The 7th Battalion of the Naval Division of the Han Army was recruited and formed on the basis of the officers and soldiers of the former Ming Qu Tangwei and the local people who were familiar with the water, and its staff was Lu Binzhong, the former commander of the Qu Tangwei who surrendered to the Han Army, and the guerrilla Xu Yong of the former 1st Battalion of the Han Army.

The seventh battalion has more than 5,000 sailors and soldiers, and about 600 large and small ships, but most of them are small inland river warships, and they were repaired and built after the Han army occupied Kuizhou.

Qutang Gorge is also known as Kuimen, as the westernmost entrance of the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River, the cliffs on both sides of the river, very steep, the river surface is narrow like the gate is ajar, but the draft is not shallow, the flow rate is not slow, it has always been the place where the soldiers must fight, the battle between Gongsun Shu and Liu Xiu in that year, the battle of the late Song Dynasty and the Yuan army into Sichuan, are all carried out in this place.

At this time, the 7th Battalion of the Han Army was also going to fight a big battle against the Left Army here.

For this battle, General Lu Binzhong is a little worried, although Kuimen has been a natural danger to hold the Yangtze River since ancient times, but this time there are as many as 140,000 left troops, and there are as many as 50,000 or 60,000 waterway troops alone, and most of the seventh battalion are recruits who have just been trained for less than seven months, and it can be seen in Changning last time that these recruits could have used the advantages of warship maneuvering on the water to suppress and counterattack the left army Jin Shenghuan, but these recruits have not performed well on the water and on land, if not, the evacuation is timely and has the advantage of muskets, I'm afraid I can't get out of it all right.

"Xu Yanshi, now back in Kuizhou, although it is more conducive to the defenders in terms of geographical advantages, and behind it is the people of Kuizhou who support the Han army also occupy the people, but there are too many left troops, we may be able to hold on for half a month, but it is difficult to ensure permanence, it is better to let Gongzi make plans as soon as possible", Lu Binzhong said.

However, Xu Baishi said with a solemn face: "There are only five thousand people, so why not hold on, wait a little longer, I think Gongzi's instructions are also coming, and it is likely that let's hold on for a period of time first, to provide time for the rear transfer, and then we can choose the opportunity to retreat, so it is necessary for us to strengthen our defense before this." ”

"The defense system has been almost built, the entire one-mile-wide river has been locked with iron chains, and three-mile-wide mines have been buried in the water, and many reefs have been blown up on the cliffs on both banks, and newly improved tiger squat artillery have been ambushed on the south bank of Chijia Mountain and the north bank of Baiyan Mountain, and trenches have also been repaired on both sides of the riverbank, and now only waiting for the arrival of the left army."

As Lu Binzhong spoke, he saw a messenger in brocade running over.

"Childe has an order, destroy more than 10,000 enemies or block the enemy for three days and then evacuate the direction of Chungju!"

"Three days? 10,000 people Chungju? ”

The brocade-clothed messenger who conveyed the order had been gone for a long time, and Lu Binzhong was still muttering these three words, and couldn't help but ask Xu Yong on the side: "What do you say Gongzi is going to do, only let us hold on for three days?" In this way, will they have time to transfer the supplies of Kuizhou Capital? ”

"You, let's take a look at the latest newspapers in Kuizhou Mansion, Kuizhou Governor Gui Chongchun began to buy autumn grain half a month ago, I'm afraid that Gongzi was already preparing to evacuate Kuizhou Mansion at that time", Xu Yong said and said:

"And the point in Childe's words is not to let us hold on for three days, but to annihilate the enemy's 10,000 people, Childe has always warned us that we would rather not have a big city or a town but also annihilate the enemy's living force as much as possible, if we can annihilate the enemy's tens of thousands of troops this time, even if it only lasts two days, it doesn't hurt."

Lu Binzhong has not been under the command of the Han army for less than a year, and his understanding of Yang Ming's military thought is naturally inferior to Xu Yong, who has studied in the Han family's martial arts hall for two periods, but he is also unwilling to let a yellow-haired boy look down on himself.

Then he said: "You are just an afterthought, since you already know that Gongzi has made plans to evacuate Kuizhou, why do you still tell the officers and soldiers at the mobilization meeting to defend Kuimen, because behind Kuimen is Kuizhou Mansion, the first important town of our Han army, and there can be no loss!" What's the point of changing your words now? ”

"You don't understand, if you don't tell the people below to resist to the death, can they fight to the death?" Xu Yong's mouth was not forgiving, and as he was talking, he saw a deafening sound of gongs and drums in front of him, which was a signal that the left army had entered Qutang Gorge. Xu Yong and Lu Binzhong didn't argue anymore when they heard this, and hurriedly ran off the fort to board the ship and sail forward.

At this time, the waterway army of the left army, led by Zhang Yingyuan, a general under Zuo Liangyu, had already entered the northern section of Qutang Gorge, and dozens of ships pressed along the river like towering mountains. The dry road led by Jin Shenghuan also lined up in a long line, and entered the Baiyan Mountain and Chijia Mountain on the north and south banks of Qutang Gorge along the tidal flats, plank roads or rocky beaches on both banks.

"Huchen, what's the situation ahead, is there a thief army guarding it?" Jin Shenghuan's word Huchen, originally a native of Liaodong, followed Zuo Liangyu to fight for many years, although Zuo Mengeng was captured when he returned to the state with Jin Shenghuan, but Zuo Liangyu still trusted Jin Shenghuan very much, and when he saw the vast smoke and waves in front of him, the walls were getting narrower and narrower, and he couldn't help but ask Jin Shenghuan.

"Don't worry, the last general has sent scouts to investigate last night, although there are thieves guarding but only more than 5,000 people, and it is the last time in Changning was repelled by our group of thieves, these thieves are newly defeated, morale must not be strong, although Kuimen is easy to defend and difficult to attack, but the last general guarantees that no less than three or five days, my army will definitely take this place!"

After Jin Shenghuan spoke, he heard a rumbling sound in front of him, like a thunderclap in the sky, and he was busy hearing the sound and saw that a Cangshan ship in front of him was blown into two, and a raging fire broke in the center of the hull, and countless wooden planks were also blown apart, floating on the river, and he saw countless blood and water fainting.

"What's going on?" Zuo Liangyu asked with some consternation, but Jin Shenghuan sneered calmly: "Don't worry, the marshal doesn't have to worry, it's just a thunderstorm buried under the water by the thief army, Tang Xiangwen Gong in the Jiajing period recorded in the book "Wu Xiu" that there is a kind of underwater mine, and the ship will explode when it touches, but as long as the speed is fast enough, and the hull is big enough, it is not enough to be afraid, although these thieves are cunning enough to use these things, but they are just poor donkey skills, we only need to pass quickly It is enough to plow through the lonely river and go straight to Kuizhou!" ”

"Okay, pass the order, speed up!" As soon as Zuo Liangyu gave this order, the waterway army immediately spread out its sails, and because it was going downstream, the speed increased several times at once, and dozens of large and small warships drove side by side on the river, hitting forward like a huge wave set off by a violent wind. But because of the high-speed impact, the iron chain that fell on the stone walls on both sides of the bank cut into the hull of the warship or slashed at the soldiers on the deck like a giant sword of black iron.

In an instant, countless warships slammed into the iron chain, the poor quality of the hull was directly crushed, the better one was until the turn, and the smaller hull was directly overturned by the iron chain and buckled on the river, although there were small warships such as Cangshan boats and net shuttle boats that were lucky to dodge, but many soldiers on their ships were smashed by the iron chains. Seeing this, Zuo Liangyu ordered the army of the dry road to rush forward immediately to cut off these chains, and at the same time ordered Zhang Yingyuan to hit the chains in the way that the big boat was in front and the small boat was behind.

Jin Shenghuan rushed over with the army of dry roads first, but just when they saw the iron chains coiled on the old trees and were about to order someone to cut down the big trees to relieve the chains, countless boulders suddenly fell, and many left troops were directly smashed into meat cakes, or were crushed into the river with mud by the people. Seeing this, Jin Shenghuan had to order the officers and soldiers of the left to lean only on the cliff to avoid the boulders that were about to roll down, but at this time, the soldiers of the Han family army hiding in the trench of the cliff suddenly came out and surrendered countless earth-shattering thunderbolts.

After a few loud bangs, many of the officers and men of the left were blown up or burned into carbonized materials before they could cut down the trees. At this time, the soldiers and horses of the Han army stopped, and they relied on every tree and every cliff hole as a cover point between the trench and the jungle to shoot at the left officers and soldiers on the river bank, the soldiers on the south bank shot at the left army on the north bank of the river, and the soldiers on the north bank shot the left army on the south bank of the river.

But Jin Shenghuan did not give up, and after beheading dozens of cowardly people, he personally rushed over with the officers and soldiers of the left, and no matter how the Han army above shot, he ignored it, although he left countless corpses of the left army, he also succeeded in cutting off many iron chains. At the same time, Zhang Yingyuan's army also broke many iron chains, although it took a little longer, but in the end it also advanced two miles, and it was getting closer and closer to Kuimen.

;