In mid-April, tens of thousands of Qing soldiers trampled across the Shandong Plain.

Dolgon stayed in Tancheng for a day and led 10,000 cavalry of the Eight Banners to the north bank of Huaishui in Huai'an City. At this time, Yangzhou City had been held under the artillery fire of the Ming army for more than 20 days.

The soldiers and gods, the army crossed the Huai River in one day. Dolgon summoned more than 4,000 Jurchens who remained in Huai'an.

In this matter, he already had 14,000 Jurchen cavalry and more than 20,000 Han soldiers in Huai'an City.

How could Gao Jie of the four towns in Jiangbei not think that he was framed and killed by Xu Dingguo in the Northern Expedition, and his subordinates have now become accomplices of the Qing Dynasty.

The Jurchens are less than 10,000, and they are invincible.

The Ming army lacked cavalry, and Dolgon was ready to move when he first arrived in Huai'an.

Li Chengdong, Da Chun and others came to pay a visit, and each reported the situation of the enemy and the situation of grain and grass.

Li Chengdong was uneasy in his heart, and said: "The Ming army is now concentrating its forces to storm Yangzhou City, according to scout intelligence, the Ming army has nearly 200,000 soldiers and horses crossing the river, and there are 20,000 defenders in Gaoyou City. "He regarded the people who crossed the river as soldiers.

"Two hundred thousand?" Dorgon gasped. He remembered that Ao Bai and Li Chengdong had been defeated by the Ming army, which was smaller than his own number, and asked: "How is the combat strength of the Ming army?" ”

Li Chengdong licked his lips and didn't dare to speak casually. So far, he has only fought with the Ming army once, and he was defeated and returned, and he did not dare to boast too much about the Ming army.

Dolgon no longer asked, and said, "Tell me about the defeat of the Ming army." Ao Bai said that Li Chengdong was ineffective in meeting the enemy, and the guide was defeated, and he already believed it in his heart.

Han soldiers can't fight, and they are already ingrained in the eyes of the Manchurians.

Li Chengdong described in detail how he met the Ming army under Gaoyou City, how the cavalry attack was defeated by the Ming army's iron artillery, and finally his foot soldiers could not maintain the battle line.

Dolgon had not fought before, and when he heard it, he immediately understood who was telling a lie.

"General Soldier Li, you did a good job, the Ming army has KitKat firearms, and the defeat is excusable"

Li Chengdong's heart warmed, and the regent really knew everything.

In fact, even if Dorgon knew that he had escaped, he would not punish him. The Manchus also had to use the Han people to fight hard, and the generals who led the Han troops were all panicked, and Dolgon's top priority was to win the hearts of the people.

Dolgon blamed unabashedly: "Ao Bai is underestimating the enemy, and the cavalry firmly grasps the initiative, why do you want to stupidly charge the Ming army's iron cannons?" ”

Li Chengdong is submissive.

Clear rewards and punishments are the first priority of marching and fighting. After appeasing Li Chengdong, Dolgon conveyed the order: "I will lead the army south tomorrow, you bring cavalry to guide me the way"

"Obedience"

Beijing City still has to leave soldiers and horses to garrison, and other soldiers and horses of the Qing court will continue to arrive66, Dolgon can't wait, he wants to do his best to show the Qing court's support for Yangzhou City.

Although there are some hills from Huai'an to Yangzhou, they are actually very suitable terrain for cavalry combat. Dolgon's seniority and prestige were high, and he was not affected by the defeat of Aobai, and as soon as he arrived in Huai'an, he immediately let the Qing soldiers find the backbone.

The next day, 20,000 Qing cavalry left Huai'an and went south along the channel of the Grand Canal.

The army searched all the way to the enemy, and arrived at the city of Gaoyou at noon the next day.

The Qing scouts continued to investigate to the south, and it was only a month now, and a large area of land south of Gaoyou City had long been invisible, and it was not until Ai Linhu that they saw the camp of the Ming army.

Gaoyou was stationed on the side of the canal, and if he could not capture the city, the road to the south to transport grain and grass would be blocked.

20,000 cavalry appeared densely in the north of Gaoyou City, Yan Yingyuan and Chen Mingyu both climbed up to the top of the city to look into the distance, and at the same time ordered the light cavalry to go south to inform the military situation.

Li Chengdong explained to Dolgon: "This city is simple, the Ming army has been strengthening the city defense for the past month, as long as the iron cannon is transported to the strong attack, the Ming army will not be able to defend it."

"Then we have to wait for the iron cannon to arrive," Dolgon was anxious. The iron cannons were heavy and had to be removed from the forts of the cities, but fortunately there were canals and waterways to facilitate transportation.

He urged him to take a step forward and ordered: "Bypass Gaoyou City and go all the way south"

"Prince" Li Chengdong wants to persuade. Bypassing Gaoyou City to the south, it was the Ming army's control area.

Dolgon ignored him and took the lead in urging the horse out, and Li Chengdong could only follow.

Yan Yingyuan and Chen Mingyu were at the head of Gaoyou City, and they had been watching the cavalry bypassing themselves and heading south. The cavalry were like clouds floating in the sky, and they all disappeared after walking for half an hour.

"Mr. Yan, Qing Yu's courage is really big," Chen Mingyu sighed.

Yan Yingyuan pointed to the banner under the city and said, "You don't look at who is coming" Dolgon was in person, of course, different.

Before Dolgon arrived in Huai'an, Zhai Zhe got the news. But he really didn't expect Dorgon to go south so quickly.

When Yan Yingyuan's urgent report arrived at the city of Yangzhou, Zhai Zhe was inspecting the camps.

The Ming army's iron artillery bombarded day and night, and let the people and soldiers dig tunnels, and the four gates of Yangzhou City were bombarded. The armor has been preparing for the siege, and the thick armor can give the besieging warriors to resist the attacks of the Qing army's long arrows and thunder stones.

The military situation was urgent, and Fang Jin personally led the messenger of Gaoyou City to find Zhai Zhe in Fang Yuanke's barracks.

After receiving the urgent report, Zhai Zhe hurriedly read it, and immediately got up and returned to the Chinese army camp.

"Dolgon is here," he had been waiting for a long time. If Dolgon can be defeated on the battlefield, the crisis of the Qing court can no longer be suppressed, and the Northern Expedition of the Ming Dynasty may be much simpler than imagined.

On the way back to the big tent of the Chinese army, he gave several orders one after another.

"Fate shrinks the soldiers and horses in every time, and you can't hold out"

"Bao Guang counted the guards and prepared to go north with me."

There were more than 100,000 soldiers and horses under the city of Yangzhou, and in order to ensure that the siege was not relaxed, he could not take out many people to fight with Dolgon's 20,000 cavalry. Feng Qin relied on firearms to defeat the Qing cavalry, but that kind of thing can only be done once, and it cannot be repeated blindly, because it is also a narrow victory.

There are trees and jungles on the edge of Ailin Lake, and there are some vertical and horizontal rivers, which are the best places to stop the Qing cavalry from moving south.

Freshly cut pine wooden fences were erected around the barracks, and the gun carriages were concentrated in the middle of the camp. The soldiers were all flint guns in their hands, and if the Qing soldiers dared to attack the camp with cavalry, they would be killing themselves.

Feng Qin stood at the gate of the gate surrounded by the pro-soldiers and watched the Qing soldiers coming.

The galloping movement of 20,000 war horses seemed to be more violent than the summer rain and spring thunder.

Dorgon was watching him, too.

The two sides looked at each other across several small rivers. Dolgon took a closer look at the terrain and exclaimed: "This camp is really not leaky, Feng Qin and Zuo Ruo are Zhai Zhe's right-hand men, and they really live up to their reputation."

He can praise Fengqin, but Li Chengdong doesn't dare to agree.

After watching the camp around Fengqin for a long time, Dolgon was helpless, and had to admit: "If you want to capture this camp, you have to wait for the foot soldiers to arrive" He listened to Li Chengdong talk about the power of the Ming army's new bird guns, and he was skeptical, but if the Ming army's bird guns really didn't need the arquebus, he had to get the artillery to be able to capture this camp with an excellent location and an ordinary look.

While they were watching, a cavalry of 2,000 men walked down the embankment of the canal to the barracks of Fengqin.

The flag of "Zhai" is fluttering.

Dolgon gritted his teeth and scolded: "If I had killed him in the grassland, maybe I wouldn't have the trouble I have today" He had such an opportunity and ability, and Zhai Zhe at that time was as fragile as a newborn baby in front of him.

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