A sudden heavy rain made the weather cooler all of a sudden. Along the planned Jiaoyan Railway, Xu Xiangdong and his party are still continuing to travel south, and have arrived at the famous Taocun, a future railway hub node.

With a population of almost 16,000, Taocun is now a serious town, stationed in a series of military and political institutions, including the Fourth Division of the Denglai New Army, and the number of railway exploration, planning, and construction personnel is increasing day by day, which has made the appearance of this place change dramatically.

In addition, Taocun's business has also developed rapidly over the years. As Xu Xiangdong and others saw in Fushan County before, the goods that come and go from the south to the north are generally collected and distributed in the Taocun area, and then distributed everywhere, so the business here can't be prosperous if it doesn't want to! Of course, Xu Xiangdong is of course concerned about the degree of local business prosperity, because it means the income of the railway in the future, but compared with these future things, Vice President Xu is obviously more concerned about the construction of the railway.

Emperor Yao once asked his courtiers who could be his successor, and they suggested that his eldest son succeed him, but Emperor Yao believed that his son's character would prevent him from becoming a Ming monarch, so he bestowed the honor on one of his loyal ministers. But the minister refused, and recommended a young man from the country, whom he considered to be worthy of his loyalty and prudence, for he loved his bad father, stepmother, and quarrelsome brother, and who had the willpower to lead the whole country...... "At a railroad construction site, at lunchtime, the workers sat on the floor and listened to the lecture of the missionary officer arranged above, which was evident to be a history lesson.

It is worth mentioning that these people are a battalion of the 10th Infantry Regiment of the 4th Division of the Denglai New Army, because they are not satisfied with the fact that there are only more than 200 people at present, but the proportion of veterans is very high, unlike the 11th and 12th regiments that were organized at the same time, and the proportion of so-called veterans who have experience in war (in fact, some people have only been in battle once or twice, and have not even participated in a battle of the last scale) is less than 10%, and the others are almost all new soldiers, which is miserable - such a situation, Liao Xiaoyao sighed very much at the beginning, lamenting that the source of high-quality soldiers is getting less and lessAs a result, the newly formed Third and Fourth Divisions of the Denglai New Army and the Fifth Division of the Zhejiang New Army could not raise enough veterans, non-commissioned officers and officers, so that the troops could not be formed for a long time.

The 10th Regiment is the main regiment of the Fourth Division of the New Army, so Liao Xiaoyao specially instructed to equip more veterans so that it can form combat effectiveness as soon as possible. In order to accomplish this goal, the commanders at all levels of divisions, regiments, and battalions of the department did their best to constantly recruit "talents" with war experience (some veterans in their forties who had been discharged from the army and returned to their hometowns were also persuaded to return to the army, and they were also speechless), and even they even singled out many Polish prisoners of war and Ukrainian Cossacks who were exiled here, pardoned their identities, and then incorporated them into the 10th regiment, in order to increase the number of veterans and better pass on the help and guide new soldiers.

Of course, with so many Poles, Ukrainians, Portuguese (recruited in Macao) and the fierce and warlike Shandan savages in the 10th Regiment, the cohesion was naturally questionable. And if this cohesion is not resolved, the run-in time in the future will be greatly extended, and there is no patience for senior officers who want to quickly see the formation of combat effectiveness. So some of the missionaries were invited to teach them cultural lessons, and history was an important part of it, even though they didn't feel it at all.

"Our soldiers are very hard, because not only do they have to train, but they also have to go up to the construction site like you have seen, doing the work that is mostly done by non-national workers in the country. Just like the division headquarters of the 4th Division, the barracks of the 10th Regiment, the houses where the families of the soldiers lived, and the roads leading to various places on the Taocun side had to be completed by themselves. Jiang Yunfan, who accompanied Xu Xiangdong throughout the whole process, saw that he was watching carefully, so he explained softly: "Let's take road construction as an example." When your company's first technicians arrived, if anyone was going to work in the field, the staff officers of the Security Command would assign him a few soldiers and a mule to accompany the technicians to the field exploration, to protect their safety, and to help them carry heavy luggage. Many people say that these people have a lot of habits and may not be able to endure these hardships, but it turns out that they are wrong, and so far they have not seen a few cases of escaped sergeants, and of course this may also have something to do with the fact that they have nowhere to escape. ”

"Take your time. Just like our Jiaoyan Line Railway, everything has to be done slowly, anyway, now that the Qing Kingdom is in trouble, it will not send a large army to attack our Denglai, so there is still time. Xu Xiangdong said calmly: "When the construction of the railway is completed, the construction of the troops is almost completed, although they cannot be compared with the local regular army or even the reserve force, but in the end it is also an army above the level, no worse than the elite of the green battalions of the Qing State, and even more advanced in terms of tactics." Therefore, if it is only defense, it is enough, and do not forget that we have trains to maneuver in the future, and we can easily form a local superiority in forces, which the Qing army does not have. ”

In fact, to a certain extent, Xu Xiangdong was right just now, there is time on the east coast, because the Qing country is really "troubled" now. First of all, the much-anticipated Sichuan melee, now the Qing army, the Wu army, the Shun army is still in the tug-of-war, the Shun army continues to win, but it is not back to the original feeling of devastation, many victories are hard battles, such as Liu Zhonggui defeated the Qing army in Shunqing Mansion battle, such as the veteran Zhang Neng defeated the elite of the Wu army in Chongqing Mansion, the loss of their own troops is not small, the loss of equipment and military funds is even greater. At present, the front of the Dashun Left Battalion has been blunted, and the battle line with the Wu army and the Qing army is basically stable in the area of Bazhou-Nanchong-Fotuguan, and has fallen into a stalemate, and gradually began to turn from offensive to defensive, digesting the newly acquired half of Kuizhou Prefecture, most of Chongqing Prefecture, most of Shunqing Prefecture, and half of Baoning Prefecture. Perhaps, the only place where the Shun army is still maintaining an active military offensive is probably Zhang Neng, who has moved his headquarters to Ba County, but he is a descendant of Li Laiheng, and the left battalion may not be willing to see him march all the way.

In addition, some Tusi leaders in southern Sichuan raised more and more troops, and the rule of Wu Sangui's military and political clique in Banzhou Xuanweisi and Wusafu was almost confined to collapse. In addition, Sun Kewang, Li Dingguo and others on the Southern Ming side secretly contacted and raised troops to echo to the north, and the Wu army forces stationed here lost several battles in a row and suffered heavy losses. According to the gossip circulating in Nanming, Wu Sangui has been seriously ill and bedridden for many days, and he is afraid that he will not be able to take care of things. And if Wu Sangui can't look at things, then although his subordinates still have a certain amount of combat effectiveness, they can still play a few percent under the chaos of people's hearts, but it is a problem, so this will be not only a military battle, but also a political battle, planning to use the golden sign of the Southern Ming Dynasty to oppose some Wu military and political officials, enhance their own strength at the same time, but also quickly expand the territory. They always feel that this is much more efficient than the "stupid goods" of the Shun army who grabbed the territory with a knife and a shot.

The Qing court is naturally very nervous about the current situation in Sichuan, and they have been trying to relieve the siege of Sichuan, constantly sending people and horses from Shaanxi and Gansu to the south to help, not to mention expelling all the Shun troops who came in, at least to slow down their pace, not to let them divert the entire country of abundance for their own use, right?

However, after sending several batches of the more warlike Shaanxi-Gansu-Gansu Green Battalion south to Sichuan, the Qing side suddenly stopped recently, which not only puzzled the Shun army, but also made the people on the east coast a little incomprehensible. The staff officers of the Denglai Security Command held several meetings to discuss and deduce for this purpose, but they were unable to come up with a statement that could convince the vast majority of people because of the lack of information. However, one of the more acceptable statements is that there are changes in the northwest!

More precisely, it was Gazan (i.e., Geerdan) who tossed some things in the Western Regions and the Mongolian steppe, such as controlling the entire Oirat Mongolia, etc., which made the Tatar court, which had always been extremely wary of the Mongol tribes and had been running it for decades, a little afraid, because they did not dare to weaken the garrison of Shaanxi and Gansu, especially in Gansu, and feared that if the Dzungars could not lead an army to raid the Ganzhou area, then the Qing court, which had no troops to defend, would have to sit on wax.

But in the end, these are only speculations on the East Coast, and they have never found conclusive evidence or conclusive information. However, it is also true that the Qing army suspended the southward movement of the northern army, and it seems that its northwest frontier was indeed under some pressure, otherwise it would not have been like this. Of course, most of the staff officers of the Security Command also believe that Geerdan's forces at this time may not have reached the Gansu area, but they may have deeply affected the Mongol tribes in Turpan, Hami and other places, these tribes were originally subordinated to the Qing court, but after the rise of the Dzungar Mongols, it may not be, perhaps this is the main reason why the Qing court is extremely nervous - the so-called Manchurian and Mongolian unity, without the support of the Mongolian tribes, the Manchurian emperor's dragon chair is afraid that it will not be stable, especially in the Qing Dynasty, this will be a new army, The status of the Han generals has risen in a straight line, isn't there a little pressure in Emperor Kangxi's heart? How can it be!

However, in any case, the Qing court's postponement of the transfer of Shaanxi and Gansu troops to the south objectively reduced the pressure on the Shun army, allowing them to digest the territory and attack the enemy army more calmly. I believe that when Wu Sangui drives the crane to the west, the discouraged Wu army will inevitably have a bloody collapse, and the situation will change greatly, and the opportunity to occupy Sichuan will come completely, of course, the premise is that they can win a hundred battles and expel all the armed forces that covet Sichuan, including the Ming army and the Qing army.

Since the road from Shaanxi and Gansu to rescue Sichuan was impossible, the Qing army did not give up, but concentrated its forces and materials and launched several large-scale offensives in Hubei and Jiangnan. Among them, the Hubei front line was lined with forts and rivers, and the Qing army did not make large-scale progress, and only gnawed down more than ten Shunjun forts. Later, the emperor of Shun Li Laiheng personally went to the front line to supervise the battle, and the morale of the Shun army was greatly boosted and some fortresses were recovered, and then the Qing army played the main confrontation, although the Qing army seemed to occupy the initiative, but it was never able to make a breakthrough, and could only call in vain.

In the Jiangxi battlefield in the east, tens of thousands of Qing troops under the command of Nanjing first won successive battles and penetrated deep into many prefectures and counties in the eastern part of Jiangxi, and the situation seemed to be very good. However, when Guo Shi'an, who had retreated after the defeat, received weapons assistance from the east coast and gathered some old troops to advance eastward again, the Qing army suffered several defeats in a row, and the battle line retreated to the original place again - the two armies fought here for several months, each killing and wounding thousands of men and horses, and as a result, they did not fight any famous battles, and they were also drunk.

To sum up, on the whole, the Shun army has made some progress in Sichuan in the past six months, and is now accumulating strength and preparing to launch a new round of large-scale offensives. Compared to Sichuan, although the rest of the country was also fighting well, there was not much change on the front, and no side won a decisive victory, which did not seem to be good news for the Qing state, especially when the signs of Geldan's strong rise became more and more obvious.

Under such a circumstance, no one would believe that the Qing army would be stupid enough to start a war with the east bank in Denglai, the northeast and the south of the Yangtze River, and it would be very good if they did not transfer the troops of the Qingzhou battalion and the Hangzhou battalion to assist other battlefields. Therefore, this is the main reason why Xu Xiangdong just mentioned that "there is still time to build troops", and now the three feudatories in the Far East are probably the time when the external threat is the least in ten years.

On September 4, 1677, Xu Xiangdong and others, who had visited the Taocun Railway Station under construction, did not delay too long, but continued to set off, walking out of the narrow mountain valley and into the endless plain. Here, it is the territory of Laiyang County, a large agricultural county and a granary.

In Laiyang County, Xu Xiangdong did not look at the railway line too much, but went deep into the local villages and markets, and spent more than half a month, carefully examining the price and output of each commodity, and also assessing the cost of local farmland and water conservancy facilities and transportation and logistics. You know, a lot of this work is what they should be doing.

Xu Xiangdong instructed his subordinates to record the information obtained from the investigation, and planned to study and discuss it after bringing it back. Subsequently, accompanied by Jiang Yunfan, he continued southward without stopping, passing through Jimo County and staying for a short day, and finally arrived at the Jiaozhou Fortress, the terminus of the Jiaoyan Railway, in late September 1677.