In a blink of an eye, it was December 14 of the seventh year of Chongzhen, on this day, Xiao Yi watched the newspaper sent from Shanxi in the mansion of the former general of the expedition to the west, and a rare smile appeared on his face. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

In October of the seventh year of Chongzhen, Emperor Chongzhen heard that the peasant army had gathered in Shaanxi, so he immediately ordered Henan soldiers to enter Tong and Hua, Sichuan soldiers to Xing and Han, Shanxi soldiers to go out of Puzhou and Hancheng, Huguang soldiers to enter Shang and Luo, and the four provinces jointly suppressed the peasant army.

On November 27, the allied forces of the four provinces were ambushed in Hanzhong by the peasant armies of Gao Yingxiang, Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong, and the 5th Battalion of Gezuo.

Emperor Chongzhen immediately sent Chen Qiyu, who coordinated the war, to prison, and ordered Hong Chengchou to hang the title of secretary of the military department, and was appointed to take charge of the military affairs of Shaanxi, Jin, Chu, Henan, and Sichuan, and was the governor of the five provinces.

After Hong Chengchou succeeded to the throne, he immediately began to prepare for a larger-scale encirclement and suppression of the peasant army, and spread the word to recruit officials and troops from the five provinces to suppress the thieves.

At the beginning of December, the peasant army Gao Yingxiang, Li Zicheng and other troops went from eastern Shaanxi to Nanshan, entered Henan, and then Lianke Chenzhou, Lingbao, Bishui, Xingyang and other places, and the momentum revived.

When Emperor Chongzhen heard this, he urgently ordered Hong Chengchou to go out of the customs and join forces with Zhu Dadian, the governor of Shandong, to encircle and suppress the peasant army.

A few months ago, the sixth expansion of the Fengfeng army had passed, and at that time, Xiao Yi led the Yong'an army to behead 10,000 people, and the aftermath of killing Dolgon had not yet dissipated, and rumors were also spreading about the imperial court and the Yong'an army in various places.

It is most appropriate to describe it with the words ten people becoming a tiger, at first the people of Datong Town heard that the Yong'an army was victorious, and the imperial court was under house arrest to report the victory, and there was no decision about the reward.

When this word spread to the whole of Shanxi, it changed, and it became that after the imperial court heard about the victory of the Yong'an army, not only did not give an inch of reward, but severely tortured the soldiers and horses of the Yong'an army to Beijing.

By the time this word spread throughout Gyeonggi and even throughout the North, there was no version of it, and the merchants traveled all over the country, and storytellers and tea customers were spitting in teahouses and taverns.

As a result, officers and soldiers from all walks of life are also discussing, the Yong'an Army has not been rewarded for such a bloody victory, so what is the point of fighting to the death for the imperial court?

In order to spread this public opinion faster, Xiao Yi spilled most of the flying horses, and the results have been remarkable so far.

Looking at the carrier pigeon scrolls sent back from all over the country, the corners of Xiao Yi's mouth curled, and he naturally knew that the longer this matter dragged on, the more favorable the situation would be for him.

Now Emperor Chongzhen and the imperial court seem to be roasted on the fire by themselves, fighting for endurance, but under this long wait, Xiao Yi naturally has to add chips to his hands.

Now that he is torn with Chongzhen, of course, the harder the fist, the stronger he will speak.

Speaking of the sixth expansion, because it was the first time that the Yong'an Army had expanded on such a scale, Xiao Yi was still a little worried, worried about whether he could recruit the full quota, and whether he would be too anxious.

But now it seems that he is too worried, and the enthusiasm of the people in various places has made the generals in charge of recruitment unexpected, not only the Yongan Army is fully recruited, but even the sub-garrison Zhenwei battalions in various places are also full.

Flipping through the books sorted out by Dong Yinghua and others on the table, the smile on Xiao Yi's face became bigger and bigger.

After the sixth expansion, each of the five battalions was expanded to 20,000, and the cavalry battalion recruited from the original 8,000 experienced flying horses, and finally barely managed to make up the number of 3,000.

After that, there was a shortage of thousands of people in the flying cavalry battalion, and although the rest of the people did not succeed in entering the cavalry battalion, they were all promoted on the spot and became the grassroots officers of the flying cavalry battalion.

The vehicle artillery battalion is still the smallest number of each battalion, but the number of artillery has doubled, and there are only about 1,000 artillery pieces commonly used in the Yongan Army vehicle artillery battalion, and they are all small artillery, and the ability to attack fortifications is insufficient.

After the sixth expansion, Xiao Yi keenly found that the original artillery could no longer meet the needs of the battalions of the Yong'an Army, after all, the Yong'an Army could not always concentrate on combat, there would always be a time when the troops would be divided, and the firearms would not be enough at that time.

After that battle, two Hongyi cannons were accidentally captured, although these two Hongyi cannons still have many shortcomings, such as being too large in size, and the production of projectiles is time-consuming and laborious, etc., Xiao Yi still attaches great importance to them and regards them as a leap forward in Yong'an firearms.

Therefore, after Xiao Yi recovered, he called Qi Haoguang and Wang Xiong as soon as possible, and asked the two of them to stop what they were doing, and recruit craftsmen in various places with heavy money and very high salaries.

In the end, Qi Haoguang and Wang Xiong were asked to select a team of people, and these experienced old craftsmen were the first batch of people to establish the Ordnance Department under the Yongan Army, with Qi Haoguang as the main thing and Wang Xiong as the secondary.

After that, the two of them took a group of experienced craftsmen to surround the two Hongyi cannons day and night, pondering how to improve them.

In addition to the Yong'an Army will be equipped with heavy artillery for the first time, Xiao Yi also knows that heavy artillery is the best for attacking fortifications, but when it comes to field warfare, small copper and iron cannons such as Hudun guns and Wankou cannons are the most suitable, which are powerful and easy to carry, so it is natural to ask people to manufacture them in large quantities and assemble each battalion.

At the same time, the research and development of new artillery was not put down, and after the establishment of the Ordnance Division, the efficiency was indeed several times higher than that of the original old-fashioned workshop, and the division of labor was clear.

However, before the development of Hongyi artillery and new small cannons, the Yongan Army was still equipped with the original artillery, but the number increased several times.

In this way, there are only 100,000 elite soldiers in the five battalions, in addition to more than 10,000 flying cavalry battalions and 3,000 cavalry.

After six years, the Yongan Army finally became large-scale.

Slowly walked outside the hall, and the two maidservants standing outside hurriedly bowed slightly, and said politely: "Dashuai, General Shi has already been here, and when they saw that Dashuai was handling government affairs, they didn't..."

Nodding, Xiao Yi glanced at the dark yellow sky of Datong Town, slowly walked out of the Shuai Mansion, and the Biaoying rider who had been waiting outside the mansion turned over and rode straight to the south gate.

When Xiao Yi's horse's hooves were far away, the two maids dared to quietly raise their heads, looking at Xiao Yi's back that had already gone away, their pink faces were full of shyness.

......

When Xiao Yi arrived in the Yuecheng outside the south gate, Shi Lu, Huang Yang, Shi Gang, Wang Dayong, Liu Tong, Yang Liqing and other six people were waiting here early with dozens of senior generals of the Yongan Army.

After seeing Xiao Yi coming, all the generals hugged their fists together.

"I've seen the big handsome!"

After Xiao Yi waved his men and dismounted, he cooperated with the generals to board the army control platform, and when he saw the situation under the city, even Xiao Yi only felt a surge in his heart.

On the south gate of Datong Town, hang three vigorous and powerful characters high, saying "Wuding Gate".

On the Wuding Gate, there are heavy eaves and nine levels of rest on the top of the mountain, a three-storey heavy building, surrounded by corridor columns outside, and the planes are all convex shaped.

Xiao Yi and the generals are located in this place where the four corners of the city wall of the control platform are built with huge corner towers, and the northwest corner tower is also called "dry building" by the locals, which is tall and magnificent, and with more than 1,000 battlements on the city wall, it looks mighty and majestic.

At this moment, there was already a sea of steel outside the city, and more than 100,000 soldiers of the Yong'an Army were waiting for them, which looked even clearer on Xiao Yi's army control platform.

The soldiers of the Yong'an Army lined up horizontally, in a neat column from any direction, standing tall under the cold wind of December, and the tiger guns in their hands also exuded a terrifying cold light.

When I saw Xiao Yi and the generals of the Yong'an Army ascending the city tower, I saw the generals standing at the forefront drinking together.

"The last general has seen the handsome!"

Immediately followed the roar of the mountains and the tsunami, shaking the heavens and the earth, and every soldier of the Yong'an Army shouted the two words in his heart with the loudest voice.

"Wan Sheng!" "Wan Sheng!!"

10,000 people are already like a tide, not to mention 100,000 people lined up outside the city, the soldiers of the Yong'an Army are touching their sleeves, and the continuous roar shakes the plain.

The people nearby used to be as usual, and suddenly heard this earth-shattering roar, often they were shocked and at a loss, and Mu Mu stood there listening to this earth-shattering roar.

Not long after the roar, the people on the side of the official road saw the cavalry galloping towards the distance, and those who were familiar with it knew that this was the flying cavalry sentry of the Yong'an Army.

In the past, the flying horses of the Yongan Army were often from the official road, and the soldiers and civilians of Datong Town were accustomed to it, but now the situation seems to be different, after listening to the roar just now, for some reason, they have some expectations in their hearts for some reason.

The Yong'an army has always been fully prepared before the expedition, and only after the baggage and carts and artillery are properly prepared will the large-scale dispersal of sentinel cavalry begin, and finally the army will set off, even in Datong Town.

Not long after the flying horse rode away from the official road, there was a sound of neat footsteps in the distance, and the soldiers of the Yong'an army camp walked past the people gathered around the official road with firm steps.

......

On the morning of December 14 in the seventh year of Chongzhen, Xiao Yi, the former general of the expedition to the west and the chief soldier of Shanxi, also took Shi Lu, Huang Yang, Shi Gang, Wang Dayong, and Yang Liqing as the main generals, and raised 100,000 Yongan Iron Army, which were divided into Shanxi from Liminbao, Shenchikou, Guangwu, Dashikou, and Pingxing.

The Yong'an Army's dispatch of troops was beyond everyone's expectations, but it was justified and evidence-based, so that people could not catch the slightest fault, and I heard that the soldiers of the Yong'an Army would cheer and thunder in Shanxi, and the soldiers and people in the prefectures and counties were thunderous, and the bandits everywhere were panicked.