On August 27 of the fifth year of Yongli, as the Qing army of Jinhua Town divided into counties and floods gathered in Dongyang County, the county seat and the villages and towns near the county seat also became restless.

The standard battalion of Jinhua Town totaled more than 3,000 cavalry, and Ma Jinbao took half of it with him when he went to Taizhou, and recruited some soldiers from the various associations of Yanzhou, Quzhou, and Chuzhou, plus the water battalions of Taizhou and Wenzhou to form the Qing army on the southern line to attack Zhoushan.

A few days ago, the advance unit of the Nantang Battalion, disguised as bandits, routed hundreds of Qing troops stationed in Dongyang County north of Hengdian Town.

In addition, because the Nantang battalion also selected Qing soldiers to chase as much as possible in order to disguise their identities when they pursued on the following day, almost all of the people who could escape back to the city were auxiliary soldiers and people, and this also led to the Qing army in Jinhua Mansion still not getting any useful information about the advance force of the Nantang battalion, but from the mouths of those who were lucky enough to escape back, they learned that this group of bandits was very disorganized, and it didn't look like the regular troops they had seen at all.

It was unimaginable that the Qing army, which had previously set off in the posture of a lion fighting a rabbit, was completely defeated by such an opponent, and the magistrate of Dongyang County immediately sent a messenger to Fucheng, because the group of bandits had already followed and camped a few miles east of the city.

When the news reached Fucheng, in the eyes of the prefect of Jinhua Prefecture and the Supreme Commander of the Qing Army, who was in charge of the guerrilla affairs of the middle battalion in Jinhua Town, the strength of the advance team of the Nantang Battalion in this letter of request for help changed dramatically after the magistrate of Dongyang County, who was eager to ask for help, turned into three or four thousand people.

Although this group of bandits who have never raised their banners claim to be heroes on Weihu Mountain, the remnants of Yin Can's righteous army, which had previously crisscrossed several provinces, are still in Luochengyan in Dongyang County, if there is any connection between these two parts of the people, or if the two choose to merge, with the current Jinhua Mansion, which has been bullied by Ma Jinbao too much, then the consequences are bound to be unimaginable.

If you think about it in a bad way, according to Ma Jinbao's plan to attack Zhoushan that the Qing army in the three provinces of Ma Jinbao told him before leaving, at this moment, the land division of the Qing army on the southern front composed of the main force of the green battalion of Jin, Qu, Yan, and Chu should still be participating in the battle of Zhoushan.

Once such a situation really occurs, with the law of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, it would be the best outcome if they died in the chaos, at least it would not affect their families too much.

In line with the concept of preventing trouble before it happens, Ma San Province, which was ordered to take full command of the Qing army in Jinhua Prefecture, immediately issued an order to the county garrisons to assemble in Dongyang County, and the Jinhua prefect also immediately began to call the group to train troops to help the war, as well as recruit people to escort grain and grass baggage, and personally led the team to Dongyang County to supervise the war.

The threat was imminent, and the military and political sides of Jinhua Mansion completed the mobilization with unprecedented speed by virtue of the whipping of the military order, and arrived at Dongyang County in just a few days with the advantage of water transportation on the Dongyang River, and only the Qing army in the three counties of Tangxi, Pujiang and Yongkang was still on the way.

Ma Jinbao is not here, and Ma Sanxing, who has been under his command for a long time, does not dare to play too much. At present, thousands of soldiers and seven or eight hundred regiments have been assembled for training, there is no need to wait any longer, tonight to kill pigs and sheep to boost morale, and send troops to attack this group of daring bandits early tomorrow morning!

………………

After the Yiwu Qing army, which was closest to Dongyang County, arrived in Dongyang County, the advance troops of the Nantang Battalion, which were still disguised as bandits, retreated several miles to the east and camped outside Lizhai Town.

The arrival of the advance force of the Nantang Battalion really frightened the residents of Li Zhai Town, even if they found that this group of bandits dressed as ordinary people did not disturb the people, and they did not try to attack the town, the townspeople still made a posture of surrounding the town under the organization of the respected village elders in the town, in case this group of bandits suddenly attacked.

After nightfall, Li Zhai Town lit a bonfire and torches to light the townspeople guarding the town, and the camp a mile or two away from the town was also brightly lit, but it did not have the hustle and bustle and chaos of the bandit or rebel camp they had seen, but there was a sense of solemnity and tranquility in the army.

The news came from Tanma that the Qing army had gathered a lot of men and horses, and after the military camp in the city was full, it simply set up another military camp outside the city, where pigs and sheep were being slaughtered and the whole army was being rewarded, and it was estimated that an attack would be launched tomorrow.

This information was not easy to come by, Ma Jinbao participated in the siege of Zhoushan this time, so he did not take away many cavalry, and although Chen Wen brought most of the cavalry of the entire Nantang camp this time, the cavalry of less than 100 people really could not be compared with the more than 300 cavalry of the Qing army in Jinhua Town. If it weren't for the fact that the Qing army in Jinhua Town was accustomed to being powerful here, they would have been arrogant for a long time and would have been a little unconcerned about the fact that the cavalry should always keep an intelligence shield, and this allowed Tanma to find out some military information.

Unable to complain about the abstraction of the map, Chen Wen, who was still in the literacy stage of the officer corps under his command, really couldn't toss any contour maps, and could only draw plausible maps for combat purposes according to his feelings. Fortunately, the distance from here to the county seat of Dongyang is almost a flat river, only one Dongyang River extends to the east in the north, plus a few crisscrossed streams and large ponds, so there is no special topography.

Looking at this information, Chen Wen couldn't help but sigh. From the first time he led his troops into battle, it seemed that his cavalry would be at a serious disadvantage every time he encountered the main force of the local Qing army. And this time it was even more speechless, not only the cavalry, but also the Qing army actually had a water battalion, although it was only used to transport heavy grain, grass and soldiers, but this branch of the army that was still in a blank state under his command still achieved some advantages for the Qing army in mobility, such as the previous assembly.

It's just that from the very beginning of the training, Chen Wen decided to use the infantry as the main force, which has a decisive relationship with the terrain of Zhejiang, and Qi Jiguang did rely on the infantry of the mandarin duck formation to crush the Japanese in the south.

Fortunately, Qi Jiguang's military book battle formation brought Chen Wen a great advantage, and the Mandarin Duck Formation also showed a strong suppression ability in the face of even the infantry of the standard battalion, which has a great relationship with Chen Wen's suppression of the feudalization of the army, but if it is impossible to get more resources to speed up the modernization process, the army will get out of control sooner or later by brainwashing.

Judging from the battle in the north of Hengdian Town, the Qing army in Jinhua Mansion was still far inferior to the Tibiao battalion, although he learned from the prisoners that the Qing army's guerrilla attack was a disastrous defeat caused by the light enemy, but Chen Wen believed that according to the infantry battalion of Qi Jiguang when he was guarding the border in the north, the newly formed troops would never let him down.

From attacking Tiantai County with great fanfare but only besieging a city wall, to quietly disappearing into the chaos of Taizhou, and then to disguising himself as a bandit to lead the Qing army to defeat it but not to capture the city, Chen Wen prepared for this battle for a long time, because he knew that if this battle could not be completely won, then the plan to enter Jinhua would be completely ruined.

After reconfirming the battle plan with a few officers, Chen Wen went to rest for tomorrow's crucial battle.

In the early morning of the next day, after having a meal, the Qing army rushed out of the county seat and the military camps outside the city, and went straight to Chen Wen's camp. Along the way, the cavalry commanded by Chen Guobao always kept a distance from the Qing army, and it was completely a posture of surveillance. And the Qing army didn't care, because the distance between the two places was really not far, and it wouldn't take long to reach the big camp outside Li Zhai Town.

Halfway through the march, the Qing army stopped to bury the pot and make rice. Previously, Ma San Province had interrogated the auxiliary soldiers and people who had escaped, and learned that the guerrilla was eager to attack because of the light enemy, so that the soldiers attacked hungry and failed. While wondering if there was some fuss here, he also decided to learn his lesson and let the soldiers eat early, so that they could have plenty of energy in the battle.

After eating, the Qing army continued its journey until late afternoon, when it arrived a mile away from Chen Wen's camp. Seeing that Chen Wen's subordinates had already left the camp to prepare for a field battle, the Qing army also used artillery, bows and arrows to suppress the corners of the formation, so as to fight in formation.

After setting up the battle array, the Qing army did not wait, and began to steadily advance towards the group of "bandits" who were at a disadvantage in strength a mile away. But at this moment, the group of thieves in front of him suddenly appeared.

Just as the Qing army completed the formation and began to advance, the group of bandits on the opposite side ripped off the cloth of Baotou one after another under the order of the thief leader, revealing the top of their heads. Then I saw that they actually took off the messy coats that were covered in front of the battle, and then put on their helmets, so as to show their original appearance.

"Ming Army!"

The advancing Qing army came to a standstill, stunned as they watched a series of changes, their eyes full of horror and puzzlement. Didn't you say that this was to encircle and suppress a group of bandits, how did this become a Ming army, and it seems that it is not as simple as a righteous army, but a real official army.

And at this moment, not only them, but even Ma San Province, who was under the general flag, was quite shocked, especially after seeing the three big flags erected behind the Ming army, he could no longer suppress the shock in his heart.

"Big Lan thief Chen Wen, how is this possible, shouldn't he be in Taizhou?!"