Twenty miles outside Baoding, the Qing army Dolgon camp, after listening to the report of Compilon, looking at the handwritten letter written by Yang Hongzhang to him, Dolgon was full of emotion, because judging from Curb Pilon's description of his movements of the Right Route Army in the past few days, Yue Tuo may have really fallen into the hands of the Ming people. In Dolgon's view, Yueto was a hundred times more important than Hauge. Because Yue Tuo, who was also brave and good at fighting, was resourceful, which was incomparable to Haoge, and because Yue Tuo was the commander of the right army of this invasion, he took the lead in successfully breaking through Miyun's wall ridge and swept Miyun and Changping in three days, and successfully mobilized almost all the troops in the Jinggi area of the Ming Dynasty, creating good conditions for Dolgon to enter calmly from Qingshan Pass.

After Duo Roll came to the vicinity of Beijing, Yue Tuo immediately began to implement the plundering plan that had been drawn up long ago, and in half a month he sacked almost the entire Beizhili and marched directly to Shandong. As a result, the Ming army suddenly turned out to be a Yang Hongzhang. When the soldiers who fled back from Gaoyang learned that the defenders of Gaoyang had annihilated hundreds of Manchu cavalry within three days, and that Haoge and Aobai did not know whether they were alive or dead, Dolgon only felt that it was Haoge's rice bucket and Aobai's bastards who grabbed credit from Haoge.

But soon someone from the right army came to report the loss of Hejian, Yue Tuo did not know whether he was alive or dead, and Dolgon was not calm. The Manchu had a limited population, and this time they came to plunder, not to fight a war of attrition with the Ming. However, judging from the battle losses between Gaoyang and Hejian, it seems that the losses of the Qing army were greater than those of the Ming army. So Dolgon had to pay attention to Yang Hongzhang, who was in Gaoyang and Hehe and caused obstacles to the Qing army. However, the results of the investigation surprised Dorgon, and as he saw with his own eyes, this son was only in his early twenties. Dolgon had a strange feeling in his heart that if he didn't get rid of this son, he would grow up to be a lifelong rival of Da Please. But the other party has Haoge Yueyue in hand, and he still has to besiege Baoding, how to deal with Yang Hongzhang suddenly makes it difficult for Dolgon.

"Prince Rui, the minister is willing to lead 5,000 troops to break through Gaoyang first and then go down to the river, and he will definitely capture Yang Hongzhang alive to rescue King Suqing and Yue Tuobeile." Seeing Dolgon's frowning, Suppilon immediately asked for his life.

"Fourteenth brother, Gaoyang is just a small land, and he will know how to break the city within a few days of his departure. Yang Hongzhang in the river only took advantage of the emptiness in the city, and Groha took advantage of the enemy's weakness, as long as the soldiers pressed the border, Yang Hongzhang thought that Yang Hongzhang would escape in advance except for opening the city and surrendering. With such a huge disparity in strength, Yang Hongzhang will definitely not embarrass Haoge and Yue Tuo in order to protect himself. Let's fight, it's time for gossip after a long time. Dodor also persuaded him.

Dolgon pondered for a long time and seemed to have finally made up his mind and said, "Curb Bilong, this king has ordered you to lead 3,000 troops to join the men and horses besieging Gaoyang and continue to besiege Gaoyang. Duoduo, you take the warrant to go to Shandong quickly to gather the right army and assemble in the river, and wait for my order on how to act next. ”

"Fourteenth brother, there are so many materials in Hejian City, you can't let the Ming people fully prepare, otherwise it will take more children's lives to take it in the future. Haoge and Yue Tuo should have the consciousness of dying if they fall into the hands of the Ming people if they are incompetent, and they can't delay big things because of them. Dodor was overjoyed to hear that Dorgon had asked him to rein in the right army, but he was a little unhappy when he heard that he was not allowed to act on his own.

"Duoduo, if you can't do it, I'll go somebody else. Don't forget that Haoge is the prince, the eldest son of the emperor, and Yue Tuo is the eldest son of the second brother, and his status in the emperor's eyes is no worse than mine. If we don't do anything and return to Shengjing, the emperor and the second brother will definitely not give up. ”

"Such a rat trap, sooner or later, let the soldiers and horses of the Ming people gather together, and then we can't take advantage of it and can only retreat, then this plundering plan will not be perfect." Dorgon continued to mumble, but when he saw Dorgon's piercing eyes, he finally lowered his head and took orders.

At the same time, in Baoding City, Lu Xiangsheng, who got the news, was mixed, he couldn't believe how Yang Hongzhang did it, but judging from the momentum of the Qing army's attack in the past two days, something big should have happened. If Yang Hongzhang can really capture Haoge and Yue Tuo and use this to contain the right army of the Qing army, then he only needs to wait until the Hu Dawei Department and Liu Yongqing's Department of Shandong come to start a head-on decisive battle with the Qing army, and then together with Xuanda, Baoding and Yang Hongzhang's Hejian soldiers and horses, gather at least 100,000 Ming troops on a battle line of hundreds of miles, step by step, plus the remaining soldiers and horses of the Guanning Iron Cavalry, do not worry about Dolgon not breaking.

Although Xiang Siwen didn't know how Yang Hongzhang came up with the combined defense system of cement piers and pillboxes, he was convinced of it after witnessing Gaoyang's defensive battle, so he also fully cooperated. In the past few days, people have returned from nearby villages and towns, and the people in the city of tens of thousands of people on weekdays have also recovered by four or five percent. When they heard that this general of Ming Jun had captured Yue Tuo, the commander of the right army of Prince Su Haogeyue, who had invited the army, they didn't know how to grow bolder. The recruitment of the prefect's yamen has become more active than ever. The trenches are getting bigger and deeper, the concrete piers are more and more, and the pillboxes are getting higher and higher. In Xiang Siwen's view, these are adding a protective shield to Hejian City.

However, the Qing army did not give Yang Hongzhang enough time to slowly strengthen the city defenses, and on the fifth day of Kubilong's departure, the scouts detected at least 10,000 Qing cavalry coming from the south of the river. Yang Hongzhang knew that this must be the right army that plundered Shandong, and came back after learning the news that Hejian had been captured by himself. Soon, the Qing army marched to the south gate of Hejian. However, they were not in a hurry to attack the city, but instead marched around the city of Hejian in a majestic manner with banners and returned to the south gate. In the face of such a demonstrative approach by the Qing army, almost everyone below Zixiang Siwen trembled in their hearts. The scene of 10,000 Qing troops moving together is indeed chilling.

The prefect Xiang Siwen really had mixed feelings, in fact, he knew that there would be a present when he returned to the river. But the excitement of regaining it at that time was supporting him, and most of his energy was spent on how to report what happened in the river with the imperial court in the Spring and Autumn Period, so he didn't think about the consequences at all. Now he could only look at Yang Hongzhang with a cold face on the side for help.

Yang Hongzhang also had no bottom in his heart, judging from the actions of this Qing army, the generals who led the troops were definitely not the idle people of Groha. In addition to demonstrating to demoralize the defenders, the other party also succeeded in seeing clearly the reality of the four gates of the river for the first time. What worries Yang Hongzhang even more is that the Qing army obviously occupies the advantage of strength but is not in a hurry to attack, which shows that they already know their own style of play in Gaoyang.

Sure enough, after the Qing army set up camp more than ten miles outside the south gate, it began to drive some cattle, sheep and horses into the cement pier formation, which was obviously demining. What's more, after the cattle and sheep had passed, they sent a small number of soldiers to walk around the four newly built pillboxes at the south gate to take a closer look. If you hide it at this time, you will definitely find it as soon as possible, and you will also be taken care of.

In order to keep abreast of the situation of the Qing army, in the curious eyes of Xiang Siwen and others, Yang Hongzhang asked a hot air balloon to be raised in the south gate, and the hot air balloon was three or four zhang away from the top of the enemy tower at the city gate. In the bamboo basket of the hot ball, three people stood in three shifts with clairvoyance. If you have a message, write it and throw it down.

To Yang Hongzhang's relief, the Qing army's men and horses were increasing on the first day, but there was no more siege warfare. Yang Hongzhang estimated that the other party planned to continue to gather the right army, and when the time came, they would act together and take Hejian in one fell swoop. The good news was that in the second half of the night, Yang Sheng led people back from Cangzhou, and the team that came back was nearly fifty more people, six cannons, and two hundred flintlock guns. These guns were already the limit of the guns that could be easily disassembled by the two Spanish battleships moored there, and all the flintlock muskets they carried!

Yang Sheng's return made all the defenders, including Xiang Siwen, excited for a while, after all, most of them had seen the lethality of flintlock pistols and artillery against cavalry. But not long after the joy, the next morning, the scouts came to report that a large number of refugees had been found in the north of the city, numbering at least four or five thousand! Hearing this, Yang Hongzhang and Xiang Siwen were dumbfounded, being able to gather so many refugees at once, could it be that Baoding Mansion was captured by the Qing army? Further investigation revealed that the refugees were from Gaoyang. Gaoyang was not broken by the Qing Dynasty, but the Qing army let go of the south gate and let Wang Lenian, the county magistrate, flee to the river with the people!

Xiang Siwen scolded Wang Lenian for being a shameless fool, and Yang Hongzhang hurriedly ordered people to transfer all the cannons and flintlock pistols to the north gate, and a hot air balloon was also raised at the north gate. At the same time, in the name of Xiang Siwen, the prefect of Hejian, he sent people to contact Wang Lenian, indicating that Hejian would never accept them, and let them bypass Hejian and go southwest.

It's just that Wang Lenian did not follow the advice of Xiang Siwen and others, but asked to lead the refugees into the city on the grounds that there was a granary of the imperial court in the city of Hejian Mansion. Just as Xiang Siwen and the others were thinking about how to accept these refugees, the scout and the lookout on the hot air balloon came back at the same time as the news that about two or three miles behind this group of refugees was followed by a Qing cavalry of at least 5,000 people.

"Lord Xiang, there is no doubt that Wang Lenian has defected to the enemy, and I don't know how many Qing troops have been mixed in with these refugees, and I don't know how many people have defected to the Qing army. Therefore, none of them can enter the city, otherwise the Hejian Mansion will be in an instant! Yang Hongzhang said with a cold face.

Xiang Siwen looked at the refugees who were getting closer and closer with a wry smile on his face, to be honest, even in peacetime, the influx of four or five thousand refugees at once was a big headache for him, the prefect. When the refugees enter the city, they have to eat and drink, otherwise the refugees will become displaced people, even mobs.