Forty miles east of Jinan.

A banner suddenly jumped out of the hills, and then a dense army.

Li Benshen rode in the middle of the group, surrounded by his own soldiers.

After Gao Jie was killed by Chen Yue, Li Benshen, Gao Jie's nephew, was unwilling to surrender, so he and Gao Jinku left the south with Gao Jie's wife, and as a condition for Gao Jie's surrender, the Pingnan Army at that time did not hunt down Gao Jie's family.

After returning to the north, Li Benshen decisively defected to the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and was appointed as the garrison of the Daimyo Mansion because of the early surrender of the Qing court. As the Manchu and Qing armies were defeated by Chen Yue successively, the number of Eight Banners was sharply reduced, and the Manchu court had to reuse the surrendered Green Battalion soldiers, and Li Benshen was promoted to the chief soldier in a very short period of time, and he was promoted to the Blue Banner, and Gao Jinku also became a deputy general.

Hong Chengchou was ordered to encircle and suppress the rebel army in the north, and Li Benshen and Gao Jinku obeyed the will of the Qing court and obeyed the orders under Hong Chengchou. Now he is being sent by Hong Chengchou as the vanguard to reinforce Jinan.

Knowing that the Ming army had indeed reached Jinan, Hong Chengchou immediately deployed the army to leave the Zhangqiu Mountains and march towards Jinan, wanting to annihilate the Ming army on the West Road under the city of Jinan in one fell swoop.

However, Zhangqiu to Jinan is mostly a mountain road, even the official road is also rugged and narrow, it took two days of hard work, Li Benshen led the army to Licheng, and Hong Chengchou's army is still on the mountain road between Licheng and Zhangqiu.

Licheng is only more than ten miles away from Jinan, and it won't take long to reach the city of Jinan and get the first merit of annihilating the Ming army!

However, just when Li Benshen was full of ambition, he saw the leading Tanma returning like crazy, and the dust behind him seemed to be being pursued by a large army.

At this moment, they were already close to the battlefield, and all the green battalion soldiers were very vigilant, and they did not wait for Li Benshen's orders, and the battle formation quickly unfolded.

When a large group of people and horses travel, there must be a horse as the vanguard, Li Benshen took the lead in a dozen horses, and only five people ran back alive.

"Jinan is lost, and the Ming army has come over!" The scout horse running in front shouted loudly, causing a great panic among the soldiers.

Li Benshen picked up the big bow and shot the arrow, and the screaming probe horse was shot under the horse by an arrow, and the cry stopped abruptly.

The decisive killing startled the army, and the riot suddenly stopped.

At this time, Li Benshen had no time to ask in detail, he had to deal with the upcoming Ming cavalry first.

The two sides were already very close, and Li Benshen saw that the number of cavalry in the Ming army was not large, and there were only a hundred horses.

Immediately waved his hand, and the deputy general Gao Jinku greeted him with a cavalry.

The cavalry on both sides quickly mixed together, and in the fighting, the number of Ming cavalry was too small, and after a short battle, twenty or thirty corpses were left behind.

Li Benshen immediately ordered the army to be stationed on the spot, and while inquiring about the details of Jinan, he sent someone to send a letter to Hong Chengchou and wait for follow-up orders. Li Benshen's army has 15,000 people, and there is a small city in Licheng that can be garrisoned, so there is no problem in holding it for a few days.

Then Li Benshen sent cavalry to investigate everywhere, found the green battalion deserters who escaped from Jinan, and finally figured out the truth of the matter. Jinan is really lost. Li Chengdong was killed, Hu Maozhen and Li Yuanyin rebelled, and the Ming army had occupied the entire city of Jinan. Fang Dayou, the governor of Shandong Province in the Qing Dynasty, failed to escape and was captured by the Ming army......

Defeated, completely defeated! At this moment, Li Benshen's heart was cold.

Although there are more than 100,000 troops under Hong Chengchou's command, the main force of the green battalion is still there, but Jinan is lost, the army's food and salary are all lost, and the army is alone in Jinan and Zhangqiu, a place of 100 miles, even if the Ming army in Jinan does not come to attack, there is still Chen Yue, the army of Jiaodong!

It is reported that Bai Guangen was killed, Tang Tong surrendered, and the green battalion soldiers in Dengzhou were completely wiped out. Chen Yue joined Wu Ping in Dengzhou, plus the surrendered green battalion soldiers, the army reached more than 200,000, and the vanguard had entered Qingzhou.

Assuming that even if Chen Yue didn't attack, the hunger and cold alone would cause more than 100,000 green battalion soldiers to collapse. The small Zhangqiu could not accommodate more than 100,000 green battalion soldiers, nor could it provide enough food.

"Big brother, we can't stay here, let's escape!" Deputy General Gao Jinku eagerly suggested to Li Benshen.

"Escape, what should we do if we escape from the army of Inspector Hong?" Li Ben looked at Gao Jinku with a deep wooden face.

"Let's let his surname Hong die! All I know is that if we stay here, we won't have to fight the brothers and we'll break down!

Taking advantage of the fact that the Ming army has not yet attacked, fleeing north, the Daqing River has frozen, and we can escape as long as we cross the Daqing River. As long as we have an army in our hands, even the Manchu court will have to reuse us! ”

Gao Jinku's words are not unreasonable, but as the commander of the first army, Li Benshen thinks more.

"Fleeing is to escape, but you can't flee like this, if Licheng is lost, the army of Inspector Hong will be completely blocked in the Zhangqiu Mountains. Without these more than 100,000 troops, the Qing Dynasty will really be finished, and I am afraid that it will not be possible to hold Beijing. How many more days can we survive even if we can escape? ”

"Big brother, they're all dying, so much care? Let's get away with the present catastrophe first! Gao Jinku said impatiently.

"One day, can we keep it for another day? In just one day, the army of Governor Hong will come out of the mountains. It's not too late to evacuate. ”

Li Benshen is the chief general of the First Army, and he can't help it if he insists on entering the warehouse. Everyone is a relative, and they are old brothers who have shared hardships for many years, so he can't leave Li Benshen and run away alone. can only return to the army depressed and help Li Benshen suppress the army.

The news that the Green Battalion had come out of the mountains and arrived in Licheng had reached Jinan.

Hearing this news, the generals of the Ming army were secretly happy. The Qing army came so quickly, fortunately, Jinan was captured in time, and it would be really troublesome for half a day at night.

Yu Feng suggested that the Qing army should be attacked quickly to attack its foothold. Li Yi thought about it and vetoed Yu Feng's proposal.

The army had just invaded Jinan, and the clean-up work had not yet been completed, and the city was far from being stabilized.

At this time, you can't fight in waves, and it is the right thing to hold the city and keep the results.

Anyway, all the grain and grass in the city are under their control, and there are tall walls to keep out the cold, so what if the Qing army can live for a few more days?

Li Yi's decision was also supported by Ma Chuang, Li Yulin and other generals, and the army was really tired after continuous fierce battles and needed to rest.

However, out of caution, Li Yi still left 10,000 horses in each of the two large camps in the west and north of the city, and Jinan City was in a situation.

Hong Chengchou's army has come out of the mountains, and the prince's army should also come, right? Li Yi thought secretly in his heart.

If the prince's army can come in time, the two armies will be able to clamp this group of green battalion soldiers, and it will not be a problem to annihilate them completely!