By the second day of July, Su Yonglin's unit had completed all pre-war preparations.
Under his order, more than 5,000 rapidly produced flying muskets have been sent to the front line and handed over to the soldiers. Time was running out, so Su Yonglin took some of them out for on-site training to familiarize the soldiers with the flying muskets.
When the quite spectacular sparks erupted, the soldiers were all moved by it and were quite interested in the flying muskets.
But being interested is not the key. The key is to train in a queue.
When to raise the gun, when to light the gun, when to stab, etc., these all need to be trained.
The Shengjie Army was established in a short period of time. Although Su Yonglin had a systematic training plan and was willing and able to devote a lot of resources to training, he was short of time.
If he really had to face a ruthless character like Tiefutu, Su Yonglin could only prepare for the worst.
However, the Jin people were probably not very willing to use heavy armored cavalry.
Heavy cavalry is powerful, but it is also a very expensive unit. A heavy cavalry not only has requirements for horses, but also has great requirements for people. It takes almost the cooperation of a top-notch strong man and a top-notch tall horse to become a heavy cavalry.
It hurts to lose one.
Su Yonglin estimated that the two thousand cavalry were mainly light cavalry, and the number of heavy armored cavalry should be very small.
Despite this, they cannot be underestimated. They are also the most troublesome existence for the infantry.
Although they are called light cavalry, in fact, cavalry also wear armor. The quality of the armor is better than that of light infantry. They are fully equipped with bows, arrows, machetes and even lances. Compared with heavy cavalry, they are more mobile and more economical and practical.
Even if the heavy armored cavalry is not assisted by the light cavalry, this battle is really difficult to fight.
Forget it if you are just an ordinary weakling, you will be easily ravaged by heavy armored cavalry, but when some well-prepared and well-trained infantrymen bring out weapons such as horse-repelling spears, heavy cavalry is also very dangerous, and they are generally unwilling to charge forcefully.
At that time, the light cavalry will need to appear, use their strong mobility to circle the infantry formation and continuously harass and attack, and use various means to create gaps in the infantry formation's defense line.
The battlefield transmits information very slowly. If a gap appears in one direction, the general may not be able to detect it in time, and if he finds it, he may not be able to make up for it in time. At that time, it is time for the heavy cavalry to appear.
If you catch that weak spot, rush in desperately.
All in all, cavalry are like a pack of wolves compared to infantry. They are cunning and cunning. Even if they cannot kill large prey with one blow, they will deal with it patiently. They will use their own advantages to exhaust the prey's physical energy bit by bit, and then catch it. Opportunity kills with one strike.
Facing such an enemy, limiting its mobility is the best way to kill it.
All the preparations Su Yonglin could do had been completed, all personnel had been exhausted, and now it was time to obey fate.
Because he was too nervous, Su Yonglin, a staunch materialist, also silently prayed to heaven.
If he couldn't win this battle, he would die here, and there would be no next time.
All his ideals and plans will turn into bubbles, and the Liberation Army will soon be pacified by the Jin Army, eventually becoming a fantasy.
If he could win, even if it was a tragic victory, Su Yonglin would be very happy.
After waiting for a few more days, Su Yonglin gave the soldiers of Shengjie Army several meals of oil, water and protein before the Jin Army finally arrived.
On the fourth day of July, the sentry sent out by Su Yonglin informed Su Yonglin that the main force of the Jin army had arrived only one day away from the river blockage area, and would enter the blockage area one day later, and the duel between the two sides would officially begin.
Su Yonglin nodded and said he understood.
But he was still a little confused.
He was a little unclear as to why he didn't encounter any sentinels or vanguards from the Jin Army.
Generally speaking, when an army is advancing, it is necessary to send some sentries to spy on the news, or to send a group of troops as a vanguard to explore the way for the army. In any case, it is also necessary to spy on the enemy's situation.
But he didn't see that the sentinels he sent had even gone to the Jin Army camp at night to check for news about the Jin Army. The Jin Army didn't send anyone to Tai'an Prefecture, as if there was no Liberation Army in Tai'an Prefecture. It's as if they exist, they are simply transferred in, not here to fight.
Is this really the case?
We really can't blame Su Yonglin for thinking too much. This is how other armies fight. They are afraid that they will suffer a loss in military intelligence, so they all want to predict the enemy first, but in the end, this Jin army seems to be indifferent.
There are of course many reasons for this.
First of all, Da Lei, the governor of Tai'an Prefecture, fled to Dongping Prefecture and reported the news of the fall of Tai'an Prefecture. So Shuhu Siji and Jiagu Asu concluded that there were about two to three thousand rebels in Tai'an Prefecture.
Then the main thing is that Jiagu Asu really didn't take the Liberation Army seriously. He felt that as long as he saw the army, the soldiers of the Liberation Army would flee and be defeated.
Of course it is excusable.
This was the case for several small-scale counterinsurgency battles against the Liberation Army that Jiagu Asu fought around Dongping Prefecture before he sent troops.
With only 300 cavalry, he was able to rush forward with only 300 cavalry, and he was able to smash 700 to 800 Liberation Army soldiers into chaos. He didn't even need to use heavy armored cavalry to defeat the rebels under the banner of the Liberation Army.
Those rebels under the banner of the Liberation Army were often frightened when they saw the cavalry rushing over from a long distance. They turned around and ran away with strange screams. They were not in formation at all. Then they were naturally massacred by Jiagu Asu.
Occasionally, you can encounter some who are more courageous, form a loose formation, and then fire a round of bows and arrows, but there is no way to effectively kill the Jin Army cavalry.
After several battles like this, only one of the three hundred cavalry was killed and several others were injured.
Therefore, Jiagu Asu's impression of the Liberation Army was that it had a great reputation, great momentum, and poor strength, so he did not pay much attention to the Liberation Army.
He just wanted to wait until he reached Tai'an Prefecture, then directly push it forward, and then inquire about the subsequent news. After all, in terms of administrative planning, Tai'an Prefecture belonged to the East and West Road of Shandong.
Although he felt that his subordinates were just a mob, he had a sufficient number of cavalry, and he could even scrape together two to three hundred cavalry, which was adequate for the weak Liberation Army.
Jiagu Asu even doubted whether the rebels could face the majestic imperial cavalry head-on.
When they saw so many cavalry, they were probably so scared that they almost peed.
Su Yonglin didn't know how much Jiagu Asu despised the rebellious Liberation Army, and of course he had no way of knowing why he performed such a god-level operation.
Of course, Jiagu Asu doesn't care about these things.
He didn't even know that Su Yonglin existed.
He was hurriedly leading the main force towards the blockage area prepared for him by the Victory Army, and finally arrived at the river blockage area on the fifth day of July.
Then his grain transport ship unexpectedly fell into Su Yonglin's trap and was unable to move forward, causing great panic and shock to the entire Jin army.
"What's going on? The ship can't move?"
Jiagu Asu was very annoyed and found the logistics officer.
The logistics officer's face was covered with sweat, and he replied tremblingly: "I just sent someone to check, and there is no problem with the ship. The problem is at the bottom of the river. There are many sunken ships at the bottom of the river. The channel is blocked, and the ship cannot move forward unless... "
"Unless what?"
"Unless we spend some effort and time to salvage the sunken ship from the bottom of the river and find ways to clear the channel, the ship can continue to move forward."
"What are you waiting for?"
Jiagu Asu's eyes widened: "Why don't you clean up the river quickly? It will delay the march, and you don't want your head, right?"
"No, no, I will go right away, but...but..."
"But what? I don't want my mother-in-law, please tell me quickly!"
"Yes! There are a lot of sunken ships at the bottom of the river, and salvaging them may be quite time-consuming. Even if they are not salvaged, just cleaning them up will take a lot of time, and it is very likely that the ship traffic will be very slow after the cleaning."
The logistics officer lowered his head deeply and did not dare to look directly at Jiagu Asu.
Jiagu Asu looked impatient.
"Stop talking nonsense and just tell me how long it will take?"
"At least...seven days."
"Seven days?!"
Jiagu Asu looked up at the large number of grain-carrying ships that were trapped in the river not far away and could not move forward, as well as the bustling queues of soldiers on the shore. He made an estimate and his face was very ugly.
Before the expedition, Yelu Chenghui found him, gave him a thorough explanation, and asked him to occupy Tai'an Prefecture and end the march as soon as possible, otherwise the food problem would be serious.
