Zhejiang Vice General Luo Qing is now the highest-ranking officer that Yin Feng bribed among the court military officers. His Zhejiang soldiers began to retreat in Nanjing City. They were one of the culprits who caused Nanjing City to fall into the hands of the Chinese army.
After fleeing back to Huzhou, he gathered more than 3,000 people in the headquarters, with almost no casualties. He then retreated to Hangzhou in the south and was then dismissed by Zhang Heming and investigated. Then, he bribed the eunuch Liu Tang, the governor of Zhejiang through the funding of the China Company. At this time, the position of general officer of Zhejiang was absent. No officer in Zhejiang had the qualifications of a single officer who could compare with Luo Qing. Therefore, Luo Qing was restored to his post a month later. Moreover, because he had soldiers at hand, he was temporarily appointed as deputy general of Guangde. Command the army from Jiangxi who came to reinforce.
In the last few months of the 45th year of Wanli, southern soldiers from Zhejiang and other places also received an order to draw troops to Jiujiang, Jiangxi, Luzhou traveled north and south through Henan and to reinforce the war in the capital.
Luo Qing's Zhejiang soldiers were also drawn. He had already recognized the situation: it is impossible to fight a major war in Jiangnan. The Chinese army's status in Jiangnan cannot be shaken. No matter what the outcome of this battle is, the China United The company and Yin Feng will become an important force in the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, after he was restored, he immediately regained contact with the spy who remained in his own troops in the Ministry of Business and Information of the Chinese Company. He also had a secret stake in Hangzhou with the Chinese Army. The detailed work was made to contact us. The deployment of Zhejiang soldiers or Jiangxi troops to the north, the staff and the marching schedule were reported to the Chinese army.
Yin Feng ordered that all information about the war on the Northern Front must be sent to Chen Zhongji, Tianjin Wei, in a double backup form (three pigeons send one piece of information) by flying pigeons.
...
On the sixth day after the withdrawal of troops from the capital, Chen Zhongji received a letter from Fei Ge from Nanjing, telling him that the Sichuan Shiquan Baigang soldiers who were originally scheduled to fight to Nanjing had turned to reinforce the battlefield of the capital. The schedule was calculated. The day is about to arrive in the capital.
White pole soldier.
Chen Zhongji quickly found Zeng Qing, the director of Northern Intelligence, and handed him the information. Zeng Qing's level allowed him to know a little about the situation of the White Rod Soldier.
"General Manager Chen. Five days ago, the Baigang Bing has arrived in Baoding."
"Why did the ship owner specifically mention the Baigang Soldier in the intelligence notice? We have also contacted a lot of soldiers from Sichuan these days. Basically, there is nothing extraordinary except running fast."
Zeng Qing thought for a while and said, "This is not clear. The Military Intelligence Department has briefings on the situation of some government troops in various places. I'll look for it and see what happened to this white-rod soldier."
Chen Zhongji nodded: "Thank you for your hard work. Brother Zeng. Have the personnel who continue to lurk in the Jingqu area been arranged?"
Zeng Qing bowed and said, "It's not a matter of hard work to do things for the ship owner. I'm going to send the Sea Urchin to Jinling. Do you want to give you one?"
Chen Zhongji shook his head: "I just asked if there is a place where I need my help. The affairs of the intelligence department are Guangze and Zeng Liuye. I don't care."
Zeng Qing nodded expressionlessly: "Since that's the case, I'll leave first. There's still a lot of things." After saying that, he bowed and bowed his hand. His short and concise body turned around and walked quickly like the wind. He was from the Ministry of Commerce and Information The personnel do not belong to the Chinese army. Therefore, there is no need to marching.
Chen Zhongji bowed and sent him off. He turned around and returned to the table and smiled self-deprecatingly: "The Zeng family's children are all like this. They still want to test me. It's really... forget it. No matter he... the messenger."
A messenger with a feather in his helmet flashed into the room when he heard the sound. He couldn't help but rub his hands and heated up.
"I informed the Tongzhou rear guard Colonel Zhao Tie to guard against the ambush of the official army. In addition, I ordered the entire cavalry regiment to be dispatched and search for the reconnaissance officer army in the north, west and south directions."
...
The heavy snow overnight made the North China Plain covered in silver, and everything in the world was snow-white. A group of people walked out of Tongzhou City. They pushed dozens of cannon cars and arranged into four marching columns. They advanced southeastward. They followed the North Canal. On the right bank, stepping on half a foot thick snow, one step deep and one step shallow, and walk very slowly.
This is the unit of the First Brigade of the First Division. It is the rear guard of the Chinese army evacuated from the capital. It is on the front, back, left and right. On both sides of the North Canal. The cavalry reconnaissance forces run in the snow with great difficulty.
Zhao Tie personally pressed the formation in the rear guard of the First Brigade. The military supervisor Cao Tai was also in the team. Both of them were dismounted and marched with the soldiers on the snow.
Three days later, the snow quickly dissolved in the sun. The ice on the North Canal also melted. The river water suddenly received a large amount of melting snow water. It became very turbulent. The water was already flush with the river bank. This led to the very muddy marching road. The water accumulates several feet deep in the area. Many Chinese soldiers wet their boots and clothes and have frostbite. Poor most of the soldiers of the Chinese soldiers are southerners. They are not used to the weather at the junction of winter and spring in the north. Exhausted by this harsh weather and road conditions.
In the morning, on the southwest bank of the North Canal.
The soldiers of the First Brigade of the Chinese Army heard the rapid sound of snails. The cavalry troops also issued fireworks and rocket signals in the distance to the south.
They had just gotten up from the night camping place and started marching. When they heard and saw the signal that "enemy attack", they were all excited. They waved their guns and shouted: "The turtles are finally here. Fight them well. Let's fight."
Compared to the hard and monotonous march in the mud in the early spring, the Chinese soldiers were more willing to fight a battle with the official army.
As the rear guard of the entire army, the First Brigade also brought twenty field artillery artillery battalions from the division's artillery battalion. At the same time, the three regiments of the First Brigade also carried nearly a thousand thunder rockets. The Brigade Artillery Company also had five field artillery The artillery. With long-term and rigorous training, the four marching columns of the First Brigade of the Chinese Army were quickly transformed into four combat crossings during the march under the command and dispatch of officers, non-commissioned officers and veterans at all levels. The back was against the North Canal. Toward the south, the artillery positions were arranged in the middle of the horizontal lineup. Half of the twenty-five cannons were loaded with solid bullets and half filled with flowering bullets.
Zhao Tieqi boarded his horse and said to the messenger Shui: "You go to Wuqing County quickly. Commander Lu of the ruling cavalry regiment. Tell him that the officers and troops are..." He turned around and asked a staff officer and said: "Where is this place."
The staff officer looked on a map for a while and said, "Col. The place is called Hexiwu. It is less than fifty miles away from Wuqing County."
Zhao Tie nodded: "...just say that: Our army encountered the government troops who were catching up with the troops in Hexi. The number of enemies is unknown. Where is the troops from?" He turned his head again to ask the young staff officers. Zhao Iron has a deep understanding of the superiority of the staff system. Commanders can free themselves from some details and concentrate on combat.
The staff officer immediately reported: "The cavalry scouts have returned. The report said that most of the officers were infantry, wearing the Qin flag and the Feng flag. There were also words written with the words "Shiquan Xuanfushi was ordered to serve the king."
Zhao Tie immediately remembered the Sichuan "White Rod Soldier" mentioned in the intelligence notice a few days ago.
However, he didn't care too much. He just ordered the entire army to enter a combat state. The First Brigade had just formed a combat formation. Enemies had already appeared in the southwest direction.
First, the horizon was exposed with the forest-like white spear pole and the shaky hook and sickle spear head. Then there were the closely arranged gray soldiers. They carried the white hook and sickle spear and pressed against the Chinese army in a tight square formation. Come.
Huang Lue, the commander of the First Brigade, stood behind the artillery position and looked up and asked the lookout on the gun battalion's watch rod car: "Brother, how many people have come to the enemy."
The watch rod car is a ten-match bamboo pole erected on the original cannon car. There are footsteps at the top. When there is no balloon to observe, it is used to temporarily observe the enemy situation.
The voice of the lookout came from above: "...there are ten square formations in front of the queue. There are about 3,000 people. On the left wing of the enemy, more enemy troops are coming from behind. I estimate that the total number is about seven or eight thousand... …”
"Are there any firearms troops?"
"I haven't found it yet. Oh. Many of them are barefoot. Some of them are only wearing straw sandals. Damn it. What kind of troops is this?"
These southerners in the Chinese army were very surprised that the government troops could go barefoot in this season. The Chinese army's winter troops had done a good job of keeping warm. Each of them wore Piuras traded from the Liaodong Jurchen tribe. Shoes. This is actually a kind of warm marching boots. They are worn by Jurchen tribes during marching and fighting. They are covered with urla grass. After soldiers marching and sweating, they will be very warm as long as they take the urla grass out of their shoes and dry them in the sun.
At this time, the Ming army, lieutenant, and soldiers' shoes were all based on the Tang and Song dynasties. However, the rank was relatively strict. For example, generals were wearing military uniforms with combat boots, and Wei Wei was wearing military uniforms with soft boots. The waiters were wearing military uniforms with legs tied with vines. Or leggings are worn together, combat boots, soldiers are wearing bandages and legs, and their feet are worn. However, in the war in the eastern suburbs of the capital, many officers and soldiers wear rags, wear straw sandals and barefoots. The problem is that now, In January of the lunar calendar in the 46th year of Wanli, the troops that can fight barefoot near the capital in this season. What kind of troops would that be?
Huang Lei smiled coldly and ordered the messengers around him: "Send all regiments and battalions. Prepare enough ammunition. The enemy will start shooting when they enter the range. Four rows of fire. The enemy rushed forward fifty steps. Each unit took bayonets. .Free shooting: The enemy enters within twenty steps. The troops charge with bayonets."
Huang Lue jumped on his war horse and said to the battalion commander of the artillery battalion: "Brothers. You are the same: the enemy starts shooting with flowering bullets and solid bullets when they enter range. They start shooting with shotgun within a hundred steps. Rockets. Now It's ready to launch."
"Boom, swish, swish." Several rockets on the artillery position sprayed thick smoke. Rockets rushed out with their long tails. The Pili Rockets were distributed to battalion-level units. Each battalion was in charge of the battalion-level units. There was a sentry responsible for launching the Thunderbolt Rockets. Therefore, the Thunderbolt Rockets with fire and smoke tails flew out everywhere on the long Chinese military positions.
The commander of the official army opposite them was Qin Bangping, deputy general of the Shiquan Xuanfu Department, Qin Minping. They had just arrived in Baoding in the twelfth lunar month and rested for less than half a month. They were ordered to attack. So many soldiers had not had time to change into winter clothes. The shoes have not been replaced. This is not entirely due to the embezzlement and dereliction of duty by the court officials who managed military affairs; the original military warehouse of the official army was in Changping. It has been looted by the Chinese army. Now all materials are in short supply. There is really nothing we can do about it.