This young officer was the biggest labor leader in the East Palace, Chen De. After he took over the manual barracks, he was quite unwilling and always wanted to transfer back to the combat troops. Who knew that the Third Guards Battalion did not have his share, but more and more prisoners, "Diao Min", stragglers, and hard labor were assigned to him.

Today, there are almost no soldiers in the Chen De Engineer Battalion, but there are as many as 50,000 coolies. As a last resort, he could only manage the coolies with innocent laborers, and almost every skilled craftsman had to bring dozens of apprentices. Fortunately, Chen De still has some trustworthy family members, and there are troops everywhere east of Lexia, so there has been no tragedy yet.

With the passage of time, Chen De himself gradually settled down and no longer expected to become a general. Now, he governed these loose laborers under military law, forbade noise in the barracks, gradually instilled the concept of discipline, and asked the crown prince to appoint instructors, and he really had the appearance of a barracks.

With increasing efficiency and a tightly controlled mortality rate, the camp performed exceptionally well in all its tasks. Chen De himself also knows very well where to use the most haode materials to achieve the most haode effect, and where to save manpower to meet the needs of all aspects. As soon as he received the order to build the road to Jinan as soon as possible, he knew that this was to prepare for war, and the quality of the road was not necessarily excellent, but it was necessary to meet the needs of cavalry, infantry, and artillery as soon as possible.

Nowadays, the technical college has not completed the research and development of hydraulic stone crusher, and the cement road can only be used on the face, mainly the rammed earth road. And now there is little rain in Shandong, and the service life of this rammed earth road is quite long. Coupled with the plain landform, there is no need to worry about flash floods washing away roads.

"What is this general called?" Huang Desu asked.

"Engineer battalion officer, Colonel Chen De." Chen De said lightly: "The state can't transfer more people? What about the former guards and military households? ”

"Even women are working." Huang Desu shook his head, and pointed from a distance, and sure enough, there were two rough-clothed women sifting the soil with a sieve.

Chen De was helpless. Although he has a large number of subordinates, he has more places to use people. Therefore, it is always used to recruit people from local states and counties.

With the accumulation of engineering experience, more and more special tools are being transformed. While the efficiency is improved, the people must also be guided to use, and it will take three to five days to really be able to master. This makes the construction project more like a battlefield, where the craftsmen and workers under Chen De are professional soldiers, and the hard labor is an auxiliary soldier who lacks combat skills. Minfu is the labor supplement.

Chen De was about to speak when he suddenly heard a bell ringing.

"Alarm bells! Toyo is coming! Huang Desu's face was like ashes, and he shouted in a lost voice.

"The whole team!" Chen De shouted: "My horse! ”

Huang Desu grabbed Chen De: "General, what should I do if I go down!" ”

"Stabilize the people and obey military orders." After Chen De finished speaking casually, he turned over and got on the horse brought by the guard.

The drill of the engineer battalion in recent days has paid off, and the laborers from all over the country have soon gathered together and formed a phalanx with fear on their faces.

In contrast, the people did not obey the order in this way. They soon fell apart. Rush to the gates.

Huang Desu almost fainted when he saw it, barely lifted his spirits, and shouted loudly: "Don't run!" Bring your tools! ”

The people who were running quickly stopped and fled in reverse.

In the cave of the city gate, the soldiers of a bureau trotted out with neat steps, drove the scattered people together, and let them fish into the city. In front of these horrible maintainers of order. The people soon entered the former Acropolis.

Chen De rode over and called out to the general manager of the bureau: "Which direction are the enemy soldiers coming?" How far is it going? ”

That Bai always glanced at Chen De's shoulder. Saluted: "Report to the colonel, there are more than 200 horsemen from the east. There is still half a day's journey to the city of Texas, and the 1,000th headquarters of our battalion has been ordered to attack. ”

"It's Xiao Mo." Chen De couldn't help but be envious, jealous and hateful, turned back to his command position, and ordered: "Have it all, pack up your tools." Evacuate into the city. The Ministry of Works remained behind and prepared to support. ”

The Ministry of Public Works is all veterans who are good at civil engineering, and it is certainly not as good as the soldiers to fight in battle, but after concentrating on building fortifications, they can play a greater role.

The general of the East Palace was in Texas thinking about how to lure the East Captives out to attack the city. Naturally, Dongyu would not sit in a daze in Cangzhou City. Because of the long banner of "sweeping away the rebellion and returning to the Ming Emperor" all the way, Bahana, who lacked political thinking, had doubts about whether to attack Texas, so he sent a letter back to ask for instructions.

The battle-hardened Shi Tingzhu was not very enthusiastic about attacking Texas. He prefers to be able to get a chance to be in charge of himself, rather than always following the actions of the Manchurian Ezhen, which results in a lack of strength and meritorious service. With his political sense, he is not optimistic about Ye Chen's trip to the northwest, if he can be transferred to the northwest, directly starting a war with Li Chuang is a great opportunity to get credit.

"It's always right to set up a stockade first." Shi Tingzhu agreed with Bahana's suggestion. Although his own status is similar to that of Bahana, the Han military flag is one level lower than the Manchurian flag after all.

Bahana said: "If you want to pierce, you have to be closer, if you accidentally hit us, the prince can't blame us." ”

The two commanders reached an agreement and sent 200 horsemen as the vanguard, and after this group of men, there were 300 infantry soldiers with 5 or 600 clothed soldiers to camp five miles outside the city of Texas. As soon as the camp is set up, the Han army banner will also be moved, just waiting for the order of the regent Dorgon.

On the way from Cangzhou to Texas, the first battalion of scouts had already been filled, and the news was reported back to Texas in time.

It was the timely delivery of this information that Xiao Mo was able to calmly set up the formation, choose the battlefield that was conducive to his own rest, and use the battalion's subordinate engineer battalion to build simple combat fortifications. In this regard, the Donggong Army has adhered to the principle of "not fighting unprepared battles" since it was formed.

Chen De ordered the engineer battalion to go into the city alone to ask for an audience with the crown prince.

Zhu Cihong had already gone out of the city with the 1,000th headquarters of the 1st battalion to inspect the battlefield layout. By the time Chen De caught up, Zhu Cihong had already chosen a small high ground and was ready to meet this real Manchurian army.

"Humble request to join the fight!" Chen De gave a military salute in high spirits: "The First Fortification Department of the Engineer Battalion is ready to be prepared!" ”

Zhu Cihong looked at this energetic young colonel and said with a smile: "Accurate." Let's see, what has changed in the sapper battalion these days. ”

"Yes!" Chen De saluted again excitedly, turned around and ordered the guards to transfer the engineer battalion into the battlefield for emergency pre-battle arrangements.

You Shiwei stood beside Zhu Cihong and said, "Your Highness, the minister heard that the lion and tiger need to use all their strength to fight, and the lion and tiger also use all their strength to fight the rabbit." Although it is only two hundred horses, why not completely cut it off with thunder? ”

"General You, the current battlefield commander is General Xiao, and it hasn't reached the point where I need to seize power and command." Zhu Cihong smiled.

You Shiwei didn't know whether to be moved or regretted when he heard it. There are very few people who can come to the battle in person but respect the generals so much, not to mention the identity of the crown prince, even those civil officials and supervisors are eager to have the final say on everything. However, Xiao Mo was an inexperienced general in You Shiwei's eyes, and he had such an opportunity to waste it.

If this battle can defeat the Eastern cavalry, even if there are only a dozen heads, it is an exciting and good thing.

"General Xiao fought bravely, but he was still a little conservative in deployment." You Shiwei couldn't help but say: "The first thousand headquarters is in Dezhou, and the second thousand headquarters is in Ling County, which is the meaning of the question." However, the headquarters of the 3,000th is located in Pingyuan County, so I don't know why. Could it be the soldiers who responded after the loss of Dexian? ”

Zhu Cihong smiled and said, "I want to know too." In this way, after this battle, after General You asked General Xiao, remember to copy a copy to me. However, now that the time has passed to formulate a military proposal, the matters on the battlefield should be left to General Xiao. ”

You Shiwei was unwilling to hold up the clairing mirror and look at the soldiers who were preparing for the battle below.

Out of Texas to the north is the Hejian Mansion of North Zhili. The vast North China Plain, in the words of the scribes, is a vast land, ready to gallop. However, when the army marches, there is never a straight line between two points, and it must find a way. From this, it is also possible to deduce the direction of the future battlefield: Wuqiao. (To be continued......)

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