Li Yi led 100,000 main forces from Xuzhou to the north and attacked all the way along the Grand Canal.

However, in winter, the river is dried up, and the water surface of the canal has frozen, so it is not possible to rely on the canal to transport grain and grass. However, the area through which they passed was all plains, and they attacked all the way along the official road, and the speed of the attack was not slow at all.

Because at the beginning, the main force of the Shandong army was the Jiaodong encirclement and suppression of the righteous army, and the Ming army marched very suddenly, and did not encounter any resistance at first. The army easily conquered the city of Yanzhou, Li Yi left Wang Meng with part of the army to capture the counties of Yanzhou, and the main force continued to kill north to Dongchang Mansion, crossed Jishui at the end of November, and occupied Dongchang Mansion Zhiliaocheng.

Liaocheng is located more than 200 miles west of Jinan, and it will not take ten days to march quickly from here to Jinan.

However, after the army arrived in Liaocheng, Li Yi stopped the pace of marching, but the main force of the army was stationed in Liaocheng City, divided the troops to capture the counties near Dongping Mansion, and at the same time repaired the city wall, arranged the defense line, and put on a steady and steady posture.

The area around Luxi has always been a densely populated area, and a revolt against the Manchus broke out a year ago, but it was quickly suppressed, and it was never a good choice to rebel in the plains where there was no dangerous terrain.

In the past year, because the Qing army failed to invade the south and transferred back troops back to Beijing, its rule over Shandong and Henan was very weak, and the Southern Ming court did not scruple about this, and Luxi was actually reduced to a zone of no return.

There were not many garrisons, only local officials appointed by the Qing court, and these magistrates were often the same as the original Ming officials, shaved their heads and changed into Manchu official uniforms, except that they were no different from before. The only garrison was the Green Battalion, which had been reorganized by the surrendered Ming army.

Therefore, Li Yi led the army from Xuzhou to attack here, and did not encounter much resistance at all, which made Ma Chuang, Wang Meng and other generals become a little arrogant, and they clamored to attack Jinan in the east one by one, and join the prince as soon as possible.

However, Li Yi was very steady, and perfectly implemented Chen Yue's instructions before sending out the troops, that is, to fight steadily and not be greedy.

Because he knew that the 100,000 army gathered in Liaocheng, even if it didn't move, it would put great pressure on the Qing army, and it was impossible for Hong Chengchou to ignore this army.

In fact, on the second day of arriving in Liaocheng, Shen Lian, who was in charge of investigating the enemy's situation, came to report that Hong Chengchou had returned to Jinan with the main force of the green battalion.

"Jinyiwei's brother in Jinan reported, just yesterday, Hong Chengchou, the commander of the green battalion, entered Jinan City, and there were more than 100,000 troops following him, traitor Li Chengdong, Gao Jinku, Li Benshen and others were among them." Shen Lianyu reports.

For this Northern Expedition, except for Liu Neng, the commander of the Jinyi Guard, who stayed in Nanjing to deter the ministers, the other Jinyi Guard generals Xu Qingtian and Shen Lian were all sent to take on the important task of investigating the enemy's situation.

Since the re-establishment of Jinyiwei in Nanjing, there has been a layout in the north, and important cities such as Jinan Liaocheng Yanzhou Linqing have secret agents installed by Jinyiwei, who cover in various identities on weekdays and use them immediately when needed.

"Now that Hong Chengchou has returned to Jinan, there will not be too many green battalion soldiers left in Jiaodong, and the pressure on the prince has been greatly reduced. By the way, is there any news of the prince? Li Yi asked.

Shen Lian shook his head: "Jiaodong is too far away from us, spanning the entire Shandong, separated by the enemy-occupied area, and it is difficult to transmit it. ”

"The prince has 20,000 elites in his hands, and he has the assistance of Lu Tai's sailors, and Wu Ping in Dengzhou has tens of thousands of troops in his hands, so it is not a problem to capture Jiaodong." Li Yi was full of confidence in Chen Yue, "The prince occupies Jiaodong, and we are in Luxi, forming a two-sided attack on Jinan, and Hong Chengchou is in a dilemma!" Shen Qianhu, you must have the idea of getting in touch with the prince and asking him to instruct our army on the next move. ”

"Yes, my subordinates understand!" Shen Lian saluted Li Yi and went down.

......

Jinan City

Hong Chengchou led the army back, which put the heart of Fang Dayou, the governor of Manchu Shandong, at ease.

In the past few days, hearing that the Ming army had gone on a northern expedition and conquered Yanzhou and other southeastern prefectures and counties one after another, Fang Dayou's heart has been hanging. Because most of Shandong's troops were taken to Jiaodong by Hong Chengchou and attacked the Ming army in Dengzhou. These days, in addition to asking for reinforcements to the Qing court, Fang Dayou sent three letters a day to Hong Chengchou's camp in Jiaodong, urging Hong Chengchou to bring his troops back as soon as possible.

And Hong Chengchou finally came back with the army, and Fang Dayou was very annoyed, because as the governor, he was responsible for the placement of the army, camps, grain and grass, salaries, etc., all of which needed to be supported by the local government......

With an army of nearly 200,000 people, it is an astronomical number for people to eat and chew. And in order to supply these hundreds of thousands of green battalion soldiers, the Shandong area has almost scraped the ground......

The Ming army in Dengzhou has not yet been wiped out, and hundreds of thousands of Ming troops have attacked Shandong again, and the most prestigious Qi king in the Southern Ming Dynasty is Chen Yue, who led the troops, and the pressure on Hong Chengchou is very great.

Aligning with the king Chen Yue, Hong Chengchou did not understand, because when Chen Yue rose, he had already surrendered to the Manchu Qing. But judging from Chen Yue's war examples over the years, Hong Chengchou did not dare to underestimate it.

Can snatch Chongzhen out of the hundreds of thousands of troops of the Shun army with thousands of people, and defeat the rebellion of the Tang King to put Chongzhen back on the throne of the emperor, and can rely on the army trained for several months, defeat the main force of more than 100,000 Eight Banners on two roads, and kill more than 40,000 soldiers of the Eight Banners, even with the help of the power of the flood, its strategy and courage should not be underestimated.

At the very least, Hong Chengchou thought that if he were to be himself, he would not be able to achieve such a brilliant record, especially in the face of the Eight Banners who had just occupied Beijing and reached the peak of their combat power.

And now Chen Yue is attacking with all his strength, and in less than a month, he has captured the two mansions of Yanzhou and Dongchang, and his military peak is so sharp that people dare not face its edge.

Therefore, although he returned to Jinan with the main force of the Green Battalion, Hong Chengchou was not sure about defeating Chen Yue, and the fatigue of the army's trek made him even more afraid to send troops in a hurry.

So, Hong Chengchou took the army to station in Jinan, sent people to find out the movements of the Ming army, wrote down a note on the other, and sent people to rush to Beijing for 800 miles to ask for reinforcements from the Beijing court.

Of course, Hong Chengchou also knew that Beijing's troops were also insufficient, and the main force of the Eight Banners had been led by the regent Dolgon to suppress Jiang Jiu's rebellion in Shanxi.

However, in Hong Chengchou's view, Jiang Huang's rebellion was just a disease of scabies, and the real enemy of the Qing Dynasty was the Ming army Chen Yue who went north. As long as Chen Yue can be defeated, it is only a matter of time before the rebellions in various places are quelled, and if Chen Yue is allowed to occupy Shandong, he can threaten Beijing at any time, and with the strong manpower and material resources of the Southern Ming, the Manchu court will never think of peace for a day!

And just a few days after Hong Chengchou returned to Jinan, the news that Chen Yue led his troops to attack Jiaodong reached Jinan, which surprised him even more! (https:)

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