Zhu Daolin quickly caught up with the marching team, turned over and dismounted under the gaze of many officers and soldiers, led the horse, followed the team, and marched silently.

The two hundred guards who were originally on horses immediately dismounted, and marched on foot with their horses like Zhu Daolin, and finally made all the officers on horses dismount and walk, which moved many new soldiers and soldiers, and the speed of the march couldn't help but speed up a little.

In the eyes of later generations, ordinary night marching is a necessary skill for soldiers, and there is nothing to boast about, but in the Ming army, night marching is definitely full of dangers.

Because the vast majority of people are malnourished, whether it is the civilian or the military, night blindness patients who cannot see at night abound, even if they use the night to sneak attack the opponent, it is after thousands of selections, the officers and soldiers who do not have night blindness are selected to attack, and the rest of the vast majority of men and horses are prepared with torches and other combustible materials, and once the attack is successful, they will immediately set fire to the attack.

If the opponent could not resist the attack on the camp in the middle of the night, only a very small number of people could escape, and most of the soldiers were like blind men after leaving the camp with the bonfire lit, so that when fleeing in the middle of the night, it was often the case that the officers and soldiers without night blindness were pulling ropes in front to lead the way, followed by a large group of officers and soldiers who stumbled like blind men.

Zhu Daolin was very familiar with night blindness in the Ming army, and also attached great importance to it, and the Jiangnan New Army under his command regarded the night march as an important training project from the beginning of its establishment, and for this reason Zhu Daolin did not hesitate to spend huge sums of money to improve the army's food, increase the nutritional intake of officers and soldiers, and achieve the goal of enhancing physical fitness and eliminating night blindness as much as possible.

From the beginning of their enlistment, the new soldiers of Jiangnan entered the first stage of 60 days of queue and physical training, during which the three meals a day were extremely rich, except for the big fish, meat and rice, all the recruits were forced to drink a bowl of vegetable soup made of wild vegetables and pork liver or fresh fish for three meals a day. Drinks made with herbs such as cassia seeds and brown sugar are often served during the rest period, and most recruits will have a significant increase in their physique within two months.

The second phase of the training for the recruits lasted for 75 days, and the intensity of the training was gradually increased, and military skills training, equipment training, basic tactical training, and camping training began.

At this stage, the recruits were better fed and trained more hard, focusing on camping and night marching. Use coercive actions to dispel the fear of darkness in the hearts of recruits, quickly improve their ability to adapt to darkness, and build confidence in overcoming darkness and overcoming difficulties.

This stage is the stage where the most recruits are eliminated, and after four months of replenishment, recruits who are still unable to see at night will be paid for three months and ordered to be discharged unless they are particularly good or have special skills.

The third phase lasted 45 days, basically spent in field training, night marching and live-fire training, and the instructors and officers would record the recruits' test results and performance in detail for 45 days, and return to the camp after the training. Adjustments will be made according to the achievements and performance of each recruit, and they will be assigned to the musket battalion, artillery battalion or baggage battalion, and the recruits with excellent performance and skills will also have the opportunity to enter the garrison battalion, which is the envy of everyone, and receive a higher level of tactical training.

Therefore, the night march was not a problem at all for the well-trained Jiangnan New Army, and if it were not for the leading generals and colonels to strictly follow the plan formulated before the war and control the marching speed at about 4 kilometers per hour, the speed of the whole army would have exceeded much.

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Two o'clock in the morning. The whole army marched to the foot of Yangshan Mountain, 8.5 kilometers south of Jimo City, and stopped advancing, and the officers and men sat directly on the official road. Take out the bun in your arms to keep warm with body temperature, untie the kettle with salt on your waist and start eating, if you don't add a certain amount of salt, the boiled water in the kettle will easily freeze on such a cold night.

A small courtyard for the common people at the three-way intersection has been requisitioned, and the owner of the family, who received a string of copper coins, has shrunk into the back room with his wife and children, and the soldiers have moved the small square table by the wall. Insert a stubby candle into the tubular base inside the lantern, take out a match, light it, and quickly lower the glass cover.

Zhu Daolin and a group of generals gathered around after eating, and the two scout team leaders immediately reported the situation of Jimo City and the walled fort under Tianjing Mountain in the east, and answered several questions from Zhu Daolin in detail.

Zhu Daolin motioned to the two scout captains not to leave first, looked around and gave an order: "The weather is too cold." If you rest for too long, something will definitely happen, and you can continue to march immediately after eating, and the speed can be controlled within 3 kilometers per hour, but you can't stop! ”

"Yulong, Zhongjun, although Jimo City is strong, but the city walls are not high, and the moat is frozen, even if you can't contact the brothers in the ambush city through the predetermined signal, you can also start in advance, and the scout team will be gathered as a sharp soldier, with the defenders in the city so little bit of men and horses and loose defense, you can take it on the city wall, if you encounter resistance, you can take Jimo City!"

"Understood!"

Jiang Yulong and Guo Zhongjun replied in unison.

Zhu Daolin looked at Xu Wentao: "Wentao, after controlling Jimo City, immediately confiscate all the property of the Jiang family according to the plan, and you can't miss a copper plate when digging three feet into the ground......."

"If my guess is correct, the Jiang family, which has been rampant and domineering for more than a hundred years, has at least more than 2 million taels of silver, and the other ministries must quickly occupy the Jiang family's Chengbei manor, the granary in the city, the money house, pawnshops and shops and other industries, surround the county government, and no one is allowed to enter or leave, and even Jimo officials will kill him if they violate the order!"

"After complete control, send a battalion to escort more than 300 members of the Jiang clan to Fushan, if there is a chance, when attacking the Jiang Mansion, take advantage of the chaos to get rid of Jiang Xiaokun and his eldest brother who is a county prince, as long as these two people fall, the Jiang family will not have the courage to resist, and can achieve the effect of killing a hundred people."

"In the future, we will be stationed in Qingdao for a long time, and if we don't erect our majesty, I'm afraid the civil officials in Sage Kong's hometown won't be afraid."

Xu Wentao understood: "My subordinates will do it personally!" ”

Zhu Daolin nodded: "Okay!" Let's go separately, take Jimo and report to me immediately, let's go! ”

The 8,000 officers and men of the whole army soon continued to march in two ways, because the artillery battalion of Jinzhouwei was still in Jiangnan and had not yet arrived, the five musket battalions led by Jiang Yulong did not have heavy weapons to attack the city, and the more than 7,000 recruits led by Xu Wentao, who had been trained for less than four months, were not even equipped with flintlock muskets, so they could only launch an attack by sneak attack, and two plans and a remedial plan in case of failure were formulated.

Zhu Daolin's personal guards and 3,000 recruits were poorly equipped, and the Tianjing Cottage Fort they attacked was still 13 kilometers away, so Zhu Daolin did not deliberately slow down the pace of the march, and decided to change the predetermined plan, taking advantage of the cold weather when the opponent had no chance to take precautions, personally led the well-equipped 200 personal guards to launch a sneak attack, and led 3,000 recruits by 6 as the acting battalion commander to block the two entrances and exits of the walled fort, and once the sneak attack was successful, he immediately rushed into the walled fort. (To be continued.) )