Chapter 2375
Chen Yixin still made a small mistake in his judgment of the situation. The first people to flee to Dengzhou were not the ordinary people whose homes were destroyed, but the officials and officials who traveled long distances in carriages with Xinruan and their servants. Rich man.
The resources and information possessed by these upper-class people are far better than those of ordinary people. When they realized that the place where they lived would be affected by war, they fled the war zone as quickly as possible. Taking a carriage and horse all the way is naturally much faster than ordinary people fleeing on two legs.
As for which direction to flee is the safest choice, they are better informed and certainly know this better than the ordinary people - the only unit in Shandong that can reliably defeat the Qing army is not in Jinan City, but in Dengzhou The Haihan Army in Fushan County. No matter where you go, it’s better to go to Dengzhou for insurance first.
This understanding naturally comes from Haihan's undefeated record in the Liaodong region and the Korean battlefield in recent years. Although these battlefields are far away from Shandong, the results of the battle will still flow into the Ming Dynasty through various news channels, and those who are interested can naturally learn the relevant information.
Most people actually don't understand the true situation of Haihan's garrison in Fushan County, Dengzhou. They generally believe that this measure should be to protect Haihan's local business industry. After all, Fushan County has become well-known now, even if it is not engaged in commercial trade. In this industry, most people have heard that the local maritime trade business is in full swing, and it has the potential to become the first trading port in the northern part of the Ming Dynasty.
Since Haihan has business and industry in the local area, it is reasonable to station some armed forces, and it is rumored that as long as he enters Fushan County, he can get Haihan's protection. Although it is unknown where such rumors originated and whether they are true, people in the midst of war do not have that much time to wait for verification. They must go to the local area first.
There are even some people who think that the land route is too slow and take a boat directly down the lower reaches of the Yellow River. After going out to sea, they cross Laizhou Bay, go east through the Miaodao Strait, and reach Zhifu Port directly from the sea.
Of course, those who could mobilize the ships on the Yellow River and escape from under the eyes of the Qing army during this chaotic time were definitely not ordinary people.
At this time, most of the civilians who escaped from the warring areas had just left Jinan Prefecture and were still in Qingzhou and Laizhou. Therefore, the first places in Fushan County to be crowded with foreigners were not the long-idle immigration camps, but local hotels and inns, large and small.
However, because Fushan County usually has many merchants coming in and out, and similar situations also occur during peak seasons, this situation did not attract the attention of the Ma family at first. It was not until a few days later that the local demand for houses for purchase and rent suddenly surged. That attracted attention.
"Why didn't this situation be reported earlier?" Chen Yixin was inevitably a little unhappy after hearing the news reported by Jiang Sheng: "Didn't I already say the day I came back that I should pay attention to people coming from Jinan Prefecture in the near future? They The news you can bring us may be valuable! ”
Although Jiang Sheng was an elder, he did not dare to put on airs in front of Chen Yixin, even claiming that it was due to his own oversight.
Chen Yixin couldn't get angry with him, so he could only skip Jiang Sheng's mistake and ask him if he had investigated the relevant personnel.
Jiang Sheng responded: "I took the time to ask a few people, and the situations they said were similar, so I came to report first. I have arranged for people to conduct an inventory of all hotels and inns in the county. In addition, I have also dispatched some people to the official roads and docks today. Set up a card to check and register people entering Fushan County via land and waterways.”
What Jiang Sheng said did not make Chen Yixin feel relaxed. In fact, these were the tasks he assigned to the Ma family immediately after returning to Fushan County. But now it seems that the Ma family's execution is not ideal and the work efficiency is not ideal. There was no comparison with his own troops.
Of course, if professionalism is taken into consideration, these staff of the Ma family are naturally unable to compare with the army under Chen Yixin's prohibition. Even management like Jiang Sheng, who is well aware of the seriousness of the current situation, still finds it difficult to achieve the level expected by Chen Yixin in terms of execution.
Such execution also made Chen Yixin doubt whether the plan he had made could be implemented smoothly. If various response measures are still not implemented when the refugee influx flows into Dengzhou, the chaos that will result will be difficult to control.
However, what Jiang Sheng did was not without merit. After conducting a preliminary investigation on the outsiders who had arrived in the area in recent days, he also got some latest news about the war situation in Jinan Prefecture.
The main force of the Qing army had penetrated the entire Hebei Province by the end of January, and had detected the movement of the Ming army assembling a large army near Dezhou. The Qing army did not choose to fight the Ming army in Dezhou, but continued to divide into two groups. The West Route Army defeated Wucheng and Linqing from the west of Dezhou and went straight to Liaocheng where Dongchang Mansion was located. The East Route Army captured Lingxian, Linyi and Jiyang arrived at the north bank of the Yellow River.
Although tens of thousands of Ming troops were assembled in Dezhou, the Minister of War, Yang Sichang, who was responsible for commanding the campaign, was originally a peacemaker and had no intention of letting the Ming troops in Shandong fight the enemy to the death, so he did not make any plans for the Qing army to divide its troops and go south. As a precautionary measure, when the Ming army realized that the enemy had deliberately bypassed Dezhou without attacking, the Qing army had already organized a crossing on the banks of the Yellow River.
The various prefectures and counties that had been holding a wait-and-see attitude on the south bank of the Yellow River suddenly panicked. At this time, they could no longer organize enough armed forces to prevent the Qing army from crossing the river. Most of the first batch of people who escaped from Jinan Prefecture and other places heard that the Qing army was about to cross the river to attack the city, and they did not dare to stay there anymore, so they fled. Earlier, Chen Yixin received a report from Jiang Sheng in Jinzhou, saying that the Qing army had arrived near Jinan. This was the situation during this period.
Then in February, the Qing army crossed the river at the same time in Pingyin upstream and Jiyang downstream, forming an east-west attack on Jinan City.
Before the Ming Dynasty, Jinan City had only rammed earth walls. It was only during the Hongwu Period that the earth walls began to be covered with bricks and transformed into stronger masonry walls. In the 20th year of Wanli, the fifth year of Tianqi, and the seventh year of Chongzhen, it was renovated and expanded several times. Four city gates were built, including Qichuan Gate, Lishan Gate, Luoyuan Gate, and Huibo Gate, southeast and northwest. The city wall was more than three feet high. The foundation is five feet thick, with a circumference of more than ten miles. There are defensive facilities such as city towers, archery towers, corner towers, enemy towers, and pavilions. The outer wall at the base of the city wall is made of blue square stones eight feet high, and further up is the green stone. Just brickwork.
Therefore, even if the city defense was empty, not many people thought that the Qing army could break such a strong city. Those who actually fled were almost all people from the areas around Jinan City. The leading figures in Jinan City, including King Zhu Youshu and his family, stayed in the city and did not choose to evacuate Jinan.
After the Qing army formed a siege on Jinan, the area became a blind spot, and it was almost impossible for the outside world to know the progress of the war. These quick-footed people who are currently fleeing to Fushan County only know that the Qing army has gathered near Jinan City, with more than 100,000 people, and while attacking the city, they also allocated troops to plunder the surrounding areas. As for whether Jinan City was captured or not, there is still no conclusion yet.
After listening to Jiang Sheng's report, Chen Yixin could roughly judge that the situation in Jinan City should be basically consistent with the original history. The city's defenses were empty and there was a lack of rescue. The soldiers and civilians in the city did not have sufficient combat capabilities. It was only a matter of time before the Qing army broke through.
According to historical records, the Qing army arrived in Jinan on Little New Year's Eve and captured Jinan City on the second day of the first lunar month. If calculated based on this time, even if there is a slight error in the historical direction of this time and space, it is almost time. Chen Yixin knew that with Jiang Sheng's ability, he might not be able to get more information from the upper-class people who were fleeing. He could only tell Jiang Sheng again to pay close attention to all the tasks assigned by him and not to slack off any more.
After Jiang Sheng left, Chen Yixin asked his personal guards to invite the leading officers of the special operations group who had just arrived at Zhifu Port. Judging from the current situation, he believes that it is difficult to effectively implement his plan with the strength of the Ma family alone. The army must be involved in the follow-up arrangements as soon as possible to ensure that the social order here will not become a mess when the refugee flow arrives.
While waiting for the special forces officers to report to Majiazhuang, another group of people that Chen Yixin had been waiting for the past few days also arrived.
It was Hao Wanqing and his men who came back after a long journey. Chen Yixin had been looking for Hao Wanqing from the moment he set foot in Fushan County, but he and his men did not know where they had gone. The people left behind only knew that Hao Wanqing personally led the team to perform important tasks. As for where he was going, it was absolutely confidential. Hao Wanqing only left a time limit when he left. If he didn't come back by a certain time, then open his personal safe to get information about the task. situation, and it must be done in the presence of senior officials from Haihan.
As soon as Hao Wanqing returned to Fushan County, he heard the news of Chen Yixin's arrival, so he went straight to Majiazhuang to see him.
Chen Yixin actually guessed that Hao Wanqing probably went to Jinan. After all, it was such a big impact event. If the Ministry of Security was not aware of it, then Hao Wanqing, who was in charge of the intelligence work, would be greatly derelict in his duties.
Chen Yixin hadn't seen Hao Wanqing for a long time, so when he saw Hao Wanqing walking in, he almost couldn't believe his eyes.
Hao Wanqing gained a lot of weight, grew a beard and long hair, and with his clothes, he looked like a rich man from the Ming Dynasty.
"Is your security department really so short of personnel that even you, the boss, have to go into battle yourself?" Chen Yixin asked jokingly.
Hao Wanqing sat down on the chair opposite Chen Yixin, and the chair creaked under his weight. He raised his hand and wiped the sweat from his forehead with his sleeves and said: "I traveled hundreds of miles without sleep to report the news, you kid?" Why are you kidding me if you don’t give me a cup of hot tea?”
Chen Yixin smiled sarcastically and quickly called his guard in, asking him to pour a cup of hot tea for Hao Wanqing and bring some refreshments.
"Minister Hao, are you really going to Jinan? You are not afraid of encountering Qing troops and being unable to leave!" Joking aside, Chen Yixin was still a little worried about Hao Wanqing's personal safety. Although he also knew that the people in Hao Wanqing's field team were all top players, if they encountered the Qing army on the battlefield, the manpower of the field team would definitely not be enough.
Hao Wanqing said: "We can't go to Jinan at all. I haven't even left Qingzhou, and I've just arrived near Zibo, and I've already discovered traces of Qing army activities. I originally planned to go to Zhangqiu at least, but I heard that there are mountains and plains all over the west of Zhangqiu. Only the Qing troops who escaped from there dared to go west. The troops gathered in Denglai Prefecture were stationed near Qingzhou Fucheng and they did not dare to reinforce Jinan."
Chen Yixin frowned when he heard this and said: "So, the Qing army has already invaded Qingzhou?"
Hao Wanqing said: "The main force should not have come to Qingzhou, but there are small groups of troops already operating in Qingzhou. It is said that traces of the Qing army were even found near Shouguang."
"Shouguang? That's almost to Laizhou Prefecture!" Chen Yixin frowned and said: "The scope of activities of the Qing army seems to be larger than the historical records we know."
Jinan City, the main battlefield of this war, is a full 800 miles away from Fushan County. It stands to reason that the Qing army will not pose a direct threat to Fushan County, but the Shouguang mentioned by Hao Wanqing is only about 500 miles away from Fushan County. For the Qing army's cavalry, which came and went like the wind, this distance was only two or three days' journey. If the actual situation is different from the original historical facts, then it is hard to say whether the Qing army's attack will stop at Jinan.
Qingzhou and Laizhou are equivalent to the buffer zone between Jinan Prefecture and Dengzhou Prefecture, but if the Qing army has entered this area, the damage that will be caused may exceed Chen Yixin's previous estimation.
Hao Wanqing said: "The Qing army's troops that entered Jinan this time are said to be more than 100,000. Of course, just attacking Jinan City does not require so many troops, so it is a very reasonable arrangement to divide the troops and plunder everywhere. As far as I know According to the situation, there are probably 50,000 to 60,000 refugees fleeing south from the northeastern region of Jinan Prefecture into Qingzhou. However, Qingzhou does not have sufficient reception capacity, and the government did not take timely measures to calm people's hearts. This allowed more people to flee. The people in Qingzhou began to flee in large numbers as soon as the Qing army showed up.
Chen Yixin sighed and said: "When the war is in chaos, ordinary people have no choice but to escape if they want to survive!"
Hao Wanqing took a few sips of the hot tea that had just been served, put down the cup and continued: "In my opinion, Jinan is definitely hopeless. Let's see how many people can escape in the end! The area and population affected by this chaos may be It’s bigger than what’s recorded in historical records. Is that why you came from Liaodong?”
Chen Yixin nodded and said: "With so many refugees, we can save as many as we can. Otherwise, even if the Qing army retreats voluntarily, Shandong will be in chaos for several more years."
Hao Wanqing said: "Fushan County alone cannot save so many people. If this place is full, it will be overwhelming if it can accommodate 20,000 to 30,000 people."
Chen Yixin said: "I have no intention of doing this alone. The executive committee will mobilize materials and transportation capacity from various places to transport the refugees out of Zhifu Port as much as possible."
(End of chapter)