"Are you the Ming Army?" Looking at the Japanese warriors who were picking up the corpses of the Qing army on the battlefield, Li Yanzhi still couldn't believe it.

"We are the Ming army, and we are subordinates of the Duke of Qi, as for these Japanese warriors, they are also subordinate to the Duke of Qi, so they can be regarded as mercenaries." Wu Ping smiled.

"Is the imperial court going on another Northern Expedition? Are you the vanguard of Qi Guogong? Wu Ping's words surprised Li Yanzhi and hurriedly asked.

"This ......" Wu Ping was suddenly a little embarrassed, "Now that the Duke of Qi is guarding his father's filial piety and has temporarily left the army, we are all subordinate to the naval army of the Duke of Qi, and we were ordered to practice in the ocean, and we happened to pass by here." ”

"So that's the case," Li Yanzhi's face was full of disappointment, and then he became excited again, "I don't know what the imperial court thinks, let the Duke of Qi not use it, he actually used scholars to lead the troops, and the second assistant Lu Zhenfei troops entered Henan, but they were defeated by the Manchu Tartars, and tens of thousands of Ming troops died on the battlefield!" Originally, the good situation in which the Duke of Qi defeated the two Mantars collapsed in an instant, and even took us with us......

"What the hell is going on?" Wu Ping hurriedly asked, after leaving Zhoushan for a few months, the news between him and Daming had long been cut off.

"Alas!" Li Yan let out a long sigh and began to tell some of the things that had happened in the last few months.

At the end of August, unable to withstand the voice of the Northern Expedition like a tide of the people and the clamor of the rumors of the Qing Dynasty in the imperial court, Emperor Chongzhen finally decided to wave the Northern Expedition.

Originally, such a big matter as the Northern Expedition should have been presided over by Chen Yue, the Duke of Qi, and Chongzhen did have the intention of ordering Chen Yue to recover. However, when he sent someone to Zhoushan to inquire about Chen Yue, he learned that Chen Yue had set sail to the sea to relax......

As a result, Chongzhen has been hesitating, but he can't bear the fact that the officials of the DPRK and China have asked for the Northern Expedition. Now the Manchu Tartar defeat and the loss of the generals, the rumors in the north that there is turmoil, the general soldier of Datong Jiang is not Manchu Qing court to give him treatment, coinciding with the defeat of the Manchu Tartar Ming Dynasty, brazenly raised troops to rebel, re-played the banner of the Ming Dynasty, the gentry of Shanxi have responded, and in an instant Shanxi province is no longer owned by the Manchu Dynasty. The gentry in Shandong were not willing to shave their hair and change their clothes, and they also took action against the Qing Dynasty, and the whole north appeared to burn the prairie fire.

Faced with this situation, all the Ming people rejoiced, believing that the opportunity to counterattack the Manchu Tartars had come. In this situation, Chongzhen, who was already with the heart of recovering the old land, could no longer hold back, and ordered Lu Zhenfei to be the superintendent and raise troops for the Northern Expedition.

Lu Zhenfei led an army of 200,000 troops from Xiangyang to Henan in the north, and the momentum along the way was like a bamboo, and the prefectures and counties where they passed were surrendered one after another, and the Qing soldiers did not dare to flee to the north at all. For a time, the situation was very good, and the recovery of the north and the expulsion of the Manchurian Tartars were in sight.

However, just when the army reached the hinterland of Henan, Lu Zhenfei divided his troops to attack Luoyang Kaifeng, and finally received a counterattack from the Mantars. When Jin Shenghuan led 80,000 troops to attack the seal, he was attacked from behind by 20,000 cavalry led by Aobai, although the Ming soldiers fought bloodily, the formation was still broken by the Eight Banners, and the 80,000 soldiers were defeated, and Jin Shenghuan fled with the remnants of the soldiers.

Fortunately, Ao Bai was eager to defeat Lu Zhenfei's main force and did not chase with all his might, and Jin Shenghuan's tens of thousands of remnants were saved. After defeating Jin Shenghuan's army, Ao Bai waved his troops westward and caught up with the main force of the Ming army led by Lu Zhenfei in Xingyang.

Although Lu Zhenfei is a civilian official, his ability to lead troops is very powerful, and he did not give the Eight Banners cavalry a chance to raid. The Ming and Qing dynasties launched a fierce battle in Xingyang, with more than 100,000 Ming troops on one side and only 20,000 Qing soldiers on the other side. However, the result of the head-on battle surprised everyone, although the number was several times that of the Qing army, the Ming army could not have the upper hand at all, and several battles ended in failure, and the soldiers suffered heavy casualties.

As a result, everyone knew that the battle was not about whoever had the upper hand in numbers, but more about the quality of the army's equipment and the perseverance of the battle. The 20,000 Eight Banner soldiers could fight from morning to night, and the Ming army still felt tired from taking turns to fight.

As a result, everyone knew how lucky it was to win the two victories won by the Qing army in Wuhu in Yangzhou. It turns out that the combat effectiveness of the Ming army and the Qing army is so different!

Fortunately, Lu Zhenfei led the army very steadily, relying on the advantage of numbers to defend Xingyang, and did not give Ao Bai too many opportunities.

But at this moment, Haoge, the prince of Manchu Qingsu, suddenly came out of Shaanxi with 5,000 eight banners and 30,000 green battalions, and waved his troops out of Tongguan.

Hauge was the eldest son of Huang Taiji, but he was defeated in the struggle for the throne after Huang Taiji's death, and was supported by Dolgon's six-year-old brother Fu Lin to the throne. Dolgon was regent, and Hauge was very unpopular, and was sent far away to Shaanxi, attacked Hanzhong, and then from Hanzhong to the south into Sichuan.

However, just as Haoge led the army and Zhang Xianzhong to fight for Hanzhong, the news of the defeat of Duoduo and Azig came one after another. Where can Haoge still care about dealing with Zhang Xianzhong, when he led the army to withdraw to Xi'an.

The Ming army went on a northern expedition, and Ao Bai was ordered to guard Henan with Wu Sangui, and Haoge led his troops out of Tongguan for reinforcements.

Tens of thousands of Qing troops from the west broke the balance of power on the battlefield, and more than 100,000 Ming troops were surrounded in Xingyang, unable to advance or retreat. Jin Shenghuan led 40,000 remnants of the army to try to relieve Lu Zhenfei, but was defeated by Wu Sangui and his troops one after another, and he was getting farther and farther away from Xingyang.

And at this moment, civil strife broke out in the Xingyang Ming military camp, Li Chengdong saw that the Ming army was not doing well, and in order to survive, he brazenly led the rebellion, and his subordinates were all the original elite of the Pingnan army, and the combat effectiveness was already good.

Under the internal and external attacks, Xingyang could no longer hold on, the defense line was finally broken by the Qing army, Lu Zhenfei rushed out of the encirclement with tens of thousands of people, and then fled to Xiangyang under the pursuit of the Qing soldiers, where he joined Jin Shenghuan, and less than 100,000 of the 200,000 Northern Expeditionary troops could escape back......

Of course, Li Yanzhi didn't know in such detail, although he was a man, he was limited to Jiaozhou, and the news he knew was all rolled over, but the failure of the Ming Army's Northern Expedition was known to the entire north.

Affected by this, the anti-Qing movement in Shandong and Hebei was also severely frustrated, and they were suppressed one after another under the counterattack of the Qing soldiers.

Li Yanzhi has the identity of a lifter, and he is unwilling to shave his hair and turn his back on his ancestors, so he took this opportunity to brazenly take action, and had already persuaded Ma Guang, the garrison of Jiaonan, to oppose the Qing Dynasty. However, with the news of the failure of the Ming army's Northern Expedition, Ma Guang immediately changed his attitude, re-raised the banner of the Qing army, and led his troops to kill Li Yanzhi's righteous army.

The recent situation was told one by one from Li Yan's straight mouth, which made Wu Ping sigh.

"General Wu, the people of Jiaozhou are under siege by the Qing soldiers, and the city is already in danger, please send troops north to rescue Jiaozhou!" Li Yan pleaded directly with Wu Ping.