Daming pirates

Not only was Zhu Dadian happy this time, but Gao Qiqian, the great eunuch who was sent to Qingzhou by Chongzhen to supervise the army, was also very happy. After receiving Zhao Shantang's report confirming the results of the battle, Gao Qiqian also quickly sent people to report to the army.

When the capital reported the news, Emperor Chongzhen, who had been worried about this for a long time, quickly breathed a sigh of relief.

So Zhu Dadian wrote a letter in his own hand and sent it to Yu Xiaotian's army. In the letter, he praised Xiaotian eloquently and talked a lot of nonsense about loyalty to the emperor and patriotism, and asked Yu Xiaotian to stop.

He was arrogant and impatient. After resting for a while, he continued to lead his troops to Laizhou City to attack the rebels.

At the same time, Zhu Dadian also ordered the Shandong soldiers and horses, Zhejiang soldiers and other generals under his direct control to be ready to set off at any time to cooperate with Yu Xiaotian's Southern Route Army to attack the rebels besieging Laizhou.

It stands to reason that at this time, Laizhou City was surrounded by rebels, and it could be said that it was in danger. Yu Xiaotian should be anxious. However, Yu Xiaotian was very clear about the development of historical process. Although Laizhou City was surrounded by rebels,

However, Zhu Wannian and other Ming Dynasty officials in the city were already desperate at this time. They led the soldiers and civilians in the city to defend the city, making the rebels unable to defeat Laizhou for a long time. Laizhou City had no problems at all.

Therefore, Yu Xiaotian was not nervous or anxious at all. He took his soldiers and rested leisurely in Pingdu Prefecture for more than half a month until July was approaching. Zhu Dadian

Unable to wait any longer, Yu Xiaotian sent people to urge him to advance the army. Then Yu Xiaotian led his troops to go north again, towards Laizhou City.

The distance from Pingdu to Laizhou is about 150 miles, and there is Daze Mountain in the middle. To be on the safe side, Yu Xiaotian did not lead his troops to go between Daze Mountain, but bypassed the Jiaodong Mountains and tried to walk as far as possible.

Plain terrain, heading towards Laizhou City.

At this time, the rebel general Kong Youde had led 30,000 rebels to surround Laizhou City for more than two months. Kong Youde and his army had almost exhausted various methods, but they still failed to attack Laizhou City repeatedly. The morale of the rebels had been reduced.

There has been some impact.

In Laizhou City, under the leadership of Xu Congzhi, the former governor of Shandong, Xie Lian, the newly appointed governor of Denglai, Zhu Wannian, the prefect of Laizhou, and the general Yang Yufan, they fought to the death and repeatedly repelled the rebel attacks.

The army was helpless against Laizhou City.

But Kong Youde couldn't give up attacking Laizhou. He knew very well that if he wanted to continue to expand his territory, Laizhou City must be taken down. Otherwise, Laizhou would become a nail wedged between their confidants and could explode at any time.

Kill them.

Therefore, Laizhou City was a stumbling block before they could continue to expand their power and territory and had to be kicked off. Therefore, Kong Youde could only bite the bullet and continue to attack Laizhou City.

But more than half a month ago, news came from Pingdu Prefecture that shocked him. An army of officers and soldiers from Fujian arrived at Jiaozhou Bay by sea, landed in Jiaozhou Bay, and began to advance towards Pingdu Prefecture.

Li Fujie, who once sent someone to order Pingdu Prefecture to be guarded, must guard Pingdu Prefecture to block this influx of troops from Fujian.

He didn't pay too much attention to this Fujian army. In his opinion, there was nothing terrible about the southern soldiers. They were new arrivals and they were also guest troops. They might not be accustomed to the local environment when they got here, and in his eyes, the southerners

, greedy for life and afraid of death,

There was nothing to be afraid of. Although the officers and soldiers from Fujian were said to have more than 10,000 troops, in his eyes, they were nothing. With Li Fujie leading three thousand rebels to guard Pingdu, he could at least drag them to peace.

Deposits are not allowed in Duzhou.

By then, it was not too late for him to capture Laizhou City, turn around, and go to Pingdu to eat these Fujian officers and soldiers. However, what he never expected was that within a few days, Li Fujie sent people to escape.

He came to ask for help, saying that he had a battle with Fujian officers and soldiers at Pingdu. Li Fujie's men were defeated, and the Fujian officers and soldiers had already reached Pingdu City.

When Kong Youde heard the news, he was very angry and secretly cursed Li Fujie for his incompetence. He couldn't even stop the Fujian officers and soldiers and suffered a defeat. However, he considered that although Li Fujie suffered a defeat, after all, Pingdu City was still alive.

In Li Fujie's hands, with the city of Pingdu City, no matter how bad Li Fujie was, he could still delay them for ten days and a half, or even two or three months, which shouldn't be a big problem!

So he ignored Li Fujie's request for help and continued to attack Laizhou City with his troops. However, he did not expect that after a while, there was no movement in Pingduzhou. At first, he thought that Li Fujie had held back the Fujian officers and soldiers, but later he felt

Something is wrong, send someone to Pingdu to check the situation.

As a result, the people sent out ran back within a few days and were shocked to say that Pingdu City had been lost. The Fujian army had captured Pingdu City and Li Fujie's entire army had been wiped out. Not even a single person had escaped.

The Fujian officers and soldiers made dumplings.

Kong Youde was shocked when he heard the news. He found that the Fujian officers and soldiers who came this time did not seem to be that simple, so he immediately sent someone to inquire about the news and see who the general was leading the troops this time.

After some inquiries later, Kong Youde learned that the troops coming from Fujian were led by a general named Yu Xiaotian. It was said that Yu Xiaotian was once a pirate and was later captured by Xiong Wencan, the governor of Fujian.

Zhao Fu became a general in Fujian.

Over the years, it is said that this man has done a good job in Fujian and made many achievements. This time, Emperor Chongzhen of the imperial court ordered him to lead the troops north and come here to quell the chaos.

Only then did Kong Youde realize that this person with the surname Yu was not a simple person. After thinking about it carefully, he suddenly remembered that this Yu Xiaotian was not the leader of the Sea Wolf who had done business with their Dongjiang Army many years ago.

?

When he followed Mao Wenlong as a soldier, the Sea Wolf men once transported food, cloth and other items from the south to Dongjiang Town, and came to Dongjiang Town to do business with their Dongjiang Army, exchanging some horses and Liaodong specialties from them.

Tiger bones, ginseng, deer antlers and other items were transported back to the south for sale.

Unexpectedly, the pirate leader back then has now become the general military officer of the Ming Dynasty, and has been ordered to lead troops to attack the Dongjiang rebels. What a mess! Things are so unpredictable. Back then, they were officers and soldiers, but now

Instead, he became a traitor, and the pirates back then became officers and soldiers. No one had ever thought that they would have the opportunity to meet on the battlefield. However, things are unpredictable. After so many years, they actually have to meet on the battlefield.

We met.

Thinking of this, Kong Youde felt that this matter could be discussed. After all, they were old acquaintances, at least they had an old acquaintance. He was guarding Fujian in Xiaotian, and Denglai Shandong was out of reach of him, so why should he bother?

You are working for the Ming Dynasty, but you have to fight to the death with their rebels?

So Kong Youde secretly sent people to Pingdu to ask for a meeting with Yu Xiaotian in private, hoping to clarify the interests and persuade Yu Xiaotian not to fight with them on the battlefield. After Yu Xiaotian captured Pingdu Prefecture, he took

No matter what, this can be considered as an explanation to the court, and there is no need to come to Laizhou to meet him on the battlefield.

However, the person who was sent quickly returned to the Laizhou rebel camp and replied to Kong Youde, saying that Yu Xiaotian's attitude was very ambiguous, neither yin nor yang, and he never mentioned whether he was coming to Laizhou or not. He just talked about it and made people laugh.

His true thoughts were not revealed, but Yu Xiaotian did not capture them on the spot, but let them back afterwards.

Kong Youde was a little confused. He couldn't figure out what Yu Xiaotian wanted to do and whether he would come to Laizhou to fight them. So he had no choice but to divide his troops and send people to set up a roadblock on the road from Pingdu to Laizhou and prepare.

Once Yu Xiaotian comes with his troops, stop them on the spot. At worst, he will lead his troops over and eat up Yu Xiaotian's Fujian soldiers and horses in one fell swoop.

However, after he made arrangements, he did not see Yu Xiaotian leading his troops to Laizhou for more than ten days. He sent people to inquire about the news, but found that after Yu Xiaotian captured Pingdu Prefecture, he actually led his soldiers and horses on the spot.

He stopped his troops in Pingdu Prefecture. As long as the rebels did not enter Pingdu Prefecture, he would not reach out to the border of Laizhou. However, if the scattered rebels entered Pingdu Prefecture, they would be attacked by his men.

So Kong Youde felt relieved now, feeling that he could clearly see what Yu Xiaotian was thinking, and thought that his persuasion had worked. Yu Xiaotian must have made up his mind and did not intend to continue fighting with them. Now he

It's been half a month since we captured Pingdu Prefecture, but we still haven't been willing to move our troops to continue marching towards Laizhou. This illustrates the problem.

Kong Youde now no longer worried about the Fujian officers and soldiers. The most important thing for him next is to capture Laizhou as soon as possible. At worst, he won't defeat Duzhou again, but he can send his troops into Qingzhou and head towards the hinterland of Shandong.

continue to develop.

After he becomes stronger, it will not be too late to free up his hands and go to Pingdu Prefecture to eat up Yu Xiaotian and the Fujian officers and soldiers.

So Kong Youde began to put all his energy into attacking Laizhou City. After pondering over it, he finally came up with a damaging move, which was to feign surrender.

During this period of time, Kong Youde had seen through the Ming court and government. The Ming Dynasty had never made up its mind whether to suppress or appease them. Some time ago, it seemed that the Ming Dynasty's opinion of appeasing them should have the upper hand, so the Ming army has never made up its mind.

I was determined to fight him to the death, but I always took a chance and was defeated by him.

Moreover, they besieged Laizhou City, but not a single soldier was sent to reinforce Laizhou City. This further strengthened the imperial court's idea of ​​appeasing them.

But recently, the trend seems to have changed a bit. He released Sun Yuanhua and others in early February, which was just a smoke screen. On the surface, he revealed to the court that they had no choice but to rebel, which made the officials of the court feel that they had no choice but to rebel.

They released these people because they wanted to be recruited, and then took the opportunity to attack everywhere, captured many cities, looted a large number of villages and towns, and obtained a large amount of food and property in a short period of time, which greatly strengthened their rebel army.

strength.