Just when Zhao Guodong's ship carrying cannons arrived in Yangzhou, in the tower on the Anjiang Gate at the south gate of Yangzhou City, Hong Chengchou, the governor of the six southern provinces of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and some generals were also watching the sparks on the canal.

Yangzhou was originally called Guangling, and in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the Chu State built Guangling City here. Guangling is the birthplace of Yangzhou today. During the Western Han Dynasty, Liu Bang named his nephew Liu Bi as the king of Wu and Guangling as the capital. During the Three Kingdoms, Wei and Wu were in turmoil, and Guangling became a military center in the Jianghuai area. During the Northern Zhou Dynasty, Guangling was renamed Wuzhou. The Sui unified China, and Emperor Wen of the Sui changed Wuzhou to Yangzhou, and the title of Yangzhou was fixed.

The current Yangzhou city wall was first built in the Tang Dynasty, and the previous city wall no longer exists after the wars of the past dynasties. The city of Yangzhou in the Tang Dynasty consisted of a square sub-city and a rectangular Luocheng, covering an area of about twenty square kilometers. There were two cities in Yangzhou in the Tang Dynasty that were the result of economic development. At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, there was only a sub-city, also known as Yacheng, and most of the officials were concentrated in this city. Luocheng was built by the order of Chen Shaoyou, the fourth year of Tang Jianzhong, and the area of the sub-city was about four times that of the sub-city. The main inhabitants within Na Cheng are the developed commercial and residential areas. In the waterway transportation network centered on Chang'an, Yangzhou has always played a pivotal role. In the Tang Dynasty, the transportation of grain, grass, salt, money, and iron from the north and south had to pass through Yangzhou. Many merchants from all over the world live in the city and engage in trade, which makes Yangzhou city developed in industry and commerce, and Yangzhou has become the largest metropolis in southeast China since then.

Since the beginning of the Song Dynasty*, Yangzhou has become the economic and cultural center of southeast China again after the nationwide war stopped due to its location in the important place of Cao Yun, and the importance of Bianliang, the capital of the Song Dynasty, can be compared with the importance of Bianliang, the capital of the Song Dynasty. The history records that Yangzhou's commercial tax is about 80,000 yuan a year, ranking first in the country. At the beginning of the Southern Song Dynasty, Song Gaozong Zhao Gou fled south under the siege of Jin soldiers, and before officially taking Lin'an as the capital, he had taken Yangzhou as his line for a year. This also contributed to Yangzhou's prosperity. For more than 100 years, Yangzhou has been the front line of the Southern Song Dynasty's resistance to Jin and Yuan.

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, after a long period of confrontation between the Song and Jin, the brutal rule of the Yuan Dynasty and the division of warlords at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, Yangzhou was very depressed due to the war and displacement. Zhang Delin, the marshal of the Ming army, thought that the original city was empty and difficult to defend, and decided to use the southwest corner of the Song Dynasty to rebuild, so there was an "old city". After the middle of the Ming Dynasty, Yangzhou Binjiang is near the sea, the transportation is convenient, the economy is rich, and it is the location of the Ming Dynasty to set up the Lianghuai Salt Transport Envoy Division, which is responsible for the tasks of the national salt tax collection and the northern transportation of grain, so it has become one of the most frequent areas of harassment and plundering by the Japanese invaders, and the production and life of the city have been greatly affected. In order to prevent the Japanese from resisting the Japanese, the prefect Wu Guifang built a city in the east of the city, that is, a new city. The prevention of Japanese invasion and resistance to Japanese invasion is the direct reason for the construction of the new city, but the old city is too small, resulting in a large number of foreign people who come to Yang to do business and make a living to live outside the city, which is also an inevitable requirement and urgent need for the construction of the new city. After the completion of the new city, Yangzhou City formed a pattern of two cities connected, like one city on the outside and two cities on the inside.

Because the Ming Dynasty city building technology is far more superb than the Tang Dynasty and the Song Dynasty, so Yangzhou City is known as the world's strong city, the thickest part of the city wall is 30 zhang thick, the outer layer of the city wall is a city brick made of bluestone, which is tamped with rammed earth to stir glutinous rice juice, after hundreds of years of baptism, Yangzhou city wall can be stronger than the concrete of later generations. On November 7, 1937, the Japanese army wanted to break through Tongguan and open up the passage to Xi'an, but until the surrender of the Japanese army on August 15, 1945, Tongguan was not broken by the Japanese army, and the construction technology of the ancient Chinese city wall can be seen.

In the Ming Dynasty, there were Beijing, Taiyuan, Xi'an, Luoyang, Yangzhou, and Jinan in the north, on the contrary, the city walls in the south were not very strong except for Wuchang and Nanjing, but these Zhu Yuanzhang's original legacy did not play its due role, Beijing did not fight at all, and directly opened the city and surrendered, Yangzhou Shi Kefa only fought for one day, Wuchang also held on for one day, and Nanjing surrendered like Beijing. On the contrary, Jiangyin and Jiading, which did not have a strong city, were all fighting with the Qing army to the end. I don't know if Zhu Yuanzhang knew that the strong city wall he left for his children and grandchildren had become a stronghold of the Tartars outside the Guanwai, could Zhu Yuanzhang be angry and come back to life from the filial piety tomb?

When Hong Chengchou was in Nanjing, he looked at the Ming army in Guangdong with the combat effectiveness of other Ming troops, thinking that this Ming army would collapse when he saw the battle flag of the Qing army, but who knew that he suffered a big loss outside Nanjing. After escaping to Yangzhou, Hong Chengchou summed up his experience and found that no matter what tricks he used in the field, he could not deal with the turtle formation of the Guangdong New Army, and he could only rely on the city wall to fight a war of attrition with the Ming army. According to the all-firearms troops of the Ming army, the consumption must be very large, and as long as the food and grass on their side are enough, they will definitely be able to drag the Ming army to death.

Hong Chengchou's strategy is very useful, Yangzhou because of the slaughter of Duoduo, there are less than 1,000 people left in the city, in recent years after the Manchu government immigration, the surrounding people moved to Yangzhou, this has restored some popularity, but there are only less than 100,000 people, far worse than the previous million people.

However, because of the small population in Yangzhou, the consumption of grain and grass is not so much. After Hong Chengchou fled to Yangzhou, he immediately ordered the last batch of grain to be withheld for the purpose of defending the city. Then outside the city of Yangzhou, the wall was cleared, and no useful things were left for the Ming army, so that now Zhao Guodong is now a grain that must be transported from the south by the canal.

At the same time as the preparation, Hong Chengchou also ordered the 10,000 Han army banners stationed in Huai'an, Zu Zerun was the eldest son of Zu Dashou, a person from the Yellow Banner of the Han Army, and a first-class viscount. Zu Zerun's 10,000 people were left in Huai'an to ensure the safety of the grain garrison, not much, now that Nanzhili is occupied, the grain has been broken, and the 10,000 elites were transferred to Yangzhou to defend the city by Hong Chengchou. In addition to these, there are several generals such as Zhu Shichang, the general soldier of Henan, and Wang Shixuan, the deputy chief soldier of Shandong, who have pieced together a total of 60,000 or 70,000 people, and Hong Chengchou is ready to use these tens of thousands of people to resist the Ming army coming from the south.

As soon as the battle began, the generals of the Qing army thought that Yangzhou City could not be defended, and the Ming army was under fierce artillery fire, and Yangzhou must fall. But Hong Chengchou used his harsh methods to subdue all the generals and held out in the first siege of the Ming army. The Qing army relied on the thick city wall and inflicted a large number of casualties on the Ming army.

But good luck came to an end with the arrival of the new artillery of the Ming army, Hong Chengchou stood on the city wall and saw the ships like a long dragon on the canal outside the city, and knew that the reinforcements of the Ming army were coming. Zhao Guodong has fought hard for more than a month, but Hong Chengchou has also defended hard, although the Ming army artillery fire is helpless against the city wall, but the Qing army defending the city on the city wall is not polite, that kind of small projectile can hit a piece of Qing army every time it is shot, solid cannonballs hit the battlements, and the gravel stirred up is not much worse than the power of the musket, plus the soldiers of the Ming army are very physical, often in hand-to-hand combat, it takes two to three Qing soldiers to compete with a Ming soldier. Hong Chengchou has seen the corpses of the dead soldiers of the Ming army, the strong muscles* are not at all comparable to the scrawny Qing army, Hong Chengchou feels that the Ming army outside the city must be the elite of Zhu Hongsan, this kind of soldier not to mention the Han army flag, even the authentic Manchurian Eight Banners also have the power of a battle.

The generals under Hong Chengchou also fought for more than a month, and they were also exhausted, and now they saw the reinforcements of the Ming army coming, and knew that tomorrow would be a vicious battle.

Ma Degong, as Hong Chengchou's confidant, said: "Your Excellency, the Ming army reinforcements are coming, what should we do?" ”

Hong Chengchou sighed and said: "Tomorrow will be a fierce battle, you arrange, let the soldiers take turns to rest, and prepare for battle tomorrow!" ”

Ma Degong didn't mean that, he looked around and saw that there was no one else except his own soldiers, and the other Han army banner generals were far away, Ma Degong asked in a low voice: "My lord, we have defended Yangzhou for more than a month with 60,000 or 70,000 people, and we are worthy of the regent, Prince Ying's 170,000 army has not lasted a day outside Nanchang City, I think we should withdraw?" ”

Hong Chengchou looked at the surroundings and saw that there were no outsiders, and whispered to Ma Degong: "You go down and prepare, transfer our troops to Huaimen, the northern town, if it really doesn't work, we will go out of the city and retreat to Jinan!" ”

The entire Huaiyang army has been evacuated by Hong Chengchou, and as soon as Yangzhou City is lost, there will be no Qing army south of the Yellow River, so they can only retreat to Shandong.

Ma Degong heard Hong Chengchou make such an arrangement, nodded and led people down to make arrangements.

Zhao Guodong outside the city was overjoyed, and the cannon that he was waiting for was finally here, but what he said about attacking the city tonight was really nonsense, and it would take several hours for the 3,000-pound cannon to unload the ship, and it would take several hours to choose a firing position and build fortifications, so it could attack the city tonight. Therefore, on the night of the Chinese New Year's Eve, there was a long-lost silence outside Yangzhou, and both inside and outside the city were preparing for the next day's battle.

Outside the city, the Ming army fought night after night, and finally unloaded fifty cannons at dawn and began to build a position five miles outside the south gate of Yangzhou.

After dawn, Hong Chengchou went up to the city wall again and saw the cannon face of the Ming army outside like dead ashes. It was dark last night, and he only saw the reinforcements coming from the Ming army, but he didn't know what was transported, and today dawn saw that the reinforcements turned out to be heavy artillery.

Hong Chengchou saw that the laborers were laboriously pushing the gun cart, and the ruts that the gun truck pressed out on the frozen ground, knew that these cannons were not simple, and each of them weighed no less than 5,000 catties. In the past, Hong Chengchou bullied Zhao Guodong without heavy artillery, but now that people have heavy artillery, how can they fight?

Zu Zerun was born in Liaodong Iron Cavalry, and he never served other Ming troops except for the Manchu Eight Banners. Now seeing that all the attention of the Ming army was on the artillery, he stepped forward and said: "Lord Governor, it is better to take a few thousand people down to fight, and take advantage of the defenselessness of the Ming army to destroy these cannons!" ”

Zu Zerun has never fought a field battle with the Guangdong New Army, and he is very big-hearted, but Hong Chengchou is different, he has suffered the loss of the Ming army's field battle. Now I heard that Zu Zerun didn't know the height of the sky, and hurriedly said: "No, no one is allowed to go down to the city, you don't know the power of the Ming army's muskets!" ”