Please ask me to be the emperor

Tongguan has been a battleground for military strategists since ancient times. If you advance here, you can attack the Central Plains, and if you retreat, you can defend the Three Qin Dynasties. Since Hangu Pass was abandoned, it has been the gateway to and from the Central Plains of Shaanxi.

Tongguan is located at the intersection where the Wei River merges into the Yellow River. It is bordered by the Qinling Mountains to the south and the Yellow River to the north. It is known as the natural barrier.

In history, Cao Cao fought here with Jin Machao of Xiliang in order to enter the land of the Three Qin Dynasty. During the Anshi Rebellion, the famous Tang Dynasty general Ge Shuhan also fought against the rebels here.

Therefore, this place is a battleground for military strategists entering Shaanxi from the Central Plains.

Originally, after the defeat of Hong Chengchou, the governor of the five provinces, the officers and soldiers retreated all the way to the west, and they would definitely be intercepted by Chen Changzhen and Li Mou who made a surprise attack on Xin'an and Xinhangu Pass by Zhang Shun.

In fact, the two of them did intercept and capture many officers and soldiers.

However, fate is not as good as fate. After Shaanxi Commander-in-Chief Zuo Guangxian was defeated, he alertly avoided Xin'an, which directly blocked Weihan North Road.

Instead, he went up Luoshui River, detoured to Xiaohannan Road, and retreated to Shaanzhou via Yanling Pass.

When Chen Changzhen and Li Mou led their troops to march westward, Shaanxi's chief military officer Zuo Guangxian led his troops to retreat to Tongguan.

Chen Changzhen led his troops to seize the opportunity to seize Shaanzhou, Lingbao, and one state and two counties in Luxiang, and pushed directly towards Tongguan.

But neither Zhang Shun nor Chen Changzhen expected that Tongguan would be so difficult to defeat.

Tongguan in the Ming Dynasty was rebuilt and expanded based on Tongguan in the Tang and Song Dynasties.

The city wall was built against the mountain. The east, west and north sides were five feet high, while the highest point on the south side was ten feet high.

There is a guard station called Tongguan Guard in the area, and most of its residents are military personnel. again

The Tong River passes through the city, and there are thousands of acres of fertile farmland within the pass. The soldiers guarding the gate can rely on the dangerous situation and have food and accommodation in the city to hold on for a long time.

And Tongguan itself is not a simple city gate, but a complete defense system.

To the east of Tongguan City is a Huangxiang Ban with a total length of about five miles.

The Huangxiangban road is narrow and is an isolated road bordering the Qinling Mountains in the south and the Yellow River in the north. It is difficult for the army to form a formation in this isolated road, and it is impossible to take advantage of the numerical advantage to attack the city.

In this Huangxiang Slope, a Jindou Pass was set up as a barrier to form a multi-layered defense posture.

There are dozens of ravines scattered on the plain south of Tongguan. Among them, there are four ditches with the longest depth: Liexie ditch, Jinggou, Tongshui ditch and Wangyuan ditch.

These ravines are collectively called forbidden ditches, and they all cross the Nanyuan in the north-south direction.

The south of Tongguan is already tall, and with these ravines, it is even more difficult to cross.

However, in order to ensure nothing goes wrong, many fortresses were set up in the Forbidden Valley, named: Twelve Linked Cities.

The two banks of the Yellow River north of Tongguan are Fenglingdu, an important ferry on the Yellow River. If both sides persist for a long time, they may be attacked by officers and soldiers crossing the north bank of the Yellow River.

Chen Changzhen has many experiences of leading troops alone, so he is also a person who knows soldiers well.

He saw that the officers and soldiers were well prepared, but the terrain here made it impossible to form a formation and take advantage of the rebels' numerical advantage.

He ordered Li Mou to lead a battalion to camp outside Huangxiang Ban, and take turns to attack Jindou Pass outside Tongguan City.

He led his troops to station in the county town of Nexiang to hold down the battle.

At first, Zuo Guangxian, the commander-in-chief of Shaanxi Province, was still dissatisfied. After he established a firm foothold, he personally led his elite troops to attack Li Mou's tribe outside Jindou Pass.

Li Mou was at a disadvantage in the battle and retreated in defeat. When they pushed to a spacious area, Chen Changzhen led the rebel army and then came out with a diagonal thrust, killing Zuo Guangxian and defeating him.

The rebels pursued Zuo Guangxian all the way to Jinduuguan City, but still failed to capture and kill Zuo Guangxian alive, so they had no choice but to retreat. After that, the two sides continued to see each other at Jindou Pass, and for a while there was no winner.

When Cao Wenzhao captured the Lu family and led his troops to join them, the rebel army was still unable to make progress.

Therefore, both sides concentrated their artillery to attack the city. However, they were all field artillery like generals, and their power was limited.

The rebels bombarded for several days, but still could not shake the iron wall in front of them.

There was really nothing he could do, so Cao Wenzhao found Chen Changzhen and Li Mou and said: "This pass is dangerous and can only be broken by the Hongyi cannon. Even if it takes me more time, it will only cost a few more lives."

"In that case, why don't you leave me and Li Mou to defend the city, and ask General Chen to go to Luoyang, bring cannons for us, and then attack the city?"

When Chen Changzhen heard this, he understood that the two of them wanted to use their special status as Zhang Shun's righteous brother to ask Zhang Shun for siege weapons.

Fortunately, Chen Changzhen also had this intention, so he temporarily entrusted his troops to Cao Wenzhao. After repeatedly admonishing Li Mou in private, he led twenty or thirty personal guards and hurried back to Luoyang City.

Zhang Shun couldn't help but frowned after listening to Chen Changzhen's story.

He originally intended to send troops to Nanyang in these days to seize the city, and it was inevitable that there would be places where he needed to attack the city.

What's more, I heard from Chen Changzhen that the Tongguan city was so strong that it couldn't be dealt with by ordinary Hongyi cannons.

Thinking of this, Zhang asked Chen Changzhen to take a rest while Ming Wang Jinyi quickly summoned the new chief engineer, Governor Zhang, to come over.

When Zhang Shun mentioned this, Governor Zhang couldn't help but responded: "If you want to capture this city, in addition to thunderbolt cannons, you will also need ten thousand kilograms of red barbarian cannons to achieve success!"

The so-called "thunderbolt cannons" called by Captain Zhang are actually the three flying cannons forged previously.

Not only is the artillery difficult to make, but its gunners are also very picky. They are afraid that if it accidentally explodes in front of them, they will not hurt the enemy but themselves.

Zhang Shun carefully made and trained three flying guns, and he actually cherished them and planned to use them as his trump card.

However, considering that Tongguan was too dangerous, he gritted his teeth and said: "In that case, I will allocate the three flying cannons to you for use. In addition, I will add ten red Yi cannons and send them to Tongguan together!"

"This..." Although Zhang Shun was quite generous, Chen Changzhen still couldn't help but frowned and said, "Isn't it a bit inadequate?"

Ten Hongyi cannons are almost enough for attacking an average city. But it is far from enough for attacking Tongguan!

"Director Zhang listens to the order. I order you to lead the craftsmen and follow Chen Changting to the town of Nuxiang County."

"You are allowed to recruit common people's craftsmen here and set up a blast furnace to smelt iron and cast thousands of kilograms of Hongyi cannons on the spot!"

"Uh..." As soon as Zhang Shun finished speaking, Governor Zhang looked troubled.

"What's wrong? Is there something difficult?" Zhang Shun couldn't help but ask.

"Hundreds of kilograms of Western cannons are just a matter of trivial matters; more than a thousand kilograms are only a few. I have only heard of these ten thousand kilograms of red barbarian cannons, but have never seen them. I don't know if they can be cast." Governor Zhang quickly introduced.

ah? Aren't they all just lumps of iron? What's the technical content?

When Zhang Shun was casting cannons in Yangcheng before, he didn't find it difficult at all. It is also said that what is lacking in casting is design rather than technology.

But he didn't know that Shanxi Yangcheng, as the smelting center of this era, almost represented the highest level in northern China.

What they cast were small artillery pieces, which was certainly different from today's casting of thousands of kilograms of Hongyi cannons.

Today's update is too slow, there should only be one chapter, please forgive me.