Taijian four years, the fifth day of December, the sky is sunny after the snow!

The outside of Xuyi County is white, the sun shines on the snow, it is particularly dazzling, and although the sun is shining, the north wind is still howling, and the cold wind blows on people's faces, like a knife cut, which makes people feel painful!

But at this time, outside the city of Xuyi County, the five thousand soldiers of the Forward Brigade were wearing slim and mighty paper armor, neat and orderly, with their heads held high, standing motionless on the snow like a benchmark, letting the cold wind blow over them!

And Xiao Yao was also wearing the same paper armor, riding a high-headed horse, facing this forward brigade that could be both familiar and unfamiliar to him, and was carefully observing everyone in the team with sharp eyes!

The five thousand men and horses of the forward brigade stood motionless on the snow for an hour without making a sound, and Xiao Yao finally spoke: "Very good!" The military posture is good, it seems that Huang Wenyuan and they usually let you stand in the military posture! ”

And the five thousand soldiers still didn't make any sound, still looking at Xiao Yao with burning eyes!

"My name is Xiao Yao, known as Xiao Shilang, I am the commander of the forward brigade and your commander! Some of you have fought bloody battles with me, and have been born and died together! There are also people who have seen me for the first time and have only heard my name before! But from this moment on, you will officially become the soldiers of the Forward Brigade and my Xiao Yao's soldiers! Xiao Yao shouted loudly.

"Yes, Commander!" A shocking answer rang out in the empty snow!

"The Forward Brigade is an elite unit created by me Xiao Yao, and its predecessor is my infantry battalion, a force of only 1,000 people, but this unit of only 1,000 people is the first unit to cross the Yangtze River in the Northern Expedition of Chen Guo! And it was on the ground where you are standing now, with a force of 1,000 people, that you surrounded and broke through Xuyi County, which was garrisoned by 30,000 Qi troops at that time, and since then the infantry battalion has become famous in a battle and has become a force that terrifies the Qi army! Half of you are newcomers who have not fought alongside us, but half of you are veterans who have been with me through all this glory and have also experienced fiasco! Xiao Yao paused, looked at the group of soldiers with serious expressions and said.

"Yes, we lost! In the first battle after the transformation of the infantry battalion into the forward brigade, we were defeated, and it was a crushing defeat at the hands of Gao Changgong! Of the 5,000 soldiers, only less than 2,000 broke out of the encirclement and survived! Even I was chased and killed by tens of thousands of Qi troops all the way, and I fled for more than half a year before returning to the country of Chen! It's a shame! But we must not forget this shame! Because we have more than 3,000 brothers, we chose to sacrifice ourselves so that we could survive! Of the three thousand soldiers, none of them became prisoners of the Qi army, all of them were sacrificed, and before they died, they also pulled a few Qi soldiers as backs! For the sake of victory, for the sake of comrades, not afraid of death, this is the spirit of the forward brigade! So we must always remember them, inherit their will, and avenge them! Xiao Yao shouted excitedly.

"Revenge! Avenge! "Five thousand soldiers let out a hoarse roar in unison!

"So, today we are here in Xuyi County to hold the first pledge meeting after the rebuilding of our Forward Brigade, last year we fought here to make a name for themselves, and this year we will also start again here to regain the glory of our Forward Brigade before! The Striker Brigade will win! Xiao Yao raised his arms and shouted.

"The Forward Brigade will win! The Striker Brigade will win! ”

。。。。。。

After the forward brigade swore in Xuyi County, it did not immediately cross the Huai River, rushed to Huaibei, and reinforced Renzhou, but stayed here for ten days, where Xiao Yao let the soldiers of the forward brigade first familiarize themselves with the four bulky bronze Napoleon guns, as well as the two hand-cranked Gatling machine guns!

After all, these new weapons are still relatively unfamiliar to the soldiers of the forward battalion, so they must be familiar with various operations before the big war. And most of the forward brigade is recruits, although they have received some of Huang Wenyuan's regular training, but for musket shooting, artillery shooting, it still takes a lot of practice to practice makes perfect, and give full play to the power of thermal weapons!

Fortunately, during the Battle of Linying, Xiao Yao never abandoned the forward brigade, even after sacrificing more than half of the soldiers, he still led them to break through, and finally even risked his life, personally leading away the pursuers of Gao Changgong, so that those surviving soldiers could break out of the encirclement alive and escape back to Shouyang!

And now the forward brigade rebuilt by Huang Wenyuan is based on these less than 2,000 veterans, and then formed in the form of veterans and recruits, so when they are now being trained in shooting, with the guidance of these veterans, plus they have learned the basic points before, the shooting ability of those recruits is rapidly improving!

And in the past ten days, Xiao Yao also deliberately took the appearance of a leader to inspect a place called Laogai Town built next to Xuyi County!

Last year, Xiao Yao broke through Xuyi County and captured a large number of Qi troops, in addition to letting go of those old, weak, sick and disabled soldiers, and picking out those foreign soldiers, there was only a group of nearly 10,000 elite Han soldiers left.

And Xiao Yao agreed with them that as long as they worked in Xuyi County for three years, then they could not only settle here in Xuyi County, but also get a piece of land!

In the era of war, human life is the most vulnerable, so under such attractive conditions as Xiao Yao, these Han prisoners of war have agreed to stay in Xuyi County, and exchange the price of free labor for three years in exchange for a stable life in the future!

Moreover, Xiao Yao also cooperated with the General Commercial Bank on the condition that the big landlords and big businessmen in Xuyi County would pay and help these Han prisoners of war to settle down here, after all, there were nearly 10,000 free laborers for their own use, and of course those landlords and tyrants expressed their support!

So, after more than a year of development, this labor reform town, which developed from a settlement of Han prisoners of war, appeared!

In addition, the people of the general trading house are also in strict accordance with Xiao Yao's requirements, not only to provide these Han prisoners of war with various help in life and production, but also to carry out ideological transformation for them, regularly send people to give them lectures, and promote Xiao Yao's set of Xiao Yao's ideological teachings, so that these prisoners of war are extremely grateful to Xiao Yao for not only surviving now, but also having food to eat, and a more hopeful life in the future!

Therefore, these nearly 10,000 Qi prisoners of war really settled down here in Xuyi County, without any gathering of people to make trouble, nor any conspiracy to resist, they have been honestly reclaiming wasteland, farming in the field, and guarding themselves very peacefully, which made those Xuyi County officials who were soldiers who took up arms at the beginning were very surprised!

And because the general trading house adopts the method of group management of these prisoners of war, plus there are many incentives, so that these prisoners of war can be more at ease to carry out labor reform!

For example, the group with the highest production efficiency can reward a certain number of places, so that they can bring their families who are still in Qi Country to Xuyi County to live together; You can even allow some particularly obedient prisoners of war and local women in Xuyi County to become their own children!

So under these series of measures, this labor reform town is getting bigger and bigger, Xiao Yao after inspecting, decided to expand this labor reform town to other places, and promised them, only they can be obedient, concentrate on labor reform, and then they can live a life here 10,000 times better than in Qi State, and they are about to attack Huaibei, and then they will lay a large amount of land, which requires a large number of people to cultivate, and these prisoners of war are the first choice!

This made these Han prisoners of war even more ecstatic, not only kneeling on the ground to pray that Xiao Yao would be victorious, but even said that after the end of the three-year labor reform, they hoped to join Xiao Yao's army and go to the battle for Xiao Yao!

So, after ten days of short rest and training, Xiao Yao led the 5,000 soldiers of the forward brigade to set out again, crossed Huaibei, and came to Renzhou!