Although the weather is still hot during the day, it is not unbearable, and it is much cooler in the morning and evening.

The Yangzhou army's first strike did not exceed Duoduo's calculations, but the Yangzhou army attacked Liu Liangzuo's department from a distance, which he didn't expect.

In his calculations, the Yangzhou army attacked Sihong County and Sixian at most, which was nothing more than a trick of attacking and defending.

Kong Youde suggested that Liu Liangzuo should not be left alone, the city wall of Shouzhou was strong, and there were 3,000 Mongolian soldiers and 500 white armor soldiers led by Bai Yintu, and the Yangzhou army did not want to capture it for ten days and half a month.

Kong Youde's opinion is that the army will directly take Yangzhou, which can not only play the role of encircling Wei and saving Zhao, but also does not change the original battle plan.

Duoduo discussed with the generals for a long time, thinking that the Yangzhou army's thunderous and terrifying strange cars were running out of ammunition for the repeating muskets, the reason was very simple, when the Yangzhou army attacked Anqing, if the ammunition was sufficient, the Yangzhou army would not take people's lives to fight Zuo Mengeng.

Duoduo didn't think about taking Yangzhou at once, and he also knew that if the Yangzhou army was dedicated to defense, the Yangzhou City that had been prepared for several months would not be something that his hundreds of thousands of horses could capture.

Compressing the living space of the Yangzhou army and eliminating the living force of the Yangzhou army was the main purpose of this Duoduo offensive.

Now that the Yangzhou army has attacked Shouzhou and has left Jiancheng, Duoduo believes that this is the best time to destroy the Yangzhou army in the field.

Of course, Shouzhou still has to be saved, and Gushan Ezhenjue Luo Bahana, who was transferred from Shanxi, has led 50,000 Qing soldiers to Shouzhou.

In order to prevent Jueluo Bahana from underestimating the enemy, Duoduo specially arranged for Geng Jimao, who had suffered a big loss at the hands of the Yangzhou army, to join him, and Duoduo had high hopes that Jueluo Bahana's 50,000 army could hold back the main force of the Yangzhou army.

Just when Jueluo Bahana arrived in Huaiyuan with the Qing soldiers and the whole army crossed the Huai River, Luo Jian had already taken the second division and Liu Liangzuo to Fengyang.

The main general fled to Fengyang, and the Fengyang guard personally opened the city gate to greet him, and as a result, the Yangzhou army directly occupied Fengyang, a very old-fashioned story, but the effect was not generally good, the defenders of Linhuai learned that Shouzhou and Fengyang had been lost, and they simply ran to Fengyang to find the Yangzhou army, and took the initiative to surrender.

At this point, there were only more than 2,000 people left in Fengtai County in all the people of Liu Liangzuo's department, but Luo Jian had no time to clean up these more than 2,000 people.

The Qing troops advanced very quickly, and Jueluo Bahana did not listen to Geng Jimao's steady advice at all, and ordered the whole army to advance at full speed.

But the Qing soldiers stopped when they advanced to Qinji Town, because the news of the loss of Shouzhou had already arrived, and soon the news also came from Fengyang that the Yangzhou army had entered Fengyang.

These two pieces of news made Jueluo Bahana suddenly alert, put away the idea of lightly attacking the enemy, set up camp in the area of Qinji Town, and set up a defensive posture.

Duoduo had also exhausted his 140,000 army at this time, rushing towards Yangzhou, and the vanguard was only a dozen miles away from Xuyi City.

At the same time, Suqian's Zhun Ta Department also launched a fierce attack on Huai'an.

For a time, the land of Jianghuai was full of swords and soldiers, and the smoke was everywhere.

The road from Xuyi to Tianchang is full of people who are hiding from the war, dragging their families with their mouths, carrying their shoulders and hands, and dragging dozens of miles long.

The gates of Yangzhou City have all been opened, and all the peasants who have come to the city are transporting grain, and Shi Kefa has already transferred a special granary in the city to store grain for the peasants, and will take it after the war with the receipt issued by the government.

Outside the city of Yangzhou, there were seven or eight thousand people who had volunteered to defend the city, and Shi Kefa was arranging for people to conduct simple training for them.

The Sixth Division had already given up the attack on Hefei County, and had turned from Shucheng to Yangzhou day and night, and was now only 20 miles away from Yangzhou.

Liu Weimin and Chen Zilong haven't gone to bed for almost a week, and they basically spend so many days in the workshop.

worked overtime to get more than 200 Nimi guns and handed them over to Wang Qiang, Wang Qiang took these more than 200 Nimi guns directly to Tianchang and handed over the garrison to Yi Bangcai.

When Wang Qiang led people to Tianchang, Liu Zhaoji was preparing to lead the whole division to Xuyi, and when he saw Wang Qiang arrive with a Nimi gun, Liu Zhaoji was immediately overjoyed, he knew that although this Nimi gun could not be compared with the rifle on his back, it was much stronger than a fire gun and a shotgun.

Shi Kefa has already installed a bed in the courtyard of the staff headquarters, he now sleeps here every day, Luo Jian led the army to the battle, and he is only responsible for the defense of Yangzhou.

At such a tense moment, Yangzhou was busy but not chaotic, and all departments were operating efficiently, Shi Kefa felt that Luo Jian was really correct in setting up the staff and logistics department.

Think about the last time Duoduo led the Qing troops to the south, Yangzhou was also busy, but it was chaotic, no effect, which is like now, each performs its own duties, each has its own responsibility, although the Yangzhou military and people are very nervous, but the order is not chaotic at all, and there is no panic.

But now in the city of Nanjing, there is not only tension, but more panic.

Liu Zeqing had already sent five or six urgent letters to the imperial court, saying that the Qing soldiers were determined to take Huai'an this time, and he couldn't hold it anymore.

However, the Ma Ge Department ran into trouble when sending someone to reinforce Liu Zeqing, and the sailors were originally sent along the canal to Huai'an, but the sailors near Nanjing now only had Liu Kongzhao's troops in Nanjing City and Zheng Hongkui's troops in Jiangyin, and it was too difficult for the Ma Ge Department to send these two sailors to rescue Huai'an.

As a result, the impeachment of Luo Jian, the governor of Huaiyang, was sent to the emperor Zhu Youxiang, and the leader was still Li Zhan, the imperial historian of the right capital, on the grounds that the governor of Huaiyang privately transferred the sailor Huang Fei, who was not under his jurisdiction, to Anqing, so that the imperial court now has no troops to send.

How a group of officials in the imperial court scolded Luo Jian, Luo Jian couldn't care at all, he was now summoning Huang Degong and several division commanders to hold a meeting in a tent at the foot of Meihua Mountain, more than 20 miles away from Fengyang County.

The military situation in all aspects has been summarized here, and the operational staff has marked the situation on the map, although the military map rubbed according to Baidu Maps is simple, but it is many times stronger than the previous schematic map, at least the distance after verification is very accurate.

Now Luo Jian is faced with a dilemma, whether to advance west to eliminate the Qing reinforcements, or to advance east to meet the Duoduo army heading south.

Of the 50,000 Qing soldiers led by Jueluo Bahana, most of them were Geng Jimao's Tianyou army, with nearly 30,000 people, and the Mongolian cavalry and Manchu cavalry had 10,000 people, and the rest were auxiliaries.

Luo Jian, Huang Degong, and the commanders of each division all stood in front of the map, and the combat staff officers held their batons to tell everyone about the current situation.

"It's a lot of pressure, it looks like Duoduo is going to fight hard this time." Huang Degong said.

"If we don't solve the Qing soldiers behind us as soon as possible, I'm afraid Lao Liu won't be able to resist it." Li Chengdong, who is not afraid of the sky and the earth, is also a little worried.

"I think Duoduo has thought about it in ten days, I'm afraid Lao Liu won't agree, right?" Liu Dingjun said with a smile that he belongs to the optimist.

Luo Jian didn't speak, he was carefully calculating the current comparison of troops and weapons, the 50,000 Qing soldiers on the opposite side were now camped with their backs to the Huai River, creating conditions for the three divisions of the Yangzhou Army to concentrate all their forces to annihilate them.

But if it is fought in the kind of battle outside Anqing City, the combat effectiveness of the Qing soldiers on the opposite side will definitely be much stronger than that of Zuo Mengeng's department, and the combat effectiveness of 10,000 Mongolian and Manchurian cavalry alone cannot be underestimated, so how big is the loss of the Yangzhou army? After this battle is over, do you still have the strength to return to the division to face the army of Duoduo?

Now the advantage of the Yangzhou army is that there are more than 30 advanced artillery pieces and five rifles plus hundreds of grenades.

"How many shells are there for artillery?" Luo Jian turned his head and asked Yan Yingyuan.

"The Grand Governor, all of them have been brought, a total of three thousand two hundred rounds." Yan Yingyuan said.

"Tomorrow morning, you choose a position here, don't care about the artillery, and smash the shells on the heads of the Qing soldiers as quickly as possible." Luo Jian said, pointing to a dot on the map.

"Grand Duke, you've decided?" Huang Degong asked.

"These 50,000 Qing soldiers must be dealt with, otherwise when we return to Yangzhou, they will chase after them, and it is unclear whether we can withdraw safely. Besides, if we don't get rid of them, our results in fighting Liu Liangzuo's troops will be greatly reduced. Luo Jian said.

"What about the nearly 10,000 cavalry of the Qing army?" Li Chengdong said.

"We can't do it! Concentrate all your firearms on the cavalry, as long as the cavalry is defeated, its infantry will not be a problem! All the departments hurry up and prepare, advance here early tomorrow morning, and force the Qing troops to fight a decisive battle! Luo Jian pointed to a position in front of Qinji Town.

Luo Jian and the others carefully discussed some details, and then informed the troops to go to bed early, recuperate, and prepare for tomorrow's fierce battle.

In the Qing army camp, Jueluo Bahana and Geng Jimao and other Qing generals were still discussing, with Geng Jimao's thoughts, these 50,000 horses should be withdrawn to Xuzhou immediately, originally to rescue Shouzhou, but now the goal of rescue does not exist, of course, this rescue is not necessary, in fact, he was afraid of the Yangzhou army.

Jueluo Bahana didn't think so, he thought that rescue was only one of the purposes, but the 50,000 horses were more important to contain the more than 30,000 horses in Yangzhou and prevent them from returning to Yangzhou, and he had 10,000 cavalry on hand, which was enough to give the Yangzhou army a fatal blow on the terrain of this plain.

Jueluo Bahana is the boss, Geng Jimao can only listen to him, and the order for a decisive battle with the Yangzhou army early tomorrow morning was quickly issued.

The return of the fully staffed Sixth Division to defend Tianchang made Shi Kefa feel a lot more relieved, and Liu Zhaoji also felt much more at ease, and dared to let go of his hand and fight with Duoduo.

Wang Qiang returned to the special brigade with two hundred Nimi guns, plus the original five rifles, and now the firepower of the special brigade is only stronger than before, not weaker, Luo Jian and Liu Zhaoji dared to go out of Yangzhou City to fight against the Qing soldiers before they came, and now the whole division is strong and strong, and they are even more unwilling to stay in the city.

Liu Zhaoji led three regiments of more than 8,000 people directly to meet the Qing soldiers in Xuyi.

The first Qing soldiers to arrive in Xuyi were more than 20,000 horses led by Gushan Ezhen Li to Tai, most of whom were the Dashun army that surrendered when Duoduo invaded Henan and Shandong.

This Li Shutai was originally a Han Chinese, and at the age of twelve he entered the Manchu Qing Dynasty to serve **Hachi, and when he became an adult, he followed **Hachi to fight in the east and west, and had many military exploits, and he was promoted to Gushan Ezhen, and he was a brave and resourceful general in the Qing army.

On the morning of 25 July, the two armies set up a position a few miles outside the city of Xuyi.

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