In order to expand his influence, Mo Ming, after discussing with the officers in Yantai Fort, decided to take advantage of Zhao Yingyuan's attack in Qingzhou to muddy the waters and strive to make the situation bigger. It would be better to smash the whole Qingzhou and let the Qing army have nothing to plunder, which would be even better. When the time comes, you won't be able to get supplies, what will you do if you see those Qing troops? Is it taxed? The common people went away again into the mountains; No tax? So what to eat? Do you want to learn from Li Chuang to torture and plunder the gentry? That's not right!

Beginning in late October, the East Coast Army, a force of more than 4,600 people (not including 2,500 soldiers), marched at great speed. They set out from Yantai and went straight to Jimo County in Laizhou through the three counties of Fushan, Qixia and Laiyang, which took only one week. Moreover, there was no fighting along the way, and the landlord armies in the counties were invincible, and no one dared to stop them. What's even more shocking is that they hardly consumed any food along the way, because whenever they passed by some Zhuangzi along the way, some people sent some grain, forage, pigs, sheep, silver silk and other goods to the "labor army" - in fact, it is more accurate to say that they sent the plague god, so their food did not decrease but increased, which made Mo Ming and others secretly happy.

However, what they saw along the way also surprised everyone, originally thought that Dengzhou was broken enough, but now they suddenly found that after Zhang Daya and Zhang Qian's more than 100,000 bandit troops in the first half of the year, the Laizhou Aoshanwei, Jimo County, Jiaozhou, Lingshanwei and other places were even more barren than Dengzhou. Riding horses galloped through the countryside for hours, and everywhere you could see were untended barren farmland, and the occasional farmland planted with overwintering wheat was also concentrated next to some rural forts. The country villages are rarely inhabited. On the contrary, there are many bandits in the nearby mountains and forests, and it may be inaccurate to say that they are bandits, because these bandits also cultivate in the mountains themselves, which looks very strange.

When the army of the people on the east coast arrived outside Jiaozhou on November 3, the scouts of the security team, who had been galloping outside, sent back the news again, and this news surprised Mo Ming and others.

"Zhao Yingyuan captured Yidu County." Mo Ming said with some surprise, "Monk Zhai Wu's messenger said that Zhao Yingyuan asked Wang Aoyong to surrender, and Wang Aoyong actually agreed, and then Zhao Yingyuan brought hundreds of people into the city and controlled the whole city with lightning speed. Then the whole city is so. found out the Manchu household department and the Ministry of Industry who were hiding in the house of the gentry in the city. presided over the pacification of Wang Aoyong, Shandong and Henan, this Lord Wang and his entourage...... has been beheaded on the spot. ”

"So...... Wonderful! Mao Desheng said incredulously. They also don't know how Zhao Yingyuan captured Qingzhou City in history, and it is not even clear whether Qingzhou was captured by Zhao Yingyuan. There was a feeling of disbelief among the crowd. Wang Aoyong was one of the first officials to surrender to the Qing court. This person worked hard in Shandong. Running around, almost all the effort for the Manchu Qing to appease Shandong, the Qing court even felt that this person dared to take risks and made great contributions. is ready to knight him, but now he is down in front of the "dawn", which has to be said that life has played a big joke on Wang Aoyong.

"What are we going to do now?" Mao Desheng asked again.

"What to do? Do it as planned! Mo Ming took out the command knife from his waist and said solemnly: "To be honest, I haven't looked down on Zhao Yingyuan's wall-head grass, but I didn't expect him to be so bold and Wang Aoyong to be so stupid. Well, it's better to go with the plan! Wang Aoyong is dead, the Manchu Dynasty has no leader in Shandong, the governor Fang Dayou is too busy to take care of himself in Jinan, and Ke Yongsheng, the general soldier of Jiaozhou Town, is deeply involved in the war of suppressing bandits, so we will help Zhao Yingyuan and take this Jiaozhou city first. Ke Yongsheng's lair, I don't believe there are no good things. Now, I order, attack Jiaozhou City! ”

The attack on Jiaozhou City was very lackluster. This ordinary state city of Laizhou was besieged by more than 100,000 people just four months ago, and although the siege was lifted, the city walls have been dilapidated. After the Qing court appointed Ke Yongsheng, the chief soldier of Jiaozhou Town, appeased some areas of Laizhou, he immediately led the army to start exterminating the bandit armies of Han Jiben in Jiaozhou, Shan Zhisheng in Gaomi County, Huang Zongxian in Jimo County, Saturday and others, and Monk Zhai Wu, who was staying in Pingdu Prefecture at that time, was also hit enough, and ran all the way to Dengzhou to avoid the pursuit. Ke Yongsheng's Jiaozhou town army was in a hurry to exterminate the bandits, so naturally they did not repair Jiaozhou City more. Therefore, at this moment, in the face of the city wall, where the outer layer of bricks has fallen off a lot, the artillery of the people on the east bank is much easier.

When the 8 long-barreled cannons were pulled out and placed neatly one by one, the few Jiaozhou town troops at the head of the city were almost kneeling. It's pitiful, they were still in the Ming army a month or two ago, and they have only eaten a full meal for a few days and a few comfortable days later, why did a thief come to the door? And this thief is too arrogant, there are cannons! It's also eight doors, is this still a thief? The officers and troops are not so wide!

The dilapidated city wall of Jiaozhou City could not withstand the fierce bombardment of the 12-pounder long-barreled cannon, not to mention that the artillery of the people on the east bank was pulled under the city wall to shoot at close range, and the rammed earth that had been exposed inside the city wall was ravaged by eight cannons for an afternoon, revealing a collapse area of about ten meters long. In fact, this is not an exaggeration, the Qing army besieging Taiyuan concentrated the red-coated artillery to bombard the northwest gate of Taiyuan, and collapsed the city wall of more than 30 zhang. In comparison, the 12-pounder cannon cannon, which was slightly more powerful than the Qing army's red-coated cannon, collapsed the city wall a few feet ago, which was simply pediatric.

Several scouts from the security team galloped back and reported some information to the intelligence staff officer, who immediately asked Mo Ming for instructions after inquiring clearly. After listening to the report, Mo Ming began to give orders to the operational staff officers, and soon, more than 500 cavalrymen who had long been ready to go began to slowly accelerate under the leadership of Yang Mingyang, heading towards the west gate of Jiaozhou. After the departure of the cavalry, 1,750 soldiers of the 7 squadrons, which had long been lined up in front of the artillery position, began to advance towards the collapse of the city wall under the orders of the officer; More than 1,500 people from the two battalions of the Eight Banners New Army had already put on heavy armor and lined up on both sides of the artillery positions with spears, while the soldiers of the two companies of the army were surrounded on both sides of the baggage convoy. Today's battle was originally meant to test the combat strength of these advancing teams.

But it's clear that today's test for the team is too simple. The few Qing troops in Jiaozhou opened the west gate the moment the city wall collapsed, and then seized the gate and went out. At first, their retreat was somewhat orderly, at least maintaining a more or less loose formation, but they immediately panicked when they saw hundreds of yellow-clothed cavalry approaching with bright sabers. Some of the Qing troops with poor psychological literacy were the first to flee, and their escape immediately led to others, and many more began to throw down their weapons and strip their armor and flee into the four fields. The Qing army officers from the Han army banner roared loudly and shouted angrily, but their prestige was not heavy enough after taking over the army for more than a month, and at this time, these former Ming soldiers were not willing to pay attention to them at all, just kidding, they had less than a thousand foot soldiers in total, and there were at least five or six hundred cavalry over there, how could this battle be fought?

The battle ended before it even began. Nearly 1,000 Qing infantry soldiers crowded outside the west gate were scattered in formation, neither the spears that blocked the cavalry, nor the large number of long-range infantry bows, and the five hundred cavalry fired their pistols one after another after approaching the crowded place of the Qing army, and then went back again with a whirlwind. They were all veterans of playing on horses for many years, and this simple tactic had almost been mastered after only a few days of training before setting out. Hundreds of pistols inflicted massive casualties in the dense crowd of Qing troops, and at least a hundred people fell in the blow, while their feeble bows and arrows counterattacked only a few riders.

After seeing that the cavalry that had circled back seemed to stop at a distance to reload the handcuffs, they immediately collapsed, and at this time even the officers of the Han army lost the confidence to continue to resist, after all, not everyone can endure the pain of being beaten and unable to fight back. They threw down their weapons and took off their armor, and most of them scattered and ran out of the city, while a few retreated into the city. The Qing troops who fled outside the city were cut down to the ground one by one under the pursuit of the cavalry, especially the officers and soldiers of the Han army flag, who seemed to relive the nightmare of being chased and killed by the Qing cavalry after the defeat against the Qing army outside the pass. Less than 300 men who had retreated into the city were met by the officers and men of the marching force who had already rushed into the city, and in a panic, they only hastily resisted for a few rounds before being defeated, and then surrendered one after another. Thus, a battle that could not be called a battle ended in this way, and it lasted only half an hour from the beginning of the army's dispatch to the end.

The large army on the east coast did not enter the city until it was slightly dark. The operational staff officers automatically began to assign troops to control the whole city, the intelligence staff officers began to interrogate prisoners, the logistics staff officers began to count the treasury and assign people to cook, and the liaison staff officers began to take the heralds around to deliver orders to the various units.

The logistics staff quickly reported the issues that Mo Ming was most concerned about. After their intense counting, there were still more than 3,000 stone of grain (more than 200 tons) in the treasury, which was not a lot, but it was also a lot. Nowadays, if you want to find three or four thousand stone of grain on the ground in Shandong, you have to go to Jinan Mansion, Dongchang Mansion and other rich prefectures and counties to find it, and it is not easy in Laizhou. However, after all, this is Ke Yongsheng's headquarters, and it is normal to have some grain stocks and logistics baggage.

"There are still some weapons and armor in the city, but they are of poor quality, roughly the same as the existing equipment of the Stand Up Team. I have asked them to replace the weapons that do not fit in their possession, and I will ask the commander to show me what to do with the rest. There are also more than 25,000 taels of silver from the Ming treasury, more than 300 horses of various silks, 75 carts, more than 380 useful horses and mules, and more than 200 pigs and sheep. The logistics staff continued to report.

"The food and belongings began to be packed overnight and loaded onto the cart. All the criminals in the prison were released, and arrests began in the city...... Forget it, we don't have enough food ourselves, so let's do it first. Mo Ming said. (To be continued......)