After Wang Yan and more than 2,000 people from Sun Chengwu's department left Kaolan County, they arrived at the edge of the Yellow River in the afternoon of the same day.

The Qing army that responded was completely unaware of the defeat and killing of Xu Dingguo, Wang Yan led his subordinates to raise the banner of Xu Bu, pretending to be Xu Jun's infantry army into the Qing camp, and suddenly became chaotic at night, and Sun Chengwu's cavalry, who was ambushed outside the camp, took advantage of the situation to raid and follow the Qing army.

After the first battle, more than 800 Qing soldiers were killed, more than 400 people were captured, and more than 20 ships were captured, which can be described as a great victory.

The main force of the Qing army and the Shun army fought for more than a month, and there were not many Qing troops in the areas of North Zhili, Shandong, and northern Henan, and the largest one was only stationed on the side of the Yellow River to monitor the Haoge Department of the Ming army, with more than 10,000 people.

The army was empty, and the Qing court's rule in Beizhili, Shanxi, and Shandong was not stable, so Haoge was extremely cautious and did not dare to act rashly.

This is also the reason why Xu Dingguo sent his son to the Qing camp as a hostage and asked him to send troops to support, but he refused to send troops on the grounds that "he did not dare to go without an order".

Therefore, it can be seen that this is a good time for the Ming army to cross the river and recover the rivers and mountains, so when Xu Dingguo was killed, all the Qing soldiers who responded were annihilated, and the news of the capture of the boats was transmitted back to the Haoge camp on the other side, he immediately felt the pressure doubled.

He was afraid that Gao Jie's troops would take advantage of the situation to cross the river, so he hurriedly reported to Dolgon, wanting to send troops to meet the upcoming battle.

Wang Yan did not expect how much pressure his action would bring to the Qing court, and Dolgon, who was in Beijing, couldn't help but sink his heart when he learned of Hauge's report.

At this time, the Qing army had already achieved a huge advantage in the battle against Dashun, Gao Yigong and Li Guo in northern Shaanxi abandoned Yulin and lost Xiangshui, Li Zicheng also took the main force of the Dashun army to abandon Shaanxi, preparing to withdraw into Henan through Lantian and Shangluo, and the situation of the Qing army on the western front can be described as a very good.

The Qing court was also excited because of the successive victories, but the news that Gao Jie's troops pressed the Yellow River came, but the Qing court in the great joy was like a sword hanging in the sky, and even Dolgon was in a dilemma.

If troops are not deployed to support Haoge, in case Gao Jie's 40,000 troops cross the river, the good situation of the Qing court may be reversed in an instant, and it is possible to be driven back to Guanwai.

However, if the troops are transferred, there are no troops to be sent elsewhere, so they can only transfer the men and horses of the Western Front, but at this time, Li Zicheng is not chaotic, and there are still more than 100,000 soldiers and horses.

When Dolgon summoned ministers in Beijing to discuss countermeasures, Wang Yan, one of the initiators, did not expect that he would be able to bring such trouble to the Qing court.

After defeating the Qing soldiers who responded, Wang Yan led the Zhongyi Battalion to practice the water station while waiting for the arrival of the main force of Li Chengdong and others.

Five days passed in a flash, and on the 19th day of the first month, the waiting army still had not arrived, which couldn't help but make Wang Yan very puzzled, and when he was about to send Liu Shun to find Li Chengdong, the military envoy sent by the main force happened to come to the camp to give orders.

Wang Yan hurriedly asked people to inform Sun Chengwu, and then the two listened to the military envoy convey the military order together, but it was not that the army wanted to cross the river to attack the Qing army, but that the Shi Gebu urgently recruited the army to return to Xuzhou.

Wang Yan couldn't help but be stunned after hearing this, and almost fainted to death.

He practiced the water battle of the Zhongyi Battalion, in order to break the river and attack Haoge and recover the rivers and mountains, but with a paper order, not only his and his brothers' preparations were in vain, but the Ming Dynasty would also lose an excellent opportunity to counterattack.

At that time, the situation in Shandong was very good, and King Ji and many righteous troops had already controlled Shandong, just waiting for the Ming army to go north to receive it, but looking south to the king's division, the king's division just did not go north, which made many righteous soldiers disheartened.

Later, Wang Yan offered advice for Zhao Yingyuan to take Qingzhou, and the situation in Shandong improved again, but Wang Shi did not come to the south, resulting in the failure of the incident.

Now that the Qing court is empty, it is an excellent time for the Northern Expedition, but it has to be abandoned, and such inaction again and again is really chilling!

Wang Yan endured his anger and asked the envoy why the army returned to Xuzhou, and the envoy did not say clearly, only that after Li Chengdong and others received the order, they immediately left the camp and returned.

The military order conveyed that Sun Chengwu was not as keen as Wang Yan to fight against the Qing army, so after he received the order, he returned to the camp to gather men and horses and prepare to chase the main force.

Seeing this, Wang Yan couldn't help but sigh, he had a thousand men and horses, without the support of a large army, and if the Qing army did not kill the river, he would be Amitabha, and he would cross the river to fight what Haoge.

At this point, Wang Yan knew that it would be useless for the Zhongyi Battalion to stay, so he had no choice but to obey the military order and lead his troops eastward.

However, he was reluctant to get just 20 big ships, so he separated from Sun Chengwu, took the ships and the looted Qing soldiers' materials, and went straight down the Yellow River to Xuzhou.

Gao Jie's troops returned to the east, which made Haoge on the other side of the river breathe a sigh of relief, and hurriedly sent a fast horse to Beijing. Dolgon was already preparing to order the Duoduo Department to temporarily abandon Li Zicheng and turn around to support Haoge, but now that he got the news, he immediately changed his mind and ordered the Qing army on the Western Road to pay Li Zicheng's Dashun army with all his might.

In the middle of the first month, Gao Yigong and Li Guobu were defeated by the Qing soldiers again in Polo, and hurriedly fled into Gansu and Qinghai, while Li Zicheng's main force, on the way from Lantian to Shangluo, was pursued and killed by the Qing soldiers, and the middle eight battles were all defeated, and their vitality was greatly damaged.

Since then, through these great wars, the Qing court has completely gained a firm foothold in the north and has become the most powerful military presence in the land of China.

On 1 February, Wang Yan went down the Yellow River, and after ten days, he finally arrived outside Xuzhou, and on the same day, Li Chengdong and others also entered Xuzhou.

Gao Jie's body entered the city with the army, Mrs. Xing and Gao Jie's son Gao Yuanzhao organized a funeral for him, and Wang Yan offered the head of Xu Dingguo to pay tribute to Gao Jie.

Mrs. Xing is grateful to Dade for Wang Yan, who can avenge Gao Jie, and Wang Yan has gradually integrated into Gao Jie's army from a new investor. With Gao Jie's burial, another question arises, who will become the new master of Gao Jie's department?

In terms of etiquette, it is naturally Gao Yuanzhao, the son of Gao Jie, who inherited his father's title and military power, but after all, he is young and lacks prestige, and it is not yet known whether he can suppress the veterans of those uncles and uncles.

There is a way to be suspicious of the lord and the country, and there is an undercurrent in Xuzhou City.

As the news of Gao Jie's death spread, this undercurrent also expanded, and Huang Degong, who was also one of the four towns, saw that the rest of Gao Jie's troops were in chaos, so he had the idea of annexing and carving up Gao Jie's troops and territory.

Li Chengdong and others have not yet earned a high position, Huang Degong has already raised troops to the north, and the whole Xuzhou is suddenly in turmoil.

Shi Kefa, who was the governor of Jiangbei, finally appeared at this critical moment after ordering the army to return to the east, and Wang Yan finally got to see this famous minister.

Shi Kefa is a very contradictory existence in Wang Yan's heart, he is in awe of his reputation and incorruptibility, but he is full of criticism of his ability.

Shi Kefa has been supervising Jiangbei for some time, but in fact he has achieved nothing, he hesitated on the issue of decision, causing Hongguang to beg for help with the generals, causing the four towns to sit on the "decision" work, from then on, the big thing is not down, so that the government is manipulated by warlords.

At a time when the Donglin Party and Ma Shiying's party were fiercely contested, he, as the first and auxiliary minister, should sit in the court and mediate, but he cherished his reputation and was unwilling to participate, which made the party struggle worsen.

He asked for the establishment of four towns, but he had no long-term plans, and the lands of Henan and Shandong ignored them, just to keep Jiangnan.

Zhang Dai once said, "The establishment of four towns in the history of the cabinet is not located in Shandong and Henan, but within hundreds of miles of Nanjing, which is the first failure of the cabinet." ”

Liang Yizhang, who used to be the magistrate of Shangqiu County, also wrote to Shi Kefa and said: "Guarding the river is not a strategy." Gongjin to Henan, Shandong for the south of the Yangtze River shield, imitation of the Tang and Song Dynasty festivals, to discuss the system, in Shandong set up a large domain, the manager of the province, in order to map the north; Set up a large domain in Henan, manage the whole province, to consolidate mountains and Shaanxi, select ministers and civil and military personnel, and gather troops to make a sound, and take advantage of it. In Jining, Guide set up a line, in order to prepare for the patrol, show the world not to forget the Central Plains, so that the overcoming can be expected. If the two provinces are abandoned and the north of the river is guarded, the situation has been succumbed, that is, they want to be peaceful, but they cannot do it. ”

Shi Kefa also didn't listen to other people's suggestions, and his stubbornness can be imagined.

On the issue of the four towns in Jiangbei, he also made frequent moves.

Among the four towns, he can't command anyone, in addition to the reasons of the four towns themselves, I have to say that there are serious problems in Shi Kefa's strategy for treating the four towns.

Because of the meritorious work of supporting Hongguang, the four towns were already difficult to control, and Shi Kefa didn't try to restrict it, but he actually came up with a stupid strategy of dividing the territory for them and allowing them to collect money and grain on their own in exchange for the support of the four towns.

As everyone knows, after the army has its own territory and can collect money and grain on its own, who will obey the orders of the central government?

Another time and space, another era, a group of overseers who control the territory and the army, haven't they tossed China for decades.

Shi Kefa ran Jiangbei for half a year, spending countless money, food, and materials, but he had no achievements and no progress, which shows the mediocrity of his ability.

This time, he stayed in Gao Jie's army for more than a month, and only after hard persuasion did he prompt Gao to realize his plan to cooperate with the Qing army to defeat Dashun.

But because of the change in Suizhou, Gao Jie was killed, and his strategy of capturing and breaking thieves completely failed.

Since he had failed, Shi Kefa, as a supervisor, should take advantage of the situation to change course, give up the illusion of making peace with the Manchus, reorganize the troops and horses, either attack Hebei, or clean up Henan, and reorganize the army for war, but he was sad because of the failure of the plan, hurriedly returned east, and missed the great opportunity.

After returning to the east, he did not summarize the changes in Suizhou, and did not come to appease until Huang De's power department came north and fought with the rest of Gao Jie's troops and was about to cause a civil war.

(The author believes that Shi Kefa's unyielding national integrity should be fully recognized, but his contribution is not worth exaggerating.) For more than 20 years in the Southern Ming Dynasty, there are countless people who have died in the dead festival and the whole family. The reason why Shi Kefa is sought after, I think it is because he is a big official, but in the Hongguang Dynasty, almost all the decisions are wrong, as a governor who holds the military and political power, the author believes that the Hongguang Dynasty died quickly, and Shi Kefa has an unshirkable responsibility. ）