Time Travel to 1859: The Iron-Blooded Soldier King

Yan Chunyu grinned and said, "Damn, sir, please don't leave me here. I just beat up a captain. If he leaves, I won't even have anyone to rely on. I will feel so uneasy."

However, it was indeed difficult for Liu Ye to refuse Senggelinqin's request. After all, Senggelinqin's love for him was sincere and without any pretense. It was also because of this that Senggelinqin was not polite to Liu Ye at all. Now that the request was made, if he did not agree? How could the monk king put his face on the ground?

Liu Ye said helplessly: "Okay, Your Highness, I will leave you 300 soldiers and let Yan Chunyu lead them. But I can't keep Zhu Hai and the others. I'm very short of people..."

Senggelinqin smiled and said, "Alright, I won't make it difficult for you. As usual, if you leave me 300 men, I'll give you a cavalry battalion. After we've wiped out the Nian bandits, we'll exchange them back!"

Something is always better than nothing, and Liu Ye felt a little comforted.

Senggelinqin asked, "Qimou, take a look and see which battalion should be handed over to Liu Ye?"

He Qimou sucked his teeth and replied, "Your Highness, let's go with Kulha. This brat has grown up today, and he actually dared to steal the credit for other people's work. I caught him red-handed. What a disgrace! Let him go to Jinan with Ye Zi, and let Ye Zi train him well. In three months or six months, this brat will definitely change!"

snort!

Senggelinqin snorted angrily. This kid was too disappointing. He stole all the credit from Liu Ye. Fortunately, it was Liu Ye. If it was someone else, where would he put his face if things got out of hand?

"This kid is lucky. I'll teach him a lesson later. If he doesn't learn his lesson, I'll break his legs myself!"

Liu Ye whispered, "Your Highness, are these Nian bandits really so difficult to deal with?"

Senggelinqin said in distress, "Liu Ye, you don't know. This Nian army is very slippery. They are almost all cavalry. They come and go like the wind and are extremely cunning. My elite Khorchin troops were almost completely wiped out in the battle of Tongzhou. These soldiers were recently recruited from Chahar and Suiyuan. Compared with the Khorchin elite, they are not even a little bit inferior. Without the elite combat power, it will be extremely difficult to completely wipe out the Nian bandits..."

Liu Ye whispered, "Since the Nian cavalry is so powerful, why doesn't Your Highness change his strategy?"

"How to change?"

Liu Ye replied: "Now the prince is mainly focusing on putting out fires everywhere. These Nian bandits come and go like the wind, erratic and unpredictable. It is difficult to achieve complete success in one go. The first priority now is to change the tactics and unite with Lord Shengbao. In the southwest of Shandong, we will form a huge net to encircle the Nian bandits. As for which city they invade, we will not care about it for the time being. We will just shrink our encirclement, from the outside to the inside, layer by layer, and use superior forces to squeeze the Nian bandits towards the middle. As their space becomes smaller and smaller, the advantage of cavalry will naturally not be brought into play. Until finally, they will be trapped in the middle area by our fire. At that time, we will launch a full-scale siege. Even if the Nian bandits are slippery, they will never be able to escape this net. There is only one way to go!"

Senggelinqin's mind suddenly brightened, and he shouted, "Bring me the map!"

The military counselor under him quickly handed over a map of Shandong. Senggelinqin began to look at the southwestern part of Shandong carefully. Now, his army and Shengbao's army exceeded 40,000 people. Together with the Qing army from the three towns in Shandong, the total strength has exceeded 50,000 people. As for the Nian bandits, there are only 20,000 to 30,000 people. With twice as many troops as the other side, as long as the deployment is proper, the Nian bandits can only be crushed to death step by step!

"Great! Liu Ye, you really are worthy of being my Zhuge Liang. A good strategy is to squeeze them step by step and squeeze out the balls of the Nian bandits. This time, I want to see what these Nian bandits can do!"

Senggelinqin shouted. "What a shame! If only your Baoding Town was still there, I wouldn't have to go through so much trouble!"

Liu Ye replied, "Your Highness, haven't you still been appointed Governor of the Capital's Military Affairs? Isn't Baoding Town still under your jurisdiction?"

Senggelinqin's face was gloomy. He sighed, "My position as Governor-General of the Capital's Military Affairs is just a facade. I can mobilize other troops, but I can't use the Firearm Battalion and Baoding Town at all. I've sent official documents to the Ministry of War twice, but that Airen just ignored me. What bad luck!"

Liu Ye smiled and said, "It's hard to be quick. The imperial court regards the troops in these two places as precious treasures. It's no wonder that the Ministry of War..."

"Don't be so gloating! Don't you know that soldiers need to fight more battles to maintain their peak combat effectiveness and reach new heights? If you keep them in the barracks every day, any soldier will become useless. Isn't that how the elite Eight Banners soldiers who once dominated the world are now useless?"

Liu Ye continued, "Your Highness, don't even think about it. Unless there are an abundance of elite soldiers, don't even think about mobilizing these two forces. However, if you can't mobilize elite soldiers, can you still get those foreign guns and cannons? There are still quite a few in the treasury in Beijing. We should bring some of them out to equip our troops. After all, they're much more useful than bows and arrows, right?"

Senggelinqin's eyes lit up. This was a good idea! He wouldn't be given elite soldiers, but if he wanted some guns and cannons, it shouldn't be a problem. Prince Gong should still give him some face.

Senggelinqin shouted, "Darji, write to the Ministry of War immediately, requesting the transfer of 500 muskets and 10 cannons from the capital, and have them shipped to Dongchang Prefecture as soon as possible. If you dare not give me face again, I will let that Airen fight this battle personally! Also, write to Lord Shengbao immediately, ordering Lord Shengbao's 20,000 Green Camp soldiers to be stationed in Caoxian, Heze, Jining, and Pingyi, and to shrink the defense line from southwest to northeast. Order the three Shandong towns to be stationed in Laiwu, Xintai, and Zhangqiu, and to shrink the defense line from east to west. Order the Mongolian left, middle, and right divisions to shrink the defense line from Liaocheng, Puyang, and Xiajin respectively to the southeast, and bring all the Nian bandits in. Absolutely not a single Nian bandit is allowed to jump out of this encirclement. If anything goes wrong over there, I will bring you my head!"

Military Counselor Darji quickly wrote down Senggelinqin's order and sent someone to deliver it on horseback. In the coming period, a huge encirclement will be completely launched in the central and western Shandong, covering all the Nian bandits who invaded Shandong!

Liu Ye's method was too clever. Han Laowan, the leader of the Blue Flag of the Nian bandits, had no idea that he had fallen into a trap. This time he was in real danger!