Early the next morning, the mighty Xiangyong followed the military households leading the line of long snake formations from the south gate of Anyun City, and walked into the jungle from a path that was almost invisible.

"Xiaoyang, record!" He Yayun held a telescope and carefully observed the troops coming out of the city gate, while letting Yang Muqin record the enemy's situation.

"Cavalry, 20 people; those in military uniforms, about 500 people; about 1,800 peasants armed with various weapons and farm implements; three artillery pieces, two Tiger squat guns, and one Furlong cannon; Twenty carts pulled by oxen, piled high with bundles of firewood, probably intended for arson. Thirty head of cattle. I seem to see the commander, at the back of the line. ”

Yang Muqin hurriedly leaned over to take a look, and there were indeed two people on horseback at the back, wearing shabby armor, and they didn't know how long they hadn't been maintained, and the heart goggles were full of rust, hanging diagonally under their chests.

"That's all for you, you go and send a message to Command."

Soon Xiao Mingwei got the report, "So it seems that we have to accept the attack of nearly 2,500 enemies. He was sitting in the operational headquarters at this time, holding the report in his hand.

"And how far is it from what you expected?" Tang Xunliang asked on the side, because the enemy did not dispatch surface forces, and the navy personnel were also transferred ashore to cooperate with the defense.

"It's not that big, I expected it to be about 3,300 people in the attack, and now it doesn't seem to be much worse." Xiao Mingwei walked to the map and pointed to the brick factory on the map, "Because the brick factory is far away from the main base, and there are not many defenders, so it needs more reinforcements, since the people of your navy can come to reinforce, it is the best, old Tang, you take the third and fourth ships of the navy's 8154 ship, as well as the personnel on your own anti-smuggling boat, go there for reinforcements." In addition, Xue Ziliang and Zeng Zhigang are not there? He couldn't help but glance at it.

Two people in the corner raised their hands, "Great, you two go to the lumber mill with the men of the second ship to reinforce it." Xue Ziliang and Zeng Zhigang hurriedly stood up and went out.

"Bu Zhongfu, you and the people of the No. 1 ship stick to the beacon tower, there is our communication center, if the communication center is lost, our command will fall into chaos, so your task is very important, there must be no chaos."

Bu Zhongfu stood up and saluted, and hurriedly went out.

"Okay, the rest of the people, get ready, but now the main thing is to rest, Beiwei has already led people out to reconnoitre, wait until you find the traces of the enemy scouts and then start preparing for defense."

Yuan Zhenli raised his hand. "Old Xiao, from that...... The distance between An Yuncheng and here is dozens of kilometers, and it is a road in the jungle, these natives with artillery and ox carts will not travel too fast, is it too early for us to prepare? ”

Xiao Mingwei nodded, "I know what you mean, it will take at least ten hours for the enemy to drive here, and when you get here, you need to stay overnight, and if you launch an offensive, it will be tomorrow morning, but it is better to prepare for it now than to surprise us with a surprise attack at night." ”

However, Xiao Mingwei's worries were obviously unnecessary, and until nightfall, several lurking posts five kilometers away from the camp failed to find any sign of the enemy, and everyone in the camp waited in a hurry, and had no appetite when eating. The only surprise was that all the prisoners were informed of the imminent attack on An Yuncheng by the big mouths of a few prisoners of war, but the reaction of these prisoners of war surprised the crossing crowd. Many prisoners of war even took the initiative to find the "chief" and asked to join the gang to fight to the death against the invading officers and soldiers, swearing to defend the interests of "the United States" to the death.

"What are these guys doing?" Cao Xiang was lying on the bed and asked Du Yande, who was writing a diary at his desk, curiously. "I've been making noise all afternoon, and I've been listening to the noise in the prisoner of war camp here in the cafeteria, are they ready to riot?"

Du Yande smiled and shook his head, "Contrary to what you think, they are now expressing their determination to protect our interests, and even hope to join us in fighting against the official army." ”

"These guys are dizzy, aren't they? I'm still a prisoner of war, but I'm going to fight for us? Cao Xiang couldn't help but smile and touched the head of the child who had fallen asleep.

Du Yande added a few more strokes to his diary, "This is actually expected, do you know why they are fighting for us?" ”

Cao Xiang shook his head and said he didn't understand.

"In order to eat, the most important thing in a person's life is to eat, you must know that until the 70s after liberation, the fertility of the land in our country is quite low, and eating enough food is simply a luxury for these people, and famine and starvation are common for many years. When they have enough to eat with us, they will follow us with all their hearts. As Sun Chuanzong said in "The Great Ming Tribulation", the people's heart is food, and now that we have the food, we have the people's heart. These people have to protect our common interests and those of them, even if they are to have enough to eat. ”

Cao Xiang nodded, but continued, "We don't have much food!" To be honest, looking at the current consumption level, it is probably enough for about a month's consumption, and now that we are facing a big war, we may add a lot of mouths at any time, what do we use to feed them? ”

"This is because we didn't think about it before, the previous purchase of grain was based on the consumption of fifteen kilograms a month for one person, and sixty tons of grain were purchased in a full calculation, so there should be no problem for half a year, but at this time, as soon as these captives came in, they ate more. Now the biggest headache is Sun Wenbin, at this time there is not enough place to grow food, and there is not enough manpower to repair water conservancy, he is now looking for people to find machines in the executive committee every day. Du Yande had to smile bitterly. The newly added more than 100 mouths are all edible, and the kind that you don't want to stop when you eat them, and you definitely don't plan to stop if you don't hold on to it. Fortunately, there are enough fishing boats here to go out on patrol every day to catch fish, and there is no one in the South China Sea to catch fish at this time, so you can catch a lot of fish in a single net, which reduces food consumption to a certain extent.

Just when Du Yande was worried about food, Ruan Qianhu in the jungle in the distance was also worried about food, and his subordinates were fine, everyone had pancakes issued by the county and brought water bladders. However, these villagers often came to gather before they came out, and they did not bring enough food or drinking water, and many of them gathered in front of the camp tents of the officers and soldiers to beg for food and water. In fact, according to the plan studied by the county squire and the county lord, they originally planned to set off in the morning and rush to the outskirts of the pirate camp in an effort to launch an attack before dark. If he can't make a breakthrough, he will make trouble in the pirate camp all night to keep them awake at night, and even carry out a night attack, he has heard that the pirate camp at night is brightly lit. But neither the squire nor the county lord had any experience of marching in the jungle, and had no idea how it was difficult for a man to move an inch in the thorny jungle, and by the time his army was two-thirds of the way through, the sun was about to set, so he had to temporarily find a relatively spacious place to camp.

Although he had not participated in combat or marching training for many years, it was customary for his military households to have tents for marching. But the villagers don't have this habit, and they quickly grab the big car to find a place to sleep, and the slow ones can only squeeze under the car, or sit around the tree to make do with the night. Fortunately, there were thousands of people, except for mosquitoes, but no one was attacked by animals and was scared away.

"Lord Qianhu, I don't know how this war will end as soon as it starts?" Wu Wenshan, who was on the side, quietly approached Ruan Shimin's side and asked. Wu Wenshan, as the only Wu Dynasty soldier who had fought with pirates, although all his men fell into the hands of pirates, he had the experience of returning to the beach and returning safely, so he naturally became the source of information that Ruan Shimin relied on and stayed by Ruan Qianhu's side.

Ruan Shimin didn't have a bottom in his heart at this time. "I don't know if the pirates' combat power is as fierce as you say, if so, this battle really has no chance of winning."

Wu Wenshan hurriedly explained: "The villain thinks that there is no such possibility, the little one has explored the thief camp many times, and there are many women and children in it. Every day, only a few pirates roam outside the camp with fine firearms, and the rest of the people work on the ground with farm tools, and as far as the villain can see, the pirates can fight no more than a hundred soldiers, and if my 3,000 men attack them in two ways, they will be able to destroy the pirates. ”

Ruan Shimin couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, "The thing that this official is most afraid of is that he has to attack with my family, the pirates have sharp firearms, and my own soldiers are mainly swords, guns, bows and crossbows, I am afraid that the losses will be too great." ”

"There are three artillery pieces in the ranks of the adults, and they will not be able to be thieves if they take the lead with this militaristic weapon. In the early years of the fight against the pirates, I also saw the pirates attack the artillery camp of the imperial army with the momentum of the mantis arm blocking the car, and under the power of the artillery, the thieves all turned into chickens and dogs in a moment, and the offensive also collapsed. In the battle of tomorrow, the army will surely break through the pirates with the courage of ten thousand people. Wu Wenshan's ass crackled at this time, tomorrow's battle is of great significance to him, if he succeeds in breaking the thief and wins a big victory, not only will he not be held accountable for escaping, but he may be promoted and make a fortune...... Thinking of this, the smile on his face was like an unfolded chrysanthemum, and the sycophant was thrown out like "piapia" as if he didn't want money.