In the camp of the Ming army, Chen Bangyan was dressed in a scarlet official robe, wearing a beam crown, sitting in front of the handsome case, and on both sides were a forest of Ming army generals.

He glanced at the generals, and then said in a deep voice: "His Royal Highness the King of Chu has ordered this pavilion to urge you to break through Yangzhou before the Huai River freezes, otherwise you can only retreat to the south of the Yangtze River in disgrace." This is not only a loss of face of the cabinet and you, but also a break of my Ming spirit, so to attack Yangzhou, all the generals must do their best, if anyone dares not to do their best, do not listen to the order, do not blame the cabinet for the ruthlessness of military law. ”

Chen Bangyan has always assumed the role of a military advisor, and this is the first time he has commanded a large army to fight alone, and he must let out some cruel words to deter this group of arrogant soldiers.

If someone hits the muzzle of the gun, whether it is the Chu faction, the Zhejiang faction, or the pro-Tang faction, he will not be polite, and he will definitely use it to deter the morale of the army and shake the prestige of the cabinet scholar and the Jiangbei governor.

The generals in the tent bowed down and clenched their fists in unison, indicating that they didn't dare, Chen Bangyan waved his hand, and then continued: "The defense of Yangzhou City, everyone has also seen it. This pavilion is a civil minister, good at strategy, weak in tactics, you are all generals who have been fighting for many years, can you teach me? ”

Many generals looked at each other, and after a while, Liu Shun made a look, and one of them stood up and saluted: "Qiyu Pavilion, the last general Zhang Youde, a person from Yangzhou, once guarded Yangzhou with the king, and today watched the city with the Cabinet Department, and found that Duoduo built the Yangzhou city wall higher than the original one, and the moat was only wide and not narrow, if it was a hard attack, I am afraid it would not be easy." ”

Chen Bangyan is a scholar of the Chu Party, Liu Shun must give him face, Wang Yi from Zhejiang, Hu Yiqing from Tang Wang and others did not speak, so he immediately gave his subordinates a look and did not let Chen Bangyan be cold.

Liu Shun got up in the market, and his cleverness and mind were still relatively clever.

Of course, he is not all clever, he asked Zhang Youde to come out to speak, also because Zhang Youde has guarded Yangzhou and is familiar with the situation, which is convenient for Chen Bangyan to understand.

Zhang Youde's qualifications, to say that it is not much different from Dai Zhifan and Hu Weizong, the reason why there is such a big gap now, and it is not well-known, is because after he went out of the city to ask for help, he was seriously injured, and after the injury was healed, Wang Yan had withdrawn to Zhejiang, and then went to Fujian, he did not catch up, so he participated in Chen Zilong's Taihu Righteous Army nearby, and when the Taihu Righteous Army failed, he transferred to Guangdong with Chen Zilong to seek refuge with Wang Yan, and after this period of time, the gap was widened.

Chen Bangyan heard Zhang Youde, who had guarded Yangzhou, say this, his face sank a little, he was silent for a while, and then leaned forward and asked: "Commander Zhang, what do you feel is the biggest threat when you were guarding Yangzhou?" ”

In the battle of Yangzhou that year, Duoduo led an army of 300,000 people, engulfing countless people, and it was the peak of the Manchu army, but it was blocked by Yangzhou for three months.

Now that the Ming army is attacking Yangzhou, the soldiers and horses are less than twice that of the Qing army, and it is indeed not easy to break the city.

Chen Bangyan had long expected this kind of difficulty, Yangzhou would inevitably be a protracted battle, and when he saw that there were generals who were familiar with the situation of that year, he naturally wanted to know more, hoping to find a way to break the enemy.

"Cabinet, that Jiannu has no humanity, he has used all means, and even threw his corpse into the city, creating a plague, 800,000 Yangzhou people, more than 200,000 strong men, and finally there are 300,000 left, of which less than 50,000 are men. If it weren't for the king, the people of Yangzhou would really let Jiannu be killed. Zhang Youde recalled that many of the generals who participated in the Battle of Yangzhou in the tent couldn't help but clench their fists, and the hatred in their hearts was obviously still there.

There was silence in the tent for a while, Zhang Youde let out a heavy sigh, and then continued: "At that time, Jiannu and the rebels attacked the city, and the biggest threat to Yangzhou was Xicheng. Outside the west city, a hill close to the city wall, controlled by Jiannu, with artillery on it to bombard the city, they condescended, the city wall collapsed a large part, the king led us to build a short wall in the city, desperately fighting, only to hold the city, many brothers are folded in the collapse of the west city. The last general remembered that Feng Lao, who was still a big salt merchant in the city at that time, led a thousand families to help in the war, and half of them died in one morning. ”

When the Qing army went south, it was the Manchu Qing Dynasty that entered the customs, invincible, nearly 500,000 horses in the north of the Yangtze River, when the wind fell, Duoduo attacked Yangzhou with the sharp Qing army but did not defeat it, so in other words, the Ming army may not be simple to fight Yangzhou.

Chen Bangyan nodded, and did not let him continue, but looked at the crowd: "Now that Duoduo, the culprit who besieged Yangzhou, is in the city, this time it is your turn to take revenge." ”

Zhang Youde and other generals who have experienced the Yangzhou War have a lot of feelings in their hearts, many people's relatives died in Yangzhou, and they immediately came out to hug their fists, "Although the cabinet commands, we will not give up for breaking Yangzhou." ”

"Excellent! This time, one is to recapture the homeland, and the other is to find Duoduo to seek revenge, and Commander Zhang said that Xicheng was the most difficult to defend at the beginning, so I will focus on Xicheng. Chen Bangyan said in a deep voice.

After he finished speaking, Zhang Huangyan, the superintendent, looked left and right, saw that no one spoke, and came out and said: "Cabinet, Yangzhou City is high and the river is wide, and more than 300,000 people failed to break into the city at the beginning, can we follow his old path now?" ”

Although the few people mobilized the emotions of many people, Zhang Huangyan, as a supervisor, was still relatively calm.

Chen Bangyan nodded, waved his hand to let Zhang Huangyan step back first, and then said to Liu Shun: "Liu Guogong, tell me your opinion?" ”

Liu Shun has been in Yangzhou for more than half a year, although his qualifications are not particularly good, but he has discussed with the deployment for most of the year, and he naturally has some gains in his heart.

"Zhang Jianjun, His Royal Highness can defend Yangzhou for three months, Jiangyin is smaller than Yangzhou, Chen and Yan Ergong can also rely on the villagers to resist more than 200,000 Qing troops, and besiege for more than 80 days, the key is that the people's hearts are on our side, just like the desperate poem written by Yan Gong "80 days with allegiance" and "100,000 people live and die together", the army and the people are united, so they can thwart the Manchu Qing. Duoduo originally wanted to evacuate Yangzhou, but before he moved, the news reached the general, which shows that Duoduo has no popular will at all. ”

Wang Yan has always instructed the generals in the army to study more, in fact, before the imperial examination, China has always been civil and military, and the Western aristocracy is almost the same, Japan's samurai class is also able to be civil and martial, most of the ministers of the Tang Dynasty are both civil and military, and the Song Dynasty has Xin Qiji, there are people like Xin Qiji, and the modernization of the army will inevitably require a large number of educated officers to enter the army.

Pure literati, commanding the army is definitely not good, pure martial arts, and do not know morality, the lessons of the late Tang Dynasty should be deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.

The warriors actually shouted out "The Son of Heaven is a strong man with strong horses", of course, to be the emperor, there must naturally be soldiers and horses, but having soldiers and horses may not be able to determine the world. What does this sentence represent, it represents endless rebellion, you are strong and strong, then I have soldiers and horses, do I have to be the emperor, the ideas he conveys are very terrifying, how can the world be peaceful?

The civil and military forces are like two poles, the extremes of things must be opposed, heavy military force, prone to rebellion, heavy literature, and the combat strength of the army will inevitably decline.

Wang Yan instructed the generals to read more, and Liu Shun obviously listened to it this time, and also read a lot.

Zhang Huangyan listened, Liu Shun's words, nodded, but still reminded: "What Liu Guogong said is reasonable, but Yangzhou is a strong city after all, if it is attacked, it is still necessary to make more preparations, besides, what about the moat?" If the river is filled, I am afraid that there will be many casualties, and it will take a lot of time! \u000b Chen Bangyan nodded and interjected, "Attacking the city is nothing more than attacking and outwitting, and there are people in the city who are interested in the Ming Dynasty, so we should contact to see if we can break through Yangzhou from the inside." However, the preparation for the assault cannot be left undone, Liu Guogong has long found out that the Qing army has sunken the canal to block the canal, but has he thought of any way to deal with the moat? ”

Liu Shun hugged his fists, "Yes, but it is not to fill the river, but to dig a canal to connect the moat, and then like fighting Quanzhou, the warship rushed in and went directly to the city." ”

He paused, then explained: "Filling the river has to face the arrows and artillery in the city, and the casualties are huge, so it is better to dig a ditch, and it will not be wasted long." ”

"How long will it take to finish digging?" Already in September, Chen Bangyan had to think about time.

Liu Shun said: "The distance is not long, as long as it is more than ten miles, it should be able to dig and play in a month and a half." ”

For a month and a half, Chen Bangyan frowned, "After digging in a month, this pavilion will agree to this law." "\u000b"Then you have to let the court recruit the people. ”