However, Zhao Cheng was well prepared. His group that entered the mountain only numbered 30,000 people, and they were the current main force of Ying Tian's army, the Taiping Camp.
Of these 30,000 people, 10,000 are regular troops and 20,000 are reserve troops.
When Zhao Cheng set up such a military system in the Taiping Camp, the number of reserve troops was twice that of the regular army. Part of the reason was to plan for today.
The mountains and forests are vast, with deep grass and dense trees. If you are not careful, you will lose your way in the mountains and forests. More importantly, the terrain in the mountains is ever-changing and has almost no rules. It is very possible to step on a seemingly flat road.
When you go down, it's completely empty underneath, with just fallen branches and leaves from trees and weeds covering the surface.
In addition, there are countless cliffs, deep mountains and rift valleys.
When Zhao Cheng attacked Wucheng from Lianshan, it was because his location was very close to Wucheng, so he was able to achieve great military speed.
And from today's Yingtian City to Nanhuang, even if he enters the mountain halfway, it is still several times the distance from Lianshan to Wucheng.
In this case, although Zhao Cheng repeated his old tricks, he had already dispatched a team a few years ago to explore the route in the mountains, draw a route map, make various marks, and almost simultaneously build the plank road.
, let a group of people go into the mountain with a large number of ropes to point out the direction and achieve a rapid march.
But because the journey is far away and the terrain is more complicated, the difficulty is more than ten times higher than before.
When traveling in such terrain, it is destined to be impossible to bring too much supplies, and firearms and bullets are very important and must be carried. In this case, other military supplies are destined to be squeezed to the limit.
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Furthermore, marching in such a depressing environment for a long time will also cause problems with morale, coupled with the exhaustion of physical energy.
Under such circumstances, if you encounter the enemy, you may not be able to use even 50% of your 100% combat effectiveness.
This is why, in wars of this era, the first thing the commander does when he approaches the destination is to find a good place to station the camp and let his soldiers train first instead of rushing
To fight with people desperately.
The 20,000 reserve troops established by Zhao Cheng were to solve this problem to a certain extent.
The 20,000 reserve troops were divided into two groups and carried all kinds of supplies. As for the regular army, they carried nothing in order to preserve their physical strength and spirit to the greatest extent.
As for food and water, Zhao Cheng had people prepare it in the mountains early. The resting places along the way were carefully calculated.
As the saying goes, the three armies should move forward before food and grass are used.
Of course, burying water in advance can only be done in the mountains.
The mountains and forests are vast, and the people selected by Zhao Cheng have gone through rounds of screening and are finally selected as innocent people. Not only that, these people also supervise each other to eliminate the possibility of leaking secrets to the greatest extent.
sex.
In the mountains and forests, tall trees block out the sky and the sun. Many places, even during the day, are extremely dark and difficult to see clearly.
But now, along the rope, the mighty team gathered into a long queue, with 20,000 reserve troops walking in front and 10,000 regular troops walking behind. Now, the physical strength of the main force can be maintained most effectively.
As for the road, it is naturally not flat. There are many steep slopes. In some places, the height is three to five meters, and the slope is infinitely close to 90 degrees.
But at this time, the role of the rope came into play again.
Generally, on extremely steep slopes like this, in addition to the ropes, holes are also dug into the stone walls, allowing people to easily draw strength. Therefore, it is not difficult for such terrain to cause resistance.
As for the potholes between the mountains and forests, the shallower ones have been filled in with rocks and mud long ago. Although they are not completely flawless, they will not affect the march of the army. And those big cracks are
Cut down the trees in the mountains, place them side by side, and tie them with ropes.
Whether it is wood or rope, it is easy to rot in the mountains. After a year or two at most, these things will be difficult to use, but Zhao Cheng only needs to go there once.
If we leave the Southern Wilderness this time, our great cause will not be accomplished, and I swear I will never pay it back!
Rumble!
Tens of thousands of people are walking in the mountains at a uniform pace. They are covered by trees. With human ears, as long as they are a few hundred meters away, they cannot hear any movement. Only the insects and beasts in the mountains and forests can sense.
Many times more sensitive than humans, they fled in all directions.
The traveling speed of this team is also very terrifying. Although it is impossible for even Zhao Cheng to directly open a straight road out of the mountains, the road they took is far faster than the one they used to go in and out of the south.
The length of the desolate road should be one and a half shorter.
Half the journey is equivalent to saving half the time.
Now that we have the main force to confuse the enemy, we can save half the time and completely catch the enemy off guard.
Of course, Zhao Cheng did not intend to attack Tianjueguan. Although the height of Tianjueguan's city wall was not as high as that of Yingtian City, it was still half as high.
Although Zhao Cheng has thunder and fire in his hands, as long as he is willing to sacrifice his life, even if the enemy has firearms and bombs, he can forcefully blow open the city wall.
But now, he only has 30,000 soldiers and horses, and only 10,000 guns.
But now, all the heroes in the world responded to the imperial edict and came to attack him. On that day, the army numbered at least hundreds of thousands.
Hundreds of thousands of troops gathered together into one force, and they had firearms. Even if the firearms had a limited range, the number of people alone was enough to kill his troops.
After all, even if he breaks through the city wall, if he breaks into the city and the defenders in the city rely on the geographical advantage and engage in street fighting with him, in that case, the rifle in his hand that is ahead of its time will not be able to exert its maximum effect.
Therefore, Zhao Cheng is now secretly attacking Chencang, and his biggest target is not Tianjue Pass, but the defenders outside Tianjue Pass who are guarding the Southern Wilderness Pass along the way.
These people had guns, cannons, and thunder in their hands, and they also built bunkers on key roads.
And most of those important roads are narrow. If he doesn't carry out a surprise attack, it's not impossible to conquer, but it will be completely heaped with human lives.
If you want to push all the way to the Tianjue Pass, you are afraid that you will have to consume 50,000 or 60,000 elites. As for the enemy, the garrison stationed in one bunker is only more than a hundred people. There are more than a hundred bunkers along the way, and the total number is only more than 10,000 people.
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It is naturally impossible for Zhao Cheng to fight such a losing battle.
The only way is to conduct a surprise attack. In a very short period of time, the defenders in Tianjue Pass will not have time to react, and they will remove the troops at the entrance and cut off the local reinforcements.
Once the pass is captured, the advantage will be on Zhao Cheng's side. These 10,000 rifles, even if only half of the 5,000 are divided, will be enough to block the enemy's army, making it difficult for them to advance in a short period of time.
Half step.
What's left is naturally to attack from the front and back to crush the biggest obstacle to leaving the Southern Wilderness.