At this time, Lin Zhe was riding on a horse, and behind him were a large number of officers and cavalry of the personal guards, and on the main road, there were a large number of soldiers marching in columns.

In addition to the infantry, the artillerymen also shouted at the horses to drag the artillery.

On this expedition, Lin Zhe brought the newly formed twelve-pounder artillery company, six twelve-pounder guns and ammunition, which required more than 100 horses to pull, in order to make up for these more than 100 horses, Lin Zhe spent a lot of effort in northern Zhejiang.

This Yuyao County Yongying team, which is composed of more than 1,600 people, has changed dramatically in appearance from a few months ago!

A few months ago, when the army set out from Yuyao, except that its weapons were different from other Qing troops in China, it was very similar to other regimental training in China, especially the military uniforms were the same as those of the Hunan army and other regiments.

However, now, the military uniform of this army has abandoned the old military uniform and put on the new military uniform!

In the past few months of marching, training, and the Battle of Changxing, although the Yongying camp in Yuyao County has shown that it is far superior to other contemporary domestic armies, there are still many flaws, and what makes Lin Zhe most dissatisfied is that military uniform.

In the previous military uniforms of the Yongying camp in Yuyao County, the regular uniforms of the officers consisted of robes, horse coats, combat boots, and warm hats, what did they look like? Just imagine the zombie image in Hong Kong movies, such a dress and a Western-style command knife are simply nondescript.

The soldier's attire is also a robe and a horse coat!

First of all, as an army imitating the Western-style battalion system, the command mode at all levels of the Yongying battalion in Yuyao County is purely Western-style, but there is no corresponding introduction of obvious military rank markings, which has brought great trouble to the command system.

In addition, the old-fashioned traditional combat uniforms also brought great inconvenience to the mobility and marching of the troops, and at the same time, Hunter William also pointed out the biggest one: "That is, this army does not look dazzling and bright enough!" ”

For many reasons, Lin Zhe began to prepare new military uniforms very early, Lin Zhe is a latecomer, and he naturally has a large number of modern military uniforms in his mind, so the military uniforms he designed himself naturally have a strong style of later generations.

Officers wore dark blue double-breasted shirts, dark blue double-sided trousers, long leather boots, and Prussian hats. The soldier's regular uniform is also based on dark blue, and the style is similar to the officer's regular uniform, but the jacket is single-breasted, inlaid with single-sided trousers, gray cloth wrapped around the head, infantry, artillery, and baggage wear cloth-soled fast shoes, leggings, and cavalrymen wear long leather boots.

The trim of the trousers is divided into different classes, red for infantry, black for cavalry, yellow for artillery, and white for baggage.

The design of this military uniform is primarily aimed at 'looking good', and secondly, to prevent the enemy from distinguishing officers and soldiers from a long distance, to avoid officers from being shot by the enemy at a purposeful distance, and at the same time to clearly distinguish the difference between officers and soldiers and their respective branches at close range, so a unified dark blue tone is adopted, and the officer's shirt is double-breasted and the trousers are inlaid with two sides. Soldiers, including non-commissioned officers, wore single-breasted shirts and single-sided trousers.

In addition, due to the uneven grades of military attachés in Yongying, Yuyao County, who were previously limited to the late Qing Dynasty, officers in the same position may be fourth, seventh, or even eighth.

Therefore, the high ground of the position cannot be distinguished by the rank of the position, and Lin Zhe directly promulgated the internal military rank system in line with the idea of one step.

A military rank system of four grades and 12 grades has been preliminarily formulated: private, private, non-commissioned officer, second lieutenant, lieutenant, captain, major, lieutenant colonel, colonel, major general, lieutenant general, and general.

The temporary is the rank of a veteran with a first-class soldier, and the epaulettes are red and two gold edges; The recruits are assigned to the rank of private, and the epaulettes are red with a gold border; The platoon commanders of each platoon are assigned to the rank of non-commissioned officer, and the epaulettes are red with three sides.

The deputy company commander is assigned to the rank of second lieutenant, and the epaulette is a red background, a gold edge, and a gold star; The company commander has the rank of lieutenant, and the epaulettes are red with a gold border and two gold stars.

The deputy regiment commander has the rank of captain, and the epaulettes are red on a red background, with a gold border and three gold stars.

The regiment commander is assigned to the rank of major, and the epaulettes are two gold edges on a red background plus a gold star, and so on, the future deputy brigade commander and brigade commander may be equipped with a lieutenant colonel and colonel, and the epaulettes are two stars and three stars.

As for the military rank above the rank of general, it is fictitious in a short period of time, because the scale of the Yong battalion in Yuyao County is still too small, and such a high rank cannot be used at all.

In addition, the personnel directly under the battalion headquarters, such as the battalion officers of the battalion office and the supervisor of the supervision and training office, are currently assigned the rank of major according to the regiment commander, while the general offices of the food and salary bureau, the ordnance bureau, the military medical bureau, the military animal husbandry bureau, and the battalion academy are assigned to the rank of colonel according to the deputy regiment commander.

Such a set of military uniforms immediately changed the appearance of the Yongying camp in Yuyao County, and those who don't know will probably think that this is the Beiyang Army half a century later.

And the costume of Yuyao County Yongying can be said to have subverted the convention in this era, not only different from other domestic armies, but also the armies of the Western powers are left behind, the simplest is the military rank, this era of countries generally still stay in the Napoleonic era, with hanging tassel epaulettes to indicate military rank, identity.

It was not until 1854 that Russia was the first to use flat epaulettes on a large scale to mark military ranks and identities, and then countries quickly followed suit.

The Yongying of Yuyao County has now developed a complete military rank and epaulette system, in the words of CC**: This not only fills the gap in the world's military development, but also is enough to make China lead the world in all aspects! Its significance is no less than that of the invention of toilet paper.

Of course, the innovation of Yuyao County Yongying in military uniforms has also attracted the surprise and disdain of many people, when changing clothes in Changxing County, but the people of Changxing pointed at them, saying something fake foreign devils behind their backs, and soldiers who went out alone in this military uniform would even be thrown stones by children.

But after the Yuyao County Yongying shot and killed several people who publicly slandered the 'epoch-making' uniform, those people, including the most old-fashioned gentry, shut up.

No matter how the people he met along the way pointed at them and said that they were fake foreign devils, Lin Zhe still felt very satisfied when he looked at his army that had already put on modern military uniforms.

Not to mention anything else, it looks powerful enough, just with such a powerful military uniform, it is estimated that it can scare those homeless turtles to death!

When Lin Zhe looked at his own army and fantasized that his well-trained Yuyao County Yongying appeared on the battlefield in a mighty military uniform, and then those Taiping soldiers who were similar to the homeless people were scared when they saw such a beautiful and powerful military uniform, Lin Anfei on the side also drove to Lin Zhe's side.

"My lord, it's almost time to arrive at Dongting, see if we are camping in Dongting tonight!"

Lin Zhe said: "It's not early now, and it's still twenty miles away from Guangde, so I'll send an order and camp in Dongting tonight!" Then let the first infantry ** go out to reconnoitre, and the pro-guard team must also be on guard around it! ”

The soldiers who had been walking for a day also smiled when they heard that they were going to stop marching and camping, although their physical fitness was good, but it was also very tiring to walk all day, especially the recruits of the second regiment, many of them had been left behind after a whole day of continuous marching.

Naturally, the affairs of burying pots and cooking in the camp, setting up tents, and arranging defense affairs are handled by officers at all levels, and Lin Zhe does not need to spend too much thought on this.

After settling down a little, Lin Zhe summoned all the chiefs of various departments to a meeting to discuss how to go to Guangde in the future, and how to conduct the war after arriving in Guangde.

All of you here today are combat officers, including Shi Langyi, commander of the 1st Regiment, Xu Yanqing, deputy commander of the 2nd Regiment and commander of the 1st Company, Lin Anfei, commander of the 2nd Regiment, and Shen Chiyun, deputy commander of the 2nd Regiment and commander of the 3rd Company.

In addition, there is also Shi Qingxuan, the assistant of the supervision and training office, the supervision and training office in the Yongying camp in Yuyao County has very large powers, not only in charge of the training of the troops, but also responsible for the operational command of the troops, because the department is extremely important, and at the same time, these officers under Lin Zhe are also temporarily lacking roles like chief of staff, so the department does not have a supervisor for the time being, only a deputy member, and the battalion officer is concurrently served by Lin Zhe himself.

However, Lin Zhe was actually not in charge of specific affairs, and the affairs of the department were actually handled by Lin Zhe's personal military adviser Hunter William instead of Lin Zhe.

Therefore, in today's military meeting, you can see Hunter William, a blonde and blue-eyed foreigner.

Like other officers, Hunter William wore a new officer's uniform of the Yuyao County Yongying Battalion, wearing the rank of major.

"Although the situation on the Guangde side is critical, since the Taiping army has besieged the city for many days and has not taken it, it will not change much in a day or two, so our top priority is not to rescue Guangde, but to focus on the enemy army itself outside the city!" The one who spoke was Shi Qingxuan, the assistant of the Supervision and Training Office, who was also the first student of the Suiying Academy.

"Our tomorrow and subsequent operations should focus on how to destroy the enemy forces outside the city, rather than simply how to rescue Guangde!"

Shi Qingxuan's words were agreed by the other officers present, in addition to tactical factors, there is actually another reason, that is, in fact, everyone present does not care about the safety of Guangde.

What is the safety of Guangde, the life and death of the people in the city is actually nothing to them, they are concerned about their own safety, and what they want is how to destroy the enemy army.

At this time, Shi Langyi, the commander of the first regiment, said: "I also agree with this, according to the information we have obtained before, the size of the enemy army is about 1,500 people, and the strength is about the same as ours, but most of them should be hand-to-hand combat troops, and the long-range musket and artillery forces should be extremely weak, so I should continue to give full play to our firepower superiority in the follow-up operations, and strive to defeat the enemy at medium and long distances and hit the enemy's morale!" ”

The weapons and equipment of the Taiping army are actually very poor, even worse than the Qing army, the Qing army has a large number of bird guns, that is, arquebuses and all kinds of small-caliber artillery, guns, etc., although it is much worse than the Yongying camp in Yuyao County, but it is much stronger than the Taiping army.

But as for the Taiping Army, the proportion of its musket equipment is very low, and the strength is mainly hand-to-hand combat in close combat, and there are not many musketeers, and there are even fewer artillery.

However, they should not be underestimated because of the very low proportion of muskets and artillery equipment, the Taiping army in these years was well-trained, and the combat effectiveness, especially the combat effectiveness of hand-to-hand combat, was particularly strong, and the reason why they were able to connect and defeat the Qing army was to rely on the formal and fierce hand-to-hand combat.

Shi Langyi said that his side should rely on long-range troops to consume and defeat them, and the main reason is to give full play to his own firepower advantage, but another aspect also shows that the Yongying Battalion in Yuyao County is not good at hand-to-hand combat.

It has only been a few months since the Yong Battalion in Yuyao County was fully armed, and it was good that the soldiers could shoot calmly, and they could not be expected to fight the enemy in close combat with bayonets.

As many generals spoke one after another, Lin Zhe was also thinking about the current battle situation, and after tomorrow, he might directly face the Taiping army, how to fight at that time, and what the result would be unknown, Lin Zhe still had a lot of worries about this.

Early the next morning, the soldiers of the Yongying camp in Yuyao County began to bury the pot and cook, and then began to continue to march westward.

However, today, from Lin Zhe to ordinary soldiers, they are all extremely cautious, because they are close to Guangde, the more than 30 cavalrymen of Lin Zhe's personal guards have all dispersed to expand the scope of investigation.

At the same time, the infantry of the two companies also went forward on the left and the right, expanding the alert range of the troops and preventing the troops from being attacked by the enemy on a large scale during the march.

When the Yuyao County Yongying was getting closer and closer to Guangde, it was noon, a few kilometers away from the road where the Yuyao County Yongying was marching, several Taiping soldiers with shaved hair were lying on a small hill, carefully observing this army that seemed extremely strange and strange to them.