A cool sea breeze blew in through the open glass windows, relieving the already stagnant atmosphere in the room. Zhang Mingzhen took a sip of tea, then sighed, and asked instead of answering: "Liu Junmen is so careful, but the situation in Huguang, Jiangxi, and Sichuan has changed?" ”

"On the Huguang battlefield, the Taqing mobilized more than 150,000 troops, and the front battalion of Dashun and the left and right battalions fought fiercely, the two sides recently in Junzhou-Gucheng, Jiangling-Yiling line repeatedly tug-of-war, Liu Fangliang's left battalion retreated to Yunyang Mansion, under the continuous fighting, the damage was quite large, and there were many people who surrendered to the Qing; And the Jingzhou city that Yuan Zongdi is defending can be safed for the time being, and the two sides are currently fighting for the peripheral towns, and the casualties are extremely tragic, in short, the shape is not very optimistic. Liu Haiyang didn't shy away from everyone's intentions, but told the truth. As a senior admiral of the East Coast Navy, he also disdains to deceive these people here, there is one to say one, some to say two, love to come and go, come and go freely!

"We don't know much about Sichuan's shape, but according to the vague news from Huguang, Zhang Xianzhong seems to have lost Chengdu, and is currently being chased and beaten by Wu Sangui, and the shape is not very good. The only battle situation in various places is probably more than 50,000 people led by Guo Sheng, since Zhangshu Town defeated thousands of elites of Geng Zhongming's department, the department bravely advanced, went north to Ruizhou Mansion, fought successively, overcame many county seats, and defeated nearly 10,000 reinforcements led by Shen Zhixiang himself. At present, Gao'an County is stationed, and the direction of the next march is unknown, it may be Nanchang, or it may go north to threaten Wuchang from the flank, so as to reduce the pressure on the left, right, and front three battalions of the main force of Dashun; In addition, Wang Deren of Ganzhou also marched north from Luling with an army of 40,000, as if he wanted to develop to Fuzhou Mansion...... "Liu Haiyang has already informed everyone present of the news obtained from Dashun. He thinks there is nothing to hide. Everything should be spread out and said.

And when he finished. Zhang Mingzhen still sat in his seat with a frown, as if he was digesting the news of the central battlefield brought by Liu Haiyang. Maybe these news shocked him too much (Lu Jianguo has avoided eastern Zhejiang for a long time, so the news does not make sense), and he was speechless for a while.

"There is still an army of hundreds of thousands of ......" Zhang Mingzhen was a little unacceptable, although he had heard a little about it before, but this time Liu Junmen of the Eastern Dynasty said it clearly, but Zhang Mingzhen, who had been struggling to maintain it in eastern Zhejiang, was shocked: "It has even rebuilt the five-battalion military system, and it has territory in Huguang and Jiangxi." It's terrifying! Panicking hundreds of thousands of troops, can the imperial court cut them off in the future? ”

Liu Haiyang looked at Zhang Mingzhen, who suddenly lost his temper, with pity in his heart. Because one side is a sporadic stronghold in the sea off the coast of eastern Zhejiang, it is difficult to survive; On the other hand, no less than 300,000 horses have been raised in Huguang and Jiangxi, although most of them must be unbearable people, but this number alone is already very scary. If we succeed in expelling the Tartars in the future, will our Emperor's torn army still be able to fight the thieves? Can you win it? Zhang Mingzhen didn't know.

"Hmph, the remnants of the thieves have become the climate. He blocked the two supervisors in Xiangzhong, and they were derelict in their duties. What a killing! Zhang Mingzhen didn't say anything, but Lu Ruoteng, the representative sent by the Zheng family, sprayed again: "Liu Junmen wants to save the thief?" If so. I'm afraid the king of Yanping County can't agree! ”

When Lu Ruoteng left Xiamen, Zheng Chenggong had already made it clear that he was unwilling and would not send troops, and now his mind was all about how to attack his hometown in Fujian, and he had no interest in other places, let alone attaching other people's tails to others. At this point, he and his dead ghost Zheng Zhilong are carved out of the same mold, when Emperor Longwu didn't ask Zheng Zhilong to send troops to aid Jiangxi, but he thought that he was only guarding his own one-third of an acre and was unwilling to move. Now that Lao Tzu is dead, when it is his son's turn, it is indeed surprisingly consistent on this point, which is really incomprehensible.

The armaments that the people of the East Coast used to sell and give them half of them have all been soaked, what a white-eyed wolf!

And although Lu Ruoteng is straightforward, he is also a little "impatient", at this time, when everyone expressed their willingness to send troops to join the alliance, he deliberately used the excuse of not wanting to rescue the intruding army to rely on his obligation to send troops. Because both Lu Ruoteng and Zheng Chenggong understood that the Eastern Dynasty was interested in Zheng's huge number of small offshore ships and a land army of considerable size (can you say otherwise, at least you can be a master?). If he agrees to send troops to the Huimeng, he will not be able to explain the past without 350,000 people, but this is unacceptable to Zheng Chenggong himself - he is now expanding his territory in Fujian, and his troops are very tight, how can he have extra tens of thousands of horses and horses sent to the Yangtze River thousands of miles away? Therefore, Lu Ruoteng rejected Liu Haiyang, of course, he also rejected the military aid from the people on the east coast to the Zheng family, after all, now they have greatly offended Liu Haiyang, and the relationship between the two sides, which was originally quite stable, has been damaged, and I am afraid that it will not be able to be bridged in a short time.

"Why did Mr. Ruan say that!" Zhang Mingzhen finally "lived" at this time with a long sullen breath, only to see him say in a slightly low voice: "I have a very good view of what Liu Junmen said about the alliance, this time I will be the secretary of the Lu Prison State, and mobilize elite soldiers and strong generals to go to battle." Liu Junmen, but please rest assured, not to mention more, there are still 500 boats and tens of thousands of sergeants! Li Chuang's remnants can create a good situation in Huguang, can't I Zhang Mingzhen do it? I'm going to try it this time, is this Nanjing and Zhenjiang Longtan Tiger's Den or what, can't I go Zhang Mingzhen? Hmph, not only do I want to go, but I will also invite Lu Jianguo into Nanjing City in the future! ”

"The Son of Heaven is my Emperor Ming Zhengshuo, and the King of Lu pretended to be the prisoner of the country, which was already inappropriate, and it was very forgivable to read it. If today's son has ascended to the throne and announced to the world, King Lu should ask himself to resign from the title of prison state, so that he can-" As soon as Zhang Mingzhen's words fell, Lu Ruoteng, the old master, jumped out impatiently and said about the "messy" thing, but Liu Haiyang ignored him, but pushed away the chair and stood up with a "squeak", interrupting the old man Lu who was talking, and said: "Dingxi Hou is really a decisive person, if there are really tens of thousands of soldiers to come to the alliance, the future will be indispensable to the benefits of your family." ”

Zhang Mingzhen promised to send 500 small boats and tens of thousands of troops, which made Liu Haiyang very happy. No matter how unbearable these horses are, they are also soldiers, and they can also pull up the battle formation to compare and compare at critical moments. These people, plus the 4,000 men and horses squeezed out by Liu Guochang and the 2,500 people brought by Hao Shangjiu, plus the troops sent in the East Coast Plan, the number of soldiers should be between 23,000 and 25,000.

It was already the end of December, and at the end of October and early November, in addition to carrying a large number of supplies, several new migrant transport ships from the mainland had transported more than 2,000 Polish and German prisoners of war to the Far East, of which more than 1,000 Poles were sent to Dengzhou, some of which were supplemented by Major Yang Mingyang's cavalry wing (more than 3,700 cavalry after replenishment), and some were assigned to the various brigades of the standing team to supplement the shortfall; As for the other thousands of German mercenaries, they were organized into a supplementary brigade and transferred to Yinxian County for training, and by the way, they suppressed the localities.

With the arrival of more than 1,000 German musketeers, some units of the East Coast Army were able to take the opportunity to get out and participate in the Yangtze River Campaign, such as the Black Eight Banner Heavy Infantry Battalion, which was greatly expanded after replenishing some black infantry (the 4th and 5th infantry battalions, with a total of 1,530 people, led by Ao Guanhai, and the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Battalions were still stationed in Denglai), the East Coast Army Supplementary Company, artillery units, and so on. These troops, together with the 2,000 people of the Fourth Brigade of the Standing Force, and a newly built infantry division squeezed out by gritting their teeth, are almost 7,000-8,000 people, which is definitely a large combat force, and will definitely be able to surprise the Manchus at that time.

However, it was only the end of December, and there were still four full months before the planned dispatch of troops -- by that time Gaine had just finished the task of transporting migrants for the year, and he was able to free up a large number of sailing ships to transport men and supplies -- if he had taken this opportunity to train the troops and horses in Ningbo and let them get acquainted with each other, this combat strength might have increased to a certain extent. In addition, although Lu Ruoteng, the representative of the Ningbo Huimeng sent by Zheng Chenggong, was not a thing, Liu Haiyang still valued him very much for various reasons, so he planned to take a naval ship south to the coast of Fujian and Guangdong in the near future, and then win over the Zheng clan and persuade them to send troops and ships to participate in this joint military operation of all parties. Of course, if the Zheng family insists on not being willing to send troops, then Liu Haiyang will naturally no longer have expectations for him, and his treatment will inevitably be cut a lot in the future.

Liu Haiyang carefully discussed with all parties the time to send troops, the place where the troops should be assembled, and the equipment that needed to be prepared in advance, and then decisively announced the dismissal of the meeting, leaving Lu Ruoteng behind, and dragging the remaining representatives to the dock to watch the sergeant drill.

At this time, there were really a lot of troops on the dock of Dinghai Port, including 4,000 soldiers from the Niu Chenghu Division of the Ninth Division of the Heishui New Army, and 2,000 soldiers from the Fourth Brigade of the Advance Team, and at the same time, there were 2,500 sergeants from Li Chengdong's division brought by Hao Shangjiu stationed in a temporary barracks on the wharf. At this time, it was the third day of the day, and the fourth brigade of the reorganized brigade began to drill under the command of the officers, and among their 2,000 men, one group of musketeers was formed, and the rest were regular cold weapons such as spearmen and shield bearers.

This army, which had previously defended the Jiaozhou fortress for more than half a year and fought fiercely with the Qing army many times, looked different from other troops from the outside, and looked very strong. Their skillful change of formation, the coordination of various arms, and the skilled volleys of musketeers all shocked Zhang Mingzhen, Hao Shangjiu, Ruan Jin, Liu Guochang and others.

With such an old military force here, why worry about the Tartars not being broken! (To be continued......)

ps:Continue to recommend the same person written by Liang Xiangjian:R1292