Li Yan sighed softly, turned to look at Tang Qi and said, "Tang Guerrilla, do you trust me?"

Tang Qi was stunned for a moment and said with some confusion: "What did Mr. Li say? Since the commander-in-chief handed over the military power of Shandong to you and ordered us to help with all our strength, we will naturally trust you."

Li Yan shook his head and smiled bitterly, "This is the problem! Wangqin is in charge of Shandong for many years, and you are all in love and willing to serve him. But I, a general who surrendered, will be convinced by the other generals? Especially Yang Yan and Liu Konghe, who hold heavy troops in a chat, they naturally dare not cause trouble, but if it were me, then it is impossible to say. The world is too chaotic now and people are unpredictable. Wangqin believes in me and hand over the power to me. For such a kind of grace of knowing the favor, I cannot bet that they will completely obey my orders."

Ma Bao curled the corner of his mouth and laughed: "Young Master Li, you are thinking too much. In the army, the main thing is the commander. If someone dares not obey the order and kill them directly, it is guaranteed that everyone else will be honest. If you are now looking at the world, in the end, it will make people feel that you are weak and can be bullied, and it is even more difficult to control."

Tang Qi raised his eyebrows, "Ma Bao, shut up, no one will treat you as a mute if you don't speak."

Li Yan smiled, not caring about Ma Bao's rudeness. "What you said makes sense, but there is something you said wrong. I have never been a coach."

Ma Bao curled his lips, "Who are you lying to? Didn't the commander-in-chief hand over all the military power in Shandong to you? You are not the commander-in-chief, who is?"

Li Yan smiled and replied, "I talked to Wangqi before. He had many strange plans in military planning, but he was not as good as me. But I was not as good as him in the march and formation and duel in the last battle. Therefore, he was suitable to be the head coach, and I was suitable to be a strategist. Wangqi understood this, but he still handed over the military power of Shandong to me. Why? It was because he did not plan to take the position of head coach. Yang Yan guarded Dezhou, Liu Kong and Guxuzhou, and talked about it. When Wu Yuanji defended Luxi, each of them performed his duties and was enough to deal with most of the things. I nominally held the military power of Shandong, but in fact I was only responsible for letting them do their own things well. When an emergency happened, I would do the necessary measures."

Ma Bao thought, "It's like this situation in front of him?"

Li Yan nodded, "Before, I expected the Qing army to attack Zhangde and reminded the prefect Chen about this. But at present, he didn't seem to care about it. Fortunately, the focus of the Qing army's current offensive was the rebel army. There were only 30,000 Han soldiers and several thousand flag soldiers in Zhangde, and the situation was still controllable."

As he said that, he turned to Tang Qi and said, "Tang Guerrilla, didn't you just ask me why I didn't take Sun Xuan and Zhang Huai to rescue West? One reason is that I must have enough troops in Jinan and can fully trust them. The other is that I feel that it is enough to bring you with me. It is not that there is not enough soldiers there, but they fight alone and cannot unite the enemy. In addition, they are suddenly attacked by the Qing army, and they are disorganized for a while. We don't expect to defeat the enemy, stabilize the situation, and rescue the prefect Chen. With the current situation of the Qing army, Dorgon must focus on stabilizing the north and attacking Henan. For our army, his best strategy is to deter, tempt and harass it. As long as there is no chaos within our army, the Qing army will not have much chance in the short term."

Tang Qi nodded gently and agreed.

Ma Bao was quick-minded and quickly laughed: "Young Master Li, you have brought so few soldiers there, I'm afraid you want to use this battle to let those who are unwilling to see your ability!"

Li Yan smiled and did not deny it.

Ma Bao said: "Mr. Li, we are all from the rebel army. I will hang out with you from now on. In the future, if you say something, I will never frown at all, and I will go up to the mountain of swords and fall into the sea of ​​fire."

At this moment, he suddenly saw Tang Qi with anger on his side and hurriedly said, "Tang Guerrilla, you are not from the rebel army, but I really convinced you, and you must be on the same mind."

Tang Qi snorted without saying anything.

Since Ma Bao was forced to surrender, he has been feeling a little uneasy, feeling that he and other generals are not the same as each other. Some people look down on him as a thief, and he also look down on the arrogance of those people.

For a long time, he regretted staying in Shandong. But he soon discovered that although he was not comfortable with people here, everything was judged by military achievements. In a short time, he was promoted to a garrison and unified battalion because of his military achievements.

In addition, he heard that people like Li Dingguo could become the commander of the army that commanded tens of thousands of troops, and he suddenly saw hope, but he was always uncomfortable.

At this moment, seeing Li Yan, who was in the same relationship with him, Ma Bao naturally felt a good impression and was eager to hold this thigh.

Li Yan knew what Ma Bao was thinking, and smiled slightly, and liked his honesty. "Ma Guardians are united in the army. You may have bad relationships in private, but when encountering wars, you cannot fight on your own and seek self-protection. Otherwise, the military law will be difficult to tolerate."

Ma Bao hurriedly said, "What are you talking about Mr. Li? How can I not understand this? Don't worry, Ma Bao knows the importance of it."

Li Yan nodded and said to Tang Qi: "Tang Guerrilla, you lead the cavalry first and arrive at the territory of Daming Prefecture as quickly as possible, so that local officials can cooperate with you to find out the movements of the Qing army in Zhangde Prefecture."

Tang Qi hugged his fists, "I will obey the order."

Li Yan then turned behind, "Li Qiang, please bring a few people to Julu. Tell Wu Yuanji that he can draw out two battalions of troops to spare and wait for my order at any time."

Seeing the two men leading their troops away, Li Yan turned to Ma Bao and said, "Ma Guard, let's hurry as soon as possible! Chi Ze changes."

Shanxi, the north of Datong.

Hei Mingdao sat on a stone, with a knife on the ground, and his expression was cold. There was a person kneeling in front of him, about fifty years old, his face was covered with blood, and his clothes were covered with mud.

Not far away, countless dead bodies were lying everywhere, and hundreds of soldiers were coming and going, cleaning up all kinds of goods.

After a while, a leader came over and said to Hei Ming: "Boss, I have seen it all, they are all salt, silk, and iron. There are some gold and silver, but not much."

Hei Mingdao nodded, "Take the things away, and all the things that cannot be taken away will burn, leave as soon as possible."

The leader responded and turned to send the order.
Chapter completed!