Chapter 306: The first battle after entering the pass was a success, like a child’s play

The vast Jialu River is rippling with green waves.

A large fleet consisting of one high-quality treasure ship, twelve medium-quality treasure ships, and twenty low-quality treasure ships, loaded with soldiers in black clothes and armor, was sailing downstream.

Because there is a large spiritual vein at the source of the Jialu River, many large and small spiritual springs have been born in the Daling Lake. Therefore, the Jialu River is one of the few large rivers in the vast northwest region of the Ming Dynasty whose water flow has not been affected by the drought.

Unlike the Xiaoli River southwest of Yansui Town which has dried up, even the water volume of the Dali River has dropped by nearly half, posing a huge impact.

“Along, how about letting our Xuanwu Third Battalion take the lead this time?”

Pan Jinghua stood on the side of a high-quality treasure ship and spoke to Huang Zhanglong, the commander of the Xuanwu First Battalion beside him.

Pan Jinghua was promoted to replace Chang Liyun and take over the naval commander of the Xuanwu Third Battalion after Chang Liyun left the Xuanwu Battalion and became the Minister of Internal Affairs.

He has a record that has not been surpassed by any other officer in the Restoration Army till now: except for Li Dingguo, he has never been surpassed by anyone since he started practicing the art of concealment and breath-holding, from the very beginning to the present state of perfection!
So far, all the soldiers who were dissatisfied with him have admitted defeat in this regard.

There is no way, he is so talented in this area, you have to admit it.

“Hua Zai, do you want to take the lead?”

Huang Zhanglong rolled his eyes at him and said unhappily, “Go back to where you came from and cool off!”

“My Xuanwu First Battalion finally got a combat mission. Do you think I will give in?”

“I have to say, you have a very nice idea.”

He looked at the other party with contempt and said, “Anyway, there is a water fort of the government army on both sides of the gap in the Great Wall where the Jialu River flows through the border. The soldiers of our two battalions will each capture a target. Is it necessary for whose turn it is to lead the charge?”

“Hey……”

He sighed and said to Pan Jinghua, “Huang Lan of the Xuanwu Second Battalion is lucky. This time, her Xuanwu Second Battalion was dispatched to the Wuding River Basin, responsible for transporting military supplies and logistics soldiers to the Western Army Group. As long as there are water forts along the way, they will be captured by Huang Lan’s Xuanwu Second Battalion!”

“Huang Lan’s Xuanwu Second Battalion was previously managed by General Wan’er herself. I don’t know how many good things she got for the soldiers of the Second Battalion.”

“Even the soldiers of the Second Battalion are all female soldiers. When General Wan’er was still in the Second Battalion of Xuanwu, she even personally refined a lot of various elixirs for her soldiers to take.”

“In terms of our current comprehensive strength, aside from the fact that each of our battalions is equipped with the same psychic cannons and psychic crossbow carts, Huang Lan’s Xuanwu Second Battalion is almost as powerful as our Xuanwu First and Third Battalions combined.”

“The Xuanwu Second Battalion even has 10,000 more combat soldiers than us.”

Although Huang Zhanglong said this, there was no jealousy in his words.

All the soldiers knew that Wan’er was the most special person in the Fusion Army.

What’s more, Wan’er is dedicated to the public and has no selfish motives at all, so no one can find fault with her.

“Along wants to compete with the Second Battalion of Xuanwu? Don’t you feel ashamed to compare yourself with a group of female soldiers as a man?”

Pan Jinghua looked down on his bad friend and said, “You sound nice. Our fleet will be able to reach the gap in the Great Wall in half a day. There are two good water forts, but can these two water forts be the same?”

“The Military Intelligence Bureau has long sent back intelligence that among the two water forts, only the one on the west side has complete personnel and supplies and has a certain level of combat effectiveness.”

“But the water fort located east of the gap in the Great Wall has been in disrepair for many years and is in a dilapidated state. Even 70% of the soldiers in it are missing. It is almost like an abandoned water fort.”

“How about Along and your Xuanwu First Battalion be responsible for capturing the water fort in the east this time?”

After saying that, he glared at Huang Zhanglong unhappily, waiting for his answer.

“Hey……”

Huang Zhanglong could only sigh and said, “Okay, let’s stick to the old rules and decide by drawing lots.”

He picked up two sticks and a small bamboo tube that he had prepared long ago, and said to Pan Jinghua, “The two of us should completely restrain our mental power, and no one is allowed to cheat!”

“Let’s start. You draw first. The longer stick is responsible for the east water fort, and the shorter stick is responsible for the west water fort.”

The two of them rolled their eyes at each other and then restrained all their mental energy.

Huang Zhanglong shook the bamboo tube containing two sticks in his hand quickly with dazzling movements, then placed it on the deck and waved at Pan Jinghua, indicating that he should draw first.

After a while, he laughed happily as he watched Pan Jinghua leave the treasure ship with a sad face and return to the flagship of the Xuanwu Third Battalion.

As it turned out, my luck was a little better than Pan Jinghua’s.

“Pass the order down, we will reach our destination in less than half a day!”

Huang Zhanglong strode onto the deck of the flagship and shouted to the messenger nearby, “Let everyone prepare for battle. Our Xuanwu First Battalion’s target is the water fortress located west of the gap in the Great Wall!”

Huang Zhanglong did not dare to take lightly the first battle of the Fuxing Army after entering the pass.

No matter what, the Xuanwu First Battalion is sure to get off to a good start!
According to intelligence, this fully staffed and equipped water fort of the official army was only replenished with personnel and equipment after Hong Chengchou took office.

Among them, there was one fourth-level warrior, twelve third-level warriors, and the remaining nearly a thousand soldiers were all low-level warriors of the first and second levels.

The enemy had two low-grade treasure ships, but only two psychic cannons and ten crossbow carts.

The two psychic cannons were not placed on the treasure ship, but on the artillery platform of the water fort.

After all, apart from the Renaissance Army, no one in this world has a low- or medium-quality treasure ship that can withstand the recoil of a psychic cannon.

To Huang Zhanglong, the opponent’s meager strength is not worth mentioning at all.

Even so, this water fort has more than twice as many personnel and weapons as the one to the east.

Even Huang Zhanglong was speechless about the current Ming Dynasty’s military being so neglected.

These two water forts are among the most important defensive strongholds on the northwest border of the Ming Dynasty, but they only have such little strength. It’s incredible!

“Wu Xilin!”

Huang Zhanglong passed the order down and shouted to the deputy commander who was inspecting the preparations of the flagship treasure ship nearby, “When the battle begins, you will lead a 2,000-man force to capture the two low-grade treasure ships from the enemy’s water fortress intact!”

“No matter how small a mosquito is, it’s still meat. We are now marching into the country in a big way. Even if we add two low-quality treasure ships, it will be good.”

“At least it can be used to transport spoils, right?”

Well, it just means that the Fuxing Army is now rich and powerful, so there is nothing wrong with what Huang Zhanglong said.

These two inferior treasure ships alone were extorted by Hong Chengchou from a wealthy merchant with great effort.

If for no other reason, this restoration army outside the Great Wall has been causing quite a stir in the past one or two years, and Hong Chengchou is very wary of this.

However, due to the shortage of money and supplies, this is all I can do.

Hong Chengchou even equipped the two water forts with two pairs of magic pigeons so that the soldiers could give him timely warnings.

But Hong Chengchou would never have imagined that three years ago, the daring little thief Li Dingguo, along with some refugees, had only been out of the country for three years, but after the beginning of spring this year, he actually led a large army back into the country!

Even Hong Chengchou could not have imagined it, let alone the various forces within the Ming Dynasty.

“Yes! Commander!”

Wu Xilin’s face lit up with joy when he received the order, and he quickly began to dispatch personnel to prepare for the ship-seizing operation.

This flagship treasure ship is the only top-grade treasure ship among the Restoration Army outside the Northwest Pass.

It was originally Wan’er’s vehicle. After she left the navy, it was allocated to the Xuanwu 1st Battalion by the military and used as a flagship.

It’s not that Huang Lan’s Xuanwu Second Battalion doesn’t want it. The military allocates it according to the serial numbers of the battalions in the Xuanwu Corps.

If we get another high-quality treasure ship in the future, it will definitely be allocated to the Second Xuanwu Battalion.

This top-grade treasure ship is so huge that it is even larger than the largest aircraft carrier in Li Dingguo’s previous life.

This great treasure ship is now not only filled with a large amount of various late-stage supplies, but also with five thousand warriors and soldiers.

For the next ship-seizing operation, we can easily gather enough manpower directly from this flagship ship.

By the time the naval soldiers had finished preparing for the battle, it was almost noon.

At this time, the huge figure of the Great Wall that stretched to the horizon appeared in front of the fleet, and it was getting closer and closer. The Great Wall in this big world was at least thirty feet high and was built entirely of blue bricks.

There is a protective magic circle at every checkpoint and fortress of the Great Wall.

Nowadays, many checkpoints and fortresses are in disrepair and in a dilapidated state due to years of disrepair. Even the city defense formations are incomplete and it is even impossible to activate the formations.

The gap in the Great Wall in front of the large fleet and the government army’s water strongholds on both sides of the river, thanks to Hong Chengchou’s attention, the protective formation can be activated normally.

Because the rivers in this world are too big, the Great Wall, which stretches for millions of miles, has many gaps, and can only be defended by building water forts.

“Humph!”

Huang Zhanglong looked at the motionless river ahead and snorted, “These government troops guarding the river checkpoints didn’t even send out boats to patrol the river. I really don’t know what to say to them.”

He knew that the Ming Dynasty was now in great chaos and extremely corrupt, but he did not expect that even such an important border checkpoint and water fort had such lax defenses.

This would definitely be a great thing for his large fleet.

All these signs indicate that it would be strange if the Ming Dynasty did not perish.

Huang Zhanglong could guess the current situation. It must be because all the treasure ships of various levels traveling on this river were owned by powerful forces within the Great Wall.

The military power of the two government water forts here is actually no match for the large fleets traveling in and out of the Jialu River border.

Moreover, the other party has a strong background and is not someone that they, the big guns, can afford to offend.

Rather than bringing humiliation upon yourself, it is better to turn a blind eye.

Over time, these government troops even stopped sending people out to patrol the river.

At this time, the Xuanwu Camp fleet, which had already approached the gap in the Great Wall, suddenly split into two and rushed towards both sides of the river!
How fast is the treasure ship moving at full speed?

At least it is not inferior to the galloping top-quality dragon-scale horse.

In less than a quarter of an hour, the large fleet of the Xuanwu First Battalion rushed directly to the large dock of the water fort in the west!
This water fort is connected to the majestic Great Wall on one end and to a large bluestone wharf extending into the river on the other.

The water fort covers an area of ​​about three miles and is built entirely of blue bricks, and appears to be quite large.

Because it was built so long ago, there are traces of it everywhere.

Many of the city walls were left with scratches from fierce battles by spiritual soldiers. It was obvious that this water fortress had gone through many fierce battles since its establishment.

“Oh no! Enemies are attacking!”

“Whose enemy is this? They don’t look like the Tartars from outside the Great Wall. Could it be that the Futai specifically told us to pay attention to the Restoration Army outside the Great Wall?”

“They have so many treasure ships and so many fully armed soldiers. We can’t defeat them anyway, so why don’t we surrender?”

“Right, right! If anyone wants to die, don’t drag me down. This is a Han army anyway. They won’t kill us all.”

“I surrender! There are only a few thousand of us here, how can we be a match for tens of thousands of elite troops!”

“I surrender too. I don’t want to die yet!”…

The Ming army in this water fort was not prepared at all for the sudden attack from the Fuxing Army soldiers.

Seeing such a large fleet coming, with countless soldiers in black clothes and armor jumping off the large treasure ships that had not yet stopped, quickly forming military formations of hundreds of people, and charging towards him, he was scared on the spot!

These old soldiers were good at protecting themselves. Moreover, the other side seemed to be a Ming army, so they immediately put down their weapons, squatted on the ground and raised their hands in surrender.

They had all heard about the new force outside the Great Wall, the Fusion Army, in the past year.

I heard that it was an anti-bandit group formed by a large number of refugees who had left the country.

But this restoration army was very special. It seemed to be very kind to the refugees and found ways to take in a large number of refugees from the interior.

Rumor has it that the refugees taken in by the Fuxing Army live very well, have no worries about food and shelter, and are also taught cultivation techniques and provided with cultivation resources!
In the past, these soldiers were skeptical about these rumors, but now that the Fuxing Army has taken in tens of millions of refugees, there will naturally be a lot of gossip that will be passed back to the interior through various channels.

These border troops have complicated feelings about this increasingly powerful Restoration Army.

Maybe many of your relatives and friends are among them.

The enemy is attacking in large numbers. Given the huge gap in strength, it is best to surrender unless you want to die.

These old soldier ruffians certainly don’t want to die.

Especially when they saw those warriors in black clothes and armor, led by generals in the Qi Refining Realm, forming an army formation and attacking them, they did not even have the slightest thought of resisting.

joke!

In a battle where there is a definite chance of death, who would have the courage to resist?
There is no government supervision team behind him to support him. If he surrenders, there is a high probability that he will still have a chance of survival. If he resists, he will definitely die, so there is no need to even think about it.

So when the soldiers of the Xuanwu First Battalion rushed to the water fort, a ridiculous situation occurred immediately:

As teams of Fuxing Army soldiers in black clothes and armor passed by, the Ming Dynasty soldiers in red mandarin duck battle jackets quickly threw away their weapons, squatted on the ground obediently, raised their hands and surrendered!

Because this time the army was entering the pass to fight on the home ground, Li Dingguo had issued a military order that the killing of prisoners was not allowed, and all surrendered Ming troops were to be detained.

After the war, the criminals will be identified and executed, while the innocent will be taken in and treated as ordinary people.

As for those who want to join the military system of the Renaissance Army, they have to start as recruits and pass regular training and assessments before they can be absorbed into the recruit camp.

After the Fuxing Army entered the pass, they met all the captured officers and soldiers. It was impossible for them to surrender and become combat soldiers.

Li Dingguo would rather train and select warriors from the general public than directly absorb any captured officers and soldiers into the military system of the Fusion Army.

This is to prevent the bad habits of these officers and soldiers from affecting the purity of the Fuxing Army and causing chaos.

But no matter what, when the Fuxing Army fights on its home ground, unless there are special circumstances, they will definitely not kill all the surrendered officers and soldiers.

The fighting inside the Great Wall is completely different from the fighting outside the Great Wall, especially in the treatment of prisoners.

“Follow me quickly!”

As soon as Wu Xilin arrived at the pier with a troop of 2,000 soldiers, he shouted loudly, jumped up, and flew to the pier.

He led the soldiers who jumped off the big treasure ship and rushed straight towards the two enemy’s inferior treasure ships docked at the big pier!
When he led his men to the enemy’s treasure ship, he saw a ridiculous scene: there were only a few dozen ordinary border army soldiers on these two inferior treasure ships.

When the other side saw so many Fusion Army soldiers rushing onto the ship, they immediately squatted on the deck and raised their hands in surrender.

In just a moment, the two enemy’s inferior treasure ships were completely controlled.

During the entire process, no fighting took place.

“The second battalion will stay to guard the treasure ship and this large dock. The rest of the soldiers will follow me!”

Of course Wu Xilin was unwilling to give up, so he left a team of a thousand men to take charge of the aftermath, and took the remaining thousand soldiers, left the big dock, and rushed quickly towards the water fort ahead.

In the first battle of the Fuxing Army after entering the Pass, it would be appropriate to kill at least a few enemies who dared to resist, right?

However, at this time, Huang Zhanglong had already led tens of thousands of warriors and soldiers, forming battle formations of hundreds of people, and swept towards the water fort.

By the time Wu Xilin led his thousand soldiers across the entire water fort, except for hundreds of officers and soldiers who surrendered, they did not encounter any enemy who dared to resist!
“Hahaha……”

At this time, Huang Zhanglong, who was already a late-stage fourth-level expert, walked out from a relatively luxurious mansion, laughing.

He held an official seal in one hand and a corpse in the other, grinning from ear to ear.

“Wu Xilin, you are a step too late. The commander of this water fort and a dozen officers actually wanted to escape with some treasures, but I led a team of 100 soldiers to wipe them out!”

“I also found the official seal that the commander-in-chief specifically instructed me to give.”

The commander-in-chief said that in all the towns and fortresses in the Ming Dynasty that have protective formations, the capture of the official seal must be treated as the most important matter.

The capture of each official seal was equivalent to the military merit of killing an enemy general of the same rank.

The Fuxing Army’s first battle after entering the Pass ended perfectly, bringing a huge smile to Huang Zhanglong’s face.

(End of this chapter)