In the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, the armies of the Ming and Qing dynasties have coincidentally gone down the east side of the Yangtze River, and Jiujiang, an important town on the Yangtze River, is their place after all, and fierce battles will break out in the near future, which will directly affect the pattern of the world.

In Wuchang City, Hao Shaoqi, the new envoy of the Shun Army, was also reorganizing the army, thinking hard about what to do next.

In Huaiyang, thousands of miles away, the Qing army on the East Road had already attacked Sizhou, which was only more than 400 miles away from Yangzhou City.

The Qing army on the east and west roads set out from Xi'an at about the same time, and Duoduo led the Qing army on the east road to Yangzhou through Tongguan, Luoyang, Kaifeng, and De, traveling 2,700 miles away. The west road Azig Department of Xi'an south, through the inner countryside Lantian Xiangyang, and then along the Hanshui to Hanyang, the road is less than 1,500 miles.

Although the distance was thousands of miles apart, the Azig tribe had to fight with the Shun army along the way, which delayed a lot of time. Although the Duoduo Department traveled a long way, there was no real fierce battle along the way, and the Ming troops along the way surrendered or fled. So the time to fight is also the time to march.

Therefore, when Azig fought all the way to Hanyang, Duoduo led the army to Sizhou, which was only 400 miles away from Yangzhou.

And in Sizhou, the Qing army finally encountered fierce resistance that had never been seen before.

Sizhou is located on the north bank of the Huai River, the Bianhe River flows through the city into the Huai River, the water and land transportation is developed, it is the throat of the Central Plains, and the key point of the north and south. Sizhou is located at the entrance of the Huai River into Hongze Lake, and on the east side is the magnificent Hongze Lake with a radius of hundreds of miles. And more than ten miles north of the city, there is the most important place in Sizhou, the Ming Ancestral Mausoleum!

After Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang ascended the throne, he found the ancestral tomb of his Zhu family in Sizhou, and then built the first mausoleum of the Ming Dynasty - Ming Zu Mausoleum. Here Zhu Yuanzhang buried the bones of his ancestors, great-grandfathers and grandfathers.

The importance of Sizhou's prosperous traffic location and the existence of the Ming ancestral mausoleum all determine that Sizhou can not be easily discarded. After losing Sizhou, the Qing soldiers could reach Yangzhou in a few days after crossing the Huai River.

Therefore, Chen Yue sent Jin Shenghuan, a heavy general of the Pingnan Army, to lead a battalion of troops to garrison Sizhou, and at the same time, there were also deputy generals Shi Dewei, general Ma Yingkui and other generals who also led their headquarters to obey Jin Shenghuan's command in Sizhou. In Xuyi County, on the south bank of the Huai River in Sizhou, there is also the army of the brothers Zhang Tianfu and Zhang Tianlu. The defeated soldiers such as Liu Zhaoji and Hu Shangyou also fled into Sizhou one after another, and there were more than 20,000 Ming troops in Xuyi, the entire Sizhou Xuyi, and the strength was not too small.

However, the Qing army that went south had 100,000 troops, and the strength was already five times that of Sizhou. Outside the city of Sizhou, the Qing army set up large camps on three sides in the northwest and east, and the company camped for dozens of miles.

In fact, when the Mongolian cavalry led by the Manchu Gushan Ezhen Baiyitu and Mel Zhangjing Yild first arrived in Sizhou, they tried to attack Sizhou, but they were repelled by the rain of crossbow arrows and fire bolts on the city, and then they knew that the Ming army had gathered heavy troops in the city of Sizhou.

After marching all the way into Nanzhili, the resistance encountered by the Qing army gradually became fierce, and Guzhen, Wuhe, Fushan and other places encountered resistance from the Ming army. Of course, in front of the soldiers of the Eight Banners, the resistance of the Ming army was easily crushed like a mantis arm blocking a car, blocking the Qing army for a day or two at most.

However, this also made the Qing generals realize the difference between the Ming army in Nanzhili and Henan, and their arrogance was slightly reduced.

After entering Nanzhi, another difference is that the surrender of the Ming army gradually decreased, unlike in Henan, the Ming army of the Eight Banners went to the wind and surrendered, and the Ming army here even if they could not resist most of them chose to flee, and there were many fewer direct surrenders. Unlike another time and space, when Duoduo led the Qing army to Yangzhou, most of the Ming troops in the four towns of Jiangbei chose to surrender, and the reorganized green battalion alone numbered nearly 200,000 soldiers.

Of course, most of these Qing generals didn't care, and the Ming army, whose combat effectiveness was like scum, would not be of much use even if it surrendered, this was the idea of most of the Eight Banners generals.

However, without the Green Battalion to follow the troops, there will be much less cannon fodder to attack the city, and it is not so easy for the Ming army in Sizhou to reach more than 20,000 to break through. Baiyitu led the army to stay outside the city of Sizhou and joined the main force of the Qing army.

A few days later, the main force of the Qing army arrived outside the city of Sizhou one after another and surrounded Sizhou.

Although Duoduo was only thirty years old, he grew up on horseback since he was a child, and at the age of thirteen, he led the Zhengbai Banner to lead the army to fight Mongolia, Korea, and the Ming Dynasty.

In the small Sizhou, more than 20,000 Ming troops are naturally not in the eyes of Duoduo. After arriving outside the city of Sizhou, he first sent Gushan Ezhen Tulai to lead the army and the Kong Youde Han military camp to cross the Huai River from the upper reaches and attack Xuyi. Although the Huai River is also wide, it can not be compared with the Yangtze River, it is located in the plain and there are ferries everywhere, and the Ming army did not have the strength to block the entire Huai River and prevent the Qing army from passing.

More than 30,000 Qing troops crossed the Huai River and surrounded Xuyi City from the south. In the face of the attack of tens of thousands of Qing troops, there were only 5,000 troops in Xuyi City, and the guards Zhang Tianfu and Zhang Tianlu brothers did not dare to resist, and decisively chose to surrender in Kaecheng.

If the Zhang Tianlu brothers are willing to defend with their hearts, there will be no problem in defending for ten days and a half months, and at present, the Qing army is in a hurry to fight a quick battle and cannot afford to delay it. There was so much time enough for reinforcements to arrive. However, the Zhang brothers did not have the courage to fight the Qing army at all, but chose to surrender as in history.

After the capture of Xuyi, Sizhou was surrounded from all sides. There are more than 10 cannons at the head of Xuyi City, which were originally used to prevent the enemy from crossing the Huai River, but now the muzzles of the cannons have been turned around and aimed at Sizhou City.

Duoduo's army carried nearly 20 red-coated cannons, relying on artillery to break through the city walls, and then sent troops into the city to fight, which was the main means adopted by the Qing army to attack the city.

In the previous wars between the Ming and Qing dynasties, the elite border army of the Ming army was wiped out by the Qing army, Wu Sangui, Shang Kexi, Kong Youde, Geng Jingzhong and countless other Ming generals led the army to surrender to the Qing Dynasty, and a large number of materials were seized by the Qing army.

In the Qing soldiers, the use rate of firearms is extremely high, of course, the brave and good warriors of the Eight Banners do not look down on firearms with extremely low efficiency, and choose to use strong bows and crossbows, and most of the firearms are equipped in the Han military camp.

And now, under the order of Duoduo, dozens of artillery pieces were deployed outside the city of Sizhou, firing fiercely at the city wall of Sizhou, and countless projectiles fell on the city head one after another, smashing on the city wall, and the entire city of Sizhou was crumbling.

Of course, there was also artillery on the city of Sizhou, and under the command of Jin Shenghuan, the Ming artillery launched a counterattack against the Qing army. There was no conventional siege of the city by filling the ladder, but the two sides first launched a fierce artillery battle.