Chen Yue arrived in Jinan with the main force of Jiaodong, together with the West Route Army, the total strength gathered near Jinan was nearly 200,000 people, if you add the Wu Ping Department who attacked northern Lubei, and the green battalion soldiers who have not been reorganized after surrendering, the Ming army gathered in Shandong amounted to 300,000 people!

Now that the entire territory of Shandong has been basically recovered, and the troops are so majestic, it is said that the next step should be to continue the offensive, attack Beijing, and launch a general attack on Manchuria.

The generals of the Northern Expeditionary Army clamored to go north immediately, anyway, the ice and snow had completely melted, and although the weather was cold, it did not affect the march.

However, Chen Yue did not rush forward, because he knew that it was not yet the time for a general attack.

The number of troops is large, but it also brings serious pressure to logistics, more than 300,000 troops cannot be supported by the dilapidated Shandong, and the heavy snow some time ago has cut off the supply line, and the grain in Xuzhou has not been delivered for a long time.

Although they captured many cities and obtained a lot of supplies, if the food from the south could not be transported, the food would not last many days. You can't be like the shameless Qing army, who ran out of food and went to rob, right?

Therefore, before the grain road is unblocked, Chen Yue will not continue to march.

Another reason why Chen Yue did not rush to promote the army was the strength of the Qing army. Although this battle achieved a great victory and captured the whole province of Shandong, it was because the main force of the Manchu Eight Banners was pinned down to Shanxi by Jiang Jiu's sudden rebellion. But if you despise the strength of the Eight Banners because of this, you will definitely suffer the consequences!

To the north of Shandong is an endless plain, which is where the cavalry comes in. The Manchu army had a large number of cavalry, and there were Mongolian cavalry as servant troops, and its combat power was not to be despised even by Chen Yue.

The vast majority of the Ming army in the Northern Expedition was infantry, and if it continued to attack north, it was necessary to consider the problems of plain warfare and cavalry battles. Fighting on the plains, Chen Yue was naturally not stunned, and it was not that he had not fought with the Eight Banners. But the problem is that their mobility is far inferior to that of the Eight Banners, and they will definitely be harassed by endless cavalry when they march, and there is even a danger that the grain route will be cut off. Therefore, although the number of troops in his hand was more than twice that of the Manchu Qing, Chen Yue was not sure of victory.

And if the battle is defeated, not to mention the annihilation of hundreds of thousands of troops, the strategic advantages that have been accumulated with great difficulty will be lost again, and the Ming Dynasty will be beaten back to the prototype again at once. That was something that Chen Yue absolutely didn't want to see.

Therefore, the more you win in a row, the more stable you must be, and the more you can't fight!

Chen Yue's decision was approved by Li Yanzhi, who believed that it was not appropriate to use swords and soldiers in the cold winter season, and that Shandong should be managed well when the Qing troops did not arrive, and the surrendered green battalion soldiers should be completely reorganized, and it would not be too late to fight again when the spring flowers bloomed.

"The second battle is a decisive battle, and when the time comes, it must be decided in one battle and completely defeat the Eight Banners. Rather than sending troops out to fight the Eight Banners at night, it is better to wait for them to send troops to attack Shandong, and rely on the strong city wall to fight the enemy army, which is much easier than stretching a battle line of hundreds of miles to Beijing to fight with the Eight Banners. If the Eight Banners soldiers come, they are in our minds, if they don't come, we will manage them well, accumulate strength, and fight again in the future.

We have the entire Ming Dynasty as the backing, and the reinforcements and grain will be continuously transported to Shandong, and what does the Manchu Qing have? The north was ruined, Shaanxi, Shanxi, and Shandong were not owned by it, and the Manchus now occupied the Gyeonggi region near Beijing. But can this part of Gyeonggi alone supply the 100,000 Manchu troops of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, hundreds of thousands of Manchus, old and young?

I think that when the imperial court was in Beijing, it had to transport millions of quintals of grain from the south every year to supply the city of Beijing.

Now the number of people in Beijing is not less than before, but there is no longer a supply of grain, and the grain in Shanxi cannot be counted on, one or two months is okay, how can they hold on after a long time?

At that time, they will either retreat outside the pass, or they will have to send troops south to loot and collect food. Its south, the nearest is Shandong, Shandong does not pull out, if it goes to Henan, the back road will be cut off by us, and its nest will be in danger of being wiped out. So we don't have to take the initiative to send troops at all, just stay in Shandong and wait for them! ”

After analyzing the current situation of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, Li Yanzhi continued:

"Dezhou is too abrupt and close to the Beijing-Tianjin-Mantar nest, if we hold Shandong, we only need to deploy our troops in Liaocheng and Jinan. Liaocheng is next to the canal, occupying the main road from Beijing and Tianjin to the south, if the Manchu Qing want to go south to rob, Liaocheng is its must attack. Jinan is the capital of Shandong and the largest city in Shandong, and the Qing army will not be able to penetrate deep into Jiaodong, Qingzhou, without taking Jinan. Moreover, the distance between Liaocheng and Jinan is 200 miles, which is not too far, and it can be used as a horn to support each other. So that the Qing army could not fight one of them safely. ”

Chen Yue nodded and agreed with Li Yanzhi's strategic analysis: "In this way, some prefectures and counties in northern Lubei have to give up temporarily, and I will order Wu Ping to lead the army to withdraw to Jinan." ”

Li Yanzhi: "There is no need to withdraw completely, but a small number of soldiers can be left to defend the city, and then mobilize the people to help defend the city.

Lord Wang, now that the Manchu Qing forces are fully contracted, and the subordinates think that when they officially regain the lost territory, with your great victory, everyone in the world can see that the Manchus are poor, and they only need to send a small number of troops, and the cities occupied by the Qing army in Henan and Hebei can be easily recovered.

At the same time, Lord Wang, you should continue to send people to contact Jiang Hao and other Shanxi military and civilians, integrate Shanxi's army to threaten Beijing from the west, so that they will not dare to deal with us with all their might. ”

Chen Yue nodded, Li Yanzhi's view of the overall situation made him feel emotional, and he was a rare candidate for staff officers.

So, according to the strategy discussed by the two, they stopped and continued to march the army.

Instead, he began to operate Shandong to regain lost territory. Li Yi was once again appointed as the chief general of the Western Route Army, leading 80,000 troops to garrison Liaocheng.

There was a shortage of officials in Shandong and the local areas that were about to be recovered, and the officials who had surrendered to the Manchus could no longer be used, so Chen Yue decided to rebuild the government in Shandong according to the Jiangxi model and set up a two-level government organization in the countryside.

Wu Ping's Jiaodong Army was from Jiaodong and was familiar with Shandong, so Chen Yue decided to transfer some soldiers from it to serve as the chief officers at the village level, and slowly transplanted the Jiangxi model.

Gradually improve the original negligent system of the Ming Dynasty with points and areas, and change the situation that the imperial power does not go to the countryside and the imperial court has weak control over the local government.

Of course, before doing all this, Chen Yue did not forget to send good news to the imperial court. The "300,000 army" went out to fight, and in two months the whole province of Shandong was recovered, more than 200,000 green battalion soldiers were annihilated, and the commander of the green battalion was captured, and the commander of the green battalion, the Manchu Qing Dynasty Governor and the great traitor Hong Chengchou, such a feat was enough to shake the entire Ming Dynasty, and it would also make the political enemies of the government and the opposition be greatly deterred, and they would never dare to move again!