Dominate the Country

[Thanks to ‘Mo Zhijingyu’ for the 1,000-coin reward, thank you]

The battle at Xuzhou is over, the battle at Jining is over. Agui ran away, and the Henan Qing army ran away. Shandong, which was still bustling in the first half of the year, suddenly turned out to be only Jinan, and the war had not yet been decided.

Schuhde's beard turned white due to anxiety, but what could he do?

Qingshui's troops marched north from Tai'an. After Chen Ming's army arrived in Jining, they continued to kill Liaocheng, the capital of Dongchang without stopping. The situation in Jinan during the Qing Dynasty took a sharp turn. While Shu Hede gathered the Qing troops, he immediately sent an urgent message asking for help to Beijing. But could Qianlong be reluctant to take risks with the new Eight Banners troops? This seems to be a result that everyone knows without asking!

It was 2670 miles from Jining to Liaocheng, and the vanguard of the Fuhan Army arrived in five days. Just when the city of Beijing was hesitant, Chen Ming easily captured Dongchang Fucheng, an important place in Shandong, and the surrounding Yangtze River. It depends on the notification in Gu, Shouzhang, Tangyi and Shen counties.

The Qingshui Jiaojun who went north from Tai'an went up the Beisha River and were blocked by the Qing army at the Great Wall Station. His troops were not strong in attacking difficulties and did not really help much in Jinan's battle situation, but at any rate they were able to contain part of the Qing army in Jinan.

The Second Defense Division has not captured Jinan yet, but this does not mean that they have no achievements at all. After capturing Zibo, in order to make better use of the river to transport military supplies, and to avoid stretching the logistics line too long and giving the Qing cavalry an opportunity to take advantage of, the Second Guard Division turned to sweep Wuding Prefecture in the northernmost part of Shandong. . Because there is a Daqing River that leads directly to Jinan.

In Chen Ming's eyes, this Daqing River is even more like the 'Yellow River'. In the fifth year of Xianfeng's reign (1855), the Yellow River changed its course at the Tongwaxiang breach in Lanyang, Henan (today's Lankao County), diverting the Daqing River into the Bohai Sea.

Therefore, this Daqing River is enough to carry the transportation fleet. Even small ships can easily sail in.

The main force of the Second Guard Division is divided into two groups, one is located in Jiyang to the north of the Daqing River, and the other is located in Zhangqiu to the south of the Daqing River.

The former was to block the Jinan Qing army's northward escape route, and the southern route was to seize Jinan Quancheng. Now Chen Ming is leading his army to attack Liaocheng in a straight line to the east, aiming at Qihe County, which is across the river from Jinan City. The Qing army in Jinan immediately became unable to sit still.

It was still the signing room of the Shandong Governor's Yamen, but the crowd inside was one less Kong Zhaohuan and one more imperial envoy.

Zhou Yuanli's face is now paler, Xu Ji's demeanor is also changing towards Zhou Yuanli's, and Juan Qi is even more useless. Although he also holds the position of minister of group training, he is really not a great talent.

Among the five people, only Shu Hede and Wang Jintai were still calm.

"I am already sixty-five years old. I am old and can no longer serve the Qing Dynasty." Wang Jintai is indeed very old, and he has been exhausted from the battlefield for several years and is really almost exhausted. "This famous city in Jinan has beautiful scenery. It should be my burial place."

"It's a blessing to die in this feng shui treasured place."

Although the situation in Jinan is very bad, in fact the atmosphere in the security room today is not dull, because the two Han ministers among the five people have made noble 'sacrifice'.

Wang Jintai and Zhou Yuanli, two senior officials, one civil and one military, had already communicated with Shu Hede and others. The two of them stay in Jinan, and the remaining three should lead the troops and run north as soon as possible. Therefore, the atmosphere of signing the mortgage room today is very solemn, but it is tragic and solemn, and it is not depressing at all.

Wang Jintai gave Shu Hede a discount, which was the last discount he gave to Qianlong.

In the same way, Zhou Yuanli also gave Xu Ji a piece of advice. Zhou Yuanli, who kept coughing, seemed to have a lot of difficulty handing the fold to him. After Xu Ji took the fold, he slumped on the chair. Even Shu Hede, Xu Ji, and Tang Qi praised and praised him like the endless water of the Yellow River, but they only made him slightly raise the corners of his mouth, or shake his head sadly.

The Qing army took the initiative to admit defeat.

Yes, I took the initiative to admit defeat.

In Zhou Yuanli's eyes, Qianlong would have given up on Shandong if he did not send reinforcements south. Then look at the current map and think about the powerful navy of the Fuhan Army. You can know what they will do next without even thinking about it. Then will Qianlong give up again?

Zhou Yuanli was really sick, and he was really disappointed.

If Qianlong were in front of him at this time, he would definitely scold him severely. If you cling to the Eight Banners New Army, will you be able to have cubs or have babies? Look at the series of defeats after the Battle of Changzhou. The Manchu Qing voluntarily abandoned the Southern Kingdom. For such a long time, the Manchu Qing Dynasty failed to deal a powerful blow to Chen Han, allowing the Fu Han army to eat up the entire south bit by bit!

And now that the Fuhan Army has reached Shandong, Anhui is also going to be in their pocket. Isn't the situation tense enough? Could it be that the Fuhan army had to arrive at the gates of Beijing before you (Qianlong) could spend all your capital? Then what do you think of Shandong, Northern Jiangsu, Anhui, and Henan?

Moreover, in the past two years, Qianlong had the sticky pole department frequently attack the river embankments, which really caused some people to lose their hearts. Even these people do not agree with the policies of the Fuhan Army, but there are two sides between the Manchu and Han Dynasties. One destroys the embankment and harms people, and the other mends the embankment to save people. Although the Manchu and Qing Dynasty caused a lot of trouble for Chen Han, they really let Chen Han I brushed up my image again.

From a real point of view, the Manchu tactic was to drink poison to quench thirst. Maybe Qianlong himself knew it too!

Zhou Yuanli was one of them. He had a lot of opinions about Qianlong and the Qing Dynasty. In the last memorial of Shangshu Qianlong, Zhou Yuanli bluntly advised Qianlong not to "go against the grain" again. But he also disagreed with Chen Han's national policy, so the death that Shuhede, Xu Ji, and Jian Qi feared was a good relief for Zhou Yuanli.

Zhou Yuanli was carried out of the governor's office by his entourage on a sedan chair and returned to the governor's office in silence. In the past few days, officials of the governor's office have sorted out all kinds of files and materials according to Zhou Yuanli's instructions, and then returned to their homes. Those who have the ability can show their magic. So the big governor's office was silent.

Zhou Yuanli was from Hangzhou. His father Zhou Mao died early, and he was raised by his mother Chen since he was a child. He passed the imperial examination at the age of 32, and then he was promoted to the governor of Shandong for his meritorious service. He is good at water, knows the general situation in politics, and is tolerant to his subordinates, or in other words, he protects his shortcomings. But as a staunch loyalist, Zhou Yuanli's clan, mother's clan, and wife's clan had long been liquidated by the Fu Han Army. Zhou Yuanli, who can only go all the way, values ​​​​nothing else, but "leaving a good name in history"! That's why he was so distressed after seeing the Qing Dynasty's sudden "retrograde" behavior. He has a feeling that his reputation after death will be completely smashed by the Qing Dynasty's behavior of harming the people.

Wang Jintai returned to the camp and immediately summoned a group of his generals. He talked about the matter in the signing room, and then ignored the indignant voices of his generals and pointed out some names: "You all go back and prepare." These people are the people who followed Shu Hede to the north, and the rest are those who stayed in Jinan City and waited to die.

The dozen or so officers in front of Wang Jintai immediately split into two rows. Except for a very few people, almost everyone had emotions on their faces, either happy, worried, or horrified.

Among the latter, the thirty-year-old Duan Yonggui was full of dissatisfaction. He was a hereditary assistant commander of the Plain White Banner of the Han Army, a staunch supporter of the Qing Dynasty, so how could he be left in Jinan City? The same situation also occurred with two other bannermen and generals. It was also very coincidental that these three bannermen happened to be one each from the three banners of the Manchu, Han and Mongolian Army.

"General, why did you leave Duan Yonggui and the other two? Isn't this a problem?"

After all the generals left, Wang Jintai's deputy general of the Central Army said in his ear. Wang Jintai shook his head tiredly, staring straight at the beams of the house, not knowing what he was thinking. After a while, three words popped out of his mouth: "Submission of a name!"

All the actions of the Qing army were carried out very quickly. When the garrison divisions on both sides of the Daqing River came over, Shuhede had already gone north from Qihe with more than 20,000 Qing troops. Gao Jinghui and Lu Long's faces suddenly turned pale, and then they didn't care about anything else, and immediately led their troops to launch a fierce attack on Jinan and Qihe.

There were still about 10,000 Qing troops left in Jinan. The Shuhede army, which had already fled, had a large number of cavalry, and the Second Garrison Division did not dare to pursue them on a large scale. First of all, if they pursued, they could not catch up with the heavy artillery, and even if they caught up without heavy artillery, they could not eat, and they might even be counterattacked by the Qing army. So they could only watch Shuhede run away with his men. Now the only thing they could do was to destroy the Qing army still stationed in Jinan City and make up for their mistakes.

Chen Ming did not give a death order to the Second Garrison Division to capture Jinan, but he also asked them to keep an eye on the Qing army in Jinan and not let them slip away. Now..., they can only work harder to make up for their mistakes.

In addition to the Daqing River and the Xiaoqing River, there is also the Tuhai River, one of the important rivers in Shandong. This name is very strange, but its origin is extremely high-end. It is one of the "Nine Rivers" recorded in "Yu Gong".

The Tuhai River is not far from the Daqing River, and the narrowest part is only a dozen miles. The place corresponding to Qihe River is where the tributaries of Tuhai River converge. Yucheng is located at the angle between Tuhai River and its tributary Zhaoniu River. The Fu Han army on the north bank of Daqing River attacked Qihe River while setting up defenses on Zhaoniu River, a tributary of Tuhai River, to prevent the Qing army cavalry, which was drooping in Yucheng, from making a comeback.

From Yancheng Town to Wangjiaqiao, a series of Fu Han army positions took up two infantry battalions and corresponding artillery units.

The northernmost Wangjiaqiao position is located north of Zhaoniu River and is connected to the south bank by a stone arch bridge of 11 or 12 meters. As a key garrison of the Fu Han army, there is not only a reinforced team, but also two five-jin cannons and six mortars. In addition, the logistics department also transferred 100 prisoners of war to help build the position.

It was noon, and it was time to eat. The prisoners who had worked hard for a morning automatically divided into three groups, each of which was arranged in a fairly neat column, waiting in front of the "kitchen".

Surrounded by a squad of "supervising" soldiers. Foreman Fan Rutao stood in front of the "kitchen" in the middle, holding a whip in his hand. These days, he has taught the prisoners how to line up through sticks and whips. And his identity was still an outsider of the Shandong secret camp a month ago.

In the Fu Han Army, queuing is a very basic organizational order. In the Qing Army, queuing is also very important.

But these prisoners used to be scattered and managed. Now the rules have been changed, but after all, the time is still short. Now when the meal is distributed, although each group has a captain to maintain order, the whole team is still a bit messy, and everyone hopes that they can line up at the front. Only under the intimidation of the supervisors outside, the order of the team is preserved.

"These bitches deserve to be beaten, and they must be beaten hard!" Fan Rutao was very dissatisfied with this.

As a coolie laborer at the dock, Fan Rutao is very satisfied with his current status. He first worked for the secret camp, not because of Manchu, Han, Huayi or anything, but purely for money. I didn’t expect that he could also be a supervisor now!

One hundred people, if they were to be placed at Denglai Pier, they would be number one. Fan Rutao is very satisfied with his current life, so he must work hard and not let down the love from above.

For the first half of the month, he worked as a deputy with others and learned management along the way. Now he has become a full-time employee. He also managed hundreds of people and had tasks every day. During the entire Wangjiaqiao project, he seemed to just walk around casually with his hands behind his back, carrying a whip, but in fact he never relaxed his observation. With this labor camp.

He wants to select a few people he recognizes to serve as platoon leaders, thugs, and confidants.

Fan Rutao now knows those squad leaders as gang leaders and thugs on the dock. He is directly responsible to the foreman who charters the field, and is also responsible for managing and leading the coolies at the bottom.

Fortunately, the vast majority of these prisoners of war worked relatively hard. Although this is not due to their high self-consciousness, but to the competition among the ten squad leaders. Even though these ten squad leaders have not even sat firmly under their own buttocks, each one of them is aiming at that spot. Three platoon leader positions.

No one wants their subordinates to perform poorly in front of the little boss Fan Rutao - the ten squad leaders are all working very hard in supervising the work, but their work efficiency is still not enough just relying on their strong suppression. Fan Rutao knew that the prisoners were working hard now just because of fear, just like when he first got the money, he was too scared to walk when he saw the government officials. To make them work hard voluntarily and voluntarily, stimulation from other aspects is needed. These were all taught by the old captain before.

Fan Rutao decided to start with food. The prisoners now have three meals a day. Each meal is given two pieces of multi-grain pancakes, a bowl of porridge, and a lump of pickles. It is impossible to fill their stomachs. They do hard work, but they will never die of hunger.

"And people are greedy." This was what the old captain said to him. "Human desires are endless." When you are hungry, you hope to not die of hunger. When you are not hungry, you hope to have food and clothing. When you are food and clothing, you hope to eat well. This sentence is also true when it comes to Fan Rutao himself.

He looked forward to having enough food from the beginning, and now he looks forward to living well after eating. Their work points can be used not only to exchange for fields, but also for houses. Fan Rutao was single and working in the labor camp to take care of food and housing, so he decided to buy a house first, and then save 20 to 30 acres of land, so that he could earn money for his whole life. No more worries.

"Dazhu's class did the best and the most today." Fan Rutao stood in front of everyone and announced, "I announce that everyone in their team will have four pancakes at noon today."

After Fan Rutao finished speaking, he didn't care about the surprised expressions of others. He took the dried vegetables, wide noodles and stewed fat pork in his bowl and gave Dazhu Manman a bowl. This is the food for the Fuhan Army. Fan Rutao specially cooked more food today. The Fuhan Army doesn't care about this.

The shiny vermicelli and the fatty pork filled the air with a strong aroma of meat and oil, covering up the smell of pickles. Even the squad leader and ordinary labor reform prisoners, there were hundreds of them. Everyone couldn't help but take a deep breath in an instant. The rich aroma makes everyone's taste buds bloom to their fullest, making them salivate.

At this moment, countless people looked at Dazhu with eyes full of Hong Guoguo's envy, jealousy and hatred. They are intensely jealous.

Happiness comes so suddenly. This unexpected reward left Zhuzi speechless.

He was captured from Dengzhou and had been eating pickles for more than half a month. There was not even a fish, and his mouth was like a bird.

But now I suddenly have vermicelli stew and eat it.

"This is your reward. Work hard!" Fan Rutao said, patting the shoulders of his generals. Dazhu was so moved that he almost shed tears. He didn't know how much fat pork accounted for this "movement".

As for other people, they felt that the pickle dumplings they got were so hard to swallow like never before.

Dazhu's face was even more excited and he licked all the vegetable soup in his bowl clean. He was determined to ensure his leading position. The other monitors felt even more sour inside. Eating a good meal is not an important matter that can be easily ignored in the labor camp. All the prisoners - their labor camp career has just begun. Besides looking forward to better food, what else can they hope for?

Even the ordinary labor reformers below were very excited. It turns out that being a squad leader has such benefits. Then why don't you fight? The current monitors are all designated, doesn’t it mean they can’t be changed?

At this moment, several other squad leaders have made up their minds - they must deal with a few guys who are not working honestly in the afternoon, and they must kill the chickens and scare the monkeys.