The Ming army captured Yiwu, but very few were captured, and the county warehouse was also burned down by the county, all the grain, cloth, silk and tea were burned, the treasury silver was burned, and after the fire was extinguished, it was solidified on the ground. Wang Xinyu asked people to use a chisel to pry off the burned and solidified treasury silver, and then take it to smelt, coming and going, losing a lot of silver taels.

Although there were very few seizures in Yiwu, Wang Xinyu didn't care, his eyes were on Jinhua Mansion City. The Qing army gathered in the city of Jinhua Fu, preparing for a decisive battle with the Ming army. The materials in the city are piled up, as long as you take Jinhua, you will definitely get a lot of materials. Moreover, there is a heaven and earth meeting in Jinhua Mansion City, after the Ming army breaks the city, you can use the heaven and earth will be able to protect the warehouse to prevent the Qing army from burning the warehouse, and the seizure will definitely not be less at that time.

After the Ming army captured Yiwu, they rested in the city for two days and started on April 5.

On the side of the Yiwu River, the flag is like the sea, the tide of the army marches slowly, and the small boats of the Ming army in the river carry all kinds of baggage materials and go down the river.

Wang Xinyu took a steady approach and did not advance quickly. The night ahead did not close and carefully explored the way to prevent the Qing army from setting up an ambush halfway; On the way to the march, the soldiers and auxiliaries protected each other from the Qing army from sneaking up on the baggage convoys behind. Wang Xinyu also freed up some manpower to dig trenches, set traps, and build fortifications by the pipeline, so as to ensure 100 percent the safety of his logistics and transportation lines.

However, the Qing army did not come to harass, it may be that the Eight Banners cavalry was defeated, and the Qing army was also afraid and did not dare to harass with cavalry. Just imagine, if the cavalry comes, and the opponent also has cavalry, and the opponent's cavalry is stronger than himself, and the speed is faster than himself, will the Qing army still send cavalry to die in batches?

Zhuo Butai's countermeasure was to fight in the field outside Jinhua City, concentrate all his forces, and strive to defeat the most elite Ming army today, and then use cavalry to pursue and annihilate it.

If the Ming army attacking Jinhua can be annihilated, the Ming army will no longer have the power to attack. As long as it loses its offensive ability, the Qing court can eventually slowly consume the Ming army and drive the Ming army out of Jiangnan completely.

Zhuo Butai considered that he had a large number of generals, a strong army, and the number of cavalry was far higher than that of the Ming army, and his firearms were not weak. It is precisely because of such capital that Zhuo Butai will consider going out of the city to fight in the field, and strive to annihilate the main force of the Ming army in one fell swoop.

In the third year of Kangxi, the total number of Dingkou in the country was about 19 million, and after deducting half of the Jiangnan occupied by the Ming army, the total number of Dingkou controlled by the Qing court was about 15 million. The so-called Ding Kou is an adult man who pays taxes. Every Dingkou, as well as wives and children, and old people at home. Therefore, the total population is three to four times that of Dingkou, that is, the population currently controlled by the Qing court is about 50 million to 60 million, and may even reach 70 million people. The population controlled by the Ming army was only about 10 million.

Therefore, Ao Bai also agreed that the two sides should start a decisive battle, as long as the Ming army was not allowed to continue to expand its territory, the Qing army would definitely develop faster than the Ming army.

As the cavalry of the mobile force of the Ming army, the number is far inferior to the cavalry of the Qing army, and Zhuo Butai is confident that in the upcoming decisive battle, he will concentrate his cavalry and give priority to eliminating the cavalry of the Ming army.

"Report to the commander, there is no Tartar ambush ahead!" The night of the pathfinder ahead will not be retracted.

After a while, another night did not take it back and reported: "Report to the commander, there is a Tartar beacon in front." But the lowly led the men to come nearer, and the tartars ran away. ”

Later, there was a report that did not receive it at night: "The Tartars have abandoned all the small towns and small towns along the way, and all of them have returned to Jinhuafu City." ”

According to the Qing soldiers constantly sent back by the spies in front and the agents of the Heaven and Earth Society who were active behind the Qing army, Wang Yuyou made a judgment: "It seems that the Tartars are shrinking their forces!" Chances are, they're going to have a life-and-death showdown with us! The chances are that they will go out of town to face each other! ”

"Will the Tartars abandon the fortified city and go out of the city to fight us?" Luo Xiang felt very incomprehensible.

"The Tartars think they have a lot of soldiers, and they want to eat us!" Wang Yuyou said with a smile.

Wang Xinyu was overjoyed: "The Tartars want to fight with us in the field, and we can't ask for it!" We can just annihilate them in one place. I guess they don't know the power of our swarm of rockets. ”

The Ming army fought with the Qing army, and a swarm of bee fire vans has only been used once so far, and the Qing soldiers who saw the power of this weapon have all died, so at present, whether it is Ao Bai or Zhuo Butai, they do not know the power of this weapon. Because the rocket requires almost no reload time and has an extremely fast rate of fire, it is not only the nemesis of the cavalry, but also a great killer of the infantry.

After analysis and judgment, it has been guessed that the Qing army wants to start a field battle with the Ming army. But on the next march, Wang Xinyu still did not take it lightly, and still moved steadily and steadily.

The Central Zhejiang Plain belongs to the prosperous land in the south of the Yangtze River, but along the way, the villages passed through were empty, and the local people did not know where to run for a long time. When the Ming army entered the village, not only did they not see a single figure, but they could not find a grain of rice or wheat.

The rice in the fields is not yet ripe and it will take at least two months to harvest, and it is strange that the local farmers have lost their fields and their homes and run away.

It's not that Wang Xinyu wants to requisition the peasants' grain, his own military rations are enough, how can he ask the common people who are in the middle of a shortage of food? But the population of the place occupied is the key! When it comes to a place, the people of this place can be recruited to be the people's strongmen to help the Ming army transport supplies, and they can also recruit troops from the local people to expand the strength of the new soldiers. When people are gone, what's the use of occupying a place.

"Why are the people afraid of us?" Luo Xiang said that he didn't understand, "We are the master of the Ming Dynasty, why did they run away when they saw us from afar?" ”

"Needless to say? It must be the Tartars! Li Rui said angrily.

Zhao Haisheng took two night guards to explore the way in front of the team. In the plains, the sentry cavalry is very important, only the cavalry can quickly send the information back, and the cavalry can run away if it encounters the opponent's scouts; If you can fight, you can catch up with each other. Zhao Haisheng and the sentinels explored the road ahead, and encountered many Qing scouts along the way, they fought with the Qing soldiers many times, and they had killed dozens of Qing scouts, and they also had a small loss.

"My lord, there's a village in front of you, shall we go and see it?" A sentry asked, pointing to the village ahead.

"Let's go, let's take a look." Knowing that the possibility of entering the village and encountering local people was very small, Zhao Haisheng still entered the village with a sentry horse.

After confirming that there was no Qing army ambush in front, Zhao Haisheng cautiously walked into the village with a sentry horse. Walking into the village from the threshing floor at the entrance of the village, I found that it was so quiet that not only could not see a single person, but also livestock, poultry and dogs, and all the living things that could be seen were rats and insects.

Some of the doors of the villagers' houses were locked, some were hidden, and some were simply wide open. The two sentries reluctantly walked into the houses, and the result was basically the same: there was no one inside.

"**** Tartar! Moved the common people away! So many people have left their homes, they are going to go somewhere else, how can they live? Seeing this situation, Zhao Haisheng remembered the people who had been harmed by the sea ban and the sea relocation order before. Although it is not on the seashore now, the Qing army has implemented the clearing of the wall, which makes the Ming army very troublesome.

"Who! Come out! "Inside a house, a sentry heard movement.

The two sentries cautiously moved towards a pile of grass, and lifted it open, revealing behind him an old man holding his little grandson, who was still shivering.

The old man and his little grandson were taken back to the Ming army camp, and Wang Xinyu personally asked the old man: "Old man, why are all the people in your village gone?" Did the Qing army force you to leave, or did the local gentry coax you to go? Can you tell me what the hell is going on? ”

No matter how Wang Xinyu asked, the old man just didn't say a word.

"You old man! I really don't know how to lift! Our handsome man personally asks you to speak, you speak! Li Rui was a little angry.

Seeing the old man's insensitive expression and dull gaze, Wang Xinyu also had fire in his heart. The king is here, it's okay if you don't cooperate, but why do you people want to run? Are we all running away when we get to a place? Not even a single population left for us? But he still held back the fire and had the old man bring steaming rice porridge.

"Old man, drink some porridge." Wang Xinyu said kindly.

The old man still didn't say a word, but the little grandson said, "Grandpa, I'm hungry." ”

Wang Xinyu stretched out his hand: "Come, give you candy to eat." ”

The little grandson took the candy and stuffed it into his mouth, probably the best thing he had ever eaten. At that time, sugar was a luxury, and it was rare for ordinary people to even eat brown sugar once, let alone this processed toffee.

Wang Xinyu stretched out his hand and touched the child's little head, because the child is still young, he doesn't look like he is six years old, he has not been forced to shave his hair and keep braids, and his head is still a Han child's hairstyle. Generally, it is necessary to shave the hair and keep braids over the age of seven, and such a small child will not care.

After a long time, the old man may not be able to bear the hunger, so he picks up the rice bowl and drinks the rice porridge. Perhaps because of the influence, the old man finally spoke: "My lord, a few days ago, several officers and soldiers came to the village and said a few words to the sixth uncle in our village. Later, the sixth uncle told us that you were coming, and that all of us must move to Fucheng. If there are those who remain, when the officers and soldiers come back in the future, they will be regarded as gangsters and will slaughter our village. They said that this is not for you to levy the people. And the old man thought that I was too old to walk anyway, and it was okay to stay here, so I didn't leave. ”

After listening to the old man's words, Wang Xinyu understood: It turned out that the villagers were afraid of the Qing army's retaliation! The Qing army adopted the method of intimidation and coaxing, relocated all the villages on the road that the Ming army must pass, and carried out the clear of the Ming army.

"This trick of the Tartar is indeed vicious! On the one hand, they made the people afraid of us, so that we could not get the support of the people, and on the other hand, they were able to recruit enough people to help them defend the city. Wang Yuyou said. (To be continued.) )