Chapter Ninety-Six: Launched

Between the dark and dreary mountains in the south of Dengzhou, a river composed of torches is flowing on the official road, and the river is filled with dense footsteps, and countless pairs of legs are shaking constantly

Chen Xin and Zhu Guobin looked at the map by the light of a lantern in a grass hut on the side of the road, and the map near Dengzhou was redrawn by the Intelligence Bureau, and contour lines and road and bridge markers were introduced, although they could not be compared with accurate mapping, but they were much better than the maps of the Ming Dynasty abstraction.

The beam on the top of the mountain saw a bright light flashing in the direction of Dengzhou, which was most likely caused by the shooting of the Hongyi cannon, which showed that Li Jiucheng had already launched, and at this time, the Wendeng battalion had just marched to the vicinity of Guojialing, and had not yet reached the border of Penglai County.

Zhou Shifa stayed quietly next to Chen Xin, but his face could not hide the excitement, these days in the official road caught a few rebel deserters, according to his personal interrogation of the scattered intelligence analysis, the rebels in Jinan Mansion looted more than one million taels, if you add the income in Dengzhou Mansion, Wendeng Battalion will get a lot of booty, the intelligence bureau funds can also be greatly increased.

After crossing Guojialing, it is only seventy miles away from Dengzhou, and you can reach Jushan (Jade Emperor Peak) before dawn, and if you continue to march rapidly, you can reach Mishen Mountain in the afternoon and attack the rebel camp.

Zhu Guobin pointed to the map and said in a low voice: "The day before yesterday, the special service team that did reconnaissance reported that there were rebels near Ma'anshan who did not collect the night, and the bucktooth that came out of Dengzhou had just woken up, and he said the same, he was injured there and was careless, and he never encountered it again, so it can be seen that we were all safe before Pingshan, and we may be found after crossing Pingshan." ”

Chen Xin agreed, "Don't wait for Pingshan, the rebels are moving today, and they may send the scouts farther, and it is not ruled out that they deliberately make a move, let's go, and then ambush us, so that the army will march according to the battlefield after crossing the giant mountain, and each thousand headquarters will pull the army intervals, in case of an ambush, you can respond." ”

Zhu Guobin looked up at Zhou Shifa, "Lord Zhou, did you just say that the Dengzhou general at the north gate will take refuge in our Wendeng camp, is it reliable?" The route into the city from the north gate will be in the middle of the water city and the fucheng, and if the rebels block the sandwich road in it, the losses will be very severe. ”

Zhou Shifa looked at Chen Xin, and then replied: "I am indeed worried, and I am even more afraid that the rebels will attack the tail of our army from the east gate and trap us in the middle of the road, so we had better conquer the camp of Mishenshan first, and then consider rescuing Dengzhou." ”

Zhu Guobin shook his head and said: "If the rebels conquer the city, most of the camp is only the old and weak and the people, and their strength is not damaged, if we don't quickly rescue Dengzhou, they may be able to gain a firm foothold, and there is no need to worry about sending troops from the east gate, as long as the cavalry battalion is left to guard the east gate, the retreat can be guaranteed, but if you rush by daylight today, most of them will not be able to avoid the rebel sentry after Ma'anshan." ”

Chen Xinmo calculated the time, the rebels may break the city tonight, he plans to give the rebels at least a day, so that they can completely break the situation in Dengzhou, and when they do it themselves, they can be less eye-catching, Li Jiucheng's control over the army will not be too strong, and the rebels will be scattered everywhere under the temptation of wealth in the city.

Chen Xin thought for a moment and decided: "Control the speed of the march, and arrive at Hushan in Penglai in the afternoon (note: unlike Hushan in Qixia, Penglai Hushan is thirty-five miles away from Dengzhou), and then decide to stop according to the situation." ”

Zhu Guobin was surprised: "My lord, let's not be late, otherwise Dengzhou will be ...... erosion."

"Enforce military orders."

Zhu Guobin saluted and left after a moment's hesitation, and went to his staff officer to check the speed of the march.

Zhou Shifa waited for Zhu Guobin to go away, and whispered to Chen Xin: "My lord, do you want to give them an extra day?" ”

Chen Xin nodded slightly and pointed to the map, "Li Jiucheng broke the city tonight, the strongest rebel army is bound to participate in the battle to break the city, they don't know that we are in Qixia, there should not be many sentinels near Ma'anshan, let the special service team and the Chinese army sentry go to clean up first, the army should be able to reach Pingshan before dark, there are only twenty miles left to Dengzhou, after dark, you send someone to the north gate to contact Zhang Dong, if the north gate is temporarily worry-free, we will let them make trouble for one more night." If the situation at the north gate is not good, the army will march directly to Dengzhou by night, the Dengzhou soldiers have never fought and marched at night, and they will not dare to go out of the city to intercept, Li Jiucheng is difficult to judge where we are going to enter the city from, with the cover of night, the Hongyi cannon at the head of the city is also not accurate. As long as we can reach Pingshan in concealment, we will take the initiative. ”

"Understood."

"Send Tangma to urge Ninghaizhou again, let them march in a hurry, and if our troops have gone to the north gate after arriving, we will camp in Kuishan and block the official road to Qixia and Ninghaizhou, leaving only the southwest direction." ……

Dengzhou Zhenhaimen Tower, in the east gate of the dense gunfire, Zhou Shifa, Qin Rong and Li Tao nervously deployed the defense, in view of Wang Bingzhong's appearance, they did not dare to use Wang Bingzhong's department to defend Zhenhaimen according to the original plan, most of these people came from Dongjiang Town, maybe they will surrender as soon as they shout, not only can not help, but also may become an internal response, Wang Bingzhong himself is the best example, at this time, taking advantage of the east gate is still fighting fiercely, the shape is unknown first use these people as coolies to arrange the defense line.

"The first line of defense is in Caoqiao, I am going to go there to command, there are fifty soldiers there, and firewood and grass are also prepared, as long as the rebels are not attacking in a big way, they can hold at least one hour, the second line of defense is within a hundred steps of Zhenhaimen, the action team took out thirty people to go to the second line of defense, and several people scattered into the streets and alleys, they are all used to fighting in the streets, just delay the rebels everywhere, light the firewood piled up everywhere according to the situation, remember to change into the clothes of the Ming army, speak with a Liaodong accent, and the rest of the people guard the earthen ramparts and city ladders on both sides of the city wall."

Li Tao is the deputy captain of the special service team, and this kind of small-scale battle formation has also been trained, and those in the action team are basically killers, and they are good at one-on-one and group cooperation, but they are really not proficient in battle formations.

Qin Rong didn't fight either, and immediately agreed, Li Tao turned to Zhang Dong again: "Our other contact points should also be transferred, now the situation has changed, Shuqiao is not the first point, as long as the army enters the city, the rebels will not be able to stop us, there is no need to waste fifty people." ”

Zhang Dong's eyes flashed, Shuqiao is an important place for Zhou Shifa to explain, controlling zhì there is equivalent to dividing the east and west of Dengzhou City, the Intelligence Bureau has two strongholds near Shuqiao, hiding fifty soldiers, all from the 2,000 headquarters, once withdrawn, it will lose a means to control the situation in the city.

"The book bridge cannot be removed." Zhang Dong pointed to the side of the guide, there were also sporadic battles there, and several houses were on fire, "The city is already in chaos, if it is mobilized at this time, whether it is Sun Yuanhua or the rebels, they will attack them, and more than half of the loss may be lost on the way, and the book bridge is a place that Lord Chen and Director Zhou have emphasized many times, we can't retreat." ”

Li Tao frowned and said: "I originally planned to transfer them to defend the vicinity of Sanguan Temple, if the rebels don't take the grass bridge, they may make a detour to Dongcheng, go north and then turn west along the painting river, and they can also reach Zhenhaimen." ”

Zhang Dong smiled yinyin and said to Wang Bingzhong, who was staying aside: "Once the east gate is breached, let your brother take some people to the east, let him let go of his hand to rob, and tell him that the north city is given to you, and other departments are not allowed to rob it, and other departments are not allowed to pass by." ”

Li Tao was stunned for a moment, and then said to Zhang Dong with admiration: "Lord Zhang is wise, as long as he says that he is a place to rob, these Qiu Ba will be desperate, Lord Zhang is taking other people's things and letting these Qiu Ba do things for himself, even if it fights, the rebels will think that it is because of the competition for interests, and they will not desperately attack Beicheng for a while." ”

Zhang Dong was proud in his heart, and unconsciously glanced at Qin Rong, when it came to these conspiracies, Qin Rong was far from him.

"My lord, my lord, the east gate is broken." An operative team member who had been arranged to observe outside ran in and hurried.

The three of them walked to the door at the same time, only to see that the east gate was bright and prosperous, and it was extending along Chunshengmen Street to the city, and groups of torches poured up to the city, and rushed along the city wall to the south of Chaotianmen Urn City.

Zhang Dong said to the two of them calmly: "The big change has begun, the two of you will go to your position immediately, adapt to the situation, try not to let the rebels know that we are the Wendeng battalion, even if the fight starts, it is best to pretend to be a conflict of interests, this can buy us more time, take care of ourselves." ”……

"Each soldier brings five days' worth of food and grass, and sets out in a quarter of an hour."

"The baggage carts are distributed to the bureaus to transport the armor to the soldiers."

In Jiaoshan, southeast of Ninghai Prefecture, the Wendeng camp was brightly lit, and dense soldiers and auxiliaries poured out of the tents.

This is the main battalion of the Wendeng battalion, where five divisions of the reserve battalion, the 2,000 headquarters and the third batch of 1,000 auxiliary troops are stationed, with a number of more than 4,500 people.

Lu Chuanzong's 1,000th headquarters was stationed in the south of Ninghai Prefecture in the name of protecting Wang Tingqian, attracting all the attention of the rebel sentinels, and Lu Chuanzong led 50 Chinese sentinels, who set up a barrier with the 1,000th headquarters directly under the sentinels to prevent the rebels from continuing to reconnoiter eastward. The rebels misjudged the total strength of Wendeng, they thought that below 4,000, except for the more than 2,000 led by Chen Xin, most of the rest should have been in Ninghai Prefecture, so they never found the Wendeng camp in Jiaoshan.

The place where the three lanterns are hung on the top of the tent is the Chinese army camp tent of the Jiaoshan camp, and the commander of the Jiaoshan camp is sitting in the Chinese army tent Dai Zhenggang, as well as the reserve battalion officer Wang Changfu, Liu Pojun, the chief army judge Nie Hong, the chief training officer Huang Side and others, they just got the information from Dengzhou, several chief officers had hesitated about whether to send troops immediately, Liu Pojun thought that the troops should be dispatched, he knew Chen Xin's plan, although the information was not clear, but Zhang Dong was the intelligence officer in Dengzhou, and his judgment was at least certain.

Huang Side is also an insider of the plan, he himself has no military talent, and other talents are also very ordinary, but it is very suitable for the instructor, as the instructor goes deeper and deeper into the grassroots of the army, his status in the Wendeng camp system is getting higher and higher, but he has no right to decide this kind of military decision, not even the right to vote, he can only beat the side drum. Nie Hong was in a similar situation to him, he was seriously injured in the assassination in Jiangnan, and he only came back after nearly half a year, and his physical fitness was not suitable to stay in the pro-guard team anymore, so he took over the position of chief military judge left by Zhou Shifa.

These three people know more or less, they are staff officers, warlords, and chief officers of discipline, especially Liu Pojun is the chief of staff of the Chinese army, although Chen Xin did not give him the same power as the chief of general staff, but he has the right to build on the action, Dai Zhenggang and Wang Changfu have long lacked patience with Li Jiucheng's troops, and they do not think that the rebels can block the thunderous blow of the Wendeng camp army, after Liu Pojun relented, they quickly decided to send troops immediately, and rushed to Dengzhou.

The order to open has been issued, this era is just in the final confirmation of the task, he is the first to follow Chen Xin, in the military system belongs to the veteran level, although he did not participate in the battle of Mi Island, but Chen Xin still gave him the credit, the post to the Shandong capital commander, the position in the Wendeng battalion is still in charge of the second thousand headquarters, plus the position of deputy battalion officer of the battalion, although Wang Changfu is the battalion officer of the reserve battalion, Chen Xin has to be half a level lower than the standing barracks, so the two are still at the same level, in view of Dai Zhenggang's qualifications, This time, Dai Zhenggang was still the commander-in-chief of Ninghai Prefecture, including Lu Chuanzong, who was also under his jurisdiction.

The tent is full of soldiers, and there are not as many conspiracy details as Chen Xin to consider, Dai Zhenggang directly said to his subordinates: "The Chinese army sentry cavalry on Lu Chuanzong's side has set off, they are responsible for clearing the road from Ninghai Prefecture to Fushan County, our sentry horses will also set off immediately, don't delay along the way, go straight to Fushan County along the official road, and be responsible for intercepting the returning rebel sentry cavalry in Fushan County, remember not to chase and fight indiscriminately, just guard the key points of the official road, force them to change their route and detour, and they can't send the information back to the rebels in time." ”

The sentry commander immediately received the order and left the big tent in advance, they have always walked ahead of the army these nights, Dai Zhenggang turned to Wang Changfu and said: "Changfu, the training time of the reserve camp is not long, and the marching sequence is ranked after our department, so as not to affect the march of the soldiers." ”

Wang Changfu's face did not show the slightest unhappiness, Dai Zhenggang is the commander-in-chief of the direction of Ninghai, he has already prepared in his heart, even if he is not happy, he must readily agree, although there are many people in the reserve battalion, but they have not yet proved their worth, the war camp has already been famous all over the world, and the gap between the two battalions is also reflected on the island, Chen Xin talked to him after he was promoted, and he has always emphasized loyalty, how much he knows in his heart that it is related to the denunciation of the Dengzhou envoy, although he looks five big and three thick, but his mind is actually quite thoughtful, after realizing Chen Xin's meaning, Chen Xin immediately raised the equipment level of the reserve battalion and told him to turn the reserve battalion into a regular soldier within this year, and he thought that he should be on the right path.

Wang Changfu saw the hope of entering the first class of the army, but the army also has to talk about seniority, Dai Zhenggang and Lu Chuanzong were his superiors before, so he is still in Taoguang. Now when we are fighting, we must show that we are even more good, and with the style of the new, it is not enough to be loyal but incompetent.

Dai Zhenggang continued: "The road from Ninghai to Dengzhou, our sentinels have traveled many times, and the plan for the rapid march has already been made, two hundred and forty miles of road, one and a half days must be completed, and at the latest tomorrow at noon will arrive outside Dengzhou City, and be ready for battle at any time, we have practiced for so long, there is nothing difficult, there are auxiliary soldiers to help carry iron armor, and hundreds of carriages and mule carts, Wang Changfu, what do you say?" ”

"There's nothing to say, the reserve battalion won't hold the army back."

"Okay, then according to the rapid march plan, it will be a military order from now on, and if you don't do it, tell Judge Nie to disband."

Everyone agreed in unison, and each returned to the troops, and a quarter of an hour later, the second general and fourth divisions left the camp first, and the follow-up departments followed, and the queue of more than 4,000 people soon turned into a long snake dancing with firelight, winding towards the west, and the eastern sky behind them had just revealed the white of the fish's belly. (To be continued.)