After the Mid-Autumn Festival, the weather begins to get colder day by day, and the heat of the autumn tiger continues to recede from the earth, this cool weather is the most pleasant time of the year. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

The autumn wind gently blows the willow trees next to the official road, and the huge hundred-year-old willow trees are fluttering in the wind under the autumn wind, which can even give people the illusion that they can hear a little wind whistle.

Here it is clearly divided into gray and yellow, wide and narrow here to form a dividing line, the wide is the official road that has just been renovated in the winter and spring last year, compared with the official road that is one zhang wider in the past, there is a layer of gravel paved, this is the introduction of Western technology to build the water knot gravel road, and it is also the most common road in the official road of the three provinces.

In the past year, everyone can feel the changes brought by the change of traffic to people's lives, just like the tea shed under the big willow tree, the old man of the tea shed feels the change brought by the road to his life - more and more business trips come and go, which naturally makes his business better than in the past!

In this cool and pleasant weather, the old man sat in the tea shed, smoking a cigarette pouch, looking into the distance with a peaceful expression, and he even wondered in his heart whether he should borrow some more money next year and build a small inn here.

"Let's call it Liu's Inn......"

Just when the old man was thinking like this, the old man heard a faint sound of horses' hooves from the south, he raised his head and looked south, only to see that the official road in the south was gray, and he couldn't see it clearly.

"It's a gravel road, how can there be so much dirt?"

In the old man's astonishment, he slowly saw the pedestrians on the official road - a large group of people to be exact.

A troop appeared on the official road leading to the north, this gray official road suddenly turned navy blue, the troops wearing navy blue military uniforms were marching north with firm steps, full of desire for war, on this spacious official road, just a navy blue road with no end in sight, in the ranks, there were four-wheeled carriages and gun carriages.

"It's over, it's been a big army......"

The old man looked at the team walking towards the north in surprise, and his expression looked a little nervous. From time to time, he will always look at his tea shed, look at the humble house, for fear of being smashed by these officers and soldiers, and now, like everyone else, the old man has become accustomed to calling these people "official soldiers", just like the old man has become accustomed to curling his hair into a bun on the top of his head.

"S, shouldn't it be the Northern Expedition......"

The old man thought of the story of Zhu Hongwu's Northern Expedition in "The Biography of the Heroes and Martyrs of the Ming Dynasty", which can be heard everywhere in the market.

When the procession crossed the line between gray and yellow, when the wheels of the four-wheeled carriage crushed the rutted rammed earth road in disrepair, everyone understood—the Northern Expedition!

The troops are on a northern expedition!

A thin river, which was blue-green in the light of the weeping willows by the river, flowed down the foot of the troops, and while the troops were marching, a soldier carried a military kettle made of brass and poured water into the river, and just as he had filled the kettle and was about to use the wooden plug that had been plugged into the spout, an officer on horseback rushed over.

"Pour the water out!"

"Sir, my water ......"

Before the soldier could finish speaking, the officer on the horse shook his hand and whipped the soldier, and reprimanded him sharply.

"Remember what training says? If you can't drink the river water, you have to boil it! Dump! ”

Under the reprimand of the officer, the soldier hurriedly poured out all the river water in the kettle.

"You wait here, and there's a waterwheel coming over in a moment."

The so-called water trucks were actually horse-drawn wagons that pulled water, and in a way, this was different from any other domestic army, and its logistics were undoubtedly more modern.

When the troops were resting, several water trucks were crowded with soldiers, who crowded the taps to catch water, and the soldiers who fetched water by the river poured buckets of water into large water bags, and then poured alum and other things to treat the water in the water bags.

"Well, don't you think it's weird?"

Looking at Wang Shi beside him, Liang Yuqiu, a trainee staff officer who had just graduated from the military academy and was the commander of the 36th Regiment, asked with a smile.

"It's not strange, clean water is the guarantee of combat effectiveness, I just think that it will be too rigid to still stick to the water supply order when marching!"

The rebels had such and such regulations, and the water supply regulations were one of them.

"It's not rigid! It's a lesson! ”

Liang Yuqiu said with a horsewhip in his hand.

"When the rebel army entered Hunan, the result was that Hunan was defeated, and the whole army suffered more than 9,000 casualties, and the casualty ratio was almost fifty percent!"

The head of the regiment's words made Wang Shi ask in an unbelievable tone with wide eyes.

"Regiment commander, doesn't the textbook say that in the battle of Hunan, the whole army lost 353 people and wounded 786 people?"

"That's a casualty on the battlefield! Not all casualties! ”

Sometimes, even the military plays with words.

"Non-combat casualties, will you remember the number of battle casualties!"

"Non-combat casualties?"

"That is, sickness and injury!"

As a first-hand witness, Liang Yuqiu naturally knows everything very well.

"For the army, the greatest enemy is not the Qing army, but dysentery, malaria, and all kinds of other diseases, which are the most deadly. More than 3,000 soldiers died of disease, almost ten times the number of combat casualties, that is, from that time, we began to formulate strict internal affairs regulations, as well as field logistics regulations, and when it came to the battle in Guangdong, the disease casualties were reduced by more than 7 percent, do you know why this Northern Expedition has been delayed until now? ”

"Sir?"

Wang Shi looked at the chief suspiciously.

"Weather!"

Pointing around, Liang Yuqiu continued.

"Now is the time when the autumn breeze is cool, there are no mosquitoes, let alone the scorching heat, this time is the most suitable time for marching and fighting, as long as you pay attention to water supply and sanitation, the troops will hardly break out of diseases, if I guess correctly, this is the reason why the General Staff chose to go north at this time."

He really guessed right!

In fact, as far as the general staff, who finally firmly believed that this trip to the north was more of an armed march, how to reduce the casualties of the troops was its first consideration. It is precisely for this reason that he decided to postpone the operation and chose to send troops after the Mid-Autumn Festival, after all, for the rebels, their greatest enemy has always been disease, not the enemy army.

Just an armed parade!

Almost everyone was convinced of this, and in their opinion, the Taiping army in Henan would definitely not be their opponent.

After nightfall, when the rebels in the east of the river camped in the field according to the marching order, in the sorghum field west of the river, several horses were quietly approaching the river, even across the river, you could see the red light emitted by the lights in the camp, and through the lights, you could also see the soldiers standing on the high platform vigilantly observing the surrounding soldiers.

"Good guy, this is tight enough!"

Zhang Chengliang muttered to himself, as the nephew of Zhang Fenglin, the commander of the Taiping Army in Ruzhou, almost as soon as he got the righteous army from Hubei out of Nanyang, after the soldiers entered Ruzhou, he was ordered by the army to investigate the military situation, along the way he found that the march of the righteous army was completely different from the Taiping Army and the Qing army.

"Brigade commander, no, although this rebel army only has a few thousand people, it also has many guns and artillery, and it is not someone's opponent at all."

The confidant's words made Zhang Chengliang's eyelids raise and said coldly.

"It's just right to have more guns and more artillery, if you don't kill them, how can these southern barbarians tolerate us at that time? Uncle I said, the surname Zhu is not a person with great ambitions, as long as we teach him a lesson, those southern barbarians will not dare to fight again......"

For Zhang Fenglin, who has occupied Ruzhou for more than a year and a half, especially after the death of Zeng Lichang, the king of Yu, and the rout of the Western Expeditionary Army in the past few months, he has become accustomed to being his soil emperor on this territory.

"But, Brigade Marshal, we don't have a chance to fight!"

"Why doesn't it work?"

Zhang Chengliang's eyes narrowed, and he pointed to the other side and said

"We're going up the river tomorrow and take a shortcut behind them. From ancient times to the present, ambushes are either the head, or the left and right, and there has never been a bread from behind. Why? ”

Turning his head to look at the few people around him, Zhang Chengliang patted the horses beside him.

"After the bread can't run away from people, but we have horses! We'll ...... then."

Explain his thoughts intently to these henchmen around him. After listening to Zhang Chengliang's words, those people were all bright-eyed, but no, they rode horses, copied from behind, and when they watched them march, they were caught off guard. Just like when he killed the Qing army, he didn't leave a piece of armor to kill.

Looking at the nodding of his confidants around him, Zhang Chengliang was secretly proud in his heart, and at the same time he thought of the third uncle's advice when he went out of the city.

"As long as we solve a regiment of them in this battle, when the surname Zhu is beaten, he will definitely collect the troops, Master Fang said, when the time comes, let's take advantage of the victory to seek peace, the surname Zhu will naturally borrow the slope to get off the donkey, as long as we keep our Zhang family's foundation in Ruzhou, whether he is a Taiping Army or a rebel army, it will become a ......."

But no, when I defected to the Taiping Army, wasn't it for glory and wealth, as long as someone can give it to me, who is not to vote? Even the government is done! Looking left and right, Zhang Chengliang continued.

"Okay, go back to the camp first, and tell the brothers to sharpen the knife quickly, tomorrow we may have to cut the knife and roll the blade, as for the foreign gun, the brothers have not seen it, and we brothers don't ......use it."

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Tomorrow will be added, ask for support! (To be continued.) )

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