"Your Majesty, the first echelon has landed on the island!"

"Okay, the second echelon can go!" This more than an hour is really like a year for Zhao Yu, and he can finally breathe a sigh of relief when he learns that the first echelon has landed on the island safely.

However, there is still a boulder hanging in Zhao Hao's heart, and this is only the beginning of the rescue operation. The second echelon of the next departure was three baggage boats carrying support firepower, they had to send a rocket battalion and three bases of ammunition to the island safely, and the night boat was a dangerous thing, but they also had to implement light control, with the faint starlight night sailing, not only to avoid the surveillance posts on the opposite bank, but also to bypass the shallows in the river, which was still a major test for them.

The time frame of night battles generally refers to dusk to dawn. The nighttime environment can have an impact on people's vision, perception, hearing, etc. Therefore, fighting at night is also a test of people's hearing, vision, balance and judgment. When Zhao Yu was in Qiongzhou, in order to improve the combat capability of the troops and prepare for the sea-crossing operation, he conducted night adaptation training for the troops, and also accumulated some experience from this.

The essential characteristic of night is darkness, and as night falls, the source of large radiation light during the day disappears, which reduces the brightness of natural scenery and poor visibility. According to Zhao Hao's experience, in a clear and moonless starry night, the human eye can see the distance in the open field, the summer night is about 200 steps, the winter starry night is only a few dozen steps, and the starry night in spring and autumn is darker and less visible than in summer and winter. That's why it's so difficult to smuggle under the stars, and the slightest deviation will deviate from the course.

Darkness also reduces people's sense of color, so that people's eyes can only distinguish shades, and also makes people have an illusion about distances and objects, dark things usually feel very close, light things feel farther away; It is difficult to distinguish between objects with little difference from the background and objects of similar shape and size; For point-like and line-like objects, observe at different angles at the same distance, and the distance should not be judged. In such an environment, it is not easy to find colored targets, especially dark and low targets, and fixed targets, which limits the performance of the weapon.

In addition, in dark conditions, due to poor visibility and difficult observation, people's pupils are naturally dilated, which is not only easy to cause fatigue, but also easy to lead to errors and illusions in people's perception. Pits, bags, ditches, etc., are mistaken for flat ground at night. Even trained soldiers, when seen at first glance at night, tend to mistake a group of soldiers for a bush, a road post for a skirmisher, a village for a wood, etc. Dark night not only limits observation, shooting, command and communication communication, but also makes it difficult to determine directions, choose roads, and organize coordination.

"Your Majesty, the second echelon has set off, and Chen Dutong will land on the island with the ship to establish an advance command post." The lookout post reported.

"This guy is in a hurry, and he is going to put on his own battle." Zhao Hao pursed his lips and chuckled.

"Your Majesty is here to supervise the battle, how dare Chen Dutong slack off!" Li Sanniang said.

"This rescue operation, whether it is for me or Chen Dutong, is an adventure, if you don't get it right, you will be ruined!" Zhao Hao said with a wry smile. He knew that there was a huge controversy about the use of a large army to rescue more than 20 soldiers who were trapped behind enemy lines and whose fate was uncertain, both in the imperial court and in the military system.

It's a complicated question, and it's simple. In the Song Dynasty, the rise of the scholar class made the warriors doubly suppressed and their status low. And the military system that came into the Song Dynasty also made the world have no good impression of the soldiers. The idea of the Song people is: "The people who dare to be thieves are all scoundrels and brave people, who are worthy of the army, and they are getting their place", that is, Song Taizu's statement: this kind of strategy of recruiting and raising troops can obtain "the benefits of a hundred generations", so that "the world's fierce and derelict people are the guardians of the good people", "in the year of hunger, there are traitors but no rebels, and when the unfortunate years are happy, there are rebels but no rebels." ”

Based on this assumption, when Shen Xuan of the Northern Song Dynasty Renzong knew about Hangzhou, the people would be stabbed as soldiers whenever they broke the law, regardless of the severity of the circumstances. The Southern Song Dynasty also stipulated that "robbers should be committed, and people from afar should be matched, and they should be assigned to the garrison army to be handed over"; As a result, the various armies of that time received "thousands of sinners every year, often mostly robbers"; In the Southern Song Dynasty, Yanzhou "disturbed the city with evil young people", and in order to prevent the situation from expanding, Xiao Tunnel in Zhizhou "made up for the military quota in the secret name".

The "miscellaneous soldiers" in the Song Dynasty were not regular combat soldiers, while in the Southern Song Dynasty, there were many supporting troops in the garrison army. During the reign of Gaozong, Li Xianzhong, the capital of Chizhou, took the "person who can wear a belt" in the army as the soldier of the imperial army; During the time of Song Ningzong, he once killed and injured the people who were captured by "repeat robbers" and those who gathered to sell and buy private traders...... The unified distribution of the cantonment garrison stipulates the length of service in the cantonment garrison, and the limit is changed to become a "regular army", which is a combat unit.

In fact, the barracks life of the soldiers of the Song Dynasty was also like that of prisoners; According to Tang Wei's custom, their faces were tattooed with characters, called "face nirvana". Tattoos on the soldiers' faces are mainly to prevent the soldiers from escaping. The native soldiers also have a military registration called "red nationality", so people call the soldiers "red guys". Those criminals who are stabbed and joined the army, not to mention the treatment. At that time, the social status of soldiers was already at the bottom of society.

This shows from another perspective that the Song Dynasty's military allocation was not only an important source of sergeants engaged in miscellaneous service, but also one of the direct sources of sergeants engaged in combat cantonment, so in the eyes of everyone, soldiers are basically equivalent to criminals or outcasts. After Zhao Yu came to power, he had a high standard for recruiting soldiers, and soldiers not only took physical strength as the standard, but also required family affairs to be innocent.

Of course, there are also military personnel and prisoners of war in the army, but these people often do not enter the combat units, but 'hard labor battalions', although they are managed according to the army, they are not necessarily subordinate to the military department, and some are under the management of the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Households. They undertook dangerous and heavy work such as mining, drying salt, building cities, and controlling waters. However, it was still difficult to change the world's perception of the army in a short period of time, so he dispatched a large army at any cost and risked a renewed war with Meng Yuan to save more than a dozen 'criminals', which was unacceptable.

Zhao Hao, who has always been good at calculation and likes to consider costs, also knows that the cost of this operation is far closer than the bereavement benefits given to more than 20 fallen soldiers, and what he is doing is definitely a loss-making deal. But he still insisted on doing it, and naturally he had different ideas, in addition to fulfilling the promise of the year, but also to improve the cohesion of the army. So that the whole army can understand that they are not fighting alone, but have the backing of a huge force headed by the emperor. Once there is a difficulty, even if they are far away from thousands of mountains and rivers, Longtan Tiger's Den, they will rescue them at any cost, so that they will be proud to join this collective, and then improve their combat effectiveness.

Zhao Yu knew that by doing this, even if he failed, he would win the trust and support of the army. But it will inevitably give an excuse to those who oppose his promotion of the status of the warriors, and provoke questioning and impeachment from the courtiers. What is a great achievement, reckless military force, wanton behavior, etc., a big hat will constantly buckle itself, and will also crusade against itself at the moral level, questioning whether it is worth sacrificing one or more people to save someone, or even just bringing back a few corpses. And they will use it as an excuse to dictate their ability to govern and weaken his power.

Zhao Yu knew that they would not be able to remove themselves from the throne no matter what at the moment, but Chen Fenglin would be miserable, and he would definitely be used as a scapegoat. Therefore, this victory or defeat is not only related to the stability of one's throne, but also related to one's net worth. Therefore, no matter from that point of view, he and Chen Fenglin have to try their best to complete the rescue mission, and as the person concerned, the pressure is much greater than his.

"Let's hope they make it to the island!" Zhao Yu came to the lookout window, picked up the binoculars and watched the three baggage boats sail out of the water village one after another at a distance of fifty paces, he muttered.

Looking from the top of the hill to the river, he could only vaguely see the anchor beacon laid by the vanguard troops, which rose and fell with the waves on the water reflected in the starlight, appearing and disappearing from time to time, intermittently forming a band of light. Due to the tail lights of the front boat, the two boats had to reduce the distance in order to see the position of the front boat.

However, due to the small spacing, once you encounter an undercurrent, there is a possibility of a collision accident, and falling into the water on the dark river surface is not a fun thing, and in a blink of an eye, it will be washed away by the river, or swept into the bottom of the water by the undercurrent, and even disappear without a trace before it has time to rescue. This made Zhao Hao very worried, feeling more worried than he was on the ship, so he could grasp the situation, but at the moment he could only watch and could do nothing.

"Your Majesty, the 102nd Division has all requested to set sail!" At this time, a signal soldier came in and said.

"What's the hurry? Tell Li Hongbin that he wants to calm down, his task at the moment is to rest, not to go to the island to cause chaos, and when to leave has his own orders! Zhao Yu said angrily.

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Seeing His Majesty's anger, the communication soldiers did not dare to say more, and hurriedly went down the mountain to report.

"Your Majesty, why did you use the troops of the Second Division this time? The strongest unit of the First Army should be the First Division, which also has the most combat experience. Li Sanniang asked in some surprise. She knew that after entering Jiangnan, all departments were expanded, and the former divisions were promoted to armies, and regiments were promoted to divisions. As the main force, the 1st Regiment inherited the original military name of the 1st Division, so it naturally took advantage of it and retained the division's direct subordinate team and more officers and veterans.

"It is true that the first division is the strongest, but their main task is to garrison Jiankang City. And the strength of the 2nd Division is not inferior to the 1st Division, and the troops participating in the main attack only used part of the strength of a reinforced regiment and the direct team of the division, and I asked the guard battalion to cooperate with them in the battle, and the trapped troops are subordinate to the 2nd Division, so what can I say if they do not go into battle. Zhao Yu explained casually.

"Your Majesty sent the guard battalion too?" Li Sanniang said in surprise.

"Well, no matter how sharp the knife is, it will rust in its sheath for a long time, and the guard battalion has not been on the battlefield for too long, so it's time to sharpen it. And after landing, there must be a strong small team to quickly break through, defeat the enemy troops besieging Guabu Mountain, rescue the besieged detachment and quickly retreat, and only the guard battalion can take on this task at present. Zhao Yu nodded.

"Then how can Your Majesty's safety be guaranteed?" Li Sanniang asked anxiously.

"Hehe, this is the military camp of the Great Song Dynasty, will they be unfavorable to me? Besides, Tan Fei only took the first squadron, and the second squadron and the support squadron were still here to guard, so what was there to worry about. Zhao Yu looked at his nervous appearance and smiled.

"Oh!" Li Sanniang breathed a sigh of relief and asked again, "Didn't the landing force go to the island first and wait?" If after the battle starts, it will not be too late to rush to the crossing and lose the fighter! ”

"I did the same at first, and I took advantage of the darkness to send the landing force to the island to standby, and when the artillery fire was ready to begin, the pontoon bridge was erected, and the landing force went ashore through the pontoon bridge. However, the commander of the naval army Liu thought that because the landing site was close to the mouth of the Chushui River, the water flow was turbulent, and it was very difficult to erect a pontoon bridge, and it was difficult to achieve the effect of a surprise attack. If the landing force takes a small warship to the waters of Ilha Verde Island at night and waits, and immediately takes a boat to land on the beach after the artillery fire is prepared, the preparation time in the middle can be reduced. I thought it was so, and I took its advice. Zhao Yu said.

"That's why Your Majesty let the landing force stay in Hong Kong for the time being to rest and recuperate, and is not in a hurry to land on the island!" Li Sanniang nodded and said.

"Exactly, they will be stranded on the ship until dawn when they are on sail, and then they will not only be physically and mentally exhausted, but their morale will also become extremely low!" Zhao Yu said.

"Your Majesty, the first echelon sent a signal that the temporary dock has been built, the road has been opened, and the follow-up troops can land on the island." The lookout post reported again.

"Good!" Zhao Yu nodded, indicating that he understood, and looked at Li Sanniang and said, "It's still early in the morning, you can also go in and rest, you don't have to accompany me." ”

"The concubine is still alive, let Concubine Chen rest first!" Li Sanniang shook her head, looked at Wang Yu and found that she had fallen asleep on the table again, and smiled.

"Alas!" Zhao Yu sighed lightly, stepped forward and picked her up with Wang Yu's legs, sent her to the side hall and gently put her on the bed, Li Sanniang took off her boots and pulled the quilt, but she was still asleep.

Although Zhao Hao was also a little sleepy, he was not sleepy, but the approaching war made him a little excited. In the difficult night, the second echelon successfully landed on the island, and Chen Fenglin opened up a forward command post, built a rocket launch position under his command, and carried weapons to the island and set them up. Chen Fenglin's smooth landing on the island made him breathe a sigh of relief, and having such a brave general in front of the command could ensure that most of the battle had been successful.

After the ugly hour, Zhao Yu ordered the 2nd Division and the 1st Regiment to board the ship and set off, and they set sail from the wharf on more than 30 requisitioned flat-bottomed sand boats under the traction of medium-sized vehicles and ships of the navy, and sailed into the darkest night before dawn, and he faintly heard the gunfire from the opposite shore at this time......