He took advantage of the opportunity of the laxity of the main commanders of the Qinghe Army in the New Year, secretly sent people down the mountain, contacted the Miao Army from all walks of life, and tried to clench his fists and concentrate all his forces to fight to the death with the more than 80,000 Qinghe troops of Commander Xi Qitian (in fact, Gong Jichang's acting commander-in-chief), and the location was chosen in the Crow Slope area.

The Crow Slope area is overgrown with shrubland and, like all the hillsides of Kerry, has nothing unique about it. It is located in the northwest of Zhouxi Lihe Village, and is composed of the crow slope and the Niujiao slope in the north-south direction, and the two mountains are horns of each other, forming a pinch-shaped mountain. The northern, western, and eastern sides of the mountain are steep cliffs, but the south side is a slope, which is not only easy to defend and difficult to attack, but also convenient for large-scale operations.

Crow Slope has always been regarded as an ominous mountain by the Miao people, and the drowning victims of swimming and leprosy are carried to the top of the mountain, allowing the crows to peck at the sky burial. The opposite side of the crow slope is the Niujiao slope, standing on the Niujiao slope and overlooking it, more than 20 miles in length and width, taking in the bottom of the eye. Between the Ox Horn Slope and the Crow Slope, the canyon is blocked, the terrain is extremely dangerous and complicated, from the Ox Horn to the Crow Slope, it is necessary to go down the ridge to the belly of the slope, go around the ditch.

Zhang Xiumei's desperate idea coincided with Xi Qitian and Gong Jichang's thoughts, both wanted to kill each other and end the war as soon as possible, so both sides were actively making strategic preparations.

In addition to the Miao army in southeast Guizhou, there are also the Miao army of Li Anong in southern Qiannan, the remnants of Li Wencai's blue wolf country, as well as the armies of Dong, Yao, Shui, Buyi and other ethnic minorities, with a total strength of more than 250,000 people.

Xi Qitian, who was at the foot of the mountain, was not idle, he asked the imperial court for a report, and at the same time dispatched troops and generals, built an encirclement, transported a large number of military supplies from the Qingshui River, and piled up several hills in Yatang. Among these materials, there were several things that Zhang Xiumei expected, the most advanced weapons in the world at that time - ***, rocket artillery and telescopes.

Among these personnel, there are two people Zhang Xiumei does not know, Xi Qitian's military adviser, the Eagle Strike Li arms dealer Mesni, and his assistants. In order to completely defeat the Miao army, Xi Qitian tried his best, used all his connections, and took out all his belongings.

Yang Daliu's troops were stationed in Yingpan Village, and the walls of the village were painted with the words "Xi Qitian will die here", and the Tiankan of the dam was the open-air command center of the Miao army. Zhang Xiumei and Yang Daliu sat on the ridge, one bowl per person, drank into their stomachs, drank strongly, ordered the soldiers to tie their horses at the door, prepare for war on the dam, everyone took knives, each with a gun, and told them to wait for the Qinghe army to get closer before fighting. Below this dam is the camp under the village, the farmhouse is still the same, the traffic is strange, the chickens and dogs smell each other, the Miao people work, and the children play the game of "Miao King Zhang Xiumei slashing Xi Qitian" in front of the house and behind the house...... It's just that this peaceful atmosphere was soon broken by the rumbling of cannons.

From the end of November to the beginning of December, the Miao army stationed in Kaihuai exchanged fire twice with the advance of the Tongqing and Qing army, and the Miao army was victorious, thus opening the prelude to the Battle of Crow Slope.

On February 3, the 11th year of Tongqing, Admiral Gong Jichang and Admiral Su Yuanzhang fought the first battle before the decisive battle against the Miao army in the area of Haozhiping. The Miao army commanders Zhang Yasha and Yang San led their troops to fight to the death, and the soldiers and civilians sacrificed thousands of people, and finally failed. Xie Yunlin, the general of the Qinghe Army, was killed in the middle of the cannon, and the rest of the officers and soldiers were also killed and wounded.

On February 8, after the Qing army broke through the Kaihuai and Mianxi lines, Su Yuanchun and Gong Jichang advanced southward, and Liu Youde and Luo Yingyu entered Shanglihe from the right side of Zhouxi and Zhounan. Zhang Xiumei and Yang Daliu personally went into battle to command the battle, more than 600 people of the Qinghe Army were killed, and Gong Jichang ordered a fierce bombardment with foreign artillery to break through the old camp of the Miao army in Shanglihe.

Xi Qitian was not in a hurry, surrounded but did not fight, and only after nearly a month did he calculate a hexagram and planned to start a war on March 7.

Zhang Xiumei, the king of Miao, had Crow Slope and 250,000 horses (not including more than 100,000 refugees), but after being cut off from the outside world, the situation gradually became unfavorable. Just consuming more than 100,000 catties of grain every day is a fatal thing. The Marshal's Office had already issued an order to save food, and the original plan of "holding on and forcing the troops to retreat" had become more and more unreliable. As time went on, the terrible situation finally appeared, and many people had no food to import.

The fate of more than 300,000 soldiers and civilians has reached a critical juncture of life and death, and the only way is to try to break through the siege. And when there is no gap in the breakthrough, it can only induce the Qing army to launch a general offensive on the whole front, so as to find the opportunity and exit to break through from the war and seek a way to survive.

One side wants to break through, the other side wants to attack, and the two sides draw their swords and bows, and almost all of them happen to meet on the same day. The Miao army could no longer be consumed, so they sent people to spread false news that they were about to break through.

When Xi Qitian heard that Zhang Xiumei was going to break through, he immediately became anxious, so he started the war two days in advance, that is, on March 5. After Xi Qitian made a plan, he immediately ordered all the Qing and military forces to carry out a general attack on the whole front with the focus on the western front of Niujiaopo. The main front line starts from the Liangcha River of Zhouxi in the south to Lengshuigou (Wengti) in the north, and is about 15 miles long. The Xi Jiajun stepped up the cleaning operations on the periphery, and the four-way army led by Tang Benyou, Xie Lanjie, Su Yuanchun, Gong Tianyuan, etc., surrounded Crow Slope and Niujiao Slope from the southeast, north foothills, northwest, and southwest.

Gong Jichang dispatched a mobile unit of Gong Sheng, the commander of the thousand generals, to raid the strongholds of the Miao army from the southwest, focusing on small fights, and compressing the territory of the Miao army to the greatest extent.

The Miao officers and soldiers who defended on the front line of the open land at the foot of the mountain knew in their hearts that they would strike first. However, due to the large distance, it was difficult to work and did not break through Gong Jichang's defense line. As a result, tens of thousands of people under Xi Qitian's command, including Deng Youde, Tang Benyou, Xie Lanjie, Zeng Jifeng, Zhou Dawu, and Gong Jichang, attacked with fierce foreign artillery, and then they immediately advanced to the foot of the mountain and set fire to the mountain, trying to "burn bees" again. Previously, the Miao army had already opened up a firebreak, and the fire attack was useless.

As a result, the Qing Peace Army, in the earth-shaking trumpet, rushed to the slope section in general swarms, and changed from a flat attack to an upward attack. The Miao Army and the Blue Wolf Army, which were guarding the second and third lines of defense, under the command of Li Anong and Li Wencai, also overwhelmingly overwhelmed the artillery fire and fired at the Qinghe Army. The Qinghe army could not move an inch, and the turtle cowered down the slope.

Gong Jichang immediately formed a death squad on the condition of a heavy reward, holding an iron shield in his hand, and withstanding the fierce artillery fire, before he mounted the wheeled foreign cannon on the slope. Under the cover of foreign artillery fire, tens of thousands of Qinghe troops broke through the second line of defense of the Miao army and the blue wolf army at the cost of corpses all over the field and more than 1,000 casualties.

As a result, a "Yanggan Village" (about four miles above the Liangbin River), which was famous for its forestry business of less than 10 households, disappeared in the war.

A small part of the battle-hardened Blue Wolf Army was ordered to break through while pinning down the enemy, and some retreated to the third line of defense of the Miao army.

This line of defense is the top of a cross-slope slope and is easy to defend and difficult to attack. Xi Qitian, Su Yuanchun, Tang Benyou and others came to the front. The Qinghe Army and the Miao Army fought here for a long time.

At this time, Yang Daliu also rushed to the forward position from Weng Ti and Zhang Xiumei from Yangbang (Yingpan) to command and participate in the battle, and together with Li Anong and Li Wencai, launched a counter-charge against the Qinghe army, causing the officers and troops to retreat again and again, and Empress Cang retreated. For a time, the blood flowed like a river, the knife handle was not tightly pinched, and it could only be pinched by rubbing it with a chaff shell, and the gun shaft was slippery and could not be pinched firmly, and it could only be taken by wiping it with river sand. It's really a series of vicious battles and wars. And the blood of the soldiers of the Miao army also stained the mountains red.

On the line of Lengshuigou (Onti) in the north, the battle was also very fierce. This battle was personally commanded by Yang Daliu, who was stationed there, and its purpose was to contain the Qinghe army, which was mainly attacking Yangganpo.

Because Weng Ti has a good gate to block the village, a good wall to enclose the village, and a good natural karst cave as a cover, so at the beginning of the decisive battle, the Miao army relied on its geographical advantage and artillery fire to contain a large number of Qing and army and reject the periphery, forcing the Qing army to fail to move forward.

Seeing that the situation was not good, when Gong Jichang personally led the elite troops to pounce, Miao General Bao Nanyao also rushed to support, and a fierce battle broke out between the two sides, resulting in Gong Jichang's defeat.

Yang Daliu knew that the terrain of Lengshuigou was extremely dangerous, and the Qinghe army did not dare to commit it again after being frustrated, so in addition to letting some officers and troops contain it, he quietly moved south to support the third line of defense of Yangganpo.

On the third line of defense, the two sides have been in a stalemate for a long time. The phenomenon of food shortage among the military and civilians of the Miao army has become extremely serious, and some people have starved to death in the mountains and forests, and some commanders and generals of the Miao army have generally been pessimistic about the future.

After Gong Jichang learned about the situation from the Miao army's prisoners of war, he issued an order to cut off the Miao army's grain routes and communications with "all the armies are trapped", and at the same time constantly used the means of bribery and surrender to disintegrate the Miao army, and used fire dragons to distribute leaflets to persuade them to surrender, saying that those who surrendered would not be held accountable, and they could also get food and money to go home, which shook the fighting spirit of the Miao army in Crow Slope and Niujiaopo.

Those mountain officials, Tusi, Touren, village elders, and landlord elements in the Miao army, such as Ma Dawu, Li Houyi, and Pan Laoyan, who were not determined to be strong-willed, could not sit still and gathered together into a force that surrendered. However, the vast majority of generals still adhered to the view of death in battle, called on people to resist, suppressed the surrender faction, and the main battle faction still had the advantage.

At the time of the battle on the mountainside of Niujiaopo, Xi Qitian, in order to open up the situation, ordered the Taoist Ge Jian and the guerrilla Wen Guoxing (Miao Lian leader) to start attacking the southeast of Zhang Xiumei's army in Crowpo (that is, the junction of today's Yingpanzhai and Lihe Reservoir). This is a deep stream and a high gorge, and the two armies of Ge and Wen have nothing to gain except for wasting artillery fire. Zhou Dawu's troops attacked the front of Zhang Xiumei's army from under Tianba, and both sides suffered casualties. Because Zhang Xiumei had the natural geographical advantage of dry fields and paddy fields, Zhou Dawu was defeated and went to the river and stationed in place. At this point, the position of the Raven Po Miao army was still impregnable.

On 10 March, Xi Qitian sent more than 10,000 elite soldiers, with Gong Jichang as the vanguard force, and after a burst of heavy bombardment with rockets and foreign artillery, and then pressed with infantry troops, they captured the first slope of the third line of defense. At that time, the Qinghe army could look down on the Miao army opposite, only to see the flags fluttering, the drums and horns smelling each other, and the lineup was like that.