April 1, 1649, outside Zhangqiu County.

The camp was strictly organized according to the east coast military system and stretched out several miles across the banks of the Xiaoqing River. Between the two banks of the Xiaoqing River, the military team has also set up a solid pontoon bridge and water transport terminal. Thousands of spear-carried soldiers guarding here, transporting all kinds of materials transported from the Gaojiagang Salt Field Army Station, while ensuring the smooth flow of the two banks of the Xiaoqing River.

In the camp in Hexi, Mao Desheng was carefully reading a letter just forwarded by Yantai. The letter was written by Navy Commander Liu Haiyang, and the main content was the anti-Qing situation in the south. Since 1649, the anti-Qing situation in the south has become increasingly fierce, mainly concentrated in the four battlefields of Guangdong, Jiangxi, Fujian and Huguang.

In Guangdong, since Jin Shenghuan collapsed the Ganzhou city walls with yellow-clothed cannons and killed Gao to enter the gulf, Li Chengdong temporarily extinguished his intention to go north to help Jiangxi and began to clean up the place in Guangdong. It is ridiculous to say that Li Chengdong was still in the Qing camp, and the remaining Ming troops in some places in Guangdong surrendered one after another. However, when Li Chengdong returned to Ming Dynasty anyway, these Guangdong local troops refused to understand. In fact, it was no wonder that they made this choice. At this time, the Southern Ming ****** at this time did not look like they could succeed, so they naturally refused to understand for their own interests. This made Li Chengdong furious, and he began to lead his tens of thousands of his direct "Northern" troops to conquer cities and clear the place in Guangdong to control the overall situation. It seems that the progress is pretty good at present. After all, he is the Ming army now and has a political bonus.

The situation on the battlefield in Jiangxi is much more dangerous than the leisure and comfort of Guangdong. Jiergalang led 13,400 Manchu and Mongolian Eight Banners to Jiangxi at night, first defeated Jiujiang, and then advanced to Nanchang. Its momentum was unstoppable. After Jin Shenghuan was defeated with his elite troops in the city and was defeated twice, he was already scared, so he retreated into Nanchang City and defended ************. Although Jiergalang's soldiers were relatively elite,

But the number is not large, so it is difficult to completely encircle Nanchang City. At present, we can only order Wuchang. Nanjing can send some reinforcements, and at the same time, it is also collecting local regiments to quickly strengthen the number of cannon fodder armed forces. Otherwise, the year of the monkey and horses will be defeated. Now that Wang Zamao Wang Deren is still leading troops in Ganzhou. I heard that his troops were from a camp and had certain combat effectiveness, and they had to send people to guard against it. They could not capsize in the gutter.

If the situation in Jiangxi is very unfavorable, then the battlefield in Fujian will be a mess. The more than 10,000 mixed armed forces led by Chen Tai drove the troops of King Lu from the sea, and then quickly defeated Zheng Chenggong's troops ashore, and finally repelled Li Chengdong's unit to Fujian. It was really majestic and arrogant. Fortunately, they had few soldiers, only more than 15,000 people, and they were still inadequate to defend the entire Fujian. They were unable to advance to Guangdong or Jiangxi, which also made the neighboring Li Chengdong, Wang Deren, and Jin Shenghuan breathe a sigh of relief.

At this point in April 1649, perhaps the most optimistic situation in the anti-Qing situation in China was Huguang and Sichuan. Sichuan was due to the strategic contraction of the Qing court caused by Jiang Xiang's rebellion. A large number of elite men of the Manchu and Mongolian Banners and Wu Sangui's troops were all transferred to Daibei to pacify the situation in Shanxi. Therefore, Zhang Xianzhong's Daxi Army and Shun Army He Zhen and other troops became active again, making the Qing Shaanxi Governor Meng Qiaofang very nervous.pb.m As for Huguang, with Jiergalang's order for Sanshun King, the troops of Xushun Gong retreated to Wuchang, and at the same time, a large number of troops were dispatched to support the Jiangxi battlefield. All this led to the Dashun Army's counterattack on the whole line. Li Guo, Liu Fangliang, Yuan Zongdi, Gao Yigong and other troops attacked one after another. At present, the entire territory of Hunan has been restored and has begun to advance towards Hubei. The situation looks very optimistic.

From this we can see that at this time of turmoil, after the Qing court judged the national situation, there were only Sichuan and Huguang provinces that implemented strategic contraction policies. Because these two opponents were strong and firm in fighting will, they would not be able to take over for a while, and instead would trap their precious troops there. It was unwise, so they decisively and temporarily contracted to wait for the arrival. Speaking of this, we have to mention Fujian. To be honest, the Qing court was originally planning to give up temporarily, but the combat power of King Lu and Zheng was too slack. Just 15,000 people from Chen Tai's troops could beat them to pieces. What else can we say? If these two families competed more, let alone Fujian, there were only more than 40,000 Qing army green camp troops in Zhejiang, which could be completely defeated. Unfortunately, the land combat power of these two families was completely negative, so naturally everything would be left.

Seeing this, Mao Desheng couldn't help but shake his head and sigh. The opportunity was created for you, but you were not sure about it and were still confused. Being a monk and hitting a bell for a day, who can you blame? The halo of good luck will not always favor you, Emperor Yongli, and one day you will be far away from you.

At the end of the letter, Liu Haiyang said that the troops of the Southern Ming Dynasty were too bad. He was ready to move the 2,500 troops at his hand (1,500 troops under Sun Shouzheng, plus more than a thousand Cai Huaze's troops who were originally stranded in Shandong) and carry out some small-scale landing and raiding battles in Fujian, Zhejiang and Nanzhili areas. If necessary, contact the Zheng family to work together. While restraining the attack on the Qing army, he collected some craftsmen, books and artworks and other things to transport them back to the local area.

"The attack on the southern coast is still too few troops, and it is difficult to achieve great things." Mao Desheng put down the letter paper in his hand and thought: "If you want to break the balance that the Qing Dynasty is still struggling to maintain in the country, you can only find a breakthrough at a certain point. This can be Dashun's capture of Wuchang in Hubei, or the Daxi Army can be marked by the recapture of Chengdu and Chongqing. Of course, it is better for us to break through Jinan and take Shandong as the breakthrough point. After all, Shandong's geographical location is too sensitive and is a place that cannot be given up. Although most people will not be able to defend the entire Shandong in the future, taking Jinan and annihilate the main force of Shandong Qing army at this time should make the Beijing court very sad. Then... let's do it like this!"

Once the idea was decided, Mao Desheng no longer hesitated and began to order each unit to launch attacks on the Qing army positions outside Jinan in turn. During each attack, which department served as the main attacker, which department served as the support, and which department served as the reserve team, all had clear division of labor. The battle of Jinan, a battle of more than 110,000 people on both sides was a rare exercise for Mao Desheng's vassal army system, which was mostly mob under Mao Desheng, and its value was far beyond the previous Qingzhou battle.

On April 20, after five consecutive days of fierce fighting, the two units, mainly Ding Mingwu and Xie Qian, finally attacked Zhangqiu County after paying more than 4,000 casualties. In this battle, more than 5,000 people from the Qing army were killed and captured. The casualties were equivalent to killing enemies, which was not a good thing for the East Coast Army, which was at a disadvantage. After the Niu Chenghu army withdrew from Zhangqiu County, the Qing army's support troops arrived soon, and the Qing army Kong Xigui's troops on the side of the Great Wall Ridge also pressed northward to force the East Coast Army, which made Mao Desheng's troops unable to effectively pursue Niu Chenghu's troops (the cavalry hurriedly pursued them and killed more than 1,000 people), in order to continuously expand the results of the battle, which is very regrettable.

On April 26, just when Dong Xueli, the East Coast Army, Chen Zhilong and two tens of thousands of soldiers attacked more than 16,000 people from Kong Xigui, the Qing army (the warriors were also nearly 10,000, but there were many newly recruited people), news came that the Qing Mongolian horse team attacked the east bank transport ship on the surface of the Xiaoqing River. Mao Desheng had to send more troops to protect the safety of the baggage troops, and at the same time sent people to measure the water depths of the lower reaches of the Xiaoqing River to determine whether the east coast gunboat with a draft of 0.8 meters could be passed.

On April 28, Du Chong led more than 10,000 armed people from all over the country. Although Zhang Qiuzhen, the junction of the canal transport, was repelled by the Qing Meile Zhangjing Laidu, led hundreds of defenders led by the Eight Banners of the Manchu and Mongolia, its great momentum also attracted the attention of Luke Dehun of Jinan and began to consider dividing some troops from Jinan to strengthen the defense of Zhang Qiuzhen.

On the 3rd of the month, the army on the east bank captured the Qing army camp on the side of the Great Wall Ridge and cleared out an important threat on the flank. This time, the casualties of the East Coast army were much smaller. The two troops of Dong and Chen had only less than 3,000 people in total, but they achieved the major results of killing, wounding and capturing nearly 5,000 Qing troops. Of course, this was also the result of Mao Desheng's strong command of tying a large number of artillery soldiers to fight them. The regular army on the east coast, which was under the throne, consumed a large amount of gunpowder and shells, helped them achieve this victory. Nearly 10,000 people in the remnants of Kong Xigui retreated at night. They were cut down by the Dong Xueli army who was chasing them along the way, and more than 2,000 were captured. In addition, they trampled on each other and were absent, the dignified Hebei general finally ran into Tai'an Prefecture City, with only about 6,000 people left, and most of the weapons and materials were lost, which was difficult to become a threat again in a short period of time.

However, just when a large number of East Coast Army artillery were transferred to the southern battlefield to support Dong Xueli's headquarters, Luke Dehun, who was in Jinan, seized the opportunity to take the initiative and repelled Zhangqiu County again. Ding Mingwu's army, who was guarding the city, was beaten to death and collapsed, with three or four thousand casualties in the ***. In addition, he ran around in the dark, nearly 10,000 people retreated to the safe area and counted, and there were less than 3,000 people. Ding Mingwu was so angry that he wanted to wipe his neck, but he was stopped. Fortunately, more than 2,000 people ran back one after another after dawn, but he was no longer the morale of yesterday. He had to withdraw his neck and train for some time.

After more than half a month of battle, Mao Desheng finally realized that he had overestimated the combat effectiveness of most of his servants. The mob was a mob, such as Ding Mingwu's army, who was more than 15,000 people. When Mo Ming was there, he was preparing to cut off most of them, but because of the tight time, he failed to get what he wanted. However, the current battle scenes really showed that the unit was the most unbearable to fight and threw the conquered Zhangqiu County to the Qing army again.

Of course, he also underestimated the fighting will of the Qing army. Now that the situation in the Qing Dynasty is tight, how could Luke Dehun not know the key? Therefore, he fought his life and had to defend Jinan City. He must not let the yellow-clothed thieves conquer it, otherwise there would be unimaginable bad influences in politics and military affairs. Because of this, Luke Dehun was very cruel in this offensive and defensive battle in Jinan. The materials and wages of various departments of the Qing army were not only replenished, but also granted many other benefits to inspire the Qiuba people to fight. In addition, gentry from all over the country also began to work hard to set up group training armed forces under the propaganda of the Qing court to fight against the yellow-clothed thieves.

The Han landlords' armed forces were also a double-edged sword for the Qing court, but the Qing court could no longer care about this battle. Countless gentry in 104 prefectures and counties in Shandong Province, as long as they report to Jinan, they can obtain the power to establish armed forces. These landlords' armed forces may be vulnerable to the Qing court and the East Coast at this time, but as time goes by, how could they know that they would not soar into the sky as they grow up?

On the 10th of the month, the East Coast army, which had adjusted the attack sequence, launched another offensive. In this battle, the artillery troops were no longer stingy with gunpowder and shells, and 24 artillery pieces were all pulled out to bombard Zhangqiu. Finally, after paying more than 3,000 casualties, they conquered Zhangqiu County for the second time. Li Shutai's troops, who were guarding the city, were crippled and fled back to Jinan in a panic...

After the three battles, the cumulative casualties of the East Coast army had reached 13,000. Even if the repeated counts were removed, the actual casualties exceeded 10,000, and less than 40% of them could be restored to the battlefield again. Such tragic casualties (20% casualties rate) made the morale of the servant army very low, and this also made Mao Desheng turn his attention to the battlefield behind enemy lines, hoping to force the Qing army to be in chaos through the victory in the battlefield behind enemy lines to reduce casualties from frontal attacks...

Of course, he also underestimated the fighting will of the Qing army. Now that the situation in the Qing Dynasty is tight, how can Luke Dehun not know the key? Therefore, he fought his life and had to defend Jinan City. He must not let the yellow-clad thieves conquer it, otherwise there will be unimaginable bad influences in politics and military affairs. Because of this, this offensive and defensive battle in Jinan was to inspire these Qiu Ba people to fight...

On the 10th of the month, the East Coast army, which had adjusted the attack sequence, launched another offensive. In this battle, the artillery troops were no longer stingy with gunpowder and shells, and 24 artillery pieces were all pulled out to bombard Zhangqiu. Finally, after paying more than 3,000 casualties, they conquered Zhangqiu County for the second time. Li Shutai's troops, who were guarding the city, were crippled and fled back to Jinan in a panic...
Chapter completed!