Chapter Seventy-Six: The Bloody Battle of Ningwu Burning Grain and Blowing Up the Bridge

As soon as Zhang Zhimu arrived at the office, Li Zhi, who had not moved for a long time, called and asked Zhang Zhimu if he had time, Zhang Zhimu said, "If you have time, you can come over." Zhang Zhimu knew that Li Zhi was in trouble, and it was not urgent. When there is an emergency, he doesn't ask himself if he has time.

Sure enough, Li Zhi came over with a big notebook.

After sitting down, Zhang Zhimu asked, "Recently, is there any news of **?" I was a little worried, and we couldn't contact him. ”

Li Zhi said: "He is very close to Li Zicheng now, and it is not easy to come out to deliver letters. We couldn't contact him. I don't think it's going to happen, though. ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "I don't know what happened to the brothers in the Huwei Dart Bureau that he contacted. We're going to counterattack, but don't beat them all. ”

Li Zhi said: "** shrewd, I guess he will be able to arrange these things, I have a feeling, maybe when we counterattack, they will appear, can start a special role." ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "Tell me, what are you holding in your hands this time?" ”

Li Zhi said: "This is the list of all the royal clan personnel of the Ming Dynasty and their addresses. I think in the future, when we take over the world, they will be all hidden dangers. I organized their files this time. Some of the information was obtained with the help of Wang Shichang, the original Hukou garrison. ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "Okay! You've thought about everything. How's that Wang Shichang of ours? ”

Li Zhi said: "He has never been able to get a suitable position, and he is very depressed every day. ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "This Wang Shichang is still a very thoughtful person, and we will all need it in the future." Your royal archives should be as detailed as possible, so that their children and grandchildren are not left behind. ”

After Li Zhi finished speaking, he was about to go out, Zhang Zhimu said: "Let's go, I will also go to the command center, it is estimated that Li Zicheng will fight Ning Wu in the next few days." ”

Sure enough, as soon as Zhang Zhimu arrived at the command center, Ouyang He said: "Mr. Zhang came just in time, Li Zicheng has already surrounded Ningwu." ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "It's so fast, our Majesty the Emperor Dashun, you are so tired from fighting Daizhou, and you don't have a good rest." ”

Chen Yufeng said: "Haha! I find it strange why Emperor Dashun didn't continue to go north, but turned back to fight Ningwuguan. ”

Zhang Zhimu knew why, but he couldn't say. In his previous life, Zhang Zhimu saw a piece of information, when Li Zicheng dreamed of a child riding a cow. Song Xiance is a master of dream interpretation, and he said that it was the immortals who implied that they would fight Ningwuguan. Because Ningwu happened to be in the opposite direction to the north of Li Zicheng's march, hitting Ningwu Pass was exactly fighting backwards.

Ouyang He took Chen Yufeng's words and said, "No matter what, if we don't help Zhou Yuji this time, we won't be able to talk about it in the future." ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "Of course, we have to help this time, and Ning Wuguan must not be lost." But we'll have to wait a few days for them to fight. I think Liu Chenghuang and they must be in a hurry to wait in the mountains. Ordered him to quietly dispatch now to reconnoiter where Li Zicheng's grain and grass were placed, and wait for our order before attacking. When the sortie is over, they are exposed. They can go straight to Niutou Mountain, and when Li Zicheng retreats, they will immediately take over Daizhou. ”

Just as Zhang Zhimu said, Liu Chenghuang and their 2,000 cavalry hid in a mountain col and could not come out, although they could constantly get the battle situation on the side of Yaogang through telegrams, but they themselves could not exert their strength, and the anxiety was really unbearable. Today, when they suddenly received the order from the kiln gang, they were overjoyed. Finally, I was looking forward to a battle.

Liu Chenghuang sent a team of shrewd and capable scouts of eleven people, wrapped their horses' hooves in skins, and made a big circle, leaving the camp and going out to reconnoiter Li Zicheng's grain and grass. He ordered that they were not to expose the secret camp under any circumstances.

This group of scouts first came to the ravine beside the road, arranged for people to guard the horses, and went to the bushes by the road to observe the road. Li Zicheng's army of hundreds of thousands, logistics is a very heavy burden, and the carriages and horses on this road are constantly coming and going. The leader of the scout team was a very clever man, and he knew that the heavy cart heading north must be pulling grain and grass, and following them would definitely find a grain and grass base. But they didn't dare to show their faces in broad daylight, so he decided to act at night.

When they came to the side of the road at night, they found that there were still horses and carts on the road with torches on the road. They had no choice but to follow behind a wagon, and thus did find a camp of grain and grass. But when they went back to report the location and scale of this camp to Liu Chenghuang, Liu Chenghuang said: "This is just a small camp of theirs, Li Zicheng and their hundreds of thousands of horses, and there will be no less than two or three hundred thousand people who have passed through the kiln, and their grain and grass camp will not be so small, and it is impossible to just go out on this one, so we must continue to investigate their other camps." The task given to us by the command center was to destroy all of Li Zicheng's grain and grass camps and force them back. It seems to me that in addition to continuing to scout their camp, we also need to find out where the bridge they crossed over the Xiaoling River when they bypassed the kiln hill. Because to bypass the kiln, you must pass by the Xiaoling River. ”

After saying that, Liu Chenghuang sent several more groups of reconnaissance teams, one of which was to reconnoiter along the Xiaoling River to find the place where the Dashun army crossed the river.

After another night of searching, Liu Chenghuang and his team found three new grain and grass camps and two bridges at a river crossing site.

Yoo Sung-hwang reported this information to the command center.

In the command center, Chen Yufeng said: "These grain and grass camps must be eliminated together, otherwise if one is moved, the rest of them will be on guard." Let's see if they have enough manpower, if they don't have enough, the two bridges on the Xiaoling River will be solved by us. ”

In the end, after consultation with Liu Chenghuang, it was decided that Liu Chenghuang and they would be responsible for getting rid of the four grain and grass camps, and that Xiaolinghe was too far away from them, so they would be solved by Yaogang.

After discussing with Fan Chengkun, the command center decided that they would send an assault team to be responsible for solving the two bridges over the Xiaoling River, because after the Fen River was civilized, it was already easy for them to enter and exit, and the Dashun army outside could only block the shore passages.

Fan Chengkun called back and said: "Leave this matter to us, please rest assured that the command center just needs to give time to come out and act." ”

Li Zicheng asked Liu Zongmin to rest in Daizhou for two days, during which he also made up his mind to attack Ningwu Pass. After resting, Liu Zongmin's army headed towards Ningwu Pass.

The famous "Ningwu War" in history is about to stage a different version. For Zhou Yuji, the original history was that after Yuji killed and injured more than 70,000 people in the battle of Li Zicheng last week, his wife also died in battle. But now Zhou Yuji sent his wife to Yaogang in advance, and now Zhou Yuji not only has the original artillery and other weapons, but also buys a large number of muskets and **. At this time, Li Zicheng was not the Li Zicheng who had always been invincible, but Li Zicheng, who lost troops in Yaogang and killed and injured more than 100,000 people. At the beginning, Li Zicheng led 550,000 people to besiege Ningwu Pass, but now he must leave more than 200,000 people to besiege Yaogang. In terms of numbers, Zhou Yuji has only more than 5,000 people, and the difference between 5,000 people and 550,000 people and 300,000 people is not very big. What will be the outcome of such a war?

It should be said that before Li Zicheng attacked Ningwu Pass, he rested for two days and was also well prepared. However, he still underestimated the difficulty of attacking Ningwu Pass.

Ningwu Pass is built between the huge mountain pass between the two mountains of Guanshui Mountain and Yunzhong Mountain, the Hui River flows through, it is the north-south traffic throat and strategic point between the Datong Basin and the Xinding Basin since ancient times, it is in the junction of farming culture and nomadic culture, in order to guard against the Tatar tribe and the Wara tribe, the Ming Dynasty has carried out full management here. There are many castles connected by the Great Wall to be built around to serve as arch guards, forming a defense cluster with Ningwuguan as the center and each other as horns in all directions.

Li Zicheng and Liu Zongmin led their troops to Ningwu Pass, only to know that what was about to start was a vicious battle.

Before the start of the war, according to the custom, Li Zicheng sent a letter to Zhou Yuji ordering him to surrender, saying that if he did not surrender in five days, he would slaughter the city. Of course, Zhou Yuji will not surrender.

After the war, Zhou Yuji took advantage of the dangerous terrain of Ningwu Pass, gave full play to the advantages of artillery in the city, and gave Li Zicheng's Dashun army a great deal of damage. However, the generals under his command were not convinced and insisted on fighting. At this time, Zhou Yuji's ** was almost used, and Li Zicheng's artillery began to exert its might. Zhou Yuji has become more and more passive. At this time, Zhou Yuji was very annoyed in his heart, Jiang Jiu of Datong did not send troops to rescue, and the people of Yaogang, who said well, did not send troops. Zhou Yuji knew that he wouldn't last long, and the fall of Ningwuguan was only a matter of time.

Zhang Zhimu had been concerned about the battle of Ningwu Pass in the command center, and when the battle of Ningwu Pass had started for two days, Zhang Zhimu ordered Liu Chenghuang to remove the grain and grass from Li Zicheng's four grain and grass camps on the night of the third day, and at the same time ordered Fan Chengkun to completely blow up the bridge over the Xiaoling River.

After receiving the order, Liu Chenghuang divided the personnel into four detachments, each team of 500 people, four mortars, and set off at the same time as soon as it was dark. Because if you don't act at the same time, it is easy to arouse the alarm of other targets when you act first.

Liu Chenghuang personally led a team, and his goal was the relatively large camp. They came to the target, and after the group had laid the ambush, he led a few gunners and crossbowmen to continue to get closer to the target. Approaching the target, Yoo Chenghuang measured the direction of the wind and then assigned targets to the gunners and crossbow mineers. They are attacking the haystacks at the upwind outlet. Mortars fire at targets a little farther away, and crossbow thunderers fire at targets at close range.

Since Yoo Chenghuang was a bit close to their target, they arrived at the target point a little earlier. The ambush near the target point is very painful, and the mud that has been civilized in the spring is very cold and humid at night, and it is really uncomfortable to lie on it. finally got through the time, and Liu Chenghuang ordered to "prepare". Both the gunner and the crossbow mineman got up and moved their bodies and got ready.

Liu Chenghuang ordered: "Release!" ”

The gunner put the shell into the barrel and fired the shell, and the crossbow thunderer also pulled the trigger and fired the oil shell. Immediately there was a "boom" explosion in the camp. Although the explosion of the fire oil bomb was not loud, the ignition effect was very good, and when Liu Chenghuang and their second batch of shells and crossbow mines exploded. And the fire burned.

Liu Chenghuang saw the fire burning, and immediately ordered, "Collect the artillery and retreat." ”

They returned to the hideout of the brigade and immediately led the cavalry to a rapid retreat.

However, Li Zicheng's team was also well-trained, and after they found out that someone had set fire, cavalry immediately chased after them.

Liu Chenghuang said in his heart: "Okay, the reaction is fast enough." So let me show you what a musketeer is. ”

Liu Chenghuang and the others deliberately put their speed to the fullest, and when the sky began to brighten, Liu Chenghuang saw that the two sides of a road were very wide, and he ordered four hundred cavalry to ambush on both sides of the road. He continued to run forward with the rest of the cavalry, ran for a while, ordered people to dismount, and quickly buried some **, all of which were tripping mines. Then keep running forward. The pursuers behind rushed in front of the cavalry in front of Liu Chenghuang's ambush, and the ambushers comforted the horses with their hands to prevent them from making a sound. When the pursuers chased forward a little longer, they stumbled. The explosion of "boom" stopped the pursuit of the cavalry, and they did not dare to pursue it any longer. But at this time, Liu Chenghuang, who had stopped his horse, set up a mortar and opened fire on them. Due to the unclear situation, the more than 1,000 cavalrymen decided to retreat. When they retreated, it was a little brighter. When they came to the ambush point, four hundred cavalry in ambush on both sides rushed over. The cavalry of the Dashun army is also a team that is very capable of fighting, and they greeted them with their swords, but the kiln gang people did not draw their swords and fought with them. The musketeers all fired with melee shotguns, and when they fired at the oncoming cavalry, the opponent had nowhere to hide. The one holding the rifle even pointed at the head of the Dashun army to shoot, and he could dodge one shot but couldn't dodge the second and third shots, and it was really not a continuous shot.

There was almost no suspense in such a cavalry battle, and the cavalry of the more than 1,000 Dashun troops were soon defeated. Liu Chenghuang, who rushed back, also said: "You didn't leave a few for Lao Tzu, let me try my hand." ”

The recruits who participated in the battle for the first time couldn't help but be excited, and chased the scattered horses on their horses. Those veterans who had participated in the fight against the Mongol cavalry and the Manchu cavalry felt that such a battle was even less suspenseful. Because today's weapons are not comparable to those of that time.

A veteran soldier saw Liu Chenghuang and said, "Beating them now is like killing chickens." ”

Liu Chenghuang said: "Li Zicheng and they still think that we are afraid of them if we don't fight back." Hurry up and pack up, hurry up to the meeting place, I don't know how the work is going in those places? ”

Another veteran said, "Don't worry, head." If they can't do this little work, they might as well just crash to death. ”

Liu Chenghuang said: "I'm not worried about them setting fires, but I'm worried that they will delay the war." ”

In fact, Liu Chenghuang was too worried, and his other three people retreated to the meeting place smoothly after setting fire. However, the men and horses sent by Fan Chengkun to blow up the bridge ran into some trouble.

Fan Chengkun and his men used boats to unload 500 soldiers and 500 horses to the north bank of the Xiaoling River along the mouth of the Fen River towards the Xiaoling River. These five hundred soldiers were all on horseback, but none of them were cavalry, they could only be regarded as infantry on horseback. They also brought five mortars. This time, this commando captain was a regiment commander sent by the original kiln gang.

Originally, Fan Chengkun and the others thought that this was a sneak attack, and they ran away after riding a horse, and no one could do anything when they came to the boat. I didn't expect to run into trouble.

Although the Xiaoling River is not very wide, but because the lock of the Lingshui Wharf has been closed and began to store water, there is already some water in the river, and the Dashun army has built two bridges over the river in order to transport people and materials, one of which goes to the north and the other to the south, and the two one-way bridges are not far away.

Fan Chengkun's assault team also rushed to the vicinity of the two bridges on time to ambush them according to the position provided by Liu Chenghuang and them.

There were soldiers on both sides of the two bridges, and from time to time there were horse-drawn carriages crossing the bridge under the light of torches on both sides.

The commando captain looked at his watch, and when he felt that the time was almost up, he left a team of men and horses to respond, and led the team to climb over the two bridges, and the artillery behind also set up mortars and waited for orders. When they climbed close to the bridge, they were spotted moving any further, and the commando leader raised his rifle and aimed it at the nearest soldier guarding the bridge, and fired a shot, which caused the soldier to fall. This shot was the signal for the attack, and the soldiers on the assault team jumped up and fired at the soldiers at the bridgehead on the north bank. Mortars fired at soldiers on the south bank. The soldiers guarding the bridge were knocked to the ground one after another by the sudden barrage of bullets. Soldiers on the north shore also had their guns on their backs.

At this time, the assault team rushed to the bridgehead and cleaned up the soldiers of the Dashun Army guarding the bridge on the north bank, and began to shoot at the north bank. The commando captain saw that the ** was placed on both bridges, and ordered loudly: "Detonate!" This sound is both an order to detonate and a command for the commandos to bow their heads to protect themselves from being injured by the **.

Hearing the command, the detonator shook the weapon and pressed it down. **A loud "boom" blew up the two wooden bridges. Flying fragments of the bridge fell on everyone's head.

The commandos hurriedly retreated, got on their horses, and ran back. But they hadn't gone far when the sound of a large group of cavalry chasing after them was heard. Fan Chengkun's commando captain knew that his subordinates were all infantry, and it was okay to ride horses as tools, but it was not good to fight against cavalry, that is, they had very little practice in shooting on horses, and they could not be used as cavalry at all. However, this commando captain is also a veteran of the original kiln, and he has a heart. Xin said: "Lao Tzu has more than 500 people, if we can't deal with you right away, we will get off the horse and try." ”

At this time, he saw a small hill faintly in front of him, and he took the lead and ran towards it. There was also a small grove behind the hill, although the hill was not too high, but it was still very steep when it came closer, and the commando captain was pleased, and he ordered to dismount and let the horse be led to the grove behind. And with the people he ascended the hill. At this time, the pursuers arrived with a bang, and it was obvious that there were many pursuers.

By the light of the moon, the commando leader ordered: "Shoot the horse after a while." "Because the target of the horse is large, when the cavalry is attacking, because of the speed of the cavalry, the hit rate of the horse is higher.

At this time, the pursuers also discovered that the target of their pursuit had taken refuge in this hill, and they scattered and rushed in a fan shape. The commando leader gave the order to open fire. After the launch of the "Knock Knock Knock", it fell into the pile of pursuers, and many cavalrymen were blown over, fell off their horses, and some horses were also directly blown up. But the pursuers rushed up. The commando captain saw the cavalry rushing close and ordered to shoot. More than 500 guns opened fire at once, and for a time there was a loud burst of gunfire, both the "bang" of muskets and the "snapping" of rifles, and the approaching cavalry was knocked down one after another. Due to the suddenness of the incident, the pursuing cavalry did not expect to encounter such dense fire, they dropped dozens of horses and were forced to retreat.

The pursuers were 3,000 cavalrymen arranged by Li Zicheng to be responsible for the safety of the two bridges. They didn't expect someone to come and storm their bridge at night. By the time they heard gunshots and explosions, the assault team had already withdrawn. But the general of this cavalry knew that the two bridges were damaged and that he would most likely be beheaded. He also thought that if he could catch up with the enemy who destroyed the bridge, he might be able to alleviate his guilt a little. So he took the cavalry in desperate pursuit.

When he found that he could hear the sound of the other party's horse's hooves from a distance, his years of cavalry career let him know that it was not the cavalry who fled, because the sound of the horse's hooves was wrong. He judged that his cavalry would be able to catch up with them.

Sure enough, this was also discovered by the pursuers, who occupied a small hill bag. This reassured the pursuing cavalry generals that the opponent could not run. Instead of stopping the group, he dispersed and rushed straight over. What they didn't expect was that the opponent still had artillery, and the density of firearms fired at them was too large. He didn't see it as soon as he saw it, so he withdrew first.

At this time, the sky was slowly about to dawn, and the pursuing cavalry felt that the opponent could not run, so it was better to wait until dawn.

In fact, the commandos also want to wait until dawn, because when the time comes, the accuracy of their muskets will be greatly improved. Seeing that the pursuers did not attack immediately, the commando leader asked everyone to hurry up and eat something and take a break.

It was slowly getting brighter, and the commando leader looked around with his binoculars, and he saw that a mile behind him was a small valley, from which they had come last night, and he immediately had a good idea. He ordered 200 men to quietly lead their horses to the two sides of the valley and lay an ambush on both sides, and when they got there, they would light a bunch of fireworks to inform the place. Soon after the men left, the commandos saw fireworks on the other side of the valley. At this time, the commando leader ordered everyone to quietly go to the grove and mount their horses, start quickly, and run in the direction of the valley. Hundreds of horses ran up here, and the pursuers soon spotted them. They also got on their horses and quickly chased after them. When the assault team rushed into the valley, the pursuers did not dare to enter, and they found ambushes on the hills on both sides of the valley. These pursuers did not know how many ambushes there were on both sides of the valley, so they did not dare to pursue them into the valley, hesitated for a moment, and retreated stupidly. So that the commandos escaped.

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Paragliding, rubber model airplanes, piano making, and building an air force. --Progress of "Memories of the Southern Song Dynasty".