Five or six days on the water was really boring, and everyone was holding on.

Luo Jian and the soldiers all ate the same dry food, which made Huang Fei and the generals of the Navy Division very unaccustomed, but most of the governors did this, and the generals of the infantry army were also like this, who would dare to be special?

In the early morning of the sixth day, Luo Jian and the troops of the three divisions disembarked at Digang, which was still more than 30 miles away from Tongling, which was only a dozen miles away from the 25,000 men and horses stationed in Tongling on the left.

The 3,000 cavalry had been personally led by Huang Degong to bypass from the southeast, preparing to directly cut off the rear road on the left, although Huang Degong said that there was no need to do so, but Luo Jian thought it was safe.

More than ten miles away, the Yangzhou army, which had been panicked on the boat, was now in a hurry, and when Luo Jian raised the binoculars in his hand and looked at the left army camp opposite, it was just dawning.

Li Chengdong, the commander of the second division, and Weng Zhiqi, the commander of the fifth division, stood on both sides of Luo Jian, and both of them also held binoculars in their hands, both of which were the latest products of Yangzhou Glass Factory.

Although the effect is much worse, it is much better than nothing, and both of them carefully observe the situation on the other side.

Li Chengdong waved his hand to the back, and the firecrackers of the Second Division first surrounded the left barracks, followed by artillery, although they were all small artillery, but they were all long-range firepower, at least it was not a big problem to bombard the wooden barracks.

The Fourth Division had already made a detour from the east, and the entire Yangzhou Army had already formed an encirclement posture against the large battalion on the left, and when the forward of the Second Division was less than a mile away from the camp, the sentinels on the left discovered that a large army had come from the opposite side.

With a burst of shouting, the left camp suddenly became a mess.

Luo Jian saw it in the binoculars, waved his hand and ordered: "Start attacking!" ”

As the orders of the generals at all levels kept being passed on, the Second Division set up a battle formation and rushed towards the camp in front of it.

The chaos in the left camp lasted for a long time, and when the second division had already attacked the camp and captured a few prisoners, it was not known that most of the generals of the left army were not in the camp, but lived in Tongling County.

The company-based attack of the Second Division was like a sharp knife, constantly dividing the large battalion of the Left Army, and the soldiers of the Left Army who lacked command were like headless flies running around.

The second regiment of the second division chased for more than ten minutes, and finally encountered the organized resistance of one or two thousand people, the second regiment did not rush forward to fight, the commander of the horse regiment commanded the firecrackers and archers to advance gradually, with the sound of the firecracker, the rain of arrows also flew to the left army on the opposite side, and when the commander of the horse regiment commanded the whole regiment to press, the left army had lost its fighting spirit, and knelt on the ground and begged for mercy.

Luo Jian had been carefully looking at the entire battlefield with a telescope, and the organized resistance lasted for about an hour.

Luo Jian paid special attention to the tactical movements of the Yangzhou army, and saw that the Yangzhou army rarely fought alone when the soldiers were in close contact, and they all formed a combat collective with squads and platoons as a unit, and they cooperated with each other quite tacitly, and the efficiency of this collective combat was much higher than that of individual combat.

Occasionally, when there was a single fight, the Yangzhou army was obviously much stronger than the soldiers on the left in terms of morale and physical strength, and Luo Jian saw a soldier of the second division and a soldier on the left slashing with a waist knife, but only one round, the waist knife of the left army soldier was smashed out of his hand.

No one rushed to cut off the head, which also made the battle process speed up a lot, everyone rushed forward, often cutting down one enemy and running to the next.

Seeing that the situation of the Fifth Division was similar to that of the Second Division, Luo Jian felt that the soldiers had not been trained in vain for more than two months.

By the time the Fourth Division arrived from the east, most of the Left Army was already kneeling on the ground in despair, and with the exception of a few who were still resisting, the battle was basically over.

Seeing that the battle was basically over, Luo Jian ordered the second division to immediately march towards Tongling County, and the other two divisions to seize the time to clean up the battlefield.

Looking at the battle scene in front of him, Luo Jian realized that Huang Degong said at the battle meeting that only two divisions could eliminate the left division.

When more than 10,000 people of the Second Division surrounded the small county town of Tongling, smoke rose from the roofs of many houses in the city.

The left army in the county surrendered directly without resistance, and by the time Luo Jian arrived, Li Chengdong had already taken a string of left army generals out of the county seat.

The army stopped outside the city of Tongling County, and the supplies had already been sent ashore by the ships of the naval division, and the troops had not eaten hot food for many days, and the cooks of various departments had already begun to bury the pot and make rice.

"Governor Dadu, I said at the beginning that you don't believe it, this Zuo Liangyu's troops are useless except for harming the people." Huang Degong, who had just arrived, said to Luo Jian.

Luo Jian ignored him and asked a few division commanders who had just rushed over, "What is the situation of the losses of the various departments?" ”

"Report to the Metropolitan Governor, the Second Division suffered three hundred and seven casualties, of which fifty-seven were killed, and the rest were wounded." Li Chengdong

Neither the 4th and 5th divisions suffered much smaller casualties in a frontal attack, and both divisions suffered only more than a hundred casualties.

"The wounded should be treated as soon as possible, and the bodies of the sacrificed soldiers should be buried on the spot and marked."

Luo Jian's voice was a little dull, although the casualties were extremely small, Luo Jian still felt very uncomfortable when he heard the casualty figures.

"Governor, don't be upset when I talk to Lao Huang, why do I think you are a little merciful? This is not good, how can there be immortals in war? Today's results are so great, most of the governors' emotions will have a bad impact on the troops. ”

Huang Degong saw that Luo Jian's mood was not good, and stepped forward and said bluntly.

Listening to Huang Degong's words, Luo Jian was stunned for a moment, and immediately reacted, and said to Huang Degong: "Thank you Jingnanhou for reminding me, I will pay attention to this problem in the future." ”

"By the way, how was the result?" After adjusting his emotions, Luo Jian asked.

"More than 3,000 ran, the cavalry is in pursuit, more than 18,000 prisoners were captured, and more than 3,000 were killed." Li Chengdong said very simply next to him.

The troops rested for an hour, the sun was already out, and the weather was starting to heat up.

got on the boat by the river, some of the warships and the requisitioned civilian boats pulled the prisoners down the river, and Luo Jian led the army to Chizhou to continue the march.

It was almost five o'clock in the afternoon when they arrived at the river near Chizhou, and the cavalry marching on the shore reported that more than 10,000 people on the left side of Chizhou had fled and that the cavalry was in pursuit.

The sailor's ship did not stop in Chizhou and went directly to Anqing, an important town upstream.

Anqing City is stationed in the left more than 40,000 horses, is the backbone of the left army, Luo Jian remembered the history of the "Battle of Anqing" on the ship, that is the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom period Qing soldiers attacked Anqing, this battle is extremely tragic, the Qing soldiers relied on the sea of people tactics to capture Anqing for a long time.

Now he doesn't have so many people and horses in the Qing army, and he doesn't have so much time to consume, according to Luo Jian's idea, it is best to capture it, but if it is really not possible, he will withdraw his troops, and when the artillery team grows stronger, it will be much easier to capture Anqing again.

The sailor's boat against the current was indeed too slow, and Huang Degong and Li Chengdong, who were advancing by boat, were already impatient, so they ran to Huang Fei's ship in a small boat and asked Luo Jian for instructions, asking to go ashore and advance on foot.

Luo Jian saw that it was already dark and the temperature had dropped a lot, so he agreed to their request, and after the flotilla passed Zongyang, Luo Jian went ashore with the troops and headed for Anqing.

There were naval troops of the left army stationed in Anqing City, and Luo Jian asked that they must not be let go, and Huang Fei confidently agreed.

More than 1,000 cavalrymen, under the leadership of the deputy commander of the Second Division, had already arrived at Laofeng Town, and by the time Luo Jian arrived at Laofeng Town with the army, they had already rested for more than two hours.

Deputy Division Commander Wang reported to Luo Jian that more than 10,000 left soldiers in Chizhou had been defeated, and more than 1,000 prisoners had been sent back, but the left army in Anqing City must have received the news.

Laofeng Town is only a dozen miles away from Anqing City, Luo Jian saw that the army was already more than three o'clock in the morning, and the soldiers were already very tired, and asked the army to stop and rest.

Huang Degong soon sent scouts to the vicinity of Anqing City to inquire about the news, and the troops began to bury pots and cook rice, tomorrow's siege battle will definitely be fierce, and it will definitely not work if you don't eat well.

Seeing many soldiers lying on the ground and falling asleep, Luo Jian also felt helpless, if there was enough time, where would it be useful for the soldiers to fight so hard and continuously.

Huang Degong and several division commanders all gathered around Luo Jian and began to study tomorrow's siege battle, although several sets of plans had been formulated on the way, everyone still gathered around and talked before the battle.

"Maybe Zuo Mengeng will go out of the city to fight." Li Chengdong said.

"That's good, we have to save a lot of things, I'm afraid that Zuo Mengeng is not so stupid, right?" Weng Zhiqi said with a smile.

"That's not necessarily, I've seen this kid Zuo Mengeng before, it's much worse than his father Zuo Liangyu, this kid of his mother just surrendered to Tartar, and he wants to make meritorious contributions, this city is the elite of the Left Army, it's really uncertain," Huang Degong said on the side.

Zuo Mengeng is in Anqing City, last night he received the news that the Yangzhou army came, more than 20,000 horses in Tongling were quickly annihilated, and more than 10,000 horses in Chizhou were quickly defeated, and the two news made Zuo Mengeng extremely shocked.

Most of the twelve general soldiers who followed Zuo Mengeng to surrender to Azig have been sent by Azig to Hubei and Hunan to pursue the Dashun army, and now the total soldiers left in Anqing City are only Gao Jinku and Hao Xiaozhong.

Huang Shu insisted on relying on Anqing City to wait for Qing reinforcements, but the two general soldiers Gao Jinku and Hao Xiaozhong did not think so.

Both of them think that Anqing City is not a strong city, the city wall is not tall, and blindly defending is not a good strategy, and the Yangzhou army has been attacked from a distance, and has fought twice, which can be described as a fatigue division, and the left army in Anqing City is the former elite army, and now it is easy to work, and there is no reason to be afraid.

Both generals advocated going out of the city to meet the enemy, and if the Yangzhou army could be defeated, then the young marshal Zuo would be able to become famous all over the world.

This sentence made Zuo Mengeng's heart moved, now there are more than 40,000 people in the city, and according to the soldiers who fled back from Chizhou, the Yangzhou army is only 20,000 or 30,000 people, and they did not find the earth-shaking thunder and the terrifying strange car they used under the city of Yangzhou.

Regarding the news of the earth-shaking thunder and the strange car, Zuo Mengeng repeatedly verified, and asked more than a dozen soldiers who had fled back, and was sure that these Yangzhou troops did not have those equipment.

Zuo Mengeng really couldn't hold back his ambition to make contributions to the Qing Dynasty, and made the final decision, that is, to go out of the city to meet the enemy.

The news brought by the scouts who rushed made the generals of the Yangzhou army overjoyed, and Zuo Mengeng led his troops out of the city to meet the Yangzhou army.