Although there was a discrepancy with Deng Ming's prior explanation, Jiang Nan believed that his order did not violate the commander's consistent practice, and after he was picked out by Wen Anzhi from the Fengjie army to follow Deng Ming, he found that although the commander did not disturb the people for no reason, if it was related to the safety of the army, he would not be soft. For example, Deng Ming always did not attack cities that could not be entrenched, so as not to give the Qing army an excuse to retaliate, but when Jiujiang heard that there was a Jiangxi naval division garrisoned, he did not hesitate to strike.

"Whether it is a cao worker or a cao tou, their families must not be harmed, and they must be punished for robbery and murder." Jiang Nan just wanted to ensure the safety of the Ming army, worried that this order would lead the soldiers out of control, so he specially instructed: "If you dare to hurt people's lives, don't blame the ruthless military law." ”

When ordering his subordinates to clear those hideouts that the enemy might use, Jiang Nan also passed his orders and considerations backwards. Followed by Wu Baoping's troops, Wu Baoping was taken aback when he saw the sudden fire in front, thinking that there was a fierce battle ahead, and urged the ships to speed up and catch up with the front army, but soon a messenger from the front arrived and reported Jiang Nan's actions to Wu Baoping.

"I see." After hearing that it was not for the enemy's vital forces, Wu Baoping's heart was also put down, and like Jiang Nan, Wu Baoping was also harassed, and the losses were similar to those of the previous army, and about ten or so armor soldiers were smashed up. Wu Baoping had several officers of the standing army around him, most of them were from Zhang Huangyan's Zhejiang army, if they were placed in the past, Jiang Nan's order might have made them very dissatisfied, because it was very different from Zhang Huangyan's teachings.

However, in the past year, they have followed Deng Mingnan to fight in the north, and they have experienced more wars than the previous years of military life in Zhoushan combined, and even if these officers have never killed anyone, they have seen the cruelty of the battlefield.

"Captain, we should do the same." Wu Chenming told his own head official Jianyi that in other armies, it was a shame to be captured, but in Deng Ming's army it was completely different, and after the battle with Li Guoying, Wu Chenming was personally commended by Deng Ming for his bravery before and after being captured, and was also retained in the standing army when he was disarmed. The last escape from death made Wu Chenming think that war is life and death, and mercy can only be said to his own people, just like Deng Ming treated him. Last time, for the safety of the whole army, Wu Chenming even planned to sacrifice his own life, and now he feels that for the safety of the troops, it is a very reasonable thing to destroy these houses that may be used by the Qing army, especially the residents in them also expressed their hostility to the Ming army: "If the Tartars hide a cannon in these houses, they may kill many officers and soldiers of our army. ”

"Hmm." Wu Baoping thought about it for a while, and saw that several Zhejiang officers around him had no objections, so he ordered to adopt the same strategy as the previous army: "Pass the order down, give the residents a little time to let them take away the most valuable things." ”

"No human life is allowed!" Before the herald left, Wu Baoping emphasized again.

After giving the order, Wu Baoping ordered the envoy to continue to rush back and report the situation to the Chinese army.

……

It was a long time before Deng Ming got the report, and at this time he was directing the main force to approach Yangzhou from the south.

During the advance, the main force led by Deng Ming was also resisted by some Cao Gong, and in the face of Deng Ming's direct subordinates, who were numerous and had cavalry troops, the resistance of these Cao Gong was even more vulnerable.

Not every Caotou is like Dong Xiaoye, who has organized all his efforts to resist, and not every Caotou has taken out tens of thousands of taels of silver, and some Caotou even deducted part of the military expenses given by the governor's yamen, and brought more rabble to confront the Ming army.

Although the troops composed of thousands of Caogong looked a lot, but the combat effectiveness was similar to that of the officers and soldiers of the river, and a charge of a small unit of the Ming army could scatter them, and on the way to Yangzhou, in addition to a large number of Caogong, Deng Ming also captured three Caotou.

Deng Ming, these prisoners, ordered to be repatriated on the spot and did not give them any severance pay: "They are not wearing the uniforms of the Qing army, so they cannot be counted as prisoners, and I cannot give them severance pay." ”

If the combat strength is the same, of course, the enemy who does not wear a uniform is more dangerous than the enemy who wears a uniform, and the enemy who wears his own uniform is more dangerous than the enemy who does not wear a uniform. This truth is easy to understand, and there is a ready-made example of Deng Ming's burning of Kunming, and his subordinates have no difficulty in understanding it.

Therefore, Deng Ming once gave a very clear order to the officers, if the enemy was captured and wore the uniform of the Qing court, then he would be given humanitarian treatment; And if the other party does not wear a military uniform, it is obviously a surprise to fight the Ming army, and the Ming army does not have to be polite to these enemies; If an enemy is found wearing the uniform of the Ming army, he must be put to death.

At that time, Ren Tang also laughed and said that Deng Ming, who was good at disguise, set this kind of policy, which was simply blaming his past behavior, and Deng Ming replied: "If I am found out in Kunming, do you think Wu Sangui will let me live?" ”

The Caogong armed forces that confronted the Ming army this time were the more dangerous enemies in Deng Ming's mouth, but he had no intention of dealing with these prisoners harshly, because the other party did not pose any threat to the Ming army; Moreover, through Guò's interrogation of Caotou, Deng Ming felt that they were used by the Qing court to play a large role, so he was lenient and released.

After hearing the reports of Wu Baoping, Jiang Nan and others, Deng Ming just shook his head: "Cao Gong is armed against our army, naturally there is no doubt that it is the enemy, but the people on both sides of the river bank are not necessarily enemies, because more than a dozen soldiers were thrown by stones, and they set fire to thousands of houses, which seems to have overreacted." ”

"But," argued the messenger on the right flank, "Admiral, perhaps this is a temptation by the Qing army, and if we take it lightly, they will send soldiers, archers, and even artillery into these houses to attack our army." ”

Deng Ming also knew that the troops on the right flank were scarce, and if there were a number of dwellings on the flanks and back roads that blocked their view and could be concealed by a large number of Qing troops, they would be uneasy. If the Ming army has enough troops, they can send enough sentries to form a cordon, maybe Jiang Nan and they won't act like this, but now they don't have enough troops, so they can only feel at ease by burning down the house.

"So I'm not saying they're doing anything wrong, but maybe they could have done better."

In this era, probably only Zhang Huangyan's army can be called a division of benevolence and righteousness, in the conflict of interests between the army and the people, Zhang Huangyan unswervingly stands on the side of the people rather than his army, the last time Deng Ming heard of killing a sergeant because of a few cents of silver is a very typical example, even if the Zhoushan army is not hungry and poorly clothed, Zhang Huangyan never allows his subordinates to plunder the coastal people, and does not force them to buy and sell - even if the military discipline is better than the Yudong army, Latin grain requisition is unavoidable.

Perhaps it is precisely because of this reason that Zhang Huangyan's strength has always been quite limited, and most of the people who follow Zhang Huangyan are real people with lofty ideals. However, even if they were aspirants, they also hoped to be treated better, and Deng Ming's pardon of the soldier in Chizhou made the Zhejiang soldiers very satisfied; Although most of Deng Ming's army were former Zhejiang soldiers, there was no objection to his priority to protect the interests of the army—even Ren Tang, after staying in the army for a long time, became completely different from when he was in Zhoushan, and naturally began to look at things from the perspective of a soldier.

Zheng Chenggong and Zhang Huangyan are very different, in the last battle of Nanjing, Zheng Chenggong's Fujian army had a large number of plunder, which was much worse than the military discipline of the Eastern Army. Zheng Chenggong has never been severely punished for the plundering of people's property by his subordinates, and in his opinion, these soldiers are all heroes who carry their heads to help him realize the cause of Zhongxing Daming, and compared with them, these people in the Manchu ruled area are much less valuable to Zheng Chenggong. Deng Ming even heard that Zheng Jun had committed murder for money, and Zhang Huangyan also accused Zheng Chenggong in front of Deng Ming, saying that the loss of popular support was one of the reasons for the defeat of Nanjing. However, Zheng Chenggong flatly denied it, saying that the people killed by the Fujian army were all rich families and gentry who sympathized with the Qing court, and it was definitely not because of their family property, and Zheng Chenggong also angrily retorted that the army's lack of morale was the only reason for Nanjing's defeat, and the people's will could not stop the Manchu Qing Dynasty from going south, and now it will not lead the Min army to lose.

Deng Ming asked himself if he couldn't learn Zhang Huangyan's skills, but he didn't plan to favor the army like Zheng Chenggong.

"We don't plan to recover Jiangbei this time, but we will definitely recover this place in the future, Caogong will not be a subject of the imperial court for the time being, but sooner or later it will be our family. For the safety of the army it was necessary to use force, but attention should be paid to the scale, and Captain Jiang did a good job, knowing not to burn indiscriminately, but only to clear the fortifications within fifty paces of the river that could be concealed by the enemy. Deng Ming first set the tone for Jiang Nan's behavior, and then further said: "But I think that Captain Jiang can do better, you must know that now Caogong has no fighting spirit at all, and they will collapse at the first touch, because they do not have the fighting spirit to fight to the death with our army." Although the Qing army tried to use silver to buy Caogong to fight against our army, Caogong was not a fool, knowing that if he lost his life, he would have no money to spend, so it was best not to provoke their hatred of our army. I went back to Captain Jiang and told them that I would spread the word to the people along the river, and I, Deng Ming, the governor of the Yangtze River, would compensate for all the houses they burned down, and a thatched house was not worth a few taels of silver, right? Even if ten taels are good, I will double the compensation for them, and I will give them twenty taels of silver for each person whose house is burned, plus a food allowance of five taels of silver. ”

"Yes!" The messenger said yes loudly, saluted Deng Ming, turned around and left quickly.

"Twenty-five taels of silver per household?" After the messenger left, Mu Tan couldn't help but shout: "One thousand households is twenty-five thousand taels of silver!" If you burn it all the way, I'm afraid you will have to pay 100,000 taels of silver? ”

"I'm afraid it's not enough, although I gave them subsidies, but I'm afraid I have to open a porridge factory, and if I don't set it on fire, people will die, and I also have to give a pension, and I'm afraid I won't be able to run away with 200,000 or 300,000 taels of silver. However, this silver is not from me, the culprits are the governor of Caoyun, the prefect of Yangzhou and the salt merchants, they seem to be very rich, they can take out 500,000 taels of silver to buy the Cao workers in one go, presumably they paid an extra 500,000 taels of military compensation is also paid. Deng Ming said coldly: "There are also punitive damages, let them know that it is not necessary to pay a price for using this method to fight our army." ”

Before Jiang Nan's envoy came, Lin Qilong had sent a peace envoy, and at that time, Deng Ming's military compensation request was only one million taels of silver, and now it seems that it needs to be added.

……

Dong Xiaoye's 500 men were considered to be more combative, and together with the other two Caotou, they were deployed near Yangzhou to assist the officers and soldiers in the defense. Dong Xiaoye didn't see it at a glance, dozens of workers deserted and fled, they didn't want Dong Xiaoye's one hundred taels of silver anymore, although they might be liquidated in the future, but one more day of life is a day, and Dong Xiaoye may not be able to go back alive.

After seeing the fire rising to the sky on the riverbank, the workers were even more shocked, including Dong Xiaoye, they couldn't help but want to leave Yangzhou and go home to have a look.

It didn't take long for the governor of Caoyun Yamen to call Dong Xiaoye and a few other Caotou again, and after seeing them, the official told them with a sad face that the Ming army marching north along the canal would kill people and burn houses when they saw them, and all women and children would not be spared: "From Guazhou to Gaoyou Lake, tens of thousands of Caogong and their families on the way were all killed by Deng thieves, and now the canal is full of corpses, and Deng thieves arrested people who were still alive and forced them to salvage the bodies so that the ships could go along." ”

The official also told these Cao Tou that their homes were ransacked by the Ming army, their wives and concubines were robbed by the Ming army, and the children were chopped up and thrown into the river: "This matter is true, it is all seen by the officers and soldiers of the river, and several people have broken their homes for the country, and the governor is also impressed, and he will definitely ...... to the court for you."

What the officials said later, Dong Xiaoye couldn't hear it anymore, from a lowest-level Cao worker step by step to the Cao head position, a few children are all his hopes, although the eldest son is only eight years old, but Dong Xiaoye has hired a private school for him, every time he sees his son and Mr. Literate, he will feel that the first half of his life has been in vain, and every scar on his body is worth it.

After returning to the camp in a daze, Dong Xiaoye saw a deserted subordinate running back again, and was telling his companion in horror that he saw the Ming army holding torches and lighting the house from a distance.

The people around this guy were worried and talked about the safety of his family, but the guy who ran back didn't know either, because he didn't dare to go near the residential area at all.

"They're all dead!" Dong Xiaoye shouted angrily and told his subordinates what he had just heard from the governor's yamen: "The Deng thief has killed all the people, and now there are so many corpses in the canal that the boat can't leave." ”

……

When the Ming army finally arrived at the city of Yangzhou, Liang Huafeng also mobilized all the troops of Liangjiang and went to the city to defend with the officers and soldiers of the river, and the strong men in Yangzhou were also organized to assist in the defense. The Caogong was deployed outside the South City Gate and was responsible for covering the security of the city gate.

"Lord Governor, it's not too late, we can still negotiate with Deng Ming." Liang Huafeng said to Lin Qilong, who was in the city to watch the enemy: "As long as he agrees to Deng Ming's conditions, he is still willing to withdraw from the army." ”

"Hmm." After the defeat of the river officers and soldiers and the Caogong troops, he once sent a messenger to Deng Ming's camp to sue for peace, but Deng Ming's conditions were higher than before crossing the river, not only asked Lin Qilong to agree to all the previous conditions, but also put forward new requirements such as military compensation of one million taels of silver and punishment of the main battle faction in Yangzhou.

Although Lin Qilong, the biggest main battle faction, was not on Deng Ming's punishment list, this request still gave Governor Caoyun a deep sense of humiliation.

"We've got the money." The prefect of Yangzhou also lost no time in persuading: "Didn't the salt merchant repay three million taels?" There are still 2,500,000 taels for those who have been shaved out. We handed over all the salt merchants in the city to Admiral Deng, and said that these villains were bewitching the Governor. ”

"How can this be?" Lin Qilong reprimanded: "They will definitely speak ill of their own officials." ”

"Admiral Deng will definitely ignore them," the prefect of Yangzhou said anxiously, didn't Deng Minghui know that the governor of Caoyun was the biggest main battle faction? But Deng Ming will definitely not ask for Lin Qilong to be punished, otherwise how can this be negotiated: "If the Governor is not at ease, we will hand over the head to Admiral Deng." ”

"Of course, you can only hand over the head." Lin Qilong snorted, if he let Deng Ming know that he scraped three million taels from the salt merchant, maybe the other party would increase the price: "But we still have to fight first." He pointed to the workers in the city and said, "Don't we still have so many people?" ”

"These Cao Gong ......" Liang Huafeng looked at those Cao Gong who used the flat pole as his main weapon, and said with a smile: "They are not vulnerable at all." ”

"At least it can consume Deng Ming's bow and arrows and body, even if it can kill an enemy soldier, it's good, if we can resist Deng Ming for a while, we can talk about it, anyway, it's not our officers and soldiers." Lin Qilong said disapprerovingly: "Only if you can fight can you make peace, you have to let Deng Ming know that we have people in Yangzhou, and we are united to swear allegiance to the imperial court, he can't kill him, even if he wants to win, he has to pay a huge price, so it's better to lower the conditions." ”

After seeing this deployment of the enemy, Deng Ming knew that the enemy's will to resist had not been finally destroyed, so he ordered to line up and prepare for battle.

"It's Cao Gong again, driving these people into battle to fight with us, doesn't Lin Qilong feel that Yin Virtue is at a loss?" In Deng Ming's original vision, this march into Yangzhou would be an action similar to an armed march. Forcing the Qing army into the city, and then blasting the city wall, it is estimated that Lin Qilong's will to resist can be destroyed, Deng Ming did not expect to kill and injure hundreds of Cao laborers and burn down thousands of houses. If the opponent was a river officer and soldier who was paid by the Qing court, Deng Ming would not have any burden in his heart, but he learned through the interrogation of the prisoners that most of the people killed by the Ming army were poor and lowest-level people.

However, Deng Ming could not stop the military operations because of the resistance of the Cao Gong, which would lose the deterrent power of the Ming army, and he ordered the archers to advance: "Let them disperse with an arrow, and when there are no enemy troops outside the city, we will blast the city walls." ”

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