There were only 130 miles from Nanjing to Zhenjiang, and Lu Fatzi set out from Nanjing on 25 May, marching normally step by step, and arrived at Zhenjiang City at noon on the 27th, and met with Li Guodong, the general reserve of the Fat Army, stationed here, and immediately began preparations for crossing the river. At the same time, Han Daren's army, which had marched all the way, also arrived at Zhenjiang City and joined forces with Lu Fatzi and Li Guodong's army.

So far, the fat army that is ready to be put into the Yangzhou battlefield has all arrived at the Zhenjiang ferry, with a total strength of more than 96,000 people, the bonfire at the Zhenjiang ferry can not be seen at a glance, the river bank is reflected in red, the flags and camp tents on the land are towering like a forest, stretching for ten miles, the large and small ships on the river are dense like weaving, it is like forming a water city on the Yangtze River, the air is full of rich meat and coriander fragrance, the night breeze is full of laughter, everywhere is showing off the strength of the fat army, the financial resources, Morale is high. Seeing such a scene, he was deeply proud, and Lu Fatzi held a military meeting in the tent overnight to discuss the next battle plan.

At two o'clock, all the generals of the Fat Army above the rank of deputy general arrived, and more than 100 civil and military officials of the Fat Army who participated in the meeting stood full of handsome tents, greeting each other and frolicking, laughing and laughing constantly, all of them expressed a quite optimistic attitude towards the decisive battle in Yangzhou, until the fat man Lu sat on the handsome chair with the fat that was almost gone, and announced the start of the meeting, and the fat army generals put away their laughter, knelt down on one knee to the fat man Lu together, and saluted with fists.

"Generals, please get up." Lu Fatzi first greeted the generals to calm down, and then said with a smile: "Generals, I heard some of your words just now, and I can see that everyone is full of confidence in this decisive battle in Yangzhou, and believes that our army will definitely be able to win again this time." ”

"Of course." Hu Tongchun opened his mouth and laughed and said: "The situation of the full dog on the northern front, we all know that most of the full dog soldiers are new recruits, and they have not been on the battlefield a few times, and the combat effectiveness of the full dog on the western front is several times stronger than them. ”

"Brother Hutongchun has a point." Han Daren echoed: "It's not that we underestimate the enemy, the northern front is indeed far worse than the western front is full of dogs, and even the southern front is not as good as the dogs, the main force of our army wants to clean them up, it is really easy to do it, without any discount." The generals of the Fat Army also echoed one after another, all of them disdained the Mangou army on the northern front, and decided that the self-army would inevitably be able to recreate glory and defeat the main force of the Mangou Northern Front in a battle.

"I'm glad that everyone has such confidence and fighting spirit." Fat Lu nodded with satisfaction, and asked again: "But I want to ask the generals, since everyone believes that our army will win, how sure is our army that the main force of the northern front will be annihilated?" How sure are you that you will take down the head of the Mangou Emperor on the battlefield in Yangzhou? ”

"Annihilation of the main force of dogs? Take down the head of the Emperor of the Full Dogs? The Fat Army generals looked at each other one after another, and they no longer dared to express absolute optimism.

"If our army wants to achieve these two goals, I am afraid that it will be quite difficult." Li Guodong, who is highly respected in the ranks of the fat army, said: "First, there are too many cavalry full of dogs, the cavalry of Mites and the cavalry of Mongolian annihilation combined, almost more than 40,000, although we are not afraid of cavalry full of dogs, but because our cavalry is relatively scarce, even if we defeat the full dog army, it is difficult to catch up with and annihilate all these full dog cavalry." ”

"The second is the terrain." Wang Xu also spoke: "Although the north of Yangzhou is densely covered with lakes and rivers, which is not conducive to the battle of the Mangou cavalry brigade, the terrain is relatively open, and it is more convenient for the Mangou cavalry to break into pieces and retreat and flee for their lives. Even if our army penetrates and returns to the rear of Mangou's main force, there is no ideal blocking position that can completely cut off Mangou's retreat, and Mangou's light cavalry can bypass our blocking position and flee for their lives, and it will still be difficult for our army to annihilate the 100,000 Mangou on the northern front. And the goal of the Mangou Emperor is so small, if he disguises himself as an ordinary soldier squad to break through, and our army wants to catch up with him or stop him, it can only rely on luck. ”

"That's right." Fat Lu nodded again, and asked again: "Then I would like to ask the generals again, in your opinion, our army has no chance of annihilating the northern clues at all?" Is there any way to ensure that the northern front is full of dogs? ”

The civil and military officials of the Fat Army whispered, and Han Daren peeked at Lu Fatzi, knowing that Lu Fatzi was taking the opportunity to test the attitude of the Fat Army generals towards blowing up Gaojiayan, so he said: "General, the last general has two methods, which can ensure that the northern front is full of dogs, and it can also ensure that the Emperor of Mangou is held to the greatest extent." ”

"General Han, please speak." Fat Lu said quietly.

"The first way." Han Daren said in a deep voice: "Immediately blow up Gaojiayan, flood Huai'an Mansion with floods, use the flood to cut off the grain route of Mangou's retreat, catch turtles in the urn and annihilate the main force of Mangou, and kill the Mangou Emperor." ”

The tent was completely silent, and the civil and military officials of the Fat Army were all silent, knowing that although Han Daren's plan was feasible and the safest, he was taboo and infamous for eternity, and he didn't dare to open his mouth in favor of agreeing. But this is not surprising, the Fat Army was born out of Wu Lao Han's Pingxi Palace, Wu Lao Han was the only vassal king who did not slaughter the city for the Eight Banners of the Qing Dynasty, and once rejected Lu Fatzi's suggestion to blow up the 10,000-person embankment to flood Jingzhou, and under the influence of Wu Laohan's hypocrisy and hypocrisy, the generals and officials of the Fat Army naturally did not dare to set this precedent casually - if the Fat Army was born in the Pingnan Palace, Jingnan Palace, or Dingnan Palace, then there would definitely be no such taboo.

Seeing such a scene, Lu Fatzi and Han Daren were inevitably disappointed, knowing that even the generals of the Fat Army who were as ruthless as jackals and poisonous as snakes did not dare to open their mouths to support this plan, and they were infamous for thousands of years.

"I ......, I object." The prefect of Zhenjiang, who surrendered from the Qing Imperial Court, spoke boldly and trembly: "If Gaojiayan falls, Huaiyang will not meet, and if you do this, the hundreds of thousands of people in Huai'an will be completely ......." If we do this, then what is the difference between us and the full dog? ”

The fat army general closed his mouth tighter, but a few civilian officials who were not afraid of death cautiously agreed, "Gao Futai is reasonable, this move is too damaging to yin morality and hurts heaven and harmony, if we do this, it will be no different from a full dog beast." ”

Fat Lu has no face to scold these pedantic nerds, if it is replaced by a mite flag man who is damaged by the dyke, not to mention hundreds of thousands, it is millions and tens of millions, and Fat Lu will also order the dyke to be blown up without blinking an eyelid, and at the end of the day, he will definitely proudly declare that if this is also a crime, he will go to eighteen layers of hell in the future, then he is willing to commit a crime once, and he will go to thirty-six layers of hell in the future! But when he thought of the hundreds of thousands of Han compatriots in the lower reaches of Hongze Lake, Lu Fatzi was neither ruthless nor daring to bear this infamy through the ages.

Han Daren was also silent, and after a while, Han Daren said: "The second method, a decisive battle in Huai'an Mansion, is not in a hurry to defeat the main force of Mangou in Yangzhou Mansion, first fight a few small victories to force the main force of Mangou to retreat, and is not in a hurry to defeat the main force of Mangou in the pursuit battle, let the main force of Mangou retreat and retreat, and when the main force of Mangou retreats to the vicinity of Huai'an City, our army will attack again, and at the same time divide an army to seize the Qinghe ferry of Mangou, use the Yellow River to block the retreat of Mangou's main force, and annihilate the main force of Mangou near Huai'an City." ”

"Then what if the dog bombs Gaojiayan? We're going to die with the dogs. Li Guodong asked.

"As long as the Mangou Emperor is still on the south bank of the Yellow River, Mangou will eat the leopard's gall and dare not blow up Gaojiayan." Han Daren replied.

"That's right." Li Guodong nodded, and said to Lu Fatzi: "General, the last general thinks that this plan is feasible, first force the main force of Mangou to fight and retreat to Huai'an City, and then our army will attack again, and at the same time divide troops to cut off the Yellow River crossing of Mangou, there is indeed a great certainty of annihilating the main force of Mangou, and there is also a relatively large hope of killing the Mangou Emperor." ”

Lu Fatzi closed his mung bean eyes, the second tactic proposed by Han Daren had of course been considered by Lu Fatzi before, but if he did this, although he was very sure that the main force of the Qing army on the northern front would be annihilated, the hope of killing Kang Mazi was still not great - if Kang Mazi disguised himself as an ordinary soldier or an ordinary person and fled to the lower reaches of the Yellow River to cross the river, hundreds of miles of lower reaches of the river, how could the Fat Army be able to take precautions one by one?

"Let's take one step at a time." Quietly sighing in his heart, Fat Lu opened his mung bean eyes, nodded and said: "According to General Han Daren's second plan, the army is ready, cross the river tomorrow, and land at Tuqiao Ferry." ”

"Order." The fat army generals hugged their fists and agreed, and at the same time they were very sorry in their hearts.

"The Tuqiao ferry port is located on the west side of the canal." Lu Fatzi said: "Mangou's current strength still exists, it is not excluded that when our army crosses the river, Mangou rushes to obstruct our army's crossing of the river, and frustrates our army's spirit. ”

"The last will go!" The jackals, tigers and leopards of the Fat Scout Army answered unusually neatly this time, and they scrambled to take a step forward together, as if they were afraid that Fat Lu would not see him. Fat Lu smiled and said, "General Wang Xu, you go, you have experience in fighting such a battle." ”

…………………… On 28 May, the main force of the Fat Army's army began to cross the river with all its might, and there were more than 1,000 boats crossing the river. When the news reached the Yangzhou camp of the Qing army fifty miles away, Yue Letie thought about it for a long time with a blushing face, and finally stomped his feet and shouted: "Continue to attack the city!" Before Shen Shi in the afternoon, he couldn't capture Yangzhou City, so he immediately pulled out his camp and withdrew to Cheluo Town! ”

No matter how desperate you are, it's useless, it's still the same sentence, Yangzhou City is still the Yangzhou City, but the Fat Army is not the demoralized Nanming army of thirty years ago. Although the corpses of the Qing soldiers under the city wall have been piled up more than two feet high, the Qing army can climb the Yangzhou city wall with both hands as long as they jump hard while standing on the corpse mountain, although the most vulnerable northwest corner of Yangzhou has changed hands several times, and the corpses are piled up so that they can step on the corpses and rush directly onto the city wall, and they have been repeatedly sawed by the fat army and the Qing army; Although the soldiers of the Fat Army on the city wall had been fighting bloodily for two days and two nights, the casualties were almost more than any previous battle of the Fat Army.

But the white flag of the Fat Army is still fluttering on the city wall of Yangzhou, and the bloodshot soldiers of the Fat Army are still roaring and waving knives and guns on the city wall, fiercely hacking and stabbing to death every Qing soldier who dares to rush to the city wall, the cannonballs are finished, the rockets are finished, the grenades are used up, and the Fat Army soldiers use primitive knives and guns to kill the enemy, and use more primitive stones, sticks, fists and teeth to block the advance of the Qing soldiers! Because the soldiers of the Fat Army know that although Jiangnan is big, behind them are the people of Yangzhou City, if they take a step back, the tragedy of Yangzhou thirty years ago is destined to be repeated!

Yangzhou Fat Army, there is no way back! And the casualties of the Qing army were at least four times that of the fat army!

The west and north sections of the city wall of Yangzhou City have no other colors, everywhere you see, are a piece of blood red, the blood of the soldiers on both sides flows so much that even the soil can not absorb it, the blood flows down the ditch, accumulating waist-deep blood, and also dyes the pride of the Chinese nation The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal is red, and Yue Le once again invested in the siege troops at any cost, and its effect is only to make the blood red here more red.

The people in Yangzhou overcame their timidity, spontaneously organized themselves to walk on the city wall, to help the fat soldiers share the pressure, carry the materials to defend the city and rescue the wounded soldiers of the fat army, Yangzhou has the east gate and south gate protected by the canal, the main force to defend the city has been Yangzhou people, the original fat army soldiers stationed here have been transferred to the west gate and the north gate by Gao Dejie, and the fat soldiers who have been exhausted and suffered heavy casualties there have been rotated. The 110,000 troops of the Qing army outside Yangzhou have repeatedly taken turns to fight several times, but they have never been able to break through the Yangzhou city wall.

It was also at this time that Yue Lecai found with a pale face that the Qing soldiers he had lost in the meat grinder in Yangzhou had exceeded 40,000, with countless minor and serious injuries, and the generals and soldiers were even more exhausted and could even be blown down by a gust of wind, but so far there was no hope of breaking the city, and the generals and soldiers of the Fat Army were still holding on to the city wall of Yangzhou, and the main force of the Fat Army that had crossed the Yangtze River one after another had also gained a firm foothold on the north bank of the Yangtze River. So when it was more than halfway through, Yue Le himself dispelled the idea of fighting to Shenshi, and tremblingly issued an order that made both the Qing army and the fat army cheer, "Stop the siege, pack up your baggage, and retreat north." ”

The Qing army will not be able to retreat again, more than two days of siege and hard fighting, the Qing army is not only demoralized to the extreme, but also tired and fragile to the extreme, once the main force of the fat army arrives on the battlefield, then the main force of the Qing army does not say that the main force of the fat army is lured into the floodplain, that is, whether it can be withdrawn from the battlefield of the city wall in Yangzhou, it is not necessarily.

When the golden gong of the Qing army sounded, the Qing army team and the fat army team were cheering at the same time, the Qing soldiers fled faster than one by one with their heads, and the fat soldiers fell on the wall that was also full of blood while cheering, writing a dead dog like snoring and falling asleep, although Gao Dejie wanted to take the opportunity to go out of the city to fight back, but seeing that the fat soldiers were all tired like this, he had to dispel this idea, and watched the Qing soldiers who were also exhausted but always in better condition fled back to the battle. Return to the Shao Bo Lake camp, pack up your luggage and flee north for your life.

A.D. 1675, the first year of Zhaowu of the Great Zhou Dynasty, May 28 of the 14th year of the mite Qingkang Mazi, the main force of the Qing army that attacked Yangzhou for two days and two nights in a desperate attempt to attack Yangzhou, after receiving the news that the main force of the Fat Army crossed the river, finally gave up the tactical plan of breaking through the city of Yangzhou and defended it, fled to the north in embarrassment, and threw down more than 43,000 corpses under the city wall of Yangzhou. In order to get rid of the pursuit of the main force of the Fat Army and go north as soon as possible, the main force of the Qing Army also threw down more than 30 Hongyi cannons that had even been scrapped with cannon barrels, as well as a whole Shao Bohu battalion, which only carried valuable grain, grass and gunpowder and immediately went north, crossed the canal before the new force of the Fat Army arrived in Yangzhou City, and fled to Cheluo Town, which was directly north of Yangzhou.

In the afternoon, Shen Shizheng, the first fat army of 4,000 cavalry arrived in Yangzhou City under the leadership of Gao Hongchen, the younger brother of Gao Dejie, and saw the miserable scene of the corpses piling up like a mountain under Yangzhou City, and heard that the Qing army withdrew only three hours, Gao Hongchen immediately led the cavalry to pursue, and at the Qing army pontoon bridge in Shao Bo Lake, blocked more than 2,000 Qing army palace troops who had time to escape the canal, and the Qing army on the opposite bank saw that the situation was not good, and quickly lit the canal pontoon bridge that had been poured with fire oil, and then fled to the north.

Seeing the fire on the canal pontoon, the Qing soldiers who had not had time to withdraw the canal pontoon bridge were naturally crying and shaking the sky, but Gao Hongchen gave a merciless order, and the four thousand fat soldiers immediately pounced like wolves, and even more mercilessly slashed and picked with knives and guns, slaughtering more than 2,000 Qing army rear soldiers, not even taking a single prisoner, even if they laid down their arms and surrendered, they were all mercilessly killed, and at the same time they grabbed the pontoon bridge and prepared to cross the river to pursue. But after such a slight toss, the Qing army on the west bank had already fled far away.

As evening approached, Lu Fatzi personally led the main force of the Fat Army to Yangzhou City, and the rear team led by Li Guodong rushed to dredge the canal in the area of Shijiaqiao, so that the ships transporting weapons and baggage could go north along the canal and send artillery to the northern front line faster and with less effort. And when Lu Fatzi entered Yangzhou City, in addition to seeing the smiling faces of the soldiers and civilians of Yangzhou looking forward to their relatives, there was also seeing blood all over the ground and rows of wounded soldiers, Lu Fatzi couldn't help but kneel down to the soldiers and soldiers of Yangzhou and the wounded soldiers, and arched his hand and said: "Soldiers, people, in order to win time for our main force, I have worked hard for you and wronged you!" ”

Countless Yangzhou soldiers and civilians cried bitterly, but what they shed was tears of happiness, Gao Dejie, who was wrapped in bloody gauze on his forehead, came up to pick up Lu Fatzi, and bowed his hand to Lu Fatman, and said very ashamedly: "The last general is incompetent, this time Yangzhou is occupied, our army's losses exceed 12,000, please punish the general." ”

"Brother Gao is polite, you fought so hard and so fiercely, you only have merit, so what's the crime?" Lu Fatzi patted the back of Gao Dejie's hand and said: "Besides, the casualties of our army in the Yangzhou War this time were too large, firstly, because our army's weapons were not reasonable enough and long-range weapons were insufficient; The second is that the full dog is desperate for his life this time, and he does not hesitate to kill and die a fierce attack; The third is because your task is to contain the main force of the northern front that is full of dogs, and you can't beat them away and tie your hands and feet, which is responsible for me, otherwise, with your ability, it is not difficult to repel the main force of the full dogs in the field. ”

"The general is modest, and it is no wonder that the general is not good at defending the city and is inexperienced." Gao Dejie hurriedly said modestly: "Especially when Mangou built that swamp fort to weaken the power of our artillery, if the last general went out of the city overnight to raid, the Yangzhou battlefield would not be passive to this point, the crime lies in the last general, the last general will definitely learn a lesson in the future, and then fight a battle to defend the city, there will never be a similar mistake." ”

"Ha, about this, Brother Gao can rest assured." Fat Lu laughed and said, "I can conclude that we will never have to fight a defensive battle in the future, and what we can fight in the future is only siege warfare, only pursuit warfare and annihilation warfare!" ”

"That's just as well." Gao Dejie laughed and nodded, and suddenly remembered a major event, and hurriedly said: "General, this time to chase and kill the main force of Mangou, the last general, please atone for the vanguard generals, and personally go to avenge the brothers and people who died on the battlefield in Yangzhou!" ”

"We'll talk about that later." Fat Lu smiled and said: "Brother Gao, you haven't closed your eyes for three days and two nights, first rest in Yangzhou City for a day or two, and then catch up with the main force to send troops to pursue." ”

There were still quite a lot of cavalry in the ranks of the Qing army, and it was impossible for the pursuit of the fat army to be completed in a day or two, so Gao Dejie, who was really tired enough, did not refuse, and immediately nodded in agreement. When Lu Fatzi turned to Wu Yonghua and Gao Qi and the others to pretend to buy people's hearts, Han Daren, who was already planning to ease relations with Gao Dejie, came up next to him, and said to Gao Dejie with envy on his face full of flattery: "Brother Gao, you are glorious this time, and it is really remarkable to repel the siege army of the Mangou Emperor himself with a single army." ”

Stretching out his hand not to hit the smiling person, although he still looked at how unpleasant Han Daren was, Gao Dejie still nodded reluctantly and said: "Thank you Brother Han for the compliment, it's just average, it's a pity that I couldn't kill the Emperor Mangou." ”

"By the way, Brother Gao, what the hell does the Mangou Emperor look like?" Han Daren asked without words: "I heard that this dog emperor is full of pockmarks, yellow ears and yellow teeth, and ugly as a baboon, Brother Gao, have you seen it with your own eyes this time?" ”

"Nope." Gao Dejie shook his head and replied casually: "Although Emperor Mangou came to Yangzhou to command this time, he didn't come to the front line to command once, so I didn't see him greedy for life and afraid of death. ”

"Wait! Wait a minute! ”

Fat Lu suddenly remembered the exclamation, which startled everyone present, and Fat Lu quickly turned around again, and asked with a serious face: "Brother Gao, what did you just say?" Emperor Mangou, not once did he come to the front line to command? ”

"yes." Gao Dejie nodded and replied: "After Emperor Mangou's bullshit Luan drove to Yangzhou, he has been hiding in the Shao Bohu camp and has not come to the front line to command, so the last general has not seen him. ”

"So, in the last two days and two nights of the battle, did the Mangou Emperor show up under Yangzhou City?" Fat Lu hurriedly asked again.

"This ......, there shouldn't be." Gao Dejie hesitated and replied: "At that time, the fight was extremely fierce, and I didn't pay attention to the situation of the Mangou Banner Formation, and I don't know if the Mangou Emperor showed up. ”

"Probably not." Wu Yonghua interjected and said: "I led the Inspector team, I have more free, and I have used the clairvoyant mirror to pay attention to the Mangou Flag Array a few times, but I haven't seen the Mangou Emperor appear." ”

Fat Lu was stunned, and after a while, Fat Lu roared, "We have been tricked!" Kang Mazi's full dog didn't cross the Yellow River at all! This time, he came just a fake luan driver! ”

"How is that possible?" The Fat Army generals exclaimed together.

"Kang Mazi, that full dog, I understand!" Fat Lu stomped his feet and roared: "The world's most vicious, cruel, insidious, despicable and arrogant full dog!" If he really comes to the battlefield in Yangzhou, he will come to the front line of the battlefield in person to say anything, declaring that his bullshit and benevolent government will surrender you, and he will boost the morale of the dog army! But the Emperor Mangou did not show up, proving that he had not crossed the Yellow River at all! I've never been to the Yangzhou battlefield at all! ”

"What if the Mangou Emperor is greedy for life and afraid of death, and he doesn't dare to come to the front line in person?" Wu Yonghua asked timidly.

"Impossible!" Fat Lu waved his fat hand categorically and roared categorically: "With the arrogant and narcissistic surname of the Mangou Emperor, it is impossible to be so greedy for life and afraid of death!" Also, in the past few days, the Mangou army has stormed Yangzhou at any cost, clearly wanting to break through Yangzhou, with the help of Yangzhou City and our main force to contend with it, in this desperate situation, no matter how greedy the Mangou Emperor is, he will definitely show up in front of the battle and boost morale to the death! ”

"What's the point of the Mangou Emperor doing this?" Gao Dejie asked again: "Why did he refuse to cross the river himself, and why did he use a fake luan to deceive us?" ”

When Lu Fatzi didn't answer, and when he turned his head to look at Yao Qisheng, he saw that Yao Qisheng's face was also solemn, and he nodded to himself, indicating that he had understood the true intention of Kang Mazi's move. Fat Lu thought for a moment, and then ordered: "Master Yao, you immediately arrange for the clipper to enter Hongze Lake, contact Li Ji's team lurking there, and let him carry out the original plan." ”

"The student will arrange it right away." Yao Qisheng hurriedly agreed, and said hesitantly: "It's just, I don't know if there is any hope of luring the Mangou Emperor across the Yellow River?" ”

"Let me figure it out." Fat Lu tapped his temples with his fat fingers, and said in a deep voice: "It seems that the only thing that can be used at present is the arrogant psychology of the Mangou Emperor." ”

(To be continued)