War always came so suddenly, although Zhang Tao had been preparing for the Northern Expedition for a long time, but the sudden attack of the other side still gave him an excellent excuse, an excuse to shut up the opposition.

Although the martial spirit of the Han people during the Ming Dynasty was not extinguished, since the Song Dynasty, the atmosphere of emphasizing literature over military force, as well as the fact that public opinion was in the hands of Confucianism and other practical reasons, led to the mainstream opinion of the society after the Tumubao Change, the mainstream opinion of the society is to keep the enemy out of the Great Wall, in other words, in the eyes of those officials who came from the landlord class in the Yangtze River Valley, as long as the robbers on the grassland do not cross the Yellow River, there is no problem. Under this selfish idea of only caring for immediate interests, the Ming Dynasty gradually lost control of the north of the Great Wall again and again, so that it finally fell into disarray.

Zhang Tao hated this kind of people to the core, how could he not eradicate all the literati, even if he wanted to punish the crime, at least there must be a decent reason, but the excuse of opposing the Northern Expedition was really unacceptable. Fortunately, Dolgon was very cooperative, and the initiative to attack the Great Wall was simply a gift to Zhang Tao, which not only made the Northern Expeditionary Division famous, but also blocked the opposition's opposition to the expansion of the war. So under the impetus of a madman who dreamed of being promoted to an official position and making a fortune and making military achievements, the machine of war began to run wildly. As the saying goes, soldiers and horses go first before grain and grass are moved, so Jiang Tian, who thought he could be responsible for raising military funds in the rear, was given an unexpected but reasonable task - to build roads!

“…… With the title of Deputy Director of the General Logistics Department and the General Armament Department of the Prince Taibao Jiang Tian, he is in charge of the logistics support of the Northern Expedition, this matter is related to the lives of the soldiers in the war, the danger of the country, and it cannot be taken lightly...... "Xizi's male duck voice echoed in the courtyard of Jiang Mansion, and it was Jiang Tian who was expressionless on his knees under the holy decree.

After sending Xizi away, Jiang Tian turned around and saw his father staring at him with the holy decree, and he didn't know what the old man was thinking. As for the other women in the family, they were far away, only Meng Daya stood beside her and sighed: "This military order is like a mountain, although it is not necessary to work the battlefield, but it is not something that can be handed over in a few months, I think this temporary false title will be hung for a few years." ”

"Alas......" the old man sighed: "Since it is appointed by the Holy Lord, the wedding at this time is a little ...... I don't know when I won't have to fight. ”

Jiang Tian listened to the conversation between the two people, and his face was also sad, but in fact, his heart was happy, and he said that he still knew himself as a fellow countryman, because of the needs of the war, the emperor could not get married, this reason was really good, although it could not solve the marriage contract between him and Meng Daya, but at least it delayed the marriage.

But at least on the surface, there must be a performance of filial piety to his son: "Daddy doesn't have to worry, I am just responsible for clearing the roads and raising military funds and salaries, and when I get good news ahead, I can hand over the errand when the whole world celebrates." ”

After all, the existing logistics system cannot meet the consumption of an all-firearms unit, still less can it meet the needs of an expedition of more than 100,000 troops for more than six months. The brand-new logistics system created by Jiang Tian has only begun trial operation in the Navy, and the Army has no idea how this thing should work. In addition, the road at this stage does not meet Jiang Tian's expectations, according to his and Zhang Tao's private calculations, in the absence of major changes in logistics, can only support a 20,000-strong pure firearms force to fight at the foot of Yin Mountain, and further north will begin to be subject to supplies and unable to attack with all their strength.

Many modern Internet keyboard warriors take it for granted that pure firearms troops can sweep the world as long as they have proper tactics, but they intentionally or unintentionally ignore the logistical pressure to support this kind of troops. For example, during the Korean War, the Volunteer Army exerted the weapons in its hands to the limit, and the strategy and tactics of the troops were changeable and super-level under the premise that they could only ensure the "weekly offensive". And the premise that the Americans can play Van Vliet's ammunition capacity, in addition to the world's largest production capacity, also depends on the formation of their troops, nearly half of which are logistics personnel!

Zhang Tao has a deep understanding of this, and his two lifetimes of conquest have been subject to logistical support. This is also the reason why he strongly supports Jiang Tian to carry out logistics reform. So now Lord Jiang should show his real skills and let everyone who doubts him know what professional logistics support is. And the first thing he has to do is not to coordinate the deployment of materials, but to do a piece of infrastructure that people love and hate in China in later generations, and build a Tianjin Dagukou Expressway through Beijing to Zhangjiakou!

Standing in front of a high-precision topographic map borrowed from the Ministry of National Defense, Jiang Tian pointed to the names of places on the map with a whip: "We have two logistical routes, one is to transport the clothing produced in the south and the grain shipped from overseas through the mouth of the Yangtze River to Dagukou by sea, and then to Tongzhou through the Haihe River to the North Canal. The other is to directly switch to land transportation at the mouth of Dagu, and send it directly to the foot of the Great Wall through the Chi Road we are about to build! ”

"This ......" Liu Baokai, who was listening, scratched his head, he couldn't describe Jiang Tian's thoughts as shocked. As for the other relevant people attending the meeting, they could only look at Jiang Tian with the eyes of a monster.

After seeing their doubts, Jiang Tian glanced at everyone coldly: "Is it difficult?" I think that Qin Shi Huang spent two years sending 300,000 people to repair the Qin Straight Road, which was full of lofty mountains and mountains, and crossed the Yellow River more than a dozen times. Now we are just building a road on a flat land, and if anyone tells me that they can't do it, then take off my official uniform and go home as soon as possible. ”

At this time, no one dares to complain, not to mention what kind of person the founding emperor of this dynasty is, they have long understood in their hearts that no matter whether they can do it or not, there must be a satisfactory result in the end anyway, and now that he is a tall man with a holy order, let's see how he builds the road.

This road is actually not simple at all, this section of Dagukou to Beijing, almost is the copy of the Beijing-Tianjin-Tang Expressway of later generations, although it is located in the plain, but the problem of soil soft settlement is prominent, and along the way to cross many rivers, the site selection and construction of the bridge are not a small test, and out of Beijing City to the north is the range of Beijing-Zhangjiakou Expressway, after arriving at Juyongguan, there is no flat land, the road should pass through the Yanshan Mountains, in fact, this route is also ancient, and then go northwest is the Badaling that is famous for tourism in later generations, Along the valley all the way northwest is Xuanhua, which is the route of Gyeonggi to support the Great Wall, which may sound difficult, but in fact, Jiang Tian has to do nothing more than to widen and reinforce the original road, but the section from Beijing to Bohai Bay, which has been relying on the canal to transport supplies, does not have a decent ready-made road available.

After receiving the order, Jiang Tian sent two groups of men, one to investigate the official road to the northwest to the Great Wall, and the other to the southeast to find the most convenient route for road construction, while he himself once again plunged into the workshop of the Academy of Sciences on the outskirts of Beijing. He knew that the advance team would definitely not need his highway, and the significance of this road was whether the follow-up troops could gain an advantage from it, and you must know that after Zhangjiakou, it was a relatively gentle hilly area, and the cavalry on the grassland came and went like the wind, and there was no danger to defend. Therefore, as long as this line is opened, the materials in Jiangnan can reach the front line at the fastest speed, and its significance is equivalent to that of Qin Zhidao.

As the saying goes, if a worker wants to do a good job, he must first sharpen his tools, Jiang Daren did not have a hot head and went directly to fill in the soil to build the road, but in the workshop of the Academy of Sciences to figure out how to improve the road construction equipment, he first focused on the roller used to tamp the foundation: "You all know the most common mill in North China, right?" I'm going to order the biggest one! ”

Jiang Tian's customized extra-large stone mill was unheard of by those craftsmen, and it was difficult for them to understand what this one-person-tall stone mill was for, anyway, it was just a matter of time for Lord Jiang to let them carve it. But there was another thing that Lord Jiang needed, which made them craftsmen a little embarrassed.

I think that when Zhang Tao was still guarding the Yangtze River defense line, he had tried to produce cement for the rapid construction of the defense line. However, because the quality of the material is different, the quality of the cement processed on site is also uneven, and the construction personnel do not know much about this new material, so its use is not satisfactory. So much so that this crucial material was rarely used again. What Jiang Tian has to do now is to improve the formula of cement as much as possible and experiment with new varieties of improved ones.

"How's it going?" Zhang Tao looked at the unkempt Jiang Tian with a little expectation.

Master Jiang scratched his scalp with his nails that had not been trimmed for a long time: "It's not good!" I experimented with every additive I could think of, even the expensive alumina, but in the end I only got refractory cement! ”

It stands to reason that it should be a happy thing to be able to test a new type of cement, but the problem is that Jiang Tian wants to get antifreeze cement......

"So I thought about it carefully." Jiang Tian casually took out a report from his cloth bag: "Considering the coming winter, the existing road surface will no longer be paved with concrete for the time being, but will wait for the freezing after rolling the roadbed, and the cement road will be left to start construction next spring, and now our main difficulty is how to cross the swamp on the other side of the coast." ”

Zhang Tao casually flipped through this very brief report, and it was really simple enough: "Relying only on the existing storage and transportation capacity, it has been able to ensure the first phase of the operation, and the frozen soil can indeed support a period of time, but the cement pavement after the beginning of spring is also very important, as for the problem of bridges, I suggest that it is better to make a simple and efficient pontoon bridge." ”

"Pontoon bridge......" Jiang Tian pondered for a moment: "It is true that the transportation needs can be met in a short period of time, but from the long-term point of view, a large number of permanent bridges in the winding roads and river network areas in the mountainous areas are the solution once and for all." ”

"Don't say I didn't remind you, now the needs of the war are the first priority, and the upgrading and transformation will be talked about later." Zhang Tao set the tone for this matter.

"Since that's the case...... Jiang Tian's eyes flashed with a strange light: "Then I'll try the tofu scum project!" ”

The construction began in two directions, and Zhang Tao mobilized all the engineering troops available for Jiang Tian, as well as the farmers who hired the winter famine with special funds. The first task of the construction team east of Beijing is to lay wooden piles along the markers left by the exploration team along the road to set the road boundary, and then while the land has not been frozen, 100,000 laborers rely on manpower to dig out the drainage ditches on both sides of the road, and then dig up trees and burn dead grass along the road to ensure that the surface vegetation of the road is cleaned up, and then use the soil to dig the drainage ditch to ram the natural undulations of the road surface, and a month later, when the river began to appear thin ice, a road from Dagukou to Beijing with a width of up to 10 meters has begun to take shape.

The other route is along the original official road, the construction personnel as much as possible to smooth the potholes, and then to both sides to expand the width of the road, and finally reach ten meters, once there is a situation in the valley or ravine can not change the line in a short time, the exploration personnel continue to look for the best route, and the construction team is to repair the official road, and when the first snowflakes begin to fall in Beijing, the whole road has been basically smoothed on the basis of no manpower and material resources.

"What's the temperature today?" Jiang Tian, who was standing at the construction site of a pontoon bridge, had bloodshot eyes, but he still tried his best to stare at the construction site.

A student seconded from the Imperial Academy hurriedly opened a wooden box with shutters on all sides, and after a careful observation, he turned his head and said, "Report to your lord, it's minus 3 degrees Celsius at noon!" ”

Jiang Tian looked up at the sky, the end of this Xiaoice River is also infinitely powerful, just winter has not yet reached twenty-nine days, the daylight is already minus 3 degrees Celsius, and then looked at the gradually frozen river, fortunately it is to build a pontoon bridge, even if it is frozen, it does not hurt: "Pass my order, starting this night, the road construction personnel will water the road surface, to water evenly, each layer of water, then apply a layer of fine soil, repeat this for at least three days!" ”

Anyone with a modicum of common sense knew what he was up to, and the frozen road would be hard for at least two months, and any kind of carriage could be galloped at high speed, and even if the road surface was damaged, it could be repaired in time. As for what to do when it thaws in the spring? No one can afford to deal with this anymore. Because in the more than a month of road construction, there has been an elite army in the north of the Great Wall in the wilderness and hills forced to march 150 kilometers, lightning raid on the Mongolian tribe in Jining Haizibian (Huangqihai), and then while the other tribes have not yet reacted, lightning captured the old site of Jining City in the north (Ulanqab), so that this land that belonged to the control of the Central Plains in the Xia and Shang periods was abandoned by the Ming Dynasty for nearly two hundred years after the Tumubao Change, and now it has returned to the hands of the Central Plains court again.

The significance of occupying this place is very significant, which means that Datong, the gateway of Shanxi, has obtained a 100-kilometer-wide buffer zone to the north, and the water and grass here are abundant and abundant, only now can be used copper, limestone, graphite and other minerals, and the largest fluorite mine in Asia buried underground in the future can bring great benefits to industrial development, so when the vanguard just moved from Xuanhua, the defenders of Datong attacked north at the same time, only because they carried more baggage, so they arrived a few days later than the more distant assault troops. After the arrival of the troops on the Datong side, they began to take over the defense task, establish a supply depot, and resupply the assault team for the first time.

In addition to the economic benefits, the blitzkrieg was even more devastating to the grasslands, because most of the nomadic tribes stopped migrating in the desert in winter, relying on stored forage to feed their livestock in preparation for the cold winter, and then live in the spring of the following year. No one expected that the Han people in the south would attack in this season, because according to common sense, they would already be considered peaceful if they didn't go south to rob.

In the past two years, due to the opening of the Great Wall, the exchange of goods between the two sides has increased year by year, and the herdsmen have been able to slaughter the old and weak livestock before the onset of winter and exchange the necessary grain, tea and salt in the south. Although the exchange ratio may not be very suitable, at least they can survive the winter without having to rob, and as for the Tartars who occasionally beat the autumn wind and rob livestock and women, they really don't have much ability to resist. Fortunately, there are few Tartars and they may not necessarily grab their heads, so most of the tribes that first traded with each other moved to the Great Wall in exchange for relatively more supplies and security.

Now there are two large tribes around Jining Haizi, with a total number of at least 30,000 people, but they never imagined that more than 10,000 Han cavalry were in the cold ravine, and forcibly marched for three or four hundred miles in a few days to kill directly in front of them.

The 10,000 cavalry in front of them were silent, the snowflakes on the knights had formed a thick carapace, and this group of warriors who crossed the wasteland like ghosts in the cold night were also looking at the stumbling blocks in front of them like ghosts, and the domineering spirit that looked at the world was like a boulder that made the Mongolian riders breathless. They could only be called horsemen and not cavalrymen, and even if the men who had long since lost their ancestors were on horseback, they trembled at the already uncontrollable battle between the two forces as they looked at the invincible army that had driven the Tartars away most of China. They know that they can't beat and can't run, and their only chance of survival is to hope that the other party at least maintains the benevolence of the Han people in terms of face.

The leaders of the two Mongolian tribes muttered, and then sent a rider who looked very strong and could speak Chinese to step forward: "Immortal God bless, dare to ask the army on the other side, what are you doing passing by here?" If you're in a hurry, we have wine here to quench your thirst! If you want to do business without capital, the warriors on the grassland will also accompany you to the end. ”

These words don't sound like much, but in fact, they are already lustful, and I saw a knight on the side of the Han army leisurely urging the horse to step forward and reply loudly: "The Mongolian tribes have been blessed with the grace of our dynasty for a long time, and they can be safe and sound, but you dare to let the Manchu Tartars cross the border and sneak attack China, and my emperor is furious!" Our army was ordered to recover the land south of Yinshan, and if you want to fight, you will fight, and if you want to go, if you stay and need to respect our emperor's order to abide by the Chinese law, and no longer obey the orders of Mantar, where to go will give you an hour to decide for yourself! ”

This is a strategy jointly set by Zhang Tao and Jiang Tian, playing the banner of seeking revenge from Dolgon, leaving the people to be obedient, and not stopping them if they want to go, in order to divide the Mongolian tribes, such as Horqin, who was tied to the chariot of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, could not get down, and there were many conflicts with other tribes, using their own contradictions to gradually disintegrate the resistance forces on the grassland, and then set up a few pro-Chinese models, so that their poor relatives could see that the Chinese people were superior, and by the way, they could also reduce the number of battles and ammunition consumption of the troops.

So the final result was that on the frozen shore of Jining Haizi, the two thousand Mongolian "warriors" who would rather die than surrender were not left behind by the new horse pistols before they could get close to the range of the cavalry bows.

This battle is also spread all over the grassland because of some herdsmen who chose to leave, if the Manchu Qing is more powerful than the Mongols, because the other side dares to fight and is well-equipped, then the current Central Plains Han army is above the grassland in terms of combat power, not to mention that the cavalry bow with a range of no more than 50 meters, even the infantry bow that can shoot 150 meters is impossible to gain a little advantage in range, and the lethality is impossible to compare with the latest cavalry spear, the kind of invisible wall woven by ammunition on a hundred meters, Let all the riders who think they are brave have to crash into pieces. What is even more terrifying is that in this one-sided massacre, the Chinese cavalry did not urge their mounts from beginning to end, but only dismounted and set up a few loose horizontal columns in front of the formation, and then kept loading and firing......

At this time, a battle for Liwei, the commander not only did not limit the amount of ammunition, but also allowed the herdsmen who were unwilling to surrender to leave, but only limited each person to a maximum of 20 cattle and sheep, which had two advantages, one was to prevent the remaining herdsmen from resisting desperately, so that they still had a hope of survival, which could go deep into the desert to promote the benevolence and military prestige of the Chinese Dynasty. Another aim is to deliberately reduce the number of herders and prevent variables before support arrives due to their small numbers.

When the Datong Front Army arrived at the site of Jining City, there were less than 10,000 Mongols left in this area, and compared with the total number of 30,000 Datong Army, it was really impossible to make much waves. After a few days of repairing and scouts searching the nearby terrain, the assault team regrouped and began to run along the valley of the Great Black River towards the west at high speed. This time, their goal is self-evident, which is another famous historical and cultural city in northern China - naturalization! (Hohhot 1)

Their whereabouts have been exposed, and there is no surprise when they raided Jining, so what awaits them is a tough battle, and at the same time, there are still city walls available in Guihua City at this moment, and only 10,000 cavalry who do not have much ability to attack the fortification is really not enough, and how to break through the fortified city guarded by the Tumut Department has become the primary problem.