With the persuasion of the Beiyu messenger, the two prison guards really believed in the combat power of General Chen's headquarters, and this contrast brought Chen Ju and Wu Dui an extremely strong shock. These two don't care whether they are eunuchs or eunuchs, they can be said to have been in charge of military affairs for a long time, but the more they know the soldiers, the more they feel that Chen Mu's banner army of about 500 is a treasure.

There are more than 3,000 guards on the edge of the Horse Bridge, but more than 2,000 of them know that they are new pawns at a glance, and they haven't even seen blood, and they know that they are not fighting in the battle in front of them when they look at their panicked expressions.

However, there are only 300 households in the trenches and 100 households in the artillery position, and then there are 100 households who wander left and right to run errands and give orders, with a total of less than 500 people.

Chen Mu's flag army, especially for Chen Ju, is too interesting.

Whether it is its ordnance or trench batteries, they all have a strong comparative significance to Chen Ju, who is in charge of the Shenji Battalion.

However, Ji Neng will not dare to fight Chen Mu for a while, the army is on the other side of the river for two days, and the two day and night battle lines arched forward for a mile, and the army and cavalry are scattered. It looks like this roundabout tentative state can continue for several days before another fight.

Ji Neng was very anxious, even if it was only for two days, but this situation did not occur at all after they crossed the Great Wall, if it was at any pass in any city before, they would take a detour, but it was the Juma River, and there was no way around.

Chen Mu is more anxious than Ji Neng, he knows better than anyone that the invasion of Tumut south is not just a local war on the Juma River, but related to the overall situation, the key to the overall situation lies in the imperial court, and the decision on whether the war will continue is not in him.

He was afraid that the matter of peace in the north had been decided, and the silver in his mouth would fly!

"This Jiang commander is also a ruthless man!"

Ji Neng did not dare to attack the tethered horse bridge where Chen Mu was stationed, but he never relented in dealing with the Yanqing defenders in the small river valley, although the main force contained Chen Mu, and released a thousand cavalry to attack the small river valley of Yanqing Wei Tun as many as seven times in three days, mainly to harass the tired soldiers - Chen Mu seems to be like this.

And on the battle report submitted by Jiang Yuelin, where there is any disturbance, it is a general attack!

Every time, the Yanqing Banner Army had to take their lives to block the enemy cavalry, and braved the rain of arrows to the river bank to block the enemy cavalry, with heavy casualties and poor results.

Seventy-nine captive horsemen were captured, and four hundred were killed and wounded.

Jiang Yuelin's casualties were close to the retreat standard set by Chen Mu, but Jiang Yuelin did not plan to retreat, he took advantage of the interval between the captive cavalry attacks and sent people to gallop to Chen Mu, and the letter was opened in one sentence.

'General Chen, send another 1,000 reinforcements from his subordinates, and Jiang can hold on for another three days!' ’

Chen Mu frowned and was speechless, and asked, "What are you Jiang Commander doing?" ”

He was the one who had a low fighting spirit before the war, and he was the one who fought to the death after the war, and something must have happened in the middle, otherwise it would be impossible for the generals to persist in fighting to the death with four times the casualties.

"He was also digging trenches and setting up deer barricades, and Commander Jiang said that in the past, he couldn't stop the northern captives because he snatched the first rank and spared the war horses, but now the general ordered several heads to be meritorious, and he led the troops several times to take the lead, and has come up with a way to kill the northern captives in the field."

"Oh?" Chen Mulle was stunned and asked, "What method?" ”

"First use a spear to resist the horse, the spearman has a hob hand in it, cut the horse's legs, cut the horse overturned, and the northern captives are not stronger than mine." The herald was a little cowardly when he faced Chen Mu, and after thinking about it, he said: "This is an order that Qi Shuai has given a long time ago, but he didn't understand it at that time, and he was willing to kill the horse if he didn't fight with the thief." ”

Chen Mu nodded slowly, that's right, fighting with the cavalry with infantry and thinking about how to snatch the horse over is a hole in the brain, a good horse is seven or eight taels of silver, and a captival head is a hundred taels of silver, how many good horses have been bought, but they want to protect the horse and kill people, but they are killed by the enemy, and the gains outweigh the losses.

"Okay, Chen seconded 1,000 soldiers to Commander Jiang, I didn't let them go to war, these miners used to help Commander Jiang dig trenches, and they had to rely on the flag army to fight. If you can't do anything, don't take credit with Commander Hu. Chen Mu made a decision and said: "No matter what, if you hold for another day, you will change the guard with Commander Hu, and the banner army needs to rest." ”

Chen Mu estimated that Jiang Yuelin's mind to firmly defend was not only to kill horses and then kill people, but also to play a big role in Long Junxiong's eight artillery, otherwise the four hundred casualties in the terrain like the small river valley would be less than four hundred casualties against the northern captives with the banner army.

Leaving aside the small river valley for the time being, just talking about the two sides of the tethered horse bridge, Chen Mu was looking for people after the envoy of Ji Neng returned, looking for recruits who could sing and dance in the whole army, not only to pick these talents, but also to test their courage, and finally assembled a team of ten people, escorted by a Nanyang Wei Xiaoqi with a shield hand to guard the shore in front of the battle.

"What is the general going to ask them to do?"

Wu Dui and Chen Ju have been eye-opening in the past few days, and they sent attachés to paint the whole layout of Chen Mu's position.

"Go and challenge the scolding formation, these northern captives are on the other side of the bridge, and my banner army hasn't slept for several days." Chen Mu's eyes were very red, despite the victory in the first battle, no one could sleep peacefully when thousands of horsemen rode on the other side of the river, he pointed to the vast river and said: "Ji Neng will find a way to break through the river, and there may not be no place for foot riding to break through for dozens of miles along the line - it can't let him be peaceful." ”

Chen Ju is not interested in scolding formations and the like, he has been fascinated by Nanyang firearms these days, and made a special trip to ask Chen Mu for two Nanyang Guard Firearms, and if he has nothing to do, he will circle around the artillery position, touch this and see that-the Shenji Battalion does not have this kind of heavy artillery.

"General, how much does this cannon cost?"

Chen Ju pointed to a two-catty cannon, Chen Mu thought about it in his heart, and said: "This is a two-catty cannon, dragged and pulled by two mules and horses, and it can travel hundreds of miles a day in the north. ”

"So expensive?" Chen Ju glared, calculated in his heart, and said slowly: "Wang Gongchang costs nine taels and three to build the Weiyuan cannon, the general's cannon is much better than the Weiyuan cannon, it is worth this price, is it durable?" ”

Expensive, can it not be expensive?

Chen Mu rolled the cost of Nanyangwei in his heart before he said it, the iron price in Foshan is close, and even the freight is saved, and the biggest consumption of casting cannons is labor, what is labor in Nanyangwei?

The cost of a two-pound cannon is only less than seven taels, and the consumption is only a dozen taels, of course, it is not as expensive as twenty taels.

"Durable, before the Nanyangwei artillery is out, a few guns must be drawn out for a hundred test shots, and the body of the 100 guns will not be deformed, and the same batch of artillery can be out of the Ordnance Bureau." Chen Mu originally said kindly, thinking that he might be able to get in touch with this upright-looking eunuch by selling arms, but suddenly frowned and looked at the sky, and muttered, "No need to challenge." ”

The sound of rolling thunder came from the sky, and the rain that had been waiting for many days was finally about to fall.

The last chance of the Tumuts, a big attack, will come as scheduled.