On July 14, 1645, a fleet of ships emitting black smoke appeared on the waters of the Yangtze River, which was flowing eastward. Obviously, this is the flotilla of the people of the East Coast.

The fleet consisted of six large ships, all steam clippers, carrying about thousands of soldiers from the east coast, and were sailing to the river near the Guazhou ferry port in Yangzhou. It took ten days for the East Coast Army, which had rested for five days on Rishiri Island, to reach the Yangtze River Valley, and in order to hurry, the five slow sailing ships sailed separately from the steam clippers from the beginning, so that only these six clippers sailed here at this time.

Many small boats were lowered on the fleet, and the 3rd Squadron of the Standing Squadron divided into several small boats and rowed hard towards the Gua Chau Ferry on the shore. Behind them, some sailors also rowed their boats and began to measure the depth of the water on the surface of the river and mark the course.

The 3rd Squadron soon approached Guazhoudu, and there was not a single boat on the ferry at this time, and I don't know if it was because the vanguard of Duoduo's army had already arrived at the city of Yangzhou, and there were few people at this time at this ferry port, which should have been extremely prosperous. Maybe the boat was looted away, Li Zhengang, who was standing at the stern of a small boat, thought secretly.

The 3rd Squadron quickly occupied the empty Kuazhou Ferry, and they searched the entire crossing, but there was no sign of anyone except for a few houses on the shore that were scattered with debris. Li Zhengang climbed up from the waist-deep river water, and his whole body was a little wet, which made him a little annoyed that he didn't put on the whale skin water that Mo Dashuai had rewarded him.

"Report to the deputy wing commander that our department has searched within three hundred meters of the landing site, and has not found any Ming or Qing soldiers. Only two lower baskets were caught in the mud legs of the yellow eel. But I couldn't understand what they were saying. All of us are northerners. There were no soldiers who were proficient in the Wu language, and they could not be interrogated. Pei Qin, the captain of the 1st Brigade, stood upright in front of Li Zhengang, and then saluted.

Li Zhengang is from Shaanxi, so naturally he can't understand what they are saying.

He looked at the young farmers (or fishermen) who looked at them with some horror, sighed, and said, "Let them go, they are innocent people, and they won't have a few days of peace all year round." Give each of them a dollar. Pay out of my special expenses and let them go. In addition, send people on the ship to report to Mo Dashuai, and let the security team immediately send elite scouts to disembark to reconnoiter the enemy's situation, this Duoduo army should not have arrived at the city of Yangzhou. ”

Li Zhengang is now the deputy wing captain of the 1st Wing of the Stand Up Team (the acting captain of the main wing is Júnior Temporary Lieutenant), and he is a senior cadre of the stand up team system, with a monthly salary of 20 yuan and a special expenses of 8 yuan per month (which can be regarded as pocket money, the welfare of senior officers).

"Who knows where the army of Dordor has gone? Maybe I'm already in Yangzhou right now. Pei Qin smiled at the corner of his mouth, and then arranged for people to go back to the fleet to report the situation.

It is said that after Dordor himself received an edict from Dorgon on April 10 (lunar calendar). began to lead the main forces south, which was already more than a month later than in history. He himself led all the way out of the tiger prison. All the way with Gushan Ezhen Bai Yintu, as well as the Mongol soldiers of the outer domain led by Belenikan and others, went straight to Germany. Due to the terrible battle fought by the Manchus in Shandong, Duoduo's campaign to recruit troops and counties from all walks of life in Henan did not go as smoothly as expected, so he did not arrive outside the city of Sizhou under the control of the Southern Ming until the tenth day of June, and crossed the Huai River that night, when the nearby Ming army had already fled and no one came to stop them.

After crossing the Huai River, due to the surprise that the yellow-clothed thief army was crisscrossing Qilu and "very rampant", Dolgon ordered 2,500 people to march east to collect Xuzhou, Suqian, Xinghua, Tongzhou and other prefectures and counties, and then incorporated the local Ming army on the spot. On the one hand, he supplied food and grass to the Duoduo army, and on the other hand, he connected with Shandong, which was still under the control of the Qing court, and waited for an opportunity to go north to support Shandong.

In this way, after grinding all the way, when Dolgon arrived twenty miles north of Yangzhou City and set up camp, it was already June 15 (July 8 of the Gregorian calendar), nearly two months later than in history. Historically, Duoduo camped in the north of Yangzhou on April 17, and then waited until April 24 to start attacking Yangzhou because of the red-coated cannons, and there was no military action against Yangzhou before that, which can be seen from the suicide note written by Shi Kefa.

In this time and space, Duoduo's red-clothed cannons were still late, and they didn't arrive at Yangzhou until this morning, and the soldiers and horses arranged by Nanming in Jiangbei had naturally been cleared one after another. Shi Kefa, a mediocrity with neither strategic vision nor military ability, behaved at a loss, and issued inconsistencies in orders, so that even his aides could not stand it. Such a person can also be in a high position, and it is really unreasonable for Nanming not to die. What kind of pig was this way to put Shi Kefa, a fool who was good for nothing but honesty and integrity, to such a high position as the governor of Jiangbei, and then let him make almost all the mistakes he could make in more than a year, and in vain pushed the so-called 2340,000 people in the four towns of Jiangbei who spent a lot of manpower and material resources to the side of the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

Of course, at this time, the people on the east coast did not know where the army of Lu Dao Duoduo had gone, and even they did not know whose hands Yang Dao was currently under control. They are only here for friendship and support, and by the way, to see if they can make some gains, as for expecting them to fight some tough battles beyond their own capabilities, it is absolutely impossible.

The scouts quickly went ashore. These Shandan hunters sat on the boat for ten days, and all of them were a little in good spirits, but in fact, not only them, but also many of the horses brought with the ship were also in poor condition. Kurhan, the captain of the security team, picked out a dozen or so horses that seemed to be able to be ridden, and then selected a few skilled subordinates and began to reconnoiter information in the north.

After the scouts departed, the East Coasters brought the 5th Squadron of the Forward Squadron ashore as well, and there was no movement on the river except for the naval boats that were measuring the depth of the water and marking the course. Six steam clippers had lowered their sails and lowered the boiler temperature to a minimum, and just floated on the river waiting for the news to come.

The news came back the next day. Kulhan, the captain of the security team, fled back with several of his men, who were almost wounded, and behind them were dozens of Qing cavalry in hot pursuit. These cavalrymen dressed in foam nail cotton armor looked like white-armored soldiers of a certain banner, both in terms of skill and equipment, but when they chased them to Guazhoudu, they were immediately taken aback.

Because in front of them were hundreds of infantry dressed in yellow, wearing big hats, and armed with spears, and the outfit of the famous yellow-clothed thief, how could the Qing army still know what to do? Even though these Duoduo's subordinates had never fought with the East Coasters in Shandong, they had long known about the existence of this "pirate group" from the correspondence and the words of their superiors and colleagues. But aren't these yellow-clothed pirates only making trouble in Liaohai, why do they keep making trouble all the way to the Yangtze River now? The leader of the team hesitated a little, and after hatefully glancing at the scouts on the east coast who had caused them several casualties, the leader turned his horse's head and led his cavalry to disappear into the scene like a gust of wind, apparently in a hurry to go back to report the military situation.

"Yangzhou City has been breached, and it has only been resisted for one day." Kurhan said succinctly, in Chinese, in which he was not very proficient, "Duoduo has destroyed the city wall with cannons, and the Qing army has already scrambled into the city when we withdraw. However, they are already aware of our presence, and it is likely that Dodor will adjust their deployment and attack the docks. ”

Mo Ming, who was standing on the foredeck of the steam engine sailing ship "Fenshui", looked at the lush reeds on the bank of the river, and only after a while did he say to Xiao Xi, the commander of the 102nd Company of the Army, who was standing behind him: "Since the Qing army has broken through Yangzhou, the overall situation of Jiangbei has been decided. The Qing army, which had already incorporated more than 200,000 troops from Liu Liangzuo, Liu Zeqing, and Li Benshen (i.e., the remnants of Gao Jie), was powerful, and it had a relatively rich territory in Jiangbei to supply grain and grass, so it was not a problem to support long-term operations. Then it won't make much difference for us to stay here, it's just disgusting them. ”

"It's good to be nauseous. Nanming's gang of taunting ministers are probably already planning how to escape or surrender at this time. Dolgon will inevitably divide his forces to attack other prefectures and counties in Nanzhili, in order to join up with the Qing army of the Azig tribe that has been killed from the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. I don't know if Li Chuang has died in the upper reaches of the road, and where the war over there has progressed, alas, I really want to drive the boat up to take a look. Xiao Xi lit a pipe for himself and said.

"Look at the hair!" Mo Ming scolded with a smile, and then said: "The most important thing for Dolgon now is how to find a way to cross the river and attack Nanjing as soon as possible. Nanjing is now extremely empty, the soldiers have no will to fight, and they will have no intention of defending, and with the combat effectiveness of the paper-like army of the Nanming Dynasty, it is basically a one-touch collapse, and the Qing army can occupy it in an armed march. Anyway, we have nothing to do at the moment, so we just wander around here for a while, and when we see the Qing ships crossing the river, we go up to harass us. Ours are all steam clippers, and they can turn around almost on the spot without thinking about the currents or the direction of the wind, so there is no need to be afraid of those Qing Junk ships. So I decided to stay here for another two days and see if there was anything else to take advantage of. ”

"That's fine." Xiao Xi nodded and said. If the Qing army brought a large number of ships to cross the river, it would be basically impossible to prevent the Qing army from crossing the river with the six ships on the east bank that were not strong in firepower (eight small and medium-caliber guns per ship). They can really only symbolically harass here.

"It's best to send someone to Zhenjiang on the opposite side to see if you can get some contact with Zheng Hongkui." Mo Ming suddenly said to Xiao Xi again, "Forget it, I'll find someone to handle this matter myself." You should first have the officers and men of the ashore detachment withdrawn from the boat, and then it will be boring to stay in Guazhoudu. (To be continued......)