Since the Ming army entered Shandong, these local tyrants have sent people to work the army, and they have not only sent grain, but also several carts of gunpowder. However, their support for the imperial court basically ended there. They knew that if they completely ignored the imperial army, they might be wiped out as a model. But if you support the imperial court too much, if the officers and soldiers lose, they will also be frantically retaliated by the rebels. Although their dock fort will effectively defend against the rebels, the rebels will also kill chickens to show the monkeys at any cost in order to deter other local tyrants - so the local tyrants will not easily break the tacit understanding between them and the court and the rebels.

Zhang Chengye nodded at Fu Tianjun: "Do your best, how much you can get." ”

Fu Tianjun and the other staff officers pursed their lips, bowed and saluted, "Obey, my lord." ”

After the meeting ended, Zhang Chengye asked Xu Ping to stay alone: "Keqin, I don't blame you for this incident, but if there is such a thing in the future, you might as well agree verbally, and then come back to me immediately, don't be afraid to make trouble for me." ”

Xu Ping lowered his head in shame, only to feel Zhang Chengye pat him heavily on the shoulder, only to hear the king of the mountain thirty years ago say: "Keqin, when I was your age, I was still robbing homes and houses, and I was still trying to make money and kill people. At that time, there was not a knife on my waist that forced me to kill a family for a glass of wine, a tael of silver, or even a word. ”

Zhang Chengye touched his white hair, he remembered that the last time he killed the people was on the way to escape from Guangning to Lushun with the Marquis of Zhendong...... Then, I don't know when it began, Zhang Chengye found that he had changed, he was still killing, but he was killing robbers who slaughtered women and children, and thieves who plundered the land, and the people cheered him, invited him to drink, and sent blessings and praises without hesitation.

"Later, I followed Master Hou to save a lot of people, many, many people...... Because I have reformed, the court is no longer to blame, and everyone has forgotten my past. But every time in the dead of night, I sweat when I think back to the sins I committed when I was younger. Zhang Chengye's voice was no longer loud, revealing a somewhat old look: "Keqin, you are still so young, don't be afraid of making mistakes, let alone give up on yourself." Just like Hou Ye said, people are not afraid of making mistakes, they are afraid that one mistake will be a lifetime, and they will not repent of making mistakes. ”

……

After leaving Zhang Chengye's tent, Xu Ping went to Fu Tianjun and instructed him: "All the silver stored in the camp will be exchanged for food." ”

Fu Tianjun replied with a bitter face: "My lord, there are only more than 1,000 taels left, and I don't know if the military salary for next month can be allocated on time." ”

"I still have some here," Xu Ping took out a small cloth bag and handed over ten small gold ingots to Fu Tianjun: "Take them all." ”

Fu Tianjun looked at the little gold in his hand, smacked his lips and said helplessly: "Now that the price of grain is so expensive, how many stones of grain can this be exchanged for?" The adults don't have a lot of money, so this must be all the savings of the adults, and I think it's ......."

"How much can you get," Xu Ping pushed Fu Tianjun's outstretched arm back, forcing him to accept the gold: "We can't rob the house, right?" ”

On the 16th, the Evergreen Battalion received an order to continue the offensive. When he heard the news, Xu Ping was eating, and after hearing the order, he continued to eat unhurriedly, and at the same time asked the officers around him not to panic: "Anyway, it will be delayed for several days, and I am not in a hurry for this time." ”

The day before yesterday, Zhang Chengye showed Xu Ping and Wu Zhong the secret order sent by the New Army, which was not issued by the General Staff Division, but Zhao Wanxiong directly wrote a handwritten letter from Zhang Chengye, with only eight words on it: Shao'an, don't be impatient, come back and talk about it.

"What does this mean, sir?"

"I don't know, but one thing is certain, Lord Zhao's meaning must be what Hou Ye means, continue to suppress bandits."

At Xu Ping's insistence, it was not until the whole battalion of twelve guns was dragged across the pontoon bridge of the Daqing River that the new army launched an attack.

At noon on the 17th, Xu Ping commanded 1,300 cavalry and more than 200 artillery to arrive at the county seat of Changqing. The Ming army repeatedly bombarded the city walls with artillery, and the two small guns of the rebels in the city were also desperately fighting back, but the rebel artillery was obviously not comparable to the well-trained gunners of the new army. Xu Ping took the binoculars to observe the firing effect of the artillery, five days ago this Changqing was just an empty city, but now the rebels not only brought in two small cannons, but more than a thousand defenders.

"The rebels are well concealed, and there are only a few observation posts in the city." Xu Ping sighed again and again, the banner of "Dongjiang Army for Tianxingdao" always fluttered on the city gate, as if mocking the incompetence of the Ming army. After the two small cannons were suppressed, Xu Ping decided not to wait any longer: "Let the infantry attack, we don't have time or enough gunpowder to completely collapse this city." ”

The Ming army cautiously approached the trench, and when the sappers started to fill in a path from the ditch, Xu Ping did not see any reaction from the rebels. But when the Ming army approached the wall and began to dig the corners, as the flags were unfurled, hundreds of rebels suddenly appeared by the wall and began to attack the Ming army with bows, stones and a small number of firearms. Xu Ping watched the battle, and so far, the movement of the enemy army has not surprised him.

The firepower of the rebels did not pose much of a threat to the iron-clad Ming army. Eight six-pounder guns of the Ming army fired non-stop, and the musketeers behind the trenches also tilted their fire towards the rebels. As the sand and gravel flew over the wall, Xu Ping was satisfied to see the rebels suppressed back from the wall. At this moment, a white mist suddenly rose from the side of a wall that had never been outcropped in the distance, and soon a dull cannon sound reached Xu Ping's ears, and he nodded: "Sure enough, there is a tiger squatting cannon." ”

After the rebels' concealed tiger squat cannon opened fire, the Ming artillery also immediately discovered the opponent's firing point, and two of the reserved nine-pounder guns immediately turned around and opened fire aimed at the rebels' artillery. Xu Ping picked up the binoculars again to observe the enemy situation, after the first round of test firing, the second round of artillery of the Ming army was very close to the target, and a shell destroyed the wall stacks next to the rebel tiger squatting, and a rebel in Xu Ping's telescope fell down holding his chest.

However, they did not flee in hiding or carrying artillery as Xu Ping expected, but still desperately charged the tiger squat there, and fired another cannon at the Ming army by the wall. Their shot knocked two Ming soldiers to the ground. But the vengeful nine-pounder shells immediately and accurately found them, and Xu Ping watched as the rebel soldiers were knocked down by the rubble. The nine-pounder continued to fire, and finally a shell hit the Tiger Squat Cannon directly, knocking it to its feet and tumbling away from the telescope's field of view.

Soon after, the Ming army discovered another Tiger Squat Cannon of the rebels. The position of this cannon is not very good, it is placed too far away. When its gunner moved towards the Ming army with the cannon, it was discovered by the Ming army, and under the fierce and accurate fire of the Ming army, the gun was swept out of the field before it could be fired.

After blowing up the city wall into a slope, the Ming heavy infantry began to climb to the top of the city. The pikemen took up their defensive positions, the musketeers followed for cover, and the artillerymen, guided by the infantry, cleared the towers of the rebels from the resistance fire. The first Ming soldier climbed the tower, pulled down the rebel flag with great force, waved it a few times in the direction of Xu Ping, and then threw it from the air to the ground.

"The rebels shouldn't be stubborn, right?"

Xu Ping soon got the answer. While the Ming army opened the north gate, the remaining rebels began to withdraw from the city through the south gate. Cao Yun waited for the order to pursue with excitement on his face, but Xu Ping seemed a little hesitant, and unexpectedly hesitated for a moment before ordering: "Brother Cao, take all the cavalry to pursue, if the thieves are scattered, you can attack, otherwise you must not attack without authorization." ”

"Yes, my lord." Cao Yun couldn't wait to take a hundred cavalry to chase the enemy soldiers.

Seeing that Xu Ping did not have any further orders, a staff officer behind him reminded: "My lord, do you want to send infantry to cooperate with the horse team?" ”

"Well, our main task at the moment is to capture Changqing," Xu Ping looked a little careless, and ordered without thinking: "First the detachment will search the city and confirm that there are no thieves." ”

Soon after, Cao Yun sent someone to report to Pegasus, and the herald shouted: "Your Excellency, there are more than 700 thieves, and the horse team has forced the thieves to retreat in formation, and the movement is very slow. Cao Jiang asked the general to send infantry to chase after him and wipe out all the thieves. ”

Xu Ping absentmindedly slapped the horsewhip on his hand, and only after a long time did he turn his head sideways and ask Zhou Dongtian: "What do you think of Brother Zhou?" Should we send infantry in pursuit? ”

"Most of the thieves have no armor and very few firearms," Zhou Dongtian wondered why Xu Ping asked himself this question, this kind of improvised decision can be completely decided by Xu Ping in one word. He honestly reported: "Send four or five hundred infantry, and you will probably be able to break them up." ”

"Well," Xu Ping looked around thoughtfully, and said to himself, "Maybe there are thieves ambushing nearby, just waiting for me to disperse some of my troops." ”

Without waiting for Zhou Dongtian and the other staff officers to answer, Xu Ping said: "Order Cao to return the general and stop the pursuit." ”

……

In the course of the attack on Qinghe, the Ming army killed more than 200 rebels, while their own side also paid the price of 17 killed and 56 wounded. After the Qinghe River was put in order, Xu Ping marched eastward according to the plan, trying to seize a ferry or shoal on the Shahe River as soon as possible. However, there were many rebels here, and Xu Ping's actions were quickly discovered by the rebels, and when his sappers began to try to build a pontoon bridge, hundreds of rebels appeared on the opposite bank.

Xu Ping's subordinates could not brave the other party's fire to build a pontoon bridge, so they had to retreat to the west bank. Seeing that the artillery could not arrive before dark anyway, Xu Ping ordered to set up camp.

At noon on the 18th, after Xu Ping's artillery arrived at the shore, the rebels retreated with great interest. By the time the Changqing battalion arrived behind Xu Ping, the sappers had already erected the pontoon bridge.

When Zhang Chengye arrived at the front line, he saw Xu Ping transporting the first cannon to the east bank of the Shahe River and asked, "Do you plan to build a bridgehead on the other side?" ”

"Yes, sir." Xu Ping briefly introduced the results of the sappers' reconnaissance, and they believed that only this place in the vicinity had a slower current: "After we cross the river, we can further threaten the bandits, contain the bandits' forces, and share the pressure for the main force to attack Jinan head-on." In addition, it can also prevent thieves from sneaking through this area and sneaking up on our army. ”

"Well, that's good." Zhang Chengye approved Xu Ping's plan: "Did Keqin reconnoiter the enemy situation on the other side? ”

"Yes, the thieves have noticed this, and they have set up a camp on the other side. Our army made a tentative attack once, lost dozens of people, and it was not easy to fight. Xu Ping did not intend to continue to go deeper into the east coast, and he explained his judgment to Zhang Chengye: "After all, the main force of the rebel army is gathered, and the number may be as many as tens of thousands. According to the original plan, it would be good to let the Shanlan battalion cover our flank, our army has already missed a good opportunity, and now it will not be able to advance far if it is barely advancing, but it may lose 10% of its troops. ”

"Then let's go on the defensive." Zhang Chengye knew that Xu Ping had always been full of spirit, and now that even he didn't approve of the attack, it was time to stop. Zhang Chengye ordered the whole army to adjust the formation, Xu Ping with six guns to the east, Wu Zhong with the remaining half of the artillery to defend in the direction of the horse mountain, while he himself sat in the center. After completing the deployment of the Changqing Battalion, Zhang Chengye ordered a message to be sent to the Shanlan Battalion, asking them to immediately deploy the defense near the Qinghe River and form a horn with the Changqing Battalion.

"Jinan, Jinan." While reinforcing the bridgeheads on both sides of the Shahe River, Xu Ping crossed his fingers to calculate the progress of the main frontal force.

If the main force is progressing normally, the superintendent's camp should have arrived in Qihe County, and the fire battalion is building a pontoon bridge over the Changqing River. With eight battalions of the main force of the new army and 96 artillery pieces, Xu Ping had no worries about the resistance of the rebels. Once the canal is completed, the new army will march towards Jinan in unison, using its absolute superiority in firepower and weapons to squeeze out the rebels.

"In a few days, the thieves will have to prepare to flee to Henan. The local wealthy families will completely fall to our army, and Ding Zhuang, who is wrapped in thieves, will also begin to flee in large numbers, and when the time comes, as long as they pursue closely, they can inflict heavy losses on the thieves. Xu Ping felt that the victory was too simple, and it could be called no danger or danger, and he believed that the generals of the other battalions would have similar feelings: "In any case, in the face of the overwhelming superiority of the new army of the 10th battalion, the thieves have no chance." In this way, our department can be considered decent, and the rest of the battles will be left to the friendly forces. ”

On the 20th, when Xu Ping supervised the construction of the camp, when he saw the banner of the Shanlan camp appear in his field of vision, his surprise could not be described in words. Xu Ping rode his horse and waited on the side of the road, and when he saw the general flag of the commander of the Shanlan battalion, he immediately stepped forward. Wei Landu, the leader of the team, was transferred by Yang Zhiyuan from Fujian and Fang Mingda together, and the last time I saw that Yang Zhiyuan ordered the promotion of the experience of the Evergreen Camp, Wei Landu actively helped, and the two formed a good friendship.

After greeting him, Xu Ping immediately asked, "Brother Wei, shouldn't your battalion stick to Changqing?" ”

Wei Landu, who commanded the vanguard of the Shanlan battalion, smiled bitterly and said to Xu Ping: "Brother Xu, we have just received an order from the Inspector to continue our battalion to march south towards Feicheng. ”

"Fat City?" In Xu Ping's impression, it is a hundred miles away from here, and he has to cross the mountain first: "Why do you want to go?" ”

"I don't know, Lord Zhao Qinyong has written to Lord Fang, let's continue to obey the orders of Lord Inspector to suppress the bandits, then let's go."

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