The first few months of 1645 were a mixed blessing for the Manchus, who had only been in the customs for a year.

In the northwest battlefield, the Qing army conquered Tongguan with the help of red-coated artillery, and Duoduo ordered the surrendered Shun army of Ma Shiyao to slaughter 7,000 people, and sent troops to Xi'an. At the same time, although Azig on the northern route repeatedly defeated the Northern Shaanxi Army of Li Guo, Gao Yigong and others, his advance was seriously hindered. It was only after Gao and Li led their troops to retreat to Ningxia that Azig's army of more than 100,000 was able to move south. At this time, Li Zicheng was already preparing to retreat.

Shaanxi (including Gansu and Ningxia) is now more of a cage for Li Zicheng, and the situation is not optimistic in the west, north or east. Therefore, although He Zhen defeated Li Dingguo three times in Hanzhong and stabilized the situation in the south, Li Zicheng was still determined to retreat. As for the destination of the retreat, Li Zicheng originally set to Runan, but after being dissuaded by Gu Junen, he was set in Xiangyang.

In mid-February, Li Zicheng led a main army of 130,000 and a larger number of women, children, old and weak, to enter Dengzhou. According to history, he "drove south with strength, leaving 3,000 soldiers to defend the city and plugging the well stove", Niu Jinxing and others, who had already gone to Xiangyang in advance, led troops to respond, and Li Zicheng's main force entered Hubei. So far, the 130,000 elite soldiers he brought from Shaanxi and Gansu, plus more than 70,000 veterans of Shaanxi and Henan who stayed behind in Xiangyang, still have a total strength of more than 200,000. Coupled with his excellent performance in defeating the Qing army twice in Chenzhou and Dengzhou during his retreat, Li Zicheng was still the number one enemy of the Qing army.

After Li Zicheng's main force withdrew from Shaanxi and Gansu, Duoduo and Azig joined forces in Xi'an. Then he began to vigorously recruit the miscellaneous armed forces and second- and third-line troops of the Shun army left behind nearby. Things went relatively smoothly, and Duoduo played: "Qin conquered the four cities and surrendered the thirty-eight prefectures and counties." And Henan, which was originally attacking the Shun army, was very energetic, and the general army of Xu Dingguo and other troops of the Southern Ming Dynasty. At this time, he no longer obeyed Shi Kefa's order, and surrendered to the Qing army. After Zhang Jinyan, the governor of Henan appointed by the Southern Ming Dynasty, played the imperial court, the Southern Ming monarchs and ministers were still unmoved, and urged the Ming army in the Huguang area to attack Jingzhou under the control of the Shun army, which almost made people angry. After Li Zicheng heard the news, he personally led the main force to Jingzhou, and Jingzhou was besieged.

The battle in the northwest went well. Although it took a lot of effort for the two armies of Duoduo and Azig, they finally swept away the Qin land and surrendered nearly 100,000 second- and third-line troops of Li Zicheng's army. The results can even be described as brilliant. However, in comparison, Shandong's current situation is simply a piece of. The nobles of the Eight Banners up and down Beijing could not figure out why Yantai Fort, a small garrison of only 10,000 people (an exaggerated fact of the Manchu Qing Dynasty), remained immobile under the siege of more than 50,000 troops, and even they still had the strength to attack everywhere. It greatly shook the prestige of "my Great Qing" in the north.

In the past month or so, Jinan Prefecture in Shandong Province has been lost, Wuding Prefecture and other five counties have been lost, Yongping Mansion in Beizhili has been lost, Leting County has been lost, and Weidagukou in Tianjin has been bombarded; Liaodong is even more exaggerated. Jinzhou, Lushunkou, Phidao, Zhenjiang and other places fell one after another, and the Eight Banners Horse Team left behind outside Jinzhou was even defeated, with more than 100 dead and wounded. In the end, he also watched the yellow-clothed thief army float away into the sea, and there was no way to escape the virtue of hundreds of thousands of Ming troops who "sent off" thousands of plundered Qing troops back then.

Faced with the dilemma of beacons everywhere in the Liaohai Sea, the Qing army had to adjust its operational focus. The regent Dorgon, who was far away in Beijing, ordered 20,000 men to be transferred from each of the two Qing armies of Azig and Duoduo, supplemented by more than 30,000 troops from the newly incorporated Shaanxi Shun Army and Henan Ming Army. The total number of troops was 70,000, and the east was transferred to Shandong and the north to the first line. Meantime. Dolgon also prepared to draw thousands of elite horse teams from the Manchurian and Mongolian Eight Banners stationed in Beijing, Jinzhou, and Tianjin, and select a general to lead the south, and unify the command of the Qing army, which totaled nearly 80,000 Qing troops, so as to stabilize the precarious situation in Beizhili and Shandong, and take the opportunity to spy on the Jianghuai line.

As for Liaodong, the Qing army had no way to do it. Most of the sturdy men over the age of 14 and under the age of 60 went to Guannei or Liaoxi, and there were only some old and young women and children outside the Guan, and there were not many young and strong men, and the whole Liaodong added up to a few thousand horses and less than 10,000 foot soldiers. It is really inadequate for such a small number of troops to defend such a large area. In desperation, the Qing court could only order the weak villages and forts along the coast to move to the inland areas, and at the same time implement the policy of "gathering villages and merging them", that is, the residents of these villages and forts who moved inland were concentrated in some key points that were convenient for defense. At the same time, mobile troops were stationed at various key points, and when there was an incident, a large number of horse teams were immediately assembled to rescue, hoping to curb the endless harassment of the yellow-clothed thieves in the coastal areas.

The Qing army was moving its forces and adjusting its deployment, while the people on the east coast were in a rare truce period. On May 25, the east coast fleet was assembled in the Yuanbo Port on Rishiri Island for the winter, including 2 gunboats, 2 armed transport ships, 2 transport ships, 6 steam engine sailing ships (the "Breaking Waves" paddle steamer has been transferred to Australia), and 4 medium-sized fishing boats, with a total tonnage of more than 10,000 tons.

After a month and a half of continuous fighting, the army on the east bank lost only more than 80 troops in combat (mainly the standing team and the sergeant team), and only 30 or 40 people in non-combat attrition, but it achieved an excellent record of killing, wounding, and capturing more than 1,500 Qing troops. In addition, it also broke through four important places such as Liuzhou County in Guannai, Jinzhou in Liaodong, and Tiesan County in North Korea, and seized more than 7,000 stones of grain and beans, more than 400 heads (animals) of livestock, and more than 70 war horses. Not only that, but they also sank more than 50 small boats of the Qingshui Division in Dagukou, Phidao, and Zhenjiang, and almost wiped out all the few remaining water forces (Kong, Shang and others had officially been converted into the army).

Generally speaking, as part of the Battle of Yantai, the sabotage battle behind enemy lines for more than a month dealt a powerful blow to the arrogance of the Qing army and greatly shook its prestige in Shandong and. In the later period, the raid on Liaodong gave the Qing court a heavy psychological blow. How many years, how many years have these big rears not been attacked? The last time someone carried out such a large-scale attack behind enemy lines, I am afraid it dates back to the Mao Wenlong period, right? But Mao Wenlong only has the ability to attack some small forts, and the threat is actually limited. But the yellow-clothed thieves are different, they have sharp guns, but even Jinzhou and Zhenjiang, which are the strong cities in the impression of Qing court officials, can be taken, and this ability to attack fortifications is indeed not comparable to Mao Wenlong and his ilk.

This realization made the Qing court extremely troubled by the yellow-clothed pirates, because this was not an equal way of warfare at all, and the yellow-clothed thieves came and went freely at sea, and they could often attack the weak with the strong. The Qing court's defenses were weak and they were completely unable to figure out where the enemy would attack next, which kept them in a passive state. The people on the east coast firmly grasped the initiative on the battlefield, making the Qing army exhausted, but still lost everywhere. It can be predicted that if the Qing court can't come up with good countermeasures, this vast circle of thousands of miles of sea territory will have to be abandoned.

Nearly 4,000 soldiers landed in the small Yuanbo harbor, which immediately overcrowded the place. To tell the truth, the urban area of Yuanbo Port is very small, and the people on the east coast have only uprooted the forest in a small part of the coast, and then opened up a base for ships to spend the winter. The whole city is almost a collection of docks and warehouses, and large and disorganized wooden houses are attached to these warehouses that stretch far and wide—all temporary wooden houses for immigrants.

More than 2,000 soldiers took a large number of captured livestock off the ship and released them directly into the wild. Rishiri Island and the neighboring island of Rebun are located in the midst of Japan's warm current, and the climate is mild, and the water does not freeze all year round. The vegetation on the island is also lush and there are no large carnivores, making it ideal for stocking. Both islands are small enough to be a natural prison for free-range animals, and when their populations are multiplied, they can be hunted by men. It can not only train the team, but also save a lot of manpower to take care of these livestock, which can be described as killing two birds with one stone.

They had already been to Rebun Island once before, and they had gotten five or six hundred cattle and sheep to the island. So far, the people on the east coast have stocked more than 2,000 heads of various livestock on the island in batches over the past two years. Half of them are sheep, about a quarter are cattle, and the rest are roe deer, reindeer, moose and so on. According to the observation of Rebun rangers two months ago, the population of 1,500 livestock stocked last year remained largely unchanged during the winter. This is mainly due to the fact that the climate is not very cold and the food sources are relatively abundant, and many small animals are born after the beginning of spring, and the population has a significant tendency to expand. It seems that in another two or three years, a certain amount of meat will be produced steadily every year.

As with Rebun Island, cattle and sheep and other livestock captured from the mainland by the people of the East Coast were also treated in the same way on Rishiri Island. Together with a batch of livestock donated by Jeju Island Zhai Congge and others, a total of 2,000 heads, all of them were released into the wild. After the population has multiplied, it will organize people to come over to hunt and train the team by the way.

Speaking of Jeju Island, now Zhai Congge, Wang Jiazhong, and Qin Shangxing have joined forces of more than 5,500 people and divided the three cities of Jeju Prefecture, Jeeong Yi County, and Dajing County, which can be regarded as completely occupying this island. Recently, the people on the east coast selected a general Zhou Zuoding from the Dashun county order (that is, the Tai'an county order who was unwilling to surrender to the Qing Dynasty before, and sneaked to Yantai after failure), and brought the newly formed advance team of 1,000 people (19th-22nd squadrons) to the island, and directly occupied the horse farm in the Hallasan area in the center of the island, which was regarded as a territory directly under the east coast.

To this end, Mo Ming ordered the transfer of a number of stallions in Yantai and the Dabo area, including twelve Andalusian horses, eight Turkmen horses, eight Finnish horses, and most of the others were selected Mongolian horses (or relatively tall or extremely enduring), in order to improve the pedigree of the island's large number of Korean dwarf horses. Over time, we will strive to breed a hybrid horse breed with both stamina and size, so that it can provide the cavalry with suitable riding tools.

After resting for a few days at Yuanbo Port, the soldiers gathered again and boarded the ship and headed for Yantai Port. At present, the Qing army's Haoge headquarters are still building a fortress outside Yantai to besiege it, and it seems that the two sides are going to stalemate for a long time. As a result, it is clear that the East Coasters will not be able to receive any immigrants in the vicinity. But it doesn't matter, Yantai has 2,000 soldiers with a mix of hot and cold weapons to defend it, but the number of Qing troops contained is tens of thousands, not counting the massive supplies they consume.

Yantai is deadlocked, so the main force of the people on the east coast can go elsewhere to seek a breakthrough. And, with 17,800 displaced people transported in the last season, it's time to gather some of the population this year to replenish it. (To be continued......)