In the desolate wilderness of winter, a team that did not seem to be very disciplined was moving slowly, and from time to time there was a noise and noise. After crossing the dangerous area of the lofty mountains, the entire team of troops slackened a little. The 5,000 men in the Hero City who were armed and initially trained were not carefully selected, and many of them were still being pulled out to serve as soldiers in their last few years.

In a secular society without the dominant ideology of a broadly nationalist or patriotic society, it is a luxury for these adults to become an elite force comparable to the elite of ancient times with only three months of military training. Xiao Xuan didn't dare to put the treasure on these people. Of the 2,000 or so troops of the 13 companies operating together, at least three-quarters, or about 1,500 people, were the main expeditionary force of the volunteer forces in the Nanjing area, and the 500 or so "heroes related to the outer city" of each of the 10 raiding teams were only responsible for some logistical auxiliary work, especially heavy work such as operation and transport vehicle shields. Even gunners and firearms bearers are often dangerous loaders and igniters.

Along the way, these people were met with vigilance and severe treatment among the main officers and men of the volunteer troops, and in a short period of time, more than 10 non-combat personnel were attribution. When they had just crossed the canyon pass of the Luliang Mountains, many people were a little unconvinced, and there was even an argument in the whole team.

"Repair the earthen fence and the trench quickly! Come on! An officer of the volunteer unit sternly said to the "children of whistle-blowing heroes" who had been incorporated into the team. At this time, hundreds of people who had already been connected finally made up their minds to fight to the end: "I haven't had dinner since the morning!" After walking so many miles of mountain roads, can you eat enough and then work! ”

"Eat!? What time is it? Where is it! Theater. You're not archers, you're just in charge of some combat tasks. Do you know that you want to save rations on the battlefield? "The commander of the combat regiment of the third crusade team who led the team has also had a lot of selfish interests of his own in the past two years, so he has no good feelings for these untrustworthy and unrighteous people.

"We can't do it anymore!" It seems that because they feel that they have a special status in the king, those volunteer troops don't dare to do anything to themselves, so many people stubbornly said at this time.

The commander of the third expedition team thought for a moment at this time, but then made up his mind: "If you guys are messing around! Then I can only enforce battlefield discipline! ”

When the guns of the guard company rang out, and even wounded six or seven people with light shotguns, there were no more heroic out-of-town service personnel who were incorporated into the team who dared to mess around.

It's just that these people may really lack physical strength when they work, and their speed is extremely slow. The big rest near the end of the night did not finally build the standard breastwork wall like the Hunan army, but only symbolically dug some cliff holes that were not very formal, which was finally completed when the officers and men of the volunteer troops in the team had to do it themselves.

However, in the subsequent tasks of resting, cooking, and even guarding, the officers and men of the volunteer units did not dare to completely hand over these matters to those "outsiders" who could not be trusted by them

"You say too! This time the mission would be good if our army would have fought alone. What are you doing with the distant relatives and neighbors of these reporting heroes? The biggest destabilizing factor in the entire team ... ”

"Didn't that say above? If only our army was in the battle, those rebels would not dare to confront our army of thousands of people head-on, but with these people in the ranks, those people may also have goals. After all, the fundamental reason for their rebellion is to deter the world's whistleblowers and profit-seekers, and directly annihilating and attacking these people can shake the value of these people's use of the king... ”

At this time, someone suddenly said boldly: "If we encounter enemy troops in the future, then we will release water under the appropriate circumstances, and let the enemy consume these people... ”

"That's not going to work! If there is that kind of strange victory, or if the casualty rate is too different, the king will definitely blame it... ”

The cold winter wind near the ninth year of Chongzhen is also extremely cold in this Jinzhong area, and the dark night in the north has become extraordinarily long around the winter solstice. The fatigue of the march also caused most of the volunteers to fall asleep early, and there were only a few hundred people left behind on duty.

Perhaps it was the series of victories in the expeditionary operations and the fact that the team in the recent period of suppression of bandits had figured out the reality of the enemy's combat effectiveness, so not too many people took those remnants of the enemy in their eyes, and many people even felt that if the performance was too perfect and rigorous, then maybe they would have to take a lot of unjust roads and delay the team's journey in vain.

However, at this moment, the sound of horses' hooves accompanied by the sound of a large group of people marching forward still woke some people in the "sleeping post" from their dreams.

"What sound?"

"It's supposed to be an enemy attack, it sounds like there are quite a few people...

However, such news did not make many core personnel of the volunteer army care, and many people laughed and said: "Send us the results again... ”

Because most of the world's precision resources and military craftsmen are concentrated, the vast majority of the rebels are not much stronger than the firearms and equipment of the peasant army back then. After more than a year of training in expeditionary operations and supplementary training after returning from the expedition, the core of the volunteer troops further improved their marksmanship, and the quality of the captured gunpowder was often very high, especially after the battle in the British Isles captured a lot of decent saltpeter in addition to gunpowder. In the armor of most officers and soldiers, the quality is much more prominent, and the armor of 20 catties or so, which is often not too heavy, can have a decent protective effect against most of the enemy's lethal firepower.

However, just as the temporary combat camp of the 3rd Temporary Raiding Team was just preparing for battle, a violent explosion suddenly exploded from all directions of the temporary camp, and the violent explosion and vibration were followed by the rain of lead bullets falling from the sky one after another near the early hours of the morning.

This time, in the blasting attack around the early hours of the morning, the attacking rebels rarely put in tens of thousands of catties of gunpowder and nearly 100,000 catties of heavy shotgun, and under the blow of hundreds of thousands of heavy shotguns, although most of the officers and men on the position were prepared to deal with the situation, and many of them locked their heads into the trench in time, but because they did not carry out the work of the overturned fortifications, they still suffered heavy casualties and losses under this fierce bombardment.

(End of chapter)