The fifth day of December in the seventeenth year of Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty.

After a month-long trial and small-scale sentinel battles, cavalry battles, and outpost battles, the Ming and Qing armies on both sides of the Yellow River finally knew each other's strategic needs.

For the Ming army, crossing the Yellow River, conquering Dezhou, completely driving the Qing army out of Shandong, and threatening Tianjin and Jingshi, this strategic goal was completed.

As far as the Qing army is concerned, the Shandong battlefield has no intention of forging ahead for the time being, as long as the momentum of the Ming army can be defeated and the current situation can be maintained, it will be considered a success.

Strategically, the Qing army was indeed conservative, but in terms of tactics, because of the arrival of Abatai and Yue Le and others, there were completely different changes from before.

The three battalions of the Pinglu army led by Zhang Quanbin and Cao Qing led their troops to Xuzhou on November 10, and after Sun Chuanting received and commended them, Zhang Quanbin's name spread from the Pingyu army to the entire Xuzhen and Shandong.

By the end of the month, the entire northern battlefield was spreading the names of the battalion officers of the three battalions of the Pingyu Army going north.

Of course, the three of them are all standard commanders, because they have to keep it secret to prevent the Qing army from knowing the scale of the mobilization of the Pingyu army, and they are suppressed at this level.

Arrived in Xuzhou, did not stay for two days, the three battalions of the Pingyu army went directly north, in Jinan, Zhu Dadian had been waiting for them for a long time.

Shandong's official road is far worse than that of Huaixu, and the people at that time originally went north from Jining to Linqing and Dezhou, all the way up from the canal, which was more convenient and trouble-free.

The dry road from Tai'an all the way to Jinan will be chosen by people who are about the shortest distance in this province.

It was in disrepair and there were many baggage, and it was very difficult for the battalions to march.

Fortunately, there was no rain in winter, and although the road was dusty and disgraced, there was no rain, and the mud would not hinder the movement, which was a great blessing in misfortune.

Out of the Xuzhou boundary, you can clearly feel the spirit of Bing Ge along the way, and when you arrive at the boundary of Jinan Prefecture, this feeling is even more obvious. Everywhere there are generals and officers and soldiers who have been conscripted and transferred to the front line, and the military flags and recognition flags are simply impossible to see, and every 100 miles walked, the number of soldiers who feel it is increasing, and the breath of war is getting stronger and stronger.

Three battalions of officers and soldiers, 1,000 auxiliaries, each battalion has about 1,000 soldiers, plus the battalion has directly subordinate military judges and gendarmes, heralds, orders, orders, sentinels, guards, as well as directly subordinate cavalry and artillery, all the soldiers are about 5,300 people, all of them are wearing marching clothes, beautiful copper buttons are lined up in two rows on the chest, standing collars, breeches, black knee-length leather boots, even when marching, it is also a neat formation, and when they arrive at the camp in Jinan Mansion, this army looks far different from the ordinary, It immediately sparked a frenzy of onlookers.

On a Yuan Rong car, Zhu Dadian, who was not wearing a civilian robe, but wearing a stomach, watched intently as the three battalions of the Pingyu Army slowly entered the camp tent.

On his side, his son Zhu Wanhua stood by the sword, and together with Zhu Dadian, he stared intently at the soldiers of the Pingyu Army.

Here in Shandong, in terms of establishment, it is still the old system of the previous Ming army, Zhu Dadian is not subject to the orders of foreign monarchs, and there is a lack of interest in adapting anything, and in order to stabilize the situation in Shandong, Zhu Cihong has to be left to him, as for the soldiers of the Pingyu Army, Zhu Dadian is also the first time to see it, and the situation in Jinan is very different from Xuzhou Suizhou and other places.

Last year, Xu Du in Dongyang, Zhejiang gathered people to rebel, there were no soldiers in eastern Zhejiang, Zhu Dadian was impeached and left in his hometown, and in order to calm the place, he sent his son to recruit troops to fight thieves.

The Zhu family is also a prominent family in the local area, although the family is not rich and there are not many recruits, but Zhu Wanhua's tiger father has no dogs, and the bandits were quelled in a short time.

But Zhu Dadian offended the Donglin Party too deeply, and soon after the rebellion, Zhu Wanhua was slandered as a rebel against the party, and the Donglin Patrol immediately reported it, and as a result, the court immediately raided the Zhu family, and Zhu Wanhua was also arrested and imprisoned.

If it weren't for Zhu Cihong, I'm afraid his future would not be good, and the Zhu family would be very depressed.

The efforts of the Zhu family father and son in Shandong are definitely related to their personal loyalty to Zhu Cihong.

"How do they wear armor like this? However, father, such a dress is really majestic and majestic. ”

"This is a regular uniform, as well as a military uniform for training and combat, and the outer armor and stomach are just used when fighting."

"I see."

Zhu Wanhua smiled and said: "His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has spent a lot of effort on this leveling army, father, just judging from the speed of the march, dress, queue, and morale, it should be an elite army." ”

Zhu Dadian shook his head slowly and said: "It also depends on the performance of the battle, the elite soldiers are fought, and the Pingyu Army of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is a new army in nine out of ten, whether it can be fought or not depends on training." ”

Zhu Wanhua has led soldiers anyway, and he has accumulated a lot of experience in suppressing bandits and fighting thieves here in Shandong, and his father's words are very reasonable, he nodded silently, and he didn't say more.

"Let's go, my father is going to greet Lord Taibao, and he also came with the standard battalion soldiers and the Pingyu army." Zhu Dadian didn't say much anymore, but said concisely and brightly: "Summoning the deputy generals of the general army to participate in the guerrilla attack, and greet the Taibao together at Yuanmen." ”

"Yes, son, I'll do it."

Zhu Wanhua is also according to the tradition of the Ming army, the Chinese army is a confidant with his own heart, and he can lead the troops, so he is naturally a Chinese officer in Shandong appointed by Zhu Dadian.

At that moment, it was to get off the car and get on the horse, and assign flag officers to give orders everywhere, and for a time in the neat and orderly camp, there were flags of the Chinese army with flying horses and orders, and among the battalions, the qualified generals were also preparing one after another, with the arrival of the main force of Xu Zhen and the Pingyu Army, the curtain of a major military operation was finally slowly opened.

………… While Zhu Dadian was observing the Pingyu Army, the three battalions of the Pingyu Army also slowly entered the pre-prepared camp and began to line up in a row of 50 people.

Cao Qing, Zhang Quanbin, and Jin Qianli, surrounded by a large number of staff officers, were also waiting for the large camp to be arranged by the Chinese army, so it was definitely impossible for so many soldiers to live in houses, so they could only camp in tents.

Fortunately, marching all the way is also a good exercise for the soldiers' ability to set up camp, at least, at this time, all the soldiers of the Pingyu Army are standing neatly, each platoon, each post, and then to each team, a team is a small phalanx, six teams form a battalion phalanx, and the three battalion phalanxes leave a passage for communication in advance, and the two wings are also open spaces connected with the cavalry.

In the middle of each formation were spearmen and iron halberders, and although they were not armoured, the weapons in their hands were extremely sharp and radiated a cold light.

In contrast, those Ming soldiers in iron armor were also a little weaker in momentum.

After all, in terms of aura details, the decorations and the whole of the Pingyu Army are already more than this era.

The four corners of the phalanx are the musketeers carrying light and heavy firearms, each team has several carts, the members of the artillery crew are guarded around the carts, the body is artillery of different calibers, cannons and gunpowder are carried with the car, many curious Ming soldiers rushed over, while looking at the artillery on the convoy, while letting out a sigh of admiration...... They originally wanted to praise these brother troops for their strict military discipline and super equipment, but these soldiers were not good at words, and when they reluctantly said something, they were forced to retreat by the eyes of the artillery crew.

While a large number of soldiers from Shandong Town came to watch, Zhang Quanbin and others also looked at the situation in the camp.

The large battalion was built along the semi-slope-shaped terrain in the southeast corner of Jinan, and the soldiers and horses of the Shandong headquarters, plus the soldiers and horses of Xuzhen who kept catching up, as well as the masters of the requisitioned places, the soldiers and horses of the two towns are expected to be the soldiers of the eight battalions as the main assault force, and the remaining three or four battalions as the second-level garrison and mobile force...... Of course, this is a very steady approach, whether it is the Shandong battlefield or the Henan battlefield, what we have to do now is only to attract the attention of the Qing army instead of fighting a decisive battle, and the goal is to relieve a little pressure on the invading army in the northwest...... Of course, only a few people such as Zhu Dadian and Sun Chuanting know this, after all, Daming has been fighting with thieves for more than ten years, and Shandong has also been ravaged by thieves, if the soldiers and generals know that what they are doing now is only to help the thieves, I am afraid that morale will be seriously low.

As a governor-level figure, Zhu Dadian agrees with this strategic judgment. He has long been like the limited number of sober ministers in the court, thinking that the eastern captives are the most urgent and terrible threats, and what is a thief is a fart, it is a big joke.

Although the crown prince is not interested in Yanjing now, it is also necessary to try the water.

Although it was a sortie with limited strategic objectives, it was very hard in terms of tactics, and in front of Zhang Quanbin, Cao Qing and others, there were soldiers of the Ming army wearing iron armor and waving various banners everywhere.

Shandong was originally an inner town, in the Ming Dynasty only focused on the nine sides of the tradition of not the interior, the Lu army was a very weak military town, in the Ming Dynasty more than ten years of civil war and foreign war, the Lu army rarely performed, or said, there are few records.

On the contrary, when Kong Youde was in rebellion, Denglai and other places were taken by the original Dongjiang army, and almost all parts of the country were slaughtered, and the Lu army had no choice but to lose face in front of the world.

Later, Zhu Dadian was appointed as the governor of Shandong, leading Zu Kuan and Wu Sangui and other Liao troops to attack, and won the battle, and it took more than a year to finally recover Denglai.

Later, if Zhu Dadian hadn't been driven away, I'm afraid Lu Jun's performance would have been stronger.

Of course, it is not too late now, after half a year, Zhu Dadian has so many soldiers and horses in various parts of Shandong, Shi Teng Ma Yue, bright armor and bright helmet, strict military discipline, it is also extremely rare.

There are even more flags near the big tent of the Chinese army, the flag of the superintendent battalion of Shandong, the main military camp of the general soldiers, and the flag of the Qi military camp of the deputy generals, waving in the wind, crackling by the north wind.

There is also a banner of the superintendent with the words "Three Armies Division" who came to Xu Zhen, and under this banner is the commander's camp tent of Sun Chuanting.

(To be continued)