Chapter 106: Marching and encamping

Zhang Keda's perception of weapons was subverted again, because he saw that the long shields in the hands of those grenadiers were actually transparent. By the time the mouth was open, not knowing what to say, the army was already rolling forward, dragging behind an infantry squad and two luxury four-wheeled carriages.

There are wooden signs marking the direction on this fork in the road, and the marching team did not march towards Dengzhou, but in the direction of Huangxian. At the last moment, Zhang Keda saw something that he couldn't understand, a team of more than 100 people, carrying equipment turned out to be various tools, following more than a dozen carriages forward, this army had never appeared before.

Seizing the last opportunity, Zhang Keda approached Chen Xie and asked, "Sihua, what kind of troops is this?" ”

Chen Xie glanced at it and said lightly: "This is a non-combat unit, I call it an engineer team, and its task is to build roads and bridges. I saw that there were no tarpaulins on the carriages, and they were covered with some pre-prepared components. ”

The dawn sun rose and shone on the march west on a winter morning. Zhang Keda has been standing at the fork in the road in a daze, watching the last back of this team disappear. Suddenly, there was a fierce trembling, and a strong sense of fear surrounded Zhang Keda, the deputy commander of Dengzhou.

This section of the road from Longshan to Huangxian is not long, and it has been repaired and widened before, and the only regret is that the cement road can only be repaired halfway. Riding to catch up with the last infantry group, a carriage stopped on the side of the road ahead. When Chen Xie came up, it was Mo Tai who got out of the car.

Looking at Chen Xie and the dozen or so young faces behind him, Mo Tai initially learned that these young people were all led by Chen Xie himself. They have a lot to learn. Chief among them is arithmetic. The whole army set off, the required baggage. It's all calculated by these young people.

"Dong Weng!" Mo Tai is far away, in Chen Xie's team. A qiē is so only orderly, and there is little room for him to play. "Mr. Mo!" Chen Xie is still very polite to him, and Chen Xie basically doesn't know the twists and turns of officialdom. In Dengzhou, there is still a Zhang Yao to ask for, and this time the troops can only count on Motai.

"Dong Weng, this time the troops are dispatched, a total of 7 infantry teams and 1 grenadier team. 1 artillery team, 1 medical team, 1 baggage team, 1 engineer team. Not counting 500 people, and others, that's 2,000 people. I really didn't expect that the scale of the group training was already so large. Mo Tai had something to say, Chen Xie smiled, and didn't care.

"Mr. Mo. We are a team training, not soldiers, and there are not so many rules. There was also a scout team of about fifty people in front, and a herald squad. Staff Group. The team I trained can't be compared to ordinary soldiers. You'll know when the time comes. ”

Mo Tai felt that he had to prove the value of the deposit, and continued to advise: "Dong Weng. There is no shortage of horses in our department, but there are too few cavalry. Chen Xie nodded affirmatively at this and said, "No way." There are too few sources of war horses, and I have spent a lot of silver. Only about 150 horses were bought, and most of them were given to the scouts, who had to have two horses for one person. ”

"Dong Weng, do you think this battle of King Qin will last for a long time?" Mo Tai threw out another question, and Chen Xie's impression of him increased by one or two percent, and this result can be analyzed just by looking at the number of four-wheeled carriages accompanying the army. It can be seen that this person is an expert, at least in terms of logistics.

"The food, grass and ammunition carried by our army, the staff group is calculated on a three-month basis. At least 10 large-scale battles must be guaranteed, and you can't bring so many things. This army essentially relies on logistics to fight wars. "Chen Xie, even if he has handed over a little bit of detail, in fact, it's useless not to say it, people can see it. Underneath the tarpaulin on the carriage, you can see the barrels of gunpowder. There are more than 300 four-wheeled carriages, and the long queue can be frightening.

The normal marching speed of the troops was about five kilometers per hour, which was unimaginable in the Ming army. When I arrived in Huang County, it was already 11 o'clock in the morning, and I had just arrived at noon. At the gate of Huangxian County, Wu Shiyang, the magistrate of the county, stood nervously at the head of the city, watching the army pass by. The officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty, as long as they are dispatched, do not harass the locality. Even if it is the Dengzhou camp, when you arrive in Huang County, it will be noisy, and the young men and women in the villages along the way must run clean, and the things that can be taken away at home must also be taken away.

This strange-looking army maintained a very steady speed, and it was finished in more than half an hour, and finally a ride came at the city gate, and I didn't know what to shout, leaving a box dozens of steps away from the city gate and leaving.

Wu Shiyang, who was trembling, asked people to move the box back, and when he opened it, he saw that there were two bottles of cigarettes, two cans of cigarettes, and a handwritten letter. Open it and take a look, the content is very simple, Chen Xie, the ambassador of Dengzhou regimental training, was ordered to lead the headquarters to be the pioneer of the Dengzhou army to go north to the king of Qin. I have heard the name of Wuzhi County for a long time, I have not seen it, I am deeply sorry, and I offer a thin gift to express my heart.

Wu Shiyang has no friendship with Chen Xie, doing so is nothing more than a little personal bad taste of Chen, and the main reason is that Wu Shiyang died in the Kong Youde Rebellion in history. This person's official reputation is not bad, Chen Xie thought that in the future, he would develop in Yaohuang County, and first take a good fate.

In the letter, Chen Xie also mentioned that Zhang Keda will lead the main force of the Dengzhou battalion to the north in the near future, and then it will not stop as much as this time, and it is inevitable that chickens and dogs will jump. This can be regarded as revenge on Zhang Keda, when he passed through Huang County, he and his subordinates couldn't drink a sip of water.

The army marched every day for eight hours, or four hours. When the time comes, immediately set up camp. At this time, Motai was an eye-opener, and the carriage unloaded the horses and quickly formed a chariot formation. The soldiers had a small shovel in their hands, dug trenches and erected fences, and the excavated soil was not wasted, but all of them were packed in sacks and a simple low wall was built. The sappers set up a barbed barbed and pulled up a barbed wire fence less than 10 metres before the low wall on the outskirts of the camp.

The wagons carried enough tents, and within two hours a tight field camp was formed. The two gates at the front and back, the four three-meter-high watchtowers, and the carriages connected together are placed in an orderly manner in the camp, like a few more movable walls.

More than 500 people were not idle, and they helped dig the marching stoves in the camp. The cauldron was erected, and the water source did not come from outside, but the pressurized water well that the sappers were making. The water is still a little muddy, but it doesn't matter, there is a row of large iron barrels, covered with a strainer, and the water is almost cleared when you pour it in, and finally you throw something (alum) into it.

Not to mention the officers and soldiers, even these civilians do things as if they have practiced a lot of things. Mo Tai couldn't help it, so he found a folk man and asked, "Are you really a folk husband?" ”

The young man smiled embarrassedly: "Yes, my family was originally at the foot of Longshan Mountain, and the village was not big, just a dozen families. Later, the old man opened a stone mine and moved out. If you are willing to farm and continue to farm for the master, if you are not willing to farm, you can also go to work in the stone field. The young ones could go to the regiment to train as soldiers to eat food, and more than 20 young men in the village went, but after two months of training, they said that we knew less than 50 words in the literacy class, and we were returned if we were not qualified. In order to be selected next time, the brothers did not relax when they came back, went to the literacy class run by the stone field in the evening, and insisted on practicing for half an hour every morning. The skills learned in the regimental training camp did not dare to fall behind at all. As long as you can stay next time, the twenty acres of land planted by the family can be rent-free. No, this time the army went out to conquer and requisition the people, and they all rushed to sign up to contribute to the master, and no one was willing to ask for it, you must have entered the regimental training camp reserve. ”

The young man said with a proud expression, and then bowed his head back to his work.

Mo Tai continued to wander around the barracks, and to his shock, there were more than a dozen female soldiers in the camp. These female soldiers set up tents alone in a corner, and they didn't see them ask the male soldiers to help, and when they walked in, they were stopped by a female soldier, who pointed the muzzle of the gun in her hand at Mo Tai, and scolded unceremoniously: "Stop, this is not the place for you to come." ”

Motai blushed, turned around and left. My mind was full of the dress of the female soldier just now, and it turned out to be the same as that of the officer. There was a good-natured laughter of female soldiers behind him, and Motai's mood was inexplicably better. Finally saw Chen Xie in the big tent, Mo Tai hurriedly stepped forward and said, "Dong Weng, why are there female soldiers in the camp?" ”

"Shhh Don't let those soldiers hear it, don't underestimate these female soldiers, they are injured in the fight, and they rely on them to heal. In the hearts of soldiers, these female soldiers are all like aunts and grandmothers. It's not the one who arranges female soldiers indiscriminately, be careful of being shot black by the soldiers. Chen Xie's words frightened Motai. It seems that the soldiers around him have unkind eyes.

When night falls, the lights in the camp are controlled, and where there are lights are set up, are strictly regulated. Similar exercises have been conducted many times before, and the soldiers are very experienced. The officers of each team must be the last to rest, one is two deputies and three officers, it can be said that this is the backbone of the army.

After a day's march, and then set up camp, Ding Zixiong was already very hard. However, I still have to supervise whether the platoon commanders have arranged for the soldiers to boil hot water to burn their feet, and after walking for a day, this detail must not be sloppy. Some people called blisters, and they had to be broken with a needle and thread, leaving a thread in it. lest they be re-watered, and the march of tomorrow will be punished.

It was busy until ten o'clock, after Ding Zixiong's last check, that he returned to his tent, and the herald brought hot water from the coal stove in the cooking class, and Ding Zixiong sent him to rest when his feet were hot. The young man fled from Liaodong and was only sixteen years old this year. fell ill and fell on the side of the road, and luckily met the kind-hearted red fruit and they entered the city to save a life.

The young man refused to leave, saying that everyone in the family was dead, and he could do anything for the stutterer. Later, Hongguo interceded with the master, stayed for two months of training, and because of his good grades, he stayed and became a signal soldier.

Ding Zixiong knows very well that these signal soldiers are not simple, one or two thousand literacy is the minimum, their brains are flexible, and they must be able to ride horses. I can't be over 17 years old, and I have to take four special classes every month, and the master personally teaches them. (To be continued......)