"So what are you waiting for? Send troops immediately, we can't wait for Hong Chengchou to deal with the prince! Yu Feng, Ma Chuang and the others were suddenly anxious, and they all asked for orders. For these generals, the safety of Chen Yue, the king of Qi, is more important than anything else!

"What's the hurry? There are 20,000 elites around the prince, there are still 20,000 or 30,000 people in the Lutai naval army, and there are 70,000 or 80,000 troops in Dengzhou and Wu Ping, where is it so easy to be defeated? ”

Li Yi glared at the generals and scolded, "Whether Hong Chengchou sent troops for the sake of the prince, or if there are other tricks, we must figure it out!" ”

"What do you mean?" Wang Meng was more stable and asked.

"Continue to send more people to investigate the true movements of Hong Chengchou's army, and at the same time find out how many defenders there are in Jinan City! If Hong Chengchou really leads the army to set off, we will naturally take down Jinan City and give him a color! Li Yi sneered.

Hong Chengchou ignored the more than 100,000 troops in Liaocheng and led his troops to Jiaodong, not looking down on himself at all, which made Li Yiyin feel a sense of humiliation.

"Yes!" Shen Lian clenched his fists and left.

At the same time, Li Yi ordered that the whole army in Liaocheng should be ready and ready to be drawn at any time.

.......

One hundred miles east of Jinan City, Zhangqiu, everywhere is hilly and undulating, and Zhangqiu City is in the middle of the hills, a winding official road to the west to the provincial capital Jinan.

More than ten miles south of Zhangqiu City, a series of camps stand between the mountains.

"Inspector, sure enough, there are many strangers who appear in the east of Jinan, some of them go back when they arrive in Licheng, and some of them come east along the official road and enter Zhangqiu, they must be secret agents of the Ming army."

Master Liu, who was in charge of intelligence in the scene, told Hong Chengchou.

"Did you alarm them?" Hong Chengchou was silent for a moment and asked.

"No, according to your orders, as long as they do not approach the mountains near our camp, they will not be ignored. Moreover, if you send other troops straight to Qingzhou, you will definitely be able to confuse the spies of the Ming army, and they will never think that our army is hiding here. ”

Hong Chengchou sighed: "Although the commander of the Ming army in Liaocheng is not that Chen Yue, his cautious appearance should not be underestimated, whether he can be fooled or not." What was the mood of the soldiers? ”

"It's not good, the weather is too cold, although most of the soldiers have winter clothes, but camping in the wild is really difficult, especially at night The cold wind erodes the bones, and many people have frostbite." Master Liu's face darkened, and he replied in a low voice.

In the cold winter, it is not the time to fight, and it is even more difficult to camp in the wilderness, these Hong Chengchou naturally know, and fortunately, he brought out the most elite soldiers of the hidden army, plus Hong Chengchou's grace and power, and the control of the generals is very strict, otherwise these soldiers would have rebelled a long time ago.

But Hong Chengchou also knew that it could not continue like this, if the Ming army did not attack Jinan for a long time, as the number of people in the army became more frosty, the combat strength would inevitably drop sharply, and the soldiers would have to mutiny.

Fortunately, two days later, the spies finally came to report that the Ming army in Liaocheng had moved!

......

When it was repeatedly discovered that the Ming army in Jinan City really poured out of the nest and did not find any ambush, Li Yi decisively ordered to send troops to Jinan.

As long as Jinan is captured, Hong Chengchou's retreat can be cut off, and the back road will be cut off, even if Hong Chengchou insists on marching into the army, his subordinates will be shaken.

However, although Hong Chengchou led the main force to leave, there were still more than 20,000 troops in Jinan City to defend the city, I am afraid this is also the reason why Hong Chengchou left safely, he expected that he would not be able to easily break Jinan.

The normal situation is also the same, Jinan is the provincial capital of Shandong, the city wall is strong, and there are 20,000 troops to defend it, it is really not so easy to capture.

But what? Li Yi sneered! Leaving a small number of troops to guard the back grain road, Li Yi led the army straight to Jinan.

It is only more than 100 miles from Liaocheng to Jinan, and most of them are flat plains, but when they are close to Jinan, there are a few low hills, which do not affect the passage of the army at all.

Jinan is located on the south bank of the Daqing River, and at this time the Yellow River has not been diverted to the Bohai Sea, and has not taken the sea into the sea. However, the Daqing River is still a large river several miles wide, and Liaocheng is in the north of the Daqing River!

Facing the river in the north and surrounded by mountains in the southeast, the topography of Jinan can be described as easy to defend and difficult to attack.

However, now it is a cold winter and a moon, the cold of the Xiaoice River period cannot be underestimated, the wide river has long been frozen three feet, and the passage of the army is like walking on the ground, which can no longer be an obstacle to attacking Jinan!

Li Yi led his army to cross the Daqing River from ten miles east of Changqing County, and went straight east to Jinan.

On December 16, they arrived at the city of Jinan and surrounded Jinan from the north and east.

An army of 100,000 set up two camps ten miles from the city wall, each several miles away.

In the face of the attack of the Ming army, the defenders in the city did not dare to go out of the city to meet the battle, but closed the city gate and waited for it.

In the east of Jinan City, Li Yi led a team of cavalry around the city in person, watching the city defense of Jinan. The Qing army at the head of the city rained down arrows, but there was no threat to the Ming cavalry located in the land of a stone's throw.

Finally, Li Yi stopped his horse and looked at the city head thoughtfully.

"What did the marshal find?" Yu Feng leaned over and asked.

"Brother Yu, have you seen that the Qing soldiers in the city are very different?" Li Yi asked.

Yu Feng looked carefully at the city and shook his head: "It's no different?" ”

Li Yi's expression was very solemn: "What Shen Lian reported was that the defenders of Jinan were Liu Zhong Ma Quan's army, Liu Zhong Ma Quan was just a third-rate general in the Qing army, we had never heard of it before, it is said that they were originally Shandong Righteous Army, and after being wiped out by Hong Chengchou, they led the team to surrender to the Qing Dynasty, what combat effectiveness can such a team have?"

But look at it again, the Qing soldiers at the head of the city are well-equipped, most of them are wearing helmets and armor, and more importantly, their spirit, standing at the head of the city in such a cold weather, ordinary people have long been frozen and cowering, but you look at these green battalion soldiers, one by one, their waists are straight, which looks like weak soldiers! ”

When Yu Feng heard this, he hurriedly raised the clairvoyant mirror and looked at the city, and saw that as Li Yi said, the Qing army standing behind the battlement was holding a gun and a bow, and he clearly looked like a veteran of a hundred battles.

"Could it be that this is Hong Chengchou's plan?" Yu Feng asked suspiciously.

Li Yi shook his head, "It's not good to say, but deliberately using elite soldiers to pretend to be a fish belly army to confuse us, Hong Chengchou must not be well-intentioned!" Think about it, if the 20,000 green battalions in this city are all elite soldiers, how difficult it is for us to capture Jinan, and if Hong Chengchou and others suddenly kill the inside and outside when we are exhausted after a long time in the city, what will be the consequences waiting for us? ”

Yu Feng gasped when he heard this. If that's the case, I'm afraid this 100,000-strong army is in danger!

"If we are defeated, Hong Chengchou can calmly lead all the troops to deal with the prince of Jiaodong, I'm afraid this is his plan." Li Yi said coldly.