When Chen Yue's fleet was still sailing on the vast sea, the sea ship sent to Shandong to deliver the news had already arrived in Dengzhou and brought back the order of Chen Yue, the Duke of Qi.

After reading the secret order, Wu Ping decided to act according to the order without thinking.

"What? Now the Qing army is attacking our Shandong on a large scale, and all the counties in Jinan Prefecture have fallen, and the Qing army is attacking Qingzhou Mansion under the supervision of the traitor Hong Chengchou, at this time we actually fled? Li Yanzhi looked at Wu Ping in shock and said incredulously.

"This is a secret order from the Duke of Qi, and besides, it is not to escape, but to retreat to Zhoushan......" Thinking about it, there was nothing to hide, so Wu Ping handed the letter to Li Yanzhi.

Although he didn't know Chen Yue's handwriting, looking at the painting on the letter paper and the bright red seal, Li Yanzhi knew that this order should be true, and the disappointment in his heart became even stronger.

"I thought that Qi Guogong was my hero of the Ming Dynasty, but I didn't expect ...... This is obviously ignoring the people of Shandong! Li Yanzhi said disappointedly.

"Whether Guogong is a hero or not doesn't need you to comment! Originally, I was ordered to come here just to train the navy, but you had to pull me to say something to capture Shandong and rescue the people. At present, the imperial court was too busy to take care of itself, and only sent Wang Yongji, the governor of Shandong, to Qingzhou, but only cared about dividing and winning over the righteous army in Shandong and suppressing the influence of the Duke of Qi.

In this situation, it is impossible to hold Shandong, and it is said that there are hundreds of thousands of troops, most of whom are peasants who have just put down their hoes for a few days, and how can they fight against the Manchu army?

Qi Guogong's order is also to protect some Shandong people and give everyone a place to live, what do you want, do you want Qi Guogong to come to Shandong in person to fight against the Manchu Tartars with you, and die in Shandong to be called a hero? ”

Hearing Li Yanzhi's words, Wu Ping's eyes widened and he scolded angrily.

Li Yanzhi was silent for a moment, in all fairness, what happened in Shandong had nothing to do with Chen Yue, the Duke of Qi, it was he and others who had to act under the banner of the Duke of Qi, and it was unreasonable to complain about others now.

However, letting him obey Chen Yue's instructions and lead everyone to leave their hometown and go to Zhoushan, thousands of miles away, made Li Yanzhi difficult to accept no matter what.

"It's me who lost my words, I shouldn't blame Qi Guogong indiscriminately, but I'm not willing to give up Shandong like this!" Li Yan sighed.

What can you do if you are unwilling, for half a month, Hong Chengchou led Tang Tong, Bai Guangen, Jiang Pin, and Li Chengdong generals to set out from Dezhou to suppress the rebel army in Shandong, and captured Dongchang Mansion in a few days and wiped out the rebel army in the prefectures and counties of Jinan Prefecture.

Although Hong Chengchou's subordinates are all soldiers of the Han Army's banner green battalion, Tang Tong and Bai Guangen's generals are all professional soldiers who have fought old battles, and Li Chengdong's subordinates are composed of well-trained Yuanpingnan Army.

On November 10, the Tang Tongbu fell into Linqing and launched a massacre against Linqing, leaving this important town by the canal empty.

On November 11, Li Chengdong captured Wuding Prefecture and carried out a brutal massacre.

The brutality of the Qing army caused a great earthquake in Shandong, and many rebels gritted their teeth and swore that they would not share the sky with the Qing army, and more quietly dropped their weapons and returned home to pick up their hoes again and choose to be obedient people.

As soon as Hong Chengchou entered Shandong, he resorted to bloody means to brutally suppress the riots of the Shandong rebels. In half a month, the rebel army of Dongchang and Jinan was cleared, and Jinan joined Fang Dayou, the governor of Qingshan Mountain.

Sent Tang Tong to lead the army all the way south to attack Yanzhou Mansion, Hong Chengchou himself led a large army to attack Qingzhou, and suppressed the main force of the rebel army.

Now the main force of the righteous army in Shandong is divided into two major parts, one is the 120,000 righteous army led by Wu Ping, occupying the two capitals of Dengzhou and Laizhou, and the other is the righteous army of Qingzhou, headed by Zhao Yingyuan, and now it is under the dispatch of Wang Yongji, the governor of Shandong sent by the imperial court.

Wang Yongji went from Huai'an to Qingzhou along the sea route, and as soon as he entered Qingzhou, he sent orders to the rebels in various places, ordering them to move closer to Qingzhou. He is the governor of Shandong appointed by the imperial court, and most of the rebel armies are initiated by the gentry, of course, they must obey the orders of the Ming court, that is, Zhao Yingyuan, although he has an army of 70,000 or 80,000 people, he also needs to choose the imperial court as a backer.

In Qingzhou Mansion, Wang Yongji gathered more than 100,000 men and horses, and frequently issued orders to Wu Ping in Dengzhou, ordering him to lead the army to Qingzhou to rendezvous, Wang Yongji to gather a large army to attack Jinan Mansion.

However, how could Wu Ping follow his orders? Except for the symbolic dispatch of a small part of the army to Qingzhou, there was no movement, and Wang Yongji was helpless about it.

In fact, there are already a lot of people gathered in Qingzhou Mansion, and if the people from Dengzhou and Laizhou go to Qingzhou, it will cause great pressure on logistics. And even now, it is already insufficient to rely on Qingzhou Mansion to support more than 100,000 troops, and the food donated by the gentry cannot last long, and the land in Shandong is already barren, and the weather has become colder and colder year by year over the years, resulting in a decrease in land production, and the people can't eat enough, and if there is no support from the imperial court, the army can't last too long. However, Wang Yongji knew that the support of the imperial court could not be counted on at all, and the 200,000-strong army of the Northern Expedition not long ago had exhausted the silver and grain in the treasury......

The righteous army is the army of the Ming Dynasty, so naturally it can't reach out to the people and move the knife, but the Qing army will not take care of so much, their food and salary have always been robbed on the spot, and as for whether the robbed people will starve to death, they will not care at all.

On one side, the morale of one side was high because of the plunder, and although the number of people on the other side was large, there was no food to eat, and the food was not enough, coupled with the huge gap in combat effectiveness, the battle was already doomed before it was won.

When Zichuan County, where Qingzhou and Jinan Prefecture were adjoined, was captured by Qing troops, and the news that more than 20,000 of Wang Yongji's troops had been killed reached Dengzhou, Li Yanzhi sighed and finally gave up the last illusion of holding Shandong.

Even if the army in Dengzhou and Laizhou reinforces Qingzhou, the number is doubled, it will cause greater logistical pressure, and it may be defeated faster. In many cases, wars are not fought by the number of troops, but by various complex factors such as morale and supply. Although the number of Shandong rebels is large, compared with the Qing soldiers, they are all ordinary people with combat effectiveness scum, if they can have a period of training, they may be able to fight, but the Qing army came too fast and fierce, and did not give the rebels time to grow at all, and it is impossible to win at this time.

Qi Guogong was right, without the support of the imperial army, Shandong could not be held at all. The withdrawal of the army and people of Dengzhou and Laizhou to the south can save the people of Shandong as much as possible and accumulate some strength for the future return to Shandong.

Another reason for Li Yanzhi to give up holding on to Shandong is that the soldiers of the army under his command have already talked about the Qing soldiers and changed their color, over the years, the Qing soldiers have entered the customs and robbed several times, three of which have robbed Shandong, killing countless people, hundreds of thousands of people have been plundered to slavery outside the customs, and the Shandong people and the Manchu Tatars are as deep as the sea, but they are also afraid of being killed. If they had the opportunity to flee to the south, not many people would choose to stay and fight the Qing army......

As a result, Wu Ping's orders were carried out, and his soldiers began to collect all the ships along the coast and prepare for the evacuation of Shandong. With the help of Li Yanzhi and the enlightened gentry of Dengzhou and Laizhou, nearly 1,000 sea ships were concentrated in Dengzhou and Jiaozhou, Dengzhou and Laizhou were facing the sea, and there was no shortage of sea ships in the coastal guards, although they were not too large ships, but it was enough to carry the people in the case of a tailwind, as long as they could reach Huai'an Mansion from Shandong to the south for a few hundred miles, where it was already under the rule of the Ming Dynasty, everyone could get supplies.