After Wu Sangui walked out of the Yellow River Flood, there were only less than 10,000 Guanning Iron Cavalry left.

The Northern Ming army was severely damaged, but fortunately, since then, in the past three years, the Northern Ming Dynasty has not participated in the war and gradually recovered its military strength.

In recent years, Hong Chengchou organized the Qing Dynasty to trade grain and horses with Zheng Zhilong. He also monopolized North Korea's ginseng and fur as a second-hand dealer to accumulate some wealth.

The north has been in chaos for more than ten years, and the population has dropped sharply. The most acute conflicts between people and the land no longer exist. After the people have a stable environment, as long as the government recuperates, they will soon be able to recover.

With the spread of sweet potatoes and corn, and since the end of the Wanli period, the decades-long Little Ice Age has come to an end, Beiming has actually lived a good life in the past two years, and Wu Sangui has gradually recovered some of his strength.

Although the new soldiers are not as elite as the old soldiers, the army has returned to its previous level in terms of number.

Now the Beiming Province is located in the four provinces of Shandong, including Daming, Weihui, Huaiqing and Zhangde. It has 120,000 troops and is surrounded by the Qing Dynasty. It is also considered a prince.

However, among these 120,000 troops, only 100,000 were the Northern Ming army, of which 20,000 were the 20,000 Qing army stationed by the Qing Dynasty, led by Kong Youde.

In name, these 20,000 Qing troops were nominally helping Beiming defend the Liang army, but actually monitoring Wu Sangui and Hong Chengchou, controlling Beiming, so as to facilitate the Qing Dynasty to suck blood from Beiming.

After all, although the territory controlled by the Qing Dynasty was larger than that of the Beiming Dynasty, its governance capacity was limited, and the land was divided by various banners, and the backward flag slave system was adopted, and the banner slave production was not very enthusiastic, which led to the Qing Dynasty requiring the tribute from the Beiming Dynasty.

Moreover, after the land was divided between the various banners, although the nobles of the Eight Banners did not have to worry about food and drink, the central finances of the Qing court were relatively poor. The nobles were rich, but the treasury was unable to make ends meet.

The 20,000 people of Kong Youde were not controlled by the Northern Ming court, but the money, grain and supplies were provided by the Northern Ming court, and they could not be detained.

This is equivalent to the Beiming raising troops for the Qing Dynasty, which actually means that there are gaps and conflicts of interest between the two sides.

Hong Chengchou and Wu Sangui both had the idea of ​​getting rid of the Qing Dynasty's control, but their strength was not allowed now, and the Liang State became bigger, so they could only rely on the Qing Dynasty's military strength to compete with Gao Huan.

At this time, as the alarm bell rang out, the Northern Ming and Qing troops outside Pi County hurriedly lined up to face the enemy.

Wu Sangui came to Kong Youde and said in a deep voice: "The Liang thief is coming so fast!"

This time, Beiming planned to take advantage of Gao Huan's expedition to seize Haizhou, Shuyang and other places north of the Huai River to gradually expand its territory, but he did not want Gao Huan to not attack Duoduo, but instead bully the weak, which made Wu Sangui very angry.

Kong Youde said coldly: "So what if you come? Gao Huan returns to help in a panic. I am waiting for my work, how could I be afraid of him!"

Wu Sangui said in a deep voice: "King Gong Shu! Although the Liang army has come from afar, it has just defeated Zhang Xianzhong and its military power is in full swing. We cannot be underestimated!"

This battle may be just an ordinary confrontation for the Liang Qing dispute, and has little impact on both sides, but it is crucial to the Beiming.

Beiming has a small territory and few troops. Unlike Liang Qing's family, it has a great career. It will take a short time to recover after losing some people.

After the Battle of Shuanggou, Hong Chengchou worked hard to manage and took nearly three years to gradually recover his strength and accumulate some of his wealth.

If this battle is lost and the Northern Ming army is severely damaged again, it will take several more years before it can recover its strength.

But at that time, did Beiming still have a chance? Obviously there was no chance.

Therefore, in the face of Liang's attack, Wu Sangui showed considerable caution, and he really couldn't afford to lose.

Although the Liang army hurried back to the rescue, most of the soldiers along the way did not get off the ship and did not suffer from trekking. On the contrary, they gradually recovered their strength.

Wu Sangui's worries are undoubtedly correct.

However, Kong Youde had already found out that the Liang army heading north had less than 80,000 troops, with a force of equal strength to him, and the one who led the troops was Gao Mingheng, not Gao Huan.

Although their surnames are all Gao, there are too many differences.

The name of Gao Huan is a sharp deterrent to the Qing army and the Northern Ming army, but it does not mean that as long as the surname Gao is, the Qing army can be scared.

Not long ago, Kong Youde and Wu Sangui drove Liang general Yuan Shizhong out of Shandong, and covered them all the way and killed more than 10,000 Liang troops.

Facts have proved that as long as it was not Gao Huan, Liang Jun would not be unable to defeat it.

Now, except for Gao Huan, Kong Youde has no fear of other Liang troops.

I heard that Gao Huan was in Huai'an. Kong Youde and Wu Sangui were planning to retreat to Jining and Yanzhou to set up defenses, but after hearing that Gao Huan had not arrived, Kong Youde stopped in Pi County.

One of the reasons why Gao Huan did not lead the troops personally this time was that he was afraid of scaring the enemy soldiers and letting the enemy avoid fighting.

At this time, Kong Youde looked at the army, the army was in the middle, and the cavalry covered their wings, and had already formed a formation. He couldn't help but look at Wu Sangui with complicated eyes and smiled: "King Zhou, it seems that you have not come out of the shadow of the Battle of Shuanggou! This time the leader was Gao Mingheng, not Gao Huan, so why are you afraid?"

When the Qing army attacked Hedong, Gao Huan raided Hebei, forcing the Qing army to withdraw troops from Hedong. This time, Duoduo attacked Luoyang, Gao Huan re-used his old tricks. How could Kong Youde let Gao Huan score twice?

The Battle of Shuanggou was a careless underestimating the enemy and was forced to death. This time he would definitely block the Liang army and prevent Liang army from approaching Shandong, so that Liang army could know his strength.

Wu Sangui felt a little uncomfortable after hearing Kong Youde's words, "Kong Youde looked down on me and suspected that I was afraid of the Liang army. Is this the king afraid of the enemy? This is to respect the strength of the opponent! If I were really afraid of the enemy, my Guanning army would have abandoned you and retreated."

Wu Sangui was named King of Zhou by Zhu Cihuan and was the prince. Kong Youde was the prince of the Qing Dynasty, with a one-level difference in title. However, because the Northern Ming Dynasty was supported by the Qing Dynasty, Kong Youde's status was higher than that of Wu Sangui.

Wu Sangui's cheeks swelled, but he did not refute, but just kept his face and didn't speak. Kong Youde continued to hold the Mile Mile Mile to observe the enemy.

In his impression, the Liang army was mainly infantry and bird gunners, and they used dense formations to defend the enemy in the battle, but the Liang army in front of them had a huge cavalry, with at least 20,000 people.

"These war horses are all my Qing Dynasty horses!" Kong Youde put down the Qianli Mile Mile Mile, sighed and sneered: "Hmph! I am arranging here. As long as the thief of Liang comes to rush, he will definitely make him beat him and he will be bleeding."

In the distance, the Liang army cavalry stood in front, monitoring the Qing army and the puppet Ming army, and escorting the Liang army infantry in an array.

At this time, Gao Mingheng was under the banner of the horse and looked at the enemy's formation from afar. He saw that the enemy's formation was quite dense. Cavalry were arranged on both sides of the left and right wings, and deer antlers were arranged in front of the central infantry formation, and they were connected by iron hooks. There were several trenches before the obstacles.

Seeing the enemy's front setting up many obstacles, after the horse-retreating pile, there were infantry arranged in dense phalanxes. The group of artillery, as well as a large number of musketeers and archers, were vaguely seen in the formation, with extremely tight defenses.

Yuan Shizhong came to Gao Mingheng's side by horse and said in a deep voice: "Supervisor! The enemy is ready and the frontal defense is tight!"

Xu Heihu said: "Why is this formation similar to our army? It seems that Kong Youde and Wu Sangui want to fight a defensive counterattack."

"Not bad!" Hao Yaoqi raised his horse whip and pointed at the enemy's formation. "Look, the front trenches resist horses, artillery, bird guns, bows and arrows, and the hands throwing iron shells and thunder, we will inevitably suffer heavy losses. At that time, the enemy's cavalry surrounded and counterattacked, and our army will inevitably be defeated."

The generals were talking about it. To sum up, the formation was strong and if they attacked rashly, the outcome might be the same as when the Qing army attacked the Liang army before, and they would definitely suffer heavy losses.

At this time, Gao Mingheng put down the Qianli Mile Mile and said calmly: "You can't attack from the front when breaking this formation, you can only attack from the side."

In the Qing army formation, Kong Youde watched the Liang army complete the formation, and was still whispering and did not move. He couldn't help but smile: "I said that the Liang army only relies on Gao Huan. You see, without Gao Huan, they have won any battles, they are just a group of defeated generals. This king does not seek to defeat the Liang bandits in this formation, but the army formation is stable. Either I brag about it. Even if Gao Huan comes in person, I can resist the attack on Luoyang and lead the army to aid!"

Many Qing army generals felt a little confident after hearing Kong Youde's words.

Only Wu Sangui said: "Gao Mingheng defends Kaifeng four times and cannot be underestimated!"

When Kong Youde heard the words, he couldn't help but glared and said angrily: "King of Zhou, what do you mean? Where did Wu Sangui go in the past? How can he specialize in other people's ambitions to destroy his own power?"

In the past, Wu Sangui held 30,000 Guanning Iron Cavalry, and Kong Youde gave in. The Qing Dynasty did not dare to do anything to him. However, after the Battle of Shuanggou, Guanning Iron Cavalry suffered heavy losses, so Kong Youde naturally would not provide for Wu Sangui like before.

"Hmph!" Kong Youde snorted coldly and pointed in front of him, "Let's see how I defeat the enemy, and then see what you have to say."

While he was talking, a Qing general pointed at the Liang army formation and exclaimed: "Gao Mingheng has moved."

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Chapter completed!