Hong Chengchou knew Li Guodong's tactics very well and knew that Li Guodong was good at night attacks, so every fortress, fortifications, and checkpoints were strictly guarded. Sentinels patrol twelve hours a day, secretly arranged secret sentries, lit bonfires at night, plugged in torches to illuminate, and changed the command every two hours. Anyone entering and leaving the camp gate, in addition to checking the waist sign, also interrogating the command. Such strict protection makes it impossible for the opponent to have a chance to successfully attack.

Since you can't attack sneakily, you can only attack hard.

The Qing army near Xiangyang had strong troops, and each checkpoint was stationed at least one thousand Qing troops to build castles to guard the important places. The Huai Army mountain troops did not have heavy artillery and only had a few light mortar cannons in their hands. It was not easy to forcibly break a castle. Moreover, there was a beacon tower above each fortress. Once it could not be captured for a long time, the surrounding Qing reinforcements would arrive.

"Reinforcements? You have it!" Li Guodong came up with a clever plan, "We can surround the points and attack the castle, and focus on eliminating the vitality of Jiannu, and get rid of the current dilemma."

Li Guodong's basic tactic is to eliminate the enemy's vital forces. Although the Qing army in Xiangyang has many soldiers and a wide range of generals, it adopted the strategy of Hong Chengchou's ten-sided blockade and setting up a net on all sides, which required huge troops. As long as several Qing troops were annihilated, Hong Chengchou's troops would appear to be a little insufficient, so that the Huai Army and Zhongzhen Camp would have a chance to find a breakthrough.

At present, in addition to his own 1,000 mountain troops, Li Guodong's troops in northwestern Hubei also have 3,000 people from Luo Hu, Zhongzhen Camp, and more than 4,000 militias in Zhongzhen Camp, and the total force has reached more than 8,000 people.

Li Guodong targeted the target of aggression and aid in Donggua Mountain and Hengling. There was a mountain road leading to the mountain. The Qing army built a brick and wooden bastion here. This bastion was difficult for mountain troops without heavy artillery, but Li Guodong did not expect to conquer this bastion. Instead, he used this bastion as bait to attract enemy reinforcements and led his main force to ambush the Qing army's reinforcements on the road.

"Four thousand militias can go to encircle Jiannu Bucket. The Duke of the country, together with Luo Hu, led 4,000 troops to set up an ambush on the road, and could annihilate Jiannu's unit in one fell swoop." Li Guodong said as he gestured to the map.

Luo Hu asked, "But we can only ambush one side. If Jiannu reinforcements come from the other side, how can the four thousand militia resist the Jiannu attack?"

"No hurry," Li Guodong tapped his finger on the map, "I will send Yebukuo to the militia as a warning. If Jiannu comes from the other side, Yebukuo will warn the militia in advance. The militia retreats, and different Jiannu fight head-on. If Jiannu dares to pursue the mountainous areas, it will be my wish! After our army annihilated a Jiannu reinforcement, we will immediately turn around and eat another Jiannu reinforcement in one bite! Wouldn't that be a complete victory?"

Li Guodong began to make arrangements. In order to strengthen the firepower of the militia, he ordered the creation of a batch of pine wood cannons.

In real history, pine wood cannons have appeared both during the Second Civil Revolutionary War and the Anti-Japanese War. The manufacturing method is very simple. Choose solid pine wood to hollow out the middle, drill out the fire door, and tie the outside tightly with an iron hoop. Of course, the power of this thing cannot be compared with the iron cannon, but it is still possible to load stone bullets to scare people. When dealing with enemy infantry, pine wood cannons can be loaded with shotgun to kill the enemy. However, the performance of this kind of thing is very unreliable and there is also the danger of blowing up the chamber. Under normal circumstances, a pine wood cannon cannot be used after three fires, otherwise it will explode. So, don’t expect this thing to break through the Qing army’s bastion, even if it is a wooden bastion, you can’t break it.

Two days later, eighteen pine cannons were completed. These pine cannons were also equipped with gun mounts and cannon trucks, and were painted black, which looked exactly like real cannons from a distance.

Everything was ready, Li Guodong ordered 4,000 militias to disguise themselves as the Zhongzhen Camp and the Huai Army, and then brought more than 2,000 civilians recruited from the people and moved towards Donggua Mountain. Two days later, 4,000 militias arrived at the ridge of the Qing army located in Donggua Mountain. At the same time, Ye Bucheng, who was sent by Li Guodong to assist the militia, was also scattered, responsible for monitoring the movements of the Qing army, and scattered soldiers assisted the militia in siege. These militias took the banner of Li Guodong to scare the enemy.

The civilians and brave men began to cut down wood, build camps, build simple ladders, crash cars and other siege weapons. In fact, Li Guodong did not expect the militia to break through the bastion, as long as they could restrain the enemy.

"Sir! Sir! Mingdog is here!" The Qing soldiers stationed in the castle reported to their Qianmai.

"What are you afraid of? Minggou doesn't have red cannons in his hands, so how can he break through our army's castle!" Mr. Qian said disdainfully.

The Qing soldier said with a sad face: "Sir, Ming Gou really brought a red cannon!"

President Qian was shocked and hurriedly walked up to the city wall, standing at the distance to look at the Ming army position in front of him. Since the Qing army had not many telescopes on hand, it was impossible for a small officer like President Qian to equip the telescope. He could only observe with his naked eyes. President Qian was frightened to find that behind the Ming army formation, there were actually six large cannons!

"Hurry, send out the beacon signal, just say that the bandits are invading in large numbers. Minggou has brought more than 10,000 people and brought six red cannons to attack the city!" Mr. Qian was anxiously sent to send out the beacon signal.

The militia did not attack the city immediately, but surrounded the Qing army's bastion first. After a whole day of preparation, they rested for another night. The next morning, the Ming army began to attack the bastion.

"Fire the cannon!" Militia captain Liu Wei shouted.

The six pine cannons that had been loaded with gunpowder and projectiles roared, and the muzzle gusts fire. The whistling stone cannonballs flew about 500 steps, hitting the walls of the castle, causing bricks and stones to splash, and the castle shaking. In fact, these pine cannons are scary. Because the performance of the pine cannons is extremely unreliable, only six of the 18 pine cannons brought by the militia were dragged out at a time. After these six cannons were fired three rounds, they would drag them down and replace them with another six cannons. A total of eighteen cannons were fired in one round, and a total of nine rounds were fired, fifty-four shells were fired, which could not shake the Qing army's bastion at all.

To bombard the city walls with the real Red Cannons back then, it would cost at least more than 300 shells. That would be the real Red Cannon, not to mention that this is the much less powerful pine wood cannon. It is estimated that even a thousand shells cannot destroy the castle.

But the Qing army general stationed in the basin did not know this. When he saw his opponent's "Red Barbarian Cannon" fire and bombarded the city wall, he was already scared, so he repeatedly urged the soldiers to continue to send beacon signals and request assistance.

The nearby Qing army was indeed fooled. When they saw the beacon signal from Dongguashan Castle, they thought that a main force of the Ming army carrying cannons was attacking Dongguashan Castle, so the beacon signal was sent to Xiangyang City through relay.

"There are red cannons? Isn't Li Lao Er light-equipped troops? He can actually summon more than 10,000 people, and red cannons! This must be Li Lao Er and the thieves joining forces to attack our Qing Dynasty castle!" Hong Chengchou judged.

"Sir Jinglei, what should we do now?" asked a Goshha.

Hong Chengchou sneered: "Since Li Lao Er brought this little man and was in a hurry to come and die, then we will fulfill his wish!"

Next, Hong Chengchou began to dispatch troops and generals. He ordered the Qing army in Xiangyang and other places to mobilize, gathered about 30,000 troops, and divided the troops into three groups to support the Qing army in Dongguashan Castle. The Qing army in the middle was led by Hong Chengchou himself, with more than 14,000 troops; the Qing army on the left was more than 6,000; the Qing army on the right was more than 10,000.

The Qing army's movements did not hide Li Guodong's scores from spies everywhere. Through the methods of sending letters from Fei Ge, the Qing army's intelligence was continuously delivered to Li Guodong.
Chapter completed!