It either didn't rain on the steppe, or it didn't stop for days, and the whole army spent almost every day in the rain and mud for the three or four days from the time of its mobilization to its departure. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 info is a challenge to everyone's physical fitness, the electric light flickers, one after another, the bright light keeps penetrating the sky overhead with black clouds, and the low clouds set off like a monster lurking under the electric light, hideous and decadent, no need to hold a torch, just these constant lightning and electric light can illuminate, not to mention that there is no road ahead, only a large section of the grassland, as if endless, all the spirit and spirit of people will be consumed.

The physical fitness of the war horse is relatively well preserved, because the cavalry is not very willing to use the war horse to rush in such weather, Hutchison's war horse has been fed concentrate in winter, and there are even egg rations every day, under such feeding conditions, the winter war horse is not tired, and still looks fat and strong, even so, the soldiers are only tired to the extreme when they will get on the horse to rest temporarily, and most of the time they are leading the horse to walk.

The dragoons were one man and one horse, and the armor and equipment were partly placed on the horse, and partly on their backs. They were originally infantrymen, and they were used to walking on their feet, and it was quite fortunate to have a horse to share their clothes.

Under the electric light, the dragoons can be seen wearing oil jackets and hats, and the muskets are stuffed in holsters made of oilcloth and hung diagonally on the side of the horse's belly.

On the north side of the dragoon team was the lancers marching together, they only had more than 300 people, of which more than 150 soldiers, and more than 150 people were the unique auxiliary troops of the lancer troops, each auxiliary also took care of and pulled a war horse, and the horse carried more than 70 pounds of equipment: the heavy armor and weapons of the lancers.

The lancers rode forward, with backpacks on their buttocks and some household utensils, and the cavalrymen only had a saber on them, and they wore military robes and traveled lightly.

Unlike the Dragoons, the Lancers' credo is to be ready to fight at all times, so be sure to keep their fitness intact at all times. They have been riding on horses, if one horse goes too much to change to another, because the war horse is the best of the best, obviously higher than the dragoon horse, but also more fat, so the war horse can also carry the weight of the march, but after a long-distance run to do the battle, the war horse must get a long rest to replenish and recover physical strength, otherwise a large number of deaths.

The war horse is very delicate, quite delicate, and this is also the most precious lesson that the merchant army has learned in the grassland for more than two years.

The military and political officer was Nie Lei, and he and five companies of the lancers were scattered over a territory of thousands of miles, responsible for helping to teach the training of dragoons. Whether it was the tactics of charging the enemy on horseback, or marching, or training and rearing horses, the experience of the lancers was undoubtedly far superior to that of the dragoons.

In addition to the first and second infantry regiments, there are also the twelfth regiment of Kuandian, the fourth regiment of Taiwan, in addition to these regiments, almost all of them have to be changed to dragoon regiments, the number of people is too large, and the number of cavalry is far from enough, so not only the cavalry are scattered, but even the lancer regiment is also scattered.

This is of course Zhou Yao's generosity, Zhang Han's trust and the suspicion of the military department, so that Zhou Yao, who is known as the king of Zhou Yan, has done his best, from Zhou Daniu to the officer of the Military Training Department, Zhou Yao's turn is not gorgeous, on the contrary, it is extremely difficult, from the time when he fled on the battlefield in the forty-seventh year of Wanli, to the present six years, from the defeated Liaozhen border army to the command of a regiment of lancers, and then to be responsible for the daily training of hundreds of thousands of troops and thousands of officers, it is a very serious challenge for Zhou Yao...... However, judging from the current scolding from all departments, and the rapid improvement of physical fitness and the spirit and skills and tactics of the soldiers, Zhou Yao can be regarded as giving a pretty good answer.

The lancers, with their own pride, rode silently in the rain, and although there was no order from above to march silently, the men did not speak freely, and they were accustomed to silence during the march.

Their hands are mostly rough and calloused, their legs and waist are connected to the body of the horse, up and down, their faces are mostly weathered, and their eyes are mostly cold and unforgiving...... The lancers swept the steppe from before the establishment, covering the main force of the fort, and fought for a long time, and then there were more and more soldiers, the equipment became stronger and stronger, and the opponents encountered were also weaker and weaker, and gradually they did not know how many tribes they swept in more than a year, in the final battle of crossing the river, the infantry regiment still had to rely on hard fighting to cross the river, and the lancers had swept directly on the left flank, and tens of thousands of Tumut shepherds were defeated in a battle, if the lancer regiment was willing to push regardless of the dead and wounded, Long before the arrival of the main infantry force, it could be pushed directly to the edge of Qingcheng, and the Mongols who could fight did not dare to show their heads at all.

Under the absolute strength, any conspiracy and trickery are fake, the lancers also have the arrogance that the rest of the departments do not have, they almost do not talk to the dragoons, and the two long snake-like teams along the way have no intersection at all, only in daily training, these lancers will not hesitate to spare their words, but most of them are reprimands and teachings, and there is also an endless stream of swear words like the Yangtze River sweeping towards the poor dragoons.

"The team is on hiatus!" A military commander on duty rode back and forth in front of the procession, and shouted: "Rest for two quarters of an hour, feed the horses, drink water, eat!" ”

From six o'clock in the morning to midnight, it must have passed, walked for nearly twenty hours, and only rested once for a quarter of an hour along the way, everyone was tired to death, and half an hour of rest time was definitely not enough to recover physical fitness, and the top was definitely not sympathetic to the soldiers, and the rest time was mainly for war horses.

The dragoons, while untying their backpacks, jokingly said that it would be good when they would get the treatment of a horse.

Indeed, in the rain, people take care of their horses first.

Catch the concentrate, put the eggs on it, and then feed the war horse, and try to give the war horse water to drink, and if you don't have enough water, you can only hold the rain water on the grass to drink.

Fortunately, there are many seas passing by, and everyone has sufficient water storage.

When the horses had been fed, everyone began to eat.

There are many people who are physically exhausted, with flatbread or lamb jerky in their mouths, and fall asleep directly in the rain.

Those who had not slept also finished their meals in a hurry, then wrapped their oilcloths around their bodies and lay down on the rain-soaked grass with their clothes.

Some recruits couldn't sleep because they were too tired, and they were kicked in the ass by the officers on patrol, and it was a crime not to rest at this time, and the veterans had already snored loudly.

When Nie Lei boosted morale, a group of officers of the dragoons stopped their horses, Ma Wu sent military commanders to announce the military order to rest, all the officers above the company level gathered together, everyone's eyes looked ahead, within the sight of the telescope, a jade belt-like river is roaring and galloping, this is the rare rainy season of the grassland, the river is rising, the water is very large, and many places overflow the river, but fortunately, this is the grassland, even if the river is a few hundred steps wide, it will not have any impact on anyone.

The rain dripped down the brim of his hat, slid down Ma Wunong's dark brows, fell on his cheeks, and continued to slide down, falling on the collar of the tarpaulin, and down the robe.

All the officers were actually as tired as the soldiers, but they were officers, and they had no right to rest at this time, they were a group of young men, the youngest was in his early twenties, the oldest was about thirty, this was a group of steely people, each with a thin face, and a straight line like a knife on the resolute face, they pursed their lips, and tried to make their waists straighter...... The officers of the lancers were also gathered with the dragoons, and they did not have the arrogance of their subordinates, because the officers in front of them were as good as them, although they were clothed in oilcloths, because they had to run back and forth in the ranks, the more they walked, the more rain leaked into their bodies, the gray military robes were already half-wet or soaked, and they were tightly attached to their bodies, wrinkled with rounded horizontal stripes, and the firecrackers were slanted behind them, and from time to time they hit the cowhide belt, and the hems of the military boots and robes were splashed with a lot of mud and grass, and everyone's hands and faces were white. Soaking in the rain for days, everyone was the same.

When Nie Lei rushed over, a simple tent had already been set up.

"Let's have a meeting." Nie Lei said with a smile: "The military commander is responsible for the military, tell me the resolution, and I will keep a war diary, and report it for filing in the future." ”

Military and political officers and military judges have their own emphasis, and the duties of military and political officers are by no means as simple as boosting morale, but Nie Lei is the most popular among military and political officers, not only does his job very well, but also tries not to interfere with the decisions made by the military commander, so although Nie Lei, a regiment-level military and political officer, is very popular with Ma Wu and others in this army, and his modesty and conscientiousness have also won the respect of many young officers.

"Let's go in and talk." Ma Wu simply greeted him, removed his oil coat, and entered the simple tent.

The map had been laid out, and the officers huddled together, silently looking at Ma Wu and the map.

"The strategic goal of this time is to attack the Chotu Khan Department across the Khalkha in northern Mongolia, and according to the maps provided by the Mapping Bureau and the information given by the military intelligence, we can draw the following results."

Ma Wu pointed to the map and said: "From the Seleng River to the middle of the Haraltai River is the Chotu Khan Department, on its left side, that is, the Tangnu Uliang Haiti boundary that was previously said, on the left side is Ubu Sanor Haizi, a radius of hundreds of miles, is a fairly large lake, on the left south is Qile Shan Sibo Haizi, slightly smaller than Ubu Sanor, it is also a very large Haizi, its southwest is the Tuohui Department, the southeast to the north is a large area of the Zasaktu Department, the northwest and northeast each have more than ten large and small tribes, and then to the west is the territory of the Oirat Department, Not what we can reach now. ”