I saw that there were four or five thousand people under the wall of Guazhou, which was not high!

The defender rubbed his eyes vigorously again, yes, it was indeed ten neat horizontal arrays outside the city! There are no less than 500 people in each formation, and the soldiers are all dressed in dark green military uniforms, and there are several flags fluttering at the head and tail of the team, but there is no font number on the flag, only the pattern of the sun and the moon.

He suddenly remembered that he had heard the officer mention it a while ago, and this seemed to be the banner of the army under the command of the auxiliary king of Nanming!

At this time, on the east side of the city, including himself, there were only more than 30 people guarding it.

"My mother!" The captive soldier was so frightened that he was about to turn around and call the police, when he heard the neat drum beat under the city, and heard the soldiers of the Ming army shouting in unison, "Aim!" ”

He shrank his neck subconsciously, and almost at the same time, with the roar of artillery under the city, a huge iron ball slammed into the chest wall, and the crumbling stone instantly shot him into a blood sieve.

The cannon under the city only fired more than ten rounds, and a six-pound cannonball hit the city gate. The city of Guazhou was built quite simply, and there was not even a layer of iron sheet on the city gate. Suddenly, a huge hole was blasted out of the city gate, and sawdust splashed more than ten feet away.

The Ming army brigade has always stood a mile and a half away from Guazhou City, and Zhu Linmiao doesn't want to cause casualties to soldiers for such a broken city.

However, the infantry of these ten battalions stood so murderously, and with the help of artillery, in less than an hour, the captives defending the city were so frightened that the city surrendered.

Jianyu has regarded the north of the Yangtze River as his own land, and there is no large number of garrisons to prepare for war. Just like this Guazhou City, there are less than 200 defenders in total.

In fact, after the main force of the Ming army landed in Shizhuang on the north bank of the Yangtze River yesterday, it went all the way to Guazhou more than 80 miles to the west, and there was hardly a shadow of the Qing army along the way.

Zhu Linmiao glanced at his pocket watch, and was thinking about whether to pull the 32-pounder mortar up and bombard it a few times, when he saw a white flag erected at the head of Guazhou City.

Sure enough, as recorded in history, Guazhou was slightly attacked. He put away his watch and said to Zhang Jiayu: "Let the second and third battalions rush to control the Guazhou ferry, and the others will go into the city to repair."

"Let the sailor's warship start preparing as soon as it arrives, just wait for Xuanqing and them to come back, and we will immediately cross the Yangtze River south!"

"Yes!"

Just one hour before the Dragon Guard began to bombard Guazhou, Zhao Shichao was rushing to Yangzhou with two hussar battalions and a dragoon battalion, a total of 1,500 men and horses.

Yangzhou City is only less than forty miles away from Guazhou, Zhu Linmiao considered that the slow sailors and warships would not be able to come for a while and a half, and they were idle left and right.

Of course, it is impossible to capture Yangzhou in a moment, but as long as you can put a few shots outside the city and make the city's prisoners tremble, you will achieve your goal.

In the previous battle, the Jianlu had always pressed the Ming Dynasty, and the battlefield was always south of the Yangtze River, and the north of the Jiangbei had almost become the backyard of the Jianyu. It is conceivable that when the news of the Ming army's "attack" on Yangzhou spreads in the enemy-occupied areas, it will certainly deal a heavy blow to the morale of the Manchu Qing Dynasty and at the same time give confidence to the Chinese people in Jiangbei.

Steel swords and iron armor, horses and whips, and a large group of cavalry roared past.

The people near Yangzhou are all too familiar with this scene, a year ago, Jianyu stepped on their homes like this, looted their belongings, female dependents, and even slaughtered them like pigs and dogs for ten whole days!

And now this team of men and horses is the cavalry of the Ming Dynasty!

The army has finally returned! The good days of those dog tartars are coming to an end!

Hundreds of people saw Zhao Shichao's team from afar, and they all cried with joy, kneeling on the side of the road one after another, shouting: "Welcome to the general!" ”

Even more daring went home and changed into Hanfu, spread out the braids on the back of his head, and ran around to tell each other.

Zhao Shi did not go directly to Yangzhou City, but went through the villages and towns near Yangzhou, kidnapped all the captives he could find along the way, and then summoned the people to be publicly executed.

"Kill!"

"Kill the dog Tartar!"

"Son, open your eyes in the spirit of heaven and take a look......"

"Avenge my mother!"

When the heads fell to the ground, the people near Yangzhou immediately broke out into waves of cheers, and many people fell to the ground and cried bitterly.

A year is not too long, but for these people, it is like a hard time. They were forced to shave their hats, put on ugly clothes, and respect Jianlu as their master, but they were killed at the slightest mistake.

They are looking forward to it day by day, and now they are finally looking forward to the Ming soldiers to avenge them and give them this bad breath!

After the area of more than ten miles near Yangzhou was "cleaned up", Zhao Shichao led his troops to Yangzhou City. Although there are nearly 2,000 defenders in the city of Yangzhou, it is rumored that the Ming army is "slaughtering" nearby, and seeing the murderous cavalry of the Dragon Guard Army under the city, they are so frightened that they close the city gate, and they have no intention of going out of the city at all.

Zhao Shichao led people around the city twice, put a fire gun outside each city gate, and then did not delay much and led the army back to Guazhou.

It wasn't until the back of the Long Wei Army disappeared for a few hours that the Yangzhou prefect of Jianyu trembled and asked people to inquire about the news. As soon as the man came out of the city gate, he saw more than a dozen heads of captives neatly placed on the ground, and a row of majestic characters was written in blood on the stone next to him - those who offend my Ming will not be forgiven!

That night, nearly 10,000 soldiers of the Dragon Guard Army crossed the Yangtze River south in two groups on more than 30 warships of the naval division and landed 20 miles east of the Zhenjiang River.

Zhenjiang is between Nanjing and Jiangyin, is the east gate of Nanjing, since then more than 100 miles to the west is Yingtianfu, during the period of a horse Pingchuan, there is no place to defend.

The Ming army successfully bypassed the Jiangyin fortress on the south bank by maneuvering from the north bank of the Yangtze River by warships. At this moment in Jiangyin City, the tens of thousands of Qing troops of Luck Dehun and Lu Shiyang could not have imagined that the enemy they were waiting for had appeared behind them.

Not long after, several bonfires were lit on the south bank of the Yangtze River. The moonlight caressed a group of warships on the south side of the Yangtze River, and the blue background of the bow of the ship and the sun and moon were blazing.

"It reminds me of the bombardment of Nanchang last year." Luo Mingshou's gaze left Zhenjiang City and glanced at the warship beside him, "There are many more cannons than here." ”

"General, a signal has been sent from the shore!" Nguyen Jin Il guide shore.

Luo Mingshou immediately had spirit in his eyes, and commanded the adjutant in a loud voice: "Order, bombard Zhenjiang!" ”

"Yes!"

Immediately, led by the Yanping and Luo Mingshou's previous ship Zhaoqing, plus several ships of more than 100 tons next to them, a total of seven cannons roared at the same time.

Several shells crossed the river and smashed heavily on the walls of Zhenjiang City. In particular, the twenty-four-pound heavy cannon on the Zhaoqing directly lifted a two-foot-thick battlement out, leaving a huge gap in the city wall.