Huo Junyi sent Bai Huo outside the city, "General, have you really thought about it?"

Bai Xu nodded, "From today, close the four gates of Dezhou, no one is allowed to enter and exit, and defend the city well. Whether it is from Tianjin or Jinan, I will block it."

Huo Junyi bowed and said, "Yes."

Bai Huo turned over the horse and waved his whip forward. In the dark night, two thousand soldiers followed closely behind him.

After regaining Dezhou, Emperor Chongzhen ordered Bai Hu to control the army as much as possible and obey Luo Yangxing's command. Therefore, he privately withdrew his troops from Wuqiao back to Dezhou and secretly connected with Luo Yangxing.

This move angered Zhou Xian. With his order, the two thousand-man teams, which were originally commanded by Bai Hu, instantly reversed. No wonder, they were created by Zhou Xian, and the middle and lower-level generals were promoted by him personally. In order not to cause civil strife, Bai Hu could only let them leave. However, Zhou Xian did not want to completely turn against the court, so he still allowed Bai Hu to retain nearly two thousand new soldiers.

Luo Yangxing was the governor of Tianjin, with 70,000 or 80,000 people under his command, but these people were all defensive soldiers of the garrison. They were not good at fighting, and they were very good at robbers everywhere, and they secretly shared the music with Liu Zeqing. Therefore, within a few months of confrontation with Liu Zeqing, they had not made any contributions, and they were useless to waste the military pay of the court, which made the local people furious.

Seeing Zhou Xian evacuating his main forces, Luo Yangxing turned his attention to the relatively wealthy Dezhou. With the will of the court, he forced Bai Hu to allow his soldiers to enter Dezhou.

But this matter was known to Zhou Xian. He agreed to Bai Hu stay in Dezhou for the time being because he needed to restrain Liu Zeqing's remnants when he went to war. He also knew that Bai Hu, as a general who had been in the battlefield for a long time, would not be as scheming as those in the officialdom, and would have a certain bottom line in doing things. But Luo Yangxing was different. He was a person without bottom line. Zhou Xian could let Bai Hu do things but would not give Luo Yangxing a chance. He warned Luo Yangxing immediately, if his soldiers and soldiers crossed the canal, he would go directly to war with him.

This move completely suppressed Luo Yangxing, and he reported Zhou Xian to Emperor Chongzhen with another memorial. But apart from this, he could not do anything to Zhou Xian.

From this perspective, Zhou Xian helped Bai Hu. After that, Bai Hu began to recruit new soldiers and had an army of more than 4,000 people.

But between Zhou Xian and the court, Bai Xu was always very frustrated. He did not dare to ignore the court's orders, nor did he dare to turn against Zhou Xian directly. He knew that Zhou Xian could kill all the people under his command in just one sentence. But he felt from the bottom of his heart that Zhou Xian would not do that, because if he wanted to do it, he would have done it long ago.

Bai Xu always thought that Zhou Xian allowed him to stay in Dezhou because Zhou Xian wanted to have a buffer with the court. But yesterday, after Yu Baiyi talked about the plan to seize Jining, he suddenly felt that Zhou Xian had played a big game and had already counted himself in it.

In Shandong, several forces were intertwined. Zhou Xian was undoubtedly the strongest, but he had to deal with many enemies. There were Liu Zeqing's remnants, Li Yan's rebellion army, and the Xuzhou army led by Li Dingguo.

Li Dingguo wanted to capture Linyi, marched into Zibo from Linqu, divide the entire Shandong into two, and then slowly seize the entire Shandong.

Li Yan also wanted to seize the entire Shandong, but at the moment when the army of the King of Rebellion Li Zicheng was restrained in Henan, his goal became a little smaller. He wanted to occupy all the territory west of the canal, and at the same time embedded an entrance to the west of the canal, which is Jining City. Occupying the west of the canal ensure that even if Zhou Xian defeated Li Dingguo, he would still not be able to threaten the rebellion army in Henan. Retaining Jining City can ensure that after receiving reinforcements, he could send troops to Shandong at any time without any obstacles. After all, as long as he crossed Jining, the entire southwestern Shandong would be safe.

Liu Zeqing was even simpler. After he was defeated by Zhou Xian, his troops were severely damaged and his morale was dispersed, so he could only temporarily rely on the rebel army. But he did not really support himself, and he wanted to continue his dream of enclosing land and building a vassal whenever he had the chance. He did not dare to attack Li Yan because he wanted to leave a last way for himself. Therefore, he could only attack Zhou Xian. And he did not dare to do so in normal times, but only dared to dare when the official army had empty troops in western Shandong.

Among these forces, it can be said that Li Yan's advantages are the most obvious. There is Liu Zeqing's temporary support and Li Dingguo's cooperation.

If Zhou Xian crossed the canal to attack Liu Zeqing, Li Yan would definitely lead his troops across Sishui to attack Tai'an, because he would not allow Zhou Xian to occupy the west of the canal. If Zhou Xian draws troops to attack Jining, he will take the defensive position and consume the strength of the official army as much as possible, thus creating opportunities for Li Dingguo to occupy Linyi.

Therefore, in the end, Zhou Xian has only one way to choose, that is, to do his best to defeat Li Dingguo first, because he obviously poses the greatest threat to Zhou Xian at present.

Li Yan's calculations were right, and Zhou Xian did lead the main force to Linyi. But he also made the mistake. Zhou Xian did not give up on regaining Jining. He wanted to take advantage of Zhou Xian's battle with Li Dingguo to recover all the territory west of the canal. However, Zhou Xian wanted to use him to lead his troops to Linqing. Jining was empty when its troops were weak.

There was a method, but what to do next. Li Yan never underestimated Zhou Xian. Even if he went north to Linqing, he would have left enough troops in Jining. Whether Zhou Xian could retain enough troops to attack Jining became the key.

To this end, when Zhou Xian led the main army to Linyi, he left the two most complete teams of the Renzi Camp in Qufu. In Jinan, there were three most elite teams of the Yongzi Camp. Moreover, after crossing the river and Yishui, Zhou Xian secretly disguised the three most elite teams of the three most elite teams of the grain transport team as the guards of the grain transport team, and then quietly returned to Zibo. The troops left in Linyi, most of the infantrymen were new soldiers and old and weak. The most important thing was that the eight Zhao Yu cannons urgently cast by the Laizhou Artillery Factory were also transported to Tai'an for siege.

Of course, all this was carried out quietly. It was not until Yu Baiyi visited that Bai Hu knew about it. In other words, the government army at this moment had the strength to recapture Jining.

Having troops was a lack of a general. Tan Shimai had little experience and did not have the ability to control so many soldiers. Moreover, Zhou Xian said it very clearly that Li Kai needed to stay in Jinan. He did not completely believe in Bai Hu, but he needed Bai Hu to help him recover Jining.
Chapter completed!