Xiong and Su Zhuang stepped forward and looked at the burned plank road by the firelight.
Su Zhuang frowned and said, "This is about 200 meters long. The wooden plank road is all coal-fired, leaving only the iron nails hammered into the mountain.
We're waiting for the planks to be shipped from behind, but we don't know how long it will take."
Su Xiong said calmly: "The plank is right under our feet. Based on the estimated distance, let the soldiers dismantle the plank road at the rear.
Pass them one by one and ask them to pass the board over.
Although these planks are shorter, they are enough for our army to walk across.
Our goal is to capture Hanzhong without leaving a way out for ourselves."
Su Zhuang's eyes lit up and he praised: "In ancient times, Xiang Yu destroyed the cauldron and sank the boat, but now Su Xiong destroys the west to make up for the east.
This is indeed a good idea.”
Su Xiong took out a piece of paper and wrote his order with a pencil.
He also specially wrote the pinyin above the words to prevent soldiers who were newly literate from not being able to understand.
Pass this order to the rear, and the soldiers behind will execute his order.
"It's better to be literate. I can write orders and anyone can understand my orders.
This requires oral orders to be conveyed one after another, with different accents and dialects, and you don’t know what will happen when they are passed on later.”
Su Xiong used to only think that popularizing writing in the military would help officers improve their combat skills.
After the officers learned to read, Su He also forced them to become teachers and teach the soldiers how to read.
Su Xiong finally understood that the benefits of literacy for soldiers were huge.
The soldiers in the rear received the order, and they followed the order to demolish the 500-meter plank road in the rear.
Demolish the ones furthest away from them first, and then move to the end of the army bit by bit.
The soldiers passed the planks one after another.
The planks of the plank road were passed through a long queue to the engineering battalion.
The sun rose in the east, and Su Zhuang finally saw the first plank being passed.
"Seize the time to repair the plank road, and we must complete it with quality and quantity."
Su Zhuang took soldiers with carpentry skills from the engineering camp to repair the plank road.
Su Xiong saw that the soldiers were very tired, so he ordered: "Let us inform you so that the soldiers can rest on the spot."
The soldiers took advantage of the engineering battalion to build the plank road and sat on the ground to rest.
They marched in a hurry for several days and did not have a good rest these days.
The soldiers sat on the ground and soon fell asleep.
Su Xiong saw that some soldiers had wrong postures and immediately reminded them: "Soldiers leaning against the mountain, be sure not to fall."
The plank road is only 200 meters long. It took the engineering battalion two full days to build the plank road.
On the afternoon of November 5th, the plank road was completely repaired.
Su Zhuang reported with a sad face: "The tools we carry are limited, and the repair speed of the plank road is too slow.
There were also two soldiers who fell into the valley due to careless operation."
Su Xiong consoled him: "Their sacrifices are very valuable. Now that the plank road has been built, there are no passes ahead that can stop us."
The army once again entered a state of rapid march, and encountered four more officers and soldiers' outposts on the plank road.
However, the terrain of these outposts is not difficult and dangerous and can be bypassed from above the mountains or in the river valleys.
Attacked from two sides, the officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty did not have the courage to light kerosene in the camp.
The outpost was captured quickly, and the Ming officers and soldiers did not have the chance to burn down the plank road.
November 6th, at dusk.
The army walked out of the plank road, leaving the dam inspection department in front.
Su Xiong said with emotion: "We finally set foot on the earth again. The Lianyun Road Plank Road is too dangerous and it is an easy-to-defend but difficult-to-attack place."
The army quickly occupied Liuba and blocked the entire town.
There were only a few patrol officers here, and they surrendered immediately when they saw the army.
Seeing that the soldiers were very tired, Su Xiong decided to rest in this town for one night.
