readx; More than 30,000 elite cavalry marched day and night, and although the road was extremely difficult, they did not encounter any resistance, and arrived at Luonan County at noon the next day. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 infoThis is already an empty city, and Gao Yingxiang occupied it without much effort.

The real name of Luonan is Luonan, because the county seat is located in the south of Luoshui, so it is named. Later, because of the avoidance of the "Luo" character of Zhu Changluo of Mingguangzong, he changed his name to Luonan. But Gao Yingxiang hadn't read the book for a few days, and he didn't understand these historical allusions, so he only felt that "Luonan" and "Disaster" were homophonic, which was very unlucky.

It stands to reason that the army left behind the heavy women and children and marched nearly 100 miles from Shangzhou to here, and on the way crossed the Python Ridge, the watershed between Luoshui and Danjiang. However, on the one hand, due to Gao Yingxiang's superstition, and on the other hand, he was in a hurry to capture Tongguan before Sun Chuanting, so he strictly ordered his subordinates not to stay for half a moment and continue to march north.

The topography of the county resembles a basin, with the Qinling Mountains to the north and the Python Mountains to the south, and the Luoshui River runs from west to east through the narrow valley between the two mountains. The county is mostly mountainous and few plains, and most of the mountainous areas are covered by primeval forests. Now it is the middle of winter, and it is a reckless and vast scene, only a sheep intestine path through the Qinling Mountains to Tongguan.

However, as long as you cross the Qinling Mountains, it is a plain area with a radius of dozens of miles, commonly known as "Tongguan Nanyuan", which is where the cavalry is used. Since the last time he escaped death, Gao Yingxiang has been much more cautious than in the past, these more than 30,000 cavalry are the most capable and loyal elite troops in his team, no matter what military operations are launched, Gao Yingxiang always takes this unit with him. As for other thieves with poor combat effectiveness, as well as the "old battalion" composed of women and children, in his eyes, they can be completely abandoned when necessary. Anyway, the old doesn't go and the new doesn't come, as long as he is happy, he can coerce more people to join him at any time.

Gao Yingxiang's abacus is also very fine. As long as the Qinling Mountains are crossed, the first goal is, of course, to capture Tongguan and cut off the connection between Guanzhong and the Central Plains. If you can't capture Tongguan, if you can block and completely annihilate Sun Chuanting's officers and troops in the field, it will be regarded as a great achievement. Even if these two goals were not achieved, the Guanzhong Plain within a radius of hundreds of miles would allow his more than 30,000 cavalry to gallop across the country. Although Qin Bing is powerful, it is mainly powerful in firearms, as long as his army runs, Sun Chuanting is helpless against him.

Therefore, Gao Yingxiang's attack can be said to be invincible. When the official army retreats to Xi'an and Tongguan, his follow-up troops can come from the Hanzhong area one after another, and with the people coerced from the local area, his troops can reach a terrifying more than 300,000. At that time, no matter how powerful the Qin soldiers' firearms are, they will be useless, as long as they take people and put them on the top, the ammunition will eventually run out.

When Gao Yingxiang was looking forward to a bright future in the future, he suddenly got a report: "King Chuang, the northern army has been found ahead!" ”

Gao Yingxiang nodded, which was not unexpected by him. On the contrary, if Sun Chuanting let him be under the city of Tongguan like this, it would be a hell of a sight. He asked in a deep voice, "How many of them are there?" ”

"About four or five hundred people, all infantry, and the vanguard battalion has already fought with them."

"Tell Liu Zhe to just hit it all the way." Gao Yingxiang sneered and said, "This is probably Sun Chuanting's ambush." However, our army has more than 30,000 horses, and there are less than 10,000 people in Tongguan, and 5,000 have just been transferred, so how many people can be ambushed here? One or two thousand to the sky, less than a fraction of the pioneer battalion. As long as we cross the Qinling Mountains, even if Sun Chuanting is there in person, we will kill him without leaving a piece of armor! ”

However, the road leading to the Qinling Mountains is rugged and narrow, and the most troublesome thing is that there is only this road, and more than 30,000 cavalry can only advance in a long way, and the troops cannot be deployed at all. When the pioneer battalion encountered obstacles, the overall march naturally slowed down.

What Gao Yingxiang didn't know was that just five miles ahead, the vanguard battalion of General Liu Zhe was met with stubborn resistance from hundreds of officers and soldiers. Liu Zhe is a first-class fierce general under Gao Yingxiang, and his pioneer battalion is also the elite of the elite, all wearing heavy armor, and the protection of bows and arrows is quite strong, which is quite a bit of the taste of Guanning iron cavalry.

But now it was not on the plains of a flat river, but on a rugged and upward mountain road, and the disadvantage of the heavy cavalry was undoubtedly revealed. First of all, the war horse is large and not good at mountaineering, and it would have been necessary for several people to lead in front and push back to barely march, and it was purely a dream to expect to charge the enemy on horseback.

So Liu Zhe ordered 2,000 soldiers to dismount and fight on foot, and first defeat the enemy army on the opposite side. However, this enemy army was very cunning, and they fought and retreated on the higher ground, and did not engage in hand-to-hand combat with the thieves.

It stands to reason that even if the two sides shoot each other with bows and arrows, Liu Zhe is not afraid because of the iron armor to protect him. However, the enemy army rarely fired arrows, and mainly used another, more primitive weapon: stones.

The last thing that is lacking in the mountains is stones. The stones are small and large, the small ones are only the size of eggs, and the big ones are larger than watermelons. But the effect of hitting a person is the same, because a stone is not like a bow and arrow, it needs to be pierced into the body with a sharp arrow to hurt a person; It only needs to hit, and the kinetic energy from falling from the top down can cause huge damage to people, and it is useless to wear any armor. If you happen to hit a less protected head, you will be killed with a single blow. And after the person in front is knocked down, he will go down, often like dominoes, and a big string of smashes will be smashed.

The incessant rockfall attacks caused heavy casualties to Liu Zhe's men. Although they also fought back with bows and arrows, they attacked from the bottom up, and the results were minimal. Moreover, the thieves are wearing heavy armor, and not only do they have little protection in the face of falling rocks, but they have become a burden to their actions. Mountaineering is very physically demanding, and wearing thick iron armor makes it even more difficult.

At this moment, Gao Yingxiang's order came. Liu Zhe was even more anxious, his vanguard battalion had nearly 10,000 troops, and if he let a few hundred people block it with stones, it would not make other generals laugh to death. He thought for a moment, gritted his teeth and said: "Pass my order: all soldiers will take off their iron armor, walk if there is a road, and climb up for me if there is no road, and we must immediately catch up with this enemy army, and kill all of them if there is no one left!" ”

Liu Zhe's subordinates were all outlaws who were not afraid of death, otherwise they would not have been assigned to the vanguard battalion responsible for the assault. The men immediately took off their armor, threw them to the ground casually, and then threw their arms and charged up the mountain. This time it was really much easier, although from time to time someone was hit by a falling rock, screaming and falling, but the distance from the enemy army was getting closer and closer.

Seeing that the two sides were about to engage in hand-to-hand combat, Liu Zhe's subordinates suddenly saw dozens of black, stick-like things tumbling and falling from the sky!

...