"Bell... Bell ......"

In the middle of the night, when the gong kept ringing, a pass not far from the sea and a large river to the south appeared on the plain.

The sea breeze and the river breeze collide with each other, making it very cold in the middle of the night.

Rao is like this, but the soldiers on duty do not dare to slack off at all, just because the location is very important.

Yunti Pass, as the first customs in Chinese history, from the Tang Dynasty to the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, this place has always been the most relied on by all dynasties and dynasties of coastal defense town, known as the first pass on the southeast coast, the first pass of the Jianghuai Plain.

As the estuary of the Huai River, it is both new and unfortunate.

Its luck lies in the fact that it has been valued since the Tang Dynasty, and its misfortune began more than 200 years ago when the Yellow River seized the Huai into the sea.

Since the Yellow River has taken over the Huai River into the sea, the Huai River has helped the Yellow River wash away a large amount of sediment every year to its downstream, causing the coastline to continue to move eastward.

Today's Yunti Pass is the pass rebuilt in the sixth year of Hongwu, but even if it has only been 22 years, it once relied on the estuary, but now it is four miles away from the estuary.

In 22 years, Huanghuai rushed out of hundreds of thousands of acres of mudflats.

Yuntiguan had no choice but to build an earthen city every ten years to prepare for the relocation of Yuntiguan in the future.

So far, two earthen cities have been built here, and Yuntiguan itself is a structure of rammed earth and bricks.

Although the rammed earth and brick wrapping method is not as strong as the bluestone fortification in the inner city of Jingshi, it is enough to defend against the 2,000-pound Hongwu iron cannon, so Yuntiguan has never been the first choice for Japanese cholera.

In addition, the Yellow River seized the Huai River into the sea, resulting in the Jianghuai area becoming the Yellow Flood Area, and there was no longer the rich scene of the Han and Tang Dynasties, so the Japanese would not be interested in it.

"The Japanese have all been swept away by Governor Yang Wendu, and I don't know who we are guarding against here."

The ladder was closed, and looking at the gray sky, the two soldiers who learned that it was soon dawn also chatted.

They didn't think anyone was going to attack Cloud Ladder Pass, after all, it was notoriously easy to defend and difficult to attack.

Although the Yan rebellion in the north and the Bohai traitors had a fierce quarrel, they were only limited to Beiping and Shandong, and they were still very far away from the defenders of Yunti Pass.

Therefore, not only the two of them, but even the other defenders were very slack, although the newly arrived Sheng Yishi sent an additional 2,000 troops to Yunti Pass, so that Yunti Pass had 3,000 defenders, but they still did not think that anyone would be able to cross Ganyu, Haizhou, Xindam, Huize and other places in the north to attack Yunti Pass.

Their laxity gave Zhu Gaoxu a chance.

Taking advantage of the gray sky, ships began to appear on the sea.

Such a scene was not noticed by the defenders of Yunti Pass, and it was not until the ships were about to enter the mouth of the Huanghuai River that someone discovered and sounded the alarm.

"Bell... Clang... Bell ......"

"There's an enemy in the estuary!!"

"Beep-"

Alarm bells, reminders, and whistles rang incessantly, waking up many soldiers who were still lying on their beds after waking up.

They put on their armor and began to climb the gate with their weapons, and the artillery on the arrow tower began to adjust their direction, and the guns that were originally facing the north were facing the mouth of the Huanghuai River.

On an arrow tower, a flag soldier tried to play the flag, but found that the other party did not respond to him at all.

Large ships sailed into the mouth of the Huanghuai River and then ......

"Boom, boom—"

"Enemy attack!!"

"Bang! Bang! Bang! ”

The sound of cannons and the whistling cannonballs gave the best response to Yuntiguan.

The whistling iron cannonballs smashed into the rammed earth and brick-covered walls, and dense cracks suddenly appeared.

The ships kept approaching, and finally anchored two miles away from Yunti Pass.

The mouth of the Yellow River, which is two miles wide, became their position, and the warships that fired their guns in turn poured cannonballs on the head of Yunti Pass.

"Go! Hurry up and spread the message, just say that there are hundreds of Japanese warships besieging Yunti Pass, please send troops to help quickly! ”

"Release pigeons or send ponds to ride?"

"Do it all! All pies! Come on! ”

Yunti Pass was stunned, since the seventh year of Hongwu, there has been no war here, and many soldiers were even trained twice a month a month ago.

If it weren't for Sheng Yong's arrival at the Huaihe defense line and the expedited training of them for a month, they would probably have panicked and didn't know what to do.

"Shoot back!"

The commander of Yunti Pass gave an order, and after a while, the arrow towers around Yunti Pass were also lit up with fire, and the heavy Hongwu iron cannons began to fire back, but it had no effect.

It was not yet full light, and they could not see whether the stone projectiles had hit the enemy ship or not.

All they can do is keep fighting back and use that to ......

"Bang bang bang-"

Suddenly, the whistling shells launched a concentrated counterattack towards the Hongwu iron artillery battery in the exposed position, although the accuracy was not large, but due to the denseness, there were still three or five iron shells fell into the arrow tower, turning into ricochet, constantly harvesting the lives of the gunners on the arrow tower.

More than a dozen warships on the Yellow Sea channel bombarded the arrow towers and wall battlements of Yunti Pass with all their might, and the wall battlements continued to collapse, exposing the soldiers to the unobstructed horse road.

In the face of this fierce shelling, the 3,000 defenders of Yunti Pass could not fight back at all.

Every time they shelled, they were exposing the position of their own artillery, and then they were hit intensively.

It takes a quarter of an hour for the warships of the 'Wako' to rain hundreds of shells on an arrow tower, and even if only a tenth hits, it can destroy the wall of the arrow tower, so that the gunners do not dare to go up to the arrow tower to operate the artillery to return fire.

Time was passing, and the defenders of Yunti Pass were never able to cause harm to the 'Japanese Koukou' on the Huanghuai Waterway, and could only watch the sky turn from gray to bright, and watch the battlements of their own city walls being continuously destroyed.

At that time, the warships of the 'Wako' finally stopped shelling, but there was not a single one of the battlements on the east and north sides of Yunti Pass.

At this time, at last, a soldier poked his head out, and his eyes widened after just one glance.

"It's not a wolf, it's our people!"

"How can our people beat our off?!"

The Ladder Keeper reached out and struck the soldier's helmet, then took a bold look.

Just one glance at him frightened: "It's not our people, it's ...... It's the Bohai Navy, and the Bohai Navy has hit the Cloud Ladder Pass! ”

His voice was heard by many soldiers, and at this moment, the sound of horses' hooves suddenly came from outside the Cloud Ladder Pass.

Many soldiers ran to the north when they heard the sound, only to see the 'cavalry' who was overwhelmed by the black and overwhelming appeared outside the Yunti Pass, completely besieging the Yunti Pass.

In front of these tens of thousands of cavalry, the Cloud Ladder Pass was as small as a flat boat on the sea.

"Li Jinglong has been defeated by His Royal Highness, and I still want to see my father's and villagers' brothers in the Southern Army, if you don't want to continue to be shelled, let's open the city and surrender, we are only going south this time for the side of the Qing monarch and killing the ministers."

Outside the city, several cavalrymen stepped forward to speak, and his words were heard by the defenders of Yunti Pass.

When the Yunti guard, who was still hiding under the shelling, heard this, he immediately took a bow and arrow and shot at those people.

"The city is in the people, and the city is dead!"

He shouted heroically, but after the cavalry turned their horses and returned to the battle, he saw that the soldiers and horses of Bohai began to retreat.

Without waiting for him to be happy, more than a dozen warships on the Huanghuai waterway launched another artillery bombardment after a quarter of an hour's rest.

"Boom, boom—"

Yunti Pass is strong, but such a sturdiness is a siege machine for this era, not a cannon for the Bohai Navy.

When the naval guns weighing 10 to 20 pounds of ammunition continued to launch shelling, the bricks of Yunti Pass began to fall and crack, revealing the rammed earth inside.

For iron cannonballs, as long as the bricks are broken, the rammed earth inside is equivalent to soft and tender tofu.

At this moment, Yunti Pass has encountered changes that have never been encountered before.

It's just that for Zhu Gaoxu, such a siege speed is still too slow.

"It will take at least two days to take the Cloud Ladder Pass to attack the city like this."

On horseback, Zhu Gaoxu looked at Meng Zhang: "You take a thousand cavalry to Tutan, and let Chenggong send you across the river with a warship of 1,500 materials." ”

"One day, enough to send a thousand people south."

"After going to Henan, I immediately collected enough ferries, I am worried that this cloud ladder guard will burn the ferries on the north bank."

"Yes!" Meng Zhang obeyed the order, and then ordered a thousand cavalry to set off.

Time passed little by little, from early morning to dusk, the rammed earth and brick city wall of Yunti Pass was finally punched a few holes, and the openings continued to grow larger in the shelling.

At this time, there was a sudden return from the east, bringing not very good news.

"Your Highness, Governor Zhu sent someone to spread the news in the flag language that the number of iron shells of the ship's guns is less than five bases."

"If there are not enough shells for naval artillery, I will use field artillery and siege artillery to fight, I don't believe that I can't take the cloud ladder pass!"

Zhu Gaoxu replied to Tang Cai, and Tang Qi also responded, turned the horse's head and returned to the east to spread the news.

"How's the siege equipment built?"

Zhu Gaoxu looked at Ta Lost, and Ta Lost hurriedly said: "The ten nest cars pulled down from the ship have been built and can be used to attack the city at any time." ”

"The whole army is attacking the city!" Zhu Gaoxu ignored the fact that it was already dusk and forcibly ordered the siege of the city, because what he lacked now was time.

Ta lost did not refute, and immediately began to order the Jurchen Eight Guards to wear armor and prepare to attack the city.

A quarter of an hour later, braving the shells, ten nest carts were pushed in front of the Cloud Ladder Pass, and the elite Jurchen Eight Guards infantry began to pierce the siege.

As they began their siege, the ships to the east received the flag and began to stop shelling.

The defenders of Yunti Pass were still glad that the shelling had stopped, and they saw that the climbing board of the nest car hit the broken wall battlements, and more than a dozen Bohai soldiers who had gone to the top of the nest car climbed to the top of the city with bones and gourd hammers.

"The enemy army is attacking the city, and all of them are on the road to prepare for the enemy!"

The general of Yunti Pass still did not abandon the idea of Yunti Pass, but began to defend the city with 3,000 soldiers.

He personally led the soldiers of Yunti Pass to walk on the horse road, waved his sword into battle, and commanded the soldiers to hold on.

The battle was extremely fierce, and after hundreds of soldiers of the Jurchen Eight Guards ascended to the top of the city, the defenders of Yunti Pass, who had only stepped up their training for a month, could not fight them at all.

Although they were numerous, as the number of Bohai Navy, which was constantly climbing the city, gradually increased, countless of them fell in that fierce attack.

Relying on the city wall without battlements, the defenders of Yunti Pass not only had to face the Jurchen Eight Guards on the horse road, but also the Shenji Battalion holding large arquebuses under the city to row guns.

In just a quarter of an hour, the Yunti Pass guards were defeated, three thousand defenders were beheaded hundreds, and more than two thousand surrendered.

As Zhu Gaoxu expected, the cloud ladder guard finally sent someone to burn the ferry, but fortunately, Zhu Gaochu had already prepared, so the ferry was not burned too much.

The sun had sunk into the western plain, but Zhu Gaoxu saw this and said:

"Fifteen hundred ships entered the river and anchored, lit torches, and covered the crossing of the river!"

He's racing against time, and he can't afford to delay a moment.

There are more than 100 ferries three or four zhang long, which can escort thousands of people across the river at one time, and can also escort hundreds of horses across the river.

Zhu Gaoxu handed over the matter of crossing the river to Meng Zhang, and he took the lead in crossing the river to the ferry on the south bank.

It seems that it was learned that the Bohai Navy had gone south, and there were not many people left at the ferry, and the 1,000 vanguard cavalry led by Meng Zhang had occupied the ferry.

Finding an empty house, Zhu Gaoxu fell down and began to rest.

It was only when he was resting and crossing the river in the Bohai Navy that the news sent by the Yunti Guard also successfully arrived in Muyang, one hundred and twenty miles away.

Sheng Yong, who got the news, hurriedly ordered the soldiers and horses, thinking that it was the Japanese who besieged the city, he was about to take the soldiers and horses to Yunti Pass, but when he learned that it was not the Japanese who besieged Yunti Pass, but the Bohai Navy, his mind was instantly blank, and then he reacted.

"The whole army marched to the ancient city of Cuizhen Water Station, and must rush to the ancient city of Water Station before dawn, and let the Water Station prepare enough sand boats to report the news to the capital, and at the same time send a pond horse to Dezhou, release carrier pigeons, and tell Cao Guogong that the Bohai Shu people have bypassed Rizhao and Ganyu, and I am afraid that they have taken the Yunti Pass now!"

Sheng Yong's judgment was not wrong, Zhu Gaoxu could only bypass Rizhao, Ganyu and Haizhou and other places, and it was impossible to attack by force.

If it was a strong attack, it was impossible for him not to receive the message.

Judging from the news reported by the guards of Yunti Pass, Yunti Pass will definitely not be able to hold it, there are sailors, artillery and more than 40,000 people in the Bohai Sea, and the fall of Yunti Pass is a matter of one or two days.

He should now immediately take the 60,000 people in his hands south and go straight to Yangzhou.

Only by going straight to Yangzhou can he advance and retreat more than enough, so as not to be cut off from Jianghuai and Jiangnan by the cavalry of the Bohai Navy.

Sheng Yong's movements were very fast, and the 60,000 troops gathered and carried their armor on their backs, and rushed on foot to the ancient city of Shuiyi, which was more than 70 miles away.

They drove all night, and finally arrived at the ancient city water post before dawn, and there were dozens of sand boats prepared here, each of which could carry 100 people south.

"Yulin's left and right two guards got on the boat first and went to Yangzhou, and the rest rested along the street in the water post for three hours, and after three hours, they continued to walk south to Taoyuan County, thirty miles away, and let Taoyuan County prepare a sand boat."

Sheng Yong's orderly arrangement, although it was only a month of training, but after all, the troops have a foundation, and a little training can pull out the field.

Of course, the premise of their field battle is that they must have a backbone, and this backbone is the left and right guards of Yulin.

At present, the two guards on the left and right of Yulin are incorporated into the other soldiers who stayed in Beijing, and there are as many as 20,000 people.

As long as these 20,000 men do not collapse, the garrison will not collapse.

For the left and right guards of Yulin that he trained by himself, Sheng Yong is very confident.

However, his self-confidence was incomprehensible to Zhu Yunwen, and Zhu Yunwen's mind was blank at the moment.

"Have you crossed the Huai River?"

In the Wuying Palace, Zhu Yunwen, who was discussing the adjustment of taxes in Jiangnan with the ministers of the six ministries, suddenly heard the news that Zhu Gaoxu led his troops to Yunti Pass, captured Yunti Pass, and crossed the Huai River.

When the news came, he immediately panicked.

He had been sent to Jiangbei by Lao Zhu, so he naturally knew the distance between the Huai River and the capital.

If you go from Yunti Pass to the capital and take the official road of the horse post and water station, you can reach the capital at most 600 miles.

"Ridiculous, the Bohai Shu people were still in Zhucheng seven days ago, how did they arrive at Yunti Pass in only seven days?"

"Is it the ladder guard who is mistaken?"

Huang Zicheng was also stunned for a while, but he quickly reacted and questioned the matter of the Governor's Mansion of the Five Armies.

However, in the face of Huang Zicheng's questioning, the matter was ignored, and only reported to Zhu Yunwen:

"Your Majesty, Sheng Yanshi has led 60,000 soldiers and horses south along the canal, and now it should arrive at the ancient city of Shuiyi, and it will only take about three days to arrive in Yangzhou to prepare for the enemy."

"In addition, Commander Sheng has already sent a message to Cao Guogong that if Cao Guogong has led his troops to arrive in Dezhou, he should be able to arrive in Yangzhou in fifteen days."

The matter was explaining the situation, but Huang Zicheng saw that he didn't pay attention to himself, so he immediately asked:

"The Governor's Mansion of the Five Armies actually allowed the rebels to enter Huai'an Mansion, and now they must be allowed to enter Yangzhou Mansion?"

"This is a detour of the rebels, although our army is fortified, but the thief army is out day and night, and it can't be noticed" Du Du lowered his head, Huang Zicheng was overjoyed when he saw this, and wanted to take advantage ......of the victory to pursue, but Zhu Yunwen opened his mouth to interrupt.

"The thief army, will you fight the Yangtze River?"

His words immediately made the hall fall into a dead silence, and even Huang Zicheng, who had jumped before, closed his mouth, nervously waiting for someone to answer.

At this time, many people set their eyes on Qi Tai, and Qi Tai was also very helpless.

He had already said that he should take down Zhu Gaoxu and Zhu Di from the beginning, and then start to cut the others, but no one listened to him.

Well, now, although he doesn't know how Zhu Gaochu dared to go deep alone, he knows how much shock Zhu Gaochu will cause to the imperial court when he crosses the Huai River.

"Although the thief army and the navy division are sharp, but the Yangtze River is a natural danger, even if our army and the navy division are defeated, there are still more than 120 reserve forts placed by Emperor Taizu Gao."

"Even if these forts are useless, but our army goes downstream, and the thief army goes against the current, as long as many ferries from Yangzhou and the capital are requisitioned, gunpowder and oil are placed, and a group of them go down the river, the thief army and sailors can only sink Haikou in the face of such might."

Not to mention Qi Tai, anyone who knows the army knows very well how easy it is to fight the upper reaches of the Yangtze River and the lower reaches.

In addition to Chen Youliang's negative example of drilling Poyang Lake, in the case of mastering the upstream, even if the national strength is not as good as the downstream, it can still hold on to the enemy countries downstream.

This is true both upstream and downstream, not to mention Haikou and Jiangdao.

It is not that no one has tried to attack the Yangtze River from the sea throughout the ages, but these people have basically failed, because the ships entering the Yangtze River from the sea are going upstream, and it is too easy for the defenders to deal with the enemy forces entering the sea.

Not to mention that there are still more than 10,000 people stationed in Chongming Shazhou in the Southern Army Naval Division, and the Bohai Marine Division has to cross them if they want to raid.

Even if it is defeated, as long as the Southern Army Naval Division enters the Yangtze River waterway, especially after mastering the Zhenjiang water section, the Bohai Sea Division will not want to attack the Yangtze River, because the terrain here is easy to defend and difficult to attack, the river channel is narrow, and once enough fireboats are released upstream, there is no room for dodge downstream.

Qi Tai has his own self-confidence, as long as Chen Xuan's sailors are there, the Yangtze River will not be lost, and the Bohai Navy will not be able to cross the river.

Zhu Gaoxu went deep alone this time, and I am afraid it will be difficult to get out.

"If that's the case, then I'll be relieved."

After getting Qi Tai's reply, Zhu Yunwen also breathed a sigh of relief, and asked at the same time:

"At present, there are only 60,000 soldiers and horses of Sheng Yong in Jiangbei, do you want to transfer Cao Guogong to the south?"

"Back to Your Majesty, you should transfer Cao Guogong to the south!" Huang Zicheng hurriedly spoke:

"Although the Bohai Pirate Army only has forty or fifty thousand people, it is a good soldier after all."

"The urgent task at the moment should be to transfer 300,000 troops from the north back to defend Jinan and Yanzhou, and at the same time order all counties in Beiping to defend themselves, and wait for Cao Guogong to lead 300,000 troops to the south to destroy the land in 15 days, and then go north to counterattack."

Huang Zicheng's words sounded very insightful to the ministers of the Six Divisions, but they sounded like farts to Qi Tai.

"It's okay for 100,000 troops in Texas to go south for 15 days, but it will take at least two months for 200,000 troops along the Baigou River to go south."

Qi Tai was really helpless, so he could only stand up and speak: "What's more, the army from the north is going south, and it will be difficult to resist the Yan army with the strength of the counties in Beiping alone. ”

"If the Bohai Shu people cut off the canal at that time, it will be absolutely difficult to supply 300,000 troops and millions of people with the power of the Central Plains alone."

"I'm afraid Qi Shangshu is exaggerating." Fang Xiaoru stood up and said:

"As Qi Shangshu said, Chen Xuan's water division is enough to defend the Yangtze River, so the Bohai pirate army will lose the benefit of the water division, and our army can calmly protect the canal, so that the grain and straw in the south of the Yangtze River will be continuously transported to Xuzhou, Yanzhou, and Jinan."

"In such a situation, how can the canal be cut off by the Bohai Pirate Army?"

Fang Xiaoru didn't understand military affairs, but he found a loophole in Qi Tai's words, and Qi Tai was so angry that he clenched his fists and his joints were blue.

When is it, these guys are still picking their own words, shouldn't the current problem be to solve Zhu Gaoxu in Jiangbei?

Qi Tai didn't bother to refute, and directly said to Zhu Yunwen:

"Your Majesty, if you really want to transfer troops, it should also be to order Cao Guogong to take over Baigou River, and then let Jiangyin Marquis Wu Gao take over the elite of Dezhou."

"In addition, our army has no cavalry in Jiangbei, so we must transfer more than 10,000 cavalry from the Marquis of Jiangyin and Ping'an to the south, so that Sheng Yong can stick to the Marquis of Jiangyin and lead 60,000 elites to rush south to help."

Qi Tai knew very well that if Li Jinglong led his troops south, Wu Gao, Wu Jie, and Xu Kai in the north, no matter who they were, would not be able to play with the scale of the 200,000 army.

On the contrary, it is more in line with the actual situation to let Wu Gao lead 60,000 elites to the south, and let Yu Tongyuan and Ping'an go south to defend with Sheng Yong first.

There is no problem for Wu Gao to command 60,000 people, and there is no need to question Sheng Yong's ability, and it is no problem for him to take 60,000 foot soldiers and 10,000 cavalry to restrain Bohai.

As long as he holds out until Wu Gao goes south, the two armies will converge at that time, and there will be no reason for the 130,000 army to defeat Zhu Gaoxu.

Thinking of this, Qi Tai stared at Zhu Yunwen, for fear that his majesty would choose to listen to Huang Zicheng and Fang Xiaoru's nonsense as soon as his brains were pumped.

"This ......" Zhu Yunwen thought about the suggestions of the three of them, and finally inexplicably thought of his imperial grandfather's entrustment, so he looked at Qi Tai: "Just do what Mr. Qi wants......

"Thank you, Your Majesty!" Qi Tai knelt on the ground with the wat board, and the stone in his heart finally fell to the ground.

"In this case, it should be fine......"

Qi Tai was relieved, thinking that there was no big problem with his arrangement.

It's just that for Zhu Gaoxu, his fifteen days are too long......

"Bohai Chronicle": At the end of March, the lonely army entered Huai'an, pulled out the cloud ladder pass, entered Huainan, and the south of the Yangtze River shook.

"Ming Shizong Record": "In March, the army led from the city down, all the counties along the road fell, only the cloud ladder pass defended itself, and the city was bombarded with artillery, and then the city was pulled, and the Huanghuai entered Yangzhou, and the world was shaken. ”

(End of chapter)