On the vast land of brown soil or brown soil unique to the Hebei Plain, there are already flagrant flags and military movements;

Many winding queues, under the complexity of countless footsteps, cycling, horses, equipment and supplies, are surging along the trend of geographical rivers, and are constantly moving northward and can never see the end.

This time, Huaizhen directly dispatched three armies to attack Pinglu Road, and one was moved to Hebei and maintained the rear. Only 70% of the defense and garrison troops were organized, with a total of more than 40,000 cavalry, infantry and artillery. Therefore, under the overall tactical and equipment advantages, with the sharp firearms and the unique characteristics of both offense and defense, it would be better to go directly along the old canal road from the front to Ping A.

And there is another advantage along the canal, which is that it can obtain the capacity support of the fleet of steam and water wheels accompanying the march, as well as the support of the installation of large and small artillery artillery from the vehicles and ships and gunships.

In a sense, it can not only ensure the food and supply lines in the rear, but also liberate the physical strength of soldiers and animals from the long march and load-bearing, and provide sufficient early warning and standby mobile horses.

Therefore, after entering the Great Plain area north of the Yellow River, the marching speed was faster than expected, especially when local military and civilians stationed in Cangzhou and Dezhou were used as front-drive and guide, and provided cooperation along the way.

The three-wing army (army) under my command, which were ranked left, center and right, passed through the entire territory of Cangzhou in less than two days and reached the Qingzhou border where the forefront was located.

According to the long-term summary of information collected, as the location of the Northeast heavy army group and one of the three major troops in the Northern Dynasties, the military power of Pingludao is roughly divided into three categories.

The first category is the four towns of Fanyang, Youzhou, Lulong and Yingzhou. They are also elite troops in the usual sense. They have exclusive numbers and military orders. At their peak, they are under the jurisdiction of the General Strategy Army, Jingsai Army, Vigilant Army, Qingyi Army, Henghai Army, Gaoyang Army, Tang Xing Army, Hengyang Army, and Peking Army, with a total of nine armies, with 91,400 soldiers in charge.

However, most of them are in the hands of all kinds of generals. It was not until they were repeatedly transferred before the destruction of the Northern Dynasties and severely weakened in previous years that they were integrated by the current commander-in-chief Han Zhongyan. Currently, there are only four to five armies. It is reported that a considerable number of them are located in the Shanhou area, and some are still stranded in Hebei, entangled with Zhang Bangchang's troops and had no time to respond to the battle.

In addition, there are the so-called Grand Commander Yat and a Huancheng Guard stationed in Jicheng, the capital of Youzhou. Basically, the hereditary military families in the city will be composed of whoever is in his position.

Then there are the town defense forces located in Yuguan and Baigou, which are about to be rushed. Compared with the united troops in the inland or the guards and capture troops in Yanbian, they are divided into three parts: Armour Army, Horse Army and Infantry according to the level of equipment and training. Armour Army, as the name suggests, belongs to the relatively elite part. The horse army is an armorless light cavalry, and the infantry is also less armored and is mostly archers.

The local soldiers and cavalry archers in prefectures and counties are compared with the inland training and township soldiers, and the scales vary according to the size of the territory under their jurisdiction, are distributed in Youzhou, Jizhou, Guizhou, Tanzhou, Yizhou, Dingzhou, Hengzhou, Mozhou, Weizhou, Yingzhou, Huanzhou, Shuozhou, and Yunzhou within the mountains.

In addition, there are some shops (military posts) and patrol officers, but the number and scale are much smaller. However, there is a characteristic in Yan land, which is that the military households and children of military farming have been everywhere for generations, and whether it is the town defense army, local soldiers, or horse archers, they are all famous for shooting. Compared with Hebei, Henan and other places, the horse preparation rate is relatively high.

However, among the actual encounters and contacts in recent years, it is completely different. Of course, the reactions of the local troops in Cangzhou, these Pinglu soldiers who often quarrel with each other, have the same evaluation of "strengthening guards, long shooting, long legs, good at running."

"Report..(Northern) Qingzhou has been removed..."

Suddenly, a routine news interrupted. I was sitting on the car platform while enjoying the hidden warmth under the three skirt armors. I was pretending to look at the battle, and I was gradually drifting away.

Only then did I notice that the city in the distance, the smoky and fire-burning silences had three red wind and thunder flags unique to the Huai Army's pioneer troops.

Moreover, judging from the integrity of the appearance of the city, even the combat engineers prepared in advance were not dispatched, and the city defense of the city was broken and the morale that continued to hold on to the city, and then entered the stage of sweeping and collapse and ending.

In fact, this is also the norm and convention that has encountered when we advance along the way.

Due to the torture and consumption of years of war and the weak local forces, the initial expected step by step and resistance did not happen; it seemed that the enemy's main resistance was concentrated in several more solid towns, representing several more solid towns, and completely abandoned those peripheral counties and strongholds.

Therefore, before the arrival of the Huai Army's large groups of troops, among the abandoned city strongholds, they could not wait to raise white flags to the cavalry and pioneers responsible for the outposts and opened the door; of course, this is also because they are located on the Hebei Plain, and there is no danger to defend and there is no place to escape.

Moreover, in these places, the main ones are the third-rate state soldiers and archers. Although they are backward in equipment and have some courage to defend the territory, their actual fighting will and lasting resilience are not very high. Once they are concentrated on firepower to open the city defense gap or break through the city gate, their morale will easily collapse and roar and scatter; most of them take off their number suits and throw away weapons, and hide home to pretend to be the common people.

As the corresponding punishment and countermeasure after falling into the city, it is to draw the corresponding young and middle-aged people on the spot according to their resistance and the time of persistence, and take them collectively to the rear under the supervision of the defense and garrison troops, and serve as ready-made labor for repairing roads and building grain stations (army stations). Most of the remaining Jin family are elderly, weak, women and children. Even if they are placed where they can live, they will not cause any right or wrong, and there will be no big storm.

Of course, there are practices and examples of resistance and escape. Unfortunately, they cannot withstand the guns and grenades of the Huai Army formation battle, nor can they escape the pursuit of Hussars and hunting cavalry. Under the absolute advantage of the army's transit, most of them have become new and old heads hanging on the top of the city without exception.

However, among the seven cities that have been captured so far, Zhuozhou, Yizhou, Liangxiang, Gu'an, Wuqing and Anci, there has been no expected number of Pinglu military horses, or they are not even doing a good job in the Qingye and the strong walls.

So much so that on my way, I often saw some burned fields, as well as more unharvest wheat ears and chestnut rice, and green tents made of sorghum, scattered in the wilderness without anyone paying attention.

The elite light cavalry responsible for the advance of the life hunting group and the Youyi group can even frequently catch those Pinglu cavalry, which are scattered in the fields and set fire to the fire, and have gained some results and news returns.

Then, every city and town, a new task will begin; it is to force the local remaining people to collect wheat and mow grass in the wild, and then redistribute and dispatch to become a supplementary resource to maintain the rear.

Sun Tzu said it well, he could eat one bell from the enemy, which was better than the labor force behind the rear to transport a stone. Although I didn’t expect to obtain enough supplies and resources in the enemy’s territory from the beginning, no matter how small the mosquito legs were, it would be meat. Being able to fill one by one along the way was one, which was beneficial for maintaining morale and discipline.

The vast Hebei Plain has now become a natural stage and vast world for hunting cavalry, Hussar and whistle-seeing cavalry under the Huai Army;

Although groups of Yandi cavalry came out from time to time, and many small units tried to harass and block my original formation, they were soon dispersed and intercepted by the Huai munitions of the same cavalry, and blocked the periphery and edge. In comparison with the unequal casualties, even a little wave or bubble appeared, and soon disappeared again.

In these areas that have been initially cleared and inspected, with the destroyed and burnt ferry bridges everywhere, and the following Jiansheng Army Engineering Corps has been renovated on-site materials, Huaizhen's control and warning range are also constantly extending slowly and firmly towards the north as the army passes.

The third army was left behind, but because of the existence of water transportation of vehicles, ships and ships, the pressure on logistics support and food channels was not very high;

Therefore, the existence of this garrison order, in addition to rebuilding local order and organizing new camps and management areas, is mainly used to warn and guard against the possible abnormal movements and actions of the forces under the sank of Zhang Bangchang, which are in the middle of Hebei Road.

In addition, the two armies guarding the river along the river were controlled by Huainan. After such a process of adjusting defense and sending troops, Huainan’s newly completed military expansion results and reserve accumulation were like water absorbed by a sponge, and returned to the relatively heavy source of external weakness and internal origin.

Therefore, I did not plan to fight for too long this time. The actual marching stop line and combat scope formulated by the staff team and the staff team were also tentatively set to be in the area south of Yanshan, which was located in the Great Plain. The primary purpose was to eliminate or severely damage the Northern Dynasties remnants that had hit Pinglu Road, sweep and destroy the foundation for its continued existence.
Chapter completed!