Taiyuan is on the south bank of the Qiu River, which is the throat road to Thang Long, the capital of the Houli Dynasty, this place was originally the territory of the Mo Dynasty, in recent years, because the Mo Dynasty was weak, (South) Taiyuan was captured by the troops of the Houli Dynasty, and the credit should be attributed to the dead Zheng Yu. ``x`

Because of the important location of this place, it is not only the gateway to the north of Houli, but also the strategic support for Houli to attack the Mo Dynasty. Therefore, the Houli Dynasty spent a lot of effort to build the castle here.

Now, Zheng Yu is dead, and Zheng Mo was sent to this place by Lord Zheng.

In the middle of the Later Dynasty, as the eldest son, Zheng Mian is the heir of the Zheng family, with heavy troops, 30,000 elite soldiers, plus the original troops stationed in (south) Taiyuan, as well as newly recruited soldiers, there are about 60,000 people in the entire (south) Taiyuan, although the number of troops is less than that of Li Guo, but there is not much difference.

When Li Guo sent troops to Annam in Guangxi, there were more than 60,000 people. There were 10,000 people left in Guangxi, and after defeating Zheng Yu, 5,000 people returned to Guangxi with more than 30,000 prisoners, so Li Guo now has 45,000 real elite soldiers. If you count the newly recruited 20,000 Mo Chao detachment and 5,000 engineering detachment, Li Guo's total number of horses is 70,000.

70,000 against 60,000, if they fought on the plains, Li Guo's troops would definitely win a big victory, but if Zheng Miao's 60,000 people cowered in the fortified (southern) Taiyuan city, it would not be easy to do.

However, there was no turning back from the bow, and Li Guo led the men and horses to Nantaiyuan.

Hearing the news that Li Guo sent troops to the south, the Zheng lord of the Later Dynasty was really a little panicked. Lord Zheng no longer considered whether he would lose face or not, and immediately sent a messenger to see Li Guo. There is only one purpose, peace talks. That is, no more wars. If you have any ideas, you can sit down and talk about them first.

Talk? Good! Li Guo agreed, and drove the team to the edge of Qiujiang.

The envoy of the Later Dynasty was anxious and begged Li Guozhi, "Don't, General, what are you doing like this?" Do you have any requests you can make? Isn't it something that is being discussed? ”

Li Guo smiled hesitantly, "Okay." Give me a tribute of one million taels of silver every year, and I will immediately withdraw from the army! ”

The envoy scratched his head vigorously and said to Li Guo, "General." You see if this is good, because this matter is too big, I can't be the master, so I'll go back to the dragon. Report this to us. Back and forth for about twenty days, you wait for my letter, whether to fight or to re-decide with you! ”

Li Guo nodded, and the messenger from behind him rushed away.

When passing through South Taiyuan, the envoy from behind met Zheng Miao.

When Zheng Mian heard that he wanted a million taels of silver, he was angry, and immediately drew his knife to cut the messenger, but fortunately the people on the left and right stopped him.

Zheng Mo scolded. First, he scolded the envoy, saying that the envoy had lost his power and humiliated the country. Then scolded Li Guo for being too arrogant. At the same time, he was instructed to go down and prepare for active preparations.

Zheng Milling scolding people is reasonable, at that time, the entire Annam region was only more than 6 million people, which was about the same number as when Ming Chengzu occupied Annam in the early Ming Dynasty, and even slightly fewer people because of the war.

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, when Ming Chengzu occupied Annam, he once made statistics on the Annam region, and there were 48 prefectures, 168 counties, 3,129,500 households, 112 elephants, 420 horses, 35,750 cattle, and 8,865 ships.

Annan was the same person at that time, and there were only 420 horses at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, although it is not accurate, it is impossible to find out. And Zheng Yu, who was killed by Li Guo, had 3,000 cavalry, which was all the cavalry troops of the entire Houli Dynasty.

At that time, the whole of Annam was a mess, divided into three small countries, the Mo Dynasty, the Houli Dynasty and the Nguyen Dynasty, and the Houli Dynasty is now a little stronger, but it is only less than three million people.

Now that the war has not been fought, Li Guo opened his mouth to ask for one million taels of silver, not that he can't afford it, but it is relatively too much.

Besides, the Ming army is strong, but is there no reason why Zheng Yu underestimated the enemy when he defeated Zheng Yu? Well, even if we can't beat you, we'll hold the city! This high and strong city wall is what you say you will fight? So, now Zheng Mo is determined to fight to the death!

When the envoy saw Zheng Miao's appearance, he hurriedly walked away and rushed towards the capital of Shenglong!

When he arrived in Thang Long, the messenger knelt down for Lord Zheng and told Li Guo's request.

Before Lord Zheng could speak, the ministers below had an argument.

Some people agree to pay for silver, and their reasons are very good, because there is news that Mo Zhengkuan, the king of the Mo Dynasty, also paid out the silver, although he paid 500,000 taels a year, which is a lot of money, but the Mo Dynasty is peaceful after all. Therefore, the opinion of these people is that let the envoy discuss with Li Guo and see if it is okay for the Li Dynasty to pay 500,000 taels of silver in the future.

The other group is resolutely opposed, and the Ming army is tens of thousands of people, what are you afraid of them?

So, under the correct leadership of Lord Zheng, the ministers argued and debated endlessly, but nothing was done!

But Li Guo didn't delay at all, he had already crossed the Qiu River.

Since it is called a river, the water potential is not small, of course, it is far worse than the Yangtze River and the Yellow River in our China.

Therefore, if you want to attack South Taiyuan, the pontoon bridge for crossing the river began to be built. On the river, there was originally a pontoon bridge, but when he heard that Li Guo was coming to attack, Zheng Mian had already demolished the pontoon bridge.

Li Guo built a pontoon bridge in the upper reaches of the Qiu River, which was to prevent Zheng Mo from sending troops to make trouble.

The construction of the pontoon bridge opened Li Guo's eyes, this was the first time Li Guo saw how the pontoon bridge was built, and most of the rest of the people saw it for the first time.

Before building the pontoon bridge, Li Guo first ordered people to take a boat past some people, defend on the opposite bank, and then sit on the shore by himself and watch Song Yingxing build the pontoon bridge.

Under Song Yingxing's command, two long cables connected were tied to two huge wooden stakes on the shore, and then the cables were pulled across the opposite bank by boat, and they were also tied to the wooden stakes.

Then, according to Li Guo's words, Song Yingxing standardized all the things, put together the neat and uniform plates, and fixed the pontoons to the cables. Then, long planks are spliced together and fastened to the pontoons. The planks are connected to each other by long iron slats and iron pieces in the shape of angle iron, which are firmly fixed to the pontoon.

As the project progressed, the soldiers of the hurried engineering detachment began to become proficient, and the pontoon bridge was extended forward little by little, and in less than two days, a pontoon bridge was built.

Song Yingxing was a little dissatisfied, "If you build it a few more times, it is estimated that it will not take a day to build the bridge." ”

But Li Guo was already very satisfied, but he asked with some skepticism, "Ying Xing, do you think our artillery truck can pass?" ”

Song Yingxing pouted, "Sure, it works!" ”

So, a gun carriage loaded with Franco's cannon was the first to go over the bridge, and the horse's eyes were blindfolded to prevent it from being frightened.

I saw that although the pontoon bridge was a little shaky, the gun carriage that pulled a cannon weighing more than 1,000 catties still walked over steadily!

"It's done!" Li Guo waved his hand happily and ordered loudly, "Cross the river!" ”

War horses and artillery wagons crossed the pontoon bridge and arrived at the opposite side of the Qiu River.

After Li Guo walked over, he laughed.

It doesn't seem that you don't necessarily need high technology, and the wisdom of the ancients alone is already remarkable! (To be continued......)