"Report to Futai, the Grand Canal is thirty miles ahead!"
The Chuanqi Tang Ma sent by Ma Degong came to Gao Hongtu's horse like flying. The soldiers of the 20th Shandong Regiment Training Army, plus the troops of Li Chengdong and Ma Degong, totaling more than 46,000 people, marched westward from Jinan, along a medium-sized river named "Tuhe" that flows from the Grand Canal to the Bohai Bay. Move forward at a snail's pace.
The distance from Licheng, the prefecture of Jinan, to Liaocheng, the prefecture of Dongchang, is really not that far. Even if you take a detour by taking the Tuhe River, it is only more than 200 miles. He walked fifty miles in one day and completed the journey in four days.
However, the 46,000-strong regiment training army led by Governor Gao Hongtu was an "engineering team". As they advanced, they built bastions and docks along the Tuhe River - each bastion was carefully sited, along the water. Erli also diverted water from the Tu River into the trench, and at the same time built a pier on the edge of the Tu River near the bastion wall. As long as the river was navigable, these forts built along the water could be easily supplied.
In addition, Gao Hongtu also asked Beiyang Minister Shen Tingyang to open a "war shipyard" in Yantou Town, Licheng County, to build ships that can sail and fight on the Daqing River and Tu River, so as to form a "regiment training water division" .
However, the regiment training division has not yet been completed, and the shipyard in Yantou Town has just opened. Even the 50,000 regiment training troops led by Gao Hongtu were all created from scratch. Equipment, training, organization and other aspects are not in place.
Fortunately, Gao Hongtu himself had thousands of patrols, and he was relatively capable at both the top and bottom levels, so he was able to break them down to form the backbone of the regiment training. With these thousands of backbones, plus the landlords and old wealth in the 20 or 30 prefectures and counties in Jinan, Yanzhou, and Qingzhou who all sell their faces to the governor, there are also refugees who ran away from Beizhili and Yanbian counties close to the Qing Dynasty. After the expedition, the Shandong regiment's military training was finally supported.
By the summer of the 18th year of Chongzhen's reign in the Ming Dynasty, there were 22 regiment training armies, a total of 40,000 people!
Of course, the equipment and training of these 22 team training associations are not very good.
First of all, the armor coverage rate is less than 15%. The total army of 44,000 people has less than 6,500 pairs of various armors. Most of them are cloth-covered iron armor, and the number of iron sheets on the cloth is insufficient, so the defensive capability is very problematic.
Second is the shortage of firearms and their poor quality. There are no bird muskets, turtle-dove foot muskets, Hongyi cannons, or three-pound regimental cannons.
Gao Hongtu was poor, Shi Kefa had Kong Yinzhi as his financial sponsor, Zuo Maodi's own family was a very large landowner, Zhu Yihai and Li Shiyuan had the money left by Prince Heng's Palace to spend, and Su Guansheng and Shen Tingyang, needless to say, had money. ...Gao Hongtu has no money, so of course he can't buy good things, and he doesn't have the skills to make them himself. So I can only make some general cannons, attack cannons, squatting tiger cannons, and three-eyed guns.
However, Gao Hongtu, a poor governor, also had his own poor solution, which was to build vehicles, shield vehicles and artillery vehicles!
Among them, more than 2,200 shield cars were built - Duoduo would "repay the other with his own way". Gao Hongtu was also familiar with the Three Kingdoms, so he also made man-made shield cars. These shield vehicles can not only be equipped with large wooden shields for defense, but they can also transport food and supplies, which are distributed to various flag units to accompany the army.
The artillery carriage is an offensive artillery carriage. More than 400 of them were built, and each association was equipped with twenty of them.
With more than 2,600 shield vehicles and artillery vehicles, Gao Hongtu's army can quickly form a vehicle fort wherever they go - if the armies of 20 associations come together, 2,600 shield vehicles and artillery vehicles are enough A defensive circle of more than 2,000 steps was built.
With the "car fort" as a unique trick to defeat the enemy, Gao Hongtu's 20th Army Training Association will not be easy to deal with.
In fact, although the equipment of these Shandong regiments is very poor and their military pay is very small (the most ordinary regiment members get one or two silver a month), their combat effectiveness is actually not weak. They are not as good as the servants of the generals of the Ming Army, but the ordinary weak soldiers of the Ming Army cannot compare with them!
This is real!
It’s not that I look down on most of the Ming armies in this era. They are basically the “three no armies” with no organization, no discipline, and no spirit. The ability to harm the common people is much better than marching to fight!
As for Gao Hongtu's Shandong regiment training, it is acceptable in terms of organization, discipline, and spirit. The foundation of the team training organization is the interpersonal relationships of fellow clan members, fellow villagers, and classmates.
After gaining the power to "return to the native land", Gao Hongtu was able to use his fellow clansmen, fellow villagers, and classmates to establish a feudal team training system with himself as the core. There was a close relationship between the top and bottom, and everyone had to listen to the words of Gao Hongtu, the governor!
With organization, discipline is not difficult to maintain... Although the military pay for regiment training is very low, their families are under the control of Gao Hongtu's disciples and clans, and they do not dare to run away casually!
As for the officers who trained in the regiment, except for Gao Hongtu's disciples, they were all from Fubiao, Shandong. They were considered Gao Hongtu's personal soldiers - the governor Gao, who owned 20 or 30 prefectures and counties, could still make some use of them. These people are well fed. Therefore, the officers and backbones of the regiment training army are relatively well-behaved and listen to Gao Hongtu's words.
If we compare the ability to control the troops, Hong Chengchou, Sun Chuanting and Lu Xiangsheng back then are not as good as Gao Hongtu now - Gao Hongtu is the head of the regiment training with a base!
Finally, the Shandong regiment training army is now to defend their hometown, defend their ancestral graves, defend Confucius... they know why they are fighting!
Therefore, in terms of the spirit of the troops, they are stronger than most of the Ming army.
Even the so-called hundred-battle force of more than 6,000 people led by two veteran generals, Li Chengdong and Ma Degong, seemed to be sullen and difficult to control during these days of operating with the Shandong regiment training army.
These "powerful troops" only protect the front and rear of the regiment training brigade and do nothing except marching. Even so, they often complain and ask Gao Hongtu for this and that. From time to time, they also robbed markets and villages, which was almost the same as the Tatars. This made the tall governor furious, but there was nothing he could do.
The Shandong regiment training army is much better. They are all simple farmers, especially hard-working and hard-working. Gao Hongtu asked them to do whatever they wanted, and he didn't have any requirements. They were satisfied if they could provide three meals a day and earn one tael of silver per month. I don't know if these old farmers can fight, but they can definitely work. They are the right ones to build a fortress or something.
If Gao Hongtu hadn't been so unsure about the performance of his "migrant workers" on the battlefield, he wouldn't have been willing to take these two scourges, Li Chengdong and Ma Degong, into battle...
Gao Hongtu gently tightened the reins, stopped the horse under his crotch, and then asked Tang Ma, who was sent by the horse's success: "Where are General Ma's soldiers and horses?"
Na Tangma just saluted on his horse and reported back: "Back to Futai, General Ma's former army has arrived on the east bank of the canal!"
Gao Hongtu twirled his beard and said, "Where are the Tartar soldiers and horses? Are they still surrounding Liaocheng?"
Tang Ma reported back: "There is no Tartar camp on the east bank of the canal. The siege should have been withdrawn. Ma Zongrong has sent people to Liaocheng to contact us."
"What? The siege was withdrawn?" Gao Hongtu was startled, then turned to look at Li Dakai.
Li Dakai was also a little surprised, "Futai...the siege of Liaocheng has been resolved?"
"It should be..." Gao Hongtu shook his head, "It won't be that easy, right?"
"Futai," Li Dakai said, "we are only thirty miles away from Liaocheng, so why not work harder and go to Liaocheng to sleep tonight!"
Gao Hongtu twirled his beard and said thoughtfully: "It is better to proceed step by step. We will go down to the stronghold here along the Tuhe River and set up the castle. We will start building the city tomorrow."
"Here!" Li Dakai saluted on horseback, and then went to command the troops to launch the defense of the chariot and fort.
Because Gao Hongtu's troops had to go down to build forts every twenty miles along the way, leaving a garrison of one association behind. After walking nearly 200 miles, nine castles had been built, and nine leagues were left to guard them. Currently, there are only 11 regiments of troops left with Gao Hongtu, including Li Chengdong and Ma Degong, with a total strength of approximately 28,000 troops and more than a thousand shield vehicles and artillery vehicles.
These few vehicles are no longer enough to form a circle of more than 2,000 steps, so we can only form a huge "Queyue Formation" with our backs to the Tuhe River.
