On the twentieth day of the first lunar month of the fourteenth year of Chongzhen, Yang Zhen, with Qiu Zhenhai as the principal, and Shen Qiyuan, with his subordinate An Wulun as the principal, jointly decided on Yang Zhenna's Shenqi. A letter of appointment for the daughter of the distant concubine to be the concubine.

Of course, Yang Zhen was very generous about such a thing, and took out a large number of spears, waist knives, strong bows, hard crossbows and the grain, grass and cloth that Shen Qiyuan needed more from the Qing camp outside the city as betrothal gifts.

Anyway, these things were originally plundered from the imperial court by soldiers and horses of the Qing Dynasty Xianglan Banner and the Han army of the Zhenghuang Banner. Now they are given as betrothal gifts to Shen Qiyuan, who has become a family since then, and Yang Zhen does not care. Feeling distressed.

Correspondingly, after two days of intense negotiations, Qiu Zhenhai and Shen Qiyuan's envoy An Wulun also reached an agreement on the woman's "dowry".

The so-called northern troops of Hening State under Shen Qiyuan will withdraw from the two cities of Anzhou and Ningbian, and give these two cities to the troops of Jinhai Town.

Then, the two sides temporarily used the line between Anju and Yongbyon east of the Cheongcheon River as the boundary.

In the area west of the boundary, soldiers and horses far away from Shenqi will not enter.

In the area east of the limit, soldiers and horses from Jinhai Town cannot appear.

Of course, Shen Qiyuan's soldiers and horses, which have been stationed in the small towns of Anzhou and Yongbyon, will naturally not retreat on their own.

The "handover" of the city requires the cooperation of the soldiers and horses of Jinhae Town, and the two sides need to "fight" like they did on Ganghwa Island.

It's just that this time, the party that is "defeated" will be Shen Qiyuan's troops.

Shen Qiyuan made such a request through An Wulun. Of course, Yang Zhen understood it and agreed wholeheartedly.

When it comes to acting, you have to be a little bit more similar.

Although Yang Zhen has always been suspicious, he is not worried about any traps or anything like this.

In fact, in the process of dealing with Shen Qiyuan, Yang Zhen has always been in the leading position.

In addition to possessing the strength of soldiers and horses that far exceeds Shen Qiyuan's, Yang Zhen also has too many handles on Shen Qiyuan and is not afraid of him doing anything fishy.

After negotiating these matters, on the morning of the 21st of the first lunar month, Yang Zhen went to the Wengcheng in Zhenjiangmen to see off An Wulun and his entourage.

Although the marriage between Yang and Shen has been finalized, it will be really implemented in the future.

As for the large number of "betrothal gifts" promised by Yang Zhen, it is naturally impossible to deliver and transport them at the moment. They need to wait until the spring season and the rivers and seas become navigable to transport them by sea.

After all, it is a distance of four to five hundred miles from Zhenjiang Fort to the east to Pingxi City, and it is not safe to travel by land now.

Correspondingly, the "delivery" of the two small towns of Anju and Yongbyon along the Chongchuan River cannot be carried out until Yang Zhen's betrothal gift arrives.

After Yang Zhen sent An Wulun and his party away, his departure from Zhenjiang Fort and his return to the south was officially put on the agenda.

On the 24th of the first month of the fourteenth year of Chongzhen, Yang Zhen led Zhang Chen, Zhang Guogan, Li Shouzhong, Qiu Biyong and others, as well as the main force of the musketry regiment of the advance army for the Eastern Expedition, and embarked on the return journey south.

Of course, after sending away Shen Qiyuan's envoy An Wulun, Shen Qicheng, who had been successfully promoted to Yang Zhen's "elder", also had no need to stay in Zhenjiang Fort.

He and Lin Qingye were also worried about the settlement of the large number of returning Korean volunteers and civilians temporarily stationed near Shicheng Island.

Therefore, he also left Zhenjiang Castle with Yang Zhen's team returning south.

Correspondingly, Li Lu, who was the deputy general of the Central Army of the Advance Army to the East and the battalion commander of the Grenadier Regiment, was left behind by Yang Zhen. Together with Yang Shen and others, he was responsible for the entire follow-up brigade's journey south.

As for the newly recruited members of the loyal and loyal Gui Ming Army, those who are already in front of the Zhenjiang Fort Army will temporarily stay in front of the Zhenjiang Fort Army to serve.

For example, the troops of An Yingchang, the commander of the Zhongyi Gui Ming Army, and the troops of Yuhou Liulin, the commander of the Zhongyi Gui Ming Army, are like this.

After all, there are still quite a lot of affairs that need to be dealt with in the Zhenjiang Fort area, and they cannot just break up after Yang Zhen leaves.

As for those who are not in front of the Zhenjiang Fort Army, such as the people brought by Shen Qicheng from Pingyi and Lin Qingye's navy fleet, they must go to the garrison designated by Yang Zhen as soon as possible - the area around East and West Gaoli City for reorganization and training.

Regarding the specific reorganization and training of the Loyalty and Gui Ming Army, Yang Zhen did not want to interfere too much and only gave them a general direction.

Of course, Yang Zhen would not arm all the soldiers and horses in Jinhai Town with their own inadequate guns and firearms.

In fact, in Yang Zhen's mind, the troops under his command, including the Zhongyi Gui Ming Army, are generally divided into three categories:

The first category is, of course, the advance army for the Eastern Expedition directly led by Yang Zhen himself, which currently includes the three major weapons regiments and battalions of the Eastern Expedition Army.

This is the direct descendant of Yang Zhen. Whether it is military equipment or food and salary supplies, they are all ranked first.

The second category includes the military and horse battalion heads of the southeast, northwest, and central routes under the jurisdiction of Jinhai Town, and also includes the soldiers and horses of the Songshan Regiment and the newly established Andong Regiment.

The composition of the troops here is quite mixed, with everyone included, including the trusted men arranged by Yang Zhen, as well as the battalion heads of the various assisting generals who were assigned to guard the camp.

In Yang Zhen's mind, they are the local guards stationed in various villages under the jurisdiction of Jinhai Town, and their status is second only to the advance army of the Eastern Expedition directly led by Yang Zhen, the General of the Eastern Expedition.

On the issue of food and salary supplies, they followed the same standards as the advance army for the Eastern Expedition.

But in terms of ordnance and equipment, currently they can only get what has been eliminated from the major regiments and camps of the Eastern Expedition Army, or what is left over from the major regiments and camps of the Eastern Expedition Army.

Although Yang Zhen has not said this explicitly, both Zhang Degui, who presides over the Co-Coordinated Camp Affairs Office, and Pan Wenmao, who presides over the North City Armory in Lushun, have already understood this tacitly.

Similarly, the other general officers of the various defenses also knew this very well, but they didn't care much.

Because their original soldiers and horse tribes, which are their so-called direct line battalion leaders, are not pure firearms battalion leaders.

Among their original soldiers and horses, the proportion of flintlock guns, flying generals, sky cannons and heavy red barbarian cannons was originally very small, and some were simply blank, and they did not form a full-scale operation that relied on firearms. Habit.

Correspondingly, the firearms teams in various regiment camps in Jinhai Town are almost all trusted personnel sent by Yang Zhen and mixed into them.

Regarding the equipment problems of the firearms teams assigned to their own regiments, the generals of the various defense forces were also very relieved, knowing that Yang Zhen would not treat these people badly, so they were too lazy to get involved.

Then the third category is the accompanying servant army like the Zhongyi Gui Ming Army.

For this type of team, Yang Zhen would not put too much effort into equipping and training them.

At least until they win Yang Zhen's absolute trust, Yang Zhen won't put too much effort into equipping and training them.

If they collapse on the battlefield, no matter how good the equipment is, it will only give your enemy an advantage in the end.

Therefore, regarding the reorganization requirements of the Loyalty and Gui Ming Army, Yang Zhen currently mainly asks them to organize and train a large number of spearmen, crossbowmen and long-hand sentry units, as well as several light cavalry units of the sentry units.

There are many reasons why the main force of Yang Zhen's Eastern Expeditionary Army and the local garrison troops in Jinhai Town have never dared to fight in the field with the Qing army.

But a very important one is that due to the lack of favorable geographical conditions and effective protection in the wild, neither the various units of the Eastern Conquest Army, which have a relatively high proportion of firearms, nor other local regiments and camps, can withstand the Qinglu Brigade.

Cavalry charge.

Yang Zhen himself knew very well that every battle in the past was basically carried out at a location chosen by himself and on a position constructed in advance.

To put it bluntly, every battle he carried out against Qinglu, except for a small number of surprise attacks, was basically an active defensive operation carried out on the battlefield he had carefully created.

This kind of combat method is actually relatively passive, equivalent to waiting for the enemy to attack you.

If you want to achieve results, you can only wait for the enemy to fall into the trap you have prepared.

Of course Yang Zhen doesn't want this situation to continue any longer.

However, to make changes, you must first change the composition of the troops under your command.

Yang Zhen now has a relatively powerful navy and sharp firearms that can rely on solid fortifications for defensive operations.

If Yang Zhen had been on the defensive in Jinhae Town, it should be said that he would have been in an invincible position.

But he can't go on forever, both public and private, and he can't always sit on a large army without daring to attack head-on.

Then, next, he will seriously consider how to fight the war to the enemy's side.

This requires establishing a cold weapon team as soon as possible that can cooperate with the main force of Yang Zhen's March to the East Army.

When fighting in the field, they can be used as the peripheral troops of Yang Zhen's musketeers, grenadiers and gunners, providing a safety barrier for Yang Zhen's pure firearms regiment.

In Yang Zhen's view, this cold weapon team must first be able to withstand the impact of the cavalry, secondly they must be able to withstand the rain of arrows thrown by Qinglu archers, and thirdly they must be able to buy time for the musketeers and gunners to reload ammunition.

Yang Zhen thought about it and found no other better option besides training a large number of spearmen, long card players and crossbowmen as soon as possible.

Therefore, Yang Zhen set his sights on the newly formed Loyalty Gui Ming Army. They had enough people and horses, and they mostly used cold weapons such as spears, swords, shields, bows and arrows. It can be said that they were the only battalion leaders to undertake such a task.

.

On the way back to the south, Yang Zhen walked and talked with Shen Qicheng, Lin Qingye and other court generals.

Lin Qingye strongly agreed with Yang Zhen's idea of ​​training a large number of spearmen, longhands and crossbowmen who could be quickly trained under the premise of strict military discipline, while Shen Qicheng was indispensable.

Compared with people like Lin Qingye who have rich practical experience, Shen Qicheng is more of a scholar who likes to talk on paper and has a bit of Ye Gong's love for dragons.

When it comes to military strategy, he is full of confidence and clear-headed, but when it comes to the specific handling of camp affairs, specific troop training and ordnance equipment, his eyesight goes dark.

Fortunately, this man didn't pretend to understand things he didn't understand. Since the Shen family was married to Yang Zhen, he didn't worry that Yang Zhen would harm him.

When he realized that he didn't quite understand what Yang Zhen was talking about, and Lin Qingye, who was born in the army, strongly agreed with Yang Zhen's ideas, he finally became the boss and directly reorganized and trained all the units of the loyal Ming army under his command. It was handed over to Lin Qingye.

As the group walked and talked all the way, the trip couldn't go faster.
Chapter completed!