Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 468 Fake Attack on Wujiang Pass

Li Dingguo is looking forward to Zhu Youjian becoming his prey.

And Zhu Youjian is also looking forward to Li Dingguo becoming his prey.

However, Li Dingguo ignored Yan Yingyuan.

And Zhu Youjian would never have thought that it was just his wishful thinking that he wanted to capture Li Dingguo alive under Tongren City.

Li Dingguo is different from Yan Yingyuan.

Anyway, he is also Zhang Xianzhong's adopted son, the leading figure of the Daxi regime. It is the style of the Guards to personally lead the army to attack Tongren, not Li Dingguo's style.

At this time, Yan Yingyuan had successfully entered the building mountain area with two elite infantry battalions.

Although Dalou Mountain is precipitous, it is also covered with mist. Tens of thousands of Ming army light devices are in it, so it is not easy to be found.

Even the gurgling of the distant mountain stream can be heard clearly, so even if there are Li Dingguo's scouts, it is easy to avoid them.

However, because Dalou Mountain is too steep and mostly composed of wild pine and cypress forests, the ground is covered with pine needles, making the mountain road extremely slippery.

Some Guards soldiers accidentally forgot to use a wooden stick to plan the pine needles and slipped directly down the cliff.

But Yan Yingyuan forbade other soldiers to shout, in order to avoid revealing his whereabouts, so he could only watch his comrades fall into the abyss.

Since the goal was to climb over the top of the mountain and then reach Banzhou on the other side, which is now the Zunyi Military and Civil Mansion area, the guards soldiers had to climb the bird path on the cliff.

The so-called bird path is to dig some holes on the cliff for hands and feet to hold, just like rock climbing, and people climb on it with hands and feet like apes.

And you must be careful, because if you step on the air a little bit, you will easily fall into the abyss.

The humidity in the southwestern mountainous area is heavy, and it is on the top of the mountain, so the moss is luxuriant, and the bird path is slippery. Yan Yingyuan had to order his soldiers to wear gloves that can increase friction, and tie straw roots on the straw sandals.

The death squad that goes up first will tie the rope to the giant log on the top of the cliff and hang it down for other Guards soldiers to use when climbing.

When Yan Yingyuan led two infantry battalions across Loulou Mountain at the risk of being thrown to death or missing, Xia Wanchun had already led the main force of the Second Corps of the Seventh Army of the Guards from Guiyang official road towards Wujiang Pass.

To walk the official road in Guiyang, you must go to Pingyue Prefecture. Pingyue and Zunyi belonged to Bozhou before. After the Bozhou Rebellion was quelled during the Wanli period, Bozhou was divided into two prefectures, one was Zunyi and the other was Pingyue. The former belonged to Sichuan. The latter belongs to Guizhou.

However, Pingyue was a little poorer than Zunyi, and there was no danger to defend, so Li Dingguo did not station troops here, allowing Xia Wanchun to directly reach Wujiang Pass.

In order to cover up the real tactics of the Second Corps of the Seventh Army of the Guards, Xia Wanchun fought Wujiang Pass very hard, and fought with a stance, sparing no firepower.

The infantry field artillery of the Second Corps of the Guards was pulled up to bomb Wujiang Pass in turn. At the same time, Xia Wanchun personally led the infantry battalions to attack Wujiang Pass in turn.

However, Wujiang Pass is also very dangerous. It is on the Wujiang River and sandwiched between two mountains, forming a natural moat and two barriers.

If the main force of the Second Corps of the Guards wants to occupy Wujiang Pass, they can only cross the Wujiang River first. The infantry field artillery light artillery is not enough to destroy the Wujiang Pass made of natural stones, so they can only use heavy artillery, which is difficult to transport across the river.

The Wujiang River is not as gentle as the rivers in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. It is difficult to cross the river smoothly in the narrow and long canyons.

You can only rely on people to use wooden boards to swim across the river, but swimming across the river will definitely consume a lot of physical strength, and it is easier for Li Dingguo's defenders to use bows and firearms to block the guards.

However, in order to cover up the real purpose of the Second Corps of the Guards, Xia Wanchun had no choice but to order the Guards to swim across the river and cross the turbulent Wujiang River.

Although these Guards officers and soldiers have done training in Huguang, it is only the first time they have participated in the battle to cross the dangerous beach.

One by one, they jumped into the canyon without hesitation, and swam forward in the Wujiang River, where the white waves were tumbling and the current was rushing, carrying the Chongzhen Type 21 flintlock guns of the Guards on their backs. Don't go back against the current.

About [-] infantrymen of the Guards who dared to fight participated in the swim.

But when they approached the opposite bank, the Daxi garrison at Wujiang Pass immediately attacked with bows, arrows and firearms.

The soldiers of the Guards were unable to fight back while swimming in the river, and even the artillery from the opposite bank could hardly hit them. Therefore, many soldiers of the Guards died directly in the river, and their blood was directly smeared.

But at this time, I can't go back and can only swim forward desperately.

Even if many guard soldiers swam ashore, they would be stabbed to death with spears by the defenders prepared on the shore and fell into the river, their bodies floating up.

Xia Wanchun's eyes were tearing apart, but at this moment he could only continue to order the infantry of the Guards to forcefully cross the river, and at the same time, the artillery continued to bombard the opposite bank recklessly, making the noise extremely loud.

The Wujiangguan Daxi defenders on the other side did not dare to take it lightly, nor did they expect that these guards were so brave and fearless, and the density of artillery fire was so high.

After forcibly charging and swimming several times, and after paying the price of blood, the infantry of the Guards also found out the combat strength of the defenders in Wujiangguan Daxi, and also found some countermeasures.

The infantrymen of the Guards began to use ropes to tie themselves to stones after swimming for a certain distance to ensure that they would not be washed away by the turbulent river water, and at the same time used flintlock guns to fight back.

At this time, all the death squads in the infantry of the Guards who went down to the river were all replaced with Chongzhen 21-style flintlock guns. Jiangzhong can form a good firepower attack on the defenders of Wujiangguan Daxi.

Although in the river water, due to the influence of the current, the guards officers and soldiers could not keep their bodies fixed, resulting in a considerable drop in shooting accuracy, but under the continuous shooting and intensive firepower equipment, the Daxi defenders at Wujiang Pass did not dare to take the lead easily. And dare not come to shore.

Guards officers and soldiers took advantage of this to swim across the river in large numbers, and immediately organized a defense line on the river bank, while a wave of Guards officers and soldiers rushed to the beach.

The defenders of Wujiang Pass can only rely on Guancheng to resist.

The officers and soldiers of the Guards could only take turns to attack Wujiang Pass because the artillery could not deliver them for a while.

But even so, the tenacity of the Guards officers and soldiers and the arrival of tens of thousands of people at the foot of Wujiang Pass also put a lot of pressure on the Daxi defenders.

At this time, the generals of the Daxi garrison hurriedly came to Li Dingguo:
"General, a large group of Ming troops have been attacking Wujiang Pass from yesterday to today, and each of them is rushing upwards desperately. The artillery is also very good, and it seems that there are a lot of them. The Ming army, who is not afraid of death, has been defeated, so I ask the general to find a way to repel this Ming army."

(End of this chapter)