After the Ming army approached the city of Yangzhou, Chen Bangyan convened the deployment to discuss the method of breaking the city, and decided to capture the high slope outside the west city, condescendingly bombarded the west city, and at the same time, with the advantage of the sailors, the warships directly attacked the city.

It can be said that all the actions of the Ming army in the past two months have been carried out in accordance with these two strategies.

On the one hand, Chen Bangyan asked Liu Shun to take the stone village on the high slope, and on the other hand, he asked Hu Yiqing to urge the people to dig the canal, and on the other hand, he actively prepared for war, and in order to reduce casualties and familiarize the soldiers with the situation in Yangzhou, he also ordered the people to use the soil used to dig the canal, on the side of the Grand Canal, according to the scale of Yangzhou Xicheng, to build an identical earthen wall.

He asked the soldiers to regard the Grand Canal as the moat of Yangzhou, and the earthen wall as the west city of Yangzhou, and let tens of thousands of soldiers train here in rotation to familiarize themselves with the situation first.

Chen Bangyan and his entourage came down from the stone village to inspect the preparation of the sailors, and after passing through this section of the exercise venue, they saw more than 1,000 elite Ming army pretending to be Qing troops standing on the earthen wall for defense, and on the other side were ten warships, they were close to the earthen wall, and the soldiers who hid in the ship built a long bridge from the ship, attacked the earthen wall, and shouted and killed.

The weapons used by the soldiers were basically the same as in battle, except for unedged swords, spears and arrows without spear heads, and Chen Bangyan gave an order to the Guangwu battalion of Zhongwu Town, which pretended to be defended by the Qing army, that if they could prevent the rotating men and horses from climbing the earthen wall, they would be rewarded, and if they let any of them easily climb the earthen wall, they would be punished.

In a society, there will always be many chains of contempt, and there are also many chains of contempt in the Ming army, such as Zhongzhen Town looks down on Zhongwu Town, and Zhongwu Town looks down on local town troops such as Zhejiang and Tang Dynasty, and the local town army despises the government soldiers and Tusi people below, in short, it is such a layer of contempt.

The commander of the Guangwu battalion in Zhongwu Town is Wang Guangen, who was promoted from Houyong Town a few days ago, although he was promoted by the town army, but he did not spare his hand at all for the town army that was trained in rotation, and it was to educate to the death, and the two months of training have caused several deaths and hundreds of injuries.

Chen Bangyan and the others passed by the training place, and fierce fighting was going on on the earthen wall, and the soldiers of Zhongwu Town did not spare any hands for the brother troops.

The man is energetic in the army, there is not much opportunity to vent, usually he likes to do some fights and brawls, there is often friction between the various departments, but the crowd fights, after all, it is a violation of military law, to eat military sticks, but also to be punished by the commander, after doing it, there will basically be some regrets, but this round of training is different, it is a place for them to vent their vigorous energy, especially when they meet the soldiers of the Tang or Zhejiang departments to practice, both sides are very red-eyed, and all kinds of tricks are greeted to each other.

At first, Zhongwu Town was a big show of might, who would beat whom, nostrils to the sky was arrogant, but as the drill lasted for a long time, it gradually became a little unbearable.

Chen Bangyan listened to the shouts and killing, watched as the soldiers were constantly thrown down and fell into the water, stopped, and ordered: "After today's drill, stop for a while and let the soldiers recuperate for a few days." ”

"The last general knows, and when he goes back, he orders him to stop and cancel tomorrow's rotation training."

Liu Shun received the order, Chen Bangyan nodded, and was about to take a step, but at this time, a burst of cheers suddenly broke out on the earthen wall, and it turned out that the attacker finally pulled out the defender's flag and planted his own flag on the city.

A thousand households with a blue nose and swollen face, together with the subordinates who occupied the earthen wall, were holding weapons and cheering loudly, as if they had really defeated Yangzhou.

Chen Bangyan stopped again and asked with a smile, "Whose people are training in rotation today?" ”

"It's Wu Weijun, Li Yuanyin's people." Liu Shun's face was a little unhappy.

It turned out to be a horse from Jiangxi, Chen Bangyan shook his head, patted Liu Shun's arm lightly, and then said with a smile, "This is very good, it's a good sign, let someone send a batch of meat to Li Yuanyin's department tonight, of course, the Guangwu camp can train them out and have merit, and they have to send some over." ”

The staff who followed immediately made a note of the matter, and then took their leave to supervise it first, so as not to rush the Huotou battalion at that time.

The group left the Sergeant Rotation Training Office and walked to the edge of the Grand Canal.

At this time, along the canal, more than seventy or eighty Ming warships were moored along the river, and thousands of craftsmen were busy transforming the boats.

These ships were selected sail ships, and the craftsmen were unloading all the sails that were easily ignited by rockets, and then installing ladders on the towers, so that as long as the ships were close to the city walls, the ladders were hung directly on the city, and the soldiers could rush directly to the city from the ship's tower that was level with the city.

Of course, the ships rushed into the moat, close to the city wall, the Qing army on the city must counterattack, in order to guard against the artillery, rockets, artillery in the city to attack the warship, the craftsmen also hung a layer of wood on the hull, covered with wet cowhide, like a pair of armor for the warship, although it can not completely offset the attack on the city, but it can play a certain defensive role.

Gunpowder, oil, cowhide, fine iron, these are war materials, especially cowhide, the Ming army is not much, but it is very important, in addition to the armor to use, many other aspects are needed, but the Ming army is difficult to trade with the northern Mongols, to obtain this kind of war materials, fortunately the caravan from Tibet and Qinghai to get some, the Portuguese know that the Ming Dynasty bought this thing at a high price, and will also transport some, so that the Ming army is barely enough.

Chen Bangyan and his entourage inspected the riverside and saw that with the efforts of thousands of craftsmen, the transformation of the warship had been basically completed, and their hearts settled down.

Now the seasons have changed, the cold snap from the north to the south has changed the weather in the south of the Yangtze River, he has more than a month at most, if the Huai River freezes again, the Qing cavalry interspersed in, the Ming army can only temporarily withdraw the troops, that is not only all the previous efforts in vain, but also will make more than 40,000 Qing soldiers calmly retreat to Huaibei, to create a Ming army insurmountable defense line.

Attacking Yangzhou, the Ming army prepared under the city for more than two months, which can be said to be the longest preparation of the Ming army for a siege campaign, and there was not much time, Chen Bangyan almost pressed the treasure on the battleship siege, so he could not fail, he could only make preparations to the extreme, make full preparations, and then take Yangzhou in a battle.

After the group carefully inspected and asked the craftsmen, Chen Bangyan's heart was a lot easier, and the pressure on Wang Yan on him seemed to dissipate because of his full preparation, he stood by the river and looked at the warship like wearing armor, his confidence doubled, and he smiled at people: "Okay, now everyone go back to rest, recuperate, as long as the canal is connected, the army will officially attack the city." ”

The stone village was taken, the preparations of the various departments were completed, and the war was developing in the direction they expected, Liu Shun's heart was also slightly relaxed, feeling that he could live up to Wang Yan's trust, and turned around and returned to the camp with everyone with a smile.

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