For the officials of the Ming court, they should strive to adapt in the midst of change; For the people of the Ming region, most of them benefited from the change; As for the enemy, the Qing army felt lost, confused and frightened in the midst of change.

The change involves the military, not only the change of weapons and equipment, but also the strategy and tactics, the offensive and defensive systems, and so on, and it is obviously difficult for the Qing army to adapt to it, and it is difficult to deal with it.

In Yizhou (Linyi), although the Qing army occupied the city, it was unable to repel the Poshuo army, and all three attacks ended in failure. If the threat could not be lifted, they did not dare to go north to flank the Shuo army in Jinan.

In Jinan, the Qing troops urgently transferred from Zhili and Henan were also unable to break through the defensive positions arranged by the Shuo army, and suffered heavy casualties in front of the trenches and breastoping walls, under the blows of muskets and artillery.

When the canal was dredged, the ships of the Ming army sailed into the Yellow River, and the Dangshuo army and the Zhengshuo army gathered on the bank of the Yellow River, preparing to cross the river to the north, the Qing army in Yizhou (Linyi) neither had enough troops to allocate to defend the Yellow River, nor did it dare to go north to flank the Ming army in Jinan.

It can be said that the landmark action of crossing the river in the Northern Expedition was completed very easily. The Ming army successfully crossed the river in Huai'an, continued to advance northward, took Shuyang, Xinyi, and Tancheng without a fight, and joined forces with the Shuo army in Linyi.

At this point, the Ming army had invested four armies in Shandong, plus the exterminating army that crossed the Yangtze River and entered the Jianghuai, with more than 200,000 men and horses, forming a strong military force on the eastern front, which seemed to have a tendency to directly point at the Beijing division.

In the southwest, the Zhenshuo army and the Qiushuo army combined forces to conquer the important town of Hanzhong and open the road to Ganshan. You must know that after the Yuan destroyed the Southern Song Dynasty, the Hanzhong Basin was assigned to Shaanxi, because the Qinling Mountains used to be the barrier of Sichuan during the confrontation between the Song and Jin Dynasty and the Song and Yuan Dynasties, and the rulers of the Yuan Dynasty still remember this. So that the northern part of the Hanzhong Basin, Shaanxi, has eliminated this barrier on a large distance. In other words, the natural obstacle that the Ming army really wanted to overcome was now the Qinling Mountains between the Guanzhong Plain and the southern Shaanxi region, not Hanzhong, which was unsafe to defend.

But obviously, as soon as Hanzhong was in place, Xi'an became the next target of the Ming army's attack, which had to deal with both Henan and Shaanxi. This is not what the Qing army stationed in Xi'an can do.

The entire defense line of the Qing army was finally shaken, and the Qing court was forced to admit that it was not allowed by strength to hold up such a large territory. In particular, this heavy punch on the Eastern Front, from the current point of view, is very similar to the route of Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang to destroy the Yuan. If the Ming army still acted according to such a strategy and marched from Shandong to Henan, it was very likely that a large number of Qing troops would be isolated between the Yangtze River and the Yellow River, and they would only be annihilated.

Judging from the overall battle situation, the eastern front is a ferocious straight right punch, and the western front is a tricky right hook. If the Ming armies of these two groups met in the Central Plains, it would be an even more unimaginable result.

The Qing court's original key defense was divided into three places, one was the Jianghuai Canal; One is Jingxiang, mainly with the Henan Green Flag and some of the Manchurian Eight Banners, stationed in Nanyang; Then the Ganshan Green Flag and the Xi'an Eight Banners were stationed in Baitu Pass, and Nanyang became a horn to resist; The other is Tianjin, where the Eight Banners of the Forbidden Brigade were transferred to garrison. Supplemented by the green flag soldiers of Zhili, it is thought to be the barrier of the Beijing division. There is another point that is not too important. is Baoning, Sichuan, the Qing court strictly ordered Gao Mingzhan and others to defend to the death, and it is indeed impossible to draw troops to support.

Now, Jianghuai has been lost, Baoning has fallen, and the Qing army defending Jingxiang's Ming army has been under the attack of the three armies of Zhenshuo, Zhengshuo, and Fashuo. The Qing army in Nanyang and even the whole of Henan faced the flank threat of the Ming army in Shandong, and as for Tianjin, the threat of the Ming army's naval division was still there.

In this case, Shandong is clearly the most threatening, because the Jingshi is the most important. The Qing court had realized that such a division of troops was a mistake. The Ming army was stronger than they had estimated, and its strength was stronger, and once it was concentrated in one direction, it would be difficult to resist the division of troops and garrisons. And every time there is a loss, it is not only the territory that is lost, but also the soldiers.

The contraction and build-up again were unprecedented. The Qing court must rush to concentrate enough troops to compete with the Ming army in Shandong before it advances into Beijing, more than 200,000 troops, and the Qing court no longer dares to say that there are several enemies. What's more, this is not all there is to the Ming army. Because, the situation caused by the fall of Shandong is too prominent, and if the defense line is reorganized, it can only be in Hejian (now Cangzhou). In order to maintain the integrity and tightness of the entire defense line around Beijing, the Qing army could only abandon Ganshan, most of Shanxi, and most of Henan, and shrink the army to Zhili.

In fact, this is also the key to the Ming army's heavy investment in opening up the battlefield in Shandong. As long as it has a firm foothold in Shandong and continues to increase its troops, it will be able to make the Qing court ignore a single Qiē in order to keep the Beijing division. Whether it is to attack the enemy and save Zhao, it is certain that the Jingshi is the death hole of the Qing court. At least before the Manchus decided to retreat to Liaodong and return to local separatist power, it would be most effective to attack Beijing, or make such a gesture.

The Manchu strategic retreat did not only mean that the Ming army could easily recover vast areas, but also meant the disintegration of the Manchu clique. Not many people are willing to leave their homes, not many people are willing to stay away from their loved ones, and not many people are willing to be on the side of the losers. After all, a wrecked ship that is about to sink is not easy for most people to escape.

Therefore, every retreat of the Manchu Qing means a split of the original pro-Qing clique. This can already be seen from Jianghuai, in the process of retreating, a large number of Han officers and soldiers either mutinied or fled, and in the end, it is good to be able to leave one-third of it. Among them, the green camp is the most strict.

…………

"Zhao Ming!"

"In!"

"Wang Zhan!"

"In!"

………

With a sound of registration, more than 300 people walked out of the queue, stood tall and stood in the autumn wind.

The Ming army's counteroffensive was all-round, although there were main and secondary, focused, and contained, but the operation in Liaodong continued. In response to the request for additional troops, the Dengleliao Joint Command, in addition to forming an independent naval division, also asked the imperial court to prepare to use cavalry trained on Jeju Island.

Obviously, it is impossible to dispatch all the thousands of cavalry for the time being, but if you train in battle, it is also a good way to improve your combat effectiveness. And each dispatch of 300 horsemen is the result of calculations and calculations by all parties.

Gao Dejie put his hands behind his back, and looked aggressively at the three hundred warriors selected out, this will be the first batch of cavalry he led to the expedition, and the time has finally come to verify the "wall cavalry". The feeling of galloping on the battlefield for a long time, his heart is full of anticipation. (To be continued......)