"Don't let your guard down, always pay attention to the movements of the Ming army!"

"Yes!"

On the fifteenth day of the winter month of the second year of Yongle, when the north has been covered in silver, located in the north of Annan, less than 20 miles away from the Daming Jiling Pass, a city standing on the south bank of the Qiqiu River is eye-catching.

Its area is not large, and although it is the most important town in the northern part of Annam, the number of troops stationed here usually does not exceed 3,000.

However, as the Ming army in Guangxi continued to pour into Jiling Pass, more and more Vietnamese troops were stationed at Lang Son City, and by the time the city became crowded, there were 7,000 troops stationed here.

As the largest town in the north, Lang Son Castle is bordered by the jungle-covered mountains of northern Vietnam, and to the south is the northern plain with rice paddies and a dense network of water.

Therefore, Lang Son is not only the transportation hub of Annam and Daming, but also the barrier gateway of the former capital of Thang Long City.

Lang Son Fortress is surrounded by mountains such as Kuma Mountain, Bawai Mountain and a series of highlands, and the terrain is very steep, and there is also the Qiqi River as an obstacle to the north and south.

If you want to attack here, you will not be able to carry out a large-scale river crossing and beach battle.

But if you want to use troops in the north of Annam, Lang Son is the place where the key is locked.

Defend it, and the enemy can be blocked in the mountains of northern Vietnam.

Take it, and then you will go straight to Shenglong.

Since ancient times, the Central Plains Dynasty took Jiaozhi in the south, and here is the place where it must pass, and then it can be determined.

It is very important, but it also has great shortcomings, the biggest of which is that the position of Jiling Pass 20 miles away is higher than Lang Mountain, once the Ming army attacks here, it will form a condescending situation, making the Vietnamese army very passive.

For this reason, they could only urgently build a section of sheep's horn wall at the plain pass north of the Qiqi River, in order to try to block the Ming army that might move south in the future.

Of course, only they thought that it was possible to go south in the future, and the Ming army was ready to take Lang Son at any time.

"Beep-"

At three o'clock on the fifteenth day of the winter moon, when the piercing whistle sounded outside the Jiling Pass, tens of thousands of figures were already standing here at this moment, standing straight in front of the not too wide Jiling Pass.

On the city gate, five people wearing armor, including Fu Rang, Lin Su, Zhang Chun, Zhang Fu, and Meng Ying, looked down at the dense figures, and finally locked their eyes on the two teams of 200 artillery pieces in the center of the team and lined up in columns.

There are 30,000 troops on the East Road, 50,000 people, 180 field artillery, 20 siege artillery, 4,500 horses, and 2,000 horses in the southwest.

Fu Rang turned around, and there were more than 50 generals above the rank of 1,000 households standing in front of him.

"Again, our army will take Thang Long City as the established goal, and then divide the troops into six routes to take the city."

"For every city taken, every soldier and brother will be rewarded with a consistent reward."

"There are forty-eight prefectures and one hundred and sixty-eight counties in Annan, and the specific amount of reward that the brothers below can get depends on your own ability as generals."

"Again, don't want the casualty figures, I just want the results!"

"Troops!"

As Fu Rang's words fell, more than 50 generals saluted in return, and rode out of the customs on military horses under the leadership of Fu Rang.

At six o'clock, the 30,000-strong army on the east road marched to Lang Mountain.

At the same time, Mu Chun of Lin'an Mansion also led an army of 76,000 troops to the south, and appointed Qu Neng and He Fu as the vanguard, and Mu Sheng as the commander of Tusi.

In the midst of the great tension of the Vietnamese army, the 126,000 Ming troops divided into three routes and began to advance step by step towards the hinterland of Annam.

As early as a few days ago, the remnants of the Chen Dynasty began to appeal to the people in the hinterland of Annam, saying that the behavior of Hu Jichen's father and son was wanton and ferocious, abusing a country, and listing the 20 major crimes of the Hu family killing the former king of Annam to slaughter the descendants of the Chen family according to his country, and also said that the arrival of the Ming army was the hardship of the people of Jiaoer, and the restoration of the Chen clan's ancestry in order to shake the people's hearts.

Sure enough, many Vietnamese people were disgusted with Hu's harsh government and had no fighting spirit, and did not report the news to the Vietnamese troops in the Tuyen Quang and Lang Son areas in a timely manner, resulting in a smoother march for the Ming army.

At two o'clock in the afternoon of the fifteenth day of the winter month, the Vietnamese troops stationed in the defense line of the Lang Shan Goat Horn Wall were still eating bananas and boiling wild meat, when they were suddenly attacked by the Ming army.

"Beep-"

"Enemy attack!!"

The sound of bamboo whistles sounded in the position of the sheep's horn wall in the mountain pass, and many Annan soldiers did not have time to finish their humble meals, so they put on their armor and leaned on the sheep's horn wall to observe the enemy's attack.

The Ming army was too far away from them, and no one could see what they were doing, but they knew one thing, that is, the Ming army had sent troops from Jiling Pass and had come to a position less than six miles away from the main city of Langshan.

"Fixed-shot loading, three minutes in the direction, two hundred steps away from one mile, pre-firing a round, ready to ...... Put! ”

"Boom, boom—"

At three o'clock in the afternoon, the artillery position of the Ming army launched an artillery bombardment with 200 guns on the 2,000 Vietnamese troops stationed at the Sheep Horn Wall.

For a time, the stone-built ram's horn wall became the most conspicuous target on the battlefield, and 200 five-pound heavy iron bullets fell on the Vietnamese army's position across a distance of one mile and two hundred paces.

"Bang!!"

Unsuspectingly, the Sheep's Horn Wall was hit like never before.

The two-foot-wide ram's horn walls, which could withstand the collision, were tingling in the face of iron shells, not only did they fail to protect the soldiers in the rear, but instead began to crack in the interior while being shelled, and some debris splashed, causing fatal injuries to the soldiers in the rear.

"Kill !!"

Suddenly, before the defenders of the Sheep's Horn Wall could react, a large number of well-armored Ming troops suddenly poured out of the jungles on the left and right.

Their armor is covered with greenery, and the whole person looks like a wild man, hidden in the mountains and forests, which is difficult for people to detect.

They launched a surprise attack from the left and right flanks of the Sheep Horn Wall, which caused this group of Vietnamese troops, who were still under artillery bombardment one second and were in confusion, and the next second they were about to engage with the Ming army, they had a sense of suffocation that could not match them.

After only a quarter of an hour of fighting, they could not bear the casualties, withdrew from the line of defense of the trench and the sheep's horn wall, and fled for their lives to the main city of Liangshan in the south, throwing away their armor all the way, just to run faster.

"Son of a bitch! Is Ruan Jingtian's head made of?! ”

"In less than a quarter of an hour of the battle, I lost the Lang Son Pass, and I will kill him!"

In Lang Son City on the south bank of the Qiqiao River, when the garrison general Nguyen Kang saw a large number of Vietnamese troops fleeing south, he was shocked by the sound of 'muffled thunder' in the north a second ago, and immediately greeted the guards stationed at the Sheep Horn Wall.

At this moment, the Qi Poor River, which was less than 30 zhang wide, became the only defensive barrier of the Vietnamese army, and a large number of Vietnamese troops who fled south swam across the Qi Poor River with their armor unloaded, and were reconvened by the Nguyen Khan Inspector and inquired about the reason why the camp on the north bank was breached.

"Where's Ruan Jingtian?!"

"I was killed by something falling from the sky......"

On the city wall, when Ruan Kang saw a soldier who had been brought back, he immediately asked where the guards of the Sheep's Horn Wall were where, but what he got was a foolish answer.

Fortunately, he had dealt with the Yuan army and knew that the bowl mouth gun could shoot a fist-sized stone projectile, otherwise he really didn't know what could fall from the sky.

"It's either a return cannon or a bowl, that thing can hit more than 200 steps, but don't worry, Langshan City is 200 steps away from the north bank of the Qiqiao River as a barrier, and it is 200 steps away from the Qiqiao River, and the firearms of the Ming army can't hit that far!"

At this moment, Ruan Kang is like the town stone of the Vietnamese army, settling down the originally wavering military heart.

But compared to his words, the situation in the north is the real tragedy.

Two thousand cavalrymen riding on the horses of the southwest army wantonly slaughtered the group of Vietnamese soldiers who had lost their will on the plain on the north bank of the wide Qiqiao River, and drove many armored Vietnamese troops down the Qiqiao River, drowning many people.

In just half an hour, the position of the Sheep's Horn Wall at Lang Son Pass was lost, and all but a few hundred of the 2,000 defenders stationed there were killed.

The Ming army did not make any gesture to surrender, which was the most numbing behavior in Ruan Kang's opinion.

"Prepare trebuchets and ballistas, and call them if they dare to cross the river!"

Nguyen Kang could only forcibly calm down and command the remaining more than 5,000 people in Lang Son City to defend the city, while he himself kept an eye on the movements of the Ming army.

An hour later, a crowd of people began to appear in the distance of the Hebei Plain.

The Ming army, dressed in bright armor, came to the north shore and brought with them a cannon that resembled a bowl.

The guns were mounted on carts and pulled by horses, and at this moment they were lined up on the north bank of the Ki Poor River, with their muzzles aimed at Lang Son Castle on the south bank.

"What do you want to do?"

"Are you going to hit us?"

"Jokes? It's a full three hundred paces from the North Shore, what are they going to do to us? ”

"Hahaha......"

Although laughter was heard, the generals' faces were full of nervousness.

The words used to force composure did not have the effect of calming the morale of the army, but made the defenders of Lang Son extremely nervous, because in front of them, in addition to the large number of artillery, there were tens of thousands of people who were pressed down.

Nearly 30,000 Ming troops appeared on the north bank, and the people who followed behind them also piled up sacks of military rations on their shoulders and began to chop down trees and bamboo around them with tools.

"They're making rafts, what are we going to do?"

Swallowing his saliva, Ruan Kang's lieutenant asked him, but Ruan Kang didn't know what to do at this moment.

"Defend Langshan City, we have plenty of food and grass, and there is enough wood in the city, even if they surround us for half a year, we still have something to eat."

"I don't believe that the first important town in northern Vietnam will be lost in my hands!"

Ruan Kang cheered himself up, but in the face of the nearly 100,000 team, even if he knew that most of them were people, he still couldn't help but worry about his future.

While he was worried, his future was also planned by Fu Rang.

"Lin Su led the Guilin guards into two routes, interspersed into the rear of the enemy army from the upstream and downstream, and set up an ambush behind Langshan City, don't let one go, I want to eat these 7,000 people steadily."

"The last general commands!"

In the open-air command post on the north bank, when Fu Rang used the command pole to plan on the sand table, the fate of Nguyen Kham and the more than 5,000 Vietnamese troops in Lang Son was already doomed.

"Give you half a day and a night, interspersed with if you fail, you pack your own luggage and go back to Bohai."

Fu Rang gave Lin Su's merciless order, which made Zhang Chun, Zhang Fu, and Meng Ying on the side take a breath and focus on the sand table.

The three of them are not recruits anymore, how to take Lang Son City, they have their own ideas in their hearts, but the current coach is Fu Rang, so they can only follow Fu Rang's ideas.

"Your Highness said that you must deal with Annan with the idea of annihilation, and you can't have a trace of luck."

Fu Rangdu walked in front of the sand table, put his hands behind his back, and did not forget to teach while scanning the sand table with his eyes: "It is precisely because this war is annihilation that we will expose our whereabouts two months in advance, so as to attract the strength of the thief army." ”

"Now that the thief army of 100,000 soldiers and horses is gathered in the north, and there are less than 50,000 old, weak, sick and disabled in the south, once these 100,000 soldiers and horses and 200,000 people can be completely annihilated, then I don't need to say much about the results of the battle, and you can understand it."

"At the critical moment, don't want a woman's kindness!"

Fu Rang's eyes swept over Lin Su and Zhang Fu, and it was not the first time for the four of them to go to the battlefield, so they all said: "The last general understands!" ”

"Okay, get ready to rest, and storm Langshan Castle early tomorrow morning!"

Putting down the command pole, Fu Rang walked towards the many camps that had been set up in the distance, and Lin Su and Zhang Chun also wiped the sweat that didn't exist on their foreheads and breathed a sigh of relief:

"Old man's aura is getting stronger and stronger now."

"After all, this time the fight is completed, and the title of Duke Yingguo will fall, if it were you, I'm afraid the aura will be stronger than him."

Lin Su patted Zhang Chun, who was emotional, and Zhang Chun immediately became happy when he heard the title: "If you give me a prince, I will definitely catch Hu Jichen with my own hands and dedicate him to His Royal Highness." ”

"Take what you can." Lin Su scolded with a smile, and then looked at Zhang Fu and Meng Ying, who were still studying the sand table.

"Wen Bi, Zongbi, after this battle, it is estimated that you will also be knighted."

"Don't dare to ......"

Lin Su's words were said, Zhang Fu humbled himself, but Meng Ying looked at the sand table after hearing this: "I'm afraid that the credit for recovering Annan can't support so many titles, but if you guard here, you may be able to get an earl." ”

Meng Ying could see clearly that Annan on the sand table was high in the west and low in the east, and there were still many jungles in the west, which was very suitable for guerrilla warfare.

Although he had learned a lot of methods and methods of jungle guerrilla warfare in Nanjing, it was difficult for him to take effect for a long time when he used them against the Vietnamese army.

As long as the Vietnamese generals are not stupid, they will definitely learn their own fighting style, so it is better to be cautious about defending this place.

"I don't know how they fought Qianguogong."

Zhang Chun opened his mouth and looked at Xuanguang in the direction of the march of the Western Route Army, and Lin Su replied without thinking: "To enter Xuanguang, you must uproot the camp stationed in the southeast of Wangrong Mountain. ”

"The Vietnamese army built fortifications there and stationed 30,000 foot soldiers, but ......"

Lin Su looked at the picture of the corpse of the Vietnamese army being thrown into the Qiqiu River in the distance, and chuckled: "These 30,000 people are probably not enough for the Duke of Qianguo." ”

"Put!"

"Boom, boom—"

Just as Lin Su said, at this moment on the Ming-Vietnamese border, an army of 76,000 Ming and Turkish officers and soldiers was pouring artillery shells on the Vietnamese army on the Red River, relying on the mountains to build fortifications.

Solid bullets and flowering bullets continued to hit the Vietnamese army's camp, and the screams and dodging voices continued.

The Western Route Army is experienced and bold.

Fu Rang was still cautiously placing the artillery position at a position of one mile and two hundred steps, but Mu Chun directly set the artillery position at a position of three hundred steps from the Vietnamese army's camp.

After dealing with Southwest Toast for so many years, he knows too well the urine nature of this group of people.

They thought they would be safe after more than 300 steps, but now the Ming army will tell them what it means that the times are advancing!

"This field cannon is just easy to use, if we had this thing earlier, the original knife fighting Meng would be over in a month at most."

On the battlefield, Qu Neng, as a pioneer, couldn't help but hold a five-pound iron cannonball, constantly throwing it back and forth between his two hands.

He looked at the hundred field guns in front of him with hot eyes, not only him, but even Gu Cheng, He Fu, Qu Yu, Qu Tao, Mu Sheng and others.

Of course, compared to their hot eyes, the southwestern local officials and toasts who followed them on this journey to the south were a little chilling.

They watched as the Vietnamese barracks were destroyed, and the thickness of the Vietnamese barracks was almost the same as that of most of the Tusi forts.

Only two hours after the start of the war, the camp built by 30,000 Vietnamese troops in two months was in tatters.

The Vietnamese army camp is like this, but what about their walled fort?

Thinking of this, they all looked at Mu Chun, the prince of Qianguo who made them frightened.

At this moment, he was holding a telescope and observing the extent of the destruction of the Vietnamese military camp without saying a word.

"The imperial court asked us to come, I'm afraid it's not a lack of soldiers and horses, but a show of strong ......"

For a while, this thought came to the minds of all the local officials, no matter how big the toast was among them, but when they saw the power of the field artillery, they couldn't help but measure it.

If it was not Annan that the imperial court attacked this time, but their group of Tusi, then who among them could resist it?

I'm afraid that even Luchuan in its heyday will be difficult to fight with the current official army, right?

"Mu Sheng!"

Mu Chun suddenly put down the binoculars, and as soon as he opened his mouth, everyone focused their eyes on him.

In the team, a general in his early thirties trotted all the way to Mu Chun.

He is not as handsome and chic as Mu Chun, and even less tall than Mu Chun, but even so, he is still an existence that the southwest toasts need to look up to.

"Big brother." Mu Sheng came to Mu Chun, feeling the gaze of others looking at his eldest brother, and he couldn't help but feel proud in his heart.

"You take the native soldiers to prepare to send troops, and once Jianchangbo (Qu Neng) breaks through the camp of 30,000 people, you let them enter the territory of Annan to sweep the tail."

"In the towns and villages along the way, as long as they can take away, whether it is people or houses, they will belong to them, and those who can't take it away will be disposed of on the spot."

"Seventy percent of the gold and silver they seized will be handed over to us, and whoever dares to hide it privately, you will send troops to suppress it directly."

Mu Chun said these words with a cold face, which made Mu Sheng, who was a younger brother, stunned.

He knew his brother too well, and although he was outstanding, he had excellent moral character, and this kind of thing came out of his mouth, which was simply a fantasy.

However, Mu Sheng also quickly reacted, although his eldest brother has outstanding ability and excellent morality, he still has a shortcoming, that is, he is foolish.

This kind of military order could not have come from him, and that must be the meaning of the imperial court.

"The last general commands!"

After Mu Sheng guessed who issued the military order, he didn't say more, turned around and summoned the local officials and toasters to the rear to mobilize the army, and at the same time told them the news he had just gotten.

In this regard, the local officials and toasts were stunned at first, and then they complimented Mu Sheng one after another.

For many toasts who are still in slavery, it is simply a blessing from God to be able to capture slaves unscrupulously, not to mention that they can sweep the tail at will.

As for the seventy percent of the gold, silver and copper coins, they were robbed anyway, and when they were handed over, they were privately hidden, and the officials and soldiers did not necessarily find out, anyway, it was an opportunity to make a fortune.

Thinking of this, the local officials' eyes were hot, and they all looked at the precarious Vietnamese army camp.

If the gaze could be turned into a cannonball, I am afraid that the Vietnamese army camp would have completely collapsed, but it did not.

The shelling of the Western Route Army lasted for four hours, and finally, near dusk, the wall of the Vietnamese army camp collapsed in a large area, and a large section of the gap.

Sons, follow me and kill! ”

Qu Neng, who had been waiting for a long time, raised the iron gun in his hand, and took the two brothers Qu Yu and Qu Tao to take the lead in rushing to the Vietnamese army camp.

The Lord will not be afraid of death, let alone the soldiers below.

As the Xichuan Army that followed Qu Neng's southern expedition to the north, they rushed into the Vietnamese army camp with long spears and short hammers.

After a while, the fire in the camp soared into the sky, and the shouts of killing soared into the sky.

The Xichuan Army, which had nearly 10,000 people, fought with the Vietnamese army, although the enemy army was three times that of their own, they were pressed and beaten by the Xichuan Army.

"Zhenyuan Bo ......"

Seeing that the sky was about to turn completely dark, Mu Chun also looked back at Gu Cheng: "Please take three thousand soldiers to swim across the Wanglong River in the north and cut off the retreat of the thief army." ”

"The last general commands!" Needless to say, Mu Chun just opened his mouth, and Gu Cheng knew how to fight.

The 30,000 Vietnamese troops and the 50,000 civilians who were responsible for supplying them must be submerged here, otherwise there will be no such good opportunity in the future.

Gu Cheng led his troops into Wanglong Mountain in the northeast, and at the same time, Qu Neng also captured the Vietnamese army's trenches, sheep's horn walls and other defensive lines, and the Vietnamese army had no choice but to retreat to the high ground in the southeast.

The commander of this army was Hu Jichen's eldest son, Hu Yuancheng, who was also a clan with good ability to lead troops in the Hu clan.

Seeing that his side was forced to retreat, and more than 2,000 people were killed and injured in less than an hour after the battle, Hu Yuancheng wanted to retreat in his heart.

Mu Chun, as a famous general in the southwest of the Ming Dynasty, shocked the entire Indochina Peninsula, even the southernmost Siam and Khmer have heard of his prestige, after all, Luchuan is the leading force in the Indochina Peninsula, and as a result, such a force was defeated twice in the war with Mu Chun.

Because of this, Hu Yuancheng also carefully studied Mu Chun's fighting style, and when he saw that the fortifications he had spent two months building were all destroyed, he knew that if he did not retreat in time, he was likely to be surrounded and annihilated by Mu Chun's dumplings.

Therefore, in the face of nearly Isse dead and wounded, he decisively ordered a breakthrough.

"The whole army retreated to Xuanguang in the south, beware of the Ming army setting up ambushes along the way, burning all the grain and grass that could not be taken away, and not leaving a grain of rice for the Ming army!"

"Yes!"

In the big tent, Hu Yuancheng's words made countless generals feel heartache, and at the same time, they also felt the feeling of the rest of their lives after the catastrophe.

The bravery of Qu Neng's father and son is vivid, and they are not sure that they will be able to block Qu Neng's onslaught tomorrow.

Retreat now, maybe you can make peace with the Ming Dynasty with the soldiers and horses in your hands later.

Thinking of this, the generals of the Vietnamese army began to carry out Hu Yuancheng's military orders, and the Vietnamese army of less than 30,000 left behind 50,000 people, and began to flee south under the cover of night......

"Records of Taizong of the Ming Dynasty": "In the winter of the second year, the Hu clan of Annan killed my subjects, and millions of Chinese lost their hands. It is in response to the way of heaven to rise and extinguish one after another, and to hang the people and fight crimes. ", then sent a document and sent Mu Chun, the Duke of Qianguo, and Fu Fu, the governor of the capital, to ask 300,000 generals to recruit him.

"History of the Ming Dynasty": "In the winter of the second year, the emperor sent the Guizhou State to conquer Annan, the officers and soldiers slaughtered a lot, down the road, white bones and green phosphorus, no one in the city, left villages everywhere, the people did not die and migrated to the ears, and since then Annan has been wasted. ”

(End of chapter)