Mantianzhai is divided into big Mantian and small Mantian.

A section of the plank road in the north of Xiaomantianzhai, about a distance of several hundred meters, was demolished by Huang Deyu, the Taishou of Lizhou.

When Zhu Ming received the news from the vanguard troops, he immediately ordered the elite soldiers to escort two hundred miscellaneous servants first. As close to the Bright Moon Gorge as possible, choose a slightly open spot and cut down trees to create trestles and planks.

It's all temporary material, and it breaks in a few months.

If you want to build a long-term plank road, you must dry it with special wood and carry out some antiseptic treatment.

After cutting down several heavenly trees, Deng Chun led five hundred elite soldiers of rattan armor, and Hua Rong led fifty musketeers of the army, slowly approaching with craftsmen and miscellaneous servants.

At the edge of the intact boardwalk, build a few planks and stick out.

One end is nailed with a nail, and the other end is dispensed to hang in the air. The craftsman tied a rope to his waist, climbed over on the wooden plank, and measured the size of the plank hole with a ruler.

After measuring the size, they returned it and used a planer to organize the temporary trestle beam.

Then the two dragged the trestle out and hung it with a rope and stuffed it into the trestle. One person holds it, the other swings the hammer - the outer end of the trestle has a triangular saw edge, which is stuffed into a triangular wooden block and hammered inside, working like an expansion bolt.

It's tiring and dangerous, but luckily the holes in the cliff are still there.

The trestle beams are fixed and the planks are nailed, and the carpenters (and stonemasons) take turns working and slowly advance for tens of meters.

When I got to the section that was slightly recessed into the cliff, a few rocks suddenly flew in. But it is from this angle that it can be attacked by catapults on the opposite mountain.

The two craftsmen were so frightened that they climbed back, and the temporary trestle beam, which had not yet been fixed, dragged the rope and fell, hitting the cliff wall a few times and falling into the boiling river.

Deng Chun held the shovel in his hand and said to the craftsmen: "A dead person will be compensated for thirty times, and the family will enjoy three acres of paddy fields." Finish all the plank roads, and each person will be rewarded with ten more times! Yuan Zhanggong speaks, never fakes! ”

The craftsmen looked at each other, discussed internally for a while, and began to draw lots to decide the order of work.

The accuracy of the catapult was very low, and in order to ensure the range, the stone projectiles were not as big as a head. Dozens of shells have been thrown, but none of them have hit, but the momentum is quite terrifying.

Especially after hitting the stone bullet on the cliff wall above, it fell along with the flying gravel.

Soon the craftsman was wounded, his head smashed by the flying rubble, and he was dragged back with rope to bandage it, bleeding from it.

From noon to late afternoon, the worst happened.

A stone projectile flew and smashed the carpenter's head directly!

The craftsman who worked with him was so frightened that he sat down on the plank road with a frightened face after being dragged back.

Not only the craftsmen in front were dangerous, but the people pulling the ropes in the rear were also exposed to the attacks of the catapults. Deng Chun took out the giant shield of the long card player and asked them to hold the giant shield for defense, but they didn't know if they could block it.

Even if the giant shield can be carried, the arm of the person holding the shield will be shattered by the impact.

Purely use human life to pile up!

The pace of construction became slower and slower, and until Zhu Ming arrived with the main force, the plank road hundreds of meters long was still not completed.

Moreover, the further forward it is, the more dangerous it becomes, and it has entered the range of the bows and arrows of officers and soldiers.

The musketeers led by Hua Rong hid behind the giant shield and returned fire. The accuracy of the bird gun is very high, whether it is a Chinese general like Qi Jiguang or a European general of the same period, they all say that this thing is more accurate than a bow and arrow.

But the officers and soldiers archers were condescending, and they were still hiding behind obstacles, and whether they could hit or not was purely a matter of luck.

"How's it going?" Zhu Ming asked.

Deng Chun replied gloomily: "Carpenters and stonemasons, thirteen died before and after, five were seriously injured, and more than a dozen were slightly injured. Afraid that they would be hit by arrows, they all put on rattan armor, which was extremely inconvenient to move, and their cultivation was very slow. The plank road that has been repaired has been attacked by artillery trucks, but fortunately only some wooden planks have been smashed, and the trestle beams are not easy to break. ”

Zhu Ming was silent, and then said: "The army is here with meat, call them back to eat meat." ”

There is no other way but to cultivate it like this.

Chaotian Gorge is too steep for even the officers and soldiers defending to throw rocks at the top of the cliff, so they can only attack with catapults in the gentle part of the mountain opposite.

It took another three days for the plank road to finally be repaired to the dead end of the catapult's attack, and even the archery lost its vision.

The officers and men could only aim at the plank road that had been repaired and fired cannons, and smashed some wooden planks one after another, and two trestle beams were also smashed and cracked.

"Come down with me and shoot arrows!"

An officer and soldier commanded, with more than 30 archers, descended the mountain to the top of the plank road.

"The craftsman is back!" Hua Rong hurriedly ordered.

The soldiers on both sides finally faced each other, and there was a destroyed plank road forty or fifty meters apart.

There are a maximum of two people standing side by side, and the officers and archers in the back can only shoot.

On the rebels' side, the giant shield was flattened, and the musketeers in chainmail and helmets stood at the front to aim.

While the officers and archers were still advancing, the rebel musketeers were the first to shoot.

"Bang bang!"

With two crisp sounds, an officer and soldier fell.

The musketeers of the second platoon stood up, fired two more shots, and then immediately crouched, and the third platoon stood up again and fired.

"Demon law, thieves know demon law!"

"Run!"

The officers and soldiers and archers were in confusion and began to flee without firing an arrow.

Because the plank road was too narrow, they pushed each other in panic, and several people were squeezed off the cliff.

After another day, the plank road was finally completely repaired, and more than 30 craftsmen were killed and wounded.

The front can go directly to Lizhou City, but there is a small Mantianzhai on the mountain.

If the stockade is not pulled out, the officers and soldiers on the mountain can come down at any time to cut off the back road.

Zhu Ming said to Sun Lan and Xu Ning: "You take 3,000 people and continue to march to approach Damantianzhai. Don't rush to attack and prevent them from going down the mountain and destroying the boardwalk! ”

"Yes!"

The two were ordered to leave.

Zhu Ming turned to look at Xiao Mantianzhai, only to feel a pain in his brain.

The cliff is more than 70 degrees, and there is a zigzag road up the mountain. Any cannon is useless, the angle is too big, and it must be piled up with human lives.

Zhu Ming was reluctant to lose elite soldiers, so he organized miscellaneous soldiers to feint and consume first.

For several days in a row, more than 20 attacks a day, each time only 20 or 30 men were invested, and when the officers and soldiers threw wood and stones, they withdrew, and even at night there was a feint attack with heavy thunder and small rain.

More than 300 miscellaneous soldiers were killed and wounded one after another, and the defenders finally stopped throwing logs, and it was estimated that they were almost consumed.

After a few more days, the stones were becoming more and more irregular, not polished at all, and of various sizes. Most of these stones have been recently moved, and they can be used when they are found in the mountains.

At this point, before the assault began, the rebels had more than 500 dead and wounded.

Zhu Ming forced himself to become cold-blooded, and human life became a number in his heart.

One will be a success!

Fortunately, Xu Fuyan stuck to Xingyuan Mansion and did not lead troops to retreat to Lizhou. Otherwise, stationed in dangerous places along the way, Zhu Ming didn't know how many lives he had to fill in before he could kill all the way to Jianmen Pass.

"Shi Biao!" Zhu Ming shouted.

"In!" Shi Biao stood up.

Zhu Ming ordered: "In the second half of the night tonight, take three hundred elite soldiers up the mountain." ”

"Yes!" Shi Biao took the order.

Zhu Ming said again: "Deng Chun! ”

"In!"

"If Shi Biao can go up the mountain, you will lead the troops to kill him!"

"Yes!"

Before nightfall, Sun Lan and Xu Ning sent people back and brought back a few heads: "General, Damantianzhai has been taken!" ”

"Huh?" Zhu Ming was surprised.

The messenger said: "There are hundreds of officers and soldiers in Damantianzhai, and before our army has attacked, the village has been in chaos by itself, and one of the township soldiers has killed the defender to raise righteousness. When General Sun and General Xu heard the movement, they were afraid that the enemy would deliberately deceive them, so they only sent 200 men to try to kill them up the mountain. The officers and soldiers who were fighting in the village were defeated and surrendered when they saw our army killed! ”

"Well, there's a big reward!" Zhu Ming was overjoyed.

Lizhou guarded Huang Deyu too much, and originally gathered heavy troops to defend the large and small Tianzhai villages.

However, the peasants in Zhaohua County rebelled, and he had to lead his troops back to exterminate them, leaving 800 soldiers in each of the two villages.

In his opinion, only that destroyed plank road was enough for Zhu Ming to repair for a month.

The size of the village is steep and the terrain is steep, enough to hold on until he returns with his troops.

Moreover, he concentrated the elite soldiers in the small Mantianzhai, and the large Mantianzhai in the rear was dominated by the township soldiers.

But he didn't think that the township soldiers in Damantianzhai were resentful, and when the righteous army approached, they actually rebelled and started internal strife.

Zhu Ming immediately changed his strategy and asked people to go up the mountain with their heads to persuade them to surrender.

A miscellaneous soldier held a bamboo pole with several heads hanging on it, and began to climb the mountain tremblingly.

The guards in the small mantian village, seeing that only one person was coming, ordered not to shoot arrows and throw stones.

The miscellaneous soldiers panted and climbed up, and the guard's face suddenly changed drastically, and he already recognized whose heads were - Damantianzhai had been lost, and he had become a lonely village here, and it was absolutely impossible to wait for reinforcements.

"The general of my family said that surrender will not be killed," said the miscellaneous soldiers, "if you don't surrender, you will slaughter the stockade!" ”

The fact that the guards were willing to let this miscellaneous soldier go up the mountain already showed that his attitude was not resolute.

The main thing is that the plank road has been repaired, and the unknown weapon (firearm) frightens him. Moreover, the attack on the mountain for many days has cost a lot of rolling wood and rocks, and the defenders in the village have already wavered, and sooner or later there will be changes if they continue to defend it.

At this moment, he looked at the soldiers around him, and saw that they were all panicked, and the guard pretended to throw away his weapons: "Alas, there is no way to return to the sky, please surrender with me down the mountain." ”

Zhu Ming waited at the foot of the mountain, and when he saw the officers and soldiers going down the mountain road, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

He is not afraid of fighting tough battles, but it is not such a way of fighting, it is just a pure consumption of human lives.

The guard general Putong knelt on the ground: "Huang Mengqing, the commander of the Lizhou Xiang Army, does not know the majesty of the general, and the mantis arm is used as a car, and the crime deserves death!" ”

Zhu Ming listened to his words and asked, "Have you read a book?" ”

Huang Mengqing replied: "I took the Wujinshi exam, and the article was not well written, so I didn't pass the exam, but I was just a martial artist." ”

"No wonder you are calmly deployed, defended properly, and get up." Zhu Ming decided to accept this person, maybe he was still a general.

As for the hundreds of soldiers who were killed and wounded, the sword on the battlefield had no eyes, and it couldn't be blamed on Huang Mengqing's head.

Only the kind of guy who kills prisoners or kills good people and takes meritorious deeds, Zhu Ming resolutely refuses to forgive!

Leaving hundreds of soldiers to guard the large and small Tiantianzhai, Zhu Ming led the troops to continue south, passing through the plank road area, and soon approached Lizhou City.

(End of chapter)