"Where is Mo Ming now?" Shao Shude wrapped his coat tightly and said in a slightly tired voice.

Although the underground command room of Yantai Fortress was well sealed, and the fireplace was burned, and the temperature in the room was maintained at about more than ten degrees above zero, Shao Shude still caught a cold just a few days after he arrived. After all, the years are not forgiving, people who are fifty years old, although they usually exercise regularly, their physical condition is still inevitably weakened.

However, despite his poor physical condition, Shao Shude still did not plan to rest, but convened a meeting of some officers who were still staying in Yantai Fort as the leader of the Heishui Pioneer Team and the commander of the security of the Heishui area. At present, there are not many army officers left behind in Yantai Fort, and there are only two main personnel, namely, Wei Boqiu, deputy commander of the gendarmerie, Li Wenchang, commander of the Yantai garrison, in addition to Long Xu, commander of the 103rd Company of the Army who came to the Far East with Shao Shude, as well as some officers of the Standing Force, the Eight Banners New Army, and the Polish mercenary army, and Huang Yi, who controls the foreign trade in the Heishui area, also attended the meeting as observers. As for the commander of the Navy, Liu Haiyang, he is currently staying on Jeju Island to organize the transportation of migrants, and he is not yet available to attend the meeting.

Wei Boqiu quietly glanced at Shao Shude, who came to the Far East at the age of fifty, and then cleared his throat, grabbed in front of Li Wenchang and said: "At the end of last month, Commander Mo went to Licheng County, Jinan Prefecture (that is, Jinan City) to confront the Qing army Li led the Tai Army. Later, it happened that Niu Chenghu, the chief soldier of Yizhou Town in Qingqing, led an army of 20,000 troops to the north, and Commander Mo was afraid of being attacked from both sides, so he went south to the area of Tai'an Prefecture after plundering the four fields, according to the latest information sent back on December 2. Commander Mo has moved his entire army south. At this moment, I am afraid that it has entered the territory of Yanzhou Mansion. Other than that. Four warships and two flute ships of the navy have also left the Bohai Sea, and only bypassed Weihai in the middle of this month (December), and their final destinations are Rizhao and Haizhou; In order to increase the transport capacity, a total of 22 medium-sized fishing boats originally berthed in Heishui Port have also gone south before the port was frozen last month, and have now arrived in the open sea of Rizhao in advance, ready to meet the supply of our troops heading south at any time. ”

"Running around like a headless fly." Hearing Wei Boqiu's reply, Shao Shude slapped the table dissatisfied, and then stood up. pacing in the room, he said: "Deputy Commander Wei, you have been in Heishui for a long time, judging by the situation you know, this time the Manchu Qing Dynasty mobilized seven general troops and three provincial capitals to suppress it, does our army have a chance of winning?" ”

Shao Shude was born as a construction contractor, and he worked in a brick kiln factory, a minister and a member of the Central Executive Committee, and a regional commissioner, but he had never done the work of marching and fighting, so he felt that his professional knowledge was insufficient, and he did not dare to make any decisions on the head. So he asked Wei Boqiu.

But the problem is that Wei Boqiu is also a layman, and this master is a good hand in intelligence, statistics, and economy. But he was the only one who never played the role of a military commander. Therefore, after seeing him smile bitterly, he said: "Captain Shao, although I am not very proficient in military affairs, I can still tell you clearly now, the Qing army has at least more than 100,000 soldiers, and this is already almost all the mobile forces of the green battalion in the north of the Qing court. Moreover, it is the middle of winter, the Liaohai Sea is frozen, and the Qing army no longer has to worry about the flanks, so the soldiers and horses of the Eight Banners in Beijing, Tianjin, and Jinzhou may also move south at any time. In case our army does not have the intelligence reconnaissance in place, it will be surrounded and suppressed by the superior forces of the Qing army at a critical moment, and once the 30,000 troops are destroyed, our army's efforts in Shandong for many years will be ruined, and it is also a high probability that Yantai will be encircled again. ”

Shao Shude walked around the room in silence. Wei Boqiu took a pen and wrote and drew on the paper, Li Wenchang opened his eyes and looked at the bright flame of the candle, the newcomer Long Xu lowered his head and drank tea silently, Huang Yi closed his eyes and recuperated, everyone was waiting for Shao Shude to come up with an idea. This Mo Dashuai has been hanging outside with more than 30,000 people for so long, so that everyone in the rear has a little upset in their hearts, what if the Qing army surrounds it?

Alas, it's really not worry-free, you Mo Dashuai are all the ones who are leaving, and you are deliberately hanging outside, come back as soon as possible to hand over the military rights and go back to the homeland to enjoy the blessings. Now that the grain that should be harvested in the rear has been harvested, it is guaranteed that the Qing army will not be able to get enough supplies when it comes; Zhaoyuan Gold Mine has also partially resumed work, and now produces ten catties of gold per day, which may further increase in the future; The reconstruction of Dengzhou City has also been completed for the most part, some of the city walls have increased protrusions, and a number of artillery pieces have been erected, and the training of local artillery has also been carried out for many days; The restoration of the Weihai Acropolis is now in full swing, the broken openings of the city wall have been reinforced, and some important parts have begun to try to place artillery......

The things that should be done and what should not be done in the rear are already busy, and even the preparations for the formation of the Fourth Brigade of the Stand Up Team, which you Mo Dashuai explained before the expedition, have been in full swing this month. What kind of trouble are you going to make if you hang around outside and don't come back, hurry up and withdraw your troops, this time the benefits are big enough, and the prestige of the Qing court has been hit hard enough. A large number of Qing troops were attracted over, whether it was He Zhen in Shaanxi or Li Guo in Huguang, they could breathe a sigh of relief, of course, it seemed that it would be difficult for Nanming, who had no soldiers to fight, to seize this opportunity.

"Why didn't Mo Ming hit Jinan last month?" Shao Shude suddenly asked again.

"This ...... At that time, the situation was unclear, Niu Chenghu's division was already very close to Jinan, and our army was at risk of being flanked. In addition, the family of the Texas squire Luo Guoshi secretly sent a letter to us again to inform us that Tong Yangliang and Yi Yonggui had led an army of 40,000 from the starry night of Zhending Mansion, and Commander Mo was not sure of the movement of the Qing army, so he temporarily went south to get close to the naval ships, which was convenient for supplies on the one hand, and on the other hand, he could also contact the Yuyuan Army nearby to plan a big event. This time, without waiting for Wei Boqiu to speak, Li Wenchang, who was still outside the wandering object, suddenly explained.

"It's a big deal! As far as the morality of the Yuyuan Army is concerned, after reading the intelligence materials of the gendarmerie, I feel that these people will not succeed, and they will just beat the side drums, and if they rely on them, it will be simply nonsense. Although he has been in a high position for many years, Shao Shude, who was born as a construction contractor, is still hot-tempered, so he continued: "Forget it, let's withdraw the army!" This matter cannot be delayed any longer, and it will change later! At present, our army is too deep into the hinterland of Shandong, and I think it is better to withdraw the main force to Dengzhou to fight! In Dengzhou, we were fighting on the inside line, and the transportation of materials and personnel was extremely convenient, while the Qing army came from afar, and the food and salary were insufficient, and most of them could not fight. And if the Qing army really eats the courage of the ambitious leopard, and the seven general soldiers dare to take more than 100,000 people to drag hundreds of kilometers of supply lines to attack Dengzhou, I dare to be MacArthur! ”

"Ahem, cough ......" Wei Boqiu heard Shao Shude's words come out of his mouth, and even the name MacArthur came out, and he couldn't help but cough twice to remind him.

Shao Shude also knew that he had lost his words, so he immediately waved his hand and said in a disguise: "The newly arrived 4th Battalion of the Eighth Banner New Army, the 103rd Company of the Army, and four hundred Polish mercenaries are all under the command of Captain Li Wenchang. I will give you another 3,000 soldiers, 300 carts, and 1,000 pack horses, and your troops will immediately carry weapons and ammunition to Yanzhou Mansion to meet the main force of our army. You bring my order to Mo Ming, ask him to retreat to Qingzhou Mansion, cooperate with our army to sweep away the remnants of the local Qing army, relocate the local handicraftsmen, and at the same time try your best to find out the movements of the main force of the Qing army, so as to avoid being dumpled by the Qing army and not knowing it. As for the messy Yuyuan army and bandit forces, I told them that those who are willing to come to Dengzhou are welcome, and those who are not willing to come go their own way. By the way, it is best to remind them that the Qing army ruthlessly mobilized seven troops with a total of more than 100,000 troops, which is not something they can resist. Moreover, the Qing army's sweep this time is also stronger than before, if they retreat to Yuyuan Laozhai, they are more likely to be more fierce and less auspicious, and they will fight on a mobile basis, not to defend one place. In this way, it is their business whether they listen or not, and if they want to find death, they can't complain about others. ”

When Li Wenchang, the artillery captain who stayed behind in Yantai for ten thousand years, heard that he had actually asked him to command the troops, he was immediately extremely excited, patted his chest and said that he would definitely receive Commander Mo's main force.

"After Captain Li set off, the rest of the troops just need to guard Yantai, and there is nothing else to do." Shao Shude sat on the main seat, looked at everyone and said, "What is the purpose of our war with the Qing army in Shandong? That is to strike at the prestige of the Qing court, eliminate the living forces of the Qing army, and reduce the burden on Dashun, Daxi, and even the Ming Dynasty, so that the Qing army will not be able to go all out to sweep away these armed separatist forces and unify the whole country. If the Qing court unifies the whole country, it will definitely be bad news for us, and years of hard work will be reduced to ashes. ”

And judging from what Mo Ming has done in the past few years, it is not bad. At least Li Guo, Gao Yigong and others temporarily gained a foothold in the southern part of Huguang, and although they did not have an advantage in several large-scale confrontations with Kong Youde and others, and even suffered a lot of defeats, they did not collapse on all fronts after all. Moreover, the casualties of Kong Youde and others were also very heavy, and I believe that if there was no main force of the Qing Army's Eight Banners stationed in Nanjing, Kong Youde would not be able to clean up Li Guo and others in a short time. In this way, the shape shì will change a lot. ”

In fact, Shao Shude still has some things that he has not said explicitly. For example, Li Chengdong, Jin Shenghuan and others have almost all occupied Guangdong and Jiangxi at this time, but the Qing court has not given them "due treatment" in the past two years, on the contrary, the civil officials who have been sent to the past still have the stinky problem of bullying and humiliating military generals in the Ming Dynasty. There are many such wall grasses, such as Wang Deren, ginger soil, etc. If these people rebel together, the Qing court is afraid that it will be exhausted in a short period of time, and the situation will be very bad, and it is impossible to say that careerists like Wu Sangui will be activated in advance.

Therefore, in Shao Shude's heart, all the people on the east coast have to do is to drag down the more than 100,000 Qing troops. Therefore, the core of the strategy he formulated is just one word: drag! To be precise, wait for change! (To be continued......)