Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 868 Sending troops to Jiangbei
Duoduo suddenly wanted to retreat, which made the Nanjing court, which had been following the steps, suddenly enter a state of emergency and busyness.

The Ming Dynasty had already planned for the Battle of Yangzhou, but they were not prepared enough in terms of materials, and there were still many problems that had not been resolved.

Now that Duoduo wanted to escape, the difficulty was great, and the Ming army had to overcome it. The [-] Qing troops in Yangzhou City must not be allowed to flee back to the north. This would bring a lot of trouble to the Ming army's future Northern Expedition.

The strategy adopted by the Ming Dynasty to annihilate the Qing army in Yangzhou had long been decided within the Ming Dynasty. To sum it up, it is external blocking and internal encirclement and annihilation. The Ming army will be divided into three divisions. , and blocked the Qing army from Shandong and Beizhi from going south to support, mainly Li Guo in Anqing and Wuhu along the way, inserted between Hefei and Yangzhou, cut off the connection between the Qing army in the two places, and also cut off the way for Duoduo to flee westward. Road, the third part is Liu Shun who retreated to the east bank of the Grand Canal, responsible for annihilating the Qing army in Yangzhou.

This was a strategy that had been set before. After Wang Yan learned that Duoduo was going to escape, he decided to act first, and rushed out of Nanjing, ordering the ministries to act according to the plan, and did not change the plan.

It's just because the battle involves the two towns of the Wuzhong Army and the soldiers of the King of Lu. Not to mention the cooperation with the Zhejiang faction, but also the faction disputes within the Wuzhong Army. They are not convinced by each other, and it is easy to cause confusion in command. Therefore, Wang Yan ordered Chen Bangyan to supervise Jiangbei as the minister of the Ministry of Soldiers of the Cabinet University, Zhang Huangyan, the left servant of the Ministry of War, as the supervisor, and Qian Qianyi, the capital censor, as the Minister of Recruitment, in charge of the Jiangbei campaign.

Yangzhou is so close to Nanjing, Wang Yan originally wanted to command in person, but considering various issues, he still did not dare to leave Nanjing in person. Besides, there will be many wars in the future, so it will be difficult for him to do it himself and participate in everything. In addition to him, there should be someone who can shake the situation. Even if he is assassinated, he still has a political successor who can stabilize the overall situation.

In fact, Wang Yan has already started to train Gu Yanwu, Xia Wanchun and others.

It was not easy for Doduo to escape. The Qing army in Yangzhou was mainly green battalion soldiers. Before his army was ready, the news was leaked and then spread to Nanjing.

This is the continuous influence after World War I in the south of the Yangtze River, and it is also the reason why Wang Yan wants to keep Duoduo in Yangzhou. The decisive battle in Jiangbei is beneficial to the Ming army regardless of popular support or terrain.

Duoze was still preparing to retreat, and the Ming army took the lead in a surprise attack. Zhang Mingzhen, the governor of Jiangbei, sent general Ruan Jin with 1 horses, entered Hongze Lake by warship, and raided Sizhou, cutting off Duoduo's retreat through Tianchang and Sizhou. The road north of the Huaihe River.

This road is also the way Duoduo went south that year. When Duoduo got the news, he could only stay in Yangzhou temporarily.

He has troops in his hands, mostly green battalion infantry, and few bannermen. The Ming army has already learned that he is going to retreat. Liu Shun's 8 horses are on the east bank of the Grand Canal. Once he leaves, the Ming army must cross the river to chase him down, making him dare not act rashly.

If he led thousands of cavalry back, the Ming army would naturally be unable to do anything to him, but if he couldn't take away more than 4 green battalion soldiers, then it would be meaningless for him to go back.

After previous failures, not only the Qiding, but also the Manchus and Qings did not have many green battalions available.

Wang Yan obtained the same information from various sources. Duoduo is currently strengthening the city defense in Yangzhou and concentrating his troops. It seems that he is going to rely on Yangzhou to fight against the Ming army, waiting for the season to change.

It's the end of August, and Jiangnan will usher in the coldest season in three months.

If the weather was the same as last year and the Huaihe River was frozen, then the Battle of Yangzhou would inevitably fail, and Wang Yan was also under pressure to let Chen Bangyan rush to Yangzhou to supervise the division, and he must end the Battle of Yangzhou before winter came.

Although Wang Yan gave him a very urgent time, after Chen Bangyan arrived in Jiangbei, he was not in a hurry to attack Yangzhou. Instead, he cleared the west of Yangzhou, the state capital under the control of the Qing army, and wiped out all the periphery of Yangzhou. .

This responsibility fell on Li Guo, who was responsible for containing the defenders in Hefei in the west. Zhongzhi Town handed over the defense of Anqing and other places to the Jiangxi Ming Army, then crossed the Yangtze River from Wuhu, and went north to sweep Hezhou Prefecture, Chuzhou Prefecture and Sizhou. One piece completely disconnected Yangzhou from Hefei.

In fact, after the Battle of Nanjing, many prefectures in Jiangbei had already surrendered to Nanjing, but because after Nanjing was conquered, the Ming army needed to breathe. Send troops to support, so in order to rest, these counties and counties that Jiangbei is going to belong to have been pressed down by the Nanjing court, telling them to stay calm and wait for the opportunity.

As soon as the Jiangbei campaign started, Qian Qianyi, who was appointed as the minister of recruitment, was active in many counties and counties in Jiangbei. He was the leader of the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River and had a strong influence, so Wang Yan sent him to preside over the recruitment.

He ran through several prefectures and counties in Huainan one by one, talked with the magistrates, appeased the prefects, and secretly contacted the local wealthy families. Li Guo led the army across the Yangtze River and took control of the two prefectures almost without a fight. Even if the upright officials were unwilling to surrender, the local wealthy clan would open the city gate in the middle of the night, and the enlarged army would pour in.

The Ming army has been planning for a long time. Zhangming Town in the north has 3 horses, controls Huai'an and Sizhou, and blocks the north. Li Guo has 3 horses, occupies Hezhou and Chuzhou, blocks the west, and Liushun 8 horses in the east. More than 500 ships were preparing to cross the Grand Canal again and besiege Yangzhou.

The reason why Yangzhou can become an important town in Jiangbei is because it is located in an important place and has the advantage of the Grand Canal.

The big camp built by the Ming army under the city of Yangzhou has been demolished. If the Ming army wants to encircle Yangzhou, they must first rebuild the big camp under the city of Yangzhou.

After the outskirts of Yangzhou were cleaned up and supplies from the Ming army began to flow in, the supervisor Chen Bangyan asked Liu Shun to cross the Grand Canal as soon as possible and re-establish the camp.

Duoduo in the city of Yangzhou intends to delay the war until winter. Jiangbei is not as mountainous as Huguang. As long as it enters winter and the rivers and streams are frozen, Qing army cavalry can be hired at will. Going south to support, he can retreat to the north of the Huaihe River calmly.

Therefore, Duoduo did not want the Ming army on the east bank to cross the Grand Canal smoothly, so he asked the general Liang Huafeng to lead 5000 troops to prevent the Ming army from crossing the river and camping.

There were guns in Yangzhou city, so the Ming army could not cross the river within the range of the artillery. Liu Shun personally led 5000 men and more than [-] ships, and chose a hilly area in the south of Yangzhou to cross the river. raid.

Standing on the big boat, Liu Shun stared at a low hill in front, covered with broad-leaved trees unique to the south, the leaves had turned yellow and began to fall in pieces.

Several large ships of the Ming army approached the river bank, the planks of the ships were lowered, and groups of soldiers dismounted from the ships. A few white smoke rose, and the Ming army was immediately shot by dense arrows and lead bullets.

Hundreds of Ming soldiers disembarked and lined up were caught off guard and fell down with arrows one after another. The screams suddenly sounded on the shore.

In the woods, the sound of killing suddenly erupted all over the sky, and thousands of Qing troops rushed out, killing the Ming army ships docked on the shore.

"Ding ding~" sounded, and the Ming army's thousand households immediately shouted, "Quick retreat! Retreat immediately!"

The Ming army who hadn't disembarked ignored the comrades on the shore, and immediately pulled the ship's plank, and propped the warship away from the shore with long poles.

As soon as the ship was a few feet away, the Qing army rushed to the shore, some hacked all the Ming soldiers on the shore to death, and some shot arrows at the ship, and there were cheers.

(End of this chapter)