However, Yang Zhen himself had no time to appreciate the reeds under the moonlight, nor did he have time to feel intoxicated or frightened by it, because ever since he learned that Yan San had successfully entered the small river that he had walked through during the day, he had been holding the reeds in his arms tightly.

Musket fell asleep peacefully.

Until the small boat he was riding suddenly rushed onto a shoal and successfully ran aground there. The huge shock woke him up, and also woke up the musketeers who were on the same boat with him from their sleep.

Under Zhang Chen's low scolding, the musketeers on the boat quickly stood up and jumped off. Yang Zhen also jumped off, stepping on a shallow layer of water in the reed marsh, and quickly pulled the boat aside.

, in order to leave a suitable position for subsequent ships, allowing them to smoothly rush out of the waterway and onto a solid shoal.

Yang Zhen, Zhang Chen and others got off the boat, leaving the rowers to stay here. Then, Yan San took the lead and continued to the depths of the reed marsh, heading west.

During the day, the place where they passed had been marked, and Yang Zhan'ao and Guo Xiaowu also marked it for them.

Not long after the group of people walked west, Yan San found a fallen reed, and found the boats left by Yang Zhan'ao and Guo Xiaowu there, but they did not meet the rowers who were traveling with Yang Zhan'ao.

However, it was easier to find the direction, and everyone's confidence increased greatly. After waiting for a while, and gathering all the musketeers and grenadiers, the group headed west in a mighty way.

Going west from here, there is already relatively solid and dry ground, and the power of the rising tide has reached its peak by the place where Yang Zhan'ao and the others abandoned the boat.

So on the way to the west, Yang Zhen's group of people successfully arrived at the edge of the reed marsh without much effort or too long.

What is more laborious is the Grenadier Corps' larger number of "Ten Thousand Enemies" and "Dragon King Cannons". These are relatively bulky and require the Grenadier Corps' soldiers to go back and forth several times.

Only then can it be transported.

The "Ten Thousand Enemies" and "Dragon King Cannon" produced by the Ming Dynasty's official army were very heavy and heavy, and both consumed relatively large amounts of gunpowder.

Especially the "Ten Thousand Enemies", the largest type of "Ten Thousand Enemies" in the Ming Dynasty army, if converted into "kilograms" in later generations, it actually weighed forty kilograms.

If the clay pots carrying gunpowder and caltrops and the wooden boxes used for transportation are removed, the amount of gunpowder and other materials that need to be filled inside must be at least about ten kilograms.

If it weren't for the fact that the quality of the gunpowder was seriously substandard, such an "enemy of ten thousand people" would not live up to its domineering name.

This time, Yang Zhen had put down all the wealth he had accumulated in Ningyuan City.

All the "Ten Thousand Enemies" and "Dragon King Cannon" in stock, as well as the "Dragon King Cannon" obtained from Yuan Jin's naval camp, totaling more than 200 pieces, were all shipped over.

If this battle really fails, there is actually no need for Xu Changyong and Yuan Jin to persuade him, Yang Zhen himself will take the initiative to retreat to the sea to avoid the enemy.

Because if he cannot achieve success in this battle, he will have no capital to continue to rely on to achieve success. He will not even have the capital to set traps and ambush. Since the battle cannot be fought, what is the point of going ashore again?

?

However, Yang Zhen firmly believes that his arrangement this time is very likely to achieve success.

Because in the past twenty years of war between the Ming Dynasty and the Manchu Tatars, the Manchu Tatars had always set traps, lured the enemy, and ambushed the Ming army.

Tatar ambush.

For more than 20 years, the Ming army could not even think of leaving the city to fight in the field. It was as powerful as the Ming Dynasty's Liaodong border army, and they only dared to rely on fortified cities to hold on.

How could these Manchu Tatars, who ravaged the Ming army like nothing and were extremely arrogant and domineering, expect that someone would dare to set up an ambush for them and attack them?

Even if there was an ambush, Yang Zhen expected that with their contempt for the Ming army, they would not back down from the battle, and they would never have imagined that the ambush planned by Yang Zhen would be such an ambush.

First, Yang Zhen led the left wing of the Musketeers and took the lead to the edge of the reed marsh. Yang Zhen had been to this place before and was already familiar with it.

Just at the edge of the sand, Yang Zhen raised his hand to stop the team behind him, squatted on the ground and groped for a moment, found two pebbles, then took them in his hand and tapped them three times.

In the quiet night, the sound of stones hitting stones and the whirring of reeds in the wind seemed very crisp.

After only a moment, a figure suddenly emerged from the woods more than a hundred steps ahead, crouching like a leopard, and quickly ran towards the reed marsh.

Zhang Chen immediately raised his gun and aimed at the figure, and Yang Zhen immediately pressed down the spear held by Zhang Chen with his hand. This was the communication signal he had agreed with Yang Zhan'ao and Guo Xiaowu long ago.

Sure enough, the figure came very quickly. After several ups and downs, it reached a few steps in front of everyone. At this time, Zhang Chen also saw that the person coming was Guo Xiaowu from Yuan Jin's navy camp.

"Sir! Mr. Yang is in the clearing at the end of the forest in front, leading others to secretly dig the horse trap! This area is very clean tonight, and there is not a single Tatar ranger!

Mr. Yang said that your Excellency and the group of Tatars he met yesterday may have crossed the river yesterday and headed north! In short, it is very safe here now! Your Excellency can lead everyone to work with confidence!"

That figure was none other than Guo Xiaowu, whom Yuan Jin had borrowed from the naval camp to steer the ship for Yang Zhan'ao.

After Guo Xiaowu ran over, he made a sound a few steps away. When he arrived in front of Yang Zhen, he immediately knelt down on one knee and quickly reported what they had observed.

"Is there anything going on in the camp outside Songshan City tonight?! Have you looked west? Is there anything unusual?!"

When Yang Zhen heard Guo Xiaowu's words, he felt relieved and asked again. He was also worried that the peace and tranquility here was an illusion.

After all, less than ten miles away, the Tatars were encamped at the Empress Palace on the south bank of the Xiaoling River outside Songshan City. He was very worried that if he was instructing everyone to dig trenches and trap horses, the Tatars would swim at night.

If Qi came here unexpectedly, he would have failed.

But at the same time, he did not dare to send men to go too far west. After last night's surprise attack, the Tatar camp at the Empress Palace would definitely strengthen patrols in case the Tatars did not discover that they were doing construction work here.

As a result, the sentinels he sent were discovered, so any idea of ​​ambushing the Tatars would be met with death.

Yang Zhen looked at Guo Xiaowu under the moonlight. After asking, Guo Xiaowu immediately replied: "I do want to find out! But Yang is always worried about disturbing the Tatars and spoiling the adults."

We didn’t dare to go to such a big event! Ever since we came here, the younger one has followed General Yang’s orders to help look out for the wind, and has been guarding the woods in front without moving anywhere!"

When Yang Zhen heard what Guo Xiaowu said, he finally felt relieved. He immediately called Zhang Chen and Zhang Guogan, as well as Li Lu and Pan Xi, who had already rushed over to join them. Under the moonlight, he led the chief officers and adjutants of the two teams,

When they came to the salt-alkali flats and sandy land in front of them, they divided the areas for each team, assigned tasks, and then asked them to quickly separate and take action.

Previously, the shovel that Yang Zhen asked Zhang Guogan to make and buy in Ningyuan City fully played its due role at this time.

These shovels were only used by the Musketeers themselves. They were made by the blacksmith shop in Ningyuan City according to the shapes drawn by Yang Zhen.

The other dozens of remaining ones were all purchased from the blacksmith shop in Ningyuan City with money, and they come in various shapes.

But no matter what shape it is, it is very useful for digging trenches and communication trenches on sandy soil.

The shovels equipped in Yang Zhen's camp are far behind the multi-functional military shovels and combat-ready shovels that became popular around the world in later generations, but they are enough for the current advance battalion.

Yang Zhen first arranged the excavation tasks for the left and right wings of the Musketeers and the left and right wings of the Grenadier. After they took action, under the guidance of Guo Xiaowu, they went forward to find Yang Zhan'ao.

Yang Zhan'ao knew almost all of Yang Zhen's plans. This time he brought Guo Xiaowu and others here to guard the place, so he prepared shovels in advance.

When they arrived at the scheduled location, Yang Zhan'ao just asked the smarter Guo Xiaowu to find a strong tree in the woods and climb up to look around. He himself led the team of rowers to the scheduled setting.

Excavation began in the area where the horse pit was trapped.

When Yang Zhen arrived, the open land between the platform where the woods were located and the main channel of Xiaoling River was already covered with horse traps dug by them in the middle of the night.

"Sir! This area is full of sandy soil. The sand is loose and easy to dig. The seven of us have dug more than two hundred holes! We haven't even had time to cover them with hay. Look, the digging is so big and deep. It's enough.
Chapter completed!