"Boom! Rumble! "The heavy wrought iron cannonballs hit the brick-clad exterior wall of Yidu County, denting a large part of the wall that had exposed the inner layer of rammed earth. The Qing army at the head of the city was panicked, but who let them have no artillery to counterattack, and they could only be beaten at this time.

"Attention!" Mao Desheng, the commander of the 104th Company, blew the whistle in his mouth violently, and then more than 200 musketeers in cuirass raised the rifles in their hands, and they were divided into two rows, squatting in the front row and standing in the back row, aiming the muskets loaded with ammunition at the Qing troops who were rushing out from the city gate.

The more than 1,000 people of Chen Zhilong's division (mainly surrendered troops) stationed on the front line to block these Qing troops had already broken down at this time, and the Qing army swept their butts towards the artillery positions in the rear. Fortunately, these people finally had a longer memory, and the tragic scenes of the first two times of breaking up and fleeing straight back to be hit by musket salvos and artillery scattered shells are still vivid, so they quickly ran away to both sides of the battlefield, and only a few people ran back in a panic.

"Poof! Burst! The soldiers who were blocking behind the earthen wall of the makeshift artillery position stabbed out the spears in their hands, and dozens of routed soldiers who fled back were immediately stabbed in the heart. They fell to the ground screaming, their shaved faces covered in blood.

"Bang! Bang! After the Qing army entered the firing range, the musketeers of the 104th Company came to fire a salvo of the whole company, and the fierce fire hit the Qing soldiers on their backs, and dozens of people fell down like this. Next came the world of 4-pounder cannons, and the grapeballs and scattered bullets stuffed in the barrel were fired one after another, turning the Qing army in front of them into a hornet's nest like waves of waves.

After the muskets and artillery were fired, the soldiers stretched out their spears and stabbed the last few Qing soldiers who were lucky enough to escape the bullets to the ground. This was the end of a small offensive and defensive battle aimed at fighting for artillery positions.

"The Qing army under the command of Lucke Hun is different from Shi Tingzhu when he fought Yangzhou. Maybe it was the lesson of the Battle of Yangzhou. They did not hide in the city and be beaten passively, but frequently took the initiative to attack, trying to attack the artillery positions of our army. In the past few days, it has almost reached twenty times, and although we have not allowed them to succeed, the loss of troops is large. More than 5,000 people in Chen Zhilong's department have been scattered many times, and now there are only more than 3,000 left, so I think it's better to let them withdraw and train and bring up the 3,500 people in Qin Shangxing's department, right? "On the watchtower in the large military camp on the east bank. Captain Zhang Xudong, the captain of the 1st Wing who was holding a telescope to observe, said to Mo Ming.

Mo Ming was wearing a dark blue tweed coat and carrying a saber at his waist, and at this time he also put down his binoculars, and asked without answering: "How is the situation of the first brigade now?" ”

"I'm afraid it will take a while to restore the combat strength." Speaking of the first team, Zhang Xudong also had some heartache. This unit (2,000 people) is the trump card unit of the 7,500 people in the first wing of the entire standing team, the earliest establishment, the most veterans, the best equipment, and the strongest combat effectiveness. Nowadays, although the method of replenishing the soldiers and surrendering troops through guò fills the vacancies. However, it is also an indisputable fact that the combat effectiveness has declined.

"Then don't move, let the second brigade come forward and exercise more." Mo Ming said succinctly. "Although there are many new recruits in the second brigade, there are also many experienced officers and non-commissioned officers and non-commissioned officers drawn from the first and third brigades, and the combat effectiveness will not be too far behind, and now is a good time to train. If you don't exercise now, when the Qing army in Henan, Zhili, and Shandong provinces will be suppressed in the future, there will be no chance to train in a battle of tens of thousands of people. ”

Zhang Xudong nodded, deeply impressed by Mo Ming's words. After a while, he said again: "In the morning, there was a letter from Zichuan, and the scout said that Dong Xueli did not act rashly after arriving in Zichuan, and waited for two days, and then defeated Xie Qian's department that went out of the city to attack the Qing army's grain transportation team in one fell swoop. If it weren't for Zhai Congge who brought 4,000 people to the desperate rescue, the more than 4,000 people in Xie Qian's department would have confessed there. Now the two of them retreated to Zichuan County, and only dared to send a small group of cavalry out of the city secretly at night to attack the Qing army's grain transportation team, and the harassment was not as strong as before. ”

"Dong Xueli's old foundation is the Gansu border army, and it is certain that he has strong combat effectiveness. There are many bandits and hungry people among the more than 4,000 people in Xie Qian's department, and their combat effectiveness is not worth mentioning, although Zhai Congge's more than 4,000 people are okay in combat effectiveness, but they are mixed with too many newly recruited troops, and they are definitely not as resistant to war as before, and the two departments can't defeat Dong Xueli's 3,000 people, which is normal. Mo Ming took off the white gauze gloves, and said as he went downstairs: "But the two of them are together, but they don't have to be too afraid of Dong Xueli, in fact, I think Dong Xueli is also very slippery, and he will not consume his strength lightly." There may be a stalemate on the Zichuan side next, but there will be no major changes. ”

"I went downstairs first, I didn't sleep all night last night, so I made up for sleep. I'm afraid this wall can't be broken today, and it is estimated that it will be until tomorrow morning. It's okay, take a good rest today, and tomorrow I will personally command the army to attack Qingzhou City. I'd like to see what three heads and six arms Luckedhun has, and if the little man he has at hand can hold my cannon. Mo Ming walked to the corner of the wooden ladder and reminded loudly: "You take over the command of the camp first, help me keep an eye on it." ”

Zhang Xudong gave a military salute to show his understanding, and then continued to raise his binoculars and observe the shape of the battlefield.

In the afternoon, the Qing army dispatched hundreds of men to attack the artillery positions on the east bank, but they still returned with a feather. At this time, the scouts of the security team also came with more battlefield news.

In late September, the Yuyuan Army, which had previously rejected the eastward entry of the easterners into Jinan Prefecture, marched south from Yuyuan Laozhai in Fan County. Zhang Qi, Ren Fuxing, Liang Min, Cai Naihan, Wu Kanghua and other famous and surnamed Qu Heads each led more than 10,000 people, totaling 780,000 people, and Gon Gon went south, straight to the front line of Yuncheng, Juye, and Caozhou. The Yuyuan army passed through the prefecture and county, and according to their usual strategy, they mainly plundered horses and mules, property, and grain, and did not pay attention to killing and injuring the Qing army. The prefectures and counties that can be defeated lightly will rush up, and those who can't be beaten will let go and go straight to the next place, anyway, the Qing army, which is weak in strength, will not dare to go out of the city to fight. By the end of September, their vanguard had even appeared in the Cao County and Shanxian areas, and the local bandits in the neighboring Guide Prefecture of Henan Province also took the opportunity to respond, and the Qing court officials in the local prefectures and counties were shocked three times a day, and the urgent documents flew to Kaifeng and Beijing like snowflakes.

Several other leaders of the Yuyuan Army who did not go south also made a big fuss in Dongchang Mansion. For example, Huang Zhenshan, who was originally from Chaocheng County, led his troops back to his hometown. broke the county seat in one fell swoop. Then they hunted down Qing officials and released prison prisoners. and erected a banner to recruit troops and horses; Zhou Kuixuan from Dongping Lake led a large number of horse teams to gallop across the country, breaking Shouzhang, Yanggu, Yixian, Mengyin and other cities, and taking a large number of military funds stored in Yixian County by the Qing army Yizhou Town as his own, and his high spirit was almost unstoppable. Presumably, after the 20,000 people of the Qing army returned from the rapid march from Jiangbei, they would suddenly find that their baggage, military rations, swords, guns, arrows, and even military salaries had been plundered.

Song Yadan and Chen Guozao, the small leaders of the Yuyuan Army in Xiajin County, also dispatched one after another, and after breaking through the county seat, they plundered away; Wang Kuiguang led his troops to besiege Guanxian County, but he did not give up. Sweep the four fields; Small armed forces like this sprung up on the land of Shandong, causing the Manchu officials to lose ground and panic.

In addition, Li Qingshan, a thief from Liangshan, also made a big fuss in Yanzhou Mansion, and many of the gentry Zhuangzi in the four fields were broken by him, and they gained a lot; Ding Weiyue, the former head of Shouzhang County in the Ming Dynasty, also led more than 1,000 horsemen and tens of thousands of infantry (mostly coerced homeless) a while ago, "raising fire on all sides and shouting to move the ground", attacking Zhangqiu Town, the node of Caoyun, and then turned to join forces with the peasant army of Yangyun Mountain to conquer Tangyi County. Canal traffic is already threatened.

The two prefectures of Dongchang and Yanzhou are the wealthies of Shandong, and if these two prefectures are corrupted, it will be a big deal—in fact, they are now half rotten. In addition, Ding Mingwu, who entered the north of Jinan Prefecture in the east, broke the plain and Linyi two counties. The release of prisoners, the arrest of officials, and the coercion of the people were not small, so it can be said that the rear of the Qing army in Shandong was completely chaotic at this time. If the East Coast army had attacked a few days later, Luck would have been nailed here to play with the East Coast people again.

And it is estimated that he doesn't want to continue playing anymore, and his original ambition to gather tens of thousands of troops to force back the yellow-clothed thieves has disappeared without a trace at the moment with the chaos in the rear, and he no longer has the courage to go on. This was especially true when the artillery on the east coast bombarded the city day and night, and the red-coated cannon he had in hand fell on Jinan—and besides, the cannon could not be used in the field—and could not pose a threat to the yellow-clothed thieves at all.

In the past few days, although they have killed and defeated some of the soldiers and horses of the yellow-clothed thieves, but Lucked is not stupid, those so-called yellow-clothed thieves who were killed and injured are still wearing the uniforms of the Qing army, and it is obvious that the troops are well recruited! The army of the yellow-clothed thieves did not suffer much damage, but the losses of the Qing army had exceeded 1,500 people, and the morale was also quite low. Therefore, it is better to find a way to withdraw first.

On the night of October 6, Lekde Hun personally led his 4,000 soldiers and horses of the Eight Banners and thousands of green battalions with horses to evacuate to the west, and then, Li Shutai also personally led thousands of elite soldiers and horses of his headquarters to retreat overnight. Although the army on the east coast detected movements inside and outside Qingzhou City, Captain Zhang Xudong, who did not know what the Qing army was doing, decided to be more serious, first hold the camp steadily, and then send people to find out the news.

The news came back quickly in the second half of the night: the Qing army had retreated in a big way! Zhang Xudong, who had already been suspicious, immediately woke up Mo Ming, and after thinking about it for a while, Mo Ming felt that the Qing army might really retreat, but it was difficult to say whether it was a trap or not. After some struggle, Mo Ming ordered the cavalry brigade not to go out of the camp to pursue the enemy without authorization, and then personally commanded the infantry and artillery to attack Qingzhou City. There was a large amount of heavy food and salary of the Qing army in Qingzhou City, and if the Qing army retreated, it would inevitably come back to rescue, so attacking Qingzhou City was considered a safe and important move at this time.

In the early morning of October 7, on the anniversary of the 17th anniversary of the passage of Yunsheng No. 1, the surrendered Chen Zhilong took the lead in attacking the city along the gap opened by the artillery on the east bank. The Qing army in the city put up a fairly fierce resistance, and after more than 1,000 casualties, the remaining thousands of miscellaneous armed forces composed of Yanding, Shui Ding, and Xiangyong scattered in a hurry, and rushed out, waiting for them to be pursued by the cavalry on the east coast.

At ten o'clock in the morning, Mo Ming, surrounded by Zhang Xudong, Mao Desheng, Li Renjun, Liu Zhong and other officers with shining stars, entered Yidu County. The number one city in Qingzhou Mansion fell into the hands of the East Coast people for the first time! (To be continued......)