"Since swimming is the priority, we might as well make some buoyancy aids to help the warriors swim over."
Gongsun Zhi started talking, and Wang Dagui slapped his thigh and said: "How the hell did I get into trouble! You can't swim through the strong waves because you have to fight against the waves and maintain buoyancy.
I will be exhausted and find it difficult to swim across. If I have a floatation aid, I can save a lot of energy and be more confident about swimming across the river. What a stupid person I am, why didn't I think of it earlier."
Next, look for a floating object.
Wood definitely won't work. Freshly cut wood has enough moisture, not to mention its buoyancy, and it might sink with you.
What helps float?
Gongsun Zhi proposed a good thing - a sheepskin bag!
Wang Dagui immediately asked someone to kill twenty sheep - these sheep Li Gongpa could contribute.
The sheep-killers are all experienced herders. They use the smallest opening to peel off the entire sheep's skin. Turn the sheepskin over and turn the wool inside, then tie up several small openings with ropes, leaving a small opening and insert it inside.
Blow in. After blowing it up, tie up the small opening.
Worried, Wang Dagui also found some rosin grease, melted it, and applied it to the binding area to ensure a seal.
After making ten of them, I tried it in water and it worked very well.
More than forty sheep were killed and forty sheepskin airbags were made. Several people went into the water to try it out. Each person tied one to their body and it worked very well. If there were too many, they would be too buoyant and they would be easily swept away by the current.
run.
The next step is to choose a warrior.
Fifty sheepskin airbags can transport fifty people. But these fifty people need great courage because they have to bear great risks.
Having a skin only helps you swim over. Whether you can swim over depends on your physical strength and luck.
Although I was exhausted, I was still swept away by the strong currents. I was unlucky and was rolled up and hit a rock, but I still finished the fun.
And when you swim in the middle, will the skin leak? Once it leaks, it will not be a boost, but a life-saving talisman.
Will there be an ambush on the other side?
This is an important defense line in the northwest of Dali. Although the main force has been attracted away, some troops will definitely remain in this area. If there were soldiers and horses, they would have noticed the movement on the north bank and quietly ambush in the dense forest on the south bank, waiting for the Song army's vanguard.
Swim over and surge up.
It was difficult for him to defeat four hands with two fists. There were four to five hundred people on his opponent's side and fifty on his own. He had just swam across the river and was exhausted. No matter how brave he was, he could not withstand the bites of a pack of wolves.
Various factors require the vanguard to be fifty people with sufficient courage.
After a while, fifty people came over. They were all wearing short-sleeved clothes, a short-sleeved skirt, straw sandals, and a short knife tied to their waists.
It was Yao Xiong who walked at the front.
Wang Dagui and Gongsun Zhi quickly stopped him: "Deputy Commander, what are you doing?"
"I will lead the vanguard across the river!" Yao Xiong said loudly.
"You can't do it, you can't do it! It's too dangerous. It's too dangerous to be in charge of the deputy capital." Wang Dagui and Gongsun Zhi quickly tried to dissuade him.
"It's just too dangerous, that's why we are asked to set an example. If the soldiers dare to go down the Jinsha River, don't we officials dare not go down?" Yao Xiong said loudly.
"Originally, Commander Yang Du wanted to lead the vanguard across the river in person, but I stopped him. He is the commander-in-chief of an army, and the safety of 20,000 soldiers is tied to him, so he cannot take risks easily. Therefore, I snatched this job.
"
After speaking, Yao Xiong turned his head and said to the forty-nine vanguard soldiers.
"In the summer of the second year of Yuanfu, the Yellow River flooded and the eight willow trees in Gyeonggi Province burst. At that time, His Royal Highness King Jian led his troops to protect the river embankment. When he saw the breach, he jumped down without even blinking.
At that time, my mind was buzzing and I didn’t know anything. No matter how fast the water in the Yellow River was or how high the waves were, I was no longer afraid, so I jumped in with a loud roar."
"The Great Luo of All Worlds"
"I jumped over the Yellow River breach with the officials, not to show off, but to tell everyone my experience. You bastard, you think this water is a pond, and your heart will jump when it crosses. With good luck, you will swim across and make great achievements, everyone will do it.
Hero, I was unlucky, I just drank a lot of water and passed away, and the court will not treat our family badly. What do you think you are afraid of?"
Forty-nine people responded in unison: "Don't be afraid!"
"Yes, I'm afraid it's a ball! It's dead! Let's go!" Yao Xiong shouted, stepped forward and tied a sheepskin airbag to his body, then tied it with a long rope, and was the first to get into the water.
"Brothers, see you on the other side!"
"See you on the other side!" Forty-nine people entered the water one after another and soon swam into the middle of the river.
I saw white waves rolling and layer upon layer.
The rushing river is like thousands of unruly wild horses, roaring in the valley, hitting the rocks on the shore from time to time, causing huge waves.
They are so arrogant that they seem to be able to sweep away everything in the world; they are so majestic that they seem to be able to swallow everything in an instant.
The fifty people looked like a bunch of people when they were on the shore, but once they entered the river, only their black heads were left, scattered with a little bit of sesame seeds.
Because the sheepskin bags they were wearing were turned over, the white inner skin resembled rolling waves. From a distance, it seemed as if layers of waves were fueling the waves, surrounding and swallowing up the sesame seeds.
Wang Dagui and Gongsun Zhi stood on the shore, watching fifty people sinking and floating in the waves, looming, sweating like raindrops nervously.
They commanded hundreds of soldiers and clung to the ropes tied to the pioneer warriors.
The rope was looped around the wooden stakes driven deep into the ground, and then held in the hands of the soldiers. They wore soaked cotton gloves, and under the command of the noncommissioned officer at the front, they slowly lowered the rope from time to time.
Sometimes he would hold on and wouldn't let go.
"Hold it, hold it!" the sergeant shouted hysterically.
One of the pioneers was unlucky enough to be swept up in a torrent and rushed downhill. The rope around him was pulled rapidly outward.
"You are a thief! I told you to hold on." The sergeant shouted hoarsely while holding on to the rope desperately.
The rope stretched too fast, and his gloves were worn out. Standing at the front, his hands holding the rope tightly were covered in blood, which was dripping on the shore and then flowed into the Jinsha River.
In fact, the soldiers behind him were all like him, their hands were bleeding, and they were also gritting their teeth and holding on to the rope desperately.
The rope was rolled back and forth by the rapids, like a long whip. The non-commissioned officers and soldiers were like grasshoppers strung on the rope. As they swayed back and forth, they would be pulled into the river at any time.
Suddenly, the sergeant and the soldiers behind him were emptied, and everyone fell back and sat on the ground.
The rope was broken, whether it was cut by stones or cut by the vanguard warriors themselves.
The sergeant sat on the ground, his hands of flesh and blood constantly slapping the ground on both sides, howling loudly.
The ropes of the five people were broken, and their lives were uncertain.
The airbags of the three people were leaking air and water, and when they were pulled back, two of them were already dead.
Eleven people hit the rocks on the shore, two died immediately, three were seriously injured and six were slightly injured.
Yao Xiong led the remaining thirty-eight people and stumbled to the other side. They lay on the slope by the river and waited.
No ambush!
Then six ropes were strung up over the river, forming a six-way ropeway. A wooden box was hung on the ropes with pulleys, and there was a rope on each side. It was piled with items, so you could pull it from the opposite side and pass smoothly.
Sections of steel cables are connected to form a steel cable hundreds of meters long.
Four teacup-thick steel cables spanned both sides of the river and were firmly fixed to the trees and rocks on both sides.
Then there are vertical ropes, which are connected to the upper and lower steel cables on the left and right. Then, thick wooden boards are laid on the buckles of the vertical ropes and laid across the two steel cables at the bottom to form the bridge deck.
In three hours, a cable bridge composed of four steel cables and five feet wide was erected on the Jinsha River. This feat made Li Gongpa and his subordinates stunned, thinking that it was a creation of heaven, and they almost fell to their knees on the ground.
Worship.
Five thousand elite troops were sent over first, firstly to seize the dangerous terrain on the other side and cover the main force crossing the river; secondly, to continue exploring forward and find out the road conditions leading to Jiuyang City.
Then ten thousand more soldiers passed by, then they blindfolded the pack horses and drove them carefully, carrying supplies across the river.
Yang Weizhong left 3,000 men to guard the steel cable bridge. Wang Dagui left a team of engineers to build reinforced concrete piers on both sides, and then transferred the steel cables to the cement piers after they were dry.
The army rushed forward along the mountain road on the right bank of the Jinsha River. It first wiped out all the hundreds of Dali troops guarding the ropeway seventy miles away, and then continued to advance.
Less than fifty miles away from Jiufang City, a spy suddenly reported urgently.
An army was spotted ahead, rushing towards them.
Could it be that the Dali Kingdom had received a tip from Dangdang, or had noticed that Jiazhou and Xuzhou were just attacking in the east and west, and urgently mobilized the main force to set up defenses?
Yang Weizhong and Yao Xiong looked at each other and immediately decided that Yao Xiong would stay and continue to command the troops. Yang Weizhong led a team of elite soldiers and followed the spies to observe the enemy's situation. This chapter has been completed!