In the early morning of the next day, Lin Jue had just finished washing and hanging up when he received a report that the pontoon bridge was about to be built, and the army could cross the river in half an hour.

Lin Jue was a little surprised. With the width of the Hakuba Ferry, it takes a lot of time to build the pontoon bridge, and although the river is calm, it is the widest section of the river, which is several miles wide. And here the river waters. It is very deep, and to build a pontoon bridge for people and horses to cross the river, it is not as simple as building a pontoon bridge that people can walk on.

After a simple breakfast, Lin Jue and Sun Dayong, Bai Bing, and Gao Muqing galloped to the ferry a few miles away surrounded by all the guards, and on the surface of the rolling Yellow River in front of them, a pontoon bridge about seven or eight zhang wide had extended from this end of the river to the far other side. Although it is only a pontoon bridge, it is a magnificent and extremely difficult project with the construction standards of this era. The 3,000 sappers of the Luoyan Army Engineer Battalion were able to accomplish such a feat in just one night, which is really amazing.

"Where is Ruan Ping?" Lin Jue asked loudly.

"Returning to the marshal, Lord Ruan is on the river embankment over there." Someone replied.

Lin Jue strode towards a willow forest on the east side of the river embankment, and saw a person lying in the grass nest under the willow tree for a moment, snoring loudly and sleeping soundly.

"Lord Ruan, the handsome man is here." An engineer battalion was busy waking Ruan Ping up, but Lin Jue couldn't stop him, and Ruan Ping was woken up.

"Oops, why am I asleep? Are you all right? Have all the fixed stakes been checked? Have you checked all the anchors? Have you ever let the horses and chariots cross the river and give it a try? Ruan Ping got up and saw that the team was standing in front of him, so he asked repeatedly.

Before the team could speak, Lin Jue smiled and said, "Brother Ruan, you have worked hard. That's amazing. Overnight, it was done. I thought it would be at least noon. ”

Ruan Ping saw Lin Jue and the others standing on the embankment on a high place, and hurriedly confessed: "I'm really sorry, I just sat here and wanted to take a breath, but I fell asleep." Damn, shit. ”

Lin Jue approached and looked at Ruan Ping's tired face and the bloodshot red in his eyes, and his heart was moved. Ruan Ping's clothes were wet, his body was full of grass clippings and mud, and his whole person looked extremely decadent.

"Brother Ruan, why are you soaking wet?" Lin Jue asked.

Before Ruan Ping could answer, the engineer battalion beside him said: "We, Lord Ruan, have been soaked in water all night and personally driven piles to fix the pontoon bridge. I didn't rest all night. It's almost finished, so I came here to rest and catch my breath. ”

Ruan Ping shouted: "Team Ding, what are you talking about? Aren't all the brothers like that? It's all part of what we do. It's not worth taking it out and saying. ”

Lin Jue nodded slightly, reached out and took off the cloak on his body, and stepped forward to drape Ruan Ping on his body. Ruan Ping hurriedly said: "Dashuai, what is this doing?" ”

Lin Jue shouted loudly: "Pass on my order, all the engineer battalions of the infantry division will be credited with great merit once, and the title of hard bone battalion will be awarded, and each person will be rewarded with ten taels of silver." The commander of the engineer battalion, Nguyen Binh, was the deputy commander of the infantry division, and all the generals of the engineer battalion were given the rank of officer. This order was communicated to the whole army. ”

Ruan Ping was stunned, and a group of soldiers from the engineer battalion next to him were stunned, and immediately cheered loudly.

The engineer battalion served as a falling goose

The status of auxiliary troops in the army is actually quite embarrassing. In the Falling Goose Army, everyone is called equal, but in fact it is impossible. The main combat class is always on top and on its toes, and the auxiliary class is subservient to it. The establishment of the engineer battalion was originally needed in the army, and many people in the high-intensity training of the Luoyan Army were eventually eliminated from the ranks of the main combat team, not that these people were not excellent, but they may be lacking in martial arts training and combat coordination, but everyone has their own advantages. For example, those soldiers who are like monkeys, who may not be able to fight, have a lively brain, and are good at change, these people are incorporated into the scout battalion and the Xuanyi guard as scouts. The engineer battalion is filled by soldiers who are physically strong but not highly skilled in combat. Lin Jue's original intention was naturally to make the best use of it, but the distinction between the main and secondary branches of the army was also unexpected by Lin Jue. But Lin Jue has no intention of changing these, in fact, Lin Jue also understands that the army actually needs this kind of inequality, and the morale of the main battle soldiers comes from their excellent combat skills. On the battlefield, it is still up to these people to shed blood and fight desperately. Therefore, it is necessary to give them some status improvement appropriately.

It is precisely because of this that the various auxiliary logistics units in the Luoyan Army naturally can't raise their heads. Not being able to participate directly in the battle is a depressing thing in itself. The matter of rewarding meritorious deeds can only be ranked last, and there is not even that kind of delusion at all. But today, Lin Dashuai actually awarded the engineer battalion with a general order for great merit, and also awarded the honorary title of 'hard battalion', which is a precedent. In the Luoyan Army, the main battle battalions fought bravely, and they all had signature titles, such as "Flying Tiger Battalion", "Thunderbolt Battalion", "Steel Battalion" and the like. Under each battalion, there are various queue titles for outstanding performance, and there are even queues named after soldiers with outstanding combat achievements and brave combat. These honorary titles are even more face-saving than rewarding and promoting officials. It is the most valued honor in the Falling Goose Army. Now, the engineer battalion finally has such a title, how can you not teach Ruan Ping and the soldiers of the engineer battalion to cheer and be excited.

"Dashuai, this ...... This...... Ruan Binh thanked the brothers for being handsome, and the hard work of the brothers was not in vain. Ruan Ping spoke incoherently excitedly.

Lin Jue smiled and patted him on the shoulder and said, "Brother Ruan, you are very good. You are also the old brother of the Wild Goose Army. Over the years, he has worked hard and complained, regardless of gains and losses. When I asked you to lead the engineer battalion, you did not complain at all, and you thought of many ways to create many novel means of building bridges and roads, which I admire from the bottom of my heart. After this war, I have some thoughts I would like to share with you, which are some of the instruments and methods I have envisioned for the construction of roads and bridges. In addition, I would like to recommend you as the head of the Ministry of Works, and the Great Zhou will build bridges and dams on a large scale in the future, and you will be of great use, Brother Ruan. ”

Ruan Ping bowed and saluted, excited. It turns out that Dashuai sees everything in his eyes, Dashuai actually knows it in his heart, he can see everyone's efforts, and he will definitely not treat every brother badly.

The news from the front was as Lin Jue expected, and there were no Jurchen soldiers and horses ambushing on the other side. Liyang City is also a dilapidated and destroyed empty city, and the Jurchens did not stay in the Liyang area at all. So Lin Jue ordered the army to march, starting from the hour, the army crossed the river in a big way, and by the end of the afternoon, the army had all crossed the white horse crossing. After a short rest, we headed northeast. On the evening of the same day, he was stationed in the county government of Beijun County, Liyang, and continued to march the next day.

In the evening of the same day, the cavalry army led by Ma Qingshan had already arrived in Linhe County, southwest of Puyang City, which was already a small county town less than 50 miles away from Puyang.

In fact, after entering the territory of Kaide Mansion, the scouts kept sending messages, reporting that a large number of enemy traces had appeared near Puyang, and the sneaky figures of the Jurchen scouts were constantly found along the way. Both sides are actually keeping a close eye on each other's whereabouts. As the distance between the two sides narrowed, tension began to permeate the army.

After arriving in Linhe County, the army had been extra careful when stationed, surrounded by dense sentry posts, and the camping site chosen was also on a hillside. But that's the last hillside land. Before the sun set, Ma Qingshan personally led the cavalry to survey the terrain ahead. As Lin Dashuai said, the area around Puyang City is already a flat land with a radius of dozens of miles, and there is not even a decent mound. Obviously, as Lin Jue had predicted, the Jurchens had carefully chosen this place in the wilderness to fight to the death with the Luoyan army.

That night, Lin Jue held a routine military meeting and laid out relevant operational strategies. Just as he was about to rest early and get up early tomorrow to march to Puyang, the soldiers of the Luoyan Army on the periphery captured two people who claimed to be Jurchen messengers and sent the Chinese army's big tent. When Lin Jue heard this, he had to order someone to bring the messenger to the big tent and meet him in person.

The people who came were indeed two Jurchens, both of whom were generals under the command of Wanyan Agu. Lin Jue didn't know them, but these two people knew Lin Jue. And after seeing Lin Jue, the first words of these two people surprised Lin Jue.

"Ah Tingha, bald and black, I came to meet Aunt Lin on the order of my Jurchen Princess Jinhua."

Lin Jue was stunned for a moment, frowned and asked, "What?" ”

"Ah Tingha, bald Hanhei, the two of us came to visit Aunt Lin on the order of Princess Jurchen Jinhua." The two Jurchens repeated.

"Princess Golden? Are you saying that you came on the orders of Mingyue? Lin Jue was surprised.

"Yes and no. We are also here on the orders of the Great Leader of Wanyan. "Asaharda.

Lin Jue shouted in a deep voice: "What the hell? What the hell are you going to say? ”

Ah Tingha smiled: "Aunt Lin, don't worry, we were ordered by the big leader to send a letter to Aunt Lin on behalf of my princess Jinhua." ”

Asahar spoke like a tongue twister.

Lin Jue felt more and more that something was wrong, and said in a deep voice: "The two of you have something to say, you don't have to go around." What do you want you to do here? ”

Bal Han said heavily: "Report to Aunt Lin, our Great Leader Wanyan didn't want to do anything, Princess Jinhua is in my big military camp, because I miss my aunt very much, so the Great Leader Wanyan ordered the two of us to send a letter to Princess Jinhua." The letter is here, please take a look at it. ”

Lin Jue's heart froze, and his brows furrowed. Wanyan Mingyue was actually in the Jurchen camp, which was really an accident. Isn't she far away from the Jurchen tribe of Changbai Mountain with her own children? That's what she said when she sent a letter to herself. She wasn't in the Jurchen army before, so why is she here now? Knowing that there was going to be a war, what did she do here?

Lin Jue suddenly thought of a possibility, and couldn't help frowning, and his heart was a little flustered.