The spear barracks wrapped in iron armor took the lead, Liu Manzi personally carried the flag and walked in front of the team, wearing iron mesh boots and stepping neatly on the bluestone road, the shaking iron leaves made a swaying sound, they also wore cotton jackets in the iron armor, looking burly, and the rows of spears in their hands pointed at the sky, like a black forest moving, and the indomitable momentum quickly caught everyone's attention......

Lushun's road from the guerrilla house to the north gate was jammed with dense crowds of farewells, seeing this group of steel army coming, firecrackers, cheers, gongs and drums sounded in front of the shops, and some of the old men who were elected shouted loudly to Liu Manzi: "I wish the general a victory, and the horse will be successful!" ”

Liu Manzi nodded again and again, and looked back again, his heart was already so excited that his whole body trembled: "Lao Tzu has not come to this world in vain, the ancestors of the Liu family are on top, can you think that the barbarian who almost starved to death back then would also have this day?" The ancestor of the Liu family, open your eyes and see, I didn't embarrass you, and I didn't embarrass adults! ”

The musketeers followed neatly with flintlock pistols and kicks, their whole bodies wrapped in fiery cotton armor, even the leg armor was red, and the red tassels on the heads of countless bright helmets were beating, looking like a sea of red from a distance.

Liaodong Battalion, Sin Barracks, Special Forces Battalion, rows of teams walked neatly, rows of cavalry walked by, rows of carriages walked by, rows of artillery walked by, rows of grain and grass walked over, the long line seemed to have no signs of stopping, the soldiers and civilians of Lushun were better, and those Liaodong refugees were still the first time to see all the force displayed in Yang Bo's hands. They were all deeply shocked, and they were more confident in their future life in Lushun......

When he came to the north gate, an old man over eighty years old toasted Yang Bo on behalf of the Lushun military and civilians. Yang Bo dismounted and took the wine glass, picked up the long-lived old man of the Ming Dynasty, and drank the wine in one gulp.

Seeing Yang Bo turn over the empty wine glass, all the crowd raised their hands and shouted: "Wan Sheng!" Wansheng! ”

Immediately afterwards, the representatives of Santun of Shijiu, Jimo, disabled veterans, and Liaodong refugees came up in turn to toast Yang Bo. Yang Bo did not refuse, they all drank one by one, and Bi Fangji came over with John Tang and a group of church believers.

"Leisure!"

Bi Francis took a glass of wine. He held it up to Yang Bo cautiously: "May God keep you, God guide you, your sword is full of the glory of the Lord Almighty, and I will pray for you day and night." Good news awaits your triumphant return......"

Yang Bo stepped forward and hugged the venerable elder. Only then did he take the wine glass and nodded to John Tang.

The gongs and drums that had been prepared for a long time suddenly began to beat, and the prepared firecrackers began to explode everywhere......

Seeing these enthusiastic people, Yang Bo's eyes were a little moist, all the hard work and exhaustion were rewarded at this moment, he waved his hand violently, and the pikemen waiting at the city gate held their heads high. Under the joy of the crowd, he should go out of the city first.

When all the teams left the city, Zhao Long whistled. All the sentinels will separate and gallop in their respective directions, and the sentinels will be placed ten miles away, ready to bring back the news of the inquiry.

"How long will it take for the army to reach Nanguan?" Yang Bo, who was in charge of the Chinese army, asked He Jiudao

"Lushun to Nanguan more than 90 miles, to Jinzhou 30 miles, according to the plan will take a day," He Jiu replied

"The plan has changed, order the battalions to reduce their loads, maintain the speed of the rapid march, and the army will rush to Nanguan at noon tomorrow at the latest to rest" Yang Bo looked at the sky, and said: "Let's compete with the Tartar slaves for time, or as soon as the Azig army arrives, Liu Dahu will not be able to hold out for long."

"What about the baggage?" He Jiu was a little worried

"Your team guarding Nanguan will escort the baggage team to walk slowly, and then make a decision according to the situation after arriving at Nanguan" Yang Bo replied without hesitation, although these auxiliaries are not much trained, but they are all equipped with weapons such as blades, and it is good to use them to assist in defending the city in Jinzhou.

A few horses galloped out and delivered orders to the battalions.

The cold wind in southern Liaoning in December is biting, and the snowflakes that have been blowing have stopped for a long time and then began to dense again, fortunately, in addition to the road is frozen hard, there is no rain, the road is not difficult to walk, those artillery are loaded with wheels, and there are carriages to pull, the grain baggage is the same, the worst also has ox carts to drag, the only drag speed is those Liaodong young and strong auxiliary troops, they push hundreds of pounds of rooster carts, on the rugged road to walk extremely difficult.

After receiving the order, the soldiers took off their iron armor and threw it into the battalion trailer, and then put on a gentle winter coat, although the cold wind was howling, but they were sweating profusely when they walked, and the Ming Dynasty marched absolutely not to take off the equipment, but how could Yang Bo abide by this rule?

Zhao Long's sentry cavalry is a sharp knife, the sentinels are all over a radius of dozens of miles, the arquebus battalion is the arrow, the Liaodong battalion protects the two wings, but there is no worry that there will be a sudden attack by the Tartar slaves, the artillery and the carriage walk with the Chinese army, after the military crime camp is broken, there is no burden of the baggage team, and the speed of the army is much faster.

After rushing for dozens of miles in a row, the sky darkened, and Yang Bo saw that the sergeant's face was tired, so he ordered to camp on the spot to rest.

As soon as the military order was issued, all the battalions cheered, and the sergeants began to cut down trees and dig trenches, took out tents, divided their respective defense areas, surrounded the Chinese army, and sent sergeants on duty to patrol in several directions, and the auxiliaries took down the iron horns in the cars, and the iron thistles were laid on the periphery of the camp......

Smoke rose from the cooking smoke in the camp, large cauldrons were set up, or boiling water, or cooking, the sergeants who had walked for a long time talked and laughed loudly around the bonfire, and some craftsmen of the battalion took advantage of the fire to repair broken axles, deformed wheels, etc., all of them were used to training on weekdays, and the people of the various departments of the battalion were busy with their own affairs in an orderly manner.

Each soldier had prepared ten days' dry rations, but tonight they were all hot food, noodles, bacon, etc., and the smell was everywhere inside and outside the camp.

The bonfire in the big tent of the Chinese army was blazing, and the commanders of each battalion gathered here after completing their inspections, chatting and eating food at the same time, which was very lively, and at this moment, Zhang Shixiong, the chief military discipline officer, walked in with a black face......

"What's wrong?" Wang Xiaoyu asked

"One of the trailers fell apart, and the grain was scattered all over the ground. I have warned the officer that if he does not give me a grain of food, I will not spare him! ”

Zhang Shixiong was still angry and said: "The coachman is too irresponsible." Before leaving, he told him to check the axle every time he walked, and he didn't care about anything, just took care of the horse and galloped."

Yang Bo, who was sitting by the fire to warm his hands, smiled slightly, and did not open his mouth to interfere with Zhang Shixiong's majesty, but these axles have been bumpy on the road for so long. It makes sense that a few cars were scattered.

Xiao Wu carefully scooped out two pieces of jerky, wrapped them in dough and handed them to Yang Bo.

"I don't know if it will snow on this day" Hu Mazi opened the curtain of the tent when he returned from patrolling, and a cold wind poured in. Blowing the fire flickering.

"It's snowing, the Tartars are all cavalry, break their dog's legs," Li Daliwei screamed, spitting out the hot broth.

"Your Excellency. Still on your way tonight? Xiucai asked cautiously. The warmth inside the tent was in stark contrast to the outside, and he hoped that the snow would fall and he wouldn't be able to walk tonight.

Yang Bo took a bite of the dough cake, nodded expressionlessly, and said: "Continue to march after two hours, everyone is full, and the next meal will go to Nanguan to eat again."

Everyone thought that the Tartar slaves came out with several soldiers and horses, and their hearts were as heavy as pressing a big stone, and at that moment Hu Mazi said: "The Tartar striker is five thousand to enter Jinzhou." I don't know if Liu Dahu can withstand it."

Wang Xiaoyu smiled: "Don't worry, the Tartar infantry has not arrived." It wasn't enough to siege the city with those light cavalry, just those few trenches were enough for them to drink a pot."

Chief instructor Cui Yong looked at Yang Bo and asked, "My lord, how are we going to fight this battle?" ”

Hearing Cui Yong's question, everyone stopped their movements, and looked at Yang Bo in unison, the plan could not catch up with the changes, and this time the army went out completely on Yang Bo's decision.

"We're desperate this time, if we don't succeed, we'll be benevolent!" Yang Bo coldly spit out a few words.

At noon on the second day, the army finally arrived at Nanguan, and although it was a few hours later than expected, Yang Bo was already satisfied.

The forward cavalry had already engaged the small force of Tartars who were probing the outposts, and it was clear that the Tartar cavalry had bypassed the trench and reached the city of Jinzhou, and soon, Yang Bo and they would face a surprise attack by a large force of Tarnon cavalry.

"The whole army is in armor, hurry up and eat"

Yang Bo looked at the sky, there were many heavy dark clouds in the sky overhead, but a little sunlight revealed heavy clouds and sprinkled on the earth, it was really a good weather for killing.

After a while, Tangma sent urgent news, a large number of Tatar cavalry appeared in the direction of Jinzhou, coming towards them, because they were all cavalry, Zhao Long and they could not get close to check, but it was estimated that the number of people was at least three thousand, and there were still more than twenty miles away from here.

Yang Bo paced a few steps in the big tent of the Chinese army and said: "Tell Zhao Long to slow down the speed of the Tartars as much as possible, and buy us a little time to rest, and the battalions are waiting here in formation to defeat them in a battle." ”

"What if the Tarnu cavalry doesn't fight us?" Xiucai asked

Yang Bo looked at Xiucai, looked at the other commanders again, and asked, "Do you know why the guerrilla battalion was able to defeat the Tartar slaves twice?" It's not that we have strong firearms and strong discipline, but because of the pride of the Tartars, they think they are unparalleled in the field, how can they tolerate the swaggering march of the Ming army under their noses? So we just have to put a trap and don't allow them not to jump in."

"You all go and prepare, as long as the thunder blows down this cavalry, we can free up our hands to deal with the remaining infantry" Yang Bo waved his hand, and everyone bowed and dispersed.

After a while, the Chinese army slowly raised two big flags, one was the "Lushun Guerrilla Yang" and the other was the "Thunder Brigade" hunting in the wind, and each battalion also played its own flag, lined up in formation, surrounded the Chinese army and artillery baggage in the middle, and began to slowly meet the direction of the Tatar cavalry.

The army gathered the sentry cavalry all the way, and walked for half an hour, Zhao Long and they also came back, obviously after a hard battle, everyone had a tired look on their faces, the striker had exchanged fire with the Tartars who had tracked it, and the sound of fire guns was endless, these cavalry with white flags had not yet been in contact with the Thunder Brigade, and they had the courage to wander within a hundred steps of the striker to investigate, and with the fire bolt excited, these Tartar sentry horses dropped the corpses of the ground and went back to report in embarrassment.

Yang Bo didn't care, and instructed the army to continue marching at its own pace, since the flanking of Jinzhou, the Thunder Brigade no longer had much fear of the Tartar cavalry, even if those recruits usually heard too much of the boasting of veterans. I also have the confidence to fight against the cavalry.

"The front is almost to Guanjiabao, and it is already less than ten miles from Jinzhou," Wang Xiaoyu said, pointing to an abandoned fortress in front of him

Yang Bo raised the clairvoyant mirror and looked at it, this fortress did not play a role in the protection of Jinzhou. So it was abandoned, and there was a large field on the left side of the official road, on which the once lush weeds withered in winter, and it was estimated that the cavalry would be able to run on it, and on the right was a dry riverbed, covered with many rocks and silt, and there was no need to worry too much about the cavalry attacking from the right.

That's when it happened. The alarm sounded in a hurry, and a long black line suddenly appeared on the horizon in the distance, and a large puff of smoke and dust rushed towards this side.

The drums of the Chinese army followed, and the battalions began to change formations, and finally put on the large circle formation that the Thunder Brigade was accustomed to.

Compared to the thin circle array that was completely discharged by people last time, this round array is much stronger. The outermost circle is a variety of horse-drawn carriages. The trailer and wheelbarrow were connected by iron locks, and the side of the carriage was also equipped with a protective shield to resist the dense feathered arrows, and the outer ring of the carriage was sprinkled with countless thistles, antlers, and horses.

The large thistles used by the Thunder Brigade are quickly poured into molds, and each is connected by iron wires, making it very easy to recycle and set up. It is not inferior to the barbed wire of later generations, and it can be called a defensive weapon against the cavalry impact. With the help of the cover of the carriage, the firecrackers can calmly fire at the Tatars in front of them, and their casualties will be greatly reduced.

Zhao Long's 300 cavalry had little room to play in this kind of battle formation, so they had to stand in the Chinese army as a reserve support, each of them was armed with a number of straight flintlock pistols and short guns, and they could support them at any time when the firepower of the circle formation was insufficient, of course, that possibility was very small.

Lu Ruohan commanded the logistics soldiers of the battalion to push the artillery directly under each battalion to the designated position to stand by, because the circle array will be affected from all sides, so the artillery is evenly distributed according to the number, and one will be placed between every two combat vehicles, and the front of the artillery will be stacked with horses and thistles as a protective barrier.

Zhang Shixiong took the executioner to patrol around with murderous spirit, and every soldier knew that the law enforcement was strict in wartime, and he would be killed at every turn, so when he saw the military discipline officer coming, his movements were subconsciously much sharper than usual.

Yang Bo stood at the height of the Chinese army and looked at the Tatar cavalry, because the field formation of training on weekdays is strictly assessed according to time, so the Tatar cavalry has not approached much, the large array has been arranged, and even the battalion medical department has set up a cauldron and started to boil water, so that those wounded soldiers can also be treated when the battle is most intense.

Yang Bo nodded with satisfaction, the only thing he needed to think about was how to make these Tatar slaves brave and give it a go......

With nearly six thousand troops in his hands, only three or four thousand Tatar cavalry is no longer in Yang Bo's eyes, what he needs is to quickly defeat this Tatar cavalry, and the more than 10,000 infantry led by Azig is the strongest enemy of the Thunder Brigade. The slave chieftain seemed to be violently expelling the three or four route army, and the various units of the Ming army in southern Liaoning immediately fell into a crumbling predicament, but as long as the Tatar slaves were defeated all the way, the crisis in southern Liaoning could be solved.

A large puff of dust rolled in, and the dull vibration of the earth was also clearly transmitted, every standing sergeant felt the tremor under his feet, and the observers of each battalion began to sharply report the distance, and the overwhelming white armor filled the horizon in the distance, and they seemed to have found the Ming army in the distance, without any hesitation, their speed was faster, and only the sound of ten thousand horses galloping between heaven and earth remained.

Countless teams of Tartar light cavalry came out of the crowd, galloping from all sides, the cavalry of the brigade began to slow down five miles away from the Ming army, Li Dali came over to ask for instructions on sniping the Tarnu sentry cavalry, Yang Bo shook his head and said: "Don't fight too hard, the sentry cavalry is forced to a distance of fifty paces and then fire, and you don't need to be too dense, just knock the horse down." ”

Hearing Yang Bo's words, some of the people around laughed, the Ming army of other families was afraid that the Tartars would rush into battle, but the adults of their own families were afraid that they would scare the Tartars away if they fought too hard.

These sentry cavalry cautiously surrounded the large array to investigate, and the soldiers of each battalion looked coldly at these money rat-tailed tartars, their hearts were full of disdain, and the sentry cavalry approached the periphery of the large array at a hundred paces, eighty paces, and the firecrackers received a strict order and did not fire.

Seeing that the Ming army was silent, the sentry cavalry was much bolder, and a few horsemen secretly took out their foot bows and prepared to give the Ming army a dismount, at this moment, the fire gunners of each battalion began to fire sparsely, accompanied by the mournful neighing of the war horses, several tentative sentry horses fell to the ground in embarrassment, and soon, their companions whistled and pulled them on their horses and took them back.

After the sentry cavalry ran back, the Tartar slaves on the opposite side did not move, and Yang Bo had no choice, this was the disadvantage of the infantry against the cavalry, so he could only wait passively, when to attack and when to evacuate was completely not in his own hands.

"Order, except for the observer, all the other soldiers sit down to rest and eat, let them maintain their strength, and wait for a good fight." Stupid waiting is not a way, Yang Bo decided to let the soldiers rest and leave the camp, if this cavalry does not dare to attack, then it is better to watch himself enter Jinzhou City.

Under the banner of a huge golden dragon, the banner master of the white flag, Yibai, was also looking inside the large array of the Ming army, and all around him were silent, waiting for his order.

Ibai was hesitating, because the Ming army unexpectedly played the banner of the guerrilla battalion Yang, as the banner owner, he had participated in the recent court meeting presided over by the Great Khan, and he also knew that the main opponent of the Zhengbai Banner this time was this Lushun guerrilla Yang Bo.

"Master, do it?" A Jia Lazhangjing urged a little anxiously, this Ming army is not much strange compared to other Ming troops, in addition to the dense obstacles in front of the formation, well, there seems to be more artillery, but with the sound of those sparse firearms just now, this Jia Lazhangjing is very puzzled, what is the master hesitating?

The white flag is all over the world, and the Ming army's car array doesn't know how much it has broken, and it can withstand the impact of the iron cavalry if it retreats into the car array?

Ibai took a deep breath, slowly raised his hand and said, "Blow the trumpet, prepare to attack!" ”

With the sound of a long horn, the generals and officers under the command of Ibai galloped towards their own Niulu, all the vests re-mounted their horses, waved their weapons, and began to slowly gather in front of the military formation.

Hearing the sound of the horn, the soldiers on both sides began to prepare for the battle, and a great battle was about to break out...... (To be continued......)