Zhou Shixian looked at the army in front of him, and his heart was full of confidence, this army should have opened a big gap with other armies of this era through professional, standardized and standardized training if the material conditions permit.

This is the effect that Zhou Shixian has been pursuing all along--through more advanced training methods and more advanced weapons and equipment, so as to achieve the crushing of the army's combat effectiveness.

Of course, because the time is still relatively short, many combat methods still need to be tested on the battlefield, and his troops and horses still need to be tested in actual combat before they can prove their strength.

After all, there is no doubt that an army that has not been tested in actual combat cannot be considered a qualified army, no matter what.

After watching the drill of thousands of troops, Zhou Shixian stood on the high platform and read out the "Declaration of Expedition and Extermination" to the army under the stage. Then he jerked out his saber at his waist and shouted, "Expedition!" Drive out the Tartars and restore the rivers and mountains! ”

"Drive out the Tartars and restore the rivers and mountains!"

"Drive out the Tartars and restore the rivers and mountains!"

The tens of thousands of soldiers who had just finished the drill were excited at this time, standing solemnly, and when they heard the shouts of Zhou Shixian, the master of the horses, they also shouted along with the mountains and the sea: "Wansheng!" Wansheng! Wansheng! ”

……

Outside the port in the east of the capital city of Yangzhou, thousands of troop carriers of various types and types were moored in the harbor, stretching out their brown and yellow tongues, swallowing a steady stream of soldiers and bags of grain and grass and boxes of military ammunition that were going in batches and batches.

Yangzhou Prefecture has always been a military important place for Zhou Shixian, and it is also the junction of the Yangtze River and the canal, so the geographical location is very important. Most of the army's military rations, soldiers, and horses and artillery were also transported from here to the north.

Since last year, Zhou Shixian began to prepare for this year's northward resistance to the Qing Dynasty, not only Yangzhou Mansion, the Grand Canal and many cities and ports on both sides of the Yangtze River, but now they have become the logistics base and soldier transfer station of the Ming army.

This place is now mainly used to transport soldiers from various departments, as well as weapons and ammunition, and after the war, it is mainly based on grain, grass and horse fodder, and the Zheng family's fleet is still the main force of transportation.

This is also the reason why Zhou Shixian wanted to prevent the Qing army from breaking through Huguang, going down the river, and attacking the hinterland of Nanzhili, so that not only the Yangtze River would be besieged, but the Qing army could also destroy Zhou Shixian's strategic materials stored in these places.

You must know that the Qing army's reconnaissance ability has always been very strong, although because of Lu Jiude, he became blind and deaf for a period of time, but it quickly recovered.

Zhou Shixian vigorously built a military warehouse in Nanzhili and hoarded armaments, grain and grass, and the Qing army had naturally heard about it for a long time.

In this era, water transportation is the most convenient and economical mode of transportation in long-distance transportation, especially the downstream of this great river.

However, the canal still needs to cost a lot of money to go north.

Several tall building ships slowly sailed out of the port of Yangzhou Fucheng, Zhou Shixian and a group of generals were on it, and several big flags with the word "Ming" were hung high on the bow of the ship, waving in the wind.

Zhou Shixian's prestige in the army is unparalleled, every time a ship transporting troops passes by, those soldiers have to lie on the railing of the side of the ship and shout "Wan Sheng", they all cheer for being able to see the true face of the concubine.

Standing in the rudder of the ship, the river breeze blowing on his face, Zhou Shixian raised his head and looked to the north, the long canal seemed to be endless, the water and the sky met, and the green on both sides slowly receded.

And a few miles away from this huge wharf, military wagons, ox carts, and donkey carts were endless, and the figures of countless soldiers poured out from the official road and came to the wharf, they lined up neatly, and the armor was distinct, and finally converged into a small rectangular formation on the flat ground hundreds of meters outside the wharf.

To the south of Jingzhou City, the big sandbar in the middle of the river has been planted with the banners of the Shun army, and on the south bank of the Yangtze River, tens of thousands of Shun troops have already gathered, as well as thousands of large and small ships.

To the north of this sandbar in the river, there is more than a mile away from the land of Jingzhou City, the moat of Jingzhou City is extremely wide, and the Yangtze River is five or six miles wide here, and the water volume is sufficient, which has also become the natural advantage of Jingzhou City to build a wide moat.

In order to deter Wu Sangui and Arzin in Jingzhou Prefecture, Li Guo and Gao Yigong had already begun to build boats, and as early as a month ago, they sent thousands of sailors and hundreds of boats to attack these sandbars on the south bank of Jingzhou City.

However, this is just a deterrent, these sandbanks in the river are still too far away from the Jingzhou Mansion City, and it is impossible to bombard the walls of the Jingzhou Mansion City by setting up artillery on the island.

Originally, there were hundreds of green battalions and a Niulu's Eight Banners stationed on these sandbanks in the river, but under the siege of the Shun army, as the supplies on the island ran out, these Qing troops were quickly killed by the Shun army.

The Shun army was defeated again and again in the previous year, and its morale was very sluggish, and the army even had a fear of complacency, but now after recuperation, its strength has been well restored, and the elite soldiers and horses that can fight exceed 30,000.

Although these were only small victories, they were crucial for today's Shun army, which proved that the Manchurian soldiers were not invincible and greatly boosted the morale of the army.

The Shun army also relied on these islands to attack everywhere and constantly harass the military deployment of the Qing army, so that the entire Jingzhou capital city on the north bank of the Yangtze River, tens of thousands of Qing troops were all soldiers, and thousands of soldiers and horses were always on duty in turn.

Arzin stood on top of the tower of Jingzhou Mansion City, and after looking at the banner of the Shun army waving in the wind in the south for a while, he turned his head to look at Wu Sangui standing beside him, and then handed the secret report he had just finished reading in his hand to the other party, which was secretly sent by Azig.

After Wu Sangui read the secret report and handed it back respectfully, he spoke: "Wu Sangui, you are familiar with Zuo Liangyu, and you have fought many times with Li Guo and Gao Yigong, what do you think, is this plan feasible?" ”

"The slave thinks that there should be no problem with the implementation of this matter, Zuo Liangyu must not dare to stop my Qing Dynasty iron cavalry, the prince led the main force to Huguang suddenly, this matter is definitely beyond the expectations of the Ming army, and then Zuo Liangyu is afraid that he will be frightened and flee, and he doesn't even want Wuchang City." Wu Sangui thought about it and said with a smile.

After hearing this, Arzin took the secret report again and looked at it, then turned his head to look at the Shun army outside the city, and said: "These Ming troops have been harassing our army on a small scale from the beginning, but there has been no decent military action for a long time, which makes people a little unpredictable!"

However, the main army of Li Guo and Gao Yigong is on the south bank, and it seems that they are ready to fight to the death with us, but they are just waiting for the opportunity.

These two people are very treacherous, when they were in northern Shaanxi, the prince has repeatedly eaten deflated in their hands, and now they still have sailors for the battle, and the soldiers and horses are mobilized very quickly, so I don't know what the conspiracy is. ”

In fact, the layout of the Qing army is not as simple as it seems on the surface, from Dolgon, Azig, Duoduo, Bolo, Nikan, Tunqi and others, to Wu Sangui, Shang Kexi, Kong Youde, Geng Zhongming, they are all acting, and they are all acting and acting a good show for Zhou Shixian to see.

They had already realized that the army under Zhou Shixian was not easy to deal with, not to mention that it had been operating on the north bank of the Huai River for another year, and cities such as Xuzhou could be described as impregnable, and it would be thankless to attack directly.

Therefore, the top brass of the Qing army had planned early on to take the initiative to attack, in order to reverse the situation and seize the initiative in the war.

The breakthrough point of this war was neither the new army led by Zhou Shixian and Xue Changfu, nor the old leaders of the Ming army, such as Gao Jie, Huang Degong, and Liu Zeqing, or in other words, they were no longer in the south at all.

What the Qing army really intended as a breakthrough to reverse the situation was Huguang, Zuo Liangyu, who had been ill for a long time and was dying.

If Zhou Shixian was fighting against the Qing army on the Huaihe Plain at that time, Huguang would have been broken through, and then Jiujiang Anqing would be threatened, and Nanjing would be in danger, how could Zhou Shixian not save it, and how could he save it?

"Although Zuo Liangyu claims to be an army of 800,000, after two years of replenishment, there are only 30,000 or 40,000 soldiers who can fight, and the real elite soldiers and horses should not exceed 20,000." Wu Sangui analyzed word by word, he still knows Zuo Liangyu's situation well.

"Moreover, judging from the current situation, as long as the prince leads 10,000 iron cavalry to break through, Zuo Liangyu is caught off guard, and can only stick to Wuchang City.

As for the so-called Li Guo, Gao Yigong, now it seems that they are ready to surround us, but as soon as the situation reverses, it will be us who will hold them back. ”

"The Shun army is not able to fight a tough battle at all, as long as the prince leads the strange soldiers to clear the Ming army in the east, under the combined attack of the inside and outside, these Shun troops will inevitably collapse at the first touch."

Based on the performance of the Shun army in the previous year, Arzin easily made a judgment, or he didn't think that the combat effectiveness of the remnants of this Shun army would improve at all.

Now that the Qing army is attacking in two directions, the momentum is like a rainbow, and Arzin is also a Manchu general who has experienced a hundred battles, and he is very confident in the combat effectiveness of the Eight Banners of the Qing Dynasty.

Of course, he also knew that although the Qing Dynasty now accounted for half of the country, its materials and manpower were greatly restricted, and if it could not successfully break through the defense of the Ming army, the situation would be unimaginable.

Although he didn't know how that Ming State horse did it, in just two years, he could pull out an army of nearly 100,000 powerful soldiers, but he knew that the Ming army now had sufficient materials, strong combat power, and endless manpower supplements.

If the battle drags on, the Qing Dynasty will become weaker and weaker, with fewer and fewer soldiers and horses, and at the same time, there will be a rising chaotic army in the rear, which will make it difficult for the Qing court to have a long-term duel with the Ming army.

"In this battle, the Qing Dynasty will definitely win, kill these Nikans by surprise, and let them see the strength of our Manchurian soldiers."

Arzin thought for a while, and finally sighed, and said slowly: "Let's wait here for the prince to lead the troops." ”