On the vast land of brown soil or brown soil unique to the Hebei Plain, it is already noisy and marching like a weave;

The queue of many winding forwards, under the mixture of countless steps, riding horses, and equipment, swept along the trend of the geographical river, and continued to the north without seeing the end.

This time, Huaizhen directly dispatched three armies in order to attack Pinglu Road, and one moved to Hebei and maintained the rear, while only seventy percent of the garrison army was formed, with a total of more than 40,000 horses and artillery of various colors; Therefore, under the overall tactical and equipment advantages, with the characteristics of strong firearms and both offensive and defensive self-contained, it is good to pass directly along the old canal road from the front.

Another advantage of running along the canal was the support of the fleet of steamers accompanying the march, as well as the support of large and small artillery on the vessels and gunboats.

In a sense, it can not only ensure the safety of the grain routes and supply lines in the rear, but also liberate the physical strength of soldiers and livestock from the long march and heavy loads in turn, and provide sufficient early warning and standby maneuvers.

Therefore, after entering the Great Plains north of the Yellow River, the pace of the march was faster than expected, especially when the local soldiers and civilians stationed in Cangzhou and Dezhou acted as a precursor and guide, and provided cooperation along the way.

The three wings (army) men and horses under my command, which were divided into left, center and right, passed through the entire territory of Cangzhou in less than two days, and reached the border of Qingzhou, where the forefront is located.

According to the summary of information collected over a long period of time, as one of the three major military sources in the Northeast where the Northeast Heavy Army Group was once one of the few in the Northern Dynasties, the military strength of Pinglu Province can be roughly divided into three categories.

The first type is Fanyang, Youzhou, Lulong, Yingzhou four towns of the town soldiers, but also the usual sense of the elite, with an exclusive number and military order, at the peak of the jurisdiction of the Jingluo Army, Jingsai Army, Weiwu Army, Qingyi Army, Henghai Navy, Gaoyang Army, Tang Xing Army, Hengyang Army, Beiping Army a total of nine armies, 91,400 soldiers.

However, most of them were in the hands of large and small Jiangmen families, and it was not until they were transferred again and again before the fall of the Northern Dynasty and seriously weakened by the defeats over the years that they were unified by the current Dadu Governor Han Zhongyan, and there are only four or five armies that still have strength; Moreover, it is said that a considerable part of them are located in the area behind the mountains, and some are still stranded in Hebei, entangled with Zhang Bangchang's troops and too late to respond to the battle.

In addition, there are the so-called Dadu Governor's Tooth Soldiers and a city guard stationed in Jicheng, the capital of Youzhou, which is basically composed of the children of the hereditary military households in the city who listen to whoever is in his position.

Then there is located in Yuguan, Baigou and other eleven places to be rushed to the town defense army, compared with the inland unity army or Yanbian garrison army, which is divided into three parts: the first army, the horse army, and the infantry army according to the degree of equipment and training, among which the first soldier as the name suggests belongs to the more elite part, the horse army is a light cavalry without armor, and the infantry army is also less armor and the majority of crossbowmen.

The local soldiers and horse foot archers in the state and county units, compared with the regimental training and township soldiers in the inland places, the scale varies according to the size of the territory under their jurisdiction, and is distributed in Youzhou, Jizhou, Fuzhou, Danzhou, Yizhou, Dingzhou, Hengzhou, Mozhou, Ulzhou, Yingzhou, Huanzhou, Shuozhou, and Yunzhou outside the mountain.

In addition, there are some shops (military posts) and patrolmen, but the number and scale are much smaller. However, there is a characteristic in Yandi, that is, the children of military families in Tuntian are everywhere, and whether it is the town defense army, the native soldiers, and the horse step archers, everyone is famous for being able to shoot, and compared with Hebei, Henan and other places, the horse preparation rate is relatively high.

But in the performance of actual encounters and contacts over the years, it is a different story entirely. Of course, the reaction of the local troops in Cangzhou, these Pinglu soldiers who often harass each other, an evaluation of "tenacious and long-shot, long-legged and good running" is inseparable.

"Newspaper. . . (North) Cheongju has been lowered. ”

Suddenly, a routine report was interrupted, and I was sitting on the platform enjoying the secret warmth under the three skirts, while pretending to look at the state of war, and a wisp of thought had gradually drifted away.

Only then did I notice that in the distance of the city, on the smoky battlements, there were three fiery red fork-tailed wind and thunder flags unique to the vanguard of the Huai Army.

Moreover, judging from the integrity of the appearance of the city, even the battle engineers prepared in advance were not dispatched, and the city defense of the state city had been broken, and the morale of the city to continue to hold on, and it entered the stage of sweeping and routing and finishing.

In fact, this is also the norm and routine encountered by the troops along the way.

Because of the torture and attrition of years of war, and the weakness of the local army, the initial expectation of step-by-step resistance and resistance did not happen; It seems that the enemy's main resistance forces have been concentrated in the state capital, which is represented by a few more fortified cities, and has completely abandoned those outer counties and strongholds.

Therefore, before the arrival of the Huai army's brigade, among these abandoned strongholds, they could not wait to open the door with white flags raised by the rangers and pioneers in charge of the outposts; Of course, this is also because it is located on the Great Plain of Hebei, which is really a flat river and there is no danger to defend, and there is nowhere to escape.

And according to these places, mainly those third-rate state soldiers, archers and the like, although the equipment is backward and there is a lot of courage to defend the territory, but the actual will to fight and lasting toughness are not very high, once the concentrated firepower to open the gap in the city defense or blast through the city gate, it is easy to collapse morale, panic and roar; Most of them have taken off their uniforms and discarded their weapons, and have gone into hiding in their homes to pretend to be civilians.

As a corresponding punishment and countermeasure after the fall of the city, according to the strength of their resistance and the time they persisted, the corresponding young and middle-aged people were taken out on the spot according to the proportion of the population, and collectively sent to the rear to be used as ready-made labor for repairing roads and building grain stations (military stations) under the supervision of the garrison. Most of the remaining Jin family are old and weak, women and children, even if they are left to fend for themselves, they will not be able to give birth to what is wrong, and there will be no big storms.

Naturally, there are practices and examples of resistance and evasion, but it is a pity that they can neither resist the guns and grenades of the Huai army's formations, nor can they escape the pursuit of hussars and chasseurs.

However, among the seven cities that have been defeated so far, including Zhuozhou, Yizhou, Liangxiang, Gu'an, Wuqing, and Anci, there are no banners of the main Pinglu military horses that are expected, or they are not even doing well in Qingye.

So much so that on my way, I often saw some of the burned fields, and more unharvested ears of wheat and chestnut rice, and green gauze tents made of sorghum, scattered in the wilderness without anyone paying attention.

And the elite light cavalry in charge of the forward capture group and the ranger group can even frequently bump into those Pinglu rangers who are scattered in the fields and set fire indiscriminately, and have some gains and news.

Then, with each city and town, a new task begins in many places; It is to forcibly organize the remnants of the local population, go to the field to harvest wheat and cut grass, and then after redistribution and deployment, it becomes a supplementary resource to maintain the rear.

Sun Tzu said that the Art of War is good, you can eat the enemy for a minute, and you can defeat the transportation of a stone by the laborers in the rear; Although I didn't expect to be able to obtain enough supplies and resources in enemy territory from the beginning, no matter how small the mosquito's legs are, they are still meat, and being able to be self-sufficient along the way is a share, which is good for maintaining morale and discipline.

The vast Hebei Plain has now become a natural stage and a vast world for the chasers, hussars and sentinel light cavalry under the jurisdiction of the Huai Army, all kinds of galloping safaris;

Although from time to time groups of Yandi cavalry came out and divided into many small units to try to harass and block my own formation, they were soon dispersed and intercepted by the Huai army firearms, which also belonged to the cavalry, and were cut off on the periphery and the edge.

In these areas that have been preliminarily cleared and searched, with the ferry bridges that have been damaged and burned down everywhere, and the rebuilding of the Jiansheng Army Engineering Regiment by the follow-up of the Jiansheng Army engineering regiment with local materials, the control and vigilance of Huaizhen are also constantly extending towards the north with the passing of the army.

The Third Army of the Garrison was left behind, but because of the existence of water transportation by vehicles and ships, in fact, the pressure on logistics support and the maintenance of grain routes was not very great;

Therefore, the existence of this garrison order, in addition to re-establishing local order and organizing new cantonment camps and administrative areas, is mainly used to guard and defend the central area of Hebei Province; Prevent Zhang Bangchang's forces from being under the cold lips and teeth or the death of the rabbit and the fox sorrow, and the resulting changes and actions that may lead to the fainting of the mind.

Coupled with the two armies guarding the Yangtze River on the Huainan side, after such a transfer of defense and dispatching troops, the achievements of Huaizhen's army expansion and the accumulation of reserves that Huaizhen had just completed were like water absorbed by a sponge, and they once again returned to the origin of the relatively heavy external void.

Therefore, I did not plan to fight the northward campaign for too long, and the actual line of march and the scope of the operation drawn up by the staff group and the staff group were also tentatively set in the area south of Yanshan within the reach of the Great Plains, and the primary purpose was to destroy or inflict heavy damage on the remnants of the Northern Dynasties in Pinglu Dao, and to sweep away and destroy the foundation for their continued existence.

After all, no matter how withered and decayed Pinglu Dao is, there are also sixteen states inside and outside the mountains, and the population base of millions is not.

(End of chapter)