Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 10 Ping Qingzhou, captive soldiers go south
After the Qingzhou Incident, Fang Dayou, the governor of Shandong Province in Jinan, was in a panic. He only had one battalion of troops on hand, and he thought it was not enough to defend the provincial capital, so naturally he could not send troops to destroy Zhao Yingyuan.

At this time, all parts of Shandong, which had just been subordinated, also became unstable because of Wang Aoyong's killing.

For a while, Fang Dayou didn't even dare to go out of Jinan, let alone appease the lands and recruit the rebels.Seeing that the situation in Shandong was about to collapse, he, an old dog of the Qing court, had no choice but to wag his tail and beg for help from his master, begging the Qing court to send real Manchurian officers and soldiers to the south at night.

Dorgon heard his report and knew that the situation was serious. Although the Qing army was fighting fiercely with the Shanxi Shun army, he decided to send troops to support immediately.

Meilezhang Jinghetuo and Meileer Ezhen Li who were in Beijing led an army of [-] to Shandong to pacify Zhao Yingyuan in Qingzhou.

By the time the news reached Qingzhou, it was September [-]th, and the Qing soldiers had arrived in Jinan on the sixth day of September.

Zhao Yingyuan and others were surprised by the quick response of the Qing court. He ordered Wang Yan to recruit and train troops as soon as possible, and at the same time ordered the cavalry to go out of the city to investigate the enemy's situation, gather the people outside the city, and fortify the walls and clear the fields to resist the Qing soldiers.

All this made Wang Yan very worried. If he was given more time, he would be able to train a soldier capable of fighting, but now the Qing court is coming too fast, and he has only recruited 3000 troops so far. .

Ever since the slave leader Nurhachi raised his troops, the Ming Dynasty had more defeats than victories. Sun Chengzong, Lu Xiangsheng, Zu Dashou, He Kegang, Li Waijiao, and even Hong Chengchou all died or were defeated or fell to the hands of the Manchus. Compared with the generals on the battlefield, Wang Yan is just a failed candidate who did not win the Jinshi. He really has no confidence to face the approaching Manchurian army of nearly ten thousand.

In fact, the information Wang Yan received was not accurate. The number of Qing soldiers who killed Shandong was far more than [-]. In addition to Manchuria, Dorgon also recruited [-] green battalion soldiers from North Zhili, Shandong, and Northern Henan to help fight, intending to wipe out Shandong in one fell swoop. .

After Hetuo and Li Sutai arrived in Jinan on the sixth day of September, under the recommendation of Fang Dayou, they took Li Shiyuan, a former Ming Qingzhou defender who was familiar with the situation in Qingzhou, and set off for Qingzhou on the ninth day of September.

Now until September [-]th, the Qing army will arrive sooner or later, but the Zhao army is not yet ready to go to war.

Wang Yan had no choice but to cheer up, try his best to do the things in hand, and improve the city defense, so that Zhao Jun could have the strength to fight.

At this time, he was patrolling the city with a long sword hanging from his waist.

The civilian men recruited on the city wall and the soldiers carried the rolling logs and boulders up the city wall. The damaged walls were also being reinforced by craftsmen, and large vats and cauldrons were erected. The whole city was in full swing like a construction site. The melancholy in Wang Yan's heart was relieved a lot, and the support of the people and soldiers gave him a glimmer of hope to keep Qingzhou.

When they came to the city tower, there were teams of people pushing small carts and bringing their families into the city.

Wang Aoyong died in Qingzhou. People were afraid of the Qing army's revenge, and Zhao Yingyuan sent cavalry to drive them away. To avoid the coming Qing army, some people fled south with their families, and some chose to hide in Qingzhou.

Holding the sword at his waist, Wang Yan looked at the scene below the city, thinking of another scene in his heart, "Will it fail? I will never let Qingzhou fall into the hands of the Qing army!"

He withdrew his thoughts, but saw two knights approaching in the distance on the official road, and a few miles behind them, a large cloud of dust was raised, and Wang Yan suddenly turned pale with shock.

"Follow me, quickly clear the gate, and welcome them into the city!" At this moment, he had already seen clearly that the two knights were the cavalry sent by Zhao Yingyuan to spy on the Qing army and drive the people away.

Wang Yan led the guards down the city in a hurry, but the city gate was already blocked by several large vehicles, but someone ignored Zhao Yingyuan's order and wanted to escape from this right and wrong place.

"What's going on? Quickly push the car away!" Seeing this, Wang Yan was furious.

The soldier guarding the city gate listened, but he was embarrassed. Seeing this, the guards behind him immediately stepped forward and wanted to push back the cart blocking the gate, but the servant who pushed the cart refused to do it, his face paled. The regretful man without need suddenly shouted sharply: "I don't know whose belongings this is. Our family wants to see who dares to push the car? Everyone doesn't want to live anymore, right! How dare you stop our family from leaving the city!"

Looking at the rising dust, the Qing army is only a few miles away from Qingzhou, and the cavalry can kill it within a quarter of an hour, but there is such an ignorant thing at the gate of the city.

Looking at his appearance and hearing his words and deeds, Wang Yan had already guessed his identity, and he was even more angry at the moment. He pulled out the long sword at his waist and said angrily: "You bastard! Dare to obstruct a major event, are you looking for death?"

"What are you going to do~" The eunuch's face couldn't help but change when he saw Wang Yan drawing his sword in anger, but he was used to being arrogant and domineering after a long time, and he felt ashamed when he heard Wang Yan scolding him , so relying on the identity of the master to insist on the road. "Our family is a close minister of King Heng. If we are the worst, we will offend the palace. Are you going to offend the king?"

The two knights ran all the way and returned to the city, but were blocked by the crowd, unable to enter the city, their faces were full of anxiety.Seeing this, Wang Yan knew that the military situation was urgent, and he couldn't wait any longer. Looking at the eunuch's stern look, his face suddenly became extremely gloomy.

Seeing the change in his face, the eunuch thought he had a plan, thinking that Wang Yan was intimidated by his status as a prince, and would not be able to come down for a while, so he said contemptuously: "Hmph~ what, don't open the way for our house, if... ·”

Before the eunuch finished speaking, Wang Yan suddenly stabbed at him with his sword, and the old eunuch's complacent face instantly turned pale.

"Ah~" Although Wang Yan is a scholar, since he presided over the recruitment of soldiers, he has often practiced with the sergeants. How could the eunuch be his opponent, and he was pierced by a sword before he could utter a scream.

Everyone watched Wang Yan pull out the sword from the corpse, and couldn't help but gasp. The guards who had obstructed him before couldn't help shivering, while the sergeants became solemn.

"Anyone who dares to disobey orders will end up like this!" Wang Yan drew out his sword, kicked the corpse down, looked around the crowd, and ordered loudly. "Quickly clear the city gate!"

The lesson from the past was right in front of us. Under the gaze of Wang Yan pressing his sword, the carts blocking the city gate were quickly pushed away, and the blocked city gate became unobstructed in a short while.

The two knights also followed the people into the city quickly. They came to Wang Yan and cried, "My lord, all the brothers who left the city are finished!"

Wang Yan didn't have a military position in the army, and he didn't have an official position awarded by the Ming Dynasty. He could only be regarded as Zhao Yingyuan's staff. People in the army saw him as young, so they often called him the son.

These two knights, Wang Yan, knew each other. One was Zheng Youcai, and the other was Wang Wei, who had shot through his thigh with an arrow.

At this time, he saw that the two of them were covered with wounds, and there were feather arrows stuck in their armor. Close the gates.

"Zheng Youcai, go back to the state office and report the situation to General Zhao." At the city gate, the soldiers moved quickly, and Wang Yan said to the two while turning to go to the city. "Wang Wei, follow me to the city and tell me about the situation of the Qing soldiers."

As he walked, he ordered the guards to notify the guards of the gates, and the soldiers in the city quickly went up to defend the city, and the whole Qingzhou immediately started to move.

"How many Qing soldiers you have met, do you know?" When he came to the tower, Wang Yan asked while standing by the wall, looking at the black line that was about to appear in the distance.

"Our more than 100 brothers collided with the Qing army's forward going south in Lijiabao, [-] miles away. They came all over the mountains and plains, and there were at least [-] people." Wang Wei recalled with a look of pain. "When we found the enemy, we immediately turned our horses and retreated, but we were still discovered by the Qing soldiers. They were fast, and the brothers fell off the horse one after another. It seemed that we were going to die. Finally, after Ma Zongshao led the brothers to fight to the death, let us And Zheng Youcai killed him."

The first confrontation between the Zhao army and the Qing army caused Zhao Yingyuan's most elite cavalry battalion to be almost wiped out. This was a huge blow to Wang Yan and the entire Qingzhou.

Moreover, the forward cavalry of the Qing army had 2000 soldiers. With the addition of the rear army of the Chinese army, the Qing army going south must have far exceeded the [-] people reported by the intelligence. This made Wang Yan's heart sink.

He asked the wounded Wang Wei to go down to deal with his injuries, while he thought about the countermeasures for defending the city. A moment later, Zhao Yingyuan, who had a gloomy face, also came down to the city surrounded by a group of generals from the Zhao army.

At this time, the Qing soldiers in the distance finally appeared outside the city. More than 2000 horses galloped over, covering the sky with dust, and the ground and the city trembled with the rhythm of the horseshoes. His face turned pale with fright.

These blue-armored Qing soldiers were extremely arrogant, galloping back and forth under the city. From time to time, some people bent their bows and set up arrows, and shot sharp arrows into the city. Although no casualties were caused, Zhao Jun was flustered.

The Qing army didn't take Zhao Jun seriously at all, and the voices of laughing, cursing and insulting were endless. A group of cavalry who arrived at the end even rushed under the moat, and each of them actually held a human head in their hands, and they were extremely arrogant. I took a small soil bag.

Zhao Yingyuan in the city and many generals of the Zhao army looked as ugly as possible. The fiery Zhao Si was so angry that he yelled and knelt on the city and begged for orders to fight to avenge his brothers in the cavalry camp, but Zhao Yingyuan stopped him.

With the strength of the Zhao army, there is no capital to fight against the Qing army. He lost [-] of his [-] old soldiers today, and lost all his cavalry. Where would he dare to fight, he had to order his soldiers to stand guard and strictly forbid them to fight without authorization.

The Qing army under the city is all cavalry, although they are arrogant, they are not stupid. They think that cavalry can capture the strong city, they toss and laugh at the city, and then retreat to a safe place outside the city to set up camp. Extremely arrogant.

Zhao Yingyuan and Wang Yan just watched them set up camp outside the city. There was nothing they could do. Zhao Jun’s cavalry was lost. There is no way to fight at all.

(The change in Qingzhou historically took place in September, but here the author advances it to August, and the number of Qing troops entering Shandong has also increased.)
(End of this chapter)