Jiangyin fell ten days ago, and the reason why the news came back at this time was because after Boluo's army entered Nanjing, he sent men and horses to capture the important places of Changzhou and Taiping around Nanjing. In January, Gaochun, Liyang and other places have fallen, a soldier and horse under the command of Boluo, belonging to the blue flag of Bei Zitunqi will march forward, all the way to Changzhou Mansion, successively conquer Jintan, Wujin and Changzhou Prefecture, Changzhou Governor Hao Yuqi martyred, soldiers and horses then besieged Jiangyin.

Lin Zhiji, the magistrate of Jiangyin, opened the city gate and surrendered Jiangyin County to the Qing army. The Qing army marched into Changzhou Mansion, which was also a preparation made by Boluo in order to prevent the Ming army in Huaiyang from moving south. The Tunqi soldiers took Jiangyin without blood, which completely blocked the land communication between Huaiyang and Nanjing. Most crucially, the fall of Jiangyin will have a great impact on the battle to defend Nanjing.

Yan Yingyuan and Chen Mingyu, the Nanjing guards, are all from Jiangyin, and their 800 Jiangyin soldiers, as well as 3,000 young men and craftsmen, are all the people of Jiangyin. The fall of Jiangyin has an imaginable impact on them, and if they don't do it well, it will also affect the military morale of the entire Nanjing defenders.

Shi Kefa was worried about this, so he deliberately concealed the news, and hurriedly brought Li Yan and Shen Ce, a strategist beside him, to discuss.

Hearing the news, Li Yan didn't speak for a long time, and his expression was also full of worry. In the past ten days, although the defense of Nanjing has been impressive, but after all, the number of troops is very outnumbered, and the Qing army has been attacking so regardless of casualties, and these materials in Nanjing City alone cannot be consumed, not to mention the casualties of soldiers and soldiers.

Right now. With the fall of Jiangyin, it is still unknown what kind of impact Yan Yingyuan and Chen Mingyu, who have become the backbone of Nanjing's defenders, and the soldiers under their command will face. But one thing is certain, and that is that the morale of the military will become fluctuating as a result.

"Cabinet Department, forgive Yan bluntly, it's not a way to keep it hidden like this! General Yan and they will always know the news, and it is better than suddenly learning about it and being unprepared, rather than the cabinet department telling them in person now. Always take it easy! ”

Shen Ce also agreed with Li Yan's opinion, as an upstart in the Qianhu Institute of the Military Intelligence Department in Henan, Shen Ce has always been a strategist of Li Yan and a confidant of Zhu Ping'an to stay in the loyalty camp. and Li Yan really complemented each other, and even Li Guo, who joined later, admired him very much.

Nanjing defended the city, and it was he and Lu Jiude who ran around and transported all the materials in Nanjing City through the waterway. Originally, he was still a well-mannered scholar. Now he is black and thin, and he is dressed in armor made of iron, and he actually looks like a veteran on the battlefield.

"The words of Lord Tongzhi are reasonable, Cabinet, don't hesitate at this time!" Shen Ce said in a deep voice.

……

As the night approached, calm finally returned to the city, and in addition to the smell of gunsmoke and blood, there was a unique aroma similar to barbecue meat in the air. The defenders of the city were well aware. It was the smell of the burning corpses of the Qing soldiers under the city.

The offensive of the Qing army did not stop for a moment, and it was only at this time that the troops were collected and returned to the camp. Many of the defenders at the head of the city fell asleep on the flat ground at the head of the city as soon as they dropped their weapons.

Li Guo and Li Laiheng, father and son, also rushed over from Sanjiangmen with soldiers and horses, bringing many young and strong women and children in the city. Everyone didn't dare to delay, and they lifted up the Ming soldiers who fell asleep in a pool of blood, sometimes they couldn't tell whether they were alive or dead, and they had to put their palms on their nostrils to probe their breath.

In the cave of the Tibetan soldiers in the urn city, hot water and food had already been prepared, and the soldiers who were finally carried down simply ate and drank and then fell asleep with their heads covered, while the young women and children were busy covering them with quilts to keep them warm.

Yan Yingyuan organized men to guard the city at night, and put down countless ropes with barbs and bells at the battlements of the city tower to prevent the Qing army from sneaking up in the middle of the night.

After finishing all this, he breathed a sigh of relief, and an irresistible tiredness suddenly emerged from his limbs, and Yan Yingyuan couldn't help but sit down on the horse road stone at the head of the city, panting.

The city head and the city were already full of lights at this time, and seeing that the people under the city were carrying flat burdens and had already sent hot meals, they were just about to beckon their old buddy Chen Mingyu to have some dinner, but at this time they couldn't find his figure.

Ask the pro-soldiers around him, but one of the pro-soldiers saw him, "Back to the general, Lord Chen has gone to the side of the Dilou, but the prisoner who was brought out of the Jiangyin prison earlier has been working there with a craftsman, and General Chen may have gone to see him!" ”

Yan Yingyuan's heart moved, stood up, and walked in the direction of the Dysprosium Tower.

In the Tibetan soldier cave behind the tower, there is a large open space, and it is rare that there is a hole in this Tibetan soldier cave leading to the city, which must be used by the reinforcements sent from the city at a critical time. There is also a ramp that is not steep, which is convenient for the city to transport all kinds of city defense materials to the city.

Yan Yingyuan took a fancy to this place at the beginning, so he set up the manufacturing office of fire bricks and wooden guns in the Tibetan Cave. It can not only avoid the artillery fire of the Qing army, but also make the firearms made by the craftsmen continue to be sent to the front line of the city.

Because there were a lot of gunpowder, saltpeter and other things piled up in the cave, Chen Mingyu, who was as careful as a hair, strictly ordered that no lamps should be lit in the cave. Therefore, when it was getting dark, the soldiers invited all the craftsmen out and set up a sentry at the entrance of the cave to protect the supplies.

At this time, the craftsmen had already gone down to the city to rest and eat, and the entrance of the Tibetan Soldier Cave was also a lot deserted, and several soldiers were guarding the entrance of the cave with knives and guns. By the light on the tower, Yan Yingyuan could see from a distance that Chen Mingyu was handing some food to a young man sitting on the ground wearing a white prison robe.

"Brother Fengyi!" Yan Yingyuan opened his mouth and shouted.

Chen Mingyu turned his head and arched his hand slightly, Yan Yingyuan realized that at some point, he was actually stabbed on his face, although the bleeding had already stopped, it still looked a little terrifying.

"What's going on, when was the injury?" Yan Yingyuan complained while asking the guards to take the gold sore medicine he carried with him and bandaged Chen Mingyu with his own hands.

Chen Mingyu disagreed, "It's not a serious wound, it was scratched by a Tartar white-armored soldier who rushed to the city." ”

Yan Yingyuan skillfully medicated Chen Mingyu's wound and bandaged it, but when he saw the young prisoner kneeling at his feet, he couldn't help but be stunned, and hurriedly asked Chen Mingyu, "Fengyi, is he the person you brought from Jiangyin?" ”

Chen Mingyu nodded, "Not bad!" ”

"But he ......!" Yan Yingyuan was about to have a seizure.

Chen Mingyu shook his head, "Brother Liheng, although this person's father has treasoned against the enemy, he doesn't know anything, he also signed up to participate in the righteous resistance against the Qing Dynasty organized in Jiangyin County School, but after his father escaped, he refused to flee together, stayed in Jiangyin, we can't confuse him with his father!" ”

Chen Mingyu didn't wait for Yan Yingyuan to speak, and continued: "Brother Liheng, I'm afraid he doesn't know yet, the fire bricks and wooden guns we use today are all from him, if he hadn't brought a group of craftsmen to build so many things early, the Qing army flocked to the city today, I'm afraid we would have suffered a big loss!" ”

Yan Yingyuan frowned and looked at the young prisoner in a white prison uniform, his body was just draped in a shoulder made of tattered cotton wool, and his whole face revealed a kind of fatigue, but a pair of eyes were shining in the night, and he looked at Yan Yingyuan with an extremely expectant look.

Looking at such eyes, Yan Yingyuan's heart softened for no reason, "Since it is Fengyi Xian Brother who intercedes for you, then stay in the army, prepare equipment for the soldiers and horses, if Nanjing City can be defended, after the war, I will personally ask for credit for you!" ”

Yan Yingyuan's words made the young prisoner stunned on the spot, until he looked at Yan Yingyuan's back striding away, he suddenly realized, his knees weakened, he knelt straight on the ground, kowtowed to Yan Yingyuan's back, and the sorrow and bitterness that had been suppressed for many days all broke out at this moment, and his hearty cry echoed in the entire Tibetan soldier cave.

Chen Mingyu smiled knowingly, bent down and patted the young prisoner on the shoulder, turned around and followed Yan Yingyuan down the city.

After a while, the young prisoner slowly stopped his grief and wiped away the tears from his face, but his whole body suddenly burst into a surge, turned and walked to the corner, picked up some unfinished fire bricks, and began to work on them.

On the second watch, most of the defenders at the head of the city, except for the guards on patrol, had already fallen asleep in the cave of the hidden soldiers in the urn city, but the young prisoners were still busy by the light outside the cave, without the slightest hint of tiredness.

Suddenly, there was some commotion on the city, and the young man's heart moved, put down the work in his hand, and walked quickly to the tower outside the cave to take a look, but a group of people came from the horse road on the east side of the city wall, and came towards the treasure gate with torches.

A patrol guard had already stepped forward to interrogate, and the group of people looked dressed but were also soldiers of the Ming army, more than a dozen people carried two people, and asked anxiously and loudly: "General Yan and General Chen, we have an urgent military situation to report!" ”

The soldiers of Jubaomen were stunned for a moment, "The two of them have just left the city, and they should have gone to the city to urge the weapons and materials to go to the city!" ”

Some of the soldiers at the Jubaomen could not help but feel a little strange, "This is strange, aren't you guarding the water gate in the east?" Why did you suddenly come to our treasure gate? ”

Among the soldiers who came, the leader of the ranks, immediately stamped his feet. "Brothers don't know, when we were on duty at midnight, there was a small boat floating along the Jinchuan River, and there were these two people on board, both of them were injured, looking at their clothes, they seemed to be two scholars, and when they saw us, they immediately cried bitterly, and then said that there was an urgent military situation to report to the adults in Nanjing. We didn't dare to call the shots, so we had to take them to Jubaomen to meet General Yan! ”

"Reader? What is the critical military situation? ”

"They said that a few days ago, Jiangyin had already been lost!" (To be continued......)