Three days later, the Ming army sailors arrived at Causeway Gorge!

Zhu Youlang is no stranger to the name of Causeway Gorge, which is located at the southern end of the Tieshanping Ridge and is a canyon formed by the Yangtze River cutting Causeway Mountain.

It is twenty miles east of Chongqing Prefecture, the cliffs on both sides of the river are like cutting, it is the waterway gateway of Shuojiang River into Chongqing Prefecture, known as the eastern barrier. Since ancient times, it has been a battleground for soldiers.

There are too many famous battles that broke out in Causeway Gorge in history.

In the third year of Jiaxi, the Southern Song Dynasty general Zhao Xian defeated the Mongol army at Causeway Gorge.

In the fourth year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang Pingshu sent Liao Yongzhong to lead his troops to attack Daxia, and Mingsheng could not resist and surrendered here.

But to say that the most familiar with Tongluo Gorge in the Ming army is Li Dingguo.

In the spring of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, Zhang Xianzhong led his troops, known as more than 300,000, from Huguang Jingzhou to Sichuan. In February, he captured Kuimen, captured Fuling in May, and arrived at the mouth of Tongluo Gorge in early June, with an unstoppable attitude.

The governor of Sichuan at that time knew that the Ming army was weak, so he decided to actively defend in Tongluo Gorge.

He prepared artillery, rolling logs, and rocks in the Causeway Gorge, and set up iron cables to block the river at the mouth of the gorge.

Seeing this, Zhang Xianzhong made a gesture of storming Tongluo Gorge, and secretly dispatched 1,000 people under the command of Li Dingguo to capture Jiangjin and Futu Pass by land.

All of a sudden, the Ming army became a belly and back enemy, and the situation took a sharp turn for the worse.

Tongluo Gorge is a little similar to Tongguan, Shanhaiguan and other Xiongguan, that is, it is difficult to fight from the outside to the inside, and it is not too simple to hit from the inside to the outside.

Soon the Ming army's defense line was broken, and Zhang Xianzhong successfully took Tongluo Gorge.

Li Dingguo is a person who personally experienced this incident, and his natural memory is particularly fresh.

It's just that after all, this was created by him when he was in the camp of the Great Western Army, and the court was disgraced when he said it.

Therefore, Li Dingguo has remained silent.

Until Zhu Youlang asked Li Dingguo by name.

When Zhu Youlang saw the Qing army digging cliffs on the cliffs of Causeway Gorge, pulling iron cables, throwing stones and placing cannons, and leading ropes for flying bridges, he immediately thought of Li Dingguo.

"How does King Jin think he should break the situation now?"

Faced with the Son of Heaven's questioning, Li Dingguo naturally pretended to be deaf and dumb again.

He cleared his throat and said with some embarrassment: "Does Your Majesty want to attack head-on or win with a trick?" ”

Zhu Youlang said without hesitation: "Naturally, we will win by tricks, and the smaller the losses in this battle, the better." ”

Li Dingguo nodded and said, "It is difficult to break through the flybridge defense line head-on. However, the minister knew a small road, and he could order the soldiers to carry bamboo rafts and boats to cut wood and open the way from the top of Baiyan Mountain on the south bank. In this way, it can appear unexpectedly in the rear of Dongyu, and the upstream and downstream can be attacked at the same time, and the Causeway Gorge can be broken. ”

Zhu Youlang said in his heart that Li Dingguo really used his housekeeping skills, fortunately, there is Li Dingguo in the Ming Dynasty!

The rest of the generals such as Liu Tichun and Yuan Zongdi all laughed and said: "King Jin is really temperamental, this plan is very wonderful." ”

Wen Anzhi also stroked his beard and said, "This is really a good plan." ”

Zhu Youlang saw that no one objected, so he ordered: "In this case, this time the king of Jin will lead the surprise soldiers to attack." ”

"Command!"

Li Dingguo is too familiar with Tongluo Gorge, returning here is like going home, this battle can be described as nine out of ten, and winning the trust of the Son of Heaven is naturally glad to accept the order.

"I'm going to sit in the middle of the army and attract the attention of the captives."

Zhu Youlang decided to use himself as bait to lure the Qing army to hold the flybridge defense line.

As long as Zhu Youlang is there, the attention of the Qing army will not be distracted.

...

...

"General Cheng, look, the number of this Ming army is afraid that there are 100,000 people."

Deputy General Zhao Jie said with a sad face.

Cheng Tingjun's face was grim, and he couldn't see a trace of emotion.

He looked at the river for a while, and said in a deep voice: "What are you afraid of, Tongluo Gorge is easy to defend and difficult to attack." We also set up iron cables to build a flying bridge, even if the Ming army is all small boats, they can't pass through this line of defense. ”

In fact, he was a little apprehensive in his heart.

Although the Qing army held Chongqing last time, it was very dangerous to hold it, and almost lost all its belongings.

Moreover, although the Ming army moved the army last time, the connection between the various departments was not close, and there were many of them fighting for each other, and the Qing army was easy to break through.

But looking at today's posture, the Ming army came prepared, and the organization and discipline were excellent, and it was completely monolithic.

However, Governor Gao sent him to guard the Causeway Gorge, which is enough to see that the governor has more trust in him.

In this case, Cheng Tingjun naturally couldn't frown, even if he was desperate to defend this level and give himself a long face.

"Did the two cannons arrive?"

Starting from Fucheng, Cheng Tingjun specially asked for two cannons from Gao Minzhan.

Although the Causeway Gorge is easy to defend and difficult to attack, Cheng Tingjun still chose to engage in two cannons to suppress the formation just in case.

Condescending, with the blessing of artillery, Cheng Tingjun simply doesn't know how to lose!

"General Cheng, the cannon is still on the way..."

Deputy General Zhao Jie said with a look of frustration.

"Why is it so slow?"

Cheng Tingjun frowned when he heard this.

They set off from Fucheng together, and now that Cheng Tingjun's army has arrived at Tongluo Gorge for three days, the team transporting artillery should come no matter how slow it is, right?

"It must have been raining heavily, and the muddy cannon on the road was sunk in."

Zhao Jie guessed.

The artillery of the Qing army was extremely heavy, and it was generally used to defend the city and was rarely transported.

This time, Cheng Tingjun begged for artillery to guard the Causeway Gorge, and he could only use a carriage to pull it.

It's just a normal time.

But just in time for the heavy rain, the road will become muddy, so that the cannon can easily sink into the mud.

"Damn, fucking bad luck. This rain doesn't fall early or late, but at this time, is it deliberately unable to get along with Lao Tzu? ”

Without a cannon, Cheng Tingjun felt a little bottomless in his heart.

But it's come to this point, and there's no better way than to wait.

In fact, Cheng Tingjun has always been dissatisfied with Governor Gao's strategy of abandoning Zhongxian and other peripheral counties and only guarding the capital city.

In this way, it seems that the superior forces are concentrated, but there is no buffer and barrier at all.

If the Causeway Gorge is defended, it is okay, and you can wait for reinforcements to arrive.

What if the Causeway Gorge can't be defended?

Cheng Tingjun couldn't think about it!

It's all Wang Mingde's bewitching caresses!

He was afraid of death, so he bewitched in front of the governor Gao.

Alas, for now, I can only stubbornly defend it.

Cheng Tingjun only hoped that the messenger sent to Guizhou by Governor Gao would arrive earlier, and that Hong Jingluo could immediately send reinforcements to help after receiving the news.

As long as Hong Jingluo's reinforcements arrive, then it doesn't matter whether it is tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of Ming troops, there is nothing to fear.

After all, the army in Hong Jingluo's hands is the elite of the Qing army, and the combat effectiveness of the Chongqing Green Battalion is several times higher.

Relying on the patchwork shrimp soldiers and crab generals and rabble of the Ming army, they are not the opponents of Hong Jingluo's army at all.

Now he only needs to delay, and it will be the time of victory when Hong Jingluo comes to help.

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