Nanming Engineer

Chapter 237 The Death of Li Guohan

Li Guohan is physically strong. Although he is over forty years old, he is still as brave as a young man in his early twenties. He has a strong personality and likes to lead the way. Follow closely behind the scouts who explore the path, and lead the troops in front.

The Yinping Trail is just a concept. It does not mean that as soon as you arrive at the place, you can see a road in front of you. Many times, because of the rugged mountains and blocked rivers, the road sometimes disappears, and sometimes the trail is hidden in the depths of dense trees. It is extremely difficult to find; sometimes when walking, the road will reach the edge of the cliff, there is no way to go, and you have to hang it from the cliff with a rope; not to mention turning around in the mountains, with the trees above your head blocking the sun, it is easy to lose direction As for getting lost, fortunately, Li Guohan's subordinates caught a few hunters when they came across several mountain villages to loot in the first few days.

Under the leadership of his guide, Li Guohan marched much faster. He covered two-thirds of the 20-mile Yinping Road in less than [-] days. This is a very rare record.

"My lord, according to the guide, if you walk three miles ahead, you will see the last ridge of this mountain, called Motian Ridge. After turning over, you will be within fifty miles of Jiangyou, and Chengdu is not far away. "Niu Luerzhen and Li Wanzhen, who were walking in the forefront with the guide, turned back from the front and reported the latest road conditions to Li Guohan.

Li Guohan couldn't find the radiant look he had when he set off 20 days ago. At this time, he had taken off his armor and handed it to a Nikan to carry it. Holding a shaved wooden stick as a crutch, his body was covered in mud. He fell down many times on the road and rolled over many slopes. Even his face was stained with mud, and he was in a panic.

Hearing that climbing one more mountain would quickly end this nightmare march, Li Guohan was overjoyed and said repeatedly: "Okay, tell everyone to speed up and get out of the mountains as soon as possible, find a village, and have a good rest. The time for meritorious deeds is right in front of you!"

Li Wanzhen smiled wryly, and said: "My lord, I'm afraid that if you want to go out, you have to wait. The guide said that this Motian Ridge is the most dangerous place on Yinping Road. The northern cliff, if you want to pass here, you have to hang down by ropes like a monkey, otherwise there is no way to go, they said that it is getting late, should we wait until tomorrow to go up?"

Li Guohan frowned and said: "I've heard of this too, but this is the only way here, there is no other way. Back then, Deng Ai rolled down wrapped in a blanket. In the Ming Dynasty, Fu Youde entered Sichuan and bypassed Jiange from here. Since we are here, of course we have to pass like this, without delay, ask the guide to lead the way, go straight up!"

Li Wanzhen clapped his hands in agreement, and hurried forward. Li Guohan leaned on crutches and led the whole army to cheer up and follow.

In fact, nearly 5000 of Li Guohan’s 500 people have been lost here. Most of these people were walking on the trail, because they were not used to walking on the mountain road, they fell off the cliff and fell to their deaths. When people crossed the river, because of the heavy armor on their bodies, they happened to step on the mud and drowned in the river. Many people sprained their feet, fell on their heads, and limped far behind.

The danger of the Yinping Trail can be seen so clearly. Li Guohan looked at his soldiers whose clothes were torn like beggars, hated and anxious, and desperately wanted to get out of this uninhabited mountain as soon as possible and climb over the skyscrapers before it was dark. Ling's thoughts became more determined.

I walked forward for another distance, and drilled in the ravine for about a quarter of an hour. The terrain suddenly became higher, and the path in the weeds began to extend upwards. high mountains.

Li Guohan raised his head out of breath, looked up, and felt that the path under his feet seemed to bend and go straight up, sinking into the depths of grass mounds and bushes, looking forward in the direction where the path disappeared, he saw a towering mountain that went straight into the clouds Appearing in front of you, the mountains stretch to both ends, and the peaks rise one after another, like a sky pass, unattainable.

Li Guohan couldn't help taking a deep breath, looking at the extremely dangerous mountain, he said to himself: "Fortunately, the Ming army and the Xian thief are incompetent young people. If there are a few people guarding such a dangerous terrain, don't say that I have 5000 people." , even if there are 5 people, they will not be able to break through."

Seeing that the sun had already set in the sky, Li Guohan urged him sharply, yelling at his flag soldiers and Nikan to hurry up and climb up to the top of the mountain to camp before the sun went down. After a night of rest, he could find his way down the mountain in the morning.

Standing at the foot of the mountain and looking at the top of the mountain is like drinking cold water, but it is a different mood to stand at the top of the mountain and look at the foot of the mountain.

Ma Zuoheng, the head of the Kuizhou Military Fire Battalion, was squatting behind a boulder on the top of the mountain, looking at the line of Qing soldiers winding down the mountain in a line and struggling to climb, counting the number of people calmly.

"In total, there are more than 4000 soldiers, and there seem to be thousands of porters in the distance behind. Ma Ying is always right, and the Tartars really took the trail to copy us." Ma Zuoheng said to himself, Clenching his hands into fists, he smashed hard on the boulder beside him, his eyes full of murderous intent.

Behind him is the flat land on the top of Motianling, which is about five acres in size. There is a Wuhou Temple in the middle. Because it has been in disrepair for a long time, it has already collapsed and destroyed. On the ground, the clay statue of Wuhou still has some outlines, and Zhuge Liang's rich and refined appearance can be vaguely discerned.

The soldiers under his command tidied up the ruined temple. As Ma Zuoheng's temporary army, they built a wooden plank with a few broken bricks to make a bed. Ma Zuoheng had been sleeping on it for several days.

He took five hundred veterans with white poles, and traveled starry night and across mountains and rivers to Motianling. Because there is a cliff to the south of Motianling, there is no way to go. The horizontal hook on the blade of the long spear is connected with the ring at the end of the spear, forming a long ladder. 500 people climbed up one by one, and waited on the top of the mountain before Li Guohan arrived.

Ma Zuoheng is a member of the Tujia family, and the way of gods and ghosts is the most important. At this time, after seeing the size of the Qing soldiers at the foot of the mountain, he turned around and stood up. He came to Wuhou Temple, took three sticks of incense from his subordinates, and lit the fire. , stood respectfully in front of the statue of Marquis Wu, offered incense, saluted, and kowtowed silently.

Later, he strode out of the temple. Five hundred white soldiers, holding long spears and powerful crossbows hanging on their waists, stood quietly in front of the temple door and looked at him without saying a word.

Ma Zuoheng knew that these soldiers were all veterans of Shizhu, and all of them were relatives, so they could basically be regarded as relatives. Even he himself was called brothers and uncles with many people in the queue, so there was no need to say more at this time. Provocative words.

He glanced at the tiger, pointed his hand down the mountain with a sullen face, and shouted: "The Tartars are at the bottom of the mountain. They are coming to grab our land and burn our house. Your lord has an order to let them come and go! Everyone! , Work hard to kill the enemy, and you should be rewarded with military merit!"

Everyone roared in unison: "Follow your lord's order, kill!"

With a wave of Ma Zuoheng's hand, the well-trained white-armed soldiers dispersed into five centurions, ambush on both sides of the only uphill path on the north slope, and disappeared into the grass.

The wind blows the forest, the vegetation is bleak, and the figures on Motianling disappeared completely, as if the five hundred people in white robes who had gathered here just now had never appeared.

Of course Li Guohan couldn't see what was happening on the top of the mountain. He was burying his head, humming and humming hard to climb the mountain. This mountain is too damn steep, which makes it difficult for people who grow up in the white mountains and black waters.

"Damn it, I thought the mountains in the north were dangerous enough, but I didn't expect that there are even steeper ones in the southwest valley. When we occupy Sichuan, we must drive those southern barbarians to level this mountain!" Li Guohan secretly gritted his teeth. Cursing, while grasping the rock with both hands and feet, trying to climb up, while being careful to hold on firmly, otherwise it will be easy to slide down the cliff.

Above his head is the heel of the person in front, and under his feet is the top of the head of the person behind. More than 4000 armored men are like a series of coherent wriggling meat skewers, hanging on the steep uphill path, slowly moving towards the top of the mountain.

Ma Zuoheng squinted his eyes, hiding among the rocks and haystacks, estimated the speed and distance of the Qing soldiers, tightly grasped the crossbow arrows in his hands, and stretched out his hands from time to time to pinch the captive bombs in the treasure bag, and remained still.

A centurion lying next to him was a little out of breath. Looking at the few Qing soldiers climbing at the front, they were already less than twenty feet away from the top of the mountain. In a short time, they would be able to reach Ma Zuoheng's position. In his heart, I was very anxious and couldn't help but said to Ma Zuoheng: "Mr. Qian, is it..."

Before he finished speaking, Ma Zuoheng looked over with stern eyes, and whispered unquestionably: "Don't worry! Wait for my order!"

The centurion hurriedly shut up, Ma Zuoheng withdrew his eyes, and cast his eyes on the Qing soldiers again. He has excellent eyesight and can clearly see the tail of the Qing soldiers at the foot of the mountain. Then kill the enemy with your own hands. In this way, it will not be so easy for the Qing soldiers on the mountain road to escape, and they can wipe them all out in one fell swoop.

The Qing soldiers cooperated very well and worked hard to crawl on the mountain road. From time to time, some leaders shouted loudly to cheer up and urged Nikan who was hanging behind to go faster. The army goes up to the top of the mountain, otherwise the military law is practiced, and there is no need for him to use the military law. Everyone knows that if you don't rush to the top of the mountain before the sun disappears, if you want to crawl in the dark on this mountain road that the ghost can't stand still, That's no different than suicide.

Ma Zuoheng watched coldly as the last Tartar soldier also climbed up the mountain path and began to climb the mountain bravely. He lightly raised the mountain-destroying crossbow and aimed it at the throat of the first Tartar soldier.

The hopeful mountain sight on the destroying mountain crossbow was able to aim precisely. Accompanied by the bowstring sound of "collapse", an eight-inch short arrow flew out and hit the man's face. , fell down the mountain.

This shout was a signal, and all the soldiers in white robes stood up all over the mountain, shooting with crossbows, or throwing big stones.

Li Guohan climbed in the front, staring at the changes on the top of the mountain with his eyes widened and his face full of shock. Before he could make a sound, he watched helplessly as a stone as big as a millstone fell from the sky and hit his head with a whistling sound. The body happened to be in the shadow cast by the millstone.

A one-sided massacre started without warning. On such a terrain, the Qing soldiers could not resist at all. They raised their bows and shot again. They couldn't even stand on their feet. How could they draw their bows?Turn around and run away, unless you hug your head and roll down directly, you can only move down slowly step by step.

There were also some bloody men roaring and charging upward. They died gracefully on the way to the charge. Compared with the people rolling down the mountain, those who rushed upward were too conspicuous and died the fastest.

Li Guohan died very aggrieved. He was crushed to death by the big millstone. At the moment of his death, he didn't even have time to pull out the knife. The Nikan who died together was carrying it on his back, and he didn't have time to wear it once.

(End of this chapter)