It has been ten days since Yang Chao recovered Yangzhou.

On the fifth day, the second batch of reinforcements arrived, this group of reinforcements encountered a strong wind on the river, was blown to the shore and ran aground, the loss was not heavy, after the wind and waves were calm, they immediately set off for two days to Yangzhou.

Within the next three days, other reinforcements had arrived, allowing Yang Chao to have troops stationed in neighboring states and counties.

Yizhen County and Taixing County in the lower reaches of Jiangdu each sent Yang Qian soldiers, and Tongzhou and Taizhou also sent 1,000 people.

However, Gaoyou Prefecture sent 30,000 people, only Baoying County, which is subordinate to Gaoyou Prefecture and is on the same canal line as Yangzhou and Gaoyou, sent 10,000 people, and the remaining 20,000 people were sent to prepare for stationing in Gaoyou, and Xinghua County, which deviated from the canal channel, only sent 1,000 people.

The three counties and three prefectures of Yangzhou Prefecture were all sent to guard the army, not that Yang Chao wanted to seize the low-level power, to put it bluntly, where did these soldiers go, it was the local civil officials who were in charge, and Yang Chao couldn't interfere in the affairs such as money and grain collection.

The reason why troops were sent was to prevent a sneak attack by the Qing army, the second was to suppress the bandits, and the third was to deter the defenders.

Duoduo went straight to Yangzhou at that time, almost the center of the knife, did not fight other states and counties at all, the combat strategy was very good, concentrated forces to fight Yangzhou, and then the surrounding states and counties must retreat without a fight, in Henan, Shaanxi, Shanxi Duoduo is operated in this way, one city and one place to fight, Duoduo does not have that force.

But he didn't expect Yangzhou to be lost, which made Duoduo fall into passivity, and the disadvantage of not seizing the surrounding states and counties was revealed.

Fortunately, the Qing army was all cavalry, Duoduo led a small number of Eight Banners to retreat to Huai'an, and after getting enough war horses, he immediately regained his mobility again, although he was temporarily unable to attack Yangzhou again, but it was already possible to send rangers to monitor.

Therefore, Yang Chao had to guard against the Manchu Qing rangers entering the hinterland of Yangzhou to destroy.

The second is the bandits, after Duoduo went south, it caused a lot of disorder, and there were many defenders who surrendered to Duoduo, but some refused. left with the soldiers, but lost the station, and could only fall into the grass and make a living by robbing houses and houses.

Therefore, Yang Chao sent people to guard against bandits. also let the general manager who led the troops pay attention to appease these bandits, after all, they all refused to surrender before falling into the grass, it should be said that they have more backbone in terms of integrity and can be absorbed into their own army.

There are also defenders from all over the country, these temporary guards and township soldiers and other miscellaneous troops. If you don't send someone to supervise, you can't figure out that once the Qing army arrives, you will surrender directly, and if the Qing army sends a strange soldier directly behind Yang Chao, it is equivalent to cutting off Yang Chao's back road.

As for Duoduo resuming his deterrence against Yangzhou so quickly, Yang Chao had just gotten the news.

It turned out that the Qing army in Shandong went south, Yangzhou was besieged, especially after the news of the city was broken, Liu Zeqing, who was stationed in Huai'an, fled in a hurry, and handed over the land, population, soldiers, horses, money and grain account books of the fourteen counties of Huaiyang to his chief soldier Bai Yongfu as an agent. He fled to the sea by boat with Wang Yongji, the governor of Shandong, and the governor of Cao, Yu Shi Tianyang, and other civil officials.

It is obvious that the imperial court has always hoped that Liu Zeqing, the general soldier of Shandong, would return to Shandong, but he has been relying on Huai'an and refused to leave, and he has built a lot of construction and arrogance, and these civil officials have followed him in embarrassment, and now not only did not recover Shandong, but the Qing army went southeast from Shandong, and they immediately ran away.

Bai Yongfu didn't run. But as soon as the Qing army came, he immediately surrendered, probably under Liu Zeqing's order to negotiate with the Qing army. Only when it is confirmed that it is safe, Liu Zeqing will come back to take refuge, but obviously he is not sure, because Yangzhou was taken back by Yang Chao, so he can only float on the sea, and it is not easy for the Manchu Qing to go. The Ming Dynasty did not dare to go back, and was cornered for a while.

Huai'an's surrender made Yang Chao extremely passive, Huai'an such a fortified city, if you defend with your heart, the defensive advantage alone is much more stable than Yangzhou, Liu Zeqing used 100,000 soldiers, but the enemy is currently gone, and the angry Yang Chao fell the cup.

But then the deployment began, and only then did the 30,000 troops be transferred to Gaoyou, the purpose of which was obvious, that is, to prevent the Qing army from attacking south along the canal.

"What a loss!"

Looking at the list of losses just counted, Yang Chao couldn't help but feel a pain in his heart.

Especially when those manpower and material resources are not lost on the battlefield.

His own soldiers obeyed the order and went to help, but in the strong wind and waves, a total of 1,200 people were lost in the end, and it is estimated that most of them died in the belly of the fish.

Compared with the loss of manpower, the loss of material resources is even more severe.

The big boats that pulled people were better, only a dozen or so were lost, but the small boats that transported supplies almost all capsized.

The above is only 50,000 quintals of grain, and the market price is more than 200,000 taels of silver.

In addition, there are weapons, cannons, armor and other things, which are converted into no less than 500,000 taels.

What's more, the ship itself is a high-value asset, and more than 300 small boats have capsized, and the 300 salt boats that Yang Chao knocked out from the salt merchant Du Shouchang are all lost.

The loss of material resources greatly reduced Yang Chao's mobility, these salt ships are a sharp weapon for transportation, without these ships, Yang Chao's plan to communicate Gaoyou and Baoying through the canal, and block the enemy north of Yangzhou has a flaw.

"What does the reply from the imperial court say?"

Therefore, Yang Chao had already sent an urgent report to the imperial court, asking for the allocation of 300 boats.

When Yang Chao heard that the reply was coming, he asked Huang Fengfu.

Huang Fengfu couldn't help but shake his head: "The imperial court said that there are no boats. ”

"No?"

There are thousands of boats in the Ming Dynasty, and the dilapidated boats that need to be replaced are as high as 400 every year, and they only want only 300 boats, how can there be no them, and there are not a large number of boats stranded in the cities along the canal.

"The court said that the water camp could be sent."

Yang Chao nodded: "It's okay, what I want is a boat, and it's the same for both boats and warships." ”

Huang Fengfu hesitated a little: "But the imperial court said that the sincerity Bo was sent to command this water camp, and you are also under the control of the sincerity Bo." ”

Yang Chao couldn't help but be stunned: "Liu Kongzhao! He dared to come to the front? ”

That's the way it is, the chattering arguments in the court a few days ago made the little emperor lose his appetite.

So when Yang Chao asked the court to allocate the boat, the courtiers had a tacit understanding that they didn't want to see Yang Chao's power too much, and planned to mix sand with Yang Chao somewhere. But on the issue of sending people to supervise the teacher, the little emperor chose to support the ministers this time, just like his father Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youzhen's final choice, trust the ministers and trust the eunuchs!

So Liu Kongzhao got the position of superintendent.

Huang Fengfu suddenly suggested: "My lord, my subordinates don't know whether to say something or not."

Yang Chao said: "You say." ”

Huang Fengfu said: "My subordinates thought that my lord had been away from Nanjing for a long time. I'm afraid that there will be changes in the court. ”

Yang Chao said: "You mean to let me go back." ”

Huang Fengfu nodded.

Yang Chao sighed: "The Duoduo army is in Huai'an, and it may go south at any time, so I can't leave at this time." ”

Some people in the DPRK and China impeached Yang Chao, and there was a great deal of discussion. It is impossible for Yang Chao not to know, otherwise he would have arranged so many eyeliners in the court, which made Huang Fengfu worried.

Yang Chao has heavy troops, but now they are all in Jiangbei, which really allows the courtiers to let go of rumors. If Yang Chao is in the middle of the court, many things will not be so complicated, and distance will produce illusions.

But Yang Chao felt that it was indeed inappropriate for him to go back now, but he also had to deal with it at this time, and his family was in Nanjing.

After thinking about it, Yang Chao said: "Let Wang Pu lead 10,000 soldiers to guard the mouth of the new river, so as to make a fool's plan." ”

The reason why I chose Wang Pu is because this guy is relatively horizontal, although he is often brutal, he can often deter people.

In addition, Yang Chao intended to punish him.

Wang Pu's disobedience to military orders on the battlefield. At that time, Lu Mo had already tried him, and beat him with thirty military sticks in public.

Now keeping him away from the battlefield is believing that it will teach him a profound lesson.

"And it's time for the captives to be escorted to Nanjing. And how did the prisoners in Taiping Mansion deal with it? ”

Yang Chao was in Taiping Mansion with Huang Degong, but almost all the rest of Zuo Liangyu was captured.

Huang Fengfu immediately said: "The public accepted 160,000 prisoners, Huang Degong took 80,000 away, and the other 80,000 were sent to Xinjiangkou to work." Hu Qian is always in charge of guarding these people. ”

Hu Quan lost all the cannons with bad luck, many of them were new cannons that had just been cast in the past few months, and he saw that the guys in his artillery hands had just hardened, and all the storms were gone.

Fortunately, the artillery was not with the artillery, otherwise not only Hu Quan, but also Yang Chao would have cried. You must know that the artillery is the essence, and most of the scholars who are easy to recruit are in the artillery.

"It's a lot of losses. This batch of cannons is not easy to cast, and it seems that the craftsmen have to hurry up and continue casting. ”

Yang Chao couldn't help but sigh.

"That's right. We should not lack money! ”

The loss is so big, especially the ship is too much, I am afraid that the shipping business will be affected for a period of time, so Yang Chao asked.

Huang Fengfu said: "Hehe, even if it lasts for a year or two, it won't be a problem, we have made a fortune recently." ”

Yang Chao nodded. In Yangzhou alone, the property recovered from the Tartars is no less than 8 million taels of silver, plus the discount of gold, silver and jewelry, 10 million is available, but with the current consumption, two years is enough to choke.

Huang Fengfu didn't play dumb riddles and immediately explained: "The subordinates haven't reported yet, and the adults may not know how much property we have seized from Zuo Liangyu." ”

Yang Chao nodded.

Huang Fengfu stretched out his hand and said, "Ten million taels!" ”

This number made Yang Chao gasp, Zuo Liangyu is too rich, you must know that the Qing army looted wildly in Yangzhou for three days, and finally killed 350,000 people, but only grabbed 10 million taels, Zuo Liangyu actually has so much money.

Huang Fengfu sighed: "Zuo Liangyu has plundered Wuchang City, where is still a white land. Later, he looted Jiujiang City, and the two places were looted by him. Our warships on the river alone confiscated Zuo Liangyu's transport property, and there were as many as 100 ships. ”

Yang Chao frowned, he knew the source of Zuo Liangyu's huge money.

Although Wuchang and Jiujiang are not as rich as Yangzhou, Huguang has become the granary of the Ming Dynasty, and the export of this granary is Wuchang, not to mention Jiujiang, the most convenient export of porcelain in Jingdezhen, the accumulation of grain and porcelain two bulk trade for many years, and the merchants in these two places are also rich and rich, so they do not have to be much worse than Yangzhou.

"This group of thieves is really hateful!"

Yang Chao couldn't help scolding, a person like Zuo Liangyu can rob the cities of his own country, that's all, and slaughtered Wuchang, to the extent that people and gods are angry, I really don't know what kind of perversion his moral cognition is for such a person. (To be continued.) )