When he seized Luohai County and integrated the troops in the Liangluo region, Lin Ziran tried to reorganize a large number of soldiers who were not selected into the regular army into engineering divisions to solve the employment and survival problems of these people, and at the same time, he was able to use these laborers to carry out a large number of infrastructure construction and restore local people's livelihood.

After taking Guang'an County before, it also followed the previous example, on the one hand, a large number of high-quality soldiers who volunteered to continue to join the army were added to the regular army, especially cavalry, artillery and other technical arms.

Nearly 10,000 good-quality Toucheng soldiers were also selected to form the Third Garrison Division to be responsible for the follow-up armed suppression of bandits in Guang'an County and the suppression of local tasks.

But even so, there are still more than 10,000 Toucheng soldiers left, and these Toucheng soldiers cannot be selected into the regular army, and at the same time, they generally have nowhere to go, so Lin Ziran did not directly put them into Qianshan, but reorganized them into the Second Engineer Division.

This time in Hexi County was no exception, and given that most of the surrenders were cavalry, they needed to be handled more carefully.

For this reason, Lin Ziran directly ordered to select outstanding cavalry from the surrendered troops to directly supplement the cavalry units, so that the cavalry units were fully established.

At the same time, the backbone of the cavalry units was drawn from each cavalry unit to supplement the ordinary cavalry of Hexi, and the eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth cavalry brigades were formed on the spot, and a total of four cavalry brigades were formed

At the same time, in order to better command a large number of cavalry units, a cavalry division was established, with the First Cavalry Brigade and the Second Cavalry Brigade as the core, the Third and Fourth Cavalry Brigades as the Second Cavalry Division, and the Fifth and Sixth Cavalry Brigades as the core.

The 4th Cavalry Division was formed with the 7th and 8th Cavalry Brigades as the core, the 5th Cavalry Division was formed with the 9th and 10th Cavalry Brigades as the core, and the 6th Cavalry Division was formed with the 11th and 12th Cavalry Brigades as the core.

The above-mentioned six cavalry divisions are all additionally attached to auxiliary units such as the Rapid Baggage Regiment, the Rapid Artillery Regiment, and the Rapid Engineer Battalion, so that they can have independent combat capability.

After taking Hexi County and accepting the surrender of nearly 30,000 Hexi cavalry, the number of cavalry under Lin Ziran's command, including the divisional cavalry regiment and cavalry division (including cavalry artillery and cavalry baggage) quickly skyrocketed to more than 60,000.

This number is only 20,000 less than the 80,000 cavalry of the Southern Navy under the command of Duke Meng!

In addition, some of the surrender soldiers and militia soldiers were reorganized into the 7th Garrison Brigade, and the 4th Engineer Division was formed.

In this way, the surrendered troops in Hexi County, including those militia surrenderers, were resettled, so that they would not be displaced to the people and cause local riots.

The capture of Hexi County, coupled with the previous capture of Guang'an County, also means that the Northern Expedition of the Southern Navy has achieved all the strategic goals.

Just when Lin Ziran was ready to continue to personally lead his troops south and take down Qiuhua County by the way, news came from the eastern front.

Wu Guanlin hurriedly walked in and handed Lin Ziran a report: "My lord, this is urgent news from the Eastern Front!" ”

After taking it and taking a look, Lin Ziran frowned slightly!

There was a problem on the Eastern Front, and it was quite serious.

Hetai County has sent troops!

This is even it, after all, with Xu Teng's character, in the face of Lin Ziran's unification of the Liangluo region and the launch of the Northern Expedition, it is impossible for him to sit still, and it is a matter of time before he sends troops westward.

The problem is that Anlong County turned out to be Xu Teng who completely took refuge in Hetai County.

According to the report, about five days ago, there was a civil strife in the military within Anlong County, and some of the generals of Anlong County supported by Xu Teng directly rebelled, and directly killed Song Shaoning, the county guard of Anlong County, who was bent on maintaining the independent status of Anlong County, through a surprise attack, and then set off a war within Anlong County.

Now the situation in Anlong County is chaotic, and I can't even figure out how many people there are.

Among them, He Yaozhong, the commander of the Ninth Brigade of Anlong, had already secretly been in contact with the Southern Navy before, and he was attacked by many people at the same time, and he was directly defeated and killed before he had time to escape!

Seeing this news, Lin Ziran was quite unhappy!

You must know that in the past few months, in order to insert a nail in Anlong County, the people under him have made a lot of efforts, and it took a lot of effort to win over He Yaozhong.

Originally, I was expecting to let He Yaozhong cooperate with Anlong County in the future, so as to quickly pacify Anlong County, so as to better meet Xu Teng's Hetai army.

Unexpectedly, not long after he was brought over, He Yaozhong was defeated and died.

This also means that the Southern Navy has no friendly troops on the side of Anlong County, and there are not even high-level eyes and ears.

After putting down the report, Lin Ziran said: "What is the situation over there in Hetai County, have they sent troops?" ”

Wu Guanlin said: "We haven't gotten the news of Xu Teng's troops for the time being, but we have also received a report, the Hexi Army has begun to move on a large scale ten days ago, and at that time we have already determined that Hexi County is preparing for the invasion of Anlong County, so even if there is no news of their troops now, it cannot be denied that they have sent troops, because the distance is too far, there is a delay in news." ”

Lin Ziran's brows furrowed even tighter after hearing this.

The meaning of Wu Guanlin's words is very obvious, Hetai County has most likely sent troops to Anlong County, but because of the communication delay caused by the distance, he has not yet received the news.

After getting the turmoil in Anlong County and the probability that Hetai County had already sent troops, Lin Ziran convened his generals to discuss that day.

During the meeting, according to the opinions of the General Staff Office and the generals, Lin Ziran decided on the spot to personally lead the First Division and other parts of the troops to start returning south.

At the same time, the 3rd Division was left to continue to defend the front line of Hexi County, stationed in the local bomb pressure situation, and was also waiting for the 7th Garrison Brigade and the 4th Cavalry Division to be reorganized on the spot.

As for the planned operation to seize Qiuhua County by the way, it will be canceled for the time being, and it will be decided after the development of the situation in the future, if the situation on the eastern front can be stabilized, and at the same time, the reorganized troops in Hexi and Gwangan County are also successfully formed, then these troops can be directly mobilized to the south of Qiuhua County.

Anyway, Qiuhua County doesn't have many troops, and it will only be 20,000 or 30,000 troops to survive, and it is enough to use these partial divisions.

The rest of the main forces, including the 1st, 2nd, 5th, 1st, 2nd, and heavy artillery regiments, immediately moved south, first on foot, then by boat, and then eastward into Anlong County.

In addition, there are also the Fifth Cavalry Division and the Sixth Cavalry Division, which are currently being reorganized, and after completing the basic personnel formation, they will first go south, and after returning to Luohai County, they will conduct intensive training, replenish guns and weapons, and then fight on the Eastern Front or other directions according to the situation.

At the same time, the 4th Division stationed in Luo'an was urgently ordered to leave the necessary forces to defend Ningmei County in the northeast, and the main force was stationed in the northeast of Anlong County to prevent the situation in Anlong County from deteriorating.

The 8th and 7th Divisions in the eastern part of Luohai were urgently ordered to improve their combat readiness and hold the defensive line.

At the same time, the 11th Brigade of the 6th Division and the Garrison Brigade stationed in Luohai City were ordered to be ready for battle and rush to the Eastern Front at any time.

The 12th Brigade of the 6th Division, which was stationed in the western part of Luohai County, was ordered to hold the defensive line and defend Qingyuan County to the west.

After a series of orders were issued, early the next morning, Lin Ziran quickly returned south with the main force such as the First Division!

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