Geng Zhongming stood on the cruiser "General Pingliao" and looked at the First Regiment of the Dongjiang Army that was boarding.

At this time, he was dressed in a military uniform, and the well-cut Australian Song Association military officer uniform (major) fit his body, and a belt made of cooked cowhide wrapped around his waist, outlining the silhouette of a strong young man.

After last night's meeting, Mao Wenlong officially announced that he would be transferred from his guerrilla post in Phoenix City in southeastern Liaoning Province to the post of deputy commander of the First Regiment of the Expedition to Japan. (I will be the head of the regiment after arriving in Jeju)

After receiving the resignation, Geng Zhongming was still a little surprised. originally thought that he was transferred from Phoenix City, which was close to the area directly under Mao Wenlong, because he was angry with Mao Dashuai and was demoted, and he was ready to plead guilty overnight. Who would have thought that the first regiment of the New Army, which had always been valued by the marshal and the Ao-Song people, would be led by himself, this is confusing him.

"Consultant Zhang, I don't know why the marshal is arranging it like this?" After thinking about it, Geng Zhongming still had the courage to ask Zhang Fengyuan.

Zhang Fengyuan is very easy to get along with in private. Facing Geng Zhongming, who secretly came to inquire about the news, the lieutenant colonel, who still looked moody at the meeting, smiled and laid out the list of officers of the first regiment, and pointed to Geng Zhongming: "Look, who are these officers?" ”

Geng Zhongming hurriedly took a closer look, only to realize that most of them were actually drawn from the old army.

"Kong Youde... He's a battalion commander? Geng Zhongming looked at the list of battalion-level officers, and was a little surprised for a while, "His qualifications are much better than mine, and we all admire the legendary experience of going all the way south to Lushun from Guangning... Why is he a battalion commander? ”

Zhang Fengyuan looked at Geng Zhongming with a smile, and his eyes flashed with inexplicable brilliance: "Because Kong Shen has made the atmosphere of the old-style army a little heavier, he is not familiar with the new-style army, so he cannot serve as the regiment commander." ”

"You see, Shang Kexi, Shang Keyi, Mao Chenglu... All of them were demoted and transferred to the 1st Regiment as battalion and platoon officers. ”

Zhang Fengyuan's smile gradually took on the color of a soldier's slaughter: "This is the cradle of cultivating you." Those who went in were still half-old-style generals, and all those who came out were new-style officers. ”

Geng Zhongming subconsciously lowered his head, not daring to look directly at Zhang Fengyuan, who was flashing dangerously under the oil lamp, but vaguely remembered that on the paper with the officer's name written on it, he remembered several names that he usually "didn't listen to the words of the Australian and Song people" were not listed.

A trumpet sounded, interrupting Geng Zhongming's train of thought. He looked down and saw that Mao Wenlong was being surrounded by officials from the military port and walked down the stairs, and the bright red handsome flag was hunting in the sea breeze.

From Geng Zhongming downwards, all the soldiers of Dongjiang Town who saw Shuai Qi stopped their work and stood straight facing Mao Wenlong.

Mao Wenlong, who wore the dress of an honorary general for the first time after the Battle of Iron Mountain (Note 1), bathed in the morning sun, and the medal on his chest reflected a brilliant brilliance. The hero who saved millions of refugees from Liaodong quietly waved his hands in response to his subordinates' salute, then folded his hands behind his back and smiled at the expeditionary fleet that was preparing to go.

Here, it is difficult for me to accurately describe Mao Wenlong's mood at that time, because I have not talked to Mao Shuai face-to-face, and what is narrated is relayed through those present.

But based on the relevant descriptions and Mao Wenlong's past experience, I believe that General Mao Wenlong must have been relieved and even proud at that time.

In the first year of the Apocalypse (1621), when Mao Wenlong first emerged on the chaotic battlefield of Liaodong, he led more than 100 people to attack Zhenjiang, risking his life. In the following years, Mao Shuai led Dongjiang Town, which was isolated overseas, from scratch and from weak to strong, and developed an army of strategic significance under the nose of Jiannu, which is a great achievement that can go down in history.

Now, in the second year of Chongzhen, seven years after the establishment of the town of Dongjiang, this army created in order to survive can not retreat on a front of hundreds of kilometers on the one hand, and on the other hand, it can organize elite forces to carry out an expedition against distant Japan.

Compared with the hard years when the Dongjiang grass was created, when he was surviving in death and the road was blue, Mao Wenlong was gratifying enough.

Geng Zhongming was on the battleship, and it was inconvenient to go to greet Mao Wenlong, so he only saluted from afar, and then still organized soldiers to board the ship.

Shang Kexi, who was on the side, walked out of the cabin and said to Geng Zhongming: "Brother Geng, the food along the way is loaded." ”

"Are the potatoes all processed? Are you sure it won't sprout? Geng Zhongming asked uneasily.

Shang Kexi smiled and said: "Brother Geng, don't worry, most of the potatoes have been boiled and soaked in salt water, and they will not sprout." The few that don't have time to process are put together with apples, and if we eat that part first, it won't sprout. ”

Geng Zhongming was relieved at this time, and the monk laughed happily.

And on the deck, Bai Erbai of the 1st Battalion of the 1st Regiment was cleaning the deck under the command of the sailors.

The young man who fled all the way from Fushun to southern Liaoning and was rescued had served in the Dongjiang Army for more than three years. After the Ao-Song people came to Liaodong, he was favored by the Ao-Song instructor because of his diligence in practicing musket shooting, and he was transferred to the first regiment as a squad leader.

"Coil the cable and put it on the side of the ship!" The dark-skinned sailor shouted in a thick voice, and there seemed to be a salty sea breeze blowing in his voice.

The squad leader, who had a cold face in front of the big-headed soldiers in the past, had already torn off the buttons of his military uniform at this time, revealing his chest full of sweat, and his face was red from the heat of labor and the sun. He wiped the sweat from his face, gritted his teeth and slung the cable on the deck to his shoulder, and walked to the side of the ship step by step.

The pile of finger-thick cables was frighteningly heavy, Bai Erbai's sturdy body was a little overwhelmed by potatoes and fish, and his hard-soled boots were a little difficult to step on the deck, and he had to carefully control his balance to avoid falling in front of the soldiers.

"You two, drop the rope and find a place to rest!"

Seeing that the two soldiers had begun to stagger, Bai Erbai scolded a few words as he passed by, and decided to come back to help later. He was a little dissatisfied with these new rookies, his body had not been well fed, and he was easy to be weak when he did some heavy work.

The two soldiers nervously agreed, but after Bai Erbai walked by, they looked at each other again, gritted their teeth and held the cable on their arms, and followed the pace of the squad leader one after the other.

Bai Erbai heard the wheezing sound behind him, a smile broke out on the corner of his mouth, and he didn't say anything more.

Beneath his mast, a dozen meters away, another group of captured strong infantry was topless, washing the deck in pain with buckets and mops.

The ships of the Liaodong Squadron were all eliminated little by little by the Southern Fleet. While saving money, these old ships, which are likely to be considered overdue, also have a little "insignificant shortcoming".

For example, the deck needs to be washed more frequently.

A group of soldiers holding stones of an abrasive mixed with sand and seawater. They had to squat on the deck – kneeling – and grind the deck vigorously with both hands to clean the corroded surface from the long sea breeze.

The warriors who followed them braved the increasingly scorching sun, splashing bucket by bucket of seawater on the deck, and then used mops to remove wood chips and stone dust.

This is a harder job than carrying the cable, at least all the soldiers who are suffering from back pain, when they see their comrades who are still complaining about dragging the cable more than ten meters away, their hearts are tumbling with the anger of "why don't we change".

The sailors on the ship who instructed the army in their work looked relaxed. Looking at the tired and trembling army in front of him, the second officer who looked down at the whole ship from the cockpit laughed and said: "Let them talk about the navy every day, who said that the navy is very relaxed?" Still eat rice every day, we are so professional and so hard, what's wrong with eating some rice?! ”

The middle-aged man who listened to the second mate's complaint smiled a little awkwardly, and laughed around, not arguing about whether to eat potatoes or rice.

When he arrived, Adviser Zhang repeatedly said that it is necessary to take advantage of this opportunity to bridge the contradictions between the army and the navy, to make the officers and men of the army understand the professionalism of the navy, and at the same time to realize that the officers and men of the navy do not sit comfortably on boats every day, but also have a lot of daily operations to do.

After babbling for a long time, the second mate realized that he had not asked the identity of the listener before, so he asked casually: "This comrade, which part are you?" ”

"I..." the middle-aged man subconsciously touched his nose and said softly, "I'm Chen Jisheng, the chief of staff of the First Regiment." ”

The second mate smiled, just wanted to say that he was embarrassed to be snub before, and then his face suddenly turned pale, looking at Chen Jisheng's smile reflected in the window in front of him, he didn't know what to say for a while.

————————————————

After the hour hand passed ten o'clock, the Dingbei Military Port in Tieshan City had entered a calm.

Mao Wenlong, who had been standing in the harbor like a green pine since eight o'clock, quietly looked at the ship in the distance, which was the flagship of the Liaohai Detachment named after his official title, the General Pingliao.

By this time, the cruiser, with a full load displacement of almost 1,300 tons, had already put away its anchor, and the pale white sails had already been raised by the sailors. The sea breeze blew, and the heavy sails were blown by the gentle wind, and they slowly puffed up, pushing the huge hull to shake slightly.

"Marshal, the fleet is about to depart."

The adjutant on the side reminded Mao Wenlong softly.

Mao Wenlong nodded and waved his hand at the General Pingliao, which had already begun to move.

General Pingliao sounded his whistle, and the hiss of steam resounded through the sky. In the cabin, the first mate turned the rudder and drove the beast beneath him out of port and headed for Jeju Island, hundreds of kilometers away.

Outside the port, destroyers and transports with early starts are already cruising at low speeds. After the Pingliao General left the port, the fleet of Huihe all set sail, facing the dazzling sunlight, and entered the boundless Liaohai.

After the figure of the fleet was obscured by the prominent peaks on the south bank, Mao Wenlong silently took a wine glass from the adjutant's hand, saluted the fleet from afar, raised his head and drank it all, and then slammed the wine glass on the ground.

There was a "pop", and the sound of glass breaking sounded.

Mao Wenlong, who was over half a hundred years old, sighed and laughed: "Happy! ”

Note 1: The "Battle of Cheolsan" refers to the Battle of Cheolsan, which took place on the line between Cheolsan and Seumi Island during the 56-day Korean War between January and February 1627. In this battle, the Australian and Song fleets could not support due to the freezing of the Liaohai Sea, and a battalion of the Australian and Song Army and two regiments of the Dongjiang Association Army remaining in North Korea, a total of more than 6,000 people, under the personal leadership of Mao Wenlong, re-established the Nuamin Division in the Battle of Tieshan and killed Gurmahun and Gong'a.