Qin Ergou rode a war horse and led the officers and soldiers in the battalion to walk on the official road. As a battalion commander of the Northwest Field Army's Field Army, his promotion speed is definitely fast.

He was born a soldier, and in the first year of the recruit, because of his excellent military quality, he won the first place in many individual items in the recruit assessment, and later he was assigned to the army, and won several first places in the year-end assessment competition, and was directly sent to the Army Command College of the Military Commission in Vladivostok, and after three years of study, he became a platoon commander of the Liaodong Garrison Division after three years of study.

Because his hometown was in the Shanxi region, Li Ming continued to be a military cadre from Shanxi when he formed the Luliangshan base area in the Ming Dynasty, so he transferred him and was directly promoted to become a company commander, and later caught up with the great expansion of the Northwest Field Army and was promoted to a battalion commander of the field division.

Qin Ergou has not participated in the Far Eastern Army for a long time, although most of them have come to this day with his own efforts, but his luck is indeed relatively rebellious, and he has been promoted several times in a row, all of which have caught up with a little, which has to make people sigh his luck.

"Battalion commander...... Linqingzhou in front is our purpose this time, and the distance is about thirty miles. We have made contact with our brother forces stationed there. Several horsemen, who had penetrated into the front, rode up to him and reported loudly.

Because the Canal Fleet had already moved south in order to support the Yangtze River Fleet, leaving only a small number of troops stationed on both sides of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, the Central Plains Campaign Command transferred some troops from Henan, Shanxi, and other regions to support the important areas along the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal.

Qin Ergou's battalion was among the troops that were dispatched this time, and they entered Shandong from Henan along the Daming official road, all the way through Handan, Cheng'an, and Damingfu, and then passed through Nanguan Tao Town, Jiazhenbao, Tangyi, and Dongchangfu City, and then went all the way north to Linqing Prefecture.

In the second year of Ming Hongzhi, Linqing County was promoted to Linqing Prefecture, and the consulate Tao County and Qiu County belonged to Dongchang Mansion. Linqingzhou is located at the intersection of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal and the Sui-Tang Grand Canal, north and Beijing, west to Luoyang, south to Hangzhou, has "prosperous pressure two Beijing, rich Jiaqi County" said, the population was once known as one million, known as the world's first wharf, the world's granary, is the country's famous commercial metropolis.

After the Yuan and Ming dynasties, China's political center moved northward, and the role of Linqing in north-south transportation became increasingly prominent. During the Xuande period of the Ming Dynasty, the grain reserves reached 3 million stones, and there were more than 3,000 soldiers guarding the granary, which was the highest in the country's granary. Along the canal from south to north, there were five granaries of Huai'an, Jining, Linqing, Dezhou and Tianjin, and Linqing was the first of the five major warehouses.

Linqing warehouse and Guangji warehouse, Changying warehouse together, and called "Linqing three official warehouses". In addition to the official warehouse, there are also military warehouses for border soldiers and civilian warehouses managed by local governments. The Shuici military warehouse built in the early years of the Ming Dynasty is the most famous military warehouse in Linqing City. In the vicinity of the Yongqing Dam on the Grand Canal, there used to be a Yongqing warehouse managed by the local government.

"Order the troops to speed up the march, and be sure to rush to the city of Dongchangfu today......"

"Yes...... It's ......"

With Qin Ergou's order, the company commanders of each company all responded loudly, and they all returned to their respective companies one after another, urging the troops to speed up the march.

The infantry battalion of the field division is organized into a battalion headquarters and a battalion headquarters platoon, equipped with a communications squad, an engineer squad, and a medical squad. The main force was three infantry companies, as well as a machine gun company armed with six water-cooled heavy machine guns and three sixty-mm mortars.

Before coming to Shandong, the division headquarters also temporarily reinforced a musket militia company for the troops, helped the battalion escort supplies, and equipped more than a dozen four-wheeled carriages loaded with field food, ammunition, and other combat materials.

All the officers and men of the battalion were equipped with a war horse, which greatly accelerated the speed of the march and enabled the troops to have the combat ability to march continuously.

Towards evening, the troops rushed to the bank of the canal. The troops stationed here are a company of the Canal Fleet of the Southern Corps, and it is not an overseas division of the main regular troops, but an armed police force.

A company of the armed police force has more than 100 soldiers, and most of the soldiers are newly trained infantry this year, and only the company platoon commander is a backbone of non-commissioned officers transferred from overseas divisions.

Fortunately, the main force of the canal fleet had already captured Linqingzhou City, and before going south, they left a machine gun platoon and an artillery platoon for them, which were stationed in Linqingzhou City and the canal wharf respectively, as well as Linqingcang, Guangjicang, Changyingcang, and many civilian warehouses and military warehouses along the coast.

In addition, there are four river sailing boats, cruising back and forth on both sides of the canal, providing vigilance and patrol support for the remaining troops, and when necessary, four sailing boats will also provide fire support for the troops.

Because Linqingzhou is an important place in Guancang, the air airship unit of the Far East Army specially sent two airships to patrol the airspace near Linqingzhou at all times, and provide air support for the garrison troops on the ground in the event of a battle.

Even so, the officers and men of the armed police force of a reinforced company were still on duty in various parts of Linqing Prefecture with fear. After all, the soldiers are all new fighters, and the troops are already insufficient, and they have to be scattered and stationed in various places, so the pressure on the officers and men of the troops can be imagined.

There were three units that were drawn from various places to support, including a field battalion led by Qin Ergou, an overseas battalion of the Southern Corps that landed on the coast of Shandong, and a cavalry battalion of the newly built cavalry division that moved south from the north. Because the field camp was the closest to Linqingzhou, and they were all marching on horseback, they were the first to rush to Linqingzhou.

The grain in the various warehouses in the entire Linqing Prefecture is enough for millions of stones, and it is all guarded by a reinforced company of less than 200 people, and the personnel are too scarce. In some places, there is only one squad of soldiers, and they actually have to guard the warehouse of tens of thousands of stone grain.

In the past few days, Wang Si can't even sleep well. After all, he was originally in an overseas division, and he was only a platoon non-commissioned officer. If he is in charge of soldiers, of course he has no problem, but it is really difficult for him to be in charge of such an important "big granary" as the company commander.

The company commander of the armed police force guarding here was called Wang Si, and he held Qin Ergou's hands tightly, shaking them vigorously, and he burst into tears with excitement.

"Battalion commander...... You can be regarded as arriving, there are millions of stone grain here, and the responsibility is heavy. I have less than 200 brothers under my command, and I have slept for less than three hours in the past few days, and I ......"

Qin Ergou also said with a guilty face: "Old company commander, we're late...... I'll let the troops take over the defense area immediately, and you and your brothers will quickly get a good night's sleep. ”

After he finished speaking, he turned around and waved his hand, and shouted: "Brothers, quickly take over the defense area ......"

"Yes...... It's ......"

As the officers and men of the whole battalion responded one after another, the officers and men rushed to various defensive points in Linqingzhou and replaced the already exhausted armed police force. (To be continued.) )