The telegram from the forward command was quickly replied to by the committee, which said in a reply that in view of the fact that the "Flying Dragon Army" was making too much noise in the Northern Han Dynasty, which was no longer in line with the original intention of carrying out the "Temper No. 2 operation" and exposed its own strength, it agreed to the request of the forward command and immediately evacuated Dabaoshu. In order to save the time of retreat, the pass can be directly broken through when passing through the bottle-shaped fortress, and quickly broken into pieces after entering the territory of Liao, so as not to attract the attention of the Liao government on the way back to Liangxiang.

After receiving a call back from the committee, Qian Yuanshan and others immediately began to prepare. Except for the supplies and ammunition brought by the "Flying Dragon Army" at the beginning, only part of the grain and grass and relatively valuable property in the booty were taken away, and the rest of the materials were not wanted. However, although most of the seized materials were abandoned, not a single person in the fort remained. Not only the hundreds of captured Han soldiers and their officers Shao Qianzong, Commander Liu and others will be escorted back to Liangxiang, but also the families of the soldiers in the fort and some of the people and people who made a living in the fort will also be taken away.

The reason why the Forward Command is doing this is partly because the crossing team is now absorbing a large number of displaced people to serve themselves. There are thousands of soldiers and civilians here, which is the resource it needs most. On the other hand, although these soldiers and civilians of the Northern Han Dynasty have always been detained in a fixed place, due to the limited scale of the fortress itself, these soldiers and civilians of the Northern Han Dynasty actually saw the mode and process of the "Flying Dragon Army" in the fort during the battle. In terms of the degree of threat to the "Flying Dragon Army", if such information is leaked, I am afraid that it will be much more serious than the situation of the Han soldiers outside the fort who were attacked by firearms. Therefore, despite the possibility of taking more risks on the road, after carefully weighing the pros and cons, the forward command finally decided to take everyone inside the fort with them - an idea that was also agreed by the committee.

On April 26, the seventh year of the lunar calendar, the "Flying Dragon Army", which had made all preparations, escorted more than 1,000 soldiers and civilians of the Northern Han Dynasty, left the big fort, and went to the bottle-shaped fortress along the official road. On the way, the army picked up a small group of infantry and logisticians who had been guarding the secret camp, and arrived outside the bottle-shaped fortress after noon on the 27th day of the fourth lunar month.

The "Flying Dragon Army" set up camp three miles away from the bottle-shaped wall, and then Tang Chao, the chief of staff of the "Flying Dragon Army", sent several scouts to the horse, so that the situation in the wall could be transmitted back like a horselight.

It was only three miles away, so it didn't take long, and the first scout returned to the "Flying Dragon Army" camp. And when they reported to Qian Yuanshan and others, some people's settlements in and around the bottle-shaped grate had become a pot of porridge. When the people of the Han Kingdom fled from their homes in a hurry so that they could avoid the "Flying Dragon Army", a team of heavenly soldiers and generals who could send out heavenly thunder to take people's lives, Qian Yuanshan and others couldn't help but be stunned. Several traversers did not expect that they had been rumored by the locals to be heavenly soldiers and generals who could go to the sky and enter the earth and have boundless mana, which shows the superstition of the common people in this era.

According to the observation and investigation of the reconnaissance cavalry, the day before yesterday, that is, on the morning of April 25 of the lunar calendar, a small number of routs from the original bottle-shaped garrison that were almost completely annihilated by the "Flying Dragon Army" fled into the bottle-shaped village. It was also the surviving rout of this small group and the news they brought that caused the people in and around the bottle to fall into a state of extreme panic and flee in all directions. In addition, the defenders of the Northern Han Dynasty in the fortress had also fled from the bottle-shaped fortress on the evening of the 26th, and their whereabouts were unknown. In other words, the current bottle-shaped fortress is actually an undefended fortress, and the "Flying Dragon Army" can enter and exit freely and unimpeded.

They didn't expect that the battle of Dabao would make themselves and the "Flying Dragon Army" under their command become fierce and vicious heavenly soldiers, which not only made the people of the Northern Han panic and dodge, but also made the remaining more than 2,000 defenders of the Northern Han Dynasty flee from the wind, and they didn't even dare to fight with themselves.

However, after learning that the soldiers and civilians in the bottle-shaped fortress had fled, and confirming that it had indeed become an empty city, the forward command headquarters did not hesitate at all, and immediately ordered the whole army to stop camping in the field, immediately stationed in the bottle-shaped wall, and spent the night in the city - even if the enemy had any conspiracy, the bottle-shaped wall with deep ditches and high fortresses was much easier to defend than the field camp. ,

Although the Bottle Fortress was already an empty city at this time, the forward command still did not take it lightly that night, but arranged a thorough vigilance, and the scouts even went forward to the Bottle Shape Fortress five miles away to lurk and monitor, and formulated a perfect battle plan to deal with various situations that might occur. However, it turned out that the worries of the forward command were unnecessary, and everything was calm that night, not only did the Han army come to steal the camp, but not even a single figure appeared within a radius of several miles.

The next day, that is, on the morning of the 28th day of the fourth month of the lunar calendar, the "Flying Dragon Army" left the bottle-shaped fortress and continued to march northwest along the official road. After confirming that there was no Han army to follow them, the army quickly broke into pieces, broke into small detachments with a small number of people, and changed their clothes into caravans, and turned into caravans, Northern Han refugees and other types of teams, escorting the soldiers and civilians of Dabao, who were also divided into many parts and had been sternly warned not to reveal their identities, smoothly passed through the Liao Pass located in the border area, and marched along the route to the predetermined meeting point - Baishizhai.

Since the first team arrived at Baishizhai on the tenth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar in the seventh year of the corresponding calendar, the teams have come to meet one after another. It was not until the fifteenth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar that after the arrival of a small team from Zuihou, the various teams were integrated into a whole again. The "Flying Dragon Army" that converged at the place abandoned the main road, all entered the continuous mountainous area, followed the rugged mountain road all the way to the north, and came to the "Liangyuan" at the foot of the Xiayun Ridge on the 21st day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar.

As on the previous occasions, after receiving the news of the imminent arrival of the "Flying Dragon Army," Wang Kunjun led all the brothers who could come to the "Liangyuan" gate to welcome them to the gate of the "Liangyuan," and took the brothers of the forward command headquarters and the officers and men of the "Flying Dragon Army" into the "Flying Dragon Village," and held a feast to wash away the dust for everyone -- all the soldiers and civilians of Dabao who had been escorted with the army were taken under guard and awaited interrogation and investigation by the Internal Affairs Section of the Ministry of Intelligence.

After the reception banquet was over, the officers and men of the "Flying Dragon Army" naturally went back to their headquarters to rest and recuperate, while Qian Yuanshan and other members of the forward command headquarters did not care about the fatigue of the whole road and made a detailed report to the committee on the operation in the general headquarters of the "Flying Dragon Army."

According to Qian Yuanshan's statement, this operation should not actually be said to be a "complete success," and it is not even possible to talk about the word "success." In his opinion, except for the initial battle with the defenders of Dabao, which achieved a certain purpose of training, the battle that defeated the 15,000 reinforcements of the Northern Han Dynasty in the later part was really not a training team.

In the latter battle, only the artillery of the "Flying Dragon Army" really played a role. As for the rest of the troops, the Ranger squad only went out of the fort to slash and kill a few stunned Han infantrymen, and implemented a tactic that was not very successful. The infantry of the "Wyvern Army" in the fort only fired a few shots at Zuihou in the battle, causing extremely limited casualties - some soldiers even fired only one or two shots, and they were not sure whether they had hit the enemy.

It can be said that the greatest achievement of this battle was to test the training level of the artillerymen, verify the reliability of the new front-loading artillery shells and mortar shells, and nothing else. As for the seizure of the empty bottle-shaped bar, it cannot be called a battle at all, because there is no battle at all, it is just a camp training.

Although Qian Yuanshan and other members of the forward command were not satisfied with the southward march to the Han Kingdom, both the committee and other brothers believed that the operation had achieved certain results and could be regarded as a successful operation -- if nothing else, the heavy casualties and huge psychological impact caused by the firearms in the hands of the "Flying Dragon Army" on the Han Army had proved that the "Flying Dragon Army" that had been formed by the crossing team at great cost and with huge manpower and material resources was worth the price. With such an armed team in hand, not only the safety of the team has been greatly guaranteed, but also the team has the courage and confidence to give it a go to achieve their goals and ideals.

Therefore, the committee did not accept the review of the forward command, or did not give Qian Yuanshan and others the opportunity to review, but Wang Kunjun, on behalf of the committee, fully affirmed the action and praised and encouraged the brothers of the forward command and all the officers and men of the "Flying Dragon Army" who participated in the battle. At the same time, the forward command was also requested to report to the meritorious personnel of the operation as soon as possible, and the committee will reward these people both mentally and materially. ,

Although Qian Yuanshan and the others felt that their performance was not as good as the committee had said, since the committee had already made such an evaluation, and the relevant rewards were related to the morale of the officers and men of the "Flying Dragon Army," they did not dwell too much on the matter of rewarding meritorious personnel, but obeyed the committee's decision.

Although the "No. 2 Operation" was not very successful in the eyes of Qian Yuanshan and others, at the enlarged meeting of the committee held afterwards, the brothers in the congregation still talked about the process and results of the operation. It was in this warm atmosphere, and at the behest of the Committee, that the Military Department put forward a proposal to expand the "Wyvern Army" by one to two times the size of the "Wyvern Army" in the next one to two years, on the basis of what is already available. With the foreshadowing of the previous emotions, there is no major obstacle to the passage of the bill.

As a matter of fact, whether or not the "Operation Tempering No. 2" was a complete success did not have a great impact on whether or not the "Flying Dragon Army" continued to expand its troops. Because the biggest obstacle to the expansion of the "Wyvern Army" is not in the attitude of the team members - for the vast majority of traversers, the stronger the weapons in their hands, the more reliable they will feel, and they will support the expansion in principle.

The biggest obstacle to the expansion of the "Flying Dragon Army" is whether the crossing team has enough financial resources to support such an army, as long as there is money, everyone will naturally not oppose the addition of Liliang that can protect their own safety. Especially when the assets of the team are getting stronger and stronger, the net worth of each member is getting richer and richer, and the living standard of each member is getting higher and higher, the desire of the traversers to maintain this life will be stronger, and the "Flying Dragon Army" is the basis for realizing their wish, and everyone certainly hopes that this foundation will be stronger and stronger.

If, at the time of the first expansion of the army, looking at the much lower income and expenditure savings than the previous year, everyone still had some doubts about whether they should really invest so much money in the "Flying Dragon Army." Since the beginning of this year, as the private sale of salt business has become bigger and bigger, and the related income has been increasing, even surpassing the trend of the team's original pillar industry - the glass business, the brothers' worries about the team's financial situation have been swept away. With such a good foundation, with the "Flying Dragon Army" being invincible in the Northern Han Dynasty, and even Liu Jiye (Yang Ye), who was known as "Liu Invincible", was defeated and lost, it became a matter of course that his second army expansion plan was approved.

);