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   Chapter 544 541 [Tongguan]

  If there is an army that directly kills Shanxi, it can be made into a horizontal version of the game.

  Shanxi is surrounded by mountains in all directions. Moreover, there are mountains within mountains, which divide the whole province into countless small pieces. Even if one or two pieces are captured, don't rush to be happy, and you must be prepared to continue to break through.

  Taihang Eight Xing, the Datong Army in Henan can only attack from Zhiguan Xing, Taihang Xing and Baixing.

   Among them, Taihang Xing is the most dangerous. Li Zicheng only needs to garrison a thousand people to withstand the attack of tens of thousands of Datong troops.

  Since Shanxi is so difficult to fight, why not fight Shaanxi?

   Liu Zhu's Eighth Division and Jiang Liang's Fifth Division set off from Luoyang, passed the Weihan Ancient Road, and headed straight for Guanzhong.

  Xiaoshi Pass, Yanling Pass, and Hangu Pass are all in the hands of the Datong Army.

   But there is still Tongguan blocking the front, and the general stationed at Tongguan is Tian Jianxiu. Li Zicheng only named two generals Quan, one was Tian Jianxiu and the other was Liu Zongmin.

  The status of the two of them, if you insist on a metaphor, is similar to Fei Ruhe and Zhang Tieniu.

  Counting tens of thousands of civilian husbands, they came to Tongguan along the Yellow River.

   "Hiss!"

  Jiang Liang looked at the city wall of Tongguan, and gasped: "How do you fight?"

  Liu Zhu smiled and said, "Surely you can't hit hard."

  Liu Zhu has been stationed here for a long time, and he has personally explored the terrain and knows what Tongguan looks like. It was Jiang Liang's first time here, and he was completely intimidated by this majestic pass.

  Due to the continuous erosion of rainwater and the continuous accumulation of sediment, the location of Tongguan is also constantly changing, which can be divided into Hantongguan, Suitongguan and Tangtongguan.

   But Zhu Yuanzhang is still rich and powerful, Mingtong Pass framed all the main roads, and directly built a city here!

   Therefore, it is not called Ming Tongguan now, but it is generally called Tongguan Ming City.

  The city is 16 meters high and has a circumference of 11.2 kilometers. It encloses several mountains in the city. The two sections of the city wall built against the mountains are even more terrifyingly high than 30 meters.

   Datong soldiers and civilian husbands, looking at Guancheng from a distance, all stood there dumbfounded.

   "Let's set up camp first." Liu Zhu said.

  Tian Jianxiu stood on the Guanlou, looked at the Datong army retreating to set up camp, and only said one sentence: "Every battalion must not relax!"

  After speaking, Tian Jianxiu crossed the Yellow River in person again to inspect Fenglingdu on the other side of the river.

  Fenglingdu is the place where Yang Guo and Guo Xiang met for the first time. Guo Xiang's apprentice was later called Master Fengling.

  Although the flow of the Yellow River is fast, it ends at Fenglingdu River, and the flow of the river is relatively slow. Generally speaking, Fenglingdu is where the army crosses the river, but Tian Jianxiu is still afraid that the Datong army will desperately cross the river downstream.

   Tian Jianxiu has never read "Three Kingdoms", but he also knows that the banks of the Yellow River must be guarded.

  The Datong army camped out, and it was getting dark.

  Liu Zhu and Jiang Liang inspected the barracks respectively, and then called a meeting with the generals in the army.

  Wang Hui, who returned from his meritorious service in Luzon, was directly promoted to the deputy commander of the Fifth Division due to the expansion of the army. He raised a question: "Why did the Ministry of War let us attack Tongguan Xiongcheng? Don't say that we didn't bring heavy artillery, even if we brought heavy artillery, I'm afraid it won't collapse in two or three months."

  Jiang Liang said with a smile: "It's not easy. There are still two friendly troops who sent troops from Taihangxing and Baixing. They are also guarded by one man, and no one can open it."

   Liu Zhu, who has changed his name to Liu Dingjue, seems to have really become a cultural person. He smiled and asked: "Everyone knows that Ma Chao and Cao Cao once had a great battle here. At that time, Ma Chao was stationed in Tongguan, just like seeing a beautiful woman in that field, and Cao Cao led his troops to the west, just like us."

  Although Cao Bianjiao can write and count, and has read "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms", he has never read "Three Kingdoms". He sucked his teeth and said, "That's not auspicious. Cao Cao was killed by Ma Chao and cut off his beard and discarded his robe."

  Liu Zhu shook his head and said: "That is "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms", which is a novel. It is different in "Three Kingdoms". From the beginning to the end, Ma Chao was played by Cao Cao, and finally he was defeated by Cao Cao!"

   "Hey, you still read "Three Kingdoms"?" Jiang Liang suddenly joked, and he also changed his name to Jiang Daoxing, but his cultural level was not much higher than Zhang Tieniu's.

  Liu Zhu laughed and said, "Where can I read "Three Kingdoms"? Peng Xuanjiao told me. Peng Xuanjiao, come and tell everyone."

  Due to his short time in the army, Peng Shining was only a missionary officer at the brigade level, but he was born as a scholar of the Ming Dynasty, and he liked to read all kinds of miscellaneous books.

  Peng Shining took out a pen and paper, drew a simple map near Tongguan, pointed to the map and said:

   "When I learned that our army was going to attack Tongguan, I remembered the Battle of Tongguan during the Three Kingdoms period, and went back to Nanjing to check a lot of historical materials..."

   "Tongguan in the Han Dynasty was built on a higher place, and the lowlands along the river have not yet been washed out. Tongguan at that time was not as big as it is now. In addition to Tongguan, the earth beams in the south are also fighting zones."

   "Cao Cao couldn't break through Tongguan, so he crossed the Yellow River directly at the place where we camped..."

   "Wait," Lin Ruzhao, the mission officer, interrupted, "Cao Cao's army can also pass such a fast-moving river?"

Peng Shining nodded and said, "Yes. Besides, when Cao Cao was crossing the river, Ma Chao led the cavalry out of the customs and shot arrows at Cao Cao along the river bank. Cao Cao's boatmen were all shot to death. It was Xu Chu who raised the saddle with his left hand to block the arrows and rowed with his right hand. Cao Cao survived on the boat, was washed by the river for four or five miles, and then crossed the Yellow River in a dangerous way. In addition, Ma Chao's coalition forces were not in the same mind, and they all went to grab the livestock left by Cao Cao. Otherwise, Cao Cao estimated that There are more bad luck and less good luck."

   "Xu Chu is really a fierce general," Cao Bianjiao clapped his hands, "Then let's learn from Cao Cao and cross the river here!"

  Peng Shining said: "Our army can first organize civilians to build a sand wall on the bank to block Tian Jianxiu's defenders from coming. In this way, we can swagger across the river without being as dangerous as Cao Cao."

  Cao Bianjiao said: "Mr. Peng, please continue to talk, how did Cao Cao play tricks on Ma Chao?"

Peng Shining pointed to the simple map: "After Cao Cao's entire army crossed the river, he led his troops across Fenglingdu and crossed the river at Pubanjin in the northwest. Unexpectedly, Xu Huang's advance was so fast that he had successfully crossed the river from Pubanjin."

   "Miaozai," Jiang Liang actually learned to speak like a literati, "Xu Huang is also a general. I knew him from listening to stories when I was young."

   "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", everyone knows that this topic is very lively.

Peng Shining continued: "When the vanguard led by Xu Huang was responding to Cao Cao's main force to cross the river, Ma Chao suggested launching a general attack immediately to drive Xu Huang back into the Yellow River. However, Han Sui said that if we fight now, we can only eliminate Xu Huang, not Eliminate Cao Cao's main force. You should wait for Cao Cao's army to cross the river a little bit, and then take the opportunity to kill Cao Cao's army, so as to inflict heavy damage on Cao's army."

  Cao Bianjiao complained: "This Han Sui is a fool. He can fight more and less, so he must start fighting immediately. Still waiting for the main force of Cao's army to cross the river? What if Xu Huang defends desperately and the main force of Cao's army really comes?"

  Peng Shining smiled and said, "So Cao Jun is really here."

Cao Bianjiao said with emotion: "Ma Chao is also unlucky to meet such a fool as Han Sui. Just like when I was in Ming Dynasty, there were a lot of fools around me. Especially civil servants and eunuchs, they talk about military affairs well on paper, but they are all **** nonsense when fighting. Mr. Peng , you continue to talk!"

Peng Shining said: "Cao Jun succeeded in crossing the river, so Ma Chao had to retreat. But if he wanted to go around the back of Tongguan, he had to cross the Wei River again. A part of Cao Jun sneaked in at night, built a wall with sand and soil, and supported Cao Cao's main force to cross the river. Ma Chao sent troops to attack and kill. The wall was always impossible to build. Fortunately, when the weather turned cold, Cao Jun poured water on the sandy soil, and after the water froze, the earthen wall was erected."

  Everyone sighed, Cao Cao's luck is really good.

Peng Shining said: "Ma Chao and Han Sui's coalition forces have a lot of cavalry, and Cao Cao's terrain is not easy to fight. The next step is to confront each other by the river. This delay has caused Ma Chao and Han Sui's food to run out. The coalition forces can only ask for surrender. Cao Cao's surface Agreed, and let Han Sui go to the front of the battle to talk about the old days. We talked about the past for a long time. After Han Sui returned to the camp, Ma Chao asked what happened, and Han Sui answered truthfully. Ma Chao didn’t believe it and began to be suspicious. Next, we Don’t tell me, you all understand.”

  Cao Bianjiao said: "It must be that Ma Chao and Han Sui were suspicious of each other, fell into Cao Cao's trick of alienation, and were defeated by Cao Cao!"

   "Of course!" Peng Shining laughed.

  The next day.

  The Datong army imitated Cao Cao's old wisdom and prepared to cross the river and circle the back.

  In order to prevent Tian Jianxiu from going out to attack and kill, he began to build fortifications by the river.

   There is no need to water it into ice, because Liu Zhu had already planned it, so he brought a lot of cement. Cement can be mixed with thinner ones, and it doesn’t matter if it’s bean curd dregs, as long as it can form an earthen wall anyway.

  Tian Jianxiu was informed of the situation, and immediately said: "The puppet army wants to cross the river, go to the other side of the Yellow River immediately!"

  Tian Jianxiu doesn’t have many regular soldiers, only about 6,000. Just in case, he selected the young and strong again, and trained a full 20,000 army, which has been trained for more than three months.

  When the Datong army was building the earthen wall, Tian Jianxiu personally led 5,000 soldiers and horses, and ran to the other side of the Yellow River to wait for the attack.

   But the Yellow River is so long, how can he have enough people?

  Defend here, but miss there. The Datong army can freely choose the place to cross the river. Even if the river is wider, even if the current is faster, more soldiers will be drowned by the Yellow River.

  Tian Jianxiu was a little panicked, and ordered the defenders of Tongguan and Fenglingdu to send another 8,000 people to guard the river.

   Moreover, while the Datong Army was building fortifications, he also dug trenches frantically on the other side of the river.

   "Boom boom boom!"

  The artillery of the Datong Army roared and fired at the Dashun Army on the opposite bank.

  The Yellow River channel here is five or six hundred meters wide at its widest point, and only three or four hundred meters at its narrowest point, just within the range of artillery.

  Of course, a few people can't be killed, it's purely to scare and scare to strengthen the reputation.

  Just as the Datong Army was looking for an opportunity to cross the river, internal problems began to appear on Tian Jianxiu's side.

  Many people said that He Zhen was an officer of the Ming Dynasty, and then joined Li Zicheng. However, according to the investigation of Manchu officials, it is said that this guy is Li Zicheng's old team, pretending to be a Ming military officer to deceive Manchu trust.

  Historically, He Zhen quickly surrendered to the Qing Dynasty and took the initiative to lead troops to attack Li Guo.

  But in this time and space, he did surrender to the Qing Dynasty. Because the Dashun Army retreated on a different route, he did not attack any of Li Zicheng's troops.

  When the Manchu Qing withdrew from Shanshan, Li Zicheng made a comeback, and He Zhen returned to Li Zicheng again.

  Although he was disliked for having been a sophomore, he was an old buddy after all. Since he surrendered again, he couldn't be killed directly. Li Zicheng has been looking for opportunities to settle accounts, but He Zhen is obedient, and he is ordered to do everything Li Zicheng says.

   "I'm afraid Tongguan will not be able to defend this time." He Zhen said.

  Dang Meng An said: "It is true that once the puppet army crosses the river, there will be a lot of recruits on our side, and it will definitely be unstoppable."

  He Zhen said: "We have all surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, and have always been guarded by His Majesty. Even if His Majesty can win the battle, we have no bright future, how about..."

   "It's better to submit to the court of Datong!" Luo Dai said.

  (end of this chapter)