"Report!" With a slightly shrill shout, the chief of staff of Medeno turned his head to look, and not far away a scout was riding there looking at this side, the horse was running out of breath and snorting impatiently, and kept stumbling irritably, "The trail of the Northern Army has been found ahead, about a thousand people, and it is marching to the northwest. ”

Beside him was a small road running from south to north, and there were also a large number of large carts moving along the road, all of which were vehicles of the baggage battalion, carrying grain and grass and propellant boxes. On both sides of the road sat rows of soldiers from the infantry battalion, who reclined their weapons on themselves and sat quietly on the side of the road, some of them still a little out of breath, some of them were drinking water with their jugs, and some were eating some "military rations" that they could not even recognize, waiting for the officer's order.

"Good! Keep following! The Chief of Staff nodded in satisfaction and gave the order to the scout, who quickly turned his horse's head and ran away in a northwestern direction.

"Chief of Staff! Is this keeping up now? Someone next to him came up and asked, and the chief of staff nodded, "Of course follow!" ”

"Could it be that the Northern Army is cheating?" "yes!" The officers of the infantry battalion next to him said in a big voice, "The Yankees have a large number of infantry and cavalry to assist, if we enter the Great Plains, we will only have more than a thousand people, I am afraid that it will be relatively easy to attack!" ”

With these words, many officers nodded their heads in agreement, but the chief of staff laughed, "Our army, which is less than a thousand people, has crushed their army six times as large in a head-to-head confrontation, and now they have been killed with fear, and they simply do not have the ability and courage to fight us head-on." ”

The chief of staff's words also reassured many officers, saying that it is true, since winning the battle of the valley a few days ago, although the strength of the Southern Army is still slightly insufficient, but it can still ensure a minimum combat effectiveness. As their opponents, the Northern Army was already quite tired all the way, yesterday they had just captured a town abandoned by the Northern Army, the town had been swept away, all the townspeople were driven out, and the whole town was also lit everywhere, and when they arrived, the fire was already uncontrollable, and they could only watch the town be completely burned down.

Along the way, there were traces of the Northern Army's hasty retreat, overturned carts that had not had time to turn over on the side of the road, broken weapons scattered on the road, horses that died of exhaustion on the side of the road, and all the seriously wounded were abandoned, and even many soldiers of the Northern Army threw away all the property looted along the way.

Although they have not encountered the main force of the Northern Army since the Battle of the Valley, but after chasing down the line, there are only traces of a Northern Army in front of them, and if they want to fight a decisive battle with the Northern Army to seize the initiative in the war, they must continue to pursue, find the main force, and defeat it in order to obtain the final victory. In fact, the chief of staff himself knew that the current defeat of the Northern Army might be their strategy to lure the enemy, but in terms of the combat effectiveness of the Northern Army in the Battle of the Valley, they did not pose much threat, even if it was six to one, they could confront it head-on, not to mention that they still had a large number of reinforcements to come. In the afternoon of the day before yesterday, a reinforcement of two infantry battalions sent from Wenshan Port joined the camp of the Southern Army, which made the already very high morale even more enthusiastic, they are now pursuing at a speed of sixty miles a day, and the pursuit at such a speed cannot catch up with the enemy, these northerners are also running too fast, right?

"Report!" The scout's voice sounded again, and the chief of staff hurriedly looked over, and another scout stood there holding a burden in both hands, "The burden dropped by the Yankees has paperwork inside!" ”

"Bring it!" Following the order of the chief of staff, a herald hurriedly ran over, took the burden with both hands and ran over and handed it to the chief of staff.

This is a small cloth bag, and there are some patterns tattooed on the bag, and from the texture it seems that only some grade officials can carry. He stretched out his hand and took it, and after opening it, there was only one document in it, except for some official seals and belongings, and after opening it, he looked at it carefully for a while, and it was indeed an order inside, ordering the Northern Army to immediately abandon all the occupied territories at hand, retreat north to Jiezhen to prepare for defense.

The content of this did not surprise him, but there was also an order that he found quite interesting, in order to prevent the retreat from being too fast and causing an impact on the defense of Jiezhen, all the retreating troops must first bypass Bailai, assemble outside Bailai City, and then enter the defense circle of Jiezhen in turn under the command of the Supreme Commander of the Northern Army, so as to avoid causing excessive pressure on the defense of Jiezhen and causing chaos.

"Bailai?" The chief of staff's eyes lit up suddenly, it seems that the main force of the Northern Army should be preparing to go to Jiezhen, but Jiezhen is inevitably too far, and Bailai is only more than a hundred miles away, besides, the northern army that is rushing out of all directions must first go to Bailai to assemble, so the time for them to arrive at Bailai must be different, as long as the southern army can rush to Bailai first and occupy the Bailai city wall, it can hold the channel for the northern Yankees to retreat. Even if the northern army knew that they had captured Bailai, they had no way to notify the troops who were retreating to Bailai, and could only watch as these troops rushed into the trap of Bailai and were wiped out one by one.

If the Battle of Bailai is fought well, more soldiers of the Northern Army can be eliminated with fewer casualties, so as to seize the initiative in the war. Thinking of this, the chief of staff suddenly stood up on his horse and shouted out an order to the officials around him, "Pass my order, all the personnel bring three days' rations and drinking water, carry a campaign-level ammunition, and march towards Bailai, and the battalion that arrived first will make a great achievement!" ”

The officers of the infantry battalion ran towards their respective troops, and all along the way were soldiers who were sitting on the side of the road resting, and when they saw their officers running over, they all stood up, and thousands of soldiers on a large road stood up one after another, as if a tidal wave suddenly rose on the surface of the sea. Officers shouted orders, and the busy figures of the soldiers were revealed on the roadside, like a swarm of ants preparing to move.

"Wan Sheng! Wansheng! Wansheng! "As the soldiers shouted victory, they marched in a northwesterly direction under the leadership of the officer." Annan soldiers should keep in mind that they are loyal to the monarch and patriotic to eliminate the ...... of the Northern Rebellion" As a strange-sounding song sounded, many soldiers turned their heads to look behind them, it turned out that they were four newly formed infantry battalions that had arrived not long ago, and they were trained according to the method of training the Foreign Legion in Chinese, and naturally even the Chinese army's custom of loving singing was also learned...... Of course, it is not copied as it is, although the tune of this song is catchy, but the words in it make them disdainful, fortunately, there are many readers in this era, and picking up ready-made tunes to fill in the lyrics here is like playing, so "Three Disciplines and Eight Attentions" became "Annan Military Loyal Patriotic Song", which also sounds decent at this time, and it doesn't feel abrupt at all. Moreover, these lyrics are particularly easy to remember against the background of the tune, and many veteran soldiers of the battalion who have not received education at all can hum them after listening to two sentences, and the words can not be much different.

With the addition of the infantry, the baggage convoy, which was not very fast, was now even slower, but fortunately, the officers all ordered the soldiers in their battalions not to leave their weapons, and no matter how heavy the weapons were, they should also hold them in their hands, and they were not allowed to throw them on the baggage trucks to avoid loss or damage.

Rick was now at the back of the marching line with his team, and to be honest, there had not been a day since Shabak had escaped that he had not missed the good days of Shabak's rule in the Senate. Even if he is now the commander of the 16th Infantry Battalion, his food level is not even as good as when he was the big head soldier in Shabak, and the officers are still like this, not to mention the soldiers. He remembered that when the soldiers were in Shabak, when the soldiers were usually in the barracks, they had a special cooking company to be in charge of the food, and they could eat a "buffet", and if they were in the field during training, the cooking company was also in charge of the food. Even when the cooking company couldn't deliver food in the real continuous battle, the soldiers still had grain bricks to gnaw on, which was called "unpalatable to death". Ever since he got here, he'd been reminded of the taste of the grain bricks, at least the spices and even the meat. But now the food of the Annan army is requisitioned from the cities along the way, half-cooked rice, pancakes are either not cooked, or they are baked black, and because of the high price of salt, there is almost no salt taste in these "military rations", and if you are hungry and eat two bites, you feel that your throat is blocked and you can't eat, even if you are hungry and have gold stars in your eyes, it is the same. "How can you win a battle with such an attitude?" He couldn't help but whisper in his belly.

Although the soldiers around him are still singing such songs, they don't sound interesting to him at all, loyal to the monarch and patriotic, what is the meaning of loyalty and patriotism? Since he defected, he gradually learned the truth about the Shabak Rebellion, and he felt that he was really in the water with his head in the water, and he actually defected from Dongfang Port, where he lived a good life, to this worse South Annan. Although the soldiers around him said that they had received very advanced military training, they couldn't eat enough, so how could they be trained? Ordinary soldiers are basically illiterate in big characters, and they can't understand the password when they shout at all, so that they have to wear different shoes on both feet to distinguish between left and right, and use straw shoes and cloth shoes to distinguish between left and right. But now the group of soldiers below is as stupid as pigs, they have been training for several months, and they actually shouted a 100-meter ruler, and after checking ten people, they can get five different results, and he has selectively forgotten the troubles when he first joined the Foreign Legion.

The procession was moving forward, and the soldiers walked on both sides of the road, and in the middle of the road marched the wagons of the baggage battalion, and the artillery battalion cannons could be seen from time to time. These heavy cannons have been replaced with large wooden wheels, and the front is towed by four horses, but at the moment the road in South Annan is no more flat than the one in the Oriental Port, and the wheels of the cannons will sink into mud puddles at every turn, or the road is too skewed to cause the cannon body to be tilted to one side, and the weight is concentrated on one side of the wheel, causing the hub to break. Broken gun carriage parts and even gun bodies were scattered all over the ground, and several of the hapless soldiers were crushed below, screaming one after another.

At this moment, another scout in the distance rode his horse against the direction of the army, and the soldiers along the way scolded him to make his debut, and when the chief of staff approached, he reined in his horse and saluted the officer, "Report!" Someone up ahead is asking to see you! ”

"See?" The chief of staff was stunned for a moment, and couldn't help but point to himself towards the scout, "Me? ”

"Yes! I beg to see you, sir! The scout hurriedly replied, "He claims to be a merchant from the Eastern Harbor, and he has something to offer to the Celestial Army. ”

"Then ......" The chief of staff hesitated for a moment, but nodded anyway, "Pass it." ”

Soon a young man came to the chief of staff, this young man had a standard southerner face, his height was also ordinary, his face was probably tanned by the sun for a long time, at this moment he was wearing a cyan robe, a pair of delicately made cloth shoes on his feet, and a folding fan in his hand, he was also stunned for a moment when he saw the blonde and blue-eyed chief of staff in front of him, but he soon came to his senses, clasped his hands into fists and bowed, "The villain Zhou Tong is a person from Annan of the Wu Dynasty, please say hello to the adult." ”

"Oh, it turned out to be Mr. Zhou, who came all the way from the Wu Dynasty, I don't know what you are doing?" The chief of staff nodded and asked, "I heard that Mr. has something that he wants to give to the Heavenly Army, but I don't know what it is?" ”

"The villain's ancestor was originally a person from Annan, and when the remnants of the Northern Dynasty went south, he killed all the villain's family, so he did not share the sky with the remnants of the Northern Dynasty, and today I heard that the general led the army to defeat the rebellion, and I was overjoyed, and I came to offer the treasure to the general......" Zhou Tong gushed for a long time, and finally said what the chief of staff wanted to hear the most, since he was from Dongfang Port, then he must be selling Chinese strange goods, and how many people from Dongfang Port did not sell strange goods in Dongfang Port? I just don't know what treasure he will offer.

"It's a bike!" Zhou Tong said and pointed to a thing that looked inconspicuous on the side of the road, the chief of staff followed the prestige, it turned out to be a strange-looking thing, this thing is composed of two round wheels, respectively fixed on a triangular girder, there is a sheep's horn-like thing in front, but it is bent to the back, and there is something for pedaling under the triangular girder, one high and one low I don't know what to do.

"This is a new bicycle built by the Chinese, people riding on it, only need to pedal, can drive the vehicle forward on its own, do not need to feed water, can easily gallop hundreds of miles every day." Zhou Tong's saliva was flying when he spoke, and from time to time he had to secretly wipe the corners of his mouth with his sleeve.