Fang Yuan immediately convened a meeting of the generals again, and the topic was to find another mountain path up the mountain.

Gan Hui is quite familiar with the terrain around Xianxia Pass, if there is another way to break through Xianxia Pass, it is not the first pass in Zhejiang and Fujian.

Gan Hui sighed and said, "Governor Fang, since Zhejiang entered Fujian, there is only this one marching road, and it was dug by Huangchao back then. Before Huangchao, both the Han Dynasty and the Eastern Wu Dynasty were Fujian that was attacked by water. ”

Fang Yuan groaned and said, "There is no road in the world, and when there are more people walking, it becomes a road." On the road of marching, open the road in the mountains, build a bridge in the water, Huangchao can open a mountain road, and we can naturally open it. ”

The amount of work that is opening an ancient road on Xianxia Ridge is simply incredible, and it is by no means a success of several months.

Seeing that everyone was dumbfounded, Fang Yuan smiled and said, "We are not opening a mountain road, but opening an artillery position on the favorable terrain outside the gate. ”

His proposal was feasible, Gan Hui was eager for revenge against the Zheng family, and was the first to come out in favor, "Governor Fang's method is a strange one, a clever plan!" If there can be artillery condescending to bombard the pass, it can cover the sergeants who attack the key points to break through the gate head-on. ”

Fang Yuan's gaze fell on Naji, the deputy commander of the Mountain Special Battalion, who was familiar with the terrain of Xianxia Ridge and was good at surviving in the mountains, and asked, "Commander Naji, how long will it take to open an artillery position on top of Xianxia Ridge that can accommodate twenty guns?" ”

Najib had taken his people to reconnoiter the surrounding terrain these days, and when he arrived outside the barracks, he pointed to the mountain ridge above the gate and said, "If you dig there, 10,000 people, five days will be enough." ”

Fang Yuan looked along the mountain ridge he pointed to, at least thirty zhang above the gate, and an artillery position was arranged there, which was enough to form an overwhelming artillery suppression against the gate. Even if you don't use artillery, just throwing down boulders can form a sufficient deterrent to the Zheng army inside the gate.

Fang Yuan was overjoyed, and immediately approved Najib's suggestion, "Okay, Najib commander, immediately lead people to open the way, and this mountain road must be opened within five days." ”

Najib led the sergeants of the mountain special battalion to open up the mountain road that night, from the foot of the mountain to the top of the mountain ridge, there were at least 100 zhang of mountain road, dense with thorns, weeds, trees, and even wild boars and poisonous snakes.

Zheng Jun in the gate let go of such a commanding height, not because he did not explore the surrounding terrain, first, because the environment on the mountain range is too bad, the amount of work to open the mountain and pave the road is really not small. If you want to build another defensive fort on top of the mountain, the cost and garrison cost is too high, and when there is no war, this fort is very redundant.

Second, because of this mountain range, the slope of the upper ridge is gentle, and the slope of the lower ridge is steep, even if the mountain ridge is lost, it is impossible for the enemy army to swoop down from the mountain ridge and go straight to the gate.

But Zhou Quanbin is a famous general of the Zheng army, and he is still vigilant about the existence of this mountain, and after taking over Xianxia Pass, he is covered with dark thorns on the mountainside halfway up the mountain, and a deep trench is dug out, and a fortification is also built in front of the trench to prevent the Xuanjia army from diving from the top of the mountain to break through.

Najib and his people were accustomed to the terrain of the mountains and forests, and the road was opened very smoothly, and in less than three days, a small road leading directly to the mountain range was opened. Although the trail was only for one person, it was enough for two people to carry the artillery up the hill.

They also cut down the bamboo and ancient trees on the hills, and cleared the thorny jungle to make a large open space for the erection of artillery positions.

On the night of the fourth day, Zheng Jun in the first gate of Xianxia Pass was still asleep, and Zheng Jun above the gate was also vigilantly watching any slight movement on the ancient road in the mountains.

"Boom! Rumble! Rumble! ”

On the mountain, twenty artillery pieces in the artillery position of the Xuanjia Army rang out in unison, and the sound of artillery broke the silence of the entire night sky, and the sound spread for dozens of miles, and even the Zheng army in the twenty-eighth military town could hear this series of shocking artillery sounds.

Zheng Jun, who was inside the gate, didn't know that something had happened, and he was dazed by the lead bullets that fell from the sky, and he couldn't distinguish between east and west, north and south.

The main general, Zhou Quanbin, thought that the Xuanjia Army had broken through the sneak attack, so he hurriedly rushed out of the barracks and went to close the gate to find out, but found that the gate was not lost.

This time Zhou Quanbin came back to his senses, and he ignored one of the biggest loopholes before, that is, this mountain is the commanding height of the gate, as long as the artillery is moved to the mountain, the entire gate will be blown to pieces, and there is no way to fight back. Now that the commanding heights have been seized by the Xuanjia Army, the Zheng Army within the gate is like a lamb to the slaughter.

The Xuanjia Army directly bombarded all night, and Zheng Jun was so frightened that chickens and dogs jumped, and he was already a frightened bird. Don't talk about sleeping, even staying where you are is scared, I don't know when the lead bullet from the artillery will hit my head.

At dawn, the sky was getting brighter, and Li Zongze, who was on the top of the mountain, saw that there was already gunsmoke and ruins inside the gate, and immediately ordered the artillerymen to shift the target of the bombardment from the gate to the direction of the gate.

"Boom!"

The sound of artillery rang out again, and the twenty guns were aimed at the Zheng army sergeant who was still guarding the gate.

After three rounds of artillery, the defensive artillery of the Zheng army above the gate had been blown to scrap metal, and no sergeant of the Zheng army dared to stand on the gate to guard.

The sergeant of the Xuanjia Army, who had been in ambush for a long time, set up artillery again on the mountain road, and after a few shells, he directly blasted open the gate of the closed city.

When the artillery on the mountain stopped working, the vengeful Gan Hui wore a complete set of explosion-proof equipment, held a Japanese machete in both hands, took the lead in the charge, and broke through the pass first.

Inside the gate, the Zheng army, who was still resisting, swarmed up, but Gan Hui was already fully armed, and except for the bombardment, no bows and arrows or firearms could cause fatal damage to the explosion-proof equipment.

More than 20 Zheng Jun sergeants who were still resisting were killed by Gan Hui alone, and they were defeated and retreated.

The main general is so brave, countless Xuanjia soldiers have also been scolded by Zheng Jun for several days under the mountain, and they have long held back their evil breath, like an unstoppable torrent, following Gan Hui to rush in from the gate.

The two sides were already fighting to the death, Zhou Quanbin did not scare away, but commanded the 3,000 Zheng troops in the pass to rely on the houses and cowsheds, desperately resisted, and fought a street battle with the Xuanjia army.

The loss of the first pass is inevitable, but Zhou Quanbin still has a residual hope that after the checkpoint, even the 50,000 Zheng troops in the 28th military town can send troops to rescue in time after getting the news of the loss of the first pass, and maybe they can fight with the Xuanjia Army again and recapture the first pass.

But the whole street battle lasted for a day, Zhou Quanbin did not wait for reinforcements from one soldier at a time, but waited for Zheng Sen's order, Zheng Jun who closed the first gate, except for the main general Zhou Quanbin, no one was allowed to retreat into the second pass, and the deserters were killed!

Zhou Quanbin received Zheng Sen's military order, and knew that Zheng Sen was worried that the Zheng army would collapse without a fight, so he cut off all the back roads of the Zheng army and strictly ordered the Zheng army to fight to the death.

Zheng Sen's military order, coupled with the slaughter order issued by Fang Yuan, meant that the Zheng army stationed at the first gate was only dead.

As it approached dusk, there were more and more Xuanjia troops pouring into the gate, and in addition to the more than 500 people who escaped from the second pass, the remaining 1,000 Zheng troops were compressed in the arsenal in the pass, struggling to support.

Zhou Quanbin saw that the general trend had gone, and staying any longer would be the end of the funeral, so he immediately took advantage of the fact that more than 1,000 Zheng troops were still holding their positions, and fled single-handedly to close the second pass.

As soon as the main general Zhou Quanbin fled, the remaining Zheng army was like a headless fly, and there was no unified order, so they could only put down their weapons one after another and surrender to the Xuanjia army.

At night, the Zheng sergeant who had escaped to the second pass fled back with another 300 men and surrendered to Gan Hui. Five hundred people fled to the second gate, and not only were they forbidden to enter, but two or three hundred were shot on the spot. These Zheng soldiers had nowhere to flee but to return and surrender to Gan Hui.

Gan Hui originally wanted to kill all the more than 1,000 Zheng soldiers to vent his anger, but Fang Yuan's military order was also to slaughter the pass, leaving no one behind. But when he saw the frightened eyes of the Zheng soldiers, these soldiers were the same Fujian people as him, and the reason in his heart overcame the anger in his head, and he seized the swords of these soldiers and seized them, and directly escorted them to Ling Fang Yuan for punishment.