"Report to Futai, the Grand Canal is thirty miles ahead!"

Ma Degong's Chuanqi Tang Ma flew to the front of Gao Hongtu's horse. The soldiers of the Shandong Regiment Training Twenty Association, plus Li Chengdong, and Ma Degong's troops totaled more than 46,000 people. They marched west from Jinan along a road. From the Grand Canal to the Bohai Bay, a medium-sized river named "Tu River" moves forward at a very fast pace.

The distance from Licheng, Fucheng of Jinan, to Liaocheng, Fucheng of Dongchang is really not that far. Even if you take a detour via Tuhe River, it is only over 200 miles. If you walk fifty miles in one day, you can finish it in four days.

However, the 46,000-strong regiment training army led by Governor Gao Hongtu was an "engineering team". As it advanced, it built bastions and docks along the Tuhe River - each bastion was carefully sited, and was built along the river. They also diverted water from the Tu River into the trench, and at the same time built docks on the Tu River near the bastion wall. As long as the Tu River could be used for navigation, these fortresses built along the water could easily be 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 could sail and fight on the Daqing River and Tu River, so as to form a "Regiment Lian Shui" force. "Teacher".

However, the regiment training division has not yet been built, and the shipyard in Yantou Town has just opened. Even the 50,000 regiment training troops led by Gao Hongtu are all scratch-made. Equipment, training, organization and other aspects are not in place.

Fortunately, Gao Hongtu himself has thousands of patrols, and he is relatively capable at both the top and bottom, so he can divide them into the backbone of the regiment training. With these thousands of backbones, plus Jinan, Yanzhou, and Qingzhou, there are twenty or thirty prefectures. The landowners and wealthy people in the county were all favored by the governor, and there were also refugees who had escaped from Northern Zhili and Yanbian counties close to the Qing Dynasty who could be recruited. The Shandong regiment training army 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.

Secondly, there is a shortage of firearms and the quality is very poor. There are no bird guns, turtle-dove foot guns, Hongyi cannons, and three-pound regiment 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 plenty of money. ...Gao Hongtu had no money, so of course he couldn't afford good things, and he didn't have the skills to make his own. So he could only make a few general cannons, assault cannons, squatting tiger cannons, and three-eyed blunderbuss.

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 carts were built - Duduo would "repay others with their own way". Gao Hongtu was also familiar with the Three Kingdoms, so he also made artificial shield carts. These shield carts can not only be equipped with large wooden shields , used for defense, and can also transport food and supplies, which are distributed to each flag team 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 20 of them.

With these 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, it will not be easy for Gao Hongtu's 20th Regiment Training Army to deal with it.

In fact, although these Shandong regiments have poor equipment and little military pay (the most common regiment members have one or two silver a month), their combat effectiveness is actually not weak. Compared to the servants of the Ming army generals, they are not as good as ordinary ones.

The weak soldiers of the Ming army can't compare with them!

It's true!

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. Their ability to harm the common people is much better than marching to fight!

Gao Hongtu's Shandong regiment training is good in the three aspects of organization, discipline, and spirit. The basis of the regiment training organization is the interpersonal relationships of fellow clansmen, 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.

This group of people is 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, and defend Confucius... they know why they are fighting!

Therefore, in terms of the spirit of the troops, they are also stronger than most of the Ming army.

Even the so-called 6,000-strong force led by two veteran generals, Li Chengdong and Ma Degong, seemed to be in a state of despair and difficult to control during these days of operating with the Shandong regiment training army.

These "powerful troops" just guarded the front and rear of the regiment training brigade and did nothing except marching. Even so, they often complained and asked Gao Hongtu for this and that. From time to time, they also robbed markets, villages, and Tatars.

He was almost the same as his son, which 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. They can do whatever Gao Hongtu asks them to do, and there are no requirements. If they can provide three meals a day, they can earn one tael of silver per month.

Satisfied. I don't know if these old farmers can be defeated, but they can definitely work. It's a good idea to build a fort or something with them.

If Gao Hongtu hadn't been unsure about the performance of his "migrant workers" on the battlefield, he wouldn't have been willing to take Li Chengdong and Ma Degong, the two scourges, into the 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 them."

"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 behind to garrison them.

Currently, there are only 11 troops left with Gao Hongtu, Li Xiehe, Li Chengdong, and Ma Degong. The total strength is about 28,000 people, and there are more than 1,000 shield vehicles and artillery vehicles.
Chapter completed!