Mao Desheng stood in the hall of the Ziyang County Ya with a gloomy face, looking at a battle report from the front line: Thousands of pioneers of the Tan Tai army of the Qing army went south to Yanzhou Mansion with lightning speed, first defeated the most ferocious Qing mountain thieves in the area of Juye, and then ignored the many local bandit armies along the way, all the way to the light army, and suddenly appeared on the front line of Jining Prefecture on June 10, and defeated more than 6,000 people of the East Coast servant army Ding Mingwu who were fighting with the Qing army Kong Xigui in this place. In this battle, Ding Mingwu was wounded three times, and fled with a small number of personal soldiers to take advantage of the night wolf, and finally only survived.

Ding Mingwu's troops were originally local bandits and bandits, but in the process of continuous campaigns, they supplemented and absorbed some Qing troops, and their strength swelled to about 15,000 people, which was the best in terms of combat effectiveness. Sure enough, this time, Ding took nearly half of his men and horses to Jining Prefecture to fight with the Qing army, and it was indeed surprising that he was completely defeated in the case of a surprise attack.

However, the failure of Ding Mingwu's ministry is not entirely a bad thing. In Mao Desheng's view, the loss of some weak servant soldiers in exchange for a preliminary judgment of the Qing army's movements and combat direction was not a good thing. Mao Desheng originally thought that the main force of the Eight Banners led by Tan Tai would at least delay some time in the three prefectures of Daimyo, Dongchang, and Jinan, but who would have thought that they would ignore the chaotic situation in the local area, and would not clean up the mess to restore the rule of the Qing court in the local area, but directly led the elite men and horses all the way south, intending to focus on solving the problem of Yanzhou Mansion.

Judging from the fact that the Qing army went straight to Jining Prefecture to defeat Ding Mingwu, they obviously attached more importance to the various departments of the yellow-clothed thieves, and did not hesitate to let the small anti-Qing forces in those places along the way survive. As for the Li Qingshan department who was beaten up before the East Coast people. It was purely unlucky, and it happened to be in the way. It's just a matter of getting rid of it.

Today is June 12th. There have been sporadic Eight Banner cavalry appearing between Ziyang and Jining. The savage Jurchen scouts of the security team have fought with the Qing army and the zero cavalry many times since this morning, and after inflicting great damage on the Qing army scouts, these Eight Banners white-armored soldiers finally put away their arrogant looks, and then retreated to the front line of Jining Prefecture, waiting for the gathering of the main force. They also knew that they couldn't do anything with the yellow-clothed thieves by relying on thousands of vanguard horses alone, not to mention that the road behind them was not quiet. Supply was difficult, and the horses were also heavily damaged due to the fierce surge for several days, and for the time being, they could no longer engage in large-intensity offensive battles. Therefore, in addition to sending a few soldiers and horses to monitor the people on the east coast, the rest of the main force of 4,000 people began to exterminate the surrounding local bandits and bandits, and by the way, collect food and materials for the next big war.

To be honest, Mao Desheng at this time was still quite entangled. In his heart, he still wanted to continue to lead the army to the front and firmly contain the large Qing army. They had no time to quell the anti-Qing forces that had sprung up in various places, so that the situation in the entire 104 prefectures and counties of the six prefectures of Shandong, as well as the neighboring Daimyo Mansion of Beizhili, Guide Mansion of Henan, and Huai'an Mansion of Jiangbei, continued to get out of control. In the end, the goal of completely muddying the water is achieved.

It's just that now it seems that the Qing court is still very sober-minded, and they have a relatively accurate judgment of the situation. Previously, when the strength of the army was already very tight, he brazenly mobilized more than 100,000 green battalions of the seven major troops to advance into Shandong, in order to quickly calm the situation. It's a pity that they didn't expect the yellow-clothed thief to be so fierce at this moment, and he actually raised troops to the west, recruiting rebels all the way, and tens of thousands of people went straight to the three mansions of the east and west of the mountain. Along the way, the goods of the prefectures and counties were also looted by them, and many young and strong people were also forcibly relocated to the second prefecture of Denglai to reclaim, and the Gao Di Division, the general army of the Qing army, which was known as "daring to fight" that arrived in advance, was almost completely wiped out, and Kong Xigui's troops also suffered more than half of the casualties, and the whole Shandong was on the verge of total collapse.

In this case, Dolgon quickly made a decision to mobilize the main force of the Manmeng Eight Banners to go south, preparing to fight the yellow-clothed thieves as the elite old battalion of the thieves back then, and resolutely did not let it become the climate. Therefore, after Tan Taibu raised all the ordnance and materials, he traveled all the way south, and then quickly engaged the yellow-clothed thieves to stabilize the situation.

Tan Tai's intention was partially realized after all. At least, after Ding Ming's troops lost thousands of men, Mao Desheng had already ordered all the troops and horses (Zhai Congge, Qin Shangxing, Dong Xueli, Chen Zhilong, Du Chong, Xie Qian) to start slowly retreating and shrinking, letting go of Kong Xigui, who had almost been played by the people on the east coast, and then arranging along the Surabaya line to wait for the next move.

After all, Mao Desheng did not have the courage to fight head-on with the Manchu and Mongolian Eight Banners, which might have numbered as many as 30,000 - in fact, it was impossible to win at all - so he decided to take advantage of the fact that the main force of the Qing army had not yet been gathered, and began to lead the army to retreat. As for those anti-Qing forces that are still active in Dongchang Mansion and Yanzhou Mansion, they can only ask for more blessings, and the people on the east coast can only help them share part of the pressure, but if you can't even bear the Qing army's partial division, then simply don't mix, take off your coat and go home to shave your hair and be a good citizen.

Of course, before retreating, he will also do his best to inform where these guys come from, and it is best to hide back in his lair with complicated terrain. At that time, the Qing army mobilized eight general soldiers and a small 200,000 green battalion army, and it took several years to completely eliminate the Yuyuan army forces entrenched in the area of Dongchang Mansion and Yanzhou Mansion; Now there are a large number of yellow-clothed thieves on the side, and I believe that the Qing army should not have the leisure time to compete with these thieves who dig holes in the mountains and forests and go out of nowhere, otherwise they are likely to be harassed by the powerful offensive launched by the yellow-clothed thieves on the flank, and the chrysanthemums will not be protected.

On 14 June, 4,500 men of Dong Xueli's Division, the last army on the east bank of the canal, escorted more than 2,000 men, women, and children who had volunteered to leave the Qing army-controlled area, and retreated to the front line of the city guard. Subsequently, Mao Desheng ordered more than 17,000 people from Ding Mingwu, Xie Qian, and Du Chong's headquarters to escort a large number of baggage and personnel to retreat in the direction of Qingzhou Mansion. It is better to let them retreat to Qingzhou first, save their vital forces, and then reorganize and eliminate their troops after the battle is over, so as to improve their combat effectiveness.

On June 17, Shao Shude of Yantai sent the latest order: "I heard that the main force of the Qing army was coming, and the shape was complicated. It seems to have exceeded the power of our military control. The former enemy Mao commander-in-chief Desheng was ordered to lead his troops to retreat to Qingzhou. Maintain a certain buffer distance from the main force of the Qing army. In addition, the retreat in front of the enemy is a difficult matter for the soldiers, fortunately, the main force of the Qing army is still a certain distance away from your department, and the commander-in-chief Wangmao is bold and careful, and strategizes to safely withdraw tens of thousands of horses to Qingzhou. Thousands of burdens are sent to you, remember! Remember! ”

Mao Desheng was on the march when he received the order, and he had arrived outside Qufu with the main Chinese army. And the 4,000 people of Qin Shangxing's department, who served as the rearguard force, had just left Ziyang County. The whole army marched for dozens of miles, and the scouts were ordered to gallop back and forth, and the cavalry units whizzed through the wheat fields on both sides of the road from time to time, and occasionally some Polish and Tatar cavalry covered in colorful clothes retreated from behind. Obviously, they were on the task of the queen of the palace and were constantly fighting with a small group of Qing vanguard cavalry, and both sides should have suffered a lot of damage.

On June 20, the army occupied Surabaya County without bloodshed. However, they only stayed here for three hours to gather grain, livestock, and artisans before setting off again for Mengyin County. At this time, more than 600 cavalry (including 450 Poles), who had been stationed in the Qingzhou area to collect craftsmen, rushed south to reinforce them. At this point, the number of cavalry in Mao Desheng's hands has reached nearly 2,900 people. If you count the three or four hundred elite scouts of the security team, the cavalry strength on the east coast is not to be underestimated.

Mao Desheng pondered. Is it to gather a large force of cavalry to give the Eight Banners soldiers who are in hot pursuit, so that they can retreat in the face of difficulties. Otherwise, it is not a way to let these guys hang behind them, and now it seems that the Eight Banners led by Tan Tai are different from those led by Zhun Ta, Haoge, Luck Dehun and others before, maybe they have received strict orders from above, and now they are no longer afraid of fighting with the people on the east coast, and every time the cavalry fights, they fight to the death. It's okay once or twice, but the Polish and Tatar mercenaries under the command of the people on the east coast can't stand it anymore, without him, the cavalry fight is too bloody, and every time it is a piece of casualties. They are here to seek money, not to be cannon fodder, so the morale of the military has begun to fluctuate a little.

Mao Desheng did what he wanted, and on June 21, he gathered more than 1,000 cavalry (many of them mule soldiers) from Du Chong's department, which had been urgently recalled, totaling more than 4,400 people, well-equipped, well-supplied, and morale--well, average. He publicly gave each of them twenty silver dollars, and then announced that everyone would receive forty silver dollars when the battle was over. This is not counting, after the war, they can also be naturalized on the east bank, and in Sakhalin, Ezo and the Amur River around the arbitrarily selected 30 acres of wheat fields and 20 acres of forest land that have been developed, the government will also build them a set of standard houses on the east bank for free, in addition to two cows and ten sheep, the treatment can be described as extremely generous, and the premise of obtaining this qiē is to first repel the more than 4,000 Manchu and Mongolian cavalry of the Qing army Lai Fu, which followed closely behind.

After the reward was promised, the mercenaries who were so poor in Poland that they could only survive immediately burst into endless fighting spirit. They put on neat armor, took out their spears, and then formed a strong collision with the pursuing Qing army under the command of Yang Mingyang, the commander of the cavalry brigade.

This time, the Qing army did not avoid the battle either. Cavalry vs. cavalry, where can you avoid fighting? Do you want to chase the Yellow Thief's infantry brigade? Moreover, their side came from afar, the food and salary were not enough, and the rear was not flat, which was advantageous for a quick battle and not conducive to a long delay, so the two sides hit it off and started a big battle in the east of Surabaya on June 22.

In this battle, with the help of artillery on the east bank, the imposing Polish cavalry destroyed the Qing army's array in a battle, and the Mongolian horse team on the left flank of the Qing army took the lead in retreating, and the entire line of the guide zhì Lai Annoyance collapsed. Seeing that the situation was favorable, Mao Desheng, who was already desperate, invested more than 1,000 mules and cavalry under Du Chong's department, and began to expand the results along the gap opened by the Poles. These cavalrymen from Shandong and Henan, who were born from horse bandits, rode mules and shouted and swept past the Mongolian horse teams that had not even dared to look at them in the past, and excitedly rushed up to surround and kill them one by one.

The battle lasted until the evening. There were more than 600 corpses on the battlefield of the Manchurian and Mongolian Eight Banners, and it is estimated that the casualties may be as high as more than 1,500, of which the Mongols accounted for about 60 percent, and the Manchurian Eight Banners (mainly the Lai Fu Division) also accounted for about 40 percent, and the losses were extremely heavy. Among these people, only a few of them really died in the artillery bombardment and frontal rush of the east bank army, and most of them still died in the tail chase after the rout, and they chased and killed those Ming troops in Liaodong back then.

After the battle, Mao Desheng and others quickly led the army to leave the battlefield and chased the direction of the main force in the east after hastily cleaning the battlefield and treating the wounded (and mending the wounded of the Qing army). At this time, the main force cluster composed of the East Coast Army and the Black Eight Banner Heavy Infantry had already entered Mengyin County, which was abandoned by the Qing army, and it was officially entered the territory of Qingzhou Prefecture.

However, although the army on the east coast retreated for the time being, the Qing army's investment in the whole of Shandong once again hit a new high. The entire northern part of the country, including Beizhili, Shanxi, Shaanxi (the main force has been attracted to Gansu and Sichuan), and Henan, has empty mobile forces, and even the Manchurian and Mongolian Eight Banners have much less troops. At this time, if there is any mistake in Shanxi in the northern hinterland, I am afraid that the entire Qing court will be dumbfounded. (To be continued......)