Wang Yan watched puffs of smoke rise from the city of Yangzhou in the distance, and suddenly felt like a lightning strike, his chest was stuffy, and a mouthful of blood spurted out, and the whole person fell from the galloping war horse and fell directly to death.

Seeing this, the cavalry behind them were almost frightened, or reined in the war horse, or turned the horse's head, so that the war horse did not step on Wang Yan.

At this time, Li Taizhen and the others hurriedly turned over and dismounted, stepped on the mud and rain, and galloped to Wang Yan's side to check his body.

"General! Checkmate! Wake up! ”

"General! Are you alright? There was an anxious cry from the crowd.

Wang Yan held a sullen breath in his heart, a mouthful of blood spit out, his heart was already a lot smoother, and now everyone shook for a while, and he came to his senses leisurely, just fell off the war horse, making him feel a pain all over his body.

Wang Yan was extremely glad that the ground had become muddy due to the rain, so when he fell, he was not seriously injured.

At this time, with the support of everyone, he slowly stood up, and then spoke: "I am fine, you don't have to worry. ”

When the crowd heard the words and saw that he could move, they relieved their hearts.

Looking at the smoke rising in the distance, everyone's hearts tightened again, and Li Taizhen couldn't help but speak: "It seems that Yangzhou has been broken by Qing soldiers, whether we still want to go to Yangzhou, please ask the general to decide!" ”

Wang Yan heard the artillery bombardment of the Qing army last night, and today he saw the smoke rising in the city of Yangzhou. The Qing army's siege of the city has always been an old trick of encircling three and missing one, and the Ming army in Yangzhou still has the people, seeing the Qing army entering the city, now they must flock to the south gate, trying to escape Yangzhou, but the Qing soldiers must have ambushed the soldiers and horses, ready to cover up along the road.

"Let's go to Yangzhou!" After Wang Yan figured it out, he resolutely decided to go to Yangzhou to save people. "All the troops got on their horses and followed me straight to the south gate!"

"Whoa!" When the cavalry heard this, they hurriedly responded in unison.

Wang Yan was very satisfied when he saw this, everyone knew that Yangzhou had been broken, and it must be very dangerous to go, but no one questioned it, obviously the military regulations in the Zhongyi camp had been deeply rooted in the hearts of everyone.

"Let's go!" Wang Yan turned over and got on his horse, and many cavalry behind him also stepped on the war horse one by one, Wang Yan waved his whip forward, and the army rushed to the south gate of Yangzhou in the rain.

In the south of Yangzhou City, at the city gate, a team of soldiers and horses crashed into the people and escorted an old man to rush out of the city, causing a great chaos at the city gate.

At this time, the Qing soldiers who were ambushed outside the city also took advantage of the situation and rushed to the city gate.

Seeing this, the people who originally wanted to escape from the south gate suddenly felt a burst of despair, and the Qing army rushed into the crowd and slashed and killed them with random knives, and the people at the city gate were immediately cut to pieces.

The old man was protected by many Ming soldiers in the middle, and when he saw that the outside of the city gate had been blocked by the Qing soldiers, and seeing that the people were constantly dying under the swords of the Qing soldiers, his face was full of pain, and he actually shouted loudly to the Qing soldiers outside the city: "My Shi Inspector is also!" Don't kill the people! ”

The Qing soldiers who were ambushed at the south gate were the men and horses of Zhang Tianlu, who had just joined the Qing court, and they heard the voice of Shi Kefa, and when they saw that it was their people, their hearts were immediately overjoyed.

Zhang Tianlu couldn't help laughing when he saw the Shi Pavilion Department, this was the credit given to him by God, so he gave up the people and came to Shi Kefa.

Seeing this, many Ming troops hurriedly drew their swords to meet the battle, but there were many Qing soldiers, after all, the Ming army was gone, Shi Kefa's staff Gui Zhao was killed on the spot, and the rest of the Ming army was also killed by the Qing army.

Zhang Tianlu captured Shi Kefa, and was in ecstasy, but the ground behind him shook, he thought it was the cavalry of the Qing army, but he didn't want Wang Yan to kill it.

Unable to defend himself, Zhang Tianlu's soldiers were rushed by Wang Yan's cavalry.

Zhang Tianlu turned around and saw that a Ming army suddenly came from the south, and his heart was suddenly shocked, and he didn't know how many men and horses Wang Yan brought.

Seeing that Wang Yan was about to be killed, Zhang Tianlu grabbed Shi Kefa on the war horse, took the guards around him, and fled after beating the horse.

The infantry army under Zhang Tianlu saw that the master was about to flee, and there was still the desire to fight again, and they immediately dispersed.

Wang Yan occupied the south gate and hurriedly inquired about the situation in the city, and the defeated army and the people said, "The Qing army slaughtered the city, and it was miserable!" ”

At this time, more and more people and defeated troops gathered at the city gate, and they all rushed out of the city. Wang Yan knew that going south of the city was the Yangtze River, and there was no warship to answer him, and if he ran out, he would only be driven down the Yangtze River by the Qing soldiers and drowned.

Wang Yan climbed the city tower and saw that except for the thick smoke billowing from the west city, which fell first, there were defeated troops resisting the Qing soldiers on the other three sides.

Now in the city, in addition to the remnants of the Ming army, there are Qing soldiers who are robbing everywhere, but there are not many Qing soldiers entering the city. Because Yangzhou is rich, it is naturally not the turn of the newly attached traitor troops to rob.

Since Wang Yan set foot on the north bank of the Yangtze River, in fact, he has no other choice but to defend Yangzhou.

Now the Qing army broke through Yangzhou in one day, and after entering the city, they did not encounter decent resistance, and they have become proud soldiers one by one.

Wang Yan can now take advantage of the relaxation of the Qing army, kill him by mistake, not to mention that the Qing soldiers dare to leave Yangzhou, at least he can rescue more people from the Qing army and collect more remnants.

At this time, as Wang Yan's cavalry entered the south gate, the Qing soldiers who were killed and scattered outside the city slowly regrouped, they did not dare to attack the city, but they also blocked the way for the people to flee south.

"Which one is in the city?" As more and more civilians and remnants fled to the south gate, a civilian official shouted at the city tower in a relatively complete Ming army.

Wang Yan was overjoyed when he saw this, and hurriedly replied: "Wang Yan, the commander of my loyal and righteous battalion, was ordered to rush to the aid of Yangzhou, and this lord quickly came up to speak. ”

Hearing this, the remnants of the army immediately escorted the civil official to the city tower, and the people and remnants of the city tower immediately made way for them.

"I Yangzhou Tongzhi Qu is straight!" The civil official's robe was bloody, his face was full of exhaustion, and he came up and hugged his fists.

"Master Qu, Yangzhou is surrounded on all sides, and there is no ship on the Yangtze River to respond, and now there is only one way to fight to the death. I wanted to go to the city to collect the defeated army, but the southern city was unguarded, I want to hand it over to the adults, I don't know if it's possible? The situation was urgent, and Wang Yan directly said what he thought.

Qu Congzhi stood on the city tower, he had already seen the Qing army outside the city, and knew that it was impossible to escape, he heard Wang Yan's words, his face suddenly became solemn, and he hugged his fists and replied: "Dare not obey your fate." ”

At that moment, Wang Yan shouted again on the city tower, recruiting strong men to guard the south gate, looking for officials and officers to rectify the defeated army.

The people knew that the outside of the south gate had been blocked by the Qing army, and the Qing army was slaughtering in the city, so they suddenly lost their opinions, but when they saw that the cavalry of the Zhongyi battalion was not in chaos, they were relieved and obeyed Wang Yan's orders.

In a moment, Wang Yan was helped by many officials and righteous people, such as Gao Xiaozhang, Wang Shixiu, Wang Ji, Wang Xu, Chen Tianba, a doctor, Lu Yu, a painter, Wang Zhiduan, a deputy general of Jiangdu County, and Jiang Sicheng, a deputy general for meritorious service.

At that moment, Wang Yan handed over the south gate to Qu Congzhi and others to defend, and he divided Zhongyi into ten teams, each with 100 people, and went to the city to kill.

He Gang saw the five women commit suicide, and angrily killed the Qing soldiers, but after all, there were too many Qing soldiers, and there were only dozens of Ming soldiers left.

It was indeed Wang Yan who kept collecting the defeated army in the city, and then after a little rectification, he let people continue to save people in the city with the defeated army that was rectified.

Wang Yan asked them to meet a small group of Qing soldiers, and they annihilated them in one fell swoop, and when they met a large group of Qing soldiers, they avoided their edge and contacted other Ming army squads until they had an absolute advantage in strength, and then fought with them.

The streets in Yangzhou are dense, and there are many houses and courtyards, which provide excellent terrain for the Ming army's movement and operations.

The infantry army attacked in all directions, and the cavalry supported them at any time, and they immediately killed the Qing army that was plundering separately.

Li Taizhen took a hundred cavalry, and the two hundred infantry army had just wiped out a group of Qing soldiers, passing by the courtyard where He Gang was fighting with the Qing army, and found that the Ming army was besieged by the Qing army, and immediately led the Ming army to rush in.

He Gang, who was originally driven into a desperate situation, suddenly felt lighter, and instead hacked the Qing soldiers in front of him, he was overjoyed, and immediately reacted, rushed into the house, and took down the five women.

(There are several versions of Shi Kefa's capture, some say the West Gate, some say the North Gate, the author here changed to the South Gate, and Gui Zhao also changed to the South Gate and died in battle.) Most of the names of the people who appear in this chapter are those who died or died in battle when Yangzhou City was broken. ）