On the second day of the sixth month of the twelfth year of Chongzhen.

According to the intelligence department's detection, most of the hundreds of bandits, large and small, have obediently surrendered or fled to other places. After all, the power of the Shunxiang army is not trivial, and the fierce Tartars are all fleeing from the wind, not to mention their shrimp soldiers and crab generals.

Of course, there are also some stubborn people, although they did not go down the mountain to plunder during the notice, but they are watching the village and waiting for the wind to pass. This is also their experience, the strict orders of the government, which are always maintained for a short time.

For these people, Wang Dou has already sentenced them to death in his heart, that is, if they want to surrender to Zhao'an, Wang Dou will not allow it.

According to the sentinel of the Intelligence Department, there are still more than a dozen stubborn bandits in the territory of the East Road, the largest one is a bandit called "Tian Bawang", it is said that there are nearly 1,000 people, and the cottage is located not far from the security guard, close to the Chang'an Office on the North Road of Xuanfu Town.

According to the intelligence, "Tian Bawang" was formerly known as Tian Dabang, a famous generation of bandits in Xuanfu Town, and I heard that in the Wanli period, his family was a local leader, why the descendants of later generations were bandits, and it has not been verified. In short, this Tian Dabang was born in a bandit family, and he was deeply "edified", and he has been exposed to it since he was a child, and he has long been proficient in the way of bandits.

His subordinates come from a variety of sources, including horse thieves, swordsmen, ruffians, bandits, soldiers, and so on. For them, whether it is the security guards or the officers and soldiers of the Chang'an Institute, they have been surrounded and suppressed many times, but they are helpless.

Moreover, Tian Dabang is very cunning, knowing the truth that "rabbits don't eat the grass next to the nest, and eagles don't eat under their feet", and he does not allow his subordinates to do evil in the area of the security guard and Chang'an, otherwise they will be investigated to the end and will not be spared. The officers and soldiers have failed in encirclement and suppression many times, and there may not be no result of the locals reporting the news, and perhaps the officers and soldiers in the two places have their eyes.

They often enter Huailai, Yanqing Prefecture, Longmen Guard and other places to plunder, sometimes gather into large gangs, sometimes divide into small shares, rob and kill pigs and sheep, rape people and women, and the people suffer greatly. Wang Dou decided to exterminate it and return it to the east road on a sunny day.

As early as last month, the General Staff Department had drawn up a detailed plan to suppress bandits, and Wang Dou decided not to rely on the officers and soldiers of the local guard posts and dispatched his own Shunxiang army to fight. And the sentinels who did not collect at night, Tian Dabang and others were still in the village, and they didn't know that a catastrophe was coming.

After Wang Dou issued the order, at this time, on the wide teaching ground of the Xishan military camp in Yongning City, bursts of cheers were erupting, and many sergeants formed a thick circle, watching the two people in the field compete. On the high platform, there are thousands of high Shiyin, and thousands of Zhong Xiancai. A few of their subordinates stood behind them.

Looking at the black and pressed heads under the field, this competition seems to have attracted more than half of the sergeants in the barracks.

At this time, one was a sergeant under Gao Shiyin, and the other was a sergeant under Zhong Xiancai. The sergeant under Gao Shiyin's command was named Zhao Rongsheng, he was not very old, he was afraid that he was in his early twenties, but he was very strong, and he seemed to be thicker than ordinary people.

At this time, he put on his upper body, the muscles of his whole body bulged up like rocks, the roar was like thunder, a pair of fists were extremely powerful, and the opponent was powerless, Gao Shiyin on the stage laughed, this Zhao Rongsheng is his latest discovered seed, strong in martial arts, very good at fighting, and really lived up to his expectations.

However, it is a pity for Gao Shiyin, this Zhao Rongsheng was born in the new army, and he is the batch of soldiers and spear soldiers that Chongzhen has trained for ten years. It was also Zhao Rongsheng's bad luck, after Han Chao led the new army to fight, there were more than 600 of them in them, and they stayed in Baoan Prefecture, and they had no chance to participate in the vigorous war in the eleventh year of Chongzhen, let alone make meritorious contributions.

With Gao Shi Yinqian's total respect, if he has no military merits, he will be promoted to a small army, and he will also attract a wave of criticism, and the Zhenfu Division will not be able to pass it in the first place.

After this reorganization, the original more than 600 well-trained new troops, but who had never fought before, were successively incorporated into various thousand generals, and Gao Shiyin and Zhong Xiancai's thousand generals had a new army.

However, Zhao Rongsheng's skills are really good, although he is a new army that has never been on the battlefield, but the old army on the opposite side is defeated and retreated, and finally admits defeat.

There were boos in the audience, Gao Shiyin's thousands of officers and soldiers cheered and shouted, and Zhong Xiancai's generals next to him all felt disgraced. Although it is only an ordinary competition, it is also related to the honor of the two armies.

In order to encourage the spirit of martial arts in the army, Wang Dousi thought about it and finally opened up the regulations for martial arts competitions in the army, from formations to single-person competitions, with a variety of tricks. And the sergeant can now skip the challenge, of course, only by skipping the level. ,

Zhao Rongsheng, as a medium-skilled sergeant, defeated the second-class sergeant on the opposite side, especially the opponent was a veteran who had been on the battlefield, which was immediately impressive. And he succeeded in the challenge, and immediately squeezed into the ranks of the high-ranking sergeants, not to mention anything else, the food treatment was immediately different, and the army was more admired.

Surrounded by his comrades-in-arms, Zhao Rongsheng came to the front of the stage and shouted to Gao Shiyin: "Revenge to President Gao Qian, mark the luck not to disgrace your life, and not to disgrace our brothers." ”

Gao Shiyin laughed: "Boy, if you fight well, I will reward you with a penny of silver, work hard, come to Japan and make military achievements, be a captain, a team officer, it is not difficult to do it." ”

Zhao Rongsheng happily took the penny of silver that came from the splitting of noodles, grandpa loves to drink the most, and in the future, he will save money and buy a few pots of wine and music for his old man. I only hate my bad luck, I was not allowed to participate in the war last year, otherwise I would have followed behind General Dingguo, and I would have made countless meritorious contributions earlier, and the whole family would have eaten and drunk spicy food.

After Zhao Rongsheng retreated, Gao Shiyin glanced at Zhong Xiancai beside him proudly, and behind him, the faces of the third department generals Tian Zhijue, Shen Shiqi, Lei Xianbin and others were extremely ugly. Only Zhong Xiancai's white round face still had a gentle smile.

"Mr. Zhong Qian, do you want to compare again? Battle arrays, spears, firearms, you can choose. ”

Gao Shiyin said proudly.

Zhong Xiancai said softly: "Okay, it's better than the fire, by ......"

He paused and looked in the direction of the camp gate, seeing him like this, Gao Shiyin also looked over there, half a sound, he said: "It's Lao Wen, didn't the general call him to discuss matters?" Why did you come back so soon? ”

At the gate of the barracks, a few horsemen entered the camp, led by a handsome and extraordinary general, who was Wen Fangliang. Shunxiang military discipline, except for the sentinel cavalry who transmits information, and the officers of the thousand general level and their escort, they are not allowed to ride horses in the barracks, Wen Fangliang, Gao Shiyin, Zhong Xiancai and others are the thousand generals, and they have this qualification.

Soon, Wen Fangliang came to the martial arts stage and said with a smile: "Several brothers are here, Lao Gao, you have pulled Brother Zhong to compete again, you are too competitive, right?" ”

Gao Shiyin shouted: "I said Lao Wen, when, compare with my brother, you have a lot of old things, when can you be idle?" ”

Wen Fangliang smiled: "Don't worry, when we finish our business, the brothers of our two departments will compare each other." ”

His face suddenly sank, his expression became serious, and he showed a document order in his hand and shouted: "General Dingguo's order"

On the stage, whether it was Gao Shiyin, Zhong Xiancai and others, or all the sergeants in the audience, they all knelt down on one knee, clasped their hands into fists, and shouted: "Command the order"

Thousands of people in the stadium cheered at the same time, and the sound was like thunder.

Wen Fangliang unfolded the order in his hand and said proudly: "Bandits are rampant, harming the people, and now there is the bandit leader Tian Dabang, who is stubborn and resists the imperial court." For the sake of the livelihood of all people, I hereby order to lead the troops to attack and annihilate them. Seven days, especially pertinent"

Gao Shiyin was overjoyed to take the order, and his expression became hideous: "Great, I finally went to war, and I practiced every day in the camp, and I was holding back the birds." ”

Like him, all of his subordinate soldiers were elated and cheered: "The war has been fought, the war has been fought, and the war has finally been fought." ”

……

Early in the morning of the third day of the first lunar month, Gao Shiyin led his subordinate sergeants to set off, and like all the thousands of generals in the rest of the Shunxiang Army, Gao Shiyin's command was also 800 soldiers, and there was a new army in Chongzhen for ten years. There were four hundred muskete soldiers, including one hundred of them. Wang Dou asked for a thousand strokes from Emperor Chongzhen, and each infantry soldier was given a hundred strokes, although it was not changed to a flint hair style, but it made those firecracker soldiers love it.

After the army left the barracks, it quickly marched in the direction of the security guard, the Shunxiang army was well-trained, and the marching army was strictly organized, and Gao Shiyin's Renbu was no exception.

is different from the previous infantry Qianzong, and now each infantry team of the Shunxiang Army has a horse. Wang Dou had already made up his mind to turn all his infantry into mounted infantry, except for artillery and baggage, to improve their mobility, whether they could become real cavalry or not.

Of course, although most of the soldiers in the army had horses, in terms of equipment, Li Guangheng's cavalry was still slightly different from the infantry.

Their cavalry was all dressed in cotton armor and armoured, armed with sabers and handcuffs. In the future, if flintlock handcuffs were built on a large scale, each cavalryman would be equipped with two or three handguns. In order to improve the armor-piercing ability of the handcuffs, the caliber of the handcuffs will be increased, so that within 30 steps, the cotton armor of the Qing soldiers can be broken.

As for the long flintlock pistols or arquebuses, they did not need to be equipped, and the cavalry could not aim and fire properly when charging. Later generations were also full of examples, and cavalrymen often felt that muskets were in the way and discarded them before charging. Despite the financial penalty for throwing away the musket afterwards, the cavalry thought it was worth it.

Although it is necessary to defend the cavalry, or dismount the battle for a long period of time, Wang Dou believes that the cavalry is an offensive type of troops, and if you want to defend, you can use infantry to defend yourself. The cavalry abandoned the long muskets, and the advantages outweighed the disadvantages.

In terms of tactics, the cavalry of the Shunxiang Army also used sabers when charging and handcuffs during melee battles, which is an experience in the history of war. Only the cavalry in the front row added an extra spear. Of course, the current opponent of the Shunxiang army is mainly the cold weapon army, in order to protect the bow and arrow, each cavalry is equipped with a small round shield, and the belt is tied to the left arm during the battle.

As a result of improving the mobility of the army, Wang Dou's burden was greatly increased, after all, horses consumed a lot of grain and forage. Therefore, Wang Dou planned to set the number of regular troops at less than 15,000. In the future, the garrison troops will cultivate when they are busy and practice in their spare time, and they will only exist as reserves. ()