Located on the side of the canal, Yangzhou has always been one of the most prosperous cities in the world. The Grand Canal www.biquge.info full of boats, the smoke and waves of the Slender West Lake, the mountains and mountains, and the scenery is picturesque. Wrapping 100,000 yuan around the waist and riding a crane down to Yangzhou, it can be seen that Yangzhou is the most desirable place in the world in the hearts of the Ming people, and only Suzhou and Hangzhou can be compared.

But now, the most prosperous place in the world is about to be plunged into war. On April 12, the Manchu and Han armies led by the Manchu and Han Dynasty to Sizhou, an important town on the Huai River, and Li Yuchun, the chief soldier of Liu Liangzuo's department who guarded the Huai River, led his subordinates to surrender and gave Sizhou and a large number of weapons and baggage, and dozens of red-coated cannons used to defend the Huai River.

And easily occupying Sizhou made Duoduo completely see the reality of the so-called four towns in Jiangbei. The Huaihe River defense line built by Shi Kefa, the governor of the Ming Dynasty, has become a joke, and the elite soldiers of the four towns who rely on the pillars don't even have the courage to fight!

Seeing that the Ming army was so timid, Duoduo was overjoyed, and after crossing the Huai River, he did not stop at all, and took the general Li Yuchun as a guide and waved his troops directly at Yangzhou. He wants to rush ahead of the Qing soldiers in the west to attack Nanjing in front of Prince Azig, and enjoy the great achievement of destroying the Ming Dynasty alone!

On 17 April, the Manchu Beylerborough led 5,000 Mengman Eight Banners as the vanguard, arrived in Yangzhou, and stationed in Banzhuyuan, 20 miles northwest of Yangzhou. The arrival of the Qing soldiers caused a great earthquake in Yangzhou, and the whole city was in panic.

The seaside in the east of Yangzhou is the largest salt field in Daming, and the output of Huai salt accounts for two-thirds of Daming's salt production, and Yangzhou is the distribution center of Huai salt. The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal flows through the east of Yangzhou, making Yangzhou a transit point for goods from north to south.

For more than 200 years, Yangzhou's population has swelled rapidly, and the world's wealthy businessmen have gathered in Yangzhou, and the city is simply overcrowded. During the Jiajing period, a new city was built between Yangzhou and the canal, making the canal the moat of the new city. The size of Yangzhou City has more than doubled, and the population of the city is several times that of the Hongwu period, reaching more than one million in the Chongzhen period.

Located in the old city, the Yangzhou Mansion is now the governor of Jiangbei Shi Kefa.

Shi Kefa, a member of the Cabinet University, a scholar of the Ministry of War, and a supervisor of Jiangbei, was sitting at a loss

After rushing back to Yangzhou from Xuyi, Shi Kefa immediately ordered the transfer of troops from all over the country to reinforce Nanjing. Although the Huaihe defense line was lost, there were still hundreds of thousands of Ming troops in the north of the river. In addition to Huang Degong's troops resisting Zuo Liangyu in Wuhu, Liu Liangzuo, Guangchangbo, and Liu Zeqing, Dongpingbo, each had 70,000 or 80,000 troops, and more than 30,000 troops under Yang Chengzu, the commander of Gaojie's department, Li Benshen, were also near Yangzhou.

If you gather all the armies, you can gather 200,000 troops, which is enough to fight the Qing soldiers!

But what Shi Kefa didn't expect was that the envoys sent to various places to transfer troops returned one after another, bringing back not the troops who came to help, but the bad news that the generals refused to obey the order.

It is reported that Liu Zeqing and his army have fled to Huai'an, while Liu Liangzuo and his men have fled south of Yangzhou, and it is said that he has fled to Guazhou, and if there is a ship, it is believed that he will lead his troops to escape across the Yangtze River.

Of course, not all generals disobeyed, such as Liu Zhaoji, the chief soldier stationed in Gaoyou, who entered Yangzhou with 4,000 men. Now there are 3,000 Sichuan soldiers of Hu Shangyou and Han Shangliang in Yangzhou City, deputy generals Shi Dewei and Ma Yingkui, plus Shi Kefa's own standard battalion, and the total strength in Yangzhou City is more than 13,000 people.

There are hundreds of thousands of troops in Jiangbei, and now only these 10,000 people are willing to listen to the dispatch of their own superintendents, how can Shi Kefa not be annoyed and hateful?

Can 13,000 people defend Yangzhou City? Shi Kefa didn't have any bottom in his heart, and at this moment he had only one thought in his heart, that is, to be loyal to the country!

Wei Yinwen, the governor of Huaiyang, Ren Minyu, the prefect of Yangzhou, and He Gang, Shi Kefa's staff, were also in the line, and they were relatively speechless with Shi Kefa. The Qing soldiers arrived, and the nearby Ming troops refused to obey the order, the situation was so sinister, everyone present knew that something was wrong, maybe the fall of Yangzhou was just around the corner.

"Supervisor, the defense of the four cities has been arranged, and the defense of the northern city is Liu Zhaoji, Liu General Soldier, Hu Shangyou and Han Shangliang's Sichuan soldiers have been sent to the southern city, and Ma Yingkui, Deputy General Ma, is guarding the western city. The new city was under the responsibility of General Stilwell and the families of the major households. He Gang whispered to Shi Kefa about the deployment of troops in Yangzhou City, and Shi Kefa was speechless for a while.

The huge Yangzhou city of old and new, there are only more than 10,000 defenders, where to defend it!

"Mr. He, is Xincheng's troops too weak?" Governor Wei Yinwen questioned.

"What's the solution, there are only so many troops in the city. However, the Qing troops came from the northwest and would definitely take the northern city as the main target. The new city is located in the east of the old city, and it is protected by canals, so it should not matter if there are fewer troops. He Gang said helplessly.

"Alas, if only there were more troops, it wouldn't be so overstretched." Wei Yinwen sighed.

At this moment, Shi Kefa personally ran Zhuang Zigu in a hurry, his face full of surprise.

"Inspector, reinforcements are coming!"

"Is it Guangchangbo or Dongpingbo?" Shi Kefa stood up in surprise.

"Neither!" Zhuang Zigu shook his head.

"Could it be that Li Benshen is here?" Shi Kefa frowned, Admiral Li Benshen was the nephew of Gao Jie, the governor of Xingpingbo, and after Gao Jie's death, he controlled most of Gao Jie's army. However, after Gao Jie's death, Shi Kefa refused Gao Jie's wife Xing's acceptance of Gao Jie's son as his adopted son, and the rest of Gao Jie's department had a grudge against Shi Kefa and had long been unwilling to obey Shi Kefa's dispatch. Li Benshen, who was stationed in the south of Xuzhou, would definitely not take the initiative to come to help.

"It's not the rest of Xingpingbo, it's Ren Siqi, the chief soldier of Ningbo who is here!" Not daring to let Shi Kefa guess anymore, Zhuang Zigu hurriedly replied.

"Su Uncle Ren Siqi?" Shi Ke **** for a moment, who is this, I haven't heard of it!

"Supervisor," Yan Ermei, a staff member who was in charge of the movements of the imperial court, hurriedly walked to Shi Kefa's side and explained Ren Siqi's origin in a low voice.

"It's him!" Shi Kefa suddenly realized, a few days ago he also heard the news of the Ming army's defeat of Zuo Liangyu's army in Wuhu, and he also heard Ren Siqi's name at that time, but the situation in Yangzhou was too critical, and since Zuo Liangyu's army had been blocked west of Tongling, he didn't pay attention to it anymore.

"How many men did Su Lubo bring?" Shi Kefa asked eagerly.

"There are more than 500 ships and 15,000 land and water troops." Zhuang Zigu's words made Shi Kefa overjoyed, and his depressed mood suddenly became high.

"Quick, come in, no, I'm going to meet you outside the city in person." Shi Kefa stroked his beard and was about to walk out.

"Slow down!" He Gang hurriedly stopped, "Let's discuss the defensive area of Su Lubo first." ”

"Well," Shi Kefa stopped and thought for a while, "Su Yubo is coming from afar, let him garrison the new city in the east first, and transfer the Steawell department of the new city to Beicheng to assist General Liu in guarding the northern city." (To be continued.) )