The commander of the protectors, Tulai and Bel Ashan, crossed the canal near Guazhoudu, and because they were afraid of the attack of the Daishan army, they crossed the river more than 30 miles away from Yangzhou. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 info3,000 Eight Banners plus more than 20,000 green battalion soldiers, it took half a day to cross the canal.

After crossing the river, the two men immediately urged the army to attack in the north direction. The vast area on the east side of the canal has not been disturbed by the Qing army, the villages and towns are scattered, densely populated, the Yangzhou area has always been a prosperous place in the world, although it is in the north of the Yangtze River, but it is not like the Central Plains area that has been repeatedly disturbed by the rebel army, whether it is Li Zicheng's Dashun army, or Zhang Xianzhong's department, has not attacked the Yangzhou area, hundreds of years of peace, so that the wealth here can be seen.

Although for a period of time, I heard that the Qing army was attacking Yangzhou City, but for the ordinary people in the countryside, the matter did not have much to do with them. Whether it is the Ming Dynasty or the Qing Dynasty, no matter who sits in the world, the people need to farm and receive grain, and do so much. Sunset and sunrise are the lives of the common people for thousands of years, and they will not change because of the change of the imperial court.

However, when more than 20,000 Qing soldiers crossed the canal, the people immediately saw the cruelty of the Qing soldiers. Failed to get into Yangzhou to loot, which made most of the Qing soldiers very dissatisfied, now that they have crossed the canal and seen the prosperous villages and towns, where can they control it?

Rushing into the bustling bazaar, breaking into the shops, breaking into the people's homes, whether it is the Eight Banners or the Green Battalion soldiers, they are all wantonly enjoying the pleasure of looting and slaughtering.

The countless villages east of the canal are like hell on earth.

"We can't do this, we have a task from Prince Yu!"

In two days, more than 10 villages were slaughtered, and the army only traveled more than 20 miles.

"Well, it's time to cheer up, order to go down, let all the sons and daughters gather up, continue to march east, and send scouts to investigate the movements of the soldiers and civilians who have withdrawn from Yangzhou!" Turai lazily removed his hand from the white girl in his arms, and commanded reluctantly.

It took half a day of hard work for the Qing soldiers to regroup, mainly because the green battalion soldiers were too open, and it was not easy to assemble in a radius of twenty miles. It wasn't until dozens of heads were cut off that the more than 20,000 green battalion soldiers became serious.

Tanma also came back to report that the soldiers and civilians who had retreated from Yangzhou had lined up a queue of more than 20 miles and went east along the Salt River, the farthest had reached Taizhou, and the nearest had left Yangzhou for more than 10 miles.

It is reported that more than 100,000 people followed the army along the canal, and countless others dispersed on their own.

Hearing the spies' report, Turai and Ahsan looked at each other and smiled like foxes that had seen their prey.

The Daishan army discharged such a long queue along the Salt River was almost full of flaws, and as for the people scattered in the four fields, the Turai and the others were not interested at all.

"In which direction are we going to attack? Is it an Ouroboros attack or what? Ahsan asked.

"The task given to us by the prince is to leave the Ming army in Yangzhou City, if we attack at the end of the tail, they will easily escape, if they abandon the people and flee by boat, we have no way to take them, so we don't hit the tail of the team, if we want to hit their heads, directly cut off their retreat!" Surrounding a topographic map of the vicinity of Yangzhou, Turai studied it for a long time, pointing to the location of the road east of Taizhou.

"If we march quickly, we can get here in three days and attack the vanguard of the retreating Ming army, as long as we crush their vanguard and cut off this canal, we can trap them in this area." Turai slammed his fist into the map.

"Okay, that's it!" Ahsan readily agreed.

After deliberating, the two immediately urged the army to start marching, and marched eastward in a direction parallel to the Daishan army, at a distance of ten miles south of the Yunyan River. The strict military discipline of the Eight Banners Army is shown here, and there is no hesitation at all when it is said to leave. Xu Dingguo and Liu Zhong also led their green battalion soldiers to follow behind the Eight Banners, and the green battalion soldiers carried packages one by one, and the parcels contained the wealth they had looted. One by one, they ran out of breath behind the horses of the Eight Banners, but they didn't dare to complain at all. The corpses of the disobedient Green Battalion soldiers fell on the side of the road, and they were terrified in the face of the obscenity of the Eight Banners.

However, there are too many rivers in the south, often there is a river for several miles, without exception, most of these rivers are in the north-south direction, and they all flow into the Yangtze River in the south, which causes some trouble to the Qing soldiers who march eastward, because many times they have to take a detour to find a bridge to cross the river, and if they can't find a bridge, they have to build a bridge by themselves, which makes their march speed not very fast. However, the speed is much faster than that of the Daishan army, which carries a large number of people.

Outside Taizhou, in the Yunyan River, Li Yanzhi stood on the bow of the boat, not at all interested in entering Taizhou. Just now, Liu Wanchun, the governor of Taizhou, sent hundreds of loads of food supplies and invited him to the city for a banquet. After being rejected by Li Yanzhi, he flickered to ask if he could follow the Daishan army south.

Nanjing was captured by the Qing army, Yangzhou has also fallen, for Liu Wanchun did not want to surrender to the Manchus, he had to follow the Daishan army to retreat, otherwise only death awaited him.

Li Yanzhi understands Liu Wanchun's approach very well, the army has retreated from Yangzhou, you can no longer expect a man with only a group of servants to defend the city from Wupin Zhizhou, he is unwilling to surrender to the Manchu Qing Dynasty can be regarded as a loyal minister and righteous man. So Li Yanzhi readily agreed to Liu Wanchun's request, so Liu Wanchun happily went back to the city, he wanted to pack his luggage, and retreat with the Daishan army early tomorrow morning.

Looking back at the south of the canal, Li Yanzhi's eyes were full of worry, the news that a Qing army had crossed the canal had already arrived, and the soldiers and civilians on both sides of the Yunyan River were trembling all the time, not knowing when the Qing army would jump out and launch an attack on the queue.

It has been a few days since the news that the Qing army had crossed the canal, but they have not launched an attack on the Daishan army and civilians, Li Yanzhi instinctively felt bad, maybe he as the vanguard was the target of their attack.

"Report!" A small boat rowed into the canal from the fork of the river and approached Li Yan to sit on the boat, and a sentry dressed as a common man loudly reported the whereabouts of the Qing army he found, "The Qing army brigade is ten miles away from here, hidden in a village and town!" ”

"It's finally here!" Li Yan looked straight at the sunset reflecting the sunset, and smiled coldly, "Order, act according to the plan!" ”

(To be continued.) )