After the officers and men of the Third Army defeated the Ming Dynasty army from afar, they did not continue to advance in one go.

Instead, they took advantage of the retreat of the Ming army and continued to rest in Jinan Mansion for half a month, and then led the army to continue south.

It's just that this time, the southward army has expanded from more than 40,000 people when it fought against Zhang Huangyan's army to more than 60,000 now, but it is even larger than when it set off to cross the river.

After the battle of Jinan, the Hongtang army had captured more than 20,000 Ming Dynasty troops, plus the thousands of soldiers captured after fighting with Zhang Huangyan's army in the western suburbs of Jinan and defeating many armies.

In the decisive battle with Zhang Huangyan's army in the field, in order to ensure the integrity of the strength of Hongtang's army and guard against possible hidden risks among the captives, Kong Youde and his subordinates only accepted Bai Guangen and his subordinate Fan Yong and a group of thousands of soldiers, and the rest of the land has been imprisoned in the north of Jinan Prefecture.

Now with the defeat of Zhang Huangyan's support for the Ming army and fled, Hongtang's Third Army was able to spare time to sort out the captured Ming Dynasty soldiers and incorporate them into their own army.

At this time, it is timely to recruit the defeated soldiers of the Ming army.

First, the Ming Dynasty's support army was the last hope of the captured Ming army soldiers, and the reason why the vast majority of the captured soldiers were still insisting was that they would be able to rescue them when their reinforcements arrived, so if they surrendered to the Hongtang army at this time, they would not only suffer from a war and suffer from a life and death crisis, but also be more likely to be intolerable to the Ming Dynasty army after defeat.

And when everyone was looking forward to reinforcements, and finally lost at the hands of the Hongtang army, then for these captured soldiers, the impact was naturally great, and their hearts lost the last straw, and it was naturally easier to fall into the hands of the Hongtang army.

Second, after showing the strength of the Hongtang army one after another, it not only brought an impact to the mobile phones of the Ming army captured by the upper and lower classes of the CCB, but also made the other party re-see the great changes of this era, and ignored the broad prospects of Hongmen in the future.

The low-level soldiers need to survive, and the middle and high-level officers need to be prosperous and wealthy, when these have seen no hope from the Ming Dynasty government, then on the contrary, the Hongtang army can bring everyone a better future, and in the end, what choice do you make, so do you need to say?

Almost all the captured officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty army were recruited into the army by the Hongtang army in a few days after the incident, and there was no hostility and resistance encountered at the beginning of the recruitment.

At the same time, Kong Youde took advantage of the fact that Jinan Mansion was still in his hands and the Hongmen government agencies had not yet followed up, and recruited thousands of civilians from among the surviving people in Jinan Prefecture, either with money and welfare temptation or simply forced conscription, and also recruited thousands of civilians from among the tens of thousands of people in Jinan Prefecture, trying his best to enrich his army.

Naturally, in order to make the rashly expanded army more combative, and at the same time eliminate the hidden dangers in the army, Kong Youde and they stayed in the city of Jinan for more than half a month, and then slowly went south, one by one to conquer the counties and guards that had been abandoned although there were soldiers and soldiers of the Ming army stationed there.

It wasn't until they arrived at Laiwu County that the Hongtang army finally felt a trace of determination to resolutely resist.

However, at this time, almost a month or so has passed since the big battle in the western suburbs of Jinan Prefecture.

"The strength of this Hongtang army has increased again!!"

On the not-so-tall city wall of Laiwu County, Kong Zhenhui's general soldier looked calm and sighed with emotion.

"Who's to say it isn't!!"

Kong Yu, the general who followed Kong Zhenhui, echoed at the same time: "Many of these soldiers are still our former colleagues!" ”

"I didn't expect them to surrender to each other so soon, it's really disgusting!!"

Kong Yu's eyes were sharp, even if the Hongtang army was only stationed far away at this time, he also saw many familiar faces from those troops near the county town.

"I can't say that, although they gave up their duty as Ming ministers, but after all, they also shed their blood for my Ming Dynasty, and now they surrender to the Hongmen traitors, and they are forced to do so!"

At this time, although they were already rivals with each other, Kong Zhenhui's general army did not become too angry with them because of the defection of his former colleagues, except for the general who rode on a war horse among the forwards of Hongtang's army.

"If you have the opportunity, Yu'er, you must remember that you must cut off the head of Bai Guangen's old thief to sacrifice the soul of my Ming soldiers!"

"The last general commands!!"

Kong Yu responded in a deep voice, and at the same time stared at the familiar figure in Hongtang's forward army.

What happened in Jinan Mansion at the end, although most of the parties were either captured or became lonely ghosts on the battlefield, but thanks to the Ming Jinyi Guardian spy system, what Bai Guangen did in the end was known by the soldiers of Daming Shandong.

Even what happened in the abandoned mountain temple in the south of Jinan Mansion was investigated by the Ming Jinyi Guard, but it caused a huge hatred like Kong Zhenhui, which was originally the local army of Shandong.

Even after arriving at Laiwu County, Hongtang's Third Army did not easily send troops to attack the city, but surrounded it through the city wall of Laiwu County, leaving no loopholes.

At this time, there were more than 60,000 troops in the Hongtang army, and in the face of more than 15,000 Ming soldiers in Laiwu County, more than several times the advantage, there was no need to use any tactics of encircling three and missing one place, but besieging the city head-on with the Huanghuang Division.

This is all the way over, Hongtang Third Army after Jinan City, the will to defend the city is the most determined Ming army county.

Even if Kong Youde and the others had an absolute advantage, they never thought of sending soldiers to use their flesh and blood to capture this city that didn't look high, just like the ancient cold weapon battle.

Even at this time, Kong Youde and his subordinate officers of the Dihongtang Army, as well as the brigade-level Dihongtang officers, still maintained enough geographical wisdom, and at the same time carried out the siege tactics of the Dihongtang army almost to the bones.

It was not until the artillery regiment of Hongtang's follow-up arrivals was in place that Hongtang's army began their unique siege operations.

Countless artillery fires swept on the city wall of the north city of Laiwu County, and the originally impregnable city wall was bombarded with shells from the sky one by one, with huge energy.

Occasionally, there are a few unfortunate soldiers of the Ming army defending the city, who were thrown off by huge waves, blown up and knocked over to the ground, turning into wisps of lonely souls on the battlefield.