Yuan Dakui recalled the news that Chen De told Xiao Yuanying. In fact, he had no real impression of the Qing army that broke through the border in Liaodong. Although the Eastern captives had invaded four years ago, that is, in the eleventh year of Chongzhen,
Led by Dorgon, they entered the Pass and plundered it once, and that time the Qing army's troops went south and hit Jinan.
However, in the 11th year of Chongzhen's reign, the Little Yuan Camp was still insignificant, and Yuan Dakui was still a loyal and honest farmer in his hometown. They had no real understanding and feelings about the Qing army, and they only occasionally heard about it from rumors about business travelers from all over the world.
Just some relevant news.
Although Chen De, the deputy general of Henan Town, told the frontline defenders of Xiaoyuan Camp the news of the Qing army's invasion of Shandong, the specific inside story and more detailed situation were not accessible to lower-level officers like Yuan Dakui.
He reluctantly organized his words and restated Chen De's statement:
"It was Master Chen Xietai who said it..."
"Chen Xietai? Is he Chen De, the son of Chen Yongfu, the commander-in-chief of Henan Town?"
Xietai is the honorific title given to the deputy general. When Li Laiheng heard Chen Xietai's words, he thought of Chen Yongfu and his son. In his hand, he also held several letters written specifically to Chen Yongfu to persuade Chen Yongfu to surrender by Chen Xin, the military envoy of Jingxiang Province.
.
"The commander-in-chief is talking about Chen Yongfu's son Chen De... He brought two thousand reinforcements and made a special trip to pick up Xiao Yuan's camp and evacuate Guide and Xuzhou. He said that it was because the Donglu had already invaded Shandong and the army had to hold on.
Xuzhou, all local troops must withdraw from Xuzhou."
After Yuan Dakui said this, he saw Li Laiheng and a scholar next to him wearing armor and a scribe's scarf looking at each other and smiling.
The scholar sarcastically said: "I thought Shi Suppressor was always a dragon or a tiger. That's why he was selected by Chongzhen as the crucial general minister of the Xuzhou Suppression Campaign. But I never thought that Shi Gong was just a man who feared the enemy as much as a tiger. This formidable enemy
Before they arrived, Shi Gong hurriedly withdrew all his troops to Xuzhou. Wouldn't it mean that he was giving the land and people to the Eastern captives in vain?"
Among the Huguang army, the only ones who could still be so domineering in front of Li Laiheng were Guo Junzhen and Gu Junen. Guo Junzhen was born out of nature, but Gu Junen deliberately acted domineering and lonely in front of Li Laiheng.
Because of his image as a minister, Li Laiheng was able to entrust Gu Junenlai with the very important post of Marching Sima and the important task of establishing the Army Joining Department.
Gu Junen was originally an arrogant and conceited scholar, but recently he deliberately played the role of a lonely minister in front of Li Laiheng, and his ridicule of Shi Kefa became more and more sharp.
He pointed out very harshly that the reason why Shi Kefa was promoted to the high position of Xuzhou Suppressant General was not because of his talent, but just because the chief assistant Zhou Yanru wanted to take care of the interests of the Donglin Party and other forces.
Shi Kefa was a member of the Donglin Party and the Fushe, and he was an outstanding figure who was admired and admired by everyone. Although Fang Yiren was disgusted with the superficial and flashy atmosphere of the Fushe, and had long since withdrawn from the Fushe, he still remembered that part of the society.
Despite the incense, he still couldn't help but defend Shi Kefa:
"The Donglu army was very powerful. Their men were like tigers, their horses were like dragons, and their troops were like Mount Tai. In the eleventh year of Chongzhen, there were still Lu Xiangsheng and other loyal ministers and famous commanders in the Ming army who fought to the death, but they could not stop the Qing army's soldiers.
Front, defeated all the way... The Qing army reached Jinan City in one go, used cannons to blast open the city gates of Shandong Province, and turned the bustling Jinan into a white field where even birds were unwilling to stop!"
When the Qing army massacred the city of Jinan in the 11th year of Chongzhen, Fang Yiren was in Jinan on a study tour. He personally experienced the tragic massacre and witnessed the Qing army's barbaric behavior that went beyond logic and common sense. He hid among the dead.
He pretended to be dead under the corpse and escaped.
So when Fang Yiren mentioned this past event, he couldn't help but get excited. He thought of many horrific scenes, including the young child impaled on a spear by the Qing army in Jinan City, and the child whose body was torn apart by several war horses by the Qing army.
Prisoners, blood filled the thoroughfares and streets.
Fang Yiren just recalled it briefly, and he couldn't help but sweat a lot on his forehead. After escaping from death in Jinan, he fled everywhere. The places he passed along the way were destroyed by the Qing army, the houses were destroyed, and the population was scattered.
In some villages, only a shell full of holes is left in the house, with neither residents nor living utensils inside. Everything that can be destroyed has been destroyed, leaving foxes and rabbits running rampant, weeds overgrown, and sometimes shockingly, a bunch of
Piles of bones were left indoors and on the roadside. In some villages, there were more than a dozen or even dozens of bones piled on the fields. They were obviously the remains of villagers who had been massacred.
In the lightly damaged areas, we had to travel dozens of miles and pass several dilapidated villages before we occasionally saw one or two wisps of cooking smoke floating in the sky. In order to avoid the massacre and looting by the Qing army, these few wisps were hidden in the
The smoke from cooking in the deep mountains and wild valleys floats and dodges, and even when it rises in the sky it seems weak and weak, and often cannot hide for long at all. In the end, the Qing army will find them, kill them all, and plunder them all.
"Stop arguing." Li Laiheng stopped the argument between Fang Yiren and Gu Junen. What he cared about was the information the Ming army had obtained, and what the specific content was. "Go on, what did Chen De tell you, and where did the Qing army go to Shandong?"
When and where did you arrive? What is the specific time and location?"
However, Yuan Dakui could not answer Li Laiheng's series of questions. He was just a low-level soldier. At most, he only knew that the Qing army captured Jizhou City in August and September. No matter how specific the content was, Chen De could not tell the real military secrets.
Listen to him.
Seeing Yuan Dakui shaking his head repeatedly, Li Laiheng understood that he probably really didn't know anymore, so he had no choice but to sigh and said to Yiren and Gu Junen:
"We captured many prisoners of Xiaoyuan camp, and almost everyone was willing to surrender. However, they seemed to really not know the specific movements of the Qing army. They only knew that they had reached Shandong, but they did not know the specific time and location!
"
Fang Yiren counted on his fingers for a while, then continued:
"In the 11th year of Chongzhen, the Qing army invaded the interior and killed Wu Aheng, the governor of Jiliao, at the end of September. Three months later, it was probably not until the first month of the twelfth year that they broke through Jinan. Calculated this way
Come on, this time the Qing army invaded the hinterland and defeated Jizhou at the end of August. If it took three months... No, things are different now. The Ming army is now much weaker than it was in the eleventh year of Chongzhen. The Qing army
It may only take two months to reach Jinan."
Gu Junen's face was also gloomy. He analyzed: "If this news is true, the situation is very complicated! I don't know whether Donglu and I are enemies or friends. If they are surrounding Shandong, the Chuang army must be more vigilant. The situation
Too complicated!"
"This..." Fang Yiren muttered, "Master, if we look at the Qing army's invasion in the 11th year of Chongzhen, it will take at least one or two days for the Qing army to break through Jizhou at the end of August.
Jinan. There are rumors among the Ming army that the Qing army has entered Shandong. It may refer to a small group of stragglers, or it may refer to some Shandong capitals in the north such as Dezhou."
Gu Junen also agreed with Fang Yiren: "Leshan is right. It will take at least a month for the Qing army to reach Jinan. If they want to reach near Xuzhou, won't it take more than two months? These
There is already more than enough time, enough for us to let go without unnecessary precautions and vigilance, and complete the task of recovering Xiaoyuan Camp first."
"Um."
Li Laiheng still felt a little uneasy and anxious. As for the current strength of the Huguang Chuang Army, he did not have an example that could clearly compare it with the Qing Army.
Can the Tingjun infantry and the Three Walls cavalry withstand the power of the Eight Banners of Manchuria?
He was really unsure. If the war continued to be delayed, Li Laiheng would not completely resolve the issue between Yuan Shizhong and Xiao Yuanying after a month or two.
After the Qing army arrives near Xuzhou, the battlefield situation will change from the confrontation between the Ming army and the Chuang army to a complex game between the Ming army, the Qing army, and the Chuang army. The overall situation will become countless times more complicated!
It seems that the best way is to take advantage of the Qing army to rush into the hinterland of Shandong and deal with Yuan Shizhong first?
After the Battle of Guohe, the Chuang Army captured one or two thousand prisoners alone, and Xiaoyuan Camp also had many defeated troops. Considering the long-term friendly cooperative relationship between the Chuang Army and Xiaoyuan Camp, as long as Li Laiheng showed up
With the attitude of letting bygones be bygones and accepting those who come, it is estimated that most of these defeated troops will eventually join the invading army.