A few months ago, the Seed Master Road went south from the Bao Slope Road, and the whole army had nearly 45,000 people (not including the people).

The main components of the troops are the Seed Army and the Folding Army.

The master is the main general, and he can be the deputy general.

In the northern section of the valley, water and land can be used together, and gradually it is necessary to cross the mountains and mountains, and the grain transport ships can no longer be used, and then it is necessary to carry grain and grass honestly and practically.

When we arrived at Baogu, we traveled some distance, and we could already transport grain by boat.

But not a single boat could be found, and even the nearby villages were emptied, and all the villagers near the river in Baogu ran away.

Then we had to continue on the overland route, where the water was turbulent and the improvised rafts were never dared to be used to transport grain.

The Zhu thief seems to have a good conscience, and the plank road has not been demolished all the way.

until they are close to the mouth of the valley......

The eight-mile-long plank road has been demolished!

For Zhu Ming, after the plank road is dismantled, it can be repaired at any time.

Because he used a professional tool, he could easily remove the trestle by knocking out the triangular wedges. It will take a while to put those trestle beams away and install them in the future.

But it's hard to grow a teacher.

Looking at the empty cliff, with only countless stack holes left, the Planter Dao held back a sentence for a long time: "Repair the plank road!" ”

These three words are easy to say, but torturous to do.

Because the Western Army did not have ships, Zhu Ming had them, and there were quite a few of them.

There are dozens of warships converted from large merchant ships.

Small leveling cannons were placed on the deck, and they went up against the water, and fired at the Western Army on the edge of the cliff.

The Western Army of the Planter Road is not only the largest in number, but also well equipped. There were a large number of bed crossbows and divine arm bows, which were dragged out to shoot at the warship.

The bed crossbow and the god arm bow are both "big killers", and they can shoot farther and aim more accurately than the leveling cannon.

Every day, they shoot like this, and there are some casualties on each other, which seriously slows down the pace of building the plank road.

The unlucky planter road, tens of thousands of troops crowded there, can't do anything, and the daily work is to send people to repair the plank road.

Well, I'm also building some boats and rafts, and I have to prepare for the next battle out of Baogukou.

A small number of rebel ships would sail further upstream, trying to find a place to land and attack the grain routes.

However, the Seed Master Road was well defended, and several transfer stations on the Baogu Grain Road were all heavily guarded, and the rebels could not find the opportunity to burn the military rations.

The two sides spent more than two months like this.

……

"There is a stone gate ahead, and you can't attack it if you don't attack it." The planter was worried.

Shimen is two artificial tunnels, which are located on both sides of the Baoshui River. Through repeated fire boiling and watering, a mountainside tunnel with a height of more than 3 meters and a width of more than 4 meters was opened. (The west stone gate is 15 meters long, and the east stone gate is 16.5 meters long.) ）

After passing the stone gate, you can get out of the valley.

You can also take the waterway, but the rafts built by the Western Army improvised are enough.

"Report !!!"

The seed master Dao took the letter, and after reading it, he said: "There are also thieves in Shahe, and they have also built a camp, and it is difficult to conquer the system. ”

12 miles away from Shimen, there is a small river that can be bypassed, and after coming out of the mountain, it is between Baocheng County and Xixian County.

Although it is difficult to walk the army, it is still possible to send a small group of elite surprise attacks.

Anyway, it takes time to repair the plank road, and if you are idle, you will be idle, so the master will send Zhiyan to lead the troops to attack.

As you can imagine, the surprise attack failed.

The camp of the rebel army was stuck in a dangerous place in the river valley, and only 3,000 soldiers were sent to garrison, and it could not be defeated without tens of thousands of soldiers.

At this moment, the plank road has been repaired to more than ten meters away from the stone gate.

The Western Army, who was responsible for repairing the plank road, wore dozens of pounds of foot armor, and even pulled down the helmet and neck, protecting all the face and neck. This is true of the soldier who placed the trestle, and so was the soldier who pulled him with a rope behind him.

Every time a trestle is placed, someone has to be replaced to work.

Not only was he tired enough, but his whole body was full of arrows, and he had long been shot into a hedgehog by the rebels.

It's a pity that Zhu Ming doesn't have a bed crossbow and a divine arm bow, otherwise one arrow at a time!

But Zhu Ming has something else.

In the artificial tunnels on both sides of the water, a musketeer walked to the entrance of the cave.

Several heavily armed Western soldiers were pulling their comrades to work at high altitude with ropes, when they suddenly saw someone in the stone gate raising a strange stick.

What's that?

"Bang!"

A gunshot rang out, and the iron armor pierced.

The soldiers of the Western Army, who were laying the trestle beams, were convulsed and struggled in pain, and the hammer in their hands also fell into the river.

The Western Army behind dragged the rope back, and found that the Don Xiang had been pierced and there was a bloody hole in his neck.

The accuracy of the bird gun is very high, and at a distance of more than ten meters, it can not only easily hit the target, but also aim at the neck to shoot.

The soldiers in charge of repairing the plank road were all so frightened that they all flinched.

A quarter of an hour later, the body was dragged to the Planter Dao for display.

The seed master first observed the pierced piece, then looked at the wound, and used his knife to pick out a deformed lead bullet from the wound.

"What are the weapons of the thieves?" The planter asked.

The Western sergeant, who witnessed the whole process, replied in horror: "A stick of about three feet, raised to ignite, bang, will smoke." ”

Zhu Guoxiang and Zhu Ming also made flintlock pistols, but for some reason, the firing rate just couldn't be raised. The flintlock pistol was fired ten times, but three or four times failed to fire, so it was decided to make arquebuses in bulk first.

Zhe Keqiu also walked over, and after taking a closer look, he muttered: "Could it be that Zhu Thief really knows how to demons?" ”

Decades after the establishment of the Southern Song Dynasty, the Song people also developed tubular firearms.

But instead of firing bullets, it resembles a flamethrower. It originated from the gunpowder formula of the Northern Song Dynasty that does not explode after ignition, but burns violently.

This flamethrower was learned by the Jin people, and even used against the Mongols.

As for the invention of the assault gun, it will have to wait another hundred years.

Seed Master Dao called a meeting of the generals to study what weapons the Zhu thief possessed.

There are different opinions, and they all talk about demon magic and fairy arts.

Zhen Kecun said: "The old Zhu thief has an immortal fate overseas, and most of it is a magic weapon given by the immortals. ”

Chong Hao said: "With this kind of immortal magic weapon, it is difficult to repair the last few zhang plank road, and you have to row a raft to attack from the water. ”

"Hundreds of large and small ships have been built, and hundreds of bamboo rafts have been built. But the thieves have big ships, and our army is all small boats and small rafts, so I am afraid that it will be difficult to deal with water warfare. ”

The generals now understood that it was difficult for the thieves to win.

The plank road several miles long, repaired to the last ten meters, looked like it could be completed, but it was blocked by a strange weapon.

Originally, he wore a step armor to protect his whole body, and he would not be killed if he was shot into a hedgehog, but that kind of weapon could directly pierce the iron armor!

Chongxi said: "Can you make a giant shield, use a few layers of cowhide covers, and then smear dirty blood and feces, maybe you can break this magic weapon." ”

"You can try." The planter nodded.

Cowhide is a strategic material, and a lot of it was brought with the army, which was originally used to make siege equipment.

The planter road directly allows craftsmen to make chariots, which can be pushed on the plank road.

The chariot protrudes from a three-foot-long wooden pole with a plank in front of it.

On the surface of the wooden board, nail ten layers of cowhide, and then smear feces and other filth.

The soldiers of the Western Army marched forward with trepidation, and the soldiers in charge of repairing the plank road hid behind the cowhide planks. He no longer wears heavy armor, and he is easy to do things when he travels lightly.

The rebels fired two shots in succession, but to no avail.

Ten layers of cowhide, it's weird to wear it!

The soldiers of the Western Army were overjoyed, and it seemed that filthy things could really break spells.

A few meters long plank road was repaired, and the rebels carried a tiger squat cannon to the entrance of the Shimen cave.

Instead of shotguns, use solid bullets.

There was only ten meters left, and it was fired at the cowhide baffle.

I don't know if I can wear ten layers of cowhide or not, but the planks behind it definitely can't hold up.

"Boom!"

There were two loud bangs in a row, and the stone gates on the east and west walls both fired cannonballs at the cowhide baffle on the opposite side.

The planks were made of ordinary trees that had been cut down at random, and they were smashed apart in an instant, but they were not completely broken, and they were still connected by cowhide.

But it didn't matter, the wooden pole that supported the baffle was directly broken.

The wooden planks and the cowhide were smashed back, and the soldiers who were repairing the plank road died instantly, and they were killed alive.

This battle is much bigger than the previous bird's gun.

The generals who got the results were all so frightened that they couldn't speak, the magic weapon of the Zhu thief was too powerful, and there was more than that.

After thinking for a long time, the planter said: "Build more rafts and attack from the water." ”

The Zhu thief has two powerful magic weapons, even if the plank road is completely repaired, it is impossible to kill it from the stone gate.

The western army killed from the plank road, at most two people side by side attacked. And the rebels put the artillery at the mouth of the tunnel, and one cannon could hit a string, because the Western army lined up on the plank road.

If the Western Army is really brave and can withstand muskets and artillery, and rush to the stone gate between loading ammunition, it will also be repeatedly stabbed by the spear array. Then, the gun was loaded with ammunition and fired in the face at close range.

The Planter ordered the soldiers to cut down trees and bamboos in a frenzy, and the largest ship that had been improvised could carry more than a dozen soldiers.

Boats and rafts gradually became abundant, but it was difficult for the Tangari to make up his mind to attack.

Because the odds of winning are close to zero.

"After a while, Captain Gao sent a letter urging again!"

After reading the letter, the planter said nothing, and sat for a long time.

The imperial court urged Gao Yu and Gao Yu to urge the master to say, anyway, it has one meaning, to enter Hanzhong as soon as possible to exterminate the thieves.

But how can you beat this damn terrain?

Both sides of the bank are cliffs, and the western army can only pass through the plank road. However, the rebels occupied two artificial tunnels and blocked the plank road, even if there were no muskets and artillery, the two sides only fought with cold weapons, and it was difficult for the Western army on the plank road to win.

The rebels not only had large ships, but also arranged heavy troops at the downstream landing sites.

What the seed master didn't know was that there were iron-cast giant cannons on both sides of the downstream, waiting for the Western Army to take a boat and a raft over.

Moreover, the Western Army had to board ships eight miles away, because the plank road area could not dock the rafts.

Eight miles away, Baoshui is still in the rising water period, in the face of the turbulent river, where can the boat and raft be controlled? By the time they drifted downstream to find a landing site, they had already rushed to the east and west, and the officers and men of the various units could not organize a battle at all.

Even if you attack from the water, you will have to wait until the dry season in winter.

The planter decided to wait a little longer and drag it until the water level of Baoshui dropped.

And Gao Yu was urged by Wang Huang to be in a hurry, and every few days a messenger came over, urging the Seed Master Dao to attack quickly.

(End of chapter)