On the third day of March in the second year of Shunzhi in the Qing Dynasty (the first year of Ming Hongye), Prince Duoduo of Yu was ordered by the regent Dolgon to lead more than 100,000 troops to attack the Ming in three ways.

One is the Tianyou Army led by Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming, starting from Beijing and marching towards Cangzhou through Tongzhou, Wuqing, and Tianjin.

The commander of the other side is Luckedhun. He commanded most of the Eight Banners of the Han Army, the Eight Banners of Mongolia, and the largest number of Green Camp Army. After starting from Beijing, the army passed through Fangshan, Zhuozhou, Baoding, Jizhou, and went to Qinghe.

The last army was led by Duoduo himself, and all of them were the elite of the Eight Banners of Manchuria, including the white flag, the inlaid white flag, the positive blue flag, and part of the inlaid blue flag, as well as most of the positive red flag and the inlaid red flag. Except for the two yellow flags led by Emperor Shunzhi himself, the other six flags all participated. Of course, some of them were divided by Azig, but in general, Duoduo still had thirty or forty thousand elites of the Manchurian Eight Banners. After leaving the Beijing Division, the army took the route of Gu'an, Xiongxian, Hejian, and Fucheng.

Anyone with a discerning eye can see that the Qing army wanted to launch a fierce attack on Shandong from three directions at the same time.

The Tianyou Army led by Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming aimed directly at Leling and Haifeng.

And Luck Dehun is going to do it against Linqingzhou.

As for Dordor, naturally he has to gnaw the hardest bone - Texas!

This time, the Qing army can be said to have poured out, because they can't wait.

The longer it drags on, the heavier the burden on them.

After the incorporation of a large number of green battalion troops, it means that there are more than 100,000 mouths. The amount of food consumed by so many people every day is staggering, and the existing food stocks and food production in the north are completely insufficient to support it.

Dolgon also racked his brains and obtained a large amount of military rations through the channels of Jin merchants, but it could only support it for a while. If the Qing army could not take control of the canal in Shandong before the summer, the army would face the dilemma of running out of food.

The situation on the Azig side is not much better.

Although he can get some horse meat to eat by squeezing the various tribes of Mobei Mongolia, this thing can't be eaten every day. Therefore, Dolgon also gave Azig an order, ordering him to attack Huguang at the right time.

Huguang is the granary of the world, and if it can be defeated, it will be of greater significance than seizing Shandong.

Dorgon decided to take a two-pronged approach, as long as one side had any gains, the Qing army would have the upper hand, thus snowballing to expand the advantage more and more.

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"Your Majesty, Dongyu has already sent troops to Shandong, and it seems that he wants to finish his work in one battle."

In the Warm Pavilion of the Forbidden City in Nanjing, Lu Zhenfei, the secretary of the Ministry of War, said worriedly.

What is somewhat embarrassing is that the information on the Qing army's dispatch was not the first to be published in the Tang Bao of the Ministry of War, but was obtained by the Military Intelligence Department of the Inner Factory.

After receiving this news, the Military Intelligence Department transmitted the news to Nanjing through its own channels, and Zhu Cihong was also able to grasp the first-hand military information.

"Don't worry, these are all expected by me."

Zhu Cihong motioned to Lu Zhenfei to be restless.

The time when the Qing army launched an attack on the Southern Ming Dynasty was roughly the same as the time in the original history. The Manchu wolf was ambitious and wanted to dominate the world, so of course Zhu Cihong would not be careless about this.

He began to lay out as early as the beginning of his reign.

The seizure of Shandong is the most crucial step.

In Zhu Cihong's view, there were many factors in the original history of the defeat and brittle defeat of the Southern Ming Dynasty. Of course, there are factors such as internal friction and the unusability of the warlords, but there is also a fatal point, that is, the lack of strategic depth.

For the Southern Ming, Shandong was the best barrier, and with this barrier could greatly slow down the advance of the Qing army. And if they blindly stick to Jianghuai, the Ming army will have no room for maneuver.

Of course, the best situation is that the Ming army can hold the Shandong defense line completely and inflict heavy losses on the Manchus.

The Manchu Qing Dynasty had a small population, and the population of Manchuria was less than one million, and the number of soldiers available was about 100,000.

These are living people, not leeks. After cutting a stubble, it will not grow back.

The consumption of the Manchu Qing Dynasty's vital forces was of great strategic significance to the Ming Dynasty.

Shandong's forts, trenches, and sailors are all Zhu Cihong's painstaking efforts, and he hopes that these can play a vital role.

Of course, no one can fully predict what the course of the war will be before the actual combat begins.

But Zhu Cihong, as the Son of Heaven and the helmsman of the Ming Dynasty, must be calm and calm.

If the emperor is panicked, can the courtiers still do things in a down-to-earth manner?

"No matter how many ways he comes, I just need the soldiers to stick to the fortress defense line."

Zhu Cihong is still very confident in the fortress, this kind of Western-style fortress can not only restrain the old siege tactics, but also greatly reduce the power of artillery.

You must know that one of the trump cards in Dorgon's hands is Kong Youde's Heavenly Blessing Army.

The Heavenly Blessing Army is equipped with a large number of artillery. Relying on these artillery, the Qing army blasted open the gates of Taiyuan and Tongguan, and took two important towns without bloodshed.

The reason why Jueluo Bahana and Shi Tingzhu led their troops to attack Dezhou last time was a fiasco, firstly, because of their light enemy, and secondly, because of the lack of siege means.

If there was a Tianyou army in the Qing army that attacked Texas last time, it is really difficult to say whether the victory or defeat will be said.

It's a pity that Dolgon was not a time-traveler of the unpredictable prophet, and he put most of his energy on dealing with Li Zicheng at that time, which gave Zhu Cihong time to lay out.

Today, Shandong is not the same as it was a year ago.

A complete fortified line of defense was located on the periphery of several important towns, which the Qing army had to take if they wanted to attack them.

And this is by no means an easy task.

"Your Majesty, is this fortress really so powerful?"

There were no outsiders in the warm pavilion except for a few serving eunuchs, so Lu Zhenfei dared to say such things.

If he is at the court meeting, he still has to save face for the emperor.

"Let's put it this way, a fortress garrisoned by hundreds of people, even if the eastern captives invest ten times the troops, may not be able to take it."

Zhu Cihong knew very well the advantage of the Ming army, that is, it was good at defending the city.

In terms of field combat capabilities, most of the Ming army may be defeated by the Manchu Eight Banners. But if the Ming army held on to the city, the Qing army would be blind.

There are generally two ways for the Qing army to break the Ming army's defense, one is to send a fine work into the city, take advantage of the chaos to open the city gate, and respond to the Qing army outside the city to attack the city. The second is to rely on the red-clothed cannon to bombard the city gate, and the overlord is forced to bow down.

And Zhu Cihong has dealt with these two strategies, he has already issued an edict to Gao Jie, Qin Gongming and the generals of the Shence Army, ordering them to strictly screen suspicious people in the city, and execute them on the spot once they find a spy.

As for the red-coat cannon, there is nothing to be afraid of. These cities in Texas may be afraid of the red-coated cannons, but the fortresses are not afraid.

Zhu Cihong wanted to see the Qing army, especially Kong Youde and others, looking at the fortress helplessly, scratching their heads and being deflated.

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