On August 29, the seventh year of Zhongxing in the Ming Dynasty, Zhou Cao led the 20,000 Ming army iron cavalry of the Second Army to capture Lao Cai City with lightning speed, and officially started the war to destroy Annam.

After clearing the remnants of the soldiers of the Annan Army in Laojie City, Zhou Cao left only 1,000 people to guard Laojie and wait for the arrival of the garrison, so he rushed to Gaoping City, the second city of Annan, with the remaining 19,000 soldiers of the Second Army.

"Kill"

Gao Ping was also defenseless, like Lao Cai, he was easily rushed into the city by the Ming army's iron cavalry.

However, the general of the Annan army who guarded Gaoping was quite witty, and soon organized a part of the army in Gaoping City to block a street, where he met the Ming army's iron cavalry head-on.

"Xiu Xiu Xiu" The soldiers of the Annan Army shot a round of arrows.

Due to the short distance between the two sides, many arrows were shot into the Ming army's iron cavalry, and about a dozen Ming soldiers were hit by arrows, causing some casualties to the Ming army.

"Bang bang bang" The Ming soldiers immediately fired back, shooting a large number of Annam archers on the spot.

"Boom" The soldiers of the Ming Army threw out several grenades and blew up several dense soldiers of the Annam Army.

The soldiers of the Annam Army had seen such a formation, rifles and grenades, and under a large number of casualties, they immediately began to retreat.

The iron cavalry of the Ming army took the opportunity to charge and broke through the defense line of this group of Annan army at once.

"No retreat! No return! Repel the Ming army! The guard shouted in an attempt to stop the rout of the soldiers.

Because of the roar of the defenders of the southern army of Gao'an, the eyes of many Ming soldiers were aimed at him, and at least five Ming soldiers on horseback raised their guns to aim at the general of the defenders of Gaoping, an annan.

"Bang bang bang" five Ming soldiers hooked the trigger at the same time.

"Poof! Burst! "The Gao Ping defender was shot in the left chest, followed by a shot in the forehead, and the other three bullets were hit in other parts, five bullets hit five blood holes in his body, and blood flew out, this Gao Ping'an Southern Army guard died so much that he couldn't die anymore!

As the corpse of the defender of the Gao Ping'an Army smashed to the ground, the soldiers of the Annan Army, who had already been defeated, were no longer restrained by the generals, and the rout was faster, and thousands of soldiers of the Annan Army scattered and fled.

"Boom! Kill," the Ming army's iron cavalry changed into a horse chopping knife and began to chase fiercely.

In less than half an hour, the Ming army's iron cavalry completely wiped out all the defenders of the Annan Army in Gaoping City, killing them, captivating them, and annihilating more than 7,000 soldiers of the defenders of the Annan Army.

Leaving only 1,000 guards left, Zhou Cao once again led the remaining nearly 18,000 Ming troops of the Second Army to kill Liangshan, the last and most important town in the north of Ben'an!

As long as Liangshan is captured, the door of the Red River Plain will be wide open, and the Ming Iron Cavalry can come to the city of Hanoi at any time!

After breaking Laojie and Gaoping one after another, Liangshan finally received the news of the Ming army's attack first.

"Close the gates!"

"Close the gates!"

The gate of Liangshan City was closed before the Ming army's iron cavalry reached the city, preventing the Ming army's iron cavalry from directly entering the city.

As the largest and most important town in the northern part of Annam, Liangshan City has a small moat.

Although the moat of Liangshan is not large, the width is only less than two meters, but after the suspension bridge is retracted, the Ming army will have to work hard to blow up the city gate or collapse the city wall, at least it can block the Ming army for a while.

"What to do, what to do! The Ming army attacked Annam on a large scale, and unknowingly hit Liangshan! "In Liangshan City, the Liangshan guard of Annan looked panicked.

Although Liangshan learned the news of the invasion of the Ming army one step earlier, the Liangshan defender was not as fearful of death as the Gao Ping guard, but he was extremely timid and afraid of death, afraid that the Ming army would attack Liangshan and his life would not be guaranteed.

"General, Liangshan City is easy to defend and difficult to attack, and the Ming army is not so easy to attack!" The soldiers of the Annan Army comforted him, not only to comfort the Liangshan guard, but also to comfort himself. After all, the Ming army was so shocking that they hadn't even received the news, Laojie and Gaoping had fallen, and they didn't know the news of the Ming invasion until the Ming army came to the city.

The Ming army's offensive was so fast, I don't know how many troops came, at least Lao Cai and Gao Ping could fall unconsciously, relying on the more than 10,000 troops in Liangshan City alone, they would definitely not be the opponents of the Ming army.

Outside the city of Liangshan, the Ming army had already set up ten field cannons.

"Fire!"

"Boom Boom"

The cannonballs exploded on the head of Liangshan City, and the huge force not only lifted off the city wall with a large number of corpses of the defenders of Annam, but also broke the iron cable that pulled up the suspension bridge, and the suspension bridge smashed down with a bang.

After the drawbridge was blown down, the ten field cannons were almost flat, and the muzzles of the guns were aimed at the closed Liangshan City Gate.

With a few loud bangs, the city gate of Liangshan was blown open by the cannonballs fired by the cannons.

"Rush," Zhou Cao yelled.

The iron cavalry of the Ming army under his command immediately rushed towards the city gate that was blasted open.

In the process of rushing into the city gate, the Ming soldiers on horseback kept shooting at the soldiers of the defenders of Annan who were blocking the way, and entered the city of Liangshan with an unstoppable momentum.

Although there were more than 10,000 defenders of Annam in Liangshan City, the morale of the Ming army was high, the weapons were advanced, and the combat effectiveness was extremely strong, how could they resist it.

In an instant, the soldiers of the Annan garrison in Liangshan City were defeated by the Ming army iron cavalry that rushed into the city, and the Ming army iron cavalry was unstoppable along the street to the defender general's mansion and the official yamen in the center of Liangshan City.

"Newspaper"

"The general is not good, the Ming army has broken the city, and it has entered the city, and it is killing in the direction of the general's mansion!" There are soldiers of the defenders of Annam who want to report to the Liangshan guards.

The Liangshan guard was so shocked that his eyes suddenly widened.

"What, the Ming army is going to enter the city?" The Liangshan guard shouted in disbelief, the Ming army had less time to come to the city than a stick of incense, and they had entered the city so quickly, how could he believe it.

However, it was not the turn of the Liangshan guards to believe or not, the sound of the war horses and iron horses knocking on the earth, and the sound of the Ming army's forced shouting and killing came into the general's mansion, and the Liangshan guards had to believe it if they didn't believe it, and the Ming army really killed into the city, and also killed his general's mansion.

"The Ming army is strong, Liangshan is no longer defendable, quickly, withdraw from Liangshan with me and go to Hanoi to protect the king!" The Liangshan guard shouted in horror, he didn't have time to bring anything, and ran to the back door with a dozen soldiers, intending to escape through the back door, and finally escaped from Liangshan.

In fact, although the Ming army iron cavalry entered the city, but there are tens of thousands of Annan defenders in the city, if the Liangshan defenders organize resistance, relying on these tens of thousands of soldiers, at least they can block the offensive of the Ming army, and even kill and injure some Ming troops, but unfortunately the Liangshan guards are too afraid of death, as soon as they hear that the army breaks the city, they don't care about anything, they just want to abandon the city and flee, escape out of the city, and even run away with a grandiose excuse that they want to go to Hanoi to protect the king of Annan.

The defenders of Annam, who did not have the command of the general, were even more unbearable, and they were directly routed and pursued and killed by the Ming army's iron cavalry on a large scale.

Although the Liangshan defender wanted to flee for his life at the first time, the Liangshan Annan defenders who lost his command as a general were defeated too quickly, and the maneuver of the Ming army's iron cavalry was also very fast.

"Bang! Bang! During the pursuit, the Ming army continued to shoot and kill the Annan soldiers next to the Liangshan guard.

Seeing the soldiers around him being killed one by one and falling to the ground, the Liangshan guard was so frightened that his legs were weak, he tripped over a stone while running, and fell to the ground with a sigh, and when he got up again, he was already surrounded by Ming army iron horses.

"Don't kill me! Don't kill me! The Liangshan Shou knelt on the ground in fear and kept pleading.

"Humph! Unable to say boo to a goose! Zhou Cao Cema appeared here, looking at the Annan Liangshan guard so weak and afraid of death, he immediately looked disdainful.

Although Lao Cai and Gao Ping were directly killed by them without warning, the guards of the two cities still organized some resistance in the end and did not abandon the city and flee, but this Liangshan guard planned to abandon the city and flee at the first time, which was really weak.

At least, it can make it easier for them to fully control Liangshan, and this person can be regarded as a little contribution.

"Take it down!" Zhou Cao waved his hand and asked people to take this Annan Liangshan guard who was greedy for life and afraid of death down.

Immediately, the Ming army continued to clear the remnants of the resistance in the city, and about an hour later, the city was completely cleared, killing more than 3,000 Annan troops and capturing more than 9,000 prisoners.

With the capture of Liangshan by the Ming army, the gateway to the Red River Plain was wide open, and the Ming army's iron cavalry could be at any time under the city of Hanoi, the capital of Annam.

Seeing that the sky was completely dark, Zhou Cao did not give the order to directly enter the Red River Plain overnight, but planned to rest in Liangshan for a day or two, wait for the rear garrison to arrive, and take over the defense of Lao Cai, Gaoping, Liangshan and other cities, so that the second army could completely free up its hands to attack Hanoi, the capital of Annam, and destroy the kingdom of Annam in one fell swoop.