Careless!

In this defense of the city, Yang Chao has always used the experience of the last battle in Haizhou, but what he doesn't know is that this time it is Duoduo who leads the troops, a high-ranking prince of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and Dolgon's younger brother.

The one who led the troops last time was just Turge, just a minion of Huang Taiji.

The difference in the identity of the two means that the power in their hands is not the same, the 30,000 Eight Banners led by Duoduo are not the Mongols in the hands of Turg and the miscellaneous cards that are full of clothes, all of them are the elite of the Eight Banners, even if it is the Eight Banners of the Han Dynasty, they are all the elites who have followed Duoduo to pursue Li Zicheng to Shaanxi, and they are all extremely brave, especially the three thousand Bayala guards of Duoduo, who are all veterans who have killed at least ten people.

Duoduo not only has stronger troops than Turg, the quality of the soldiers is more elite than Turg, and even the equipment is not the same level as Turg, needless to say, they occupy Beijing, and the military production capacity has made a huge leap, which is stronger than Nanjing, and the most important thing is that Duoduo has thirty red-coated cannons in his hands.

It was for these cannons that Duoduo arrived in Yangzhou on the 18th and began to attack on the 23rd.

And this time, the Qing army was able to attack the city, and the biggest reliance was on these thirty red-coated cannons.

Duoduo sent people to attack the gap, attracting all the attention of the Ming army to the gap.

Not only did Yang Chao put most of the troops in his hands that could fight, but the other defenders on the city wall were also staring at where they were, and the artillery bombarded the section of the moat that was filled in after the collapse of the gap.

But no one paid attention, hidden in the dark night, there was a group of artillery wagons that were slowly advancing, and finally when everyone saw it, it was already too late, under the cover of thick wooden shields, these artillery wagons risked being bombarded by the large and small artillery in the city, crossed the moat, entered the blind spot of the artillery, and then almost pressed the red-coated cannons against the gap in the city wall, and began to bombard.

The powerful cannonball suddenly shattered the Ming army's defenses at the gap. At the same time, the defending Li Benshen was stunned at once, and Duoduo's guards rushed up after him, and Li Benshen's army was defeated, and many men were not only unable to organize. The array was almost scattered by these completely out-of-control chaotic forces.

After repelling Li Benshen, the Qing army did not come up directly, but covered the red-coated artillery into the city and directly bombarded many male army formations.

Bombarding military formations with artillery, the Tartars had a lot of experience. It was in this way that they fought in the Hunhe River, broke the infantry formation of the Qi family's army, and made the last Qi family army disappear into history.

Many of the men were killed and wounded by the red-clothed artillery, and then they were surrounded by the Manchu army that rushed up, Zhao Kang led his troops to the rescue, but he could not rescue them, and while continuing to attack the Tartar encirclement, he sent someone to inform Yang Chao.

Yang Chao didn't stop, and when he led his troops to ride horses, he hurried to the city. The red-coated cannons of the Tartars were still bombarded, but they were not bombarding many male formations, but bombarding in all directions, and the killing of the artillery may not be enough, but the effect was very good, because it could hit the Ming army defending the city hard.

No wonder their shells hit the east of the city, it turned out that they were already firing in the city, and not outside.

At a distance of about thirty feet, many of the male troops were relying on a row of houses to resist stubbornly, and their left, right, and front were full of Tartars.

And Wang Pu has already arrived. is attacking the Tartars, but the Tartars refuse to give up the fat that fell in their mouths, and send troops to block Zhao Kang, and the two sides are fighting for each other in a civilian room that has been bombed into a collapsed ruin. It is no longer possible to fight with regular army formations, but to fight in a melee.

Yang Chao stopped at a distance of ten zhang, first looked at the many men who were surrounded and Zhao Kang who was rescued, and then looked at the gap, where the Tartars were rushing in in a swarm, not only the infantry. And the cavalry, almost 10,000 people have already rushed in.

"Defeated!"

Sighing secretly in his heart, Yang Chao had to accept this result.

But many men must be rescued, these soldiers are surrounded by Tartars because they hold their positions, if they escape early like Li Benshen, they will be fine.

"Dismount, line!"

Yang Chao gave an order, and a hundred personal soldiers immediately dismounted and lined up.

The front is all ruins, not to mention Yang Chao, the cavalry of the Qing army are all dismounted and fighting on foot.

But without waiting for Yang Chao to charge, suddenly the battle situation over there changed, probably seeing the arrival of Yang Chao's reinforcements, the Tartar army was a little flustered, and was pulled in by Zhao Kang seized the opportunity.

"Array, cover!"

Seeing this situation, Yang Chao suddenly changed his method, led the troops to make a way, let many men pass, and then nervously guarded.

When the Tartars saw the fat in their mouths running away, they wanted to rush forward, but suddenly the officers ordered them to start rectifying and defending.

Their most important thing now is to hold a foothold, not to hunt down the enemy.

"Retreat."

Seeing that many men and Zhao Kang had retreated to relatively intact streets and regrouped, Yang Chao ordered a retreat.

Yang Chao was in a depressed mood, he did everything he had to do, and in the end he still let the Tartars enter the city.

It's not that the soldiers are not heroic in battle, it's not that they are not decisive in handling things, but the results are not satisfactory, this kind of blow is profound, it will make people feel powerless, and it will make people depressed.

"My lord, let's kill it back."

At this time, many men stepped forward to ask for their lives, with a resolute expression, there were more than a hundred soldiers left under him, and he led five hundred people to defend, not only was he broken through head-on, but also lost most of his lives, and he was already a little crazy in his heart at this time.

Yang Chao shook his head: "I can't fight it." The Tartars are on a steady foothold, and it is not so easy to fight out. ”

Many men immediately pleaded guilty: "The last general is incompetent, please punish the adult!" ”

Yang Chao sighed: "I don't blame you. You can't compete with a cannon. ”

Then he sighed: "Everyone obey the order, follow me to the east city, and go out of the city together." Zhao Kang sent to kick the city and let the rest of the soldiers converge at Mrs. Xing in the east of the city. Take some soldiers to the Governor's Mansion and take Master Shi out, he can't die yet. ”

Yang Chao just took a hundred people to Mrs. Xing's place, and there were still four hundred people left on the south wall to defend, as for the 10,000 Gao Jie headquarters there, Yang Chao couldn't take care of them anymore.

But Shi Kefa can't afford to lose, a supervisor fell, the impact is too great, the Ming army was afraid of the Qing army, if even a big man like Shi Kefa was killed, the impact would be too bad, on the other hand, Yang Chao also felt that although Shi Kefa had no talent, he was always better than other civilian officials, at least he was not afraid of death, he dared to go to the front line, and his honest character also made Yang Chao a little regretful.

Mrs. Xing was always nervous listening to the fire, and she always felt that things did not seem to be as simple as Yang Chao said.

As a result, she soon saw Yang Chao, and saw Yang Chao's defeated face.

"Loyalty?"

Mrs. Xing's heart suddenly trembled, and her tone trembled a little.

Yang Chao smiled bitterly: "I was said by Mrs., the city is broken!" Madame will take someone to go first, I will follow immediately, and I will escort Madame to Nanjing to settle down! ”

At this time, Mrs. Xing only had more than 100 of Gao Jie's most trusted subordinates around her, all of whom were fellow villagers who followed Gao Jie from Shaanxi, and they were loyal to Gao Jie's son.

As for the other soldiers, Mrs. Xing didn't even ask, I'm afraid this smart woman knows that she can't control those soldiers, and it is unpredictable to stay by her side, at least an officer like Li Benshen has always been a threat to her son.

Mrs. Xing didn't say a word, she immediately ran to the back hall with Gao Yuanjue in her arms, the first to get into the hole, and then her cronies.

Yang Chao asked many men to leave with the soldiers first, and waited until his own soldiers who stayed in the city before Yang Chao began to leave.

I heard from the soldiers that long before they left, the city wall was completely chaotic, and the situation of the Tartars firing cannons from the city completely made the soldiers defending the city desperate, and one by one they had already disobeyed the order, some ran to the city, some jumped to the houses in the city, and some even jumped into the moat outside the city.

Yang Chao felt a little better when he heard this, at least it was not the chaos caused by his retreat, which proved that his decision was timely enough, at least he saved hundreds of his own loyal soldiers.

Yang Chao knew very well in his heart that as soon as his elite soldiers withdrew, the miscellaneous army on the city wall would surrender, even the soldiers of Gao Jie's headquarters would definitely not resist, and if he went, Yangzhou would be over.

Yang Chao is not without a burden in his heart, he knows that after the city of Yangzhou is broken, the Qing army will slaughter the city in order to punish the resistance, and nearly a million people in Yangzhou will be slaughtered, and the maximum number of people who can escape from the ascension to heaven will be 10,000.

But defeat is defeat, and even if you fight all these people, you can't stop the well-organized Qing army.

What Yang Chao can do is only to retain his vital strength and counterattack in the future, even if Wang Pu arrives at this time, Yang Chao will not have the ability to attack the city, after all, the fortified city defended by more than 100,000 Qing troops is not easy to capture.

As for when Yangzhou will be recovered, as for the millions of people in Yangzhou, Yang Chao no longer dares to think about it.

Yang Chao had also gone down to the cave.

Although the entrance of the cave is narrow, but when it reaches the bottom, it becomes more and more spacious, and it looks like it is more than three zhang down, and it is directly a large space, and there are some simple furniture inside, and more are jars, some of which contain water and wine, and some of which contain grain.

It's a cellar!

Or a refuge!

Yang Chao knew that this was not an escape route dug by Mrs. Xing, but the owner of the house had dug it a long time ago, but Mrs. Xing inadvertently discovered it.

There is also a passage at the other end of the cellar, which is very sturdy and fixed on all sides of wood, which is much safer than the mining caves of this era.

Yang Chao then walked towards the exit, which was very smooth at first, straight forward, walked about ten zhang and then vertically upward, and there were stairs made of bricks and stones in the hard soil, but the entrance of the cave was also only allowed to pass through one person.

After climbing more than three feet, the entrance of the cave has been exposed.

When the soldiers outside saw Yang Chao, they immediately pulled him up, and there was also a room outside! (To be continued.) )