Haizhou, east of the sea, back is Shandong Qingzhou Mansion. In history, Haizhou was originally the same as Linyi and other Shandong territories as Donghai County and Donghai State, and Haizhou was only classified under the rule of Huai'an Prefecture in the Ming Dynasty. In fact, the language and customs of Haizhou and Shandong people are much closer.

Chen Yue led 20,000 main forces to die down, with Jin Xin as the vanguard, crossed the Yellow River from Huai'an and went straight north, and went east to Haizhou through Shuyang.

And now Haizhou is still under the rule of the Ming Dynasty, and the Ming Dynasty has magistrates and more than 1,000 soldiers in Haizhou. Hearing that the army was coming, Haizhou Zhizhou hurriedly went out of the city to greet him, but Chen Yue did not see him, but was received by a partial general, and told him that the army was going north through Haizhou to enter Shandong to support the Shandong Righteous Army, but even Chen Yue's identity was not exposed.

The secret march to raid Shandong was a pre-designated strategy. Although it is impossible for no one to know about the march of the army, at least the news of Chen Yue's presence in the army cannot be exposed, otherwise if the Qing army learns about it, it will definitely be able to find out the intentions of the Qing army.

And for more than a year, there are often people from the imperial court from Haizhou to the north, and even fleets through the coast of Haizhou between Shandong and Daming, Haizhou Zhizhou has long been accustomed to this, he is just concerned about the supply of grain and grass for this army. After all, with an army of up to 20,000, if the grain and grass need to be supported by Haizhou, he will be under great pressure. According to the rules of the Ming Dynasty, when the army passed through the territory, the grain and grass should be the responsibility of the local government that passed through.

Fortunately, this army did not embarrass him, and did not ask for food and grass. Because before leaving, Chen Yue had already ordered to make a large amount of dry food to carry with the army, mixed with flour and sesame peanuts, fried into fried noodles, packed in a long cloth bag, each cloth bag can hold fifteen catties of fried noodles, and carried it cross-body on the back of the soldiers.

These fried noodles alone are enough for half a month's ration for the army, and from Huai'an to Jiaozhou, it is also 700 miles, according to the speed of a daily march of 50 miles, it will not take half a month to arrive, and when you arrive in Jiaozhou, you can meet with Lu Tai by sea, and in Lu Tai's fleet, there are 100,000 loads of grain, which is enough for the army to need for a year.

The army did not even enter Haizhou City, but sent people to buy some vegetables and grain, and the whole army was fed and camped outside the city to rest, and continued to the north the next morning.

The next morning, the officers and soldiers had left, and the governor of Haizhou went out of the city gate, looked at the empty camp, and secretly sighed to himself, this army behaves in a proper manner, buys and sells fairly, does not disturb the people and does not plunder, how many years have not seen such an army.

Out of Haizhou, through Yizhou, Luzhou can enter the central part of Qingzhou Prefecture, where the road is flat and densely populated. However, Chen Yue did not choose this road, but chose the seaside area at the eastern foot of Wulian Mountain to pass through.

Wulian Mountain from northeast to southwest is located on the east side of Qingzhou Mansion, there is more than ten miles wide land between the mountains and the sea, but because of the invasion of sea water, it is mostly saline-alkali terrain, not suitable for farming, except for some stove households boiling salt in the sea, ordinary people do not have much.

Chen Yue is going to Jiaozhou, the closest walking distance from the sea, and the eastern foot of Wulian Mountain is a flat terrain, which is convenient for the army to pass quickly, plus his subordinates are all light infantry, no chariots, horses, baggage, no artillery, and the soldiers are loaded on the sea ship in addition to the weapons and food they carry, so the marching speed is very fast.

Of course, such an army has very poor defense, no armor, no shield, no baggage to support the operation, and once it encounters the main force of the Qing army, the consequences are unimaginable, which is why Chen Yue did not choose to march from the densely populated place of Linyi and Lunan. The march speed without carrying baggage armor is naturally fast, and of course it is necessary to avoid the main force of the Qing army.

However, the long continuous march, even if the distance traveled only fifty miles in a day, was exhausting for every soldier, but everyone gritted their teeth and persevered, because their king of Qi was among them.

Yes, Chen Yue also walked in the queue, walking on his own legs, and did not ride a horse or a chariot under his identity, or let the soldiers carry him in a sedan chair. Of the 20,000 troops, half of them are elite soldiers from Dongfan, who have been following Chen Yue, and the other half are also drawn from Yu Feng and Jin Shenghuan's subordinates, all of whom have the background identity of the Pingnan Army, and they are all Chen Yue's descendants. So even if it is to buy the hearts of the military, Chen Yue has to make a gesture of sharing weal and woe. A general, if he wants to get the support of the soldiers and win the hearts of the army, he must think of many means, Chen Yue can't do such a disgusting thing as licking and sucking pus, and he doesn't want to deliberately shush the cold and ask for warmth, but he can still do it by practicing and sharing weal and worn.

Besides, Chen Yue is in the prime of life, his food on weekdays is excellent, and his physical fitness is far better than that of ordinary soldiers, and walking fifty miles a day is not much pressure for him, at most his feet are tired. However, this effect is very obvious, whenever they see the fluttering general flag, as well as the resolute face of Chen Yue under the general's banner, the soldiers are inexplicably relieved, thinking that the prince is walking with him, he is full of strength again.

There are naturally horses in the army, in addition to the main cavalry marching with Li Yi under the leadership of Yu Feng, there are also one hundred and ten cavalry among the 20,000 people, but these cavalry are used as sentry scouts, responsible for investigating the movements of the surrounding Qing army, so even Chen Yue is unwilling to occupy precious horses for travel.

In addition to the stove outdoors in the coastal area, there are some fortresses, all of which were originally set up by the Ming Dynasty to prevent the Japanese invaders. Of course, by the end of the Ming Dynasty, these guards had long been abandoned, and the military households in the guards either farmed and fished, or boiled the sea to make salt for a living, which was no different from ordinary people.

Soon after the Manchu Qing occupied Shandong, coupled with the riots of the righteous people, there was no time to deal with these guards, so some of them still carried the banner of the Ming Dynasty. After Wu Ping's uprising in Dengzhou, the territory expanded to the entire Jiaodong in a few months, and many military households in the guard station were thrown under Wu Ping's command, of course, they were trapped in Dengzhou City, but the families of the soldiers were still in the original guard bunker.

When they saw a Ming army suddenly coming from the south, the families of these military families burst into tears with excitement and bluntly said that the imperial court finally thought of them. For more than a year, the people of Shandong have revolted frequently and have been subjected to the massacre and suppression of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, but the imperial court has been unable to support it at all.

Anton Wei Qianhu Feng Yong is in his fifties, but he wears ancestral armor and keeps saying that he wants to be the vanguard of the army. Chen Yue looked at him standing unsteadily, smiled and refused, and only asked him to send a guide to guide the army to Jiaozhou Bay.

On November 27, the 19th year of Chongzhen, Chen Yue led an army of 20,000 to Jiaozhou, and Lu Tai's navy had arrived in Jiaozhou Bay for two days, and was trying to attack Jiaozhou City, and was fighting against Guo Hu, the general of the Green Battalion.