But something happened to Dorgon's surprise.

While he had several secret talks with Duoduo and finally developed a new strategy and was ready to put it into action, a Ming army suddenly appeared far from Guide and quickly fled south after defeating a Qing army.

This Ming army, which numbered at least 30,000 to 40,000 people, was not equipped with very large-scale firearms, but it was all cavalry, and its combat effectiveness was very strong. After easily defeating the Han army and the Korean army of the Qing Dynasty that encountered them head-on, they calmly left and marched in the direction of Henan and Shandong.

Dolgon was shocked when he heard the report, and immediately organized his men and horses to pursue, but in the end he was a step too late, and the Ming army that suddenly appeared south of Beizhili escaped.

Dolgon was afraid that this was a sneak attack by the Ming army, and he knew that the cavalry in Cao Yue's hands had not been used well. He also believed that the combat effectiveness of the cavalry in Cao Yue's hands was not bad, and he had not used it for a long time, and he was waiting for an opportunity. It is not ruled out that Cao Yue made other arrangements, so that the cavalry army would take the opportunity of the main battlefield battle to carry out another large-scale sneak attack.

At that time, Cao Yue led his army through the dense defense of the Qing army, and the fact that he attacked Shengjing and succeeded was a shadow that Dolgon could not linger for the rest of his life.

However, after personally capturing a few Ming prisoners through interrogation, the angry Dolgon finally learned that this Ming army was Cao Bianjiao's men and horses who had inflicted heavy losses on the Qing army outside Datong and finally disappeared on the way to attack Beijing. This result made Dolgon breathe a sigh of relief, Cao Yue didn't use tricks anymore, and didn't send elite men and horses to carry out a sneak attack, so the sense of crisis didn't need to be so strong.

After figuring out the specific situation of this Ming army, Dolgon also knew that Cao Bianjiao's departure from Datong and his preparation to attack Beijing were all bluffs, and the purpose was only to break out of the encirclement and join Cao Yue's Northern Expeditionary Army.

Cao Bianjiao's men and horses moved very quickly, and the advance route was very difficult to grasp. Knowing that Cao Bianjiao's men had defeated the Qing army in the outlying cities of Datong, Dorgon feared that his men would take advantage of the situation to attack Beijing. Therefore, the defenders of Beijing were strictly ordered to be on guard, and sent a detachment of men and horses back to the rescue and prepared to intercept Cao Bianjiao's troops. It's just that soon Cao Bianjiao's tens of thousands of troops disappeared, and their whereabouts could not be detected. The intercepted men and horses did not encounter Cao Bianjiao's troops, and this army of tens of thousands of people seemed to have disappeared from the horizon.

Of course, this is all the work of the soldiers of the special guard battalion sent by Cao Yue to support Cao Bianjiao's department, and they successfully blocked the news of Cao Bianjiao's department by attacking and killing Jiannu's scouts, making it difficult for Jiannu to detect.

Dolgon had been speculating that Cao Bianjiao's men did not show up in Beijing. Where did it end up. Originally, Dolgon estimated that Cao Bianjiao's men and horses might cross the Great Wall and attack Liaodong in the name of attacking Beijing, just like Cao Yue led his army to attack Shengjing. He was afraid that Shengjing would be attacked by the Ming army again, so he also strictly ordered the Qing army outside the pass to strengthen its vigilance.

But in the end, Cao Bianjiao's men and horses chose to break through to the south and join Cao Yue of the Northern Expedition, which was somewhat unexpected by Dorgon.

Although this possibility Dolgon had already thought about it. However, Dolgon believed that the defense of Datong, which was a headache for the Qing army, had good combat effectiveness. Cao Yue and Cao Bianjiao are both adventurous, since they both like to take risks. It is very likely that Cao Bianjiao will lead this army with good combat effectiveness to attack Beijing or attack Shengjing, so as to reap miraculous results. If it were replaced by him, it would be possible to do the same, after all, most of the strength of the Qing army is now. They are all concentrated on the Yellow River, and there are not many people left behind in Beijing and Shengjing, so the surprise attack may be successful.

Even if it doesn't work out. At least it can deter the Qing army and contain a Qing army. Or retreat to Datong and hold the fortified city of Datong, which also strategically constitutes a containment of Datong, which can also be well coordinated with Cao Yue's Northern Expedition. In Dolgon's mind, the Ming army led by Cao Bianjiao broke through to the south, which should be the next policy, and he couldn't understand why Cao Bianjiao did this.

However, Dolgon was still very angry and blamed himself for not being wary of Cao Bianjiao's southward movement, and let him come and go freely, and he also knew that with the addition of this new force, Cao Yue's Northern Expedition army was even stronger. Although Duoduo and Azig's men and horses returned to help, it would be difficult for the Ming army to achieve victory if they continued to fight steadily.

Cao Bianjiao's men and horses can easily break through from the range of the Qing army's defense, which shows that this team's mobility ability is very good. Now the strategy formulated by the Qing army is to outflank in a big roundabout, cutting off the Ming army's ammunition supply road, so that the Ming army's firearms cannot play a role, and Cao Bianjiao's men and horses show such combat power, so that the success of the new strategy is cast a shadow again.

And at this time, Dolgon received another bad news, that is, Li Zicheng, who was beaten by Duoduo and Azig and had no power to fight back, made a comeback again after the Qing army returned to rescue Beizhili and Shandong.

The scale of the rogues, which had originally declined sharply, expanded rapidly again, and Li Zicheng's men and horses became hundreds of thousands. These hundreds of thousands of horses, unwilling to accept the previous defeat, after the reorganization of Shaanxi, once again swore to the east, ready to recapture the lost Shaanxi, Henan and other places, and avenge the previous revenge.

"Could it be that Cao Yue and Liukou have colluded, and they have joined forces to attack my Qing army?" After receiving that Li Zicheng's troops were preparing to launch a counterattack, Dolgon frowned and muttered to himself. If the Ming army and the Liukou ice release their previous suspicions and unite to deal with the Qing army, then the Qing army will continue to fight on two fronts, and it is still unknown whether it will have the strength to deal with it.

Dolgon had a headache, and the fiasco in the Battle of Liaocheng had greatly reduced his self-confidence, and he was a little skeptical that the Qing army could withstand the attacks of the Ming army and the Liukou on both fronts. It's just that things have become like this, and the Qing army can only deal with it with all its might, at least to ensure that Beijing and the entire Beizhili are not lost, and then find a way to break the Ming army and the Liukou.

Cao Yue naturally also received the rogue led by Li Zicheng, and turned from a rout to a strategic counteroffensive. The situation of Li Zicheng's troops has become like this, and the main purpose of the Northern Expedition of the Ming army has basically been achieved. Cao Yue also immediately issued a secret order, all actions were slowed down, if Jiannu greatly increased his troops in Cangzhou, then the attack on Cangzhou would be delayed, and he was not in a hurry to attack.

Cao Bianjiao's troops moved south from the west of Guide Mansion at a swift speed, defeated the Jiannu they encountered along the way, and finally broke out of the sphere of influence of Jiannu's heavy garrison and entered Henan.

He also immediately sent men and horses to the west to pick up Cao Bianjiao's troops to Shandong and join his army.

At the end of July, when the heat was fading, Cao Bianjiao's men and horses arrived near Liaocheng, and Cao Yue personally took a group of people to meet them. (To be continued.) )