After more than half a year of repair, the road from Ningxia Town to Gansu Town has been much better than the original. 【】A good quality carriage can pass unimpeded. In particular, the Bailing Mountain, the Watershed, the Tiantai Mountain and other dangerous areas were blasted open by a large number of explosives, and the mountain range was split from the middle and a large road was opened. However, even so, the journey takes a long time. When Xu Xingxia arrived at Jiayuguan, it was already the middle of February. According to a rough estimate, he walked on the road for twenty days.

Of course, there are also some of these inspection time, which do not belong to the category of rushing. This is Xu Xingxia's second visit to Gansu Town. As the supreme commander of the white-clothed army, he naturally had to have a good understanding of all aspects of the situation in Gansu Town. Compared with the first arrival, the town of Gansu has obviously changed a lot. At the very least, when he came the second time, he saw quite a few faces. Liangzhou City, Ganzhou City, Suzhou City and other places already have the appearance of towns. Statistics show that the current town of Gansu has a population of about 230,000.

It's not easy. At the beginning, due to the ravages of the Tatars, the entire Gansu town had a nominal population of hundreds of thousands, but in fact, those were all numbers in the account books, and the real number of people may be less than 150,000. When Mo Yuegen went south, the town of Gansu was slaughtered again, a large number of people were killed, and the population rapidly dropped to less than 100,000. At that time, Ganzhou City, Liangzhou City and other places were almost all in ruins, and there were not many living people in sight.

After the Baiyi Army recovered Gansu Town, it implemented a very preferential policy in Gansu Town, not only exempting all agricultural taxes, but also raising the upper limit of land that each person can allocate to more than ten acres. Xu Xingxia also promised that each person would have at least one animal capable of helping with farming. The commercial tax in Gansu town has also been adjusted. These effective policies and measures have attracted some people from the mainland to settle in Gansu towns.

This year, the white-clothed army also has the highlight of immigration, that is, it is preparing to relocate some of the personnel of the original three battalions of the Beijing Division to Gansu Town. Those people from the three battalions of the Beijing Division, after being captured by the white-clothed army, were released. But Xu Xingxia felt that it always felt unsafe to put so many members of the old army in the mainland. The same is true of the old armies of the original Shanxi Town, Datong Town, Xuanfu Town, and Ji Town. It is indeed unsafe to put it in the mainland.

To be honest, the white-clothed army simply didn't have time, staring at them all the time. Even if he had time, Xu Xingxia would not send someone to do such a boring thing. Therefore, if the Southern Ming Dynasty has any idea on them, and they don't know what to do, it will create a tragedy. Only by relocating them to Gansu town can they be safest. In this place, they have to try to find a way to survive, and nothing else is concerned.

In February in Hamiwei, the wind was still very strong, and the surface of the city tower above Jiayuguan was blown spotless by the strong wind. Gusts of wind continued to blow from the northwest, whistling by. For Jiayuguan, there is no threat to such wind. But for people passing by here, such a wind is very lethal.

"My lord, it's too windy here! Why isn't there a pause? Zhang Tianhao touched his face and said a little stupidly. His face was blown red by the cold wind of February, and his eyes were watery by the cold wind, bright and deep. At a glance, he was handsome and extraordinary, and I thought he was a woman dressed as a man.

Zhang Nai, the deputy commander of the Chasseurs, joked all day long that he was a girl, which made Zhang Tianhao complain, but he didn't know who to vent to. looks like a mother, it's really not his fault, it's all his father's fault. He wants to change it now, but it's too late to change.

Xu Xingxia stayed in Jiayuguan for two days to learn about the situation outside the customs in detail. The person in charge of reporting the situation is naturally Wang Qinian, the boss of Xuan Yingwei. He has been in Hamiwei for more than two months. His purpose was to collect intelligence from the countries of the Western Regions. The various pieces of information he had gathered in his hands added up to two feet thick. After Xu Xingxia read all the information, he finally had a relatively clear understanding of the situation in the Western Regions.

On the third day, the commander of the Falcon Cavalry ordered Huhai to come to Jiayuguan and pick up Xu Xingxia and his party to Hamiwei. Not long after Ling Huhai arrived at Hamiwei, the 3,000 Hayabusa cavalry under his command were all scattered to capture the enemy. By his side, there was only one squadron of troops. However, considering the strong combat effectiveness of the chasers, Ling Huhai was not worried about Xu Xingxia's safety.

Starting from Jiayuguan, Xu Xingxia's first foothold was Yumen City, which was the original Chijin Mongolian Guard. If everything goes well, you will be able to reach Yumen City in the evening from Jiayuguan in the morning. It's a pity that Xu Xingxia's arrival doesn't seem to be very smooth. To be precise, someone is trying to cause him a little bit of trouble.

In the afternoon, Xu Xingxia and others entered an empty riverbed. This completely bare riverbed has no vegetation and only a lot of dry sand and gravel. No one knows how many years ago this river once had water. Anyway, in the last 200 years, there has been absolutely no flow in this river. If it weren't for the messy gravel, no one would have thought that this place was actually a river.

When Xu Xingxia and the others arrived at the bare riverbed, it happened to be the time of the day when the sun was at its brightest. It was afternoon, about two o'clock in the afternoon. The sun in February is very warm. The warm sun shines on everyone's body, which makes people feel very comfortable. Unconsciously, everyone subconsciously slowed down the horse's hooves and quietly enjoyed the rare afternoon sunshine.

"Da Da Da!"

Suddenly, the sound of horses' hooves was heard.

The arrival of the uninvited guest made the white-clothed army immediately raise their vigilance.

A sentry of the Falcon Cavalry quickly came to Ling Huhai's side and reported some information. Ling Huhai immediately came to Xu Xingxia and reported: "My lord, unfortunately, your whereabouts have been discovered by fanatics. It may be that you just arrived in Jiayuguan and were targeted by them. Now, a large number of fanatics are rushing towards us. It is estimated that they are preparing to take the head of a general in a million-strong army and give you a little color. ”

Xu Xingxia nodded quietly, and said indifferently: "Can you deal with it?" ”

Ling Huhai said calmly: "There are too many of them, there are seven or eight thousand people, and there are three thousand Yarkand cavalry to help, and I only have a squadron of the Falcon Cavalry by my side, and I can't stop their attack head-on for the time being." However, as long as the chasseurs are in battle. I am going to lure them over, to show weakness to the enemy first, and when they rush up, the chasseurs will suddenly attack, and give them a head-on blow, so that they can be destroyed to the greatest extent. ”

Zhang Nai said cautiously: "In the fanatic team, is there a large number of cavalry? ”

Ling Huhai said affirmatively: "Deputy Commander Zhang, don't worry, the cavalry attack power of the fanatics is not good, they are basically infantry on horseback. I suspect that they were supposed to be infantry, but when they arrived in the kingdom of Yarkand, they temporarily became cavalry. As for the 3,000 Yarkand cavalry, I guess they came to wait and see, and they will not officially participate in the battle. However, even if they officially enter the war, we are not worried. There were only 3,000 of them. ”

Zhang Nai nodded and said, "If that's the case, there's no problem." ”

With 3,000 Yarkand cavalry, he is confident that he can still deal with it. Since they fought with the crazy Dajin Army in Yangguan Fort, the soldiers of the Chasseurs have accumulated rich combat experience, and they have a deep understanding of the use of Han-style rifles and the coordination of various firepower. Zhang Nai estimated that the combat effectiveness of the Yarkand cavalry should not be as strong as that of the Dajin Army. Because, in the past, Mo Yuegen beat the cavalry of Yarkand everywhere to find teeth.

Liu Chuang turned his head to look at Xu Xingxia. What he meant was to ask Xu Xingxia to avoid it a little. After all, the main duty of the chasers is to protect Xu Xingxia's safety. Fighting, on the contrary, is secondary. If Xu Xingxia had any accidents, he Liu Chuang committed suicide 10,000 times, and he would be to blame. He didn't know what the combat effectiveness of the fanatics was, so it was better to ask Xu Xingxia to go to the back just to be on the safe side. Stray bullets on the battlefield are sometimes very deadly.

According to intelligence, the fanatics were equipped with the Ottoman Empire's special Rumi Gun. This is a smoothbore gun with a fairly good seal, the caliber of the projectile is not large, but the range and accuracy are quite good. According to the test, at a distance of 30 zhang, it has a more obvious lethality. In the past, under the leadership of Zhao Shizhen, the Ming Dynasty also copied a small number. Later, I felt that the cost was too high and the process was too complicated, so after copying hundreds of pieces, I did not continue.

In fact, if the Ming army was all equipped with Lu Mi guns, in the Liaodong region, it would definitely be able to continue to contain the Dajin army for a period of time. After all, the lethality of Lu Mi Gong is still slightly better than the bows and arrows of the Dajin Army. The Ming musketeers, armed with Lu Mi guns, had every chance to kill and wound the archers of the Dajin Army before they could shoot and release their arrows.

It's a pity that the number of equipment in Lu Mi Gong is too small, and the training of musketeers in the Ming army is seriously insufficient, which will lead to the rampant Dajin army. In a word, it is not that the Dajin Army is too powerful, but that the Ming Army itself is too crippled. From a technical point of view, Lu Mi's surname is much better than the Ming army's own equipment such as the Thunderbolt, Flying Bird, and Three-Eyed Gun.

Xu Xingxia shook his head lightly and said in a deep voice: "I don't believe that you will let fanatics rush in front of me and shoot me at close range." ”

(To be continued)