On the morning of March 28, it was the third day of the Flying Tiger Battalion's breakthrough into the mountains.

Xuan Chengzi straightened the Dao crown on his head, stroked his long beard under his chin, and silently recited "Immeasurable Heavenly Venerable" in his heart, stretched out his legs and stepped over the high threshold and stepped into the main hall of Bixia Palace.

In the magnificent hall, there are some "pilgrims" wearing strange green jackets.

The only person in this group of soldiers who was dressed in the robes of the military attachés of the Ming Kingdom was facing away from Xuan Chengzi at the moment, looking up at the righteous god Bixia Yuanjun enshrined in the Bixia Palace.

"General, let's have a sip of mountain tea."

Xuan Chengzi came behind the donor, turned sideways, and revealed the little Taoist boy holding the tea tray behind him.

"Oh, and tea, thank you."

The military general turned around, picked up the tea bowl and took a sip, and then couldn't help but nod, "The tea is good, it has no flavor." ”

Daoist Xuan Chengzi smiled and explained, "This tea is passed down by the old Taoist patriarch, and the preparation method is unique. Lao Dao heard the master say that General Qi was the one back then, and he often came to the palace to drink tea. ”

"Hehe, understand and understand, the officers and soldiers of Jizhen often come here to worship the gods, and this general knows it."

When the military general said this, he stretched out his hand and took out a few shiny silver cakes from his arms and handed them to Lao Dao, "Anyway, I can be regarded as half of the people of Jizhen, and our masters are no exception today, na, this is incense money." ”

"Immeasurable Heavenly Venerable, the old man thanked the general."

"Hehe, old man, don't be busy, I still have something to ask you."

"Please also ask the general to show me."

"Well, do you know how many Tartars are in the military city under the mountain?"

"The total number is about five or six hundred, all cavalry."

"Does that generation have any dealings with neighbors?"

"In recent days, there have been more people from the east and fewer people from the west, and there are always two or three rides passing by every day."

"Yo, old man, I found you very feeling?"

"Don't hide it from the general, since the foot of the mountain was occupied by the Tartars, the old Taoist watched day and night, praying for the return of the heavenly soldiers all day and night."

"Very well, Ben will assure you that it won't be long before you can receive the pilgrims' offerings again."

The topography of the entire Yanshan Corridor is like this, from the capital to the east, after passing the narrow mouth of Jizhen, which is between the two mountains, it is the Zunhua Plain, which is 40 miles long and wide.

Continuing east across the Zunhua Plain, the terrain will narrow sharply, turning into a mountainous artery that is 80 miles long and less than one mile wide on average.

This section of the main road leads to the Li River on the left and the Luan River on the right, and the water and land are parallel, which is extremely important.

After exiting this narrow road, there is another Luanhe Plain. This place is already close to the sea, close to Qinhuangdao, and to the north is a series of dangerous passes including Shanhaiguan and Xifengkou.

In short, the terrain of the entire Yanshan corridor is like a dumbbell, with plains at both ends and a thin bar in the middle.

The battle plan of the Crossing Crowd this time will start from the midpoint of the dumbbell to break the game.

As for the left side of the dumbbell, because Zunhua, which was guarded by the Tartar soldiers, it was only eighty miles away from Jizhen, where the Ming army was entrenched, and the two sides were in a tense confrontation at the moment, so the crossing did not plan to wade into the troubled waters.

Keeping Zunhua and letting the two gangs contain each other and make time for the Tartar on the right side of the dumbbell to be cleaned up by the crossing crowd is the most reasonable solution.

In this way, the strategically important Santun camp, located in the middle of the dumbbell, has become the first nail to be pulled out by the crossing crowd.

The governance of Jizhen was arranged in Shishiyu at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty. In the Ming Yingzong period, due to the intensification of the contradictions with the northern nomads, the pressure on the border army to defend the palace increased, so Hu Yong, who was the seventh general soldier of Jizhen at that time, moved to Santun Camp, which was better located in the town, thus creating the foundation of Santun Camp for 186 years.

Santunying is a T-shaped intersection in the middle of the Yanshan Corridor.

The geographical location of this place is extremely important, and for many years it has guarded the tribute road of the northern Mongolian people, "to Xifeng Ershe, the left mountain and sea, the right is Yong, and the hub is among them, in order to show the importance of the tribute road." ”

At the intersection of Santunying, take the mountain road in the north, and there are only two houses away from Xifengkou, that is, sixty miles of road.

Located in the middle of the dumbbell narrow road, Santun Camp is about the same distance from Shanhaiguan and Juyong Pass on the east and west sides, and it is the best place to serve as the northern military command center of the Beijing Division.

For more than 100 years, Jizhen, as the "first town in the world", has served as the chief military officer, and all of them have set up their administrative offices in Santun Camp City.

From March 25, the cavalry troops that crossed the crowd crossed the 150-mile plain north and entered the remaining veins of Yanshan. After that, the troops dispersed, and after carefully searching the mountain ranges within a radius of more than 100 miles, they gradually gathered at the foot of Jingzhong Mountain on March 30.

Jingzhong Mountain is 610 meters above sea level, and at the foot is Santun Camp City, which is just overlooked.

The scenery of Jingzhong Mountain is beautiful, there are many scenic spots, and it integrates Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism in one mountain. As early as the second year of Jiajing, Ma Yong, the chief military officer of Jizhen, built Bixia Palace on the mountain, and enshrined the statue of Bixia Yuanjun, and the incense became more and more prosperous. Since then, the officers and soldiers of Jizhen, including Qi Jiguang, have often climbed this mountain, leaving many famous sentences.

The main purpose of crossing the mountain to worship the temple today is to collect local intelligence and investigate the military situation under the mountain.

Zhang Zhongqi, the newly appointed commander of the Flying Tiger Battalion, left the palace and went to the observation deck in front of the mountain after chatting with Lao Dao in Bixia Palace.

Bixia Palace is full of incense, so the old road just now seems to be ancient and clumsy, but in fact it is an invisible rich man - the viewing platform is paved with white marble from Fangshan, and the carvings on it are exquisite.

At this moment, on the observation deck, a group of people led by Qian Tieshan are watching something around a set of pocket drone ground stations. When Zhang Zhongqi walked in, the LCD screen of the ground station was an aerial picture of Santun Camp City at his feet.

"How many people are in there? The old way says that there are five or six hundred tartars. ”

"Almost." Du Dewei, the deputy captain of the special combat team, answered, "Our early reconnaissance is also this number, and nothing has changed in the past two days." ”

Zhang Zhongqi snorted, "Then when will you fight?" ”

"Tomorrow." Qian Tieshan stood up straight at this time, crossed his waist and looked around at the surrounding mountain scenery, "Tonight, Lao Du will take people to scout again, and then we will have a meeting, and wait for supplies by the way." ”

An unnamed valley not far from the foot of Jingzhong Mountain has become a base for the troops. The valley is on high ground and there is a small river on the side, so rows of grass-green canvas marching tents have been erected here.

On both sides of the river, two long rows of horses were drinking with their heads bowed. A little upstream, the Flying Tigers who came to this place in advance are carrying water in canvas buckets and preparing to set up pots to cook rice.

Since the main force of the Houjin army has been withdrawn, the Tartar soldiers who stayed in the several cities on the back road can be said to have little fighting spirit - in history, after Sun Chengzong organized the troops, he took all the cities in only one wave.

It was also these Ming troops who were beaten by the Eight Banners not long ago and lost their armor.

And it was these same Eight Banner soldiers, Sun Chengzong, who had the superior strength in the first class, to attack the city, and these people opened the city gate and whistled and ran away, and the horses were full of large bags and small bags.

This is an inevitable situation, the strength of the Eight Banners is not the offensive and defensive battle of the city, not to mention that these cavalry who stayed behind have no long-term supply of food and grass, and the number is small, and even the city wall cannot be filled, how can they not retreat.

In this situation, the Flying Tiger Battalion, which was already separated from the Santun camp by a mountain, began to camp with swagger, and no longer cared about exposing the problem - the Tartar soldiers had begun to shrink in full force, just waiting for someone to attack the city, and there was no need to release the Tanma again.

As the soldiers who have been scattered out in the past few days have returned to the building, the nameless valley has become more and more lively, and the smoke of the cooking has continued to rise.

In the evening, a group of improvised cavalry auxiliaries brought the first supplies from outside the mountain on pack horses.

These auxiliaries are real logisticians. After stopping the large convoy at the mountain pass to the south, they transferred the supplies to pack horses, and then crossed the 100-mile mountain road to deliver the supplies here.

Seeing the arrival of the first supplies, the crossing people, who had already set up a temporary headquarters in the valley, had no worries and began to prepare for the night's reconnaissance activities. At 10 o'clock in the evening, the reconnaissance team led by Du Dewei, deputy commander of the special combat team, set off on foot on time.

The moon is bright and the stars are scarce, and the reconnaissance team went out of the Jingzhong Mountain Pass, which is only more than a mile away from Santun Yingcheng, so there is no need to ride a horse.

Half an hour after departure, the team arrived at the empty shanty town outside the moat. The special combat team members wearing night vision devices then released DJI drones equipped with infrared lenses and night vision lenses.

The drone released during the day can only take aerial photography at a high place, and the drone released at this time can hover close to reconnaissance. Soon, the drone transmitted a detailed picture of the city, and Qian Tieshan at the headquarters of the Nameless Valley also received the data simultaneously.

In the third year of Wanli, Qi Jiguang, who was the chief military officer of Jizhen at the time, carried out a large-scale maintenance of the city's appropriation.

After the reconstruction, the Santun camp city is a brick and stone structure, the city wall is 3 zhang high, the top width is 1 zhang 5 feet, and the surrounding area is 7 li.

There are 3 main gates in the city, Jingzhong Gate in the south, Binri Gate in the east, and Gongjing Gate in the west. Heavy gates were also built at each gate to strengthen the city's defenses. 50 meters north of the two main gates in the east and west, there are two convenient gates, commonly known as the small east gate and the small west gate.

The city defense facilities of Santun camp are very whole, there is a tower on the city gate, there is Ziji Palace built on the north city platform, there are 5 corner towers built on the city corner, there are towers built on the east and west heavy gates, and 9 enemy platforms are evenly arranged along the city platform.

In addition, there are still two water gates in the city, and the water outside the city can circulate. The moat with a width of 7 feet and a depth of 3 zhang is the living water of the nearby Henghe River, which not only goes around the city, but also has a seismic lake with a length of 350 zhang, a width of 10 zhang, and a depth of 7 feet outside the east gate.

It's a pity that such a superb and complete city defense system, but there is no supporting army to guard it - after the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the customs, they raided the Santun camp as soon as possible, and as a result, the morale of the Ming army was demoralized and the fighting spirit was lost, and this choke point was surrendered without any resistance.

While scouting the details of the city's buildings, the infrared silhouettes of the Tartar guards who were constantly wandering around the city walls also clearly appeared on the LCD screen.

After scouting the city walls, the drone flew to the inside of the city, where the main force of the Tartars was located.