Zhu Youzhen patted the armor on Liu Fangliang's body, nodded, and walked back alone, looking at the Tartar corpse that fell to the ground, thinking of their atrocities, Zhu Youzhen did not feel the slightest disgust.

"Your Majesty, this person should be Southern Hunan, the deputy commander of the Manchu Qing Dynasty's Red Banner, and the third-class lieutenant of the light car", at this time, a brocade guard replied.

Zhu Youzhen nodded: "Very good, the Qing army lost one of my governors, and I killed him as a deputy commander, which can be regarded as a breath of relief, but this is not enough, Lu Gong is the chief official of my Ming War Zone, and it cannot be sacrificed unless the blood of Duoduo!" ”

"Wait for you to understand!"

Liu Fangliang and others hurriedly replied.

The defeat of Kong Youde and southern Hubei at the foot of Mengcheng Mountain also means that the plan to prevent Duoduo from entering Luzhou from Mengcheng and then into Jiangnan has been realized.

After the Jinyi Guard spies reported that Duoduo had quickly marched to Fengyang after Kong Youde's defeat, the First Corps of the Third Army of the Guards Army also began to reassemble, along Guzhen, Wuhe, Weizhou, crossing the river to Xuyi, and then driving directly to Yangzhou.

The First Corps of the Third Army of the Guards Army can be said to have gone directly to Yangzhou from behind the butt of the Qing Army Duoduo, and almost passed by the Qing Army's Duoduo Department in the Fengyang area, and at the same time, when the Qing Army's Duoduo Department realized that Dingyuan also had an attack, and when it came towards Yangzhou, the First Corps of the Third Army of the Guards Army had also followed.

Zhu Youzhen did not follow the First Corps of the Third Army of the Guards to Yangzhou, but rushed to Dingyuan City from the south first.

After all, now Duoduo has another way to attack Zhenjiang from Yangzhou and then to Nanjing, that is, to go to Dingyuan, pass Chuzhou, and fight Nanjing.

Therefore, Zhu Youzhen decided to go to Dingyuan first to see if Duoduo would divide his troops to investigate.

At the same time, he could also return to Nanjing from Dingyuan, and then go north from Nanjing after the three armies of the Guards gathered in Yangzhou.

……

Duoduo did not hesitate at all after seeing Kong Youde return from defeat, and directly ordered the army to capture Fengyang immediately.

As soon as Fengyang was captured, without saying a word, Duoduo destroyed the tomb of the Ming Emperor.

Despite this, Duoduo was still furious, because he originally thought that Fengyang, as the capital of the Ming Dynasty, could let him rob it well.

After all, since the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang has moved the wealthy to Fengyang, making Fengyang an important town in the world.

But now Fengyang is also empty, and the 100,000 Qing troops will not get the slightest benefit after the siege.

When he thought that although he had broken countless levels along the way, he had also lost nearly 1,000 Eight Banner Iron Cavalry and a deputy commander, he was even more annoyed.

Looking at Kong Youde, the obedient king who led to the defeat of the Battle of Mengcheng and suffered such heavy losses, Duoduo was even more angry, he was very unkind to Kong Youde now, if he didn't need a hundred cannons under his command, he was afraid that Kong Youde would have been killed long ago.

In his opinion, Kong Youde has already escaped from the battle.

Kong Youde could only admit it, and he was resentful in his heart, but he also knew that a person like him who betrayed the country and sought glory could not go back, so he could only endure it, and at the same time hoped to fight better in the next big war, so that his Manchu master could recover his good impression of him.

In order to please his master, Kong Youde ordered his soldiers to search and arrest in Fengyang Mansion, almost even the people hiding in the deep mountains and old forests were arrested, and even directly made human jerky for the Manchu Iron Cavalry to supplement meat.

And Duoduo also changed his arrogant attitude towards Kong Youde because of this, and ordered Kong Youde to continue to collect grain (arrest people) with great satisfaction, and at the same time ordered Geng Zhongming to lead the army south to attack Dingyuancheng.

Like Mengcheng, between Fengyang and Chuzhou, Dingyuan is just a small city.

At this time, the Second Corps of the Third Army of the Guards Army had been stationed in Dingyuan City for five days, practicing day and night, waiting for the arrival of the Qing army's iron cavalry.

Liu Qian, deputy commander-in-chief of the Second Corps, was a former general of the border army, although he was a Ming general, he was also from a poor background, so he also got along well with Liu Fangliang, the chief military officer.

Today, Li Banghua, the governor of Fengyang, is also here.

Fengyang, Lu'an, Dingyuan, and Chuzhou are all important grain producing areas in Nanzhili, and Chen Zizhuang, the governor of Fengyang, transported grain from all over the world in Mengcheng to move the people to Mengcheng and Luzhou, while he Li Banghua personally sat in Dingyuan with the respect of Wuyingdian scholars, and transported most of the rich households and common people in Fengyang, the central capital, as well as all the grain, to Chuzhou, so as to realize the defense of Nanjing and Gyeonggi.

Zhu Youzhen came all the way from Shou County, all of them were people who migrated from Jiangbei, and a large number of officers and soldiers of the guard also gathered here, and Jinyi Wei and Dongchang were also on guard at all times.

After all, the main force of the Duoduo Department is in Fengyang, and there is only one Zhangbaling Mountain Range between Fengyang, Shouzhou and Dingyuan.

Daming's side has never dared to be careless.

Zhangbaling is the remnant vein of the Qinling Mountains, and to the south derives from Nanjing Zhongshan, which is the watershed between the Yangtze River and the Huai River, and is now a line of defense that hinders the southward movement of the Qing army.

Despite this, no one knows whether the Qing army's sentry cavalry will cross Zhang Baling and find that a large amount of grain and other important materials have gathered in Anhui at this time, and even the emperor is in the area south of Zhang Baling with great fanfare, so the Jinyi Guard, Dongchang Fan Soldier and the officers and soldiers of the guard have to wait here.

Duoduo could also guess that as long as his Qing army iron cavalry crossed Fengyang and broke through a mountain in front of him, he would be able to enter the hinterland of Jiangnan, and there must have accumulated countless wealth of the Ming Dynasty.

And now if he wants to go deep into the hinterland of Zhang Baling and capture Nanjing, in addition to going to Yangzhou, it is also a way to first detain Dingyuan City, the gateway to the south of the Yangtze River, and the second city of Chuzhou.

Although it is closer to go from Dingyuan to Chuzhou to Jiangnan than from Yangzhou to Jiangnan.

But Duoduo also understood that there was a Zhang Baling in front of him, which was not conducive to his cavalry, but if Geng Zhongming could capture Dingyuan City, it would be a different matter, after all, capturing Dingyuan City would be equivalent to breaking through the natural defense line of Zhang Baling, whether it was attacking Yangzhou or Chuzhou, it was a shortcut.

With Duoduo's ardent expectations, Geng Zhongming and Gushan Beizi Nikan led 10,000 iron horsemen to cross Zhang Baling and come to Dingyuan City.

Although it was also a temptation, this time Duoduo eliminated nearly twice as many troops as the last time he attacked Mengcheng, and the leading commander of the Manchu Iron Cavalry was also replaced by Nikan, a clan figure.

In this way, it can be seen that Duoduo still hopes to attack Chuzhou from Dingyuan.

It was night when Zhu Youzhen arrived at Dingyuan City, and early the next morning, he heard the rumbling of drums, and Li Banghua had already walked to the front of the palace: "Your Majesty, sure enough, there are Tartars to attack Dingyuan, this time there are 10,000 iron horses, of which no less than 2,000 Manchurian iron horses, and the commander is Geng Zhongming, the king of Huaishun." ”

As soon as Zhu Youzhen heard Li Banghua say this, he immediately walked to the city tower, and suddenly saw that more than 70,000 people of the Second Corps of the Third Army of the Guards Army had faced off on both sides of the Sangjian with 10,000 Qing troops led by Geng Zhongming and Nikan.

Because of Kong Youde's new defeat, Geng Zhongming and Nikan did not dare to be careless this time to attack Yuancheng, 10,000 iron cavalry were lined up on the opposite bank from the morning, and there were even sentry cavalry from time to time to instigate back and forth, testing the reality between the various camps of the Second Corps, and did not attack easily.

The formation of the Second Corps was basically the same as that of the First Corps, with the cavalry guarding the wings, the infantry in the center, the artillery between the infantry and the cavalry, and the troops directly under the corps guarding the city.

(End of chapter)