In mid-September, the left army Su Ding captured Xintai and Laiwu cities.
The right army fought very hard in Dongchang Prefecture, but in Daming Prefecture farther west, the fight went smoothly. Zhang Meng led the troops and pushed almost to the gate of Daming Prefecture.
At the same time, Xue Wei led nearly 30,000 vanguard troops all the way west to Qingshi Pass due east of Jinan, preparing to enter Jinan.
At this time, Shen Yi's order to equalize land and exempt from taxes had been published for ten days, causing an uproar throughout Shandong.
Especially in the three places of Qingzhou Prefecture, Laizhou Prefecture, and Dengzhou Prefecture, many people braved the blockade of the Qi people and broke into these three prefectures, and then waited for the Chen court to allocate land to them.
In order to handle this matter, Zhang Jian personally took fifty or sixty officials newly sent from the imperial court to the three states to preside over the land distribution.
It is worth mentioning that Shen Yi gave Zhang Fuzun five thousand-house camps and gave them to him to use in case anything went wrong in this matter.
Just when Zhang Jian left Yanzhou and rushed to Qingzhou, Laizhou and Dengzhou, Ling Su of the right route army, Su Ding of the left route army, and Xue Wei, the vanguard army who came on horseback, gathered in Yanzhou on September 24th. Mansion.
That morning, three people happened to meet each other at the gate of the governor's office.
Ling Su and Su Ding were close to each other and had arrived in Yanzhou the day before, so they both came here on foot, while Xue Wei came here in a hurry and came on horseback, looking a little embarrassed.
However, the three of them still bumped into each other at the main entrance of the governor's office.
After greeting each other, Ling Su looked at the two people and said with a smile: "General Su has taken Qingzhou Prefecture and has already entered Jinan Prefecture."
"General Xue even conquered two mansions in a row."
He shook his head slightly and said with emotion: "It's really enviable."
Su Ding looked at Xue Wei who was wiping his sweat, shook his head and said: "General Ling single-handedly withstood the attack of Daming Prefecture and Jinan Prefecture, and did not fall behind. He contained the main force of the Shandong Qi Army. We left Only then did the Route Army achieve great success."
"In terms of credit, General Ling deserves more credit."
Xue Wei, who had just arrived at the side, finally recovered. He tied his mount on the manger at the gate of the governor's office, strode over, and grinned: "Why are you two brothers so polite?"
"Mr. Shen has already said that all the Huai'an Army's military exploits are the result of our Huai'an Army as a whole. There is no need to make the distinction so clearly."
"It really needs to be subdivided."
He said carelessly: "My two brothers held down all the troops in Jinan Prefecture for me, so that our vanguard army was able to make achievements in Laizhou and Dengzhou."
"The credit goes to both brothers."
Ling Su shook his head and suddenly heard: "How many troops did Brother Xue Xian lead to Jinan Mansion?"
Xue Wei replied without thinking: "A total of thirty thousand people."
Ling Su shook his head and sighed: "If I remember correctly, when Brother Xian led the vanguard army, the total number of vanguard troops was only 25,000. After conquering the two states, not only was there no loss, but the number of soldiers was even greater."
"As far as I know, Brother Xian should still have some manpower stationed in Laizhou and Dengzhou?"
"Mainly in Dengzhou, a lot of people stayed here."
Xue Wei didn't hide anything, he smiled and said: "Laizhou didn't leave many people. The two prefectures combined only left more than 10,000 people."
"As for the 30,000 people that my younger brother brought to Jinan, after arriving in Jinan, according to Duke Shen's previous instructions, he will distribute 10,000 people to each of his two brothers. I will only keep 10,000 people."
He smiled and said: "Calculated this way, the number of people in the vanguard army is not much greater than before."
Ling Su and Su Ding looked at each other.
Su Ding thought for a while and said: "Since it is the force of the vanguard army, General Xue will stay at home. Anyway, the general attack on Jinan will be imminent, and General Xue will also participate in the war. It doesn't matter who these 30,000 people are."
Ling Su also smiled and said: "That's the truth. Since the upper and lower are one, there is no difference between them. Since it is an army raised by the wise brother, the wise brother will lead it himself."
Xue Wei shook his head.
"Mr. Shen said that since the vanguard army has the name of vanguard, it should not have too many people. If there are too many, it will look bloated and it will not be able to serve as the vanguard for the Huai'an army."
"Moreover, thanks to the glory of the two brothers some time ago, the Pioneer Army has made a lot of contributions. Although this contribution is no different from that of the two brothers to Mr. Shen, it is different to the imperial court."
"Mr. Shen has already told us that this time the general attack on Jinan will be carried out by our two brothers."
He smiled and said: "Originally, the 10,000 people from the Pioneer Army headquarters should be temporarily handed over to the two brothers. However, Duke Shen said that the Pioneer Army was still needed to help the two brothers around Jinan, so he asked me to keep some for myself. ."
"It is estimated that my 30,000 people will arrive at Qingshi Pass in about twenty days. At that time, the two brothers will each send a lieutenant to pick them up."
Ling Su and Su Ding stopped being pretentious and agreed with a smile.
Su Ding thought for a while and asked: "General Xue, should we only increase the number of people this time, not the establishment?"
"No increase."
Xue Wei shook his head slightly and said in a low voice: "Part of the new troops in Laizhou and Dengzhou are reduced soldiers, and some are local young people from Shandong."
"These people cannot form an army alone and need to be organized into our Huai'an army."
"And these people are not recognized by the imperial court. We have to provide food, drink and money ourselves."
"Of course it's impossible to expand any more."
Hearing this, Ling Su touched his chin and said nothing.
Su Ding just nodded and said, "It's getting late. Let's go in and see Mr. Shen. Don't let Mr. Shen wait anxiously."
He took a step forward first, turned sideways and smiled: "General Ling, please go first."
Among the three people, Ling Su's current official position is the Commander-in-Chief of Shandong Dusi.
The other two people are just directing things.
Ling Su is a senior official and has seniority, so he naturally deserves some respect.
Ling Su tried to evade a few words, but he couldn't evade it any more, so he stopped being pretentious and entered the governor's yamen first.
Su Ding and Xue Wei, one on the left and the other on the right, followed Ling Su and walked into the governor's Yamen.
A moment later, the three people met Shen Yi in the study room of the governor's office.
At this time, in this study room, a large and detailed map of Jinan Prefecture has been hung high.
The three people stood in a row, bowed and clasped their fists in salute to Shen Yi.
"My subordinates pay their respects to Duke Shen!"
Mr. Shen was looking up at the picture at the moment. After hearing the voices of the three people, he came back to his senses, looked back at the three people, laid hands on them and said, "You're welcome, please sit down and talk."
Three chairs had been prepared, and the three people sat down one after another.
Shen Yi's eyes were still on the map. He was lost in thought for a while, then turned back to look at the three people and smiled at them.
"Thank you three for your hard work."
The three of them all lowered their heads: "I don't dare."
Mr. Shen returned to his seat and sat down, and said: "Seeing this map, I believe you three should know why I invited you here this time."
"October is coming soon, and there are only three months until the end of the year."
"Most of our officers and soldiers in the Huai'an Army are from the south. The people from the far north, that is, on the Huaihe River. Except for the newly surrendered recruits, most of them are not cold-resistant."
"It will only take two months to really fight."
Shen Yi pointed at Jinan Mansion, his voice was calm but firm.
"You three should know that since I led the Huai'an Army, I don't like to set goals for my subordinates to prevent you from making mistakes in your decisions in the rush for quick success."
"But now, I want to give the three of you an expectation."
"I hope…"
Mr. Shen said slowly: "We can take down Jinan City before the new year."
"Even if the entire Jinan Prefecture cannot be captured, at least Jinan City must be captured."
The three people looked at each other, but no one was in a hurry to speak.
However, Xue Wei was bolder in front of Shen Yi. He was the first to ask: "Mr. Shen, how many people are there in the Shandong Qi garrison?"
Shen Yi looked calm: "Excluding the scattered troops around Jinan City, as well as the Qi troops in Dongchang Prefecture and Daming Prefecture, the garrison in Jinan City alone should be more than 50,000 people."
Xue Wei heard this and scratched his head: "Mr. Shen, there are so many defenders. If you want to defeat them, you can only slowly grind them down..."
