On May 25, 1641, southwest wind force 5, fine. An army of all sizes on South African soil is winding along the banks of the sparkling Berg River.

At the head of this force were more than 1,000 warriors of the Eight Banners in four columns, wearing fur hats and uniformly colored East Coast denim shirts, some of whom were covered with leather armor inlaid with iron plates. They all carried a three-meter standard spear on their shoulders. These spears are all standard spears produced on the east coast, and the carburized iron spear head is machined by a lathe and bolted to the top of the spear shaft, which is extremely easy to disassemble and assemble. What's even more rare is that thanks to the high-precision standardized production, both the spear shaft and the spearhead can be replaced with each other. The warriors of the Eight Banners also liked this new type of spear, and they all said that with such "divine weapons", they would definitely be able to defeat those barbarians in one fell swoop.

Immediately behind the warriors of the Eight Banners was Xiao Baitu's 104th Company of the Army, a soldier from the local army, whose morale was extremely high when fighting on the mainland, and the military songs were constantly singing along the way, and the queue was also extremely neat. Walking side by side with them were the soldiers of the engineering battalion, these people were more unbearable, not to mention the messy clothes, and even the queue was extremely bad, even inferior to the Eight Banner warriors in front. But it's no wonder that most of these people are ordinary flag people, saying that they are engineering troops, but in fact, they are just serving with the soldiers, and the intensive training time is not long. Build a makeshift camp when camping, build bridges when you encounter small rivers and streams, work as a porter when you need to draw supplies from a supply ship, and so on.

Behind these two units were the unarmed artillery of the elite 1st Army Company, the South African Field Artillery Company, and the 1st Independent Field Artillery Company. 240 officers and men of the 1st Company were dressed in dark blue uniforms. Keep your head up and your chest high. The pace is consistent. Orderly, with a faint arrogance of the troops of the capital region. However, there are also brother troops who secretly laugh at these guys who walk with their noses in the sky, and ridicule this unit composed of the children of the capital as young master soldiers, who are stationed in the capital almost all the year round, and rarely even do such things as suppressing the natives, which are far inferior to their little brothers, the 101st Company of the Reserve, which is also composed of the children of the capital. As for the two artillery batteries, their total of nine guns were placed on small transport ships that set off with the army, so they were now unarmed artillery. With 15 horses by his side, he walked forward with the 1st Company of the Army.

Mo Ming, the top commander of the operation, led a group of staff officers, retinues and members of the South African Garrison Command to walk with the 103rd Company of the Army, which had been transported from Zhenhai Port to Hezhong Port ten days earlier, and followed closely behind the 1st Company. Behind them were more than a thousand other Eight Banner warriors in charge of the palace.

The entire force stretched several hundred meters long, and together with this land force were dozens of small transport boats belonging to the baggage battalion on the river, and more than 300 militiamen of the river security regiment were also on board. All the combat materials and supplies of the large army were placed on the ships so that they could be lightly armed and speed up the march. Anyway, the transport ships sailed close to the river bank, in case of encountering enemy troops. In the case of early warning of horse scouts, there is also plenty of time to form a formation by the river. Cover the baggage battalions and engineering battalions to unload supplies from ships and build positions.

At this time, it was almost evening, and Mo Ming, who was riding on an extremely divine Lusitano horse, raised his wrist and looked at it, it was already five o'clock in the afternoon. Today has walked seventeen or eighteen kilometers, although it is a light march, but the soldiers' faces are still a little tired, Mo Ming groaned, and was about to give the order to camp on the spot, fetch water and cook, only to see seven or eight fast horses suddenly galloping in front.

"Commander, a barbarian brigade has been found ahead, according to the cross-observation of many scouts in our group, the number of barbarians is about five thousand five hundred, and they are driving a large number of cattle and sheep."

"Commander, our group has found a brigade of barbarians marching from a river bend more than ten kilometers away, and the number is estimated to be about eight thousand. About two thousand of them were relatively well equipped and generally equipped with leather armor. Unfortunately, we could not continue to get close and were expelled by their foot archers. ”

"Sir, we have spotted a brigade of barbarians about seven kilometers ahead, estimated to be between six and five thousand to eight thousand, and the formation is relatively tight. It is noteworthy that they were armed with muskets, and one of our scouts was accidentally shot and fell off his horse. Also, we didn't see the cannons. ”

……

Several scouts reported their observations one by one, and the staff officers behind Mo Ming picked up their brushes and began to record, discussing with each other in a whisper while recording. Half an hour later, when the scouts had already retreated, the staff officers of the South African garrison headquarters began to report to Mo Ming: "According to various intelligence, the barbarian brigade is probably less than seven kilometers away from us, and the number is believed to be more than seven thousand. Two thousand of them were well equipped, generally wearing leather armor and other protective gear, and their weapons were spears, short spears, long knives, and a large wooden shield; A handful of people, according to our estimates, were armed with muskets, and at least a few were good at shooting, and Zhilu Dao increased his accuracy by firing volleys of guns. The other barbarian soldiers were ordinary soldiers armed with wooden guns, in addition to an unknown number of foot archers, using iron arrowheads. The range of the rifle bow is about 60-80 meters, and the scouts report that it is well trained; They drove a large number of cattle and sheep, which were supposed to be used as sustenance when they went on an expedition. At the end, the barbarians should also know that the main force of our army is not far from here. The above is our analysis of the situation summarized based on the intelligence and for the reference of His Excellency the Commander. ”

Mo Ming nodded, no longer hesitated, and began to order: "Order the whole army to camp on the spot along the river." The flotilla of the baggage battalion immediately closed to the shore and began to unload, with the artillery cooperating; The engineering battalion began to construct ring fortifications, pulled up a defensive barbed wire, and the militia of Fort River, under the temporary command of Sergeant Salvador, sat in the camp and responded in the center; Mo Wu and Liu Zhong commanded the Eight Banners of the Headquarters, and lined up eastward with the 1st, 103rd, and 104th companies of the army. Combat staff officer, repeat my order! ”

"Yes!" The combat staff officer stood upright, and then began to repeat Mo Ming's order: "Baggage battalion ......"

"Go down and give the order at once!" After hearing the combat staff officer's recount, Mo Ming immediately waved his hand and asked him to take the heralds to deliver the order separately.

As soon as the order was given, the entire camp began to work like a sophisticated war machine. Under the command of the shore personnel, the flotilla of the baggage battalion docked one by one, and then the soldiers of the baggage battalion on board first assisted the artillerymen in unloading the nine guns on the ship, as well as shells, powder barrels and other materials. Fighting could break out at any moment, and it wouldn't be a good battle without artillery, so they were now in a complete race against time. The River Security Regiment, under the command of Sergeant Salvador, maintains order in the camp and protects the security of the headquarters and command centre.

And the commander of the 1st Company, Lieutenant Chang Kaisheng, was awarded the important task of commanding the former enemy by Mo Ming. He will command all three companies of the army and more than 2,000 warriors of the Eight Banners on the front line to fight against the barbarian forces that may invade. He is not a rookie who has been in the battle for the first time, Chang Kaisheng, who has experienced almost all the wars of the East Coast Republic, is also a member of the "veteran" in the country, and he immediately lined up about 2,200 Eight Banner warriors who urgently wore cuirass into two 50*20 spear phalanxes, and there were still about 200 Eight Banner Foot Archers wearing leather armor in the gap between the spear phalanx.

The phalanx faced east, with 360 officers and men of the 103rd and 104th companies on the left and 240 officers and men of the elite 1st Company of the Army on the right. In all, about 600 infantrymen were dressed in cuirasses and flintlock rifles, and the flag bearers had raised the bright red American Eagle Army flag. In the middle of the two spear phalanxes was the position of nine guns of two artillery batteries, but at this time the artillery was still pushing the artillery carriage behind and had not yet entered the position.

The whole process lasted less than twenty minutes, and it was orderly and there was no confusion. After finishing the formation, the soldiers were silent, silently looking ahead, showing good personal qualities.

After a while, the artillery brothers also pushed the artillery up. The soldiers of the engineering battalion urgently dug nine artillery bunkers in the gap between the two phalanxes to give the gunners a little cover from the barbarian arrows. The nine guns were four 4-pounder, four 8-pounder guns, and one 12-pounder gun, and the artillerymen carefully placed the cartridges and powder kegs inside the bunkers, and then placed solid iron shells, grapeshot shells, explosive shells, and scattered bombs in fixed positions for easy access. Li Wenchang, the company commander of the 1st Independent Field Artillery Company, was responsible for commanding all nine artillery pieces, and the artillery, which was the main force of the army's firepower output on the east coast, played an extremely crucial role in this battle.

The barbed wire fence along the camp on the riverbank was being built rapidly, and the soldiers of the engineering battalion even urgently dug a shallow trench under Mo Ming's orders. From time to time, cavalry came and went on both sides of the phalanx, scouts to reconnoiter the enemy, and they constantly passed on the latest news of the barbarian brigade to the highest commander of the place. From time to time, some heralds in the camp would quickly run to the front of the position and tell Chang Kaisheng and other front-line army commanders the latest information and instructions one by one.

The sun was setting towards the western horizon, and the figures of thousands of warriors were stretched out like an oil painting in the setting sun. (To be continued......)