Cai Shiying originally wanted to delay the Ming army and sailors, but who knew that the Cao Yun sailors bullied the common people on weekdays, and exploited the merchant ships that came and went.

Seeing Cai Shiying angrily reprimanding his subordinates for those wine bags and rice bags, Lin Qilong said: "Lord Cai, don't worry, don't we still have Caogong and Yanding on hand?" It is possible to organize them! ”

At that time, the total number of Caoyun Qing troops was about 120,000 horses, but the Caoyun troops were scattered all over the country, and the Caoyun troops in Yangzhou City were the most concentrated, and they were only 35,000 people. In addition, there are 8,000 people in the green battalion of Yangzhou in the city, plus the green battalion Qing army from Gaoyou and other places, a total of more than 50,000 Qing troops.

Originally, there were more than 500 Eight Banner soldiers in Yangzhou City, because Aobai wanted to concentrate his troops, and the Eight Banners had been transferred, and at this time there were only green battalion soldiers in the city.

In addition to the 120,000 Cao soldiers, Cai Shiying also has millions of Cao workers, of course, these Cao workers are also scattered along the canal, just like the Cao Yun Green Battalion, and there are only more than 100,000 in Yangzhou. However, there are still some salt merchants near Yangzhou, these salt merchants rely on the canal to make a fortune, and their salt can only be sold in Jiangsu, if Yangzhou is lost, the salt merchants will lose a lot. Like the salt merchants who monopolized official salt in every era, the salt merchants had salt dices in their hands.

Yanding is also a paramilitary organization, and although their combat effectiveness is not worth mentioning, they are also armed men.

Cai Shiying could form an army of 50,000 or 60,000 people from the cao workers in Yangzhou, and then gather all the salt merchants' salt dices to form an army of 30,000 or 40,000 people. In this way, the total strength of the Qing army in the Yangzhou area, together with the Caoyun Green Battalion, Yangzhou Green Battalion, Minzhuang, Caogong and Yanding, can be as high as more than 200,000.

After listening to Lin Qilong's introduction, Cai Shiying was taken aback: "Organize an army of more than 200,000 people? How much grain and silver is needed for this? ”

Lin Qilong said with a smile: "They don't need food and military salaries!" As long as this official says a word, he will be able to make them obey us honestly and help us resist the pirates! ”

Laborers and salters do not need to be paid. Even the food is solved by themselves.

In those days, there were actually gangs, and they relied on pulling boats on the canal to make a living, and there were Caotou to pay them wages and distribute food.

As for the salt ding, it was raised by salt merchants, and some salt merchants paid military salaries and grain.

Zhao Fangsheng is a small leader of salt Ding who works for salt merchants. This person relied on some martial arts, and was favored by the local big salt merchant and became a small leader of the salt ding. The so-called salt. On weekdays, it is to protect salt vessels, seize illegal salt, and ensure the interests of salt merchants who sell official salt. As we all know, the salt merchants who have official salt and salt are all very rich, and the salt they raise is naturally fragrant and spicy, and they live a very happy life.

But Zhao Fangsheng's good days were all over when Zhang Huangyan entered the river. The salt from the south of the Yangtze River is mainly produced in the north of Jiangsu sea salt and Shaanxi well salt, ordinary people eat North Jiangsu sea salt, and rich people use Shaanxi well salt. The salt merchants who sold this salt had salt quotations from the government on hand. You can pull salt from the production area to the south of the Yangtze River to sell it, and make a lot of money. But now the Cao transportation route was cut off by the Ming army, and the salt merchants could not sell the salt to the south of the Yangtze River, and the people of the south of the Yangtze River could only buy the Fujian salt transported by the Zheng army and the salt produced in Zhejiang. This dealt a great blow to the economy of the salt merchants.

The salt merchant had no money in his hands, so naturally he couldn't afford to raise these salt dices.

"Haikou! That's it! Not only did they cut off the Cao transportation line, but they also sold their own salt in Jiangnan! These Haikou who cut off people's financial routes will be wiped out, so that the world can be peaceful! Zhao Fangsheng stared at the blood-red eyes and took a sip of wine.

Just when a few salters were sullen and drinking stuffy wine. Someone outside came to report: "Lord Zhao, the imperial court has formed a righteous army to fight against the pirates!" Now hiring! ”

"Let's go!" Zhao Fangsheng dropped the wine bowl and stood up.

On the afternoon of the 20th. More than 30,000 Ming troops arrived more than 20 miles away from Yangzhou City, and the river in front was completely blocked by various boats, rafts and bamboo rafts, and the Ming army could only camp on the spot. The ships of the rear team continued to bring in auxiliaries and people, and by the evening, the total strength of the Ming army reached more than 50,000 people.

A Qing army spy had already roughly estimated the number of Ming troops, and returned to Yangzhou City to report the situation to Cai Shiying.

"The thieves claim to be an army of 100,000, and the maximum is 50,000 horses. Now we also have 50,000 horses in the city, and we can also recruit people to help defend the city, and our army can reach more than 100,000 troops. The thieves have few soldiers, but they want to attack the city, isn't that self-defeating? Cai Shiying listened to the spies' report and felt confident again.

Because Zhang Huangyan entered the river, the grain in the south of the Yangtze River could not be transported to the north, and the Cao transportation had been cut off for two months, and these Cao Tou lost their economic income, so they hated the Ming army; As for the salt merchants, not to mention, they could eat fragrant and drink spicy food with the help of salt, but now the north and south of the Yangtze River have been cut off, and the income of salt merchants has been greatly affected. It was precisely because of the sharp decline in the income of Caotou and the salt merchants that they were resolutely on the front line against the Ming army at the instigation of Cai Shiying.

At this time, blocking in front of the Ming army was the army composed of these Caogong and Yanding. There were more than 100,000 of these rabble, and about 50,000 were sent by Cai Shiying to the canal to block the Ming army.

Cai Shiying actually deliberately pushed these people out to die, and he adopted Lin Qilong's strategy to deliberately send a group of "righteous soldiers" to death, so as to arouse the hatred of the "righteous army" against the Ming army.

"Where did the Tartars gather so many men?" Looking at the countless Qing troops in the Qing army camp in front of him, Wang Xinyu felt very surprised.

Zheng Chenggong smiled disdainfully: "Although there are many fake Tartars, they are a rabble!" They're all canal slendermen, and they're salt merchants' thugs! No matter how many of these people there are, they can't beat the regular army! ”

Hearing Zheng Chenggong say this, Wang Xinyu was a little unbearable: "Shibo said this, the younger generation understands that they are just a group of people, if we kill the army, I am afraid that there will be a river of blood, and many innocents will be injured in vain." ”

"Ci is not in charge of the soldiers! Do you know why King Jin had the defeat of Xinhui? It's just too merciful! It is okay for the common people to surrender to the Tartars under the threat of butcher knives, but if they want to fight us with the Tartars, they are our enemies! This king will not be merciful to his enemies! Zheng Chenggong said angrily. Three years ago, Zheng Chenggong was carelessly defeated, and there was also the "credit" of those Cao Gong and Yanding.

Then Zheng Chenggong gave an order: "Beware of the Tartar camp at night!" Three more cooking, five more attacking! ”

The next day, it was just dawn. The Ming army attacked.

The Ming army set up artillery in 300 steps outside the camp of the Qing army, with the order of Xiao Gongchen, the general of Zheng Chenggong's army, the tiger squat cannon, the Franco machine artillery and the general cannon and other artillery guns of the Zheng family army fired in unison, rows of solid shells drilled into the camp of the Qing army, and the tents of the Qing army camp collapsed one after another, the wooden fence turned into pieces, and the flesh and blood of the Qing soldiers in the camp flew sideways. When they saw that the Qing army was scurrying like headless flies, the Zheng family army bombarded it with shrapnel grenades.

"The pirates have attacked! Kill the thief! Someone in the Qing army camp shouted.

Although the lethality of the Ming army's artillery was strong, and every shell could kill many people, the people on the opposite side who had lost their economic resources seemed to be dying. Wielding various weapons, he rushed out of the camp and launched a suicide attack on the Zheng family's army.

"Kill the thief!" The Cao workers were armed with wooden spears and flat poles, and the thugs of the Cao Gang were armed with spears, short knives, and wooden sticks, and together with the salt Ding who were holding various weapons, they rushed towards the Ming army in a chaotic manner.

Zheng Chenggong didn't bother to waste precious gunpowder and cannonballs on these rabble, looking at these Qing soldiers who didn't even have armor and only had a coat on their bodies, a trace of pity flashed in his eyes: "The shield is in formation." Spears and knives forward! ”

Hearing that the cannon fire stopped, the rabble on the opposite side shouted and rushed towards the Ming army. At the forefront were some thugs of the Cao Gang and salt merchants. Most of these people are from Jianghu figures. Martial arts are strong, there are many fights and killings on weekdays, many people have seen blood, and they have martial arts. Rush to the front.

"There aren't many pirate shells left! Rush up and kill them! A martial arts master with a full face brandished a ghost-headed broadsword, pointing at the Ming army in formation and shouting.

The drums thundered. The sound of bangzi was like a rapid rainstorm, and groups of Qing soldiers poured up like a tide. This scene seemed familiar three years ago. Three years ago, Zheng Chenggong went on the Northern Expedition, and under the city of Jiangning, Liang Huafeng led the "righteous army" formed by these martial arts masters to defeat the Haikou with Caoyun officers and soldiers.

However, there are some differences from back then, at that time, there were regular Caoyun Green Battalion soldiers in front of these martial arts masters, and the Zheng family army was unprepared, and after being attacked by the Green Battalion, there was a rout, and they were defeated by these rabble.

The current Ming army is waiting for these guys who don't know whether they are alive or dead to send them to death.

Zheng Chenggong was reluctant to even fire, so he just let the shield array in front and waited for the Qing soldiers to collide with him.

"Whoosh" A few archers mixed with the gang thugs and the salt dices shot a volley of arrows. The bows in the hands of these thugs and Yanding were not strong bows, and the feathered arrows released were weak. The arrows hit the shield and the armor, and they were bounced away, except for a few unlucky Ming soldiers who were shot in the arm, everyone was unharmed.

"Kill!" The martial arts master in front had already crashed into the crowd of the Ming army.

Zhao Fangsheng was also in the crowd, and the Ming army had shelled it before, causing him to lose three brothers. New hatred and old hatred were added together, Zhao Fangsheng stared at the blood-red eyes, brandished a big knife and charged with the crowd. Only by killing with his own hands those who cut off his wealth and killed his own brothers, can he relieve his hatred.

There was a sound of weapons colliding, although there were many Cao Gong and Yan Ding, but the Cao Gang thugs and Yan Ding who bumped into the Ming army were like the sea water at high tide, and the Ming army with a small number was like a reef by the sea, tearing the tide that hit it to pieces. The rabble that rushed to the Ming army's formation fell in one fell in one fell swoop.

Most of the outlaws who rushed to the front fell down, followed by some ordinary workers and some small salt merchants' salt dices, those people usually had little experience in fighting, and when they saw a large pile of corpses falling in front of them, they were so frightened that their legs were weak, and they threw away their sticks, spears, poles, and all kinds of weapons, and turned around and ran.

Zhao Fangsheng, who was still very "heroic" just now, turned his head to look, and saw that the people around him were running, and his morale fell to the lowest point at once, and he also turned his head and retreated with the defeated crowd.

"Kill!" Zheng Jiajun chased after him from behind. Knife men armed with short knives slashed from behind, and one by one the rabble who were caught up were beheaded off and lay in pools of blood.

"The Tartars have gone into the house!" Liu Guoxuan, who led the pursuit of the Qing army, saw the rabble turn around and hide in the villages and houses on both sides of the canal.

At that time, there were many small market towns on both sides of the canal, with houses built by Caogong, shipyards, and small markets.

Zheng Chenggong did not show mercy to these ordinary workers who relied on pulling boats for a living on weekdays and were ordinary people when they took off their uniforms, but ordered the Ming army to cut down with all their might, as long as they did not surrender, they would be killed.

The Ming army shouted "kill the Tartars" and rushed into the village, in the small market town. After a while, a scream sounded in those houses, many of the workers who had just taken off the Qing army's uniforms fell in pools of blood, and the houses began to catch fire, and the Zheng family soldiers set fire to the houses.

To tell the truth, for those who helped the Qing army fight the Ming army, even ordinary people, Zheng Jiajun was very ruthless, Zheng Chenggong did not stop the slaughter of ordinary people by the soldiers, he believed that as long as he helped the Qing court, he was the enemy.

However, Zheng Chenggong did not indulge the soldiers too much in killing, and when the houses were almost burned, the Cao Gong and their families were driven out, and they all knelt on the ground and surrendered, Zheng Chenggong ordered the killing to be stopped, and everyone was taken prisoner and handed over to the auxiliary soldiers and Minzhuang behind to be sent to the boat to take away.

Despite not letting go of the killing, Zheng Jiajun still killed many people, the river embankment was full of blood, the corpses blocked the canal, and the houses on both sides were burned to ruins.

Although the buildings on both sides of the canal were burned down, these buildings also served to stop the Ming army, and most of the Caogong and Yanding fled and fled back to Yangzhou, and only about a third of them were killed or captured. The vast majority of these people who lost were Cao Gong and Yanding, who were unwilling to leave their homes, were captured along with their families, and some were killed by the Ming army in their own homes.

Zhao Fangsheng picked up a life and fled back to Yangzhou City. Seeing that there were few brothers and sisters who drank and gambled together, visited kilns, and oppressed the people on weekdays, Zhao Fangsheng pulled a little minion and asked, "Where is the little sixth son?" What about the two pillars? And my own brother? Why didn't they come back? ”

"Dead! They're all dead! They were all killed by pirates! The little minion replied with a sad face, "They hid in the house, and they were also searched out and killed by the pirates!" If the villain hadn't run fast, he would have been killed by the thieves! ”

Seeing the salt and cao workers who escaped back, Cai Shiying had a smile on his face: Haikou owes another blood debt! When defending the city like this, Yan Ding and Cao Gong will be able to fight to the death to help the court resist the thieves! (To be continued.) )

PS: There is one more chapter in the early hours of the morning