In less than a cup of tea, Zhang Cunren's night raid had won a complete victory.

More than 200 Houjin troops in the fort, including Tumu Bulu, were killed, and many of them met the king of Hades in their sleep.

Although Tumubulu organized a defense at the first time, the Houjin army, which was asleep, was suddenly attacked and could not organize an effective defense at all.

"Immediately send an order to the remaining brothers to meet in Ximu City."

After confirming that there were no more living enemy troops in the fort, Zhang Cunren immediately gave an order.

"Yes."

The four men in charge of the herald turned and went out, braving the wind and snow, and advanced towards the large army that remained behind.

The remaining soldiers dragged the bodies away and piled them up in one place for centralized disposal tomorrow; While looking for firewood, prepare to make a fire to make a meal.

The city is not large, and can only accommodate more than a thousand soldiers. The soldiers of the Leopard Tao battalion could only sit close to each other and sat in a few full rooms.

In this way, they can keep each other warm.

But the soldiers' eyes were focused on the fire in their respective rooms, and the iron pot on the fire.

There is wood burning under the pot, and water is boiling in the pot, which is melting little by little.

Seeing the water in the pot steaming, the hungry soldiers untied their bags and took out iron lunch boxes and pancakes wrapped in cloth.

The pancakes are fried in lard, and when the noodles are mixed with enough salt, they are broken and thrown into a lunch box, and then soaked in boiling water to make a bowl of broth.

Since it is the middle of winter, it does not taste good when eaten dry. Anyway, there was no enemy around, so the soldiers waited patiently, waited for the hot water to boil, and then stepped forward one by one, scooping hot water into cakes with lunch boxes.

Before the meal was served, the rest of the soldiers came.

Zhang Cunren arranged a room for them in advance, as well as prepared a fire and an iron pot.

The general manager Zhang Dalu who led the team came to the house where Zhang Cunren was and discussed things while eating together.

"Now that Ximu City has been taken, the dun army of a large area of Lingdun will transfer the materials here."

Zhang Cunren said while eating: "Let's rest for a day, and then go north to attack and pull out the fortresses from Haizhou to Liaoyang one by one." ”

Ximu City is about 30 kilometers away from Haizhou City, and it is also about 30 kilometers from Ximu City to the large ridge pier.

However, due to the terrain, there are plains from Ximu City to the north, and mountain roads from the large ridge piers to Ximu City, so the marching speed is naturally different.

Occupying the city of Ximu is equivalent to providing a stronghold for attacking northward.

"I thought it would be better to send a few brothers to investigate before making a decision."

Jin Guochen took a sip of hot soup and continued: "We can't take it for granted, we must find out in advance. ”

"A few brothers may not be enough."

Hu Hongxian said: "According to the instructions of the commander, send two sentinel brothers to investigate first, and if there are special circumstances, you can concentrate your forces to launch a surprise attack." ”

Both Zhang Cunren and Jin Guochen think it makes sense.

"Then let the first and second posts go a day later, and set out to investigate the enemy."

Zhang Cunren arranged: "The third post will follow up and support at any time." ”

"Yes."

In the Ming Dynasty, the recruitment system and the guard system were divided, and Yang Chengying used to use all the guard soldiers, including the water word battalion and the fire word battalion. Therefore, the official positions are all based on the line of the guard system, which is divided into small flags, general flags, etc.

The Bao Tao battalion and others are all recruits, and the official positions follow the route of the conscription system, starting from the most basic level of the chiefs.

According to the regulations, for every 12 people, there is a tithe; Every three tithes is a team, with a team leader; Every three teams are a sentry, and there is a sentry commander.

That is, each post had one hundred and eight men, plus two heralds, eighteen medics, and two clerks. A total of one hundred and thirty people.

The heralds are responsible for uploading and disseminating, the military doctors are all from the Seeking Knowledge Academy and Zhang Jingyue's re-transmission disciples, and the clerks are responsible for recording merits.

The first and second outposts are the main force, formerly known as Zhang Cunren's Eagle Eye, with a cunning and fierce combat style, which is the most suitable team to explore the enemy's situation.

After making arrangements for marching and sentry, the soldiers of the Leopard Tao battalion fell asleep deeply.

The art of war pays attention to the combination of Qi and Zheng, Zhang Cunren's army is "Qi", so the army led by Yang Chengying is Zheng!

When it was discovered that the modern Shantun army Yaozhou did not attack Gaizhou, Yang Chengying immediately made corresponding changes.

He led the main army and set up camp in a village called Xiadian in the northwest of Gaizhou.

From the sea to Xinkailing on the east side of Xiadian Village, the straight-line distance is less than six kilometers.

In such a narrow area, Yang Chengying built artillery fortifications and joint ventures, making it difficult for the enemy to pass.

As for the mountain road that Liu Xingzuo walked back then, Yang Chengying mobilized the people to patrol the mountainous area north of Gaizhou.

At the beginning, Liu Xingzuo suffered a big loss in order to rescue Mang Gurtai in time and took the risk of taking the mountain road.

Dai Shan knew that even if he had an idea in his heart, in such a snowy season, he could only give up walking the mountain road.

Yang Chengying led a large army to put pressure on Dai Shan and Mang Gurtai from the front, forcing them not to dare to draw troops to besiege Zhang Cunren's troops, which was Qi Zheng Xiang.

Yang Chengying stood at the lookout post, using a telescope to look at the enemy troops in the distance.

"Commander, it seems that the enemy has also made preparations for a long-term confrontation."

Behind him, Ning Wan said with a smile.

"That's a good thing."

Yang Chengying said with a smile: "I hope that the longer the confrontation lasts, the better, and it is best to wait until the end of spring ploughing." ”

"Not all of them are starving to death." I'll laugh out loud.

Due to Nurhachi's sudden awakening before his death, the Eighth Banner Army lost a reliable supply of food for a short time and had to rely on its own farming.

And the Eight Banners are all taken by the lottery, and the ones that are taken away are the labor force in the family.

This is extremely detrimental to spring ploughing.

"How's the situation in Jinzhou?" Yang Chengying gave the telescope to the sentry, turned his head and asked me after Ning.

"Old General Zhao can't hold on, and Huang Taiji can't do anything about him."

Ning Wan said: "Huang Taiji made a crooked move, and actually sent a large army to surround Jinzhou, learning the story of Dong Zhuogang's entry into Beijing. ”

"Oh? Then he had worked too hard and worked too hard, but unfortunately it was all in vain. Yang Chengying said with a smile.

In order to scare the ministers of the court, Dong Zhuo let his army sneak out of the city at night and swagger in during the day, creating an illusion of "Lao Tzu has many soldiers".

But this trick doesn't work against Zhao Shujiao, there are many soldiers and few soldiers, Zhao Shujiao is defending the city, do you dare to go out of the city?

The two chatted, climbed the ladder one after the other and went down the watchtower.

"One thing I'm most worried about right now is that Jianyu doesn't have artillery at the moment, so I feel that it is difficult to siege the city."

Ning Wan rubbed his hands and said, "In case he has artillery, the siege should be much easier." ”

Yang Chengying was not worried at all: "Since ancient times, it has been natural selection, and with a sharp spear, there will naturally be a solid shield." War has developed from simple field operations to the present, and there is no need to worry about how many changes it has undergone. ”

"What is 'natural selection'?" I asked curiously.

Yang Chengying's heart tightened, this was proposed by Darwin, it was in the nineteenth century.

"Eh, it means the law of the jungle." Yang Chengying smiled and covered up the past.

The two walked, leaving two lines of footprints on the ground.