This time, Xiao Tianjian went north, and mobilized more than 10 battalions in Henan Divisions, totaling nearly 10,000 elite soldiers, including two cavalry battalions, five infantry battalions, one artillery battalion, one baggage battalion, one refined engineer brigade, and one temporary scout brigade, all of which were the elites of the various divisions of the Xingtian Army, and the firearms equipped were more than 100 artillery pieces of various types, more than 4,000 self-generated firearms and birds, more than 3,000 war horses, more than 4,000 other accompanying mules and horses, and more than 200 chariots and baggage vehicles. It can be said that nearly one-third of Henan's elite was transferred to participate in this northern expedition.

The accompanying generals include Luo Li, Liu Yaoben, Situ Liang, Lin Luo, Dongshanhu, Li Yantian, etc., a total of dozens of people, all of whom have been on the battlefield for a long time, and most of them are young people, which makes the morale of the army extremely high.

As for the reserve battalion, Xiao Tianjian did not bring one with him for the sake of safety, just to ensure the quality of all the soldiers and generals under his command, and to avoid trouble in the battle due to the insufficient equipment and training of the reserve battalion.

These 10,000 soldiers can be said to be armed to the teeth, almost except for the artillery battalion and the baggage battalion engineer battalion, everyone is wearing armor, and the weapons are very well-equipped, it can be said that Xiao Tianjian's old book has been taken out, and it is no wonder that Niu Jinxing and others will be worried about this, because once Xiao Tianjian fails in this trip, Xingtianjun will be injured this time, and the large territory of Henan that he has just taken will be unable to defend if he is not good, and he will be snatched back by the government.

To a certain extent, Xiao Tianjian went north this time in a bit of a desperate posture, in addition to these soldiers and horses, he even used Yan Chongxi's troops in southern Jin, so that Yan Chongxi sent two battalions of soldiers out of Huguan into the area of Shunde Mansion, ready to respond to Xiao Tianjian's main force, once Xiao Tianjian led his troops to the north, and the back road was cut off by the official army, then he could lead his troops and Yan Chongxi's two barracks to converge, and return to the base area in southern Jinnan through Huguan.

In addition, even Wang Chengping and Li Lingfeng, who were active in northern Shanxi, were also mobilized, and Xiao Tianjian ordered the two of them to join forces together, ready to resist the Tartars who invaded Xuanda Shanxi at any time, even if they could not fight them head-on, they would rob and kill a small group of Tartar soldiers, and rescue the people who were captured by the Tartars.

So this time Xiao Tianjian went north, although he was adventurous, but he made all kinds of preparations in advance, and it cannot be said that he was acting recklessly, in addition, in fact, Xiao Tianjian did not prepare for a day or two for this time to go north, he made the original decision to let Luo Li cross the Yellow River to attack Huaiqing Mansion and Weihui Mansion, in fact, he was also laying the foundation for this northward operation, so that the Xingtian Army could gain a large foothold north of the Yellow River, as their starting point, and now these preparations made in advance have been used by Xiao Tianjian, for no other reason, It was because Xiao Tianjian knew what might happen in the future, so he made such an arrangement before the prophet.

Even in the preparation of grain and straw, Xiao Tianjian has already quietly started to prepare in advance, because the criminal Tianjun in southern Jinnan and western Henan controlled relatively early, and there are many mountainous areas in these two places, and many places are not suitable for the development of agriculture, but there are more grassland shrubs, which are more suitable for the development of animal husbandry, so when Xiao Tianjian was in Jinnan, he vigorously purchased some cattle, sheep, pigs, chickens and ducks, and even vigorously developed fisheries in some places with water, stocking all kinds of fish fry, and now a few years later, Animal husbandry and fishing have also made great progress, and a large number of pigs, sheep, cattle and other livestock have been grazing on some hillside grasslands, and have entered the stage of slaughter.

For this northern expedition, Xiao Tianjian ordered a large number of slaughtered livestock and poultry to be killed in southern Jinnan and western Henan, and directly marinated into salted meat kang dried or air-dried for this northern expedition, after all, meat is much larger than the calories that grain can provide, and the same weight of meat can provide many times more calories than food, and it is much easier to carry.

In addition, in order to improve the marching speed of the army and reduce the time to camp because of burying the pot to make rice, Xiao Tianjian also ordered the logistics department to fry fried noodles, grind all kinds of grain into powder, add salt and sugar and a small amount of oil to fry and reserve it, this time it was also taken out and equipped to eat in the army.

Of course, it is not easy to do these things, salt is easy to say, they are adjacent to the salt-producing Jiezhou, and the salt lords are happy to deal with the Xingtian Army and sell the salt to the Xingtian Army, otherwise, it will be difficult for them to transport salt out of Jiezhou, and the Xingtian Army has already controlled the salt industry in the state to some extent! But in terms of sugar, the Xingtian Army has no way to solve it, and can only be transferred from the south by the merchants and sold to the Xingtian Army, fortunately, the Xingtian Army has already launched a system of flat buying and selling to protect the freedom of merchants to do business in the area controlled by the Xingtian Army, and the merchants are willing to do business with the Xingtian Army, even if the government strictly prohibits it, but because the officials are greedy for ink, after being bribed by the merchants, they will secretly turn a blind eye to such materials entering the jurisdiction of the Xingtian Army, so they can't prevent the Xingtian Army from obtaining these resources, it's just that it costs a lot of money from the Xingtian Army.

With Xiao Tianjian's order, the army of 15,000 Punishment Heavenly Army immediately began to act, early in the morning of the third day of December, the battalion horns and cannons sounded again and again, and the soldiers and horses of the Punishment Heavenly Army set off in full gear and high spirits, stepped out of their camp, and gradually gathered together, only to see their armor bright, flags and banners, spears like forests, gathered into a black and oppressive long dragon on the official road leading to Zhangde Mansion, all kinds of flags and flags were dotted in this long dragon, with the cold wind of the moon hunting and hunting, The various feathers on the heads of the generals are like the colored scales on the body of this long dragon, and the armor of the generals also flashes with a little golden light, which decorates this long dragon is spectacular.

The rhythmic drum beat of the marching drum sounded in the army, and all the soldiers and generals stepped on the drum, making a neat rumbling footsteps and marching forward, and more officers began to sing, and this time they did not sing the song that Xiao Tianjian taught them to be self-reliant, but sang in unison a song written by Yue Fei, a famous general of the Southern Song Dynasty.

"Angry hair rushes to the crown, leaning on the railing, Xiaoxiao rain rest. Raise your eyes, look up to the sky and roar, and be fierce. …… Drive a long car and step through the lack of Helan Mountain. Zhuang is hungry for Hulu meat, laughing and thirsty for Xiongnu blood. To start from the beginning, clean up the old mountains and rivers, towards the sky! ”

The majestic singing suddenly resounded in the sky, accompanied by this burst of singing, Xiao Tianjian led his troops to leave Weihui Mansion and embarked on the road to the north, and those refugees who fled from the north had already learned that Xiao Dashuai of the Xingtian Army was going to lead his troops to the north to fight the Tartars. Some of the refugees knelt on the side of the road and wept loudly, begging the soldiers of the Heavenly Army to avenge their dead relatives and kill more Tartars.

Even some refugees took out a little bit of softness that was already extremely scarce, and had to give it to these soldiers and generals of the Xingtian Army, so that they could take it to fight the Tartars, and even some of the soldiers and generals were infected in such a scene, and they pat their chests and swore that as long as they had a breath of air, they would never let them go back to the gate alive when they met the Tartars.

And Xiao Tianjian rode on horseback, and waved his hand to greet the people cheering at him on both sides of the road, and constantly hugged his fist and saluted, which was also a stirring mood, the reason why he chose to rebel in the first place, in addition to asking for life, was not because he wanted to be in this world, he could contribute to the Han nation, and save the future Jiannu Tarzi would bring shame to the Chinese, but for so many years, he has been leading troops against the imperial court, fighting with the officers and soldiers who are also Chinese, but he has never fought with Jiannu Tartar, Now that he is finally going to lead the army to fulfill this wish in his heart, how can this not make him excited?

"Jiannu! I'm here! Wait for me! Although I don't have the ability to destroy you yet, this time I will definitely let you see and understand, we Han people are powerful! Don't think that none of us Han people can cure you wild boar skins! Xiao Tianjian sat on horseback and involuntarily looked up at the overcast sky in the north, and said to himself.