The room goes through the late Ming Dynasty, and the back door leads to North America at the beginni

When Liu Sheng decided to send troops to the Northern Expedition, he ordered more troops to be mobilized to the north. Such as one brigade of the Second Division of the Standing Army, two brigades of the Fourth Division, and the independent 17th Brigade.

He even thought about mobilizing the Yangtze River Navy to transport troops by sea to Tianjin, even to the Shanhaiguan area in Yongping Prefecture east of the capital, or even directly to Liaodong to attack Shenyang.

But considering that most of the Yangtze River Navy's boats are still inland river boats, not sea-going ships. The soldiers also had little experience in navigation and naval warfare.

The most important thing is that it has already entered the cold winter. During the Little Ice Age, even the Yangtze River will freeze, not to mention the many ports in the Yellow Sea and Bohai Sea.

For example, in Tianjin Port, because the sea water is shallow, it can even be frozen directly to the bottom of the sea!

Even if we rely on manpower to forcibly break the ice and then go ashore through the ice, we can only send a small number of troops, and it is impossible to send too many people.

Because it is very risky to fight behind enemy lines. If you are not careful, your entire army will be destroyed. In the cold winter, the vast majority of people came from the Yi army in the Central Plains and even the south, and they were definitely not as adaptable to the cold weather as the Jurchens, Mongols, and Han people who originally lived in Liaodong.

In addition, the fleet still needs to break through the ice to dock, and most of the inland rivers are frozen and cannot sail.

All these obviously increase the uncertainty and danger of fighting behind enemy lines.

Even just now, Liu Sheng was only planning to let the 1st Brigade of Qianqi Guards go to Shuntian Mansion via land first to harass the Qing army so that they would not be so unscrupulous when plundering money, food, livestock, and people.

As for sending troops behind enemy lines at this time, that was a choice made only if they couldn't defeat them on the frontal battlefield.

Nowadays, the Yi army has no fear of the Qing army on the frontal battlefield. As long as they have enough troops, they can just push through. There is no need to send people to take risks.

He didn't dare to speed up the advance before, saying it was due to logistical constraints, but in the final analysis it was still because he didn't have enough troops.

Now that the two brigades of the Fourth Division and the independent 17th Brigade have arrived, the Yi army has increased its strength by 30,000 to 40,000 troops. Whether it is frontline combat or logistics protection, there are even more troops available.

According to the plan, these three brigades should arrive in three days. Liu Sheng did not expect that they would march so fast and have already reached Liaocheng. It only took more than one day to reach Cangzhou.

This was undoubtedly a surprise, so even with Liu Sheng's current Qi-nurturing skills, he couldn't help laughing happily when he heard this, "Okay!"

Then the guard delivered the letter.

After Liu Sheng saw it, he said: "Send the order and ask Shen Wandeng to lead the three brigades to Tianjin as soon as possible to join forces!

I then sent an order for the Third Brigade of Huben Guards to leave a regiment to temporarily guard Cangzhou, and the rest of the troops will follow me to Tianjin tomorrow! "

The secretariat clerk in the account quickly wrote down the order.

Li Huaxi in the tent listened and was first surprised by the speed of the Yi army's march. Immediately, I couldn't help but worry whether Liu Sheng's move would be a bit aggressive.

In his opinion, the people in Shuntian Prefecture and other places were plundered and ravaged by Qing captives, which made people angry and anxious, but it was nothing compared with the simplicity, pace and even Liu Sheng's safety of the Yi army's Northern Expedition.

So he couldn't help but said: "Your Majesty, as long as our army advances steadily, we will definitely be able to drive the Qing captives out of the pass. In the coming year, we can even go out and regain the Liao land.

It is pitiable that the people around the capital are suffering now, but if they take the risk of advancing and cause the army to suffer setbacks or even be defeated, it will be more than worth the gain. "

Liu Sheng sighed after hearing this, "I also know what you are talking about, but now that I know that the people are suffering, it is difficult for me to just sit idly by and ignore it. Besides, now that our army has increased by 30,000 to 40,000 troops, it is not too much to speed up the march north." Take the plunge.”

Now that the Qing army has begun to plunder Shuntianfu and other places, it is obvious that it has decided to withdraw outside the pass.

The reason why he made this decision was probably because the battle of Sangyuan Town made him realize that the Yi army was powerful and not as easy to bully as the Ming army and the Shun army.

In addition, many cities in the three prefectures of Hejian, Zhending, and Baoding took the initiative to change their flags and return to Wei, which also shows that the people of Hebei are moving towards Dawei, not towards the Manchus.

Knowing this, it is normal for the Qing army commander to choose to withdraw outside the customs as long as his mind is not crazy.

At the same time, this also shows that most of the Qing army did not dare to have a decisive battle with the Yi army.

In this case, Liu Sheng decided to lead the Yi army to accelerate northward and force the Qing army to fight decisively. If the Qing army did not want a decisive battle, they could only withdraw as soon as possible. In this way, they will naturally be able to rob less resources and people, and the people of Hebei will suffer less...

When Shen Wandeng, Yuan Shizhong (commander of the 17th Independent Brigade) and others received Liu Sheng's order, they had already marched to Dezhou.

The temporary troops of these three brigades are headed by Shen Wandeng and Yuan Shizhong is the deputy general.

The decision to accelerate the march of the troops from Kaifeng Prefecture was also made by the two of them. To be honest, such a forced march was relatively dangerous for the troops at this time.

On the one hand, the danger comes from the outside - Kaifeng, to be honest, the Shandong prefectures were captured not long ago by the Yi army. There are still many thieves and bandits waiting to be wiped out, and there may even be Shun or Ming troops (die loyalists) lurking there. .

If the troops are attacked by these enemies when they are tired from the forced march, even if they win, they will probably lose a lot of troops.

The other side of the danger comes from within the army.

From the time Liu Sheng established military and political officers in the army, the Yi army was considered to be an army with a very good core construction, at least surpassing all feudal armies at that time.

However, even in the modern armies of later generations during forced marches, soldiers often complained.

Although today's Wei army is a victorious army, it has a good core construction and a layer of high morale buffs. But after all, they were going to the north to fight, not their hometown, and the weather was cold. According to the reaction of the military and political officers at the camp sentry level, the soldiers were somewhat complaining.

Under such circumstances, although the soldiers of the Wei army would not mutiny halfway like the Ming army, they might be passive and slow down their marching speed. At the same time, it will also have a certain impact on Shen Wandeng and others' future command efficiency of the army.

Some soldiers even said privately that Shen Wandeng, Yuan Shizhong and others were all trying to get credit for making everyone rush so hard.

This is not wrong.

The purpose of Shen Wandeng's choice to speed up the march was indeed to achieve meritorious service, rather than to serve the country and the people.

Previously, Damei captured Sichuan. Although he was the commander of the army, in the end it was Helian Yue who captured Chengdu, and many other places were also captured by the troops sent by Helian Yue.

Although he also won a lot of places, compared with Helian Yue, he pales in comparison, and his light is completely eclipsed by Helian Yue. In terms of merit in the future, he will definitely be far worse than Helian Yue.

In Sichuan, many people even mention General Dayei entering Sichuan and only mention Helian Yue but not Shen Wandeng.

This made Shen Wandeng quite depressed.

He would never dare to cause trouble. If nothing else, the soldiers under his command would not let him do whatever he wanted.

In the past, when he led the rebel army (peasant army) and the Ming army, the soldiers did not know anything about the general trend of the world, they did not even know what was going on beyond a county, and they had no idea why they were starving, why their families were ruined, and their families were destroyed. Why can't I receive full military pay?

In addition, military pay also passed through his hands, and even the supply of food and grass was once handled by him. He only needs to be a little close to the soldiers and show a little kindness, and naturally many soldiers will follow his lead and obey his words.

In this case, of course, whatever he says is what he says, and it is easy to do anything for selfish reasons.

But it was completely different in the Yi army.

Military pay, food and grass, etc., did not pass through his hands. In addition to reading mathematics and telling stories to the soldiers, the military and political officers would often talk about the current situation to let the soldiers know that they were fighting for Dawei. In addition to their personal future, they were also fighting for the people. And fight.

If he was doing something for selfish reasons in the Yi army, he would probably be "stopped" by the lieutenants of the army before he started doing it.

Therefore, even though he was depressed in Sichuan, he could only keep looking for opportunities to make more contributions.

However, Helianyue basically took the decision in Sichuan's military affairs, and there were not many places where he could intervene. Therefore, as soon as he received the central command, he immediately led the army and left Sichuan.

After joining forces with Yuan Shizhong in Kaifeng, the two of them ordered to speed up the march in order to get to Hebei as soon as possible and participate in the war.

However, Yuan Shizhong said that he did not do it for military exploits (in fact, Shen Wandeng did not say so), but that he started the rebellion in Kaizhou, where the people had been plundered and killed by Jiannu. Some of the old brothers who followed him were related to Jiannu. Family-breaking hatred.

Today, most of these old brothers have become generals of the 17th Independent Brigade.

Therefore, upon hearing that Jiannu had entered the country again and even wanted to seize the land of Hebei, possibly including their hometown, many of these generals became anxious and eager to go to Hebei as soon as possible to drive away Jiannu and defend their hometown.

Although some of the family members of these old brothers are gone, they still have relatives in the countryside and have a certain affection for the land where they grew up.

Therefore, they were very active in going north to participate in the war against the establishment of slaves.

Shen Wandeng only believed half of Yuan Shizhong's words - he believed that the generals of the 17th Brigade should have thoughts about defending their hometown, but they must also want to make more contributions and earn a better future. (End of chapter)