Two days later, Hong Chengchou led 250,000 Ming troops from all walks of life to set off from Beijing, and under the farewell of countless people in Beijing, they drove towards Liaodong.

The army marched along the routes of Tongzhou, Sanhe, Yutian, Fengrun, Yongping, Funing, and Shanhaiguan, and all counties along the way had to bear a day's grain and grass for the soldiers of the army, so as to save the consumption of the army's baggage.

The deadline given by the military department to the generals was to arrive in Ningyuan in mid-May, and it was less than 900 miles from Beijing to Ningyuan, and the army only needed to walk dozens of miles a day, so the time was very generous. Moreover, this way has passed, almost all of them are plain avenues, and the march is not difficult.

The army set off in a mighty way, because it was an inner line march, so all parts of the Ming army were cavalry in front, infantry in the back, and heavy artillery followed last, in addition to the army, there were countless people who transported grain and grass and baggage.

In the Battle of Jinzhou, how huge was the supply of grain and grass for more than 200,000 troops? In order to supply the grain and grass of the front-line army, the Ming Military Department and the Ministry of Industry mobilized tens of thousands of carriages and horses, from the Beijing Division to Shanhaiguan, day and night were full of people transporting grain and straw.

As a strong army with high hopes from all parties, the supply of grain and grass is naturally a priority, and no one dares to shorten or reduce it, lest it cause unimaginable consequences.

However, it is not enough to ensure that there is food in the army at any time, at least for the army to eat for a month, this is the firm and unshakable principle of Liu Yan and the new army generals in Qinglai Town, so the grain and grass in Qinglai Town are still with the army.

It's just that the baggage and heavy soldiers of each battalion are given priority to carrying weapons and ammunition, etc., and the remaining grain and grass are transported by a civilian man.

On the march along the way, Liu Yan and his soldiers also showed the demeanor of a strong army, and the rest of the soldiers and horses were "disarmed", putting armor and weapons on war horses or carts, and the soldiers all marched lightly.

Only the officers and soldiers of the new army in Qinglai Town under Liu Yan were always fully armed, and the battalions were patrolling and guarding everywhere as usual even if they did not collect at night, all the way down for hundreds of miles, which shocked the rest of the Ming army.

Hong Chengchou and Wu Sangui, Yang Guozhu, Cao Bianjiao and others all felt incredible when they heard it, and they rode over several times to observe, and sure enough, everyone's evaluation of Liu Yan went to a higher level, and they thought that the strength of the new army in Qinglai Town had steadily ranked first in the Ming Dynasty!

On the way, Hong Chengchou thought about it, saw that the new army in Qinglai Town was so strong, and he also valued Liu Yan more, and the unhappiness in the palace disappeared in a blink of an eye, and then he often rode a horse to Liu Yan's Chinese army to discuss the gains and losses of the battle with Liu Yan.

With Hong Chengchou taking the lead, Liu Yan's Chinese army almost became the headquarters of the expeditionary army, not only Yang Guozhu and Wang Pu, Cao Bianjiao, and Li Fuming rushed one after another, but also the prison army Ma Shaoyu and Zhang Ruoqi were here, and even Wu Sangui, Wang Tingchen, and Zuo Guangxian also came from time to time, only Tang Tong and Ma Ke were never seen.

In this battle, Liu Yan also paid a lot of attention to Hong Chengchou's supervision battalion, after all, the supervision battalion is Hong Chengchou's old team, and it is also known as a strong army.

After some inquiry, Liu Yan knew that Hong Chengchou's supervising battalion had 5,000 men and horses, mainly composed of gunners, pikemen and chariot battalions. The guns of the Governor Battalion all use flint and are very well-equipped, and the power of the guns alone is even higher than that of the new army in Qinglai Town.

The car battalion of the Governor Battalion is equipped with 300 rocket vehicles, as well as a large number of light combat vehicles, loaded with large and small Franco machine guns, etc., and also carries weapons such as Divine Fire Flying Crows, Flying Thieves and Thunderbolts, in addition to several Shenwei General Cannons, and the firepower can be called powerful.

Hong Chengchou saw that Liu Yan attached so much importance to his own supervision camp, and his heart was also very useful, and he was able to get the attention of a fierce general like Liu Yan, especially Liu Yan, who was famous for training a strong army, Hong Chengchou had a sense of pride in his chest.

So Hong Chengchou generously introduced Liu Yan's combat method to the standard supervision battalion.

During the battle, the Inspector Battalion first bombarded the enemy with artillery, then fired at the enemy formation with rockets, and then fired with Lumi guns. From the beginning of the Ming Dynasty to the present, this kind of tactics that are exactly the same as those of the Da Ming Shen Machine Battalion have actually developed very maturely. If a warrior can fight bravely, his power should not be underestimated.

After hearing this, Liu Yan first praised it, and also complimented Hong Chengchou, but he sighed in his heart: "The Ming army's fighting style is actually very advanced, and it is similar to the modern Western combat method. As long as the quality of the firearms equipped in the army is guaranteed, the training of the soldiers is sufficient, and the food and salary are also guaranteed, then the combat effectiveness of such an army will be very considerable, at least there is no problem in fighting the Qing army! ”

And Liu Yan knows very well that in fact, the Qing army at the end of the Ming Dynasty was not as strong as some of the "Qing Blowing" and "Manchu Relics" touted in later generations, and the Manchu people were far from the Xiongnu, Turkic, Rouran, Mongolian, etc. in history, even if they were placed at the same technical level, none of those nomads were tens or millions of large armies, and the behemoths with a territory of thousands of miles were not comparable to the Manchus.

It's just that the luck of the Manchu people is the best among all the Hu people, and at this time, Daming has not only been disturbed internally by Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, but also encountered the Xiaoice River period, which is rare for thousands of years. Coupled with the Qing army that went south from time to time, under the joint pressure of the three parties, the Ming Dynasty was constantly "bloodletting", like a giant who was seriously ill, and was constantly bloodlet by the three dwarfs with a knife in the east and a knife in the west, and finally collapsed!

What's more, the Qing army also encountered the great traitor Wu Sangui once in a thousand years, with so many favorable conditions superimposed, the Qing army was able to enter the customs smoothly, and even when Dolgon led the army into Beijing, he couldn't believe it, and said to his subordinates, "The Beijing division cannot be defended, and you should quickly return to the customs with Dingkou".

To put it bluntly, the Manchurians just caught up with the thousand-year-old shit luck!

The words are divided into two ends, here Hong Chengchou introduced the strength of the superintendent battalion, not to mention that Liu Yan nodded frequently when he heard it, but the superintendent Ma Shaoyu, Zhang Ruoqi, as well as Yang Guozhu, Wu Sangui and others also praised it, which made Hong Chengchou very satisfied.

At this time, the weather is cool in the morning and evening, but the sun is quite fierce at noon, especially dusty, making people very hot.

The army marched along the official road all the way, and soon left the boundary of the capital division, and many of the official roads along the way were in disrepair, not to mention potholes, and they were still full of thick mud and dust. Some mud pits have a smooth surface, and if you step on them, the dust will hit your whole body and face, and no matter how shiny your clothes are, you will soon become a beggar.

After arriving in Yutian, many Ming soldiers did not have the state of departure, they complained one by one, many people began to scold, and the march was also procrastinated, if it were not for the prestige of the chief military officers of the towns was very sufficient, and the restraint on the various departments was also effective, it is estimated that deserters had begun to appear at this time.

Liu Yan saw it in his eyes, and couldn't help but have some contempt for the soldiers and horses in each town, and secretly scolded: "Embroidered pillow soldiers." ”

Ma Shaoyu and Zhang Ruoqi also frowned when they saw it, and Hong Chengchou was even more worried, and strictly ordered the chief military officers of all departments to strictly manage it, and there must be no deserters, otherwise they will be severely punished.

Liu Yan looked at the general military officers of each town busy restraining the soldiers and horses, among the towns, only Wu Sangui, Cao Bianjiao, and Yang Guozhu were slightly better, Wang Tingchen and Zuo Guangxian's soldiers and horses were second, and the rest of the people, especially the soldiers and horses of Tang Tong, Ma Ke, and Wang Pu, were completely unsightly, like a large group of soldiers who were "outing", and they all relied on the family restraint and bullet pressure of the chief military officers of each town to maintain the integrity of the army.

So Liu Yan also shook his head and sighed, could it be that in the last days of the dynasty, the descendants of the nobles and military merits will become the Eight Banners Brother? When the Manchurians rose, they were also considered martial arts, and at the end of the Qing Dynasty, what kind of virtue and wretchedness? How to solve this problem, he couldn't help but think deeply.

Due to the very hot weather, after that, the army followed Hong Chengchou's order, the army rested at noon to Shen, and hurried before the morning and evening, so that the hottest time was finally avoided, and the state of the soldiers and horses was slightly better.

On April 29, Hong Chengchou led the army from all walks of life to Shanhaiguan, and when he left Shanhaiguan, he was outside the customs.

When the army arrived at Shanhaiguan, it was almost dusk, and the sunset was shining through, casting a layer of golden brilliance on this Xiongguan.

Shanhaiguan was called Yuguan, Yuguan, Linyuguan, Linlu Pass in ancient times, leaning on the mountains in the north, facing the sea in the south, not more than a few miles apart, very dangerous.

In the fourteenth year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty, Xu Da, the king of Zhongshan, was ordered to repair Yongping, Jieling and other passes, led troops to this place, and moved to build Shanhaiguan in the east of Guyu Pass sixty miles to the east of Yuyuguan, because it leaned on Yanshan in the north and connected the Bohai Sea in the south, so it was named Shanhaiguan.

Later, the Great Wall of Shanhaiguan was built by Hongwu, Chenghua, Jiajing, Wanli, Tianqi and Chongzhen six dynasties, consuming a lot of manpower, material and financial resources, and spent 263 years before and after, built a military city defense system with a chain of seven cities and a line of the Great Wall.

The circumference of Shanhaiguan City is about 4,000 meters, it is connected with the Great Wall, with the city as the pass, the city is 14 meters high, 7 meters thick, there are four main city gates, a variety of defense buildings. Including the Arrow Tower, Jingbian Tower, Muying Tower, Linlu Tower, Urn City and the 1,350-meter Plain Great Wall.

And the overall defense system of Shanhaiguan is not only a gate, a little Great Wall, from north to south also includes the north wing city, Dongluo City, Weiyuan City, South Wing City, Weihai City, Ninghai City, Laolongtou, many cities are connected with the Great Wall, forming a complete set of defense system, which can be attacked and defended.

This is also the reason why the Qing army has not been able to take Shanhaiguan from beginning to end, every time it enters the customs is a detour, even if it is a large-scale entry into the customs during the national disaster of Jiashen, it is also because Wu Sangui surrendered, otherwise Shanhaiguan is still as stable as Mount Tai.

At this time, Hong Chengchou led an army of 250,000 to arrive, and the generals guarding the pass and the people in the city organized a grand gong and drum corps in order to welcome the army. In the tidal wave of cheers and the noisy gongs and drums, Hong Chengchou led Liu Yan, Yang Guozhu, Wang Pu, Cao Bianjiao, Wang Tingchen, Wu Sangui, Ma Shaoyu, Zhang Ruoqi and others to step on the steps of the ancient city wall and appear on the city tower.

Looking at the city from their point of view, they saw that the heavily armed Ming soldiers of all parts were constantly passing through the Xiongguan with neat steps and entering the land outside the pass.

The flag is like the sea, the spear enters the forest, the mighty army torrent, the front can not see the head, the back can not see the tail, all the way to the north out of the pass......

Some people died, but not completely......