Chapter 89 second quarter

After describing the terrain of the Zachang Gorge in detail, the Gasa Lama told Colonel Galan that the Tibetans will definitely set up an ambush here to intercept them. According to the strength of the Crusaders, we should defeat the interception within two days and pass through the Zachang Gorge. The Tibetans held on until the third day, and that was the defeat of the British. Colonel Galan said, "No, I'm going through Zachang Gorge on the first day." Gasa Lama said, "The first day? Ah, Colonel, that's impossible." Colonel Galan grinned and said, "Then just wait and see."

In the early morning, before the sun came out, the Crusaders began to march. The Zachang Gorge was about three kilometers away, and they walked in for more than one kilometer, and there was no sign of blocking it.Colonel Galan was a little anxious and kept sending people to the front to inquire.Of course, what he was worried about was not whether there was interception, but how the Tibetans intercepted it.He sent forward troops equipped with ten Magqin machine guns, and ordered them to advance only and not to retreat.Then there is the mountain field artillery unit, ready to bombard at any time.Still feeling unsafe, they sent troops on both wings to search and advance, keeping a close watch on the hatchbacks, and occupied all the high grounds that could be occupied.

But Colonel Galan did not expect that on the cliffs on both sides, those seemingly straight trees would suddenly fall one after another, and be thrown down by the Tibetans with the sound of wind and fire.The trees were greased with ghee, and when they touched the ground, they burst into flames, and when they fell to the ground, they ignited the shrubs and wheatgrass at the bottom of the canyon.Only then did I realize that the wheat straw all over the ground was not abandoned by the Tibetans when they fled, but left on purpose to help the fire.Inside the Zachang Gorge, there was a burst of fire.To make matters worse, in front of the team, the thrown fire trees formed a fire dam, unable to break through, and when they turned to retreat, there was also a fire dam behind them.Crusaders can't advance forward, can't retreat behind, and there are burning trees falling down, so they can only find deep streams and rapids to put out the fire and save themselves.Although not many were burned to death, burns abound.It was already afternoon when the fire gradually subsided and all the Crusaders retreated from the bottom of the gorge.

The Crusaders began shelling the hatchbacks of the canyon, and then charged again.It still didn't work. Although the fires lit by the Tibetans were not as violent as before, the fire dam at the bottom of the gorge rose even higher. People couldn't enter, horses couldn't walk, and cannons couldn't go.Colonel Galan ordered the artillery to blast the fire dam with shells.But as long as people rush over, the fire dam will join the dragon again immediately.The colonel didn't seem to care about the ineffectiveness of the charge, he kept exploding and charging, and let the fire dam continue to close.After repeating it seven or eight times, the fire trees thrown down by the Tibetans gradually became rare.After all, the forests on the mountains on both sides of the canyon are limited, and they are bare at first sight.

Colonel Galan ordered the troops to stop the attack and eat and rest. It was getting dark.Colonel Galan personally led the vanguard and Gasa Lama into the bottom of the canyon.He thought the day was coming to an end, and he had to fulfill his promise: to cross the Zachang Gorge on the first day of the offensive.But not long after advancing, I heard a burst of shouts on the cliffs on both sides. It was sporadic at first, and soon spread, becoming the roar of the wind and mountains in the entire Zachang Gorge.The torches appeared, at first there was only one, and gradually there were more, and in a blink of an eye, there were countless lights, and the sea was endless.Colonel Ge Lan stopped to watch, wondering: There are more than tens of thousands of torches, so there are really so many Tibetans gathered in Zachang Gorge?The subordinates were also unwilling to attack overnight, and looked at Colonel Galan timidly.

Colonel Galan said to the Gasa Lama: "You are right. The Battle of Qumei Xianguo did not teach the Tibetans a lesson. They still want to resist. It seems that we can only pass through the Zachang Gorge tomorrow." Lama Gasa said: "Colonel, if we can pass tomorrow, we should celebrate it. This is a rarer victory than the battle of Qumei Xianguo. Because in Qumei Xianguo, our opponent is the weak and incompetent Tibetans. your faction, and in Zachang Gorge, your old opponent reappeared." Colonel Ge Lan said: "You mean the Lama Lama? I knew from the time he attacked the Night Crying Spring that he began to command the resistance of the Tibetans again. But no matter how wise he is, we can only win, because After all, this is not a contest between me and Lama, or even a contest between British and Tibetans. It is a contest between God and Buddha, Christ and Bodhisattva. Do you know why Christ will win? Because we have the weapon of repentance. Christ Chinese believers are not afraid of killing people. As long as we repent, God will forgive us and it will not affect our entry into the kingdom of heaven. We can kill people during the day, repent at night, and repeat it all the time. So our belief is the belief of the strong. Buddhists are It's different. If they kill someone, they will always bear the burden of sin. If they repent or not, they can only go to hell. In order to avoid going to hell, they will never dare to kill with righteousness like us. So their belief is for the weak Faith. War is like this, it has always been the victory of the strong against the weak. Gasa Lama, you have to think about it, do you want to be a strong man or continue to be a weak man? You have killed someone, if you If you can't change your beliefs, you can only go to hell."

Lama Gasa lowered his head with a look of sadness on his face. The next day's attack still started in the early morning.Colonel Gelan personally led the forward troops to the place where they were frustrated yesterday before the sun filled the canyon. He was about to order the soldiers to pass through the scorched wood all over the ground when he heard a gunshot above his head, followed by an earth-shattering boom.The stone came down.The cliffs on both sides are very steep. When the rolling stones bounced up and down, they whistled through the airflow, bringing out black winds.It seemed to be more powerful than yesterday's tree of fire. Large and small stones carried the hatred of Tibetans, and went straight to the crowd as if they had eyes. Even Colonel Galan himself almost died.The colonel was surprised that a stone as big as a house would be rolled down by the Tibetans.When they ran to a safe place and counted the number of people, they found that more than one third of the forward troops had been killed or injured.

Colonel Galan called Gasa Lama over and shouted: "You said that there can't be a large number of rolling stones in Zachang Gorge. Could it be that these stones fell from the sky?" Lama Gasa said, "Yes, the rocks here grow on the mountains, how could they be moved down? Lama Xijia is too strong." Colonel Gelan said: "Don't mention Lama Lama to me. I know what you mean and want me to kill him. Tell you, I once let him go because God needs to sleep. Now, God wakes up, just From today onwards, he will never sleep again. Captain McGory, come to me, I want to hand over the forward troops to you. I will personally command the artillery to fire, even to bomb inch by inch, and blow them out of Zachang gorge."

The attack that came down was basically the artillery opening the way, and the striker followed.Starting from the place where the rolling stones fell just now, Colonel Galan let the shells frequently fall on the hills and slopes on both sides.Immediately after the shelling, the forward troops climbed up and inserted a cross made of wooden nails to indicate that they had occupied it.In this way, move forward, bombard for a while, and occupy a place.The Crusaders moved forward slowly.It is no longer possible for the rolling stones of the Tibetans to roll on people. They all rolled to the bottom of the canyon before the shells came.There are stone barriers everywhere at the bottom of the canyon.Although no one was smashed to death, it also caused a lot of trouble for the march.The Crusaders had to remove these stones before the cannons pushed by the Marathi could be moved forward.

In the afternoon, Colonel Galan drove into the intersection of the West Road and the North Road in the middle of the canyon.He called Lama Gasa again and asked, "Which of these two roads should we take?" Gasa Lama said: "Both roads can go out of Zachang Gorge and lead to Gyantse. But there is Xuelang Temple at the end of the west road. I have already said that we must occupy Xuelang Temple and destroy this Edanbaze. Lin is the temple of the highest Dharma protector, otherwise even if we cross the Zachang Gorge, we will not be able to reach Gyantse. Danba Zelin will bring us into a catastrophe."

Colonel Galan sneered: "What catastrophe?" Lama Gasa shook his head, with a mysterious and gloomy look: "I can't say." But Colonel Galan found with his binoculars that the mountains on both sides of the West Road were so quiet that no birds flew or clouds moved, and there was no one. However, the bottom of the canyon and the mountains on the North Road were full of Tibetans.He was surprised: Tibetans seem to stick to the North Road, why?Don't they think Xuelang Temple is not important?Or, this is a trick of suspicious soldiers. There are heavy soldiers ambushing on the west road, so they deliberately bluffed on the north road to confuse us?Another thought: No matter whether the Lama Lama is sticking to the North Road or is suspicious of the army, I should aim to eliminate the vitality of the Tibetans.If not, even if we walk out of the Zachang Gorge, we will still face the enemy.What's more, the West Road is so quiet that it is meaningless to push the cannon there. He went over to discuss with Captain McGory: "Where I can see the Tibetans is where my cannons go. I can't give up the North Road. As for the West Road, I want to leave it to you, General, no, Captain. I want you to lead a A fast troop sneaks in. If you encounter obstacles and need reinforcements, send a signal flare to me while shooting. If there are only gunshots and no signal flares, I think you don't need reinforcements. Your goal is to occupy the snow at the end of the West Road Lang Temple. The fire that burned the temple is the signal of your triumphant arrival." Captain McGory said happily: "Colonel, I am a person who has a relationship with the monastery, and I am willing to obey such orders." At the same time as the cannon blasted the Tibetan North Road position, Captain McGory led the fast troops to the West Road Canyon. Although Lama Lama didn't have binoculars, he was still aware of Colonel Galan's intention to attack from both directions at the same time.White eagles and blood pheasants suddenly flew up from the mountains on both sides of the west road.He was not surprised at all. The reason why he did not deploy troops on the west road was to attract the cannon to the north road.With no cannons on the west road, the threat of foreign demons has been reduced by more than half.No matter how many foreign demons go to the West Road, blocking and chasing are the same. The foreign demons are at the bottom of the canyon, and the Tibetans are on the mountains.Xijia called Numa Daiben and Ouzhu Daiben to him and said, "Now, you are needed. You don't have to protect me. I am not important now. You don't care about life or death. I will allocate another 300 monk soldiers to you." , you chase from the north mountain on the west road, drag the foreign demons, and don't let them get close to Xuelang Temple. Xuelang Temple is the most important, and you are the only ones who guard Xuelang Temple, so don't be careless. Zachangxia North Road After the three-day interception is completed, I will walk out of the canyon and go to Xuelang Temple to meet you." Ouzhu Daiben said: "Grand Lama, you are still very important. If there are no lamas, what do monasteries do? Since ancient times, there are lamas first and then monasteries." Numa Daiben immediately retorted: "No, it should be that there are monasteries first and then there are lamas." Ou Zhudai was not convinced, and asked, "What do you think, great Lama?" Lama Lama's mind is now on things other than war, so he can't answer it for a while. Guo Mu, who has been following her husband closely, said: "What the lama has with the monastery is important." La Liga said: "Yes, it's all important. Let's go." Numa Daiben and Ouzhu Daiben took orders.Lama Xijia went to the position of Chuchendai's regiment, and ordered Chuchendai to immediately walk out of the canyon from the north road, go around and enter the west intersection, intercept the foreign demons head-on, and defend Xuelang Temple.He felt that this not only put pressure on Numa and Ouzhu, making them not dare to spare their lives, but also added an insurance to make Xuelang Temple foolproof. The cruelest thing is the North Road.All the cannons and the main force of the Crusaders are here, but the Tibetans only have three incomplete regiments of monk soldiers, which add up to more than a thousand people.At this time Lama Lama missed Tuo Tuo Lama.The war in Tibet can persist until today, thanks to those Tuo Tuo Wan died.If all the monks and soldiers in front of him were the desperate Totuo, their fighting power would increase several times.He looked at the mountains on both sides again. There were no stones, no trees, and the accumulation of dust symbolized hopelessness. The strategy and tactics deployed ingeniously based on the terrain were meaningless, and they could only rely on the resistance of people and arquebus. He asked the monks to keep a distance and choose a good path between withdrawing from the position and returning to the position.Then he pissed, wiped dirt and mud on his face seriously, and said loudly: "I am the last Lama Dotuo in Tibet. I don't want to live today. Before I die, I must rush up and kill ten people. Foreign demons. After I die, your matchlock guns will avenge me." He boosted his morale like this, and ushered in the first shelling of the Crusaders. The monks retreated quickly, and when the shelling was over and returned to the position, there were already elite cross soldiers rushing forward at the front of the position.Almost all the monks and soldiers only had time to fire a shot, then threw away their matchlock guns, drew out their waist knives, and started hand-to-hand combat. "Holy History" described this hand-to-hand combat in only eight words: blood flowed all over the slope, and corpses lay across the field.The records of the death toll allow us to imagine the extremely tragic scene: more than 400 Tibetans died, and more than 100 Crusaders died.On the one hand, the monk soldiers are generally shorter than the cross elite soldiers, mainly British, and their strength is not as strong as the opponent; second, the monk soldiers are not even as good as the cross elite soldiers. Tools, unlike the opponent's military stabs and sabers, are specially used to kill people; when three or three hand-to-hand combats occurred, many Crusaders chose to flee quickly, and then turned around and used rifles to shoot at close range. The ashes of Zachang Gorge are dry and soft, and the blood seeps more or less, which is integrated with the color of the cassock, and competes with the burning sunset for beauty.A thick smell of slaughterhouse rose from the sky above the position, mixing in the gradually dimming sky.In the pool of blood lay the corpses of Daiben Midor and Ta Qing. However, after all, the Crusaders were repelled, and repelling was victory.Lama Xijia was covered with wounds all over his face and body. He walked up and down inspecting the monks and soldiers who were all wounded, and kept saying, "It's getting dark, and this day is going to pass. Once it gets dark, the shells and bullets will be gone." They're all blind. We've been on guard for another day." Yes, it's getting dark.Colonel Galan had to stop the attack. He shook his head helplessly, and said to Gasa Lama: "You still know the Tibetans better than I do. They have persisted for two days, and we have failed. God did not give us a chance to celebrate the victory, but gave us the Tibetans to pay more. Time at a high price. Time belongs to us. Let Lama Lama resist. I will let them die as much as I want. I will not spare the shells. After tomorrow, there will be no more one in Zachang Gorge. Tibetans." Lama Gasa knew that this was the determination of an exasperated person, and encouraged him: "Although they can hold on until the third day, there will be no future after the third day. Colonel, you want them to get out of the way on the first day. You kindly want them to have a future. But, ah, Tibetans, so stupid." Colonel Gelan said: "It seems that you are not a Tibetan anymore? Tell me Lama, do you still believe in Buddhism?" Lama Gasa shook his head, even he himself didn't know what he wanted to express - whether he didn't believe it or didn't believe it.