Chapter 146: Concern and confusion (Part 2)
The Bohai Sea looks like it is in a tiger's mouth. The tooth in the north that is deeply inserted into the ocean is the Liaodong Peninsula in the northeast . The one in the south is the Jiaodong Peninsula in Shandong.
Shandong Dengzhou is the part of Shandong Jiaozhou Peninsula that extends into the ocean.
Since it has penetrated deep into the ocean, the north, east and south of Jiaozhou Peninsula are all surrounded by the sea. Only the west is connected to the land. Under such natural environment, Dengzhou City has always been a famous seaport in the north. Until the Qing Dynasty banned the sea.
Dengzhou City is located in the northern part of Jiaodong Peninsula. It has always been an important military garrison. There have been Dengzhou generals since the Ming Dynasty, and the Qing Dynasty also set up generals in Dengzhou.
In the 22nd year of Emperor Kangxi's reign, Jiaozhou Town was downgraded to Jiaozhou Camp, the general was abolished, and a deputy general was appointed to lead the army. At this time, there was only one general left in the entire Shandong Province, namely the general of Dengzhou Town. According to the Green Camp military system, the general is above the admiral. In the 21st year of Emperor Kangxi's reign, the admiral of Shandong was abolished. Although the governor could also control the general, he was a civilian official after all. Therefore, in the Green Camp military system in Shandong Province at that time, the general of Dengzhou Town was the actual highest official position. Therefore, the "Dengzhou Prefecture Records" stated: "All 27 camps in the province are under the control of this town."
Shandong has been peaceful for a long time, and Cangzhou Camp is usually quite serious. There are many people setting up stalls outside the camp to make money. Li Sange's family is not in Dengzhou City, so he transported a large number of dried persimmons here. When he walked to the road leading to Dengzhou City, Li Sange felt something was wrong. It seemed that there was something in the air, something that Li Sange had never felt in his life.
From afar, I could see the familiar streets in front of the Dengzhou camp, but the familiar traders were gone, the familiar shops that were always open were closed, and the familiar flow of people disappeared.
This surprised Brother Li San. As he was hesitating, he saw a few Qing soldiers on the street waving and shouting, "Selling dried persimmons, bring them here."
Not long after, Li Sange tried to hold onto the soldier's legs, but was kicked in the chest. Just as Li Sange was screaming in pain, he heard the soldier curse viciously: "If you don't let go, I'll beat you to death."
A cart of dried persimmons was worth a lot of money, so Li Sange certainly didn't want to be robbed by the soldiers. But these soldiers seemed to be possessed by evil spirits, exuding murderous aura.
Then they heard the sound of a door opening. A man came out without saying a word, picked up Li Sange and led him to the shop. The soldiers did not chase him, but just pushed Li Sange's cart and walked towards the camp.
The person who left was Zhang Situi, the young shopkeeper of the family shop. He helped Li Sange back to his shop and quickly closed the door. Li Sange was scared, wronged, and distressed. When he arrived at this safe place, he immediately burst into tears.
Young Shopkeeper Zhang just asked Third Brother Li to sit down with a sullen face. Shopkeeper Zhang also came into the room and couldn't help sighing.
After Li San Ge finished crying, Zhang the shopkeeper persuaded him to go back first. Ever since Huo Chong rebelled, these soldiers have been like possessed by evil spirits, acting extremely violently. First they bought things without paying, then it got worse and worse, from openly taking things away to now robbing and then beating people. All the merchants who made money from the Dengzhou camp fled.
Hearing that Shopkeeper Zhang seemed to be blaming Huo Chong for all this, Young Shopkeeper Zhang could not help but come out and say, "Dad, when did these soldiers listen to Master Huo? Did Master Huo let them rob like this? It's their own fault."
"Keep your voice down!" Shopkeeper Zhang was frightened and quickly stopped his son from talking nonsense.
But the young man was unwilling to hold back when he saw something he didn't like. Zhang Shitui cursed the Qing army as beasts. They usually liked to bully people, and now they wanted to eat people.
Shopkeeper Zhang couldn't stand it any longer and ordered his son sternly, "Pull out my butt."
Brother Li finally understood that something serious had happened. He ignored his pain and quickly asked what had happened to him during the past few months since he returned home.
Zhang Si was so angry that he finally opened the door and sneaked out of the house. After walking for several miles, a small Taoist temple appeared in front of him. There are many Taoists in Shandong, especially in the Jiaodong Peninsula . This place has been Penglai since the pre-Qin period. It has always been one of the important places of Taoism.
There was no one in the small Taoist temple. Zhang Si retreated and looked around, then walked out disappointed. He wanted to leave, but he couldn't help but want to find the Taoist priest who lived here. He stopped for a while and saw a person walking out nearby. He was the one who originally lived in this small Taoist temple.
"Wulian Tianzun..." the Taoist priest chanted his Taoist name.
"Okay, stop talking nonsense. I agree." Zhang Shitui said to the Taoist priest.
The Taoist priest was delighted and said, "Mr. Zhang is willing to do this, which is a great merit."
"What do you want me to do?" Zhang Shitui asked.
"Of course we won't let Mr. Zhang put himself in danger. As long as Mr. Zhang tells us what he saw in the camp, that's all."
Chang Xin Dao, who had great influence in Jiaodong Peninsula and even in Jiaodong, did not publicly declare his rebellion against the Qing Dynasty, but he had actually taken action. These believers formed an intelligence network to provide intelligence on the Qing army to Huo Chong. The addition of Zhang Shitui put the front end of this intelligence collection network at the gate of the Qing Dengzhou camp.
It was already March, and Xie Cilü, the former Dengzhou general, had already returned to Dengzhou. Li Shude was also going to come, but was ordered to go to southern Shandong to mobilize several battalions of Qing troops in southern Shandong to attack Huo Chong.
There were a total of 27 battalions of Qing troops in Shandong. Since the Qing army was also a military household system, the soldiers all inherited their father's business, and the situation of empty salaries was not particularly serious. In theory, each battalion of Qing troops had 500 people, but in practice, they could maintain more than 400.
The 27th battalion of Qing troops in Shandong should have 13,000 soldiers at full strength, and in fact there were more than 12,000. However, Huo Chong killed more than 3,000 of them, and according to the system, these losses were quickly supplemented by the families of the military households.
Although the total number of soldiers had been restored, the new recruits were useless. At this time, there were only .
Li Shude had already told Xie Cilü how Nian Gengyao viewed the last defeat. They were both guilty ministers, and the only way to redeem themselves was to win the battle. If they wanted to take all the credit, they would both be doomed if they failed.
Xie Cilu listened to the advice sincerely , as it concerned his future and current problems . He and Li Shude agreed to attack Huo Chong from both north and south. Both sides should strengthen communication and not underestimate the enemy.
By the third day of March, Xie Cilü was ready for battle. At a command, Xie Cilü, the guilty general of Dengzhou, led eight battalions of 4,000 Qing troops and set out from Dengzhou.
According to the plan, the two thousand troops from five battalions in southern Shandong would set out a few days later than Xie Cilü to avoid the same fate as last time when they were defeated one by one.
On the day when Xie Cilü led the Qing army to set out, the news was sent out by Zhang Shitui.
