Chapter 243: Texas City

From Beizhili to Shandong, Dezhou is one of the places that must be passed, and the judgment of Yang Sichang, a cabinet scholar and secretary of the military department, cannot be said to be problematic.

After the team led by Li Meng of the Jiaozhou battalion converged with Zhao Neng and Ma Gang's men and horses, counting the auxiliary soldiers and the assisted guardian team, it was already an army of 15,000 people, and the mighty march was carried out, and Chen Liubu in Yanzhou was a horse team, and the foot distance was much faster than most of the men, and it was arranged to camp in advance at a manor in Zhangqiu County, waiting for most of the people, and Chen Liu's army also had the task of monitoring the Qiu Lei Department of the Shandong General Army nearby.

On November 15, Chen Liu's horse team also joined Li Meng's brigade, according to the results of his investigation, Jinan City currently has only 1,200 soldiers, of which 600 are the garrison of Shandong General Army stationed in Laizhou Mansion in the past, Qiu Lei has always placed the main force of his army in Dengzhou and Jinan, Laizhou Mansion is his old and weak, after Li Meng took over the defense of Laizhou Mansion, these 600 soldiers will withdraw to Jinan Mansion, and it has always been the work of cleaning the barracks.

Qiu Lei, the chief military officer of Shandong, did not wait in Jinan City to find trouble with Li Meng, but obediently followed Yan Jizu, the governor of Shandong, to the area of Dezhou to set up defenses.

To put it bluntly, it is very simple, Qiu Zongbing's soldiers and horses have lost most of them in Dengzhou, and now they are far weaker than Li Mengbu, and they may be arrogant and domineering in the past, but now they must rely on Shandong Governor Yan Jizu to help, so that is the representative of the emperor to Shandong, the head of the civil officials of Shandong on behalf of the Heavenly Patrol, and the commander of Shandong in terms of rank, and can also restrain Li Meng, the general who is guarding the four prefectures.

Entering Jinan Mansion, except for some powerful clans who were related to private salt, the local area was not under the control of Li Meng's side, and the soldiers of the Jiaozhou battalion saw the withered scene in the local area, and they all sneered at it and looked down on it very much. According to Wang Hai's words: "How can a good land be managed like this."

At least in Laizhou Mansion and Qingzhou Mansion, the local common people have never been afraid of the Jiaozhou battalion like this, according to the investigation of the horses and spies, there is obviously a village in front, but after getting closer, they found that there was no one, and when they first met, they were also frightened by the officers and soldiers of the Jiaozhou battalion, thinking that the Tartars had already come, and then the local heroes answered the question, which was considered to be the solution of this doubt.

It turned out that those ordinary people, when they saw the Jiaozhou camp coming from afar, scattered and fled early, for fear that the army would cross the border, and there would be no chickens and dogs left behind.

This answer really made the Jiaozhou battalion cry and laugh, and the reason why there was such a reaction, it was easy to find out the answer, it was nothing more than the soldiers who were here in the past to harm the people too badly. Li Meng didn't understand, Jinan Mansion can be called the best place in the whole of Shandong, with convenient transportation, fertile fields, good management, and 20,000 soldiers is not a problem, but according to the news he got, Qiu Lei has more than 6,000 soldiers in his hands, how can he bring disaster to such a point.

After the army of the Jiaozhou battalion entered the territory of Jinan Mansion, the personal soldiers of the governor's yamen kept in touch with each other to inform them of the latest news on the battlefield.

However, Li Meng did not have much confidence in his friendly army, his own exploration horses, as well as Hou Shan and Huang Ping's spies were completely scattered, and all kinds of news were sent back every day, so that the Jiaozhou battalion could know the situation outside at any time, and it can also be said that he was lucky, and he did not get the news of the Qing army approaching Shandong along the way.

When passing through the city of Jinan, the Jiaozhou battalion did not enter, but the performance of the defenders in the city was quite ridiculous, the city gates were closed everywhere, and the envoy of the pro-vassal King De was working at the head of the city, saying that it was important for the army to go to Dezhou to defend against the enemy, but there was no need to enter the city.

This must be the work of Qiu Lei, the chief soldier of Shandong, for fear that the Jiaozhou battalion will break into Jinan City, and I don't know what he said about moving the king of Germany in the city to come forward, Wang Hai and Chen Liu are secretly scolded, but everyone also knows that it is important to go to Dezhou City to deploy defenses according to the imperial court military order, and after entering Jinan Mansion, it is not as convenient as the four prefectures in their own base areas, and now it has taken up a lot of time to camp and dig trenches every day, which is to ensure the safety of the camp.

Since the enemy is coming, there must be a city to rely on, at least important towns like Texas, there are fortifications and barracks that have been built over the years, relying on them, the army can feel at ease, so now is to ensure the safety of the situation, hurry up.

After ten days of rapid marching, the 6,000 soldiers and horses of the Jiaozhou battalion rushed to the city of Dezhou first, and saw the city of Dezhou from a distance, and the officers and soldiers of the Jiaozhou battalion were relieved, and they were finally able to rest.

Li Meng did not stay in the Chinese army according to tradition, but led several officers at the forefront of the team, and several people observed the terrain along the way, while thinking about how the Jiaozhou battalion should respond if a battle broke out.

Seeing Texas City in front, everyone was also a lot more relaxed, Li Meng even made a joke about Dunglas next to him, Deng Yangren was originally a head coach in Fengmeng Town, he worked less and took a lot of silver. Recently, I also hooked up with a widow in Fengmeng Town, and they all reached the point of talking about marriage, and their days were very moist.

But this foreigner and Han people consider things differently, eating, drinking, having fun and being lazy is one thing, but they are not willing to be so comfortable all day long, so they have to follow the team to participate in actual combat, saying that only in actual combat can they earn wealth and status, and they can be more qualified to marry their lovers.

The teaching of axes and guns does not need Dunglas to do it himself at the moment, and the officers he teaches can teach students, and they can also be taught in combination with specific combat examples.

Since the function of the head of the sect is not very useful, Li Meng is simply as good as a stream, and arranged a position of a thousand chief deputies for this Deng Yangren, and worked under Zhang Jiang, but since this person has been the head of the sect and often communicates with Li Meng, his identity is relatively special.

Over there, the value is a title, but what he does every day is in the pro-soldier team, following Li Meng, known as the "personal guard Deng Yangren", Li Meng is not bad for this person, just by him, sometimes talking and asking around, this foreign mercenary's thinking is always a little different from the Chinese, but often a little inspired.

Deng Yangren was wearing a set of modified cotton armor, originally this foreigner wanted to make a set of Western plate armor on Guo Dong's side, who would have thought that the craftsmen would not sell his account at all, but could only spend money to build, Deng Grass was reluctant to this silver, in the end it was still an officer who had learned the axe and gun with him couldn't see it, and even out a set of cotton armor for him, but this Deng Yangren enjoyed happiness in Jiaozhou, and his body was a lot fatter, so he couldn't wear it, so he could only ask someone to change the size, which was barely stuffed in.

Even so, it still looks bulging, without any majestic appearance of armor, at this time Li Meng joked about this, and said with a smile:

"Deng Yangren, your belly is bigger again, I see that the rope tied to the front of the cotton armor is about to be broken by you."

This joke came out, and several officers who followed him were all there to laugh, Dunglas, a foreigner, was not to please Shangguan, but to be born with a good temper, hearing Li Meng say this, he laughed a few times, stretched out his hand to pat his belly, and said in that Nanjing official dialect:

"General, this belly is big, and the strength is great, and it will definitely not suffer on the battlefield."

This area of Dezhou is already the area of the Great Plain of North China, and it is really a flat river from a distance, not the hilly landform of Jiaodong, such a terrain, people can see far away even on the flat land, Li Meng and his party talked and laughed and walked on the official road, and they have seen the dense camp on the edge of the city of Dezhou.

After a few ridicules, everyone still turned to the topic, Ma Gang approached Li Meng and said:

"General, on such a flat ground, our team is just expanding, and there is a place for long and short weapons to move, and the power still needs to be improved!"

Tang Er on the side said with some excitement:

"This kind of place where the horse team can run away, it is indeed a good place to fight, and when the time comes, set up a formation and rush up, who can stop it!"

Chen Liu and Wang Hai also have their own opinions, but on the whole they are still a very happy mood, because such terrain is very suitable for the Jiaozhou battalion, which pays attention to the formation of the troops, when arranging operations near Jiaodong and Yimeng, the mountainous area is narrow, and the officers leading the troops often have to arrange the troops according to the terrain.

Zhao Neng was relatively old, and leaned closer and said:

"My lord, the Tartar's soldiers and horses have not arrived, but this Qiu Lei's soldiers and horses must be on guard, I am afraid that there will be trouble around me at a critical time, and it will be too late."

Hearing this, Li Meng nodded, talking and laughing from the people below, but he shifted his attention to the camps under the city of Texas.

Looking at it from a distance, these barracks enclosed by wooden fences also have a somewhat solemn atmosphere, but if you look closely, they are chaotic, there should be deep trenches on the side of the fence, but even from a distance, there is no sign of any ravines, there should be enough open space at the camp gate for the army to enter and exit, but the camp gate is the most crowded place for tents.

A good army can observe its combat effectiveness and morale from these details, but seeing this scene, it is really impossible to perceive what the soldiers of Qiu Lei, the chief soldier of Shandong, can do.

Li Meng and his entourage stopped on the side of the road, let the large army go first, and walked while watching, only to feel that the noise in his ears was getting louder and louder, Li Meng was still a little puzzled, the six thousand people in his Jiaozhou battalion were silent, concentrating on moving forward, but what about the noisy voice coming from there?