The north road is full of losses and twists and turns, while the south road is like a bamboo, all the way forward.

Mai Ke handed over the specific command to the six divisions to be responsible, stood in the overall situation, and took care of the two directions of the march. Recently, his energy has been more focused on solving the troubles of Rongshi.

Now, the matter of Rongshi has been satisfactorily resolved, not only has this strategically located city been incorporated into the scope of the expeditionary force, but also sent elite soldiers and strong generals to participate in the subsequent expedition.

Another powerful family was attached to Mai Ke's chariot.

After everything was normal on the northern front, Mai Ke turned his attention to the southern line again, and he walked towards the command post of the sixth line.

In order not to interfere with each other, Mai Ke has always been separated from Liu.

When I came to the office tent of Liuhua, I found that the owner was not inside. Mai Ke was a frequent visitor here, so the soldiers standing guard at the gate did not stop him and let him in.

This office is also a temporary operational command room. The most special thing is that there is a sand table, which is still Gu Jizhi's work. The cities marked on it were all placed there according to Mai Ke's instructions, because he had not visited the site.

All the cities that had already been captured by the expeditionary force were planted with red flags.

Next to the sand table is a battle log, which records the cities captured by the Southern Expedition along the way, as well as where encounters, ambushes, and so on were recorded in chronological order.

The sand table and the records in the battle log complement each other, and the first city to be captured was Da Nang, a large port city that occupies a very important strategic position in Annam, known as the second largest port. It is only slightly smaller than the destination of the trip, Jiading, which is the largest port in Annam.

This port is also of great political significance because of its close proximity to Phu Chun, the capital of Annam, because foreign missions need to land from here to meet the emperor.

This naturally leads to the development of commerce, which is the most important port for landing in the central part of Annam, and even the only way for the central and northern parts of the old vortex to go to sea.

Because of its importance, it aroused the prying eyes of the great powers and exerted all kinds of pressure on the court of Annam. Efforts were made to use Da Nang as a treaty port. The Annam court pursued the same policy as the Qing dynasty in this regard. As a last resort, he resolutely refused the demands of the great powers.

As a result, Da Nang has always been heavily guarded, and the number of garrisons has increased in the past two years. It all the way up to 10,000.

Such a number of elite soldiers guarded. And the geographical conditions helped. If you attack hard, even if you capture the city, you will cause some casualties. Even greater casualties are possible.

Luckily, Nguyen Shih Hung came along.

Regardless of his personal safety, he entered Da Nang alone, met with the commander of the garrison and received the commander, and after a night of arduous negotiations, all the defenders were surrendered and accepted the reorganization of the expeditionary force.

Others don't know the process of negotiation, but Mai Ke knows it clearly. Because Nguyen Shixiong has already established a heart with him, he can see all the details of the negotiation with a single move.

Speaking of negotiations, it was thrilling, ups and downs, thrilling!

At the most dangerous time, the garrison commander's guards had already rushed out, tied up Nguyen Shixiong tightly, and pulled out of the army to kill!

Even in this case, Ruan Shixiong did not change his face and handled it calmly.

It wasn't until near dawn that the commander of the garrison relented, knowing that the overall situation had been decided, and even if he won here, it would be useless, so he finally made the decision to surrender the whole army.

This is the best ending for the expeditionary force.

After the defenders surrendered, Mai Ke, Liuhua, and Ruan Shixiong decided to reorganize the original Hong Kong garrison. The reorganization method is that the grass-roots soldiers remain unchanged, and all middle-level and high-level officers implement the three-three system.

That is, one-third of the officers were retained, one-third were exchanged with Nguyen Shih-hung's Imperial Forest Army, and the last one-third were replaced by officers of the teaching regiment brought by Mai Ke.

One third of the officers who have been replaced participate in a reserve regiment under the guidance of the training regiment, where they receive dual training in the training regiment and the military pastoral regiment to prepare officers for the reorganization of the new units in the future.

After occupying Da Nang, Mai Ke also breathed a sigh of relief, at least from the sea route, the national capital of Phu Chun, which had been surrendered, was safe.

A new problem also arose after the occupation of Da Nang, that is, there was a serious shortage of military pastoral and teaching regiments. Because at the beginning, the military pastoral and teaching regiments were matched to the reorganized troops. In the reorganization of the Da Nang army, the training regiment was barely sufficient, and the military pastoral regiment was already exhausted.

Therefore, Mai Ke sent an urgent message to Zhang Yuan and Gavin, asking them to quickly organize another teaching group and a military pastoral group to support the expeditionary force.

And Perfume County, halfway between Phu Xuan and Da Nang, is a small city, and as soon as the army passes, especially when the former chief of the former who was powerful is also in the army, he immediately surrenders.

For this kind of magistrate who does not have a great enterprising spirit and does not have the courage to do big bad things, as long as he does not resist, Mai Ke will let them keep their original official positions and be a parent official who keeps their integrity.

Then the two coastal cities of Hoi An and Quang Yi below were also intimidated by the rise of the expeditionary force, and they were subdued without much difficulty.

Among them, there were more generalized armies, more than 3,000 people, all of whom were elite. However, it just so happened that the leading general happened to be a side branch surnamed Ruan, and when it came to it, he had to call Ruan Shixiong uncle.

Therefore, as soon as Ruan Zhixiong appeared, the general hurriedly came out to meet him, and after understanding the situation, he happily made a big deal in the broad sense.

Then, 1,000 people were left to continue to guard the harbor, and the remaining 2,000 people were all taken out by him and returned to Nguyen Shixiong.

After capturing the two seaport cities of Quy Nhon and Nha Trang, the army reached Phan Thiet, where Mai Ke met the pirate fleet commanded by Wen Fu.

At this time, Phan Thiet was basically a remote fishing port, with only a few fishermen scattered on the beach. Since it is more than 100 kilometers away from Jiaqing, residents of Jiaqing City rarely come here.

It was such a remote area that was selected by the Six Zones as a base for attacking Jiaqing.

The Bun Thiet fleet also came here, and although it was a desolate fishing port, it could moor large warships, and such a deep-water harbor was naturally formed, so Phan Thiet was actually an unused natural harbor.

When preparing the battle plan, Mai Ke had already realized the great strategic significance here. So he worked out the whole plan with the six strokes.

This plan included the establishment of a base in Phan Thiet, then a surprise attack on Vung Tau, a complete blockade of the Haikou in and out of Jiading, and the last step to catch turtles in the urn, no matter who it was, and all those who opposed the expeditionary force were wiped out.

Now that the army and navy divisions have gathered in Phan Thiet, they are ready to go straight to Jiaqing by land tomorrow and go straight to Touton by water.

The battle to capture the largest city in Annam is on the verge of breaking out!(To be continued......