As the sun sets, night falls, and it soon gets dark. During the war, there was a curfew in the city, and lighting control was added, and the outer city controlled by the Ming army was pitch black, and the Qing army could not see the situation there clearly. In order to defend the city, the Qing army inserted torches on the battlements at the head of the city to prevent the Ming army from sneaking up, which also put the Qing army in the Ming place.

In early spring, the night in Jiangnan was unusually cold, and there was a light rain in the sky.

Ningbo originally did not have a full city, but because Hangzhou was captured by the Ming army, the Qing court moved the Zhejiang governor Yamen to Ningbo, so a full city was established in Ningbo.

It is all because of Fan Chengmo's merits that the city has been built extremely strongly. The city wall is three zhang high, the city wall is one zhang wide, the circumference of the city is more than 600 zhang, it is equipped with four gates in the east and west, north and south, and on the four corners, there are four bastions in each. The walls were made of stone with glutinous rice pulp and lime, and they were so strong that it was difficult for ordinary solid cannonballs and ordinary black [gunpowder] flowering cannonballs to blast open. And Wang Xinyu does not have many new flowering bullets in his hands, which is very precious.

When it got dark, a pair of hanging baskets were laid down on the north wall. Then I saw a black shadow running towards the Ming army's position. Before the black shadow could enter the Ming army's position, he was tripped up.

"Take it!" There was a roar in the darkness.

Several Ming soldiers came up and tied the man strongly.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the villain has something important to report!" The man struggled and shouted.

The lights in the big tent of the Ming army were brilliant, and this person was tied up with five flowers and knelt in front of Wang Xinyu.

"Who are you, and why did you break into my barracks at night?" Wang Xinyu asked.

The Qing soldier replied: "My lord, the villain is a personal soldier under the command of General Zhang, and he has something important to report to the adult." As he spoke, the man turned his head back and forth and looked around.

"Tell me what you have to say! It's all its own people, and there are no outsiders. Wang Xinyu said.

Qing Bing said: "My lord, the green camp army in the city is already demoralized, the people are panicking, everyone wants to surrender and live, as long as the adults attack the city, they will definitely be able to break the city in one fell swoop." Our General Soldier Zhang was stationed at the north gate, and he not only wanted to open the city gate to welcome Wang Shi, but also wanted to kill Fan Chengmo and present the thief's head to Wang Shi. ”

Wang Xinyu first turned his head, exchanged a few words with Wang Yuyou, and then turned to look directly at the Qing soldier: "You Zhang Zongbing have the heart to abandon the secret and surrender to the light, this domain can not only ensure the safety of his life, but also let him continue to be the chief soldier!" It would be even better if he could capture Fan Chengmo alive and send him over! This clan must remember his great achievements! And a reward! ”

The Qing soldier said: "My lord, the villain has a letter here, which our chief soldier wants to give to the adult." ”

"Have someone bring the letter!" Wang Xinyu asked his soldiers to find out the letter on the Qing soldiers and hand it over.

When I took the letter, I saw that the letter was sealed with fire paint and had obviously not been touched. When I opened the letter, I saw that it not only said that Zhang Jie was willing to kill Fan Chengmo and Surrender, but also made a request, hoping that the Ming army could save his family, and the letter also attached the address of Zhang Jie's family.

"Mr. Wang, how credible do you think this matter is?" Wang Xinyu asked.

Wang Yuyou touched his beard and shook his head and replied: "Since Zhang Jie gave us all the addresses of his family, this matter is absolutely credible." What's more, there is no urn city in this Ningbo city, and we are not afraid of him cheating! ”

"What if the address he gave us was false, and he used it to deceive us into trust, just to lure our people into the city to be destroyed?" Wang Xinyu asked again.

Wang Yuyou said: "This possibility is almost impossible to exist!" He will definitely take into account that if we wait to verify the address and find his family before we do it, then the fake address will only cause us to be angry, and it will not only be him who will be unlucky, but even his family will be unlucky! Zhang Jie is also a smart person, he knows that if he fakes, not only can he not hide it from the Heaven and Earth Society, but the Heaven and Earth Society can even find out the real address of his family! ”

"Then act according to this plan! When Mr. Zhang's family is rescued, we will attack the city! Let him be the answer! Wang Xinyu nodded.

Wang Yuyou said: "Yes, Huai'an is not far away, our heaven and earth will be very strong there, and it will not be a problem to save the family!" Now we tell them to do it, and they will get the news in just three days. When they rescue people and send the news back, about ten days before and after is enough! This city is full of Tartars to defend the city resolutely, and we will also have losses if we attack strongly, so it is better to wait for ten days, we can also reduce losses and ammunition consumption. ”

In fact, this is indeed the case, the new flowering cannonball is very valuable, and it is still only a Ningbo city. In the future, there will be Guangzhou, Nanjing, Changsha, Anqing, Nanchang, Ji'an, Ganzhou, Wuchang, Xiangyang, Xuzhou...... There are so many fortified cities, and they all have to be blasted open with new flowering shells, how many new flowering shells do you have to consume? It's a headache to think about.

In a short period of time, it is impossible to achieve industrial production of sulfur acid, which means that Wang Xinyu cannot have too many flowering bombs of new explosives for a long time.

Therefore, in terms of ammunition, it is necessary to save if you can, and the new flowering shells handmade by laboratory methods can only barely conquer a few fortified cities.

"Isn't there nothing we can do in these ten days? Waiting here in vain? Wang Xinyu asked.

Wang Yuyou replied with a smile: "You can take Shaoxing with your hands!" Shaoxing City has our internal response! As for the two county towns of Shangyu and Shanyin, they can also be easily taken, there are not many Tartars stationed in the county, and the main forces of the Tartars in the Ningshao area are in this Ningbo City. ”

Huai'an, one of the four big cities on the canal, has brought a prosperous economy to Huai'an because of the development of Caoyun. There are bustling markets, shops selling all kinds of goods, and you can buy all kinds of goods from all over the world. Along the canal, there are many inns and restaurants, and the boats coming and going from the south to the north provide great consumption here. In the city, there is also a little not inferior to the "entertainment venue" of Nanjing Qinhuai River, where you can also buy the famous Yangzhou thin horse, and the women who are active in the Fengyue field are also like flowers, not inferior to the Jiangnan women, most of them are born in Yangzhou thin horses.

In addition to the development of commerce, Huai'an also has shipyards, blacksmiths, carpentry factories and other industries that serve shipping, and all of them are thriving.

Qingjiangpu is a bustling small market town in the north of Shanyang County, Huai'an Prefecture. Although it is a small market town, the prosperity here is not inferior to Shanyang County, where Huai'an Mansion is located.

The sky was just getting dark, and the town by the canal was already bustling with people. Because the canal ships were suspended at night, many boats were moored in Qingjiangpu every night, and the boatmen and the Cao Yun guards went ashore to eat, drink and enjoy themselves. Especially the soldiers who were guarding Caoyun, they could sleep on the boat during the day, and they were all up all night at night in Qingjiangpu. The boatmen, some of the more advanced boatmen, are not very hard during the day, and after coming to the famous Qingjiangpu, they also have to have a good time, and they don't go to rest until late at night.

Before dawn in the morning, most of the ships anchored in Qingjiangpu were about to set sail and leave.

On both sides of the canal, on the edge of the bluestone street, steamers exude heat, and fragrant meat buns are steamed inside; Steaming soy milk is boiling in an iron pot. In the restaurant, there are also a variety of breakfast dishes for sale. The boatmen and soldiers had breakfast here and were about to board and leave.

In a two-story restaurant, the guys are busy greeting diners who are having breakfast here.

It is a very upscale restaurant that is open all night long, serving a variety of fine dishes for dinner, a hearty midnight snack, breakfast in the morning, after which the restaurant closes until late afternoon.

At this time, although it is only breakfast, this restaurant for the rich provides a very rich breakfast, where you can not only eat big meat buns, soybean milk white porridge and salted duck eggs and other breakfast, but also three fresh buns with shrimp, soup buns from Jiangnan, and a variety of delicious meat, river fresh.

After the last diners leave the restaurant, the boats on the canal leave the dock and hoist their sails. The boatmen rocked the oars, and the ships that had gathered here overnight headed north and south, laden with goods, to their destinations.

"Crackling" the second shopkeeper was quickly tapping the abacus in the counter, the income of one night was very satisfying, and the restaurant made a lot of money today, as the second shopkeeper who managed the restaurant instead of the female boss behind the scenes, he could also get a lot of salary.

"Lao Hu! Business was good again last night, right? A beautiful young woman of about twenty-seven or eighteen years old walked into the restaurant.

"Big shopkeeper, you're here!" The second shopkeeper hurriedly stood up.

"Looking at the spring breeze on your face, last night must have been prosperous again!" The young woman was overjoyed to know that she had made a lot of money last night.

It is not an easy thing to open a restaurant like this in Qingjiangpu, this is a bustling commercial market town, and this place is also a feng shui treasure for all kinds of officials, officers, Cao Yunbing, Cao Gang, hooligans and other black and white people.

And this young woman has a big backstage, her husband is a chief soldier of the imperial court, and the little uncle is also very powerful in the local area, not to mention that the ruffians dare not provoke them, even those who are worse than the ruffians do not dare to provoke such a big role.

After settling last night's profits, the young woman went home satisfied.

In the morning, Qingjiangpu, because the boats left, the shops were closed, everyone got into the bed and slept, Qingjiangpu fell into a quiet, only the white water vapor rising from the canal river, and the whole town except for a few dog barks, no one spoke.

When the young woman returned to her door, she saw someone passing by her door. That person she knew was a small official of the Yamen of the Lianghuai Salt Transport Envoy Division, named Zhao Bingwen.

A small official of the Yamen of the Salt Transport Envoy is a fat and oily fat poor, and it is generally only a family and friend of some high-ranking officials and nobles. Although the young woman didn't know Zhao Bingwen's backstage, she also knew that such a person could not afford to offend.

……

Thousands of miles away in Jiangnan.

The "dong dong dong" war drum rumbled, and the general attack of the Ming army on Yuyao City kicked off. 3,000 Qiongzhou troops, 5,000 Fujian troops, more than 2,000 Zhejiang troops and more than 8,000 auxiliary troops, totaling more than 18,000 troops, launched simultaneous attacks on Yuyao Prefecture from four directions.

The auxiliaries pushed the shield cart and slowly approached the city wall. Sporadic arrows were fired from the top of the city, but they could not inflict any damage on the attacking troops, but were hit by fire from below.

The Ming army did not even need siege artillery, not even six-pounder field guns, and only carried light three-pounder guns to siege the city.

The three-pounder cannon under the city, the sharpshooters arranged on the tall nest carts, and the musketeers in rows behind the shield carts, as soon as the Qing soldiers at the head of the city showed their heads, there were cannonballs, bullets, bows and arrows to greet them.

The auxiliaries quickly filled in a section of the moat, and then pushed the carts covered with wet felt to the city walls. The auxiliaries swung shovels, dug a hole in the city wall, pushed the coffin filled with black [gunpowder] into it, connected the fuse, lit it, and quickly retreated.

There was a loud "boom", and the city wall exploded.

"Kill!" The Ming army rushed into the city with a shout.

In the city of Yuyao Prefecture, there are only more than 500 green battalions of Qing troops stationed. When the Ming army approached the city, Zhizhou urgently recruited more than 3,000 people to defend the city. However, after several rounds of blows by artillery, muskets, and sharpshooters under the city, more than 3,000 people fled to death. But the Ming army only blew up a hole, and when they poured into the city, the Green Camp Qing troops surrendered on their knees.

The Qing court Zhizhou drew his sword and killed himself, and the city of Yuyao fell into the hands of the Ming army.

In the past few days, the Ming army has conquered three cities, including Shaoxing Prefecture, Shangyu County and Shanyin County, plus Yuyao Prefecture City captured today, which can be described as four cities in ten days! The pace of the attack has increased by leaps and bounds, which is amazing. Just when the Ming army was approaching the city, Yuyao Zhizhou still couldn't figure it out, how could it be? In nine days, three cities were lost?

Nine days to capture three cities, the speed of the march is no more than that! Doesn't it take time for the Ming army to attack the city?

In fact, the Ming army attacked Shaoxing and only dispatched 2,000 men. There are more than 500 people in Shaoxing City. The Qing army defending the city was only 500 green battalion soldiers, plus 4,000 people, and on the surface, it seemed that the Qing army had an advantage. It's just that the Qing army is a rabble, and among the 4,000 people recruited by the Qing prefect, there are also many people from the Heaven and Earth Society. When the city gate was opened by the people of the Heaven and Earth Society, the Qing army in the city completely collapsed, the prefect was killed, and the rest of the Qing army surrendered.

The Ming army's attack on Shangyu and Shanyin was launched at the same time, and they were all easily taken.

Attacking Shangyu, 3,000 Qiongzhou troops and 3,000 auxiliaries were dispatched. The Ming army blocked the city with field artillery, and the auxiliary soldiers pushed the shield cart to fill the moat, and directly erected a cloud ladder to attack the city, and within two days, only more than 200 green battalions of the Qing army stationed in Shangyu County were breached, and the Qing court committed suicide.

The Ming army used field artillery to block the city, and the auxiliary soldiers pushed the shield cart to fill the moat, and then used the cart to transport gunpowder and blow up the city.

The city of Shanyin was broken, the county surrendered after being captured, and more than 300 Qing soldiers of the green battalion surrendered except for more than 100 people who died in battle.

In this way, after the three cities of Lianke, the Ming army concentrated its forces and attacked Yuyao Prefecture, the most difficult of the four cities. As a result, the siege took only two days, and Yuyao City was captured.

"Report to the commander! News from the north is coming! Wang Xinyu was about to enter Yuyao City, and someone came to report. (To be continued.) )