A large number of carriages were walking on the official road, and it had just rained lightly.
The roads on the official roads are extremely muddy. People walking on the roads can only pass through the muddy water, and carriages often skid on the roads.
Su He stepped off the carriage and stepped on the muddy road.
The rain in early spring was still very cold. The leather boots were soaked in mud and water, and my feet felt chilly.
"Shiyuan, the road has become very muddy now. Can the cannon still be transported?"
Su He saw that the current road conditions were very bad, and ammunition and grain could be transported by shoulder and hand.
A wheelbarrow with a large load cannot maintain balance when walking on this kind of road, so many people can only support the vehicle and move forward slowly.
The most difficult item to transport on this kind of road is heavy artillery.
The 120 gun weighed less than a ton, and it could barely walk on a muddy road when dragged by a few horses.
The 150 artillery piece weighs two tons, and walking on this kind of road is very difficult.
The wheels were stuck directly in the mud, and even three or four horses could not drag the gun carriage.
Deputy Chief of General Staff Wang Shiyuan pointed to the rear and said: "Your Majesty, look behind, the artillery regiment has kept up with our marching speed."
Su He turned his head and looked back, and found four engineers carrying half-split wood.
The engineers paved a road with wood, and four large horses pulled the artillery cart on the road paved with wood.
Dozens of artillery carriages walked on the wooden road.
When they reached the frontmost log, the carriage stopped and waited.
The engineering soldiers at the rear had already passed by with their artillery carts on their backs, crushing the wood into the mud.
Covered in mud, they quickly ran to the front of the line and laid down the log again.
Using this relay method, a road made of wood is paved.
The road is now just a little muddy and there isn't much rainwater retained on the road.
The wood was wide and long, and even if it was pressed by the gun carriage, it did not completely sink into the mud.
By paving the road in this way, heavy artillery carriages could pass.
Liu Guangshou, general manager of the drilling company, also acted with the Chinese army.
He dragged a carriage, which pulled a boiler and a steam engine, on the muddy road.
"Master Li, the artillerymen's treatment is too good, but we don't have this treatment.
Mr. Li, you said we were following King Qin, but now not a single well has been drilled.
If we follow the army, will we be free until the end? "
Li Yan looked at Liu Guangshou, spread his hands and said: "We are just digging wells. If it is useful to us, then we will dig wells.
Read books in your spare time and learn more knowledge.
If you don't like reading, learn more from other people. "
Liu Guangshou looked at Li Yan with an unfinished expression. This man was so calm.
He is very anxious now. He always feels that he is useless and has been worried about his future.
They chatted all the way, but I couldn't follow this person's thinking at all.
When Su He saw the artillery regiment's approach, he praised: "This approach is very good. It can be used when the roads are muddy and the water accumulation is not too serious.
If the water accumulation is too serious, the well drilling team's machines will be used to pump the water to other places.
Hold on for a while longer until the river completely melts and the water level rises.
The artillery can be transported by transport ship, without having to walk on muddy roads.
The major cities we attacked were all near waterways. "
Seeing that the army could pass smoothly on this muddy road, Su He turned to Wang Shiyuan and asked:
"How's the fight on the front line going?
Zhendingfu Gao showed his loyalty, and he was the backbone of all regiment training and armed forces in Beizhili.
He is the largest group coach in the Northern Zhili region.
We must completely eliminate Gao Shizhong and let all the gentry know that this path is not feasible if they try to use regiment training to fight us.
Li Dazhuang of the Seventh Army fought very well. I just read the report and they have captured Yizhou.
After capturing Cangzhou, the Seventh Army reached Tianjin.
We also need to move faster, otherwise the Seventh Army will fight too fast and become a lonely force going deep in, easily surrounded by the Ming army. "
When Wang Shiyuan heard Su He's question, he immediately introduced the situation on the front line.
"Your Majesty, after the military meeting, the actions of the Third Army became fierce.
After defeating several county towns in a row, they have now reached Huolu County, with Zhending Fucheng in front of them.
The regiment training troops near Zhending Mansion are not very capable, but their control over the place is much stronger.
What he did in Zhending Mansion was the same as what the magistrate of Xingtai said.
They plundered all the food from ordinary people's homes and hid in the city with the people who relied on them.
Zhending Mansion implemented a strict strategy of clearing out the wild areas. They threw chicken and pig carcasses into the wells in the village.
The corpses in the well were rotting and smelly, and the well was inedible.
Normal drinking water for local people and our army is obtained from surrounding rivers.
Now the river has been cultivated and there is sufficient drinking water in the river. "
When Su He heard Wang Shiyuan's introduction, he smiled and said: "These regiments train their armed forces, and they also know some traditional methods of strengthening walls and clearing fields.
These have little impact on us. When I led the troops to attack Beizhili, I had long expected that these things would happen.
The food brought is very sufficient, and the logistics officer of the Third Army will take out some food and distribute it to the local people so that they will not starve to death.
When the Chinese army arrives at these places, more food will arrive to keep them fed, but too much food will be consumed.
This can only be solved when the roads are completely unblocked and food is continuously transported from the rear.
Keeping them hungry can be done easily.
After the waterway is connected, more food will be transported here.
There is no need to worry about food, as for water.
The polluted wells are not drinkable. This time I brought a well-drilling team.
Let them dig wells far away from the river. North Zhili is a plain area.
Generally, water can be produced by drilling a well of a few meters to more than ten meters.
They have been drilling wells in Shaanxi and have already developed their well-drilling skills.
In some places in Shaanxi, it is necessary to drill tens to hundreds of meters before water can be extracted. "
Wang Shiyuan's expression was much more relaxed and he said: "The king has made detailed preparations, so I won't worry anymore."
The Chinese army moved slowly, and the third army had already begun to try to besiege Zhendingfu City.
Su He's Chinese army arrived in Julu County.
He saw the people here carrying water from distant rivers.
I was cooking corn mush in a pot, taking a few bites of dried sweet potatoes from time to time.
These are the food left by the Third Army.
After the people finished eating, someone began to organize the people to dig a new well far away from the old well.
They don't need the help of the well-drilling team at all. As long as they drive away the group and train and arm themselves, these people can find their own way out.
Su He called two leaders, a white-haired old man and a poor scholar-looking man.
They were brought over by the security group and saw hundreds of people watching.
Their expressions were extremely panicked, and they wanted to kneel down and kowtow after seeing Su He.
Su He signaled the guard group to stop them.
“You don’t need to do this big ceremony, you don’t need to kowtow when you see us.
I have some questions that I would like to ask you. "
The two of them felt relieved when they saw Su He's calm tone.
The elder said with a trembling tone: "What do you want to ask, sir? We must tell you everything we know."
Su He asked: "How are you doing now?
Do you know what the identities of the people here who participate in the gentry group training are? "
Both of them relaxed when they heard this question. These questions were not difficult to answer.
The two of them looked at each other, and the older man was the first to answer: "The gentry group training is all acquaintances, they know us very well, they just rob the family of food and money.
Because you are familiar with each other, if there is no hatred between each other, you will generally not attack your family members.
In this period of war and chaos, if you want to survive, learning to hide food is a vital survival skill.
Most of the food in the house has been found, but there is still a small amount of food in stock, which can barely survive.
It's winter now, and not only the wild vegetables, but also the bark of the trees are dry and inedible.
When we can no longer survive.
Master Qin Jun came here and left some food for us that we had never seen before.
Cornmeal and dried sweet potatoes.
These foods are very filling, and a little bit can go a long way.
As long as there is food to eat, we can survive. "
While the old man was talking, he couldn't help but shed tears. He knelt down several times to thank Su He, but was stopped by the guards.
The poor scholar saw his uncle choke and was speechless.
Opposite him is a big shot of the Qin army. Looking at the troops surrounding him, he is at least a big shot at the governor level.
Now his uncle is speechless, so he can only introduce the composition of the armed personnel participating in the gentry regiment training.
"Sir, the first to participate in the group training organized by the gentry are mainly the lackeys before the gentry.
These people are junior officers at the grassroots level, managing the top soldiers at the lowest level.
Their ancestors have worked as long-term workers for the gentry gentlemen for generations, and some even sold themselves to the gentry's families. Their ancestors have worked in the gentry's families.
The gentry had great trust in these people.
The largest number of gentry members were ordinary tenants.
They were all tenants who rented land from the gentry, and they had basically borrowed money from the gentry at usury.
If you don't listen to the gentry and participate in group training, the gentry will bring people to collect loans.
In order to repay the usurious loans of the gentry and allow their families to enter the city to escape the war, these tenants chose to work for the gentry.
I have seen people who owed usurious loans to the gentry and did not want to participate in team training.
He was directly brought by the gentleman to collect the loan. He couldn't repay the loan at high interest. His hands and feet were broken by the gentleman and he was thrown outside the house to freeze to death.
His wife and daughter were kidnapped by the gentry to pay off their debts.
A small number of people really can't survive. Tuanlian has all-you-can-eat food, so they work for the gentry just for a bite of food. "
After listening to what the locals had to say, Su He was not surprised by this situation.
The gentry's group training is a kind of behavior to attract young men.
It's just that the gentry used usury and fields as a link to force tenants to participate.
The foundation of the gentry group training was the tenant farmers, who had little loyalty and trust in the gentry.
Su He looked at these two people and ordered: "Notify the logistics officer to leave two thousand kilograms of cornmeal for this town."
When the old man and the poor scholar heard this, they immediately knelt down and kowtowed, regardless of the obstruction of the guard group: "Thank you for the gift. With this food, everyone in our village can survive."
Su He followed the Chinese army and continued to rush towards Zhending Fucheng.
Yang Qianhe, director of the Military Intelligence Bureau, reported the relevant situation on the road.
"Your Majesty, we have just received news that the Fourth Army has captured Taiyuan and they are attacking Datong.
All the Datong garrison troops were transferred to Xuanfu Town. The Fourth Army's capture of the Datong area will definitely be extremely smooth.
The Ming army basically completed the mobilization of the army.
At present, the Ming army mainly defends Xuanfu, Zhuzhou, Tongzhou and Tianjin.
There are a total of 200,000 Ming troops in this place, plus the newly recruited young men, there are 300,000 Ming troops defending it.
Most of the Ming army had very weak combat effectiveness and would not take the initiative to attack under normal circumstances.
Only the Ming armies from Shandong, Ningjin, and Datong came to the capital to serve the king.
The Ming army in southern Zhili and other places saw that our army was stepping up its attack on the south, and the Ming Dynasty sent Crown Prince Zhu Cixiang to Nanjing.
The gentry in the south chose to protect themselves and withdrew King Qin's army that was about to be sent to the capital.
The Donglin Party and others already believe that the capital will not be able to hold on.
The cavalry division has been restraining Jiannu, and has not noticed any abnormal behavior of Jiannu for the time being.
However, the Ming army in the Ningjin area has basically been exhausted. We must be prepared to lose the Ningjin area.
…
Here in Zhending Mansion, Gao Shizhong is very skillful. He asked the regiments near Zhending Mansion to train and arm themselves and enter Zhending Mansion to help him defend the city.
These gentry have a lot of food stored in them, and there is enough food in the city.
In order to prevent us from bombing with hot air balloons, they dug cellars in the city and stored a large amount of food.
Gao Shizhong also purchased a large number of Hongyi cannons from the Ming army for use in defending the city.
According to the investigation of the Military Intelligence Bureau, Yang Sichang has promised to show his loyalty to Gao as long as he blocks our army for a month.
He could give up Zhending Fucheng, and Yang Sichang recommended him to become the prefect with real power.
Gao Shizhong's purpose is not to block us, but to delay time in exchange for his own interests.
…
Your Majesty, this is all the information our Military Intelligence Bureau has learned during this period.
There is still a lot of information on the way. Because the army is constantly marching, the information needs to be transferred many times before it can be delivered to me. "
After Su He listened to Yang Qianhe's story, he had an understanding of the overall situation.
The carriage soon arrived near Zhendingfu City.
The Third Army and the Imperial Guards have completely impenetrable the Zhending Mansion.
The army had no way to draw water from the river and was easily injured by the Hongyi cannon on Zhendingfu City.
The well-drilling team dug dozens of wells to supply the army with regular drinking water.
Su He held a military meeting.
“We were in a panic at first because we didn’t understand the gentry’s regiment training and armed forces.
Now I have a basic understanding of the composition of the regiment training arm.
Their base was not the minions of the gentry, but ordinary tenants.
As long as we target the tenants and use psychological methods to draw out the wages from the bottom of the cauldron.
The most important foundation for team training and armed forces will directly collapse. "
Su He just used two policies commonly used by the Qin army in advance.
The Qin army is now organizing the people of Zhending Mansion to divide their lands.
At the same time, it is provided to the people and exempts the gentry from usurious loans.
The Qin army sent soldiers with loud voices, approached Zhendingfu City through the trench, and shouted into the city with iron trumpets.
Announce to them that the division of land has begun outside the city. When the Qin army enters the city, everyone will have a piece of land as long as they do not resist.
At the same time, he told them that the Qin army did not recognize the usury of the gentry.
After the Qin army arrived, all debts imposed by the gentry on the people were forgiven.
Su He believed that these two policies would directly shake the foundation of regiment training and armed forces.
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