Tashan Fort is not far from Jinzhou, and if the marching speed of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army in the future generations, it will be possible to reach Songshan near Jinzhou in about a day. Pen Fun Pavilion www.biquge.info but Hong Chengchou, who was determined to "harden the village and fight a dumb battle", would not go so fast, he stayed in Tashan Fort again, and began to renovate all kinds of equipment used to "harden the village and fight a dumb battle".

First of all, all kinds of wood, Hong Chengchou constantly sent people out to cut wood as raw materials for building a camp, and asked the carpenters to make a large number of horses, shields, spears and so on, and also ordered Zheng Zhihu to build a barracks warehouse in Beacon Hill to store grain and grass.

Of course, these things are very time-consuming. You know, this is not the future of building an overpass in just 48 hours, and it always takes a lot of time to build a project or something. This is especially true if there are also skirmishes in the mix.

Since Hong Chengchou led his troops in addition to Ningyuan, the Manchu general in charge of besieging Jinzhou, Jierharang, has constantly sent reconnaissance cavalry to investigate the movements of the Ming army. So he sent cavalry to constantly attack the Ming army that came out to cut wood. Although Hong Chengchou was unwilling to fight the Manchus immediately, he did not shy away from small-scale battles. Although the overall training level of the army in his hands is far inferior to that of the Eight Banners, in terms of the combat effectiveness of a few elites, it is no worse than that of the Qing army. For example, Cao Bianjiao's personal soldiers have been equipped with a water of "Dutch" armor and swords, although the style is a little different from what my Ming army is commonly used in, but in terms of quality, compared to the things that my Ming Ministry of Industry made, I really don't know how strong it is. For example, the armor is so light and strong that ordinary swords can't cut it at all, and as for the bow and arrow, unless it is shot at close range with a strong crossbow, even the heavy arrows shot by the white-armored soldiers with their rifles cannot penetrate them. Moreover, the "Dutch" also prepared curved face armor very intimately, so that even those white-armored soldiers did not have to be afraid of heavy arrows in the face.

There are also those Dutch swords, although the style is different from Daming's, but it is really sandwiched with steel on the blade, unlike those that I made from the Ming Ministry of Industry, you can't kill a cow.

Relying on such a thing, Cao Bianjiao's personal soldiers, even if they worked one-on-one with Jianxuan's white armor, they never suffered a loss. And against the general bannermen, what are the Mongolian Eight Banners, that is the upper hand.

In addition to Cao Bianjiao, Wu Sangui's personal soldiers are even more so. Among the military leaders of my Ming Dynasty, in addition to the Zheng family in Nan'an, the richest is probably the ancestral general of the Liaoxi Jiangmen, the Wu family. Therefore, the equipment of his own soldiers is even better, and they are even equipped with the best "Dutch bird guns". Although this "Dutch Bird Gun" is actually just an arquebus, out of consideration for maintaining the equipment superiority of our Ming Dynasty and our Great Qing Dynasty (the Qing army has a great chance of capturing the Ming Army's bird guns in battle), the Zheng family's counterfeit "Dutch East India Company" did not provide our Ming with flintlock guns. But these bird guns are made of real materials, not to mention the goods of my Ming Ministry of Industry that dare not fill enough gunpowder every time they shoot, that is, Cao Bianjiao They bought Dutch bird guns, as long as they take it and compare it with Wu Sangui's personal soldiers, it is also obviously a big difference: Cao Bianjiao's guns are actually the genuine Dutch arquebuses that were eliminated when the model army was still called the factory team, and the barrel is still rolled with wrought iron plates. However, Wu Sangui's personal soldiers used the superior goods that were modified (from flintlock pistols to arquebuses) on the basis of the old flintlock pistols of the model army, and the barrel was drilled out of the barrel, and even the welds could not be seen. A few months ago, when Cao Bianjiao and the others saw such a bird, their saliva was about to flow out.

Relying on such equipment, Wu Sangui's personal soldiers can have a slight upper hand against even a little more Jianqi white armor, and as for ordinary bannermen or something, it is not a problem.

Of course, whether it is Cao Bianjiao or Wu Sangui, only those pro-soldiers under them still have some combat effectiveness, but the combat effectiveness of the other soldiers under them is completely scum. In my Ming era, embezzlement of military salaries has become a habit, and each military leader is only willing to spend money to support his own family, and only his family and soldiers still have combat effectiveness. At this time, the basic way of fighting is that the family soldiers rush to the front first, defeat the opponent, and then the other soldiers follow. And in case of defeat, these soldiers can still cover the family and the main general if they run slower.

Therefore, whether it is Cao Bianjiao or Wu Sangui's subordinates, soldiers other than Jiading, whether they are soldiers or auxiliary soldiers, cannot eat enough, and they all have varying degrees of malnutrition. The equipment was even more of a mess, and the soldiers barely had some unformed swords, and when they arrived at the auxiliaries, sometimes there were no sticks attached to them. In contrast, on the side of the Eight Banners, all the soldiers were basically well fed and had at least qualified weapons. So if you really want a large team of people to cut down, I will probably be in trouble.

But the skirmishes at this time made this weakness hidden. So although in the conflict, the Ming army continued to achieve some victories. Of course, those auxiliaries who were in charge of logging were killed and captured a lot by the Manchus, but the auxiliaries were originally captured casually, they were not people, and if they died, they died, and no one cared.

The continuous small victories gave the morale of the army a certain rise, but at the same time, it also brought more trouble to Hong Chengchou. These days of victories have made Zhang Ruoqi more active. Prior to this, the prestige of the Eight Banners still had some influence on Zhang Ruoqi, but the continuous victories made Zhang Ruoqi can't help but feel that "the Eight Banners are actually just like this". So he naturally urged him to come even harder.

However, Zhang Ruoqi's urging did not have much effect, Hong Chengchou continued his slow motion, and the general soldiers who originally seemed to be more inclined to him suddenly relented after mentioning the large-scale attack. Including Chen Xinjia and Gao Qiqian have a good relationship, it is said that Wu Sangui of the three armies of Yongguan is the same, in short, before arriving at Tashan Fort, Zhang Ruoqi said that Hong Chengchou walked slowly, and he could still find some people to agree, and now he said that he would march immediately, but he could no longer find supporters in the army. Maybe he had to find a way to ask for another decree.

……

It's June in a blink of an eye, and Zheng Zhihu's wharf on Beacon Hill and the walled warehouse have been built. A large amount of food and supplies were continuously transported to the island and loaded into warehouses on Beacon Hill. Of course, according to the tradition of my Ming Dynasty, all the food, supplies, and money that came by sea naturally drifted two layers on the sea. Although in the process of shipping, Zheng Zhihu did not lose even a single ship.

Hong Chengchou still has no intention of marching, but it is said that Zhang Ruoqi, who has no choice, has sent someone to Emperor Chongzhen to ask for a holy decree directly ordering Hong Chengchou to march. However, now that the holy decree has not arrived, Hong Chengchou can continue to stay in this area for final preparations.

Hong Chengchou knew that Zhang Ruoqi would definitely be able to get the holy decree he wanted. He knows his emperor very well, knows that he is an impatient, and with Chen Xinjia helping on the side, the possibility of the emperor issuing such a holy decree is very high.

It's just that it will take some time for Zhang Ruoqi's messenger to reach the Beijing Division, and even if he arrives in the Beijing Division, such a decision cannot be made in a hurry. After everyone has finished discussing it, made a holy decree, and then sent it all the way over, it will probably be July. Hong Chengchou also knew that at that time, he would not be able to delay any longer, and he would have to fight to the death with the Qing army. So during this time, he has to hurry up and make preparations.

On this day, Hong Chengchou came to Beacon Hill to inspect the work.

Hong Chengchou first inspected the "Dutch" mercenaries who were in charge of the defense of Beacon Hill.

"Didn't you say that they were all Dutch soldiers? Why did I see a few Hongyi, and the others looked like Chinese? After watching the formation change performance and shooting performance of the "Dutch" mercenaries, Hong Chengchou asked Zheng Zhilong very suspiciously.

"Back to the Overseer, it is true that only a few of these people are authentic Dutch. Some of the others were Japanese, some were Koreans, and some were Chinese from Nanyang. Zheng Zhihu, who had been prepared, replied, "It is much cheaper to hire them than to hire all the Dutch." ”

"But can these people really fight?" A curtain guest beside Hong Chengchou asked a little uneasy.

"If you look at the physique of these soldiers, it is definitely a person who can eat enough food and meat every day. If you look at their cuirasses and muskets, and the cannons, they cost a lot of money. The Dutch raised them, but they didn't spend less. And now they have given them these cannons as well. If they can't fight, where will they give them all these good things? Zheng Zhihu explained, "In fact, most of the Dutch army in Jinghai that year were also these people. ”

"So that's the case, Jinghai ...... back then"

Hong Chengchou does not doubt whether these "Dutch soldiers" can fight, he is also an old man, so he can naturally see what kind of army can fight. In his opinion, not many of these "Dutch" mercenaries have actually been on the battlefield, but any of them are worthy of the words "well-trained and well-armed." Especially the formation change performance just now, Hong Chengchou was even more amazed. Hong Chengchou knew that to complete these complex formation changes, it would take a fairly high degree of organization, and an army, if well organized, would be almost impossible not to fight. It's just that he originally thought that the Dutch were too far away and had a small number of people, and they would not pose a threat to the Ming Dynasty, but now it seems that they can actually train the Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans so well, I am afraid that if they don't do it well, they will also become a problem for my Daming.