Historically, after the Qing army captured Yangzhou, it crossed the Yangtze River in May and destroyed the Hongguang court, but the appearance of Wang Yan changed the course of history.

Wang Yan recaptured Yangzhou, with the strength of a city, alone resisted the siege of Duoduo's 300,000 troops, and held the Qing troops in Jiangbei for more than a month.

By June of the year of Yichou (1645), the Hongguang Imperial Court had existed for a month longer than in another period of history.

During this period of time, the Hongguang court did not make much change due to the fierce party competition, the corruption of officialdom, the domineering of military generals, and the inertia of history, etc., and the low efficiency made the imperial court waste the precious time that the soldiers and civilians of Yangzhou fought for in vain.

In the people, this extra month of time, but there have been many changes, in history the Qing soldiers went south in early April, and occupied Nanjing in mid-May, and the Jiangnan gentry had no time to react, and the imperial court was destroyed.

Now, with the news of Wang Yan's resistance in Jiangbei and the looting of Qing soldiers in Jiangbei reached Jiangnan, the scholars and the common people were terrified. Although the imperial court did not make achievements due to party disputes and other reasons, the people invisibly formed a force to resist the Qing Dynasty.

In March, after Chen Zilong and Wang Yan separated in Nanjing, he stayed in Nanjing for half a month, completed Wang Yan's entrustment, contacted courtiers everywhere, and advised him to guard against the Qing court, but when he was in the temple, he could not affect the court situation, and now that he is in the wilderness of the rivers and lakes, it will naturally have no effect.

Chen Zilong ran up and down with Zuo Maodi, contacted the ministers who were familiar with him, and gave several advices, all of which were like stones sinking into the sea, and there was no news, he couldn't help but be disheartened, and said goodbye to his friends in Nanjing, and returned to his hometown in Songjiang with his disciple Xia Wanchun.

In April, Chen Zilong was lecturing at home, and was suddenly shocked to hear that the Qing army was moving south, Jiangbei was rebelling, and Shi Gong was dead.

Chen Zilong was disheartened by the court situation, but he was unwilling to sit back and watch Hu Cai go south, he inquired about the news in many ways, and learned that Wang Yan recaptured Yangzhou and defended the lonely city, and was very relieved in his heart, and praised Wang Yan for saving the time, but the imperial court's support for Yangzhou was not full of strength, and 20,000 soldiers and horses were afraid of the Qing army, and they were stunned in Zhenjiang and did not dare to cross the river to support.

Chen Zilong was worried in his heart, afraid that Wang Yan would not be able to hold on for a long time, so he scattered his family fortune with Xia Yunyi, the father of Xia Wanchun, and got the support of the Songjiang prefect to train the local villagers in Songjiang and prepare to ask the court to help.

Zuo Maodi was in the court, seeing that the Qing army was surrounded for a long time, and the ministers were arguing, but there was no real plan to relieve the siege of Yangzhou.

Zuo Maodi felt that he was in the court, and it was useless to listen to the two parties attacking each other every day, so he invited the emperor to enter Zhejiang to raise troops and horses to help.

Emperor Hongguang was dizzy by the courtiers' quarrels, and felt that Zuo Maodi was the person who did the facts, so he allowed him to play, and entered Zhejiang to recruit troops as the left waiter of the military department.

Zuo Maodi left Nanjing at the end of May and entered Zhejiang, running to persuade Wu Yi, who was originally working under Shi Kefa, to be ordered to enter Zhejiang to raise grain.

Yangzhou was besieged, Shi Kefa died, Wu Yi was stranded in Zhejiang, and heard that Zuo Maodi was in urgent need of grain and grass to recruit new soldiers to aid Yang, and went to serve with grain and grass.

Zuo Maodi got Wu Yi's help, and immediately opened up the situation in Zhejiang, and then Wu Yi recruited Sun Zhaokui, a fellow villager from Wujiang, from Nanzhili, and Shen Ziqi came to serve.

For a time, Zuo Maodi's command gathered a lot of scholars and literati, and everyone brainstormed, made suggestions, and recruited thousands of landless people and fishermen from Taihu Lake, which was quite impressive.

During the month that Wang Yan entrusted the Qing army to Jiangbei, the people of Jiangnan suddenly felt that the country was in danger of overthrow and defeat, and they were afraid that the military disaster was coming, and many gentry began to recruit warriors in order to protect themselves.

In the land south of the Yangtze River, there are no more people who train and prepare for war, and Chen Zilong and Zuo Mao are not the only ones.

At this time, Wang Yan, who was struggling to support in Jiangbei, finally ushered in his biggest challenge, Duoduo's plan to throw away the corpse worked, although he did everything he could to control it in Yangzhou City, but there was still an outbreak of plague.

Outside the city, Duoduo has not attacked Yangzhou since the plan to throw the corpse, during which Wang Yan led the soldiers to break through the Qing army camp outside the east gate, killed Zhang Tianlu, the general of the green battalion, and sent people out of the city for help, he did not care, and even encouraged Zhang Tianfu, who had suffered defeat.

In Duoduo's view, the defenders in Yangzhou City risked their lives to go out of the city to ask for help, which made it clear that his poisonous plan had worked, Yangzhou was no longer an impregnable fortified city, and the defenders could no longer support it, so he just had to wait for the opportunity.

Duoduo just ordered the Qing army to strengthen the defense, not allowing the soldiers and civilians of Yangzhou to go out of the city, and then strictly prevent the plague in the Qing military camp, immediately isolate the infected, secretly kill them, and sit back and watch Yangzhou fall by very spicy means of thunder.

At this time, puffs of smoke rose from the city, it was the Yangzhou defenders who were burning the bodies of the dead, Wang Yan covered his face with a cloth, only revealing his tired and sunken eyes, and the people around him were also the same.

"How many more died today?" Wang Yan watched the soldiers keep carrying the corpses into the fire pit and burning them, and his heart was very heavy.

"General, there are more than a thousand people!" A middle-aged man in a green shirt bowed and replied in a trembling voice.

This person is Chen Tianba, a local doctor in Yangzhou, who was entrusted with the important task of treating the epidemic by Wang Yan.

"Infected people, what's new?" Wang Yan frowned slightly when he heard this, more than 1,000 people died in one day, and 700,000 soldiers and civilians in Yangzhou would die in a short time without the Qing troops attacking.

"The number of infected people has decreased." When Chen Tianba heard this, he replied again: "The policy of General An, isolating the infected people, and prescribing the right medicine, the situation has improved, compared with yesterday, the number of infected people has decreased by seventy percent, but there are still more than 400 people. ”

Wang Yan heard that the infected person was under control, and his heart relaxed a little, but he still said in a deep voice: "The plague is not caused by invading the skin, but through the mouth and nose breathing, so the seriously ill should not be put in the same room with the newly infected person, you must be isolated and treated according to different degrees of illness, prescribe the right medicine, try to save as many people as possible, and do not make people repeatedly infected." ”

"The general's knowledge of medical science is far better than that of his post." Chen Tianba listened to Wang Yan's words and said with great admiration: "The words of General An, when people come into contact with the epidemic, they have covered their mouths and noses with a wet cloth, opened doors and windows to ventilate, separated the serious illness from the mild illness, and paid attention to their own cleanliness, which really made the infection controlled, and the mild epidemic patients were not just getting better and being infected again, but could be cured." Yangzhou's feelings will get better, the general is Yangzhou's hope, please take yourself first, don't work too hard. ”

Yangzhou is in such a situation, how can Wang Yan rest assured, although he is tired, but he has always been strong to support his body, patrolling around the city, he knows that he is the hope in the hearts of the soldiers and people of Yangzhou, so he must often appear in front of the soldiers and civilians, tell them that he Wang Shiheng has not fallen, Yangzhou will not fall.