Chapter 111 Flying Tigers take off and burn the sword gate
"The wind has finally changed."
Su He immediately sent someone to inform Qi Gangyi that the Flying Tigers were gathering.
Qi Gangyi received Su He's order and arranged the Flying Tigers.
He arrived at Su He's camp and said excitedly: "Commander Su, our Flying Tigers can finally make a contribution."
Su He looked at Qi Gangyi who was extremely excited. This will be the first time that humans use air force to fight.
"How are you preparing?
I'll let you observe the situation at Jianmen Pass these days.
Plan flight routes according to different wind directions.
The situation at Jianmen Pass is important information obtained through the sacrifice of soldiers.
Be sure to make good use of this information.”
Su Zhuang's Second Division suffered more than 2,600 casualties in these three days.
The purpose is to attract more Ming troops and expose their long-range weapons.
The hot air balloon piloted by the Flying Tigers is very afraid of long-range weapons such as crossbows.
If you want to drop bombs accurately, you cannot drop bombs at high altitude.
The hot air balloon is at low altitude and is a large target.
Very easy to be shot down by strong bows and crossbows.
During the past few days of attacking Jianmen Pass, I learned that the Ming army’s long-range weapons were mainly cannons and very few crossbows.
These long-range weapons will be the targets of the Flying Tigers' first wave of attacks.
Qi Gangyi replied confidently: "Don't worry, Commander Su, I have already planned the flight route.
The current wind direction is one of the better ones.
The attack range of our Flying Tigers can cover the entire Jianmen Pass.
I have memorized the locations of all the cannons, musketeers and crossbowmen at Jianmen Pass.
When we bomb Jianmen Pass, these troops will be wiped out immediately."
Su He heard Qi Gangyi's report and nodded with satisfaction.
"Now that you are ready, prepare to take off and fight.
I ordered the Flying Tigers to take off immediately.
Whether we can capture Jianmen Pass depends on whether your Flying Tigers can achieve the expected results."
Su He looked in the direction of Jianmen Pass, where hot air balloons were bombing Jianmen Pass.
This is how Su He thought of attacking Jianmen Pass when he wanted to enter Shu.
It's just that the hot air balloon force has strict requirements on the wind direction if it wants to exert its effectiveness.
Only the north wind like today can drive the hot air balloon to fly from their camp to Jianmen Pass.
Qi Gangyi appeared in front of many generals with the Flying Tigers who had been hiding for a long time.
In the open space in front of the Chinese military camp, there were two hundred hanging baskets.
These rattan hanging baskets have a linen woven ball on them.
These linens are very finely woven, and several sheets of linen are sewn together to be airtight.
The balloon faces the opening of the hanging basket and is soaked in alum.
These alum-soaked linens have very good fire resistance.
There is an iron shelf in the middle of the hanging basket, and an iron basin on top of the iron shelf.
The iron basin contains fuel to form a brazier.
There is fire oil next to it as fuel.
Different fuels are added, and the firepower of the brazier is also different.
In this way, the rise and fall of the hot air balloon is controlled.
Adding fuel to the brazier will quickly increase the firepower.
If you want to reduce the firepower, you can only wait for the fuel to slowly burn out.
The firepower of the brazier depends entirely on the experience of the Flying Tigers soldiers, who add the appropriate amount of fuel each time.
In order to prevent unexpected situations, briquettes can also be lit on the brazier.
Its burning firepower is very small, but it can ensure the safe landing of the hot air balloon.
Only Su He, Li Fengming and the Flying Tigers knew what the combination of these hanging baskets and ball bags could do.
The other generals looked confused when they saw so many hanging baskets.
Zhang Yuliang looked at these things and said to Guan Yuntao, the master Zhu next to him: "The Flying Tigers refer to the tigers with wings embroidered on the cloth.
What can this do? Could it be a tool for dancing to the great gods?
Didn’t your Master Zhu always say that there are no gods or magic in this world?
Only the glory of our ancestors protects our descendants."
Guan Yuntao replied calmly:
"You're just talking nonsense. It doesn't matter what kind of thing it is embroidered on, let alone a tiger, it can be embroidered with a dragon.
We can't guess what these things are used for.
Just wait and see, you will find out what the Flying Tigers can do?
They are so loud, as if they can seize Jianmen Pass if they go out."
Qi Gangyi shouted at the Flying Tigers: "Flying Tigers, prepare to take off."
The Flying Tigers have a total of 500 people, and 100 of them are substitutes.
Two hundred hot air balloons, each carrying two soldiers.
To hold more weapons and a small amount of water and food.
The hot air balloon has a strong carrying capacity, but it is only equipped with two soldiers.
One soldier is responsible for controlling the hot air balloon, and another soldier is responsible for dropping the bomb.
All four hundred Flying Tigers soldiers walked to their hanging baskets.
Qi Gangyi said loudly to Su He: "The Flying Tigers are ready and request to take off for combat."
Su He gave the order loudly.
"Permit the Flying Tigers to take off for combat."
Qi Gangyi heard Su He's order and loudly issued the battle order.
"Ignite and take off."
He personally lit the brazier of his hot air balloon.
At the same time, you and your companions hold up the balloon of the hot air balloon.
The fire oil in the brazier burns violently, producing hot air.
The hot air rises into the air and directly expands the balloon above the hanging basket.
A large amount of hot air continues to rise into the sky.
Let the hot air balloon rise slowly.
This is not the first time Qi Gangyi has experienced the launch of a hot air balloon.
But every time he saw the hot air balloon actually take off, he was extremely excited.
In order to fly into the sky, many people have sacrificed their lives.
He admired Commander Su very much for coming up with such a safe way to let humans fly into the air.
Hot air balloons are very safe, and no one died during the training of the Flying Tigers.
They did experiments with big fat pigs and put the pigs in hanging baskets.
Let the hot air balloon carry the big fat pig into the sky, and finally shoot the hot air balloon with a crossbow.
When the hot air balloon burst, it did not land at a high speed, but slowly landed on the ground.
The big fat pig in the hanging basket was not harmed in any way.
Li Dazhuang watched the hot air balloon take off. He opened his mouth wide in surprise and could not close it for a long time.
Pan Hongcai, who was standing next to him, couldn't help blurting out when he saw this scene.
"This is a large Kongming Lantern. The Kongming Lantern can rise into the sky.
I never thought before that the huge Kongming Lantern can directly take people into the sky.
We have a big sky lantern, and Jianmen Pass can definitely be breached."
Wu Jie watched the hot air balloon take off, his hands trembling with excitement.
Let him guard the sword gate and encounter something like this that can fly in the sky.
Attacking Jianmen Pass from top to bottom, he had no confidence in defending Jianmen Pass.
This is the first time this kind of thing appears on the battlefield. It is not yet known whether it can play a significant role.
But there is no doubt about the impact on the morale of the Ming army at Jianmen Pass.
The morale of the Ming army was low. Even if he sent troops to attack, he was confident of taking Jianmen Pass.
When Han Shuliang saw the hot air balloon taking off, he immediately knelt on the ground and kept kowtowing.
"God has appeared. God will definitely bless us to capture Jianmen Pass."
Zhang Chujiu immediately pulled Han Shuliang up from the ground.
He covered his face, his brigade commander was really embarrassed.
Li Dazhuang waited until all the hot air balloons took off before he reacted and said in shock:
"Damn it, no wonder Qi Gangyi is so confident, as if he can take Jianmen Pass down if he takes action.
This kind of thing is so scary, who would have thought that it could launch an attack from the sky."
When many soldiers saw the hot air balloon taking off, they thought it was a manifestation of gods and immediately knelt down to worship.
Zhu Shi in the army took this opportunity to tell the soldiers that this was not a manifestation of gods.
These are all items created by Commander Su under his leadership.
You don't need to believe in gods, you just need to believe in Commander Su.
…
Qi Gangyi constantly adjusts the size of the flame in the brazier and controls the height of the hot air balloon.
The wind strength above Jianmenguan is different, and the wind direction also changes in some areas.
But the general direction of the wind is from north to south.
As the leader of the Flying Tigers, he is responsible for guiding everyone.
He is in front of the Flying Tigers. The hanging basket of the Flying Tigers in front is filled with heavy fuel oil, which is lighter and flies faster.
For the Flying Tigers at the rear, the gondolas contained explosive shells. These were heavier and were all at the rear of the team.
Qi Gangyi's companion held a telescope and kept looking at the scene below.
They looked for the location of Jianmen Pass.
"Captain, there is smoke ahead. I found where Jianmen Pass is. He is southwest of us."
Qi Gangyi drove the hot air balloon and kept flying towards Jianmenguan in the direction of the wind.
He looked down at Dajian Mountain from the corner of his eye.
Everything below you standing at a high altitude is very small.
Especially Jianmen Pass, it is the most majestic pass in the world when viewed from the ground.
Standing in the air, it is just a very small building.
Qi Gangyi flew to the sky near the Jianmen Gate, and he began to reduce the firepower of the hot air balloon.
The height of the hot air balloon was slowly decreasing, slowly drifting towards the Jianmen Pass building.
He glanced at the other members of the Flying Tigers with his peripheral vision.
There were so many hot air balloons following him that most of the team members did not fall behind.
Qi Gangyi took out an iron whistle.
A short whistle sounded across the sky.
Other members of the Flying Tigers who were close to Qi Gangyi heard the whistle, and they also blew their own whistles.
Whistles sounded in the sky one after another.
This is the signal to prepare for an attack.
The hot air balloon began to descend slowly, and they could already see the fierce battle between the Second Division and the Jianmenguan Ming Army.
Especially the Hongyi cannon upstairs at Jianmen Pass. The huge smoke produced when the cannon is fired is even more conspicuous.
It directly pointed the direction of Jianmen Pass for the Flying Tigers.
Qi Gangyi drove his hot air balloon, constantly lowering the altitude, and soon approached Jianmen Pass.
"Prepare to drop bombs."
He controls the hot air balloon to keep it stable in the air.
His deputy picked up a ten-pound, sealed wine jar.
Throw the wine jar directly to the upper floor of Jianmen Pass.
Qi Gangyi saw that the hot air balloon had stopped in the sky and was slowly falling towards the south.
He knew that time was urgent and he had to hurry up and throw heavy fire oil.
These wine jars were filled with fire oil, which Commander Su bought at a high price. It is said that the merchants bought it from the Xiyi people in Yuegang, Quanzhou.
They come from a region called Java.
These fire oils are black when they first arrive and are distilled in large iron barrels.
You will get a clear-colored fire oil. Once this fire oil burns, it cannot be extinguished with water.
It can ignite the wooden buildings and large amounts of grain and grass in Jianmen Pass.
The biggest result they want to achieve this time is to completely burn down Jianmen Pass.
The final result of the battle was to burn the food and grass in Jianmen Pass.
Qi Gangyi and his companions threw the wine jars at high speed.
He saw the hot air balloon rising slowly due to the reduced gravity.
He also adjusted the size of the flame to keep the hot air balloon at a certain height.
But the weight is reduced, and the hot air balloon accelerates and drifts south.
They are responsible for dropping heavy fire oil, and the hot air balloon at the rear is responsible for dropping explosive bombs.
Su Zhuang looked at the sky, which was densely packed with hundreds of things similar to Kongming lanterns, with hanging baskets hanging on them, flying towards Jianmen Pass.
They were above Jianmen Pass and kept dropping things downward.
Some wine jars were not thrown into the sword door.
It hit the city wall directly at Jianmen Pass, and some liquid spilled out, all on many soldiers.
Su Zhuang recognized it at a glance. It was a fire oil commonly used in their army.
He remembered Commander Su's instructions and quickly issued the order.
"No open fires, abandon all trebuchets, we will evacuate here immediately."
He led his soldiers and quickly evacuated Jianmen Pass.
And asked all soldiers who got wet to take off their clothes.
And use plenty of water to clean their bodies.
…
Shao Jiechun saw hundreds of large Kongming lanterns suddenly appear in the sky after Jianmen was closed.
There is a colorful yellow tiger painted on these Kongming lanterns.
It opened its huge mouth and acted very ferociously.
The tiger also has a pair of wings on its body.
When some soldiers saw this, they immediately knelt down and kowtowed.
While he kowtowed, he loudly begged for mercy: "Heavenly soldiers and heavenly generals are coming. Please accept your magical powers and let me go."
When some generals saw this situation, they sounded horrified and shouted loudly: "The thieves in yellow know magic, these are their demon soldiers.
Sir, please quickly invite Taoist priests to subdue the demons, we mortals have no way to deal with the demon soldiers."
Shao Jiechun looked at this scene and had no idea at all.
When Master Liu Yi saw this situation, his voice changed and he said in a sharp voice: "Sir, please quickly give the order to shoot them with bows and arrows.
Never let these large Kongming lanterns fall on the Jianmen Gate."
After Shao Jiechun heard this, he immediately reacted.
Order the generals and soldiers to use bows and crossbows to deal with these large Kongming lanterns.
There are generals who are good at bows and arrows. They take out their strong bows and shoot an arrow at the hot air balloon.
However, he found that the arrows were not shot high enough to hit these strange things.
Master Liu Yi suggested from the side: "Sir, bows and arrows are not good at all. Let's quickly use crossbows to shoot these large Kongming lanterns."
Shao Jiechun followed the advice of his master Liu Yi and asked the Ming army generals to use bed crossbows to shoot down these large Kongming lanterns.
The bed crossbow is mainly used for horizontal shooting and does not have the ability to shoot high-altitude objects.
The Ming army general called in craftsmen to build a steep slope out of wood.
Prepare to use a slope to set up the crossbow, so that the crossbow arrows point diagonally toward the sky.
Before they could set up the crossbow, they saw the large Kongming Lantern flying in the sky and began to drop some things.
"Be careful, adults, don't get hit by anything.
Let’s not stand here and find a place to hide.”
Master Liu Yi dragged Shao Jiechun to hide in the attic next to him.
A general saw something about to hit him and subconsciously used the knife in his hand to block it.
He found that the knife directly chopped the thing into pieces.
A liquid with a very strange smell was sprinkled all over him.
"Is this poison?
These poisons are very rare and can kill people by mere contact."
The general was very frightened and observed his physical condition.
He found that he was just a little nauseated by the smell.
There are no other changes in the body, so this thing should not be poisonous.
He saw many large Kongming lanterns in the sky, almost flying past the gate building and flying towards the interior of Jianmen Pass.
These large sky lanterns were left behind, and the things they threw down were something he was very familiar with these days.
These are huge explosive shells for the yellow thief.
When the explosive bomb falls in the crowd, it can take away more than a dozen people each time. If the crowd is denser, it can take away dozens of people.
This thing is very scary.
He immediately ran away from the location of the explosive bomb.
A bomb exploded close to the ground.
Sparks fell on the fierce fire oil that had covered the ground.
The raging fire began to burn, and the entire Guanlou became a sea of fire, with thick smoke billowing into the sky.
…
Qi Gangyi looked at the Jianmen Pass. Fires were everywhere and thick smoke covered the entire Jianmen Pass.
This is the masterpiece of their Flying Tigers.
In this attack on Jianmen Pass, the Flying Tigers achieved the greatest results and perfectly completed their set goals.
The Ming army at Jianmen Pass was attacked like this, and it was impossible for them to resist.
Now he only has one last goal left.
That is to take the members of the Flying Tigers safely away from the battlefield.
Qi Gangyi took the telescope and looked near the south gate of Jianmen Pass.
The door here is wide open, and Ming troops inside Jianmen Pass are constantly escaping from here to the outside.
Not far from the south gate of Jianmen Pass, there is also the camp of the Ming Army.
Qi Gangyi drove a hot air balloon and flew with the wind to the Ming army's camp.
He poured all the remaining fire oil into the Ming army camp.
The attack on the Ming army camp was originally planned.
There are two main points: the Ming army outside the city must be disrupted.
The first point is that when the fire at Jianmen Pass is about to extinguish, Commander Su will lead his troops to rob Jianmen Pass.
The Ming army camp was not in chaos, but there was a Ming army resisting at Jianmen Pass.
One more thing, Qi Gangyi is preparing to take the Flying Tigers to land on the mountain.
There was no chaos in the Ming army's camp, but more than 10,000 Ming troops besieged 400 of them.
Even if they were one to ten elites, they would not be able to defeat so many Ming troops.
Only by messing up the Ming army can the Flying Tigers have any hope of waiting for Commander Su to capture Jianmen Pass.
Qi Gangyi threw down the glory bomb at the bottom of the box.
This is an ordinary explosive bomb, but its meaning is different.
If the hot air balloon of a member of the Flying Tigers is damaged, it will land at the Ming Dynasty military camp.
They will ignite the explosive shells and die together with the enemy.
Now that victory is in sight, there is no need to keep this glorious bomb.
The explosive bomb landed in the Ming army camp, making a huge explosion and igniting fierce fire oil.
A raging fire broke out in the Ming army camp, and the military households fled in all directions.
Many people couldn't bear the heat wave and jumped directly into the nearby river.
The generals of the Ming army were unable to control the army.
Qi Gangyi led the Flying Tigers in a hot air balloon and slowly landed on the mountainside of the mountain ahead.
They found a favorable terrain to defend and waited for the main force to arrive.
…
Su Zhuang led his troops and just retreated from Jianmen Pass.
He felt waves of heat coming from behind.
Looking back, I saw thick smoke billowing from Jianmen Pass.
The huge fire that was ignited was clearly visible even from the mountain road.
Tong Yunpeng, the chief of staff of the Second Division, saw this scene with a horrified expression on his face.
"This large Kongming Lantern is really amazing.
What the Flying Tigers left behind should be fierce fire oil.
This kind of fuel, which is usually used to cremate the remains of martyrs, can produce extremely high temperatures.
The burning speed is very fast. Even if you pour a lot of water, some fierce oil will float on the water and burn.
There was an extreme shortage of water in Jianmen Pass, and they were unable to put out the fire.
If Jianmen Pass withstands this fire, it can only become a ruin."
"It's great to be turned into ruins!" Su Zhuang sighed: "In just a few days, we have suffered more than 2,000 casualties.
If we delay for a few more months, how many lives of soldiers will be lost at Jianmen Pass."
…
In the third year of Chongzhen, November 9th, noon.
The fire at Jianmen Pass gradually extinguished.
At the beginning, the temperature of the city wall near Jianmen Pass was extremely high, making it impossible for people to approach.
In some places, the stones have been burned into a glass shape.
Su He looked at the arriving general.
"The Jianmenguan fire has not been completely extinguished, but we cannot wait.
We can't see the situation of Jianmen closing the south gate at all.
We must take advantage of this opportunity to conquer Jianmen Pass.
Otherwise, when the Ming army reacts, the opportunity given to us by the Flying Tigers will be wasted."
Li Dazhuang, commander of the Guards Division, immediately asked for a fight: "Commander Su, please give our Guards Division a chance to perform.
Both the Second Division and the Fourth Division fought against Jianmen Pass and made great achievements.
Our Guards Division has no merit at all, so we should be given the opportunity to attack the city this time."
While Li Dazhuang spoke, he stared at the other division commanders.
His consciousness was very clear that this time the meritorious service must be performed by their Guards Division.
Su Zhuang and Wu Jie also have no competition.
The Flying Tigers made the greatest contribution to the attack on Jianmen Pass this time.
Su He saw that there were no generals competing with Li Dazhuang.
"Well, let the Guards Division be responsible for attacking Jianmen Pass."
Li Dazhuang was very happy when he received the order.
This time in the battle of Jianmenguan, their Guards Division did not participate in the battle.
It won't sound good if the news spreads even though you haven't done anything yet.
Influence them to recruit people after the Guards Division.
The recruits in the new barracks also don't want to join a weak army.
Li Dazhuang led the soldiers to the bottom of Jianmen Pass.
There is not a single defender on the upper floor of Jianmen Pass.
The North City Gate of Jianmen is blocked directly from the inside with stones, so it cannot be opened by ramming a car.
The soldiers carried the long ladder to the bottom of Jianmen Pass and began to set up the ladder.
This is an engineering device built by craftsmen accompanying the army and made from surrounding trees.
Without interference from the defenders, the ladder was set up very quickly.
This is a specially made thirty-meter long ladder.
The ladder is supported by brackets within ten meters of the ground.
The soldiers unfolded the ladder and extended it forward.
The ladder at the front has two huge hooks on it.
It can hit the edge of the city wall at Jianmen Pass.
The soldiers climbed up the ladder directly to the upper floor of Jianmen Pass.
This was originally the most dangerous job, but without the interference of the defenders, it became very safe.
Duan Ruide, chief of staff of the Guards Division, boarded the Jianmen Pass building. He saw the soldiers who had already boarded the building. Many of them were vomiting.
He was surprised how these veterans who had gone through the test of blood and fire could act like new recruits.
He suddenly smelled the aroma of meat and was wondering why there was the aroma of barbecue here.
Until he saw the burned corpses of Ming soldiers.
He felt his stomach churn violently and couldn't help but vomit it out.
Duan Ruide asked the soldiers to collect the corpses of Ming soldiers and cremate them to prevent the formation of plague.
He led his soldiers to the north gate of Jianmen Pass.
Use gunpowder to blast away the boulders blocking the city gate.
Lead the soldiers to move away the broken stones and open the north gate of Jianmen Pass.
The army that had been waiting outside for a long time saw the city gate of Jianmen Pass being opened, and they poured directly into Jianmen Pass.
Li Dazhuang left behind a brigade of soldiers to control the city and extinguish some small fires.
He led his soldiers and fought directly towards the south gate.
He saw that the south gate of Jianmen Pass was wide open, and the Ming army camp outside the gate also showed signs of burning, but there were no Ming troops here.
Li Dazhuang saw fireworks signals on the mountain.
He sent a battalion of soldiers over to check, and they quickly welcomed the Flying Tigers back.
When Qi Gangyi saw Li Dazhuang, he said directly:
"Commander Li Dazhuang, you don't need to pursue the Ming army anymore.
A fire broke out in Jianmenguan City, and most of the Ming army generals were in the Beicheng Tower.
They received the first wave of attacks and were all burned to death.
The Ming army in Jianmenguan City had no command. Seeing that the fire could not be extinguished, they all fled through the south gate.
I also attacked the Ming army's camp at that time. The Ming army was in great chaos when they encountered the attack.
Most of the defeated troops fled south along the Jinniu Road, while a small number fled to the surrounding mountains.
I only learned about these things after I captured some prisoners."
Li Dazhuang gave up the pursuit of the Ming army and returned to Jianmen Pass with Qi Gangyi's Flying Tigers.