In Niujiaodian, about dozens of miles west of Changqing, a group of troops wearing dark blue military uniforms was slowly moving eastward, forming a zigzag procession along the road like a dragon coiled on the ground.

At the front of the team was the cavalry unit, which was one of the first three cavalry regiments in the Chinese army, the second cavalry regiment, and the most prestigious cavalry regiment in the Chinese military system, which was originally under the jurisdiction of the Second Army and participated in the battle of Shanghai with the British and French forces.

After the battle of Shanghai came to an end, the Second Army set off south to Zhejiang and Fujian, and Fujian and Zhejiang in the south were mountainous and hilly areas, and although the general command still attached importance to the battle in the direction of Guangdong, considering that the battle with the British and French forces had actually ended, no matter how the battle was fought in Guangdong, it could no longer change the fact that the two sides had to end the war through negotiations, and at the same time, even if the Chinese army wanted to counterattack Guangzhou and even Hong Kong, it would mainly focus on attacking fortified positions.

In other words, although the role of cavalry in this direction is still there, it is no longer worth asking the command to send the Second Cavalry Regiment, one of the only three cavalry regiments, to Guangdong, and the divisional cavalry companies of the southbound units can barely meet the cavalry needs of the southbound troops.

The Second Cavalry Regiment should be used where it is needed more, so after the Battle of Shanghai, the Second Cavalry Regiment was assigned to the Sixth Army, and then participated in the second round of large-scale Northern Expedition.

In fact, not only was the Second Cavalry Regiment assigned to the Sixth Army, but in fact, the Fifth Cavalry Regiment under the jurisdiction of the Fifth Army was also transferred from the Fifth Army, because the Fifth Army is now stationed in Jiangyin, Zhenjiang, and Yangzhou, and its main task is to control and defend Gyeonggi, and it is impossible for a large-scale battle to break out with foreign enemies in a short period of time in the future, and it would be a waste to let the Fifth Cavalry Regiment, the main cavalry regiment, stay here.

Therefore, the Fifth Cavalry Regiment was also redeployed like the Second Cavalry Regiment, and the regiment was reassigned to the Fourth Army to fight in southern Anhui and northern Jiangxi.

The reason for the appearance was only a cavalry regiment. However, the power of its strategic mobilization is vested in the high command, and the reason for this is very simple, that is, the Chinese army has too few cavalry, and the Chinese cavalry, which lacks war horses and qualified cavalry, must carefully use every existing cavalry unit.

After the 2nd Cavalry Regiment accompanied the Sixth Army to the north, it has always served as the vanguard of the Sixth Army, providing reconnaissance and road opening tasks.

Now they were walking in front of the main infantry of the Sixth Army and on the north flank. A wide sector was formed to provide a sufficiently large warning distance for the Sixth Army.

Behind the cavalry, there were many infantry, and in the middle of the infantry were a large number of artillery, ammunition trucks, and supply vehicles dragged by mules, horses, and livestock.

Since it was fighting far from the supply lines, the Sixth Army was more cautious when marching in battle, and basically the main force marched with the artillery and baggage troops, so as to avoid leaving a large number of baggage troops behind and not allowing the enemy to have any possibility of attacking the supply convoys.

You must know that there are still 20,000 Qing troops who fled north from Liaocheng, including the Sixth Army of the Qing Army and thousands of Manchu and Mongolian cavalry, although no trace of them has been found to re-move south. But it also has to be guarded against.

However, although this can ensure the safety of the march of the army, especially the baggage troops, the speed of the march has also been slowed down a lot.

After setting off from Liaocheng the day before yesterday, it took two days to walk about 50 kilometers, and it will take at least three days to get to Liaocheng.

If we only count the distance, in fact, the Sixth Army is now less than 60 kilometers away from Jinan and about 40 kilometers away from Changqing County. It will take three days at most to reach Jinan.

But it is worth noting that the Sixth Army is separated from Changqing and Jinan by a Yellow River!

The Yellow River has been diverted since 1855. It has become a flow from the north of the Taishan Mountains, and then all the way northeast and finally into the Bohai Sea.

And the county seat of Changqing and the capital city of Jinan are just on the south bank of the new Yellow River!

In other words, if the Sixth Army wanted to go to Changqing and Jinan, they would have to cross the Yellow River again and turn back to the south bank of the Yellow River.

"How are our engineering troops and the Navy's First Gunboat Detachment prepared, and will they be able to cross the river on time tomorrow?" Shi Qingxuan and the usual march. Ride directly on the horse.

A major next to him said: "An hour ago, the herald sent back the news, saying that our army's engineering unit has been carrying out intensive pontoon bridge construction with the navy, and it is expected that the pontoon bridge will be completely completed tomorrow morning!" ”

Shi Qingxuan nodded: "Well, that's good, this engineering unit really didn't disappoint me." Didn't disappoint Your Majesty! ”

Last year, when Lin Zhe told him that he wanted to take the lead in organizing and training professional engineering troops in the Sixth Army, Shi Qingxuan still did not understand a little, and in his opinion, some construction tasks, such as building trenches, could be done by auxiliary units such as the Auxiliary Defense Force or simply by the infantry themselves, and there was no need to spend huge sums of money on building specialized engineering units.

However, now that the engineering troops are used more and more easily, the more they feel that the engineering troops do not seem to be the main force of infantry on the surface, and they are of great use, but in fact they are very useful.

Even for the construction of the simplest trenches, breastworks and other fortifications, if the engineers came to do it, they were far faster than ordinary infantry with professional tools, and the trenches were built very reasonably and easy to use.

In the past, when there were no engineers, but relying on auxiliary troops or infantry to erect pontoon bridges, this speed is slow, not to mention, and pontoon bridges are often not strong enough, people are fine on the road, but when the artillery is pulled up by horses, it always sways, and even the pontoon bridge breaks and falls into the water.

It's okay if a person falls into the water, he can swim on his own, and a landlubber can be rescued, but if an artillery falls into the water, there is no way at all, unless it takes a lot of time, otherwise don't expect to just catch a ton or two of a cannon weighing one or two.

As for the engineering troops, they are doing this professionally, and the speed of building the pontoon bridge is very fast, not to mention, and it is also very strong.

It can be said that in the process of going north, the engineering battalions of the two divisions of the Sixth Army played a considerable role!

This time to cross the Yellow River in the south, Shi Qingxuan naturally asked the two engineering battalions to set off in advance, and set up pontoon bridges in advance under the cover and support of the navy, so that they could directly cross the river without waiting after the main force arrived.

Just when Shi Qingxuan asked about the engineering battalion and the pontoon bridge, more than 2,000 soldiers of the Chinese Army's navy and army were crowded in this small village along the river in Xigu Village, more than 10 kilometers away from the troops.

On the turbid Yellow River, there are nearly 100 ships of different sizes moored, of which more than 10 are steam ships emitting white smoke, and the rest are more than 10 sail ships, but more are non-powered ships without sails, most of these ships are non-powered ships collected by the Chinese army or made locally, the size is relatively uniform, and they are used as bridge piers!

Limited by the technical capabilities of the existing engineering units of the Chinese Army, if they are to erect pontoon bridges on small and medium-sized rivers, they can still complete them on their own, but if they want to build pontoon bridges on large rivers such as the Yangtze River and the Yellow River, they need the assistance of friendly forces, especially the navy.

On the one hand, they need the navy to provide fire cover, and on the other hand, the army is a landlubber anyway, they can't find so many ships to use as bridge piers, and they can't find so many qualified sailors to control, unless the army intends to set up a so-called 'army fleet', otherwise, similar things will inevitably require the cooperation and support of the navy.

Just when these engineers were busy, there was also a cavalry company and an infantry battalion on the periphery of Xigu Village were also stationed nearby, mainly facing the north to guard, although there was no large-scale Qing army in the north, but in order to avoid accidents, Shi Qingxuan still sent a cavalry company and an infantry battalion in advance to follow and protect the engineering troops, so as not to be attacked by the Qing army when they erected the pontoon bridge.

On the Yellow River, the three naval gunboats were also emitting a faint white smoke, gradually heading towards the lower reaches of the Yellow River, that is, in the direction of Jinan, and this small fleet of three gunboats was about to go to Changqing and Jinan, on the one hand, to reconnoiter the enemy forces along the river, and on the other hand, if possible, to shell the Qing troops along the river.

The two ships behind this small fleet can be seen at a glance, they are the Xingwu-class gunboats widely used by the Imperial Chinese Navy, and as many as 16 gunboats of this class have been built, which are widely active in the Yangtze River and other river basins.

In front of these two Xingwu-class gunboats, there is a larger gunboat, which obviously bears traces of the Xingwu-class from the ship's shape, with a low broadside, a high superstructure, without any sails, and a steam-powered single-shaft dark wheel propulsion.

Dangtu is also the first ship of the second generation of river gunboats of the Imperial Chinese Navy, so according to the tradition that the name of the first ship is the name of the class, this second-generation river gunboat is also collectively referred to as the Dangtu class.

When the Tu-class gunboats were designed and built in 1857 and entered service in 1858, the basic design of the class basically continued the design of the Xingwu-class gunboats, with very shallow draft, low freeboard, relatively tall superstructure, and pure steam-powered single-shaft dark wheel propulsion.

The design improvement of the hull as long as the hull has been increased, so that its standard displacement has reached 150 tons, which is more than double the displacement of the original Xingwu class more than 80 stews, and the steam power is greater due to the increase in displacement, and the shipborne steam engine of Linde Machinery Company can produce 80 horsepower, although the horsepower is slightly smaller, but because the ship is relatively slender, it can still reach a speed of 11 knots per hour when sailing at full speed.

Although its maximum speed is slightly reduced compared with the 12 knots of the Xingwu class, its ability to carry coal, ammunition, and daily necessities is greatly improved, and when it is fully loaded with coal, the endurance of the Tu-class gunboats reaches 350 nautical miles, which is greatly improved compared with the Xingwu class. (To be continued......)