Ming Zuo

Chapter 445 The Progress of the New Army

This team that appeared in the vast snowfield was the scout squadron of the Second Brigade of the New Army.

Because of the different tasks, the formation of scouts and ordinary troops is different.

A scout squadron has about thirty more people than an ordinary infantry company.

The main reason is that the scouts are separated from the large forces to fight alone, and the environment they face is very complex and dangerous, so some additional staffing is needed to facilitate operations.

There are more scout squadrons than ordinary infantry companies, with two mortar teams and one engineer team.

The mortar team is used to increase firepower, and the engineer team improves the functions of multiple indicators such as field survival, movement, and concealment.

After leading the army to Lushun, Huang Sanhu sent out all the reconnaissance team before he was familiar with the local situation.

In his words, the greatest danger does not come from within Lushun, but from nearby Houjin.

Therefore, it is the top priority of the second brigade to keep abreast of Houjin's movements and make deployments according to the situation.

After all, the second brigade only had [-] people, and once Hou Jin tried his best to attack, it would be impossible to defeat them.

Even if Huang Long and others assured him again and again that the mountains would be blocked by heavy snow in winter, the Jurchens would not be able to get through at all.

The first tenet Huang Sanhu learned from Zuo Menggeng was that there must be no impossible thoughts on the battlefield.

Huang Sanhu knew better that the second brigade was alone in Liaodong, and it would be very difficult for Shandong to provide support, and it might not be timely.So everything depends on yourself.

The reconnaissance brigade took the lead, regardless of the freezing weather and dangerous roads, they resolutely plunged into the ice and snow.

They have two tasks, one is to scout Houjin's movements, and the other is to survey the nearby terrain.

Looking at the map provided by Huang Long and others, Huang Sanhu was furious.

He didn't give these veterans any face.

"You deserve to be called a map? In the military academy, if you draw a map like this, you will definitely be punished to wash the toilet."

Man Liao and the others are the second squadron of the reconnaissance brigade. According to the mission arrangement, under the cover of the other two squadrons, they will go directly to the Golden State Guard City to see the movements of the Jurchens of the Golden State Guard.

From Lushun to Jinzhouwei, the whole journey is more than [-] miles, and there was originally an official road that could be taken.But because Jinzhouwei was occupied by Houjin, the two sides must have set up guards along the way, so the second squadron chose to take the mountain road after research.

In such weather, it is conceivable to walk the mountain road.

If it weren't for the rigorous training of the reconnaissance brigade, it is estimated that there would be many casualties on the way there.

Even so, everyone has a deep understanding of the winter in Liaodong.

"Captain, our clothes are not good enough to keep out the cold at all."

Since it was a summary, someone immediately spoke.

The first question raised was that the military uniforms were too thin.

Their cotton uniforms were no problem at all in Shandong.But in Liaodong, the temperature has reached a shockingly low level.

Later, in order to keep out the cold, they had to take out the blankets and wrap them in their clothes, but the effect was still not satisfactory.

Man Liao was very conscientious, and asked: "What exactly is wrong? Is it because less cotton is used, or is the fabric not thick enough?"

Someone said: "There must be less cotton, and I feel the little wind swishing in. The fabric is not good, it feels like paper."

Man Liao breathed a sigh of relief on his hand, and used a pencil to write down the questions that the soldiers responded to one by one.

This was also one of the tasks given by Huang Sanhu when they came out.

Summarize the field experience in winter in Liaodong, and provide experience for the follow-up army operations.

Seeing the movement of his clapping hands, another person said: "Our gloves are not good either, they will freeze through in a while."

Seeing that many people put their hands in the blankets, Man Liao combined with his own feelings and knew that Zhen needed to solve this problem.

"anything else?"

One of the frost-resistant guys took his hat off and showed it to him.

"Go back and tell the people in the equipment department that the hat needs to be filled with cotton wool. Otherwise, when you sweat and get cold, your hair will freeze with the iron shell and you won't be able to pull it off."

Guan Xu thought of something, and hurriedly said: "Also, you must not lick iron objects with your tongue in the wild. That idiot Wang Ercai almost lost his tongue."

Amidst the laughter of the crowd, Wang Ercai blushed like a monkey's butt.

"Captain, don't I eat steamed buns? Who would have thought that the dagger would still stick to my tongue?"

Man Liao seriously reminded: "The winter here is extremely cold, and the ironware is even colder than ordinary things. The human tongue contains moisture and is relatively soft. As long as it is touched, it will definitely stick. So remember, from now on Don’t dare to do such a stupid thing.”

The current military caps of the new army are still in the style of the Ming army.

Made of wrought iron, it is lined with cloth.In order to keep out the cold, the soldiers had to pad themselves with cotton cloth inside.Not to mention ugly, it's inconvenient.

Man Liao still wrote it down, and revealed something at the same time.

"I heard from the brigade commander last time that we are going to change our clothes soon. I won't be able to wear this imperial court skin for long."

As soon as this was mentioned, everyone cheered up.

"Captain, what does the new military uniform look like?"

"I heard people say that the new military uniform is very beautiful."

"My younger brother is over there in Jiaozhou Bay. He said that he saw Minister Wang handing over a cotton coat to the attendees. I don't know if it is right? I wonder if we can get our turn?"

Man Liao quickly stopped.

"Okay, okay, why are you in a hurry? Don't you know when you get it?"

When the scene became silent, he continued to ask, "Are there any questions?"

Zhang Jing raised his hand.

"Captain, everything else is easy to handle. You have to talk about the problem with the shoes when you go back. These cotton shoes can't walk in the snow. There's snow on the shoes. It's fine if it doesn't melt. Once it melts, the inside of the shoes will be leaking immediately." It’s gone. Wang Fengxue’s toes almost froze off, luckily he discovered it early.”

Man Liao also felt that his cotton shoes were wet and uncomfortable, and his whole foot was cold. Even if he moved his toes back and forth, the feeling was negligible, as if the toes were not his own.

"Well, Zhang Jing's question is very important."

Xie Shouyi took the potato flour from the cooking soldier, and without further ado, had a sip of soup first.

The hot and sour soup slid down the mouth and into the stomach, and the whole person came alive.

"I have to ask the equipment department if I can think about it and get some tools for walking on ice and snow. Walking on snow is much more tiring than usual."

Someone said: "I heard people say that the people here use horse-drawn sledges to go out in winter. Why don't we do it when we go back?"

Man Liao vetoed it on the spot.

"What are you thinking? Horse-drawn sledges are used on flat ground, and the snow must not be thick. Look at the road we walked, the snow is up to the neck, how can a horse run? Besides, we are scouts, Get a horse-drawn sledge out, for fear that the enemy will not see us, right?"

Xu Zheng patched up the hole on his buttocks with a needle and thread, and said distressedly: "Then we're going to crawl in this snow? Oh my God, this way, I don't want to do it again."

Wang Er just embarrassed him.

"What are you afraid of, you still run into Xiong Xiazi again and again?"

Xu Zheng picked up a ball of snow and threw it over.

"Touch your grandma."

Everyone laughed again, and then they all picked up the hot and sour potato noodles.

After walking for a day, I was completely frozen.Only a bowl of potato flour can bring them back to consciousness.

Watching the big guys eating quietly, Man Liao carefully put away the notebook.

What is included here is all your personal experience of this field mission.I believe that after going back to the superiors, it will help more comrades adapt to the spooky weather here.

This kind of behavior is inconspicuous, but it has been done in every team of the new army.

It's just such seemingly insignificant things that, when gathered together, can become the basis for improving the new army's equipment, enhancing combat effectiveness, and adapting to the environment.

The strength of an army comes from the accumulation of such bits and pieces.

This is also where the new army is far different from any army at the time.

Holding the rice bowl in his hand, Man Liao was not in a hurry to enjoy the food, but looked towards the north involuntarily, his expression full of doubts.

No matter how difficult and exhausting he was, he never forgot his original mission.

Their second squadron lurked under the Golden State Acropolis and completed the reconnaissance mission.

Although he had never been in the city, one situation still caught Man Liao's attention.

While they were doing their reconnaissance, an army of [-] soldiers from the Jinzhou Guard hurried out of the city and headed north.

What the hell happened to this freezing weather to make it worth getting out of town?
(End of this chapter)