On May 30, 1647, after learning about the latest developments of the Qing army brought by the naval gunboat, Mo Ming stopped hesitating and prepared to stop as soon as he was ready. He began to lead his army to attack Rugao County east of Jingjiang, preparing to follow the Yangtze River to the Yellow Sea.

At this time, the Qing army in Yangzhou Prefecture had gradually gathered in Yangzhou and Taizhou line under the dispatch of Shi Tingzhu, with a force of 20,000. In addition, a few soldiers of Huai'an Prefecture also went south. The news was tortured from a Qing army messenger intercepted by a scout on the east coast, but the specific number was unknown, and it seemed to be a horse team. When Hong Chengchou, who was in Nanjing, heard that the water transport was not running and the navy suffered heavy losses, he did not dare to organize troops to cross the river during the day. Instead, he crossed 30,000 troops from the upper reaches of Nanjing to Jiangpu County on the north coast at night, including nearly 5,000 soldiers in the Eight Banners of Manchu, which cannot be said to have attached great importance to the severe situation in Jiangbei.

After these 30,000 people crossed the river, the people on the east coast lost their traces, but it can be imagined that they would go to Gaoyouzhou and Taizhou to eat. Now Jiangdu and Yangzhou have snatched the people on the east coast into white land, and it is impossible for them to support tens of thousands of troops in a short time. Therefore, they will inevitably go to these two places to obtain supplies before they can chase the army on the east coast.

As for the Qing army that was heading south from Huai'an Prefecture, according to the information obtained by the East Coast people, its main force seemed to be on the front line of Haizhou and Shuyang. Only more than 4,000 green camps had collected food and grass and crossed the Yellow River south in advance, but the distance from the Yangtze River was still far away. In short, the Qing army seemed to be preparing to encircle and suppress the enemy from the west and north directions, just as more than a year ago. The front line was long and the troops were tight, they could not use the East Coast army that was fighting in mobile operations.

After the army evacuated, 18 medium-sized fishing boats filled with silver, food, livestock and some personnel were escorted by four sail warships. They pulled their anchors and left the banks of the Jingjiang River along the water. After entering the Yellow Sea, they raised their sails. Then they went north under the southeast wind, and their destination was Heishui Port. As for the remaining 9 steam engine sailboats and four transport ships, they still cruised from the east of the Jingjiang River to the nearest estuary, and from time to time they sent gunboats to send people ashore to contact the army to continuously determine their respective directions.

On June 2, a large number of baggage and light-fitting forward, the army on the east coast quickly advanced to the bottom of Rugao County, Taizhou. After several shells were fired, an incident occurred in Rugao City. The leader of the Reunion trained hundreds of township soldiers to capture and kill the county magistrate who wanted to resist. Then he opened the city gate to welcome the army on the east coast. Mo Ming brought more than a thousand people into the city. He first encouraged Wu Shouzhong, the leader of the township soldiers who led the army to "anyway" and then the wife and daughter of the county magistrate, the chief clerk and other officials who insisted on resisting the east coast army, were organized into a women's stand-up team with Shi Tingzhu's concubine to enjoy the soldiers.

On June 3, the public security team sent a report that in the morning of June 1, thousands of Qing army Eight Banners teams set off from Yizhen County and traveled together. They should have reached Taizhou at present. Rugao County is under Taizhou, which is only more than a hundred miles away from the city of Zhou. This distance will arrive in one day. However, the Qing army teams traveled from Jiangpu to Taizhou for several days. At this time, they should be too scarce and need to rest, otherwise they will not be able to fight effectively. The yellow-clothed thieves are not those weak Ming troops. If they do not adjust their condition, these thousands of horse teams may have gone to deliver vegetables.

Mo Ming, who learned the news of the Qing army, was still not panicked, but only a few thousand cavalry. He had nearly 10,000 soldiers and all kinds of troops were complete. I was afraid of it? Therefore, after collecting the money, grain and livestock in Rugao County, he asked Sun Shouzhong to take more than 3,000 people first (all of whom were training troops and their families anyway), and then personally led a large group of people to swagger towards Tongzhou. There was no way to cover up his whereabouts along the way, and let the Qing army spies lurking in the countryside pass on the information of his troops, which seemed arrogant.

On June 7, just when the East Coast Army reached Baipu Town, less than fifty miles northwest of Tongzhou, this Qing army team finally appeared far away in the sight of the East Coast people. At this time, the true appearance of the Qing army was finally fully exposed to the East Coast people. They were probably mixed with the Eight Banners of Manchu and Mongolia, with a total of 3,000 people, wearing foam nails and cotton armor, one man and two horses, and looked quite high in morale. At this moment, behind the large troops on the East Coast, they seemed to be hesitating whether to step forward to conduct a harassing attack.

However, before they could make a decision, Mo Ming and General Mo had decided to send the cavalry corps and the security team to launch a tentative attack on them. Seeing that the yellow-clothed thief cavalry, whose number was not as large as that of them, actually launched an attack. The Eight Banners soldiers were obviously shocked, but they also happened to try the weight of the yellow-clothed thief. Therefore, nearly 6,000 cavalrymen on both sides launched a large-scale battle in an unknown place in Baipu Town.

The battle between the cavalry was short and fierce, but in just half an hour, the two were convenient to escape from the battle. On the east coast, about 300 cavalrymen fell off the horse and died, including more than ten elite security scouts. In addition, more than 100 were injured, with a casualty rate of about one-sixth. As their opponents, the Eight Banners generals, who were "unparalleled in cavalry and shooting", were not as good as the opponent's weapons and equipment, and the casualties were heavier. A total of about 500 or 600 people were killed or injured. I wonder how many of them were authentic Eight Banners soldiers.

However, this casualty was enough to impress them. Almost 20% of the casualties of the people were an unbearable number for them. Therefore, after looking at each other fiercely for an hour, the Eight Banners soldiers turned their horses and disappeared from the woods in the distance. The East Coast cavalry, who were also grinning in pain, did not pursue them. In this battle, they lost a large number of experienced Polish veterans and skilled Tatar riders, which were not much better than those Tartars.

After the Qing army that was bitten the tightest, the Qing army brigade would not catch up with him in a short time. This time they killed and injured hundreds of Manchu and Mongolian Eight Banners soldiers. The severity of this incident was almost as serious as the Tianting. The Qing army commanders who led the team probably did not have the courage to use the precious Manchu and Mongolian Eight Banners to fight with the yellow-clothed thieves, and even the Han army flags had to save some use. It seems that the Qing army would not launch a large-scale offensive without waiting for the large Green Camp troops to arrive. But can the Green Camp soldiers and generals who were slow and depressed in morale, catch up with the Yellow-clothed thieves? The answer is naturally no.

On June 9 and 10, two days after the east coast army finally conquered Tongzhou City, more than 40,000 Qing army's main force on the west road, dominated by the green camp, barely set off from Taizhou City. This is because they brought a lot of supplies and went forward. If they followed the normal pace of Moyanggong's journey, they might have just set off from Jiangdu.

As for the Qing army on the north road, the situation was vague. The scouts sent by the East Coast people did not find out any useful information. However, according to speculation, the main force of the Qing army in Huai'an Prefecture should have crossed the Yellow River one after another, and the total force should be between 30,000 and 40,000. The vanguard may have arrived in Yancheng. However, Yancheng is still a certain distance from Tongzhou. The bold Mo Ming decided to rest in Tongzhou City for a day, and also collect materials, money, grain and livestock.

On the night of June 12, the vanguard of the East Coast Army arrived at the foot of Haimen County, Tongzhou. Li, the magistrate of Qinghaimen County, who had always heard that the yellow-clad thieves had a tradition of forcing good men to become prostitutes, committed suicide by taking medicinal wine after killing his wife and daughter. After being recommended by the gentry in the city, he sent two representatives to deliver two hundred pigs and sheep, five thousand stones of rice, two thousand pieces of silk and fifty thousand taels of silver to the east coast army outside the city. He bribed the yellow-clad thief to leave with a large sum of money.

Although Haimen County is still rich, it is not a small amount to take out so many things to the people on the east coast at once, which shows its "sincerity". Mo Ming was already a little tired of the endless journey. He wanted to rush to the riverside as soon as possible to board the boat and return to the north. As for this Haimen County, it is natural that he can catch it if he can't catch it. But he didn't expect that he would actually send so much property on his own initiative, and it would be useless to collect it.

After collecting other people's things, Mo Ming naturally did not plan to go to Haimen County again. After all, there were still tens of thousands of main Qing troops hanging behind him. According to the news I just received today (13th), at least 5,000 Qing army vanguards should have arrived near Rugao County at this time. As for the Qing army in the north, because no one has sent people to investigate carefully recently, their whereabouts are not yet known. However, their main force should have entered Yancheng, and the vanguards have mostly entered the jurisdiction of Yangzhou Prefecture. Considering that it will take three or four days to board the ship, it is indeed not advisable to delay any further time at this time.

Therefore, at noon on the 13th, the army on the east coast passed the city and did not enter and headed straight to the river. All the gentry from the Haimen who heard this news were fortunate. As for the unlucky or "conscientious" County Magistrate Li and his family, they naturally died in vain...

Starting from the night of the 13th, the army on the east coast began to retreat and board the riverside south of Haimen County. The entire operation lasted until the evening of the 17th, with a total of about 200,000 taels of silver, a large amount of jewelry, jade, calligraphy, paintings, 25,000 stones of food, more than 10,000 bundles of fodder, more than 800 livestock, and more than 5,000 people were stuffed into a total of 13 transport ships. Of course, there were 20,000 small East Coast troops (some civilians have withdrawn), and so many supplies, people and animals squeezed the 13 ships into airtight. Fortunately, their destination was Jeju Island, and the voyage was short of a few days under the wind, so it was a little patient and it was not a big problem.

On June 18, the East Coast fleet set sail, and after leaving the Yangtze River, it turned northeast and headed towards Jeju Island. As for the two routes who "sending off" them, the fastest one was reported to have just entered Haimen County on the evening of the 17th, and the boarding operation of the East Coast people was almost over. Everyone was destined to be desperate.

The Battle of Jiangbei (Mo Ming jokingly called Jiangbei Armed Parade) lasted nearly two months since the day of landing on April 25. One Qing Prefecture City, one prefecture city, and four county towns, and about 19,000 Qing troops were killed and wounded, and about 2,000 people were killed and injured (including those who were reduced due to illness), of which about 10% were the East Coast Army.
Chapter completed!