Shang Yi's prediction was indeed correct, and Qingjun was indeed trying to solve the difficulties he encountered. Abatai also knew that losing his temper would be of no use, so he recruited all generals for several days to discuss current countermeasures.
Of course, Abatai couldn't understand what guerrilla tactics is, nor did he know that what he was facing was actually a problem that was more difficult than any situation before. But as a long-standing general, Abatai still discovered the core of the problem very keenly, that is, the main force of the merchant army is still there.
Abatai, who has been through many battles, was very grateful. It was definitely a thankless thing to encircle and suppress the scattered merchant army in Qingzhou Prefecture and Jinan Prefecture, because some places in Qingzhou Prefecture, Jinan Prefecture, Calais Prefecture and Dongchang Prefecture are thousands of miles wide, and there are mostly mountains. The opponents are native natives, so they are definitely more familiar with the geographical environment than themselves. Therefore, even if they are exhausted, they will probably not be able to suppress many merchant army. The scattered troops and stationed in various places are even more desperate. This will only cause the dispersion of their own troops and give up one by one. Therefore, no wonder the merchant army can still defend Qingzhou, but they voluntarily give up. It turned out that they had the idea.
However, the reason why the merchant army was able to do this was because their main force had not been eliminated, and Laizhou and Dengzhou were also in the hands of the merchant army. Therefore, as long as the main force of the merchant army was completely defeated and Laizhou and Dengzhou were captured, the merchant army that was causing trouble in various places could naturally be pacified. So Abatai also decided that no matter how the merchant army in other places was making trouble, he should immediately concentrate his troops and capture Laizhou first. Abatai did not believe that even Laizhou dared to give up easily.
After hearing this, the other generals thought that Abatai's plan was very reasonable, and it was also the only feasible solution at present. Therefore, they all agreed with Abatai's method, so the Qing army began to mobilize troops and prepare to send troops.
Now Abatai's Qing army still has about 45,000 people, most of which are stationed in Qingzhou, and a small part are scattered in other places in Shandong, while Fang Dayou's subordinates also have about 2,000 local troops, all of which are stationed in Jinan. This time, when he attacked Laizhou Prefecture, Abatai decided to gather about 35,000 people, and still sent Bohetuo to guard Linqu County with 5,000 troops to guard the merchant army in Muling Pass. The remaining troops were only focused on Qingzhou, and other prefectures and counties were not considered for the time being.
Although the total strength of the Qing army was reduced by more than a quarter compared to when he first sent troops to Shandong, the losses were basically all over the surrendered army and the followers. The losses of the elite Manchu and Han Eight Banners soldiers in the entire army were not large, with a total of nearly 20,000 people. Therefore, the actual combat effectiveness of the Qing army was at least 80% higher. Moreover, although the Qing army lost more than a dozen artillery pieces, the most powerful Red Barbarian cannons only lost two, with thirty-two left, and there were more than 5,000 musket soldiers, which was also Abatai's greatest confidence.
Through this period of intelligence collection, Abatai also roughly learned that Shang Yi had been transferred from Shandong at this time and served as the governor of Zhejiang. The merchant army's left-behind forces in Shandong were about 15,000 to 18,000, of which Muling Pass had about 5,000 troops. The merchant army lost considerable troops in the battle of Qingzhou. Abatai estimated that it should be between 3,000 and 4,000, so the merchant army stationed in Laizhou was only 7,000 or 8,000. Judging from the number of people, the Qing army still had an absolute advantage. She is still confident.
Because the Qing army is an outsider after all, the information collected in Shandong is very limited in the area controlled by the merchant army. I didn't know that the merchant army had been training new soldiers in Dengzhou, and I didn't know that Shang Yi had led reinforcements to Shandong from the water route, otherwise Abatai would never dare to take the initiative to attack Laizhou.
At this time, Fang Dayou, the governor of Shandong in the Qing Dynasty, personally escorted a batch of food and supplies to Qingzhou. When he learned that Abatai was going to lead his army to attack Laizhou, Fang Dayou also took the initiative to ask for orders, willing to go to war with Abatai, follow the army to listen to it, plan and consult. He also said a long story about how to eat the king's fortune, and be loyal to the emperor, be loyal to the Qing Dynasty, devote himself to his work, and be able to die.
Abatai thought about it and felt that it would be better to have such a person follow him. After all, Fang Dayou is a Han Chinese and has been in Shandong for a long time. He is more familiar with the situation here and can ask if there is anything. Moreover, Fang Dayou is also kind-hearted. Fighting in battles is a life-threatening thing. It is rare for him, a civil servant, to be willing to fight with the army, so he agreed.
Fang Dayou thanked him very much. Abatai didn't know Fang Dayou's thoughts. It turned out that Fang Dayou experienced a false alarm in Jinan, but the more he thought about it, the more he became more and more afraid. Now three magistrates have lost their lives. Maybe that day the merchant army will attack him as the governor of Shandong. But if he wants him to abandon his official position, Fang Dayou is still reluctant to leave the position of the governor of Shandong, and Fang Dayou's family is still in Beijing, so this is absolutely not allowed.
As a result, Fang Dayou thought hard and finally came up with an idea. He took the opportunity of escorting supplies to Qingzhou. His wishful thinking was that Abatai was in charge of Qingzhou, and the Qing army was in charge of heavy troops, so it should be safe. Therefore, after arriving in Qingzhou, he had to rely on any means to stay. When he arrived in Qingzhou, he realized that Abatai was preparing to enter Laizhou and also needed to draw most of the troops in Qingzhou. Fang Dayou was quick to learn and immediately asked to go to the army to go to war. Anyway, he had already thought about it and must follow Abatai, so that he could ensure his safety under the protection of the Qing army.
Abatai didn't know what to do, and thought Fang Dayou was kind-hearted. The Qing people were good at fighting, but when they were scheming, they wouldn't be able to drive away the Han people. If Huang Taiji hadn't been demoted to a group of Han officials at the time, because he was a demoted official from the Ming Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty would not have easily seized China.
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The news that the Qing army sent troops to attack Laizhou soon reached Weixian, and Shang Yi immediately recruited generals to hold a military meeting to study ways to deal with the attack of the Qing army.
In fact, after Shang Yi led his men to Shandong, he could have a head-on battle with the Qing army with the current strength of the Merchant Army, but Shang Yi did not intend to do this, because he and the men he brought could not stay in Shandong for a long time, and he would still have to go back to Zhejiang. The Shandong war zone was still subject to the problem of Zhou Shaohuan and other Shandong merchant army members and troops to solve it themselves. Therefore, this time he and the reinforcements would only be responsible for their backing and guidance, and would not participate in the battle until they were absolutely unsuccessful.
But what Shang Yi didn't expect was that after he put forward this idea at the military meeting, he received unanimous support from Shandong's generals. Zhou Shaohuan immediately stated that the reinforcements in Zhejiang only stood up to cheer, and this battle depends on Shandong's troops.
It turned out that after giving up Qingzhou, the soldiers of Shandong's merchant army were somewhat dissatisfied. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and wanted to get back this face. Although the guerrilla warfare during this period had achieved good results, the number of Qing soldiers eliminated in each attack was too small, sometimes only twenty or thirty. It was obviously not enough for the merchant army. Most people hoped to fight a battle with the Qing army or annihilation battle to achieve a refreshing victory. Therefore, Shang Yi proposed that this battle was mainly due to the Shandong merchant army, and immediately received their approval.
This also shows that although the Shang army gave up Qingzhou, the morale and morale of the army were not affected much. This is also the basic quality that a mature army should have. It is also the goal that Shang Yi has always hoped to achieve.
However, although the morale of the soldiers is high, it is also easy to make people feel excited and fall into reckless actions. Moreover, when Shang Yi's reinforcements did not participate in the battle, the Shang family army in Shandong was still at an absolute disadvantage compared to the Qing army. If the Qing army could fight hard and fight positional warfare, it would obviously be back to the old path. Therefore, it was necessary to insist on guerrilla warfare. But this time the Qing army took the initiative to attack, so head-on battle between the two sides was inevitable. Then Shang Yi also planned to take this opportunity to upgrade the guerrilla warfare of the Shang family army and become a combat method that combines guerrilla warfare and regular warfare.
After Shang Yi proposed this concept at the meeting, it caused a surprise to the generals. However, no one doubted Shang Yi's ideas anymore, but he just didn't understand where he came from, and he was also waiting for Shang Yi's further explanation.
Of course, Shang Yi did not let them wait for a long time. Ma explained: "Guerrilla warfare uses attack as the main means, and uses impermanent attacks and harassing the enemy to achieve the goal of annihilation or consumption of the enemy. Flexibility, initiative, speed, and decisive victory are its advantages, but guerrilla warfare also has its own shortcomings. It is always an informal way of combat. Because the guerrilla warfare invests less troops and weak firepower, it is difficult to carry out long-term combat independently. By relying solely on guerrilla warfare, it is usually impossible to decide the outcome of a major battle. Therefore, the task of guerrilla warfare is to assist regular warfare, or develop itself into regular warfare, so that the final victory of the war can be won. That is what I just said, a combat method that combines guerrilla warfare and regular warfare."
After listening to Shang Yi's words, the generals understood a little. After all, they now have a certain understanding of guerrilla warfare.
Shang Yi further explained: "Take the Qingzhou War that just ended as an example, if there were several guerrilla squads when the Qing army attacked Qingzhou City at that time, there were not many guerrilla squads, and hundreds of people were enough, making trouble behind the Qing army, attacking the Qing army's logistics team and teams, and creating chaos in Jinan Prefecture and Dongchang Prefecture, then could the Qing army still attack Qingzhou City wholeheartedly at that time?"
This example also made many people understand. Zhou Shaohuan was almost straight and suddenly enlightened, saying: "Military, I understand. What you mean is to fight against the Qing army on the front battlefield, and send guerrillas to make trouble behind the Qing army, making it difficult for the Qing army to run away, and then give them a last blow."
Shang Yi nodded and said, "Shaohuan, you are right to the young master, but you must understand that the frontal battlefield does not necessarily mean that you must guard the city and fight against the Qing army, and you can also take the initiative to attack."