In a battle outside the south gate of Huai'an Fucheng, the Tang army wiped out more than 30,000 reinforcements from Huang Degong's department, collected more than 20,000 soldiers, and beheaded the enemy general Tian Xiong, and Huang Degong only led more than 1,500 people to escape. With this great victory, the Tang army was like a rainbow and full of joy.

Cao Bianjiao, the mayor of the seventh town of the Tang Army, had a joy on his face that could not be expressed in words. He immediately ordered that all the more than 20,000 enemy soldiers who surrendered on the battlefield be contained and imprisoned in the city of Huai'an.

Of course, it is impossible for these troops to be idle in the city of Huai'an every day, so Cao Bianjiao decided to break them all up and integrate them into Liu Zehan's troops, so as to expand the total number of troops fighting in the south.

Then, three days after the whole army rested on the spot, he immediately led his troops south and went straight to Yangzhou.

The Tang Army's headquarters has nearly 40,000 soldiers and horses, plus the surrender of Liu Zehan's troops and the more than 20,000 Huang Degong's troops who have just been captured, which can form a huge force of more than 100,000 troops.

After collecting the troops and cleaning up the battlefield, Cao Bianjiao immediately passed a letter to Li Xiaofeige, and reported to him in detail the results of a series of battles in recent days.

Li Xiao received a report in Jinan, and he couldn't help but be very happy when he saw that the soldiers and horses of the two towns were fighting southward, and everything was going well.

Now the soldiers and horses of the sixth and seventh towns sent by the Tang army have captured Xuzhou Mansion, Huai'an Mansion, and Fengyang Mansion, completely eliminated and absorbed Liu Liangzuo's troops, accounted for nearly half of the entire Nanzhili, and also harvested more than 100,000 surrendered troops.

Next, the sixth town of the Tang Army will directly attack the Luzhou Mansion where Zuo Liangyu's troops and horses are stationed. The seventh town of the Tang army was to attack Yangzhou City with all its might. The soldiers and horses of the two towns are making rapid progress, and perhaps, they will soon be on the edge of the Yangtze River.

Li Xiao stood up and slowly walked to the topographic map of Nanzhili hanging high on the wall, his eyes roaming the map, and finally landed firmly on the sign of Yangzhou City.

Almost at this moment, his mind quickly flooded with memories of Yangzhou City's past life, remembering the terrible and dark Ten Days of Yangzhou, and remembering the bloody and cruel occupation of the entire Jiangnan region by the Tartars.

The horse's hooves of the Eight Banners reflect the cold moon, stepping on the blood of the children in the south of the Yangtze River.

What a heart-wrenching, what an unbearable memory.

Li Xiao chanted this extremely distressing verse, but in his heart, he kept thinking about how to capture the current Yangzhou City.

Could it be said that it is appropriate to bombard the city with heavy artillery and forcibly seize it just like the capture of Huai'an City?

Li Xiao can think that although the current Huang Degong was annihilated by the Tang army with 30,000 elites, in order to keep his roots, he will definitely give an order to abandon Chuzhou, defend Yangzhou City with the whole army, and deal with the Tang army to the end with the posture of a strong man breaking his wrist.

Because Huang Degong knows that the most important and rich place on his territory is Yangzhou. As long as Yangzhou is still there, he still has a chance to turn over, and there is still the possibility of recovering the lost ground.

If Huang Degong concentrates all his troops in Yangzhou, then he still has more than 40,000 troops, and he can fight a battle. And that Yangzhou City, is a city that has spent a lot of money to build over the years, the city is tall and strong, the grain and ordnance reserves are abundant, all kinds of defensive measures are very perfect, if the famous general Huang Degong personally commanded, the whole army defends the current Yangzhou City, then, they want to take this Yangzhou City, I am afraid that it is really not easy.

If you really want to attack hard, one will delay for a long time, the second may lead to heavy losses of soldiers, and the third will cause great damage to this historic city, whether it is the city or the people.

In this case, what is the difference between himself and those Qing captives who captured Yangzhou viciously in the previous life, and then slaughtered the city for three days.

When dealing with foreign races, you can do whatever it takes, but when it comes to the people of your own race, Li Xiao really can't bear to be a killer in his heart, and he is really unwilling to face them with swords.

Thinking about it in the previous life, in the city of Yangzhou, 600,000 soldiers and civilians were killed by the Tartar captives and traitor armies, and the whole city was full of corpses and blood, and the corpses and bones were mountainous, what a terrible and terrifying historical fact.

If his own army now wants to act like the Tartars, then Li Xiao will never accept it.

Moreover, if the war is delayed, the Hongguang puppet dynasty in the south of the Yangtze River will definitely mobilize a large number of reinforcements from its subordinate territory to reinforce Yangzhou, so that the Tang army has the worry of being attacked from inside and outside, and it is really doubtful whether the Yangzhou city can be successfully captured.

So, is there any other way to minimize losses and take this sturdy and tall Yangzhou city?

Li Xiao was in front of the map, silently meditating.

At this time, he suddenly remembered a plan that seemed quite feasible.

That is, can you adopt a posture of besieging but not attacking Yangzhou City, and then send people to persuade Huang Degong to surrender?

That Guangchangbo Liu Liangzuo is greedy for wealth and power, blindly resisting and seeking his own death, Huang Degong, a famous general in the late Ming Dynasty, is obviously not a villain like Liu Liangzuo who is greedy for money and power.

Li Xiao believes that a person like Huang Degong, who puts his family and country first and has fought desperately and bloodily with the Tartars, may not be able to persuade him to surrender if he knows the righteousness and preserves his roots.

Moreover, if it can really be said that a famous general like Huang Degong in the late Ming Dynasty will finally serve himself, then he can not only add a tiger general, but also let Huang Degong be the main general and form the soldiers and horses of the ninth town of the Tang Army. It can also deal an indescribable heavy blow to the already precarious Hongguang puppet dynasty.

After all, compared to the other three towns, the combat power is the most outstanding, and if the imperial court surrenders to Li Xiao for the dependent Huang Degong, then the entire Hongguang puppet dynasty is basically shaken, and it will be difficult to hold it for a long time.

It is conceivable that if Huang Degong surrenders to himself, then Zuo Liangyu and Zheng Zhilong will definitely turn a blind eye to the Hongguang puppet dynasty's more yang and yin, and the Hongguang puppet dynasty's dominance under its rule will be fundamentally shaken.

Of course, if he just sent a general like Cao Bianjiao, who was not good at words, to persuade him to surrender, Li Xiao was not too sure about whether he could successfully persuade Huang Degong to surrender.

Therefore, if you want to successfully persuade Huang Degong to surrender, you can only go to the palace outside Yangzhou by yourself, the king of the Ming Dynasty, the prince and the prince, and the generalissimo of the world's soldiers and horses.

Li Xiao paced back and forth in the room for a long time, and finally decided to go to Yangzhou City in person to persuade Huang Degong to surrender.

Such an opportunity must be firmly grasped by oneself.

Of course, his purpose is not just to persuade Huang to take credit. After all, if Yangzhou City is taken, then the Tang army will immediately cross to the south, take Nanjing directly, and completely eliminate the Hongguang puppet dynasty.

At that time, if he wants to capture Nanjing, Li Xiao, as the king of Tang, if he can drive to the personal expedition, he will definitely be able to greatly boost morale, and can also reduce the turmoil and impact on the entire Jiangnan region to a minimum after the Nanjing puppet court is eliminated.

Li Xiao thought about it, and immediately took the men and horses with bright light heavy armor and unmatched equipment to accompany the five hundred guards and cavalry, and went south from Jinan at a speed, heading straight to Yangzhou.

At the same time, he immediately ordered the soldiers and horses of the Sixth Town of the Tang Army, after entering the Luzhou Mansion, to besiege but not attack the Luzhou City garrisoned by Zuo Liangyu's troops, and to divide nearly half of the troops to directly take Chuzhou, where Huang Degong withdrew his troops and left, so as to form a north-south attack on Luzhou. After the situation in Yangzhou is clear and Huang Degong's troops surrender smoothly, further action will be taken.

The Tang army was dispatching troops as planned, and the troops and horses of Huang Degong's troops were also urgently mobilized, fully retreated, and retreated to Yangzhou City.

Six days later, the Tang army, which was heading south, successfully reached the outside of Yangzhou City, and then immediately besieged the city with heavy troops, and surrounded the huge Yangzhou City tightly.

At this time, Huang Degong, who led 40,000 soldiers and horses to retreat to Yangzhou City, looked at the dense Tang army soldiers and horses and military tents outside the city, he couldn't help but lock his eyebrows, and couldn't help but let out a long sigh.

What to do?

Now that the Tang army is besieging the city with such heavy troops, it is impossible for him to escape again, but with these 40,000 soldiers and horses, can he really hold this Yangzhou fortified city?

How easy it is to say that!

At this moment, a person with a thin face and a civilian dress in a second-grade official uniform next to him also let out a long sigh with a worried face.

This person is Shi Kefa, the governor of Jiangbei.

After the establishment of the Hongguang Puppet Dynasty, Shi Kefa was crowned as the crown prince and Taibao because of his meritorious service, and was reappointed as the secretary of the military department and the scholar of Wuyingdian, and let him supervise the so-called soldiers and horses of the four towns.

It's just that this new secretary of the military department has a false name, and the soldiers and horses of the four towns who cut off their own land, Liu Liangzuo, Huang Degong, Zuo Liangyu, and Zheng Zhilong, all of them don't like him, and completely ignore the existence of this military department secretary and Wu Yingdian scholar, which makes Shi Kefa both resentful and helpless.

Therefore, this vain military secretary can only do nothing in Nanjing in the end. And the current government is completely controlled by Ma Shiying and Liu Bozhao, and he is not allowed to interfere at all, so Shi Kefa is like an idler in the court, and his status is extremely embarrassing.

After the Tang army went south to attack Nanzhili, its devastating offensive made Ma Shiying and others frightened, they thought about it, and decided to let Shi Kefa, who was having a meal in the court, take the post of the so-called Jiangbei governor, and urgently went to Huai'an to supervise the army, so as to inspire the soldiers to fight and block the Tang army's fierce offensive pace.

It's just that the Tang army made rapid progress, and Shi Kefa had time to make a good move, and as soon as he arrived in Yangzhou Mansion, he heard the terrible news that the Tang army was approaching Huai'an Mansion.

The Tang army was so fierce and powerful that Shi Kefa was in a hurry, he no longer dared to go north, and came to the city of Yangzhou nearby, and Huang Degong, who failed to aid Huai'an and retreated all the way, stuck to it together.

Now, looking at the dense Tang army outside the city, Shi Kefa's heart was extremely shocked, and it was difficult to express it in words, and in the end, he could only let out a long sigh.

"Hushan, the enemy army is so strong, do you have a way to retreat from the enemy?" In the end, the secretary of the military department who served as the governor of Jiangbei, after standing for a long time, asked Huang Degong in a trembling voice.

"Alas, so far, in addition to guarding Yangzhou, my father is also unable to do it." Huang Degong's thick eyebrows tightened, and he sighed: "The Tang army acted so quickly and fiercely, our army simply didn't have time to respond in time. Now that our army has abandoned Chuzhou, all the soldiers and horses are fully retreating to this isolated city of Yangzhou, and the only plan is to defend the city to the death, in order to delay the time, so that the veterans of the Tang Army can return tired. If the Tang army can retreat like this, it will be a great luck. ”

When Shi Kefa heard Huang Degong's words, he was also very sad in his heart, he shook his head and sighed: "No matter what, the situation is so difficult now, it can only be like this." The safety of Yangzhou City depends entirely on the Duke of Yasukuni. ”

Huang Degong smiled bitterly and replied: "I will do my best, why do you need to say more." I just want to know, after Lord Shangshu reported the current situation in Yangzhou to the imperial court, how did the imperial court reply? ”

When Shi Kefa heard this, his face suddenly darkened a lot, he stroked his beard, was speechless for a long time, and finally smiled bitterly: "Jingguo Gong, the old man will tell you the truth, this report, the old man has already reported it, but there has been no news." It can be seen that the imperial court is now at a loss for the situation in Jiangbei, and it is difficult to help. Whether this Yangzhou City can be successfully defended, to be honest, we can only count on ourselves. ”

"Humph! The court is so useless, it can't be counted on at all, it really condescends to us and others who defend the country and the land! Huang Degong looked resentful: "I really don't know, I waited for life and death on the battlefield, fought bloody battles, but in the end, who was cheaper!" Could it be that the imperial court can't see that once Yangzhou is lost, the Tang army should be able to go south with all its might, and even the south may not be protected at that time? ”

Seeing Huang Degong's resentful face, Shi Kefa shook his head and persuaded: "Hushan, I don't know what you said. It's just the situation in the court, in fact, you also know that the bright side is Hongguang Prison State, but in fact, it has been controlled by Ma Shiying and Liu Kongzhao. These two people are both good at fighting for power and profit, but when it comes to dealing with the Tang Army, I am afraid that they are all incompetent and cowardly. Now that the situation in the court is like this, no matter how critical the situation is, what can you and I do in vain? ”

Hearing Shi Kefa's words, Huang Degong did not speak with a calm face, he slammed his fist on the pheasant, and then turned around and went down the city wall.

After Huang Degong went down to the city, Shi Kefa stood alone on the city wall, and the autumn wind blew his gray beard, making him look more and more old and helpless.

The Tang army besieged the city, and the entire Yangzhou city was in a highly tense but helpless situation. The defenders and the people of the city did not know what fate awaited them in the future.

Until the early morning three days later, outside the city of Yangzhou, a majestic figure, wearing a golden crown, an ivory jade belt around his waist, and a bright red python suit, under the protection of a group of escort cavalry wearing stainless steel armor and bright red cloaks, slowly came to the place outside the city gate.

This person is Li Xiao, the king of Tang who hurried from Jinan.

Outside the west gate of Yangzhou City, he looked at the entire tall and majestic Yangzhou City repeatedly, and then looked at the city gate sign of the Yang Wenli body for a long time before turning his head to the guards next to him and whispering.

When the guards received the order, they immediately stepped forward and shouted loudly to the city: "Wait for the order, my Tang King is now outside the city, and I want to have a face-to-face interview with General Huang Degong!" ”