The distance between Xiamen Fort and Hudawei's camp on the west bank of the Fen River is about 20 miles, and there are naturally small roads in the middle, but since it is where the Bird Mouse Valley is located, it must be rugged and winding and steep.

In the middle of summer, flowing gold is like fire.

Long 13 with a thousand pikemen, 400 firearms, and 400 cavalry was walking through this mountain road.

For him, in the face of an advantageous enemy, it is necessary to take the lead.

And the visible pioneer at the moment, it is naturally the Tiger Dawei Department of Fenxi County, once the Tiger Dawei Department is broken, there will be a vacancy in Hong Chengchou's encirclement and suppression.

At this time, because the He Renlong Division, which was originally stationed in Hot Spring Fort (Jiaokou County), had all gone to Yueyang County to pursue Gao Yingxiang's Division, once there was an accident in the Hu Dawei Division, then the strategy of "surrounding on three sides and attacking on the other" arranged by Hong Chengchou would go bankrupt.

However, Fenxi County is a good encirclement and suppression point for the Ming army, but it is a chicken rib for Long Thirteen, if you want to occupy Fenxi County, it is necessary to divide the troops, and he has not many troops, so he can only make a move to strike at the living force of Hu Dawei, so that the enemy's forces on the west bank of the Fen River appear empty in a short period of time.

As for Hu Dawei, although Hong Chengchou ordered him to "stand by" on the west bank of the Fen River, if he tried his best, he should set up camp while letting the cavalry maneuver, so that the enemy would be confused.

But he clearly didn't think of it.

The tiger is mighty and fierce as a tiger, as a Mongolian who fled to the Ming Dynasty, he is brave and useful, and it is far from being talked about when it is his turn to be far-sighted.

This time, Long Thirteen was followed by Li Zhong, who had just joined the Xiaoqiang Brigade, Wu Dading, the fourth leader, Long Xiaoshi and Zuo Jiu, the chief of the fire battalion, Guo Zhaolin, the chief of the artillery battalion, Bai Jiu'er, the chief of the pikemen, and Niu Yiqi, the deputy commander of the Qian.

According to Long Thirteen's idea, all new joiners, whether they are captured and surrendered, or take the initiative to join, need to be trained in actual combat.

That Zuo Jiu has been practicing firearms with Zuo Guang since he was a child, and he is very familiar with firearms, three-eyed guns, Fran machine guns, general cannons, and tiger squat guns, and he can also ride horses and shoot arrows.

Such a talent, even if he is unwilling, Long Thirteen will be forced to stay.

As for Niu Yiqi, he is a real archer and horse, especially good at using spears, so it is only fitting that he can lead the pikemen.

Of course, both of them are only eighteen or nineteen years old, which is similar to the age of Long Thirteen, which is the main reason why Dragon Thirteen is willing to keep them.

At the age of eighteen or nineteen, if you want to become an excellent general, you must not be deeply impregnated by the dye vat of Daming, this is for sure, otherwise he would not have reached the current level.

As for Li Zhong, in later generations, he was one of the fierce generals under Li Zicheng, and it must be more than enough to command 200 cavalry.

And that Bai Jiu'er is the leader of one of the thirty-six families, born skinny, but his strength is amazing, like someone in the legend, it makes sense for him to command a spearman.

At this time, Long Thirteen himself had already selected thirty teenagers who were all about eighteen years old from various cavalry teams, not necessarily the most "good at riding and shooting", but they were definitely the best ones who were produced according to the cavalry training method of Long Thirteen, that is to say, they were all the personal disciples of Long Thirteen.

The thirty sentinels were only a fifteen-year-old Mongolian boy.

At this time, although the Mongolian tribes did not deal with each other with the Ming Dynasty, since the weather became colder and more arid in the last years of Wanli, it did not prevent ordinary herdsmen from yearning for the Han land.

That is the real yearning, just like the fierce tiger and the tiger Dawei, after arriving in the Han land, he completely changed his Han surname, and regarded himself as a descendant of the Yellow Emperor, and also called himself a Han person.

This young man naturally has a Mongolian name, but at the moment he only recognizes the Chinese name given to him by Long Thirteen - Long Xiaoju.

Long Xiaoju, his appearance is a little different from that of ordinary Mongolian men, he has a high nose, but his face is round, and his body is also very stout.

Long Xiaoshi and Long Xiaoju, in the eyes of others, they are only four or five years younger than Long Thirteen, but they have almost become the "righteous sons" of Long Thirteen.

Thirty miles of mountain road, winding and winding, fortunately in the mountains, if it is in an open place, in the scorching summer sun, even a strong army like a small strong brigade needs a day to arrive.

The thirteen dragons each carried three days' worth of dry rations, which means that he could not have stayed on the west bank for a long time.

Left behind in the camp on the west bank of the Fen River was Zhang Dechang, the general who had met in the Battle of Long 13 at the ferry, compared with the smug Hu Dawei, Zhang Dechang, who was born in a family of military generals, was much more vigilant.

He set up a secret post on the mountain, or multiple secret posts.

At this time of year, in this sensitive area, it is impossible to see locals on the mountain paths, so it is almost impossible to disguise themselves as local hunters, woodcutters, and passers-by.

As a result, the appearance of the army of Long Thirteen in the eyes of the dark whistle was a highly probable event.

But where is the nearest and most convenient place on the hill on the side of Bird Valley?

Nature is a road, which has been trampled on by countless practices over thousands of years, and although it is only a trail, it is still a road.

Therefore, when Long Thirteen stepped into this path with a large army, he didn't expect it to be undiscovered, but he also had a way.

At this time, if you want to deliver the message, or quietly deliver the message, it is naturally best to rely on the people themselves to transmit it, and if it is at the border, it is more convenient for the beacon.

In addition, the sound of arrows and animal calls can also be transmitted, but it is not completely certain that the message will be passed on to you quickly, and it needs to be based on the normal or slow speed of the enemy's march.

None of this was a problem for Long Thirteen, and when he heard a strange bird call from a distance in the mountain forest on one side, he asked Long Xiaofoal to run forward as fast as he could.

He believed that when this mountain road suddenly broke into so many soldiers and horses, it was obviously abnormal that there were still leisurely bird calls, and there must be enemy secret posts there, and he used bird calls to inform other secret posts.

Naturally, you can't ride a horse on a mountain road, you can only lead a horse to walk slowly, so unlike on flat ground, the speed of the infantry here is much faster than that of the cavalry.

Just after Long Xiaoju set off with ten people, Bai Jiu'er with five hundred pikemen also quickened his pace.

Bai Jiu'er, twenty-five years old this year, was originally one of the thirty-six families, but it was only after arriving at Xiaoqiang Brigade that he understood a truth.

"It's the same righteous army, and compared with other departments, it's a world of difference"

Therefore, when Long Thirteen asked him to abandon the cavalry and become the commander of the pikemen, he agreed without hesitation.

The thirty-six families who came from Yan'an Mansion had uneven combat strength and military discipline, but one thing was figured out.

That is, they all have a pair of iron feet.

This is also conceivable, as thieves, at least in the past three or four years before this year, they have been chased by the officials and soldiers in most cases, and they have to run towards places that are not easy to walk, and the ravines and ravines of the Loess Plateau, the large and small mountains of the valley and mountains, are all places they like.

So, when Bai Jiu'er received the speed of following Long Xiaoju at the speed of a "rapid march", the team soon couldn't see them.

Therefore, about an hour before dusk that day, when Long Xiaoju and Bai Jiu'er arrived at Zhang Dechang's camp one after another, the secret sentinels who were trekking the mountain had not yet arrived!

It didn't take long for Niu Yiqi's pikemen, Long Xiaoshi, and Zuo Jiu's firecrackers to arrive, and this dark sentry appeared nearby.

But apparently there is no point anymore.

Long Xiaoshi took out a booklet from his body, and when he held this booklet in his hand, he couldn't help but feel confused in his heart.

"The method of arranging the formation of the small strong brigade spear and the large phalanx of firearms"

This booklet, written by Dragon Thirteen, has instructions on how to form a large phalanx with different ratios of pikemen and musketeers, and a rough arrangement of the number of pikemen between 500 and 5,000 on each side after forming a large phalanx.

For example, there are 1,000 pikemen at the moment, that is, 20 sentinels, you can line up into a large phalanx of 5 × 4 sentinels, as for whether the horizontal row is 5 sentinels or 4 sentinels, it depends on the situation on the ground.

It's better to underestimate this simple 5×4, if you haven't practiced arithmetic, you may not necessarily be able to spread it out at once.

Also, there are many variations of this large phalanx, such as sometimes a compact 5*4 large array, sometimes it is 5*5, or even 6*6, but the center of the large array is empty, in order to let the main general sit in it for unified command.

The four hundred musketeers could also be arranged in ten small formations, each with a hundred men, arranged in the four corners of the pikemen's phalanx.

A hundred musketeers can be lined up in a small 25x4 horizontal formation, and if the enemy's cavalry is killed at this time, they can shoot with the muskets first, and then hide in the pikemen phalanx when the enemy arrives.

Long Xiaoshi couldn't imagine that a person from a starving background was so proficient in the art of war and arithmetic, but his confusion was just a blink of an eye, and he soon set up the big array.

There was a total of fifty leaders and sentinels, and they set up a large array very quickly.

At this time, the secret post arranged by Zhang Dechang was worthy of entering the camp.

When he learned that there were cavalry behind the thief, Zhang Dechang hesitated, he had 500 infantry troops and 100 cavalry, if he poured out, once the enemy's cavalry suddenly arrived, then his side would definitely be in chaos.

So, he chose to ask for help from Hu Dawei in Fenxi County on the one hand, and to defend the camp on the other.

This created conditions for the arrival of Long Thirteen's cavalry and artillery (carrying fifty catties of tiger squat cannons, as well as carrying a large amount of ammunition, and could not get up quickly).

And by the time Long Thirteen arrived with cavalry and artillery, Long Xiaoshi, Bai Jiu'er and the others had already built a large battalion with straw bags!

At this time, it was getting late, and neither side would take the initiative to go out of the camp to invite the battle.

But for Long Thirteen at the moment, he has the first hand, because he has more men and horses, and when he waits for the next morning, he can attack Zhang Dechang's camp while monitoring the appearance of Hu Dawei.

At this time, Hu Dawei will be in a dilemma whether he is dispatched or not.

As a result, his so-called "standby and move" became a joke, and he fell into the situation of being led by the nose by the enemy.

Of course, it's not that Hong Chengchou and the others didn't expect this, according to their ideas, the enemy can only hold on the east bank of the Fen River with weak forces is the best policy, and then draw out the main force to fight a decisive battle with the official army near Huozhou, I didn't expect that Long Thirteen would attack Hu Dawei first!