After accepting Gao Jie's son as his righteous son instead of Shi Kefa, he finally calmed down the rest of Gao Jie's army, to be precise, let these officers reassure Xing's mother and son.

After all, no matter how you look at it, Yang Chao's military achievements are outstanding and his status is special, not only the earl of Chongzhen's own title, but the brother-in-law of today's son, the eldest princess's concubine, hugging Yang Chao's thigh, is not only not worse than hugging the thigh of a scholar like Shi Kefa, but also more guaranteed.

Then Mrs. Xing immediately cried bitterly, begging Yang Chao to help them avenge Gao Jie, but Xing insisted that they had a grudge against the Tartars and wanted to find the Tartars for revenge, even Li Chengdong said on the spot that Xu Dingguo was the most hateful and should kill Xu Dingguo first, Mrs. Xing did not hesitate to scold him on the spot for not knowing right from wrong, telling him that the Tartars were the black hands behind him, and Xu Dingguo was just a dog.

Yang Chao couldn't help but praise this woman again, this is a clear position.

Yang Chao immediately said that Xingpingbo's matter is his Yang Chao's matter, Xingpingbo was harmed by Xu Dingguo, he will definitely not let go of Xu Dingguo, a traitor, and at the same time will not let go of the mastermind behind Xu Dingguo, and he must use the blood of Tartar to sacrifice Gao Jie.

When Li Benshen and Li Chengdong asked where Yang Chao's army was.

Yang Chao told them with regret that his army was still in the Taiping Mansion area and was clearing the remnants of Zuo Liangyu.

and told them that he had annihilated Zuo Liangyu's army in a battle, which made these officers change color.

They know Zuo Liangyu's prestige, even if Gao Jie is one of the four towns, no one dares to underestimate Zuo Liangyu.

When they were in the peasant army, they fought with Zuo Liangyu, and they were beaten very badly by Zuo Liangyu at that time.

Therefore, in their minds, Zuo Liangyu was a ruthless character, but they didn't expect Zuo Liangyu to be directly annihilated by Yang Chao.

They couldn't help but ask Zuo Liangyu how he was.

Yang Chao directly told them that Zuo Liangyu was dead, but did not say how Zuo Liangyu died, which made these generals even more frightened, and they only thought that they were killed by Yang Chao, and a ruthless character like Zuo Liangyu was directly killed by Yang Chao and replaced by them. I'm afraid it's not much better.

suddenly felt that he had underestimated Yang Chao's Jiangnan soldiers in the past, and he was simply blind, and the characters who could destroy 10,000 Tartars with 600 would not be in vain.

But at this time, Yang Chao is getting stronger. On the contrary, the more stable these people feel, the more fortunate they are to be able to rely on Yang Chao.

"Benjue only brought more than 1,000 personal soldiers here, so he can't go to avenge Xingpingbo for the time being, just wait for Benjue's army to arrive, and he will definitely go north to fight with the Tartars!"

Yang Chao continued to express his attitude.

Li Benshen and others were busy complimenting Yang Chao for being invincible. will definitely be able to defeat the Tartars in one battle, so that they dare not peep into Jiangnan.

Then Yang Chao asked Li Benshen and others to accompany him, and began to inspect Gao Jie's camp and communicate with officers of all sizes.

Yang Chao insisted at this time that the Tartars were their enemies, and told these officers and soldiers that they must kill the Tartars to avenge Gao Jie.

After inspecting the area, Yang Chao immediately announced that he would send someone to send them some supplies.

Before leaving, Yang Chao said to Li Benshen and other leaders: "Don't worry, there is Benjue." No one can insult the soldiers. However, Benjue's ugly words are ahead, Benjue's military law is strict, and if anyone disobeys military orders, regardless of officers and soldiers, they will definitely be punished. I also hope that you will restrain your subordinates and clean up discipline. The official will send some people to declare military discipline to you, and then he will advise you to go into the city to rest. ”

As soon as they heard that they could enter the city, these frightened bird-like remnants of the defeated generals felt even more stable in their hearts, and immediately said. The soldiers must be restrained and the people will not be disturbed!

Yang Chao soon sent his own soldiers to Gao Jie's camp, gathered them in batches, and openly conveyed some simple military orders to them. For example, they are not allowed to rob the people and the like, and at the same time tell them that they will be killed without mercy!

Later, they were sent sufficient military rations from Yangzhou City, so that these people had a rare full meal.

In fact, Yangzhou is not short of food.

Although the Jiangnan region is economically prosperous, many fields have been turned into cotton fields, mulberry forests and tea plantations. It was even necessary to import grain from Huguang, but that was after Jiangnan sent four million quintals of grain to Beijing, and if these four million quintals of grain were deducted, Jiangnan's grain would not only be self-sufficient, but also more than enough.

After all, only in Nanzhili, there were seven million quintals of taxes to be collected in previous years, and such a huge tax means that the vast acres of land and population, although there are cotton fields, mulberry forests, etc., but the grain is still the majority, so the south of the Yangtze River is abundant.

During this time, Shi Kefa desperately urged, the court was afraid of the Tartars going south, Shi Kefa's requirements were all agreed to by these civil officials, and boatloads of grain were constantly transported to Yangzhou, at this time Yangzhou's reserves were enough for the whole city to eat for more than three months, so Shi Kefa was still afraid that it was not enough, and he still kept urging.

In addition to urging supplies, Shi Kefa really didn't know what else he could do.

On April 11, he heard that the Qing army had arrived in Surabaya, so he rushed to Tianchang and urgently transferred the troops of Pizhou and Suzhou to rescue, but when he heard that Sizhou had surrendered, he immediately ordered not to go, and went to Yangzhou to defend again, but changed to rescue Xuyi, who was across the river from Sizhou, and the order changed three times in one day, so that the army was at a loss.

Now that Sizhou, Xuyi and even Tianchang have been lost, he is trapped in Yangzhou, but he is at a loss except for sitting in the trap.

Yang Chao was reading a bunch of chaotic Tang newspapers.

It was judged that the Qing army's troops in Jianghuai were probably divided into two routes, one was led by Duoduo, who went straight to Yangzhou from the western part of Henan through the Sizhou line, and the other was the garrison of Shandong led by a solid mountain Ezhen Zhun Tower, which went south along the canal, and had occupied Xuzhou and approached Huai'an.

Yang Chao arrived in Yangzhou on April 12.

It took three days to help Gao Jie's department clean up military discipline, but Yang Chao did not try to reorganize this unit, nor did he dare to move them.

Gao Jie's department has a very heavy peasant army habit, and the officers used to be small leaders, and their subordinates were their personal armies, and whoever dared to move was equivalent to their lives.

Yang Chao's men announced military discipline to the rest of Gao Jie, and at the same time preached to the soldiers and officers that they must avenge Gao Jie and kill the Tartars.

At the same time, they singled out the women they had taken captive on the way, although the petty officers were still dissatisfied, and those women were all robbed by them on the way to the south from Xuzhou and Sizhou.

Although he knew that they were dissatisfied, Yang Chao resolutely could not compromise, because if these people were allowed to keep women, could they still fight?

Although Li Benshen and Li Chengdong were also very dissatisfied, Yang Chao told them that whoever wanted to keep these women should not enter the city. And he promised to take these women away temporarily, and when the battle was over, he would return them to them.

Li Benshen and Li Chengdong both knew that if they couldn't enter the city. After the Qing army came, they could only be cannon fodder.

Their lord was about to die at the hands of the Qing army, and these people did not think about surrender at this time.

In three days, Gao Jie's department was barely restored to some military discipline, and then they had to be allowed to enter the city.

Sixteenth. Let them into the city.

On the 17th, the Qing army arrived at a distance of 20 miles from Yangzhou and set camp.

On the 18th, the Qing army approached the city.

However, the Qing army did not immediately attack the city, but persuaded Shi Kefa to surrender.

When the Qing army was discovered, Shi Kefa immediately sent a message to Siye and asked all the troops of Jianghuai to assemble in Yangzhou.

At the same time, a military meeting was convened to discuss countermeasures.

Liu Zhaoji, the commander-in-chief of Yangzhou, proposed: "My lord, take advantage of the fact that the enemy has not yet arrived, and the foothold is not stable, so go out of the city to fight." ”

At this time, the Qing army had only a few thousand advance troops outside the city. Not to mention surrounding, even the four gates of Yangzhou can't be blocked.

Shi Kefa did not agree with Liu Zhaoji's suggestion: "The sharp spirit should not be tried lightly, and the whole front should be raised to be killed." ”

Liu Zhaoji also suggested that the terrain in the west of the city was low, and the only one was Gaofu, which was the tomb of an official surnamed Li who had been an official in Yangzhou, and the trees were luxuriant.

Shi Kefa didn't agree, saying that it was someone's shade wood. Cut down the destruction of feng shui, unbearable.

Yang Chao didn't care, although cutting down the surrounding trees was the key to the art of war. But if even the army attacking the city by ladder can't stop it, this battle will not be fought.

Yang Chao was in Haizhou, but he had a lot of dealings with the shield carts of the captives and siege ladders, and he felt that those things did not play a role.

Yang Chao is more concerned about city defense.

Although Yangzhou City is not as good as Nanjing City, it is also a big city.

As early as the Tang Dynasty, it was the largest city in the south of the Yangtze River, and later passed through the Song and Yuan dynasties. The status has declined slightly, but it is still a prosperous first-class city.

The current Yangzhou City, similar to Huai'an City, is divided into two parts, the new city and the old city.

The old city is the ancient city in the Ming Dynasty to repair the war, with the help of part of the old city walls of the Tang and Song dynasties, but the area is only the core part of the Tang Dynasty, it is a small city that is narrow from north to south. Later, due to the rebellion of the Japanese invaders, three city walls were added from the east city wall to the canal to protect the street market lined with merchants in the east of the city, but it expanded the scale of Yangzhou City.

So the old city was home to the gentry, while the new city was inhabited by wealthy merchants.

The old and new cities are connected as one, making the original long and narrow city become more round, roughly equivalent to a square, but the east and west are slightly longer and the north and south are slightly shorter, and the past has just been reversed.

Because of the two constructions before and after, the scale of Yangzhou city is very large, the old city is more than nine miles, the new city is eleven miles, there are twelve city gates in and out, there are two canals that cross the whole city from north to south in the city, all of them are east-west directions, almost parallel, one is called Wenhe in the old city, one is in the new city, it is called Xiaoqinhuai.

Because of the existence of the canal, there are also water gates in the city, but this does not affect the defense, because each city gate is added to the urn city, the city, the arrow tower and other defense facilities, the so-called front and rear moon city three, water and land city gates side by side, to storm such a city, it is impossible not to die more than 100,000 people, of course, the premise is that the will to fight of the defenders of the city is at the general level of the besiegers.

Yang Chao has inspected the defense construction of Yangzhou city in detail, and is very careful about defending the city, as long as the army in the city has one-tenth of the fighting spirit, and even as long as he does not escape, the city will not be able to be attacked.

But Yang Chao couldn't help but have some shadows in his heart, Yangzhou was too famous for ten days, although Yang Chao believed that as long as this city was well guarded, it was basically impossible to be breached, but in history he was breached, and the city was slaughtered.

Knowing this possible outcome, Yang Chao had to be very cautious, so he formulated a detailed defensive strategy, and ordered all the armies to guard in sections in the name of Shi Kefa, and Yang Chao took his more than 1,000 elites as a reserve to patrol back and forth.

Yangzhou has a lot of troops at this time, plus the rest of Gao Jie, there are about 100,000 people, so there is no shortage of troops at all, so there is no need to mobilize the people like Haizhou, how to say that these are also soldiers, as long as the problem of retreat does not occur, it is much stronger than ordinary people.

The reason why Yang Chao kept patrolling the city was actually to prevent the soldiers from fleeing without a fight, so in the process of patrolling the city, he constantly declared military discipline to different armies, and there was no need for detailed military law, just tell them to behead those who escaped from the battle.

If you don't escape, just if you don't escape, Yang Chao thinks that he won't lose.

The movements outside the city were also of great concern to Yang Chao, and the vanguard of the Qing army was stationed under Shugang in the north of the city.

Shugang is vertical and horizontal, parallel to Yangzhou City, which is the northern barrier of Yangzhou, but it is a pity that Yangzhou has no elite to garrison anywhere, and Yang Chao does not dare to risk letting Shi Kefa divide his troops, worrying that the division of troops will go out and there will be no return, so he will surrender directly.

It's not that Yang Chao is worried, but this is the situation in the city now, people are panicking, soldiers are lax in military discipline, looting often occurs, and they are already on the verge of collapse.

After the Qing army was stationed in Shugang, the geographical location was superior, compared to Yangzhou City, it was condescending, so the artillery on the city could not hit them, and it could not play any role, so that Yang Chao could not do it if he wanted to fight a dozen to boost morale, on the contrary, wasting gunpowder and shells in vain, but it may make the soldiers think that the artillery is useless, and they have no confidence in defending the city.

After the first batch of troops of the Qing army arrived on the 18th, reinforcements arrived every day, but the reinforcements of the Ming army never had a shadow, until the 21st, they finally saw the reinforcements of the Ming army, they entered the city from the south Anjiang Gate, and went straight to the governor's palace, which really raised the morale of the soldiers and civilians in the city.

However, Yang Chao, who was patrolling the city, soon received a report, and these soldiers attacked the Huaiyang Governor's Mansion and were blocked by Liu Zhaoji.

Affected by this, the morale of the army in the city was greatly disturbed, and many soldiers had secretly fled from the city.

Yang Chao couldn't help but be shocked,

Carefully maintaining this dangerous military heart, I didn't expect something to happen.

Immediately led the soldiers of the headquarters and rushed to the Huaiyang Governor's Mansion.

Yang Chao immediately rushed to the Governor's Mansion, at this time the battle had ended, and there were several corpses in front of the Governor's Mansion.

Yang Chao went straight to the governor's palace and met Shi Kefa.

Soon found out the situation, this is the soldiers led by Li Qifeng, the chief soldier of Gansu, and Gao Qifeng, the eunuch of the supervising army, a total of 4,000 people, who entered the city under the banner of reinforcements, but the purpose was to kidnap Shi Kefa and then surrender to the Qing army in exchange for a good future.

As a result, they were blocked by Liu Zhaoji, and they turned to ask to go out of the city, and Shi Kefa had already agreed to them.

After listening to Shi Kefa's story, Yang Chao immediately asked for help, these mongrels, not to mention defending the city, actually fished in troubled waters, wanted to capture the boss and wanted to change to a rich man, such scum did not get rid of it, not only was he unwilling in his heart, but he was also worried that someone would follow suit.

"Master Shi, the last general asks for orders to kill this chaotic army to fix the hearts of the army!" (To be continued.) )