There is a three-entry courtyard about a mile away from the west gate of Yangzhou, and there are two Ming soldiers standing at the door with waist knives and spears in their hands, and the two are whispering at the moment.

"I heard that there are more than 100,000 people from the Tartars, yesterday I ran to the city wall to see, this camp can't see the edge, can this Yangzhou hold it?" The soldier, who was a little shorter and looked a little younger, asked.

"Who knows? The overseer didn't go out for two days. The eyes of the tall soldier who were a little older were full of confusion, and he was very puzzled, why did the Tartar attack on the city imminent, why did the superintendent always stay in the house and not let him in.

This is the temporary superintendent's mansion of the Southern Ming Military Department, the student of Jianjidian, and the Huaiyang Governor Shi Kefa. Although the city wall of Yangzhou City is tall and strong, the terrain of the West Gate is relatively low-lying, and it will be the focus of the Qing army's siege. Since the siege of the city by the Qing army, the Shi Ge Department decided to defend the west gate, and the mansion of a wealthy merchant was vacated as the temporary governor's mansion.

At this time, Shi Gebu sat on a Taishi chair in the study of the mansion, staring blankly at the willow branches that were already green outside the window, but the focus of his eyes was obviously not on it, but he didn't know what he was thinking. The wide Taishi chair lined Shi Kefa with a very thin person, and the hair without an official hat and the large white hair exposed from the temples made people look extremely haggard.

On the edge of the corridor outside the door, the deputy general Stilwell in armor and the staff member Lu Wei in the clothes of a scribe both lowered their heads and were slowly stamping slowly and speechlessly, Lu Wei raised his head to say something to Stilwell, opened his mouth, but fell silent.

A sudden commotion outside the gate woke the two, and they looked at each other and hurried out of the gate.

"Who's making a fuss here?" Stilwell shouted, not far from the main hall, and the two of them walked a few steps away.

Lu Wei looked up and saw that it was Ren Minyu, the prefect of Yangzhou, and Ma Yingkui, the guard of the east gate, who were stopped by the guards at this time.

"Weisheng, you came just in time, I want to see Master Overseer!" Ren Minyu, the prefect of Yangzhou, saw Ma and Lu arrive, and said hurriedly.

"Ren Futai, why is it so urgent?" Lu Wei asked hurriedly.

"The Tartars have set up a row of red-clothed cannons outside the west gate, and the west gate may not be defended! You have to report to the cabinet as soon as possible, if the wall of the west gate is destroyed, you must bless people to plug the gap! Ren Minyu said to Lu Wei as he walked inside.

Since Shi Inspector decided to defend the west gate, he appointed the Yangzhou prefect Ren Minyu and the general soldier Liu Zhaoji to be responsible for the defense of the whole city, the number of defenders in the city is nearly 20,000, but it is extremely chaotic, in addition to the original Yangzhou defenders, there are mainly Liu Zhaoji's loyal battalion and the Henan army and Sichuan soldiers who retreated.

Yangzhou City, as a big city in the south of the Yangtze River, has a radius of no less than ten miles, and the population of the city is 500,000 people, plus the refugees who fled in, Ren Minyu estimates that the whole city now has a population of no less than 780,000. At the beginning of the siege of the Tartars, Ren Minyu suggested to the superintendent to ask the people to assist in defending the city, but was vetoed by the superintendent on the grounds that he could not disturb the people, which made Ren Zhifu extremely dissatisfied. Despite this, he and the chief soldier Liu Zhaoji kept coordinating the soldiers and horses and city defense equipment that entered the city, and Ren Minyu, who was already in his forties, had not slept for a few days, and his tired eyes were bloodshot.

"Mr. Lu, I also urgently need to report the military situation to the superintendent!" As soon as Ren Minyu finished speaking, Ma Shoukui hurriedly said.

"Shouqing, what's going on with you?" Lu Wei, as Shi Kefa's staff, has always followed Shi Gebu's side and is very familiar with the guards in the city.

"Zhang Tianlu and Zhang Tianfu want to lead the Sichuan soldiers out of the city to surrender to the enemy! Mr. Liu is leading people to block the east gate. Ma Shoukui said hatefully. The brothers Zhang Tianlu and Zhang Tianfu were originally the guards of Suizhou, the Qing soldiers attacked Suizhou, as soon as they attacked the city, the two fled with more than 3,000 Sichuan soldiers, and when they ran to Yangzhou City, there were only more than 1,000 people left. Now seeing that the Qing army is pressing the border, Yangzhou has no hope of defending the city, so he wants to go out of the city directly to join the enemy.

"Is there such a thing? Let me report to the Overseer at once. Lu Wei replied.

"No, my lord said it, no one is allowed to disturb me!" Steenway said. The deputy general Stilwell is a distant nephew of Shi Kefa, and he has always followed the adults, and he is extremely resolute in carrying out Shi Kefa's orders.

"You...!" Ren Minyu's bloodshot eyes stared at Stilwell.

"It's urgent, why can't I see the overseer?" Ma Shoukui shouted anxiously.

"Shouqing is a little quiet, don't be bored, I'll report to the overseer." Lu Wei said urgently. Just as he was about to turn around and enter the house to report, he saw that the overseer had already walked out, and it turned out that Shi Kefa heard the commotion outside the door and went to the door to investigate.

"If you two have any urgent matters, report them quickly." Shi Kefa said to Ren and Lu.

Ren and Ma hurriedly said it again, Shi Kefa looked stunned when he heard this, and said to Shi Dewei: "Hurry up and prepare the horse, let's go to the east gate first!" ”

The entourage led the horse over, Shi Kefa got on the horse and rushed to the east gate, Ren Minyu and Ma Shoukui saw this, and hurriedly got on the horse to follow.

The east gate of Yangzhou is very high-spirited, but the city gate is not very spacious inside, two rows of houses are only fifty or sixty steps away from the city gate, and now the front of the city gate and both sides of the street are crowded with people, there are the soldiers of the Zhang brothers, and there are also the soldiers of the loyal battalion brought by Liu Zhaoji to block the Zhang brothers from going out of the city.

The city gate has been blocked by sacks full of sand and stones, the soldiers defending the city have been pushed aside, and the soldiers of the Zhang family army are moving the sacks. The soldiers on both sides mingled, pushing and shoving each other, shouting and swearing, and there was chaos in front of the city gates.

In the chaos, Liu Zhaoji, the general soldier of Yangzhou who was riding on a horse, glared angrily at Zhang Tianlu and Zhang Tianfu in front of him, and shouted: "The superintendent has an order, and he wants me to defend Yangzhou to the death, do you two want to surrender to the Tartars when you go out of the city now?" ”

Zhang Tianlu sat on the horse and said nothing, but Zhang Tianfu smiled and said: "Yangzhou is no longer defensible, our brother is going back to Sichuan!" ”

"Outside the Tartars have besieged the city, how can your brother return to Sichuan?" Liu Zhaoji said patiently.

"But you don't care about it!" Zhang Tianfu screamed.

"Hurry up! Hurry up and open the gates! Zhang Tianlu turned his head and urged his subordinates.

"Don't go out of town!" Liu Zhaoji was furious, and the soldiers of the Zhongguan battalion raised their swords and guns. Although Zhang Jiajun was afraid of the Qing soldiers like a tiger, he was not afraid of Liu Zhaoji's Zhongguan battalion, and when he saw the soldiers of the Zhongguan battalion raising their swords and guns, they also retreated to the side and raised their swords and guns. On a street, more than 2,000 people poured swords and knives, and the murderous atmosphere was permeated, and it was a fire fight.

There was a hurried sound of horses' hooves, "The Overseer has arrived!" Then there was a shout. When the soldiers of the Zhongguan Battalion and the Zhang Jiajun heard the shouting, they all consciously lowered their swords and guns and retreated to both sides of the street.

Shi Kefa patted the horse and came to Liu Zhaoji and the Zhang family brothers, "What does your brother want?" Staring coldly at the Zhang brothers, Shi Kefa asked in a deep voice.

Forced by Shi Kefa's cold eyes, although Shi Kefa's figure on the horse in the chaotic army looked extremely thin, the Zhang brothers still felt the pressure like a mountain.

"This..."Zhang Tianlu wanted to say something, but he didn't dare to say it when it came to his mouth.

Although the four towns of Jiangbei have been gradually rising to prominence since the establishment of Emperor Hongguang, although the military generals are not suppressed by the civil officials as before, the ordinary military generals still feel inferior to the civilian officials, not to mention the face of the Southern Ming Military Department, the prestigious Shi Inspector.

Seeing that Erzhang was speechless, Shi Kefa didn't say much, turned his head and said to Ma Yingkui, who was following him: "Transfer Zhang Jiajun to the West Gate for defense, temporarily live in the city, and then go to the city wall to defend depending on the situation." ”

Ma Yingkui replied yes and said to the Zhang brothers, "Come with me." Zhang Tianlu and Zhang Tianfu glanced at each other, knowing that it was impossible to get out of the city, so they lowered their heads and patted their horses and led their subordinates to follow Ma Yingkui.

"Shi Ze, Ding Wei, you two follow me to the West Gate to have a look", seeing that Ma Jiajun had been taken away by Ma Yingkui, he said to Ren Minyu and Liu Zhaoji.

"Inspector, why don't you kill the two of them to prevent future troubles?" Liu Zhaoji patted his horse to keep up with Shi Kefa and asked.

"Before the war, the generals were afraid that the army was unstable, and with me, the two of them would not dare to rebel." Shi Kefa said confidently.

"I've been thinking too much in the past two days, and the defense of the city has worked hard for you two." Shi Kefa turned back to the two of them. When Ren and Liu heard this, they even said "I dare not be lowly" and "I will not dare to do the general".

"Supervisor, the defense of the city is weak, why not recruit the people to help defend the city?" Ren Minyu raised this issue again.

"Alas, for now, I'll tell you the truth. A few days ago, I sent people to Nanjing to report to the imperial court, and ordered Liu Liangzuo and Liu Zeqing to quickly rescue Yangzhou. Shi Kefa said with a gloomy sigh. Shaking his head, Shi Kefa continued: "Summoning the people to defend the city, once the city is broken, I am afraid that the Qing soldiers will be angry with the people." ”

"The Qing soldiers are brutal, even so, once the city is broken, the people cannot be protected." Ren Minyu said.

Shi Kefa stopped his horse, glanced back at the entourage more than a dozen steps away, and said to the two lightly: "On the day the city is broken, you two can bring people to break through the siege, so as to wait for the follow-up, I have decided to live and die with Yangzhou, and repay the court's great favor with death." ”

When Ren Minyu and Liu Zhaoji heard that Yangzhou had become a lonely city, their faces immediately became gloomy, and when they heard the superintendent say this, their expressions were condensed, and they both arched their hands and said, "We swear to follow the superintendent to the death!" ”

Shi Kefa shook his head, stopped talking, and continued to pat his horse and rush towards the west gate. When they reached the west gate, the group dismounted and handed over their horses to their attendants, and then marched to the city wall. After walking three or five steps up the steps, he suddenly heard a loud noise, and felt that the entire city wall shook, Shi Kefa's body tilted to the side, Liu Zhaoji reached out to support him, Shi Kefa shook his hand, said "It's okay", and continued to walk up.

As he was walking, he heard a shout from the city wall, "Tartar **, hide!" ”