"General, general, we are back." Gao Heng was watching the artillery drill on the campus when Lu Tao's convoy came over from the east.
"General, fortunately you have fulfilled your duty. We have brought back Emperor Li's treasure. Preliminary estimate is that it is at least two to three hundred thousand taels of silver." As soon as Lu Tao saw Gao Heng, he cupped his fists and reported. Gao Heng slapped him on the shoulder and said, "Well done!"
Lu Tao pulled Li Xiang over and said: "This young man's name is Li Xiang, and he is one of the gatekeepers. The old gatekeeper committed suicide by taking poison. He must have taken the secrets here to the grave, but he handed this young man over to me. I brought him back, and he said that he had been training for a long time, and this kid has some skills. He is as agile as an ape in the woods, and there is no way he can catch up with him."
Gao Heng was about to talk to him, but Li Xiang waved his hand and said something. Lu Tao said: "Oh, by the way, he can't speak Chinese, so he can't communicate directly with the general."
Gao Heng said to Lu Tao: "Well, since you praise him, he must be very good at his skills. Doesn't your sentinel team need such talents who can lurk in the dense forest? I might as well leave it to you to teach him on weekdays." He speaks Chinese, so that he can adapt to the atmosphere of our survival brigade as soon as possible."
Lu Tao was overjoyed. He had taken a fancy to this boy for a long time. When he was eighteen years old, he was not as skilled as Li Xiang. If Gao Heng hadn't told him, Lu Tao would have asked him to assign Li Xiang to him. Now Gao Heng Heng took the initiative, and Lu Tao was certainly happy. He clasped his fists tightly and said, "Just look at it, General. Within a few months, I can become a good sentry."
Gao Heng said: "Now we have money and food. One day after you left, the Annan people sent us thousands more overseas residents. Now the city is full, and there is still less than half the number of people we requested. Once they arrive, We are about to hand over Zheng Zuo. The Annan people are quite happy in the front, but I think it may not be the same in the back."
Lu Tao asked: "What do you mean, general?"
"If you were an Annan person, you wouldn't be so stupid as to hand over all your people to us, right? There is still so much food, if you really give it all to us, wouldn't it be a danger to raise tigers?" Gao Heng said.
"Are they going to take action?" Lu Tao asked.
Gao Heng shook his head and said: "There is no movement yet, but the Annan people cannot let us go so easily. From the current point of view, money is important to us, but in this environment, we can't eat or drink. If the money can't be spent, it will be with us." There is no difference between waste paper, so we must find ways to open up channels, establish connections with the surrounding areas as soon as possible, and turn our money into things that can be eaten, drank, and used."
"What can I do?" Lu Tao said solemnly.
"Your mission is to lead the sentinel team to strengthen the alert within a radius of twenty miles and give the county an early warning. The next battle is crucial to us. If we defeat Master Zheng's plan, we can flex our muscles. These Today we are constantly expanding our army, and our strength has returned to two thousand, but our weapons and equipment are stretched thin. We must win the next battle so that our subsequent actions can be unrestricted," Gao Heng said.
"Kill! Kill! Kill!" Inside and outside the city, the soldiers were training enthusiastically. The new soldiers who joined the survival brigade were scattered and mixed with the veterans to help them get into the state faster.
"Damn it, haven't you eaten? Stab forward with all your strength! Stab!" "Kill!" The training ground was filled with the scoldings of Song Zhi and other officers and the shouts of kill from the soldiers, and the sound of gunfire outside the city was even louder. There was a general sound, and the wooden target set up on the training ground had already been hit with sawdust flying everywhere.
After the last battle, Gao Heng discussed with Wang Qi and Wu Rong and changed the combat mode of the fire gun team. With reference to the Japanese iron artillery team, the fire gun shooting method was adjusted to the Japanese style and the divine machine was cancelled. The battalion's delivery mode was changed to the method of self-loading and self-firing. Soldiers with similar reloading speeds were grouped together to form a four-stage firecracker attack in platoon units. During combat, the company is divided into four rows as a whole and fires continuously.
Regardless of the cost, Gao Heng expanded his army and prepared for war. He reserved part of the food sent by the Annan people for war preparation and invested it all in training. Although the soldiers could not be said to eat well, they could eat well, and they would be strong when they were full. , you can strengthen training and form a virtuous cycle.
After Gao Heng's reorganization and organization, the survival brigade has now returned to an organization of 2,000 people, and these 2,000 people are more capable than the previous 2,000 people, because they are all selected young people, and the population base is larger. The advantage is that you can take the route of elite soldiers.
Among the two thousand people, there were three companies of muskets, all equipped with captured Annan matchlocks, an artillery company equipped with more than 20 various artillery pieces captured and donated by the Ming army, and a cavalry company, but there were insufficient horses. Although there were two hundred people, only one hundred and twenty were actually on horseback.
Gao Heng divided the subsequent one thousand people into two large groups according to the company structure. The three companies were trained as melee spearmen. The current Fire Gun Team has weak melee combat ability. If the enemy fights hand-to-hand, it will be very serious. Passively, it would be much better if there were 600 spearmen guarding it. With the other four hundred people, Gao Heng mobilized the existing craftsmen in the city to transform the arrows captured from Annan, and cut down the wood in the forest outside the city to make military crossbows.
They cannot make fire guns for the time being, or even if they can make them, the speed is very slow. At the current level, they cannot quickly equip troops on a large scale, but crossbows can, and even the bowstrings are ready-made. The craftsmen will dismantle the captured Annan bows. After that, the bowstring and other usable parts were reassembled onto the crossbow body, which greatly slowed down the production time. Hundreds of military crossbows were quickly produced.
The reason why crossbows are used is because the training requirements for bows and arrows are too high and require strong arm strength, which is not suitable for these soldiers who have just joined the survival brigade. It is much simpler to use crossbows, and the penetrating power of crossbows is stronger than that of bows and arrows. , the accuracy is not bad, but the rate of fire is a bit slow, but it doesn't matter, the crossbow arrows can be used as a supplement for the fire muskets, and between the firing of the fire muskets, the crossbow arrows can also be used to defend against the enemy.
In addition, a hundred people from the sentry team and 50 guards were selected from among more than 20,000 expatriates. Basically, these people have martial arts, or have some special skills, and are special talents. They should not be used as ordinary soldiers, but should be placed where they should be.
After Lu Tao came back, no new immigrants arrived for many days. The Annan people sent people to inform them that the distance to other places was far away. In order to avoid accidents on the road, Lord Zheng decided to send the remaining two immigrants to Thang Long Palace. Thousands of people gathered together and sent them together with the remaining food, just in time to complete the final transaction at once.
"Your Majesty, our army is ready to go to war at any time." In the Shenglong Imperial City, a general wearing armor was kneeling in front of Lord Zheng, reporting something to him. This person is Zheng Fu, the general under Zheng Zheng. Zheng Zheng transferred him back from the front line of Guangping Mansion to carry out a secret mission.
In the deep mountains and forests on the southern outskirts of Thang Long Palace, a secret military camp was established more than a month ago. Ten thousand soldiers gathered here, all of whom were elite soldiers and generals mobilized by Master Zheng from various places. Even Zheng Fu After returning, he also mobilized 200 elephant soldiers and 50 war elephants from the Guangping front line.
"Very good, you have done a good job, and the confidentiality measures are in place. Even the ministers in the palace don't know that you have returned to Shenglong." Lord Zheng stood up and helped Zheng Fudao.
Then he added: "But don't be too impatient now. You still have more than ten days to prepare. Those damn untouchables haven't gathered yet. I estimate that you can set off in late October at most. Follow them." Later, after the handover is completed, you will launch an attack immediately. While they are still on a weak footing, you can complete your victory in one battle and go straight to Huanglong to destroy them! I will hang Gao Heng's head on the tower of Shenglong Mansion as a memorial service. All people in the world will watch it.”
Zheng Fu saluted and said: "Please rest assured, Your Majesty, the soldiers have been gearing up for a long time and can't wait for this day to come."
Master Zheng nodded, indicating that he could go down. Then he walked out of the palace door and looked at the sky above his head. Lord Zheng worked very hard for this battle. Zheng Zuo was captured. He reluctantly agreed to Gao Heng's conditions, handing over people and food. However, no matter what, this could not be Lord Zheng's original intention. He I also understand that if a city-state with tens of thousands of people and thousands of troops appears in the north of my country, it will be like a thorn in my back, and I will never have peace.
Therefore, Lord Zheng will never allow such a situation to occur, and must find a way to destroy Gao Heng. In this transaction, Master Zheng took the initiative to call a timeout, not because he wanted to break his promise, but because he wanted to stall Gao Heng to buy time for him to mobilize his troops.
Lord Zheng and Zheng Wei have discussed it and the overall battle plan has been drawn up. That is to find an excuse to gather the remaining more than 20,000 overseas Chinese in Thanglong Province, and then transport them to Tuo County together with half of the remaining grain. But this is just a smoke bomb, and the real intention is to cover up the actions of the subsequent troops.
Lord Zheng once again mobilized two thousand soldiers from the capital near Thang Long and entered the southern suburbs military camp. At the same time, Zheng Fu secretly brought back three thousand southern troops from the front line, including hundreds of elephant soldiers. This was his trump card. These frontier troops include a thousand Annan cavalry and a thousand frontier gunners. They have been on the front line against the Ruan family all year round, and their combat prowess is impressive.
There are also 5,400 town troops as support. These 10,000 people are all handed over to the leadership of Zheng Fu. This is also the most mobile force that Master Zheng currently has. If they are deployed again, it will not only greatly weaken the garrisons in various places. Strength will also greatly affect the battle on the front line. Lord Zheng is also betting that the Zheng and Ruan families have been relatively quiet during this period, and there have been no large-scale battles. Therefore, he must use this window period to fight quickly and solve the problem first. Get rid of Gao Heng, a pet peeve.
"Haha, General, thank you very much. This is the only drink I like on weekdays. I haven't had it for many days and I really miss it." When leaving the county military office, Cheng Zilong held the tea cup in his hand and sipped it in small sips. Tea in cup.
When they first came to Tuo County, the conditions were so poor that they didn't even have tea. But things are different now. After Gao Heng and the others had money in hand, they could make some deals with Annan soldiers. Money can make ghosts push. Grinding, you can do business wherever there are people, you can do business with your own people, you can also do business with your enemies.
The Annan people sent the immigrants to Tuo County in batches. Gao Heng saw the opportunity and bribed several low-level Annan officers. He did not ask them for military secrets, so the Annan officers would not give them to him easily, but asked them to It's okay to help get some tea and bring it over.
Although Annan is located in the tropical and subtropical tropics, due to the huge influence of Chinese culture, Annan society also likes to drink tea, and western Annan itself produces tea. Annan green tea originated here. Green tea mainly grows in the Xishan area of Annan. It is a traditional famous tea from Annan. It is simple to make. After picking, it goes through a set of technological processes such as withering, kneading, and fermentation to form a tea cake, which is ready for drinking. It is different from Chinese green tea, and the taste is somewhere between green tea and matcha. It has a unique flavor.
Cheng Zilong exhaled and seemed to be still savoring the taste of green tea, but Gao Heng smiled and said: "It's rare for military advisors to like to drink Annan's green tea. When conditions are met in the future, I can find a way to get China's famous tea. "
Cheng Zilong waved his hand and said: "I am very satisfied with this. The conditions are simple, but having such a famous tea is already a luxury."
Gao Heng said: "It's just that we don't have enough access right now and are still trapped in this three-thirds of an acre. If we can follow the Ruan family's suggestion and open up Xin'an Port and connect it to the sea, our horizons will be much broader."
Cheng Zilong said: "General, don't be anxious, I'm afraid the opportunity is right in front of you. As the saying goes, Taoist masters are famous. At present, we and Master Zheng are in a short period of balance. Because we have a prince and they have overseas Chinese, everyone is still stable. But This kind of stability is just an illusion and will be broken sooner or later. Even if I am Lord Zheng, I will never allow a national war ahead. If there is a powerful force of tens of thousands of people behind him, I will definitely try every means to destroy him. .”
Gao Heng said: "Military advisor, go on."
Cheng Zilong smiled slightly, "There is a saying in my hometown, when the naughty child in your family has not moved for a long time, as a parent, you should go and look for it. He must be hiding somewhere to hold back his mischief. This The truth is simple and easy to understand, and it still applies to the Zheng court. Why did Lord Zheng interrupt the operation of the remaining half of the food and expatriates? This is not a decision made casually. I think there is something weird in it. "
Cheng Zilong stood up and walked to a map, which they also bought from Annan Army with money. One map was the whole map of the Zheng family, and the other map was a topographic map near Lang Son House. Of course, limited by the map level of Annan at that time, this map is not particularly accurate. The real high-quality map should be stored in the Thang Long Palace. For Gao Heng and others, this kind of map used by the ordinary local army can barely be used. use.
