"What a pity, if we double the cavalry, we can just cut behind the enemy."

Ma Rui regretted that there are two battalions of people under the cavalry command, but now they are just empty-handed. Only a dozen officers slowly select soldiers from the infantry and start from the beginning. The northerners are good at cavalry, while the southerners are good at boats. The Jingxiang Yi soldiers are almost proficient in cavalry, let alone the skills of drawing bows from left to right and shooting arrows. They can only start practicing the most basic cavalry.

"If you double the cavalry," Zhao Xingde smiled and said, "You go out to the streets with me to beg for dinner."

With Ma Rui's efforts, the progress of the cavalry formation was already very good. Zhao Xingde looked at the distance with satisfaction, and rows of children lying around the large school ground. He watched the cavalry practice gun skills with curiosity and envy, and did small businesses such as selling melons and dates. The military cavalry was waving wooden sticks and wooden knives on the back of clay horses. The requirements for archery were higher on horseback, so the cavalry of Baoyi focused on gun skills and sabre skills, and tried to be concise in their tricks, and they did not hesitate to die with the enemy. The conditions for selecting cavalry were very harsh, and they were ape-armed and bee-waisted, with flexible hands, and excellent eyesight, and they could not be too big. Once selected as a cavalry, the military pay was twice that of infantry. If the requirements of the cavalry battalion were not met regularly, the person would be retreated to the head of the infantry barracks. Therefore, the training of the cavalry battalion was much harder than that of ordinary infantry.

After the great victory in Fangzhou, the Bao Yi army had been stationed in Fangzhou for half a month. Zhao Xingde took the opportunity to rectify the Bao Yi army and mixed the 2,500 musket regiment training regiments and more than 5,000 Jingxiang soldiers. Before replenishing the military ordnance, the three people trained with two wooden sticks and a musket. During the training, the soldiers were divided into the best, the first, and the three levels of soldiers were supplemented. In order to prevent the three levels of soldiers from dragging each other down, most of the best soldiers were incorporated into the thunderbolt camp, and the military pay was the first.

The military pay for the supplementary army was only half of the first. Therefore, everyone in the camp was fighting for the first place, and they wanted to get better treatment based on their ability. The entire Baoyi Army was organized into fifteen battalions, including two cavalry battalions, one thunderbolt battalions, two artillery battalions and ten musketeers battalions. Lu Mingyu and Luo Xianshi served as the commander of the left and right army, with five musketeers battalions under their command. Ma Rui was the commander of the cavalry, Gao Su and Liu Zhijian were the commander and deputy commander of the artillery battalions. Du Chujiao led the thunderbolt battalions.

Zhao Xingde also selected some strong warriors from the captive army to enrich the Song army in Fangzhou. The Fangzhou army was still led by Chen Keli, the former general manager of Fangzhou soldiers and horses, and expanded to ten commands, totaling more than 5,000 people. This team may not be able to win the field battle with the invading Liao army, but it is enough to defend Fangzhou city after building artillery trenches.

Such a reorganization was almost impossible before, but after the Fangzhou victory, Zhao Xingde's prestige in the Baoyi army suddenly increased, and he did not take too much means to successfully carry out the reorganization. Since the Liao army invaded the south, the Song Dynasty was defeated in Hedong, two in Hebei, and three in Bianliang, and the army and people were depressed to the extreme. It directly led to the fact that the major camps had hundreds of thousands of elite soldiers, but they all threatened the Liao army to protect themselves and dared not take the initiative to attack the main force of the Liao army. After the Fangzhou victory, the Baoyi army became famous. Even if the people in Hedong, Hebei, and Xijing camps, who were all the masters, had to raise their thumbs up and praise "Good man!" The southeastern area of ​​Jingxiang praised this battle as an unprecedented victory.

It was not until more than ten days later that the troops of the Zhenguo Army broke through the blockade of the Liao army and opened up the waterway from Ezhou to Xiangyang, which slightly overwhelmed the limelight of Fangzhou. The Zhenguo Army selected two thousand elite troops as vanguards, led by Niu Gao and Yang Zaixing, and took the storm fighting ship to fight with the Liao army. Yue Fei personally led the army to succeed him, and set up iron barrel cannons, three-bow bed crossbows and other powerful tools for water battles on the warships. The Song army warships approached the Liao army's water camp in the southeast wind. The guns and crossbows on the warships were fired at the same time, igniting all the sails of the Liao army. The Khitans were not good at water battles, and the water camps were in the water camp.

The signing army had no intention of fighting to the death, and suddenly fled in panic. The soldiers of the Zhenguo Army took the opportunity to shoot with muskets and rockets, killing countless enemy troops. It is said that the Han River is full of corpses, and the river water turned red. After killing the Liao army's water camp, Niu Gao and Yang Zaixing led their troops to cut off the iron chain of the river lock with giant axes and successfully delivered the batch of food and grass to Xiangyang. All knowledgeable people know that Xiangyang is the gateway to half of the southeastern country. The 100,000 troops stationed in the southeastern camp, and there were many food and grass stored. The symbolic significance of opening up the waterway to Xiangyang this time is greater than the essence.

The Xijing camp sent troops to rescue Xiangyang almost at the same time. Cao Di personally led the army south to avoid Dengzhou and Tangzhou, which had been occupied by the Liao army, and took Junzhou to the northeast of Fangzhou. The army marched along the river by warships. The Liao army cavalry gathered on the east bank of the Han River, but there were no navy troops to stop the Song army's advance. After the Xijing army arrived in Xiangyang, Liu Yanqing received the order to welcome the lord and realized that the new emperor Zhao Qi was actually among the reinforcements.

Zhao Qi then announced that Xiangyang was the place. The morale of the soldiers was greatly boosted and they shouted long live. They were quite stunning, and they were quite stunning to fight the Liao army to the death in Xiangyang. The situation suddenly stabilized. Surprisingly, among the generals, Zhao Qi had an extra blue eyes towards Yue Fei. He heard that Yue Fei was temporarily stationed outside Xiangyang, and immediately gave him a golden helmet, silver armor, jade belt and brocade robe, and asked the eunuchs who had sent the order to bring him a message. As long as Yue Fei was willing to surrender to Xiangyang, the official family immediately appointed him as the governor of the Wuchang Army and the prince's Shaobao. If this happens, he will be comparable to Cao Di, Liu Yanqing and Yang Yanqing who are far above him. Among the generals, Yue Fei turned out to be just a commander of the wing army. The official family praised a junior general like this, and everyone was envious and jealous. Even the commander of the Southeast Jie Liu Yanqing was a little jealous in private.

However, what is even more shocking is that Yue Fei abandoned this honor and favor, and he refused to let the eunuchs who were sent to the ship, and did not perform the courtesy of a minister. He only bowed to the direction of Xiangyang from afar, and then ordered the army to pull up the camp and raise sails. On the same day, he returned to Ezhou. It is said that when Zhao Qi learned about it, he was very sorry and told others that Yue Pengju was a pure minister. He refused to let the emperor's brother down today, and he would not let me down in the future. Zhao Qi actually ordered the eunuchs to keep all the armor and brocade robes, and leave it to the rewards after Yue Fei surrendered in the future. The reputation of the Wuchang Army governor and the Prince Shaobao remained unchanged.

After the news spread, everyone sighed and even believed that Zhao Qi was a wise monarch who was eager to seek talent. Some time ago, the Liao army was in a dilemma and people were in panic. Now many people think that Xiangyang has a revival. If the Cai Party had not been able to appoint private individuals in the southeast, the Lishu had already implemented the county school election strategy, tied the local tyrants together, and the two armies of Zhenguo and Yi showed enough strength. I am afraid that most of the prefectures and counties would have to surrender to Zhao Qi. Even so, the people in the southeast were floating, and in the prefectures and counties controlled by the Lishu, there were also gentry who were also privately interacting with Cai Jing and Li Bangyan.

Fangzhou and Xiangyang are close to each other, so they are naturally affected, but this impact is more among the people in the city. When the people are talking happily about the new officials' desire for talent, they will subconsciously forget that the officials' families are already crowded with various ministers such as Cai Jing, Li Bangyan, Cao Di, and Liu Yanqing. It is difficult for new people to gain a foothold.

"A good strategy to make a thousand gold coins in the horse bones," Chen Yuyi sneered, "It is indeed not a false statement to people say that the third prince is extremely smart."

When Chen and Yi rushed to Fangzhou from Chang'an and met with Zhao Xingde with Liu Yi's letter, Zhao Xingde learned that he was the descendant of Chen Xiliang, the former governor of Fangzhou, and the eldest grandson of Chen's family. Chen and Yi served in the Prime Minister's Mansion in Xia State, and was highly valued by Liu Yi. If Fangzhou really needed him, the Prime Minister's Mansion would not be willing to release him out. The last secret order to Zhao Xingde was issued in a hurry, as if he was worried about some ambiguity. Liu Yi also stated in the letter that Zhao Xingde was still fully responsible for the Southeast matters and could directly mobilize troops, including the garrison in Fangzhou. Therefore, Chen and Yi were the chief minister of the Prime Minister's Mansion and also considered Zhao Xingde's subordinates, and could help him plan the military pay of the Baoyi army, handle civil affairs and other matters.

"It would be great if we could consolidate the Xiangyang line." Zhao Xingde said without caring, "General Yue is about to fight against Jianghuai East. Three days later, I will lead my troops back to guard Ezhou." His eyes showed a little worry. Although the main force of the Liao army was blocked by Jingxiang, it was like entering a no-man in the Jianghuai area. If it weren't for the dense water network south of Jinling and not suitable for the Liao army's horses to gallop, the remnants of the Song army would have been wiped out long ago.

Yelu Bijie and Tiemuge initially just plundered troops and waited for Yelu Dashi to join forces. However, in the past month, under the instigation of Kong Yanzhou and Li Cheng, the Liao army increased its control over prefectures and counties. Yelu Bijie was originally the Northwest recruitment envoy of the Liao Dynasty, who specialized in dealing with the tribes in the northern Mo Dynasty. They divided and won over these things very differently and were familiar with them. Tiemuge was also a flexible person. He went south along the way and saw the large population of the Song Dynasty and the strong resistance of the people, and felt that the only way was to use the Southern Dynasty to govern the Southern Dynasty. Therefore, the two Liao army generals hit it off and sent troops to each prefecture and county, set up common rules for confiscation of food and grass, and attracted local powerful tribes to be incorporated into the Han military camp. They also falsely circulated the Bianliang order and appointed many pseudo-official officials.

In view of this festival, Chen Dong felt deeply that the Liao army could not lay a foundation in the southeast. Since Xiangyang had temporarily consolidated it, the eastern expedition was urgent. Therefore, after Chen Dong and Yue Fei discussed, the Zhenguo Army decided to send troops to the east in June, while the main force of the Baoyi Army would return to Ezhou to prevent the enemy from taking advantage of the situation.

In addition, Zhao Xingde was also thinking about the newly opened iron ore. More than 3,000 prisoners were taken to Daye County with the army. The mine pits and iron smelting furnaces there were expansions, as well as iron mills and foundries. Precise iron specially made armored weapons, artillery guns, and inferior defective products were cast into agricultural tools and artillery shells. In order to stimulate production, he had convinced Chen Dong to divide more than a dozen mining areas from the Quartermaster Office. In addition to the original official iron field, each iron factory was allowed to openly bid, and then the Quartermaster Office bought weapons from the iron factory. This matter won two birds with one stone. Since ancient times, wealthy businessmen have loved bulk transactions such as iron smelting and salt. The silver money for bidding for iron ore can also slightly relieve the emptiness of the Ezhou treasury.
Chapter completed!