As the regent of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, most of the officers of the Eight Banners served under him, and he made up his mind, and the others had to listen.

So, after a hasty rest in this deserted village for the night, the next day the unknown army set out and scattered in the unit of Niulu. The army of more than 10,000 people, divided into fifty or sixty small units, disappeared into the pre-dawn darkness.

Yu Feng and Wu Sangui's cavalry got up early in the morning, and it was already dawn after breakfast. The two cavalry joined forces and began to pursue, and the Qing army brigade marched only with clear traces, and was not afraid of chasing and losing. However, after chasing twenty or thirty miles, the cavalry vanguard in front stopped the horses.

"What's going on?" Yu Feng rode to the front and asked sharply.

"General Yu, the Eight Banners seem to have collapsed, judging from the traces, they are all going anywhere, and they are not in formation at all." The forward officer reported.

"It's broken, won't it!" Yu Feng couldn't help but say. In his impression, the Eight Banners were extraordinary in combat power, with discipline far superior to most Ming troops, how could they collapse after defeat?

"General, this is indeed the case, if they had not collapsed, the traces of tens of thousands of troops walking would be completely different from what they are now. Look, general, there are footprints all over the mountain. The forward officer pointed ahead in affirmation.

Yu Feng looked intently, and sure enough, in the wilderness where the road was north, there were many disorganized footprints, but it seemed that the Eight Banners had collapsed, or it might be that they were afraid of being caught up by the cavalry, so countless people abandoned the road and fled north in the wilderness.

In April, the wheat in the field was barely knee-high, and many Eight Banners soldiers fled north from the wheat fields and ridges, with footprints everywhere.

"Mr. Yu, what should we do?" Wu Sangui also rode over and asked Yu Fengdao. Even if the cavalry under his command was more than twice that of Yu Feng, Wu Sangui still consciously served Yu Feng as the master.

"Man stumbled and fled to the fields, and in all directions. It is not advisable for our cavalry to divide into several roads and search north along the official roads and various paths. When encountering a small group of Tartars, they will be destroyed, and when encountering a large group of Tartars, they will wait for the infantry to come to reinforcements. Yu Feng thought about it and made a decision.

......

In Linqing, at noon, Chen Yue received Yu Feng's report and began to study the map.

"Lord Wang, things are strange, Manchu has not been attacked by our army, how can it collapse on its own? Is there any trickery involved? Zhang Huangyan couldn't help but say.

"Oh, you analyze it, what tricks will Dorgon have?" Chen Yue said casually, he himself did not believe that the Qing army would collapse so easily.

"Could it be that Dolgon saw that he couldn't win the battle with our army head-on, so he deliberately set a trap, they scattered and fled, if we want to catch up, we must also disperse our troops, and when we disperse our troops, Dolgon will suddenly concentrate his men and eat our army with more attacks and fewer bites!" Zhang Huangyan analyzed tentatively.

Guerrilla warfare? Chen Yue couldn't help but laugh, the Eight Banners are not the army of another time and space, there is no mass base here, they are just lost dogs who were defeated and fled, they shouldn't be able to use such a clever strategy!

After Zhang Huangyan's analysis, he also felt that it was unlikely, and smiled awkwardly, "It may also be that they are very hungry, the defeat made them lose all the grain and grass, more than 10,000 troops retreated in a hurry, and our army is closely chasing behind, it is very difficult to find food, and the army is in chaos without food, so it collapsed." ”

"Xuan, you're on the point," Chen Yue praised, "I'm afraid this is the real reason for the rout." No, maybe it wasn't a rout, but Dolgon took the initiative to order the army to disperse, the goal of more than 10,000 troops was too obvious, divided into a team of two or three hundred people, not to mention the small target, it was much easier to find food. ”

"But in this case, it's easy for them to disperse, but it's difficult to gather again," Zhang Huangyan looked puzzled: "And they are scattered into such small small shares, aren't they afraid of being eaten by us one by one?" ”

Chen Yue said: "This is exactly what Dolgon's genius is. He divided his men into small units and abandoned the official route to march in the wilderness. To the east of the canal and to the north of the Daqing River are endless plains, and it is not easy for us to catch these small forces in such a vast wilderness.

Moreover, the individual combat strength of the Eight Banners is amazing, a small force of two or three hundred people, we must send at least a thousand people to be sure to eat it, and if there are fewer ones, I am afraid that they will not be their opponents.

Moreover, the 30,000 Manchu cavalry west of the canal may soon have to go around to the east of the river, and we must concentrate on dealing with these 30,000 people, I am afraid that we will not have the energy to catch these scattered and fleeing Qing soldiers. ”

Zhang Huangyan said hurriedly: "Don't you just care about these routs?" If they are allowed to flee all the way to the north like this, I am afraid that the countless villages they pass through will suffer, and they are all the people of our Ming Dynasty! ”

"Tube, of course." Chen Yue said categorically: "Dolgon's use of such a strange trick can certainly increase his hope of escaping back to Beijing, but it also gives us a good opportunity to eliminate them!" Tens of thousands of people are not easy to fight, but two or three hundred people are still easy to destroy. ”、

"The order went down, and ordered Xiao Bing, Wang Meng, Xu Qingtian, and Li Daozi to give up the pursuit of Manchu, and immediately lead troops to capture Gaotang, Xiajin, Pingyuan, Jingling and other counties, and block the road for Manchu to flee north. As long as we firmly occupy the cities and towns, and Manchu can only flee north in the wilderness, there will be no chance to assemble, and then give warnings to the counties and villages, so that the villagers everywhere can defend themselves by virtue of their villages, and once they find any movement in Manchu, they will immediately report to the government, and there will be officers and soldiers in the county town to encircle and suppress them. At the same time, he ordered Yu Feng and Wu Sangui to divide their cavalry into several routes, and cooperate with the counties to find Manchurian's movements.

I'm going to use the towns as a cage to sweep out these manchurians and try to keep them all!" There are only so many men in the Eight Banners, we have already killed more than 20,000, and if we kill one more Eight Banners, we will lose one more point of our vitality. Sent an order to the villages, all the people, as long as they captured the head of a Eight Banner soldier, they could get a reward of thirty taels of silver, and they would not be credited! ”

Thirty taels of silver! This is a huge amount of money, and such a heavy reward will even be tempted by ordinary people. There are many ringing horses on both sides of the canal in Shandong, and after this reward is spread, not to mention those ringing horses, even ordinary people will be moved. In this way, the fleeing Eight Banners soldiers will fall into the vast sea of the people's war!

How easy is it to safely withdraw the army to the north by means of dispersal!

He sent an order to Jin Xin, ordering him to immediately lead Jinan's army north to recover the prefectures and counties in northern Shandong. At the same time, he gave an order to Liaocheng and ordered Liaocheng and the troops of the states and counties south of Liaocheng to assemble and march to Linqing! ”

Now that the overall situation has been decided, there is no need to divide troops to garrison all parts of Liaocheng and Jinan, and it is time to concentrate troops to wipe out all the Manchurians.