On May 23, the 17th year of Chongzhen, the Ming army of Qin Gong arrived in Dezhou, Shandong.

King Ji Zhu Shuaiqin led Lu Shihan, Zhao Jiding, Li Zanming, Cheng Xianzhen, Xie Bi, Ma Yuanli and others and Dezhou gentry out of the city to greet him.

From April 27th to May 23rd, Zhu Shuaiqin couldn't sleep or eat during this month.

Firstly, he was just a remote clan branch, but he pretended to be the King of Ji, which violated the taboo of the court. Secondly, he did not have any generals and army that could be used. Although all the officials in the pseudo-shun were captured and killed, the imperial Ming dragon flag was inserted on the top of the city of Qilu, it was not easy to defend these cities.

As far as Zhu Shuaiqin knows, Li Zicheng retreated all the way back to Guanzhong, leaving only a part of his troops in Shanxi to garrison. He was too busy to take care of himself, so he naturally had no energy to march into Shandong.

The real threat comes from the Donglu.

Now that Shen Jing is under the control of the Donglu, the entire Jifu has surrendered. The situation in Henan is a bit special. Western Henan is still in the hands of Li Zicheng, and most of the other prefectures and counties are also inclined to surrender to the Donglu.

Zhu Shuaiqin knew that the Eastern Barbarians were determined to set the Central Plains. The reason why they did not march into Shandong now was not that they wanted to consolidate the rule of Jifu and Henan first. When they freed up their hands, they would definitely lead their troops to Shandong.

Although Zhu Shuaiqin tried hard to call on the gentry to recruit soldiers, he also knew that there was no difference between untrained recruits and ordinary farmers. Donglu only needed to send a side division of several thousand people to easily capture the entire Shandong.

Therefore, he was eagerly looking forward to the arrival of the king's army. Ten days ago, news came from the south that Gao Jie, the general of Xuzhou, and Qin Gongming, the general of Huai'an, led his troops to 70,000 troops to help Shandong under the order of the court.

Until this moment, Zhu Shuaiqin could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

Although there are not many 70,000 people, if the important prefectures are concentrated, they can barely deal with it.

The Eastern Barbarians were originally short of military strength and had to deal with Li Zicheng in the west. It would never be possible to send a large army to invade Shandong, at least in the short term. This gave the court time to train troops and resume production.

Time is the most important thing now!

However, Qin Gongming rode a pure black tall horse and surrounded by a group of personal guards to Dingbian Gate of Dezhou South Gate. Seeing Zhu Shuaiqin and others standing outside the city to greet him, Qin Gongming nodded slightly and said, "Your Highness Qing is intent."

Hearing this, Zhu Shuaiqin's body trembled suddenly as if he was struck by lightning.

King Qing? He heard it right?

Even when the rebellion was first brought up, he was awarded the title of King Ji in order to unite the elders of Shandong.

Seeing Zhu Shuaiqin's face was confused, Qin Gongming explained: "Your Majesty has issued an imperial edict to allow Your Highness to inherit the Qingfan."

Zhu Shuaiqin's lips opened and wanted to say something, but he swallowed it. Before he knew it, tears filled his eyes.

The emperor’s grace is vast, the emperor’s grace is vast!

At this moment, no words can express Zhu Shuaiqin's gratitude to the Holy Emperor.

It’s not that Zhu Shuaiqin is so incompetent.

You should know that he was just a lieutenant of the Fengguo in Qingfan. Although he came from Qingfan, he was a side branch. If it were a peaceful era, he would never be able to inherit the position of King Qing.

But in the late Chongzhen period, the Central Plains were in chaos and bandits rose up.

Countless vassal kings were slaughtered by bandits, and the Qing vassal was not spared.

The fief of the Qingfan was in Ningxia. In the 16th year of Chongzhen, Li Zicheng captured Ningxia. The last King of Qing Zhu Zhuohong and the main members of the royal family were arrested, and they were all taken to Shanxi for execution the following year.

Since then, the direct princes and princes of Qingfan all died, and only the descendants of the royal family like Zhu Shuaiqin survived by chance.

According to the Ming Dynasty's management of the vassal states, such distant royal families did not meet the conditions for reincarnation of the vassal states. If everything develops according to normal circumstances, the Qing vassal state will be eliminated. There will be no more Qing vassal states in the world.

But Zhu Shuaiqin did something that changed the fate of Qingfan.

He led the Shandong gentry to revive the land of Qi and Lu.

This was a great contribution to Zhu Cilang. In order to commend Zhu Shuaiqin's heroic righteousness, Zhu Cilang specially ordered Zhu Shuaiqin to inherit the Qing vassal state and change the vassal state to Dezhou.

Judging from the relatives and distant nature of blood, Zhu Shuaiqin was a remote branch, but he was also a veritable royal family of the Qing vassal family, so there was no ethical issue in inheriting the throne. As for whether the remote branch followed the vassal system, the court officials were too lazy to control it.

After all, this is the Zhu family's family's chore, as long as His Majesty is happy.

No one would be so stupid that he had a big fight with the Holy Emperor on this irrelevant issue, especially after Zhu Cixuan used his thunderous skills to curb the Chaogang.

After Zhu Cilang issued the imperial edict, he specially sent an eunuch to pass the imperial edict with the army and told him to follow Qin Gongming's army to arrive in Dezhou.

Because the Ming army who came to Shandong this time was divided into two parts, Zhu Cixuan had already divided the defense zones before departure.

Qin Gongming's troops guarded Dezhou, and Gao Jie's troops guarded Jinan, Dongchang, and Yanzhou.

This is also determined by the number of troops in the two units. Gao Jie's army has a large number, with 50,000 people and most of them are veterans who have been fighting for many years. Even if they are divided into three palaces, they can still support it.

Qin Gongming had only 20,000 people under his command, and most of them were training soldiers in Huai'an, and the training time was no more than one year. In this case, it was unrealistic to let Qin Gongming divide his troops again. Concentrating troops to station in Dezhou is the best choice.

In addition, Zhu Cilang had another consideration, that is, Gao Jie was domineering. Although judging from the original historical ending of this person, he would never surrender to the Qing Dynasty, Zhu Cilang was still worried that Gao Jie would have friction with the royal family Zhu Shuaiqin.

After all, Zhu Cilang just ordered Zhu Shuaiqin to inherit Qingfan. If Gao Jie showed off his power to a prince, it would indeed be a disgrace to the imperial power.

The current national affairs are difficult and are definitely not the time for internal strife. Therefore, Zhu Cilang must consider all the situation carefully to ensure that everything is foolproof.

Dezhou is the northern gate of Shandong, bordering Hejian Prefecture, and it is very likely to face the Qing Dynasty.

If Qin Gongming had only these 20,000 soldiers from the countryside under his command, Zhu Cilang would definitely not be assured that he would guard it alone.

Fortunately, Qin Gongming also had 500 veterans of the Baigang Army, as well as one thousand soldiers of the Biao camp when Lu Zhenfei was the governor of Huai'an.

These are all veterans with strong combat effectiveness, especially the five hundred white pole soldiers, who are definitely the elite among the elite.

In terms of defending the city, it is not necessary that all soldiers are veterans. As long as more than a thousand veterans are led by them, the new soldiers will not panic.

The city of Dezhou was strong, and if the Qing Dynasty did not launch a large army invaded, it would be impossible to conquer it.

As long as the Ming army was baptized by a battle to defend the city, these regiments would quickly grow into veterans.

The new recruits can only transform when they see blood, which is what Zhu Cilang firmly believes.

Besides, Gao Jie is in charge of Jinan Prefecture. If the situation is really unfavorable, it will be too late to rush for help.

However, Zhu Cilang also instructed Qin Gongming to be careful of the Qing Dynasty, which was also his usual trick since Liaodong rebelled against the Ming Dynasty.

Before Qin Gongming and Gao Jie's army set off, Zhu Cixuan had issued an imperial edict, and Shandong must defend it. Because in his opinion, this is the most critical point in the world's chess game.

For the Qing Dynasty, taking Shandong could easily lead the army south and face the Jianghuai River.

For Huang Ming, taking Shandong can gain strategic depth and make the Qing Dynasty afraid of being afraid of the enemy.

Those who win Shandong will win the world!

......
Chapter completed!