How long can the banner be fought?

Wang Wu didn't think about it, he didn't need to think about it.

He just knew he had to persevere.

Because, a spark can start a prairie fire!

In addition, in nine years, there will be a raging fire from the southwest to the north and south of the river.

That is bound to let all the anti-Qing righteous people who persist see the dawn of victory and the hope of regaining sight!

People are hanging from the sky.

Wang Wu, who cut off the back road, had no distractions and firmly stepped into the unknown distance.

Even though the road ahead was full of thorns, he would not look back.

In order to prevent the important stronghold of Wujiayuanzi from being occupied by the Qing army, Wang Wu asked Gou Yu to take people to set fire everywhere in Yuanzi before leaving, and all living facilities were destroyed, making this important stronghold of the Ming army for more than ten years fall into ruins in a blink of an eye.

Either the walls are clear, or they simply don't want the Qing army to occupy this place.

In that case, for the Ming army, whose territory was constantly eroded, not only the scope of activity would be limited, but also the military operations would be greatly limited.

Once the Qing army gained a foothold in Wujiayuanzi and established a defensive line, the rope around the neck of the Ming army became tighter, making it difficult for the remnants of the Ming army to breathe and make it more difficult to move.

Living space will also be further compressed.

Therefore, even if he wanted to break out of the encirclement and go to the rear of the Qing army to fight a sports war, Wang Wu could not sit idly by and watch Wu Jiayuanzi fall into the hands of the Qing army so easily.

You must know that the terrain of Wushan is special, and every habitable point has important military significance, if Wujiayuanzi is left to the Qing army, then this place will inevitably become an important stronghold for the Qing army to further extend to the anti-Qing base area.

At the very least, this place can control a radius of thirty miles.

What's more, Wujiayuanzi is the west gate of Lao Mugang, no matter whether Lao Mugang is currently under the control of the Qing army, whether Liu Tichun is killed or not, Wang Wu can't let this place become a base for the Qing army to extend forward.

It's easy to give up, but it's hard to recapture.

Must be destroyed!

Everything that could be burned was burned, everything that could be demolished was demolished, everything that could be destroyed was destroyed, and not a single brick or tile was left to the Qing army.

Even if the Qing army fancied to focus on business here, it would have to spend a lot of manpower and material resources for it.

War is fought on both sides' ability to mobilize and to transport money, food, and materials.

Any approach is beneficial as long as it consumes energy to weaken the adversary's strength and prevents it from devoting all its resources to military operations.

Even if it is forced.

Due to the snow, Wang Wu judged that it was impossible for the Qing army to launch a new round of offensive in the past few days, that is, the Qing army would not be able to carry out any sweeping and encirclement in the mountains in the near future, so he was not worried that the Qing army would follow the attack.

There is no doubt that Wang Zhili, Lu Congyun and others, the deputy generals who abandoned the camp and fled, will definitely report what happened to Wujiayuanzi to the Qing army, but this heavy snow will make it impossible for the Qing army to take action at the first time.

In ancient times, there were classic examples of surprise attacks on snowy nights, and extreme weather often became the most powerful weapon of the attacker, but in this mountainous range, no one would be foolish to copy the examples of the ancients.

Unless, crazy.

Without the threat of the Qing army's tailgating, it was naturally the best for the Ming army, but the biggest trouble now was not the threat from the Qing army, but the Ming army's own marching problem.

Although the heavy snow made it difficult for the Qing army to carry out military operations, it also made it difficult for the Ming army to conduct military operations.

There was no heavy snowfall, and it only took three days to rush from Wujiayuanzi to Laomugang.

Now, it takes at least five days.

It's still good.

Sometimes heavy snow covers the mountains, leaving people in the mountains unable to communicate with the outside world for a month or two.

The knee-deep snow was enough to dissuade any warrior who dared to explore the surrounding area.

If you are not familiar with the terrain, you will even get lost in the vast white snow and die of starvation.

........

In order to arrive at Lao Mugang as soon as possible to rescue Liu Shuai, Ma Sizhong and Xu Deyi commanded Lao Shun's army to open the road in front and use all means to clear the snow on the mountain road, which made it much less difficult for Wang Wu's team to march behind, but even so, their marching speed was extremely slow.

The reason is that Wangshan broke his leg when he ran, and it was difficult to pull his foot out of the snow.

Especially after the snow, the temperature drops sharply, and thin ice accumulates in many places, and people walk on it very slippery, and if you are not careful, you will fall.

And some steep places require several people to work together to cross, so even if the Ming army is eager to rescue, they have to falter and march with difficulty under the majesty of God.

Ma Sizhong, who opened the road in front, sent someone to inform Wang Wu that they might have to camp at Suokoudong at night.

It was a common village controlled by Liu Tichun's troops, and there were seven or eight hundred defenders, but it was unknown whether these defenders were still reliable.

Ma Sizhong meant that he would first send people to the lock hole to reconnoiter the situation, and if the defenders did not mutiny, they would rest here and wait for dawn before setting off, and if the defenders rebelled, they would have to fight with them.

This requires Wang Wu's cooperation, after all, there are only about 400 people on the side of the Lao Shun army, and the manpower is not enough to solve the defenders of the lock hole alone.

Wang Wu readily agreed, and asked the messenger to go back and tell Ma Sizhong that no matter whether the defenders of the lock cave defected or not, they should not go over immediately, let alone take risks alone, and they must wait for him to bring people with them.

After the men sent by Ma Sizhong left, Wang Wu asked the soldiers to help each other and speed up the march as much as possible.

Saving lives is like fighting fire.

"Keep up, the person in front of you will drag the one behind with a rope after passing by!"

In a steep place called Shuanglong Slope, although the snow here was cleared by the Shun army in front, it was very unsafe for people to walk on it as if walking on the ice, and the drop was about ten meters.

"One-two-three, pull!"

The blind man Wan Si took a dozen personal soldiers to wrap a thick rope around a big tree on the slope, and constantly pulled up the people below one by one.

Because it was too slippery, a soldier rolled down the slope because of a slippery foot, and in the midst of everyone's astonishment, they saw Wang Wu jump off the slope almost instantly, rushed to the soldier's side and grabbed him, and then dragged the soldier back to the top with the help of his own soldiers.

Everyone saw this scene.

When the soldier who rolled down the slope went up to the slope with joy and fear, the soldier waiting below looked at Wang Wu, who was panting, and there was an inexplicable warmth in his eyes, and his heart became more firm.

Wang Wu didn't mean to do this, he just jumped off out of instinct, and he didn't have time to observe the reaction of the soldiers at this time, so he only shouted to the soldiers who were watching him: "Brothers, work hard, it's much easier to walk after this Shuanglong Slope!" ”

After speaking, he walked to the front of the queue, stretched out his hand to the child who refused to let others carry the flag for him, and said with a smile: "Child, you are young and have no strength, I will carry you up!" ”

"My lord, I can get on!"

The twelve or thirteen-year-old Song child did not have the kindness of leading Wang Wu, and he didn't know where he got a disbelief, so he walked down the slope alone with the banner, stretched out his hand and grabbed the rope and climbed up.

But the child's strength was limited, and he had to hold the flagpole with his other hand, so he couldn't go up after two attempts.

This made the child very angry, but he still didn't ask for help from the adults in his eyes, but looked at Liu Yuan, a companion who stayed with him.

"Kid, I'll help you!"

Liu Yuan felt very sorry for this little brother, and stepped forward to ask the child to give him the flag, but the child said that he didn't want to give the flag to Liu Yuan, as if this flag was the whole meaning of his life.

"I'll return the flag to you after you go up, everyone is waiting to go up, don't delay everyone."

Liu Yuan was worried that the child's friction here would affect others, so he persuaded in a low voice.

The child puffed out his mouth like an iron heart: "No, the flag is here, it's my father who said it!" ”

Hearing this, Liu Yuan thought of something, and the hand that was holding the flagpole subconsciously withdrew it, and the eyes of the child were also indescribably pity.

Seeing this, Wang Wu stepped forward and forcibly took down the banner that the child was carrying, and then grabbed the child's buttocks and pushed him up.

Wan Si and the others above saw each other and pulled the child up smoothly.

"Then, the flag is in the people!"

At the moment when the child just stood firm, Wang Wu under the slope stabbed the big flag hard into the snow on the slope.

The banner was also planted like a javelin in the snow.

"Child, the banner is yours, no one can take it away!"

Wang Wu looked up at the child more than ten meters high, his eyes like a brother looking at his young brother.

.........

Lao Mugang, Liu Tichun's most important stronghold, is also where his handsome camp is located, less than 100 miles away from Wujiayuanzi.

Last year, after Hao Shaoqi and Yuan Zongdi were fiercely attacked by the Qing army, they took a few soldiers to join Liu Tichun, but Liu Tichun was not having a good time at this time.

The Qing army regarded it as a key target, and constantly sent troops to capture Liu's strongholds, squeezing Liu's living space, so that the scope of Liu's activities was reduced from the original three counties to one county, and now tens of thousands of Qing troops on the western front were mobilized to suppress Liu Tichun's fight.

The reason why the Qing army bit Liu Tichun was because of Liu Tichun's prestige, and because Liu Tichun was the leader of the Kui Dong Ming Army.

In the official documents of the Qing court to and from the localities, Liu Tichun was called "the head of the thief and the two tigers", and the importance of him was higher than that of Li Laiheng, the Duke of Linguo who insisted on resisting the Qing in the Xingshan area.

It is the head of the old thieves.

In terms of military deployment, the focus on encircling and suppressing Liu Tichun's troops was Li Guoying, the governor of Sichuan in the Qing Dynasty.

Due to the sharp turn of the situation, Liu Tichun's subordinates surrendered to the Qing Dynasty one after another, and several important battles with the Qing army also ended in defeat, which exacerbated the disintegration of Liu's troops.

It was in this context that the commander-in-chief Tian Heng and Wan He rebelled against the Ming Dynasty in despair and rebelled against the Qing Dynasty in Lao Mugang, and the most direct consequence of this incident was that Suo Yanlong, who was deeply trusted by Liu Tichun, had the idea of surrendering to the Qing Dynasty.

As a result, the Ming army on the Wujiayuanzi line on the western front collapsed, and Wang Wu had to lead the officers and soldiers who were willing to continue to resist the Qing Dynasty to return to Lao Mugang together with the Lao Shun army.

Despite this, Wang Wu still sincerely hoped to save Liu Tichun, and begged God to bless Liu Tichun from being killed.

Because Liu Shi is a big banner of Kui Dongming's army.

If he dies, it will undoubtedly be a major blow to the Ming army that continues to persist in resisting the Qing Dynasty, and it will also make Li Laiheng of Xingshan completely lose his help.

Although history does not change by individuals, some people are important in the trend of the times.

Banner!

The significance of Liu Tichun in the Kuidong area is that he is a big banner.

The banner is there, and the people's hearts are there.

When the banner falls, people's hearts die.

After the arduous march in the snow, in the evening, Wang Wu met Ma Sizhong, Xu Deyi and others.

Ma has already sent people to reconnoiter the lock hole, and now everyone is anxiously waiting for news.

The lock hole is an extremely important place, just by listening to the name.

If you want to go to Lao Mugang, the lock hole is the only road in this radius of 100 miles, this place is located at the junction of two mountains, the shape is like a canyon but the entrance is very narrow, so it is called the lock mouth.

The Ming army stationed here was the person of Zhang Tianwang, the capital of Liu Tichun's department.

The number is not much, only seven or eight hundred, but these Ming troops, who occupy a favorable position, can stop ten times the enemy.

If Zhang Tianwang rebelled with Tian Heng and them, Wang Wu and them would only have to attack the lock hole, so the casualties would be very large.

Therefore, everyone is now looking forward to Zhang Tianwang not rebelling, but Zhang Tianwang is not from Lao Shunjun, but a landlord in Xiangyang, Hubei.

After the Qing army invaded Hubei in the first year of Longwu, Zhang Tianwang recruited volunteers to resist the Qing Dynasty because he was defeated by the Qing army, and after fleeing to Hunan, he continued to organize the people to resist the Qing Dynasty.

But this person also clashed with the Shun army, which had been reorganized into a loyal battalion, because Zhang Tianwang believed that it was the Shun army that killed Emperor Chongzhen and ruined the Ming Dynasty.

If it is said that the Qing army is captured, the Shun army is the Kou.

Zhang Tianwang, who had the traditional scholar thought, clashed with the Shun army continuously, and finally under the heavy pressure of the Qing army and the reconciliation of the Longwu court, he had to resist the Qing Dynasty with the loyal battalion, and then came to the Wushan area to continue to resist the Qing.

Nominally, Zhang Tianwang is under the command of Liu Tichun, but in fact, he listens to the tune and does not listen to the announcement.

Generally, Zhang Tianwang did not participate in the military conference convened by Liu Tichun, so Ma Sizhong and they were worried that Zhang Tianwang, who discriminated against the Shun army in his bones, might be cleared.

Wang Wu also made the worst plan here, and discussed with Ma Sizhong and Xu Deyi how to storm the lock hole and open the passage to Lao Mugang in case of Tianwang's rebellion.

The discussions came and went, and the conclusions reached were not optimistic.

Even if it is won, I am afraid that it will have to pay hundreds of casualties.

But no one was discouraged and negative because of this, and some officers of the Lao Shun army volunteered to lead the death squad to attack.

"If you really want to organize a death squad, I'll bring someone up."

Wang Wu did not become an outsider, and since he had decided to persist in resisting the Qing Dynasty to the end, how could he stay out of sight.

Left and right is a death, it's better to fight.

Ma Sizhong's side refused to let Wang Wu lead people to organize a death squad, saying that they wanted to go back to Lao Mugang to save Liu Shuai, and there was no reason to shrink back when they were desperate.

When Wang Wu was arguing with Ma Sizhong about who would organize the death squad, the scouting people came back and not only brought the good news that the Suokoudong garrison had not defected, but also brought an important person.

It's the landlord-born lock hole guard Zhang Tianwang!

Wang Wu thought that this Zhang Tianwang was a rather tricky and stubborn image of an old bureaucrat in the Ming Dynasty, with a goat's beard, or a cold face, but he didn't think that the other party was a tall martial artist, looking like a butcher.

Without waiting for Ma Sizhong and them to step forward, they heard Zhang Tianwang, who was like killing a pig, shouting from afar: "Damn, my old Zhang came here in person, either because I want to have any friendship with you old thieves, or I don't want to be poked in the backbone and say that I am a traitor and have shamed my ancestors!" ”