Yiliang had just found Hechun to understand the defeat of the Jiangbei camp, and the defender of the city sent someone to report, saying that in the southwest corner of the city, a large number of Cantonese thieves were found, and it should be the Cantonese thieves who broke through the Jiangbei camp and pursued them outside Yangzhou. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

At this time, the west and north of Yangzhou City were blocked by Cantonese thieves, because the east and south of Yangzhou City were surrounded by the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, and the Qing army had no water division, which was equivalent to Yangzhou City being surrounded to death, and there was no way to escape.

Of course, if Yiliang and the others were desperate and led the cavalry to rush out, they might be able to break through, but this would be tantamount to directly abandoning Yangzhou City, even if they escaped, what was waiting for him would be condemned by the imperial court.

Therefore, the matter has come to this point, Yiliang discussed with He Chunyi and decided to stick to Yangzhou City and look for a glimmer of life.

When He Chun was leaving, he looked like he wanted to speak and stopped, thought about it, shook his head secretly, and left the Yangzhou Weaving Mansion, which was temporarily the governor's yamen.

He Chun is a native of Zhenghuang Banner, and pursued the long-haired thieves all the way from Guangxi to Jiangnan. Unexpectedly, now the power of the long-haired thief soldiers has been greatly reduced, but a group of Cantonese thieves has risen, which is more difficult to deal with than the long-haired thief soldiers.

The long-haired thieves only looted and plundered, and did not occupy much territory, that is, after the recent occupation of Jiangning City, they began to think of governing the place. But this Cantonese thief is different, unconsciously, this Cantonese thief has occupied most of the southern land of the Qing Dynasty, and has also established local political power, filmed local garrisons, opened imperial examinations, and collected taxes, just like a country within a country. This is to overthrow the Manchurian country from the roots!

Hechun is a full man, so he is naturally anxious! For Yiliang, the governor of Liangjiang who fled from Changzhou to Yangzhou, He Chun didn't think much of it from his heart, but because of his old qualifications, he didn't say much. As for the junior minister Tuo Ming'a, He Chun was very dissatisfied, so he was so happy with his achievements and commanded indiscriminately. What Hechun approves of the most is still the former Qincha Qishan, sticking to the Jiangbei camp.

Now the Jiangnan camp is abandoned in the hands of Xiang Rong, and the Jiangbei camp has been broken by Cantonese thieves, and the Qing Dynasty's defense in the Jiangnan area has disappeared, which means that the Qing Dynasty has lost the richest place in the world in the south of the Yangtze River, and the beautiful flowers and rivers have been lost!

Yiliang was thinking about Yangzhou guarding the city, but some people didn't forget, although Hechun didn't remind Yiliang, but Lei Yiyan, the waiter of the Criminal Department, remembered to remind Yiliang and came to ask to see him.

Lei Yixuan led Admiral Chen Jinshou, General Soldier Chen Shengyuan, and Qin Dingsan to ask for a meeting.

"Lord Ministry, the lower officials have something important to tell you." For Yi Liang, who is the governor of Liangjiang and concurrently serves as the squire of the military department, and Lei Yixuan, who is the squire of the second criminal department, considers himself an official and looks very respectful: "Now that the Jiangbei camp has been broken by the Cantonese thieves, our army has been defeated, and the Cantonese thieves have besieged Yangzhou. ”

"Oh, impeachment? Lord Ray, you're saying that Tomina wants to impeach me? "Although he is old, Yiliang is not completely old and confused. Yiliang, who has been in the officialdom for decades, immediately thought of the seriousness of the matter after being reminded by Lei Yiyi!

First the Jiangnan camp was broken, and then the Zhenjiang City, which was finally occupied by the emperor after making the emperor happy, was occupied by Cantonese thieves, and the Jiangbei camp that had been carefully built for more than a year was defeated, Yiliang can imagine how the emperor will be furious, and under the anger, he must take people out of anger, no one wants to be a scapegoat, Qincha Tuo Ming'a has the greatest responsibility, it is conceivable that he must transfer the responsibility for the loss of the Jiangbei camp to others, and those who have enough weight to be scapegoats are these people in the house. Of course, the biggest possibility is yourself!

Yiliang immediately understood the intention of Lei Yiyan, Chen Jinshou, Chen Shengyuan and Qin Dingsan to come to see him. However, he pretended to be surprised: "No! The headquarters is a great Qing dynasty and has worked hard, what kind of guilt can he impeach? ”

Lei Yi said: "The lord of the ministry has worked hard and has made great achievements, and he has nothing to say, and the lower officials and others are all in their eyes. However, the emperor is far away in Beijing, and a group of important ministers in the court will only talk on paper, and now the Jiangbei camp has been broken, and the emperor is angry, coupled with the slander of some people, he will think that the responsibility for this defeat lies with us people, especially you, the minister! Therefore, we have to guard against it! ”

"Yes, Lord Ministry! If it is preempted, it will be difficult to make the emperor preconceived. It's not as good as the head of the ministry, I and a few others followed him, and played the emperor together, and the minister of the Qin mission, Tomina, had the grace of the saint, fled from the camp in Jiangbei and caused the army to be defeated, and the ministry of the emperor turned the tide. So that the imperial court can understand, and it can also get the emperor's full support to guard Yangzhou. Chen Shengyuan also persuaded.

Chen Jinshou and Qin Dingsan also made suggestions, showing that they were willing to follow Yiliang and tell the court the "truth" of the fiasco of the Jiangbei camp, so that the escaped Tuo Ming'a could receive the punishment of the imperial court.

Yiliang knew that these four people were trying to alleviate their own guilt for escaping from the camps in Danyang, Zhenjiang or Jiangbei, and wanted to transfer the emperor's anger to Tomin'a, so he united and unanimously impeached Tomin'a.

Originally, Yiliang and Tuo Ming'a were both Zhenghongqi people, and although they didn't know each other very well, they were barely a clansman in the banner. Yiliang didn't want to tear his face with Tomina.

But now, Yiliang also realizes that the two of them will inevitably bear the wrath of the emperor, just to see who bears the main firepower.

In front of such a few people, it is no less than forcing yourself to make a choice. If he does not choose to impeach Tominah, presumably, these four people will unite to impeach him. The darkness of officialdom, Yiliang still has some understanding.

In that case, according to their wishes, write a letter and impeach Tomin.

Yiliang quickly made a decision, and the five of them printed the official seal together, and pressed the handprint, and the five of them impeached Qincha Tuoming A who fled in fear, causing the Jiangbei camp to be broken by the thief army, and it was written.

Because Yangzhou City was besieged, Chen Shengyuan volunteered again, and he sent several spies to sneak out of Yangzhou from the canal and waterway to deliver the heavy responsibility of the excerpt.

After talking about business, everyone had to face the grim reality: how to stick to Yangzhou City?

Although they wrote on the fold and asked the imperial court to urgently send a large army to support, in fact, everyone knew in their hearts that the Qing Dynasty had basically no troops to send. Even if you reluctantly send some troops, it won't be too much, after seeing the combat power of those Cantonese thieves, all the generals understand that even if they send 10,000 or 20,000 reinforcements, it will be difficult to repel these nearly 40,000 Cantonese thieves.

The point is, where is there still more than 10,000 or 20,000 troops that can be deployed in the Qing Dynasty now?

The only possibility is that the thieves are short of food and retreat on their own. As soon as Yiliang rectified Yangzhou, he found that there was not much food in Yangzhou City!

Hundreds of thousands of grains in Yangzhou City have been transported to Jiangbei Camp!

In order to maintain an offensive posture, Tomin'a, who was newly appointed as the minister of the Imperial Mission, transported general grain to the camp in the northern part of the Yangtze River. Last month, after the sneak attack and capture of Zhenjiang City, in order to move the battle line forward, it was to move the food and military salaries that had been hoarded in Yangzhou City for a long time to the Jiangbei camp, and now the camp was broken within two days.

Thinking of this, Yiliang was on fire.

In this way, it is impossible to expect the Cantonese thieves to retire from the army due to lack of food. Moreover, not only that, but Yangzhou City fell into a crisis of lack of food and salary.

As soon as Yiliang and Hechun put it together, they had an idea: raise food on the spot!

As a result, in the next two days, the people in Yangzhou, especially the Han gentry, fell into hell and suffering.

Yangzhou City was originally the richest place in the world in this era. More than a year ago, after Yangzhou was occupied by the Taiping army, almost all the property of the gentry and wealthy families in the city was confiscated by the Taiping army, because there were too many, and the Taiping army distributed some of the land deeds, shops, furniture, and grain that were difficult to take away to the people in the city, and received the support of the people.

As a result, the Qing army counterattacked and occupied the city of Yangzhou. The Manchu banner soldiers led by Qincha Qishan thought that the people in Yangzhou City had rebelled with the long-haired thieves, so they screened and looted the people in the city, and slaughtered most of the young and strong people in the city.

Moreover, in order to build the Jiangbei camp, so many fortifications and barracks, not only need labor to build, but also need money, so Yangzhou City was looted, and the plundered property, cloth and grain and other materials were transported by carriage for seven days and seven nights before being pulled to the Jiangbei camp.

Now that the Qing army in Yangzhou City is in trouble, Yiliang immediately thought of looting money and food from the people in the city again. Poor Yangzhou originally had nearly 100,000 households, more than 500,000 people, after two wars, only more than 200,000 left, a few days ago I heard that the captive army attacked Zhenjiang, it is very likely to attack Yangzhou, and tens of thousands of people fled to the surrounding countryside with their families, there are now less than 200,000 people left in the city, and they are all old, weak, sick and disabled, and how much food is there?

In fact, they are all life-saving rations. But whether it was a poor person or a slightly richer squire, the cash for grain and cash found in the house was robbed by the Qing army.

After two days, there was a cry in Yangzhou. The Qing army finally snatched enough military rations and salaries, and prepared to hold Yangzhou City to resist the Northern Expedition of the captive army.

The 3rd Division of the Captive Army, as well as the 2nd Regiment of the 10th Division and the Li Zhenhui Naval Division, more than 17,000 soldiers blocked the way for the Qing demons to flee north, and the 10th Division also blocked the canals upstream and downstream of Yangzhou.

The 6th Division and the 1st Division, more than 22,000 people, surrounded the west of Yangzhou City.

Since then, Yangzhou has become an isolated city, with less than 10,000 Qing troops and 200,000 people trapped in Yangzhou City.