On May 3o, 1647, after learning of the latest movements of the Qing army sent by naval gunboats, Mo Ming no longer hesitated, prepared to accept it as soon as it was good, and began to lead the army to attack Rugao County east of the Jingjiang River, preparing to kill all the way along the Yangtze River to the Yellow Sea.

At this time, the Qing army in Yangzhou Prefecture had gradually assembled in Yangzhou and Taizhou under the dispatch of Shi Tingzhu, and the number of troops had reached 20,000; In addition, a small number of soldiers and horses in Huai'an Province also went south, and this news was tortured from a Qing army messenger intercepted by scouts on the east bank, but the exact number is unknown, it seems to be a horse team; However, after hearing that the Cao transportation was impassable and that the sailors had suffered heavy losses, Hong Chengchou, who was sitting in Nanjing, did not dare to organize men and horses to cross the river during the day, but crossed 30,000 horses and horses from the upper reaches of Nanjing to Jiangpu County on the north bank at night, including nearly 5,000 soldiers from the Eight Banners of Manchuria.

After these 30,000 horses crossed the river, the people on the east bank lost their traces, but it is conceivable that they would first go to Gaoyou Prefecture and Taizhou to eat. Now that Jiangdu and Yangzhou have been robbed of a blank land by the people on the east coast, it is impossible to support the consumption of tens of thousands of troops in a short period of time, so they are bound to go to these two places to get supplies, and then they can chase the east coast army.

As for the Qing army that went south from Huai'an Prefecture on the other route, according to the information obtained by the people on the east coast, it seems that its main force is still on the line of Haizhou and Shuyang, and only more than 4,000 green battalions have raised grain and grass and crossed the Yellow River to the south in advance, but it is still far from the Yangtze River. In short, the Qing army seems to be preparing to carry out heavy encirclement and suppression from the west and north, just as it did more than a year ago. With a long front and tight troops, they have never been able to do anything with the mobile East Coast army.

After the withdrawal of the 6th Army, 18 medium-sized fishing boats loaded with silver, grain, livestock and part of the personnel were escorted by four sail warships. He pulled the anchor and left the bank of the Jingjiang River along the current. Once in the Yellow Sea, they raised their sails. Then, with the southeast wind blowing, they headed north, and their destination was Blackwater Harbor. As for the remaining nine steam engine sailing ships and four transport ships, they were still cruising in the east of the Jingjiang River to the mouth of the sea, and from time to time they sent gunboats ashore to get in touch with the Sixth Army in order to constantly determine their respective positions.

On June 2, the army on the east coast quickly advanced to the city of Rugao County, Taizhou. After counting the shells, there was an accident in Rugao City. The regimental training leader led hundreds of township soldiers to capture and kill the county order who insisted on resisting. Then open the gates of the city to welcome the army of the east coast. Mo Ming led more than 1,000 people into the city, first encouraging Wu Shouzhong, the leader of the township soldiers who led the army "anyway", and then the wives and daughters of the county commanders, chief bookkeepers and other officials who insisted on resisting the army on the east coast. Together with Shi Tingzhu's concubine, he was incorporated into the women's standing team to serve as soldiers.

On June 3, the scouts of the security team came to report, and in the early morning of June 1, thousands of Qing army and eight banners horse team came out of Yizhen County. Doing both. At present, it should have reached the left of Taizhou. Rugao County is under the jurisdiction of Taizhou, only more than 100 miles away from the state city, and this distance is only one day away. However, the Qing army's horse team rushed from Jiangpu to Taizhou for several days, and at this time it should also be sleepy and in urgent need of rest, otherwise it would not be able to carry out effective combat at all. The yellow-clothed thieves are not those weak chicken Ming troops, if they don't adjust their condition, these thousands of horse teams will really go up to deliver food.

Mo Ming, who learned the news of the Qing army, still didn't have any panic, but it was just a few thousand cavalry. I have nearly 10,000 soldiers here, and all arms are complete. Afraid of hair? Therefore, after collecting the money, grain and livestock in Rugao County, he asked Sun Shouzhong to take more than 3,000 people to go first (all of them were regimental training soldiers and their families anyway), and then personally supervised the brigade to swagger towards Tongzhou. Along the way, they didn't even hide their whereabouts at all, and let the Qing army spies lurking in the countryside pass on the information of their troops, which seemed to be incomprehensible.

On June 7, when the army on the east bank marched to Baipu Town, less than fifty miles northwest of Tongzhou, this Qing army horse team finally appeared far away from the sight of the people on the east bank. At this time, the true face of this Qing army was finally completely exposed in front of the people on the east coast, they were probably a mixed group of eight banners in Manchuria, a total of more than 3,000 people, wearing foam nail cotton armor, one person and two horses, and it seemed that their morale was also quite high. At this moment, far behind the large forces on the east coast, it seems that they are hesitating to step forward and carry out harassing attacks.

However, before they could make a decision, Marshal Mo Ming Mo had already decided to send a cavalry wing and about 27oo cavalry remaining in the security team to launch a tentative attack on them. The Eight Banners were obviously surprised to see that the yellow-clothed thief cavalry, who were inferior to them, took the initiative to attack, but they also just wanted to try the yellow-clothed thief's catties, so nearly 6,000 cavalry from both sides launched a large-scale battle in Baipu Town, a little-known place.

The battle between the cavalry was short and intense, but in just half an hour, the two sides were out of battle. On the east bank, about 300 cavalrymen fell from their horses and died, including more than a dozen elite security scouts, and more than 100 were wounded, with a casualty rate of about one-sixth. As their opponents, the "Mounted Shooting Peerless" Eight Banner generals, because their weapons and equipment were inferior to the other party, the casualties were more serious, a total of about five or six hundred people were killed and wounded, and I don't know how many of them were authentic Eight Banner soldiers.

But the casualties were enough to impress them. Almost 2o% of centaurs were killed or wounded, which was already an unbearable number for them. Therefore, after the two sides looked at each other fiercely for another hour, the Eight Banners turned their horses around and disappeared into the distant woods. The East Coast cavalry, who were also grinning in pain, did not pursue, and they lost a large number of experienced Polish veterans and skilled Tatar riders, who were not much better than the Tartars.

After the Qing army horse team that bit the most tightly was shot away, there should be no more Qing army brigades to catch up and attack in a short time. This time, they killed and injured hundreds of Manchurian and Mongolian Eight Banners, and the severity of this matter can almost reach the heavens, and most of the Qing army commanders who led the team did not have the courage to use the precious Manchurian and Mongolian Eight Banners to fight with the yellow-clothed thieves, even if it was the Han Army Banner, they had to save some use. It seems that if the Green Battalion arrives, the Qing army will not launch another large-scale offensive. It's just that with those slow-moving, demoralized Green Battalion generals, will they be able to catch up with the Yellow Thieves Brigade? The answer, of course, is no.

June 9 and 1o. When the army on the east bank finally conquered Tongzhou City in two days, the main force of more than 40,000 Qing troops on the west road, dominated by the green camp, could come out of Taizhou City. This is also because they brought a lot of baggage materials and traveled concurrently, if they followed the normal rhythm of grinding foreign workers. At this moment, I am afraid that I have just come out of Jiangdu.

As for the Qing army on the northern road, the situation is ambiguous. The scouts sent by the people from the east bank did not find much useful information, but according to speculation, the main force of the Qing army in Huai'an Province should have crossed the Yellow River in 6 consecutive years, and the total strength should be between 30,000 and 40,000 people, and its vanguard may have reached the Yancheng area. However, Yancheng is still a certain distance from Tongzhou, and the bold Mo Ming decided to rest in Tongzhou City for a day. They also collect supplies, money, food, and livestock.

On the night of June 12, the advance of the army on the east coast reached the city of Haimen County, Tongzhou. The gentry in the city sent two representatives to the east coast army outside the city with 200 pigs and sheep, 5,000 stones of rice grain, 2,000 silk silks, and 50,000 taels of silver. bribed the yellow-clothed thief with a lot of money to leave.

Although Haimen County is still quite rich, it is not a small amount to give so many things to the people on the east coast at once, so it shows its "sincerity". Mo Ming was already a little tired of the endless rush. I rushed to the river to board a boat and return to the north. As for this, what Haimen County. Naturally, if you can catch it, you can catch it if you can't catch it, but I didn't expect people to take the initiative to send so many belongings, so it was really not for nothing.

After receiving other people's things, Mo Ming naturally didn't plan to go to Haimen County anymore, after all, there were still tens of thousands of main forces of the Qing army hanging behind him. According to the news just received this morning (13th), at least 5,000 Qing army forwards should have arrived near Rugao County at this time. As for the Qing army in the north, because they have not sent anyone to investigate carefully, their whereabouts are unknown for the time being. However, its main force should have entered Yancheng, and most of the forwards have also entered the territory of Yangzhou Prefecture. Considering that it will take three or four days to board the ship. At this time, it is really not worth delaying any longer.

Therefore, at noon on the 13th, the army on the east bank passed through the city without entering, and went straight to the river. The Haimen gentry who heard the news all praised their luck, and as for the unlucky or "virtuous" Li County Commander and his family, they naturally died in vain......

From the night of the 13th, the army on the east bank began to retreat and board the ship on the riverside south of Haimen County. The whole operation lasted until the evening of the 17th, and a total of about 200,000 taels of silver, a large number of jewelry, jade, calligraphy, paintings, books, 25,000 stone grain, more than 10,000 bundles of forage, more than 800 livestock, and more than 5,000 people were stuffed into a total of 13 transport ships. Naturally, there were 20,000 East Coast troops (some of whom had withdrawn), and so many supplies and animals crowded the 13 ships into an airtight wind. However, their destination was Jeju Island, and the voyage was only a few days away with a tailwind, so with a little patience, it was not a big problem.

On June 18, the East Coast fleet set sail, and after leaving the Yangtze River, it turned northeast and headed for Jeju Island. As for the two ways to "send off" their total of nearly 80,000 Qing troops, the fastest one was reported to have just entered Haimen County on the evening of the 17th, and at this time, the boarding operation of the people on the east coast had almost ended.

The Jiangbei Battle (Mo Ming jokingly called the Jiangbei Armed Parade) lasted nearly two months from the day of the 6th on April 25. Before and after, it broke through one of our Qing prefecture cities, one state city, and four county seats, killing and wounding more than 19,000 Qing troops, and about 2ooo people were killed and wounded (including attrition due to illness), of which about 1o% were the 6th Army on the east coast.

As for the seized materials, there are about 2.55 million taels of silver alone, and the rest of the materials are countless. Of course, the biggest effect of this battle was to successfully mobilize a large number of armed forces of the Qing army, including more than 5,000 elite Eight Banner soldiers, making it difficult to care for and exhausted in the south and north of the Yangtze River. At least, Kong Youde's request for reinforcements from the Huguang battlefield was difficult to ignore for a while. Of course, this battle also once again slapped a series of loud slaps in front of the whole world, especially when the Qing court was in full swing and in full swing, and I believe that this will greatly boost the morale of the anti-Qing forces in the south. (To be continued......)

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