Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 11 The Arrival of the Northern Captives and the Siege of the City by Soldiers
On the tower, Zhao Yingyuan witnessed two thousand Qing troops setting up camp outside the city, and a moment later watched a cavalry composed of yellow armor and blue armor enter the camp. When there were 7000 troops, an infantry army that stretched for several miles in the distance completely crushed Zhao Yingyuan's confidence.

There were 500 Qing troops besieging the city, of which 500 were Zhen Manchurian Huangjingqi, [-] were from the Zhenglan Banner of the Han army, and the rest were more than [-] Green Battalion soldiers. The number of new recruits just recruited was no more than [-].

There is a saying in the art of war, ten means to encircle, five means to attack, double means to fight, the enemy can be divided, the number can be escaped, and the number can be avoided. Therefore, the strength of a small enemy is the capture of a big enemy!
The Qing army was more than five times that of the Zhao army, but the Zhao army could not avoid it, and was trapped in Qingzhou. If they did not get support, they would almost die.

At this time, with the arrival of the green battalion, the Qing army surrounded Qingzhou on three sides, leaving only the south gate. Although Zhao Yingyuan lacked confidence in defending Qingzhou, but now all the cavalry were lost, and the encirclement was short of one. How could he do such an old trick? fooled.

Seeing that the Qing army set up camp and had no plans to fight at night, Zhao Yingyuan, Wang Yan and others went back to the state office to discuss countermeasures.

Tonight, inside and outside Qingzhou was full of flames. In the tent of the Qing army commander outside the city, four Qing court officials were also discussing how to break Qingzhou.

The four people in the tent are not all Manchurians, only the leader of the Kabush Xianjia Lazhangjing and Tuo are real Manchurians, and the other three are all Han Chinese who voted for the Qing Dynasty.However, although the four were mainly Hetuo, the main forces attacking the city were the Green Battalion of Linyi General Wang Guodong and Li Shutai's Han Army Zhenglan Banner.

In the city, in the state government office.

Qingzhou officials and squires were also present.

Sitting at the top of the list is His Royal Highness King Heng of the Ming dynasty, followed by the real rulers of Qingzhou, the mighty general Zhao Yingyuan and Lord Yang Xiu.

Many officials in Qingzhou sat on both sides of the Zhao army generals, as well as the Liu family, Feng family, Zhai family and other wealthy gentry.

Everyone in the hall, King Heng is just a cardboard, he has no intention of fighting against Qing, he just wants to save his own life, his fat body is sitting there, like a sculpture.

The officials and gentry were also disliked by Zhao Yingyuan, and he was born as a bandit, so naturally he couldn't get their real support.

Only Zhao Jun is still available. They followed Zhao Yingyuan for many years, and Wang Aoyong died at the hands of Zhao Jun. After the Qing army broke through the city, they would definitely retaliate against them. Chou Yin Mao came.

Looking around at all the people in the hall, Wang Yan could already see everyone's mentality. The war was about to start, but people's hearts were different. He couldn't help feeling even more bitter.

Zhao Yingyuan sat upright, waiting for everyone to put forward their views on defending the city, but the time passed slowly, and there was a silence in the hall, and his originally bad face became even uglier as time went by.

Seeing this, Wang Yan had no choice but to stand up bravely. He walked to the center of the hall, saluted each of Heng Wang, Zhao Yingyuan, and Yang Wangxiu who were sitting in front of him, and then raised his voice and said: "Although the slave power is fierce, it can be defended and defeated. , There are three strategies for late life, General Ruona, when he protects Qingzhou."

Seeing Wang Yan breaking the silence, Zhao Yingyuan was overjoyed, and at the same time felt a little bit guilty. If he had listened to him back then, how could he be trapped in Qingzhou today.

At this moment, Zhao Yingyuan had a glimmer of hope in his heart. He looked at Wang Yan and said, "Shiheng's three strategies, what are the specific explanations?"

"Three strategies for late birth, one of which is to train soldiers. There are still 30 taels of silver in the treasury. There are no less than [-] young and strong people hiding in the city outside the city. There are also thousands of children from various clans who can fight. The general can offer a big reward. New recruits, use battle to train!" Wang Yan thought.

Things didn't seem as bad as expected, Zhao Yingyuan couldn't help but nodded slightly, signaling Wang Yan to continue talking.

"Secondly, the Ming spies closely inspected the suspicious people in the city to prevent the Qing court from spying on them." Wang Yan paused slightly, and continued after clearing his thoughts. "The third is to ask for help. After all, Manchuria is only 20. It has to deal with the Shanxi Shun army and defend the capital. It is impossible to send troops to Shandong. Now the Shandong Qing army is gathered here, Jinan, Dezhou, Jiaodong, etc The land is bound to be empty, and there is a saying that the lips are dead and the teeth are cold. The general can send envoys to contact the rebels from all directions, or order them to attack Jinan and other places, or disturb the Qing army's food road, or invite them to come to help in the battle, so that the Qing army will be exhausted. The general will rely on the city. Guard, don't fight with the waves in the wild, and when the Qing army runs out of food, it will retreat by itself!"

Hearing this, everyone in the hall couldn't help whispering, secretly praising it as reasonable.

However, at this moment, a figure retreated quietly.

Outside the city, in the tent of the commander-in-chief of the Qing army.

He Tuo, Li Sutai, Wang Guodong, and Li Shiyuan are researching ways to break through Qingzhou.

He Tuo said: "Today's striker killed hundreds of Zhao Jun's cavalry, which is a great achievement! However, Qingzhou is a strong city after all, with a wide river and a thick city. The law of the city."

"As the saying goes, if you know yourself and the enemy, you will never be imperiled in a hundred battles! The officials have already dispatched agents to contact old acquaintances in the city. As long as we find out the strength of the troops in the city, and then have internal support, it is not difficult to break the city." Li Shiyuan said with a smile on his face.

At this time, if a guard reported that someone came from the city or even outside the camp, Hetuo asked someone to lead him into the tent. The man was astonished to be Han Zhaoxuan from Qingzhou Road who had quietly withdrawn from the state government.

Zhao Yingyuan exempted him from death because of his meritorious service to King Aoyong, but lost his official position. At this time, when the Qing soldiers attacked, Li Shiyuan sent someone to contact him, and he decided to surrender to the Qing court again.

The four of them asked him about the situation in the city, and when they learned that the city was recruiting troops, punishing the secret agents of the Qing court, and even sending envoys to say that the rebel army attacked and disrupted the Qing army's rear and grain roads, the expressions of the four changed slightly.

In this way, it seems that breaking Qingzhou is not as simple as imagined before.

"Zhao Yingyuan is quite capable!" After listening, Li Sutai sighed slightly.

Han Zhaoxuan smiled mysteriously. "The general doesn't know something, but the person who came up with this strategy is not Zhao Yingyuan."

"Who was it at that time?" Hearing the words, the four people couldn't help becoming interested, Li Shiyuan thought about it and said: "But Yang Wangxiu, he used to be the military guard in Tongguan, Shanxi, Ming Court, and Li Chuang's servant of the military mansion. Knowing the strategy is also reasonable."

Han Zhaoxuan didn't answer in a hurry, and after attracting the eyes of the four people, he said: "I don't know, this person is called Wang Yan, but he has a lot of talent and learning. He entered Qingzhou and supported the capital of Hengfan It was his plan."

The four secretly remembered Wang Yan's name in their hearts, and continued to discuss the method of breaking the city. Since they found that Qingzhou, which was thought to be easy to break, was really difficult to fight, they couldn't help feeling a little frustrated.

"Since it's not easy to attack by force, why not outsmart it?" Li Shiyuan suddenly said when he saw that everyone came out without a discussion.

"How to outsmart, Mr. Li can tell me quickly." He Tuo, who was quite distressed, couldn't help raising his eyebrows after hearing this.

"Zhao Jun is nothing more than a grassroots bandit in essence. I think that Zhao Yingyuan and Yang Wangxiu both wavered between Mingshun and Mingshun. It can be seen that they are not loyal people. They only want utilitarianism. Why don't the general allow heavy profits and invite them to surrender! As for the king Yan is not in power, as long as Zhao and Yang are moved, a scholar is irrelevant." Li Shiyuan said.

"Not right~ not right~" He Tuo thought carefully after hearing this, and finally refused. "Zhao thief killed my Minister of the Ministry of War of the Qing Dynasty, Aoyong, the king of Shandong's recruiting history, and destroyed the foundation of the Qing Dynasty in Shandong. How can he be easily forgiven! If the general let him go, and gave him wealth, someone will follow suit in the future. And the regent hates him to the bone and wants to kill him. After that, I will not dare to disobey his will, Master Li should think of another plan."

As a Han Chinese, Li Shiyuan naturally did not dare to question Hetuo and the regent Dorgon, so he could only respond: "The general is considerate."

"Do you have other ideas?" He Tuo nodded in satisfaction, and then asked again.

"The last general has carefully thought about Wang Yan's strategies. Although they are all good strategies, they can bring a lot of trouble to our army, but Zhao Jun is inherently weak, that is, his strength is too weak, and those strategies will take time. We will wait You only need to break through the city in one fell swoop before the new recruits are ready to fight." Li Sutai said.

After thinking about it, several people felt that it was reasonable. There were only about [-] Zhao troops in the city, and most of them were new recruits. It would take time to recruit and train new recruits, and contacting various rebels was not something that could be completed in a day or two. If the army can quickly break through Qingzhou, all these plans will be empty talk.

"Haha~ Now that's the case, tomorrow the army will directly attack the city, let Zhao thief see how powerful our Qing warriors are!" He Tuo agreed with Li Sutai's words very much, laughed and turned his eyes to Wang Guodong, the general officer of Linqing "Wang Zongbing, whether you can capture Qingzhou tomorrow or not will depend on your performance."

The thankless and laborious work of siege, of course, cannot be done by Manchurians and Bannermen, it can only be done by the green battalion troops who surrendered.

"Observe your orders, and you will definitely live up to the general's expectations!" Wang Guodong and Li Sutai's official positions are much higher than Hetuo's, but because they are Manchurians, Wang Guodong, the commander-in-chief, has to stand in front of him, a Jialaerzhen Said in a low voice.

"Okay, let's talk about this today. Tomorrow, we will attack the city in a big way. After the city is broken, we can send troops for three days. General Li has arranged for the people on patrol at night, so let's all retreat!" Seeing that everything was over, He Tuo went Said with a wave.

"'Zha~" The four of them responded in unison and withdrew from the handsome account.

It was night, and the two armies were in peace. The Qing army had been rushing for a few days. When they came to the city, they needed to recharge their energy and recharge their batteries. The last tranquility of Qingzhou City.

(The author consulted historical materials and only knew that Wang Aoyong was captured in the country gentry's house. The novel here is arranged on the head of Han Zhaoxuan for the sake of plot. In the Qingzhou Incident, Li Shiyuan did collude with Han Zhaoxuan, but in history Han Zhaoxuan, In the end, they rebelled against the Qing Dynasty, and finally they were defeated and killed!)
(End of this chapter)