Anqing, located between the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, is known as the reputation of "the throat of the Yangtze River, the first state of Wuchu Frontier", and is an important transportation hub and strategic place on the Yangtze River. Anqing was the seat of the Anhui Governor's Mansion and the original Caojiang Governor's Mansion was stationed. After the revoked of the governor of Caojiang in the first year of Kangxi, he was changed to the governor of Anhui.

At that time, transportation mainly relied on water transportation, and it was not until the advent of the railway that Bengbu and Hefei replaced the position of Anqing, and before that Anqing had been the capital of Anhui Province.

The local Qing army in Anqing was the city defense camp and the river defense battalion, and there were also the sailor battalion, the cavalry battalion, the Guazhou battalion and the Qianshan battalion, and the Anqing guards were Xiong Jiameng and Zhang Xin. The former governor of Caojiang, Li Ripeng, was changed to the governor of Anhui. In addition to the local defenders in Anqing, the Qing army also stationed 12 sailor battalions in Anqing, with more than 500 large and small warships and more than 10,000 sailors.

Since the Aobai army came to Anqing, the number of garrisons in Anqing was as high as 170,000 horses. In addition to the Qing army coming down from the north, the land and water armies of the Qing army in Jiujiang, Wuchang, Yueyang and other Qing armies in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River also went down the river by boat and assembled in Anqing.

"Cai Shiying and Lin Qilong, two dog minions! Don't let the old man be at peace for a moment! Ao Bai tore up the letter for help from Yangzhou and roared, "They only know that the old man will send troops to save him, but they don't know that if the old man sends troops to Yangzhou, he will fall for the tricks of the thieves!" The thieves are just going to lead our army downstream to a decisive battle! ”

Ao Bai saw through Zheng Chenggong's strategy, and he knew that the Ming army was trying to take advantage of the convenience of the naval division to attract the Qing army to the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, where the river was wide, to fight a decisive battle, so as to give full play to the firepower of the Ming fleet.

Zhang Chaozhen said: "Lord Ao, the thieves are besieging Yangzhou, if our army gallops to aid Yangzhou, we will definitely be able to surround the enemy in Yangzhou!" ”

Ao Bai sneered: "Do you think Zheng Yi is as stupid as you?" If the main force of our army rushes to aid Yangzhou, will the thieves honestly wait for us to surround us? They will inevitably lead our army to the river! When they reached the riverside, the thieves took advantage of the strength of the ship and the advantage of the guns to shell our army, so wouldn't our army suffer a big loss? ”

"However, if Lord Cai and Lord Lin can't hold Yangzhou. Then Yangzhou falls into the hands of the Haikou, and our north-south transportation line will be cut off by thieves, which will affect the foundation of our Qing Dynasty! Yue Le said.

Ao Bai said angrily: "Cai Shiying is the governor of Caoyun, and he has more than 100,000 Caoyun green battalions on hand, as well as millions of boatmen, and hundreds of thousands of saltmen, if such a force can't hold tens of thousands of thieves, it's useless for such a dog slave to live!" If he can't keep it, let him die! We crossed the river from Anqing according to our established plan. Then attack Changshu directly, recover Hangzhou and other places, look for opportunities to fight a decisive battle with the thieves, as long as the main force of the Haikou is annihilated, Yangzhou will naturally return to the hands of the imperial court! ”

No matter how others persuaded him, Ao Bai refused to divide his troops to save Yangzhou, because he believed that as long as the main force of the Ming army was annihilated, even if Yangzhou was lost, it could be recaptured. The focus of the Ming army was on the south of the Yangtze River. It is impossible to disperse too many forces to Jiangbei. Now the top priority is to find the main force of the Ming army for a decisive battle.

"Pass my order, the whole army will cross the river! Attack downstream! Put pressure on the thieves to force them to withdraw their troops from Yangzhou! Ao Bai stood up and gave the order.

In the city of Yangzhou, the Qing army did not hold on. Cai Shiying and Lin Qilong are ready to withdraw from Yangzhou.

"Ao Bai refused to send troops to rescue, and let us hold on to ourselves. But the thief cannon is hugely powerful, and this Yangzhou can't hold it! If we don't leave sooner, we're all going to die here. Cai Shiying said.

Lin Qilong also agreed to withdraw from Yangzhou. As for the crime of losing the land, if someone wants to be beheaded, then the prefect of Yangzhou will bear the responsibility. Anyway, the territory under the jurisdiction of the governor of Caoyun is not only in Yangzhou, unless the Ming army occupies Huai'an and Jining and loses the Caoyun governor's mansion and the river governor's mansion, the imperial court will condemn Cai Shiying and Lin Qilong.

As for some people, it was proposed to use the tactics of the Qing army in the Battle of Xinhui and use the common people as meat shields to block the Ming army. But this approach was opposed by Cai Shiying and Lin Qilong.

"Zheng Shun is not a good type, he kills people, so it doesn't matter if he is an ordinary person or not, as long as he stops him, he will be killed. This trick is also effective against Li Cheng Dingguo, and it has no effect on Zheng Cheng! Cai Shiying said.

The Qing army prepared to flee. Except for the three city gates facing the Ming army, the other city gates were blocked, and a large number of Qing troops could not withdraw from Yangzhou City. Cai Shiying and Lin Qilong decided to evacuate with only a few personal soldiers and elites, and the rest of the Qing army was all thrown into the city to block the Ming army. But before escaping, Cai Shiying and Lin Qilong still gathered all the generals of the Qing army, first made a bold statement of "vowing to live and die with Yangzhou", and then sent money down.

Seeing the basket of silver brought up, the Qing soldier's eyes lit up.

"Everyone, keep Yangzhou, all this silver is everyone's!" Cai Shiying shouted.

A handful of broken silver was scattered, and the Qing soldiers snatched the silver like crazy hungry wolves. Encouraged by the silver, a large number of Qing soldiers killed the Ming army "without hesitation......

When it got dark, Cai Shiying and Lin Qilong secretly took their cronies and evacuated Yangzhou. In the north of the city, these Qing troops climbed the city wall, erected stairs, slipped down from the city, and fled from Yangzhou City.

"The city is broken! The city is broken! There was a cry in Yangzhou City.

There were shouts of killing everywhere, the city was in flames, and the three red lights representing the critical situation were all hung up. Inside the city, the remnants of the Qing army were engaged in fierce street battles with the Ming army.

"Haikou enters the city, and the adults want to live and die with Yangzhou! It's those thieves outside, they killed our relatives, they killed our brothers! We have to kill them all, and now is the time for us to pay the blood debt from the thieves! Zhao Fangsheng raised his arms and shouted, encouraging Yan Ding and Cao Gong to stop the Ming army.

The Ming army slashed and killed Qing soldiers everywhere in the city, and everywhere they went, the Green Camp Qing army was either killed and scattered, or surrendered on their knees. The green battalion Qing army that met head-on had no strength to fight for a round at all.

Zheng Cong personally led the Iron Man Army and slashed the defeated Qing army all the way. When he led the Ming army into a wide block in front of him, he heard a shout from ahead, and countless torches gathered from the small alley in front of him, forming a river of torches, which looked like the Milky Way in the sky falling to the ground.

"Why are there such powerful tartars?" Zheng Cong was taken aback.

Liu Guoxuan said: "Second son, the thieves are just a rabble, let's kill them!" ”

Originally, Liu Guoxuan supported Zheng Jing, but now Zheng Chenggong's attitude is a little obvious, it seems that Zheng Chenggong is not very optimistic about Zheng Jing, and intends to cultivate Zheng Cong, even the new county king Wang Yu who came out of Zheng Chenggong's hands is also optimistic about Zheng Cong. So the smart Liu Guoxuan turned to support Zheng Cong. At the beginning, Liu Guoxuan still had thoughts about his original main general, Shi Lang. However, when the news came that Shi Lang's naval division was completely annihilated by the Nanyang Navy in Quanzhou, Liu Guoxuan thought that it was impossible for the Qing court to turn over at sea. On land, the Qing army was beaten all over the ground looking for teeth, perhaps as people said, Hu Lu has no luck for a hundred years.

"Kill!" Zheng Cong was inspired by the soldiers, and drew his sword and pointed forward.

The Iron Man Army marched forward in unison, like steel chariots, crushed into the rabble of workers and salters. The Qing soldiers on the opposite side stabbed with wooden spears and slashed with waist knives. But the wooden spear pierced the Iron Man's body, and the wooden spear broke; The sword is on the Iron Man. Only a white mark remains.

"Kill!" The long knife in the hands of the iron man army was chopped, and the powerful horse chopping knife could cut the cavalry and the horse into two, in the face of these Cao Gong and Yan Ding, the long knife only saw the stump and broken human head flying around, and the Cao Gong and Yan Ding who rushed up were split in two and fell in a pool of blood.

The Iron Man Army was like a lawn mower burrowing into the weeds, splitting a flesh alley in the crowd of Qing troops opposite.

"It's strange, how can these Tartars be so brave? None of them are afraid of death? Seeing the tragic situation ahead, but the Qing army did not retreat, Zheng Cong felt very surprised.

Zhao Fangsheng cheered up the salt Ding beside him: "Brothers! Those thieves in front. Slaughtered our brothers and burned our homes! Got all our women gone! Today is a time for revenge! We have nowhere to go, we have to kill them all to find a way out! ”

Cao Gong and Yan Ding engaged in bloody hand-to-hand combat with the Iron Man Army of the Ming Army. It was not so much a hand-to-hand fight as a one-sided slaughter. Whether it's a waist knife or a spear, you can't help the Iron Man. The long knives of the Iron Man Army were cut down, and the Qing soldiers were often split in two together with their weapons. Only a few were armed with blunt instruments such as hammers and rods. Or the salt and thugs of the giant axe caused some trouble to the Ming army, but these people were often the first targets of the Ming army.

Zhao Fangsheng saw with his own eyes that a Cao Gang thug armed with a hammer rushed towards the Ming army. As long as the hammer in that man's hand is smashed down, he will definitely be able to break through the iron armor of the Iron Man Army. It's a pity that the thug was shot into a hedgehog before he rushed to the Ming army.

In the Iron Man Army, the front row is a long knife hand, and the Iron Man Army in the back has bows and arrows that can attack from a distance.

The Qing soldiers, who were armed with blunt weapons and posed a great threat to the iron armor, were all shot dead by the archers.

Zhao Fangsheng hid behind the crowd, he threw away his waist knife, picked up an iron rod from the ground, and followed the salt Ding who was armed with wooden spears and short knives, and killed into the crowd of the Ming army.

Flesh and blood flew all around, screams were heard again and again, and Caogong and Yanding fell one after another.

"Die!" Zhao Fangsheng let out a loud roar, and an iron rod smashed down on the head of an iron sergeant on the opposite side.

Only the sound of metal colliding was heard, and the iron rod smashed the iron soldier's helmet flat, and the Zheng family sergeant snorted, shook a few times, and fell backwards on his back.

"Finally killed a pirate! Avenge my brethren! Before Zhao Fangsheng had time to think about anything, five or six long knives had already slashed at him, and in the blink of an eye, they chopped him into meat puree.

"Kill the thief!" Cao Gong and Yan Ding rushed up with a shout.

"Kill the thief!" The salters chanted in unison.

The long knives of the Ming army flickered, and the Caogong and Yanding fell one after another. Before they fell, many people were like dying beasts, desperately ramming into the Ming army with their bodies, until they were cut into countless pieces by several long knives.

"Why don't these people die?" Zheng Cong's face turned pale. This kind of killing made him feel very uneasy in his heart. The opponent came up in a pile to die, and it was simply out of order. More than 500 Iron Man soldiers killed people softly, and the blocks hundreds of paces in front turned into a river of blood.

The suicidal charge of Caogong and Yanding not only did not retreat, but gathered more and more, and even caused casualties to the Ming army.

In this regard, Zheng Chenggong unceremoniously issued a nirvana order, and he ordered to send his heavy cavalry up.

The Zheng family's heavy cavalry was small, but they were all tall horses bought from the Dutch and Portuguese. Those great horses were already tall and had a strong ability to carry weight, and Asians were shorter and lighter than Westerners, even if they were knights with heavy armor, for Western war horses, they were about the same weight as Europeans' light horses.

A heavy rider with light riding speed is as powerful as you can imagine!

"Kill!" Three hundred horsemen riding Andalusian horses, dressed in plate armor, rushed into the city and galloped towards the place where the Qing army was most crowded.

This kind of high-headed horse from Europe, the weight of the horse alone is more than 1,100 catties, plus the knight and armor, how terrifying its impact is! The horses rushed into the crowd of the Qing army, trampled on it, and the people who collided flew out one after another, and those who were trampled by the horses' hooves turned into meat puree.

"The speed of the light cavalry, the iron armor of the heavy cavalry!" Wang Xinyu sighed at these excellent war horses. Such a tall horse can carry a heavily armored Asian much faster than a European in the same heavy armor.

Zheng Chenggong said: "It's a pity that the Francois refused to sell the mares to us, these horses are too expensive, and there are only more than 300 horses in the hands of this king." "At that time, the cavalry of the Zheng family army mainly used Mongolian horses captured from the Qing army, and only a few heavy horsemen were equipped with European horses.

Three hundred iron horsemen rushed over, and the Qing soldiers who dared to stop were trampled into pulp.

Wang Xinyu watched the performance of Andalusian horses and thought to himself: It seems that I have to introduce a batch of Spanish horses, or Russian horses, and equip a batch of heavy horses. It's just that the horses of the Europeans are too expensive, and they need to find a way to bring in mares. The Spaniards had strict restrictions on the export of fine horses, and I am afraid that it would be difficult to get them, and to get good horses, they had to get the war horses of the Cossack cavalry.

To develop your own heavy cavalry, that's a matter for later.

The Zheng army had captured Yangzhou and cleared the city of all resistance. Next, Zheng Chenggong mercilessly plundered the rich people such as salt merchants, grain merchants, and Caoyun leaders who remained in Yangzhou City.

The Ming army did not loot in Yangzhou City, and the ordinary people did not touch them, and the Ming army ransacked these rich people.

The soldiers of the Zheng family rushed into the homes of those rich people, and when they encountered those who resisted, they were immediately slashed with a single sword. The profiteers who were held to their necks with knives by the Ming army trembled and were forced to tell where they had hidden their silver.

The storehouses of the wealthy merchants were opened, and the soldiers of the Zheng family happily carried out boxes of gold and silver treasures from the homes of these rich people, and found a large amount of grain.

"These people have made their fortunes by taking refuge in the Tartars! The Han people in Yangzhou who dared to resist the Tartars were all killed by the Tartars! Now these profiteers are all relying on Tartars to make their fortunes! They are innocent! Zheng Chenggong pointed to the rich people such as salt merchants, grain merchants, and Caoyun leaders who were kidnapped and detained by Wuhuada, and said to the generals around him. (To be continued.) )