On May 25, 1641, the southwest wind was five, and it was sunny. An army that was so large on South African land was sailing along the shimmering Berg River.

The head of this army was more than a thousand Eight Banners warriors lined up in four columns. These people wore leather hats and uniformly colored East Coast denim clothes. Some people were also covered with leather armor with iron inlaid. They all carried a three-meter standard spear on their shoulders. These spears were standard spears produced locally on the East Coast. The carburized iron spear heads were processed from lathes and were bolted to be fixed on the top of the spear rod, disassembled and assembled extremely convenient. What's more rare is that thanks to high-precision standardized production, both spear rods and spearheads can be replaced with each other. Eight Banners warriors also love this new spear, and they all said that with such "magic weapons" they would definitely defeat the barbarians in one fell swoop.

Following the Eight Banners Warriors is Xiao Baitu's 104th Army Company. The soldiers from the local army were extremely high when fighting in the local area. The army sang continuously along the way, and the queues were also very neatly. Walking side by side were the soldiers of the engineering battalion. These people were not as good as those of the Eight Banners Warriors in the future. But it was no wonder that most of these people were ordinary flag citizens, and they were just engineering troops, but they were just military servants. Moreover, the concentrated training time was not long. When camping, they built temporary camps, and when they encountered small rivers and streams, they built bridges, and when they needed to extract supplies from the supply ships, they were just porters. That's all.

Behind these two troops are the elite Army 1 Company, the bare-handed artillery of the South African Field Artillery Company and the Independent Field Artillery Company. The 240th officers and soldiers of the 1st Company were dressed in dark blue military uniforms, raised their heads and chests, and were in a consistent manner. They were orderly and had a faint arrogance of the troops in the capital. However, some brothers secretly mocked the guys who walked and looked up at the sky, mocking the troops composed of the children of the capital as young masters.

He was stationed in the capital almost all year round, and even suppressed the indigenous people rarely did anything like this, far inferior to their little brothers - the 101st Reserve Company, which also consists of the children of the capital. As for the two artillery companies, their total nine artillery pieces and artillery cars were placed on a small transport ship that set out with the army, so they are currently bare-handed artillery soldiers. He led 15 horses beside him walking alongside the 1st Company of the Army.

Mo Ming, the highest commander of this operation, brought a group of staff, entourage and members of the South African garrison headquarters to walk with the 103rd Army Company, which was transported from Zhenhai Port to Hezhong Port ten days ago, and followed closely behind the 1st Company. Behind them were more than a thousand Eight Banners warriors in charge of the palace.

The entire army went out hundreds of meters long. The land troops were dozens of small transport ships belonging to the logistics battalion on the river surface, and more than 300 militiamen of the river security regiment were also escorted on the ship. All the combat supplies and supplies of the large army were placed on the ship to lightly load and speed up the marching speed. Anyway, the transport ships were sailing close to the river bank, and once they encountered an enemy, if there were early warnings from horse scouts, they also had enough time to form a formation on the river. Cover the logistics battalion and engineering battalion unloaded supplies from the ship and built positions.

It was almost evening at this time. Mo Ming, who was riding on a very majestic Lucitano horse, raised his wrist and looked at it. It was already five o'clock in the afternoon. He had walked seventeen or eighteen kilometers today. Although he was a light marching, the soldiers' faces were still a little tired. Mo Ming pondered for a while and was about to order to camp on the spot and cook, he suddenly saw seven or eight fast horses running in front of him.

"Commander, a barbarian brigade was found in front of us. According to the cross-observation of multiple scouts from our group, the number of barbarians was about 5,500, and they drove a large number of cattle and sheep."

"Commander, our team found a marching brigade of barbarians from a river bay more than ten kilometers away. The number is estimated to be about 8,000. Of them, about 2,000 were well equipped and generally equipped with leather armor. Unfortunately, we could not continue to approach and were driven away by their archers."

"Commander, we found a brigade of barbarians about seven kilometers ahead. The number is estimated to be between 6,500 and 8,000, and the formation is relatively strict. It is worth noting that they were equipped with muskets, and a scout in our group was accidentally hit and dropped. In addition, we did not see the cannon."

...

Several scouts reported the observed situation one by one. The staff officers behind Mo Ming picked up their brushes and started recording, while recording and discussing with each other in a low voice. After a while, when the scouts had already retreated, the staff officers of the South African garrison headquarters began to report to Mo Ming: "According to information from multiple parties, the barbarian brigade is about seven kilometers away from us, and the number is believed to be more than 7,000 people. Two thousand of them were well equipped, and they were generally equipped with leather armored protective gear, weapons were spears, short spears, long swords and a large wooden shield; a few people - according to our estimates, about five hundred to eight

Hundreds of people were equipped with muskets, and at least a few of them had good shooting standards, and they knew to increase the hit rate by placing guns. The other barbarian soldiers were ordinary soldiers equipped with wooden guns, and there were also unknown number of archers, and the arrows used were iron arrows. The range of archers was about 60-80 meters. The scouts reported that their accurate heads were good and they could see that they were well trained; they were driving a large number of cattle and sheep, which should be used as a supply for the expedition. Finally, the barbarians should also know that our main force is not far from here. The above is the analysis of the situation summarized based on the intelligence, for reference by the commander."

Mo Ming nodded, no longer hesitated, and began to order: "I ordered the entire army to camp on the spot along the river. The ships of the baggage battalion immediately gathered to the dock, began to unload the goods, and the artillery cooperated; the engineering battalion began to build circular fortifications and set up defense wire mesh. The militia in the Hezhong Fort was temporarily commanded by Sergeant El Salvador, and took charge of the camp and supported it in the middle; Mo Wu and Liu Zhong commanded the Eight Banners Warriors in the headquarters, and lined up eastwards with the 1st Company, the 103rd Company and the 104th Company of the Army. Combat Staff, repeat my order!"

"Yes!" The combat staff stood attentively and began to repeat Mo Ming's order: "Bailout camp..."

"Go down and pass the order immediately!" After hearing the retelling of the combat staff, Mo Ming immediately waved his hand and asked him to lead the order to pass the order separately.

After the order was issued, the entire camp quickly began to operate like a sophisticated war machine. The fleet of the baggage battalion landed one by one under the command of the shore personnel. Then the soldiers of the baggage battalion first assisted the artillery to start unloading the nine artillery shells, gunpowder barrels and other materials on the ship. Then the battle may break out at any time. Without artillery, it would be difficult to fight, so they are now racing against time. The River Security Regiment maintained order in the camp under the command of Sergeant El Salvador, and also protected the safety of the command and command center.

Lieutenant Chang Kaisheng, the company commander of the 1st Company, was given the important task of commanding the front enemy by Mo Ming. He would command all three companies of the front line and more than 2,000 Eight Banners warriors to fight against the likely invading barbarian troops. He was not the first time he was a rookie to join the battle formation. Chang Kaisheng, who had almost experienced all wars in the East Coast Republic, was also a "long general" in China. He immediately arranged about 2,200 Eight Banners warriors who had urgently put on their breastplate into two 50*20 spear formations. There were about 200 Eight Banners step archers in leather armor in the gap between the spear formations.

The square formation faces east, on the left are 360 ​​officers and soldiers from the two companies of the 103rd Company and 104th Company, and on the right are 240 officers and soldiers from the elite Army's 1st Company. A total of about 600 infantrymen were wearing breastplates, all of which were flintlock rifles, and the flag bearer had already raised the bright red American Vulture Army flag. Between the two spear formations, there was a position of nine artillery artillery companies, but the artillery was still pushing the artillery cart behind and had not yet entered the position.

The entire array process lasted less than twenty minutes, and it was orderly and without any chaos. After the array was arranged, the soldiers looked forward silently and showed good personal qualities.

After a while, the artillery brothers also pushed the artillery up. The soldiers of the engineering battalion urgently dug nine artillery bunkers in the gap between the two phalanxes to provide some protection to the gunners to avoid the damage of the barbarians' mistard. The nine artillery pieces are four 4-pound cannons, four 8-pound cannons and a 12-pound cannons. The artillery pieces carefully placed the launching medicine bags and powder barrels inside the bunker, and then placed solid iron bombs, grape bombs, explosion bombs, and shotguns one by one for use at any time. Li Wenchang, the company commander of the 1st Company of the Independent Field Artillery, is responsible for commanding all nine artillery pieces. The artillery, as the main force of the firepower output of the East Coast Army, has the role of the artillery in this battle. After many wars, Li Wenchang, who had even been a naval gun gun captain on the naval ship, was confident that he would give the barbarians who dared to invade a lifelong memory.

The barbed wire fence on the riverbank camp was being quickly built, and the soldiers of the engineering camp even urgently dug a shallow trench under Mo Ming's order. Cavalry came in and out from time to time on both sides of the phalanx, which was a scout who was investigating the enemy situation. They kept passing the latest news from the Barbarians to the highest commanders here. From time to time, some messengers in the camp quickly ran to the front of the position and told Chang Kaisheng and other front-line army command officers one by one.

The sunset gradually fell to the west horizon, and the figures of thousands of soldiers were stretched out in the sunset, like an oil painting. (To be continued, please search for astronomy, novels are better, updated and faster!
Chapter completed!