At dusk, the weather was a little cool, and the shouting and killing sound that spread in the city gradually stopped, and the entire Yangzhou battle also came to an end.

On the street, a rope tied with a string of Qing prisoners, passing through the city gate, was escorted by the Ming soldiers to the camp outside the city to guard, in the city in various squares, there are still Ming soldiers, house-to-house search, to prevent the fish from hiding in the residents' homes.

When it was getting dark, the Ming army basically controlled the situation in the city, and Liu Shun immediately asked Chen Bangyan to move to Yangzhou.

Chen Bangyan entered Yangzhou from Xicheng surrounded by hundreds of Ming army generals, and he first lined up incense at the city gate to pay tribute to Shi Kefa, as well as hundreds of thousands of Yangzhou soldiers and civilians who died guarding Yangzhou at the beginning, and then entered the city.

When the memorial, many Yangzhou officers couldn't control their emotions and cried, and after entering the city, they saw that the scenery had changed, and their hearts were full of sadness, but in any case, Yangzhou hit down, and a stone that had been pressed in their hearts for many years was unloaded.

Yangzhou offensive and defensive battle, the most fierce is the battle on the west city, the Ming army attacked the west city, the Qing army's will to resist immediately dissipated, although Duoduo built a lot of fortifications in the city, but the green battalion soldiers lacked a reason for Duoduo and the Qing Dynasty to fight to the death, so the street fighting was not fierce.

The only thing that lasted was near Guandong Street, but after the Ming army in charge of blocking the attack killed Bashan, the commander of the Qing army's river defense, the battle ended immediately.

Although the street fighting was not motivating, a large number of residents in the city were still slaughtered, the Qing army took advantage of the fire to loot, and even many Ming troops joined it, many shops in the city were looted, more than a dozen large households were wiped out, and fires were burning everywhere, billowing smoke soared into the sky.

Just knock down the city, and there are no people in the city, so it is useless to knock it down.

Although Liu Shun ordered to maintain order in Yangzhou and protect Yangzhou's vitality, first, there were too many chaotic soldiers in the Qing army, and second, the Ming army besieging Yangzhou was complex and full of factions, many of which were just compiled from the green revenue, and it was really difficult to control for a while.

At this time, Chen Bangyan and the others entered the city, and the people on the street were carrying the corpses into a cart and cleaning the blood stains on the street with water.

Chen Bangyan stopped to watch, and Liu Shun next to him said: "Cabinet Department, there are more than 40,000 Qing troops in the city, Duoduo led more than 10,000 remnants of the army to stand out from the north gate, and the remaining 30,000 green battalions in the city died six or seven thousand people, and all those under him were captured and escorted to the outside of the city to be guarded. ”

"Wang Yi sent back the news that he ambushed Duoduo thirty miles north of the city, killing and wounding hundreds of Qing cavalry, but Duoduo escaped." Chen Bangyan nodded.

Duoduo has 4,000 cavalry, and the Jiangbei Ming army has almost no war horses, and it is indeed not easy to encircle Duoduo, but when I heard that Duoduo ran away, Liu Shun and other generals still felt a little regretful and discouraged.

Seeing this, Chen Bangyan glanced at everyone with a smile, "Although Duoduo escaped, the more than 10,000 green battalion soldiers who escaped did not escape, and the 40,000 green battalions in Yangzhou were all annihilated or captured, His Royal Highness the King of Chu and the imperial court have achieved the goal of launching the Yangzhou campaign. ”

There are not many bannermen in Yangzhou, the main force is more than 40,000 green battalion soldiers, the goal of the Ming army to launch the Yangzhou campaign is to leave these more than 40,000 green battalions in Yangzhou, lest these Qing soldiers retreat to Huaibei, and cooperate with the Qing cavalry to build a defensive line, which will be a huge obstacle to the Ming army's northern expedition.

According to the original goal of the Ming army, Duoduo was indeed not the focus, the focus was on more than 40,000 green battalion soldiers, so to speak, the Ming army did complete the task assigned by Wang Yan.

Liu Shun and the others heard Chen Bangyan say this, collected their feelings, and then asked: "Cabinet Department, if Wang Yi also captures the more than 10,000 green battalions that escaped from the city, then there will be more than 30,000 prisoners in Yangzhou in the first war, how to deal with so many prisoners?" ”

In terms of the current revenue of the Ming Dynasty, the current number of Ming troops is enough, and it is a bit unaffordable to raise more, and these green battalion soldiers have been in the army for a long time and have been infected with many vices, most of them are soldiers, Chen Bangyan does not recommend that the imperial court continue to absorb.

After the Nanjing War, the Ming Dynasty fought among the three parties, and all parties snatched the fruits of victory, and all three parties wantonly recruited the Qing army and Manchu officials to join their camp, which made the quality of the bureaucracy of the Ming Dynasty decline significantly, and the incorporated Green Camp Army also had a lot of bad habits, and military discipline was corrupted, which became a hidden danger in the Ming Dynasty.

The bureaucratic system of the Ming Dynasty was basically rotten during the Chongzhen period, but the Chongzhen Dynasty collapsed, the Nanjing Hongguang Dynasty collapsed, and the original bureaucracy of the Ming Dynasty had actually been broken and dissipated with the fall of the two dynasties, and fled to the Longwu court in the southwest, and suffered the Fujing change in Fujian.

After these changes, the ministers who followed the imperial court to Guangjing and insisted on resisting the Qing Dynasty, no matter what their ability, were mostly idealistic and ambitious people, and the imperial court formed by this group of people had actually completed a metamorphosis, and the bureaucracy should have a greater sense of responsibility for the world than the bureaucrats during the Chongzhen Dynasty.

This can be seen from their exile poems, such as the southern escape literati Xu Fuyuan learned that Longwu had ascended the throne, and he wrote, "The general trend of Jiangnan is long, and I suddenly heard that the edict came to Xin'an." Ande had two armpits and feathers, and flew from the wind to serve Longluan. ”

With the expansion of the territory of the Ming Dynasty and the expansion of the bureaucracy, especially the addition of a large number of unassessed demoted officials, the bureaucratic system, which was already facing the danger of corruption after the capture of Nanjing, was even more problematic.

There have been several serious corruption incidents within the Chu Party, among which there are also Wang Yan people, and it was a demoted official who pulled him into the water, which aroused the vigilance of Wang Yan and the top level of the Chu Party, and Chen Bangyan, as an official of the military department, was not only worried about the problems of officials, but also worried about the blind expansion of the army and the various problems brought about by absorbing the green battalion.

Of the more than 30,000 green battalion soldiers, Chen Bangyan did not suggest that the Chu Party faction should be recruited, but if they did not recruit them, Tang and Lu might not want to, Chen Bangyan pondered for a while, and said: "These green battalion soldiers, first all of them will be imprisoned." Some time ago, the clan moved to Taiwan, but Taiwan was barren, and there were young people on the island who did not accept the king, and the Taiwan governor sent back the news, hoping that the imperial court would send troops to suppress it, and the cabinet would suggest that all these prisoners be sent to Taiwan Island, one is used to open up the wasteland and enrich the population of Taiwan Island, and the other is that they are from the army after all, which can be used to deter the young people and help the Taiwan governor stabilize Taiwan. ”

Liu Shun heard him say this, and he didn't have any opinion, the Green Camp Army did have too many bad habits, and most of them were soldiers, these people used them well, and their combat power was still very strong and they could fight, and if they didn't use them well, it would be easy for them to bring bad morale to the Ming Army.

The Wuzhong Army wants to replenish the soldiers from the town army below, including the selection of people from the Wuyi Army adapted from the Green Battalion, but the generals of the Wuzhong Army undoubtedly don't like the slippery head in the Wuyi Army very much, and prefer to select soldiers from Shence and other armies to supplement.

After saying the question of the captive, Chen Bangyan walked a few steps, and suddenly asked with a smile: "Yangzhou is the key business place of Jin merchants in Jiangnan, how much are the shops and warehouses that this pavilion let you seize?" ”

When Liu Shun mentioned this matter, his face immediately showed annoyance, "Cabinet, I was about to report this matter to you, those profiteers are really cunning, the goods and silver money have already been transferred, and more than ten warehouses are basically empty." ”