From the Zhongzuo Institute all the way to the west, passing through Nanao Island, Chen Kai hurriedly waited, had a secret conversation with Chen Bao, and it was only an hour, and then he boarded the ship again.

In Nanao, it can't even be called a stay, and the boat carrying Chen Kai went north along the Hanjiang waterway. Arriving at the capital of Chaozhou, Chen Kai didn't even enter the city, but just sent someone to deliver a letter, and continued to drive north.

There are many problems in Chaozhou, both internal and external, but if you want to solve them, you must always have a priority. The boat kept going up the river until the Sanhe Dam, the northernmost point of the Hanjiang River waterway controlled by the Ming army, and Chen Kai officially got off the boat.

"It's done, hey, I'm ashamed of the trust of the country."

The order to appoint Chen Kai to be in charge of the political affairs of the Eastern Guangdong Army and Chen Kai arrived at Sanheba almost front and back, and Zhang Jin, the loyal Kuangbo, Shen Qi, the chief military officer of Qianzhen, and the local garrison generals all rushed to meet him. Chen Kai is the identity of the commander-in-chief, Shen Qi and the garrison generals fell to the ground, even Zhang Jin. However, when Chen Kai tried to stop Zhang Jin's gift, but the latter used Chen Kai to command the Ming army in eastern Guangdong on behalf of Zheng Chenggong, he was indeed much higher in rank and title, but in the rank of the army, he still had to accept Chen Kai's leadership.

This is a statement, indicating that as the commander of the Ming army in northern Chaozhou, he is obedient to Chen Kai and Zheng Chenggong behind Chen Kai. In this regard, Chen Kai had no choice but to accept the salute, and then immediately helped Zhang Jin up with both hands, and only made a gesture to the other two senior officers, so as to show the difference between the upper and lower classes.

"Uncle has this heart, it's enough. Before setting off, the surname of the country also mentioned that the current situation in Chaozhou is, in the final analysis, due to the fact that the army turned to southern Fujian. Our army needs more grain and grass, so we will divide the land and fields; Our army needs to maintain a larger force in southern Fujian, which will lead to a shortage of troops in Chaozhou. Uncle has done his best, as for the rest of the matter, the national surname and the next also need Uncle to contribute. ”

"Country surname ......"

If you want to do things, calming the hearts of the army is the first thing. Chen Kai's words mentioned that Zhang Jin was already a little choked. Subsequently, in response to Chen Kai's statement, he also made a certain obedience to Chen Kai's military order to assist Chen Kai in achieving the strategic goal of the Ming army to consolidate the battlefield in eastern Guangdong.

Speaking of which, Zheng Chenggong's earliest batch of senior generals, such as Chen Bao, Hong Xu, Chen Hui, Zhang Jin, Lin Xishan and even Lin Cha, these people Chen Kai had relatively in-depth contact. They have different personalities, different abilities, and different levels, but in general, they are all more knowledgeable and responsible. And characters like Zheng Zhibao and Shi Fu, these people have also become famous in Zheng Zhilong's time, but they are more and more unspeakable. Perhaps it is because of this that when the Qing court swept Fujian and Zheng Zhilong descended to the Qing Dynasty, they would make different choices.

Zhang Jin was the commander of the Ming army in northern Chaozhou, and Chen Kai made the necessary pacification, and even inquired about the situation of the first battle in Chengxiang. The results obtained were not too unexpected for Chen Kai.

“…… I was defeated in this battle, and I was at fault. It was I who underestimated the combat effectiveness of Hao Yi's subordinates, and as a result, the army was defeated under the city and forced to abandon the city and leave......"

According to Zhang Jin, Hao Shangjiu's frenzied attacks on state-run mines and smelters in Chengxiang County in the past two months have led to a sharp drop in ore and metal production in northern Chaozhou. Not to mention, Hao Shangjiu relied on his cavalry superiority and even crossed the county seat of Chengxiang to harass.

It won't be long before Cheng Xiang's ruling center in northern Chaozhou will transform into an isolated city, so Zhang Jin, who had always avoided a large-scale decisive battle with Hao Shangjiu as much as possible, had no choice but to send a letter to protect Qianzhen.

As a result, in the battle outside the city, Hao Shangjiu's troops were obviously inferior in terms of troops, but Zhang Jin's garrison could not defeat them, and the guards of Qianzhen were also not opponents. While retreating into the city, the morale declined to the extreme, and finally in the last resort, he had to abandon the city and leave, relying on the boats that had been prepared at the wharf outside the city and the Meixi River that went downstream, and then fled to Sanheba to hold on.

“…… It's me who is a little too trusted. Hey, it turned out, in fact, I also knew that Hao Shangjiu's guy had the old army that followed Li Chengdong back then, but ......"

Zhang Jin's trust, in Chen Kai's view, is more about the Ming army's burning oil in southern Fujian, which led to the overestimation of the Fujian Ming army's own combat effectiveness. But the problem is that the troops used by Zheng Chenggong in the process of Cizao, Qianshan, and the encirclement and suppression of the pirate Chen Chun, except for the Beizhen cavalry, are all infantry units that have been trained in new tactics. It is even more clear that the reason why the Ming army was able to fight and win successive battles was because of the new tactics created by Zheng Chenggong, and the troops that did not carry out effective training and reorganization did not have a qualitative improvement in combat effectiveness.

Chen Kai had long been aware of this problem, and Zheng Chenggong was immediately aware of this when the report of Zhang Jin's defeat came, so he chose to turn again, that is, he wanted to defeat Hao Shangjiu and Su Li with the help of new tactics and re-stabilize the rule of the Ming army in Chaozhou. This is also the fundamental reason why Zheng Chenggong decided to transfer Langden's reinforcements to the town when Chen Kai took over the Chaozhou battlefield!

Historically, Zheng Chenggong led the army from independence to death in Taiwan, but it was only a short fifteen years. But during this period, he almost achieved a turnaround against the Manchus on his own.

In addition to the original maritime trade strength of the Zheng Group, Zheng Chenggong has successfully compiled a large number of new drills and combat methods such as "Five Plum Blossom Exercises", "Formation Exercises", "Water Exercises of the Sailors", etc., and trained a variety of innovative arms such as the Iron Man Army and rattan players - the Iron Man Army is China's last hoplite group, and the Fujian rattan players trained by Zheng Chenggong have passed the performance in the Battle of Yaksa, until they were completely kicked by foreigners, and it has always been an excellent tactic that the Qing court trusted.

However, Zheng Chenggong's new tactics have only been available for half a year, especially before the Battle of Cizao, he has only trained a limited number of towns. After passing the test of combat again and again, he will gradually expand the scale of training when he has more confidence in the new tactics.

One-click costume change, one-key training is completed, it is just a game, in fact, the popularization of each tactic takes more time, and it is also under the condition that the coach has an extremely firm will.

Up to now, for most of the year, the Ming army has only trained and reorganized the troops in the southern Fujian battlefield, and if you do the math, it is nothing more than Rongqi Town, Qinding Town, Left Pioneer Town, Right Pioneer Town, Aid and Suppression Left Town, Aid and Suppression Right Town, Aid and Suppression Hou Town, Zuochong Town, Right Chong Town, Qianfeng Town, Zhongquan Town, and several newly built battalion heads, and the training progress and combat effectiveness are also uneven. And some other military towns and battalions, especially the troops on the battlefield in eastern Guangdong, if not counting the reinforcements that Zheng Chenggong promised to send to suppress Youzhen, there is not even a single unit that uses new tactics.

"What has Hao Shangjiu been doing lately?"

This is a key question, once Chen Kai asked, Xuan even got an answer that made him stunned: "That thief, after occupying the county seat of Chengxiang, was busy moving belongings from Xingning and Changle. The harassment in the direction of Sanheba was not strong, but the thief was slandering Wang Shi as a Hokkien and helping the people of Guangzhou to bully the locals of Chaozhou, and he was working very hard. ”