Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 896 The Dust Settles
At the beginning of the siege of Yangzhou, the Ming army gave up the north gate and did not encircle it. First, because the Ming army was not strong enough to besiege the four cities. Second, because the siege lacked one of the three cities, giving the Qing soldiers in the city a retreat could weaken the Qing army’s will to resist. Otherwise, Duoduo will have nowhere to go, and he will fight to the end and die with Yangzhou.

The goal of Wang Yan and the Ming court was to encircle and annihilate the Qing army in Yangzhou and prevent them from fleeing to Huaibei. Although the Ming army let go of the north gate, naturally they would not let Duoduo escape easily.

The north gate of Yangzhou opened, thousands of Qing soldiers rushed out, and went straight to the deep trench dug by the Ming army. There were only more than 2000 Ming troops guarding the trench, which could prevent the Qing army from sending a small group of Qing troops and cavalry out of the city to harass, and could win the battle for the Ming army. A little time to react, but it is obviously impossible to stop the Qing army from fleeing.

Facing the onslaught of thousands of green battalions at this time, the Ming army guarding the trench released a row of guns to resist properly. The two thousand Ming troops huddled in a corner, took the initiative to get out of the way, and retreated to the side of the trench to defend. Ignoring the Ming army huddled in a corner, they quickly knocked down the earthen wall and threw themselves on the wooden boards. Doduo led [-] cavalry to rush out, and nearly [-] defeated green battalion troops wearing red-topped bamboo hats fled in panic.

Doduo led more than 30 defeated troops, and rushed out from the north gate. The cavalry was in front, and the infantry behind galloped wildly, running more than [-] miles in one breath.He looked back and saw that the infantry behind him had disappeared without a trace, so he pulled the reins and stopped the horse.

There was a sound of people neighing, and more than 4000 riders stopped abruptly on the official road. Suke Saha rode his horse and approached Duoduo, "What's wrong with the prince?"

Duoduo glanced back in the direction of Yangzhou, and he couldn't help feeling an uncontrollable sense of frustration in his heart. From the second year of Shunzhi, when he went all the way to the south of the Yangtze River, he was defeated by the Ming army like an autumn wind sweeping away leaves, and fled out of Yangzhou in a hurry. Just like dreaming.

"Wait for the infantry in the back!" Doduo restrained his emotions, he needed to organize his thoughts, so he looked around for a while, and then pointed his horsewhip and said: "Send someone into the forest to have a look, the army is resting outside the forest for a while For an hour, don't go into the woods!"

A group of white-armored soldiers behind them obeyed the order, immediately clamped their horses, ran to the edge of the woods, then got off their horses, and walked into the woods.

The Qing army ran for thirty miles at a stretch, and the cavalrymen were a little tired. They got off their horses and found a dry place to sit down. Those who had dry food ate some dry food, those who had water drank some water, and those who didn't have time to take a nap.

Duoduo sat down on a stone by the side of the road, and Sukesaha surrounded him when he was full, and suggested: "My lord, there are still 5 to [-] horses in Hefei, and there are enough food and supplies. We can go west to Hefei. Regroup."

Now there are only two roads before the Qing army. One is to go west to Liuhe, cross Chuzhou, and go to Hefei to join Jiangbei Admiral Ma Guanghui. There are still [-] to [-] Qing troops there. Withdraw to Huaibei.

Defending Yangzhou left Doduo with lingering fears. He shook his head, "The Ming army has heavy troops stationed in Anqing and Wuhu. The next step is to attack Hefei. This time Yangzhou was besieged, and Hefei didn't support me. We were too dangerous in the past. Besides, Li Guo is in Chuzhou, this king may not be able to break through his obstruction."

To the west of Chuzhou, Zhongzhizhen, the five loyal troops, blocked Duoduo and Li Guo. It became the main point of the Ming army's next attack. It was not certain whether the Qing army would abandon or defend, so Duoduo rejected the suggestion of fleeing westward.

"Does the lord doubt Ma Guanghui?" Sukesaha heard another meaning.

This is indeed one of the reasons why Duoduo didn't want to go to Hefei. Yangzhou's defeat made Duduo's thoughts very confused. Now, after the question and answer, his mind has cleared up a lot.

Duoduo snorted coldly, "Yangzhou and Hefei used to be horns of each other. I asked Hefei for help twice, but Ma Guanghui didn't make any big moves. It's not that I don't believe him, but the situation is very different now. I can't Accidental. If Ma Guanghui becomes rebellious and detains the king in exchange for benefits from Nanming, then everything will be over. In the current situation, those Han generals can be as rich and noble as possible, but it is impossible to want them to share the difficulties with the Qing Dynasty , we have to rely on our manpower at critical moments.”

What Doduo said was the truth. Now that the Han people see their sternness, they are a little bit disobedient to orders. Sukesaha pondered for a while, "If you don't go to Hefei, then you can only go north."

The Huaisi line in the north is also blocked by the Ming army, but relatively speaking, Zhang Mingzhen, who is in charge of blocking, is weaker in strength. The only difficulty is that the Huaihe River is in front of him, but Dorgon sent He Luohui to go south to support, 3 Thousands of horses have already reached the front line of Huaisi, and with their support, it should not be a big problem if they want to withdraw to Huaibei.

"Let's go to the north. The reinforcements sent by the regent are confronting Zhang Mingzhen. We will travel a long way, pass Sizhou, and follow the road we went south to find an opportunity to return to Huaibei."

Doduo nodded and stood up. He looked at the several war horses grazing by the edge of the forest, and couldn't help frowning slightly. How come the soldiers who went into the forest to inquire have not yet come out, which made his eyes sharpen immediately.

At this moment, there was a sound of gunshots in the woods. The grazing horses were startled and ran away from the edge of the woods. The Qing soldiers who were resting along the official road got up in fright. Rows of figures, countless firecrackers protruding from both sides of the woods, a row of "bang bang bang", the Qing army was shocked.

1 Ming troops besieged Yangzhou, 2 attacked the west city, and 1 people were restrained outside the southeast and southeast cities. Of the remaining 1 people, [-] were responsible for staying in the camp, and the other [-] were Wang Yi, a general from the Zhejiang Faction. He led and ambushed outside the North City to ambush the fleeing Qing soldiers.

Wang Yi is the one who can fight after all in King Lu's faction. When King Lu was in the most difficult time, there were only two lands left, one was Zhoushan, which was isolated overseas, and the other was Siming Mountain's anti-Qing base, and Wang Yi was the owner of Siming Mountain. The leader is the main force of King Lu on land.

He was ordered to ambush the defeated soldiers and chose to ambush in this forest. He didn't want Duoduo to be very vigilant and would not enter the forest. His plan to ambush the Qing army in the forest fell through, so he had to lead his troops to make a surprise attack directly.

After the volleyball was released, gunpowder smoke filled the edge of the forest. The frightened horses that had been hit by the guns suffered from pain. After losing control, they ran wildly on the official road, knocking several Qing soldiers into the air, and the official road was in chaos. Falling to the ground, the horse neighed and howled.

"All armies get on their horses and evacuate immediately!" Doduo and the others got on their horses one after another in a panic, and the horses were restless. He held the reins with one hand and shouted sharply.

If it was on the plain, Duoduo would let the cavalry rush to kill him, but he had no choice but to hide the Ming army in the woods.

Fortunately, he didn't let the soldiers rest in the woods, otherwise he followed the way of the Ming army, it was easy to get in, but difficult to get out.

At this time, he didn't care about the tens of thousands of green battalion soldiers who hadn't dared to come yet, so he pulled up his horse and left decisively. The Qing soldiers behind him also got on their horses in a panic, and galloped forward after him.

The cavalrymen were shot off their horses continuously under the attack of gunballs on both sides, falling like dumplings, and even Mele Erzhenge Chuha, who was closely behind Duduo, was knocked off his horse.

Doduo groaned in his heart, but he didn't look back, and now he only has a chance to survive.

For the cavalry to run, the Ming army actually had no choice. Jiangbei's terrain as a whole is still mostly flat land. If he formed an array to block the attack, Doduo would definitely not follow the official path and walk on the fields. Now he walked from the woods on both sides. Shooting and killing, but unable to prevent Duoduo from escaping.

After Wang Yi asked the soldiers to fire their guns for a while, he waited for most of the Qing cavalry to leave the ambush circle before letting the soldiers rush out from the woods on both sides to encircle and suppress the remnants of the lost horses on the official road.

The whole battle ended in less than a moment. Wang Yi didn't let his soldiers chase Duoduo. First, he couldn't catch up. Second, if he chased to an open area, it would be unsightly to let his cavalry charge back. Duoduo can only be handed over to Zhang Mingzhen who is deployed in Sizhou.

The [-] Ming troops cleared the battlefield on the spot, and then lined up to wait. Not long after, more than [-] Green Battalions ran over. Seeing the still-smoky battlefield and the waiting Ming troops, the leading Green Battalion generals were stunned. The generals of the green battalion looked at each other, then dismounted and walked towards the Ming army.

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