January 1645 (the seventeenth year of Chongzhen) was bleak for Li Zicheng. First, more than 80,000 elite Qing troops led by Azig bypassed the heavy army group of the Shun army from Ordos in northern Serbia, and then raided Yulin. The general of the Shun army, Gao Yigong, guarded the palace tightly, and the Qing army was anxious to go down, so he left the Ming and Shun troops to besiege Yulin, and personally led the main force south to attack the Suide line. Li Guo hurriedly led the army back to help, first fought with the Qing army in Suide, was unvictorious, and then retreated to Yan'an.

Li Zicheng heard that northern Shaanxi was in danger and his hometown was slaughtered, so he hurriedly led his army to aid northern Shaanxi, but halfway through the journey, he heard that the Qing army of the Duoduo Department had appeared on the front line of Shaanzhou and Tongguan, so he stopped again. At this time, the defeat of the Western Route Army arrived, and tens of thousands of Hui cavalry troops marched eastward, and in the face of such a severe situation, the Shun army, which had been fighting well in Qinghai and Gansu, was forced to begin to shrink the front, abandon Gansu, and retreat all the way back to Shaanxi. Before long, Li Dingguo in the south led his army into Hanzhong; Seeing that the Qing army was strong, the Ming army in Henan did not dare to touch it, and after retracting back, it turned south to attack the Shun army in the area of Xiangcheng, and the Dashun regime was almost facing a desperate situation on all sides.

At this time in Shandong, the situation was not very favorable to the Qing court. Although Jinan received some reinforcements, and Fang Dayou, the governor of eastern Qing Province, claimed that the Qing Dynasty had increased its troops by "300,000", but fools know that there were not so many. Based on some vague and specious information obtained, Mo Ming and others estimated that it was very possible for the Qing army to increase its troops by 120,000 or even 20,000. Among them, there may be 3,000 to 5,000 Manchurian soldiers, and the rest should be Ming troops who are clothed, served, and surrendered, with occasional a small number of soldiers of the Han Eight Banners who are more capable of fighting. Overall, the strength of the Qing army is likely to have increased to 30,000 or 40,000 people, of which the number of soldiers is likely to be between 10,000 and 15,000. I just don't know if there are any redcoat cannons. But most not. Because the Qing army in Jinan has not yet entered Qingzhou eastward. Still in Jinan and Yanzhou, some small groups of local anti-Qing forces were suppressed.

A few days ago, Luo Guoshi secretly sent some news that Huaiqing Mansion was attacked by Dashun at the beginning of November (lunar calendar), in which Guo Sheng's yellow-clothed cannon played a huge role, and the grain and grass accumulated by the Qing army in the city were destroyed in one fell swoop. After the Shun army retreated, the Qing army of the Duoduo Department sent a small number of elite cavalry troops to continue to advance westward, and the main force paused here for a long time, on the one hand, waiting for the red-coated artillery army, and on the other hand, collecting grain and grass on the spot. The envoys of Jinan and the envoys of the peace of Jinan traveled back and forth between the capital and Huaiqing Mansion. Finally, some reinforcements were needed. However, the red-clothed cannon that he wanted couldn't count on Duoduo, and he himself had to take it to Tongguan to attack the city. Then the peace can only see if there is any surplus in Beijing and in the locality, and strive to get some cannons out. If you don't have a red-coat cannon, you can make do with a small-caliber one, it's better than nothing.

Today is the middle of February 1645, and the main force of the Qing army's Duoduo Department has just left Huaiqing Mansion and marched towards Tongguan, more than half a month later than in history. It is a pity that Li Zicheng did not seize the favorable opportunity of more than half a month to concentrate high-speed mobile forces to solve the difficulties in one direction first. He was still stationed in Luochuan, and constantly sent people to inquire about the military situation in various places and wait and see. Hesitation. During this period, he also sent only a small part of reinforcements south to support Han Wen, the general of Dashun Hanzhong who had retreated to Xixiang. Han Wengang was defeated by Li Dingguo's army of 30,000, and currently only had more than 4,000 soldiers and horses on hand, and Hanzhong was in danger.

Although the people on the east coast had just made a great disturbance in Shandong and annihilated a large number of Qing troops, the main attention of the Qing court was still focused on the Li Zicheng Dashun clique in the Shanxi area. In order to exterminate the Dashun army, the Qing court not only repeatedly emphasized that it would not shave its hair and make it easy to obey, but even announced that it recognized the merits of the previous dynasty in disregard of the dignity of the new dynasty, and also recognized all the policies of the previous dynasty to give preferential treatment to the gentry. As for the Southern Ming troops operating in Henan, they turned a blind eye to them, and even co-opted and surrendered them in order to concentrate on exterminating Li Chuang, the only Han military group on the land of China that could pose a heavy threat to the Manchus at this time.

Under such circumstances, as the people of the East Coast who had a heavy interest in China, they naturally could not sit idly by and watch the increasingly powerful Manchu Qing quickly defeat Li Chuang. Even if they couldn't prevent the Manchus from defeating Li Chuang, they had to find a way to slow down their process. However, as the Manchus gathered more and more soldiers and horses in Shandong, the pressure on the people on the east coast also increased, and it was not as easy as before to do anything. For example, those gentry who were like grass on the wall, after seeing the Qing court's large-scale increase in troops in Jinan, their arrogance gradually began to become arrogant again, and the township warrior armed forces also began to become more and more active in the countryside.

Faced with the situation that became grim again, Mo Ming, Mao Desheng, Li Wenchang and others judged that the Qing court's eastward march into Qingzhou was just around the corner. At present, they have expelled or eliminated some anti-Qing forces in Jinan, Yanzhou, and Dongchang, and at the same time hoarded some grain and grass, waiting for the red-coated artillery army to come—in this era, there is no war without artillery. After the Qing army marched eastward, Zhao Yingyuan's troops, who had swelled in Qingzhou (which incorporated many anti-Qing forces who had fled from Jinan, Yanzhou and other places), must not be able to support it, and under the pressure of the Qing court, which may have as many as 40,000 troops, Qingzhou City had almost no resistance. Qingzhou is under the border, so Laizhou must not be defended, and the local gentry have long been looking forward to the Qing army. At that time, I am afraid that the whole of Shandong will not fall in Penglai and Yantai, and it is not even easy to say whether Penglai County (Dengzhou City) will surrender.

For this reason, the people of the East Coast have also begun to make adequate preparations. First of all, they selected a total of 1,000 people who had lived for more than half a year and were relatively strong from among the refugees, and formed the 15th-18th Squadron of the Standing Force (the 11th-14th Squadron was located in Dabo and Heishui for training). These four squadrons are all spearmen, equipped with captured Ming and Qing army leather armor, and together with Zhai Congge (Zhai Wu monk), they have been trained by military instructors on the east coast together with Zhai Congge (Zhai Wu Monk), and they have been trained for nearly a month, and the effect can only be said to be so-so.

Monk Zhai Wu's troops originally totaled more than 3,500 people, and the military instructors on the east bank of his troops were responsible for retraining, and some of them were too old or too young, poorly nourished, and too heavy in habits to endure hard training, and then refined their subordinates to 2,000 men. The 2,000 men were all foot soldiers, equipped with clothing and weapons that they brought themselves, and in general, both in appearance and actual combat effectiveness were a cut below the 1st Brigade of the Standing Force, which had many veterans. According to the evaluation of the officers on the east coast who participated in the Battle of Anqiu, Zhai Congge's 2,000 men were stronger than the landlord Xiangyong armed forces, and after refining and training, they may be slightly better than the ordinary Ming army, but they are still much worse than the armies such as the Standing Brigade, the Han Eight Banners, not to mention the Manchu Eight Banners and the Black Eight Banners.

"Such a force can't fight a tough battle for the time being, and it can't fight the elite Green Battalion Army and the Eight Banner Soldiers, but it can still deal with those weak North Korean troops. With sufficient logistics and careful planning, it was not a big problem to defeat the thousands of Li Dynasty troops on Jeju Island. However, it would be better for us to send a small number of troops to fight with them, and turn the tide of battle if the situation is unfavorable. After all, it would be a joke if they attacked Jeju Island and returned defeated. Xiao Xi stood on the pier of Yantai Port, which had been initially thawed, and said to Mo Ming.

Mo Ming came to greet several naval sailing ships entering the port at this time. Although there are still some ice fles in the harbor, they are relatively small and not very numerous, and they are no longer an obstacle to the navigation of ships. Six ships that had been sheltering in the harsh winter of Yuanbo Port on Rishiri Island for nearly two months immediately sailed into Yantai Port with a strong northeast wind after confirming that the ice conditions had eased. All six ships have been maintained in the harbor, the plankton has been emptied, the leaky planks have been replaced, the broken canvas has been repaired, and even the oldest armed transport ship "Galician Exocet" has been renovated and has the ability to sail long distances.

But Mo Ming, of course, was not prepared to let everyone sail. The navy ships only had to sail to Jeju Island, which was not far from here, and then strike at the North Korean naval ships that might appear nearby, while the rest of the land offensive would be left to the departing army to wipe out the thousands of soldiers stationed on the island.

"The main force of the troops for the landing operation was set to be 2,000 men from Zhai Cong's division, 60 newly trained gunners from Yantai Fort carried six artillery pieces to assist in the battle, and 1,000 people from the 15-18 squadrons of the 2nd Brigade of the newly formed Advance Brigade were also sent over to participate in the battle, so that they could feel the atmosphere of the battlefield. More than 700 people from the 102nd Company of the Army and the 3rd Battalion of the Eight Banners New Army, who stayed behind in Yantai Fort last time, will be used as reserves to supervise the battle; In addition, another 2,500 newly formed military personnel will be transferred. In this way, the total number of troops is close to 6,600 people, and you are the commander-in-chief, so you must annihilate the army of the Lee Dynasty on the entire Jeju Island in one battle, and then find a way to slowly control the whole island, I think there should be no special difficulty. Mo Ming put his hand on Xiao Xi's left shoulder, patted it and said: "In the future, Jeju Island will be the last refuge for these anti-Qing forces. ”

"The Li Dynasty is weak, their army is even more vulnerable, if more than 6,000 people still can't defeat them, I think we can just wipe our necks. There are still more than 3,000 soldiers left on the island, even if the Li Dynasty increases its troops, how many can it have? Our 6,600 people, even against 10,000 Li Dynasty troops, can wipe it out! Xiao Xi smiled and clenched his right fist, and said with a relaxed expression: "This is most likely an armed march. It is not difficult to defeat them, but the difficult thing is how to control the situation on the whole island after we retreat, there are enemies everywhere, and 2,000 people can only occupy Jeju and its vicinity, and it is not enough to really control the whole island. ”

"There will be follow-up troops, don't worry about that." Mo Ming said with certainty. (To be continued......)