In a courtyard not far from the southeast corner of Qingzhou City, the exquisite shadow walls, flowers, galleries, rockeries, and strange stones have all been smashed by the cannonballs that fell in one by one, the buildings and pavilions collapsed, and the stone fence of the water pavilion fell apart. In the past, the Qingzhou Kaiyuan Garden, which was exquisitely decorated and unique in shape, was ruthlessly destroyed by artillery fire.

"Master, be careful—" As soon as an exclamation from a personal attendant reached his ears, Fang Kezhuang was crushed to the ground before he could react. An iron bullet landed in front of the window sill outside the room, and the bullet hit the wall hard, and the seemingly solid brick wall immediately became vulnerable. Rubble and broken wood flew like a sudden storm that cleared the room.

When Zheng Zhilong arrived in front of the army, Zheng Jun's morale was greatly boosted. The point of impact of the artillery also extended further into the city as the gun emplacements were moved. From noon to the setting of the sun, cannonballs rained down on the city walls of Qingzhou for about a mile.

This will definitely hurt the innocent, and it will cause a lot of property damage, but Zheng Zhilong doesn't care.

No matter how many casualties and no matter how great the loss of goods, can the consequences be more serious than indulging 10,000 Eight Banners and 20,000 Green Banner soldiers?

If the Manchu Qing Dynasty could be like themselves in history, sweeping the world and galloping thousands of miles of mountains and rivers, how many people would be killed under the knife of these 10,000 Eight Banner soldiers? And how much will be destroyed and plundered?

It's a simple comparison.

The flowering bombs accompanied by the scorching red arson bombs continued to fall in Qingzhou City, and in half a day, many fires were ignited in Qingzhou City.

The entire Qingzhou City is less than fourteen miles around, that is, the length and width of the city are less than four miles. Outside the city, the artillery of the Zheng army can cross the city wall and enter the city at a distance of about one mile, which is also a very simple arithmetic problem, even if Qingzhou City is a square four miles long, then only the most central quarter of the area in the city is not threatened by shelling.

Seventy or eighty percent of the entire city was under the threat of artillery outside the city, and this was not due to the fact that the Qing troops in the city were very vigilant and put out fires in time, and they extinguished 17 or 8 large and small fires in one day alone. Otherwise, the entire Qingzhou City is afraid that it will turn into a sea of fire.

Fang Kezhuang was a famous eunuch in Qingzhou, and had a close relationship with the Donglin Party in his early years. When Wei Zhongxian was in power, he jointly signed Shangshu, and there was a saying "Please Shang Fangjian and punish Wei Zhongxian". Went to prison for this and was almost killed. After the defeat of the Wei Party, he was reinstated, successively served as the political envoy of the Central Plains, the servant of the Jinling Ministry of Officials, the Shangbao Temple, the Taifu Temple Shaoqing, the Guanglu Temple, and later promoted to the deputy capital of the imperial history, and then was removed because the court ministers had a discussion of selfishness.

In this way, he also escaped the 'catastrophe' of being coerced by 'Chongzhen' to go to Jinling.

When Wang Aoyong came to Qilu to appease the place with the official son of the Tartars, Fang Kezhuang did not come out, but he launched the heirs of his two brothers Fang Kejiu and Fang Keda, among which Fang Keda's son Fang Tai is the magistrate of Changle, and now he has fled back to Qingzhou with the retreat of the Qing army.

Cao Xuan, who belongs to the same Yidu celebrity as the Fang family, refused Shiqing, and the Fang family and the Cao family have been friends for many years, but now they have no contact.

However, the Fang family does not have to feel ashamed, Feng Pu, who has a higher reputation in Qingzhou, stood up happily and sat in the position of Qingzhou Tongzhi in one fell swoop, although he lost the good reputation passed down by the Feng family for generations, but it also solved a big problem for the Fang family.

Feng Pu can go out more open-mindedly than Fang Kezhuang, and he doesn't care at all that Daming will revive the river in the future, and he will not end well because of Shi Xing. He Chongzhen has been raised for 12 years, and it has been seven years since he entered Beijing. Now that he is nearly forty years old, Feng Pu feels that he can't afford to delay.

And in his opinion, it was Qilu who Daming took the initiative to give up. Obviously, although the imperial court that fled to Jinling failed to realize the strategy of uniting the capture and pacifying the Kou, it also had a certain tacit understanding with the Manchus.

This Qilu is a gift from the Ming Dynasty to the Manchus.

Otherwise, Qilu, who was obviously controlled by the Ming Dynasty, didn't send a soldier to the rescue? Only Zheng Zhilong is knocking and beating in Denglai?

What an incompetent court it must be to be able to do this.

And with such a court, how can there be a day when there will be a flourishing in the court?

Looking at the confrontation between the north and the south again and again in history, the most successful Northern Expedition was Liu Yu, Emperor Wu of the Song Dynasty (Zhu Yuanzhang is not regarded as the confrontation between the two dynasties of the north and the south), eliminating the Southern Yan, Later Qin and other countries, subduing Qiuchi, and breaking the Northern Wei Dynasty with the Moon Array, recovering Huaibei, Qilu, Central Plains, Guanzhong, and recovering Luoyang and Chang'an, creating the most extensive period of the territory of the six dynasties in Jiangzuo.

But even Liu Jinu, who swallowed thousands of miles like a tiger, never truly recovered the rivers and mountains of the Han Dynasty.

Can Emperor Chongzhen compare to Emperor Wu of Song?

If he wants to have the ability of Emperor Wu of Song, he will not flee to Jinling in embarrassment.

Therefore, Feng Pu was relieved to be a Tartar official boldly, because he was not worried about the day when he would be liquidated.

After Emperor Chongzhen abandoned Yanjing and fled south in panic, the sacredness of the Ming Dynasty had been shaken in his eyes. Not to mention that the Tatars who entered the gate changed their previous brutality and became 'polite'.

Zhu Ming's policies were all inherited by them, and the Han law and Han policy were used to govern the Han land, without touching the slightest interest of the gentry and bureaucracy.

Feng Pu was about to sing his praises, and he felt that he had no reason to refuse to serve the Manchus. Don't you see that even the Holy Father of Yan bowed his head?

But, ......, what's going on now?

Where did Emperor Chongzhen come from to be so bold and dare to take advantage of the fact that the main forces of the Qing Dynasty were trapped in the stalls of Shanxi, and the soldiers attacked the north? Then aren't you afraid that the Qing Dynasty will free up your hand and go south?

He felt that his brain was still dizzy, and Zheng Zhilong had already killed outside Qingzhou City.

The only thing Feng Pu feels fortunate about now is that the imperial court (Manchu) did not abandon Qingzhou as much as it gave up Laizhou.

A large number of military resources and more than 30,000 Manchu and Han troops were gathered in this Qingzhou city. The imperial court is obviously going to fight a good battle here.

Coupled with Qingzhou Chengjian, as long as it is defended well, what can the Zheng army do if it is 100,000 people?

Feng Puchu, who didn't know anything about military affairs, thought like this from the beginning.

He was completely unaware of the important role of artillery.

When one after another the cannonballs flew over the city wall and into Qingzhou City, he really realized the difficulties of war. In particular, he also got the news that Zheng Jun outside the city was cutting wood and building tools, not only building ladders, but also some catapults.

This made Qingzhou City even more frightened.

Zheng Zhilong's spread of smallpox outside the customs is a big stain on him. But at the same time, it is valued by many people. In the past two years, I don't know how many people have tried their best to spy on this secret.

Now that Zheng Jun saw that he was outside the city, he began to build trebuchets again, so how could the Qing army not panic?

That is, the time is not right, it is winter, and epidemics such as smallpox should not be prevalent. Only then did the soldiers and civilians in the city barely stabilize their minds.

But everyone also knows that when the Chinese push the catapults under the city, the stone bombs are thrown in, and the pressure on the Qing army in the city will only increase.

Hauge couldn't do anything about it.

He has a lot of combat experience, but he has hardly played this kind of city defense battle. Not to mention the fact that the scene completely fell into the defense of the city.

Hauge had already sent someone to greet Zu Kefa and ask him to march to Yidu to put pressure on the Zheng army under the city.

And then there was the silent cannony.

thinks that Zheng Jun has collapsed the city wall at most, but there are so many people in his hands, it is not easy for Zheng Jun to kill him.

But today, as soon as the artillery closes in, the situation is different. Hauge never imagined that the power of the arson bomb would be so great, and Zheng Jun outside the city obviously did not care about the lives of the people in the city. One mind wants to burn Qingzhou City.

The urban area covered by artillery in Qingzhou City is too large, and the threat of arson bombs is also obvious to all.

This Qingzhou city has the possibility of turning into a sea of fire at any time.

It's scary. Hauge couldn't be quiet anymore.

And as the cannonballs approached, it also made the war horses of the Eight Banners vests in the city restless. Since Zheng Jun brought the artillery closer again, two stables in the city have been smashed and set on fire, and the killing of the cannonballs, and the panicked war horses biting and crowding each other, have caused hundreds of war horses to be injured.

This cannot continue.

Hauge then came up with the idea of moving some of the vests out of the city. Even he felt that there was no need to hold on to this Qingzhou City.

Fighting in a city that can turn into a sea of fire at any time is too much of a test of one's mental strength.

Not to mention the generals under his command, only Hauge himself, then be afraid.

It is better to retreat westward, and along the way, you can also rely on the superior horse armor soldiers to disrupt the supply lines of the Zheng army.

In the event of an unfavorable battle, lengthening the enemy's battle line and then cutting off the enemy's supply line was a common trick used by the Manchus.

Under such circumstances, it is conceivable whether the morale of the soldiers and civilians in Qingzhou City is high or low.

Naturally, it also made some people in Qingzhou City have other meanings.

Not to mention anything else, Fang Kezhuang and Feng Pu didn't want to wait any longer.

Because if you wait any longer, there is a high probability that there will be a fire. The fire together ensured that their own lives would be over. And even if there is no fire, the Tartars themselves ran first, and the rest of them are not unlucky?

In addition to Fang Kezhuang himself, there are also Feng Pu in the room, as well as Cao Jue's son Cao Zhaoru, who has 'cut off his robe and broken righteousness' with the Fang family and the Feng family in the past.

Fang Kezhuang and Feng Pu can't sit down, how can an old man like Cao Jian sit still?

Cao Juan, who is eighty years old, can look down on Fang Kezhuang and Feng Pu, but he hates it clearly, and if he wants to succeed now, Fang Kezhuang and Feng Pu really can't pull it down.

There were also three military leaders in the house, which was the biggest capital of the Fang family and the Feng family.

The incident happened suddenly, Feng Pu and a leader couldn't dodge, and were hit by broken bricks and broken wood to cover their faces, which hurt very much, and they saw blood on their faces and bodies. Feng Pu's front tooth was even knocked out.

Fortunately they were all in the house, and no one sat by the window, otherwise there would have been someone lying on the ground covered in blood and wailing in pain.

Fang Kezhuang got up and quickly patted the dust on his body, and glanced at his relatives with two eyes gratefully. Thanks to this person's cleverness, otherwise he would have followed in Feng Pu's footsteps.

"Father, Kaiyuan can't stay any longer."