On May 18th, it was early at midnight.

He Baodao's department and Zhu Guobin's department, which went to sea from Changsheng Island, are repairing in front of Yangguan Fort. The troops participating in this battle were all horses. In an environment deep into enemy territory, infantry walking on two legs is too passive.

Half of the Fourth Battalion of the Wehrmacht will be left behind to assist in the defense of Changsheng Island, and the rest will enter Yangguan Fort to prevent the fort from being recaptured by Jiannu. The reinforcements who will arrive on Changsheng Island will work with the combat sappers on Changsheng Island to build a temporary port here in Yangguan Fort. After rescuing the Wong Stone Division trapped in the camp at Quicksand, we will withdraw here and leave through the port.

The cavalry battalion under Zhu Guobin had just crossed the Liaohai Strait, and the horses were not in good condition, so they were not used as cavalry this time, but participated in the battle as dragoons with my fourth battalion. Of course, if the battle is unfavorable, they will also wield knives to cut people.

Before we landed, Yangguan Fort had already been attacked by "werewolves". By the time the vanguard arrived, the part of the wall had been completely controlled by the werewolves, and dozens of slaves were resisting in the central clearing. Naturally, the vanguard carefully blasted open the fortress gates and annihilated the enemy inside.

I met with the werewolf troops who attacked Yangguan Fort at the gate of Yangguan Fort. At the head was a tall man with back gold braids, dressed in leather armor with a blue flag – I noticed it was a Jeju replica. Li Yunrui, who came with the army, introduced to me: "This is the commander of the werewolf force, Gang'a, a savage Jurchen, named Chen Weiguo. ”

I smiled and shook hands with him: "Hello, I have already heard that Dongjiang Town has taken in many comrades of different races who have been oppressed by Jiannu. Work hard, and we have always treated our comrades equally. ”

After the troops were repaired, Chen Weiguo and I got on the horses and led the troops away. Chen Weiguo's Chinese dialect is okay, and he will speak a few things that cannot be expressed, which he will say in Mongolian and then translated by Li Yunrui.

He told me that "Gang'a" means "fortitude" in Manchu, which was the name his grandfather gave him.

"Didn't your grandfather come to Dongjiang Town together?"

He shook his head, his bruised cheeks puffed out a few times, and he sighed: "I was beaten to death by Niu Lu Ezhen, because I couldn't hand in food." ”

I sighed and didn't speak. Li Yunrui, who was on the side, changed the topic and introduced the contributions made by the naturalized Jurchens and Mongols led by Chen Weiguo in terms of intelligence. From the moment Huang Stone gained a foothold on Eternal Life Island - that was back to the fourth year of the Apocalypse - he personally formed the Werewolf of Eternal Life Island, a secret service that takes care of both internal and external affairs. After obtaining a group of Houjin defectors from Mao Wenlong, Huang Sitong established a training base in Xizhong Island, which is adjacent to Changsheng Island, which is exactly the same as the ordinary Houjin village, and named it "Second Jianzhou Village".

In this village, which covers an area of more than 100 acres, the intelligence officers who come to be trained will be led by defectors to live a thoroughly post-Jin life, speaking Manchu and Mongolian, doing farm work, practicing martial arts, and learning to beat and scold Han slaves (of course, there will be no slaves for them to practice). It is not until they have completely adapted to the life of Jiannu and worn away all the habits left over from the past twenty or thirty years of Han life that they will be officially awarded their graduation certificates and enter the workplace.

It is worth mentioning that this situational training method is also used by China's intelligence agencies. Huang Sitong's ability to independently design such an advanced training model in the corner of the Ming Kingdom in the 17th century is really worthy of praise.

By almost two o'clock, we had completely left the coastline and walked on the land of southern Liaoning, where there was only starlight. The soldiers bite into bamboo pins in their mouths, which prevents them from making noises inadvertently. Of course, because they are constantly biting something in their mouths, they can't use their mouths to help them breathe, and they always have saliva in the corners of their mouths, which is really uncomfortable. The horses were treated better, their mouths were covered with cloth, their hooves were covered with grass, and the only sound of the marching procession was the muffled breathing of the people and the dull trampling of the horses' hooves.

Nightfall and Werewolf have been released a mile away, tasked with sniping the Houjin Ranger who may have spotted us. Due to the long-term use of carrots and cod liver, our army basically did not have symptoms of night blindness, which was very beneficial for night fighting.

"Not all troops can fight at night."

This is a very important sentence from a certain army textbook, and I always remember it. In the feudal army, only a strictly trained, well-nourished, and disciplined army like the Qi family army could attack at night. For the rest of the miscellaneous troops, even if they were out in the daytime, the officers had to devote a lot of energy to preventing their subordinates from escaping. If you go to the battlefield in the dark night, I'm afraid that when you get to the place, you will only be left with your family.

Although Jiannu is one of the most powerful troops in East Asia (Note 1), there are certainly not many soldiers who can compete with us at night. Therefore, in order to relieve the besieged Wong Stone Division as soon as possible, I ordered the troops to set out overnight. If the situation is best, we will attack at dawn and crush the Jiannu encirclement in one fell swoop.

After walking a few kilometers, the troops seized time to rest in the shadow of two hillocks. The soldiers took out the pieces from their mouths, exhaled with their mouths, and at the same time took out their water bladders and poured them with water.

The scouts in the large group climbed to the top of the hill and disappeared into the half-man-high weeds. They will use binoculars to search the perimeter, and cooperate with the night to ensure the safety of the troops' march.

I took Zhu Guobin and them to the hillside to lie down and look at the starry sky. The May evening breeze was a little cold, blowing cold on the body, just taking away the heat generated by the rapid march. When I was in my hometown, I loved to lie in the yard and watch the sky and the wind. The dimension of the southern Liaoning area is similar to that of Qingsong Town, and the wind and stars are also similar.

Zhu Guobin was lying on my left, and neither of us spoke. Zhu Guobin is a Liao refugee, and he is burdened with a deep blood feud with Jiannu. At this moment, he was still carefully wiping his saber with a handkerchief, and there was no expression on his face. I stared at the night sky with wide eyes. According to the plan before departure, Zhao Zhiming's hot air balloon should fly over our heads at this time, bringing the attack plan and a batch of supplies to Huang Stone. I'm trying to find it.

Until the rest was over, and we were ready to move on, I still hadn't found them in the infinite expanse of the world. Maybe the timing wasn't right, or maybe they were too secretive for me to see. I hope it's the latter, after all, we didn't find it, and Jiannu certainly can't find it.

By the time of the second break, it was already about four o'clock. In the past few hours, we have walked more than 10 kilometers at night in an environment that may be exposed at any time, which is a great test of our physical strength and spirit.

Chen Weiguo, who had been sent out to reconnoitre, came back and told us that this was the limit of what we could stealth. Outside, he encountered several waves of Gennu rangers, and the targets were too dense to carry out assassinations. Those who had already noticed the direction of Yangguan Fort had not heard from them for a long time. Chen Weiguo disguised himself as a herald of the Zhenglan Banner, collected some information from them, and hurried back.

The soldiers have been given specific tasks from the company platoon commander and are now making their final rest. According to the judgment of the weather forecaster, the morning sun will rise today in an hour. In order to avoid accidents, He Baodao had already led the cavalry to advance to the adjacent open area to rest, so that they could quickly enter the battle state.

More than a thousand warriors from two cavalry battalions, as well as independent night bunkers, werewolves, scouts, all eyes were on the eastern sky. There is no white fish belly at the moment. Everyone knows that when the first light appears in the East, they will go to war without hesitation.

Note 1: The comparison here does not include the Wehrmacht and the Auxiliary Army. The General Staff divided the main force of Jiannu and the main force of the Guanning Army into the first class, and the ordinary Jiannu and the ordinary Guanning Army were both second-class. As for the training of the Nine Border Army in the other guards of the Ming Kingdom, they were all divided into three and so on.