Dense bullets were continuously fired from the ladder car, which made the flesh and blood of the Qing soldiers at the head of the city fly. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

"Go!" Seeing that the firepower of the Qing soldiers at the head of the city was suppressed, the officer in charge of commanding the auxiliary troops roared.

The ladder car went up, the platform on the ladder car was slightly higher than the city wall, when the ladder car leaned on the city wall, the Ming marines standing on the platform first threw a row of grenades, and the Qing soldiers at the head of the city were blown up, and then brandished a steel knife, jumped on the head of the city, and started hand-to-hand combat with the Qing soldiers.

The marines of the Ming army were strong in hand-to-hand combat, and after they reached the top of the city, they faced the demoralized Qing army, which was like chopping melons and vegetables, and soon gained a firm foothold on the city wall.

The defenders of the Qing army were killed at the head of the city, and the Qing army with no morale fled, surrendered, and surrendered, and Guazhou easily fell into the hands of the Ming army. After conquering Guazhou, the Ming army occupied the forts around Guazhou, and sent small boats upstream, using the method of blasting, blowing up underwater wooden piles and sunken ships, and dismantling the barrage.

At this point, the Qing court's defense line from the mouth of the Yangtze River to Jiangning was all opened, and the Ming fleet could sail all the way to the city of Jiangning.

In Jiangning City, Jingnan Palace.

Geng Jingzhong was sitting in the study reading a book when there was a knock on the door of a confidant outside.

"Come in!" Hearing the voice of his confidant, Geng Jingzhong didn't raise his head and say a word.

The confidant walked into the study, knelt down on one knee and said a thousand words: "Lord Qiqi!" The Ming Army's sailors have already passed Guazhou! According to the information sent back by our spies on the riverside, it shows that the military fleet has thousands of large and small warships and thousands of cannons of various kinds! Guazhou only defended for three hours before it was breached! ”

Geng Jingzhong put down the book and smiled disappreciatively: "It's normal!" The Ming army ships are strong and well-armed, if the defenders of Guazhou can hold for more than a day, it is called abnormal! ”

The housekeeper said: "Lord Wang, the Ming army will soon arrive at Jiangning City, we have to prepare as soon as possible, and when the Ming army comes, we will cut off the heads of Maleji and Liang Huafeng, and present them to the Ming army as a vote!" ”

Geng Jingzhong sneered and said, "There is also a Han Shiqi, who is also going to be cut!" ”

"Han Shiqi?" The housekeeper was taken aback, "The Ming army refers to Liang Huafeng's head by name, and as for Maleji who is a Manchurian, he will also be cut off." But Han Shiqi doesn't seem to have offended the Ming army, right? ”

Geng Jingzhong said with a straight face: "The Ming army didn't name Han Shiqi's head, but if we kill one more Tartar governor, isn't that a big credit?" Regardless of whether Han Shiqi has offended the Ming army or not, he must be killed! After all, he is a governor, and he has a certain number of troops at hand! Get rid of him and give us less trouble! We only waited for the Ming Dynasty to arrive at the city of Jiangning, and then put on a Hongmen banquet and invited them to the palace. ”

"Wow!" The confidant withdrew.

Just when Geng Jingzhong was in full swing to prepare, the wharf outside Jiangning City was full of people coming and going, and the ferries full of flag people, women, children, the old and the weak were heading towards Jiangbei. After a while, the empty ferry returned to Jiangning Wharf and sent the women, children, old and weak of the flag people, who had been waiting on the wharf for a long time, to Jiangbei.

The women of the banner people and most of the children took the boat and crossed the river, and a small number of old people also crossed the river to the north by boat, but most of the old men volunteered to stay and assist the imperial court and the royal division to jointly guard Jiangning City. There are also some flag man children who can hold weapons, and they also stayed.

After the Ming fleet crossed Guazhou, it continued to swim upstream and arrived at the foot of Zhenjiang City.

Due to the downsizing of the Qing army, the main force of the green battalion in Jiangsu was transferred to Jiangning, and more than 300 soldiers of the Eight Banners who were originally stationed in Zhenjiang were also transferred to Jiangning. At this time, there were only more than 500 local green battalions left in Zhenjiang, and more than 2,000 temporarily recruited people. In addition, Zhenjiang City was also crowded with a large number of Han women, children, old and weak who were driven out of Jiangning City by Geng Jingzhong. These ordinary people were driven out of Jiangning City, they were cornered, and most of them went to Zhenjiang.

To attack a Zhenjiang city with only 500 green battalions and 2,000 people garrisoned, the Ming army can be said to be able to take it without much effort. However, the small city of Zhenjiang was crowded with about 100,000 women, children, old and weak, if the Ming army launched a strong attack, the Qing army forced those women and children to go to the city to block the shells, then more people died.

Attacking the city as the bottom and attacking the heart as the top, Zhang Huangyan still considered using the method of persuasion to let the defenders of Zhenjiang surrender, so as to achieve the goal of capturing Zhenjiang without blood.

The Qing army guards stationed in Zhenjiang and the prefect of Zhenjiang were not so stubborn, and the battle of Guazhou, I heard what others said, the Ming army was extremely fierce, Guazhou lasted less than three hours and was overcome, this incident also frightened the Qing army defenders and prefects in Zhenjiang, so after they received the letter of persuasion, they opened the city gate and surrendered to the Ming army.

The Ming army took Zhenjiang without bloodshed and opened the gateway to Jiangning.

"Now that the door to Jiangning has been opened, our army can come to Jiangning City at any time!" Thinking that the Ming army was about to besiege Jiangning, Zhang Yukun was very excited. His battleship Nanjing, Nanjing is still in the hands of the Qing court, and only when Nanjing is recovered, can the Nanjing battleship live up to its name.

However, at present, the problem faced by the Ming army is that if Geng Jingzhong breaks his promise and refuses to open the city to let the Ming army enter the city, then the plan for the battle of Jiangning is estimated to be bankrupt.

Why? Because the Ming army that was preparing to attack Jiangning, in addition to the naval fleet, the real main force was only five thousand marines! As for the large number of Zhejiang troops, they are completely used to come over to see the excitement and scare people. really let the Zhejiang army launch a siege war, they can't play any role at all.

Zhang Huangyan's Zhejiang army's combat effectiveness is really poor, and this army can only give full play to its combat effectiveness when it is huddled in the fortress. In fact, Wang Xinyu's application of Zhejun is also limited to garrisoning various cities.

Although the combat effectiveness of the Zhejiang army is poor, the Ming army has built a large number of strong castles in the south of the Yangtze River, as long as the Zhejiang army hides in the strong fortress, gets the protection of the fortress, hides inside, and fires from the shooting hole, such a job is handed over to the Zhejiang army to do, they can still do it easily.

But if the Zhejiang army is pulled out of the field battle, this army can't even beat the ordinary green camp Qing army, their field ability is really poor, not to mention the siege ability, if you only rely on the Zhejiang army to attack the city, don't say whether you can take Jiangning, I'm afraid that the Qing army in Jiangning City will counterattack, and the Zhejiang army will not be able to resist.

Zhang Yukun said: "At present, the Tartar garrison in Nanjing City has about 30,000 green battalion soldiers, 20,000 Cao Yun soldiers, 5,000 Eight Banner soldiers, 50,000 Minzhuang and auxiliary soldiers, and 80,000 canal boatmen. Coupled with the fact that the Tartars can temporarily recruit troops from among the young and middle-aged, the total strength of the Tartars in Jiangning City can reach 300,000! ”