However, Dolgon was soon disappointed, and the Northern Expeditionary Army led by Cao Yue did not retreat, and there was not even any sign of retreat. Not only that, after discovering that the Qing army was moving, the Ming army also slowly moved the main position forward, preparing to take the initiative to fight a decisive battle with the Qing army.

This made Dolgon very puzzled, did Cao Yue not care about the survival of Nanjing, or was he not afraid of the threat of Zuo Liangyu's hundreds of thousands of horses?

Just when Dolgon was puzzled, his men reported that the Ming army had pushed their position forward two miles during the night, and their artillery had already reached the camp on the other side. Hearing this, Dorgon was taken aback and immediately went out of the camp to check on the situation.

Sure enough, the main position of the Ming army has been pushed forward within a distance, and in the telescope, you can see that the Ming army is busy building positions, digging trenches, and building earth walls, and the Ming army's test-fired artillery also rang out from time to time.

The target of the Ming army was Liaocheng, so the main positions they set up were built on the canal, and the formations of the Qing army were also close to both sides of the canal, in order to prevent the Ming army's attack and defend Liaocheng. In such a position, the Ming army pushed forward and pushed north along the bank of the canal, and their warships could still provide fire support.

The warships on the canal, after clearing the obstacles in the river, slowly sailed north to provide support to the Ming troops on the shore. And with the support of the warships in the canal, the two Guards divisions on the shore could quite calmly build positions. What's even worse is that when the Ming army quietly pushed the main position forward, it was at night, and the Qing army did not find it, and when it was discovered, the Ming army was already building the main position, and it had a certain scale.

During this time, it was difficult for the Qing army to find out the specific movements of the Ming army, and the elite detachments of the Ming army eliminated a lot of scouts from the Qing army. Especially at night. It is the world of the elite squad of the Ming army, and it can be regarded as an elite Qing scout, and it is not the opponent of the elite squad of the Ming army at all.

In the end, Dolgon was deeply afraid that the situation of attacking Datong would also happen, and the elite detachment of the Ming army infiltrated the camp of the Qing army to cause trouble, and was also afraid that more scouts would be eliminated. Such a countermeasure was to prevent the infiltration of the Ming army and come up for more than ten days. There were only two incidents when the Ming army infiltrated the camp and caused riots. However, this also caused the Qing army to not be able to discover the movements of the Ming army quickly, just as this time the Ming army secretly moved the main position forward at night, and the Qing army did not discover it in time.

Dolgon was extremely angry, but he didn't mess up, and immediately thought of taking advantage of the Ming army's forward position, the defense was not thorough, and everything was still chaotic, taking the opportunity to sneak attack. It was immediately ordered. launched a large-scale attack with 50,000 horses, hoping to take advantage of the chaos of the Ming army and inflict heavy losses on its troops.

But Dolgon was soon disappointed, and the Ming warships on the canal. There are also the artillery of the Ming army that has moved forward, and soon sent dense shells to the heads of the charging Qing army, and the Ming army musketeers who moved forward were also when the Qing army rushed to the front. Shoot a dense stream of bullets into the ranks of the Qing soldiers who charged.

Three successive waves of attacks lost more than 10,000 men and horses, and finally failed to break through the defense of the Ming army. Dolgon reluctantly ordered the troops to retreat.

The Ming army moved the main position forward two miles, and Dolgon could only move his large camp back two miles and retreat to the line close to Liaocheng.

In order to prevent the Ming army from continuing to move forward at night, Dolgon had to send scouts day and night to find out the movements of the Ming army.

But the Ming army still slowly pushed the main position forward along the canal, advancing a little bit every day.

Cao Yue was not in a hurry to fight a decisive battle with Jiannu, and he was not worried that Zuo Liangyu's rebellion would bring trouble to the rear, he believed that Zuo Liangyu's rebellion would be put down soon.

Now Cao Yue only cares about the 200,000 troops led by Dolgon in front of him. After nearly twenty days of fighting, Cao Yue had changed his original mind, he felt that it was possible to wipe out these 200,000 Jiannu, as long as Dolgon continued to fight in this way, and did not recall the hundreds of thousands of horses of Duoduo.

Moreover, Cao Yue also has another strange army, that is, Cao Bianjiao's Datong army.

Cao Yue believed that at this time, Cao Bianjiao had already led his troops to leave Datong and prepare to attack Beijing.

Those Ming generals who surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, Cao Yue believed that they could not resist Cao Bianjiao's attack, and the Jiannu who stayed in Beijing were only tens of thousands, and the defensive strength was not strong. Dolgon couldn't afford to gamble big and let Cao Bianjiao lead his army to attack Beijing.

Cao Yue's current strategy is to be steady and steady, not impatient or impatient. After re-establishing the slaves, he planned to advance half a mile to a mile every day, building field fortifications as he advanced. The newly built field fortifications were connected to the original ones, and if the situation was not right, it was possible to retreat along the trenches. And these field fortifications were an obstacle to the rapid attack of the cavalry, and even if the Jiannu had the ability to counterattack, the cavalry could not move quickly on the positions with field fortifications.

Jiannu set up a lot of obstacles on the canal near Liaocheng, but Jiannu did not have the ability to fill the canal, or divert the water in the canal to other places, so there was no way to stop the advance of the Ming warships. The obstacles in the canal where the site was set up were easily cleared, and the people in the vicinity could be mobilized if there was not enough labor.

The Ming army, which had not committed any offense against the people, gained the hearts of the people at the beginning of the war, and the brutal grain requisition action of the Qing army made more people flee south. These people who fled south were easily conscripted, and as long as they had rations to fill their stomachs, they would be willing to help you do things, so Cao Yue's army was supported by hundreds of thousands of people.

And Jiannu had little to do about the slow progress of the Ming army, and they couldn't help the Ming army with a frontal attack, and the flank detour or sneak attack was also unsuccessful. The Ming cavalry and the two guards divisions attached to it dealt a heavy blow to Jiannu, who was attacking and sneaking up on the roundabouts, and the powerful firepower - intensive musket fire, as well as the "bombardment" of thousands of grenades, made Jiannu suffer a lot.

As the days slowly passed, the position of the Ming army became closer and closer to the city wall of Liaocheng, and Jiannu, who could not help the Ming army's slow way of advancing, could only passively retreat backwards to avoid being bombarded by the artillery of the Ming army. But in the end, Jiannu reached the point where there was no way to retreat, because at this time, the main position of the Ming army had been pushed closer to less than three miles from Liaocheng, and their new artillery could hit the head of Liaocheng.

This made Dorgon anxious, but there was nothing he could do. And just when the artillery on the Ming warships on the canal and the new artillery advancing with the main position could hit the head of Liaocheng, Dolgon received another piece of bad news, that is, Cao Bianjiao of Datong led his troops to defeat Jiannu on the outskirts of the city, and rushed all the way to prepare to attack Beijing.

After receiving this news, Dorgon could no longer take it easy! (To be continued.) )