Shi Tingzhu stood at the gate of Yangzhou Academy (i.e., Ganquan Academy) with a gloomy face, listening to the rumbling cannons not far away, which was the east coast army attacking at night. That area is full of elegant and refreshing gardens, Shi Tingzhu also occupied a house there, and also raised a few famous prostitutes in Yangzhou City as an outer room, and there is always half a moon to stay there in a month, which shows his love for there. But now this qiē is doomed to come to naught, the yellow-clothed thieves have broken through all the units of our Qing Green Battalion with an unstoppable momentum, and they have lost more than 5,000 people in a few days, and a considerable number of soldiers are missing, Shi Tingzhu suspects that they have taken off their clothes and hid in the people's houses in the city.

Alas, the defeat is like a mountain! Shi Tingzhu sighed faintly. Originally, seeing that the yellow-clothed thief infantry team, artillery team, and horse team were complete, and the army was at its peak, and the number was similar to his own, he knew that the troops under his command were two, so he did not dare to go out of the city for a decisive battle. After the collapse of the northern city wall, he pinned his hopes on relying on the rows of buildings and complex terrain in Yangzhou to resist and consume the yellow-clothed thieves, and then force them to retreat.

But as soon as the two sides fought, he knew that he was wrong, and the yellow-clothed thieves were not only brave in the field (known as "invincible"), but also fought in this street battle in a chaotic manner. The artillerymen, bird-gunners, and iron-clad spearmen coordinated seamlessly, so that the former Southern Ming army, which had been sparsely trained on weekdays, suffered heavy losses and lost positions one after another. So far in the battle (May 14), his men have killed and wounded more than 5,000 people in the city, the general Cai Shiying was wounded, Ma Degong was killed, and more than 3,000 people did not know what happened, and they were about to disperse. If you add the 2,000 people who lost the gap and the invitation to the sunrise city, his men and horses have lost more than 10,000 people. The rest were also terrified. The courage to continue fighting was basically lost.

Alas. The Southern Ming soldiers will be weak, and the slightest setback will be demoralized and unbearable. If he led the old subordinates who were crisscrossing western Liaoxi, or the men and horses of Kong Youde, Shen Zhixiang, Wu Sangui and others, how could they let the yellow-clothed thieves occupy Yangzhou, a famous capital in the world! Thinking of this, Shi Tingzhu was a little depressed.

"Master, it's time to withdraw, if you don't withdraw, it's too late!" The clothed servant brought a war horse of a divine horse and reminded softly.

Shi Tingzhu looked at the several battlefields that were still fighting fiercely in the distance. He looked at the minion who was looking at him with earnest eyes, and hesitated. At this time, the Manchu Qing Dynasty had just opened the country, and military law was extremely strict. A general like Shi Tingzhu, who is at the level of a commander, if he loses his teacher and land, he is likely to be severely punished by the imperial court, even if he Shi Tingzhu is old, early in the dragon, and has a hard relationship, and he will not be guilty of capital crimes, but he will inevitably be pushed to the end and imprisoned for questioning. Of course, with his relationship with Shi Tingzhu, if he goes around, he can't get away with it. It's just that the amount of money to be spent is huge.

"Master, stay in the green mountains. I'm not afraid of running out of firewood. The clothed servant seemed to see his thoughts, and persuaded in a low voice: "There are only a few thieves in yellow, and they must not be able to occupy this Yangzhou City for a long time, and they will naturally retreat after they have been captured and plundered." When the time comes, the master will lead the army back again, plug the mouths of some insiders, and then make a little bit of a fuss, it may not be impossible to turn the danger into a disaster. The master's golden body, why bother throwing it lightly? ”

Shi Tingzhu was silent at first, but after a while, he finally made up his mind, turned over his horse, and turned his head to look at the garden area that was in the midst of a chaotic battle. There is his own house there, as well as a few concubines who have not long been accepted by him, of course, these are not enough to make him feel heartache, what he is most heartbroken is the 200,000 taels of silver hidden in his house! It was all looted by him in the past half a year, and he hadn't had time to transport it away, so now he had to cheapen the gang of yellow-clothed thieves.

After some heartache, Shi Tingzhu finally left the gate of the academy and retreated towards the outside of the city. Before him, there were already more than 1,000 Han army banner soldiers who fought and stood and retreated first. After he withdrew, more than 2,000 Han army banner soldiers and 4,000 green battalion soldiers behind the palace also evacuated one after another, and the entire evacuation operation lasted for most of the night.

Before dawn, several Jiangxi Green Battalion generals came to ask Shi Tingzhu for his next step, but they didn't expect to pounce. Knowing that someone Shi had slipped away, they immediately scolded, and after scolding, they also took more than 3,000 of their subordinates to slip away. Of course, they still have a conscience, and they also informed their allies before retreating.

The news of Shi Tingzhu's escape spread through the city like wings. When the soldiers of the Green Battalion, who had not resisted very effectively, heard this, they immediately lost their will to resist, and they either broke and fled backwards without a head, or they went into the houses on the left and right to loot and kill, and of course, a small number simply contacted the yellow thieves to surrender directly.

In short, by dawn on May 15, the 28,000 Qing troops in Yangzhou had disappeared, except for about 14,500 who had fled, the rest were either killed or wounded in battles with the East Coast army, or were captured by the East Coast people, or were still hiding in the houses in Yangzhou City, but they had undoubtedly lost their formation and were no longer a threat to the East Coast people.

After sending a cavalry wing to search and pursue the fleeing Qing army, Marshal Mo Mingmo lived in the cleaned Yangzhou Mansion surrounded by all the troops, and then ordered the soldiers outside the city to demolish the camp and then drive into the city. At the same time, the gates of Yangzhou were closed, and people were sent to search for the Qing soldiers who were hiding in the city; The logistics staff began to count the spoils of war, the intelligence staff began to interrogate the prisoners, and the section chief Luo Tiansheng Luo, who accompanied the army, began to post notices in the city, instructing the people to live in their own places and not to move around at will; Finally, he also sent people to inform the navy cruising on the river, instructing them to closely monitor the movements in the south of the Yangtze River, especially in Nanjing, and that the Qing army would immediately harass and intercept the Qing army as soon as it had the intention of crossing north, and at the same time promptly notify the 6th Army in the north of the river.

Since the day the East Bank fleet appeared on the river in late April, the water transportation system from Zhenjiang to the north through the canal to Beijing has been effectively interrupted, and before the East Bank army attacked Yangzhou, a small number of soldiers were sent to block the Grand Canal with spears, so that this blood transfusion artery was completely cut off. It's just that in this era, the Manchus had not yet formed the habit of relying on rice and grain south of the Yangtze River, and the truncation of the Grand Canal would certainly have an adverse impact on them, but it was far less than imagined.

For five days since May 15, Mo Ming has been sitting peacefully in Yangzhou City. Wait for your sons to loot, count, and transport the spoils of war in the city. Undoubtedly. Laying down Yangzhou, a famous prosperous city, the harvest will naturally not be small. According to the current rough statistics. A total of more than 300,000 taels of treasury silver (including the government treasury, the county treasury, and the unpaid tax silver of the salt transfer treasurer) were seized in the city, more than 700,000 taels of enemy property (the cash silver produced by the Qing army generals and officials designated by the leading party), 290,000 stones of rice grain, more than 1,000 mules and horses, cloth, silk, silk, tea, porcelain, and so on, in addition to a large number of calligraphy, paintings, antiques and other items that are not easy to value.

It's just that when the logistics staff reported to Mo Ming with a trembling and excited voice, Mo Ming was still not satisfied. Then under his hint, the wealthy merchants in Yangzhou City suddenly fell into blood mold, and after being blackmailed by the people on the east coast, they jointly "donated" 800,000 taels of silver for tea and water to the army on the east coast, and Mo Ming gave up. These people have really had a bad past two years, and they were first robbed and extorted by the army of Duoduo. Then he was blackmailed by Shi Tingzhu and others, and now he has been looted by the yellow-clothed thieves three times, and his family wealth has gone to seven or eight times. However, these people are extremely rich, and they have a lot of money, and they usually buy a bird's nest for thousands of taels at every turn, and a red card prostitute spends a hundred taels a day without blinking.

This is not counting, the solid families with industries in Yangzhou City were also knocked on the door by the East Coast army to collect money, which collected another 120,000 taels of silver. In addition, some shops, money houses, brothels, tea shops, etc., were also jointly donated more than 200,000 taels of silver. These items add up. The silver harvested in this battle has exceeded 2.3 million taels, and nearly three years of military spending has been harvested in one fell swoop. This made Mo Ming very happy.

Yang Mingyang, a cavalry captain who led the army in pursuit of the Qing army a few days ago, also led the army back. Later on May 15, they pursued the fleeing Shi Tingzhu Zhengbaiqi Han army to Yizhen County, but the Qing army, which was unexpectedly pursued by the yellow-clothed thieves so quickly, did not dare to stay, and abandoned the city again and fled, seemingly heading in the direction of Gaoyouzhou in the north. Seeing this, most of the 4,000 Green Battalion soldiers who fled here on mules and followed Shi Tingzhu's troops also dispersed in a hurry, and a few soldiers who remained in Yizhen City simply went out of the city and knelt down to ask for surrender.

Yang Mingyang didn't bother to pay attention to them, and after departing 500 people to supervise the more than 1,000 troops to escort a large number of money, grain, and livestock seized in Yizhen County to the direction of Yangzhou, he led his 2,000 cavalry to return to Jiangdu along the road from Yizhen, and intercepted and defeated a large number of Qing army green battalion troops on the way. These Qing troops all escaped from the city of Yangzhou, at this time they were in a hurry to flee for their lives, the troops were not in order, the soldiers had no fighting spirit, and they were often defeated by the cavalry on the east bank, and within four or five days, there were about more than 4,000 Qing troops in the green battalion who were cut down to the ground by Yang Mingyang's cavalry, and the rest did not know what to do, and they were scattered everywhere.

After this battle, less than 10,000 soldiers and horses under the direct leadership of the poor Shi Tingzhu Department managed to escape, and the rest of the men and horses were completely lost. Moreover, of the nearly 10,000 people who fled, more than half of the equipment and equipment were lost, and all of them were demoralized and panicked, and it seemed that they would not be able to go to the battlefield again without long-term training. If Hong Chengchou of Nanjing is clear enough, it is better to let Shi Tingzhu's troops go to the south to deal with Nanming to regain confidence, and if it is placed in Jiangbei, it is only 10,000 pigs, and they no longer have the courage to fight against the yellow-clothed thief again.

After Yang Mingyang's department returned, on May 2o, the navy reported urgently that the Qing army had gathered a large number of ships in Nanjing and Zhenjiang, as if they wanted to cross north; The Qing forces in the Taizhou and Gaoyou prefectures also appear to have been reinforced - most likely from Huai'an Province - and their forwards are now tentatively moving south, and have already engaged in small scout battles with the security forces.

Faced with such a situation, Mo Ming, who originally intended to lead his army north to attack Taizhou to expand the results of the battle, suddenly changed his mind, and he ordered the whole army to abandon Yangzhou City and retreat eastward. At present, the fleet is loading the captured booty in the Jingjiang area, and Mo Ming decided to lead the army to withdraw there first. After this stage of the Battle of Yangzhou, the losses of the army on the east coast were not light, with more than 12oo casualties before and after: among them, more than 5oo people were killed and wounded in Zhai Congge's department (the department pulled more than 1,000 strong men to supplement the loss of troops near Yangzhou), the Black Eight Banners lost more than 1oo people, the standing team lost more than 26o people, the 6th Army on the east coast lost more than 3o people, and the military man lost 3oo people. The East Coast soldiers are not iron men either, and they need to rest and recuperate for now. Anyway, judging from the current situation, they seem to have successfully mobilized the Qing army, as evidenced by the fact that the main force of the Qing army in Jiangnan intends to cross north. Now that the goal has been initially achieved, it is better to withdraw eastward and move closer to the navy, and then wait and see.

On the afternoon of May 28, the mighty army on the east bank marched eastward to Jingjiang County, the capital of Changzhou, without hindrance. After the army on the east coast withdrew from Yangzhou with a large amount of booty, Shi Tingzhu immediately occupied Yangzhou City as quickly as possible, and at the same time claimed that his troops had recovered Yangzhou after "hard fighting", and broke the yellow-clothed thieves and cut off a number of clouds. (To be continued......)

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