Now that the volunteers occupy Jiangnan, the volunteers are approaching the water village in Tongnan County, and the volunteers are building pontoon bridges upstream, claiming that they will cross the pontoon bridge to attack Tongnan County.

Tongnan City was called Zitong in ancient times, it was an important military stronghold on the Fujiang River, and the most important highway in Sichuan in the Ming Dynasty must pass through (from Chongqing Fucheng to Yu County, that is, today's Santai County, during the Ming Dynasty, Yun County was the capital of Tongchuan Prefecture), Zhang Wenxiu, who led 20,000 remnants to retreat to Tongnan County, panicked.

Zhang Wenxiu deployed defenses along the river and actively defended, and on the other hand, he sent fast horses to Zhang Dingguo for help.

Zhang Dingguo was greatly surprised, Bai Wenxuan's department had just been defeated by the volunteers, and his division had lost more than 3,000 people (half of them were deserters), and was about to rest, when he suddenly saw the urgent document of Tongchuan Prefecture in the south, and hurriedly led the main force south to meet the other party.

After five days of this, suddenly the garrison soldiers came to report, and the army of volunteers suddenly killed Pengxi, and now they were digging a trench and preparing to attack the city.

Zhang Dingguo was shocked, shook his head and said: "In the past, the Ming army was slow to move, why did this volunteer army march so fast?"

The main force of our Great Western Army has been ridden by manpower, and it can reach a distance of 100 miles in one day.

And the Volunteers are mainly infantry troops, how can they march so quickly? ”

Bai Wenxuan thought for a while and said, "General, if I'm not mistaken, Yang Lin has sent several military horses to Xichong, Pengxi, Tongchuan County and other directions.

Yang Lin probably only needed to lead his cavalry and personal soldiers, marching nearly 100 miles a day, galloping through various battlefields, quickly forming a troop advantage against the enemy in front of him, and defeating the battlefield situation. ”

After thinking about it, Zhang Dingguo nodded, there is probably no other better way besides this method.

Even so, everyone still felt a little afraid, in the era of cold weapons, the cavalry could march at a speed of hundreds of miles a day, but the infantry was too far.

Now the volunteers are attacking one after another, the Great Western Army has suffered setbacks one after another, and the soldiers below are making a lot of noise, shouting and counterattacking, but the offensive situation of the volunteers is unclear, and Zhang Dingguo is complaining repeatedly.

Although the main strength of the pro-army still exists, the soldiers and horses that came with them and surrendered to the soldiers and horses of the Sichuan Guards not only had low morale, but also had too many injuries and illnesses in the army, and their mobility was far inferior to that of the pro-troops of the major generals.

If the main force of the Great Western Army attacked, without the cover of those attached soldiers and horses, not only would the personnel be small, but the combat strength would be greatly reduced, and the slightest failure might be defeated by the volunteers.

Zhang Dingguo's garrison in Yunxian (now Santai County, the capital of Tongchuan Prefecture) decided to respond to all changes with the same and send the main force to reinforce when the two sides were facing each other and running-in.

But the front-line battle situation was unexpected, when the generals of the Great Western Army were defending the city, Pengxi Pseudo-Zhixian and several Xiucai actually acted as internal responses, and this night suddenly deceived the soldiers and horses defending the city to lure the volunteers into the city.

The defending generals were caught off guard, and their troops were defeated by the volunteers.

After occupying the county seat, the volunteers took a short rest, and then approached the northwest direction, this day came to the ferry port on the other side of Shehong County, after half a day of fierce battles to occupy the ferry, and then put on a posture to prepare to cross the Fujiang River, and approached Yun County.

Different from the previous life, Yu County (today's Santai County) is not only the first county of Tongchuan Prefecture, but also a traffic artery (there is a post road line from Chongqing Prefecture to Yu County and a post road line from Beijing to CD that intersect in Yu County. ）

Hearing that the volunteers were building pontoon bridges along the river, Zhang Dingguo was quite surprised, and it seemed that the volunteers really came straight to Yunxian (Tongchuan Prefecture) this time.

Immediately ordered all the troops and horses, went straight to Shehong, so it took two days to enter Shehong County, was about to discuss how to cross the river to fight, suddenly probe Malai report, the volunteers left a brigade to guard the ferry on the opposite bank, the main force slowly retreated.

Everyone was in a quiet mood, and now there is a food shortage in Sichuan, and there is no food, and everyone is most worried about marching and fighting.

After half a day, Suining Shou reported to the future, and the whole army of the volunteers approached Suining City, and the whole city was surrounded by night.

It turned out that on this morning, thousands of volunteers occupied the ferry on the other side of the Fujiang River, and then the downstream sailors killed, more than a dozen boats were connected together to form a pontoon bridge, and rows of bundled bamboo rafts were moved down from the boats, and they were quickly connected to form a pontoon bridge.

In less than half an hour, more than 10 pontoon bridges were built on the Fujiang River, and nearly 10,000 volunteer soldiers crossed the pontoon bridges and approached the city of Suining.

Hearing that the other side of the bank was lost, the volunteers were building a pontoon bridge to cross the river, and Jin Tongwu, the governor of Suining City, was shocked and led the army to fight, but he was outnumbered and defeated by the superior volunteers, and retreated to Suining City, and now sent messengers to Zhang Wenxiu of Tongnan County and Zhang Dingguo of Shehong County to report to the emergency.

Zhang Dingguo was shocked, pointed to the map and said: "The Fujiang River is from west to east, separating Shunqing Mansion from the north and south of Shunqing and CD, which is where the natural danger lies.

Unexpectedly, its fundamental goal is in Suining, if Suining is lost, not only will our troops and the troops and horses of General Funan be divided from the north and south, but also will be close to the city capital.

We are deeply entrusted with the old man's long live, and our plan for the present is to drive the volunteers across the Fujiang River at all costs. ”

Bai Wenxuan admonished: "General, although we have 20,000 troops, but the only ones who can really fight are only 4,000 old battalion soldiers and horses.

And if the volunteers are strong and strong, if they want to drive them across the Fujiang River, they must unite with General Funan. ”

Zhang Dingguo nodded in agreement, and on the one hand sent a messenger to Tongnan County to contact Zhang Wenxiu, and on the other hand, he actively dispatched troops to flank the volunteers who crossed the river.

After attacking in four places in a row, mobilizing the soldiers and horses of the Great Western Army to make them exhausted, and testing the combat strength of each department, Yang Lin led his troops to the west in late May to attack Tongchuan Prefecture.

Yang Lin left Fan Wenguang, the prefect of Shunqing, Yang Wei, the capital of the 3rd regiment, to garrison Shunqing, and Liao Qifang, the capital of the 4th regiment, to garrison Pengzhou, Dazhou, Bazhou, and led the main force to the west.

As analyzed by Bai Wenxuan, in order to prepare for the various units of the Great Western Army.

Leaving Yang Bingyi's 5th Regiment to contain Zhang Wenxiu in Tongnan County

Feng Youqing's 7th Regiment was left to garrison Shehong and Pengxi to contain Zhang Dingguo's department.

In the past, the attack on Xichong, Tongnan, and Shehong was just a feint, and the real combat target was Suining County.

It was only because the Great Western Army was now in a crisis of internal domination, and the strength of the volunteer army had increased greatly after months of training, that such a feint turned into a real fight.

With the cooperation of the naval army, Yang Lin personally led the two cavalry regiments of Bu Ning and Yao Chonglie, the escort regiment, the 1st regiment of Yang Cheng, the 3rd regiment of Long Zhiframe, the 6th regiment of Jing Keqin, the 8th battalion of Wang Shuji, and the 9th battalion of Ma Mingluan to cross the Fujiang River in one fell swoop and approach Suining County.

After half a year of construction, the Volunteer Army began to take shape, and now the escort regiment has reached the establishment of a type A regiment, and the other regiments are two battalions.

Jin Tongwu, the governor of the Great Western Army stationed in Suining City, was caught off guard and was defeated by the Volunteers and forced to wait for help.

After crossing the Fujiang River, Yang Lin established the water village, and personally led the cavalry regiment and the escort regiment to station in the water village to protect the safety of the water village.

Commanded the 3rd Regiment of Long Zhijiao and the 8th Battalion of Wang Shuji to attack the North Gate

Yang Cheng's 1st Regiment and Ma Mingluan's 9th Battalion attacked the East Gate.

Jing Keqin's 6th Regiment attacked the South Gate.

According to the summary of combat experience and the training some time ago, the weapons and equipment of each unit were adjusted.

The musketeers remain unchanged, equipped with the Large Bird Gun (1.5 meters long) and the Bird Gun (1.2 meters long) respectively.

Each squadron formed a grenadier group, selected six men with good arm strength and accurate falls, and threw earth-shattering thunder in the process of hand-to-hand combat.

Each squadron of cold weapons is equipped with two swarms to crush the swarming enemy forces, and then fight in close combat.

Each battalion is no longer equipped with a swarm of bees, including a Tiger Squat Cannon Squad (four Tiger Squat guns) and a Furlong Cannon Squad (three Furlong No. 3 Furlong cannons) to increase their firepower.

In the future, it is planned that each regiment will form a Franc cannon brigade, each of which will be equipped with ten large Fran cannons.

After the regiments set up camp, with the support of artillery fire, they stopped at a distance of 150 meters from the city wall, and dug trenches along the city with two-wheeled rickshaws and wheelbarrows in front.

In the past, the Ming army was very good at digging trenches, and only after the rise of the chariot battalion did they use chariots as cover to no longer dig trenches.

Of course, Yang Lin of the crossing clan knew the importance of the trench, and the volunteers of the Shangganling Battle defeated the US army through the trench, and giving up the trench tactics was undoubtedly a big mistake of the Ming army.

Although the chariot battalion can block the opponent's attack, after all, there is one less barrier, and the opponent's cavalry and infantry corps can rampage as long as they jump over the chariot, which is obviously not conducive to infantry defense.

Some people say that at the end of the Ming Dynasty, Kong Youde, Shang Kexi and other miner troops were good at digging trenches, but the volunteers were not far behind, their main soldiers came from the peasants, everyone worked in the fields on weekdays, everyone was a good hand at eating hoes and shovels, and now a little training, one by one is a good hand at digging trenches.

The temporary camp will dig trenches in dangerous places, and the long-term garrison is digging multiple trenches, and the famous general Zeng Guoquan of the Hunan army in history has the nickname of Zeng Iron Bucket, and the biggest feature of its operation is to trap the opponent through trench tactics.

Jin Tongwu complained bitterly, and the soldiers of the Great Western Army hid by the women's wall and wanted to shoot, but they were too far away to reach it.

On the other hand, the Volunteers used the excavated earth to build several artillery emplacements outside the city, ready to provide artillery support to the besieging troops.

After three days, on the fourth day, several trenches were dug in the north, south, and east of the city, and they were densely packed with half a man's height.

And some of them are digging under the city wall, and a little further excavation can blast and attack the city.