Long Qian was accompanied by Zhou Yi to the infirmary to visit more than a dozen wounded in this battle, half of them were unhindered and could soon recover and return to the team, but the three seriously injured were not in good condition, all had different degrees of fever, there was no professional doctor on the mountain, so he could only pick some herbs to make soup with experience, and whether he could be cured or not depended on luck.

Sun Juan and other female soldiers were very happy to see Long Qian, and Long Qian told them to be diligent in changing dressings for the wounded, cleaning the wounds with salt water, and trying not to let the wounds suppurate in hot weather. Sun Juan and the others agreed repeatedly.

"When you go out of the mountain this time, you must find a qualified surgeon, this is the very least, otherwise, it will hurt the morale of the military." Long Qian comforted the wounded one by one, and followed Zhou Yi to the courtyard, "The five brothers who died in battle are all buried, right?" ”

"Of course, they are all buried in Duduzhai."

"Write down their names and send a pension if they find their loved ones. This is a major matter that has a bearing on the stability of the military's morale, and it must not be sloppy. ”

"Old Song remembers this." Zhou Yi disagreed, "Let's go, they are all waiting for you to arrange the battle out of the mountain." ”

Long Qian nodded and returned to his residence with Zhou Yi.

"Brothers," Long Qian took the bowl of water brought by Deng Qinghua, and drank a bowl of cold boiled water with a drumming dongdong, "We did not go out of the mountains to obtain food and silver, nor to recruit soldiers, but to occupy the first piece of territory that allowed us to develop. ”

Long Qian stopped and let his subordinates digest his words.

"What I said allows us to develop, not to be far away from people like Mengshanzhai, but to be with the people, relying on the people to provide us with food, clothing, medicine, accommodation and everything we need. In this way, this place, I call it a base area. Since it is a base area, it must meet certain conditions__Zhangjiazhai is not successful, it is too small, Maoyang Town or Pingyi Village is not successful, they are located on the traffic arteries, the government does not allow us to occupy them for a long time, in that way, the face of the military and the government has no place to rest, pay attention, when dealing with the government, we must remember one word, face. It's not that we want face, but the government wants face. We are bandits, it doesn't matter if we have a face or not, we can do it if we have benefits. But the government is different, losing face is more important than losing the inside. Therefore, we have only one result in defeating Maoyang Town or Pingyi Village, sending a large army to wipe us out or drive us away. With the current situation of our army, it is simply not able to withstand continuous vicious battles, and you must not be arrogant and arrogant in this regard. ”

"Is Zhengjiazhuang okay?" Ning Shijun asked softly.

"Yes. It exceeded my expectations. I noticed this place at the very beginning, first of all, its location. It is the junction of Yizhou and Yanzhou, similar to the Sanzhi area. When this kind of place is lost, the government often pushes it on its neighbors, and even both sides pretend to be deaf and dumb. Second, its terrain is good, surrounded by mountains on three sides, and the terrain is steep, which can be used for military maneuvers. Thirdly, and most importantly, there is relative wealth. Because of the water, the three villages in that area look good, and the total population is over 10,000, and we will not be able to afford to add a thousand of us. Fourth, the foundation of the people is good. Zheng Jing, that is, the owner of Zhengjiazhuang, the guy who has a deep blood feud with the Erhu brothers, is indeed a bully who has a lot of blood debts for the rich and unkind. By defeating him, it is easy for us to gain the support of the poor people. Ha Luha, there is another point, Zheng Jing has a good network in the government, there are four or five hundred foreign guns under his hands, it is estimated that he has accumulated a lot of goods, and opening Zhengjiazhuang can temporarily solve our urgent need for supply. ”

"Fuck it! Avenge the two tigers. The Commander's idea is good, great. Lu Shan's mood rose again.

"You said just now that it's three Zhuangzi__" It was Ning Shijun who spoke.

Long Qian nodded appreciatively to Ning Shijun, "That's right, it's three Zhuangzi instead of one." Get rid of Zhengjiazhuang, there are also Bai Wei and Chen Jiaya. He dipped his fingers in the bowl and said, "You see, the Chang River is a seasonal river, and a small lake forms here, and they call it Chang Lake. That's right. Sancai, you go and find Cheng Erhu. Long Qian instructed his guards, and then continued to draw the terrain on the table, "Zhengjiazhuang is here, it is the largest. Separated by a ditch, it is five or six zhang deep, the shallowest place is also three or four zhang, wide, there are more than ten zhang, it is Chenjiaya, it is here, close to Zhengjiazhuang. This is Baiwei Town, said to be a town, in fact, it is a village, there is a road connected to Zhengjiazhuang, it is not as big as Zhengjiazhuang, but it is bigger than Chenjiaya. ”

With a few brushstrokes, Long Qian drew the terrain around Zhengjiazhuang.

Everyone gathered around and carefully studied the simple pictures. After this period of training, all the officers above the platoon commander level have learned to read the map, "Note, not only Zhengjiazhuang has soldiers, Bai Wei and Chen Jiaya also have village bravery, Bai Wei has almost three hundred people, and Chen Jiaya has one hundred and ten, but the weapons of these two Zhuangzi are not as good as Zhengjiazhuang." In addition, there is a situation, this even the two tigers do not know, Sanzhuang three years ago - at that time the two tigers had already gone to Mengshan Mountain, once had a battle with the people holding the calf, the calf came to thousands of people, did not please, died 300 people, defeated and returned. Zhengjiazhuang cannot be underestimated, and this must be paid attention to. ”

Cheng Erhu came in, "Commander, you can count it back, come back." The brethren are looking forward to your return. ”

"Erhu, we're going to fight Zhengjiazhuang," Wang Mingyuan patted Cheng Erhu's shoulder heavily.

"Really? Really? The second tiger stared at Long Qian.

"Of course it's true. In this way, Erhu, you help Shi Jun and them come up with a plan, and you mainly provide them with an explanation of the terrain, and you are familiar with it. You come up with a plan here, I'll go and see the troops, no, don't follow me. Long Qian stood up and walked out of the room.

After Long Qian looked at the day's training plan, he left the headquarters and went directly to the training ground. The five companies are all training according to the training plan, the fifth company is doing queue training in the square in front of the temple, and the officer leading the team is Shi Dashou, Long Qian didn't say anything, and after watching it for a while, he walked to the village.

The second company was conducting a drill for the attack of a small detachment, and in accordance with the regulations revised by Long Qian, it was carried out in a group of three people, and the fourth company was doing physical training. Many officers and soldiers of these two companies are veterans of the original Eighth Team, and people kept greeting Long Qian, Long Qian didn't say anything, looked at it for a while and left, turned around and went to Dongzhai.

Feng Lun's three companies practiced aiming at the shooting range, Lu Shan's first company was on duty, more than half of the men were scattered on various posts, and there were more than a dozen guarding the prisoner camp.

Long Qian turned back and saw that Ning Shijun had already drawn a map on a blank piece of paper, and marked the location of the peaks, rivers, and villages with the help of Cheng Erhu and Jiang Yun, Wang Mingyuan, Lu Shan, and Ye Yanbing were arguing about something around the map, and Zhou Yi, Feng Lun, and Feng Guozhu were sitting on the stone steps in front of the door drinking water and smoking.

Seeing Long Qian's drooping face, Feng Guozhu stood up, "Commander,"

"The troops are a little lax! Noticed? Long Qian said loudly, "The training is not very serious, the best is the fifth company, except for the one company on duty, the other three companies have some errands." Is it because you just won the battle? Guozhu, your four companies are the worst. ”

"Isn't it?" Feng Guozhu said.

"I'm not blind! The spirit of the troops can be seen at a glance! ”

Hearing Long Qian's words, several people in the house came out.

"I think it may be because of the victory," Long Qian's tone softened, "Brothers, this can't be done. What does the army do? It seems to me that there are only two things, to fight and to prepare for war! Rest, leisure, that is the business of the people, and we have nothing to do. Only by being combat-ready at all times can we cope with all contingencies. The most terrible thing is the pride after winning the battle, and it is not good to destroy the whole army! There is no doubt that Lu San Mazi's team is by no means comparable to Zhengjiazhuang, are you preparing to make the Mengshan army hurt in the next battle? ”

"Commander, I'm to blame for this." Zhou Yi spoke, "You handed over the team to me before you left, but I didn't grasp it tightly. Actually, before beating Lu San Mazi, everyone practiced hard enough! ”

"I know. I'm just giving you a heads-up. Military training is like training martial arts, if you don't practice for a day, you will know, and if you don't practice for a month, your opponent will know. Didn't you have a plan just now? Long Qian turned his face and asked Ning Shijun.

"We still have some differences." Ning Shijun said, "The troops are weak, and this battle is not easy to fight." ”

Long Qian nodded, "Attacking the strong with the weak is a situation that we will be difficult to change for a long time. Fully estimated to the difficulty, which is good. As the saying goes, three stinkers, one Zhuge Liang. Tonight, we will have a Zhuge Liang meeting and come up with a few sets of battle plans. ”

That night, the oil lamp in Long Qian's house was much brighter than usual, and more than a dozen backbone officers spent the night studying the battle plan against Zhengjiazhuang and the other three villages. The Mengshan army had less than 300 available soldiers, and someone proposed to use Lu San Mazi's captive soldiers as well, but Long Qian vetoed it. Long Qian firmly believed that a large number of troops was sometimes not an advantage, and if the battle situation was unfavorable and there was a defection, the problem would be complicated. In this way, a small number of troops had to be left to guard the prisoners.

The plan was finalized, and there were three sets in total, each of which was formulated for different situations. No one knows what will happen to the tide of battle. , more to improvise.

Long Qian ordered Feng Guozhu to stay in a squad to join Song Jinguo's logistics group and Wu Lie's ordnance group to guard the prisoners, and Song Jinguo was responsible for guarding the old camp in Mengshan, and then set off after receiving the order from the front. The rest of the troops will form a whole team from tomorrow night, and the echelons will secretly move towards Zhengjiazhuang by taking the method of night travel and sleeping.

After the morning exercise the next day, Long Qian gathered the whole army and announced the decision to go out of the mountain, "Brothers, I am not on the mountain during this time, maybe everyone has heard of it, I went to reconnoiter the battlefield, that's right, I personally went out of the mountain to do reconnaissance, and the target has been selected." Originally, I was going to practice for another three months, because I hadn't mastered some subjects yet. However, the situation did not allow it. Tomorrow night, we will leave Mengshanzhai and go to a new battlefield. Now that this battle is fought, we will have a new base and occupy it, and everyone will live a better life. To be honest, in the past few months in Mengshan, everyone has really had a hard time. No way, without going through this stage, we are a bunch of thieves! But not anymore, we are the Mengshan Army. Now, no one knows the name of the Mengshan Army, and soon, this glorious name will resound all over the country! Let's play the military flag, move forward under the guidance of the military flag, it is too pediatric to fight Lu San Mazi, we just want to pick a stronger opponent to fight, fight a battle, go further, fight a battle, we are one step stronger! ”

Long Qian stopped for a long time, the troops were quiet, no one exchanged heads, "From this battle on, our Mengshan Army will go to a broad stage, and we will enter Yizhou, Jinan, and even Beijing!" The enemy we will face in this battle is an opponent who is stronger in equipment and troops, and we must not underestimate the enemy. However, I believe that as long as you obey the orders and truly do not fear hardship or death, we will definitely win. Do you have confidence? ”

"Yes!" Mountains and tsunamis replied.

"Very good, tomorrow at noon, the logistics team will take out all the delicious food that has been accumulated, everyone will have a good meal, and you can drink! But don't get drunk! From tomorrow night, the troops will enter a wartime state. Those who violate military discipline will be severely punished according to wartime regulations! ”

This time out of the mountain, Long Qian made up his mind not to return to Mengshan. This mountain, which has been occupied by bandits for many years, may be a paradise for bandits, but it is not their own shelter. Now, with nearly 300 soldiers under his command who have undergone rigorous training, Long Qian believes that with them, he can completely carve out a sky of his own in this troubled world.

After listening to the commander's order, the whole mountain was filled with a jubilant atmosphere, and each company and platoon sorted out their outfits in an orderly manner, busy but not chaotic. Long Qian led the staff group to inspect the companies and was deeply satisfied with the condition of the troops. Compared with the scene when he faced Cao Kun's attack half a year ago, Mengshanzhai has been reborn.

On the evening of July 19, the 25th year of Guangxu, the Mengshan Army, which had been training and reorganizing the army for half a year, officially swore to leave the mountain.

After lunch, Chi Chunxian's cavalry had already set off under the guidance of Jiang Yun, and the road was explored, trying not to attract the attention of passing villages.

After dinner, the main force began to set off. The first to set off was Wang Mingyuan's second company. In front of the building, Long Qian watched the troops quietly descend the mountain, it was dusk, Long Qian looked at the soldiers who walked by him, he could call everyone by name, these soldiers were the capital of a different life he designed for himself. Long Qian saw that Hu Zongyu from the Military Judge Advocate Institute was also walking in the queue of the second company, and this handsome young man who looked no less than Ye Yanbing proposed to leave the company more than once, but Long Qian did not agree. This time out of the mountain, Cao Minzhong proposed that the three of them fight with three companies respectively, and Long Qian agreed.

Long Qian suddenly felt a pang of colic, because he knew that many of these soldiers who were in high spirits and went to the unknown would fall on the unknown battlefield__If there were no themselves, most of them would have a different life, and perhaps more of them would live to old age, have children, and follow the trajectory of their ancestors to live their lives. However, now it's different__

The Temple of Light slowly shrouded in twilight. The third company followed the second company__