The Denglai area is located at the eastern end of the Shandong Peninsula, surrounded by the sea on three sides, and the further east it goes, the narrower it becomes, and there is not much strategic depth.

In the case of sufficient troops, the Liaodong Army will definitely hold on to Laizhou, because once it retreats to Dengzhou, there will be no room for maneuver.

Except for Weixian in the north, which belongs to the salient and serves as a stronghold ready to abandon at any time.

The other strongholds, Li Xianzhong, are not ready to give up.

He ordered Lu Xiangsheng to stick to Changyi on the northern line, and Mao Wenlong to stick to Gaomi Tongjiaozhou on the southern line.

These three strongholds were used to form the first line of defense.

He believed that with the combat strength of the Ming army, it would not be possible to break through here from the front, and once the elite Yulin battalion under Hong Chengchou suffered heavy losses, the Ming would not be able to fight again.

At that time, whether he will take the opportunity to seize Qingzhou or even the whole of Shandong depends on his mood, and maybe he can let Zheng Zhilong come forward to humiliate Xia Chongzhen.

He was looking forward to seeing Chongzhen's thunderous appearance.

In addition to the thousands of elite troops deployed in each city, there are tens of thousands of cavalry patrolling behind the first line of defense.

Once the area was smuggled by the Ming army, the cavalry was responsible for quickly eliminating the small group of enemies that had infiltrated it.

That's why Mao Wenlong gave up Lingshanwei outside the Jiaozhou defense line.

However, he was indeed careless, there was a powerful Liaodong Naval Division stationed in the Denglai area, and he really did not expect that the Ming army would cross the sea from Lingshanwei at the risk of being shelled by the Naval Division.

Even the Liaodong Navy Division itself put its main force on the coasts of Dengzhou and Laizhou in the north, and only a few small boats were left in the southern waters for cruise!

Hong Chengchou did not directly solicit ships from the coast, so he evaded the patrol ships of the Liaodong Naval Division during the day.

He asked the soldiers to cooperate with the craftsmen to make a boat to cross the sea in the woods, after all, Lingshanwei and Fushanwei are located on both sides of the exit of the bay, only a few nautical miles apart, and ordinary boats can cross people and war horses.

After several days of observation, they also mastered the route and time of the patrol of the Liaodong Naval Division, and the enemy did not have patrol boats at night.

So he decided to take advantage of the night to smuggle and take down Fushanwei in one fell swoop.

The location of Fushanwei is the city of Qingdao today, but in the Ming Dynasty, Qingdao was only a guard station, and its superior port was not developed.

In Mao Wenlong's eyes, this place is inconspicuous, and there are only 300 people stationed here.

Although there are not many troops, Hong Chengchou does not dare to take it lightly, if these people recruit the sailors of the thieves, then their army crossing the sea will suffer a catastrophe.

On the first day of the first month of August, the moon was dark and the wind was high, and there was a little rain.

From the point of view of crossing the sea, it was not a good weather, and their boat was small, and there was still a risk of sinking if the wind and waves were strong.

But from the point of view of sneak attacks, this is a rare opportunity.

This kind of weather patrol boat is definitely unlikely, and even the patrol soldiers will be much smaller than usual.

Soon the soldiers of the Yulin battalion came to the shore with hundreds of small boats.

Although it is only a few miles away, there is still a certain risk in crossing the sea late at night, and they can only engage in close-range smuggling with a small sampan, and if they really drift to the open sea, it is only a matter of time before they sink.

Therefore, Hong Chengchou and the others did not walk in a straight line, but still leaned slightly into the bay, so that although the distance was slightly increased, it could basically ensure that they would not deviate to the open sea.

After all, He Renlong had experience in smuggling the Yellow River before, so he took the lead and personally led the vanguard troops to land, and soon 200 small boats carrying nearly 3,000 Yulinwei marched towards Fushanwei.

They were lucky, and the boat sailed directly down the tide to the opposite shore.

Although Fushanwei arranged for patrol sergeants, but today the moon was dark and windy, and it was raining again, so they reduced the number of patrols they went out to patrol, and stayed more in the fort by the sea to avoid the rain.

The Liaodong Naval Division completely mastered the control of the sea, and they never thought that the enemy would smuggle in.

Coupled with the lack of moonlight tonight, poor visibility, and the loud sound of wind and waves, they were not able to spot the smuggled Yulin camp in advance.

When the soldiers saw the many ships approaching the coast, He Renlong had already led the men to jump into the sea.

"Bang, bang, bang"

Soon the defenders on the shore opened fire on the enemy who had boarded the case.

With this kind of visibility, it is naturally difficult for the firearm to hit the target, but the sound caused by the shooting is particularly harsh in the dark night.

Soon, the Liaodong soldiers stationed in the Lingshan Guard were awakened by the continuous sound of fire.

The continuous sound of firing can only indicate that there is an enemy attack, and everyone almost immediately put on their armor, picked up their weapons and rushed to the shore.

By the time they arrived, the soldiers in charge of the patrol had already been killed, and countless Ming troops were attacking their camp.

Although the exact number of people could not be seen in the darkness, it must have been more than 2,000 people.

The general who stayed behind hurriedly said to the two soldiers: "Go and inform General Mao that the Ming army is smuggling Fushanwei!" ”

I saw several arrows piercing the night sky, leaving obvious marks in the endless night, and finally bursting into brilliant fireworks in the night sky.

Even Hong Chengchou, who stayed on the other side and had not yet landed, could see it clearly.

He secretly said that it was not good, the Liaodong Army was really not simple, these arrows must be their way of transmitting information, and these arrows could be seen clearly 20 miles away.

If that's the case, it won't be long before their reinforcements arrive.

So he hurriedly urged the second group of soldiers to row to the opposite shore in 500 small boats.

When the intelligence point in the distance saw these arrows, they hurriedly continued to fire.

In this way, after three transmissions, Jimo City, 80 miles away, received the news.

Jimo is located in the rear of Jiaozhou City, which together with the ancient city set and Pingdu Prefecture form the second line of defense of Laizhou.

In addition to the 3,000 defenders, there were originally 2,000 cavalry.

However, two days ago, Mao Wenlong found that the Ming army was building boats near Gaomi Lake, and he judged that the Ming army was likely to smuggle into Gaomi Lake.

So he ordered all the 5,000 cavalry scattered on the second line of defense to concentrate near Gaomi Lake and prepare to raid the Ming army.

At this time, the highest commander of Jimo was Liao Dexing, a general in Guangning, and the three arrows were the most urgent military situation, and according to the military regulations of the Liaodong Army, he had the right to make a judgment.

So on the one hand, he sent information to Mao Wenlong, who was 150 miles away, and on the other hand, he gathered 1,500 men and horses to support Fushanwei.

According to the intelligence, there were about two or three thousand Ming troops who attacked secretly, and there were only 300 people there, so they should not be able to resist for too long.

Although there is a certain risk in supporting, you should not sit idly by and ignore your allies.

In addition, he needs to block the landing enemies in the area of Fushanwei, so that they do not continue to harass the rear!

Soon, Liao Dexing, a general of Guangning, led 1,500 Liaodong troops to Fushanwei on foot.

Although the 80-mile road is not close, they usually run 50 miles of cross-country running in Liaodong, and many times they still march with weights, and they can fully adapt to it physically.

At this time, the battle of Fushanwei had also reached the final moment.

Hong Chengchou's face was very ugly, because there were only three hundred "thieves" here in Fushanwei.

The 3,000 pioneer battalion led by Kehe Renlong has besieged a stick of incense (half an hour) and has not yet taken it.

Hong Chengchou said loudly: "The tiger squat cannon that the governor asked you to transport, hasn't it been transported yet?" ”

At this time, a general said: "Governor Qiqi Hong, the luck has already been transported, but now that the enemy and us are fighting together, we are afraid of injuring our own people by mistake!" ”

Hong Chengchou said: "I'm afraid that there will be more of your own people who will fall if you don't let go of the cannon, adjust the muzzle of the cannon, and try to fire into the camp as much as possible!" ”

In the end, with the cooperation of the tiger squat artillery, He Renlong completely annihilated the three hundred defenders.

He Renlong said: "Thanks to the artillery assistance of Governor Hong, the last general was able to eliminate this group of thieves. They were extremely strong, with a total of less than 300 people, but they had withstood our elite vanguard battalion for so long, and the vanguard battalion had lost nearly 800 people in this battle. ”

"Judging from the last general, these people must be the Liaodong Army!"

Of course, Hong Chengchou knew that they were the Liaodong Army, but now he was ready to send it.

He said: "Take advantage of the dawn and hurry up the transportation." The enemy has already fired arrows, and it is estimated that their reinforcements will arrive soon. ”

Three hours later, the main force of the Yulin Battalion had basically arrived at Fushanwei by water.

Only some of the baggage is still in transit.

Hong Chengchou knew that this was not a place to stay for a long time, and it would not be long before the sailors of the Ming army would blockade this place, and soon they would become a lone army.

He must take Jimo City, 80 miles away, as soon as possible, so that he can have a foothold, and then break through the defense line of the thieves with Yang Wenyue and the others!

At this time, the sentry suddenly came to report that reinforcements from the thieves had been found 15 miles away.

Hong Chengchou didn't expect the enemy army to come so quickly, he had already thought about it, and the side of Fushanwei was Laoshan Mountain.

Now that the thieves react quickly, he can rely on the favorable terrain of Laoshan Mountain to stop the thieves.

I thought it was cavalry, but I didn't expect it to be 1500 infantry.

He said loudly: "General Soldier He, it's time for your cavalry to play!" ”

He Renlong said: "The elite cavalry of the 8,000 Yulin battalion under the command of the last general is also experienced in a hundred battles, and only 1,500 foot soldiers are enough to worry about!" ”

Soon He Renlong led the cavalry north.

At this time, the cavalry of the Liaodong Army in charge of exploring the road had already discovered He Renlong and others.

Hurry up and send the signal.

Liao Dexing, who received the signal, hurriedly ordered the soldiers to stop and meet the enemy with armor.

The well-trained Liaodong Army hurriedly removed its armor from the carriage that accompanied the army.

By the time He Renlong's cavalry arrived, the Liaodong Army had already completed the formation.

At this time, their 1,500 men were 200 large shieldmen in the front row, 600 spearmen behind them were divided into three rows, and behind the spearmen were 600 musketeers.

Finally, there is a gun team of 100 gunners, with a total of 30 Tiger squat guns.

He Renlong was also shocked when he saw that the other party was already neatly arrayed.

These thieves were all dressed in heavy cloth armor of the Ming Dynasty, and they were almost indistinguishable from the officers and soldiers.

If there is a difference, it is that their equipment is better than that of the officers and soldiers.

Armor and firearms can also be done by these Yulin battalions, but they still carry artillery in the rapid march, although it is only a tiger squat cannon, which is stronger than the Yulin battalion.

In fact, Liao Dexing was also miserable, if Mao Wenlong hadn't pulled away all the 2,000 cavalry and 6-pounder Franc cannons in Jimo, he wouldn't have used tiger squat cannons to make up the numbers.

Now we have to use it.

On the left side of the Liaodong Army was the woods, and on the right side was the remnants of Laoshan Mountain, and it was obvious that He Renlong had no chance to flank the Ming army's infantry formation.

He had to choose a hard bar on the front.

But he didn't have anything to worry about, 8,000 cavalry against 1,500 infantry, what else did he have to worry about.

The only fly in the ointment was that the place where they encountered was relatively narrow, and they could not give the cavalry the maximum advantage.

Soon, the cavalry of the Yulin battalion urged the war horses to attack the infantry of the Liaodong Army.

Although the cavalry in the field has always been a training subject for the Liaodong Army, these soldiers are no strangers, but this is almost the first time to fight.

Before, even the cavalry of the Liaodong Army against the Tartars had arranged their positions in advance, relying on a huge number of firearms to suppress the opponent's battle with artillery!

What's more, they also marched rapidly for nearly 3 hours in a row, and they also suffered a lot in terms of physical strength.

Some of the recruits felt the vibration of the horse's hooves, and their hands trembled unconsciously.

Fortunately, the veterans on the side stabilized their emotions.

When the cavalry of the Yulin battalion marched to 200 paces away from them, the tiger squat cannon began to wield, and countless lead bolts exploded in the cavalry ranks, overturning many cavalrymen directly from their horses.

This made the advancing team look a little chaotic, but fortunately, the Yulin battalion quickly adjusted and continued to rush towards the opposing army's infantry formation.

"Bang, bang, bang"

As the Yulin battalion came within 120 paces of fire, the firecrackers in the formation began to exert their strength.

After the three teams of musketeers finished firing, almost all of the hundreds of cavalry who rushed to the front fell.

If their Lumi guns could shoot continuously, then the cavalry of the Yulin battalion would not be able to rush through anyway.

It's a pity that as the musketeers entered the reload time, soon the cavalry behind came up again.

The soldiers of the Yulin Battalion also knew that when the thieves reloaded, it was their best chance.

By this time, they had already advanced to within fifty paces of the march.

The cavalry of the Yulin battalion also raised their spears and prepared to storm the enemy line.

However, there was no imaginary scene of the iron cavalry colliding with the thief and shield soldiers, but instead the neighing of the war horse was heard.

It turned out that these thieves actually sprinkled a lot of thistles on the ground.

The war horses traveling at high speed couldn't bear the pain at all and began to reduce their speed.

When the cavalry of the Yulin battalion attacked the shield array, the impact of the war horses had been greatly reduced.

As long as a small number of shieldmen do not withstand the impact, they will be knocked down.

At this time, the spearmen of the Liaodong Army began to stab at the cavalry of the Yulin Battalion.

Soon, these spears, which emitted a dazzling cold light, directly pierced the chest of the cavalry in the stabbing of the Liaodong Army.

He Renlong in the rear was also dumbfounded, his elite Yulin Battalion cavalry actually didn't break through the thief's foot formation, how could this be?

However, the cavalry, which had lost its impact, greatly reduced its combat power.

And they soon became the target of the thieves again.

"Bang, bang, bang"

As another round of fire rang out from the thieves, He Renlong had no choice but to order his cavalry to retreat so that he could charge again.

In this battle, he lost more than 700 horsemen, and the thieves in front of him lost more than 100 people at most.

Cavalry is meant to maintain the impact, and if a wave of attacks does not overwhelm the opponent, then retreating and charging again is a common tactic they use.

But this is only for ordinary foot cavalry.

Now that they are charging again, they will be subjected to another round of tiger squat artillery and Lu Mi guns, and they will send a few hundred heads first.

He Renlong didn't expect that these thieves who had been on the road for so long still had such strong combat effectiveness.

At this time, he only had to take out his trump card at the bottom of the box.

In fact, the Yulin Battalion was not so much to deal with the Liaodong Army, but rather to imitate the product of the Liaodong Army.

The most feared thing about the Liaodong Army is naturally the invincible Liaodong Iron Cavalry.

The Yulin Battalion also has a similar formation.

At this time, He Renlong had a heavy cavalry of 2,000 people in armor.

Equipping the Ming Dynasty can build a lot, but the war horses of the heavy cavalry are not easy to find, and now Mo Nan and Liaodong have long been under the control of Li Xianzhong.

The Ming court could only trade war horses with the Oirat Mongols in the west, and the number of good horses was extremely limited.

2000 is already the result of Daming's best efforts.

He gritted his teeth and sent this trump card up.

After all, the Liaodong Army had already exhausted its physical strength after a long and rapid march, but it was barely supported by its strong spiritual strength.

In the end, the shield bearers of the Liaodong Army did not block the impact of the Ming army's iron cavalry, and the probability of their heavy armor being directly pierced by spears was greatly reduced.

The shield bearers and spearmen of the Ming army in the front row suffered heavy losses.

However, the armor could not stop the attack of Lu Mi Gong, and with the sound of guns, hundreds of heavy cavalry also fell in a pool of blood.

The battle was fierce.

Although the musketeers of the Liaodong Army had already loaded their bayonets and fought the enemy.

But in the face of the hoplites, their bayonets were still powerless.

Some gunners directly ignited the shells and powder kegs, blowing up the Tiger Squat cannon.

Liao Dexing commanded the remaining artillerymen to use the baggage carts as cover, and continued to resist with the muskets and spears they carried.

But in the end, the army was completely wiped out.

However, He Renlong couldn't be happy, the losses on both sides of this battle were about the same, and the Yulin battalion lost more than 1,600 people, but more than 800 of them were heavy cavalry, which made He Renlong's heart hurt.

The cavalry fought the infantry like this, if it weren't for the heavy armored cavalry, they wouldn't have been able to break the opponent's infantry formation at all.

This also made Hong Chengchou full of worries about the next battle.

It seems that the hard fight is not possible, and you have to outwit it!

Hong Chengchou asked, "Are there any living mouths among these thieves?" ”

He Renlong shook his head and said, "These thieves are too stubborn, they all fight to the death!" ”

However, the soldier who cleaned the battlefield said: "Governor Qihong, we found a man who pretended to be dead, and he was still dressed as an officer. ”

Hong Chengchou thought that all his companions were killed in battle, but he was reluctant to steal his life, it seems that this is a person who is greedy for life and afraid of death!

That's it!

So under the coercion and temptation of Hong Chengchou, Hou Yaozong, the secretary of the Guangning Metropolitan Division, told all the truth and fiction of Mao Wenlong's department on the southern front this time.

Hong Chengchou's secret path is not good, Mao Wenlong's main force is on the front line of Gaomi, I am afraid that Yang Wenyue's 20,000 horses will be more than lucky.

Both sides are also stealing homes, and their own side is just a second-line army that annihilated 1,800 thieves, but it lost 2,500 elite main forces.

And Yang Wenyue's 20,000 people on Gaomi's side are likely to be eaten by Mao Wenlong, at least half of them will be lost.

In this way, his original strategy of attacking from both sides of the rear of these thieves and seizing Gaomi and Jiaozhou could not be realized.

Because the Ming army on the frontal battlefield on the southern front had been defeated by Mao Wenlong.

However, he got an important piece of information from Hou Yaozong, and there were almost no garrisons in Dengzhou.

And Li Xianzhong himself is likely to be in Dengzhou.

If he can capture Li Xianzhong in this battle, then not only is it a high-ranking official, but it is also a sure thing to be knighted.

Since Dengzhou is so empty, then he simply gambled, went deep alone, and attacked Dengzhou.

After all, Yang Wenyue on Gaomi's side had 20,000 people, and it was expected that Mao Wenlong would not be able to end the battle so quickly.

At this time, he didn't know that it was his 30,000 main force that attacked Fushanwei, and there should still be a great chance.

Even if Li Xianzhong can't be caught, if he can capture Dengzhou, it will inevitably cause the thieves to collapse on all fronts.

He Renlong, who is also a gambler, also sees an opportunity.

said: "Governor Hong, this is a golden opportunity, and the opportunity must not be lost and will not come again!" ”

At this time, Mao Wenlong and Zhao Shujiao had already completed the encirclement of Yang Wenyue's department.

Mao Wenlong led 8,000 men to take the initiative to attack Yang Wenyue's camp west of Gaomi.

And Zhao Shujiao led 5,000 cavalry to bypass Gaomi Lake and directly cut off Yang Wenyue's retreat.

The combat strength of the 20,000 Baoding army under Yang Wenyue was far inferior to that of the Yulin Battalion.

Three thousand people have been lost under Gaomi City, and now there are only 17,000 left.

Mao Wenlong's Liaodong Army was almost devastated, and soon smashed Yang Wenyue's Chinese army camp.

Yang Wenyue led the remnants to retreat, but was blocked by the cavalry of Zhao Tuojiao.

In the end, he led less than 2,000 remnants to flee back to Anqiu City in Qingzhou.

Just as Mao Wenlong was discussing with Zhao Tuojiao whether to attack Qingzhou, he received an urgent report from the Ming army that he had attacked and captured Shanwei.

However, at this time, in their encirclement, there were still some Ming troops resisting, so Mao Wenlong decided to let Zhao lead 3,000 cavalry to rescue first, and immediately return the whole division after cleaning up the remnants of the Wanming army to deal with the sneak attack of Hong Chengchou.

However, as soon as Zhao Shujiao walked halfway, he ran into the Liaodong Army who came from Jimo to report the news.

General Liao Dexing led his troops to support Fushanwei and died, and Hou Yaozong, the secretary of Guangning Prefecture, rebelled and deceived some of the defenders out of the city to support General Liao, and was finally seized by Hong Chengchou to capture Jimo City.

Zhao Shujiao sighed and said: "Liao Dexing is too careless, he rushed to support when the enemy situation is unknown, if his 3,000 men and horses defend Jimo, it will be difficult for the Ming army to capture the city." ”

"He will hold on for a day at most, and we will be able to return to the division!"

Zhao led the cavalry to the city of Jimo soon, but the Ming army left a lot of people and horses, and he had no siege equipment, so he had to temporarily camp outside the city, waiting for Mao Wenlong's main force to return to the division.

In fact, at this moment, there are only 10,000 Ming troops in Jimo City.

At this time, Hong Chengchou and He Renlong had already led their troops deep into Dengzhou.

The cunning Hong Chengchou continued to use Hou Yaozong to pretend to be the Liaodong army to deceive the city gate of Laiyang, and there were only a few hundred White Lotus Sect members guarding the city, and they were not familiar with the military orders of Liaodong, so they didn't see through it!

At this time, they were only 150 miles away from Dengzhou, but Li Xianzhong in Dengzhou City still didn't know anything!

Thank you for your monthly passes, recommended tickets, and follow-up support!

(End of chapter)