In the canal, corpses blocked the river, red foam lapping the riverbank, and a gust of wind blew with a pungent smell of blood, which made people feel sick.

Later, it was estimated that Zheng Jiajun killed at least 30,000 people, in addition to some of them Caogong and Yanding who were instigated by the Qing court, and many local people were also killed. Some people sheltered the Qing soldiers who came to take refuge, some people saw the Zheng family soldiers break into their homes and resisted vigorously, and some even injured the Zheng family soldiers and were killed.

How could these ordinary people resist the Ming army and help collect the Qing soldiers? It turned out that most of those Caogong and Yanding were their relatives and friends. In addition, Zhang Huangyan's Zhejiang army has also been on both sides of the canal before, and the Zhejiang army is much more gentle to these ordinary people, and will not break into people's houses to search for Qing soldiers, let alone set fire to houses.

What's more important is that many ordinary people were afraid that after they were occupied by the Ming army, they would be slaughtered again when the Qing army came back, so they helped the Qing army and stubbornly fought against the Ming army.

These people regarded Zheng Jiajun as if they were other Ming troops, and thought they were easy to bully. As a result, Zheng Jiajun did not show mercy, indiscriminately slashed and killed, these people who thought that only the Qing soldiers would kill them, and the Ming army came, and they could bully the Ming army casually, and they were killed a lot by Zheng Jiajun.

Zheng Jiajun killed a lot of Caogong, Yanding and boat people on both sides of the canal, and among the Yanding who were later captured, a group of Yanding leaders were also screened out, and all of them were beheaded by Zheng Chenggong's order.

Zheng Chenggong was very satisfied with the performance of the soldiers, and he told Wang Xinyu: "The king of Jin is benevolent and kind, so he suffered the defeat of Xinhui in the first battle. When the king of Jin sent troops, the world criticized the king for refusing to send troops to help. In fact, this king has already sent troops, but it is a pity that he went one step late. Now against us boatmen and saltmen, they have helped the Tartars, and we are going to treat them as Tartars! There must not be a trace of a woman's kindness! ”

"Shibo, the Tartars slaughtered the people. We also slaughter the people, so what is the difference between us and the Tartars? Wang Xinyu asked softly.

Zheng Chenggong said angrily: "People? The real backbone has been killed by the Tartars! It is nothing for the rest of these people to live humiliating under the iron hooves of the Tartars, but why did they help the Tartars beat us? ”

"Shibo, we should tell them that we are here to help them, and that they will only be able to live a good life if we defeat the Tartars."

Zheng Chenggong snorted coldly: "When the soldiers meet, the enemy uses a knife against you, and you still reason with him?" Not bad. These people are ordinary people, but if they have a knife in their hands, they are enemies! At this time, you don't kill them and reason with them? Will they honestly put down their knives? ”

The Ming army continued its march and arrived at the city of Yangzhou.

"On the 10th day of Yangzhou, how many innocent people were slaughtered here by the Tartars! When we break through Yangzhou City, we will definitely kill all the big and small Tartars in the city, and avenge the people who died that year! Looking at the towering Yangzhou City not far away, Zheng Chenggong sighed.

Yangzhou city head. Behind the battlements stood a large number of Qing troops, piles of firewood and grass were lit on the city wall, steaming and smelling gold juice was boiling inside, and rolling logs, lime bottles, fire oil cans and other weapons were placed on the ground to defend the city. Head of the city. Every twenty or so paces there is a tiger squat cannon, a small Franc machine and the like, every 100 steps there is a general cannon, and there is a red-coated cannon on the castle tower. There were a large number of Qing troops in Yangzhou City, and they looked very intimidating.

Cai Shiying and Lin Qilong's strategy really worked. They first mobilized Caogong and Yanding to send them to death, and after the Ming army killed a group of people, they aroused the anger of these Caogong and Yanding. In this way, these people will be desperate to help the Qing army defend the city and create trouble for the Ming army besieging the city.

The Ming army was not large in number, and the auxiliary troops were only more than 50,000 people, so they could not besiege at all, and could only break through on one side. If Zheng Chenggong divided his troops and encircled them, he would be counterattacked by the Qing army, which had the advantage in strength.

However, although there were many cannons in the Qing army, most of them were just put on display, and many tiger squat cannons and small Franc machines were too old to be used, and if the charge was large, it was easy to explode; If the charge is small, the power of the gun is insufficient, the production process is problematic, the inner wall of the barrel is uneven, and the accuracy is very poor. Those old artillery pieces were only used to scare people, and when they really fought, it was the artillery fire of the Ming army that had the upper hand.

"My lord, our army has 150,000 or 60,000 people, and the Haikou is only 50,000 or 60,000, our army has the advantage of strength, so it is better to take the initiative to go out of the city and defeat the thieves in one fell swoop!" A ministry general proposed to Cai Shiying.

Cai Shiying's face changed: "Our army just needs to hold on and wait for the arrival of the imperial army!" If there is a frivolous fighter, slash! He knew very well in his heart that although the Qing army was numerous, it was actually vulnerable. Because in addition to the Yangzhou Green Camp and the Gaoyou Green Camp, even the Caoyun Green Camp is a rabble, not to mention those people who are strong, Caogong, Yanding, government servants and fast fishers. No matter how many of these rabbles there are, they are all goods to die in the field.

In the battle to defend the city, because the rabble has no way to escape, if the opponent attacks the city, it is a dead end, plus the city wall can protect itself, and there is a geographical advantage, so some very rubbish troops can also rely on the defense of the city wall to fight a very beautiful battle. In the defense of the city, there are many examples of the rabble inflicting heavy losses on elite troops.

If you go out of the city to fight? It is estimated that one photo was broken up.

Therefore, no matter how many people there are, they can only rely on the fortified city to hold on.

Wait, seems to have overlooked something? Cai Shiying always felt that there was something wrong, but she couldn't remember it for a while.

Suddenly, a flash of inspiration flashed in Cai Shiying's mind: I remembered! Shing mun! The thieves are too strong to besiege the city, so the soldiers defending the city will have a chance mentality, and if the battle is unfavorable, they will want to run away from the gate that is not guarded by the thieves! Why did the rabble keep their morale high when they defended the city? Just because they can't run away! No way! Gotta block all the gates! You can't give these rabble any chances!

came up with this clever plan, Cai Shiying smiled proudly, and then he called his own soldiers over: "Pass the order, except for the city gate where the thieves attacked, the rest of the city gates are all blocked with boulders!" ”

"My lord, you can't block the door! The thieves did not encircle, but our army wanted to block the city gate by itself, if the city was breached, then the city would have no place to run! When a general heard that the door was going to be blocked, he quickly knelt on the ground and begged bitterly.

"Yes, my lord, you can't block the door!" The generals and officers of the Qing army knelt on the ground and begged. "As soon as we block the door, we lose the ability to fight back, and we also block the way of life of the brothers!"

Cai Shiying said angrily: "You are greedy for life and afraid of death!" The thieves can't besiege the city, and our army will inevitably take chances! Bing Shuyun, put it to death and come back to life! Only by putting our army itself in a desperate situation can we boost morale! Let those people know that they have no way out! Otherwise, they wouldn't have defended the city with all their might! ”

The Qing army began to go out of the city to carry stones, but the Ming army did not close the siege anyway, and the Qing soldiers went out of the city from the gate where there was no Ming army, and they did not know where to find the boulders and moved into the city. Shut up the hole in the gates of the city from the inside.

There are a total of twelve city gates in Yangzhou City, except for the south side, the Anjiang Gate, Rujiang Gate and Xu Ning Gate in the direction of Zheng Jiajun's attack, the remaining nine city gates were blocked by the Qing army itself.

A Ming army spy had already reported to Zheng Chenggong that the Qing army was blocking the door.

Zheng Chenggong said with a smile: "This Cai Shiying still has some way, first let some rabble come to send him to death, and now he has blocked the city gate, and the people in the city can't retreat, so they can only desperately defend the city." It's a pity, it's a pity! The Tartars don't know yet that we have siege weapons to break through the city! As long as the city is broken. These rabble are vulnerable! ”

Zu Zeqing and others, who were defeated and retreated from Hangzhou, did not cross the river, and all fled to Jiangning. Although a small number of Qing soldiers crossed the river to Yangzhou, they told the Yangzhou defenders about the siege artillery. But Cai Shiying, Lin Qilong and others didn't believe that there was a cannon that could quickly break through the city wall, they thought. After years of reinforcement, the city of Yangzhou is already impregnable and very strong, even if it is bombarded by hundreds of red-clothed cannons. It can't be blasted away for a while. As for the loss of Hangzhou, it was completely because there were too few troops in the city, and the city was not repaired. If it is not strong, it will be easily blasted by the cannon.

As everyone knows, the siege mortar is more powerful than the red-coated cannon, and even the fortified cities like Jiangning and Beijing cannot withstand the bombardment of the flowering shells of the 64-pounder mortar cannons.

The Ming army set up camp outside the city of Yangzhou, built a wall, dug a trench, and built a fort. At the same time, a large number of auxiliaries dug up the dirt, filled sandbags, and cut wood in the nearby woods to build shield carts in preparation for the moat to be filled tomorrow.

It was dark on the 21st, and the Ming army launched a night siege.

There were no war drums, no shouts, only auxiliaries pushing shield carts, taking advantage of the night to approach the walls. The auxiliaries removed bags of sandbags from the shield carts and threw them into the moat.

Sandbags were thrown into the water and made a sound, waking up the Qing soldiers at the head of the city.

"Someone attacked at night!" A Qing soldier shouted at the head of the city.

At the top of the city, countless torches were lit, and lanterns were hung out. The Qing soldiers at the head of the city finally saw clearly the Ming soldiers who were busy under the city.

"Shoot the arrows!" Someone shouted.

The Qing soldiers at the head of the city stretched out their bows and arrows, releasing rows of random arrows. But at night, the accuracy of the Qing archers was not high, and the Ming army auxiliaries also had shield carts to defend, and most of the feather arrows shot down from the city were blocked by the shield carts, and only a few Ming army auxiliaries were killed or wounded.

The torches and lanterns on the top of the city illuminated the Qing army itself.

The Ming archers and bird gunners who advanced up with the auxiliary soldiers in advance were a burst of random arrows and rows of guns in the light of the city, only to hear a miserable scream at the head of the city, and some Qing soldiers were shot by arrows, killing and wounding many people.

The Qing army opened artillery bombardment again, in an attempt to intercept the Ming army who had buried the moat. However, at night, the Qing army could not see clearly the Ming army auxiliaries in the darkness in the distance, and the solid artillery shells were in a straight line, not like flowering shells to blow up a face, and as long as they were not aimed at the target direction at night, it was difficult to hit the opponent.

The cannon fire at the head of the city flickered, the cannon rumbled, and the Qing army defending the city fired countless shells, but only caused casualties of more than a dozen Ming army auxiliaries.

"The pirates are attacking the city!" The pro-soldier panted and ran to report to Cai Shiying.

"It's strange, siege battles are all daytime attacks, so that you can see the defenders at the head of the city. How did the thieves change to a night siege? Cai Shiying found it difficult to understand Zheng Jiajun's approach.

"The thieves attacked the city at night, they should be afraid of the artillery fire of our army! They filled the moat at night, our troops could not see the thieves, and the artillery could not attack the shield carts of the thieves. Lin Qilong said.

"Are we going to watch them fill in the moat and attack our city?" Cai Shiying said angrily.

"When the thieves fill the moat, that's when the fierce battle begins! We have more than 100,000 high-morale defenders in our city, and if the thieves attack it, they will inevitably suffer heavy losses! Lin Qilong said disapprerovingly.

On the one hand, Zheng Jiajun sent people to fill the moat at night, and on the other hand, they had people dig earth, pile up sandbags and baskets full of earth, build earthen platforms, and push the forts forward little by little.

When it was dawn, the Qing soldiers found that the Ming army camp opposite was building a fort!

"The thieves want to build a fort! We must fire! Can't let them fix the battery! Cai Shiying said.

The Qing army opened artillery bombardment, and the shells kept smashing on the earthen platform, but the energy was absorbed by the moist soil, and it did not cause any damage to the Ming army that built the earthen platform. And the artillery of the Ming army also began to speak, and countless cannonballs whistled, flying up the city, smashing the cannons on the city wall into a pile of scrap copper and rotten iron.

The artillery of the two armies engaged in an artillery battle, bombarding each other. Relying on the absolute superiority in the number of cannons, the Zheng army suppressed the firepower of the Qing army at the head of the city.

The large and small cannons continued to spit out firelight, and the female wall of the battlements at the head of the city was beaten to pieces, and the weapons defending the city such as wolf tooth slaps, rolling wood and stones, and crossbow machines were smashed to pieces, and the cannons at the head of the city were beaten into dumbness.

Under the cover of the artillery, the auxiliaries worked in full swing shirtless, struggling to pile up piles of dirt and push the batteries forward. After three days of construction, the mound was pushed to a position no more than 300 steps away from Yangzhou City. After that, the auxiliaries continued to raise and strengthen the mound.

At the risk of being shelled, the Qing army at the head of the city erected artillery to bombard the mound, but it had no effect, but was hit by more fierce fire from the city.

"The battery is finished! You can use siege mortars! Zheng Chenggong gave the order to attack.

On the morning of the 24th, the Ming army fired the artillery of the general attack.

A mortar cannon hidden behind a mound of earth roared, and the cannonballs whizzed into the air and smashed into the walls. After several rounds of solid shell bombardment, the Ming army replaced it with powerful flowering shells.

The flowering shells fired by the mortar shook the Qing army in Yangzhou. Every time a shell fell, a large field of fire was raised. Sections of the city wall cracked in the sound of explosions. Then the new flowering cannonball landed and smashed into the city wall, making a deafening explosion that leveled a large part of the city wall.

"The thief's cannon is so powerful!" At this time, Cai Shiying believed what the soldiers who had retreated from Hangzhou had said.

At this point, the Qing army could only go out of the city to counterattack.

The Anjiang Gate, Rujiang Gate and Xu Ning Gate, which were not blocked by the Qing soldiers, were opened, and the Qing soldiers in the city were killed. (To be continued.) )