In this arms race that took place in Spain, England, France and the Netherlands in Europe, Fu Yuan was a direct participant among the generals of the Ming army.

During his time in Lisbon, he saw with his own eyes the launch of seven Spanish warships of more than 100 tons.

The information shared with Philip's court only informed him that more than twenty-four smaller ships had been built overtime in the rival Three Kingdoms.

Makes him a little impatient.

But the land battles that had already begun were more worthy of his attention than the naval battles that were ready to start.

Chen Jiujing sent news from Baishan City that Yuan Zizhang's troops he sent to explore the road might be besieged by enemy troops, and when he saw this letter, Chen Jiujing's troops stationed in Baishan City had sent reinforcements, hoping that he would send a batch of winter clothes and decent military tents from Lisbon to Baishan City as soon as possible.

The one who went to the aid was Kangguru, the general of the Baishan battalion, who led the 1,800 Jurchens of his headquarters to ride out of the city to cross the river, and divided his troops in order.

Seven hundred cavalry of the former army opened the way, and the plate armor was iron-floated.

1,400 Baishanbu archers in various cotton clothes and armor were in the rear, carrying sixty Spanish donkeys, escorting the baggage to the battlefield of the Crane River, and sending Yuan Zizhang six urgently needed Zhenshuo general cannons and sufficient ammunition.

Dingjiazhuang in Dinghai unwittingly became the No. 2 supply station in this campaign, and all soldiers who set out from Bordeaux would camp near Dingjiazhuang the next night, and the wounded soldiers from the front line were also sent back.

In Ding Hai's eyes, the situation on the front line is not bad.

The troops are sent 100 horsemen today and 200 archers tomorrow, and the wounded soldiers come back in a hurry, and then they are gone.

One of them broke his left arm when he fell on a mountain road, and the other was able to burn his limbs but his eyes were ignited by gunpowder in his baggage.

The last person was named Zhang Dachuan, he was wounded by a musket, the lead shot rubbed his helmet and hit his forehead, embedded in the forehead, but the person was unscathed like a divine help, just lying on the ground for a while, and then got up and tried to pick up the musket after shooting himself The enemy stunned with his hand, and then completed three charges with a standard charge action, knocked down an enemy again, and finally rushed up with a bird gun to stab another enemy soldier who failed to hit the ground, and only fainted again after doing all this.

After the battle, the military doctor removed the lead pellet embedded in his forehead and examined him, and found that his frontal bone was cracked, his pulse was stable, and he was fine, but he could not recall the injury, and he had persistent headaches, dizziness and vomiting, mixed with strong tinnitus.

In fact, he was the one who maintained the best combat skills among the three wounded soldiers, so the guerrilla general Wang Youlan asked them to form a team, which was escorted by the blind little Wang with luggage, Lao Zhou with a broken hand as a guide, and the dizzy fierce man Zhang as an escort, along the post station they set up when they set off to Dingjiazhuang, and on the way they also met seven defenders from Luocheng, pushing a cart full of ordnance, intending to sell it to Ding Hai for food.

What will happen when seven hungry and cold defenders of Luocheng who are about to sell their ordnance see three Ming soldiers in cotton armor armed to the teeth and carrying food in the wilderness, and two of them are wounded?

Nothing can happen.

When Ding Hai, the owner of Dingjiazhuang, received them outside the gate of the village, the six Luocheng defenders pulling carts were more tired than donkeys.

The little buddy was sitting in a row with the blind little Wang in the car, and Zhang Dachuan, who was supervising behind him with a bird gun, complained endlessly, saying that if it weren't for Lao Zhou's waist knife with a broken hand, he would be able to pick up seven with a bird gun on it.

It was heartbreaking enough for the six living mouths to be knocked to the ground by a guard guarding the wounded soldiers, but it wasn't until Dingjiazhuang that they realized that the guard in their eyes was actually a wounded soldier.

Later, the six people almost cried and begged Ding Hai to take them in, saying that they would not return to Luocheng - just kidding, the seven of them had not even beaten a single wounded soldier, what would it be like if they were not injured?

Luo City, which is so close to the Crane River, can it still be saved?

They even felt that they only needed eighty warriors like Zhang Dachuan to capture Luocheng.

In any case, the owner of Ding Zhuang was in a very happy mood, and in order to prevent Luo Cheng from sending no more people to buy food in the future, he asked the interpreter to understand the six defenders and show affection, and finally persuaded them to go back.

Zhang Dachuan and the three also thought that they could not use these weapons, and after jointly submitting a report to Bordeaux about the encounter with the defenders of Luocheng, they left all the weapons and armor to Ding Hai.

In a daze, the landlord regiment of Dingjiazhuang had twelve cuirass and thirty muskets armed with Swiss halberds.

Coupled with the forty catties of gunpowder that Chen Jiujing had set down, Ding Hai finally felt that he had a firm foothold in this twenty-mile radius.

He even had the energy to discuss with seven or eight nearby Zhuangzi to gather villagers to practice the 'great cause' of the militia.

On the banks of the Crane River, more than a hundred miles away, on the morning of the day the siege was removed, there was a rumbling sound on the river, and the Count of Charles could only watch as the bridge that had taken several days to build was blown up, and he was escorted south by four or five hundred men of the Ming army, and even then he did not dare to lead his army down the mountain.

His troops were dragged down by the wounded, and the night ambush brought him forty-four wounded soldiers, and the next morning, during the rescue, the mines and the tiger squat cannon that came from afar again brought many casualties to his soldiers, in addition to these and the non-combat attrition caused by hunger and frostbite, the more than 3,400 sergeants in the whole army had nearly 1,000 wounded soldiers, and in order to avoid being annihilated, the Earl of Charles could only watch the Ming army carry the baggage away in a grand manner.

There was even a little joy in my heart - there was finally something that could effectively slow down the march of the Ming army.

The source of the joy is the same as the reason why the Ming army withdrew the siege, Marshal Matthion led reinforcements to appear on the east bank of the Crane River, and throughout the day, there were well-equipped knights galloping across the high war horses in horse armor across the high ground on the opposite bank, the cold wind blew, and the spear head that was straight to the sky hung the swallowtail flag and dragged straight back, unhurried and full of threat.

Although the main force had not yet appeared, both sides of the siege were aware that French reinforcements were nearby.

Maybe ten miles, maybe closer.

They are separated by just a river called Crane.

On the day the bridge was blown up, the Count of Charles saw the Ming army pack up cartloads of baggage and come out of the woods, camped in the open space on the banks of the southern river, as if waiting for night to come.

The retreat of the Ming army was imperative.

It seems to be tonight.

The morale of the French army was high, and it was said that the long suffering was over, that the Ming army would soon be surrounded, and that even the veterans who had been wounded in the previous battle were clamoring for a part-night pursuit.

However, to the surprise of the Earl of Charles, he organized his army down the mountain that night, preparing to take advantage of the darkness to pursue the retreating Ming army, which was unfavorable to the whole army, and was greeted by a well-organized Ming army, which beat his troops head-on with muskets in the darkness.

Frightened, the Count hurried back to the hill with his army...... That night, amid the intermittent wails of the wounded soldiers at the hilltop camp, the Earl of Charles, whose eyes were moist, watched as the torches held high at the foot of the hill formed several bright fiery serpents under the night, winding their way to the south.