Wang Yan brought nearly 10,000 people back to the camp, and the originally abundant food and grass materials suddenly became overstretched, and it was not so easy to keep the people in the camp full every day.

Wang Yan made a promise to everyone, so naturally he couldn't break his promise and get fat, otherwise the prestige he had just established in the new stroke would immediately collapse.

At this time, plus the old soldiers in the camp, there were already 12,000 people in the camp, people ate and chewed, and the daily consumption was an astonishing number.

Wang Yan was writing this letter, and someone outside the camp came to report that a large amount of grain and grass had been sent from Chizhou City.

It turned out that Huang Degong learned that Tian Xiong handed over nearly 10,000 people who were coerced by the left army to Wang Yan, and he was a little reluctant to go, and he was not good at punishing Tian Xiong, so he asked people to send grain and grass to relieve Wang Yan's urgent need.

As the saying goes, if you have food in your hands, you don't panic in your heart.

The grain and grass sent by Huang Degong was enough for the army to eat for a month, and Wang Yan had no logistical pressure, so he began to train the new soldiers, and waited for the order of the imperial court by the way.

The envoy to Tongling also changed from urging grain to recruiting Qian Yifeng to come to meet, and two days later, Qian Yifeng rushed to the outside of Chizhou with the materials left behind.

The armament was not in order, so Wang Yan took the new soldiers to conduct simple queue training all day long, and made sure that all the troops could do the order and prohibit, and the army was clean.

The recruits ate a full meal for a few days, and the strength in their bodies slowly recovered, and their faces gradually showed a ruddy color, and Wang Yan continued to strengthen the intensity of training.

Every morning, the defenders of Chizhou could see the new soldiers of the Zhongyi Battalion shouting trumpets and running around the city, which immediately attracted a lot of discussions.

At first, Tian Xiong and others disagreed with this, "A group of homeless people, a group of rabble, Wang Yan's gang still wants to train into a strong army, it's really ridiculous."

But as time went by, Tian Xiong and the others couldn't laugh anymore, not to mention the combat power of the new soldiers, but just looking at their appearance was already very extraordinary.

One day, Huang Degong went to the city to inspect the city defense of Chizhou, and saw Wang Yan from a distance practicing outside the city with the new soldiers.

"Wang Shiheng is really a general!" Seeing a group of homeless people, in just a few days, they were actually banned by Wang Yan's practice, and the military appearance was purged, Huang Degong praised again and again, and admired Wang Yan even more in his heart, but he said with some regret in his heart: "Such a talent, but I don't want to belong to Benhou, it's a pity, it's a pity!" ”

When the generals behind him heard this, some of them thought it was true, while others looked jealous and unhappy.

The time flashed to April 17, and seven days had passed since the first battle in Chizhou.

These days, the left army and the Ming army often engage in battles, but mostly water battles, the battle of Chizhou hit the left army very hard, the left army on the Yangtze River warships also collapsed, in the battle with the Ming water division lost one after another, then retreated to Anqing, the Ming regained control of the Yangtze River waterway.

The Yangtze River was reopened, and the connection between Chizhou and Nanjing made the material transportation smoother and the time was greatly shortened.

On April 18, the imperial decree and rewards arrived in Chizhou with the sailors, and Wang Yan went to Chizhou to receive the reward.

Huang Degong's protection, the imperial court responded one by one, Wang Yan was awarded the title of Sanpin General for his merits, the commander of the Zhongyi Battalion, and the general Zhaoyong, who guarded the three prefectures of Zhaoqing, Gaozhou and Leizhou.

Wang Wei and Li Taizhen were promoted to garrisons, Liu Shun and Qian Yifeng were thousands of households, and everyone else was also rewarded one by one.

The imperial treasury was empty, but in order to cope with the war on two fronts, it had to raise taxes again, and in order to make the front-line soldiers use their lives, the newly collected tax silver also came with the edict, 300,000 taels of silver, and the loyal battalion received 30,000.

At this time, Huang Degong also distributed the spoils of the first battle in Chizhou according to his promise, and Wang Yan took the initiative to ask for 3,000 battle robes, 2,000 bird tongs, 3,000 war knives, ten Franc machine trots, and a lot of gunpowder, and equipment for the Zhongyi battalion.

Wang Yan returned to the camp with supplies and silver, and first according to the agreement before departure, according to the military merits, the old soldiers were given a reward for the first battle of Chizhou.

30,000 taels of silver, Wang Yan spent 25,000 taels before he could cover the heat.

Seeing the old pawn leading the silver with white flowers, the new pawn was naturally envious. Wang Yan also took the opportunity to publicize the rules of reward and punishment in his army, which immediately caused a burst of cheers from the new soldiers.

With the arrival of the equipment, Wang Yan then began to reorganize the Zhongyi battalion, the cavalry did not change, it was still under the control of Li Taizhen, and the changes in the infantry army were very huge, he drew 400 people from the old pawn chong as new pawn officers, and left 600 veteran pawns as his personal guards.

The 3,000 new soldiers and 400 old soldiers formed a team of 3,000 men, plus a 400-man artillery team.

The three thousand-man teams, all of which were three long guns, and seventy percent of the birds, were handed over to Wang Wei, Liu Shun, and Qian Yifeng to command, and the 400-man artillery team was personally led by Wang Yan.

The expansion of the establishment of the Zhongyi Battalion made Wang Yandian feel that there was a shortage of talents, and the imperial court was busy with the Qing soldiers going south, and there was no appointment, so many important positions could only be temporarily vacant.

After the reorganization of the Zhongyi Battalion was completed, Wang Yan began a new round of training.

From Huang Degong, the gunpowder obtained was very sufficient, so that Wang Yan had no worries, and he did not hesitate to train the bird commander and artillery team, so that outside the city of Chizhou, the sound was endless, and the smoke of gunpowder was filled.

At this time, the benefits of cohort training are revealed.

The battalion sergeant was accustomed to the previous orders and prohibitions, and he was neatly aligned, and he practiced the three-stage attack with half the effort.

Wang Yan felt that with only one real actual battle, the new Zhongyi Battalion could quickly form combat strength and become an elite division.

And so it was the 21st of April.

Wang Yan was training his men and horses, but Huang Degong's envoy suddenly came to summon, Wang Yan thought that the Ming army of Chizhou was finally going to counterattack Anqing and attack Zuomengeng across the river, but he didn't want to send an urgent report from Yangzhou.

The Qing army of Henan went south from Shangqiu on the fifth day of the first month of April, and went to Sizhou on the 13th, and the general army of Sizhou of the Ming Dynasty fled without a fight, and the Qing army crossed the Huai River that night.

The Ming army and the left army fought fiercely on the western front, and the Qing army invaded southward.

He issued three orders in one day to the Ying Tingji Department stationed in Gaoyou, and ordered in the morning to "supervise the army with grain and grass to Pukou to suppress the rebels on the left"; At noon, it was ordered that "the army does not have to go to Si, and return to Yangzhou as soon as possible to listen to the tune"; In the afternoon, he ordered "Xuyi is in an emergency, and Pisu Dao can supervise the army to Tianchang to respond".

Thousands of miles away, three adjustments a day, Shi Kefa is already in chaos.

Before the reinforcements arrived in Xuyi, Shi Kefa learned that the defenders of Xuyi had surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, which immediately caused chaos in the army, and the army was almost out of control.

On April 17, Duoduo's army marched to Yangzhou 20 miles away, and the next day the army approached the city, Shi Kefa had to spread everywhere, asking for reinforcements to be sent to Yang.