He served as the commander of the city guard.

The commander made Lei Bo have already prepared the baggage for this trip to the south, and all of them are placed in the school yard in the city.

This time, Shandong sent troops to the south, and the rest of the state capitals did not send a single soldier, only Yanzhou Government dispatched the main barracks, the odd barracks, and some soldiers and horses in Yushan Town.

For this reason, the Jinan government has already issued orders to the state capitals: the Yanzhou government will send troops, and the rest of the state governments will provide money and grain, and it only took half a month to raise 25,000 troops for two months' money, food, and military salaries.

Lei Bai said: "Jun Tao, this time the south is extremely dangerous, then Ye Zongliu and Deng Maoqi are two giant soldiers, with a large number of generals, gathering nearly a million people, you have to be more careful!" ”

Looking at Lei Bo's expression of some excessive concern, Liu Juntao understood in his heart that Lei Bo was worried that he would accidentally lose the battle, and if the imperial court tracked it down, he would affect all parts of Shandong, especially Yanzhou Mansion and Ren Chengwei.

So, Liu Juntao smiled and said: "Don't worry, my lord, this time I and my soldiers will definitely kill the generals and capture the flag and make military achievements, and we will definitely fight for our Qilu boys!" ”

"Good!"

Lei Bo laughed and said: "Jun Tao, I have prepared all the money, food, and military salaries raised by various prefectures and counties, and when the army sets off tomorrow, you will send someone to the school field in the city to set off for transportation." ”

"Okay."

"Also, when you pass through Qufu County in the south, it's best to stop for a while, Yan Shenggong wants to march for the army."

The next day, Liu Juntao took the money, food, and military salaries in the city, and led the Yanzhou Mansion Zheng Barracks, Qi Barracks, as well as the front camp, rear camp, and cavalry battalion of Yushan Town, and set off all the way south in the direction of Qufu County.

Two days later, the 25,000-strong army arrived at the city of Qufu County, and Kong Yanjin, the prince of Yansheng, appointed Mr. Shan to meet him outside the city, preparing to march for the army.

However, due to the tight assembly date set by the Ministry of War, Liu Juntao was inconvenient to stay in Qufu County, so he thanked Mr. Shan for his kindness and accepted the pigs, sheep and wine sent by Yan Shenggong outside the city.

"Yan Shenggong's kindness to the country is loyal, and the last general and all the generals have received it, but the military period is too tight, and the army will not enter the city, please Mr. convey our thanks on your behalf!"

Mr. Shan clenched his fists and said, "It's okay!" Then I will go back and tell Yan Shenggong that when the army returns triumphantly, I will set up a celebration banquet and pour wine for all the soldiers and soldiers! ”

Then, Liu Juntao took a bowl of spirits handed over by Mr. Shan, and only heard Mr. Shan say: "I also invited Liu Guerrilla to drink this bowl of Zhuangxing wine, and I will definitely win the first place in this expedition!" ”

Liu Juntao drank it all directly, threw the wine bowl on the ground, and then turned over on the horse, hugged his fist at Mr. Shan, and said, "Sir, please go back!" ”

After speaking, Liu Juntao waved his hand and yelled: "Let's go!" ”

And the army of twenty-five thousand marched south in the wilderness.

Mr. Shan looked at the army rolling south, looked at the elite soldiers and strong generals with strict formations and murderous spirit, and sighed in his heart: "Fortunately, my Yanzhou Mansion has Liu Guerrilla and Yushan Town, otherwise I am afraid that this time Shandong Province will not even be able to get together a thousand soldiers and horses, I don't know how many people will drop their black hats!" ”

Six days later, Liu Juntao led an army of 25,000 to arrive at Qulipu in Xuzhou Prefecture, and Gao Ran, the commander of the right battalion of the Yushan Town Guard stationed here, heard the news and had already led a general army and horses to wait outside the gate.

Bringing the army into the Quli shop, Gao Ran led Liu Juntao to the main hall.

At this time, Qulipu has been expanded twice, and the scale is more than three times larger than when the Xu family was in charge, and it can fully accommodate 25,000 troops, but the fort is very crowded, but fortunately, Liu Juntao's army will not stay for too long, and will continue to go south the next day.

Looking at the brand-new lobby, Liu Juntao said with a smile: "How is it?" It's comfortable here, right? ”

Gao Ran said with a smile: "General, I still want to lead the army to fight south with you, it is far less pleasant to be stationed here than to fight!" ”

"There will be this day!"

Liu Juntao asked: "Are the troops, money, food, and baggage ready?" ”

When Gao Ran heard this, he took out an account book from the table next to him, handed it to Liu Juntao, and said: "Please take a look at the general, the money, food, and military salaries transported by the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Ministry of Commerce, as well as the military equipment and baggage sent by the military department, have been loaded and ready to be transported, and they can go south with the army at any time." ”

Liu Juntao took the account book and looked at it, only to see that the spare armor, firearms, long knives, paper shell fixed ammunition, Wuhan Iron and Steel chariots, lookout pole carts, etc., were all recorded in the book, and the number of each piece of armament was clearly written.

The money, food, and military salaries sent by the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Ministry of Commerce were also carefully written.

"Well, that's good!"

Liu Juntao said: "The order goes down, all the baggage is distributed, and the main barracks of Yanzhou Mansion, the Qibing Barracks, and the battalions of the Yushan Town Guard are evenly distributed. In this way, I don't care about other officers and soldiers, at least our 25,000 troops will no longer have to worry about running out of food and being surrounded! ”

That night, the 25,000-strong army slaughtered pigs and sheep in Qulipu and had a big meal.

Early the next morning, Liu Juntao bid farewell to Gao Ran, led the battalions of soldiers and horses to continue south, and after 5,000 troops, he rushed to Jiangpu Town, which was directly subordinate to Yingtianfu in the south.

At this time, Dai Jingkui, the commander of the bandit army, had already led 5,000 Mongolian iron cavalry to Jiangpu Town, and set up a large camp, was allocating troops to prepare money and food, and constantly sent people to urge the 20,000 troops in Beijing to come as soon as possible.

When he heard that the Shandong soldiers and horses had arrived, General Dai Jingkui was very happy and took a group of his subordinates to greet him outside the gate.

Everyone saw that the 25,000 army led by Liu Juntao was divided into four huge phalanxes and slowly marched, and thousands of fierce iron cavalry troops marched together on both wings.

Seeing this, General Dai Jingkui couldn't help but be overjoyed, he had such a strong army under his command, and the chances of winning this battle increased by a few points.

At the same time, Dai Jingkui also took a look at the Shandong soldiers and horses, especially the leading generals, and he didn't know what kind of person he was.

And a group of generals behind Dai Jingkui also muttered quietly, talking about this army.

It didn't take long for Liu Juntao to lead the army to stop two miles away from the camp, and then led Zhou Zongsheng, Sun Xu, Zhang Xiaojun, and Yan Hu to meet Shangguan.

And the 25,000-strong army stood still in the cold wind, like an endless steel jungle, which was magnificent!

"Well done! What a soldier! ”

Staff General Dai Jingkui couldn't help but sigh, looking at Liu Juntao and others who came over on horseback, he also admired: "What a tiger general!" ”

When Liu Juntao and the others approached and saluted Dai Jingkui, Dai Jingkui strode forward and helped Liu Juntao and the others up one by one, and said with a smile: "I have long heard that there is a young tiger general in Shandong who is good at using firearms. ”

"Your Excellency has won a prize! The last will not dare to be! ”

After speaking, Liu Juntao introduced Zhang Xiaojun, Yan Hu, Zhou Zongsheng, Sun Xu and others to Dai Jingkui one by one, and Dai Jingkui also introduced the Mongolian iron cavalry generals led by himself.

Liu Juntao got to know it carefully, and saw that the four or five thousand households, the commander was either a pure martial artist who was unkempt and reckless, or a pure Tartar who spoke nonsense and did not know etiquette, so he secretly said in his heart: "With such an iron horse, it is really embarrassing for this general!" ”

However, Liu Juntao did not despise these Mongolian generals because of this, after all, if they really went to the battlefield, they might all be tiger generals, and they would have to be ignored on the battlefield.

After everyone greeted each other for a while, Dai Jingkui led them into the camp together, and the 25,000 troops under Liu Juntao also camped in the south of the main camp according to the camp.

After entering the camp, Liu Juntao also carefully observed the Mongolian iron cavalry in the camp, and saw that the clothes and armor of these Mongolian soldiers were old, and the armor rate was not high.

This kind of equipment is not comparable to the Yushan Town Guards at all, and now the armor rate of the Yushan Town Guards has reached 100%, and the soldiers are still wearing double armor, which can be described as full of protection.

"The equipment of these Mongolian soldiers is really not good!"

Liu Juntao secretly thought in his heart.

However, Liu Juntao must also admit that the spirit of these Mongolian soldiers is still good, and they are full of fierceness between their actions, although the equipment is not good, but it is also a strong force.

Early the next morning, the 20,000 troops of the Beijing camp also arrived, and Liu Juntao went out of the camp with Dai Jingkui, a staff general, to greet them.

Liu Juntao carefully observed the soldiers and horses of the Beijing camp, and saw that the garrison of the Beijing Division was worthy of the forbidden army of the Son of Heaven, with distinctive clothes and armor, extraordinary bearing, and a strict formation between marches, and the army was also equipped with all kinds of chariots and firearms.

Liu Juntao looked from afar and found that most of those firearms were old firearms such as Wankou guns and Dafa Gong, which were commonly equipped by the Ming army at this time, and they were not the same as the new firearms equipped by the Yushan Town Guards.

Moreover, Liu Juntao also found that the 20,000 soldiers and horses of the Beijing battalion lacked the bloody spirit on the battlefield, although the drills were strict, but they rarely experienced the battle array!

"It seems that this battle has a long way to go!"