On the seventh day of October, in the early hours of the morning.

Zhu Daolin, who disappeared for four days, finally returned to the Bingzi warehouse in the depths of Shangyuan Wharf, which was originally quite loose, but was soon filled with 6,000 sets of cotton clothes and trousers, 12,000 pairs of high-waisted thick-soled canvas cotton shoes, 7,500 85-style military cotton coats, 10,500 flintlock pistols and accessories, 300 extended revolvers, four specifications of 9,000 steel helmets, 24 sets of small steam engines packed in wooden boxes, and two sets of copper-bottom paper shell bomb production equipment.

Seeing that the remaining space was no longer sufficient, Zhu Daolin had no choice but to stack five containers containing 10,000 square meters of chain mail, five models of 50 sets of cast cannon iron models, and 16 old-fashioned machine tools in the cold open space outside the warehouse.

Closing the door of the warehouse, Zhu Daolin returned home from the path behind the courtyard, and after entering the courtyard, he went straight to the West Garden, which had been turned into a garment factory, and carefully stacked 150 sewing machines, 3,000 horses of fine satin and 5,000 horses of wide chintz in cardboard boxes in three empty rooms.

As for how surprised his wives and concubines were after dawn, Zhu Daolin was in no mood to pay attention, and he had to worry about the nearly 6,000 soldiers of the Longtan Army who crossed the river north within three days, and worked out a 600-kilometer march route with the Longtan Army General and Colonel, and determined the training items and material supply plans along the way.

So far, except for Zhu Daolin's confidant Ye Liangchen, no one knows that Zhu Daolin's real purpose is to use the Longtan Army to go north with great fanfare, covering up the operation of the naval division to transport a total of 12,000 soldiers of the Jiangnan New Army and two guards to the north.

On the way north, the Longtan Army will carry out live-fire training in infantry and artillery coordination, infantry and cavalry coordination, and it will take 40 days to reach Qingdao Wei, and then go to Dengzhou again, where it will join up with 12,000 new army officers and naval warships to launch a general attack on the Dengzhou rebels.

It is documented. "Chongzhen five years in December the official army besieged Dengzhou, built a wall to trap Kong Youde, its city is three sides away from the mountain, one faces the sea, the wall is thirty miles long, the east and west reach the sea. Ming will defend it in parts. Kong You's German troops could not come out, and opened artillery bombardment of officers and soldiers. Li Jiucheng went out of the city to fight with the officials and soldiers and died in battle. Kong Youde wanted to abandon Dengzhou into the sea, the official army Gong Zhengxiang and others led the boat division to refuse to Haikou, when the strong wind suddenly rose, the boat broke, Kong Youde suddenly arrived, captured Gong Zhengxiang, but Kong Youde was not allowed to go to sea. ”

Zhu Daolin speculated. In early December, the death of the rebel general Li Jiucheng shocked Kong Youde, so he broke through and fled despite the cold weather and complex and changeable sea conditions, the time was about 10 to 15 in early December, during this time the tides in the Bohai Sea fluctuated greatly, and the Dengzhou Navy warships, which were mainly small and medium-sized flat-bottomed sand boats, could not resist the unpredictable wind and waves, which may also be the reason why Kong Youde could not escape in the end.

But Zhu Daolin did not know how long the rough sea conditions that began in mid-December would last, so he had to do so by the fifth day of December. Led his fleet and new troops to the northern waters of Dengzhou and launched an attack before the weather suddenly changed. Destroy the forts on both sides of Dengzhou Water City with heavy artillery fire, and then drive the new army to land on the beach, completely block the rebels' escape route at sea, and then use the advantage of artillery fire to bombard the rebels in the city, blow up the city wall on the east and west sides, break the city, and take Dengzhou City in one fell swoop.

The Longtan Army was sent north by land with great fanfare. Not only can it play a role in covering maritime operations, but it can also create a momentum and have a positive impact.

Zhu Daolin didn't know if Kong Youde's rebels would send a small army to investigate everywhere, but he absolutely believed that the Manchu secret agents and the handful of businessmen who were willing to work for the Manchus would pay close attention to it and make frequent inquiries.

Therefore. As long as the Longtan army stops and goes without hurrying, it will definitely be able to confuse the enemy's spies, the Donglin Party all over the government and the opposition, and the Jiangnan and Jiangbei family lords who are eyeing each other, and then achieve the goal of hiding from the sky and crossing the sea and winning by surprise.

With only 58 days left before the attack on December 5, the Combined Fleet had to arrive on the battlefield by December 3 and occupy Long Island, north of Dengju, as an offensive base.

Considering the unexpected dangers and delays that might occur in the northerly weather, Zhu Daolin planned to send off the Longtan Army, immediately set up the Jinzhou Guard, and went to the Beishan Camp in Longtan to change clothes, and then transported the 5,500 officers and men of the Jinzhou Guard to Qingdao Wei by sea transportation, and then transported Zhang Gongwei's 5,500 new troops directly from Shangyuan Port to Changdao in the north of Dengzhou.

The idea had not yet been discussed with Zhang Gongwei and Xu Hongji, and before that, Zhu Daolin needed to hold important talks with the Spanish and Portuguese caravans that had just arrived, and he had to work hard for the Longtan army, which would leave three days later.

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The weather without sunshine is particularly cold, and Shangyuan Wharf is still busy.

Four large ships laden with cotton were unloaded at the same time, six other large ships laden with various goods were lined up at the periphery, two 700-ton Galen cargo ships loaded with shipbuilding timber were docked at the shipbuilding workshop dock to the south, and hundreds of apprentices were hurrying to unload logs cut into uniform lengths one by one, striving to refit these two brand-new cargo ships of good quality as soon as possible.

Zhu Daolin, his friend Ying Changpei, and the head of business Feng Shengtai stood side by side at the gate of the main courtyard of Hushan, and warmly greeted the Portuguese friend Moreno and the Spanish friend Sanchez from afar.

After greeting each other, Zhu Daolin stepped forward, stretched out his hands, and shook hands cordially with Asnar, the commercial counselor and old friend of the Governor of Luzon:

"David, I thought you weren't coming to see me again, it's the right time...... Next month I will lead my army to fight in the far north, and I don't know how long it will take to return. ”

Asnar was very surprised to hear this: "Towards noon, we saw thousands of strong soldiers marching into the barracks on the docks, although they were covered with dust and sweat, and had no weapons and equipment, I could see that this was a well-trained army......"

"Is the general ready to lead them to fight against the powerful barbarian people in the north of the Ming Empire?"

"Yes, but it will take a few days to prepare, I wonder how many guns will be brought for me this time?" Zhu Daolin nodded, and then asked curiously.

Asnar replied with a smile: "There are a lot of weapons and equipment shipped this time, 30 18-pound cast-iron guns, 70 8-pound light bronze long-barreled cannons that can be loaded on horse-drawn carriages, 2,500 advanced flintlock guns with a caliber of 19mm, and 600 barrels of refined gunpowder with a 25-kilogram load, which is enough to fight a small-scale naval battle." ”

Everyone laughed, and Zhu Daolin invited Asnar and the guests into the courtyard, came to the spacious dining room behind the main hall, and sat down around two large round tables with fragrant beef hot pot and a full set of exquisite tableware and wine utensils.

A few beautiful maids immediately served fragrant tea to everyone, and various dishes were immediately served.

Guests were raved about the food and wine, with the exclusive beef fondue and bread baked for the guests being the most popular, and Moreno, Sanchez and their eight relatives were sweaty and their mouths were full of oil, and they were very grateful for Zhu Daolin's meticulousness and care. (To be continued.) )