Hangzhou is more than 500 miles from Jinling, which is much closer than the more than 2,000 miles from Yueyang to Jinling - Wuchang to Jinling is also 1,500 miles. In addition, the combat effectiveness of the Wu Yue army was far less than that of the Zhou army, so the Southern Route Army with Muttel as the vanguard and supervisor and Qian Yu as the commander of the Wu Yue King set off much later than the other armies, and it was not until the Western Route Army and the Middle Route Army combined forces to capture Chizhou that Mutel and Qian Yu led the troops out of Hangzhou, along the canal through Xiuzhou, Suzhou, and Changzhou. On the 18th day of the fourth lunar month of the second year of Jianlong, on the same day that Xu Shao'an and Zeng Zhilin led the Western Route Army and the Middle Route Army to fall into the trap without a fight, Mutel and Qian Yu also led the 45,000 men and horses of the Southern Route Army to the periphery of Changzhou.

As a special force, the main combat methods of the "Wolf Tooth Battalion" are sneak attacks, infiltration, assaults, and other short, powerful, and one-hit attacks, which emphasize rapidity and accuracy, so they are equipped with fewer heavy weapons, especially artillery, and the caliber of the artillery is also smaller. Not only are there no 130mm siege guns, 105mm howitzers and other types of heavy artillery, but even the maximum caliber of mortars is only 100mm. Therefore, in the face of the tall and sturdy city of Changzhou, Mutel, as a pioneer officer and supervisor, muttered a little in his heart, and was not very confident about conquering this city before the 24th day of the fourth month of the lunar calendar.

The reason why Muttel has such worries is not because he is arrogant and looks down on Wu Yuebing, but because he has been staying in Hangzhou for more than a month, getting along with Wu Yuebing day and night, and has a certain intuitive understanding of the other party's individual soldiers, training level, and combat ability. In Muter's view, compared with the Beiping Army, even compared with the Later Zhou Army before the reorganization and the Khitan Army that was defeated by the Beiping Army many times, Wu Yuebing also had a significant gap. Under the same conditions, it may not even be the opponent of the Northern Han Army, which was not worth mentioning in the eyes of the Beiping Army at the beginning. Although Muttel had not been in contact with the Jiangnan Army before, his knowledge of this army was very limited. But he had heard the seventh brother Zhang Weixin talk in the historical knowledge training class before the expedition that in his previous life, in the face of the surging Song army, the Jiangnan army in Jinling City lasted for a year before it was broken. Compared with the speed of defeat of the secessionist regimes such as Jinghu, Houshu, and Southern Han, the combat power of the Jiangnan Army was the highest south of the Yangtze River. What's more, when Zhou Shizong conquered Huainan that year, Qian Yu also sent troops to attack Chang and Xuan'er Prefecture to contain Li Jing's forces, but the result was a great defeat and had to raise troops from all over the country to prevent the Southern Tang Army from retaliating. With such combat effectiveness, in the face of the Jiangnan army defending the city, the Wu Yue army, which did not have much advantage in numbers, wanted to capture Changzhou City in a short period of time, but I am afraid that it would be difficult to do so.

However, I am worried that I am worried, considering that King Wu Yue spared no effort and wholeheartedly in order to assist the Zhou army in the southern expedition, and even advised him not to destroy the official position of Shen Huzi, the prime minister of Wu Yue's strongest domain, in Jiangnan, and to be replaced by Cui Renji, a Confucian scholar who supported the dispatch of troops to help Zhou. Moreover, the main role of the Southern Route Army is to contain the troops of the states and counties southeast of Jinling, rather than blindly attacking cities and conquering cities, and this is not the time to "grow the morale of others and destroy their own prestige". Therefore, after setting out from Hangzhou, Muttel has always had an attitude of encouragement and trust towards Qian Yu and his Wu Yuebing on the surface. It is only in private and in reports to the Committee that his fears and suspicions are expressed.

Of course, Muttel's worries were only based on his own speculation about the gap in combat power between Wu Yue's army and the Jiangnan army, and the actual situation could only be known if the two sides had actually fought. Therefore, in the secret letter replied by the committee, it also asked Muttel not to draw conclusions too early, and to make an accurate judgment after Wu Yuejun had some contact with the Jiangnan Army - in any case, with Mutel and the "Wolf Tooth Battalion" here, even if Wu Yuejun's initial battle was unfavorable, it would not collapse.

On the 18th day of the fourth lunar month of the second year of Jianlong, on the day when Wu Yue's army arrived at the periphery of Changzhou, the vanguard composed of Mutel's headquarters and Wu Yue's army of 5,000 people met with a battalion of about 500 Jiangnan army patrol soldiers and horses. For this kind of opportunity to visually verify the combat effectiveness of Wu Yuejun's army at close range, Muttel naturally will not let it go. He stopped Zhang Zheng, the commander of the "Wolf Tooth Battalion", who was eager to lead his men to rush forward immediately, and instead ordered the leading general of the 5,000 Wu Yue Army to send a battalion of men with the middle combat strength under his command to immediately go forward to engage the Jiangnan Army. When the general of the Wu Yue Army heard the order, he did not dare to slack off, and immediately assigned 500 men and horses to break away from the brigade and kill the patrol soldiers of the Jiangnan Army.

The battalion commander of the original battalion of Jiangnan soldiers saw that Wu Yue's army was pressing the border, which was definitely beyond the strength of his own five hundred soldiers and horses, and was preparing to lead his subordinates to withdraw to Changzhou City. At this time, he found that the other party only sent a battalion of men and horses equivalent to his own strength to fight, and the rest of the brigade watched from a distance, with no intention of killing the generals. After being stunned for a moment, the commander of the Jiangnan barracks roughly guessed the intentions of Wu Yuejun, and changed his idea of retreating immediately, intending to compete with the opposite battalion of Wu Yuebing, to make a good start for his side, suppress the morale of Wu Yuejun's army, and boost his fighting spirit. After all, retreating without a fight was not the style of the Jiangnan Army when it met Wu Yuejun. What's more, the cavalry in the opposing brigade is only afraid of no less than a thousand people, and even if you want to run, you can't run away. Rather than leaving your back to the enemy to slash and kill, it is better to fight to the death, and it is worthy of this military uniform.

Speaking of which, the combined strength of the two sides is only a thousand, and in terms of scale alone, it is not worth mentioning in the entire battle of the Southern Expedition. But because both sides have the idea of fighting for the jackpot and getting off to a good start, they will fight with all their might once they fight, in order to put the other party to death in the shortest possible time. Therefore, although the scale of the battle was not large, its intensity was not inferior to that of those with more than 10,000 troops. In addition, both sides used cold weapons and engaged in hand-to-hand combat in close combat, so the battle scene was more fierce and barbaric than the battles of Wuchang Baisha Beach and Quarry Jijiangkou Village, where thousands or even tens of thousands of enemies were annihilated.

Armed with knives and spears, slashing with white blades, and rushing back and forth, this kind of battle is exactly what Mutel yearns for. In the past, whether it was the Battle of Youyun or the "Overlord Operation", the Beiping Army, which had the advantage in weapons, usually adopted a long-distance engagement mode that could give full play to its own strengths, avoiding close combat with the enemy as much as possible and reducing its own casualties. Although there were some examples of infantry melee combat and cavalry assault, most of them were when the enemy attacked the city with absolute superiority, or the cavalry pursued the enemy army that had been scattered and collapsed by its own fire. The face-to-face battle in which the two sides were equally equipped, similarly trained, and evenly matched in battle like the one in front of us basically did not appear in the previous battles of the Beiping Army.

The fierce battle scene made Muttel's blood boil, and he gradually couldn't hold back his desire to kill heartily. Seeing that the strength of the two sides of the battle is similar and the fighting spirit is similar, the loss of each pillar of incense has exceeded one-third, if he doesn't make any moves, I'm afraid that he won't get any chance to fight. So, he first turned his head and gave a few orders to the general of the Wu Yue army, asking the other party to guard the formation. Then he turned his head and shouted, "A company will go up with General Ben to kill the enemy", then drew his long knife and rushed forward in the lead.

Zhang Zheng, the battalion commander of the "Wolf Tooth Battalion" who was accompanying Mutel, was shocked when he heard this, and hurriedly stretched out his hand to stop him, intending to persuade this boss, who was always thinking of going into battle to fight, not to take risks. As a result, before his arm could be straightened, Muttel's straddle had already jumped out two feet away, and he could not stop it. Seeing that he didn't stop him, Zhang Zheng couldn't help but be anxious. Although he knew Muttel's bravery and fierceness, it was estimated that he would not be the opponent of this thirty-fifth master when he waited for ten or eight Jiangnan soldiers to go together. But the problem is that today's Muttel is no longer the leader of the "Rangers" squad or the commander of the cavalry battalion, but the dignified founder of the country, General Youwuwei, has long been out of the stage of personally leading the team and charging into battle. If there is any mistake, I am afraid that not only myself, my personal guards, and the "Wolf Tooth Battalion" will die and will not be redeemed, but I am not sure that Song Guogong, Xu Taiwei, General Zeng and other "Qingyuan" brothers who are angry will let 40,000 Wu Yue soldiers, Changzhou City soldiers and civilians, and even the entire Jiangnan monarchs and ministers and people be buried together. In that case, he will really become the first sinner of the ages. So, Zhang Zheng immediately pulled out his long knife, waved his hand back, and shouted: "The 'Wolf Tooth Battalion' is attacking on all fronts. With that, he shook the reins and rushed out after Mutel and a company.

Muttel and the "Wolf Tooth Battalion" attacked one after another, and the general of the Wu Yue Army naturally couldn't sit there anymore, so he hurriedly waved his hand, and took the remaining more than 4,000 subordinates to follow and pounce on the Jiangnan Army patrol with only about 300 people left.

Six thousand against three hundred, there is no suspense in the next battle. Seeing the enemy brigade rushing in, the Jiangnan army, which originally had some fighting spirit and planned to fight with the five hundred Wu Yue troops in front of them, collapsed instantly, and turned around and ran away. It's a pity that the horses they stepped on could outrun the horses selected by the "Wolf's Tooth Battalion" from hundreds of thousands of war horses, not to mention that most of their soldiers were infantry, not even horses. Therefore, these Jiangnan soldiers did not even escape a hundred and ten paces, and they were surrounded by the "Wolf Tooth Battalion", and more than 250 soldiers and the 80 horses they rode were obediently taken prisoner. So much so that Mutel, who did not even have a trace of blood on the long knife, was so annoyed that he scolded Zhang Zheng for "being a supreme official" and "disobeying the general's orders", and wanted to send him to military justice.

Of course, Muttle's words are just words and anger, and it is impossible to really send Zhang Zheng to the military justice department. First, according to the rules and regulations of the crossing team, it was not allowed for him to brave the arrows and charge into battle in the first place. If he wants to deal with Zhang Zheng, he must first go to the military department and the committee to accept punishment before he can do it - you must know that not long ago, the starling Xu Shaoan made a deep review to the committee for violating this regulation. Second, Zhang Zheng is his favorite general, he can't cultivate it, how can he deal with this young handsome man he values for the other party's original right. Therefore, after scolding a few words and sulking, Muttel could only accept the reality, be his vanguard officer and supervisor in a down-to-earth manner, and command the vanguard of Wu Yue's army to continue to advance under heavy protection.

Although he failed to realize his desire to charge into battle and slash the enemy, after this skirmish, Muttel finally had a substantial understanding of the combat effectiveness of Wu Yue's army and the Jiangnan army, and he also had enough confidence in Wu Yue's army to capture Changzhou. So, after a short rest, Muttel led the vanguard of Wu Yue's army to an important fortress outside Changzhou - Licheng Wall.