Zhang Bao rushed to the gap with reinforcements only to find that the city had been disrupted, and the Ming army on his side occupied a distance of more than 100 meters from the gap, and in the distance was the large army of the Qing army, mixed with the Ming army, slashing and killing each other.

Seeing this chaotic situation, Zhang Bao also broke off his mind to look for Jiang Pengju, Zhang Bao saw several Ming gunners tinkering with an artillery piece at the gap, and stepped forward and asked, "How did you get it?" Why not fire? ”

"Sir, we were brought up by manpower, but there was only one shell in the barrel, and the rest of the ammunition was outside the city, and the subordinates had already asked people to pick it up, but sir, you saw it, now that it is a mess here, it is estimated that the ammunition and artillery cannot be used!"

The gunner was right, now that the Ming army and the Qing army are in a mess, the artillery used as a face kill has lost its power.

At this moment, there was a sound in Zhang Bao's armor, and it turned out that he had been hit by an arrow, but it was bounced off. Zhang Bao looked up, and the Qing army guards on the city wall began to react, standing on the city wall condescendingly using bows, arrows, and stones to kill the Ming army at the gap.

Zhang Bao secretly scolded your mother, and said to a company commander next to him: "You take a hundred people out to transport gunpowder in, don't shells just gunpowder, expand the gap, or the follow-up troops will not be able to enter!" ”

The company commander took the order and left, Zhang Bao saw that it was less than five hundred meters away from Xu Ningmen, so it was better to take someone to open the city gate and let the follow-up troops in. Thinking of this Zhang keeping a thousand people and ordering other soldiers to join the melee in the city, Zhang Bao took a thousand people to walk through the wall and run towards Xu Ningmen.

Zhu Shichang, who was in the rear of the Qing army, saw the reinforcements of the Ming army coming in, and a stream of Ming troops rushing towards Xu Ningmen, he was frightened. He knew that this army was going to open Xu Ningmen and enlarge the Ming army to enter the city, so that Yangzhou City would really be gone. Xu Ning Gate and South Gate Anjiang Gate are not the same, Anjiang Gate is the main gate with three layers of urn city, plus the defense facilities are complete, basically there is no possibility of loss. But Xu Ning Gate is different, here is just a city wall open door, the Song Dynasty is a gap in the city wall, for people who do not want to go around the city out of the city, in the Ming Dynasty only built the city gate here, it is conceivable that the defense of Xu Ning Gate is not much stronger than the city wall.

Zhu Shichang looked at the back, the reinforcements on his side had not yet arrived, and there was no way Zhu Shichang could only personally lead the remaining more than 4,000 people to bypass the main battlefield and intercept the Ming army's team stealing the city gate.

After Zhu Shichang took away 4,000 people, Jiang Pengju's pressure on his side was reduced, Jiang Pengju looked up and found that a large number of Qing troops were rushing to the city gate, Jiang Pengju didn't know why, his main task now was to stand firm and wait for the musketeers in the rear to enter the city. Now that the Qing army on the opposite side is less than half, Jiang Pengju immediately led people to drive the Qing army out of 200 meters.

Just when he was fighting for life and death here in Nancheng, Hong Chengchou, who was commanding the Yamen of the Lianghuai Patrol Salt Division, also received the news of Zhu Shichang's request for help. Hong Chengchou didn't expect that it was only less than half an hour, and Zhu Shichang, who had 10,000 soldiers and horses, began to ask for help, but he had no choice but to hand over 10,000 people in the reserve team to Wang Shixuan and let him lead the team to rescue the south gate.

Hong Chengchou thought very well, it was not far from Xu Ningmen, and it would arrive in a quarter of an hour, and Zhu Shichang would be able to hold on for a quarter of an hour no matter what he said. However, Hong Chengchou forgot that the water network in Yangzhou City is dense, there are bridges everywhere, and the southern city is in full swing, and the local residents have fled to the northern city, and several bridges from the northern city to the southern city are crowded with fleeing residents. Wang Shixuan was blocked on the bridge with people, and in the end Wang Shixuan had no choice, and ordered the soldiers to hack to death the residents who blocked the bridge, so that the road was clear, but when Wang Shixuan arrived at Xu Ningmen, half an hour had passed.

The Ming army outside the city is just the opposite, although there are some houses outside the city, but Yangzhou has been fighting here for a month, and the houses outside the city have turned into rubble, and there is no crowding in the city at all. After the company commander took gunpowder and blew the gap in the city wall nearly a hundred meters, the follow-up troops of the Ming army finally rushed into the city.

The first group to enter the city was a regiment of Zhao Guodong's second division, and after 3,000 people entered the city, they immediately set up a formation and opened fire on the Qing army that was fighting with the Ming army, and the Qing army was caught off guard and killed hundreds of people on the spot. At this time, Zhu Shichang, the chief general of the Ming army, led people to intercept Zhang Bao, and the only one who stayed here to command was only a general, and he could manage a team of four or five thousand people.

Jiang Pengju saw that the Qing army had retreated, and his own people came up, he relaxed and was sore all over, and he didn't know how many injuries he had suffered. Jiang Pengju didn't care about the blood flowing on the ground, and sat on the ground panting.

The deputy commander of the second division came to Jiang Pengju's side, and it was easy to see Jiang Pengju covered in blood, and asked, "Old Jiang, are you okay!" 5,000 people blocked the Qing army of tens of thousands, you have won the first credit for breaking the city! ”

Jiang Pengju glanced up and scolded: "Don't talk about the damn wind and cold, and don't bring your people to help Lao Tzu defend!" ”

The deputy division commander nodded, and ordered his men to help the brothers of the 10th Division treat the wounded and defend their positions.

A total of 5,000 people came in the first batch with Jiang Pengju, and after less than half an hour of melee casualties, less than half of them are now intact. Although the siege battle was very tragic, but the negligence of the 10th Division was also a major reason, these new annexed troops had just arrived in Yangzhou for less than a month and a half, and the queue was put into the battlefield without learning, fortunately, a large number of grassroots officers were veterans of the Praetorian Division, if there was no organization of these grassroots officers, maybe they would have been beaten out of the city by the Qing army just now.

At this time, Ma Jiyuan, who was standing at the command post outside the city and watching the siege, breathed a sigh of relief, now the new army has rushed in, there are tens of thousands of people, Yangzhou City is finally in hand, and the rest is to clean up the remnants of the Qing army in the city.

Ma Jiyuan turned his head and said to Zhao Guodong: "Admiral Zhao, you have done a good job, this governor will not delay you here, and you can do the rest!" After Ma Jiyuan finished speaking, he turned around and walked out of the command post, and returned to his camp to wait for the good news.

Seeing Ma Jiyuan leave, the army generals in the camp finally breathed a sigh of relief, although Ma Jiyuan didn't know how to command, but he had an invisible pressure here, and now that he was gone, the pressure was reduced a lot.

Zhao Guodong, as the admiral, said to Zhao Guoliang: "Guoliang, it's up to you next, you lead the two regiments of the Eighth Division, plus all the troops of the Second Division, to rush in to clean up the remnants of the Qing Army!" ”

Zhao Guoliang is the general outside Yangzhou City second only to Zhao Guodong, Zhao Guodong has already handed over the command of the army in the city to Zhao Guoliang, this is a good time to make meritorious contributions. Zhao Guo's conscience was overjoyed, and he went down to prepare after holding his fists and receiving the order.

The Ming army in the city took advantage of the retreat of the Qing army and began to form a position three hundred meters outside the gap, but now it is not the kind of human position just now, with the increase of the Ming army entering the city, more than a dozen cannons have been transported, Zhao Guoliang ordered the formation of a ring artillery position outside the gap to prevent the Qing army from counterattacking. Just after the Ming army had just established its position, the 10,000 Qing reinforcements led by Wang Shixuan finally arrived. It is better to come early than to come by chance, and the 10,000 Qing troops just arrived and happened to meet the artillery of the Ming army.

As soon as the Qing army rushed out of the street, Zhao Guoliang ordered the artillery to start attacking, and now the number of Ming troops in the city is not large, Zhao Guoliang wants to ensure the safety of the Ming army entering the city, and there is no way to kill and injure the Qing army in large numbers, so he can only crush the Qing army.

Fifteen artillery pieces were loaded with shotguns, and the first salvo killed hundreds of Qing soldiers, plus the fire of the Ming musketeers, enough thousands of people fell in the open space in front of the position. The Qing army in the back didn't know what was going on, and they heard a burst of earth-shaking cannons, and the brothers in front fell down, the speed of this kind of hot * weapon killing was unimaginable for the Qing army, and the Qing army in the rear saw that the Ming army's firearms were so sharp, and they were so frightened that they fled. Wang Shixuan saw that his subordinates had run away, but he had learned the artillery of the Ming army outside Nanjing, and at that time his side had the advantage, and he was beaten all over the ground by the Ming army.

Wang Shixuan saw that there was nothing to do, so he hurriedly fled with the rebels, but he still had some eyes, and when he fled, he burned several bridges from the south to the north to delay the attack of the Ming army.

Now that the Ming army has gained a firm foothold in Nancheng, the fall of Yangzhou City is a foregone conclusion. Zhao Guoliang saw that there were tens of thousands of Ming troops in the city, and they could already clear the Qing army, so he ordered that according to the street battle drill, each company of the new army was equipped with an artillery, and began to enter the city to clear the Qing army.

With the Ming brigade entering the city, the hand-to-hand combat unit mission of the 10th Division has ended, and they can withdraw from the city. However, these guys were still worried about the ownerless property that Jiang Pengju said, and more than a dozen gangs began to follow the Ming army into the city, striving for some benefits. Zhang Bao, the commander of the 10th Division, was fighting with Zhu Shichang on Xu Ningmen's side, Jiang Peng was wounded in the thigh and was being bandaged, for a while these guys became lonely ghosts and unrestrained, and officers at all levels received orders to clear the Qing army in the city, so they didn't care much about these guys, and the people in Yangzhou City suffered from it.

Although Zhu Jiang came in early, he was escorted to a safe place by Xu Dingbang with a hundred guards as soon as he came in.

Zhu Jiang saw his comrades-in-arms fighting to the death, and he could only watch from the side, and he was very annoyed in his heart. But he couldn't help it, he knew that if he had anything to do, these hundred guards wouldn't be good, so he didn't resent Xu Dingbang.

Now that the Ming army has firmly established itself on the city wall, some Ming troops began to divide into small groups to enter the city to clear the Qing army. Zhu Jiang said to Xu Dingbang: "Sir Xu, now I want to go into the city to have a look!" ”

Xu Dingbang didn't want Zhu Jiang to enter the city, according to what he thought Zhu Jiang, what did you do as a prince and the second generation of the emperor to attack the city, how good it is to be a breeder in Nanjing, and now Zhu Jiang wants to go in to see if this can make Xu Dingbang difficult.