Li Yan received the information on the battle situation slightly later than Dolgon, and it was very incomplete, only knowing that the Qing army was attacking the city very much, but it did not take Qingzhou City, and the specific siege details were not known, and he did not know whether Chang Yu's soldiers and horses participated in the battle.

But his two speculations have also been confirmed, the first Qing army hastily attacked the city, but it was a tentative move, the real big battle was ahead, and the second Qing army would not allow reinforcements to cross the river and approach Qingzhou City, and the same strength really couldn't fight!

"The spies said that the movement in Qingzhou City is very big, and it stands to reason that if the Tartars attack with tens of thousands of soldiers and horses, the defense force of Qingzhou City will not be able to hold it at all, but the Qing army has withdrawn, will it be the little overseer who made the Qing army withdraw from the surprise attack from behind?" Zhou Yuji held his chin thoughtfully.

Huang Degong nodded: "It should be, otherwise Qingzhou City will definitely not be able to hold it."

Li Yan also agreed, but he didn't fully agree: "You didn't think that the Qing army's failure to attack the city was just because of your own lack of preparation or temptation? ”

No matter which army goes to attack the city, it is impossible to rush up with all its strength as soon as it comes up, unless the difference in strength between the two sides is particularly large, such as the kind of small county town that the Qing army encountered along the way.

But such as Qingzhou, a city and a city with unknown circumstances, you will use all your strength to be killed, and there are countless examples of this, so there is an unspoken rule in the siege industry, that is, you have to test the depth before the official start, and even try several times to determine the reality before officially starting the fight.

After the Qing army entered the customs, he encountered the little eunuch's slippery head and suffered several losses, and he didn't dare to be careless at all, so Li Yan guessed that this time it was just a tentative move, and the Qing army had just arrived on the ground for two days, so it was impossible to prepare the guy so quickly!

"It doesn't matter if you are tempted or unprepared, but how to deal with the next attack of the Tartars, it will be an all-out effort, with the defense ability of Qingzhou City, it will definitely not be able to stop it, even if there is the strange army of the little overseer, in the end, the soldiers and horses here will go to help, but the Tartars will obviously not let us pass" Zhou Yuji tilted his head and looked at Li Yan after speaking.

Li Yan smiled slightly: "The Tartar rushed all the way from the capital to here, we first surrounded and then chased, now that it has changed, he is blocking the way in front of us, we are going to rush through the pass" said and looked at Huang De: "Huang Zongbing's big Huang Chuangzi, this task will be handed over to you, you are a little sure!" ”

Huang Degong laughed: "Tartar wants to stop Lao Tzu from calling him dad this time" Everyone laughed.

This is definitely not Huang Degong's bragging, but there is real data support, the Qing army had 30,000 elite cavalry when it entered the pass, but it lost nearly three or four thousand along the way, but in fact, there were only more than 20,000 troops.

On the other hand, the little eunuch hollowed out almost all the soldiers and horses in Gyeonggi, and the infantry cavalry added up to 100,000 to chase the infantry to Tianjin to rest, and nearly 40,000 cavalry chased all the way.

That is to say, Linzi now has more than 30,000 cavalry, and if it fights head-on with more than 20,000 Qing troops, there is almost no chance of winning.

But!

If the Qing army wants to capture Qingzhou City in one fell swoop, it must invest a large number of troops, even if there are countless cannon fodder on hand, but the regular army cannot be less than 10,000 people.

That is to say, the Qing army can only use more than 10,000 troops to intercept Li Yan's crossing of the river, and if he still has to leave some men and horses to protect the baggage, the maximum number of troops he can put into intercepting is 10,000!

Three-on-one! The combat effectiveness of the Ming army is that it will not be defeated if it is no longer good, not to mention that at present, these soldiers and horses are the strongest in the Ming Dynasty except for Wu Sangui's Ningyuan Iron Cavalry outside the Guan.

It's no wonder that Huang Degong is full of self-confidence, because in addition to the advantage of troops, they also have a killer feature: a force that is not good at fighting but can always make miraculous achievements at critical moments, the Shenji Battalion!

So when will the troops be sent?

"Keep an eye on the Tartar baggage camp, if he moves, we will move," Li Yan said lightly.

"What if the Tartar Baggage Camp just doesn't move," Zhou Yuji asked again, he and Li Yan had already seen that Dolgon was trying to hang them with the Baggage Camp.

"If he doesn't move, we'll force him to move" Li Yan smiled, if the Qing army attacked the city, at least more than 10,000 troops would have to be divided, and it would take more than 10,000 to intercept the Ming army to cross the river and send reinforcements, then there were still a few of its baggage camps left, and if the Ming army attacked him, he would be so frightened that he hurried to the base camp under Qingzhou City to find his father.

But Li Yan believed that Dolgon would never be so stupid, and the baggage camp was what he had obtained all the way, so when he was ready to attack the city with all his strength or found that the Ming army was coming, he would definitely pull out the camp outside Qingzhou City, and the location of the army would be safe.

"Has General Li ever thought about taking the initiative to attack, why was he led by the nose by the Tartars?" Ji Jike, who has always talked little and has a low military rank, suddenly interjected.

Li Yan was stunned when he heard this, and frowned.

Ji Jike means that there is no need to wait for the Tartars to move the Ming army before moving, this is too passive, if Li Yan is tired a few days ago, the army has been resting for three days, although it may not be restored to its peak, but it can definitely be pulled out to fight a tough battle.

Zhou Yuji and Huang Degong glanced at each other, and also felt that it was not impossible to take the initiative to attack, and the Qing army would inevitably send troops to intercept it if the army was directly advancing, so that the pressure on Qingzhou City could be reduced, which could buy them time to breathe and let the little eunuch rest.

"What do you think?" Li Yan looked around at everyone: "Pull out the camp tomorrow and advance?" ”

"Feasible" Huang Degong was the first to nod: "We always stay here, you see the eldest son of the Heng Wang family with a sad face every day, and I heard that King Heng is very timid, don't think that we won't go to scare him...... That's not good! ”

Everyone laughed, and Zhou Yuji also nodded: "The first soldier will hold the initiative in his hands, it is much better than being led by the nose, and it is easy to deal with it!" ”

So everyone made a decision, and Ming'er pulled out the camp early in the morning and advanced towards Qingzhou City, Zhu Ci'an cried with joy when he heard this, and went to Li Yan's room to thank him.

The mountain breeze is very cool, if there is no mosquito bite, it is simply a perfect summer night, Chen Suole took his own soldiers to build a grass hut for Chang Yu halfway up the west mountain of Qingzhou City, and the little eunuch and they did not go back to the mountain col to rest, but to get a lookout post here to keep an eye on Qingzhou City.

The night is getting deeper, there are still embers outside the city of Qingzhou, and there are still people running around in the city, which should be the Qing army's exploration horses, but the lights can be seen everywhere in the city.

Although Chang Yu didn't know how the damage in the city was from a distance, he also knew that Qingzhou City would not sleep tonight!

Jia Waixiong was the first time to go down to the city after Chang Yu left, at the root of the city wall to appease the hearts of the army, countless wounded from the city continued to be transported down, most of them were arrow wounds, but also were injured by the stone thrower, the light ones were sharp arrows through the flesh and bloody, and the heavy ones were dying, and the doctors in the city were all requisitioned to save the lives and help the wounded, and the palace took all the medicines in stock.

The wounded or groaned or screamed, and many of the families of the casualties knelt on the ground and wailed, most of these villagers in the upper city were young and middle-aged, and they were also the pillars of a family, and death was equivalent to the destruction of a family.

But fortunately he is not white, and the palace has promised a lot of pensions, which is a very conscientious move in troubled times.

People are dead, but life still has to be passed after all, right, with silver, at least this family can survive, and there is still some hope.

Jia Waixiong's face was pale, and he rode around the north city and the west city and the south city and the east city on horseback, and there were many screams and wails from afar under each city gate, roughly counting thousands of people, plus hundreds of people killed in battle, this one can be described as a heavy loss, but he clearly knew that the Qing army only used half of its strength.

If the Qing army is fully prepared to launch a full-scale attack, the battlefield will be several times more tragic in front of them, and it may not be able to hold it even if the people in the city are really exhausted!

The factory governor should be coming soon, but why only send two or three thousand people on the bank of the Beiyang River, is it because Li Yan's army has not yet arrived...... Jia Waixiong's heart was like Mount Tai pressing, and he was about to breathe.