I have to say that Fang La, known as the 'Holy Father', led the rout to flee to Sichuan, which was really a good move.

Since ancient times, Shu has been famous all over the world for its terrain and natural hazards, and it is a place that is easy to defend and difficult to attack.

As long as Fang La can lead an army of 200,000 to attack Shu, then whether it is Tong Guanxi's army pursuing from south to north, or Zhang Shuye's Wufu men and horses outflanking from north to south, they will be blocked by the natural barrier that is difficult for Sichuan to reach the blue sky.

This basin of Sichuan is surrounded by high mountains, the north is Micang Mountain and Daba Mountain, the west, is Longmen Mountain, Qionglai Mountain, Daxue Mountain, the south is Daliang Mountain, the east is Da Lou Mountain, Wuling Mountain, Wu Mountain, it is really dangerous on all sides.

The western part is the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, to the first line of the Dadu River abruptly stopped, the terrain here is abruptly protruding, the altitude increases from more than 500 meters to more than 2,000 meters at once, and the passage is extremely difficult. Therefore, the Qionglai Mountain, the Daxue Mountain, and the Dadu River became a natural barrier in the western part of the Shu region, and there was no strong political power on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and Tubo was only briefly strong during the Tang Dynasty, and was unable to pose a threat to the Central Plains before and after.

To the southwest, there are Daliang Mountain, Wulian Peak, Xiaoxiangling, Jinping Mountain and Hengduan Mountains, which stretch to Yunnan. In its southeast, it is connected by Da Lou Mountain, Wuling Mountain and other mountain ranges.

Therefore, the threat faced by Shu mainly comes from two directions, namely the east and the north.

In the north of Sichuan, there are Micang Mountain and Daba Mountain, and beyond these two mountains, it is the Hanzhong Basin, which is in the north of Hanzhong, and is connected with Guanzhong across the Qinling Mountains. Because the Qinling Mountains, the rice warehouse, the big bus mountains are extremely steep, it is extremely difficult to cross, so since ancient times, the road from Hanzhong to Hanzhong, from Shuzhong to Hanzhong, can only go along the river valley between the lofty mountains and mountains, many river valley cliffs stand in absolute place, can only erect plank road on the cliff, the big project and the danger of the situation, it is staggering

In fact, it is not necessary to either have a low level of science and technology in ancient times, or to build a road into Sichuan in later generations, which is also unspeakably difficult. So in this direction, not to say about fighting, even just walking, is a miracle.

In the east, it is mainly along the Yangtze River and Hubei Province. But in the place where Bashu and Hubei meet, it happens to be the legendary Three Gorges, the Three Gorges is nearly 200 kilometers long from east to west, the cliffs on both sides of the bank stand steeply, the narrowest place is only more than 100 meters, the mountain peak is generally more than 1000 meters higher than the river surface, and it is dangerous in the world. Among them, Qutang Gorge has the saying that "Qutang is dangerous in the world" since ancient times.

The Yangtze River, the Min River, the Tuo River, the Jialing River and other rivers flow through the whole region, the water and land transportation in the region is convenient, the land is fertile, there is no hunger of water and drought, in the words of Zhuge Liang, it is "Yizhou Pass, fertile fields, the land of abundance", there is the danger of mountains and rivers outside, and the accumulation of Tianfu inside, naturally facing foreign attacks, Sichuan occupies a great strategic advantage.

Kuizhou Road is located at the mouth of Qutang Gorge, the situation is dangerous, guarding the east gate of Shudi, it is a place where soldiers must fight, and Fang La chose this place as a breakthrough into Sichuan.

After the Song Dynasty established itself, in order to resist the Western Xia and Liao, the military strength of the successive dynasties continued to grow, about 370,000 during the Song Taizu period, and about 1.2 million during the Renzong period.

Today, under the "conscientious" governance of Emperor Huizong, the number of troops in the country has reached more than one million, but among them, "there are 10,000 soldiers and soldiers who are forbidden inside and outside, and they have been peaceful for a long time, and one-third of the quota is lost." ’

The meaning of this sentence is very simple, that is, 10,000 people are less than one-third, that is, more than 6,000, so the real strength of the Great Song Dynasty is only a few hundred thousand.

In order to defend the powerful Liao State in the north, the Great Song Dynasty deployed large armies in the three directions of Shaanxi, Hedong and Hebei, and in order to attack the Western Xia, it also deployed heavy troops in the five routes of Shaanxi, which were very difficult to support each other.

In addition to the armies that defended the two directions in the northwest and protected the city of Tokyo, most of the troops left in the state capitals were small in number and had little combat effectiveness.

The garrisons in Sichuan are all those who are good at work and neglect training, and the attacking side is the 200,000 square rebels who are desperately trying to survive.

Just when Emperor Tianzuo of the Northern Liao State was being chased by the Jin soldiers, Fang La's army also appeared at Daxikou in Kuizhou.

Zheng Siguang, the governor of Kuizhou, heard that the anti-thief Fangla army arrived, and hurriedly came to Qutang to build fortifications to strengthen the defense, and the commander of the Xiang army made Wu Fa lead 5,000 soldiers to hold it.

The two sides of Qutang Gorge are like cutting, the rock wall is towering, the river is surging and rushing in the cliff, since ancient times, there is the reputation of "dangerous if the sword pavilion, the male Mo Ruokui".

Fang La looked at the thousands of Song troops on the other side of the Yangtze River and the three chain bridges that were suspended in mid-air and ripped off the wooden planks, although he knew that this attack would inevitably cause heavy losses, but there was only one way forward for the pursuers of Tong Guan, Zhang Shuye and others.

"Attack!" Fang La gritted his teeth and ordered.

All the archers of the 200,000 Mingjiao army stood on the shore, bent their bows and arrows to shoot at the opposite side, covering the soldiers who were holding planks and blades and desperately rushing towards the three chain bridges.

"Ahh Yes! Yes! Ah......h

No one will not be afraid of death, but Li Tianyan, the marshal of Zhenguo of the Ming Sect, personally led people to stand on the shore and slash with a knife, and those hesitant sect members can only move forward desperately, after all, if they fall into the river, they will not necessarily die, but they will definitely die if they stay in place.

The Mingjiao sect continued to fight from ten to noon in the early morning, and finally occupied half of the three chain bridges, and tied wooden planks to them.

Under the cover of the rain of arrows of the Mingjiao archers, the Great Song Xiang Army, which was originally small in number, suffered a large number of attrition.

The soldiers of the Xiang Army, who had suffered heavy casualties, hid in the fortress on the opposite bank to avoid the rain of arrows, and they pulled the ropes tied to the chain bridge, and they could throw the Mingjiao members on the bridge into the Yangtze River.

After two more hours of fighting, the Mingjiao army had already attacked the end of the chain bridge, and Wu Fa, the commander of the Kuizhou Xiang Army, saw this, and hurriedly suggested to Zhizhou Zheng Siguang: "Now that the Fangla rebels are imminent, our army will have few soldiers, for today's plan, only by cutting off the several iron locks can we solve this dilemma!" ”

In fact, why didn't Zheng Siguang know that he should act like this at this time? But if these three chain bridges are really cut, it will be equivalent to breaking the gateway to the east of Sichuan, and the people of Shu will inevitably hate the people who ordered it.

What's more, judging from the military newspaper, the Song army led by Tong Guan and Zhang Shuye was in hot pursuit after the Fangla rebels, as long as he could lead people to delay and block the Mingjiao army for a few hours, he would make a great contribution.

Thinking of this, Zheng Siguang rejected Wu Fa's suggestion and ordered in a loud voice: "Prepare fire oil, as long as the Mingjiao thieves approach the shore, then set it on fire!" ”