Xu Shiyang even wanted to equip the convoys that were reclaimed abroad with artillery.

In particular, the god machine gun with high rate of fire and light weight, although this weapon has begun to gradually be phased out in the front-line field troops, this is after all an artillery piece, which can effectively strengthen the firepower output of the cantonment militia.

What's more, the god cannon is made of iron, and the price is relatively cheap.

However, in the end, the Governor's Office and the Ministry of War persuaded Xu Shiyang to give up the plan to equip the militia with artillery.

The Governor's Office was mainly worried that the militia's magic cannons would easily fall into the hands of unfriendly forces, and the military headquarters was stingy with these artillery.

So, in the end, the garrison soldiers still only had muskets to support the firepower output.

In addition to weapons and means of transportation, there is also a very important condition for foreign development, that is, sufficient supplies - most of the people who went out to cultivate land are not wealthy families, and in order to buy weapons, camels, and carts, they not only spend all their previous savings, but also owe large loans to banks.

At this time, the Governor's Office was required to provide at least the rations and seeds needed for the first year of emigration.

The Governor's Mansion inventory was quite adequate in this regard, but Xu Shiyang thought that the garrison soldiers should be provided with enough protein as much as possible, after all, it was a very physically demanding job to open up in an unfamiliar area.

To this end, Xu Shiyang transferred a large amount of pickled whale meat.

Since Qi Province began to build a whaling fleet, whale meat has quickly become an important source of protein for the people of Qi Province.

In recent years, the harvests of the whaling fleet in Qi Province are: 17 whales were caught in the first year of Longdao; The number of Longdao increased to 45 in two years; It's only July this year, and 70 whales have already been hunted.

The increase in efficiency, in addition to the growth in the number of whaling ships, was also the renewal of equipment - the arsenal developed a whaling cannon specifically for whaling ships, which was a little smaller in caliber than the god cannon, but capable of firing whaling forks with ropes to attack whales remotely.

In this way, the whaling ships of Qi Province do not need to send warriors to throw harpoons at the whales in small boats, and the ships of Qi Province can even attack fierce whales such as humpback whales, which previous whaling ships did not dare to provoke, and even multiple boats can hunt giants such as blue whales together.

On average, each whale can bring about 1 to 1.5 tons of whale oil, about 5 tons of whale meat, and other materials such as whale bones.

Not counting whale oil, which can be used as export supplies and lubricant for machines, meat alone, a whale can provide more than 60 stones.

More than 70 whales, which is equivalent to the amount of meat that more than 7,000 pigs (pigs in this era are not fattening) can provide.

Whale meat, together with the increasing number of poultry such as chickens and ducks, and meat animals such as pigs and sheep, was enough to meet the meat consumption needs of the army and the cantonments.

Unfortunately, Xu Shiyang has always strictly demanded that whaling ships not attack killer whales and dolphins, otherwise the harvest of the Qi provincial fleet could be a little higher.

……

At the beginning of July of the third year of Longdao, the reconnaissance cavalry company of the Pingyuan Brigade took the lead in setting off from Dezhou to Yanjing.

Three hours later, the first convoy of troops set off along the canal and officially began the operation to recover Ji Province.

A day later, the Qi army in Fuzhou also began to set off.

Xu Shiyang saw off the light cavalry from the Dingyuan Brigade and the first convoy to set off in Fuzhou, and he himself would lead the main force to go out two days later to provide protection for the convoy.

Xu Shiyang's plan was to start from Fuzhou and build a tunpu every ten miles or so, all the way from Fuzhou to Gaizhou.

When the vanguard convoy crossed Xiongyueyi and got closer to Gaizhou, the field army would overtake the Tuntian convoy and become the vanguard of the army, and in this way it would advance until Gaizhou.

In order to ensure the safety of the people as much as possible, the land north of the Qinghe River will not be built with a fort for the time being, and the city of Gaizhou itself will become a garrison fortress, and no people will be arranged to live.

……

"Here they are."

Wanyan Zongbi said helplessly:

"When they get to Gaizhou, we will have no way to retreat."

From Fuzhou to Gaizhou, although this strategy also caused Daikin to suffer heavy losses, it finally had a certain effect.

In the past year and a half, Qi Province has not been able to launch an attack on the core territory of Dajin, even if Wanyan Yinshu can defect, this is true when the Jurchens are at their weakest.

But now, the peaceful days of giving up a large amount of land in exchange for it can be regarded as the end, and the Qi army, which has accumulated a large amount of material supplies, has enough strength to cross the scorched earth belt.

And this time it was not a simple attack, the Jin army scouts returned, and the Qi army took a large number of ordinary people with them this time, built a village every time they walked, and then began to cultivate the wasteland.

The Han people are always very good at farming, and Wanyan Zongbi estimates that if they successfully occupy Gaizhou this year, after the autumn harvest next year, the Han people in southern Liaoning will be self-sufficient and no longer need subsidies from Qi Province.

In another year, the land in southern Liaoning will be able to provide a certain amount of supplies for the military operations of the Qi army.

By the third year, or at most the fourth year, the supplies produced in southern Liaoning were almost enough to support the Qi army's military operations in eastern Liaodong.

Therefore, Wanyan Zongbi strongly hoped to be able to compete with the Qi army in Gaizhou - at least at this time, the Qi army's actions in Gaizhou were still at a loss in terms of grain and grass.

Another benefit is that the Qi army has built so many villages along the way, and if they can defeat the main force of the Qi army, then these villages can bring a lot of loot to Dajin.

The prerequisite is that you can actually win.

"Do we have that strength?" Wanyan Zonggan said: "The soldiers have just returned from Heilongjiang, although they have grabbed a lot of dingkou and cattle and sheep, but everyone is very tired. ”

When Xu Shiyang finished cleaning up Yan Yinshuke, Wanyan Zonggan, Wanyan Zongwang, and Wanyan Zongbi led 20,000 Jin Army armor soldiers to the north, and fought a decisive battle with the Shengjurchen Coalition led by Bomu Boguoer, the co-owner of the Jurchen Coalition Army, near Heilongjiang.

In the end, the well-equipped and superior Jin army won a complete victory, Bomu Boguoer himself was captured, and the Jin army destroyed countless Jurchen villages on both sides of the Heilongjiang River, killing tens of thousands of people successively, and capturing nearly 20,000 people of all ethnic groups and tribes, of which there were as many as 7,000 in Dingkou alone.

These populations effectively supplemented the gap in strength caused by the Yinshuke rebellion to Dajin, but after fighting such a long war in the bitter cold land, it was a person who would feel tired, and the main force of the Jin army could be said to be quite tired at this time.

The more serious problem is grain and grass, last year Liaodong was also affected by the locust plague, almost half of the land was close to harvest, so that before the expedition to give birth to the Jurchen, the price of grain on the Liaozhong Plain reached an astonishing ten times of rice!

Many poor soldiers who were so hungry that they couldn't stand it defied the ban and secretly slaughtered cattle and horses to survive the cold winter, and even the poorer even killed people for meat!

This year, because Aha suffered too much and agriculture has not been able to recover, the price of grain is still soaring, and there are few troops that can gather half of the rations before the troops are dispatched, and the various ministries have swept away the stocks of grain depots.

After beating the Jurchens, tens of thousands of people were replenished, but there was no harvest in terms of food, and Wanyan Zongbi had to order all the livestock he grabbed to be slaughtered and eaten for meat, so that it was estimated that it could support this year's harvest.

But if the whole army goes out to fight.......

Hehe, the Jin army can't even get the rations needed by the troops now.