Chapter 1699 Renzijuan Encounter
Zhang Dingyuan was also particularly embarrassed when he received the order.
The brothers below are all exhausted. As soon as this order comes out, everyone will definitely be filled with resentment.
After walking more than a hundred miles, everyone has consciously strengthened their marching training since the formation, but that is training.
The highest intensity of the daily training marches was only forty to fifty miles. Although the zipper marches exceeded a hundred miles a few times, they were never full marches like this, where everyone was fully armed and brought all their belongings with them. Moreover, the time schedule was much stricter. There was almost no buffering during the breaks.
But military orders are military orders, and there is no room for maneuver.
Besides, the generals treat everyone well, and most of the elite officers below are from the elites of Liaodong. The soldiers are selected from the best among the Yong civilians and the old Beijing camp. After several rounds of elimination, no matter in terms of morale, Both physically and mentally he are several levels better than Lao Jingying.
Because all the headquarters is equipped with fire gun troops, it has adopted a new organizational structure from the beginning. For example, there are three fire gun garrisons under the command of General He Huchen. Each garrison has three departments, a total of nine departments and 2,700 fire gunmen. A general directly leads the musketry department and is currently equipped with a matchlock gun, but it is said that it may be changed to a new self-generating musket in the future.
Each department has a thousand commanders, and each commander is responsible for three generals, with a total of three hundred gunmen.
In addition, the hawkbill musket has a commander of 1,000 people, who is under the direct leadership of the general; the spear corps has two garrisons and has five divisions; the artillery team has a commander of 1,000 people, who is directly led by the general; the logistics support team has a commander of 1,000 people, who is directly led by the general. Straight collar.
In this way, this force with the Fire Gun Army as the core force is actually divided into three clusters, also the Fire Gun Group, the second is the melee cluster, and the third is the support cluster. It is said that this is the result of the General's acceptance of a certain The strange name was given based on the advice of a big shot, but Master Jiedushi didn't seem to care about it, but the people below him talked about it for a while and then slowly accepted it.
When the order came, Zhang Dingyuan could only accept it. He also saw that the other two spear commanders also had reluctant expressions, but the commander of the hawk-billed gun looked indifferent.
Although Zhang Dingyuan knew the hawk-billed musket commander, he was not familiar with him. He only knew that his surname was Zhou, and the two commanders of the spear team were slightly familiar with him.
Because from the later stage, the generals consciously began to organize the Fire Gun Army and the Spear Army to conduct combined formation drills. The main purpose was to conduct formation change drills in marching and stationary states according to passwords and flags. The purpose was to prepare for field battles. The player can quickly adjust the formation to optimize the battle.
This is also the most difficult training for the Fire Gun Army and the Spear Army, because it involves formation change drills. Although it does not seem complicated, several units need to be divided into day and night drills in different terrains. In addition, the soldiers are very familiar with the training. It is difficult to understand passwords and flags, which requires intensive training for the entire officer group, which is very frustrating.
And the key point is that many of the passwords and flags have no fixed standards. They are all temporarily grouped together to discuss and learn. The only booklet is said to be something passed down from a certain department in Jizhen as a basic regulation. There are also many fallacies, and it all depends on everyone to explore and correct them in actual exercises.
In the past six months of training, everyone has actually become proficient in the design and practice of firecrackers, so the later training was mainly to coordinate with the formation of the spear team, which made everyone exhausted.
But as the General said, once a battle breaks out and the enemy cavalry breaks through the long-range strike range and rushes over, they will have to rely on the spear team to protect them.
If you are not skilled in this period and do not change the formation in time, then everyone will have to wait to be chopped up and chopped.
It’s about your own life, no matter how hard or tired you are, you have to hold on, but no one thinks there’s anything wrong.
"Three of you, the order has been issued. I know that all our brothers are very tired, but there is no other way. Just eat food and serve as soldiers. That's it. When I was in Liaodong, in the cold winter, I gave an order from above to drink ice and lie down in the snow. We have to go up, this is our fate, at least we are much stronger here, let’s discuss it and talk about the plan.”
Zhang Dingyuan naturally acted as the commander-in-chief, and the two commanders of the Spear Brigade and the Eagle-billed Gun Commander had no objections.
"The order was given by the General in person. The Yuhe Stone Bridge must be taken down immediately and controlled by us. Now that the scouts have passed, it is estimated that we can give feedback on the way. According to the prediction of the General, if the Xuanfu army has passed After arriving at Longhu Terrace, even if their main camp has not yet reached Hongqiao, the forwards have already arrived at Red Bridge. The scout team will definitely have reached our line. I don't believe that the Xuanfu army can be careless to reach twenty or thirty miles away. Even the scouts didn’t reveal it,…”
To be precise, among these people, only Zhang Dingyuan has actually fought on the battlefield.
As one of the people brought by Zuo Liangyu and the others, he was sent to He Huchen's department as a backbone to form the New Beijing Battalion. Later, he simply went to Beijing and quickly grew from a member of the Liaodong soldiers to the Qian General. The pressure that comes is also huge.
It used to be a team of people, but now he has hundreds of people, and the tactics have also undergone huge changes. They are starting from scratch, so Zhang Dingyuan does not dare to neglect at all.
"We have no control over how the Xuanfu army came to Beijing. Whether it is rebellion or rebellion, that is not our business. Our mission is to capture and control the Yuhe Stone Bridge. If the Xuanfu army scouts do not Well, needless to say, according to the established formation, resist the horses and block the stone bridge. If the enemy has scouts or even a small number of cavalry forward, we form a formation, force them to retreat, and take control of the stone bridge. It is that simple, but it is a life-saving effort. It’s a job, so everyone has to follow the training regulations, use the mountain formation when marching, and change to the trapezoid formation when stopping, is there any problem?"
Several people nodded in agreement, but one of the spearmen, Wang Xian, expressed concern: "It is not easy to march at night. If the enemy cavalry has crossed the bridge, it is very likely to harass us. This must be guarded against."
This official road is wide enough for hundreds of people to march. The only worry is that it is getting dark. The worst result is that the enemy cavalry has already approached the stone bridge or even crossed the stone bridge. Then they may face the enemy's cavalry. Assault requires following the combat marching formation. Although it is slower, it can be more stable.
"What Brother Wang said makes sense, so we can distance our formation slightly and maintain a combat status. Once encountering an enemy attack, the Spear Army can remain on alert and the Fire Gun Army can attack, but I believe the enemy has not crossed the bridge yet, at least There won't be too many people crossing the bridge to stop us from moving forward." Zhang Dingyuan replied firmly.
Another Chief Qianqiang also nodded in agreement: "Just proceed according to this plan, and we will set up defenses at the end of the stone bridge."
Zhang Dingyuan nodded with satisfaction, and then added: "Brother Zhou, you don't have to worry about the road, just follow the march, but your brothers behind will probably have to work harder. When they arrive at the stone bridge, I'm afraid they will have to set up a formation and take advantage of the range of your hawksbill. Covering the entire vicinity on the other side of the bridge on the north side of the river buys time for our side..."
Zhou Zhanpeng, the commander-in-chief of the Eagle-billed Guns, nodded silently: "There is no problem on my side."
Although Zhou Zhanpeng is only the commander-in-chief, his status is different. The Eagle-billed Gun Division is directly led by He Huchen. As a commander-in-chief, he may not be much lower than other military commanders. Of course, he also knows that arguing in this situation is seeking death. , and the other party respects him very much, and he is very satisfied.
As for the need to fortify the bridge, his men and horses need to shoulder greater responsibilities, and he is happy to see this happen.
He came here to fight. He was originally from Yongminzhuang. He was originally a garrison guard and had practiced military affairs. However, he later felt that garrison guarding was meaningless, so he fled to western Liaoning. In the end, he was captured and was directly transferred to the army. Who He once thought that after entering the Jingying camp, he would have the foundation and felt that the Jingying camp also had a future, so he trained very hard and was selected into the Eagle-billed Guns Department. He quickly stood out and was promoted to the commander-in-chief.
Because this unit trains hard, it is highly regarded by He Huchen.
After finishing the arrangement in a few words, Zhang Dingyuan immediately issued an order, requiring all ministries to immediately start marching according to the formation, raise fire in the dark, and quickly go north.
The place is really not far away for more than two miles. According to Zhang Dingyuan's idea, it will be reached soon. However, as soon as he walked less than a mile, his idea was shattered by the sound of rapid horse hooves and some hoarse shouts: "Xuan Xuan." The front cavalry of the government army has crossed the bridge!"
It’s the scout who was just sent out!
Zhang Dingyuan's heart sank, but he did not panic. He had prepared for the worst before, that is, the enemy's forwards had arrived, but he thought they might encounter them on the river bank, but now it seems that the situation is worse than imagined. , but the only lucky thing is that Gonghua City is still there. Calculated from this, the enemy troops should have just arrived, otherwise the hundreds of people in Gonghua City would not be still there at all.
Zhang Dingyuan stabilized his mind and immediately gave orders to the soldiers around him. Soon a rich voice sounded: "Keep marching in the mountain formation, keep the distance tight, and keep the speed unchanged!"
When they heard Zhang Dingyuan's order, the two-winged spear troops who were still a little worried immediately stabilized themselves under the reprimands of the officers. As long as they have a backbone and so many companions around them, their morale will not collapse.
But morale will not collapse, which does not mean that there will be no casualties. Soon the enemy cavalry and archers appeared on the left. A series of projectiles caused bursts of screams in the spear army on the left, and then the officers The scolding sound caused some confusion for a while.
Zhang Dingyuan also sighed in his heart. After all, he is still a new army and has never experienced the baptism of blood and fire. If he were in the Liaodong Army, such an itchy harassment would not be a problem at all. Even if there were casualties, they would have to be covered by me. You can't make any noise and affect the march. Of course, this refers to the governor's personal army.
(End of this chapter)