Chapter 517: Letter from the Prairie

In fact, the return of Li Meng's army caught many people in the city off guard, of course, this surprise was a simple emotion, a kind of surprise and suddenness.

Li Meng mobilized 60,000 soldiers of the Jiaozhou battalion to fight in Henan, while the Ming army mobilized more than 200,000, the Shun army mobilized more than 300,000, a governor and five general soldiers of the Ming Dynasty participated, and the Shun army was invested from King Chuang to the generals below, and the three parties had already used the capital of the housekeeper.

In the Ming generation, the big war of this scale is basically based on months, and many times it lasts for a year, but Li Meng took no more than three months from departure to return, and the battle with real swords and guns ended in just a few days, and the preparation was said to be one day.

Li Meng's return so quickly made his family ecstatic, after all, it was the pillar of the family who was fighting outside, and it was a battle of this scale, which always made people worry and panic.

However, coming back so quickly made some people suspicious, ending so quickly, don't suffer a loss outside, say that you have defeated and come back.

It wasn't until the news of the Jiaozhou battalion's victory came back from non-Shandong channels that everyone could finally confirm that everything was in Li Meng's hands.

The children grow up very quickly, that is, they haven't seen each other for a few months, Li Hong and Li Wu are a little older, after seeing Li Meng, they began to be timid and didn't dare to step forward, and then they were tired of letting go, which is also the love of father and son, but it relieved Li Meng's fatigue from fighting abroad a lot.

As for the wives and concubines around him, don't be small for many days, it is inconvenient to say more about these private matters, and there are the soldiers and horses stationed in the Jinan base camp, as well as the return of Zhao Neng, the chief soldier of Denglai, to the original station, which has been tossed until November 20 before it can be regarded as a real stop.

On November 21, there was an urgent report of 600 miles in Henan, but this was the report of Chen Liu, the commander of the Central Plains Army, Chen Liuqin led four regiments of the Chinese reinforcements to break through Nanyang, the city of Nanyang that had little resistance, according to Chen Liu's letter, the defenders of Nanyang City were only 3,000, and after a little resistance, they retreated from the city.

The military newspaper said in detail that in the counties and cities of Henan Prefecture and Nanyang Prefecture, all those who had Shun troops stationed in the prefectures and counties, and all the troops who were loyal to King Chuang, all took the initiative to retreat, and the remaining garrisons were among the local tyrants, who directly mutinied and reversed, and some troops directly dispersed after leaving the city.

As soon as the army of Shandong arrived, many of them took the initiative to surrender, and these surrendered and captured Shun soldiers were taken over by the clerks at all levels of the Tuntian Grange, who followed later, and set up the Tuntian Grange on the spot.

Chen Liu's military newspaper also specifically mentioned that in the two counties of Yuzhou and Zhenping in Nanyang Prefecture, the Shun army in these two counties broke up early, but these two places were occupied by the two landlord militia groups who originally set up a cottage on the mountain to protect themselves and knew the news and killed, among which the local tyrant of Zhenping County was called Wang Qifeng, who called himself "King Qi", who was a local big businessman who trafficked jade before going up the mountain, and had dealings with people in the green forest on the mountain.

When the Shun army came, this Wang Qifeng took people to go up the mountain, and naturally merged with those green forest bandits who came and went, Wang Qifeng himself had a village soldier of three or four hundred, wrapped in nearly two thousand young people in the township, plus the bandits on the mountain, and scattered or came to defect or were robbed, and merged in the mountains, and also gathered nearly five thousand soldiers, which can be called a first-class force in Nanyang Mansion.

This Wang Qifeng is very good at observing the wind, when the Shun army is strong, they stay in the mountains and never go out lightly, just go to the border area of Nanyang and Runing, the Shun army has been busy recruiting troops in Tuntian, stabilizing the place, and there has not been much energy to take care of the powerful forces on these mountains, and as a result, Wang Qifeng's power has always existed.

When the Shun army retreated, the "Qi King" Wang Qifeng thought that the opportunity had come, and led a large team of men and horses to occupy Zhenping County, and continued to loot the common people around to enrich his strength.

According to Li Meng's request in advance, he first occupied Nanyang Fucheng, and then further occupied Xinye, completely forcing the forces of the Shun army in the Huguang area and unable to come out.

But this Wang Qifeng really messed up the local area too badly, and after Chen Liu occupied Nanyang Mansion City, he directly sent a regiment with artillery.

This Wang Qifeng has been on the mountain for a long time, but he doesn't know much about the situation below, and thinks that the soldiers and horses in Shandong are the usual Ming army, but he estimates more accurately, his more than 5,000 people, eat more than 2,000 Ming soldiers, but there is no problem at all, it is easy to occupy such a large territory, how can he spit it out.

Everyone can see Daming's luck, it won't last a few days at all, and it's the right thing to take this opportunity to get more territory strength.

However, after the two sides started the battle, this was not even a battle, and Wang Qifeng swaggered in front of the formation, and the three-pounder field guns of the three regiments were ready to be aimed at a bombardment.

First, the target is conspicuous, and second, the artillery is lucky this time, that Wang Qifeng is fat again, and he was killed directly in front of the battle.

Even if several of Wang Qifeng's henchmen wanted to gather people to move forward immediately, they completely collapsed after the second round of shelling, and then they descended and ran, and the people of the mountains and wilderness, where have they seen such a powerful weapon.

Although it delayed the time to attack Xinye, the most powerful group of townships in Nanyang Mansion was destroyed, which also made those around who could not see the situation clearly recognize the stakes, and the ground was also a lot quieter, and no one had the crooked idea of fighting those officials in Tuntian, and they surrendered.

According to Chen Liu's letter, Xinye is already an empty city, and it seems that the Shun army is ready to shrink all its forces, with Huguang as the hinterland and Xiangyang as the front line to build defenses, and the destruction of hundreds of thousands of troops has already made the armed forces in the hands of the Shun army very embarrassed.

The Ma army led by Tang Er fought while training, Henan Province and Ruzhou were almost cleared, and garrison troops were set up in Tongguan and Shaanzhou to defend against possible enemies in Shaanxi and Shanxi, but the Ming army in Shaanxi and Shanxi was more tense, and their defense was more complete than the Jiaozhou battalion.

At present, the only place in Henan where the remnants of the Shun army are active is the southern part of the line between Zhenyang County and Xincai County in Runing Prefecture, which is mostly mountainous and has complex terrain, and a small group of Shun troops who are unwilling to fail are hiding in the mountainous area and fighting guerrillas, and now there is no spare strength to reach there, and it can only temporarily maintain the calm of Runing Prefecture north of Xincai and Zhenyang.

This area is in charge of the deputy general Gao Ke, who is preparing in Xuzhou, and the people he led should not be a big problem to pacify.

This military report can also be said to be a document for reporting success, but Chen Liu also put forward a request in the letter, hoping to expand the army in Henan by about 15,000, because although the Ma army is elite, it will definitely not be in Henan for a long time, and it will be transferred away one day.

After reading this urgent military report, Li Meng was also relieved about the situation in Henan, and on the matter of increasing troops, Li Meng still had to wait for the year-end reports of Kaifeng and Guide in Henan and the northern provinces of the Yellow River.

After November 25, the whole city of Jinan began to be busy with the New Year's Pass, the Spring Festival of the Duke of Qi is not only their own family banquet, but also many ritual and etiquette things, such as the banquet can be rushed over, Shandong qualified civil and military generals, wealthy businessmen and gentry, this is a big event.

Yan Ruoran led a few housekeepers in the family to be busy, while Mu Yunyao and Gu and Liu were criticized by Li Meng in private, and such a big thing in Linqingzhou was missed from under the nose of the Inventory Division, what is the role of such an institutional setup, otherwise let Huang Ping and Hou Shan do it, the girl just takes care of the family, why bother with such a heavy matter.

But Mu Yunyao didn't know why, she insisted on refusing to let go, since there was a mistake or omission in the affairs of the Inventory Division, then she would overhaul and make up for it step by step.

The reason is also very simple, Li Meng is fighting abroad, he needs the cooperation of intelligence from all sides, and he also has to take into account the movements of the other forces, most of the intelligence forces, whether they are overt or covert, have been sent out, and here in Shandong, there are armed salt and village guards who are pressing, thinking that they will be safe, who would have thought that they would be exploited by this cult, it really makes people feel helpless.

Li Meng also felt awkward, obviously he was his wife, but he also had the identity of his subordinates, and it was inconvenient to confuse public and private affairs.

On November 27, Li Meng inspected several military camps inside and outside the city according to the rules, and came to the inner study, where Sun Chuanting and a cadre of scribes were here to deal with the important affairs of various places under the jurisdiction of the Jiaozhou camp, and many things needed to be dealt with by Li Meng on the spot.

Li Meng entered the inner study, and a cadre of scribes stood up, Li Meng waved his hand, let them go and get busy, leaning on the position in the middle, separated a small space with a screen, Sun Chuanting with an iron mask was sitting there to deal with the government affairs of the papers, seeing Li Meng coming, Sun Chuanting helped the iron mask on his face, now this is his habitual action, the two exchanged pleasantries, Sun Chuanting picked up a scroll on the table, and said with a smile:

"It's a coincidence that Lord Guogong came, there is a letter from Mongolia that has just arrived, and it is about to be sent to Lord Guogong, nothing serious, Mr. Chen killed a few monks in the Golden Horde."