The artillery bombardment at the head of the city dealt a very heavy blow to the green battalion soldiers who filled the river under the city, and Liu Liangzuo painfully found that more than half of the soldiers who were sent to fill the moat survived. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 The artillery and bows at the head of the city were so lethal that the soldiers covered by the barrage had almost nowhere to hide.

Most of the soldiers under him wore thin military uniforms, and those with armor were pro-soldiers with strong combat effectiveness, and he was reluctant to use these pro-soldiers as cannon fodder.

There is no armor on his body to protect him, and he is moving slowly with a mud bag of about 20 catties on his back, so it is conceivable that there will be such a large casualty.

In one morning, nearly half of the moat was filled, but nearly 5,000 soldiers fell in front of it. The soldiers in the back simply threw the dead soldiers' bodies into the river, and the speed of filling was faster.

But if the moat is completely cut off, I am afraid that I will not have to pay more than 10,000 lives! There are only more than 50,000 soldiers under his command in total, and if he really dies so much, his subordinate soldiers will have to rebel. Liu Liangzuo knew that he couldn't go on like this!

"Lord Belle, it can't be like this anymore, the casualties are too great, and the sons can't stand it." At noon, Liu Liangzuo knelt down in front of Nikan and pleaded.

"How can you fill the moat without this? Could it be that Guangchangbo, do you have a way? Nikan rolled his triangular eyes, put down the leg of lamb he was gnawing, and asked coldly.

"Let's drive the people to attack the city!" Liu Liangzuo gritted his teeth and said.

Driving away the people, this is a good way, Nikan thought about it and agreed to Liu Liangzuo's request, this batch of lackeys is very easy to use, if the casualties are too large, it will not be good after all.

After getting Nikan's consent, Liu Liangzuo didn't care about eating, and ordered his generals to lead the troops to set off, rush to the countryside, and arrest the people to come to the city of Yangzhou.

His subordinate soldiers were originally poor in military discipline, and now after learning that they don't need to fill in the trenches, they are all excited, and they can rob and get some benefits while capturing the people, who doesn't want this kind of good thing? One by one, the generals scrambled to get the order.

The village in the south of Yangzhou City was suddenly hit by the seedlings, and countless fierce green battalion soldiers poured into the village, and after the robbery, all the people were tied up with ropes and driven to Yangzhou City.

Hundreds of people cried and begged, and their children and daughters were driven by the green battalion soldiers and had to leave their homes and come to the city of Yangzhou, and behind them, the whole village was on fire.

The Green Battalion soldiers walked behind the refugees with smiles on their faces, occasionally slapping the slow-moving civilians with their guns, watching them scream and be pumped to the ground, so they stepped forward and kicked them violently, and their mouths let out rampant laughter.

One by one, the green battalion soldiers had crooked armor but bulging waists, and from time to time they let out bursts of lewd laughter.

In half an afternoon, tens of thousands of people were arrested in the countryside near Yangzhou, and the cry under the city of Yangzhou shook the sky.

There were already a lot of people arrested, Nikan nodded with satisfaction, and ordered the green battalion soldiers to coerce the people to pick up the mud bags and march to the city of Yangzhou.

"They drove the people to fill the water!" The Ming troops at the head of the city looked at them angrily one by one. Especially the newly recruited archers, they are all natives of Yangzhou, and perhaps there are relatives among the people under the city who are crying and walking towards the moat.

"Archer prepare!" Mao Liu, the battalion was ordered, and the herald raised the order flag. The archers subconsciously pulled out the bows in their hands, and the sharp arrows pointed at the people who were walking in the city, but their hands were trembling one by one.

Yingzheng Mao Liu didn't care about this, he only knew that anyone who tried to fill the moat was the enemy, and seeing that the people in the city had come to the range of bows and arrows, Mao Liu immediately ordered bows and arrows to shoot.

But after his order was given, most of the archers hesitated and refused to let go of the bowstring in their hands.

Seeing that only a few feather arrows were shot, Mao Liuda was furious.

"Bastard, I let you shoot arrows, didn't you hear?"

"But, but the people under the city are all people!" An archer whispered.

Attacking their own people, and they are also unarmed people, the vast majority of recruits can't pass this hurdle in their hearts.

The newly established bow battalion had this kind of psychological burden, but the Sichuan archers did not, seeing that the people entered the shooting range, the Sichuan archers released arrows one after another, but the shooting of more than 300 archers caused typhoid fever to tens of thousands of people was negligible.

"I command you again, release the arrows at once!" Mao Liu roared.

"I, I can't do it!" One archer cried and put down the bow in his hand, and then more archers followed suit, so angry that Mao Liu trembled.

The locally recruited archers could not bear to attack the people, but the artillery men of the Daishan Army did not have this psychological burden. Seeing that the civilians entered the range of the artillery, with the order of the artillery commander, all the artillery began to fire.

One cannon after another rang out, tens of thousands of projectiles flew out of the muzzle, shot down from the head of the city more than three feet high, and shot at the people who were moving, and countless people were shot to the ground crying and screaming, and they were not even as good as the green battalion soldiers without any protection. Seeing the heavy casualties in front, the people behind cried and turned around and fled, but what was waiting for them was the fierce butcher's knife of the Green Battalion soldiers.

Anyone who dared to retreat was cut to the ground, and the people wept and pleaded, but to no avail. There was no choice but to pick up the mud bag again and staggered towards the moat.

Every shell knocked down not the Qing army, but ordinary people, and the gunners of the Daishan Army were also under great pressure, and many gunners shed tears while loading ammunition. But they also knew that they had to do this, if the city wall was allowed to be breached, no one in Yangzhou City, regardless of the army and civilians, could escape.

Relying on tens of thousands of people to fill it with their lives, the moat outside the southern city was cut off at the junction of the canal and filled in more than ten zhang wide. More than 20,000 people were killed or injured in the process of filling the river.

Of course, it is impossible to attack the city wall through this distance of ten or so zhang. To attack the walls, you must fill in wider passages. It is not possible to fill the moat directly, because the overflowing water will make the nearby ground muddy, and it will be difficult to walk, let alone siege the city.

The Qing army fought with the idea of digging a river to divert water from the moat. The moat is separated from the canal, and inside is a source of water, which can be easily diverted.

Tens of thousands of green battalion soldiers worked overnight, dug a five-mile-long river, and finally braved the attack of the city to pay thousands of casualties before connecting with the moat, introducing the water of the moat into a depression in the south of the city, and the moat became a dry empty river.

As long as the earth is filled in again, the Qing army can go directly to the city of Yangzhou and attack the Ming army at the head of the city.

Looking at the dry moat under the city, Ren Siqi frowned. Without the protection of the moat, Yangzhou only has the city wall.

"Uncle, we can't let them fill the river, we have to fight back!" Li Yanzhi suggested.

Ren Siqi nodded, thinking so! (To be continued.) )