Back to the end of Ming Dynasty to be a warlord

Chapter 372
After accepting Gao Jie's son as a adoptive son instead of Shi Kefa, the morale of the rest of Gao Jie's army finally settled down. To be precise, it made these officers and Xing's mother and son feel at ease.

After all, no matter how you look at it, Yang Chao has made great achievements in battle and has a special status. He is not only the earl proclaimed by Chongzhen, but also the brother-in-law of the current emperor, and the son-in-law of the eldest princess. Holding Yang Chao's thigh is more important than holding a scholar like Shi Kefa. The thighs are not only not bad, but also more guaranteed.

Then Mrs. Xing cried bitterly and begged Yang Chao to help them avenge Gao Jie, but Mrs. Xing insisted that they had a grudge against the Tartars and wanted to seek revenge from the Tartars. Even Li Chengdong said on the spot that Xu Dingguo was the most hateful and should be killed first. After meeting Xu Dingguo, Mrs. Xing did not hesitate to scold him on the spot for not knowing what was right and wrong, telling him that the Tartars were the mastermind behind it, and that Xu Dingguo was just a dog's leg.

Yang Chao couldn't help praising this woman again, it's a clear statement.

Yang Chao immediately said that what happened to Uncle Xingping was his affair with Yang Chao. Uncle Xingping was harmed by Xu Dingguo. He would definitely not let the traitor Xu Dingguo go, and at the same time he would not let the mastermind behind Xu Dingguo go. The blood of the Tartars was sacrificed to Gao Jie.

When Li Benshen and Li Chengdong asked where Yang Chao's army was.

Yang Chao told them regretfully that his army was still in the area of ​​Taiping Mansion, and was suppressing Zuo Liangyu's remnants.

And told them that he had wiped out Zuo Liangyu's army in the first battle, which made these officers change color.

They all knew Zuo Liangyu's power, even if Gao Jie became one of the four towns, no one would dare to underestimate Zuo Liangyu.

When they were in the Peasant Army, they fought against Zuo Liangyu, and they were beaten very badly by Zuo Liangyu.

Therefore, in their minds, Zuo Liangyu was a ruthless character, but they didn't expect Zuo Liangyu to be directly annihilated by Yang Chao.

They couldn't help asking what happened to Zuo Liangyu himself.

Yang Chao directly told them that Zuo Liangyu was dead, but he didn't say how Zuo Liangyu died. If Chao directly killed them, I'm afraid they wouldn't be much better off.

Suddenly, I felt that I had underestimated Yang Chao's Jiangnan soldiers in the past, and they were blind. A person who can wipe out [-] Tartars with [-], wouldn't be in vain.

But at this time, the stronger Yang Chao was, the more secure these people felt, and the more fortunate they were to rely on Yang Chao.

"My lord has only brought more than a thousand soldiers here, so I can't go to avenge Uncle Xingping for the time being. As soon as my army arrives, I will definitely go north and have a showdown with the Tartars!"

Yang Chao continued to express his attitude.

Li Benshen and others hurriedly complimented Yang Chao for his invincibility, and they would definitely defeat the Tartars in one battle, so they dared not peek at Jiangnan.

Then Yang Chao asked Li Benshen and others to accompany him, and began to inspect Gao Jie's camp, communicating with officers big and small.

At this moment, Yang Chao insisted that the Tartars were their enemies, and told these officers and soldiers that they must kill the Tartars to avenge Gao Jie.

After patrolling around, Yang Chao immediately announced that he would send someone to deliver some supplies to them.

Before leaving, Yang Chao said to Li Benshen and other leaders: "Don't worry, no one will be able to bully all the soldiers with this Lord around. But this Lord's ugly words are the first, and my military law is strict. Punishment. I also hope that you will restrain the troops and clean up the discipline. I will send some people to declare military discipline to you, and then I will advise everyone to go to the city to rest."

As soon as they heard that they could enter the city, these frightened remnants and defeated generals felt even more at ease in their hearts, and immediately expressed that they must restrain the soldiers and prevent them from disturbing the people!

Yang Chao soon sent his own soldiers to Gaojie's camp, gathered batches of wrongdoers, and publicly conveyed some simple military orders to them, such as not to loot the people, and told them at the same time, to rob the people on the front line, Kill without mercy!

Afterwards, sufficient military rations were sent to them from Yangzhou City, which made it rare for these people to have a full meal.

In fact, Yangzhou is not short of food.

Although the economy in the Jiangnan area is prosperous, many fields have become cotton fields, mulberry forests, and tea gardens, and they even need to import grain from Huguang. The food in the south of the Yangtze River is not only self-sufficient, but also more than enough.

After all, in southern Zhili alone, there were 700 million dans of taxes to be collected in previous years. Such a huge tax means a large number of acres and a large population. Although there are cotton fields and mulberry forests, the grain is still the bulk. plenty.

During this period of time, Shi Kefa urged desperately, the court feared that the Tartars would go south, Shi Kefa’s requests were all agreed by these civil officials, and a boatload of grain was continuously transported to Yangzhou. At this time, Yangzhou’s reserves were enough for the whole city to feed for more than three months, so Shi Kefa was still afraid Not enough, still kept urging.

Apart from urging supplies, Shi Kefa really didn't know what else he could do.

On April [-]th, he heard that the Qing army had arrived in Surabaya, so he rushed to Tianchang, and hurriedly dispatched troops from Pizhou and Suzhou to rescue him, but when he heard that Sizhou had surrendered, he immediately ordered not to go, and instead went to Yangzhou to return to defense. However, it was changed to rescue Xuyi, which is across the river from Sizhou, and the order was changed three times in one day, leaving the army at a loss.

Now that Sizhou, Xuyi and even Tianchang were all lost, he was trapped in Yangzhou, but he was at a loss for what to do except sitting in trouble.

Yang Chao was looking through a bunch of chaotic pond newspapers.

It was judged that the troops of the Qing army in the Jianghuai area were roughly divided into two groups. One was led by Duoduo, who came from the west of Henan to Yangzhou through the Sizhou line, and the other was a garrison led by a Gushan Ezhenzhun tower in Shandong. Going south along the canal, Xuzhou has been occupied, and it is approaching Huai'an.

Yang Chao arrived in Yangzhou on April [-]th.

It took three days to help Gao Jie's troops clean up the military discipline, but Yang Chao didn't try to reorganize this army, and he didn't dare to move them.

Gao Jie's department has a heavy peasant army habit. The officers used to be small leaders, and their subordinates were all their private armed forces. Whoever dared to move would kill them.

Small groups of Yang Chao's men announced military discipline to Gao Jie's remaining troops, and at the same time declared to the soldiers and officers that they must avenge Gao Jie and kill the Tartars.

At the same time, they picked out the women they robbed on the road. Although the small officers were still dissatisfied, those women were all snatched by them on the way to flee south from Xuzhou and Sizhou.

Although he knew they were dissatisfied, Yang Chao was determined not to compromise, because if these people were allowed to keep their women, would they still be able to fight?

Although Li Benshen and Li Chengdong were also very dissatisfied, Yang Chao told them that whoever wanted to keep these women would not enter the city, and he promised to take these women away temporarily and return them after the war was over.

Both Li Benshen and Li Chengdong knew that if they could not enter the city, after the Qing army came, they could only be cannon fodder.

Their leader died at the hands of the Qing army, and these people did not think about surrendering at this time.

In three days, Gao Jie's troops were barely restored to some military discipline, and then they had to be allowed to enter the city.

On the sixteenth, let them enter the city.

On the [-]th, the Qing army disembarked at a distance of [-] miles from Yangzhou.

On the [-]th, the Qing army approached the city.

But the Qing army did not attack the city immediately, but persuaded Shi Kefa to surrender.

When the Qing army was discovered, Shi Kefa immediately sent a message to the four fields, demanding that all the troops in Jianghuai should gather in Yangzhou.

At the same time, a military meeting was held to discuss countermeasures.

General Liu Zhaoji of Yangzhou proposed: "My lord, let's go out of the city to fight while the enemy masses have not arrived and our foothold is not stable."

At this time, the Qing army only had a few thousand vanguard troops outside the city, not to mention encircling them, even the four gates of Yangzhou could not be blocked.

Shi Kefa did not agree with Liu Zhaoji's suggestion: "Spirit should not be tested lightly, and we should raise Quanfeng to wait for his death."

Liu Zhaoji also suggested that the terrain in the west of the city is relatively low, and there is only one high mound, which is the tomb of an official surnamed Li who once served as an official in Yangzhou. It is not good for Yangzhou to build siege equipment for the enemy.

Shi Kefa also did not agree, saying that it was someone else's shade tree, and he couldn't bear to cut it down and destroy Fengshui.

Yang Chao didn't care. Although cutting down the surrounding trees was the key to the art of war, if he couldn't even stop the army attacking the city with ladders, the battle would be impossible.

In Haizhou, Yang Chao had a lot of dealing with captive soldiers' shield vehicles and siege ladders, and felt that those things were useless.

Yang Chao was more concerned about city defense.

Although Yangzhou City is not comparable to Nanjing City, it is still a big city.

As early as the Tang Dynasty, it was the largest city in the south of the Yangtze River. After the Song and Yuan Dynasties, its status declined slightly, but it was still a prosperous first-class city.

The current Yangzhou City, similar to Huai'an City, is divided into two parts, the new city and the old city.

The old city was restored in the Ming Dynasty during the war, with the help of part of the old city walls of the Tang and Song Dynasties, but the area is only the core part of the Tang Dynasty. It is a small city that is long and narrow from north to south. Obviously, the consistent attitude of the Ming Dynasty is to emphasize military affairs and despise commerce.As for the new city, three walls were added from the east wall to the side of the canal due to the Japanese pirates' rebellion, which protected a market full of merchants in the east of the city, and expanded the scale of Yangzhou City.

Therefore, the old city is the concentration of the gentry class, while the new city is inhabited by the wealthy business class.

The old and new cities are integrated into one, making the original long and narrow city more square, which is roughly equivalent to a square, but it is slightly longer from east to west and slightly shorter from north to south, just the opposite of the past.

Because of the two constructions, the scale of Yangzhou City is very large. The old city is more than nine miles long, and the new city is eleven miles. There are twelve city gates. In the old city it is called Wenhe River, and in the new city it is called Little Qinhuai River.

Because of the existence of canals, there are also water gates in the city, but this does not affect the defense, because each gate is equipped with defensive facilities such as urn city, pass city, and arrow tower. In a city, it is impossible not to kill 10,000+ people. Of course, the premise is that the fighting will of the defenders is at the same level as that of the attackers.

Yang Chao has inspected the city defense construction of Yangzhou in detail, and he is very careful about defending the city. As long as the army in the city has one-tenth of the fighting spirit, and even as long as they don't run away, the city cannot be captured.

But Yang Chao couldn't help feeling a little shadowy in his heart. Yangzhou Shiri was too famous. Although Yang Chao believed that as long as the city was well defended, it was basically impossible to be breached, but in history it was breached and the city was massacred.

Knowing this possible outcome, Yang Chao had to be very cautious, so he worked out a detailed defensive strategy, and in the name of Shi Kefa ordered the various armies to guard in sections. Yang Chao took more than 1000 elites of his own as a reserve, and patrolled back and forth.

Yangzhou now has a large number of troops, including Gao Jie’s remaining troops, there are about 10 people, so there is no shortage of troops at all, so there is no need to mobilize the people like Haizhou. How can I say these are soldiers, as long as the retreat does not occur , is always much stronger than ordinary people.

The reason why Yang Chao keeps patrolling the city is actually to prevent the soldiers from fleeing without a fight. Therefore, during the process of patrolling the city, he constantly declares military discipline to different troops. There is no need for detailed military laws, as long as he tells them to beheaded if they run away. That's it.

If he doesn't escape, just if he doesn't escape, Yang Chao thinks he won't lose.

The movement outside the city was also of great concern to Yang Chao. The vanguard of the Qing army was stationed at the foot of Shugang in the north of the city.

Shugang stretched from east to west, parallel to Yangzhou City, and it was regarded as the northern barrier of Yangzhou. Unfortunately, Yangzhou did not have elites to garrison there, and Yang Chao did not dare to risk Shi Kefa's division of troops.

It's not that Yang Chao is worrying unfoundedly, but that the situation in the city is now. People are in panic, soldiers' military discipline is lax, looting happens frequently, and they are already on the verge of collapse.

After the Qing army stationed in Shugang, the geographical position was superior, compared with Yangzhou City, it was condescending, so the artillery in the city could not hit them, and it would not have any effect. Even if Yang Chao wanted to hit them to boost morale, he would not be able to do so. On the contrary, wasting gunpowder and shells in vain may make soldiers think that the cannons are useless, let alone lose the confidence to defend the city.

After the first batch of troops from the Qing army arrived on the 21th, reinforcements arrived every day, but there was no sign of reinforcements from the Ming army. Until the [-]st, they finally saw reinforcements from the Ming army. The Governor's Mansion really boosted the morale of the soldiers and civilians in the city.

But soon Yang Chao, who was patrolling the city, received a report that these soldiers attacked Huaiyang Governor's Mansion, but Liu Zhaoji stopped them.

Affected by this, the army's morale was in turmoil, and many soldiers had already fled out of the city secretly.

Yang Chao couldn't help being shocked,

Carefully maintaining this precarious military spirit, unexpectedly something happened.

Immediately led the soldiers of the headquarters to the Governor's Mansion in Huaiyang.

Yang Chao rushed to the governor's mansion immediately, and the battle was over at this time, and several corpses were scattered in front of the governor's mansion.

Yang Chao went straight to the Governor's Mansion to meet Shi Kefa.

It quickly became clear that these were soldiers led by Gansu General Soldier Li Qifeng and Superintendent Gao Qifeng, a total of 4000 soldiers. They entered the city under the banner of reinforcements, but their purpose was to hijack Shi Kefa and surrender to the Qing army in exchange for a good future.

In the end, they were blocked by Liu Zhaoji, and they asked to leave the city instead, and Shi Kefa had already agreed to them.

After listening to Shi Kefa's narration, Yang Chao immediately pleaded for orders. These bastards, not to mention defending the city, actually fished in troubled waters. They wanted to capture the coach and exchange for a rich man. Such a scum would not be eliminated. Not only was he unwilling, but he was also worried that someone would follow suit.

"Lord Shi, the last general asks for orders to kill this rebellious army, so as to calm the army's mind!"

(End of this chapter)