Nanming Engineer

Chapter 402 Battle
The official road from Taiyuan Fucheng to Xinzhou City is nearly [-] miles long. It is a magnanimous official road on the plain. It is flat and solid, and the roadbed is well padded.

The official road goes all the way to the north, passes through Yangqu County, follows the Jinzhong Mountains, exits the Jinzhong Basin and enters the Xinding Basin. Between the two basins, there is a section of the mountain road that is not so easy to walk.

Shiling Pass, which was built in the Tang Dynasty, is just at the critical point of this mountain road.

When the mountain road reaches Yangqu, the plain terrain is blocked by the remaining veins of Luliang Mountain in the west and Wutai Mountain in the east, forming a mountainous hill, and the road becomes winding and rugged. Two miles north of Shangyuan Village, Dameng Town, Yangqu County, it is exactly two At the junction of the two mountains, Guanmao Mountain, the remnant of Luliang Mountain, and Xiaowutai, a remnant of Wutai Mountain, face each other here, like a pair of affectionate sweethearts, who have traveled through thousands of years to express their eyebrows and eyes here.

The two mountains are steep and dangerous. The mountains are densely wooded and covered with rocks. They are high and difficult to climb. They naturally separate the two basins. This is the only valley where roads can be built between the mountains, connecting the two places in Taiyuan and Xinzhou. The official road continues to extend north along this valley.

Shiling Pass was built between two mountains, strangling the bottom of the valley. The two mountains on the east and west, like two giant arms stretching out from the pass, crushed all attempts to pass through the mountains and pass through the north and south freely. Whoever wants to go to Xinzhou and Taiyuan has to obediently follow the official road and pass through Shiling Pass.

Of course, as long as you are willing to take a detour, there are not no other ways. Although Luliang Mountain is dangerous, there is not only one way.But most of the roads are bird paths, which are feasible for woodcutters but difficult for large armies. As for the roads that can pass large numbers of people and vehicles, besides Shilingguan, there are two other roads, but this road is on the left side of Shilingguan. On the right side, there are two passes, Tianmen Pass and Chitang Pass. They were built in dangerous places and are easy to defend but difficult to attack. Relatively speaking, Shiling Pass is easier.

These three passes, collectively known as Taiyuan Sanguan, guard the terrain of Taiyuan City on three sides surrounded by mountains and blocked by rivers on one side like Bashu.

Teams of Kuizhou soldiers with white helmets and white armor had entered Shiling Pass a few days ago, and there were no soldiers in the pass. Taiyuan Mansion was responsible for the defense here, but Zhu Shichang had already recruited all available soldiers. After arriving in Taiyuan City, this important pass was abandoned, which was an advantage for Wang Huan.

Guancheng is not big, but it is very compact.The terrain between the two mountains is inherently dirty, and there are not many uneven areas. The Ming Dynasty began to expand and strengthen the Guancheng of the previous dynasty. After several years, it finally formed the current three-story fortress with an area of ​​three miles around. .

Guancheng filled the land between the two mountains, and built a wall of more than 100 meters on each side, extending to the mountain, ensuring that there is no loophole here. The three city gates are separated by fifty feet each. If one gate is broken, the defenders can immediately retreat to the second gate. Even if two gates are broken in a row, there is still a third gate to struggle for the last time.

At this moment, the door was closed and opened, and a group of white-armored and red-tasseled knights came out with whips and hooves, and dust was flying. Occasionally, passers-by on the road all frightened and avoided.

Wang Huan rode his horse galloping in front of him. He was dressed in a fine steel armor with silver light shining. The two huge breastplates reflected the sunlight like mirrors. Judging from their thickness, ordinary arrows might not be able to penetrate them at all.

Five miles away from Guancheng, here is a huge flat land, with wheat fields and vegetable gardens in between. However, due to the war, there are no farmers farming here. Paradise of the beasts.

Wang Huan turned his head back to look at the distance to Guancheng. With one hand, the horse under his seat neighed, and he stood up. Wang Huan was good at riding, and he easily stopped the galloping mount .

The Kuizhou army generals who followed were all good players, and they immediately followed Wang Huan and stopped. A group of white-armored knights surrounded them, watching their surroundings vigilantly.

"It's not bad here. It has a wide field of vision. It can accommodate many military horses. It's perfect as a battlefield." Wang Huan steered his horse around, pointing in all directions with his whip.

Li Tingyu followed him, and was surprised when he heard the sound: "It's not bad, but the terrain is clear at a glance, and there is nothing to hide. Don't you want to set up an ambush?"

He asked this question, but he expressed the aspirations of everyone. Since Wang Huan became an army, he has been playing tricks and tricks for a long time, setting up ambushes and fighting guerrillas. , is to throw stones and iron bullets at places where the enemy must pass, cunning and insidious, so everyone thinks reflexively that Pinglianghou will still do the same this time, grab the tails of the Tartars at the dangerous place of Shiling Pass, dig a hole, etc. The Tartars come and jump.

"No, to fight with a strong army, you should face the enemy head-on with a majestic army formation and a mighty division. It is a temporary strategy to set up an ambush to defend against the enemy. Now that our army is strong and strong, it is time for the soldiers to fight the Tartars head-on. "Wang Huansu said in a deep voice, looking at the ups and downs of the distant mountains with deep eyes, as if he wanted to penetrate through the mountains and see clearly the movement of the Datong Qing soldiers in the far distance.

"what?!"

Everyone was taken aback for a moment, and they exclaimed in unison, is Pinglianghou not playing tricks?

No way, what's wrong?
Everyone had weird faces, as if they had swallowed a fly. Wang Huan felt something strange, looked back, and shouted angrily, "Why? Not used to it?"

"Accustom, habit!" Zu Bian replied hastily, "It's just that it's been a long time since we confronted the enemy head-on, and I'm really not used to it."

Li Tingyu hurriedly turned away from his ancestral side to prevent his contradictory words from being noticed by Wang Huan: "My lord, here is a piece of flat land, no danger and no danger, how to play, please explain first, my lord, let us have something in our hearts." Prepare."

Wang Huan nodded, stretched out his fingers, drew everyone's attention to the direction he was pointing, and said slowly: "Look, there are mountains on all sides here, and there is only a flat land here, which can be used as a battlefield. Once the Tartars If they are defeated, they have nowhere to escape, they just scatter in all directions. We just need to line up here and deploy rebel troops on the mountains on both sides. No matter how many powerful troops there are, as long as they are defeated, they will be captured by us as easily as a turtle in a urn. .”

He spoke so easily that everyone burst into laughter, but there were also some people who were calm and said: "My lord, the soldiers and horses who came to besiege the city of Datong, the Eight Banners are mostly elite, no matter how bad they are, they are also the Han army from the former Daming frontier army. A strong army, let's fight in formation, if there is a big difference in the number of soldiers, and the Tartars will crush them, we may not be able to say that we will win lightly."

From everyone's point of view, the person who spoke was Ma Xintian, the general manager of Huoziying. This poker face doesn't speak easily.

(End of this chapter)