Sometimes, Yang Zhen really wanted to ask Zu Keyong what they experienced in Dalinghe City in the winter of the fourth year of Chongzhen when Dalinghe City was besieged by the Tatar army.

In particular, after they followed Zu Dashou and surrendered to Huang Taiji, what exactly did they experience during those days in Huang Taiji's camp.

But every time the words came to his lips, he swallowed them back again and again.

These things are almost a taboo topic among the current Liaodong Army.

Not many people knew about it originally, and even fewer outsiders knew something about it.

Moreover, seven or eight years have passed since the incident, and even Emperor Chongzhen no longer pursues the matter. Wouldn’t it be a bit inappropriate to pursue this topic again?!

If he had spoken out, not to mention what kind of answer he would get, at least from now on, he, Zu Dashou and the ancestral army who followed Zu Dashou to surrender to the Tatar leader Huang Taiji in Daling River City

The generals were completely at odds with each other.

This is not the result that Yang Zhen wants to see now.

Let's say that while Yang Zhen was thinking about these old stories about old millet and rotten sesame seeds, he was watching Zu Keyong talk about what he saw and heard along the way from Songshan to Xingshan, and then from Xingshan to Jinzhou.

When Zu Keyong finished speaking, Yang Zhen's small room became quiet. Yang Zhen had nothing to ask or wanted to ask, so he didn't speak.

At this time, Xu Changyong suddenly broke the silence and said to Zu Keyong: "Brother Zu! Since there is no trace of the Tatar army in the Xingshan and Tashan areas, and the road between Jinzhou and Ningyuan is open, then Marshal

Is there a military order coming from the side? Our rescue of Songshan City is over, should we return to Ningyuan next, or go directly to Jinzhou, which is nearby?!"

The troops of Zu Keyong and Xu Changyong were originally stationed in Jinzhou City with Zu Dashou. Now that the Tatars have withdrawn their troops and the post road between Jinzhou and Ningyuan has been opened, it stands to reason that Zu Dashou will continue to lead his troops back to Jinzhou to take charge.

In this case, as long as Zu Keyong and Xu Changyong were not left in Yang Zhen's advance camp, they would most likely have to return to Jinzhou City.

If the next step is to go to Jinzhou, then Songshan is very close to Jinzhou. There is no need for them to go south to Ningyuan and go back and forth. They can go directly to Jinzhou.

"This - it's hard to say whether the Mongolian soldiers you led and the General's Central Army led by me will go or stay in the future, and where they will go! Let's wait for the Commander's orders in Songshan City first!"

In his heart, Zu Keyong couldn't tell for a moment whether he wanted to return to Commander Zu's army or stay in Yang Zhen's advance camp.

This trip to Xingshan and Jinzhou made him deeply aware once again that there were many differences between Yang Zhen's advance battalion and the various armies under Commander Zu.

The magnanimous, selfless and fearless qualities he saw in Yang Zhen could not be seen even in Zu Zeyuan in Xingshan or Zu Dabi in Jinzhou.

In particular, the vigorous and enterprising atmosphere he felt in Yang Zhen's advance camp was something new he had never encountered in other armies during his many years in the army.

The advance battalion has not been established for a long time, but in this short period of time, after several battles of life and death, wealth and wealth, something unique to the advance battalion has been initially formed.

This unique thing can be said to be the character or personality of the advance camp, or it can be said to be the ethos or style of the advance camp.

In short, compared with other armies currently in Liaodong, Yang Zhen's advance battalion is so different.

Everything he did was obeyed the command, everything seized was returned to the public, he vowed to live and die together, and Yang Zhen's eclectic style of fighting when he commanded the battle all opened Zu Keyong's horizons.

These things made him very nostalgic. If he could choose on his own, deep down in his heart, he would actually be willing to stay.

This time, he went to Xingshan and Jinzhou to scout out. Now that he had entered the city, he naturally asked Zu Zeyuan and Zu Dabi for their opinions on where to go next.

After listening to his introduction to Yang Zhenhe's situation in the advance camp, Zu Zeyuan urged him to stay in the advance camp.

However, the duty for him to stay was not to unite against the Qing Dynasty, but to monitor Yang Zhen and the new force of the advance battalion anytime and anywhere.

Now, Zu Zeyuan has written a letter and sent this opinion to Ningyuan to ask Marshal Zu to make a decision.

Considering Zu Zeyuan's important position in Zu Dashou's heart, Zu Zeyuan's opinion will almost certainly be accepted by Zu Dashou.

Regarding this, Zu Keyong couldn't tell whether he was happy or sad, whether he should accept it or oppose it.

As for Zu Dabi, after first hearing Zu Keyong's inquiry, he advocated that he return to Jinzhou.

However, after listening to Zu Zeyuan's opinions introduced by Zu Keyong, Zu Dabi immediately changed his mind and advocated that Zu Keyong stay with Yang Zhen in case the Zu family army needed it in the future.

However, all of this made Zu Keyong feel very entangled in his heart.

From his true heart, he was not opposed to continuing to stay in the advance camp.

But the reason why he wanted to stay was to do something with Yang Zhen and the brothers in the advance camp, rather than to be a chess piece placed in the advance camp by the ancestral army and betrayal at any time.

However, as a descendant of a small branch of the ancestral family, he did not have much autonomy in front of Zu Dashou and the direct descendants of the ancestral family.

Especially in front of Zu Zeyuan, he had no say at all. The relationship between the two was more like a master-servant relationship than a clan brother relationship.

Therefore, when he returned to Songshan City from Jinzhou City, his mood was extremely low.

When Xu Changyong asked him where they were going next, he didn't know what to say.

Although he already knew roughly where he was going next, at this moment he would rather leave the advance camp than play such a dishonorable role.

The conversation between several people in Yang Zhen's room ended not long after.

Now that Zu Keyong is back, all the troops in the advance battalion have gathered together again.

During this period of time, everyone needs to wait for Ning Yuan's orders in Songshan City. Although there is no combat mission, it is impossible to be idle.

Therefore, Yang Zhen simply mobilized Zu Keyong and Xu Changyong, together with Zhang Degui, Li Lu, Zhang Chen and other troops, to go to the ruins inside and outside the Nancheng and Xicheng to collect Tatars and shoot them into the city.

And the iron bullets under the city.

These iron pellets must be centrally supplied to the iron works in charge of the Wangs and sons, so that they can build weapons and equipment for the advance battalion.

First of all, these iron materials are used to make the bayonets needed by the musketeers.

Yang Zhen simply drew a sketch based on the style of the individual rifle bayonet made in Hanyang in later generations, and gave it to Wang Shoutang and his son to make it in the same way.

Secondly, these iron materials will be used to transform the remaining 200 ordinary matchlock guns in the advance camp.

These matchlock muskets are temporarily unavailable because there are not that many musketeers in Yang Zhen's advance camp.

However, the manpower of his advance camp cannot always be this small. It will definitely be expanded in the future. Even if it cannot support tens of thousands of troops at the moment, there is still hope of expanding it to at least two to three thousand troops.

In Yang Zhen's vision, as long as he could gain a foothold in Songshan City and become the city's general, he would immediately send people to Denglai, Shandong, Hebei and even Jianghuai to recruit troops.

Yan Shengsan beside him was born in Cangzhou, and Guo Xiaowu was born in Denglai. In the future, they can be sent back to their hometowns to recruit a group of soldiers for themselves.

Although these soldiers don't even have a single stroke of their horoscopes now, he must make preparations as soon as possible while taking advantage of his free time.

Furthermore, these iron materials are also used to cast large quantities of cylindrical iron casings for iron-cased and wooden-handled grenades.

Yang Zhen told Wang Shoutang and his son all his thoughts about the iron-cased and wooden-handled grenade, and asked them to find a way to convert the collected iron materials and directly use the mold casting method to cast the cylindrical iron shell for the grenade.

Melting the iron material may take a little effort, but using the mold casting method to directly cast cylindrical iron shells in batches is much more efficient than making iron shells purely by hand.

Moreover, the pig iron shell made by Fan Zhu has a brittle elastomer and is filled with a large amount of black powder, so its power cannot be underestimated.

Yang Zhen hoped that he would be able to make TNT explosives, so there was no need to say anything.

It's a pity that he doesn't. Under the current conditions, this is all he can think of or do.

In the following days, everything inside and outside Songshan City was quiet and peaceful. Not only were there no Tatar sentinels, but also no one from the directions of Jinzhou and Ningyuan came to Songshan to contact them.

Jin Guofeng heard that he would probably continue to be promoted to the rank of commander-in-chief on the spot in Songshan City in the future, so he did not dare to relax at all in Songshan's city defense.

Every day, he supervises the original Songshan garrison units under his command and works hard to repair and strengthen the city walls that were destroyed and damaged by Tatar heavy artillery during the attack and defense of Songshan City.

All the Tatar army camps outside Songshan City and on the north and south sides of the Xiaoling River were also demolished by various troops in Songshan City.

The large amount of wood that the Tatars had cut down in order to build their forts all fell into the hands of various people in Songshan City.

Outside the east gate, from near the Empress' Palace to the Tatar grain and grass camp on the north bank of the Xiaoling River, all the timber used for building camps went to the advance camp.

In the Tatar camp outside the south gate, all the logs were given to Lu Pinqi's troops who had been guarding the south gate before.

The Tatar camp outside the west gate, the camp, timber, and other useful items left by the Tatars naturally fell into the hands of Xia Chengde's troops guarding the west gate.

As for the Tatar camp outside the north gate, it goes without saying that all useful materials were given to the people directly led by Jin Guofeng.
Chapter completed!