The battle of Yangzhou, which had been delayed for several days, was finally rekindled, and in the early morning of this day, the routine morning exercise was replaced by the roaring horn horn, and in the dense and neat pace, one by one, wearing dark and flirtatious cotton armor, heavy to the unstoppable infantry phalanx of iron, came out of the camp and gathered at the north gate of Yangzhou City, under the moss-covered stone city gate.

It's just that compared with more than half a month ago, the morale of Yangzhou has plummeted! At that time, the gentry of Yangzhou still had a little resistance to Mao Jue, who was born as a warlord in the north, after all, no one knew what he would do to everyone in the city after breaking the city, there was no cat in the world who did not steal fish, Yangzhou City has always been famous for its wealth, and everyone was afraid of being robbed by the rebels.

But they lived peacefully for more than ten days, and even Mao Jue peacefully allowed them to open the river and go salt. Mao Jue's way of ruling was gradually accepted by the gentry, at this time Mao Jue suddenly made a big move, and the first impression of these salt merchants was not how to defend the city, but who did not serve well and offended the regent?

In this case, it is conceivable how the morale of the Yangzhou defenders, who were supported by salt merchants, was there.

The face was full of panic, these defenders wearing trumpet uniforms, holding bows and arrows and broadswords directly hid under the battlements at the beginning, and they didn't even dare to show their heads, and the only one in the entire city gate who dared to stand with their waists straight seemed to be the only one left Yangzhou Governor, Shi Kefa, a scholar of Dongge University.

But even if he was around, he was followed by a large group of salt merchants who were bent over and trembling.

"Scholar, come down! The regent is specially sent by the enlightened emperor of the Son of Heaven, and it is a great crime to resist the heavenly army! ”

The fat stomach was uncomfortable, and the old face of the chief merchant Kang Yuanshan was even more bitter like a frosted eggplant, and he was pleading with his fists there sadly. Today, he responded to every call, and several general businessmen such as Hui businessmen Xi Xiaolian and Yao Guangyuan, who usually sang against him, were also full of sorrow and pleading.

"Yes! Lord Shi, there are so many cannons in the regent's army, and it will be all over if I bombard Yangzhou City! ”

"My lord, Yangzhou City treats you well! Be merciful! The old man's whole family lives in this city! As long as this scourge of swords and soldiers is avoided, the old and decayed whole clan is willing to build a shrine for the adults, and worship the kindness of the adults at four o'clock! ”

"Master Shi, you are a good official, even if the regent is demoted, our colleagues in Yangzhou salt merchants are willing to spend money to praise you, and you are still a high-ranking official!"

The sound of persuasion made Shi Kefa's face even darker and rigid!

At this moment, he actually had a feeling that everyone was drunk and I was sober!

Everyone knows Mao Jue's great ambitions, once Jiangnan falls, how many days will Mao Jue be away from abolishing Emperor Kaiming and becoming emperor? But even those colleagues in the Yingtian court who called themselves gentlemen gave up the Ming Dynasty that they had fought for and gave them rights and glory, not to mention these businessmen and poor people who valued profit over righteousness.

These days, there is a steady stream of officials and families who come to Jiangbei to surrender to Cheng, not to mention Ruan Dacheng's eunuch party, even the Qian family of Qian Qianyi, the head of Donglin, and even the Donglin Lixue who thinks of Zhu Zi every day to save the principles of heaven and money, groveling down to the new master, the feeling that the building will fall is extremely heavy, and Shi Kefa is almost breathless.

But in the midst of this exhortation, Shi Kefa suddenly raised his head, and laughed like a madman, the laughter was as sad as a ghost, and the group of salt merchants who were still struggling to persuade were terrified.

In the next second, before these salt merchants could react, Shi Kefa suddenly snatched the torches from the soldiers around him like a madman, and then smashed the torches on the city defense cannon that had been loaded.

With a loud bang, in the pale faces of the salt merchants, the cannons sprayed out fiercely, and the heavy cannonballs knocked over a corner of the Liaozhen army that was arrayed.

Listening to the screams under the city, Kang Yuanshan's face was as pale as earth, and he didn't dare to say a word anymore, he just lifted his robe and turned around and ran, and behind them, Shi Kefa's wolf-like voice roared fiercely.

"Go to war! War! ”

How is the history, since the descendants commented, in the history without Mao Jue, Shi Kefa faced the iron hooves of the alien race and lost Yangzhou with his integrity, he is a hero, but in this time and space, it is estimated that he has to become a typical example of stubbornness and stubborn resistance, but in any case, this battle of Yangzhou was kicked off by him.

Sitting behind the army, still wrapped in a half-body bandage, wrapped like a mummy, King Mao Liao was also stunned by this cannon, so many days of contact, he also thought that Yangzhou would surrender without a fight, after all, he is not a vicious Tartar, and he has no reputation for slaughtering cities and killing people, now it seems that he still underestimates these stubborn old antiques.

It's just that this cannon is not a bad thing for Mao Jue! This gave him the truth to shoot at the fat and oily Yangzhou salt merchants, if the soldiers took Yangzhou City without blood, it would be really difficult to reach out and hit a group of smiling people!

Passive beating is not Liaozhen's character, he raised his head suddenly, and Mao Jue roared highly: "Guanyin Mountain position, counterattack!" ”

The herald is like an electric current on a circuit board, flowing quickly behind the army, and a man who can make a woman so excited in one sentence is probably Mao Jue, the shape is tall like some indescribable object under the Dongjiang red-clothed cannon, and in an instant, the eyes of the artillery commander Sun Chun shone as if a raging fire was ignited.

The beautiful set of war songs she had prepared had finally come in handy!

First knelt down on one knee obediently, and replied to Mao Jue's order with a military salute, and then the woman suddenly pulled out her sword and pointed to the majestic ancient Yangzhou city wall under the mountain, Sun Chun's high, sharp and melodious voice sounded loudly in the ears of those artillerymen who did not know the first phase of the new enlistment.

"What are we?"

"An undying blizzard in the Far East!"

The muzzle of the cannon has already been ready to adjust the firing unit these days, and with Sun Chun's roar, these artillerymen neatly ripped off their gun jackets and shouted in response. Glancing at his subordinates with satisfaction, Sun Chun roared magnificently again.

"Let them feel what despair is in a blizzard, Fa Ye !!"

In response to the delicate woman, there was a roaring cannon, which was like a landslide in an instant, and rows of cannons poured out tongues of fire, and the already misty Guanyin Mountain was instantly filled with rich white gunsmoke, and the sturdy iron balls dragged the tail smoke, and the hail fell on the city so densely.

It was really the despair in the blizzard, with some Yangzhou beautiful wooden city buildings collapsed in an instant, the scattered wood with a large amount of dust smashed backwards on the heads of the houses facing the city wall, the huge roar frightened the salt merchants who had just escaped from the city gate not far from the legs and feet of one by one, scrambling to kneel on the ground, on the shopping mall, they are the old rivers and lakes calling for wind and rain, on the battlefield, but they are as small as ants.

Especially Kang Yuanshan, the chief merchant from the Jin Dynasty, couldn't control it, and he clearly felt a burst of heat emerging from under his crotch.

Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate, was scared to pee when he first went into battle, and it was not uncommon for him to be a small businessman under the doomsday fire of the Dongjiang River. However, this earth-destroying momentum was like a nightmare, entangled for many years.

Watching the battle from afar, let alone the defending officers and soldiers on the city wall facing the attack, crackling and falling in the rain of shotguns, like a dead insect, clusters of bright red blood stains spread across the city wall, and heavy solid bullets smashed out various shocking craters on the side, and huge cracks and hideously permeated the wall tiles.

After all, it is a scholar of the East Pavilion, a supervisor, even if Shi Kefa is the initiator of this time, there are still people who sacrifice their lives to protect him, a moment before the death blizzard came, several pro-soldiers risked death to push him to the city gate arrow tower, although the arrow tower collapsed, but after all, the corner of the building still has a certain protective effect, a body of official robes are covered with dust, and the gray face stands out from the garbage heap, looking left and right, Shi Kefa is like the Qing Dynasty minister who first saw British foreign guns and foreign cannons more than 200 years later, looking around in disbelief.

But this is not over, suddenly, he felt a huge roar under his feet suddenly sounded, and it was the second explosion of the drill bomb when Mao Jue attacked Yangzhou.

In the loud noise, the north city wall that was built in the Hongwu period of Yangzhou, which has a history of more than 200 years, collapsed a large piece, and Shi Kefa, who was shocked, fell directly to the ground.

Since the rise of artillery, the conflict between the great powers is also a contest between artillery and fortresses, fortresses, star forts, one after another, but the city wall of Yangzhou is obviously in the ranks of fortresses in the backward position, so the battle of Yangzhou began with artillery bombardment, and finally shelled.

The tide of the Liaozhen army drove into Yangzhou City, the last fortress of the Southern Ming Dynasty in Jiangbei with the shouts of the sergeant, it was declared to have fallen, under the collapsed city tower, Shi Kefa was still looking at the devastating scene in a daze, and the two Dongjiang sergeants who were ordered directly dragged him by the shoulders and took him off the city wall.

.........

After entering the city, part of the army took over the city defense along the city wall, disarmed the remaining defenders, and then escorted the more than 20,000 Yangzhou troops out of the city to guard, and the other team was to carry out the vigilance at the yamen one by one, ordering the panicked residents to either go out of the city or stay at home, this super metropolis with a population of 800,000 was stabilized in just half a day.

Some of the Huizhou salt merchants fled from the city with a small amount of family wealth, and the Liaozhen army did not chase after them, allowing them to leave, and even many officials of Shi Kefa were simply driven out of the city and stuffed into the boats going to the south of the Yangtze River.

In the afternoon, a large number of Liaozhen soldiers under the leadership of the intelligence department Jinyi Wei Tiqi, is to visit one house after another, all the salt merchants who escaped, the precious Jiangnan garden gate seal is pasted, this is confiscated, the salt merchants who did not escape, is a letter of worship, the afternoon regent banquet.

At about three o'clock in the afternoon, at the time of afternoon tea, the governor's yamen, where Shi Kefa had stayed, was once again full of friends, and one by one the salt merchants carried large bags of gifts, trembling fish into it.

This Mao Jue is stingy enough, saying that it is a banquet, and the whole table is full of canned food, canned pork, canned beans, canned mutton, canned fish, although there are a lot of samples, but where do these things fit the appetite of those salt merchants who don't get tired of eating and stewing? However, even if the Han banquet is full this time, it is estimated that the salt merchants will not have the heart to eat, and hundreds of salt merchants, large and small, are all nervously looking at the gate, and at the same time they can't help but weigh in their hearts how much silver they need to pay to appease the regent's anger this time.

But the panic began when Mao Jue entered the door, and now it is May, although the north is still quite cold, but Yangzhou, where the climate is abnormal, is already slightly stuffy, and Mao Jue, who is wrapped in a bandage, simply wears a military coat and walks in with a bandage on his chest.

In an instant, the reason for this sudden siege seemed to have been found by these salt merchants, and the regent was injured!!

They didn't know that this was Mao Jue's ruthless self-pumping, and the regent guards could still be injured under the layers, and the only thing that could be done by the people around them, and just two days ago, the Qian family sent a Qin Huai beauty Gu Mei, but many people knew that even Kang Yuanshan and Xi Xiaolian were asked by Qian Qianyi to handle this matter, and the word assassination suddenly appeared in their hearts.

The legs of the two chief businessmen immediately weakened, and they fell to their knees directly, kowtowing desperately and begging: "The villain deserves death!" Sin deserves death! ”

Following them, either the rabbit died and the fox was sad, or slightly gloating, hundreds of salt merchants also knelt down in panic and kept kowtowing.

"The villain is guilty, beg the regent to be lenient!"

was originally here to sing blackface, of course Mao Jue would not give up this opportunity, and immediately, he looked furious, and roared like thunder.

"Of course you're guilty! Unexpectedly, the artillery fire resisted the heavenly soldiers of this king! This feast is a feast of inquiry! ”

As soon as these murderous words came out, several big salt merchants were immediately paralyzed, and Kang Yuanshan also lay on the ground in despair, I'm afraid that the Nine Clans will be punished now, right?

However, to their consternation, Mao Jue walked in angrily, and he was still waving his hand at them.

"Get up for Lao Tzu, sit down, and Lao Tzu will slowly settle accounts with you!"

Mao Jue is the master here, he let these salt merchants take the big top with their heads down, and no one dared to resist, as he sat down, a group of salt merchants were like elementary school students, and they were also obediently seated, under the nervous gaze of a pair of eyes, Mao Jue first took a sip of tea slowly, and then hummed "annoyed".

"Ladies and gentlemen, I Mao Jue is also from a business background, my Mao Jue's Dongjiang Town, I believe many of you have been there, so I Mao Jue understands you, April salt, even if the army fights, I will let you out of the city, but what did you do? Doing such a thing! You guys are so disappointed Mao! ”

"The regent forgives the sin, the villain knows that he is wrong, the villain is willing to sacrifice all the family property, please forgive!"

Under the frightened heartbeat, Kang Yuanshan could only grit his teeth and fight, and knelt on the ground again, they all kowtowed heavily, but this scene made Mao Jue a little stunned, this salt merchant is so unfrightening?

A person's fortune is at least one or two million taels, which is really not a small amount, but unfortunately, Mao Jue's purpose for coming today is not this, the corners of his mouth twitched a little painfully, and he finally showed an angry look again.

"Human life is precious! Did you come here with a little bit of silver? ”

It's over, it's really going to kill the clan first! Several of the salt merchants involved were completely paralyzed on the ground. But then, Mao Jue's words made all the salt merchants almost can't help jumping up.

"This king will ban all of you from salt and salt nests!"

(End of chapter)