In the early morning, Zhang Rujing woke up from his sleep.

Looking uneasily at the sleeping woman next to him, he crept up and walked to the window, lost in thought.

After a long time, he suddenly felt a pair of hands hugging him from behind.

When he turned around, he saw that it was his wife Liu.

"You shouldn't get up. I'm just used to getting up early and can't sleep. It's still early now, so go back and get some sleep!" Zhang Rujing said softly.

But Mrs. Liu ignored him and hugged him tighter.

Zhang Rujing sighed in his heart, knowing that he could not coax his wife.

Zhang Rujing has no concubines, Mrs. Liu is his only wife, and she understands him very well. And it’s also his fault that he didn’t notice his wife getting up just now.

"Are you leaving right after breakfast?" Liu suddenly asked in a low voice after hugging her tightly for a while.

"No, later! It may be noon or evening. Some things still need to be dealt with. I also need to see the holy envoy who came to deliver the message again and do some more work so that my father won't misunderstand."

"Yes." Mrs. Liu seemed a little happy, and her tightly held hands loosened a lot.

Zhang Rujing smiled bitterly when he saw this, turned around and hugged his wife and said, "I'll go lie down with you for a while!"

But when he got to bed, holding his wife in his arms, Zhang Rujing couldn't calm down for some reason. He always felt a strong uneasiness.

but why?

His adoptive father, Zhang Xianzhong, made him very anxious, but after all, they were thousands of miles apart. No matter how bad it was, it would only happen in the future.

Is that Tongluo Gorge?

But the news he received last night was that everything was normal with the Ming army in Fuzhou. Fuzhou is more than a hundred miles away from Tongluo Gorge, and it is impossible for the army to fly over in one night.

Even if there is an accident, the defense line on Tongluo Gorge was built by him personally. It is very strong and cannot be broken through in a short time.

In other words, no matter what changes occur, he has enough time to deal with them.

So why?

Maybe it's really Zhang Xianzhong, his adoptive father? But this also makes Zhang Rujing even more anxious.

By this time, the sky had begun to light up.

At this time, on a peripheral fortress built on the steep terrain of Tieshanping, a mountain range on the north bank of Tongluo Gorge, a sleepy-eyed soldier of the Western Army was watching in disbelief as the muddy mountain road not far away gradually

The figures of the Ming army appeared one after another.

Although the light was not enough, it had rained last night and the air was exceptionally clear. He was sure that he could not see it wrong.

In particular, many of the Ming soldiers were wearing iron armor. Not only were they more conspicuous in the morning light, but the parts of the armor were also becoming more and more clearly identifiable in the passionate collision.

Rubbing his eyes, the Daxi Army soldier who had poked his head out finally determined that this was completely different from the single or entire team of Ming Army sentry detectives he often saw on weekdays. He must call the police immediately.

But just as he was about to scream, a sharp arrow suddenly penetrated his chin with the clear sound of a bowstring, shattered his entire mouth, and then penetrated diagonally into his cerebellum.

In an instant, blood oozed out from the ears, eyes, nose, mouth, and orifices of the soldiers of the Great Western Army, and the people began to convulse immediately, and then completely lost control.

The Daxi Army soldier wanted to scream, but he couldn't make a sound. With his mouth already nailed by a sharp arrow, he could only make some whining sounds that were almost inaudible to others.

But fortunately, he had already heard some of his friends around him shouting.

However, when he fell down from the fortress, he suddenly discovered that some mud monkeys covered with weeds and branches had gathered at the bottom of the fortress.

Some of these mud monkeys are holding crossbows, while others are preparing to climb.

Perhaps the adrenaline caused the passage of time to slow down a lot. The Western soldier, whose brain was not damaged, not only observed many details, but also realized that he had been shot by these mud monkeys.

He even had time to sigh that no wonder he heard the sound of bowstrings!

But just when he thought of this, he seemed to hear a muffled sound, and then his world entered darkness.

After that, there will be no more...

At this time, the whistle sounded on the fortress.

Although the Daxi Army was caught off guard, their response was not slow. After all, they had been on high alert under Zhang Rujing's strict orders and personal supervision. Moreover, they also directly adopted the policy of using the whistles in Li Ping's army to ensure that the police were alerted.

Prompt and timely.

However, when an officer of the Great Western Army on the fortress who had been wearing armor all night reacted quickly, he only glanced at the distance and used his stiff hands to pick up a torch and intended to light a door that had already been adjusted in advance.

While firing artillery, an accident occurred.

He found that the gunpowder fuse had not yet been installed.

The officer of the Great Western Army raised his head and glanced at the sky where the clouds had not yet dispersed, then cursed in annoyance.

He just remembered that it rained for a long time last night.

The rain not only turned the large number of torches they had set up outside into decorations, but also caused them to clear the chambers of all the pre-loaded artillery pieces, and then did not reload them in advance because they were afraid that the gunpowder would get wet.

What's worse is that because of their laziness and laziness, they did not relight the torches set up outside, which directly led to their failure to detect the approach of the Ming army in time.

However, who would have thought that these Ming troops, who were said to have started to leave, would fight back!

And they are so far away, how did they fly here!

While he was distracted.

A round, smoking object suddenly flew up from below the fortress and landed at the feet of the Great Western Army officer.

Then there was a loud noise, and the Great Western Army officer fell down directly due to the push or fright. Then, there was some pain in the lower leg that was not covered by armor, and there was a buzzing in his ears.

The officer of the Great Western Army sat on the ground with his head dazed for a moment. It was not until more explosions began to sound around him that he thought of standing up amidst the choking and familiar smell of gunpowder and smoke.

But just as he was getting up, another explosion next to him and the following ding-dong sound on his helmet made him sit back in shock.

But immediately, the experienced Daxi Army officer realized that he had to stand up quickly. So he did not dare to think more, and he did not bother to check the injury on his calf.

Fortunately, he stood up smoothly this time, and the problem with his calf seemed to be minor.

But just as he stabilized his body and used his hands to straighten his crooked helmet, a figure suddenly jumped in front of him and violently threw him down.

"broken!"

The Daxi Army officer's heart trembled violently.

Sure enough, after he fell to the ground, a short sword was inserted into his neck quickly and flexibly when he couldn't respond quickly due to his heavy armor, and then was quickly pulled out.

The officer of the Daxi Army, whose neck began to ooze blood, could only twitch as the figure smelling of mud climbed up from him, watched the figure rush to the next target, and watched more and more mud monkeys jump up.

…

The fortress was quickly captured.

However, the breached peripheral fortress was only one of the many peripheral fortresses that the Daxi Army had north of the main fortress area on Tieshanping. The garrison strength was very limited, and its attack would also directly affect the main fortress area not far away.

Provide early warning.

That's the key to the battle, and it can no longer have the effect of a surprise attack.

But soon after, when Mayon, panting and wearing heavy armor, led about two regiments of offensive troops to a defensive section on the north side of the vast main fortress area of ​​the Great Western Army, he could still see the shock and panic of the enemy, especially the fortress.

The number of enemies on the wall is obviously less.

The enemy must have been caught off guard and didn't expect him to break through so quickly.

In fact, not to mention that the enemy did not expect it, even Ma Yong, the commander-in-chief of this battle, did not expect that he would go so smoothly and quickly.

Ma Yong knew that he was very lucky. Everything went smoothly, not only far exceeding the original expectations, but also causing the greatest surprise to the enemy.

However, Ma Yong didn't seem very happy. On the contrary, he was very uneasy.

Tongluo Gorge itself is 5.3 kilometers long, with a wall height of 513 meters. The mountain range on the north bank, Tieshanping, is part of a super elongated mountain chain that is more than 100 kilometers long, and the top of the mountain is generally flat and open, with not much undulations.

.

Therefore, even though the main fortress area set up by the Great Western Army on Tieshanping only occupied the peaks near the river due to the terrain and undulating mountains, the area was still very large.

At the same time, this also makes the only flat north side of the main fortress area naturally become a place where everyone can foresee that the enemy will launch an attack or can launch an attack.

This is why Li Rujing set up multiple outposts in the north outside the main fortress.

At least if Mayon, who is wearing armor, doesn't want to die from exhaustion on the way up the mountain or be disappointed, he can only attack in this direction, and he must pass at least one of the outer outpost fortresses, and then he has to remove it.

Although Ma Yong's raid achieved excellent results, it did not actually help the real difficulties that followed, especially among the enemy forces on the opposite side was Li Rujing, who gave Li Ping a headache.

At this time, Ma Yong was not used to calling Li Rujing Zhang Rujing, and he did not know that Li Rujing had gone to Chongqing.

And not only did he not know that Li Rujing was not in the fortress, even the Daxi Army in the fortress except for a few people did not know.

But even though he had a headache, Ma Yong had to bite the bullet.

It was Li Ping's decision to gnaw on the hardest bones and decide the outcome in one battle.

"Attack now!"

Ma Yong gave the order without hesitation.

He knew that there was no need to hesitate and did not dare to wait any longer. He had to take advantage of the enemy's surprise as much as possible.

At the sound of bugles, the heavily armored troops, mainly composed of four regiments, wearing multiple layers of armor and holding thick shields, took the lead in panting and began to advance, followed by part of the second regiment and a secretly formed unit.

New unit - Engineer Battalion.
To be continued...