After the pledge meeting, the Seventh Division went directly from Dajiaochang to the dock in Nanjing to board the ship, preparing to go straight to Huai'an by water and march to Shandong.

This was decided after repeated discussions between Luo Jian, Huang Degong and others, although the number of Qing troops in Henan was large, but the direction of Henan was not the most important direction now, and after occupying Shandong, the troops could be directed at Beijing.

Just when the Seventh Division was swearing to march north, the First Army and the Second Army in Guangxi, under the leadership of Liu Zhaoji and Li Chengdong, began to attack in the direction of Hunan and Guizhou, the Third Division of Anqing began to advance in the direction of Jiujiang, and the Fourth Division also began to maneuver from Fengyang to Huai'an.

Of course, the undisguised actions of the Nanjing government also alarmed the Manchu court, and just as the Seventh Division was heading north, the Shandong and Henan directions were also tense.

Huang Degong took dozens of operational staff officers to Xinyi County with the Seventh Division, and the longer he spent with the Seventh Division, the more Huang Degong fell in love with the Seventh Division, which had a completely different style from other units.

Although the equipment of the Seventh Division is the best among all the national defense forces, Huang Degong still believes that this is not the signature of the Seventh Division, and that vigor is the most typical characteristic of the Seventh Division.

Huang Degong, who had concentrated the three main divisions in his hands, did not take the more than 200,000 Qing soldiers around Yizhou in his eyes at all, and commanded the three divisions to set off from Xinyi, and the three divisions marched in unison and began to roll in the direction of Yizhou.

At the beginning of this year, each division set up an artillery battalion, and each division had 36 artillery pieces, which was also the reason why Huang Degong dared to let the Fourth Division and the Sixth Division act alone.

Since the Wehrmacht army pressed the border, Tan Tai, who was stationed in Tai'an, could no longer stay in Tai'an, and when Huang Degong arrived in Xinyi, Tan Tai also personally led 30,000 Manchu and Mongolian cavalry to Yizhou.

Including Wu Sangui's Guanning Army, which had expanded to more than 60,000 people, the Manchu Qing Dynasty had gathered 1560,000 troops in Yizhou, and Qing troops from Qingzhou and other directions were still rushing over.

The battle did not officially begin until 20 August, and it was not the 7th Division that fired the first shot, but the 4th Division, which attacked in the direction of Yixian (now Zaozhuang).

Most of the Qing troops in the Shandong direction were concentrated near Yizhou, and there were not too many Qing soldiers on the front line from Huai'an to Yixian, Liu Dingjun led a division all the way to the vicinity of Taierzhuang, where more than 20,000 Qing soldiers were stationed.

In the last years of the Ming Dynasty began to form a larger market town of Taierzhuang now has a considerable scale, another time and space people are familiar with it but from the "Taierzhuang victory" began, in fact, Tai (Er) Zhuang across the Cao Canal, when the north and south of the hole, business and travel, residents give, the village and town of the big, a in a yi, commonly known as 'the world's first village', in the last years of the Ming Dynasty has been quite prosperous.

As soon as the Fourth Division arrived outside Taierzhuang, it encountered stubborn resistance from the Qing soldiers.

Although Taierzhuang is large, it is not a county seat, and there is no city wall at this time, and the Qing soldiers may also know that instead of defending in the village without a city wall, it is better to simply go to the field to fight with the national defense army.

The Qing soldiers built a defensive line in Dayangzhuang, more than 20 miles away from Taierzhuang, and when the Fourth Division arrived at Dayangzhuang, Liu Dingjun was a little dumbfounded when he looked at the trenches and civil fortifications all over the ground.

The Fourth Division did not participate in the battle of encircling and annihilating Geng Jimao, if the Fifth Division was here, Weng Zhiqi would definitely have a sense of déjà vu about the Qing army's defense line, in fact, the Qing army's defense line outside Dayangzhuang was a strengthened version of Geng Jimao's fortifications outside Dangshan County.

It's just that the Qing soldiers in Dayangzhuang don't have as many artillery as Geng Jimao, Liu Dingjun carefully observed the defense line of the Qing soldiers, and found that the more than 20,000 Qing soldiers only had a dozen not very big general cannons, Liu Dingjun estimated that Tan Tai concentrated the artillery in Yizhou, and the situation reported by the scouts also confirmed Liu Dingjun's observations, which also put him at ease.

The Fourth Division, like several other divisions, was also attached to an artillery battalion with a total of 36 artillery pieces. It was precisely because of the fire support of artillery that Huang Degong allowed the Fourth Division to break through in the direction of Yixian, but the defensive formation that the Fourth Division was now encountering made Liu Dingjun a little helpless.

Liu Dingjun did not dare to think about bypassing the defense line of the Qing troops in Dayangzhuang, although there were only more than 12,000 horses, but the amount of military supplies needed every day was also quite large, and with these more than 20,000 Qing soldiers, logistics could not be guaranteed at all.

At this time, the transportation conditions determined that it was impossible for the troops to carry a large amount of baggage when they were maneuvering, and the grain and grass of the troops had to rely on the rear to transport, so there was a saying that "the soldiers and horses did not move, and the grain and grass went first".

It is precisely because the attacking troops need to ensure the smooth flow of their own logistical supply lines that it is possible to build a city to defend and defend the surface with points.

More than a mile in front of the Qing army's position, Liu Dingjun held a telescope and carefully stared at the Qing army's defense line, and the more he looked, the more he felt that the Qing soldiers in front were not as vulnerable as he imagined.

Liu Dingjun was extremely eager to fight the first battle of the march to the whole country, and the Fourth Division had basically not participated in a major battle since the Battle of Anqing was greatly damaged.

Liu Dingjun also knew that in terms of the combat effectiveness of the troops, the Fourth Division had been far behind by the First and Second Divisions, and even compared with the Third Division, which finally joined the Yangzhou Army, there was no advantage now.

Without rashly launching an attack, Liu Dingjun summoned several regiment commanders and the operational staff officers of the division to begin to discuss.

As a matter of fact, the General Staff Headquarters has long issued a corresponding combat method for this kind of defensive formation of the Qing troops, that is, to concentrate forces to break through one point, and Liu Dingjun naturally knows this method of operation, and now Liu Dingjun has to consider how to break through the defense line of the Qing troops with the smallest casualties.

The final point of attack was chosen in the southwestern direction, which was convenient for the artillery to develop its firepower and for the infantry to maneuver forward quickly.

"Let's let the artillery fire a few shots first and see the effect!" Liu Dingjun ordered.

The artillery of the 4th Division, in accordance with the drill code, spread out behind the advancing formation of the infantry, and the gunners had long been ready to shoot, and when they heard the order from the division commander, the sound of artillery soon sounded on the artillery position.

Liu Dingjun held a telescope to look at the position of the Qing soldiers, and saw that more than a dozen shells fell on the defense line of the Qing soldiers, except for the dust that exploded in one place, the damage to the Qing soldiers behind the trenches and bunkers was not great, and the three or four artillery pieces of the Qing soldiers in this direction were not affected at all, Liu Dingjun couldn't help but shake his head.

An operational staff officer remembered that the governor of the city outside the Great Wall of Heaven used artillery to shoot directly at the Qing barracks, walked to Liu Dingjun's side in a few steps and said:

"Division commander, it seems that the artillery shooting like this is not very harmful to the Qing soldiers, it is better to push the artillery to the front, let's use direct aim shooting, knock out those artillery first, what do you think, division commander?"

"Okay! That's a good idea, you can arrange it right away! Liu Dingjun was also worried that if the three or four artillery pieces of the Qing soldiers were let go, the threat to himself would not be small.

Six guns were quickly pushed to the front of the offensive, and the gunners were quickly ready to shoot.

Just as Liu Dingjun's Fourth Division was preparing to launch an attack on the Qing troops, Huang Degong personally led the Seventh Division to Luozhuang, which was more than 20 miles away from Yizhou City.

Wang Qiang rode a tall jujube red horse and walked side by side with Huang Degong.

"Xiao Wang, what did the Metropolitan Governor do before?"

Huang Degong felt that Wang Qiang, who had a straightforward personality, had an appetite for him, the march had been with Wang Qiang these days, he was really curious about Luo Jian, he really wanted to know what Luo Jian was doing in the "sky", and it was not good to ask Luo Jian directly, he couldn't hold it back today, so he asked Xiao Wang.

"The Metropolitan Governor used to be my chief." Wang Qiang's eyes were looking at the dozens of people coming out of the village next to him, listening to Huang Degong's questioning, and casually responding.

Huang Degong had heard Xiao Wang and Xiao Liu call Luo Jian the "chief" many times, but he didn't know what the "chief" was doing, and he was about to ask again, but he saw Wang Qiang patting his horse and passing by the people who walked out of the village.

"Folks, get up! We, the Wehrmacht, are going to fight the Tartars, and if someone bullies you, just tell me! Wang Qiang jumped off his horse and walked towards the people who were kneeling on the ground.

Starting from Xinyi, the troops have traveled more than 100 miles, and they have not encountered this situation along the way, the national defense force is strictly disciplined, and never disturbs the people, and the people along the way have long known that when the Yangzhou army attacked Yizhou the year before last, the people have already had their own feelings, so where the army passed, the people were also very relieved.

"General, we are not the people here, we all fled from Jinan Mansion, and have been chased by the Qing soldiers, so we hid in this village, and now the soldiers of the Great Tomorrow have arrived, I dare to come out before I can, and I am preparing to continue to go south."

Hearing Wang Qiang's words, a middle-aged man in his forties among the kneeling people got up from the ground and said to Wang Qiang.

"Oh, you're from Jinan? Come, come, tell us about the situation of the Qing soldiers along the way. When Wang Qiang heard this, he immediately became interested, and Huang Degong also rushed over.

"Order the troops to rest in place, prepare for lunch, and set off in an hour!" Wang Qiang raised his hand to look at the time, saw that it was almost twelve o'clock at noon, looked at the surrounding terrain again, and saw that there was a mountain not far ahead, so he turned around and said to the staff officer who was following him.

Huang Degong also took out the pocket watch from his arms and looked at it, he was very envious of the watch on Wang Qiang's wrist, Wang Qiang's watch was much smaller than his own pocket watch, and it was much better-looking.

When the troops were marching, they ate compressed dry food and canned fruits at noon, which were distributed to the officers and men when they set off in the morning. Hearing Wang Qiang's order, the troops quickly left the official road and dispersed towards the mountains on both sides.

Huang Degong was very satisfied as he watched the ranks of nearly 30,000 people with the baggage troops spread out on the mountain ridge in an orderly manner, and the scouts, sentinels, and guard troops immediately deployed.

"Go get some dry food and canned food." Wang Qiang explained to a few guards, and then said to dozens of people: "Come, everyone sit down." ”

Seeing that Wang Qiang and Huang Degong both sat down on the grass, dozens of people saw that the generals of the two national defense forces did not have a fight, so they carefully sat down as well.

When the guards came over with a few boxes of dry food and canned food, Wang Qiang and Huang Degong personally opened the canned food and handed it to the people, and dozens of people wanted to kneel down to thank him, which made Lao Huang a little annoyed.

"Get up, no one is allowed to kneel anymore! Tell us about the situation of the tartars, it's much better than kneeling around! ”

"Two generals, the Tartars have no more people in Jinan Mansion, almost all of them have arrived in Yizhou and Tai'an, there are so many Tartars, covering the sky, I don't know how many people there are." It was the middle-aged man in his forties who said,

After listening to the middle-aged man's words, Huang Degong didn't care too much, but Wang Qiang put down the dry food in his hand and carefully asked these people about the specific situation of the Qing soldiers.