"Your Excellency, do you speak English?" Justin asked curiously in English.

"I know a little bit, I learned it from a clansman who went to the West," Cao Yue said very modestly, "I didn't expect you to be able to communicate in English." ”

"Maori is English, and the chief soldier can speak English, so there will be no problem for you to communicate in the future!" Constance gave Cao Yue a thumbs up in appreciation, he didn't expect that this young chief soldier could speak Western languages, which subverted his understanding a bit, and then introduced Maori, "This is a very smart guy, you will have a surprise, I believe that the chief soldier will get what you need." ”

Justin was actually quite curious about Cao Yue, he became a general soldier at such a young age, and he had so many legendary experiences, looking at the entire Ming Empire, there was no second person. In his brief contact with Cao Yue, Constance knew that Cao Yue was very different from the other Ming officials he had met, this young man was not hypocritical at all, he was very direct in his words and actions, he was a very decisive person, and he was very capable and receptive to new things. He was full of interest in this young chief military officer, and hoped that through his cooperation with Cao Yue, he and his subordinates would have a good future, at least let them earn enough money to live a good life.

Including Constant, these mercenaries are all from poor families, or they are depressed for various reasons, and they have no choice but to join the mercenaries to die. If there is a good life in his hometown, who wants to live such a life of licking blood on the tip of a knife?

After exchanging with Constantin, Cao Yue also summoned Maori alone.

It is true that Maori does not understand Chinese, and although the English of this era is somewhat different from that of later generations, it is basically no problem to communicate.

The Ming official actually knew English and could communicate with him in English, which was a surprise to Maoli. He also answered Cao Yue's question in detail. Cao Yue hoped that Maori could help him make a flintlock pistol, and Maori agreed. In order to win Cao Yue's favor, he also showed the same thing, telling Cao Yue a lot of things he knew, including some insights and insights on firearms manufacturing, as well as his new ideas.

Cao Yue also gave some of the firearms manufacturing techniques of later generations to Maori in sentences that he could express, hoping that Maori could learn from them. Cao Yue said that these technological innovations made Mao Li very surprised, he couldn't imagine that this young Oriental officer who knew English actually understood so many concepts of firearms manufacturing, and many things he didn't know, which made Cao Yue even more impressive.

Cao Yue hoped that Maori would always follow him in the future and help him make firearms, and he was willing to give Maori a very high salary. Maori was greatly surprised, and hurriedly agreed, saying that he was willing to follow Cao Yue all the time in the future and help Cao Yue make firearms.

With high salary and appreciation, the gross profit was initially collected, and Cao Yue was satisfied. After discussing with Constin, Cao Yue also got this young man who knew how to make firearms to the firearms workshop, and asked him to guide the craftsmen to make new firearms.

Equipment is needed to make more advanced firearms, but now that the equipment of the Datong Firearms Bureau is not enough to make higher-end firearms, Cao Yue can only retreat to the next best thing and find ways to improve the firearms and other firearms that can be manufactured today. Cao Yue handed over this task to Maoli to be responsible, and asked one of his cronies to help Maoli, and any situation can be solved at any time, and if there is an accident, it can be solved at any time.

And just when Cao Yue was excited about the arrival of Portuguese mercenaries with new firearms, and was about to be busy imitating the new flintlock pistol, Cao Sheng, who led the special training team to the west, trained in actual combat and detective intelligence, sent back the urgent military information with a flying pigeon. They found an army of Liukou about 500 miles away from Datong, estimated to have more than 50,000 people, which was Li Yan's rebel army. Li Yan's men and horses marched quickly to Datong at a speed of about 60 to 80 miles a day, and it was estimated that they would be able to reach the vicinity of Datong in 10 days at most.

After receiving Cao Sheng's report, Cao Yue once again strengthened his judgment, that is, the Red Lady went to Datong first and infiltrated the military camp to assassinate him, just because Li Yan wanted to attack Datong.

It's just that the red lady didn't start in the end, hesitated, and said those words, which made Cao Yue a little difficult to understand. Another thing that Cao Yue didn't understand was that Li Yan already knew that he had recruited 50,000 new troops, carried out rigorous training, and defeated the invading Jiannu army a year ago. It stands to reason that the "peasant rebel army" whose combat effectiveness is inferior to Jiannu should not come to gnaw on his hard bone, but retreat in the face of difficulties and preserve its strength.

Cao Yue also felt that his way of dealing with the red lady was a bit inappropriate, he couldn't pity the jade just because the other party was a beautiful woman, he had to be decisive when he was decisive, otherwise he was likely to bury everything because of his indecision.

A beautiful woman is poison, this is a wise saying.

But now that Cao Yue had no time to pay attention to this, the next thing he had to do was to find a way to repel the attack of Li Yan's troops.

Just when Cao Yue was nervously preparing for war, news came from the southwest that the 80,000 or so rogues led by Liu Zongmin were also rapidly heading north, and the target was Taiyuan or Datong. This surprised Cao Yue, he didn't expect the momentum of the Liukou to become bigger.

Liu Zongmin's men and horses are likely to be coming to Datong, the two Liukou want to attack from two directions and capture Datong, Li Zicheng's intention will definitely not be so simple, Cao Yue no longer dares to be careless, and immediately reported the situation to the imperial court.

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After Li Yan decided to lead his army to attack Datong, he was always uneasy.

Reason told him that it was very unwise to attack Datong now, and it was likely to lose his troops. Cao Yue had already recruited 50,000 horses and underwent rigorous training, and the Jiannu army suffered a crushing defeat under the city of Datong. The combat effectiveness of the rebel army could not be stronger than that of Jiannu, and they wanted to break through Datong with Cao Yue recruiting 50,000 horses and obtain the money and food needed by the rebel army in the spring, which was very unrealizable.

But Li Zicheng's military order, as well as Liu Zongmin's communication, and the enthusiasm of the soldiers under his command made him unable to make an order to change the initial plan, because the fact that the red lady was insulted by Cao Yue made his heart full of anger, and he wanted to kill Cao Yue as soon as possible.

Under the influence of many factors, he had no way to change his mind, so he could only lead the army to kill in the direction of Datong as quickly as possible.

The soldiers are very fast, this Li Yan knows that in the case that the size of the Datong defenders is much larger than originally expected, the best way for him to win is to kill the city of Datong in a way that Cao Yue did not expect, and take advantage of the fact that the defenders of Datong are unprepared, break through the city of Datong in one fell swoop, annihilate the defenders of Datong, and seize the money and food in the city.

However, Li Yan soon found that his plan could not be realized, when the army was advanced, he found many scouts sent by the official army, and the rebels also captured some spies, and after interrogation, they knew that Cao Yue was already preparing for war, waiting for the rebels to send them to the door.

This made Li Yan even more hesitant, feeling that Cao Yue had dug a pit for him and was waiting for him to jump down. What's next? Do you want to report to Li Zicheng, the king of Chuang, again and persuade him to change his mind? Li Yan felt that he should do this, but he was worried that this move would be misunderstood as his ulterior motives.

Just when Li Yan was hesitant to change his mind, but continued to march in the direction of Datong, his sergeant came to report that the red lady had returned to the army.