In the next few days, as the troops arrived one after another, the gentry of Guide Mansion were finally relieved... They all felt that Li Yan was not bad, he collected taxes and took donations, and he was finally able to try his best to protect their safety, which was much stronger than those officials and soldiers in Hebei.

And the people went to the county town to see the heads of the Qing soldiers in their spare time. Since Li Yan managed the Guide Mansion, he has not hung his head on the city wall, which is also a lively activity. Moreover, all the fortresses were notified, and they had to hurry up if they wanted to see it, and their heads could only be hung on the city for three days, and then they were sent to other county seats.

The people surrounded the crowd and looked at the heads of the three Qing soldiers on the head of the city. found that the Qing soldiers were just two eyes and a nose, just a bald head, and a thin pigtail on the back of their head. The people were disappointed after seeing it, and they had no fear of the legendary invincible Qing army.

"This hair, just keep a handful the size of a copper coin, it's better to shave it all and become a monk." Someone was pointing.

"Didn't those who fled say blue-faced fangs? I don't think it's any different from us. Someone else said suspiciously.

Someone else shouted, "Didn't you see so many cannons?" This iron-clad city gate can't withstand a cannonball, even if the Qing soldiers are really blue-faced and fanged monsters, they will die if they take a shot. ”

"That is, as soon as our cannon goes off, the ghosts and gods will also avoid it."

……

Li Yan asked the refugees who had escaped to repair the roads in various places. Previously, due to the expansion of the territory, those captives were transferred to various places to build the demolished county seat first. Now the more than 10,000 refugees have come in handy, let them eat with their strength first, and then let them decide to stay after the Qing troops have retreated.

Although he was able to keep all these refugees, after all, across the Yellow River, the people's sense of identity was not very strong. And Li Yan plans to use these people to go back to him for publicity. No matter how many Qing soldiers killed and plundered, it would be impossible to kill all the people of Shandong, and it would be much easier for him to take Shandong in the future.

He had already put all the crossings on guard and reported to the troops as soon as there was any sign of the Qing army crossing the river. He stationed his troops separately in the counties along the river, and ensured that he could rush to the various ferry crossings within an hour for reinforcements. And he himself took a team of two hundred muskets and four artillery pieces to monitor the eastward direction of the Qing army in Kaocheng.

However, for several days, the Qing soldiers did not increase the number of ferries. Li Yan immediately sent pigeon letters to various places, asking about the situation of the soldiers in various places. He was worried that the Qing army would attack the east and west, so he crossed the river elsewhere. However, the news obtained in the end was confusing, and there was no sign of Qing troops gathering at the other ferries.

So he inquired about the situation in the direction of Kaifeng, and the report he got was still the same, and he did not find the movement of the Qing soldiers. Although the Qing army did not seem to plan to cross the river, he did not dare to relax and still closely monitored. At the same time, scouts were sent from Kaifeng to cross the Hebei to investigate the situation of the Qing army in Caozhou from the direction of Fengqiu.

A few days later, in early March, Li Yan finally got the news that the Qing army in Caozhou had withdrawn and headed north to Zhangde Mansion. Moreover, he loaded the gold, silver, and cloth looted in Caozhou and went north. also took tens of thousands of people, crying all the way to the sky, and walked slowly.

At this time, Li Yan finally determined that the Qing army had really withdrawn, or they would not have taken their booty with them. However, he wondered that since the Qing army did not plan to cross the river, why did they still gather ferries near Kaocheng?

In fact, the reason is very simple. The main purpose of the Qing army's entry into the fortress this time was to plunder. They heard from the captives that the Guide Mansion was rich, so they had the idea of crossing the river to the south to grab a vote. Along the way, there were not many places where they encountered strong resistance, so they were naturally arrogant. Unexpectedly, they sent the most elite forwards to seize the ferry, but the whole army was wiped out when they seized the ferry.

Those red banner vanguard generals naturally wanted to avenge their companions, but the brigade behind did not give them support, and had already divided their troops and plundered. If they succeeded in crossing the river, then naturally the main force would also cross the river and plunder. However, they failed to cross the river, and not only did Caozhou's things be robbed by others, but they also had to be punished when they returned, because the emperor did not let them cross the Yellow River.

Another reason is that they found that the Ming army on the south bank of the Yellow River was ready, and they could not bargain for anything when they crossed the river to fight. In fact, they didn't want to fight a tough battle, but they just made a desperate effort when attacking Gunzhou, because there was King Lu there.

The rest of Jining, Dongchang, including Guantao, encountered strong resistance from the Ming army, they also tried to stop, and went elsewhere after bypassing. Looting gold, silver, grain, cloth, livestock, and slaves was their goal, but few people were willing to do it to destroy the Ming army.

However, Li Yan didn't dare to relax his vigilance too much, after all, there were many cavalry in the Qing army, and it wouldn't take much time to kill them again. So he sent more scouts to find out the news, and also transported all the ferries that the Qing soldiers had assembled at the ferry to the south bank, even if the Qing army came back, they had to find another ferry to give him time to prepare.

Since the Qing soldiers have retreated, it is naturally time to repay the merits. Li Yan was not interested in the imperial court's reward, but the king of Zhou sent a messenger to Beijing to report the merits. After all, Li Yan is his son-in-law and the guarantee of his safety, and if he disobeyed the holy decree and did not go to Beijing to help, he would have committed a big crime. This time, there are the heads of the Qing soldiers, and the credit for recovering the entire territory of Henan, so I don't think there will be any punishment.

As for tailgating and pursuing the Qing army, Li Yan did not have this idea yet. He only had 3,000 cavalry, which was all he had. Looking at the situation of other officers and soldiers, even if he catches up, it will be a lonely battle, and there is a high possibility of being wiped out by the Qing soldiers, so he will not be the wrongdoer.

With the previous experiences, the imperial court naturally knew that the Qing army would always return north. So he mobilized his troops and horses to Hejian Mansion early, preparing to stop the Qing army returning to the north, and leaving behind the looted property, people and animals. However, the town generals were afraid of the enemy one by one, and none of them went to battle, and finally transferred troops to the vicinity of the capital, saying that they wanted to defend the Beijing division.

Sun Chuanting wanted to go to King Qinwang in Beijing, but Chongzhen did not agree, but asked him to train as soon as possible, so that he could send troops to Huguang to exterminate Li Zicheng. Now Sun Chuanting is the last power in the hands of the imperial court that can be used to exterminate the thieves. As for Li Yan, together with Zuo Liangyu, he has been regarded as a self-respecting feudal town, but he is a general who has to be encircled.

These have nothing to do with Li Yan, he is receiving the first batch of war horses bought from Shaanxi, there are two hundred. Sixty-five taels for each horse, for which he had to pay thirteen thousand taels of silver, which was a great expense. Fortunately, he just got 100,000 taels from Li Zicheng, and he can still buy it. Although many silver ingots still have the words of Chongwangfu on them, Zuo Xian's subordinates don't care at all, as long as the color is enough and the quantity is enough, everything else is not a problem.

But at the same time, there was also Sun Chuanting's envoy.

...