The North Shanghai State Guard, which was striding forward in the Lushun Battalion, also sent the report of the emptiness of the South Fourth Guard back to the Liaodong Partial Division Base at Lushunkou.

This situation was expected, but Liaodong is extremely sparsely populated, and it has always been difficult to obtain more detailed information. Now that the three guards have been connected, the emptiness of the Qing army in Liaodong has been completely exposed, but it has really made Zhao Qian's brows furrow.

"The Tartars are doing their best, and the rainstorm will not return."

The Qing court concentrated all its forces on the decisive battle with the main forces of the Ming army in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Zhejiang, so that they could easily fight on the battlefield in Liaodong. The decisive battle has not yet begun, but there is not much that their partial division can do, and whether to risk taking Liaoyang is indeed a big question.

"Go back and tell Li to return to his hometown, after arriving in Haizhou, depending on the situation, Ben Shuai can trust his sense of smell, but in Lushun, in addition to the planned supplements, Ben Shuai can't give him too much additional support in the near future."

will be outside, and the monarch's decree will not be affected. Just like Chen Wen can't command them remotely, he can't remotely command Li Huixiang five or six hundred miles away, large-scale operations, decentralization is essential, otherwise the army will be slow to react, and it will be difficult for some strongmen to take possession everywhere and continue to win battles.

The Lushun battalion is the main force of this Liaodong division, and there are defenders in Lushun, and there are also some captured Baoyi and civilian men who can be used as supplementary soldiers to defend the fortress, and the support of the Lushun battalion is not impossible. However, at this moment, another army is temporarily repairing at Lushunkou, and the priority of replenishment is higher, and Zhao Qian can't help.

In Arthur Port, there are constantly ships entering the port, before the fort was reinforced, Zhao Qian also renovated the port, since Zheng Qi went south to Dengzhou, the port is even more empty, but now, it is clearly an inadequate posture, which really makes his face a little unbearable.

"I'm tired of Zhao Shuai's intentions, my soldiers and horses are just here for a little rest, all the injuries and illnesses on the ship must be handed over to your department for proper care, and if the ship is damaged, repair is one of them, if there is really no way to reach the destination, I hope Zhao Shuai will transfer some ships, so as not to delay the march of the army."

The person who spoke was very polite, but the military rank, title, and dispatch were all above Zhao Qian, and it was more about seniority - when Zhao Qian was the captain on Dalan Mountain, this grandfather was still a small soldier, not even a military commander, and he was the most senior in the army, so he had to be polite.

"An Shuai is ordered by His Royal Highness to supervise the country, and this Shuai will fully cooperate, please rest assured."

"Thank you Zhao Shuai."

Cai Guogong and Yuyao Division commander An Youfu was responsible for commanding the Eastern Route Army of the Northern Expedition composed of the Yuyao Division and the Special Task Force, which set off earlier than the Middle Route Army and the West Route Army, but all the way from Taizhou in eastern Zhejiang to the sea, avoiding too many eyes and ears, until today arrived in Lushun, which is also not easy.

After saluting, the two climbed aboard the fort wall to supervise the transfer of ships and personnel in the port. An Youfu led the army's order, Zhao Qian just read the order to let him fully assist, and he didn't say more, and An Youfu didn't talk about the destination of this march, everything was silent.

More and more ships entered the harbor, the berths were limited, and priority was given to the wounded and sick, who would be properly cared for by the military doctor at Fort Arthur, while the other non-commissioned officers took turns disembarking and repairing and waiting for the order to depart.

"Chief Engineer Pan, how's it going?"

An Youfu and this shipwright knew each other before, this person was originally from Lanxi, he worked in the water camp since the sixth year of Yongli when the water camp was formed, from the beginning of repairing small wooden boats, to the north Lushun was already able to build the chief foreman of the sea ship, during which he was responsible for leading other shipwrights to repair and manufacture sea ships for the use of the army, which is also the responsibility of the aspect.

Pan Xuezhong took Fort Lushun and the shipwrights and carpenters who came with the ship after a preliminary inspection for half a day, and had a brief understanding of the general condition of the ship. The plan for the maintenance is still being formulated, and he, as the leader of the shipwright, naturally has to report to An Youfu and Zhao Qian, the two marshals, before he can act.

"It's not bad, most of these ships are new, and there are not many places that need to be repaired. Because of the short sailing time, the maggots on the ship are not too many, at least not to the point of destroying the hull structure. Xia Guan thought that if the things under the ship were properly repaired and cleaned up, the ship would still be able to be used for a long time. ”

In the era of sailing wooden boats, this kind of molluscs of the ship clam family has always been the most disgusting thing for the crew, because many shipwrecks occur because these things are like termites to the levees, which will erode the huge sea ship to a thousand holes and fall apart.

There are many ways to control ship maggots, but for today's mid-seventeenth century, whether it is Europe or China, it is quite time-consuming and laborious, and the effect is mostly not satisfactory.

Of course, when the sea is thousands of miles away, it is either poorly prepared or stranded on a desert island, and this creature often becomes food for the hungry seafarers. This is not a matter for outsiders, and Pan Xuezhong naturally didn't bother to mention it to the people in the army division, but most of the admirals and sailors knew about it, because when necessary, this is the difference between life and death.

Pan Xuezhong mentioned it, but An Youfu shook his head, and then said to him: "Ben Shuai doesn't have that long time, and he has to set off for repairs in three days at most." As for the situation of the ship, I know that Chief Engineer Pan loves the ship like his life, but the military order is like a mountain, and he can reach the destination, even if the ship disintegrates by itself after arriving at the destination, as long as the troops can be transported to the place, it is enough! ”

From the moment he received the order to inspect, Pan Xuezhong knew that this matter was very important, and when he heard this, he also sighed. As An Youfu said, sailing is his dream, and the ships, especially those he is responsible for building, are considered to be his own. Although they have all arrived in Lushun, the ship will not be destroyed by itself in the next voyage, but the ship that has been sailing for so long is not maintained, which really makes him feel uncomfortable.

However, now he is no longer the shipwright apprentice on the head of Lanxi Port back then, he has been in the army for a long time, and he can also say a thing or two about military and state affairs, so he naturally understands the fleeting truth of the fighter. Since there was an order issued here, he also hurriedly organized people to carry out the fastest maintenance, lest An Youfu really say that it would not be beautiful if a ship was destroyed and people died.

Pan Xuezhong hurriedly returned to the port, and after the reconstruction, the dock was also available, and he led the shipwrights to begin to maintain the ship. The Eastern Route Army led by An Youfu repaired here for three days, and they were estimated to be busy for more than three days, indispensable for twelve hours and two shifts.

Inside and outside the port, ships come in and out, and there are countless soldiers on board, defenders of the port, and all personnel, but the military law of the Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Ming armies is strict, and each officer performs his own duties, and there are even staff officers to coordinate and dispatch, but they are also in order.

After getting off the ship to recuperate with injuries and illnesses, and the soldiers went ashore to repair, An Youfu and Zhao Qian coordinated each other's responsibilities and devoted themselves to staff operations. After three days, when the army was repaired and ready to set off, Ichiro Ono, who had been in charge of the craftsmen and people from Japan and Korea, hurried in and strongly asked to join the army in the war, but was immediately rejected by An Youfu.

In the past few days, Ono Ichiro has been taking those Japanese and Korean craftsmen and folk husbands to do things, supervising them day and night.

Hearing An Youfu's refusal, Ono Ichiro glared angrily, but An Youfu didn't even give him an answer, and strode directly towards the port with the guards.

"Zhao Shuai, since he asked to belong to Wang Shi, he has always been diligent and deferential, and the things explained by his boss have never been the same, and he has always worked hard to complete it. Even if An Shuai doesn't agree to the lowly job, how can he even say a reason? ”

The man in front of him, who wore Han clothes, spoke Chinese, and even changed his name to a Han surname, and could officially get rid of the identity of a Tartar official just waiting for the approval to be delivered, came at this moment, with only an ancestral katana on his body, which was exactly as he said, in order to kill the Tartars and join the Han nationality before joining the army.

Zhao Qian heard the grievances of this subordinate, he had previously said that as long as An Youfu agreed, he would not speak out against it, but now that he had seen An Youfu's performance, he suddenly realized that there was no room for negotiation in this matter!

"Since you are an officer of my Jiangsu and Zhejiang Wang Division, you should understand that my Jiangsu and Zhejiang Wang Shi has always been known for its strict military law. Over the years, our unit has grown step by step from a small army of five or six hundred people to today, relying not only on formations, but also on military laws, regulations, systems, and beliefs to condense the officers and men into an indestructible whole, thus crushing those seemingly invincible enemies. ”

"Although the Eastern Route Army is a partial division of the Northern Expedition, it is a secret operation, and naturally there is no possibility of temporarily supplementing personnel outside the establishment. Your task is to manage the craftsmen and people from Korea and Japan, and to assist the commander to advance into southern Liaoning, not to fight as a volunteer. An Shuai did the right thing, he really didn't need to answer you. ”

Zhao Qianyan also walked to the port, An Youfu led the army to set off, he wanted to send one or two, but also to supervise and sit in the Port of Arthur.

Passing by, Ono Ichiro stood in place in a daze, reminiscing about what Zhao Qian had just said. Thinking about it carefully, from the time he was recruited to serve in the army in Japan, to this day, he has indeed felt the atmosphere as he said when he is in the army.

Ono Ichiro remembered that Chen Wen had given instructions to the army, and there was a sentence about the system that really made him unforgettable, and that sentence was as good as what An Youfu and Zhao Qian did now.

"Our Jiangsu-Zhejiang Wang Division can fight and win successes, relying on every soldier to be able to act in accordance with military laws and regulations, and do what he should do according to orders. Orders and prohibitions can be made into one. As for the exquisite battle of wits described in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and "Water Margin", it is just the imagination of literati. What our army needs is that everyone obeys the system and trains, plans, prepares, and fights according to scientific methods, which is enough to defeat any enemy! ”

In the distant harbor, one after another sea ships set sail, and they left Port Arthur and sailed in the direction of the sea breeze in the direction of due west.

Ono Ichiro stood there dumbfounded for a moment, and all that came and went from his mouth was nothing more than this instruction. Soon, his eyes lit up, as if he understood something, and he ran to Fort Arthur without looking back.

A moment later, in front of the Korean and Japanese craftsmen and people in the fort, Ono Ichiro took the order issued by Zhao Qian in the hands of his deputy this morning, and said to these foreign laborers: "According to the order of Admiral Zhao, today's work tasks are completed, and tomorrow will be two days off." Two days later, the expansion of Port Arthur continued. ”

………………

Lushun, where Zhao Qian personally sits, is located in the southeast of Liao, and the Lushun battalion led by Li Huixiang has penetrated deep into the Liaohe Plain, and even Haizhou is close at hand.

Liaodong is a place, whether it is southern Liaoning or the Liaohe Plain, it is always inseparable from the word "outside the border". Guanwai had different meanings in different periods, but in the Ming Dynasty, it was the Liaodong Dusi and Nuergandusi, which were the two lands actually controlled and restrained by the Ming court, which were directly controlled and restrained by the Ming court.

Both related to the outside, has its own Xiongguan, the easternmost part of the Great Wall of Shanhaiguan is as its name, the north is the mountain, the south is the sea, with the Guancheng, the Great Wall, the East and West Luo City, the north and south wing of the city and the Acropolis, the sentry city and a series of defense systems are stuck in this Liaoxi corridor into the road of the Guannei, it is the most important pass in the Ming Dynasty.

If the mountains and seas are lost, the capital is not guaranteed, so in the Ming Dynasty, Shanhaiguan has always been heavily guarded, and even when it came to Jiashen, Shanhaiguan still had 30,000 Guanning troops stationed. However, in the Qing Dynasty, after entering the customs, the threat outside the pass suddenly disappeared, and the policy towards the Mongol tribes in the south of the country also changed from the military defense of the Ming Dynasty to political co-optation, relying on marriage, canonization, religion and ideological means to tame it, the military role of Shanhaiguan gradually faded, and even the maintenance of this Xiongguan basically stopped.

Less than 16 years after the Qing army entered the pass, the damage to this Xiongguan was not too much. It's just that since Shanhaiguan is already a hinterland, the garrison of the Qing court here cannot be compared with the Ming court, and with the expansion of the new army, the flag battalion stationed here is also constantly weakened, and today, it is even impossible to maintain the defense system of the entire Shanhaiguan.

There is this situation, the shortage of human resources is one of them, and the psychological trust in this Xiongguan is also the confidence of the Qing court, because the Eight Banners Army is too strong, and it has not been able to capture this Xiongguan in the world head-on, or relying on the traitor switch to get a glimpse, and Shunzhi once planned to retreat to the Guannei, and later was blocked by the Eight Banners, and the call of Shanhaiguan to garrison the Eight Banners has become a political statement and need.

On October 21, the thirteenth year of Yongli, it had been two or three days since the new army arrived in Tianjin, and the Eastern Route Army under the command of An Youfu had already left Lushun for several days.

Due to the Qing court's strict ban, the military camp in western Liaoning is also a large number of abandonment, coupled with the cold winter is coming, now outside the city, the barren grass is green, into the night, in the wind blowing the sound of hunting, but also blowing the defenders on the gate one by one shrunk in the city gate building, only the flag soldiers patrolling according to the hour on the outer city wall are whispering and scolding the defense troubles, and the pass that is so located in the heart of the heart has to be routinely patrolled at night, and refuses to sympathize with the soldiers below.

On a section of the city wall near the southern wing, the patrolling soldiers passed with torches, and their target was only the warm gate building in the distance, and there was nowhere else, and naturally they did not have the leisure to look at the wasteland below the city that was so dark that they could not see anything.

The patrolmen from above walked by, and the darkness below seemed to show some signs of wriggling, and kept approaching the city walls. After a long time, as the other team of patrols passed, the squirming first paused, and then simply stopped squirming, but directly gathered together in twos and threes under the city, not knowing what the hell they were doing.

Behind a tree under the city, Gan Cang, dressed in night clothes, held a bow and arrows, and a group of archers scattered everywhere stared at the movement on the city. This is the south side of Shanhaiguan, the city is no more than seven meters high, more than the middle of the city wall ten meters high, he can see more clearly under the tree, can also better warn other dark shadows.

After a long time, another group of patrolmen passed by, and the wriggling under the city stopped again. But this time, one of the patrolman's torches stopped, and Gan Cang stared into the distance, and the arrows were aimed at the figure next to the torch, ready to extinguish the fire of life of the patrolman.

Fortunately, it was not long before the patrolman drew his torch and went after the other companions. Seeing that the patrolman had finished urinating on the city, Gan Cang relieved his heart, and the black shadows that were not far from the city also acted quickly, and completed the installation of the equipment in an instant.

The black shadows below, like Gan Cang, were all members of the special operations team, and when the equipment was installed, with a fox cry, they desperately turned a handle, and then as soon as they sent their hands, an iron hook with a rope at the front end of the equipment flew up the city wall, and easily hooked the female wall of the city.

Under the action of more than a dozen portable torsion crossbow machines, more than a dozen ropes were hooked, and the special task force below did not hesitate, Gan Cang took the archers to continue to monitor the movement of the city, and Luo Yongzhong, as the captain, took the lead, grabbed a rope and climbed up as dexterously as a monkey.

In the darkness of the night, the members of the Einsatzgruppen climbed the city wall like ghosts. After climbing the city wall, these team members did not wait, but under the leadership of Luo Yongzhong, they bent their waists and went straight to the southern wing city in the distance against the female wall.

In just a moment's effort, the special task force of up to 500 people under the city climbed the city one after another, and completed the task of landing the city in between the two teams of patrols.

When Gan Cang, the queen of the palace, went to the city, Luo Yongzhong had already led the team that was the first to enter the city to quietly clean up a few unlucky people with a limited number of paths, and sneaked to the vicinity of the city gate building.

The team he personally led are all veterans of the special task force since its establishment, and their means and cooperation are all the best choices. With a gesture from Luo Yongzhong, the team members who were close to several windows licked their fingers, poked out a small hole, and then took out a blowpipe-like object from their arms and blew it inside.

After a while, according to Fang Yizhi's "Physics Knowledge", these drugs made of mandala powder and other drugs were added to exert their effects, and there was a sound inside.

Luo Yongzhong raised his right hand, and the team member in front of the side door immediately inserted the dagger into the crack in the door, and then lifted it up, only twisting slightly in the stagnation, and the door bolt was easily written down at the same time as the side door was opened.

The moment the door opened, Luo Yongzhong's right hand made a downward split, and the team members rushed in. On the first floor of the city gate building, all the targets who were asleep covered their mouths and slashed their necks with a knife, and they were very skillful in their means. When they had dealt with the first layer of the Qing army, the number of people on it was very small, and it was already dark in the night, they crept up, leaving only one officer at the head, and the others were all dead.

The city gate tower is the defense center on the city wall, and the Qing troops on this city wall mostly shelter and rest here, and solve this place, and other Qing troops also have follow-up special task force raids. Luo Yongzhong pressed the officer to the ground, and the quenched dagger that reflected the blue light was directly inserted into the floor in front of the officer.

"How is the defense of South Wing City, Guancheng and Dongluo City, if you are honest, Ben Jiang may be able to spare you a dog's life?"

Hearing the Manchurian dialect, the officer was stunned for a moment, and then immediately understood what this group of men and horses was doing. However, his hands were tied behind his back, and a member of the special operations team behind him stepped on his neck, making it difficult for his voice to shout. Even at this moment, there is no Qing army living in the city gate building except him, and even if it is really shouted, no Qing army may be able to hear it.

"Han dog, phew!"

"It's not honest."

When the officer's incoherent Chinese words came out, Luo Yongzhong shook his head, and then pulled out the dagger. At the same time, the team members behind the officer pinched his neck and pulled him up directly. As soon as he let go of his hand, but before the officer could shout, with a sudden twist of his head in the hands of the team, the officer fell to the ground limply like a broken pocket, and no longer breathed.

"If you can't get confirmation, we will act according to the original plan, we are the vanguard of the army, and we will take this world's strongest pass, and our special task force will also be worthy of the name of the first achievement!"

Luo Yongzhong gave the order, and the special task force immediately went into action. According to the information collected by the Military Intelligence Department before, this special task force, which was not much less than the defenders, did not hesitate to launch a surprise attack and assassination operation against the Eight Banners Army in the southern wing city.

After a long time, the tasks of each team were accomplished one after another, and they were gathered at Luo Yongzhong's place, and the sky was no longer as dim as when they raided the city gate building before, and even in the direction of the sea, there was already a slight light.

"There has been no movement for such a long time, and the Guancheng side should realize that something is wrong. Put flags, open the city gates, and welcome the army into the city. ”

A moment later, a flag flower flew into the sky on the head of the southern wing of Shanhaiguan, and the brilliant flower appeared in the eyes of those who had been waiting for it for a long time several miles away.

Soon, the iron hooves broke through the silence of Liaoxi. It's just that this time it's no longer the roar of aliens breaking through the mouth and plundering the good people in the pass, but the cry of the Han family's vengeful flame vowing to wipe out Jiannu within the Great Wall!

………………

Not unexpected, a bit too many words, the last scene before Armageddon.