At the beginning of the march to Jinji Fort, it was unexpectedly smooth, especially the Northern Route Army.

Liu Songshan's title is only the general soldier of the second grade, but the newlywed wife has been awarded the title of Mrs. Zhenguo of the first grade, which is almost unprecedented since the founding of the Qing Dynasty. Although Liu Songshan himself is "grateful for Dai Tian'en", his subordinates, a group of "old Hunan army", are also all inspired. In addition, the Northern Route Army had not participated in Dong Zhiyuan's battle before, and seeing that the Middle Route Army was fighting vigorously, they had already held their breath one by one, and they wanted to fight for face and merit in the battle of Jinjibao.

Therefore, the march of the Northern Route Army was very fast, and the advance along the way was also very smooth.

First of all, Huamachi, there was not a single bandit, and it was withdrawn cleanly. Without firing a single shot, the Northern Route Army occupied this big source of wealth for Ma Hualong. Thinking about it, Huamachi was far away from Jinji Fort, and Ma Hualong knew that he was unable to maintain it, so he took the initiative to retreat.

On the road from Huamachi to Lingzhou, the road was smooth, and there was no attack by any of the bandits' rangers -- this kind of thing was originally the favorite thing of the bandits.

Then I arrived in Lingzhou, hey, it was actually an empty city!

Lingzhou is different from Huama Pond, Huama Pond is a salt pond, there is no danger to rely on, but Lingzhou is a deep city with a high base, and it is much more difficult to fight than Huama Pond. However, the Northern Route Army must fight it down, otherwise, when attacking Jinji Fort, the back road will be unquiet and the grain road will be in danger.

And Lingzhou is close to Jinji Fort, and they can take care of each other, here, Ma Hualong is not without the ability to fight, so he gave up, what kind of calculation is he playing?

After the Northern Route Army conquered Lingzhou. Ma Hualong's envoy, with Ma Hualong's handwritten letter, came to the line of the minister who supervised the military affairs of the northwest. What for?

"Caressing".

Ma Hualong said in the letter that he "received the grace of the country" and never dared to be outside the court, but "by mistake, the three of them became tigers", and the misunderstanding became deeper and deeper. Today's holy dynasty is generous and generous, far ahead of the previous generations; Handsome, wise and wise. The dragon and phoenix among the people will be able to perceive the futility of going down, and eventually turn into jade silk.

Well. Huamachi and Lingzhou, but I took the initiative to give up, this fully shows our sincerity in not wanting to resist the heavenly soldiers.

And also. To show the sincerity of obedience. I have changed my name to "Ma Chaoqing" - look, my loyalty can show the sun and the moon!

I hope that the Fuju will be reached as soon as possible, stop the fighting, and my "Ma Chaoqing" family will always be the northwest Ping domain of the imperial court, and the children and grandchildren will never be swerving.

I read Ma Hualong's letter. Zuo Zongtang was very proud: Xiaoxiao's tricks are all in this handsome!

"Just the word 'screen'." Zuo Zongtang sneered and said, "Ma Wei should die ten times!" The ambition of the thief is exposed! What 'children and grandchildren, forever' - you are worthy of it! ”

The response of the officers and troops to Ma Hualong's "appeasement" was: both the Central Route Army and the North Route Army continued to advance. Among them, the Northern Route Army set out from Lingzhou and pointed directly at Wuzhong Fort, the eastern gateway of Jinji Fort; At the same time, a surprise army was sent to attack and occupy Yongning Cave.

Ma Hualong realized that today is different from the past, and the bitter meat plan is useless, so he has to fight.

Then let's fight.

From Lingzhou to Wuzhongbao, Huamachi to Lingzhou, countless bandits suddenly appeared, and the front and back roads of the Northern Route Army were all over the place at the same time.

From Lingzhou to Wuzhong Fort, the Hui fort along the way, the fort lined up, opened fire, and called for killing the officers and soldiers. The Hui bandits from Anning Fort and Tongxin City also rushed to help in the battle, constantly harassing the officers and troops, and the resistance to the advance of the Northern Route Army immediately increased greatly.

That's it, the most fatal thing is that in the area from Huamachi to Lingzhou, the bandits rode out in all directions, attacked and burned the baggage of the officers and soldiers, the North Route Army advanced too fast, the front was stretched too long in a short time, the back road was inevitably empty, and the grain road soon became unbearable.

Soon, worse news came: Lingzhou was lost again!

Most of the Northern Route Army marched into Jinji Fort, and only a few troops were left in Lingzhou City, and the Hui bandits took advantage of the weakness to recapture Lingzhou.

The Northern Route Army was in the dilemma of being attacked by the enemy.

To the south of Jinji Fort, the Central Route Army also began to engage the enemy.

Encouraged by the situation on the northern front, Ma Hualong decided to take the initiative to attack and sent Ma Wanchun to lead the Jinjibao back bandits to the area of Forehope City to block the officers and troops on the middle road. Accompanying Ma Wanchun were Bai Yanhu, who covered the "Heavy Family" in the battle of Dong Zhiyuan, who retreated to Jinjibao first, and the limited young man who died for the rest of his life in Shaanxi Huizhong.

Bai Yanhu's thoughts were not completely consistent with Ma Hualong's, but under the low eaves, how could he not bow his head, so he had to temporarily obey Ma Hualong's arrangement.

In this situation, the officers and troops adjusted their deployment, the Northern Route Army postponed its march to Wuzhongbao, and the troops were divided into two, one was responsible for holding the Yongning Cave that had fallen into their hands, and most of the rest returned to the division to attack Lingzhou again, so as to completely pull out the nail stuck in the back, and when they marched to Wuzhongbao again, they had almost no worries.

However, there is one point, relying on its own strength alone, the strength of the North Route Army is not enough, this is the grain route from Huamachi to Lingzhou, if the North Route Army divides troops to protect the grain route again, the strength to attack Lingzhou will be insufficient.

The Central Route Army held a meeting, and Zhan Donglu volunteered to send the cavalry battalion of his headquarters to the north to clear the back road for the Northern Route Army.

When Guan Zhuofan "lent troops" to Zuo Zongtang, there were two infantry regiments, an artillery regiment, and an engineer battalion, and there was no formed cavalry unit. In the northwest operation, infantry, cavalry, and artillery cooperate with each other, and the effect is better, and the Hui bandits in Shaanxi were drawn by Guan Zhuofan, and of course he knows this very well. However, at that time, Guan Zhuofan thought that the Chu army, the Hunan army and the local horse teams in Shaanxi were fully used, and he was a little reluctant to give up his American horses, so he did not equip Zhan Donglu with a formed cavalry unit.

However, in the actual battle, the Xuan army found that the Chu army, the Hunan army and the local troops in Shaanxi were obviously a head lower than the Xuan army, and the horse teams of friendly troops were always not able to match the infantry and artillery of the Xuan army, so before marching into Jinji Fort, Guan Zhuofan added two additional cavalry battalions to Zhan Donglu.

Zhan Donglu asked himself to share the worries of his allies, and Zuo Zongtang couldn't help but be relieved, and immediately approved his request and plan.

The cavalry of the Xuan army, each armed with a "carbine version" Spencer serial gun, returned to the bandit rangers, most of them still used earthen guns and bows and arrows, and they were powerless to resist at all, and every time they made a slight contact, they left dozens of corpses behind and fled in all directions. Later, as soon as the bandits saw the blue figure on the horse from a distance, they roared away.

The grain route of the Northern Route Army was soon reopened.

The grain road was safe, the North Route Army was settled, the morale was high, and the city of Lingzhou was captured in one go.

The Northern Route Army divided its troops again, one was stationed in Lingzhou City, and the other continued to return to the division, and the cavalry of the Xuan Army cooperated with each other to sweep away the bandits between Huamachi and Lingzhou. At this point, the back road of the Northern Route Army can be regarded as truly "Jingding".

When the Northern Route Army attacked Lingzhou City, the Middle Route Army and Ma Wanchun and Bai Yanhu were also fighting lively.

*(To be continued......)