Just when Mo Ming and others were pointing out the rivers and mountains in the Dabo Port area, a fishing boat on the east coast that was returning from transporting supplies to Rishiri Island brought a letter from Li Wenchang, the acting commander of the Yantai garrison.

"What? Guo Sheng sent someone to contact us, want to buy weapons? After reading the letter that Mo Ming forwarded to him, Liu Haiyang said with some surprise: "This is too incredible, Guo Sheng's vision is really poisonous!" How to deal with this? ”

"How? Just sell him! Mo Ming said indifferently, "Guo Sheng is also a righteous man, according to history, he has been fighting with the Manchu Qing until the third year of Kangxi (1664), and the most Lu Hou and Li Laiheng and others died heroically together, compared to the traitors who surrendered to the Manchus in the Southern Ming Dynasty, I don't know how many times stronger Lu Dao." I like these warriors the most, let's go, the affairs here are almost done, come back to Yantai with me. ”

On June 15, Mo Ming returned to Yantai Port on a naval vessel, accompanied by two boatloads full of crabs, sea cucumbers, squid and other seafood, which were recently fishermen's officers and sailors fishing in the coastal waters around Sakhalin Island, which could more or less provide some nutritional supplements for the residents of Yantai.

As soon as Mo Ming got off the boat and returned to the headquarters in Yantai Fort, Li Zhengang, who was the commander of Yantai County but had never taken office, immediately appeared in front of Mo Ming.

"The general has finally returned." Li Zhengang seemed to have been waiting in Yantai for several days, and at this time he finally ran into Mo Ming, and immediately said eagerly: "Does the general know that the situation in Shandong has changed recently?" ”

Mo Ming laughed unkindly, how could he not know the current situation in Shandong, when he first got off the ship, the intelligence staff had already sent him some news that he had recently inquired about. Although it is still relatively sparse. But in general, the recent events are listed. Mo Ming looked at it carefully. I found that Guo Sheng's recent life has been very difficult, and he feels a little tired.

History: On April twenty-nine, Guo Sheng led more than 3,000 troops to quell the Gaogui rebellion in Tai'an; Linyi Jingentry captured Dashun County, and Guo Sheng sent troops to pacify; Laiwu Jingentry killed Liu Fuyan in Dashun County, and Guo Sheng "suppressed it with heavy troops"; On the tenth day of the fifth month, Ling Jiong, the head of the Ming Army, rebelled in Linqing, captured Wang Huangji, the defense envoy of Linqing, and Liu Shizeng, and escorted them to Jinan. On the way, he was rescued by Guo Sheng's troops; On May 12, Pan Shiliang, the former Ming squire, and Zhang Wenchang, the general soldier, led the township soldiers to break through the eastern city of Jining, captured and killed Zhang Wenxing, the defense envoy of Dashun Jining, Ren Chongzhi, and Fu Long, the commander of the brigade, and burned the Dashun army defending the city......

In short, when the news of the rebellion in Texas came, Shandong was suddenly full of flames, and the landlords and gentry raised troops one after another to attack and kill the officials appointed by Dashun. And Guo Sheng's more than 3,000 soldiers went around to quell the rebellion, but they always pressed the gourd and lifted the scoop, exhausted.

"Where is Guo Jieshuai stationed now?" Mo Ming took a sip of tea. He asked casually.

"Guo Shuai is now leading a large army to camp in the oil side thirty miles outside Linqing City, and the former Ming officials and gentry are stubborn. Dare to resist the heavenly soldiers. Guo Shuai is currently fighting hard, and Linqingzhou can be broken. Li Zhengang said without blushing. In fact, after Guo Sheng originally brought 3,000 soldiers and horses from Shandong, after dividing his troops into Dezhou, Qingzhou, Jinan, Jining, Linqing and other places, the current descendants at hand are only a few hundred, and the so-called more than 3,000 men and horses he now has a scale after incorporating the Ming troops in Jinan and Jining. It's a pity that the so-called "Xiucai Rebellion" initiated by the local students as the main force in various places came too quickly, and many officials, soldiers and horses scattered in Dashun were slaughtered before they could react. Many of these troops are old soldiers, and it is a pity to lose them in vain in the hands of these village soldiers. At present, Guo Sheng is gathering these old subordinates while preparing to attack Linqingzhou City, which has been occupied by the gentry forces; Another general of the Shun army in Shandong, Zhang Ruxing, the general of the former Ming Dynasty, was leading his troops to the vicinity of Jining, preparing to attack the city, which was also occupied by the gentry.

"Since Guo Shuai went, it naturally didn't matter. Forget it, Li County Order, I won't go around in circles with you. I know exactly what you're here for, don't you just want some weapons? I do have a lot of weapons, so I am naturally willing to support Guo Shuai, but I can't give them in vain, I think you should understand this. Mo Ming said bluntly.

"It's nature." Li Zhengang also said with a natural face, "Before the lower officials came, they had been instructed by Guo Shuai, and we will take everything that General Mo needs." Money, food or people? The money has silver stored in the treasury of Jining and Linqing Mansions, and there are also a large number of wheat and corn taken out of the former Mingzong room. As for people, there are even more, there are more people in Jinan, Dongchang, and Yanzhou, and there are more than one million people, and there are as many generals as there are. ”

"Hmm." Mo Ming gently chucked his head, and then said, "Since that's the case, I don't have anything to say." I was tired of Li County Commander and said to Guo Shuai, I need a lot of food first, and strong men and strong women second. In addition, gold and silver are generally not accepted, of course, if Guo Shuai is really in difficulty, it is not impossible to exchange silver for it......"

"General Mo is benevolent." Li Zhengang sighed and said: "Then it's decided, Guo Shuai used grain and Dingkou to pay the general the money needed to buy guns. Well, Guo Shuai had heard that General Mo's guns were sharp, so he wanted to buy some to strengthen his reputation, and he needed 500 self-grown birds, 10 large and small artillery, 100 pairs of iron armor, 200 strong bows, 300 leather armor, 500 long knives, and 1,000 spears. In addition, it is necessary to purchase some trivial items such as guns, lead medicine, bags and equipment, and General Wanwang will approve it. ”

Mo Ming was also taken aback when he heard the numbers and types reported by Li Zhengang, this Guo Sheng has a lot of appetite, and he actually knows so well about the armaments of the people on the east coast, it seems that he is really a caring person. The people on the east coast have not fought a few battles outside in total, except for the defeat of the thieves of Zhai Taishan's department, they brought some gentry arms, and they didn't expect to let people touch their bottoms. Well, I heard that Zhai Taishan's clan uncle is the Qingzhou drama Kou Zhai Wu Monk - now he has become the magistrate of Dashun, and the news should have come from Zhai Wu Monk.

During the two or three months when Guo Sheng came to Shandong, he incorporated a lot of Ming troops, the number of which was about 2,000, and hundreds of strong men were recruited. The equipment of these people is definitely not good, and the combat effectiveness is naturally like that, at present, Guo Sheng is mixing these people with his less than a thousand old troops, and then quelling the rebellion everywhere in Shandong. After the weapons are in place, it is estimated that he will transfer the equipment of the current old battalion to these newly recruited and recruited sergeants, thus raising the equipment level and combat effectiveness of his troops to a new level.

In fact, Mo Ming is even more greedy for these soldiers under Guo Sheng who have been fighting for many years, some of these people have been in battle several times, and many of them have seen hundreds of battles, all of them crawled out of the pile of dead people. Not to mention that the combat effectiveness is not compared with the Qing army, at least it is at the same level as Wu Sangui's army, and it may be more daring to fight, and there is no problem in exterminating the Ming army and the local gentry army. If some of these forces can be co-opted, the strength of the East Coasters in this area will be greatly increased.

Therefore, Mo Ming quickly mentioned it casually and said: "Li County ordered to go back and tell Guo Shuai and his colleagues that if there is any disharmony, he can lead the army and civilians to Dengzhou." I don't dare to say anything else, this Fushan, Wendeng, and Ninghai Prefecture are still able to protect your safety. At that time, everyone will join forces and advance and retreat together, and they will be able to make a strong voice, right? ”

Mo Ming understood that Guo Sheng was more loyal to Li Zicheng, and he and his headquarters should not come to Dengzhou. History records that he took Jining, Linqing two places of treasury silver and a large amount of grain and heavy baggage to Shaanxi, and later with Li Zicheng, Li Guo, Li Laiheng and others to fight in many places, lasted 20 years, the most Lu died in Xingshan, which shows the loyalty of his people. However, the nearly 20 local officials appointed by Guo Sheng in Shandong, such as defense envoys, Fu Yin, Tongzhi, and 37 county commanders, may not all follow him all the way back to Shaanxi via Henan; Moreover, most of these people participated in the pursuit and torture of those gentry and landlords, and distributed their fields to the poor people, which can be regarded as a mortal enemy in the local area.

As soon as Guo Sheng's main army was gone, the fate of these people was unknown, most of them were killed in history, and a few escaped without a trace. At this time, if you can gather them, it will also be a part of the force. Some of these people were born in the peasant army, some were down-and-out literati who defected to the new dynasty, and some were local heroes, and they also had some armed forces at hand, as few as dozens of people, and as many as hundreds, but this strength still could not be compared with those local strength derivatives. At present, Guo Sheng's main force is still there, and he is already faintly unable to suppress it, and when Guo Sheng leads the army to retreat west to follow Li Zicheng, what awaits these people will be a catastrophe.

Li Zhengang was born in the peasant army, and once followed Guo Sheng to fight in many provinces, how could he not know the tragic fate of the local officials appointed by Lu Dao Dashun! It can be said that as long as the main force of the peasant army withdraws from the front foot, the back foot of the Jin gentry armed will be killed back and liquidated, and the methods are bloody and cruel, and there is no trace of the compassion of the scholars. Now the news of the defeat of the Shun army at Shanhaiguan has just reached Shandong, and the news of Li Zicheng's withdrawal from Beijing after ascending the throne has not yet been known. Of course, these people do not include Guo Sheng, Li Zhengang and others, and Guo Sheng has already begun to collect treasury silver and grain, and is actively contacting Li Zicheng's brigade, ready to retreat west into Henan at any time.

Therefore, after Mo Ming opened his mouth to say this, he was silent for a long time, then sighed and said, "General Mo is really a benevolent and righteous person. Even so, I'm not hypocritical, many people are dragging their families with their mouths now, if they follow Guo Shuai to retreat west, but there are also many inconveniences. After I go back, I will immediately repair the book to the prefectures and counties, let them act cheaply, and if the situation is urgent, I will immediately withdraw east to Qingzhou. If Qingzhou is not insured, then withdraw to General Mo in Dengzhou, and hope that General Mo will take care of it. (To be continued......)