From Northern Zhili to Shandong, Dezhou is one of the must-pass places. The judgment of Yang Sichang, a bachelor of the cabinet and minister of the Ministry of War, cannot be said to be problematic.

After joining Zhao Neng and Ma Gang's troops, the team led by Li Meng of Jiaozhou Camp had already joined forces with Zhao Neng and Ma Gang's troops, including the auxiliary soldiers and the assisted village guards, was already a large army of 5,000 people, and was moving in a mighty manner. Chen Liu's troops in Yanzhou were all horse teams, and their journey was much faster than most of them. They were arranged to camp in advance at a manor in Zhangqiu County, waiting for most of them to be in a mission to monitor the troops of Qiu Lei, the general of Shandong.

On November 15, Chen Liu's horse team also met with Li Meng's team of troops. According to his investigation, there were only 1,200 soldiers in Jinan City, of which 600 were garrisons stationed in Laizhou Prefecture, and Qiu Lei always placed his main force in Dengzhou and Jinan. Laizhou Prefecture was his old and weak. After Li Meng took over Laizhou Prefecture, the six hundred soldiers withdrew back to Jinan Prefecture, and have always been the work of cleaning the barracks.

Shandong general Qiu Lei did not wait in Jinan City like Li Meng expected to find trouble, but obediently followed Shandong Governor Yan Jizu to Dezhou to deploy defenses.

To put it bluntly, General Qiu lost most of his troops in Dengzhou, and now he is far weaker than Li Meng's troops. He may be arrogant and domineering in the past, but now he must rely on the help of Shandong Governor Yan Jizu. After all, he is the representative of the emperor's ranking in Shandong, the head of the civil servants of Shandong who acted as the governor of the Tiantian. He commanded Shandong troops in terms of job rank relations, and could also constrain the downward trend to control the generals of the four prefectures, Li Meng.

When entering Jinan Prefecture, except for some powerful people who were related to private salt, the local area was not controlled by Li Meng. The soldiers of Jiaozhou Camp sneered at the scene of the desolation in the place and looked down on them very much. According to Wang Hai's words: "How can a good place in a mansion be managed like this?"

At least in Laizhou Prefecture and Qingzhou Prefecture, local civilians have never been afraid of Jiaozhou Camp as before. According to the investigation of the horses and spies, there was obviously a village ahead, but after getting close, they found that there was no one. When they first met, they scared the officers and soldiers of Jiaozhou Camp. They thought to themselves that the Tartars had come, and later the local tyrants answered it, which was to solve this doubt.

It turned out that when the civilians saw Jiaozhou camp coming from afar, they fled in all directions early, for fear that the army would pass by and not leave any grass.

This answer really made the Jiaozhou Camp laugh and cry. The reason for such a reaction was that it was easy to find the answer. It was simply that the soldiers here used to harm the people so miserable. Li Meng didn't understand that Jinan Prefecture is the best place in Shandong. It has convenient transportation and fertile land. It is not a problem to raise 20,000 soldiers. But according to the information he received, Qiu Lei had only more than 6,000 soldiers in his hands. How could he harm the local area to such an extent?

After the Jiaozhou camp entered the scope of Jinan Prefecture, the personal soldiers of the governor's yamen continued to contact each other and informed the latest news on the battlefield.

However, Li Meng did not have much confidence in his friendly troops. He completely spread his own exploration horses, as well as Hou Shan and Huang Ping's spies, and sent all kinds of news back every day, so that Jiaozhou Camp could know the situation outside at any time. It could also be said that he was lucky. He had not received any news of the Qing army approaching Shandong along the way.

When passing by the Jinan city, Jiaozhou camp did not enter, but the performance of the defenders in the city was quite ridiculous. The gates of the city were closed everywhere, and there were envoys from the pro-vassal kings who were working on the top of the city, saying that it was important for a large army to go to Dezhou to fight the enemy, but there was no need to enter the city.

This must have been the act of Shandong General Qiu Lei. He was afraid that Jiaozhou Camp would suddenly enter Jinan City. He didn't know how he told the King of De in the city to come forward. Wang Hai and Chen Liu were all cursing, but everyone also knew that it was important to go to Dezhou City to deploy defenses according to the imperial military orders. After entering Jinan Prefecture, it was not as convenient as the four prefectures in his base. Now, it took a lot of time to dig trenches every day, to ensure the safety of the camp.

Since the enemy is approaching, we must have a city to support it. At least important towns like Dezhou have fortifications and barracks built over the years. Only when relying on it can the army be at ease, so now we are just to ensure safety, hurry up and hurry up.

After ten days of rapid march, the 6,000 soldiers from Jiaozhou Camp rushed to the city of Dezhou. Seeing the city of Dezhou from afar, the officers and soldiers of Jiaozhou Camp were relieved and finally able to rest.

Instead of staying in the central army as tradition, Li Meng led several officers at the forefront of the team, and several people observed the terrain along the way, while thinking about how Jiaozhou Camp should respond if a battle occurred.

Seeing that the city of Texas was ahead, everyone was much more relaxed. Li Meng even joked about Denglas around him. Deng Yangren was originally a coach in Fengmeng Town, and he did less work and got a lot of money. Recently, he also hooked up with a widow in Fengmeng Town, and they were all talking about marriage and life was very prosperous.

But the foreigners and the Han people have different considerations. They are lazy in eating, drinking, having fun and having sex, but they are unwilling to be so comfortable all day long. They have to follow the team to participate in actual combat, saying that only in actual combat can they earn wealth and status and be more qualified to marry their lover.

The professor of the axe and gun no longer needs Denglas to conduct it himself. The officers he taught can teach students and can also teach them in combination with specific battle examples.

Since the function of the coach is not very necessary, Li Meng was simply a good person and arranged a position of deputy chief of the President of the Thousand General for Deng. He worked under Zhang Jiang. However, since this person had been the chief of the coach and had frequent communication with Li Meng, he had a special identity.

There is a title there, but what I do every day is to follow Li Meng in the personal army, known as "the personal guard of Deng Yangren". Li Meng is not bad at this person, so he is just talking and asking around him. The ideas of foreign mercenaries are always a little different from those of Chinese, and they are often inspired.

Deng Yangren was wearing a set of modified cotton armor. Originally, this foreigner wanted to build a set of Western plate armor from Guo Dong. Who would have thought that the craftsmen would not sell his account at all, and could only spend real money to build it. Deng Laos was reluctant to leave the money. In the end, an officer who had learned axe and gun from him could not see it, so he even gave him a set of cotton armor. However, Deng Yangren enjoyed his fortune in Jiaozhou and became much fatter and could not wear it. He could only ask someone to change the size, so he barely stuffed it in.

Even so, it still looks bulging and has no majestic appearance of armor. At this time, Li Meng joked that way and said with a smile:

"Deng Yangren, your belly is getting bigger again. I see that the rope tied to the front of the cotton armor is almost broken by you."

This teasing came out, and the officers who followed him were laughing there. Denglas, a foreigner, did not please Shangguan, but was born with a good temper. Hearing Li Meng say this, he laughed a few times, reached out to pat his belly, and said in the words of Nanjing Mandarin:

"General, if you have a big belly and strong strength, you will definitely not suffer any losses on the battlefield."

The area of ​​Dezhou is already an area of ​​the North China Plain. From a distance, it looks really flat, rather than the hilly landforms of Jiaodong. With such a terrain, people can see far even on the plains. Li Meng and his group walked up to the official road with a smile and saw the densely packed camps on the edge of Dezhou City.

After making a few jokes, everyone turned to the point. Ma Gang brought the horse to Li Meng and said:

"General, our team is just about to unfold on such a flat ground, and the long and short weapons are all movable, so the power must be improved!"

Tang Er on the side said with some excitement:

"A horse team can run away in this kind of place, which is indeed a good place for war. When the time comes, who can set up a formation and rush forward, who can stop it!"

Chen Liu and Wang Hai also had their own opinions, but overall they were very happy, because such terrain was very suitable for troops like Jiaozhou Camp that paid attention to formation. When arranging operations near Jiaodong and Yimeng, the mountains were narrow, and the officers leading the troops often had to arrange troops according to the terrain.

Zhao Neng was relatively mature and leaned closer and said:

"Sir, the Tartars' troops have not arrived, but Qiu Lei's troops must be wary of it, for fear that a disaster will arise around him at a critical moment, and then it will be too late."

Hearing this, Li Meng nodded and let the people below talk and laugh, but he turned his attention to the camps under the city of Dezhou.

Looking from afar, these barracks surrounded by wooden fences had a solemn atmosphere, but when you look closely, it was messy. The trench should have been dug deep on the fence, but even from a distance, you can't see any signs of trenches. There should be enough open space for the army to enter and exit, but the tent is the most crowded place.

A good army can observe their combat effectiveness and morale from these details. But when you see this scene, you really can't see what the military of Shandong General Qiu Lei's army can do.

Li Meng and his group stopped by the roadside and asked the large army to go first. While watching and walking, they felt the noise in their ears getting louder and louder. Li Meng was still a little puzzled. The six thousand people in Jiaozhou camp were all silent and focused on moving forward, but the noisy sound came from there?
Chapter completed!