From December 4, the whole city of Yangzhou was under martial law. The city of Yangzhou, with a population of hundreds of thousands, fell into a deathly silence, and only the villagers who had taken refuge in the city and the teams that kept carrying food to the city brought some life. Many of them were entering the city for the first time, huddled around the hot air of the yamen or the porridge shops run by large families, trying to get a mouthful of hot porridge to deceive their stomachs.

After the Qing army's "Ten Days in Yangzhou", there were still 300,000 or 400,000 people in Yangzhou at this time, and 340,000 people had to eat at least 1,000 stone of grain every day. Now there is only enough grain in Yangzhou City for more than half a month, and transporting grain from nearby villages to the city has become an important task, and the reason why people from the surrounding villages are allowed to enter the city is not because Zheng Xian is soft-hearted, but because he hopes to bring people in, and the Qing army will have to delay for a longer time if they want to arrest people and ants to attack the city.

The cannons in the arsenal were put on the city, and the last time the Qing army bombarded the city wall with red-coated cannons, Zheng Xi, who had a foreigner gunsmith, did not think that the Tartar cannons were so powerful, as long as they could use the technical advantages and altitude advantages to make the cannonballs fly farther, they could hinder the Qing army from repeating their old tricks. If the Qing army wants to blast the city wall again, then it will have to eat a round of big iron balls weighing more than ten catties first! After a few rounds, do you still want the baby Han Army flag gunner?

As for the Qing army's counterattack on the city's cannons, the height of the Yangzhou city wall was high enough to stop most of the cannonballs. Before the city wall is destroyed, the artillery of the Qing army will probably be exhausted!

However, Zheng Xi is still worried.

There are several main ways to siege a city at this time. One, blast the walls with artillery. For the smaller the city, the better the effect of this trick, for Nanjing, the Jingshi has a large city with a brick city wall, the effect is much worse (of course, in most cases, you can hit these two cities with cannons, and the defenders are almost finished) Second, release water to flood the city wall (of course, this trick can also be used by the defender, and you may also be killed by yourself, the former such as Li Zicheng opened the seal and the Ming army dug the Yellow River embankment, the latter such as the Mongols fought the Western Xia to dig the Yellow River, and the Yellow River water turned upside down to flood themselves), three, pile people.

As for the use of internal responses, spies, etc., not everyone is like Hongguang Imperial Court and Shi Kefa, watching people jump to the opposite side and not doing anything, right? Those with a little brains know that to do the most basic martial law work, let's not pin the danger of siege on the retarded minds of the defenders.

Okay, let's get back to business, the first and second, Zheng Xian's classmates are not cowardly--- the artillery Qing army may not have its own strength, if you release water, whether it is the canal or the Yangtze River, it is now starting to freeze, if it is not frozen, Zheng Jun's gunboats would have blown up these landlubbers crying dad and calling mother. But the third one is troublesome. According to the scouts from all directions, the Qing army moved at least 50,000 people to attack Yangzhou, and the troops in their hands were more than 10,000.

If the Qing army finds that the artillery is not working, and directly lets the green battalion or even capture the people as cannon fodder to attack the city, then it will be a big trouble!

Although Yangzhou and Nanjing are only separated by a river, the reinforcements have not yet arrived in Nanjing at this time, and it will take at least half a month to hold out before some lightly armed reinforcements can arrive. And Zheng Jun is good at water warfare, not good at foot combat, there is no gunboat support, those people are surrounded and sent to help...

Only when the river is slowly opened, and the Zheng army's ships sail into the canal, can a large number of troops be safely invested, so as to break the siege of Yangzhou, before that, the Yangtze River and the canal are not the blood vessels that Yangzhou depends on for survival, but the noose around the neck!

After calmly analyzing the current situation in the wind, Zheng Xi did not have any strategy to completely improve this extremely dangerous window period. This was brought about by the strategic mistakes of the Min Palace, which could only be made up for by hard attrition.

"Ahh Zheng Xi's throat was a little itchy, and when the cold wind blew, he couldn't help but sneeze.

In the past two days, the scouts of the Zheng army and the Qing army have come into contact more and more, from the occasional ranger to the battle of a small team, and with the collision of men and horses, the fog of war between the two armies has gradually dissipated. The time between the scout's release and his return became shorter and shorter, and the news of the report became more and more detailed, and on the map of Yangzhou, which took months to draw, a brief map of the battle situation appeared:

In the vicinity of Wanshou Town, east of Fucheng, there is about a green battalion of about 10,000 people, and the banner should be Liu Liangzuo's troops. In the west, near Yizhen County, there were troops led by Ao Bai mixed with some green battalion soldiers to "collect food" among the countryside. In the area of Shao Bo Town in the north, there are all kinds of flags, including red, white, and white... The chief and deputy officers in the green camp are even more innumerable, and there are forty or fifty thousand people in a rough calculation.

The Qing army was divided into three ways, one positive and two strange, like a crab wielding two large pincers. And Yangzhou City is like the delicacy in the mouth of a crab...

The drums sounded, and the generals who had been waiting for a long time handed over their weapons and walked into the inner courtyard of the Hou Mansion with their chests folded. Familiar people whispered to each other with eye gestures, and non-descendant generals nervously observed their surroundings. In front of the door, there are a bunch of tall warriors with iron armor and gold-powdered tridents, although the tridents are not as good as spears, but Zheng Zheng really wants to kill people on the spot, that is, all these people can do it empty-handed, and this halberd mainly plays the role of pretending.

Passing through the forest of two long halberds, the generals went up to the hall and found their own places to sit down, waiting for the arrival of the main lord with bated breath. At this time, the military law has seventeen prohibitions and fifty-four beheadings, even if the actual implementation is not so strict, but mixed to the status of being able to participate in this military conference, selective law enforcement is tacit, if you are blind here, maybe you will be scared of the monkey by Hou Ye's head.

Zheng Xi changed into a fiery red uniform and walked out from behind, calmly accepting the bows of the generals. As soon as the map was hung up, Zheng Xi said to himself: "Dongyu has already pounced from three directions, according to the report of the scouts, the three roads of men and horses are at least 50,000 troops, and the ones we brought in the hall are estimated to be less than 20,000 together." ”

"There are many horses in Dongyu, and there are few horses and few people. It is impossible to go out of the city to fight in the field, but if the city gate is sealed, it will not be possible. Zheng Xi pointed to the city wall on the map with his finger, "I have people build a fortress outside the city, and now that it has been completed, I will use two strange barracks to guard these fortresses." ”

The original meaning of the Qi Barracks refers to the troops led by the deputy chief soldier in the military attache system of the Ming Dynasty, while the Qi Barracks in Yangzhou is the original green battalion miscellaneous army incorporated by Zheng Xi, which belongs to the type that grandma does not hurt and uncle does not love. If there were heavy casualties in a fierce battle under the city of Yangzhou, maybe the three battalions with 3,000 posts and the actual 2,000 battalions would have to be withdrawn.

The three deputy commanders who were named glanced at each other and came out to receive orders.

Zheng Xi nodded, and asked people to change the map of the city and hang it up. "The barracks are guarding the north, northeast, and east... The reinforcement battalion guards the west, and the west is convenient..."The twelve city gates of Yangzhou were spread out with a large cake, and the number of troops stationed in each place was about the same.

The ranger battalion and the standard battalion of the governor of Caoyun, who had no sense of existence, were left by Zheng Xi in the main transportation arteries in the city, ready to be used for support in the city. And whether it is on the city gate or inside the city, they all belong to the reliable troops brought by Zheng Xi from Fujian.

After explaining the specific arrangements of various places, Zheng Xi asked them to "organize defense", and when the people dispersed, he sent someone to call back the commander of the guerrilla battalion.

The general was a middle-aged man with a black face and a short nose, and there was a faint smell of sea on his body. Zheng Xi couldn't help but sneeze again, his face was slightly displeased, completely forgetting that he had also dealt with the sea more than half a year ago.

"How many people are there in the ranger camp? To be honest, you are also an old brother from Fujian, and I am not the kind of ruthless person. ”

"Two thousand seven hundred and forty people, Master Hou can check it at any time." The guerrilla replied without thinking.

The standard number of personnel in the ranger battalion is 3,000, and 2,740 people means that less than 10 percent of the salary is eaten. This ratio can be said to be very disciplined. Zheng Xi stood up happily, "Okay, you have distributed these people here, here... If anything changes outside the city..."

Zheng Xi made a gesture of slashing.