The course of the war finally returned to the stage that Liu Chengzong and others were most familiar with.
Dai Daozi stopped looking for a boat and led the Tangqi to gallop freely on the west bank of the upper reaches of the Jinsha River. They spread three layers of Tangqi in a radius of eighty miles, covering the entire battlefield.
Each thousand generals under Liu Chengzong occupied the hilltop, and based on several noble manors, they made it appear that they had no way to escape and were stubbornly resisting. They used Zhang Tianlin's cavalry as the outside line and hid in the valley.
Of course, the search for the boat could not be left behind. This matter was handed over to the nobles under Monk Gama and asked them to collect ferries along the river.
In fact, Liu Chengzong originally had a certain attitude towards the reform of the slavery system.
In general, ensuring the right of slaves to survive is his basic requirement as a human being. In his view, only by treating himself as a human being and treating others as human beings can he be called a human being.
But it does not mean that all the nobles must be killed. The degree is nothing else but the obedience of the nobles.
If someone surrenders and follows him wholeheartedly, how can he confiscate all his territory?
Besides, even if it’s all confiscated, I still have to think about giving people a good place where they can have enough food and clothing for the rest of their lives.
But Liu Chengzong did not intend to experience something like the Lin Cong Kingdom again. A chieftain who had clearly paid tribute to him actually cut off the bridge when he needed it and acted recklessly. It was really a huge sin.
Of course, there is indeed a strong capital to guard the cable bridge on the Jinsha River. The river is full of reefs and cannot be passed by ships. Even if it is a ferry, there are only a few sections that can cross it. The main transportation depends on the cable bridge.
By guarding the fortifications at the entrance of the bridge, your opponent will be helpless when looking at the river.
The nobles of Gama were very efficient in doing things. That afternoon they found an old small ferry that could transport more than a dozen people to the other side at a time.
But the situation in which they found the boat was also controlled by Lin Cong's army on the other side. Wherever the ferry was towed on the shore, a team of hundreds of people armed with muskets and bows and arrows followed them on the other side.
Liu Chengzong stood on the top of the mountain and put down his telescope, pointed at a person on the other side and asked Monk Wang: "Ask Ga Ma, who is that person? He has a mirror in his arms."
It's strange to say that he actually saw a telescope here, and it was from the leader of the noble chieftain.
Ga Ma said beside him, that is Alongtou, a brave general under the command of King Lin Cong.
As for the telescope, Ga Ma obviously knew him well, and explained: "They all came in decades ago. Bai Li has one, and so does Lin Cong. Bai Li's is from Sichuan, and Lin Cong's is from Uzang."
This is very strange to Liu Chengzong. In the most isolated place in the world, he can find all the most advanced things in the world in the hands of the chieftain nobles.
King Lin Cong’s telescope came from about ten years ago.
There was a small kingdom called Guge in the western border of Uzang. It no longer exists today, but in the past, cultural exchanges there were very frequent, and there were both monks and missionaries there.
To put it bluntly, the king attracted external forces to fight against the local religion of which his younger brother was the leader, and civil strife broke out.
The king and his family were all taken to prison in neighboring Ladakh. This small kingdom also disappeared in the long river of history under the successive attacks of Ladakh and Zangba.
People who escaped from the war came to Lin Cong, and the items they brought with them were binoculars.
There is no shortage of crystals in the Kangzang area, but there is a lack of motivation to make this thing... As Ga Ma said, this thing is just a toy for the nobles.
The terrain here is not suitable for telescopes.
There are mountains everywhere, and they are high mountains. You can stand on this mountain and see that mountain with the naked eye. However, there are some surprisingly high peaks. It is too difficult to climb up, and it is of little significance for observing the terrain.<
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Moreover, craftsmen have almost no social status, and there are very few private workshops, resulting in a lack of materials and low productivity, so Lin Cong's slaves only polished a few pairs of lenses.
If you just get started, no matter who you are, the craftsmanship will not be any better.
However, the king has no interest in continuing to improve the technology, and the craftsmen do not have the ability to obtain raw materials. Therefore, although this thing has been available for a long time, it is still meaningless today.
Liu Chengzong shook his head and sighed, money can make all things go round, and it can also make any novelty cross the mountains and be delivered to the hands of the noble chieftain.
"Commander!"
Hearing the call from behind, Liu Chengzong turned his head, and saw in front of his eyes a field of colorful flowers with excellent texture. The most wealthy general in the Lion Army had arrived.
Luo Rucai still wore strange clothes. In the past, he liked to wear whatever he could get, so that he would often wear three or four satin robes tied together.
The severe cold entering Qinghai not only did not make him change this habit, but made him wrap himself up more tightly. The Lu silk singlet and satin jacket were quite nice.
Luo Rucai's coat was very famous in Juerwan. When he asked the weaver to make the clothes, everyone was dumbfounded.
The lining is made of rabbit fur, and the interlayer has two layers of cotton, one layer of cotton and two layers of finely woven silk. The outside is made of fine twill satin, and the hem is decorated with colorful strips of cloth commonly used by frontier armies, but this guy uses
The dress is made of colorful satin, and it also has leopard skin trimmings on the front.
She looks like a beautiful lady.
Liu Chengzong once said that if you were dressed like you, you would be easily shot to death by enemy arrows on the battlefield.
Luo Rucai didn't care. He raised his fist and knocked on his chest, making a clanging sound. He added goggles on the chest and back of the jacket, and riveted chainmail under the ribs and inner thighs that were not easily protected by outer armor.
and butt.
The butt has nothing to do with the outer armor. Liu Chengzong probably added the outer armor because Luo Rucai's butt was pierced by Aimu.
Anyway, everyone in the Lion Army has taken off their armor, and Luo Rucai must be the one with the highest defense.
After all, he and Yang Chengzu are the richest generals in the Lion Army.
In the process of instigating the rebellion in Pingliang, the two gained a lot. In addition to gold, silver and grain, all artifacts, rare objects, copper coins and cloth were rewarded by Liu Chengzong to the soldiers who participated in the instigation. They almost used barter to conquer the town.
The original county was shorted.
In Liu Chengzong's view, although Dunyue Duoji's army was inferior in firearms, it was twice as powerful as his. If they wanted to fight a decisive battle, the Lion Army needed to maneuver on a large scale within a radius of hundreds of miles, so it could not let King Lin Cong
Watch the excitement on the north bank of the Jinsha River.
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He cannot always send people to guard the bridge, so before the decisive battle, he still needs to seize the chain bridge and give King Lin Cong a good beating to make him retreat.
The general he arranged to cross the river to seize the chain bridge was Luo Rucai.
"Commander!"
Luo Rucai rushed over excitedly, gearing up and saying: "There is one ferry, three ferrymen at the Yellow River ferry, and a navy consisting of 200 sailors who were born on the banks of the Yellow River are ready!"
Liu Chengzong laughed when he heard this.
However, a ferry is nothing. As a "navigator" born in the upper reaches of the Jinsha River, it is not the ferry that will establish its dominance in the river basin in the future, but the sheepskin rafts being made.
As the saying goes, one learns from every adversity. The blockage of the Jinsha River this time made Liu Shizi find another disadvantage of his own army. They relied heavily on bridges and lacked the means to cross the river.
To deal with such a large river lying in front of them, as long as the enemy troops hold the bridge, they will fall into a passive situation where they are helpless.
Therefore, in order to avoid this situation from happening, Liu Chengzong ordered to collect some soldiers from the army who could make rafts, rush to make sheepskin rafts, and prepare them for antisepsis and drying.
There was no need to cross the river this time, but the dried sheepskins were light and easy to carry. This kind of river would not be able to stop them next time.
"The enemy planted stakes on the shore where the boat can be parked." Liu Chengzong asked: "How do you plan to cross the river?"
Luo Rucai said: "If we cross at night, as long as the boat can pass by, we can swim across."
Swim over?
Liu Chengzong frowned and said, "Where are the weapons?"
"The soldiers and armor are all put on the boat. I saw that there are not many people patrolling along the coast. It is quick to cross the river in three hundred steps. If you kill a group of them, you will have a group of weapons. As long as people can get across, everything is available."<
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Luo Rucai was a desperado who had been living on the edge of life and death. He raised his hand and pointed at the chain bridge and said: "Occupy the bridge for a quarter of an hour, and the commander can transport a hundred people to the other side. With a hundred reinforcements, it can occupy another half an hour." Liu Chengzong asked: "How do you plan to swim across?"
"There's no other way to swim. If you're in the front, take a boat. If you can't fit in, just hold the boat and swim. If that doesn't work, just swim."
"Wait a minute." Liu Chengzong raised his hand and said: "You tie a rope at the stern of the boat. It's so dark in the middle of the night that you can't see anything. The cold water is so cold that you force the soldiers to swim across. How many people will die?"
"Commander, the situation is like this. If you want to force him to escape, there will be no one who will die. It's okay!"
Luo Rucai shook his head as if nothing was wrong: "I'm swimming behind. If it sinks to the bottom, the commander will capture Lin Cong in the future. Remember, don't fish it out, just build a grave for me."
"No."
Liu Chengzong shook his head. He appreciated this attitude of treating death as if it were home, but he couldn't let the soldiers throw their lives into the river. This was too reckless.
He pointed to the chain bridge and said: "Do you know how this chain bridge is made? Monk Wang told me that they use a boat to tie the rope to the other side, pass the iron lock through the rope, and row across it in the air."
"You take a boat and send the rope to the other side. It should be higher and stronger. This side is higher and the other side is lower. Make the weapons and armor into packages and tie them firmly and go along the rope."
Liu Chengzong gestured while talking, and said: "Tie a few ropes to the stern of the boat, and tie them to the other side in the river. Let the soldiers tie the ropes around their waists and hang them on the ropes in the river, and drag them all the way across. Even if they lose their hands, they will still be protected.
, others can help pull it over."
"What's more, there are sheepskins that are blowing up. Once you've tied them, hold them over. It doesn't matter whether they rot or not. We don't have any shortage of sheepskins. We'll just make them when they're broken."
Luo Rucai was stunned, took off his helmet and scratched his head. His eyes were full of confusion at first, but then he suddenly figured it out and said with a smile: "Okay, then I will prepare like this and cross the river tonight!"
He couldn't figure it out at first and thought there was no need to make it so complicated. He could just swim over. The two hundred men had already been selected, and they were all water-savvy soldiers.
What makes him the same is that all the sheepskins and everything in this army belong to Liu Chengzong. The generalissimo doesn't bother him. What's the reason for him to be stubborn? It's not like he is allowed to come out with sheepskins himself.
As night falls, there are campfires everywhere on both sides of the Jinsha River.
The soldiers of the Lion Battalion, who had had enough sleep, dragged the ferry to the shore. The heavy ropes were moved onto the ship's plank in the dark. Luo Rucai stood on the shore, looked at the dark river, took a deep breath, took off his armor and jumped up.
He imitated those soldiers who were proficient in water, bending down by the river and pouring water on himself.
On the Iron Chain Bridge, the 500 bridge-breaking infantrymen prepared by Wang Wenxiu also woke up from their sleep to check the condition of their weapons and armor. Monk Wang told each captain over and over again the weight of soldiers that the bridge could bear at the same time.
Liu Chengzong was wrapped in a thick robe and stood on the top of the hill, looking towards the top of the hill on the shore. The campfire there was dark for a moment and then lit up again.
Soon, the guard also pulled up the blanket beside him and faced there to cover the campfire.
He took a deep breath, and the rape was about to begin.
The lonely ferry boat was pushed into the river, and the unarmored soldiers on the boat held blunderbuss and were pushed to the other side in the rapid river water.
The soldiers at the stern lowered the rope little by little, and the thick hemp rope floated on the river. The ferry sailed diagonally towards the other side under the control of the oarsman.
Liu Chengzong couldn't see the ferry, and stared at the camp on the other side. Time flowed away in the surging river.
A soldier came to report: "Commander, the ferry has set sail."
Almost at the same time as the soldiers reported the news, Liu Chengzong heard a bang in the distance. The sound was very soft, but it spread far at night.
The ferry hit a rock, and the soldiers on board were knocked around. Some people fell into the water, but no one dared to speak, and their eyes were fixed on the vague bonfire not far away.
There was no movement. The oarsmen picked up the fallen soldiers, and the experienced boatmen inspected the ferry. There were cracks on the side of the boat. Everyone on the boat quickly took the boat to leave the reef. The hull of the boat was filled with water little by little. With the help of the rope released, the soldiers at the stern reported the departure little by little.
The distance to the other side is getting closer and closer.
Not long after, there was another soft sound.
The noise this time sounded smaller and lighter to Liu Chengzong than before, but it also made him more worried because the ferry was closer to the other side.
In fact, the soldiers have arrived on the other side.
The soft sound was a loud noise to the soldiers on the boat. Their ferry ran diagonally against the wooden piles driven into the shore by Lin Cong's army, and the bottom of the boat was punctured.
That's what these wooden piles are for. They can't stop the ferry from passing through the river, but they can let the ferry pass through the river and then declare it scrapped.
In their view, it is wishful thinking to completely prevent the enemy from crossing the river. However, with the chain bridge and the wooden piles on the shore, they can block the number of enemy troops from crossing the river to the greatest extent. As long as the number is small, they have an absolute advantage in strength.
After all, there are only a few desperadoes in the world who forcefully swim across like Luo Rucai.
The lightly-armed Lion Soldiers carefully entered the river by holding the rope, and used their arms, legs and feet to explore the wooden piles under their feet. Finally, they stepped on the sand on the shore, and people suppressed their cries of surprise.
Twenty soldiers, carrying their clothes and weapons, walked to the shore on the river. When the night wind blew, everyone was shivering from the cold. They quickly wiped themselves off, put on their clothes, and together they pulled the heavy ropes that had been soaked in water.
Head toward the shore and look for a suitable tree stump.
Soon, a suspended cableway and a rope on the water were fixed to the Jinsha River.
A large number of soldiers on the shore jumped into the water, holding on to ropes and being pushed diagonally to the other side by the rapid river water.
A package of packed weapons and armor was suspended in the sky on the mountain and was also sent to the other side.
At this moment, Liu Chengzong saw a team holding torches in the camp on the other side, like a fiery snake, winding down the mountain.
"Go tell Wang Wenxiu that the battle to seize the chain bridge is about to begin."
