Chiang's Mansion, located in the east of the county seat of Jimo County, has now become the headquarters of the New Army, and after Li Yiliang, who had arrived from Fushan, entered the main hall, the last important meeting before the war was held.

Zhu Daolin listened carefully to the reports of the commanders of various ministries and immediately made troop adjustments:

"All the food and supplies have been transported back to Fushan, there is no need to station troops outside the city, all the recruits immediately return to Fushan, and General Li Lao and General Xu are responsible for dividing the more than 7,300 recruits into two ......"

"A group of 5,000 men, led by General Xu, temporarily served as a baggage force to follow the main force to Dengzhou, and then set up in Weihaiwei after the battle; The remaining more than 3,300 recruits were led by General Li Lao to guard Fushan! ”

"The 1,600 local recruits who have been recruited in the past few days have returned to the Fushan Qianhu Office, and together with the existing officers and soldiers of the Fushan Institute, they have formed the Qingdao Guard, and the two instructor groups that remained in Fushan have been brought under the command of General Li Lao in order to train the new army and build a port and a fortress new city!"

Xu Wentao and Li Yiliang looked at each other and smiled, this distribution plan made both of them very satisfied.

Zhu Daolin picked up the order of Shandong Governor Zhu Dadian and shook it in his hand: "Shandong Governor Zhu has mobilized a total of 4,800 officers and soldiers from all over the world to besiege Dengzhou for three months, and has not captured Dengzhou City so far, and ordered our army to go north as soon as possible to shoulder the heavy responsibility." ”

"Although Lord Zhu didn't say anything important, according to the conclusion reached by Captain Qiu of our army's scout team after investigation, none of the men and horses commanded by Lord Zhu dared to approach Shuicheng in the north of the city, because there were two batteries in front of Shuicheng, with 14 general cannons on them, and there were more than a dozen chaotic artillery pieces on the gatehouse in the north of the city, and no one dared to attack the city with artillery."

"I guess that Lord Zhu is likely to transfer our army to the north of the city."

"How's that going to work? Although we have dozens of artillery pieces, there are hills on both sides of Dengzhou City, and the area is narrow and we can't put it at all! Jiang Yulong put forward his own opinion.

Tang Zhenglin, the commander of the Longtan Army, said with a smile: "You can carry it up the hill and launch it...... On the march we tried according to the training plan. Disassembling the 50 guns and 80 guns and carrying them up the hill to install and fire, although the rate of fire is much slower than that of flat ground, it is very convenient to use a cylindrical fixed charge pack, and it is still possible to fire once per minute. ”

Jiang Yulong was envious: "I really envy you, our Jinzhou Guard Artillery Battalion and Cavalry Battalion are on the transport ship heading north, and the combined fleet is sailing directly to Weihai." There's no time for training. ”

Zhu Daolin knocked on the table: "Next, I will announce the marching plan: the morning after tomorrow, that is, at 8 o'clock in the morning of November 24, the Jinzhou Guard Garrison Battalion and the Longtan Army Cavalry Battalion will be dispatched to Dengzhou with me. ”

"The units of the Longtan Army have postponed their departure by one day."

"Xu Wentao's 5,000 recruits must return to the Jimenan camp at noon the day after tomorrow to take on the heavy responsibility of transporting the whole army's grain, and Jiang Yulong led the five musket battalions of Jinzhou Wei to escort the whole process!"

"Everyone, you must make all preparations for departure within two days, Jimo is 180 kilometers away from Dengzhou, and it is all a flat official road. The main forces only needed to carry three days' worth of dry rations and march lightly, and the whole army had to arrive in Dengzhou before dark on the 29th! ”

"Whoever has difficulties now raises them, and if there are no difficulties, they are executed immediately!"

"Yes!"

The crowd was awe-inspiring.

######

In the fifth year of Chongzhen, November 25, early in the morning.

Zhu Daolin led a total of 1,300 elite soldiers from the Guards, the Guards Battalion and the Longtan Army Cavalry Battalion to leave Jimo City, and the 36,000 soldiers of the Jiangnan Water and Land Army participated in the northward counterinsurgency war, which has since entered a substantive stage.

At noon, the vanguard of the Jiangnan New Army, which was composed entirely of cavalry. Arrive at the foot of Laiyang City.

The defenders of Laiyang closed the city gate early, and the villages and towns outside the city were lonely. There were no people, the doors of every house were closed, as if facing a great enemy, Zhu Daolin and his soldiers could only dismount and rest outside the post station in the west of the city, so that the post guards still refused to open the door.

Annoyed, Zhu Daolin transferred 100 personal guards. Raising the flintlock pistol, he fired a volley at the gate of the inn, smashing the two sturdy planks into a honeycomb.

The devastated postman immediately shouted to open the gate, and it took 1,300 soldiers to drink hot water, and the tired horses were given enough water and food.

Zhu Daolin instructed his brothers not to embarrass a few post guards. Eat your own dry food with hot water, then check your horses and pack your bags.

More than 1,000 riders only stayed for an hour and a half and set off again, along the east bank of the Jiehe River that flows north into the Bohai Bay, and arrived at Zhaoyuan County at dusk, and found that Zhaoyuan County was also closed.

Despite the repeated shouting of several battalion commanders, the county guards did not open the city gates, and none of the officials of Zhaoyuan showed up, only more than 100 officers and soldiers who were like facing the enemy stood on the city tower, tremblingly staring at the more than 1,000 elite horsemen wearing strange steel helmets and carrying muskets under the city.

Zhu Daolin raised his eyes and looked around, there was not even a ghost shadow outside the city, the post station originally set up at the official road crossing in the north of the city has become a big car shop, Zhu Daolin, who thought he could enter Zhaoyuan County to rest for a night, sighed, and ordered the guards to crash open the door of the big car shop, and more than 1,000 people and horses poured in unceremoniously.

After arranging the guard, Zhu Daolin called the frightened shopkeeper and threw out ten taels of silver as a reward.

More than 1,000 brothers unsaddled their horses, cooked by themselves, carried water from the well and drank the horses, fed the horses with the fine materials they carried, sorted out the wide stables where there were no horses, took out all the forage stored in the store and spread a thick layer, and then untied the blankets they carried, got into the haystacks, wrapped them in blankets, and gathered together to keep warm, barely coping with the night.

In the middle of the night, Zhu Daolin and Li Yuming, who had slept for four hours, and 10 other personal guards replaced the night sentinels, looking up at the blazing Zhaoyuan City, and were full of emotion.

"I really don't know when my Ming army became so timid? It is estimated that Kong Youde, who has been in Jiaodong for more than a year, is scared...... This is the case in Laizhou, the same is true in Zhaoyuan, and I am afraid that the same will be true in Huangxian County, which I will pass by tomorrow. Li Yuming said helplessly.

Zhu Daolin smiled bitterly: "It's not surprising, after the fiasco of Tumubao, the Ming army has never stood up again, and the bad influence of Taizu's national policy of civil and military has borne bad results since then, and it has been 183 years since then." ”

"If the emperors of the past dynasties can learn a lesson and have the courage to change, the military generals of the past dynasties can learn from the pain, know the shame and then be brave, and in the long 183 years, they can completely revive the confidence and majesty of the early days of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, and will not fall into today's situation of internal and external difficulties, but it is a pity!"

Li Yuming pondered for a long time: "Senior brother, is the use of literature to control martial arts the root cause of today's situation?" ”

This question is too big, Zhu Daolin didn't know how to answer, and after pondering for a long time, he said in general: "The use of literature and military is only one of the reasons for the weakness of the army, not the root cause of the decline of the whole country, in fact, I have been thinking about this question for a long time......"

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