Chapter 525: Expand the army and prepare for war and defend against the Tartars!

With the gunshots, time slowly passes. The night passes and morning comes. The morning light slowly tear opens the darkness in the mountains, and the visibility in the mountains gradually improves. Then, the sun quietly climbs into the sky and sprinkles warm and bright sunshine. The autumn sun is always so popular.

Liu Xing, who had been watching the lively night on the big tree, felt that his eyes could not be opened. Last night, he was nervous and did not fall asleep all night. It was not until dawn that he closed his eyes in a daze, and was worried about falling from the tree, so he had to lift his energy and hold the trunk in his arms tightly. The sun came out and the sun was dazzling, so he had to slide down from the tree.

The birds that were frightened last night have now flew up as early as possible, making cheerful and chirping sounds. Some of them are still swelling on the branches next to Liu Xing, without any fear of being afraid of others. Liu Xing has to sigh that it is such a rare morning! Such a beautiful morning is the most suitable for outings. I am afraid no one would have thought that there were many corpses of horse thieves lying in the woods.

Zhang Zhun seemed to have fallen asleep and didn't say anything all night. It was not until dawn that he slowly opened his eyes. After the gunfire stopped completely, the mountains and forests seemed particularly calm. The sunlight casts down from the gaps between the leaves, forming a large and small aperture on the ground, bizarre. He looked up at the sky, and through the layers of leaves, it seemed as if he could see a bunch of sunlight.

"morning!"

Zhang Zhunshu stretched comfortably and greeted Liu Xing, who had just slipped down from the tree. If someone insiders were here, they would find that Zhang Zhun was in a very good mood.

"Good morning sir!"

Liu Xing said with great admiration.

After last night's battle, he truly realized the combat effectiveness of the Hu Ben Army. Before, he was worried that the horse thieves would rush to the camp, and felt that Zhang Zhun's arrangement posed a great risk. However, he found that the horse thieves hit the gun of the Hu Ben Army and were simply killed. He did not see through Zhang Zhun's arrangement, and the horse thieves did not see through either.

In fact, the battle last night was not intense, and it felt like a scattered cold gun. The Hu Ben Army lurked in the woods and kept firing. However, it was in such cold guns that the horse thieves were killed one after another. Due to too many casualties, the horse thieves had to retreat in the second half of the night.

"Sir, the horse thief retreated."

Shangguan rushed to report.

"Well, count the casualties of horse thieves and the number of war horses."

Zhang Zhun said casually.

Then, he walked to the stream, washed his face with clear stream water, and then did some exercise to cheer up his energy. At this time, Brother Wei had already prepared all the breakfast. The so-called breakfast was actually porridge. Zhang Zhun, the soldiers of the sniper team, and Liu Xing, ate it with pickles. Liu Xing was in a good mood and ate several bowls of porridge in one breath and ate all the remaining porridge.

Liu Mang whispered, "Brother, I told you that horse thieves are not in trouble, you don't believe it."

Liu Xing said convincedly: "I really know your awesomeness now. No wonder you can even deal with the Tartars. In the future, no matter what enemies I encounter, if I feel a little nervous, I will be raised by bitch."

Everyone around laughed.

Soon, Shangguan Shougu came to report the results of the battle.

The Hu Ben Army found a total of 362 horse thieves around the battlefield, and there were no wounded... all the wounded became dead. A total of 81 war horses were seized.

“Eighty-one…”

Zhang Zhun said in contemplation.

This number is obviously a distance away from his target. He still expects to seize half of the war horses. However, it is better to have them. These war horses from Wulian Mountain horse bandits will definitely not be able to escape. It is only a matter of time before the war horses are obtained.

After breakfast, the soldiers of the Hu Ben Army buried the corpse of the horse thief simply. They rested peacefully in the camp for a day, recovered from the fatigue of fighting and staying up late, and summarized the experience of jungle fighting, and rested for another night, and then took the seized war horse on the way.

With more than 80 war horses, the burden on the soldiers was greatly reduced, and many equipment could be handed over to war horses for transportation. Anyway, it was really not very comfortable for people to ride on horseback on such a mountain path. Because the trees around the path were taller than the heads, and there was no problem for people to get through below. If they were riding on horseback, the branches would be directly swept to their eyes. Even Zhang Zhun himself continued to walk.

Along the way, there were no more horse thieves. It might be that the horse thieves were already scared, and when they saw the Hu Ben Army, they hid far away. Dugu Lie and his friends walked in front to clear the way, and all the gestures they made were safe. In the battle in one night, hundreds of people died, and even the tough horse thieves could not afford to be injured.

Liu Xing couldn't help but sigh that the Hu Ben Army was the Hu Ben Army, and Zhang Zhun was Zhang Zhun, who easily ate the horse thieves in Wulian Mountain. The battle in one night, well, to be precise, it was only half a night of battle that actually wiped out more than 360 horse thieves. No wonder the horse thieves had to hide far away. If they came to trouble the Hu Ben Army again, wouldn't they seek death?

What made Liu Xing even more moved was that after so many horse thieves were eliminated, Zhang Zhun had no intention of dragging the horse thief's body to Andong City to show public, as if the whole thing was simply insignificant. If another army was replaced and three or four hundred horse thieves were eliminated, it would definitely be considered a great achievement, and he must show off. Not to mention anything else, the horse thief's head must be taken back to Andong City to seek credit.

In the final analysis, it is still a matter of vision. The Hu Ben Army destroyed three or four thousand Tartars in one breath in one breath. Compared with the Tartars, such a few horse thieves are nothing. Zhang Zhun was not even prepared to take the heads of the Tartars, let alone the heads of some horse thieves. Perhaps, in his eyes, these horse thieves were not even qualified to carry shoes for him.

Seeing the power of the Hu Ben Army with his own eyes, Liu Xing's heavy burden was immediately lifted and he became relaxed. As a guide, he naturally worked very hard. Without the obstruction of horse thieves, the Hu Ben Army's march was still relatively fast. On the afternoon of the third day, the Cross Road Town appeared in Zhang Zhun's Qianli Mile Mile Mile.

"Sir, Cross Road Town is empty."

Dugu Lie, who was in charge of the investigation, came back to report.

"Are there any clues about thieves?"

Zhang Zhun asked inadvertently.

“Not yet.”

Dugu Lie replied.

"Then let's garrison troops in Crossroad Town!"

Zhang Zhun said casually.

Dugu Lie agreed to go.

Soon, Zhang Zhun and others entered Crossroad Town.

The entire Cross Road Town was indeed empty. All the houses had been burned down. At first glance, there were only charred ruins and all the wells were poisoned. Even the nearby streams had been dumped with a large amount of livestock manure, which was obviously used to disgust the Hu Ben Army. It seemed that these horse thieves were still very decisive and did not leave anything useful for Zhang Zhun. However, this also strengthened Zhang Zhun's determination to suppress the bandits. The Hu Ben Army could even clean up the Tartars, but could not clean up some horse thieves?

In fact, from the perspective of military training, clearing out horse thieves is a good way to eliminate horse thieves. The organization, discipline and coordination of horse thieves are far inferior to those of the Hu Ben Army with strict organization and advanced weapons. The combat effectiveness of the Hu Ben Army is simply incomparable. A small team of Hu Ben Army can completely fight against horse thieves with two or three hundred people. As long as the new soldiers of the Hu Ben Army participate in real actual combat, their maturity will be much faster.

Of course, the matter of suppressing bandits takes a long time, and it is impossible to eliminate all the horse thieves in a short period of time. Therefore, Zhang Zhun will not personally participate in the operation to eliminate horse thieves. He has more and more important things to deal with. Just leave this matter to Yin Fengyi. Yin Fengyi's nickname is Scud, Shenxing Taibao, and it is the most suitable to pursue bandits.

Of course, sufficient troops must be equipped.

According to Zhang Zhun's order, the Minzi Battalion will gradually expand to five associations, with a total force of about 1,600. Such a force is enough to protect the safety of Andongwei. Whether it is a horse thief, or officers and soldiers, as long as they dare to come and attack, they will suffer a head-on attack from the Hu Ben Army. In other words, since the current Andongwei is in Zhang Zhun's hands, it is absolutely impossible for him to vomit it out again.

As for Zhang Zhun himself, he conducted a detailed investigation of Cross Road Town to confirm whether this place would be Junan County in the future. Two days later, Zhang Zhun was convinced that this place would be Junan County in the future. Around Cross Road Town, there were a lot of resources such as graphite, quartz sand, granite, and a few local residents planted some peanuts in sporadic circles.

From a terrain perspective, the area around Crossroad Town is a good basin. As long as you pass through some rugged areas of Wulian Mountain, you can enter this basin. From a military perspective, it is indeed easy to defend and difficult to attack. Isn’t the Shuzhong Basin the same? No wonder the Eighth Route Army had to set up a command center here during the War of Resistance Against Japan. When facing a strong enemy, this place is indeed a good place!

Zhang Zhun focused on the arable land here. In this basin, it would take some effort to reclaim one million mu of arable land. However, it would be no problem to reclaim seventy or eight hundred thousand mu of arable land. If the horse thieves did not know how to produce and did not know how to rely on themselves, otherwise, it would be absolutely no problem to just develop a small basin and feed tens of thousands of people. Junan County, in later generations, had a population of 1 million.

"From now on, this place is called Junan County."

Zhang Zhun decided to upgrade Cross Road Town to a higher level and directly turn it into a county level.

There are too few people living in Junan County and the labor force is severely insufficient. The main reason is that they are threatened by horse thieves. As long as the Hu Ben Army eliminates all the horse thieves in Wulian Mountain, there should be no small number of people willing to move here. In Andongwei, each person has only three acres of land. If he is willing to move to Junan County, each person can be divided into ten acres. With such a standard, many military households will definitely be tempted.

In order to eliminate all the horse thieves and ensure the safety of Junan County, the Hu Ben Army must garrison here for a long time. In order to meet the needs of the expanding territory, and considering the third invasion that the Tatars may launch at any time, according to Zhang Zhun's order, the Hu Ben Army will expand the army of three battalions, with three associations, and the troops of each battalion are about 900. The numbers are Qiziying, Renziying, and Taoziying, and the commanders are Li Jiaxi, Zhang Yatie, and Wu Xinshui. These three are also the old people around Zhang Zhun.

At the same time, the other Huben Army battalions, which were not satisfied with the three associations, were all expanded into three associations, and their respective troops increased to more than 900. After such expansion, the Huben Army Army will have thirteen battalions, with a total force of more than 15,000. With such troops, even if they fight face to face with the Tartars, they can last for a while.

The troops stationed in Junan County must be quite powerful. It not only ensures the safety of Junan County, but also cooperates with Minziying to recover thieves. At the same time, it must actively help local residents to carry out land reclamation and farming work. Because the terrain of Junan County is relatively special, it must bear the pressure from Qingzhou Prefecture, Yanzhou Prefecture, and Huaian Prefecture. Therefore, the commander must have strong psychological qualities and flexible and proactive skills.

Zhang Zhun finally decided to lead the Gangzi Camp here. Wu Qingliang's troops were originally stationed in Changyi and were always on the front line against the Ming army. Wu Qingliang was very careful in the training of the troops. According to Zhang Zhun's judgment, the Gangzi Camp's combat effectiveness was very strong and his enthusiasm for war was also very high, and he happened to use the horse thief from Wulian Mountain to attack.

Wu Qingliang himself was the first team leader outside the Eight-Man Fish Squad and the first battalion commander outside the Eight-Man Fish Squad. Before Yang Qianqiang, Yang Hongwen and others became the team leader, Wu Qingliang was already the team leader. It is definitely not without reason to be able to overwhelm the original old team members and become the most eye-catching up-and-coming. His comprehensive qualities can rank in the top five among the officers under Zhang Zhun. Now, it is most appropriate for him to station troops in Junan County.

It takes a lot of time to expand and mobilize troops. The Hu Ben Army has never lacked a source of troops. What it lacks is enough transport fleets. The transportation tasks at the Weihaiwei Army Port are equally heavy. It is impossible to extract a large number of ships and transport personnel and equipment to Andongwei in a short time. Therefore, it was not until late September that all the troops of the Hu Ben Army were in place.
Chapter completed!