With the large-scale counterattack of the Dashun Army in Shanxi and Henan, the Qing army began to transfer all the troops that could not be fought and could not be fought there one after another. At the same time, they sent people to contact the Hui people who fought fiercely with the Dashun Army in Qinghai and Gansu, and made an appointment to destroy Li Chuang, which constrained a large number of main forces of the Shun Army. In the seventh month of the lunar calendar, more than 30,000 Qing troops from Bahana, Shi Tingzhu's troops were transferred west to Huaiqing Prefecture and merged with the Qing army of Ezhen Yechen's troops in Gushan. The Qing army avoided the northern part of Shanxi where Dashun troops gathered, and ignored the feinting division of the Dashun Army in Hebei, and attacked Zezhou and Lu'an from Henan, with the intention of moving straight to Taiyuan from south to north.

In late August of the lunar calendar, the situation in northern Shanxi changed significantly. The Tang Tong troops of the Shun Army stationed in Baode, Kelan and other places suddenly surrendered to the Qing Dynasty and attacked the Shun Army's back camp in Fugu. The Shun Army caught off guard and suffered heavy losses. Tang Tong also communicated with the Qing army in Datong and Ningwu, and the momentum was extremely shocking.

In September, Li Guo, who had returned from a defeat at Datong City, led his troops to two groups to attack the Datong, Ningwu and Baode areas where the Qing army was stationed, and Gao Xun, the general of the three passes of the Qing Dynasty, asked for more troops and wages, and asked the troops from the Nei Court (Eight Banners soldiers) to come to the rescue as soon as possible. At the end of this month, after receiving a large number of reinforcements from the Eight Banners Army, Ye Chen's troops captured Zezhou and Lu'an, and then went straight to the city of Taiyuan. In order to reduce the pressure of the Dashun Army in Taiyuan, the Dashun Army in southern Shanxi, Henan, Hebei and other places began to gather heavy troops to attack the flanks of the Qing army. At the same time, local gentry in Shanxi raised troops to rebel, responding to the Qing army, and the situation in the Shun army was very bad.

...

On October 15, 1644, there were many masts and oars in Yantai Port Pier. More than ten large ships that were rare on the Far East ground gathered here, including seven steam engine sailboats, two merchant ships, two armed transport ships, and two guard gunboats. At the beginning of this month, the local government sent two steam engine sailboats again. The 105th Company of the Army, the Third Battalion of the Eight Banners New Army, and some supplementary troops (100 musketeers + 50 gunners + 200 Eight Banners Warriors), 50 military police, more than 350 Polish mercenaries, eight Andalusian horses and a large number of weapons and ammunition.

Regarding the 105th Army Company, the 105th Army Company was a force that had just been established in South Africa. Now the local forces are very tight and cannot be drawn to the Far East for the time being. Therefore, the military headquarters divided the 5th Company (formerly the 104th Company) of South Africa into two, namely the 5th Company and the 105th Company, and then added a large number of soldiers from the original River Security Corps to fill the vacancy. After the establishment of the 105th Company, it immediately boarded a passing transport ship to the east. The company commander Lieutenant Li Renjun was a middle school student before crossing, and was previously a staff officer of the Army Department. Later, he participated in several domestic bandit suppression battles and fought with the Xhosa in South Africa for a while. After a little training, he served as the company commander of the newly formed 105th Company. In addition, the second lieutenant Sun Shengjun served as the deputy company commander of the company and also came to Yantai.

The arrival of them and a new batch of reinforcements greatly enhanced the military strength of Yantai Fort’s east coast. As of today, there were 870 army infantry, 231 artillery soldiers, 2422 three battalions of the Eight Banners New Army, 12 squadrons of 3,000, 353 Polish mercenaries, a total of 6,876 people. In addition, there are more than 2,500 military personnel in Yantai Fort, 50 new military policemen in Heishui Port, more than 230 black soldiers in Dabo, and more than 40 naval sailors in Yuanbo Port. In addition, more than 60 patrolmen in three police stations established, the total strength is still quite considerable.

At this time, the population of Yantai and other places reached an unprecedented 48,000 people. If the East Coast army was added, the number would be close to 55,000 people. So many people would definitely not be able to support them! At present, the grain in Sakhalin Island, Yantai and other places had been harvested long ago. After these time consumption, there were less than 1,800 tons left. Fortunately, in September, Mo Ming had led his army to Laizhou, Qingzhou and other places, and took advantage of the spring wheat harvest to forcefully collect some grain and grass from the local gentry, so that the grain storage capacity reached

There are about 2,300 tons. In addition, there are currently more than 1,400 tons of salmon, more than 1,800 tons of saury, more than 2,400 tons of Far East sardines, and more than 300 tons of macaque, squid, crabs, sea cucumbers and other groceries in the ice cellar of Heishui Port. However, this year's fishing flood is about to pass, and the output of the four fishing boats that are still floating on the sea will probably be quite limited in the next period of time. In other words, people on the east coast will rely on the existing grain to last until July and August next year, and a considerable portion of the grain will be left behind.

The grain pressure is not very large! It is expected that the gap will be more than 3,000 tons, and this deficit cannot be compensated. Because as the situation in Shandong becomes increasingly chaotic, the grain output of the entire Shandong is currently declining from a macro perspective. This means that even if the people on the east coast go out to collect grain, the amount of grain will be limited.

To be honest, after the Shun Army distributed the landlords' land to the people, the land planting area in Shandong increased rapidly. If it could last until the autumn harvest, it might be a bumper year. Unfortunately, the Shun Army was defeated too quickly and had to retreat under the counterattack of the landlords' armed forces in about two months. Many people who were assigned to the landlords' land and were happily farming were expelled or even killed by the landlords' armed forces. Many people were forced to flee or simply became bandits. The production order that had just improved was destroyed again.

The power vacuum caused by the retreat of the Shun Army was not quickly and effectively filled. At present, there were constant wars in Shandong, and bandits under the banner of Li Chuang, bandits and hungry people were raising rebels everywhere. Ordinary people could not settle down to farm, and countless thieves were abandoned. Moreover, Guo Sheng had announced the exemption from the three-year levy in Shandong. The Qing court recruited officials Wang Aoyong, Fang Dayou and others also shouted the slogan of exempting money and grain to compete for the people's hearts. However, later Wang and Fang found that this would not work, and they had no money to recruit soldiers and raise soldiers.

Fang Dayou once reported that "there are no people, no officials, no soldiers, and always because of no salary." This shows his embarrassment. Later, with the establishment of the generals of the two towns of Jiaozhou and Yizhou in the Qing army, Fang Dayou wanted to collect some money and grain to support the green camp troops recruited by Ke Yongsheng and others: "Excluding wasteland, the mature ones will collect one cent." Unexpectedly, the people who had just seen the situation slightly calmed down and returned to the throne, and when they heard that the Qing court was about to start tax collection, they immediately "returned" and returned to the mountains again to become bandits, which made the two officials of the Qing court recruiting and pacifying in Shandong extremely embarrassed.

We can basically see from this that the poorest forces in Shandong are the remnants of the Shun Army and local bandit armed forces. The Qing court was second, and the East Coast people were relatively wealthy after vigorously organized production and self-rescue and fishing operations. This has to be said to be an irony. Although the landlords and gentry in the four prefectures of Qingzhou, Dongchang, Jinan and Yanzhou should still have a lot of food, but the activity areas far away from the East Coast people are beyond the reach, so the East Coast people actually have to rely on their own storage of food to survive the next year.

In order to successfully spend the next year and reduce the population of Yantai and Heishui area, it became the top priority. It just so happened that the two new steam engine sailboats that came to the local area had arrived. After seven or eight days of maintenance, the climate also changed. The north wind on the sea gradually became the mainstream, so the operation to transport immigrants to Kingsoft Port, Australia can also begin.

This is the case with the seven steam engine sailboats in front of them. They loaded 3,000 people in Heishui Port, 1,500 people in Yuanbo Port, 1,500 people in Dabo Port, and then loaded the last 1,000 people in Kongtong Island. They have been resupply at Yantai Port and are ready to set sail for Australia. The weather in late October is very suitable for sailing. Not only are the bad weather such as typhoons disappeared without a trace, but the wind is going south along the way until they cross the equator to reach the central part of the east coast of Australia. This fleet of pure-air sailboats, which is not slow, may only take more than 20 days to reach the destination Jinshan Port. In addition, the weather is cooler now, and the mortality rate should be controlled within a tolerable range.

On the dock, Mo Ming tightly held Li Yi's right hand and said with a smile: "You kid are going back to your hometown to enjoy your happiness. Are you afraid that your wife and little "qingren" will run away with others? Haha."

"They dare?!" Li Yi also smiled and said, "Stop tying me. I heard that you went to Laizhou a while ago, during the period of Qingzhou, but had a lot of fun playing affair with the designer named Lola of the Hei Water Boat Repair Station. I heard that his father died indirectly at your hands. You are quite brave and have a strong taste. Are you not afraid of being caught by someone with scissors one day?"

"Haha." Mo Ming smiled shamelessly, then patted Li Yi on the shoulder hard and said, "I don't know when I meet again next time. After arriving in Australia, you will have to leave in May. Please help me watch some there. In name, I am in charge of it. In fact, you also know that they are all letting it go. The latest report from the two ships from the beginning of the month shows that there are currently more than 900 people in Jinshan Port, more than 3,000 acres of farmland, 300 tons of wheat and more than 400 tons of potatoes; there are less than 1,100 people in Gushan Port, and the amount of grain is only less than 200 tons more than Jinshan Port. Now we have to transport 7,000 people this time, and there are still a batch or even two groups behind. I have no bottom to eat whether the food is enough, and I have to persist until May."

"It should be enough. The next one or two groups of people did not pass at once. If the time is staggered, it would consume less food. Moreover, in May, the wheat in the Jinshan Port will be harvested again. With the area cultivated there, it is no problem to feed tens of thousands of people. Because there can be a season of wheat and potatoes there a year, the annual grain output is much stronger than that of the Black Water. If it really doesn't work, fishing boats are also being built there. At that time, you can catch some fish and shrimps in the sea and then transfer one or two ships of grain from Xinhuaxia. It's not a big problem." Li Yi said after thinking about it.
Chapter completed!