The advance army for the Eastern Expedition directly led by Yang Zhen was not included in the other five groups in Jinhai Town. It was a direct lineage of troops that Yang Zhen directly commanded in the name of General Zhengdong.

At the beginning of the move, the advance army for the Eastern Expedition, which was ordered to expand its camp into an army, was still the main force under Yang Zhen, but it only had a bluffing name.

At that time, the Eastern Expeditionary Army actually did not have many troops. It only had a few musket posts, a few grenadier posts, and a few pieced together artillery posts.

It is said to be the advance army for the Eastern Expedition, but in fact it is still the same size as the previous advance camp for the Eastern Expedition, only slightly larger than before.

If we exclude the men and horses left behind to guard Songshan City in western Liaoning, all the musketeers, grenadiers and artillerymen who moved with Yang Zhen at that time, together, amounted to 13 sentries, and there were actually 3,900 people.

With such a scale and strength, as an advance battalion, it is barely passable, but as an Eastern Expeditionary Army prepared to stand alone, it is too shabby.

Fortunately, six or seven months have passed, and after Yang Zhen's ups and downs, Jinhai Town is no longer as poor as it was at the beginning of the year when they just moved the defense and restarted the mountains and forests.

Not only did the smelting plant, gun factory, and ammunition factory in the northern city of Lushun far exceed their production capacity and output when they were in Songshan City, but the immigrants from the Sixty-Four Tunnel who had previously been resettled at the southern tip of the Liaodong Peninsula also provided them with self-sufficiency.

There are sufficient sources of soldiers from good families.

Under such circumstances, not only did the strength of the other five groups in Jinhai Town increase rapidly, but the pure firearms team under Yang Zhen, named the Advance Army for the March to the East, also received unprecedented reinforcements.

In more than two months, from the issuance of the conscription order at the end of June to the completion of basic training for each newly formed regiment and camp sentinels in early September, the size and strength of the advance army for the Eastern Expedition almost doubled.

The musketry battalion, which originally had only three sentry posts, suddenly became the First Musketry Regiment of the Eastern March Advance Army with nine sentry posts and all members equipped with flintlock muskets.

The original grenadier battalion with six sentries suddenly became the First Grenadier Regiment of the East Marching Advance Army with eight elite grenadiers.

The artillery battalion, which originally had only four sentries, has now become the First Artillery Regiment of the Eastern Expeditionary Army with forty heavy Hongyi cannons and more than two hundred sky cannons.

Lin Lin finally calculated that the advance army for the Eastern Expedition now has 2,700 fusilier musketeers, 2,400 grenadiers, and more than 1,800 gunners of various types, with a total of three regiments, eight battalions, and 20 troops.

Three sentries, sixty-nine teams, six hundred and ninety men and horses.

If you include the accompanying guards composed of elite soldiers selected by Yang Zhen from each battalion during this period, the strength of the entire advance army for the Eastern Expedition now exceeds 7,000 people.

Although this kind of force is still far behind the size of the army in Yang Zhen's idea, compared with the past, it is definitely a shotgun exchange for cannons, and it is not what it used to be.

Under the hilly terrain of the Liaodong Peninsula, Yang Zhen had such an advance army equipped with various firearms and more than 7,000 soldiers under his command. He finally felt more confident than ever before and felt that

He can face the Manchu Tatars and fight a battle of annihilation.

On the morning of the fourth day of September in the thirteenth year of Chongzhen, Yang Zhen took this all-firearms team, divided into two groups, and went north to the East Road front line.

One is to take the land route. This route consists of the First Musket Regiment of the Eastern Conquest Army commanded by Zhang Chen and the First Grenadier Regiment of the Eastern Conquest Army commanded by Li Lu, and is led by Yang Zhen himself.

Some of them were on horseback and some were on foot. Each of them carried guns and ammunition, and also carried prepared bags of dry food. They marched north along the east coast of the Liaodong Peninsula in a mighty manner.

The second was to take the sea route. This route was composed of Qiu Zhenhai's headquarters of the South Navy, Yan Sheng's Third Division of the Middle Navy, and the First Artillery Regiment of the Eastern Expedition Army led by Yang Shen.

Although the number of Yang Shen's artillery regiment is not large, only more than 1,800 people, the heavy artillery, sky cannons and various ammunition they carry are numerous and extremely heavy.

Including Yang Zhen and his other musketeers and grenadiers who traveled by land, they could not carry all the food and ammunition with the army, so they also needed to rely on the naval fleet to transport it to the front line by sea.

In this way, the Yansheng No. 3 Middle Road Naval Battalion, which had been stationed in Dalian Bay for land reclamation and city building for some time, but had not been put to much use, was also called to Lushunkou by Yang Zhen's transfer order, and acted as a sea transport for ammunition, food and equipment.

Transport team.

In early September, the weather in the Liaodong Peninsula has begun to turn cold. Although the autumn air is crisp and the sun is still bright at noon, there is already heavy dew and frost all morning and night.

Fortunately, Jinhai Town under the command of Yang Zhen is no longer the same as it used to be. Not only have the weapons and ammunition of the various regiments and sentries been replaced with new cannons, but even their military uniforms and uniforms have been fully equipped.

At that time, Yang Zhen and others intercepted the Shanyou caravan on the Dongmeng grassland outside western Liaoning. It carried a large amount of native cotton cloth and countless sheepskins, animal skins and felt tent wool.

Most of these things were brought back to Songshan City in western Liaoning.

Of course, Yang Zhen knew who his enemies were, and knew that they were people who were more adapted to the harsh winter climate of the Northeast and outer Northeast.

In this case, it is certainly impossible for him to ignore the issue of military uniforms, quilts, boots and hats for his own soldiers and horses in winter.

Therefore, when we first moved to Jinhai Town, the large quantities of homespun cotton cloth, sheepskin and animal skins, and large quantities of wool felt intercepted from the prairie caravans followed the fleet across the sea and arrived at Lushunkou.

After that, Yang Zhen asked Zhang Degui to lead the Associate Camp Affairs Office to arrange manpower to rebuild the former Zhengdongying Quilt and Clothing Factory based on the large inventory of these native cotton cloths, sheepskins, animal skins, felt tent wool, etc., and be responsible for unified production and supply.

The uniforms, boots and hats of the entire army.

The mandarin duck war jackets that were originally supposed to be uniformly distributed by the Ministry of War to the nine-border frontier army have been discontinued for many years.

Even the heads of operating battalions in each town of the imperial border army, and the uniforms and uniforms of the sergeants over the years have mostly been made by each battalion.

As time went by, the shapes and colors of the clothes were different, and they became multifarious and chaotic.

But the imperial court itself was unable to distribute the money according to the regulations, so it could only turn a blind eye and pretend that they could not see it.

As for the winter military uniforms produced uniformly by the quilt factory in Jinhai Town, their format is a combination of the Ming Dynasty mandarin duck war jacket and the later cotton army coat.

The traditional soldier war coat of the Ming Dynasty, the so-called Yuanyang war coat, was mostly sewn with coarse cloth on the outside and cotton on the inside. The coat was knee-length, with a double-breasted style, narrow sleeves, and a round collar, and was used with armor.

Yang Zhen asked people to design Jinhai Town's new winter war jacket, which took advantage of the original advantages of the Yuanyang war jacket, such as the use of thick cotton, such as the double placket and narrow sleeve design, but he also made a lot of new designs based on the original

Improvement.

Compared with the old Yuanyang battle coat, the new style battle coat in Jinhae Town is longer. In the past, it was knee-length or knee-high, while the new style reaches below the knee.

In order to produce enough winter coats in a short period of time, the entire army had only one standard style, and that was Yang Zhen's style.

With Yang Zhen's height of over 1.8 meters, it can reach below the knees, but for most other soldiers, it can reach the ankles or even the tops of the feet.

In addition, since there is no cotton here in Jinhae Town, this newly made war coat cannot use cotton like the cotton army coats of later generations, or like the Yuanyang war coat.

But during last year's trip to western Liaoning, they intercepted a large number of tens of thousands of various furs obtained by the Shanyou caravan from customs transactions, especially the largest number of whole sheepskins.

So at this time, the quilt factory couldn't get cotton, so of course it had to use the various furs intercepted at that time.

Of course, the whole piece is best, but the fragmented fur, after being sewn and joined together, can also be cut and used.

The double-breasted battle coat made from this is no worse than the cotton army coats of later generations, and is even better than the old mandarin duck battle coat. It is only slightly inferior in terms of lightness.

That’s all.

Correspondingly, the round neck design of the mandarin duck war coat in the past was also improved by Yang Zhen based on the styles of later cotton army coats. He abandoned the round neck design and adopted a lapel that better matched the double-breasted coat.

style.

In the past, the round neck design exposed a large neck. Although it was covered by the neck gaiter of the armor, in winter in Liaodong, the neck gaiter of the armor could not effectively prevent the cold and keep warm.

Anyway, the inventory of the Jinhai Town Quilt Factory mostly consisted of furs and scraps seized from outside the country, so it became a necessity to sew a circle of fur around the collar of the military coat to serve as a warm fur collar.

choice.

Some people find this small change strange and extremely ugly, but to Yang Zhen, it feels familiar and beautiful.

Of course, in addition to the new military coats, Yang Zhen also did not forget to ask the quilt factory managed by the Associate Battalion Affairs Office to continue using wool felt materials and prepare felt hats with two ear protectors and a large number of felts for the entire army.

Thick wool blanket.

Yang Zhen knew very well that fighting was actually about logistics. He knew that the problem of food, clothing, housing and transportation could not be solved, and it would be useless no matter how many people and horses there were.

Especially after winter, when fighting against the Manchu Tatars who are more adapted to the climate outside the Pass under freezing conditions, once the problem of keeping the army warm and cold cannot be solved, then why fight?

Therefore, when heading north this time, each regiment, camp, and outpost of the advance army for the East Expedition, whether veterans, new troops, or generals and soldiers, each brought enough personal equipment.

In addition to armor, weapons and dry food bags, each person also carried a battle coat, a felt hat and a felt blanket that he had packed on his back.
Chapter completed!