November 4, 1644, the sixth day of the tenth lunar month. On the seventh day after Wang Aoyong's death, Zhao Yingyuan, who was far away in Qingzhou, had successfully invited a large number of anti-Qing armed forces to gather, and the momentum was greatly shaken for a while, in order to improve his appeal, he began to ponder the preparation of the King of Heng in Qingzhou City, and planned to let the King of Heng Zhu Youdi officially ascend the throne on the eighth day of the first month of October. However, what he didn't know was that as early as last month, because he should not recruit Dengzhou, Wang Aoyong had already asked Beijing to send reinforcements. The Qing court agreed to his request, and then ordered Melle Zhangjing and Li Shutai to lead the army into Shandong, and today, this Qing army has quietly arrived in Jinan.

If you march lightly from Jinan to Qingzhou, it will only be a two-day journey. The recent incident in Qingzhou City had already reached Fang Dayou, the governor of Shandong in Jinan, who had only 600 soldiers on hand and was panicked, and his heart was suddenly relieved after seeing more than 10,000 reinforcements coming, not to mention that there were more than 2,000 "real Manchurian officers and soldiers" among the more than 10,000 people, which gave him the confidence to retake Qingzhou.

At this time in Jiaozhou City, the people of the east bank were also making final preparations before departure. Last night, the people on the east coast "collected" some carts, mules and horses in the city, and the grain shops run by the local gentry were the key targets, and they gathered the owners of these grain shops, and then announced that they would levy grain ranging from 10 to 100 stone according to the grain in stock. Although these people were unwilling, they were currently stronger than others, and those who were hard to give up their wealth were afraid that they would be hung up by these yellow-clothed thieves on the east coast immediately, so the logistics staff officers collected about 400 stone of grain very smoothly.

After collecting grain, the logistics staff officer was ordered to distribute some of the remaining old grain beans in the warehouse to the people in the city who had no surplus grain. Then the more than 300 inmates in the prison were given freedom. These prisoners included Jiangyang bandits, framed ordinary people, and captured remnants of the Shun army, and most of these people expressed their willingness to go with the people on the east coast. Eventually, the people on the east coast continued to recruit displaced people in the city. However, only a few hundred people are willing to go to unknown places with these "thieves". Now that there is a shortage of food, the people on the east coast no longer use coercive means to relocate the Ming people, so they only got more than 300 people in Jiaozhou City this time. But that's enough, these people are basically young and strong, and they are good at work, and if there are more people, they may not be able to afford it.

In addition, they took more than 400 prisoners in the battle yesterday afternoon. Nearly 500 Qing troops were killed in battle, including about 60 or 70 Han flag officers and soldiers. The casualties of the East Coasters were unusually light, with the exception of six riders killed and nine lightly wounded. Only the Advance Team suffered 15 killed and 31 wounded, with a total of 61 casualties, which was almost nothing compared to the Qing army. However, after the war, after reading the oral accounts of the captains of the squadrons participating in the battle, the training staff officers and operational staff officers agreed that the training and combat staff officers of the Standing Up Team still needed to strengthen targeted training. to increase combat power. Otherwise, you may suffer a loss when you encounter hard stubble, such as the Manchurians, in the future.

Regarding the handling of these captives, Mo Ming quickly made up his mind and took them all away and sent them to the Heishui Coal Mine for labor reform. If they are good during the renovation, then they still have a chance to become "normal people", otherwise they will work in the coal mine until they die. These Qing officers and soldiers, who had shaved their hair, were tied together one by one with ropes by the soldiers of the sergeants' team, and then thrown next to the carts, ready for them to move with the carts loaded with food. The people of the east coast seized more than 70 carts of Ke Yongsheng in Jiaozhou City, plus some collected by the people. There were about a hundred; Coupled with the more than 400 North Korean pack horses brought on this trip, dozens of tons of goods can be transported at a time.

"Did the navy's ship arrive at the mouth of the Dagu River?" Mo Ming spread out the map. Begin to ask the intelligence staff officer. According to the plan, the navy's two armed transport ships, two transport ships, and two gunboats will sail along the coast of Shandong and maintain close contact with the large forces on land. According to the plan drawn up before departure, these ships will be stationed near the mouth of the Dagu River in Jiaozhou Bay, waiting for the army to send personnel to contact them.

"It's already here." The intelligence staff officer nodded affirmatively and said, "Yesterday afternoon, I sent scouts from the security team to the mouth of the Dagu River to reconnoitre, and they found the navy's ships, all six of which were there, and I also sent a small convoy to deliver supplies to them in the morning. ”

"That's good." Mo Ming nodded. The captured grain, supplies, and livestock had to be loaded onto ships, and the more than 300 people recruited and the more than 400 Qing prisoners captured had to be loaded onto ships and taken away. It's November now, and this year it looks like another cold winter, and the port of Yantai may freeze again at the coldest time, so the ships won't be able to dock at the port, so it's better to hurry up with what can be transported now. Moreover, some pioneer immigrants from Blackwater Port and Omari Port also had to be transported to the winter camp on Rishiri Island by express transport, otherwise there would be no way after the port was frozen.

So, under Mo Ming's orders, the soldiers of the East Coast people moved quickly, loaded the supplies onto carts and pack horses, and then escorted by the officers and men of the two squadrons, headed for the seashore no more than ten kilometers away. After leaving a squadron of standing up to guard the warehouse in Jiaozhou City, Mo Ming embarked on the journey again with the army that had just finished breakfast.

This time, their target is Gaomi, which is located in the northwest of Jiaozhou. Gaomi County is currently in the hands of the landlords, and the leader is Li Shiyuan, the former Qingzhou garrison of the Ming Dynasty - of course, he is now the Qingzhou garrison of the Qing Dynasty. The county seat was still in the hands of Dashun in mid-May, but later the squires of the county rebelled and forced out the Dashun county commander Sun Zhiyu and his entourage (who was killed in the official history). However, this time, Sun Zhiyu, as the squadron leader of the 7th Squadron of the Standing Team, swaggered back, which made people feel that thirty years in Hedong and thirty years in Hexi. Mo Ming and others joked that they would organize a Dashun homecoming group in the future, but they didn't expect that the first one to achieve it was his grandson.

Li Shiyuan had about 2,000 troops at hand at this time, and his fighting skills were poor, and he was basically a mud-legged villager who had just become a soldier and had not eaten food for a long time, so it basically didn't take too much effort to deal with them. The county seat of Gaomi is only more than 20 kilometers away from Jiaozhou, and the marching speed of the people on the east bank is extremely fast, and the cavalry arrived outside the city at noon, while the infantry arrived here when the sun set.

Although the county town of Gaomi was low and dilapidated, seeing that the sky was already dark, the people on the east coast were not in a hurry to attack. The soldiers of the military brigade began to set up camp, fetch water and cook, and the people on the east bank prepared to rest for one night and attack again tomorrow. The double-layer barbed wire camp was equipped with a large number of sentries and military dogs, and Li Shiyuan did not dare to send people to attack the camp at night. However, it is more likely that his soldiers suffer from night blindness and have no ability to fight at night.

On November 5, with the sound of a crisp trumpet, the army of the people on the east bank slowly lined up outside Gaomi County. First, there were 1,000 people from 4 squadrons of the Advance Team, then more than 1,500 people from 2 battalions of the New Army of the Eight Banners, and then artillery and musketeers. As for the 500 cavalry, they were dispersed to the two flanks of the troops early to be on guard.

If the enemy does not dare to go out of the city to fight, then things will be much easier.

The battle is still the same. After a rough sweep of the city with howitzers, Sergeant Bernini, the deputy commander of the artillery company, pulled all eight long-barreled cannons to the far side of the city wall. The enemy at the head of the city could not be attacked, but their shells could easily hit the walls. After seeing the cannons drawn by the people on the east coast, the Qing troops at the head of the city were obviously in a commotion, but they quickly reluctantly quieted down under the reprimand of the officers.

The people on the east coast ignored them, and just concentrated eight light and heavy guns and began to bombard a section of the wall that appeared to be repaired. The process of fighting was somewhat boring to the people on the east coast, but it was definitely not a fun thing for the Qing army of Li Shiyuan's army in the city.

After a leisurely lunch of steak and caviar cooked by a special chef in a makeshift prefabricated house, Mo Ming even opened a bottle of Xiangshan dry red with great interest. At this time, the liaison staff officer hurriedly walked in and reported to him that the city wall had collapsed about six or seven meters into a gap, and that the grenadiers were now ready to blast with powder kegs under the cover of artillery.

After handing the red wine to his orderly, Mo Ming grabbed the command knife and walked to the front line unhurriedly. At this time, the artillery had already pulled several howitzers to the front, and these 8-pounder howitzers fired a lot of explosive shells and grapeshot shells at the gap, sweeping away the Qing troops who were crowded there to block the gap. In particular, the dozen bunches of grapeshotfire turned the Qing troops who were forced by the officers to rush forward to repair the gaps into mutilated corpses. How could these Qing troops, whose morale was already low, withstand such a scene, and they immediately dispersed in a hurry, and it was useless to let the officers beat and scold them.

The heroic grenadiers, under the cover of artillerymen and several platoons of musketeers, approached the gap in the wall, and then quickly dug the tunnels, buried the powder kegs, and laid the leads, all in good order. More than 500 cavalry and about 100 scouts of the security team hovered outside the range of the Qing army at the head of the city, ready to surprise the fleeing Qing army out of the city.

Finally, after a qiē was ready, only a loud "boom" was heard, and the city wall, which had been crumbling by cannon bombardment, collapsed in a large area. The large array of infantry on the east bank lined up next to the artillery position let out an earth-shattering cheer, and soon the combat staff gave the order to assault, and the front team took the lead, while the artillerymen, under the protection of two companies of musketeers on the east bank, also marched forward, then the chain of command and the new army of the Eight Banners.

The final battle also ended before the sun went down. The ineffective Xiangyong armed forces could not defeat the people on the east coast in the field, and they later found that they could not even beat them in street fighting. These yellow-clad thieves never fought them hard, they formed a tight formation, spearmen outside, musketeers in between, and any villager who tried to get close was beaten into a hornet's nest. And when they encountered the houses guarded by the villagers, they directly pulled cannons and collapsed the houses. In the face of this ingenious tactic, these village warriors quickly collapsed, and the garrison Li Shiyuan took the lead in opening the city gate and escaping with more than 100 henchmen. After Li Shiyuan fled, the remnants of more than 1,000 villagers in the city suddenly lost their backbone, most of them also collapsed, and a small number simply abandoned their weapons and surrendered, and Gaomi County changed hands within a day. (To be continued......)