Xu Shizhen's battle group participated in the attack on Pingxingguan on June 15, although the geographical location of Pingxingguan was very important, but the Qi army still had no casualties in this battle, and after conquering Pingxingguan on the same day, the Qi army on the southern route began to move separately as planned.

The attack route of Xu Shizhen's division was changed to march along the Inner Great Wall, attacking the Inner Great Wall passes such as Beiloukou, Dashikou, and Ruyuekou, and the ultimate goal was Yanmen Pass.

The Qi army attacked very smoothly all the way, Xu Shizhen didn't even encounter any resistance along the way, and all the Shihou army strongholds encountered along the way all surrendered without a fight, and some even opened the gate before the Qi army arrived.

The important passes of the Inner Great Wall changed hands, and Xu Shizhen captured about 2,000 prisoners, most of whom were released according to the previous process, but there were also some Jin provincial soldiers who thought they were brave enough to take the initiative to follow Xu Shizhen.

Xu Shizhen couldn't bear too many casualties among his subordinates, so he agreed to follow these soldiers from his previous life, his idea was that if there was danger, these villagers who voluntarily surrendered might be able to share some casualties; If the future is still as smooth as before, then the people who take the initiative to take refuge can also help promote the strong combat effectiveness of the Qi army.

Therefore, when Xu Shizhen's battle group arrived at Yanmen Pass on June 22, in addition to the 500 real Qi troops under his command, there were nearly 1,200 cold weapon auxiliaries who followed.

The number of auxiliaries who took the initiative to take refuge in enemy-occupied areas was more than twice that of the main force, and this is probably not a small miracle in military history.

Xu Shizhen divided all the township soldiers who came with him into 12 squadrons in a team of 100 people, and selected some old non-commissioned officers from his own team to serve as squadron leaders.

However, along the way, Xu Shizhen found that among the relatively experienced non-commissioned officers, those young soldiers were more popular with the township soldiers who came over.

He took advantage of the meal break to ask why, and the answer was confusing, but the big question was summed up: these young people looked more high-spirited.

It is no wonder that although most of the young soldiers were born in poverty, when they were sent to the military academy, they were unclothed, as thin as a hemp pole, unkempt, and could not even distinguish between men and women at a glance (there are many such children among the junior military cadets who have just entered the school now).

But after entering the military academy, after five years of junior military school and three years of intermediate military school life, these children have completely changed.

Not to mention being able to eat and clothe themselves every day, cadets now have a daily supply of dairy products and poultry eggs, and can eat at least one meal of meat every three days.

Adequate nutrition and physical training give the young soldier a certain level of height, strength, health, and self-confidence that is beyond his time.

In the eyes of those newly recruited militiamen, the young soldiers wearing beautiful military uniforms and eating canned meat while singing have become a kind of benchmark for a better life in the future.

And the militiamen naturally hope that in the near future, their children will become as tall as a pine, walk with the wind, speak heartily, and have a healthy complexion.

This is also the reason why so many township soldiers are willing to follow Xu Shizhen's battle group, rather than other troops.

Xu Shizhen sighed: "Not to mention anything else, at least in terms of attracting others to vote, the children's performance is really good." ”

"They're in good time." Ding Jie said with a smile: "I didn't have such a good treatment when I was in the 'children's team'. ”

"Don't talk about you, I, the young master of the Xu family, have never had this kind of meat, fish, eggs and milk before, at most, I eat more fine grains than you."

"So we have to find a way to get things done as quickly as possible so that everybody can have a good life like this." Ding Jie put away his hippie smile, and his tone of voice became serious: "I just received a report on the enemy situation of the front team, and there are enemy cavalry activities in this generation. ”

"Huh? Enemy riders? Xu Shizhen was surprised: "Shihou still has cavalry? Have you caught any of the captives? ”

"No, the enemy is very cunning, just riding on horses and watching from a distance, and when our men get a little closer, they burrow into the ravine and disappear." Ding Jie replied: "The communication soldiers of the front team said that the enemy did not look like Han Chinese in their attire and their riding skills were also very good, and they suspected that they were Mugul, so they reminded us to be vigilant. ”

Hearing this, Xu Shizhen glanced up at the surrounding terrain.

This generation of mountains is dense, as far as the eye can see, there are some sheep intestine paths between the mountains, zigzag do not know where to lead, the villagers who surrendered said that these trails were originally walked out by the nearby people with their feet for many years, basically connected to each other, and some were also used to hide from the war in the year of war.

With the help of local people who are familiar with the terrain, hiding a few thousand people in the valley is no problem.

"I can hide thousands of people." Xu Shizhen sighed.

If it is a team of thousands of marquis soldiers, it is no problem, even if it is a team composed of family members or gun masters of the marquis, it may be able to have some combat effectiveness alone, but if it is really necessary to fight in formation, the strength it shows is not more than Erer.

But if there are Muguls involved, it is a little different.

It's not that the herdsmen's combat effectiveness is naturally stronger than that of the peasants, it's just that the Mughure Tartars don't like the young soldiers of the Qi State like the compatriots in Jin Province.

Although you are not afraid of wolves with a gun in your hand, wolves are always a threat, right?

"Get down the notice and get ready for battle." Xu Shizhen ordered: "Tell the sentry to be vigilant and pay attention to see if there are any enemy horsemen snooping around." ”

……

In a valley two hills away from Xu Shizhen's battle group, Batuzhen sat on the side of the road, quietly listening to the two sentinels return.

"A team of cubs?" Batu asked in surprise, "Did you hear me right?" ”

"No, it's just some little puppy of a Chinese dog." One of the sentries said in an affirmative tone: "It is said that there are five hundred, of which one hundred seem to be veterans, and the others are all young cubs who have not grown up, and there are some local auxiliaries." ”

The Qi army is not easy to mess with, and it is easy to have problems if the sentry horse is too close, but these two lucky people found that Xu Shizhen's team was mixed with too many village soldiers, and these people were easy to deal with.

The two sentinels each captured a prisoner, and they could ask for a lot of information by torture, which did not arouse Xu Shizhen's vigilance.

He also thought that these township soldiers had left the team and gone home, this situation was normal, after all, the homeland was difficult to leave, although they were all in Jin Province, but for most peasants, leaving the county was considered a long away, leaving the province felt like going to the ends of the earth.

The Qi army did not restrict the freedom of movement of these people, so the township soldiers came and went, and new people would join and some would quit everywhere they went.

"Master, those little cubs come out to fight and sing all day long, all of them are good-looking, not like ordinary people's cubs."

Another scout added:

"Could it be that the cubs of the Han nobles came out to earn military merits?"