Chapter 177 The Eight Banners Han Army was trapped
Time soon came to the beginning of December.
Li Zicheng's army has stayed in Luochuan County for ten days.
Ten days have passed, and 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 the decision to go south!
The reason that prompted Li Zicheng to make up his mind was simple. Report of the defeat at Xiashiguan had spread to Luochuan.
After learning that Yuan Zongdi and Chen Yongfu's army were defeated at Xia Shi Pass, and that Yuan Zongdi died fighting hard, Li Zicheng no longer dared to take any chances. If he insisted on going north at this time, the Dashun Dynasty might be destroyed.
So Li Zi raised an army of more than 200,000 from the breaking point and marched back southward.
In addition, Li Zicheng also ordered Liu Fangliang to lead 20,000 elite troops to defend Tongguan.
Li Zicheng was not the former grass bandit, and knew that Tongguan was very important to Dashun.
After receiving the order, Liu Fangliang, the general of the Zuoying system, immediately led his 20,000 elite troops to rush to Tongguan day and night.
The straight-line distance from Luochuan to Tongguan was only three hundred miles, but the actual mileage was nearly five hundred 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 at the rear.
…
Looking at the densely packed Dashun army at the top of Tongguan City, Duduo knew he had no chance.
It seems that the Dashun Army has received the report of defeat and has mobilized reinforcements from Xi'an.
In this case, it is no longer possible to make a sneak attack, so we can only attack head-on. But if we want to attack by force, we must rely on the power of the red cannon.
Times have changed.
Therefore, the siege tactics are also very different.
In ancient times, sieges involved building various siege equipment and attaching ants to the siege.
But now, this tactic is outdated. The current siege tactic is to use red cannons to blast a gap in the city wall, and then launch an attack directly from the gap.
Compared with ant attack, red artillery attack not only causes less losses, but also severely weakens the enemy's morale and will to fight, making subsequent battles easier.
Duduo immediately ordered: "Send the order and the army will retreat ten miles to set up camp!"
"嗻!" A group of commanding cavalry immediately dispersed. Soon, the Jiannu army that lined up in front of Tongguan slowly retreated.
…
At this time, in a canyon in Hongnong County.
The Yiding were hunting two cavalry Jiannu messengers.
There were seven or eight Yi Ding cavalry participating in the hunt, and their riding skills were obviously better than those of the Jiannu messengers. More importantly, the Yi Ding's horses were more powerful and faster than those of the Jiannu messengers.
Soon, Yi Ding was approaching within thirty steps.
Then the two Yiding fired three-eyed cannons while running.
"Boom!" There was a loud noise, and gunpowder smoke filled the air instantly.
Thirty steps ahead, the war horse of one of the slave messengers fell down.
The Jiannu messenger on horseback also fell down, but this Jiannu was also very skilled. After landing, he rolled over, shed his huge inertia, jumped up and galloped forward again.
However, not far away, the Yiding caught up from behind. One of them turned his three-eyed gun upside down and hit Jiannu's vest. Jiannu immediately opened his mouth and spit out a large mouthful of blood, and fell to the ground.
Several other Yiding horses rode over Jiannu's body, and one of their iron hoofs stepped on Jiannu's head. With a pop, Jiannu's head shattered like a watermelon.
"Chase, don't let the remaining one get away!" Yi Ding chased after him.
They continued to pursue and intercept the remaining Jiannu messengers.
The remaining cavalryman panicked and beat the horse on his crotch with a whip.
Jiannu's war horse neighed sadly and started the final sprint with all its strength.
But unfortunately, Yi Ding, who was chasing behind him, also started sprinting decisively. Therefore, instead of widening the distance between the two sides, they were still slowly getting closer.
…
Geng Jimao was completely anxious.
Yes, the remaining Jiannu messenger is Geng Jimao.
Ten days ago, Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming sent out couriers for the first time. Together with Geng Jimao, they sent more than a hundred good men. However, as soon as they left the camp, they were hunted by the Ming army.
In the end, less than half of the messengers were left to break through the Ming army's interception.
However, the Ming cavalry did not give up and continued their endless pursuit.
In order to avoid pursuit, Geng Jimao and the remaining Jiannu messengers used all means, including detours, hiding, traveling at night, and even Qiao Zhuang refugees, but they were still hunted down one by one by the Ming army.
Geng Jimao, the turtle grandson, was still a little clever. He took another Jiannu messenger and did not go directly towards Tongguan after breaking out. Instead, he walked back hundreds of miles, and then turned south for more than a hundred miles.
, after making sure that he had escaped the pursuit of the Ming army’s cavalry, Geng Jimao still kept a cautious eye.
Geng Jimao did not choose the official road, but chose a small road.
After ten days of walking in the deep mountains and nearly hundreds of miles, he estimated that he had reached the boundary of Hongnong County. Geng Jimao finally returned to the official road with another Jiannu, thinking that it would only take more than a hundred miles from Hongnong to Tongguan.
Here, no matter how crazy the Ming cavalry is, they will never catch up here, so Hongnong should be safe.
Then, the two of them were chased by Yiding.
At this moment, Geng Jimao really wanted to cry, it was so bullying.
Chongzhen, you are a dog emperor, you really don’t leave a way for people to survive.
This has already reached the territory of Hongnong, and there are still Yiding coming and going?
However, it was useless to cry or curse, Yi Ding was right behind him.
"Boom!" There was a sudden loud noise, and then Geng Jimao heard a whine from the war horse under his crotch, and then he flew out at once, and the war horse was shot dead!
Fortunately, Geng Jimao was also proficient in bow and horse.
As soon as a person reaches the air, he curls up into a ball.
So after landing, it rolled forward like a ball.
It took him 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 dead in his tracks.
Because there is a cliff further ahead, and I almost fell down just now.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! The Yiding knights who were chasing behind them also found that there was a cliff in front of them, so they slowed down one after another, then stopped ten steps away, and then raised the three-eyed gun in their hands.
Aim directly at Geng Jimao.
Geng Jimao gritted his teeth and jumped off the cliff.
Anyway, if you stay on the cliff, you will definitely die.
There might be a chance of survival if you jump off a cliff.
Several Yiding cavalrymen then urged their horses to come to the cliff.
One of the Yiding said: "Would you like to find a way to go down and have a look?"
But another Yiding said: "Forget it, if you fall off such a high cliff, you will die."
At that moment, several Yiding stopped staying and rode away, and the entire 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 gray-headed Geng Jimao crawled out from under the bushes.
Although he was not dead, Geng Jimao had fallen into a desperate situation.
Because one of Geng Jimao's arms and legs had been broken, the cliff more than ten meters high became an insurmountable natural danger. How to climb up?
…
Geng Jimao was in dire straits, and Geng Zhongming, Kong Youde and more than 10,000 Eight Banners Han troops were also in big trouble.
At this time, the Eight Banners and Han Army had been trapped in a canyon in Xin'an County by the Ming Army. Xin'an County was only more than a hundred miles away from Luoyang. In other words, these days, the Eight Banners and Han Army had only traveled more than a hundred miles.
Well, it is actually not very appropriate to say that the Eight Banners and Han troops were trapped.
Because of Kong Youde, Geng Zhongming took the initiative to decide to stay in this canyon.
The reason why we stay in this canyon is because the terrain here is good.
The canyon here is like a small city, the hillsides on both sides are city walls, and the entrances and exits at both ends are like two city gates, which can be used by the Eight Banners and Han troops at any time.
Staying in this canyon can avoid being attacked by the Ming army's Xiangyang artillery.
In the previous ten days, the Eight Banners Han Army had really suffered from the Ming Army's Xiangyang Cannon.
Because the Ming army would use 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 while avoiding the red cannon.
Ten days of continuous harassment caused the Eight Banners Han Army to lose a lot of baggage.
The loss of food and grass is actually still there, but the loss of gunpowder is the most troublesome.
Although the Eight Banners Han Army had taken a large number of protective measures, such as carrying gunpowder dispersedly and even hiding gunpowder under food, armor, arrows and other baggage, the effect was not good.
After ten days of continuous harassment, the Eight Banners Han Army still lost less than half of its gunpowder.
If this continues, by the time they reach Tongguan, there won't be much gunpowder left. How can they still shoot a bird?
Therefore, Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming stopped decisively and waited quietly for Duduo to send cavalry to help.
…
"This terrain is really troublesome."
On a high mountain in the distance, Chongzhen was using a telescope to observe the canyon where the Eight Banners and Han troops were guarding.
This canyon is not actually steep, and it is not very high, but it is more troublesome because the Eight Banners Han Army can easily seize the high ground on both sides with its superior strength, and then use the firepower of the blunderbuss to suppress the Ming Army.
Because the Ming army's catapults could not reach the commanding heights on both sides of the canyon, they became mere decorations.
Zhu Cijiong cursed: "These two old dogs, Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming, are really difficult to deal with."
Hu Guozhu once again took the initiative to invite Ying and said: "Your Majesty, why don't you let me lead the troops to charge once? I will fight for my life and seize the high ground to the south of the canyon. Then Master Jin can set the catapult to the top of the hillside.
, bombarding the Jian slaves hiding in the canyon below, in this case, the canyon will become the burial place of the Jian slaves!"
"No." Chongzhen flatly refused. You can't attack by force. You absolutely can't attack by force.
Jin Xuan's three thousand cavalry are extremely precious and must not be used to risk their lives until the most critical moment.
But now is obviously not a critical moment, because this place already belongs to western Henan, not far from Xi'an.
If his memory is correct, the distance from Luoyang to Xi'an is only 700 miles, and the distance from this nameless canyon to Tongguan is estimated to be more than 300 miles, and the urgent march will only take three days.
