After defeating Hetuo and Li Rutai, Zhou Shaohuan and Tong Dayong also increased their confidence in themselves. Therefore, after knowing that the Qing army was preparing to launch a second attack on Shandong, they all accumulated enough strength and decided to attack the Qing army again.

After half a year of training, Dengzhou selected another group of soldiers, and the losses of the Second Division were supplemented in one battle, and two new regiments were formed. Moreover, after the Shangjia Army defeated the Qing army, its reputation increased again. People in Jinan, Dongchang, Yanzhou and other places also defected to the areas under the jurisdiction of the Shangjia Army. The customs of the Shandong area were already very brave, and the number of people who joined the army also increased sharply. In just over two months, more than 3,000 new recruits had been recruited, and Tangzhen also stepped up training them in Dengzhou.

Therefore, after the Qing army launched a second attack on Shandong, Zhou Shaohuan also discussed with Tong Dayong to decide to fight the Qing army in Qingzhou, and still adopted the tactics once. Qingzhou and Muling Pass were supporting each other. When the Qing army attacked Qingzhou, Muling Pass sent troops to support him. When the Qing army attacked Muling Pass, Qingzhou sent troops to rescue him.

At the same time, Zhou Shaohuan was also dispatching troops. In addition to the first regiment of the Second Division, all the troops in Qingzhou were all battalions of the Second Regiment, two battalions of the Second Regiment, and one artillery battalion of the 15th Regiment, and a new regiment was also transferred. The total force in Qingzhou City was nearly 150. There were more than 150 artillery pieces, including 60 light artillery pieces, 85 medium artillery pieces, fifteen heavy artillery pieces, 30 organ guns, more than 9,000 muskets, more than 20,000 grenades, and 200 boxes of thunder rockets. The troops were also stronger than in the battle. Now I'm waiting for the Qing army to come.

The Qing army led by Abaqin arrived in Jinan on October 10th, and then divided its troops into two groups to attack Qingzhou Prefecture. One was led by the commander Tazhun, and attacked Qingzhou Prefecture from Gaoyuan County in the northwest of Qingzhou, and successively captured Boxing, Anle, Linzi and other places. The other was from Zizhou to attack Qingzhou Prefecture and killed in front of Qingzhou City. It was still a stance to attack Qingzhou from north to south.

After the two Qing troops arrived outside the city, they set up camps and set up camps about ten miles away from the city, digging trenches and repairing trenches. Zhou Shaohuan did not dare to be careless because he was still unsure which side the Qing army would attack, so he arranged two battalions to guard the positions outside the north and south of Qingzhou City, waiting patiently for the Qing army to launch an attack on Qingzhou.

But after three days in a row, the Qing army's camps had been established, but the Qing army was not attacking Qingzhou. Zhou Shaohuan couldn't help but be surprised. He didn't understand what trick Abatai was playing and was about to send someone to Muling Pass to find out the news. But at this moment, a scout suddenly came back to report that Linqu County had been captured by the Qing army.

After hearing this, Zhou Shaohuan was shocked because Linqu County was the only way from Muling Pass to Qingzhou. The Qing army captured Linqu County, which was equivalent to cutting off the connection between Qingzhou and Muling Pass and disintegrating the horn between Zhou Shaohuan and Tong Dayong.

It turned out that Abatai suffered a great loss in Shandong once. Although he was eager to take revenge, he did not dare to be careless at all. He not only carefully studied the process of defeat of Hetuo and Li Zhuotai, but also carefully studied the terrain of the three states of Qinglaiden. He found that the merchant army did not rely solely on the sharp advantages of firearms, but also praised the tactics. It was the cooperation between Qingzhou and Muling Pass that the merchant army had the advantage of the advantage of the geographical advantage, which was also an important reason for victory.

From the topography, the Shandong Peninsula is like a triangle that runs from west to east, extending from the mainland to the ocean. Both the north and south are the sea. Dengzhou Prefecture is the tip of the triangle. Laizhou Prefecture is in the middle, while Qingzhou Prefecture is at the lowest point, which borders Jinan Prefecture, Dongchang Prefecture, and Yanzhou Prefecture, but the middle is mountains, and there are only roads to access by the north and south seas. Muling Pass is located in the middle of Qingzhou, and both east and west are mountains. It is not only easy to defend and difficult to attack, but also cuts off the passage through the north and south of Qingzhou. The local strategic position is very important. Therefore, whether it is to attack Denglai from the south or the north, the existence of Muling Pass will threaten the flanks.

This time, Abatai still planned to go to the northern line, first conquering Qingzhou, and then march into Denglai. However, if you want to conquer Qingzhou, you must first cut off the connection between Qingzhou and Muling Pass, and the gate building point is Linqu County. Only by seizing Linqu County can you block the reinforcements of Muling Pass and attack Qingzhou without any worries.

Therefore, when sending troops from Jinan, Abatai divided his troops into two groups, and they all made great contributions. At present, it was to attract Qingzhou's quasi-mind power and cover up the Qing army's use of troops against Linqu County. In fact, Abatai and his sons Bohetuo, Boluo and Yue Le personally led 20,000 elite troops and brought 100 artillery pieces to launch an attack on Linqu County.

Linfeng County had only one battalion of troops stationed, with only fifteen artillery pieces, and they were all small and medium-sized artillery pieces. The Qing army suddenly came and could only stagger to fight. The army first set up artillery and bombarded the city. Linfeng was just a county town. Most of the city walls were made of earth bricks and were not strong. As a result, they were bombarded by the Qing army's artillery and collapsed immediately. The Qing army took the opportunity to enter the city. Although the merchant army fought bravely, the number of people between the two sides was too different, and the number and power of the artillery were not as good as the Qing army. Therefore, they could not resist the attack of the Qing army and were defeated in Linqu County. The troops of this battalion also damaged nearly 300 people.

At this time, Tong Dayong was still stationed in Muling Pass because he always thought that the Qing army was attacking Qingzhou and wanted to wait for the Qing army to consume its troops and then send troops to attack the Qing army. He did not expect that the Qing army would suddenly turn back to attack Linqu County. When Tong Dayong led his army to rescue Linqu County, it was too late. Linqu County had been captured by the Qing army. Therefore, Tong Dayong had to collect the defeated troops from Linqu County in Long and retreat to Muling Pass to garrison.

After Abatai conquered Linqu County, he left his second son Bo Hetuo to lead 5,000 troops, and at the same time left him twenty artillery pieces to defend Linqu County, and then led Boluo and Yue Le back to attack Qingzhou.

To be honest, since following Shang Yi, the Shang family army has always been invincible and defeated. In the battle to quell the chaos, there were several opportunities to lead the army alone. Each time, the task was successfully completed. It can be regarded as the chief general under Shang Yi. After being entrusted by Shang Yi with the important task of Shandong war zone, he successfully defeated the Qing army's first attack on Shandong.

This series of successes also made Zhou Shaohuan feel complacent, believing that fighting is just like this, and he began to regard himself as a famous general. Now Zhou Shaohuan realized that compared with a long-standing general like Abatai, he was indeed a little tender. His previous victory was because of the sharp firearms, and on the other hand, Shang Yi had arranged the tactics in advance, but when it was his turn to be alone, he realized that there were still many shortcomings.

But now I have no time to regret it, because Abatai has officially started an attack on Qingzhou, and the most important thing is to defend Qingzhou. I believe that Tong Dayong from Muling Pass will not sit idly by. He will do his best to retake Linqu County and then come to rescue Qingzhou again. At the same time, Zhou Shaohuan is still full of confidence in his ability to defend Qingzhou. There are now 150 artillery and more than 9,000 muskets in Qingzhou City. This hard bone is not easy to chew.

Just the second day after the Qing army conquered Linqu County, Abatai dispatched troops to attack Qingzhou City.

Abatai stood on the command platform and looked at the position of the merchant army. The merchant army did not defend the city, but went out of the city to set up formations to fight the Qing army, which was a bit beyond Abatai's expectations. But Abatai could only see the gray area far away. On the one hand, it was too far away, and on the other hand, Abatai was over 50 years old after all, and could not be compared with young people. However, the front line of the merchant army was very wide, and it was spread horizontally enough to be hundreds of steps wide. Of course, Abatai knew about this characteristic of the merchant army two years ago.

Because I heard from the defeated army in the First World War that the Merchant Army also had a considerable number of heavy artillery with a long range and used flowering bullets, which had great lethality. Therefore, to be on the safe side, Abatai also set his own command platform a thousand steps away from the Merchant Army's position. Although the price paid was at this distance and he could not see the position of the Merchant Army at all, he could only do this, and his own safety was the first priority.

After watching for a while, Abatai immediately ordered Li to lead the Taihan army to push the artillery out and launch artillery attacks first. This is also a rare tactic of the Qing army. It usually uses artillery attacks at the beginning of the war, and it is only used in siege wars. This also shows that after fighting with the merchant army too much, the Qing army's tactics began to change some millions.

With Abatai's order, the Qing army pushed artillery out of the array. The development direction of the Qing army's artillery was similar to that of the Ming Dynasty, and they all attached importance to heavy artillery, but ignored medium and light artillery. Therefore, among the more than 100 artillery, in addition to the thirty-four red artillery, thirty or forty of the other 60 artillery were medium and heavy artillery. At this time, they were all arranged in front of the formation, and a row of wooden fences were placed in front of each artillery to resist the enemy's artillery. Then the Qing army's gunners took off their cannon coats, began to calibrate the target, and load ammunition.

However, Abatai could not see the situation of the Merchant Army, but the Merchant Army could see the movements of the Qing army very clearly through the telescope. Seeing that the Qing army had launched nearly a hundred artillery pieces, Zhou Shaohuan was indeed shocked. Although there were 150 artillery pieces in Qingzhou City, because the Merchant Army had to defend both north and south at the same time, there were only fifty artillery pieces on the position at this time, of which only eight heavy artillery pieces. Therefore, in this local battlefield, the number of artillery pieces was much smaller than that of the Qing army.

So Zhou Shaohuan hurriedly ordered that all the preparatory artillery in the city be transported to the southern city first, and then transferred thirty artillery from the northern line, including all the heavy artillery on the northern line, to the southern line. Then he ordered that all the artillery in the position immediately fire and attack the Qing army.
Chapter completed!