Just when Xiao Xuan was actively preparing for the defense of the capital by all means, the vanguard elite led by Zhu Xieyuan himself had already passed through the Jining area along the canal, and soon the troops were under the city of Dongchang.

This time, although the troops from all walks of life claimed to be 500,000, in fact, there were 300,000, but in fact, there was no need to ask: about 100,000 of them were temporarily recruited auxiliary cannon fodder, and about 100,000 were newly trained powerful forces, among which they were the most inferior of the powerful forces. Because none of the elites who are really used to take care of the home or nursing home want to pour out their pockets as soon as the war starts. It can really be regarded as an army, but there are only more than 20 battalions and more than 100,000 people. Zhu Xieyuan's three battalions of men and horses, including auxiliaries, totaled about 15,000 troops, and they were the vanguard and elite of the 300,000 troops. It has just experienced the war to quell the rebellion of Lu'an, and it is a team that many people fear and hope for.

Xiao Xuan didn't know that many of the movements since he had just ascended the throne in the seventh year of the Apocalypse had actually changed his history imperceptibly, very early. In the summer of the second year of Chongzhen in history, the army led by Zhu Xieyuan was fighting An Yanbang and others in the southwest. However, in the seventh year of the Apocalypse, Xiao Xuan's series of tactical tactics and even training modes only attracted the ideas of a few people, and it was not until the Battle of Nanyuan in Qingyuan resisted the main force of Houjin that more people paid attention to it.

However, after learning about a series of things in the capital, Zhu Xieyuan realized and had the idea of the key to the establishment of a new army in the Shengshang Institute very early, that is, not to seek a long time, but to use the vigor and obedience to authority of the teenagers in a short period of time, and at the same time increase the proportion of backbone in the army. On this basis, it is necessary to make use of the conditions for the supply of troops, the battlefield environment, and even the tactical tactics in the use of firearms in the southwest and even in the south, which are much better than those in the north. As early as the first month of the second year of Chongzhen, he won a great victory over Hao'an and others more than a year earlier than in history, destroying tens of thousands of enemies. After using the seized materials to select and redo corrections, he quickly went north along the Yangtze River and the canal according to the order of the Nanjing Military Department, and became the vanguard and main force of the army to protect the country and Jingnan.

On the one hand, this is because Zhu Xieyuan, who was born in Jinshi, can't stand the series of rebellious and tyrannical actions of the emperor who has just ascended the throne, and on the other hand, he is also forced by the pressure of King Gui, who has just ascended the throne with the support of officials from all over the world. It is different from Yang Sichang and other people who are purely civil officials. Although Zhu Xieyuan's family background is also prominent, in the final analysis, he also has a bit of a martial arts background, and he is not regarded as a real person by many people in the court. Moreover, when the Kanzhan troops in the Beijing camp and even the border army were either unreliable and unusable, or were suppressed by the barbarians outside the Guan, the 10,000 or 20,000 core elites under Zhu Xieyuan also became a big problem for many people. This time, becoming the vanguard of the army to protect the country may not be without the intentions of many people in the DPRK and China.

However, at this time, Zhu Xieyuan couldn't take care of so much, which is also the helplessness of many loyal people throughout the ages, who have to endure a lot of things for the sake of righteousness. As the saying goes, the journey by water was a chore in the old days. However, after several months of waterways, especially after the bumps on the Yangtze River turned into a relatively calm canal, the army accustomed to waterways seemed to be a little uncomfortable, except for a few people who seemed to be a little uncomfortable, and on the whole had recovered from the relatively slow waterway march along the canal. The cavalry on both sides of the strait guarded the mobilized people, and they could travel about 200 miles a day without being too tired.

When approaching Dongchang, the army led by Li Zicheng's troops seemed to be organizing a defense in the Dongchang area. Seeing that Zhu Xieyuan's department, which was the vanguard, had a total strength of only about 20,000 troops, including the supernumerary people, but his own strength had expanded to as many as 100,000 in these days, and even the main force that was really decent had recovered to about 30,000 or 40,000 men, he decided to win this chapter first. Especially at this time, when Li Zicheng received Xiao Xuan's troops to reinforce him, he was even more confident.

"I heard that the 20,000 people led by Zhu Xieyuan this time have nearly 10,000 sets of armor alone. There are also a lot of excellent shotguns and furlong machine guns, this battle we have to win, and the newly expanded team does not need to be so shabby... Li Guo said confidently at this time.

Although Li Zicheng had heard that this was a group of people who had just come down from the battlefield in the southwest, like many northerners, he had a kind of contempt for the so-called "southern barbarians." I think those who are not very tall and don't look very stout, even if they have some savage and fierce spirit, how strong can they be? I also heard that because the south was not good for bows and crossbows, there were not many cavalry and archers as good as those in the northern border army.

In this way, Li Zicheng, who had obviously superior troops and was able to grasp the initiative, no longer had much to worry about, and first led a 20,000-strong horse corps as the main force to attack along the canal, attempting to completely defeat the opponent before he could get off the ship and form a complete combat formation.

In this way, when Zhu Xieyuan's fleet of more than ten miles had not yet arrived in the Dongchang area, the intrusive army that was preparing to march at night along the canal at the fastest speed approached, and used the cover of night to cross the cordon of the fleet on the periphery. As soon as the armed flotilla was assembled and most of the officers and men had not yet disembarked, they launched an assault and attack.

The light cavalry, armed only with bows and arrows and melee weapons, was certainly not unprepared this time, and many of the spacing rods that had been tried and tested in siege warfare were also equipped with cavalry. Once the Mounted Archer is concentrated in front of the opponent, the Demoman will attack those who don't seem to have many large ships at all, but mostly small and medium-sized fleets.

As the tentative light cavalry approached in loose formation, the ship's musketeers began to fire in a continuous and continuous manner at a distance of about eighty paces. The fire in front of the entire fleet also began to be unleashed one after another.

According to the experience of many people who have fought with the Ming army: this is indeed a fairly warlike Ming army, but it is also the same in terms of the main general's ability to adapt to battle. Although the firearms on the ship seemed to be firing in an orderly manner, in the face of the onslaught of the loosely formed cavalry, it was obviously impossible to contain the opponent at a relatively close distance, and it was likely that a tentative attack with no more than two or three thousand troops would have a lot of effect.

Li Zicheng's team, which was in charge of the tentative attack, approached about one or twenty paces from the bow of the ship, and was about to prepare for the final blasting attack. The fire fired from the ship suddenly became denser. At the front end, more than a dozen ships fired incredible firepower with just a hundred shots.

(End of chapter)