Xia Chengde was sitting on one side of the Eight Immortals table, holding a wine bowl in his hand, looking at Lu Pinqi's expression and pondering the considerations behind Lu Pinqi's actions.

In the area under the jurisdiction of Liaodong Town in the twelfth year of Chongzhen, it was very common for soldiers to become generals. Under the big warlords represented by Zu Dashou, various small warlords formed.

Generals with high official positions usually have large armies and are stationed in relatively large cities, such as Jinzhou; generals with lower official positions usually have fewer troops and are stationed in smaller castles, such as Xingshan and Tashan.

, Lianshan like this.

There are also people like Xia Chengde and Lu Pinqi who are marginal figures in the Liaodong Army. They are not direct members of the ancestral family and can only make do with being stationed in a small town together.

However, regardless of whether they have high or low positions, big or small officials, the situation of soldiers and generals is the same, and the men and horses under their command are all their own.

Although Xia Chengde is the deputy general of Songshan and Lu Pinqi is the general of Songshan, the relationship between them is not completely superior and subordinate.

Lu Pinqi's men were actually owned by Lu Pinqi. As Lieutenant General Songshan, if Xia Chengde wanted to mobilize Lu Pinqi's men, he had to obtain Lu Pinqi's consent, and he would have to return them after the deployment.

This has become an unwritten rule, and it is a conventional rule that everyone abides by.

When Jin Guofeng was here, both of them obeyed Jin Guofeng and jointly accepted Jin Guofeng's control and command. After Jin Guofeng left, a foreigner named Yang Zhen came.

At first, both of them were worried that their team would be annexed by Yang Zhen, who had an imperial edict in his hand to establish an advance battalion for the Eastern March, so they stayed together for a while and became very close.

However, ever since Yang Zhen made a public and clear promise not to recruit the two of them into their team, the relationship between the two of them has changed, and has begun to return to the original relationship where they operate independently and do not interfere with each other.

Xia Chengde was full of hope that when facing Yang Zhen, Lu Pinqi could continue to help him and keep each other warm, but now Lu Pinqi no longer thinks so.

Although Yang Zhen is a bit unfamiliar to Lu Pinqi, he is the general of Songshan after all, and he is currently short of people under his command. If he joins here now, he will almost certainly be reused, so why not join him quickly?

?

Even if we take a step back, Yang Zhen's current strategy and tactics for attacking behind enemy lines do not seem to be very wrong. Moreover, with the help of Yuan Jin's naval battalion, he will almost certainly achieve success this time.

Even if you can't make any achievements in this trip, you can at least maintain an undefeated streak, and you can also take this opportunity to get closer to Yang Zhen. If that's the case, what's there to be hesitant about?

This was Lu Pinqi's mentality at this time.

Of course, Yang Zhen had no time to guess his psychology, and Xia Chengde had no way of knowing from his own position at this time.

Although the development of things was a bit unexpectedly smooth, Yang Zhen was still very happy about Lu Pinqi's joining. After a moment of astonishment, he immediately laughed and stood up, held Lu Pinqi's hand tightly, and smiled.

He said:

"Brother Lu! It's really refreshing! What a man! It's also an honor for me, Yang Zhen, to be able to attack behind enemy lines with the heroes of the Songshan Defense War!"

After listening to Yang Zhen's words, Lu Pinqi felt at ease and at the same time said he didn't dare.

Yang Zhen saw from Lu Pinqi's response that he had the intention of getting closer to him or even surrendering to him. He felt even happier and couldn't help laughing again.

That night, the banquet for Yuan Jin to greet him turned into a mission deployment meeting because of Xia Chengde's question.

Yang Zhen not only used this occasion where all the generals were present to persuade Yuan Jin to help him, but he also selected the people who would follow him in the attack, and also the people who would stay behind in Songshan.

In addition to Yuan Jin, Lu Pinqi, and Li Lu, who each chose their own troops to cross the sea with Yang Zhen and go deep behind the enemy lines, there were also Zhang Chen and Zhang Guogan from the advance battalion musketeers, who also wanted to take the musketeers with them.

The left and right wings attack together.

Including Jin Shijun and Ma Keqing who were beside Yang Zhen, as well as Dunn's gun carrying team and Hu Liang's servant team who were transferred to the command of Yang Zhen's army, they also wanted to follow.

At the same time, Yang Zhen also ordered General Qian of the Songshan Minzhuang Camp to promote Anqing and select a team of people to follow him in order to achieve the purpose of training the team.

Correspondingly, Xia Chengde stayed in Songshan City as the deputy general of Songshan and was responsible for the city defense of Songshan City during Yang Zhen's departure.

As the commander of the advance battalion, Zu Keyong stayed at the Empress Palace outside Songshan and was overall responsible for all defenses outside Songshan including Rufenggang, Shahekou and Sailor Camp.

Xu Changyong, who was stationed at Rufenggang, was not in Songshan City, but was arranged to continue to guard Rufenggang and was under the control and command of the advance battalion deputy general Zu Keyong.

As for the ironworks and ammunition factories left behind by the advance camp in Songshan City, Zhang Degui, one of the participating generals of the advance camp, was fully responsible and continued to urge Pan Wenmao, Wang Shoutang and others to step up the organization and production of the guns and ammunition needed by the advance camp.

That night, after Yang Zhen settled everything, the group drank, ate meat, and left happily.

In the morning of the next day, all the troops in Songshan City began to take action. The musketeers and grenadier teams in the advance battalion that were ordered to go out, as well as the accompanying gun team, lined up and went to the ammunition factory in Beixiaochang.

Get the various types of ammunition you need.

In addition to what everyone carries with them, they also need to collect a large amount of spare ammunition, grenades, and tens of thousands of enemies, and send them to the Shahe Pier outside the north gate of Songshan, where they will be transported by boat to the mouth of the Shahe River and loaded onto the large ships staying there.

Lu Pinqi mobilized the 200 cavalrymen under his command who had been selected from the best, and then selected 100 people from them. Each of them was equipped with the best horses, armor, strong bows, hard crossbows and spears in the camp to form a team.

It formed an elite heavy cavalry team that could charge into battle at critical moments.

This is also what Yang Zhen asked of him.

Since Zu Keyong and Xu Changyong could not follow him this time, Yang Zhen needed to have a cavalry team with stronger maneuverability after landing ashore to prepare for emergencies.

Moreover, this cavalry team does not need too many people. It is enough to select a hundred cavalry.

This role can be handed over to Lu Pinqi who wants to make a difference.

Of course, in order to enhance the battlefield mobility of the soldiers of the advance battalion participating in the battle, Yang Zhen, under Zhang Chen's suggestion, hesitated again and again, and finally decided to bring a group of war horses captured from the Tatars.

And after deciding to bring the war horses, Yang Zhen's thinking became more open-minded, and he simply turned the gun-carrying team under Dunn into a "cannon-carrying team" temporarily.

This allowed them to temporarily give up the use of carrying guns, and instead of two people being responsible for one carrying gun, two people were temporarily responsible for a squatting tiger cannon, in order to prepare for firing shotguns at critical moments, thereby blocking the enemy's pursuit.

On the night of April 22, the twelfth year of Chongzhen, after a day of intense work by all the troops, everything was ready.

Yang Zhen was carrying his flintlock musket modified from a Rumi gun. On his right waist was an ammunition bag filled with projectiles and medicine packets. On his left waist was a gun of his own design.

With his one-handed battle ax, surrounded by Zu Keyong, Xia Chengde, Zhang Degui and others, he walked out of the north gate of Songshan City and walked to the boat docking place at Shahe Wharf not far away.

At this time, the tide at the mouth of the Xiaoling River has risen and has poured in. The water level of the Xiaoling River has risen. The big boat that was anchored on the river the night before can already return to the sea.

This also means that it is time for Yang Zhen and the others to set off.

At this moment, the other accompanying troops and baggage have been transferred to the large ship anchored at the intersection of Xiaoling River and Shahe River in advance. The only one missing is Yang Zhen, the commander-in-chief.

"Master General! Regardless of whether you have made any achievements here, please take care of yourself! As the saying goes, if you keep the green hills, you won't have to worry about running out of firewood! As long as the people and the team are there, there will be opportunities to compete with the Tatars in the future!"

Zu Keyong rarely showed his emotions to others, but at this time he rarely showed some rare sentimentality, with a little bit of sentimentality in his words.

"Don't worry! Although I have never actually fought guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines, I don't know anything about how to fight guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines! It is inevitable to make contributions here, it just depends on the size of the credit! I will go and give you a tour first. From now on
Chapter completed!