Yang Wencong cried bitterly here at the city gate, which had a great impact on morale, Ma Cheng saw that many soldiers around him were afraid, and quickly helped Yang Wencong up and came to a hidden soldier cave at the city gate.

Ma Cheng asked his soldiers to bring some water, gave Yang Wencong a drink to calm down, and then asked, "Uncle, what's going on?" ”

Yang Wencong had basically recovered his demeanor at this time, sighed and said: "On the tenth day of the fifth month, after receiving the news that the Beiyu had crossed the river, the old man took the 20,000 soldiers requisitioned from Songjiang and Changshu to prepare to go to Zhenjiang to join Zheng Hongkui against the Beiyu. But knowing that Zheng Hongkui was such a waste, he was burned to the shore camp by the Beiyu overnight. After the old man learned the news, he originally wanted to take advantage of the unstable foothold of the northern captives on the south bank, and wanted to attack it halfway, so I know. The one who knew that the northern captives were very tight, a thousand people, only a thousand people, and the old man's 20,000 horses were defeated! ”

Ma Cheng listened to Yang Wencong's account of the situation at that time, and secretly scolded in his heart that it was really a scholar who misled the country, who do you think you are? After reading a few broken books, you thought that Sun Wu was alive? This time, the commander of the Manchu army was Duoduo, which was not a soft persimmon.

Born in the 42nd year of Wanli, Duoduo is exactly 31 years old this year, and although Duoduo is very young, he is the best battlefield commander in the whole of East Asia. Duoduo has been fighting with Huang Taiji since he was fourteen years old, and it can be said that he has spent half of his life in the military camp.

But Ma Cheng couldn't bear to hit him when he saw Yang Wencong like this, so he had no choice but to ask: "Uncle, then why did you retreat to Nandu?" ”

"That's right, after the defeat of the old man on the battlefield, there were originally nearly 10,000 people left, and the old man originally planned to retreat to Jurong with these people. Thinking that the old man's subordinates were frightened by the northern captives, they didn't dare to stay in Jurong, so they had no choice but to come to the southern capital. In Jurong, the old man learned that his brother-in-law had established a new king, so he wanted to see if he could help! ”

Ma Cheng despised Yang Wencong when he heard this, obviously he was running for his life and came back, but he wanted to say that he would come to King Qin to help, but Ma Cheng couldn't say anything, this Yang Wencong was Ma Cheng's uncle, or the uncle of Gu Miaoyin, Ma Cheng's eldest wife, and he couldn't say anything serious about anyone's face.

The news that should be asked was asked, Ma Cheng arranged for his own soldiers to escort Yang Wencong home, and hurriedly prepared food in Jubaomen to settle those soldiers who entered the city.

When Ma Cheng was in a hurry, Ma Bao on the city wall sent someone to find Ma Cheng, and there was a new situation outside the city.

The herald sent was also a novice, and when he came to see Ma Cheng under the city wall, he shouted when he was far away: "Lord Junmen, the chief soldier is in an emergency, and the whereabouts of the northern captives have been found outside the city!" ”

This sentence can make Jubaomen chaotic here, thousands of defeated soldiers who had originally settled down, hearing that the Qing army was chasing after them again, looked panicked one by one, and stood up and were about to run into the city.

Seeing this, Ma Cheng shouted loudly: "Brothers, don't be afraid, the walls of the southern capital are so thick, and the northern captives can't enter!" ”

At the same time, Ma Cheng arranged for his own soldiers to appease these defeated soldiers separately, and then found a thousand households and asked him to lead these defeated soldiers to Beicheng and take these guys away from Jubaomen.

After the placement was completed, Ma Cheng hurriedly climbed the tower of the Jubao Gate and saw Ma Bao with a panicked face in the watchtower.

Ma Bao saw Ma Cheng coming up, and hurriedly pointed to the outside of the city and said, "My lord, look, three miles away is the cavalry of the Northern Captives!" ”

Ma Cheng saw the panic on Ma Bao's face, and scolded in a low voice: "Sixth uncle, you are the chief soldier and the guard of Jubaomen, you must calm down, you know?" ”

Ma Bao is Ma Cheng's uncle, and according to the genealogy, Ma Cheng should call him uncle. Ma Bao has followed Ma Shiying for many years, and he has also fought with the Mongols in Xuanfu, so it stands to reason that he should not be so panicked, it seems that he was infected by Yang Wencong's defeated soldiers today.

Ma Bao listened to Ma Cheng scolding himself, quickly calmed down, and then said: "What the adults said is that the last general knows!" ”

Ma Cheng saw that Ma Bao had finally stabilized, so he took the clairvoyance to watch the Manchu cavalry three miles away.

It turned out that there were only about 20 Manchu pursuers outside the city, wearing colorful military uniforms, riding small Mongolian horses, and all bareheaded without hats. However, because of the distance, Ma Cheng didn't see their braids clearly, just looked at the shaved head, shining in the sun. Euro eBook

These Manchu cavalry were chasing more than 100 Ming troops, but these Qing troops did not kill those Ming troops, but rode horses to intimidate the Ming army behind, and the frightened Ming army ran for life. And those Qing soldiers saw that some Ming troops could not run, so they used the knives and guns in their hands, or bows and arrows to end the lives of these Ming soldiers.

As the Ming army ran closer and closer, they slowly ran past Yuhuatai, only five hundred meters away from Jubaomen. At this time, those Qing troops were not intimidating, but urging them to step forward and slash the remaining dozens of people one after another. Then these Qing soldiers dismounted in a good time, cut off the heads of these dozens of people, and then broke their hair and tied it to the saddle.

These Qing troops were only five hundred meters away from the city gate, and they could hear them clearly at this distance, only to hear these guys say: "Hurry up, hurry up, this is all silver!" ”

"Third brother, why don't we go to the private house on the side and have a look, maybe there are some good things!"

"You are stupid, at this time, the people in the house have run out, and the belongings are naturally gone, hurry up and finish the work, let's return to the team!"

The words spoken by these people are not Manchu, but Chinese, Ma Cheng heard these people say this, and knew that these guys were all Ming troops who surrendered in Jiangbei. Seeing these guys turn around and slaughter their compatriots, Ma Cheng scolded: "Ma Bao, take a shot to avenge the dead brother!" ”

Ma Bao nodded, found his best gunner, and after careful aiming, opened fire on the treasure gate.

Ma Cheng's newly equipped artillery has a range of one and a half miles, but the accuracy cannot be guaranteed at that distance. However, now it is only 500 meters away from these Qing troops, and the first shot will break half of the body of a Qing army, and after killing this unlucky guy, the potential energy of the cannonball will not be reduced, and the war horse behind him will be broken into two pieces.

This cannon frightened the Qing army, and a general flag led by him saw that there was a cannon on the city gate, and he was frightened and ignored the heads on the ground, and ran away on horseback, and the rest of the Qing army also followed the same example, and ran away with the general flag on horseback.

Seeing the Qing army running away on the city wall, there was thunderous laughter, and some soldiers stood behind the battlements and scolded the Qing army for being cowardly. Ma Cheng was also very happy to see that his morale had recovered slightly, and shouted: "Good fight, come here, reward the gunner with five taels of silver, and the gunner with one tael each!" ”

After Ma Cheng finished speaking, he came down from the watchtower, came to the soldiers guarding the city, and shouted loudly: "Brothers, you have all seen that these northern captives are also born by their fathers and mothers, and they will die if they are hit by a shot, so don't be afraid, just fight bravely and kill the enemy!" The governor promised that the reward for killing a pigtailed man would be one tael, five taels for the real captive, and the officer would be doubled! ”

As soon as Ma Cheng said this, there was thunder on the city wall, five taels of silver is enough for a family of three to live for a month, or in a high-cost city like Nanjing. Ma Cheng's calculation is also very simple, the main force of the Qing army is the Manchurian Eight Banners, the military information from Beijing here, Duoduo only brought more than 30,000 Manchurian and Mongolian Han coalition troops when he left Beijing, even if these 30,000 people are Manchurian Eight Banners, five taels per person is only 150,000 taels, this deal is too cost-effective.

Just when Ma Cheng was boosting his morale, a melodious horn suddenly sounded from a distance, which was melodious and low, and could be heard far away. Ma Bao, who was standing beside Ma Cheng, heard this voice, his face changed greatly, and he hurriedly said: "My lord, this kind of horn is only available to Mongolians, and the real enemy is coming!" ”

Ma Cheng heard Ma Bao say this, and hurriedly lay down at the head of the city to look out, and saw a trace of black lines faintly appearing on the horizon in the distance, moving slowly like ants. As the distance got closer and closer, the sound of horses' hooves like thunder came, and the morale of the city that was originally fooled by Ma Cheng slowly disappeared, from the chief soldier Ma Bao to the ordinary soldiers, all of them were gray.

This time, it was not the real Manchurian Eight Banners who led the troops, but the Eight Banners of the Han Army, led by the son of the great traitor Li Yongfang, Mailer Ezhen Li Shutai.

At the age of sixteen, Li Shutai followed Huang Taiji on expeditions to Korea and Mongolia, and made many military exploits, and was a very powerful general in the Han army. This time, under the order of Prince Yu Duoduo, he led the Ming Dynasty general Zhang Tianlu and others to cross the river, and Li Shutai originally thought that there was a bitter battle, but he knew that he burned Zheng Hongkui's five military camps in one night, and the Zheng family sailors who were rampant on the sea retreated without a fight.

Li Shutai didn't think much when he saw the Ming army like this, but he didn't expect that these armies in the Southern Ming Dynasty were not as effective as the thieves. Therefore, after Li Shutai initially occupied Zhenjiang, he planned to complete his work in one battle and directly lead the army to capture Nanjing. You must know that Nanjing is the capital of the Ming Dynasty, and occupying it is of great political significance, and naturally the military merits are also the heaviest. Therefore, after thinking about it, Li Shutai decided to lead the 30,000 horses who had just crossed the river, and the 5,000 men who added the Han army banner to seize Nanjing.

In addition to the Ming Dynasty generals Zhang Tianlu and Yang Chengzu, there were also deputy generals Yang Shouzhuang, Zhang Sida, Gao Qian, Yan Shiyi and others. Zhang Tianlu is a native of Yulin, Shaanxi, and used to be Gao Jie's subordinate, and after Gao Jie's death, he surrendered to Duoduo with Li Benshen, so he is still a general with some combat effectiveness.

Although Zhang Tianlu made great achievements a few days ago and defeated Zheng Hongkui, Zhang Tianlu still had lingering fears about attacking Nanjing. Of course, it is not that Zhang Tianlu is afraid of how powerful the Ming army is, but that Zhang Tianlu was originally a Han Chinese, and the hundreds of years of imperial education in the Ming Dynasty were not given in vain, and Zhang Tianlu still had some fear of imperial power in his heart.

But now that Zhang Tianlu has returned to the Manchu Qing Dynasty and is under the jurisdiction of Li Shutai, the prefects have said that they are going to fight Nanjing, do you Zhang Tianlu dare not go? There was no way, Zhang Tianlu had no choice but to take his generals to follow Li Shutai to Nanjing.

Zhang Tianlu came with three thousand soldiers from Gao Jie's old battalion, which was not inferior to the elite of the Eight Banners of the Han Army, and Gao Jie also became the head of the four towns in Jiangbei through these elite of the old battalion. However, with the death of Gao Jie, the 30,000 elites of the old battalion under him were also divided by Li Chengdong, Li Benshen and others, and Zhang Tianlu's low status was only divided into 3,000 people.