Hou Shengwu has been promoted to the commander of the engineering corps. He is responsible for commanding the engineering corps.
This time Yang Fan led the army on an expedition and needed to repair the roads along the way to ensure the transportation of military supplies. They were half a month ahead of schedule, and the engineering corps had already set off before the Spring Festival.
Their main task is to open roads across mountains and build bridges when encountering water. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, there was financial difficulty and the official roads were in disrepair. Yang Fan's logistics supply was restricted by road transportation conditions. Therefore, the roads must be repaired in advance.
Although the train has not been opened yet, Yang Fan's transportation group already has four-wheeled large caravans. These heavy-duty transport carriages are pulled by more than a dozen strong oxen and can pull seven tons of load at a time.
However, the road conditions must be similar. If the roads are all very poor, the caravan with rubber tires will get stuck. Therefore, the roads along the way must be repaired first.
It is impossible to rebuild it. First of all, the court will not provide the money.
Yang Fan doesn't have the time and energy. He can only repair the original foundation first. Fill in the holes and widen the narrow roads. Use explosives to blow up the narrow roads in the mountains and transform the road into a road no less than double.
Driveway of sandy dirt road gravel road.
The army had just set off, but the engineering regiment had already arrived in Huailai.
Yang Fan specially converted two newly equipped steam engine cars into bulldozers and road rollers and gave them to the engineering corps. With these two machines, the construction speed was greatly accelerated.
The steam engine is very large, heavy, and slow. It can only reach a speed of less than 10 kilometers per hour. The weight of the entire vehicle reaches 28 tons. However, it is perfect for use as a road roller and bulldozer. Although the speed is slow, the kinetic energy is amazing.
During this half month, we started from Changping and entered the mountains and valleys, traveling along the official road.
The demolition team directly drilled holes and blasted to widen the hillsides on both sides. Then, the bulldozers directly pushed over to flatten the road surface, and finally the road rollers drove over to compact the road surface.
Finally, the engineers unloaded the whole truckload of lime, covered the road, and then watered it. The lime will heat up when it meets water and melt the ice and snow on the road. They use ox-pulled stone rollers to fill the soil again and compact the road back and forth. In this way, the ground will be
been hardened.
There are many lime mines and kilns for burning lime, and these can be abundantly supplied near Gyeonggi Province.
In the past half month, 3,600 people from the engineering corps have worked hard and repaired this most difficult mountain road to a very good condition.
During this expedition, Yang Fan took 3,600 cavalry from the Jian Ding Regiment as his personal soldiers. The Dragoon Regiment and the Xinghe Regiment were trained, and Yang Fan stayed in the territory to prevent the invasion of Jiannu.
The military power was handed over to Xiao Niangpi. Lin Yueru served as Xiao Niangpi's deputy and provided intelligence support.
Because of Chongzhen's action to withdraw troops, Yang Fan had handed over the 3,600 chariot soldiers guarding Qianhu Station in Hexi Province. These chariot battalions were handed over to Zhang Shize by Chongzhen to lead the expedition this time.
The six thousand Rumi gun soldiers trained by Zhang Shize were handed over to Zhou Yuji.
The army stationed in Changping that was defeated by the pirates was reorganized and reorganized into three battalions, each with about 5,000 men, totaling 15,000 men. Together with Zhou Yuji, the total army was 21,000 men.
Thousands of people were stationed in the capital to fill the emptiness left after the expedition.
Twenty thousand people were stationed at the Jingshan Houxiaochang Military Camp that Yang Fan had repaired. In the future, when the Jingying Army returned from the Western Expedition, they would be stationed at the Nanyuan Military Camp.
The original commander of Changping's army mobilized from Xuanfu was veteran general Dong Jishu. However, he was dismissed because his soldiers were defeated. Zuo Liangyu, Meng Ruhu, and Hu Dawei remained in office, and each continued to manage a battalion.
Now the temporary commander was replaced by the emperor and Zhou Yuji.
The emperor raised money from all over and equipped the 21,000 men with horses. They were converted into cavalry. The 6,000 Lumi gunmen maneuvered on horseback and dismounted to fight on the battlefield.
The emperor also considered waiting for Yang Fan's return and handing over the troops to Zhang Shize.
At the same time, the Hexi garrison Qianhu camp was also added, plus Zhang Shize's personal barracks of 1,000 people. The total number was 25,600 people.
This unit has a car camp as a barrier during field operations. There are 6,000 Rumi gunners who can use the car camp cover to shoot outwards. At the same time, the car camp also has 500 thousand-jin copper-haired heavy artillery. There are three more inside the car camp.
At the head of the battalion, there are fifteen thousand cavalry. They can attack from the carriage camp at any time.
Chongzhen believed that his arrangements were foolproof. By integrating the best armies, he would have the confidence to launch the Qing army in the next step. In the second year of Chongzhen, everything was pushed to the back, and only the Qing army was the top priority.
.
The emperors of the Ming Dynasty, as long as they came to power, all wanted the Qing army. When Yingzong was halfway through the Qing army, the Tumubao Incident happened and he was forced to stop. After his restoration, he wanted the Qing army again, and then the Capital Mutiny, known in history
Cao Qin's Rebellion. After the rebellion was suppressed, Yingzong was seized power again and was basically ignored. He died within a few years.
Wu Zong wanted to get rid of the Qing army again, but later fell into the water. Jiajing also tried it, but later backed down. Zhang Juzheng also did it, but later he died and the government ceased. Now Chongzhen also has this idea. The reason why he trained Yang Fan hard and fought in actual combat regardless of his appearance.
The car dealership that had inspected it was removed to do this.
From now on, this unit will be permanently stationed at Jingshan Military Camp as a personal army under his personal command.
Chongzhen saw the combat effectiveness of this car camp in Yang Fan's victory in the war against Haraqin and Duoyan this year.
Therefore, he took the car camp away from Yang Fan without hesitation. As for the money and effort Yang Fan spent on this car camp, in his opinion, the knighthood was enough to make up for it.
The title of Ming Dynasty is so precious, Yang Fan should be grateful.
Yang Fan had actually long expected that the emperor might be interested in his army, so he arranged a car camp in advance that looked fat but was actually insignificant to Yang Fan.
At this time, the engineer battalion was resting outside Huailai County. During this period, the engineers were exhausted. Although there were bulldozers, road rollers, and explosives to dig into the mountains and blast rocks, there was a total of 16 kilometers long from Changping Nankou Town into the mountains.
The valley was dry for ten days.
Exiting the valley is the Yanqing Plain. There are two Great Wall passes on the road in this section of the valley, Juyongguan and Badaling. After this section, it is all plains, which are large pieces of flat land in the mountains. You can go directly to Huailai County.
The Engineer Corps is Yang Fan's private army. They don't wear military uniforms and are known as the Zunhua Road and Bridge Construction Trading Company. They repair the roads along the way in the name of being hired by Dingyuan Bo. In order not to cause trouble, they did not go to the county to garrison. Instead, they went to the county town.
A very special place.
This place is not far from Huailai County.
This place is called Tumubao, the place where Yingzong wiped out all the troops in the capital camp.
"Let's camp here and wait for the master's army. The rest of the way is easy." Hou Shengwu said to the battalion commanders and captains.