It was a little far away from Xia Guoying, and Wang Ji muttered in a low voice: "Du Dutou is usually very reasonable, but I didn't expect to be so rigid." The guard next to him smiled: "But it's no wonder that he is a Kansai after all." Everyone laughed under their breath. These Han army guards followed Han Ningshuang around the world and saw the customs and customs of various places. It is recognized that Kansai's face is cold and hard-hearted, and it is not as good as Kanto's human affection and beauty. "It's just a small camp, and it's really a forbidden palace." "It's not like we haven't seen it in Linquan Palace."

"Our Liaodong Han'er husband can bend and stretch, and we don't have to worry about him." There was another burst of laughter, and Wang Ji smashed a blow on the man's head. "Stretch out your ghost!"

Han Ningshuang had a smile on the corner of her mouth. Although Xia Guoying is good, it has a somewhat vivid impression on the Han people. Zhao Xingde's prestige among the Han people in Liaodong is higher than that of the Xia State Camp itself. Guards, you say a word to me, although she doesn't think so, she doesn't say anything to reprimand. The guards surrounded her all the way to inspect the posts of the various departments, and it was not until three o'clock that they collected the team and returned to the camp, and it was almost time to return to the Chinese army.

The entire Guannan of Suzhou was silent, and the sound of the night patrol was heard far away in the night sky......

From the day after his arrival in Suzhou, Xia Guoying began to train gunners for the Han army. Because of the insufficient number of archers, the Han army marshal's palace placed great expectations on the use of artillery to defend the walled city. Han Ningshuang personally selected a thousand strong elites of the Han army and formed two artillery battalions in one go. Tong Yunjie and other Han soldiers who were trained in Kaizhou in the early stage, Zhao Xingde were all trained as artillery commanders, and after arriving in Kaizhou, each of them became ten commanders.

The Han soldiers who entered the artillery battalion were all veterans of the original village, and those with similar qualifications in Suzhou Guannan had become low-ranking officers, and many of them were quite resistant to being assigned to the artillery battalion. Han Ningshuang personally explained to these veterans that there are two options for the Marshal Mansion to select artillerymen, and the first is the absolute elite. The second is absolute loyalty. The success or failure of the Han army to protect the territory and the people and attack the Liao State depended to a large extent on whether the artillery battalion could be trained into an elite division. The gunner's salary was the same as that of the centurion, and the minimum salary of the gunner's was equal to that of the centurion. Tong Yunjie, commander of the artillery battalion and captain of the first battalion, is also a convincing figure, although he is lame, he is rain or shine in every drill, never absent, and even operates the artillery himself. Zhao Xingde believes that among the Han army, Tong Yunjie is one of the best artillery commanders.

The southern part of Suzhou is a small place, where more than 100,000 soldiers and civilians gather, and construction is being carried out everywhere. Every live-fire exercise of the artillery battalion had to be carried out in Kanbei. Han Ningshuang regarded the artillery battalion as important as an eyeball, and every time the artillery battalion went out, there were more than 1,000 gunners. The accompanying escort of the Han infantry army numbered two or three thousand. Later, Zhao Xingde simply suggested that the Han cavalry should be trained in the adaptability of artillery. When the artillery opened fire on the open field, the Han cavalry changed various formations at a very close range of the artillery, and even charged towards the artillery position, practicing the capture of the Liao's iron barrel artillery position. After rounds of training, the Han cavalry was already able to skillfully control their horses on the battlefield with the roar of artillery and smoke.

The relationship between the instructors and the Han army became extremely familiar during the exercise. The artillery battalion became the battalion with the best military discipline and military appearance in Guannan, Suzhou. After two battalions of Han troops trained for a month, thirty Xia artillery pieces and a large amount of ammunition arrived in Suzhou. The Han army specially purchased a large number of iron barrel shotguns to defend the city, and the Han blacksmiths in Liaodong imitated a batch of old-style iron barrel cannons, alleviating the dilemma of more people and less artillery. The Marshal's Mansion once again replenished a group of elite recruits, expanding each artillery battalion to two.

Two months passed very quickly, there was no shortage of horses in Liaodong, and the Han army also formed ten battalions of cavalry, including about 1,000 iron cavalry with heavy armor. Seeing that the war was imminent, it was taboo for soldiers to defend the walled city, and the main force of the Han army to organize a counterattack was cavalry. Among the artillery guns purchased from the Xia Kingdom, there were ten heavy barrel guns with a caliber of 10 inches, 10 3-inch field guns, and 10 4-inch field guns. The Han army also copied ten iron barrel cannons and placed them on the city defense gun position.

The weather is getting colder and colder. In November, the autumn insects gradually hibernated, and the four artillery battalions had become an army. The walls of Nanshan City and Guannan of Suzhou were nearing completion, and the Han army marshal's palace began to arrange ships to send the elderly, weak, women and children to the neighboring islands for the winter. The main generals of the Han army stayed in Guannan, Suzhou, Han Ningshuang's marshal's mansion was in the old Tieshan camp, Wang Xuansu was stationed in Nanshan City, and the remaining guards were all strong Han troops, and the grain and straw were well stored, and everyone was not very afraid of the Liao army.

Han Ningshuang's Han army generals were much more worried. The Liao State has the practice of sending troops in winter, and the Jin State has notified the Han army that it will swear to the south in December, and Wan Yan will be the commander of all the internal and external armies, and Wan Yan Zonghan and Wan Yan Zongjun will be the deputy commanders, leading the main force of the Jin army to attack Shenzhou. Wanyan Gao and Wanyan Zongbi led a detour to Liaoyang.

In the past few months, the Han army invaded Yaozhou, Chenzhou, Ningzhou, and Fuzhou along the coast of the Liao State, and even Zhenhaifu did not fight, not only plundering many people, but also appointing Han officers and soldiers to garrison. Suzhou Guannan and Kaizhou Taibai Mountain are connected, and the situation in Liaodong is very good, but Han Ningshuang's worries have not been reduced. The Han army extended from Suzhou and soon had no danger to defend. The Han army was heavily stationed in Guannan, Suzhou, which seemed to be foolproof, but in fact, it was extremely difficult for the power to develop outward, and the coastal states and counties were just scratching the surface. According to Zhao Xingde's suggestion at the beginning, if the main force of tens of thousands of Han troops was placed in the area of Taibai Mountain, Yalu River, and Gongmen River, the hinterland of power expansion would be almost endless. The current situation is a bit like the "Heavenly Prison" Jedi mentioned in the Book of War. Tens of thousands of Liao troops in Liaoyang were stopped in the north of the Han army, and the terrain was conducive to the Liao cavalry galloping vertically and horizontally.

On November 18, dark clouds covered the entire sky, as if they were about to press down on the ground. The Han army in the fort was talking about the first snow of the winter with great interest. Two thousand cavalry escorted the field artillery battalion out of the city for training.

Under the supervision of the sergeant, with a short and powerful command, the artillery crew completed the action of charging, loading, ignition, artillery resetting, brushing the gun chamber and so on again and again, because the ammunition was not enough, and the coherent action was completed about 20 times, Zhao Xingde randomly decided to fire live ammunition once, if an artillery group was not accurate for three live ammunition firing, the gun commander was dismissed on the spot, and the unqualified artillery crew was removed and returned to the infantry barracks, which was a great shame for the Han army.

Operating the artillery was extremely tiring, and the gunners took off their cumbersome cotton robes and wore only single clothes, and although the weather was cold, they were still sweating profusely, and a white mist was rising above their heads. Everyone was engrossed in the drill, and the sergeants and gun commanders kept repeating the command aloud. Tong Yunjie stood straight on the artillery position with one wooden leg, his eyes scanning the various artillery groups like a falcon, picking on every action that did not meet the requirements.

Zhao Xingde stood behind the artillery position, silently watching the hot scene. Not far away, the trained cavalry suddenly shouted loudly, and "Marshal!" could be vaguely heard, "Marshal!" "Marshal!" sounds. Zhao Xingde followed the prestige in the past. Han Ningshuang rode a pure black tall horse, wearing a white coat, and was running along the horizontal column of the cavalry, more than thirty cavalry guards followed closely behind her, and after running to the side of the cavalry column, Han Ningshuang drew his saber, and the cavalry in the front and back of the five teams raised their blades at the same time. In the distant artillery positions, the sound of chirping was also heard very neatly. I saw Han Ningshuang's saber pointing forward, "Charge!" "Charge!" The cavalry of the Han army urged the horses to run. Although their queue was not as neat as the Xia State cavalry, they also carried an indomitable ruthlessness.

Zhao Xingde looked at the white figure, his heart moved slightly, and he ordered in a deep voice: "Fire!" "It didn't take long for ten artillery pieces to roar at the same time, the sound of the cannons was deafening, clouds of smoke rose up, almost connected with the dark clouds in the sky, and the horses of the cavalry neighed uneasily, but the formation was still not chaotic, and more than two thousand horsemen circled a big arc outside the range of the artillery, appeared on the flank of the artillery position, and then increased the speed of the horses, and rushed over with lightning speed, like a black tide of rage.

This kind of exercise is also a regular subject, the artillery men turn the muzzle to the flank, the cavalry is within range, but do not really fire, until the cavalry crosses the trench behind the artillery position with great speed, the artillery men are constantly loading, and the Xia State sergeant counts for them, and in the middle also simulates the bombardment of approaching enemy troops with shotguns. It wasn't until the cavalry rushed away that everyone didn't have time to breathe a sigh of relief, but they found that Marshal Han was galloping towards the artillery position with his guards, and for a while, the Han artillery battalion actually ignored the constraints of the military order and cheered loudly together.

"The artillery battalion is so well trained, General Zhao is really hard work." Han Ningshuang galloped for a while, the corners of her forehead were slightly sweaty, and her cheeks were also red. More than 30 guards of the Han cavalry army were scattered around to stand on guard, and the captain and centurion of the Han army's artillery battalion urged the artillery crew under his command to train quickly, so that the marshal could see that the artillery battalion was no worse than the cavalry battalion.

"What can be compared to Marshal Han and win the hearts of the military." Zhao Xingde subconsciously looked towards the artillery battalion position, and each artillery group trained as quickly as if it had been wound up.

Han Ningshuang also looked at the ten artillery groups in front of him, was silent for a while, and said in a low voice: "It's not polite, General Zhao has spent a lot of effort in training the artillery battalion in the past two months, and the Han army is grateful. With sincerity in her tone, Zhao Xingde was slightly embarrassed, and replied in a low voice: "Zhao's responsibilities are within his duties." ”

"Duty is duty, heart is heart," Han Ningshuang's eyes flashed with a complicated look, and he looked back at Nanshan City, which seemed to be pressed to the ground by dark clouds, "General Zhao gave advice to the Han army, and did his best every time. Her tone was a little astringent, "Actually, we appreciate this heart." ”