Ming Dynasty: The Crocodile King of Han Prince Zhu Gaoxu's Family

Chapter 142 The Battle of Three Gorges Pass

On the other side, brothers Zhu Zhanhe and Zhu Zhanji led the vanguard camp and arrived at the entrance of the Three Gorges.

After arriving at the mouth of the Three Gorges, the brothers Zhu Zhanhe and Zhu Zhanji ordered their soldiers to form a battle formation and placed the firearms battalion directly at the top.

This time, the Firearms Battalion's artillery had enough ammunition. Zhu Zhanhe even requested twice as much, just to increase their chances of victory, just in case!

As the Ming army's attack formation was set up, all the artillery muzzles were suddenly empty, facing the mountain cliffs on both sides of the Three Gorges. Moreover, the firearms were loaded with ammunition, waiting for Zhu Zhanhe's order to fire directly!
All preparations for the attack were ready. Zhu Zhanhe looked intently towards the Three Gorges Pass. He saw that the entire Three Gorges Pass was a continuous mountain range, like jagged protrusions, and the only entrance and exit was the extremely narrow passage in front of him.

It can be said that the location of the Three Gorges Pass is a natural barrier that is easy to defend but difficult to attack, and the enemy is in a dominant position. Zhu Zhanhe knows that this battle will definitely not be easy!

Moreover, Zhu Zhanhe was very sure that if there were indeed enemies at the Three Gorges, they would be able to see every move of the Ming army clearly!
"Take a test shot!" Zhu Zhanhe suddenly said to Zhu Zhanji beside him.

"Huh? Why?" Zhu Zhanji was originally planning to bombard the area with artillery fire. After hearing what his brother said, he asked with some confusion.

"We need to determine their approximate location!
Now we will determine their approximate location through large-scale test firing!

The flock of birds will tell us the approximate location of the Tartars!" Zhu Zhanhe wanted to use this method to roughly determine the location of the grassland tribe's ambush so that he could cover it with artillery fire!
"Okay!" Zhu Zhanji understood immediately after hearing this and agreed immediately.

"Herald! Based on the Three Gorges entrance, conduct test firing at positions on both sides in turn!" Seeing that Zhu Zhanji agreed, Zhu Zhanhe did not hesitate and directly gave orders to the messenger.

"Yes, sir!" The messenger looked at the crown prince hesitantly, and seeing that the crown prince had no objection, he immediately agreed.

"Gunners, prepare. With the Three Gorges Pass as the reference point, fire a round of test shots at the mountains on both sides in turn!" The messenger was also a veteran of many battles. He naturally understood the logic behind this and immediately turned around to begin preparations.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!" As the drum command sounded, it was followed by deafening artillery fire.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!..." The iron bullets, fueled by gunpowder, turned red and flew towards the mountains at the mouth of the Three Gorges one by one.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!..." With the naked eye, dull groans could be seen coming from the Three Gorges Estuary in the distance, followed by thick smoke and dust rising.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!..." A round of artillery fire ended quickly, and Zhu Zhanhe's eyes became sharp, because with the Three Gorges Pass as the center, on the mountains on both sides, birds were frightened and flew away at a distance of thousands of meters!
"Trouble! There are probably no fewer than 50,000 Tartars on the grassland!

I'm afraid the main force of the entire grassland coalition is stationed here!" Zhu Zhanhe sighed and said as he looked at the smoke rising from the Three Gorges in the distance.

"You can go back. You don't have to die with me!" Suddenly, Zhu Zhanji beside him spoke and said to Zhu Zhanhe who was sighing behind him.

"Since you're here, let's have some fun with them!" Zhu Zhanhe didn't care what Zhu Zhanji was thinking at the moment. He probably guessed that the crown prince had also analyzed some of Emperor Yongle's thoughts through the recent situation, so he said this.

"What do you think?" Zhu Zhanji suddenly asked Zhu Zhanhe when he saw that he was not leaving. There were too many enemies, and the Ming army had little chance of winning! This made Zhu Zhanji a little confused.

“I can only fight hard!

Messenger, with the Three Gorges Pass as the center, use artillery fire to destroy the mountains on both sides of the Three Gorges Pass!
Raise the muzzle and shoot towards the mountain!
There are only two rounds of ammunition left! One round will be used when we charge towards the Three Gorges, one round will be a reserve, and the rest will be used to clean up the ground! "Zhu Zhanhe has plenty of gunpowder and ammunition. He will never directly confront the grassland aliens before the gunpowder is used up!

If you are poor, you can use force to penetrate, if you are rich, you can use firepower to cover! Now, what Zhu Zhanhe needs to do is to cover with firepower! Use artillery fire to reduce the enemy's manpower as much as possible!
"Understood!" The messenger agreed without hesitation this time. As a general, he knew clearly how powerful firepower was! He also knew that this was the best way to reduce their own casualties! "Firearms Battalion!

Centered on the peaks on both sides of the Three Gorges!
Keep two rounds of ammunition, and fire all the rest!" The messenger turned around and gave the order directly to the firearms battalion.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!..." The drum sounded again.

"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!..." The deafening sound of artillery fire continued and echoed through the sky. The artillery fire roared for nearly an hour!
After the cannon fire stopped, there was only smoke and dust at the Three Gorges Pass in the distance, but no grassland people rushed out.

"What a pity!" Zhu Zhanji said somewhat disappointedly.

“It’s not a pity, under such intensive artillery fire, their casualties must be heavy!
Next, you have to take care of yourself, I can't take care of you!" Zhu Zhanhe closed his mask, responded to Zhu Zhanji's question, checked the weapons and equipment on the horse again, and said to Zhu Zhanji.

"No, just take care of yourself!
Are you still wearing an eye patch?" Zhu Zhanji turned his head and keenly noticed that Zhu Zhanhe had been abnormal recently. He actually wore an eye patch every day.

"You will know about this later," Zhu Zhanhe responded to Zhu Zhanji, then turned to look at the messenger.

"Vanguard officer, take good care of the Crown Prince!" Zhu Zhanhe said to the vanguard officer of the vanguard camp through the mask.

"Yes!" The vanguard officer was stunned and agreed without hesitation.

On the other side, Emperor Yongle had also assembled a large army and was ready to provide support in the rear at any time.

"How much ammunition did these two bastards steal from me?" Emperor Yongle heard the shelling finally stop. He turned his head and looked at Prince Han sharply, saying with a painful look on his face.

"Dad, they are about to start!" Prince Han also noticed the sharp gaze of Emperor Yongle, lowered his head guiltily, and reminded carefully.

At this moment, Prince Han was scolding his son inwardly: "The Emperor sent the young man from the old family to be the vanguard, why are you joining in the fun? Isn't it just right that he's dead? I, your father, will be the crown prince, and you will be the grandson! Look at your grandfather, he wants to beat me to death right now! And if your mother finds out about this, she'll scold me to death!" ...

Just as Prince Han continued to complain about his own son Zhu Zhanhe, Zhu Zhanhe and others in the vanguard camp at the front were ready to charge!

"Gee!" Without any charge order or pre-war mobilization speech, Zhu Zhanji rushed out on his horse with the spear in his hand.

"Kill!" Seeing his cheap brother charging forward without any warning, Zhu Zhanhe immediately roared loudly and ordered everyone to follow Zhu Zhanji and charge forward.

Suddenly, in the air still filled with the smell of gunpowder, the Ming army, led by the two brothers Zhu Zhanji and Zhu Zhanhe, launched a charge towards the Three Gorges Pass!

"Boom! Boom! Boom!..." As the charge began, the firearms battalion launched the final round of artillery fire in an effort to suppress the momentum of the grassland tribes' charge!

For some reason, every time Zhu Zhanhe rode his horse to charge into battle like this, he always felt that everything around him seemed to be in slow motion.

The heavy breathing of the horse, the thud of the horse's hooves hitting the ground, the sound of the wind passing through the blade, and everything else seemed to be displayed in front of Zhu Zhanhe one by one!

(End of this chapter)