The huge meteorite needs a special method to be transported to the eastern border. For this reason, Fang Jie sent a cavalry team of 10,000 people to escort it. What role this thing will play on the Eastern Border battlefield is still unknown, but there is no doubt that as long as it is successfully transported there, Fang Jie will not waste its power.
Yan Kuang was ordered to lead the team to escort the meteorite, while Fang Jie led the others to chase after the team with light clothes. Sanjin Marquis Wu Yiyi had set off with the main force of the Black Banner Army a few months ago, calculating the distance, the Vanguard Army had almost joined Nalan Dingdong.
This time, not only Ye Zhuhan and Shiwan who came out from the Shiwan Dashan were following Fang Xie to the east. There was also a large group of quacks gathered by Xiang Qingniu, of which nearly 40% were from Taoist sects from all over the world, and the rest were also from Jianghu sects who had participated in the Chang'an City Martial Arts Conference.
Most of them are because of the blood in their bones. The Black Banner Army wants to conquer the bandits in the east. These quacks who still have pride in their bones are willing to go to the battlefield and kill a few more enemy bandits who harm the Han people. Of course, part of it is to take this opportunity to show itself in front of Fang Jie and to gain a good future.
But no matter what the starting point is, they are all heroes.
There were about six or seven thousand people who followed Fang Xie, and they were on the big boat left by the navy to meet Fang Xie. In order to demonstrate the military power of the Black Banner Army and the majesty of King Wu, the remodeled dragon boat embarked on its first journey to the east. This big dragon boat was not the one built when Emperor Taizong went south to Chen State, but it was built during the reign of Zhenzong. Compared with Taizong's dragon boat, this one is much bigger.
It took Suzaku Shanshuizhai Shipyard three full years to transform this big dragon boat into the current water monster. It's not just bigger now, it's stronger and more aggressive than it was when it was first built. As the largest warship in the Navy of the Black Banner Army, the big dragon boat can be equipped with enough cannons after modification.
It has to be said that although Andrew is a person with limited knowledge, he is really a flexible and easy-to-use person. He studied the artillery of the Opru Empire captured by Fang Jie, and then found out the shortcomings and improved it. It can be said that the current ship is the most powerful war machine that Andrew has transformed.
Artillery has an unparalleled advantage in long-distance attack. In order to ensure that it can strike the enemy within a range of 100 meters, many improved ballistas have been installed on the warships. These ballistas can shoot heavy crossbows tied with tough ropes. Specially made There are barbs on the heavy crossbow, once hung on the enemy's warship, it is very difficult to remove.
When the two ships approached, the big dragon boat could completely rely on this to invade the enemy ship. Trained navy soldiers can climb onto the enemy's warships by climbing the ropes that are shot out. Even if they can't break into it, relying on the absolute advantage of the big dragon boat in the word "big", they can completely lose the combat effectiveness of the enemy ship after hanging on the rope.
In order to ensure that the big dragon boat can adapt to naval battles, the four-story ship building on the dragon boat was demolished. In this way, the stability of the hull is higher, and it can better adapt to the wind and waves on the sea.
In order to build such a colossal ship, Fang Jie spared no expense and pasted a layer of iron plates on the outside of the hull. While ensuring the firmness of the hull, the problem of increasing the weight of the hull has been studied for a long time before being solved.
It took at least two thousand craftsmen and shipbuilders three years to make this monster look fierce.
Leading the way in front of the big dragon boat are twelve yellow dragon clippers that can carry two to three hundred people. Each yellow dragon clipper can carry two centipede clippers. Behind the big dragon boat were eighteen big five-toothed boats, and then hundreds of yellow dragons. This scale, when traveling eastward on the Yangtze River waterway, did not know how many people were shocked.
At the beginning, Fang Xie ordered that the two naval forces in the northwest work together to transport more than 100,000 troops from Chen Dingnan and Chen Qianshan's troops to the eastern border. Navy General Duan Zheng returned to Zhuqueshan camp after the assignment, and transferred this brand new navy fleet out of the water village. These warships were all built by Suzaku Shanshui Village over the years, and none of them have experienced war yet.
The army in the Northwest at that time included hundreds of thousands of troops under Chen Dingnan and Chen Qianshan. There are also about 100,000 soldiers from Gao Kaitai's tribe led by Lu Fenghou, and about 100,000 infantry led by Cui Zhongzhen. Fang Xie had transferred Cui Zhongzhen's troops back to Chang'an City to garrison them.
During this Eastern Expedition, Fang Xie ordered Lu Fenghou to bring his men and horses together with Du Dingbei, Jin Shixiong, and Xu Xiaogong's men and horses on the front line of Qinhe Lingmenguan, and merged into the elite Black Banner Army brought out from Chang'an City by Wu Yiyi, Sanjin Hou. , forming a huge army of more than half a million people. This does not include the hundreds of thousands of people in Chen Dingnan and Chen Qianshan.
Coupled with the follow-up team led by Fang Jie, the total strength of the Black Banner Army this time exceeds 700,000. If the Nalan Dingdong troops who were the first to go to the eastern border are added, the Black Banner Army has more than 800,000 troops He was thrown into the eastern frontier battlefield and accounted for most of the total strength of the Black Banner Army.
The current Black Banner Army actually has more than one million troops. However, in the Yunnan Road, which has just been laid down for a few years, and the foundation of the southwest, there must be enough troops to defend. In the various ways in the south of the Yangtze River, we must leave enough troops to deter. In the Northwest Dao, there are still Song Zihui's men and horses fighting against the defeated Mongolian and Yuan troops.
There is no doubt that Fang Xie put all his eggs in one basket for the war in the eastern border.
…
…
Xiang Qingniu stood on the bow of the boat with his waist pinched, his head held high and his chest held high. He was so afraid of the water that he was able to stand there in such a heroic posture. Obviously, the stability of the big dragon boat was good enough. The hugeness of the warship doomed the limitations of the big dragon boat. In order for this boat to get in and out of the Suzaku Shanshui Village, it is only a big project to widen and deepen the river connecting Xuanwu Lake and Luoshui.
Fortunately, the location of Suzaku Shanshui Village is good enough.
Xuanwu Lake is a large lake artificially opened by Fang Jie. It borrows the water from the Huangniu River in the north, and then widens the river to connect with Luoshui. From Xuanwu Lake to the east, you can enter Luoshui along the river, and then go north from Luoshui to Xinyang City and you will find the famous Sanjiangkou.
From the Sanjiangkou to the Yangtze River, the journey is unimpeded.
"Fang Jie, have you ever thought about going to Eastern Xinjiang this time? What if you lose... what will you do?"
Xiang Qingniu suddenly asked a very serious question.
Fang Jie sat and stared at the sky in a daze, and smiled when he heard Xiang Qingniu's question: "If you lose, just fight again as long as you don't die. In the current world of the Central Plains, no one should stand up more than me." .If I lose, there will be no one to step up."
"Sometimes we always ignore a lot of things. If I just think, if I come and lose, then I will lose a lot of things so I don't come, then maybe others will not come. Everyone thinks about things It has nothing to do with me, and I’m afraid it’s too late to resist when it’s about me. At the beginning, I also thought about it, once I lead my troops away from the base, will someone take advantage of it and lose Something I have?"
He glanced at Xiang Qingniu: "There must be some people who think this way, but they don't necessarily do that. The things I ignored just now are exactly what I thought I had that others didn't have... To put it more grandly, it is the nation." Emotion. To put it more simply, outsiders are not allowed to call."
"It is undeniable that there is no shortage of scum like Yang Shunhui who is willing to be a dog for the enemy in this world. What's more... a man who is willing to stand up and die to protect his fellow villagers!"
He pointed to the soldiers: "They, they, and so many quacks who came with the army, do they... have anything to do with the people in Eastern Xinjiang?"
Fang Jie let out a long sigh of relief: "If there is no, then there is no, because if there is no such war, they may never go to Eastern Xinjiang. If there is, then there will be. Because we are all Han people, He is the master of this land."
Xiang Qingniu understood.
He hadn't thought about it so much before, he just thought that whoever the hell came to my house, just call back. As for national sentiment, he never considered it. Perhaps most of the hundreds of thousands of good men who went to Eastern Xinjiang to join the war are just like him, and they are all so simple.
No one can bully their own people.
"I could lose everything."
Fang Jie said, "But I shouldn't regret it."
Xiang Qingniu's blood surged with Fang Jie's words, and he couldn't help but roared to the sky.
"Speaking of which, I hate those Dongjiang people very much. Take the Penglaizong people for example, they don't look like quacks. Take the Mufu people for example. Important... But when it came time for them to fight to the death, they didn't flinch. I never thought that I would go all out for the person I hate... "
Xiang Qingniu suddenly laughed loudly: "Master Dao has never lost righteousness!"
He was like a person who suddenly lost his mind, shouting loudly and laughing loudly. No one knew, he remembered the mountain gate called Penglaizong that he had stepped through. There, he used to wantonly beat the people he hated to death.
It was also at that place that the surviving disciples of the Penglai Sect that he hated, together with five thousand soldiers from the Mufu, fought a bloody battle with an enemy far stronger than them for a month, and finally all died in battle.
No one would have thought that the fire in Xiang Qingniu's heart was so strong now, it was the anger of revenge. In the place he had been to, the people he hated fought bloody battles with foreigners and were killed by foreigners. Now, he's going to avenge those he hates... Contradictory
No!
No contradiction!
Such a story has happened more than once in this land. For example, in Dongjiang, two neighbors were at odds. When the male owner of one of them died on the battlefield, the male owner of the other family resolutely picked up his hoe and joined the team fighting against foreigners.
At this time, what he thought was to avenge the neighbor he hated. Maybe it won't be long before the graves of the two people who would be jealous when they see each other will become close neighbors.
Maybe no one cared about those people behind the battlefield. The women in the brothel used their savings to buy leather and send it to the barracks, just for the soldiers to have an extra layer of protection. Those old people and women sat in their homes and held the soles of their shoes day and night, just so that the soles of the soldiers' feet would not grind out blood blisters when they marched.
Dongjiang
It has become a place in everyone's heart.
Sitting farther away, Shi Wan, who was suffering from seasickness, looked at the roaring Xiang Qingniu with some puzzlement, and asked Ye Zhuhan, who was sitting next to him, who was also sluggish: "Brother, what is that fat man shouting about?"
Ye Zhuhan was silent for a while, and then replied in a weak but heavy tone: "I'm yelling at Unyielding."