Tongguan is known as the first city in the world, south of the Qinling Mountains, north of the Yellow River, east of the Han Valley, called the three Qin lock key, four towns throat, one hundred and two passes. Those who have always attacked Tongguan have also returned with many feathers, and generally need to cross the Yellow River and bypass Xiongguan before they can attack Shaanxi

Tongguan has nine city gates, nine gates, each gate has urn city, city gate, arrow tower, the west gate because of the connection Xi'an official road, the front of the city wall is relatively flat, but there are also city towers and arrow towers, as well as the inner gate and the outer gate.

Tongguan situation, east and west long, north and south narrow, the whole city looks like a saddle, and like gold ingots, along the city wall to the north, soon see the Wei River, this section of the city wall has been built on the side of the Wei River, the city wall is not far from the river bank, the widest point is less than a mile, when the water rises, the city wall is used as the embankment.

Then arrive at Beiguan, here is the confluence of the Wei River and the Yellow River, the river is even wider, standing on the high city wall, see the Yellow River flowing mightily eastward, the line of sight is extremely broad.

The East Gate Tower, the city tower here is called "Ying'en Gate", the urn city is called "Occupy the purple place" and the arrow tower is called "the Heavenly Danger Building". Outside the three arrow towers and inside the five city towers, the pattern of the urn city is formed, and these arrow towers are like many windows opened in the walls of the house, effectively covering the soldiers guarding the towers.

Standing on the Tianwei Tower, the official road from Xi'an passes through the city, goes out along this arrow tower, and then the official road goes close to the root of the wall, winds along the hillside to the foot of the mountain, and then goes down to the Yuanwang ditch to completely expose its own side to the eyes of the defenders.

The city wall built on the mountain, the rolling wood and stones on it, poured down the mountain, and the enemy troops coming from the official road, a single rolling log can roll down a large area.

Xiongguan Tiger stands, mostly refers to the east gate tower of Tongguan City, just like a tiger squatting on the Qilin mountainside. The north of this city tower is the Yellow River, from east to south is the Qilin Mountain city wall, which winds along the mountain, and the southeast is close to the Yuanwang ditch, almost from the ditch to the original face, is the foot of the Qilin Mountain.

Follow the winding mountain paths. Countless red military flags dotted the majestic pass in midsummer. Tens of thousands of Ming troops went out of the pass under the scorching sun on this mountain road.

Under the strong pressure of the imperial court and Shilin, Sun Chuanting's headquarters had no choice but to fight against the thieves.

Along the official road all the way to the east gate of Tongguan, that is, the only gate to enter the pass from the east, the road was crowded with all kinds of vehicles, full of carts full of heavy grain and grass, wheelbarrows, and side vans loaded with artillery. Sun Chuanting's own research and development of the train has made the already not wide road more and more crowded.

"The peaks and mountains are like gathering, the waves are like anger, and the mountains and rivers are on the surface of Tongguan Road. Looking at the western capital, he hesitated. Sad, the Qin and Han dynasties, the palace and thousands of rooms have been made of soil. Xing, the people suffer; Death, the people suffer! ”

On the tower of Tongguan City, he was surrounded by a group of general soldiers, deputy generals, praise paintings and others. Sun Chuanting was standing on the tiger skin chair, looking at the Tongguan in front of him, and the scene of the army, but his mouth read out the mountainside Yangtong care for the ancients of this first Yuan man Zhang Yanghao.

"The governor is worried about the affairs of the country and thinks of the suffering of the people, and he is a model for my generation!" The deputy envoy of the supervising army, Qiao Qiangao, praised loudly beside Sun Chuanting.

Sun Chuanting glanced at it, but his eyes were still only staring at the mountain-shaped terrain and river in front of him.

Since Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai's army went south to Huguang, and Zhang Xianzhong fought in Wuwei, Fengyang and other places. There is another intrusion into Fengyang, and even the momentum of approaching Jiangnan. The pressure on Sun Chuanting was extremely high. Yu Yu galloped, eager to urge Sun Chuanting to get out of the customs with three official documents a day.

And the bigwigs in the DPRK and China, as long as they think that they have a friendship with Sun Chuanting and their status is enough, they all write letters to Sun Chuanting in their private names, urging him to go out of the customs as soon as possible to fight the thieves. Words or ask him to see the millions of living beings in Huguang. Looking at the face of the mausoleum of the ancestors and ancestors of the Ming Dynasty, he quickly sent troops to rescue the soft words and begged, or put himself in a position of moral high ground, and asked Sun Chuanting to send troops quickly, "Do your best to be a minister!" These two letters of tone launched a fatigue bombardment against Governor Sun in just a dozen days. The room was so full of his signature that he didn't have time to look at it.

Different from this kind of soft grinding and hard bubble, the imperial court has the means of the imperial court.

In May, first Chongzhen ordered Sun Chuanting to supervise the military affairs of Henan and Sichuan, followed by the beginning of June, and then appointed Sun Chuanting as the secretary of the military department, and supervised the military affairs of Henan, Sichuan, Shanxi, Huguang, Guizhou, Jiangnan, and Jiangbei, and gave Shang Fang the sword, and gave him the sword of the civil governor and the military attache below the general army, and all the power to promote and reward and punish life and death was handed over to him, with only one purpose, so that he could quickly leave Tongguan.

When the news came out, the officials, gentlemen, generals, honors, and noble clans in the entire Xi'an City immediately boiled. They all went to the superintendent to ask, when will the superintendent go out to suppress the thieves, and we will organize a reward for the wine, meat, pigs, sheep and other things of the three armies.

The Qin Wangfu even sent several big eunuchs to Xingyuan, and sent a lot of silver dollars of grain, rice, pigs, sheep, wine, not to mention, but also sent a piece of ink treasure written by His Royal Highness the King of Qin, wishing Sun Chuanting a victory after leaving the customs and preserving the ancestral tomb for the old Zhu family.

At first glance, it seems that Sun Chuanting's prestige has reached the extreme, and he is deeply expected, but the trickster can't hide the gong.

"Where are they expecting Ben to go out and fight the thieves? They are clearly looking forward to the governor leaving Shaanxi as soon as possible, this is not to send our army out of the customs to suppress thieves, this is to send the plague god! Sun Chuanting's face was gloomy when he was discussing with Feng Shikong.

In his opinion, the request of these ministers and clans to ask him to leave Tongguan as soon as possible was only based on one word, "Li!" "Those who are from Jiangnan, or belong to the Donglin faction, don't want Zuo Liangyu to be chased all the way to Jiangnan by Li Zicheng, and don't want Zhang Xianzhong to have a chance to enter Jiangnan. Stirred up their peach paradise scenery.

As for the gentry, generals and clans in Shaanxi, they are even more naked. As long as Sun Chuanting leaves, then the system of one errand and one grain payment he implemented will end silently.

Every year in May of the lunar calendar, it is almost the season of summer grain harvest in various parts of the Ming Dynasty, the summer tax and autumn grain are assigned in the Ming season, the summer tax is not more than August, and the autumn grain is not more than February next year, but the Ming Dynasty is still a famine everywhere this year, it is the Huzhou Mansion in the south of the Yangtze River, the same locust plague is great, the people cut the bark and sawdust mixed chaff to eat, or dig the white mud in the mountains for food, called Guanyin powder.

Therefore, Sun Chuanting is also a word, drag! At least he has to delay until the summer grain is collected in the treasury, and the autumn grain is about to be put on the field, and by that time, the military salary and military food will also be slightly more abundant, and if he goes east to Henan, what will be missing. There is also a material basis for retreating to Shaanxi.

"If the wheat, cotton, and flax of the eight hundred miles of Qinchuan are all collected into the warehouse, and the food and salary are sufficient, the governor will immediately lead the men and horses out of the customs to fight the thieves!" In the face of the righteousness and strictness of public opinion, Sun Chuanting's reply was also impassioned. "Even if the horse leather shroud is nine deaths, there are no regrets!"

But. The enthusiasm and generosity of the government and the opposition, and the voices urging Sun Chuanting to get out of the customs, there are also some voices that are not very sociable. Compared with those who voiced these voices, some of the other ministers were uneasy in their hearts, and they had calculated that the available forces of the imperial court had been divided into three parts: although the army of Liaodong was relatively elite, it was no longer able to resist the Qing army, and it was really impossible to transfer; Zuo Liangyu's department is known as having a large number of generals, but in fact, he is afraid of the enemy and avoids battle, and it is difficult to use his command; The only trump card that can be used against the rebels. There are only Shaanxi officers and troops under the command of Sun Chuanting. If Sun Chuanting's department can really win, it will naturally be a blessing from heaven; However, they also felt that the hope of winning by luck was very weak after all, and if Sun Chuanting's department was annihilated, the fall of the Ming court would be doomed.

As the Nanyue Army of the Liang Guogong Division, which is not a descendant of the imperial court, will take the opportunity to rise, God knows if he Li Shouhan will become the second Cao Cao or Li Yuan?

Therefore, they strongly advocate prudence. At least until the training of the new army in Beijing is completed, and there is a usable army in hand, Sun Chuanting's men and horses can be used. Some ministers straightforwardly explained the benefits and disadvantages to Emperor Chongzhen. pointed out that if Sun Chuanting's troops did not move in Shaanxi, the rebel army would inevitably have worries if they wanted to attack Beijing in the north or go east to Nanjing; If Li Zicheng's righteous army planned to take Shaanxi first, Sun Chuanting could not leave his rear base and stick to Tongguan, which would be much more advantageous than a lone army going deep into Henan and Huguang. Zhang Fengxiang, the squire of the military department, said the most earnestly: "Sun Chuanting is all the best soldiers in the world, and the emperor only has this one belongings." Do not move lightly. ”

However, no matter how pleading the words were, they could not resist the concerted and fierce attack of almost the entire Ming Dynasty bureaucratic interest group. On the first day of August, under the repeated urging of Chongzhen, Sun Chuanting swore in Xi'an Guandi Temple. The choice of this place is naturally to take refuge in the spirit of the "Martial Saint" and beg for the smooth operation of this exit. In addition, Sun Chuanting himself is from Shanxi, and he also hopes that his fellow Hedong can bless him. After the ceremony was completed, he immediately ordered the chief soldier Ma Yi and Qin Yiming to follow Feng Shikong, the governor of Shaanxi, and enter the Nanyang area of Henan Province by way of Shangluo as a partial division; He commanded the general army Bai Guangen, Gao Jie, Niu Chenghu and other troops with a total of 100,000 people to go out of Tongguan. At the same time, Zuo Liangyu was transferred to the west to lead the troops to the west, and attacked the peasant army together with all walks of life.

Di Bao came out, from Beijing to Luoyang, to Wuchang, and even as far as Jinan and Nanjing, there was a sound of cheers.

(Oh, it seems that there is something not quite right, everyone help find it!) ）

"The governor should adopt a steady and steady approach to advance this time, first take Luoyang as a base, repair the city wall, recruit displaced people, open up the tun fields, store grain and grass, so that the advance can be fought, the retreat can be defended, and then the time is ripe to enter the Central Plains."

After the ceremony, Feng Shikong, the governor of Shaanxi, who had already been tied to the same boat as Sun Chuanting, offered him this strategy of fighting steadily and seeking undefeated.

However, Sun Chuanting refused with a wry smile.

"Oh no! I know that I will not return, but how can my husband be to the prison officials again! ”

As soon as these words came out, two lines of tears quietly welled up and crossed Sun Chuanting's cheeks.

"Why did the Inspector say such an inauspicious remark?" Feng Shikong looked left and right, and took out a secret letter from the sleeve of his robe.

"Congratulations, sir! Congratulations, Greetings! The student has something to tell the adults. ”

"What?" Suspiciously, he took the tightly sealed letter, and Sun Chuanting asked.

"The puppet soldier government set up by the thieves, although he is trapped in the thief, he is quite loyal and righteous, and he is dedicated to making meritorious contributions to redeem himself. Communicate with the students many times and inform them of the situation one by one. The student was afraid that this person would be cheating, so he did not dare to report it to the superintendent. But this is the right time. At present, Zuo Ping's thief is defeated, which shows that what this person said is true. Break into Cao and two thieves, and the elite soldiers are all in Xiangyang! Nanyang, Luoyang Kaifeng and other places are empty, it is the time for adults to make contributions! ”

In Qiu Zhitao's secret letter, he informed in detail the military system, strength, and weapons of the peasant army, and specifically explained that at present, "among the thieves, the two cutting-edge troops have all opened the four prefectures of Xiangyang and besieged the headquarters of Zuo Kunshan, and the rest of the bandits such as Liu Zongmin, Hao Shaoqi, and Yuan Zongdi are also all going together." ”

In addition to taking away all the artillery that could be used in Shaanxi to enrich Bai Guangen's car camp, Sun Chuanting also ordered the prefectures and counties of Pingyang Prefecture (now Linfen) in Shanxi, across the river, to provide grain, rice, beans, fodder, horses, grass and other materials for the army, without delay. Violators, kill!

However, the more than 100,000 troops, plus the civilians who accompanied the army to transport heavy artillery, grain, grass, ammunition and other materials, had not left Tongguan, and they had already suffered enough.

The reason why Tongguan is known as a natural risk. It is dozens of miles away from the south of the Qinling Mountains, the north of the Yellow River moat, the west of Huashan, the city is located, in fact, on a plain.

However, for thousands of years, due to the cutting of the Qinling Mountains and the erosion of floods, many broken and scattered ravines have been formed, which are great obstacles to transportation and the use of troops. Trenches were dug over the plains. It can be used to block the enemy, and the magic of nature has created the peculiar terrain of Tongguan.

The Qinling Mountains in the south are difficult to cross, and the Yellow River in the north is difficult to cross, and then the streams that flow from the Qinling Mountains to the Yellow River create numerous valleys. Most of these valleys are north-south, which just blocks the road from Henan to Shaanxi.

Coarse and coarse, Tongguan territory. There are nearly 1,000 ravines running north-south, and there are more than 10 ravines 10 miles long. Cut a plain to pieces. Many of them are still high and low, and there are drops.

The ravines are everywhere, the original high ditches are deep, and the valleys are undulating, and such terrain is of course not easy to walk.

It is like the Loess Plateau, with thousands of ravines. Walking on the plains, a deep valley suddenly appeared on the ground in front of me. Unless you go over a deep ravine, you will take a detour, most likely for several days. Wangyuan ran to the dead.

Maybe a single horse, the brave can slowly climb over, but there are luggage carts and horses, pulling the baggage, can they fly through these ravines that appear from time to time?

Some ravines have a drop of hundreds of feet, so roads are needed.

In Tongguan, there was once such a joke: a little daughter-in-law wanted to go back to her parents' house, and she set off on a donkey at dawn on the fifth watch. When it was noon, he stopped to drink the donkey and beat the tip, and suddenly found that he had forgotten to bring the clothes he had prepared for his father, so he raised his head and shouted at it a few times.

When the husband heard about it at home, he found the package from home and threw it directly from the top of the cliff to the bottom of the ditch. The little daughter-in-law picked up the package, dusted off the dust, and went to her parents' house. Although it is a joke, it also reflects the characteristics of the local terrain. This is still a solo walk, just imagine, more than 100,000 people have to walk such a road, and a large number of baggage artillery is accompanied by it, it is strange to be able to walk fast!

The advantages of Tongguan, in addition to the Qinling Mountains and the Yellow River, are also more reflected in the valleys, and the most advantageous valleys are two, one is the Yuanwang ditch, and the other is the forbidden ditch.

Yuanwanggou is under Tongguan, at the foot of Qilin Mountain in the southeast of the city, connects the Yellow River in the north, extends in the direction of Qinling Mountains in the south, is more than 20 miles long, the ditch is long and the valley is dangerous, it can be said to be a natural barrier to protect the city of Tongguan.

Then go about five miles to the west of the ditch, there is a parallel ditch, which is the forbidden ditch.

This ditch is deeper and longer, south of Qinling Artemisia Chayukou, north to the south of Tongguan City's Shimen Pass, as long as more than 30 miles, deeply block any pedestrian who wants to go from Henan to Shaanxi, so that they can only take the Tongguan City Gate.

The past dynasties also realized the importance of the forbidden ditch to Tongguan, on both sides of the ditch, built many beacon towers, built one every three miles, and there are twelve supporting cities, these twelve cities are connected with Tongguan County, called twelve cities.

In peacetime, it is forbidden to travel and travel, pedestrians are forbidden to pass, and it is also forbidden to cut down trees in the ditch, so together with Qinling and Tongguan, it has formed a strong defense line that birds cannot cross.

The original place between the two ditches, the locals call it Lintoe Plain, also known as the South Plain, this piece is located in the south of Tongguan, about 20 miles long, about four or five miles wide flat land, in the old days, it was mostly the place where the Tongguan guards planted grain and wheat, and some guards also gathered on the plain.

With military considerations, if the enemy army cannot sneak into Shaanxi, let alone go around the west gate, the Tongguan city will not be besieged by the regiments, and the reinforcements and grain and grass from the hinterland of Shaanxi will be able to provide continuous support.

Therefore, the second ditch is very important, and Tongguan is re-elected to make the city solid, so there is "so the pass but not the forbidden ditch, the guard is also guarded, the forbidden ditch is not built twelve cities, and the guard is not good." The city is especially within a room, Du Men Se Sinus, in order to prevent birds from entering, and forget to close its door also".

As a result, the forward Gao Jie's department has already left Tongguan to Baofeng and Lushi, and the Chinese army, which is the soul of the whole army, has not yet left Tongguan. And the troops of Niu Chenghu and others are still lingering in Xi'an, Xianyang and other places.

In Qiu Zhitao's secret letter, it was written very clearly that the vast area from Tongguan to Jiaxian was "empty of thieves", so Gao Jie's troops were like a broken bamboo along the way. As soon as the oath was taken in early August, the forward rangers rushed to the Zhougong Temple outside Luoyang City, and they showed off their might.

On the ninth day, arrived at the city of Baofeng. Chen Kexin, the pastor of Baozhou, appointed by Li Zicheng, and Jiang Li, the governor of the state, organized the people to resist the city. On the evening of the 12th, 288 gentry went out of the city without permission and surrendered, "the city was broken, the armies swarmed in, the city was boiling, and the fire shone like day." Chen Kexin, Jiang Li, and others were all arrested and killed, and Gao Jie reported to Sun Chuanting. Sun Chuanting ordered him to choose two senior years from the 288 people who surrendered, and ordered them to be named one by one, and more than ten people who could not be named were suspected of being thieves and beheaded. ”

Sun Chuanting personally supervised in Tongguan, organized a large team of people to speed up the progress of the customs, and made Gao Jie rush to Tanghe County, because, according to Qiu Zhitao's secret report, the old camp of thieves and their families are stationed here, and their children and jade silks are all here! With such a temptation, the speed of the Qin soldiers' march was much faster.

On the other hand, Sun Chuanting reported to the imperial court and said: "The thieves are all defeated when they hear the name of the ministers. The minister swore a clear plan not to worry about the father of a thief. ”

Zhu Youzhen was overjoyed, and happily handed over Sun Chuanting's report to the courtiers for circulation, and excitedly shouted: "The thief is doomed!" "The three departments of the officials, soldiers, and workers:" The superintendent is stationed in Henan, and has repeatedly reported victory, and most of the villages have been recruited. The towns and Fuyi crossed the river as a whole brigade and went to work quickly. Avoid the former, fly ginseng and re-treat. On the one hand, it appeases and moves, and reclaims the barrenness; On the one hand, the city was repaired and the people were installed. The provinces of Hebei are still required to transport grain and grass, receive the help of the superintendent, and the dispatch of transportation from nearby places in Shanxi must not be delayed, and the results are complete. The reward of the marquis is not a lot. ”

Seeing that it seems that the purpose of calling back Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai's main force has been achieved, the ancestral tomb and the territory of the state capital in Chengtian and other places can be saved. He has already begun to prepare to reward the meritorious heroes. However, Feng Yuanbiao, the secretary of the Ministry of War, paused worriedly and said: "The thief sees the temptation of my division, and the art of war is also taboo." Ministers can't be carefree. ”

Hearing these disappointing words, Zhu Youzhen immediately became speechless for a long time, if it wasn't for the time of great joy, he would almost have ordered General Dahan to pull out this guy who couldn't talk and give him a cane!

However, it seems that the ancestors and ancestors of the Ming Dynasty did not go to sleep today, and everyone's mood has become good because they don't have to worry about someone carrying out illegal demolition activities.

A little eunuch hurriedly rushed to the gate of the Qianqing Palace with a copy of the Shanhaiguan Tang Newspaper, stumbling under his feet and almost falling to the ground.

"Emperor! Emperor! Great joy! ”

"Slave Chief Huang Taiji is dead!" (To be continued......)