Since the envoy was shot, it is believed that the Qing soldiers will soon attack the city. Pen ~ fun ~ Pavilion www.biquge.info Ren Siqi thanked Liu Zhaoji for his kindness and returned to the new city where the Daishan Army was responsible for garrisoning.

As mentioned earlier, Yangzhou City is divided into the old city and the new city. In fact, the two cities are one, and the new city was built by borrowing the east wall of the old city to expand to the east. There is a Yangzhou government in the old city, but the Jiangdu County government is in the new city. Therefore, the old city is also called the capital city, and the new city is called the county seat.

The Daishan Army was stationed in the county seat, and Chen Bangjie, the county governor of Jiangdu, generously gave up the county government as the commander of Su Lubo, and he went to the side hall to work.

With the efforts of Li Yanzhi and the staff of the department, the soldiers of the Daishan Army have been properly settled. The 10,000 infantry were divided into three waves and took turns to defend the city. The 5,000 sailors camped on the inside of the canal outside the Water Gate, and the canal prevented the Qing soldiers from directly attacking them, and they were stationed outside the city to support all parties at any time and protect the many ships along the canal.

For Yangzhou, the canal is an important channel to communicate with the outside world. Because the Manchu cavalry was too powerful, the Ming army could not balance with the Qing soldiers on land, and only by relying on the advantage of the naval army and firmly controlling the canal in their own hands could they attack, retreat and defend. Historically, Shi Kefa was that the whole army retreated in Yangzhou City, and the Qing soldiers were allowed to run wild outside the city, and as a result, the Qing soldiers collected a large number of ships by the canal, which had the capital to cross the Yangtze River and defeat Zheng Hongkui's river defense fleet. And Zheng Hongkui saw that there were many Qing soldiers and ships, and he didn't dare to fight hard, so he let the Qing soldiers cross the Yangtze River and go straight to Nanjing.

Because the entire new city is defended by the Daishan army alone, there is no need to worry about the constraints of friendly forces.

Ren Siqi immediately ordered Xue Yulai, the deputy commander of the navy, to send a large number of men to take a small boat along the river to investigate the enemy's situation, and he must understand the movements of the Qing army.

Xue Yulai is the old man of the original Fuchun and has always been Mao Shiba's assistant. Mao 18 was sent to Chongming Island, and Xue Yulai was responsible for leading the 5,000 naval army.

Yangzhou area of mountains and valleys, many rivers, the Qing army camp is located in the northwest of the city to Banzhuyuan, the sentinel can take a boat along the canal north, and then sail into the fork of the river, through the hilly terrain to close to explore the movement of the Qing soldiers.

......

Chen Ping, a fisherman from Xiushan Island, joined the Daishan Water Army during the first expansion of the Daishan Army, and was appointed as a small banner because of his first-class skill assessment. This time, he was sent as a sentry to investigate the movements of the Qing soldiers.

With his nine brothers, he rowed a canopy boat and rowed north along the canal. As many as 20 such sentinel boats were sent at a time, because there were too many rivers around Yangzhou, and there were not enough sentinel boats to find out what was going on nearby.

Four of the ten soldiers were oarsmen who took turns rowing the boats, and shield bearers were responsible for guarding the boats during battle. The other four were musketeers, and the remaining two were Chen Ping and another captain, Zhang Xiang, who were pikemen and the main force in the fight.

With the paddle of the oarsmen, the sentinel boat slowly moved north along the canal, and soon crossed the city of Yangzhou and entered the wilderness.

The impending battle has silenced the once busy canal, and there is not a single shadow of a ship visible on the wide river.

After rowing more than ten miles to the north, the sentinel boat followed a fork in the river to the west. The fork is much narrower than the canal, and I don't know what it's called. On the north bank of the river is a series of hills, and on the south side is a patch of farmland, and when you stand on the boat and look out, you can see patches of green rice, but there are no farmers busy in the fields.

There was a small village on one side of the river, and in the distance you could see a large cloud of smoke rising above the village, and when you got closer, you could see a fire in the village. But there was no sound of crying and fighting.

The boat docked next to the village, and the commander Zhang Xiang quietly entered the village with two soldiers. It took less than a cup of tea to run out.

"There are no living people in the village, there are corpses everywhere!" Zhang Xiang's face was ugly.

"It's so miserable, such a young child, he was thrown to death, and his brains were splashed all over the ground." Private Wu Liuzi endured vomiting and described the tragic situation in the village.

"It must have been done by the Qing soldiers, the blood has not yet coagulated, and they should not have gone far." Zhang Xiang concluded.

"Keep paddling." Chen Ping sighed and commanded. When there is a war, it is the people who suffer the most!

Two oarsmen rowed their oars, and the sentinel boat continued on its way.

After walking more than two miles, an arch bridge suddenly appeared in front of me, spanning both sides of the river. On both sides of the arch bridge is a north-south road. To the south of the road is Yangzhou, and to the north should lead directly to the camp of the Qing soldiers.

"Park the boat under the bridge, leave two people to watch the boat, and the others will come ashore with me." Chen Ping commanded.

The sentinel boat rowed under the arched bridge and hid. Chen Ping and the eight of them went ashore, not daring to take the avenue, and staggered forward in the fields next to the avenue.

Yangzhou was called Guangling in ancient times, which means that there are many mountains and mausoleums nearby, the terrain is undulating, and it is very difficult to walk away from the avenue. Afraid of being discovered by the Qing soldiers, the eight people hid and walked very slowly.

As soon as he passed through a bush, he heard the sound of horses' hooves on the avenue, and when Chen Ping looked up, he saw that the road behind was dusty, and there were faint cavalry galloping towards him. Several people hurriedly leaned over in the grass, secretly looked up, and after a while, they saw two war horses running along the avenue, and immediately sat two knights wearing iron armor and wearing a tassel, the style of the armor was no different from the knights of the Ming army, that is, there was a long iron needle on the top of the tassel.

Because the speed of the war horse galloping is very fast, it is impossible to see the knight's face clearly.

When the war horse galloped to the nearest distance, Chen Ping heard the sobbing sound of a woman, and when he looked closely, he saw a woman lying horizontally on the saddle of the bridge of the two war horses, it must be a woman of the Ming Dynasty who was ravaging!

Chen Ping was angry when he saw it, but he had to endure it.

"Maybe they just burned the Qing soldiers in that village just now." Zhang Xiang said: "They don't want to just these two people, maybe the team is behind." Will our brothers who remain under the bridge be in danger? ”

"Probably not," Chen Ping thought for a moment and said, "The boat is very hidden under the bridge, and besides, the two of them are very good at water, and even if they are discovered, they can escape from the river." Let's move on, maybe the Qing army camp is in front. ”

So the group continued to move forward, and walked more than three miles, and saw a large garden more than two miles ahead, and there was a faint noise from afar, which must be the camp of the Qing army!

Crossing a jungle again, I saw a sudden emptiness ahead, and a large camp that stretched for miles appeared in front of me. Flags were unfurled above the camp, and countless soldiers came and went through the camp gates.

Hidden in the woods, Chen Ping carefully observed, took out a piece of white paper and a piece of charcoal from his arms, lowered his head and drew the observed situation on the white paper. (To be continued.) )