On a plain about seventy miles northwest of Liaocheng, the men and horses led by Cao Yue and Cao Bianjiao finally met.

"Cousin, I finally see you again," After punching Cao Bianjiao, who was running over quickly, Cao Yue hugged Cao Bianjiao, who had tears in his eyes, and laughed: "Cousin, I don't know how happy I am to see you leading the army to break through the south safely." ”

Cao Bianjiao, who had mixed feelings in his heart, after hugging Cao Yue tightly, also gave Cao Yue a punch in the chest: "Fifth brother, I'm really happy that our brothers meet again." You are so powerful, this time you actually defeated Dolgon in Liaocheng and fled, recovering the whole of Shandong. Jiannu has the superior force, you can hit it hard, and your military talent can only be worshiped for your brother!"

"Cousin, you praised it falsely," Cao Yue looked back at the five thousand men and horses he brought, and said with a smile: "Actually, the younger brother just changed his tactics and equipped a large number of firearms in the army, and used firearms as a sharp weapon to severely damage Jiannu." There is nothing new, as long as enough firearms can be made, anyone who commands the battle can defeat Jiannu. Jiannu is just a group of uncivilized, generally low productivity barbarians, as long as our Ming army and people are not pedantic and conservative, using our advanced technology, it will be easy to defeat them. In the days to come, the two of us brothers can fight side by side and defeat Jiannu together. ”

"Fifth brother, you also like to talk big," Cao Bianjiao punched Cao Yue in the chest again and wiped his eyes, "But Brother Wei likes your arrogance, now you are the nemesis of Jiannu, Dolgon has superior forces, and they have all suffered defeats under you, and this battle will not be so difficult to fight in the future." ”

"Cousin, everything will wait for us to go back to Liaocheng and settle down. Little brother wants to talk to you about the current situation and the appointment of you after you return!" Hearing Cao Yue say this, Cao Bianjiao was stunned for a moment, his expression was a little unnatural, but he finally nodded: "Well, wait until you settle down." Let's talk about it again. ”

Cao Yue originally led the army to leave Liaocheng and go to Linqing, but after hearing that Cao Bianjiao led the army to Liaocheng, he left Linqing with a group of men and horses and came to meet Cao Bianjiao. Today's Liaocheng has become the transit base of the Northern Expeditionary Army of the Ming Dynasty, most of the people and horses brought by the Red Lady are placed here, and the military supplies transported to the north are also temporarily stored here.

These tens of thousands of horses and tens of thousands of Red Lady's subordinates are all supernumerary troops of the Ming Guards. Cao Yue planned to reorganize it after this war subsided, and all of them were biased to the sequence of the Ming Guards. How to reorganize and who will lead the army after the reorganization, he will not decide these things immediately, and will definitely discuss them with Cao Bianjiao and the Red Lady.

According to Cao Yue's arrangement, Cao Bianjiao placed the men and horses he led outside Liaocheng City, and then entered the city with Cao Yue.

Cao Yue set up a sumptuous feast. Give Cao Bianjiao a meeting to wash the dust. Cao Bianjiao also responded to Cao Yue's request and told the process of the conquest he led during this time.

Cao Yue only knew. It turned out that the food, gunpowder and other materials in Datong City were almost exhausted, and Cao Bianjiao had no choice but to abandon the city and attack.

If the situation in the city is good, he will not abandon the city and take the initiative to attack. After all, the geographical location of Datong is very important, and it is the gateway to guard the Jiannu from the Mongolian Plateau to the south and invade the Central Plains. Especially in the case of the fall of most of the north, the position of Datong became more and more important. It's like a sharp knife stuck in the enemy's body, threatening the safety of Jiannu at all times.

This time he took the initiative to attack, Cao Bianjiao just left thousands of old, weak, sick and disabled people to continue to defend Datong, and did not give Jiannu the opportunity to easily capture Datong City. In Datong City, after all, there are still tens of thousands of people. They will also be the force that will defend the city. Annoyed and angry, Jiannu, if he breaks through Datong City, he will definitely come to slaughter the city. Cao Bianjiao abandoned the city and left to attack, it was a decision made after a lot of hesitation, giving up the tens of thousands of people in Datong City, as well as those old, weak, sick and disabled people, and Datong, an incomparably important city, he really couldn't bear it.

After several unsuccessful attacks on Datong City, Jiannu withdrew most of the main force, leaving only 30,000 or 40,000 horses to besiege Datong City. These besieged men and horses are mainly servant troops with weak combat effectiveness. Cao Bianjiao took the city by surprise and attacked, easily defeated these centaurs, and immediately attacked quickly in the direction of Beijing. His strategy also gave an explanation to the thousands of old, weak, sick and disabled people who stayed in Datong and tens of thousands of people.

The Ming officials and troops did not give up on them, but sought an opportunity to attack Beijing and recover the Ming Dynasty's Beijing division, even if Datong City finally fell into the hands of Jiannu, no one could complain about the Ming Dynasty army led by Cao Bianjiao. Compared with Beijing, the importance of Datong City is much less. Any bloody Ming general would not give up the opportunity to recover the city of Beijing, and no one could blame Cao Bianjiao for doing this.

However, Cao Bianjiao finally sighed: "Fifth brother, Datong is the place where you achieve prestige, and it is also the foundation of our Cao family. We must find a way to recover the north as soon as possible, rescue Datong, and not let the army and people of Datong down!"

"Cousin, the younger brother fully understands your helplessness, after all, now that most of the north has fallen, Datong has become an isolated city, and the use of tens of thousands of horses is not a small number, and it will definitely be difficult to support it after a long time. However, there are still tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians in Datong City, and they will definitely be able to fight the same enemy and resist the siege of Jiannu. Now that Dolgon is too busy to take care of himself, he should not have the opportunity to send a large number of reinforcements to attack Datong, and will still take measures to continue the siege, so Datong should still be able to hold on. When we have gained a firm foothold in Shandong, we will continue the Northern Expedition, recover Beijing, Jin'er will recover the entire north, drive Jiannu outside the Guan, and finally destroy them, and then Datong will be safe!" Subsequently, Cao Yue also told Cao Bianjiao about some of the arrangements he had made, including the preparation of the naval warship to attack Tianjin Wei, and the preparation of his preparations to gather heavy troops to fight a decisive battle with Jiannu in Cangzhou.

Listening to what Cao Yue said, Cao Bianjiao was of course surprised, he didn't expect Cao Yue to have such a big appetite, and he was not afraid of the comprehensive defense of hundreds of thousands of Jiannu, continued to attack north, and also adopted the way of dividing troops.

"Fifth brother, aren't you afraid of a complete rout in case of defeat?" Cao Bianjiao couldn't help but express his worries.

"Jiannu doesn't know that our naval division has attacked Tianjin Wei from the sea, they will gather most of their troops on the Cangzhou line in the south of Beizhili, and when our naval division soldiers capture Tianjin Wei, then they can attack Beijing urgently, or attack Cangzhou from behind, and attack Jiannu from both sides!" Cao Yue was not worried at all, and said very confidently: "Originally, I was worried that there were not enough generals around me who could stand alone, but now that you are back, cousin, don't worry about this, our brothers will work together to defeat Jiannu." ”

"Fifth brother, how are you going to arrange it?" Cao Bianjiao asked with a pun.

He wanted to know how Cao Yue was going to arrange him, as well as his people. (To be continued.) )