Chapter 59: The Smoke Tights

After the night meeting in the dormitory, Ye Ji Luorong soon returned to Luoyang to supervise the army, Tong Huacheng also returned to Dengzhou, and joined Nahe Xiongqi, Fan Wenlan stayed in Yanjing and served as the minister of Chengzheng; Wu Mancheng led people to review the old classical books and try to make the Fuhuo Pill.

During this time, Henan and Shandong became more and more noisy.

In early December of the seventh year of Yongxing, the two towns of Zhengyang and Wuyang, officially changed the banner of the Changhuai Army, and also in accordance with the previous order of reducing the number of troops in Lin Bin, the weak and the strong were retained, and the number of soldiers was reduced by two and a half percent, and the final approved number of troops was 30,000 for two town divisions. It seems that the number of soldiers in the Changhuai Army has decreased, but the surplus soldiers are all organized into camps, military cantonments, government services and other institutions, and the actual total number of men and horses in Wuyang has not decreased, but is continuing to increase.

The incorporation of more than 200 staff officers such as Hu Qiaokou enabled the rapid establishment of the staff system of the Changhuai Army, and the new military system went through an initial period of harmony, and in February, when the Hehuai River was first integrated, it began to conduct frequent exercises.

In addition to the addition of scorpion crossbows, bed crossbows, shield carts and other combat weapons, more importantly, after the establishment of the Changhuai Army's baggage camp, a large number of baggage wagons, small and medium-sized warships, transport ships and mules and horses were replenished, and they had the ability to attack remotely on the Hehuai Plain.

In the past, although the six towns of Henan distributed money and grain according to the heads, there was a shortage of mules, horses, wagons, and ship decks, which made the six towns of Henan have more soldiers and horses to defend the land, and the offensive battle is insufficient-this is also one of the means for Lin Tie to restrict the six towns in Henan.

Without a strong enough logistical capability, what offensive capability is there to talk about?

After the year, the military department's military resources allocated to the Changhuai Army did not increase, but in the past three months, the military department has supplied the Changhuai Army with materials that are not included in the list of military funds: more than 5,000 mules and horses, 1,200 war horses, 1,000 light and heavy wagons, 1,000 combat weapons, more than 100 small and medium-sized inland river warships and transport ships, in addition to nearly 20,000 pieces of high-quality armor such as bows and crossbows, swords, and armor, and 1 million arrows of various types.

Yue Lengqiu stood on the not very high mountain of Luyi Mountain, looking at the soldiers and horses marching in front of the enemy in the joint drill of the Shanxi Wing Horse Infantry Team and the Baggage Team, and was full of emotion for a while......

Maybe you have to really integrate into it in order to truly understand how strong the strength of Huaidong under Lin Bin's control is.

The soldiers of the Changhuai Army mainly came from the old Changhuai Army, the Xuyang and Huizhou Army, and the Chizhou Army, and the vast majority of them were elite veterans who had survived the battlefield for several years or even more than ten years.

From the perspective of the old army, the Changhuai Army can naturally be called elite, but Yue Lengqiu asked himself, and the Changhuai Army stayed at the same level as the elite combat power of Yuan Tingli's department of the newly attached Han Army.

After the military department's replenishment of various combat ordnance and other materials of the Changhuai Army, as well as the gradual establishment of the staff system and the new military system, in the past three months, Yue Lengqiu deeply felt that the Changhuai Army has made a qualitative leap in combat capability - such sufficient and excellent combat weapons, as well as strong logistics and supply capabilities, Yue Lengqiu even had the courage to take the two town divisions of the Changhuai Army to the north directly along the Bianshui, inserted between Jinan and Daliang, which were heavily defended by Yanhu soldiers and horses, and held on for ten days and half a month.

Although the Changhuai Army was mainly composed of foot soldiers, the military headquarters transferred generals from the cavalry battalion and the Jingjiang Naval Division to assist the Changhuai Army in reorganizing two battalions each of the cavalry and elite naval forces, so as to enhance its joint combat capability in the Hehuai Plain.

In addition to the camp, there is also a new military medical battalion and a craftsman battalion.

An army is like a sword; A soldier is like a blade, of course, it is extremely important, but the strength of the blade does not only depend on its own tenacity and sharpness, without the common support of the point, head, back, guard, handle and other parts, it cannot be called a sharp blade.

If it is said that at the beginning of the Changhuai Army's change of banner, it was a blunt knife against Xuchang's waist, but at this time, it became a sharp and cold blade.

This knife pierced, even if it couldn't kill Xu Chang on the spot, it could make Xu Chang collapse to the ground, and it was difficult to do anything.

At this time, the Changhuai Army can really be called an elite infantry brigade with both offense and defense, and a degree of advance and retreat, and such an elite infantry brigade town division, there are 17 in Huaidong, and 19 in addition to the Changhuai Army.

Of course, the Changhuai Army lacked personnel in the fields of navy, military doctors, and engineering, and even the secretaries of the camp were seriously insufficient, so they were naturally directly dispatched by the military department to supplement them. In fact, at this time, the Changhuai Army, in addition to Hu Qiaozhong led more than 200 staff officers, the logistics system mainly relied on nearly 1,000 people directly transferred from the military department to support it.

The Changhuai army integrated into Huaidong at a faster speed than Yue Lengqiu imagined, and the closer the war approached, even if the military department did not explicitly request it, the generals of the Changhuai army gradually moved their families to the safer Shouzhou, Luzhou, and even Jiangning.

Yue Lengqiu also knew that to integrate into Huaidong, in fact, it was necessary to integrate into the new school and new policy system created by Lin Bin, and at the beginning of spring, he made his son Yue Duming's widow and grandson move to Jiangning, and enrolled in Jiangning Elementary School for children, and at the same time enrolled in the eldest grandson of the veteran Deng Yu and other generals.

Yue Lengqiu stood on the peak of Luyi Mountain, looking at the Hehuai Plain in early spring, and thought to himself: In a short period of time, the military headquarters has strengthened the armament of the Changhuai Army with such high intensity, and the Changhuai Army has been integrated into the Huaidong system so quickly, if he did not know the details of the Fuhuo crossbow and the new warships, he would also conclude that Lin's Northern Expedition strategy should focus on sending troops from Xuzhou, going north along Bianshui and Surabaya, and attacking the south bank of the Yellow River!

The order to reduce troops signed by Lin Jian was strongly resisted and controlled by Xuchang, and he refused to repeat the order until early February.

Lin Tie didn't care, as soon as the deadline for the reduction order in early February arrived, he directly ordered to withhold all the food and salary allocated to Xuchang, and at the same time ordered Ao Canghai to set up a town division of the Changshan Army, advance to the front line of Fangcheng and Wuyang, and arrive at Xuchang's waist from the west flank, so that Dong Yuan did not dare to move for half a minute in Xuchang.

****************

Although in February, Beiyan mobilized 20,000 horse infantry and entered the line of Suixian and Ningling, which was only more than 100 miles away from Luyi and Qiaocheng, the outer periphery of the Changhuai army, and suppressed the Changhuai army to the north and west flanks with a tough attitude, and at the same time responded to Dong Yuan's troops and horses in Xuchang.

Sui County was less than 200 miles away from Xuchang, and with 20,000 horse infantry at the head to suppress the Changhuai army, Dong Yuan at least did not have to worry that Yue Lengqiu would let go of his southeast flank.

And the Changshan Army led by Ao Canghai also had to guard against Chen Zhihu, who could enter and exit Nanyang and Xiangfan from Wuguan, and it was impossible for him to let go of Fangcheng to attack the southwest flank of Xuchang......

By early February, Dong Yuan had transferred Xiao Kuian'an's headquarters, which had close ties with Huaidong, to the north of Xuchang, and Liang Chengdong, Luo Jian, and other troops to Xuchang, Wuyang, and Nanyang, to speed up the construction of fortifications along the Shahe River and Yingshui, so as to deal with the advance of the Changhuai Army and the Changshan Army on Xuchang in a-for-tat manner.

In the more than two months after the New Year's Festival, although Lin Jian still did not expand his armaments on a large scale, the high-intensity replenishment of the Changhuai Army by the Military Staff could not conceal the reconnaissance of Yanhu's eyeline lurking on both sides of the Huaishui River.

Six or seven thousand mules and horses, two or three thousand chariots, hundreds of warships and transport ships, hundreds of stones of grain and grass, and millions of arrows were concentrated on replenishing the Changhuai army in just two or three months—this action was impossible to hide from anyone.

The combat power of the Changhuai army is still secondary, and its logistics and supply capabilities have advanced by leaps and bounds, especially the edge, and even have the ability to break through the outer defense line and attack core cities such as Daliang and Jining.

Who knows, instead of expanding the number of troops and horses, it is far more effective to strengthen the old powerhouses of the Changhuai Army.

It is not important that the soldiers and horses of the Huaidong descendants have not been expanded, and even the deployment of the Huaiyang Army and the Fengli Army on the Eastern Front has not changed significantly, and the Northern Eastern Front Corps, which is dominated by the Fengli Army, the Jinghai Division, and the Denghai Town Division, has been stationed in the Yihai area with Haizhou as the core since the New Year, and it is not important.

Years later, the Chi Road connecting Yizhou and Xuzhou was officially completed.

The completion of the Xuhaichi Road shortened the land traffic between Haizhou and Xuzhou to less than 400 miles.

Xu Haichi road wide six horses drive side by side, along the way through the Mushui, Yishui, Guanhe, Surabaya and other big rivers, all with iron cable two-way pontoon bridge; More than a dozen small rivers are directly crossed by bridges cast of ironwood and stone slurry.

As long as the military orders are issued, the tens of thousands of elite infantry brigades assembled in the Yihai area can be transferred to Xuzhou in just five or six days, or directly from the eastern flank of Xuzhou to the north and attack Jining...... And Yanhu is in the east wing, even if it is Linzi's soldiers and horses, if they have to be transferred to Tai'an and Jining in the west wing, it will not be possible if it is less than half a month.

******************

In the middle of March, the south of the Yangtze River is already the season when the grass grows and the warbler flies, and the early morning in Yanjing City is still cold in spring.

Listening to the constant coughing in the outer pavilion, Concubine Yu woke up and found that the emperor had gotten up early to read official documents outside; Seeing that the morning light was faint and the sky was not yet bright, Concubine Yu got up in her clothes and was about to go out, and saw Ye Zier hiding Xuepa, who was coughing up blood, into her arms, and said with a heartache: "The emperor has been working hard for months, and he can't rest every day, how can his body support it?" ”

Ye Zier smiled bitterly, the military situation on the southern front is becoming more and more critical, a big war is about to break out, and this battle is related to Dayan Guoyuan, where can he rest if he wants to?

"It is said that the East China Sea Fox will usurp the throne and become the emperor first, but the frame is to fight Shandong first; said that he wanted to attack Shandong first, but no matter how strong the Huaidong Army was, how sure could he be that he would be able to defeat Shandong quickly? "Concubine Yu was only thirty-two years old at this time, but she had been by Yezier's side for seventeen years since she was fifteen years old, and she was also very familiar with military and political affairs, and she could also share Yezier's worries.

Ye Zier smiled bitterly and said, "This is where people's minds are boiled." The initiative of strategy is all in the south, but those old ministers and veterans in Beijing still don't know it, so the national government is more difficult......"

"It's useless to think too much, it's nothing more than soldiers coming to block and water to cover up," Concubine Yu said with relief, "There are big princes and three princes staring at Shandong and Henan, and Na He Xiongqi is also a battle-hardened general, and the emperor also says that he knows Huaidong very well." 300,000 strong generals are piled up there, what else can't the emperor feel at ease, is he still afraid that the Huaidong Army will come directly to Yanjing City with wings? Standing beside Yezier, he reached out and gently rubbed his sun hall, trying to relax him.

Ye Zier heard Concubine Yu's words at first glance, "Huaidong Army directly hit Yanjing City with wings", his heart palpitated, Huo Ran stood up, seemed to grasp something, and stood there and didn't dare to move, for fear that his mind would make a flash of inspiration and run away.

Concubine Yu didn't know where she had said the wrong thing, so the Emperor of Heaven ordered her to react like this.

Ye Zier walked to the wall chart on the west chamber wall, and when the morning light was faint, he said to the jade concubine: "You come for me!" He moved his chair to look at the direction of the Bohai Sea on the wall chart, smashed his fist there, and muttered to himself: "The Huaidong Naval Division has been crisscrossing the East China Sea for many years, and it is impossible to give up the advantage of the Naval Division at the key head. We thought that the sea defense line was impregnable, but we didn't know that this was always our key point......" loudly instructed the waiters waiting outside the palace, "Speed Zhang Fan and everyone to enter the palace to discuss matters." ”