In the early morning, the rumbling of cannon fire drove away the last trace of night, and the morning light appeared in the eastern sky.

Ten miles west of Yangzhou City, the Qing army camp, the Eight Banners guarding the camp gate moved the antlers away from the horses, and a green battalion of more than 3,000 people drove out of the camp and marched south.

This is a team that went out to catch Ding and collect food, and the general led by it was Liu Zhong, the chief soldier.

Liu Zhong was originally a general of Dashun, an official general, with the title of earl, and was also a senior general in the Shun army, and was ordered by Li Zicheng to guard Huaiqing Mansion on the north bank of the Yellow River.

Duoduo led a large army to attack Tongguan from Beijing, and captured the city occupied by the Shun army along the way. Liu Zhong's army was only a few thousand people, so he naturally couldn't defeat the Duoduo army, so he led the army to abandon the city and flee.

After the loss of Tongguan and Li Zicheng led the army to abandon Guanzhong and be unable to escape again, Liu Zhong felt that Dashun had no future, so he surrendered to Duoduo who went out of Tongguan and was entrusted with the position of chief soldier.

Now Liu Zhong led more than 3,000 of his subordinates to go out to collect food on Duoduo's orders, and all of his subordinates were in high spirits and extremely excited.

Collecting food and grabbing food can do whatever you want, take the opportunity to grab some property to fill your pocket, but it is much better than staying in the camp. Liu Zhong's subordinates are all thieves, many of them were originally rogues, and they are very keen on this kind of thing, and Duoduo sent him to make the best use of it.

A canal divided Yangzhou into two, with the water camp of the Pingnan army, and the Qing army without a water division could not cross the canal for the time being to loot the vast land on the east bank of the canal. The only ones who can rob are the villages on both sides of the southwest of Yangzhou.

Now Liu Zhong led his troops to the area of Yizheng County, looting the countryside all the way to capture Ding and collect grain.

The army went out of the camp gate, along the road to the southwest, there are many hills outside Yangzhou City, the terrain is undulating, but the hills are not too high, mostly dozens of zhang low hills.

There are many farmlands scattered among the hills, and the wheat has turned yellow. There are ditches that run through them, bringing water from lakes and rivers to farmland for irrigation. Because of the abundance of water resources and the relatively mild climate, the life of the people of Yangzhou is much better than that of the north, and Liu Zhong, a native of the north, can naturally distinguish this.

The team of 3,000 people marched all the way to the queue and stretched two miles away, in order to prevent the Ming cavalry from sneaking attack, Liu Zhong put cavalry sentries in front and behind the queue. As soon as they see the Ming army, they will report the news, and the team will immediately shrink and arm, and then there will be cavalry immediately to ask for help. The green battalion soldiers who fetched food were not his way, tens of thousands of troops were sent at the same time, and there was a gap of more than ten miles between them, as long as they could hold out for an hour, reinforcements would appear.

"There is a saying that there is heaven and Suzhou and Hangzhou, this Yangzhou is really rich, you see how well the wheat grows in this field, and the best wheat in our village is not so good."

A bearded green battalion soldier sighed.

"Hey, this is a fart, Yangzhou City is prosperous, it's just the countryside. I heard that the women in Yangzhou City are more beautiful than one another, and it would be cool if Yangzhou could get one. ”

One said the chief officer.

"Didn't you say that Prince Yu ordered that Yangzhou would not be sealed for ten days, you are the general alas, after entering Yangzhou, you may be able to get a beautiful little girl." The beard on his face smiled lewdly.

"Breaking through Yangzhou must be to let the Eight Banners Master go to cool first, and our green camp will eat some leftovers and cold rice at most. Grandpa was impatient to drink footwater. Hey, Zhao Jin, what the fuck are you doing? ”

The general yelled at a green battalion soldier who had broken away from the team.

"Master Boss, I have a bad stomach and I can't hold it back!" The man named Zhao Jin said with a painful face while holding his stomach.

"You fucking are lazy donkeys grinding shit and urinating, hurry up, you can't keep up with the team, so that the Ming army catches it, and Lao Tzu has to collect the body for you."

finished scolding, and then continued to brag.

Liu Zhong's team was originally a wandering army, and the military discipline has always been very poor.

After talking for a while, he remembered Zhao Jin, "Hey, why hasn't this Zhao Jin come back yet, no matter how slow the is, he should come back." ”

"Are you a deserter?" The bearded face guessed.

"No, where can he escape as a deserter, if he leaves the team, he may be arrested and killed by the Ming army, the Pingnan army in Yangzhou is very vicious, even if he surrenders, he will not let go."

The general waited for a while, and saw that Zhao Jin had not come back yet, so he could only go and talk to his Shangguan. Soon the news reached the ears of Liu Zhong, who was walking in the queue on horseback.

Liu Zhong was stunned for a moment, and waved his hand, "Leave him alone, it's just a small soldier, and when you get to the village in front, you can catch as many soldiers as you want." ”

A figure was hidden in the wheat waves in the field, waiting for the team to leave the distance, and immediately rushed towards the east, it was the deserter Zhao Jin.

Running all the way along the field path, it only took half an hour for Zhao Jin to see the wide canal. Just as he was holding his waist to breathe, a small boat rowed out of the reeds, and two Ming soldiers with firearms in their hands looked at him coldly.

......

"You're from the Enemy Intelligence Division?" Yangzhou Governor's Mansion, Chen Yue looked at Zhao Jin who was kneeling in front of him and asked lightly.

"Back to the Hou Ye, his subordinate is the Enemy Intelligence Department, and his official position is the general flag. A few months ago, he followed Lord Liu Neng to Guide and was ordered to enter Liu Zhong's army. ”

Zhao Jin told his identity, and then told Liu Zhong that he was ordered to lead a team to collect grain and arrest Ding.

"The Mantars have already laid a trap, and there are a large number of green battalions collecting food on each road, only more than ten miles apart from each other, and there are three thousand Mongolian cavalry behind them. If our cavalry goes to sneak attack again, they will inevitably fall into the trap of the full Tartars. The subordinates found out about the news, so they took the opportunity to run out halfway and report to the Hou Ye. ”

"Well, hard work. Let's go down and rest first, but Liu Neng is not in Yangzhou now, you can go to He Luhe to report. ”

Looking at this Zhao Jin, Chen Yue pondered for a while, and a smile appeared on his face.

"Traps, ambushes, interesting!"

"What do you think?" Qian Fenglin on the side asked with a smile.

"What does Mr. Qian think?" Chen Yue asked with a smile.

"The Mantar subordinates have set a trap, and each green battalion has thousands of soldiers, and the green battalion alone is beyond the reach of Yu Feng's cavalry, not to mention that there are three thousand Mongolian cavalry behind. The usual practice is to take back the cavalry. Qian Fenglin said.

"Oh, is there anything else to do?" Chen Yue asked meaningfully.

"Of course. The reason why the Qing army sent a large number of green battalion soldiers out to grab grain was that they saw that the troops in Yangzhou City were weak and did not dare to divide their troops out of the city to fight. But they forgot that this Yangzhou is whose home field, our infantry naturally can't be easily dispatched, don't forget that there is also a water camp, and the canal outside the city is still under our control.

Since they've laid the bait, why don't we be fooled once, swallow the bait first, and then bite them hard. ”