Go forward! Go forward!

In the night, the officers and soldiers of the brigade were stoking to form a large column of escorts. On the large plain on the north bank of Honghu, they rolled forward, and there were people shouting and neighing horses.

The terrain around Honghu Lake is flat like a tabletop, but it is densely covered with water nets and rice fields, which is very unfavorable for the combat and movement of cavalry... Even the infantry forming a wide column is not convenient to move forward on this muddy and wet plain. Because they have to give up the only few roads to cavalry and artillery, and also to form a wide column that can be put into battle at any time. Therefore, they can only pass through the muddy rice fields, and their boots will be soaked in mud and water in the future.

However, the main force of the Qing army who was fighting for the southern expedition to Zhou Dynasty quickly completed concentration after seeing the fire in Chibi. When the night fell that day, it opened a camp. Then it was divided into three routes, and under the starry sky in Huguang in autumn, it rushed forward wildly. Moreover, the morale was high, and everyone just wanted to walk the more than forty miles quickly, and then break through the Wulin camp of the Ming army in one fell swoop!

The commander of the Qing army in the southern expedition, Prince An, the general of Ningyuan Pingkou, was riding on the horse. His aides and the guards of the royal palace advanced with the dim light emitted by the torches. In the rice fields on both sides of the official road where he was, there were brigades and infantrymen who were marching in silence.

These infantry all came from the central army of the Zhenglan Banner, led by Yue Le. Because the Zhenglan Banner was not one of the three upper banners personally led by the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty, it always had the meaning of "second-class eight banners". It was fine when the Qing Dynasty was prosperous, but it was nothing more than the brave men and talents in the banner, and when they climbed up, they could not compare with those from the three banners.

But now when the Qing Dynasty was in crisis and the Eight Banners Building was about to collapse, the life of Zhenglan Banners was quite difficult. This was not because of money and food. In recent years, Emperor Kangxi had tried his best to ensure that his Eight Banners had food and drink, and he used all kinds of ways to quench thirst. But he could not create enough Eight Banners children... Kangxi could not openly send Han people to the new Eight Banners army!

This new Eight Banners Army must always ensure a certain "full content", otherwise this new Eight Banners Army will become a "new army"...

In order to maintain the "full content" of the twenty Gushans in the New Eight Banners, Kangxi had to lower the standards for bannermen. First, the standards for identity recognition were relaxed. Before, only one of the official family was considered "True Manchu". Now it has been changed to another family, and opening an account is considered "True Manchu".

The second is to relax the age and height restrictions. According to the Eight Banners military system, as long as the bannermen men between the ages of fifteen and sixty are considered as flagmen, they can be summoned as soldiers. However, in the years when the Eight Banners people are still prosperous, a group of half-aged children and sixty-year-old men will not be recruited to the battlefield. But now, due to years of war consumption and the damn Burni Rebellion, the number of strong men in the Eight Banners has greatly reduced. In order to maintain the "full content" of the Eight Banners New Army,

Kangxi had to relax the restrictions, and he didn't care about his height... Now is the era of queuing up and shooting. He is a little shorter and has little targets, so he is not easy to be beaten, and he can also be placed in the first row - not blocking the view of the back row. As for ages, thirteen and fourteen years old are about the same, so Kangxi limited the age of the Eight Banners to twelve years old! And the upper limit... As long as he is in good health, it is not good to work for a few more years? It is also idle at home, so he will not be covered!

While relaxing the identification standards, height and age standards, Emperor Kangxi did not forget to use the means of "raising the flag", and selected a group of strong Manchus from the afternoon flag to add to the upper three flags.

So now there are a lot of white-haired men and young men who are following Yue Le to march towards Wulin from Gushan in the Lower Five Banners...

However, the morale of these elderly people and children is still very high. Yue Le can occasionally hear the loud and optimistic discussions made by these elderly people and children.

"We are Wulin who confiscated Zhu Zhe's camp! Did you see the fire? It was the fire in the Red Cliff! Zhu Zhe's navy has been burned out, and Wulin's Zhu family soldiers have become lonely!"

"Where can those Han people fight? They don't even know the reason for using the same force. They always like to disperse their troops. Now, when the Red Cliff is burned, their soldiers in Jiangbei are our dishes!"

"Yes! That's how Sarhu was back then. I was too young back then and didn't catch up with Emperor Taizu to kill the Ming army. This time I caught up! Cough cough cough..."

Yue Le felt really uncomfortable when he heard the old man's cough! Sarhu was sixty years ago, too young sixty years ago, so there was one! Then he is at least sixty years old this year... He is still carrying a gun to defend the Qing Dynasty. He is so loyal.

Thinking of this, Yue Le pulled the reins and rode his horse off the official road. He arrived at the team where the old man was, and shouted: "That who didn't catch up with Sarhu came out!"

Then he heard a muffled voice shouting: "Zhang Zhongqi, the prince is calling you!"

"Prince? Where is it?"

"Look left!"

"Ouch...this is here, this is here!"

A little old man wearing a blue flag cloth armor and a gun helmet on his head carried a shoddy flintlock rifle and ran to Yue Lema and beat him: "Slave Zhang Zhongqi, please see the prince, you are lucky!"

"Your surname is Zhang?" Yue Le looked at the old man in front of him and was a little amused, "Are you a Han army?"

"When the prince said, I have already been brought into the Manchu family of Zhenglan Banner, and now I am a Manchu!"

"Oh, oh..." Yue Le nodded, "When did you hold the Han army flag? It was..."

This chapter is not over, please click on the next page to continue reading! "Return to the prince's words, the slave was the one who threw the flag into the clothes during the Tianming period. During the Tiancong period, he was very kind to the master and carried the Han army flag."

"You are so old, why are you still coming out to carry a gun?" Yue Le asked again, "Is there anyone else in your family?"

"Reply to the prince, I feel that I have been deeply grateful to the emperor for the rest of my life and cannot repay it. Now I know that the Qing Dynasty is in trouble, so it is worth it to be able to give up a handful of old bones to die for the Qing Dynasty. As for the slave family, there are three sons and five grandsons. The sons have errands, and the grandson is still young, and they are led by their daughters-in-law. In addition, I married a new wife two years ago, and this year I am only eighteen years old, hehehe..."

"You are indeed worth it!" Yue Le nodded and said, "Zhang Zhongqi, fight well for your grandson and your little wife! Go!"

"Yeah!"

Zhang Zhongqi responded, then stood up and carried a flintlock rifle and chased his team. Yue Le looked at his back and sighed softly, and the corners of his eyes were a little wet...

......

More than 100,000 people were wearing torches to form a wide vertical scene in the vast night. Of course, it was impossible to hide the sharp goals of Fang Shiyu, who was in a high position!

Fang Shiyu, who had a silk shop at home, had certainly changed his life trajectory in this great era. He was a talented man who graduated from the Third Academy of Cantonese and was admitted to the Nanjing Army Military Academy. He was a graduate of the reconnaissance department of the "Xiaolingwei Phase I".

After graduating from the military academy, Fang Shiyu did not go out of the army to lead the troops, but was sent to the "Aerospace Army" directly under the Military Advisor's Office to serve as the "Heavenly Soldier". He is a real heavenly soldier and a soldier who can reach the sky!

Fang Shiyu is floating in the sky now! But it wasn't that he had grown wings and flew up, but that he sat in a hot air balloon. For Zhu Heting, it was not difficult for him. It was nothing more than sewing a large pocket of rubber cloth and then blowing hot air into it with a turbulent oil stove.
Chapter completed!