The battle of Peixian, which annihilated Zhun Ta, was regarded as the last local battle of the Guards before the decisive battle with the main force of the Qing army's Duoduo Division.

In this battle, the first cavalry battalion of the Second Corps of the First Guards Army suffered more than 100 casualties, the second cavalry battalion suffered more than 300 cavalry casualties, and the first infantry battalion suffered one casualties.

The enemy's more than 5,000 iron cavalry were all annihilated, and the main general Zhun Ta was captured alive!

The ratio of casualties between the guards and the Qing army's iron cavalry reached 1:10, which is a better record than the Battle of Mengcheng and the Battle of Dingyuan.

Of course, this has a lot to do with the light enemy advance of the quasi-tower, five thousand iron cavalry directly into the hinterland of Shandong, even if it will not be completely annihilated, it will be repulsed, after all, the Ming army at this time is no longer the Ming army of Liu Zeqing's period.

On the second day, as soon as the sky was bright, tens of thousands of boatmen who had been prepared for a long time drove all kinds of boats to the ferry port on the north bank of the Yellow River, and more than 30,000 men and horses of the five battalions began to cross the river, and as soon as the river crossing was successful, they immediately joined more than 30,000 people on the other side of the river and quickly went south.

At this time, Nikan, who had just experienced the new defeat of Dingyuan, met Duoduo in Linhuai with more than 5,000 cavalry remnants, and informed Duoduo of the news of the defeat in the Battle of Dingyuan:

"Lord Wang, the lower officials are incompetent, the combat power of the Ming army under the city of Dingyuan is amazing, it is the life of the lower officials, and the firearms are particularly sharp, and the military discipline is very strict, according to the lower officials, I am afraid that it is the elite of the Ming army."

"The elite of the Ming army, and the elite of the Ming army, where are there so many elites of the Ming army! What about Geng Zhongming, the king of Huaishun", Duoduo asked angrily slapping the table.

"The subordinate withdrew in a hurry, and I don't know if he was killed in battle or captured alive," Nikan replied on his knees before Dord.

"Bastard! It is difficult for this Ming army to be in Mengcheng and Dingyuan! Duoduo cursed, and didn't say anything more, but sat down directly in the first place, pondering.

Although Duoduo was depressed, especially in the current situation of losing a deputy capital and a Han prince, he was still sober at this time, realizing that the current Ming army in Jiangnan may not be the same as the Ming army he met in Henan, and even from the time when he lost dozens of white-armored soldiers under Kaifeng City, he already had this awareness.

"Mr. Zhang, you have been a cabinet scholar in the Ming Court, what is the strength of the guards trained by Zhu Youjian, and where are most of them?"

Duoduo couldn't help but ask Zhang Shenyan, after all, Zhang Shenyan was the one who had been in the Ming court for the longest time among the officials who surrendered to the Qing court, and at this time, only Zhang Shenyan, an official who surrendered to the Ming Dynasty, was by his side.

Although Zhang Shenyan is a cabinet scholar, he did not participate in the affairs of the Ming military aircraft from the beginning, so he did not know the reality of the Ming Guards, but now that Duoduo asked, he naturally couldn't say that he didn't know, after all, he also knew that this was his opportunity to make meritorious contributions in front of Duoduo.

"Returning to the prince, although Weichen is only in the cabinet, he has not participated in the affairs of Chongzhen Zhu Youzhen's newly established Generalissimo Mansion and the Ministry of War, but he has also heard that Zhu Youzhen has trained hundreds of thousands of recruits since last year, which are collectively known as the Guards Army, the First Guards Army is stationed in Shandong, the Second Guards Army is stationed in Nanjing, and the Third Guards Army is stationed in Fengyang."

As soon as Zhang Shenyan finished speaking, Kong Youde, the obedient king, interrupted Zhang Shenyan's words: "But we have never encountered decent resistance near Fengyang Mansion, where is the Third Guards Army?" ”

"Dingyuan and Mengcheng have encountered elite Ming troops successively, and they are both with sharp firearms, so I see that the second and third armies of the guards may be the armies of these two places", Duoduo said, and then hurriedly asked Zhang Shenyan: "There are garrisons in Yangzhou!" ”

Zhang Shenyan naturally didn't know, but in order to take care of his previous words, he instinctively shook his head and said: "However, Zhu Youzhen trained soldiers in Yangzhou and Huai'an, and he often goes to this area. ”

"Zhu Youzhen wants to fight a decisive battle with this king in Yangzhou", Duoduo couldn't help laughing: "The road to the south is nothing more than taking Mengcheng through Luzhou and Dingyuan over Chuzhou and Yangzhou to Zhenjiang. Is it difficult for this Ming Emperor to really guess what this king is thinking, and guess so accurately! ”

Duoduo did also have the idea of going down to Yangzhou to fight Jiangnan, after all, the area from Yangzhou to Nanjing is the richest area in the south of the Ming Jiangnan, and entering Jiangnan from here is enough to cause Jiangnan to shake.

"Lord Wang, why do you say that, since Zhu Youzhen has successively deployed heavy troops in Mengcheng and Dingyuan, and Mr. Zhang just said that the First Guards Army is in Shandong, Yangzhou should be empty at this time!" Kong Youde couldn't help but say.

"Yes, at this time, Yangzhou's troops should be empty, what the king said is extremely reasonable, now Mengcheng and Dingyuan have heavy troops, and since his first army of the Guards is far away in Shandong, then if the king immediately accelerates the attack on Yangzhou City, as long as he can conquer Yangzhou before his army is assembled, and then go down the river, his Zhu Youzhen's Jiangbei defense line will collapse instantly, but if we now divert from Mengcheng or Dingyuan to force the city south, there will be one side of the heavy army to help the other, and the first army of the Guards will also go south to help, At that time, our army will inevitably fall into a heavy siege, rather than this, it is better to continue to speed up to Yangzhou, he Zhu Youzhen wants to block the king under the city of Yangzhou, no way! ”

Duoduo said loudly, and directly shouted: "Pass the order, after half an hour, the whole army will immediately follow lightly, except for the red-clothed cannons, all the people and grain, cloth and animals that have been plundered do not need to be brought, and immediately rush to the city of Yangzhou!" ”

Not long after Duoduo's order, nearly 100,000 Qing army iron horsemen immediately began to move, and immediately headed towards Yangzhou like a gust of wind.

……

The First, Second, and Third Armies of the Guards were also hurrying towards Yangzhou City at this time.

Duoduo naturally knew that once his army went to Yangzhou, under the reconnaissance of Jinyiwei and various spies, the Ming army of Mengcheng and Dingyuan would immediately set off to Yangzhou and fight him in a decisive battle under Yangzhou.

This is a conspiracy, and there is no ingenuity at all.

At this time, Zhu Youzhen, who also rushed back to Nanjing, also knew that with the wisdom of Duoduo, he should be able to realize that no matter where he went south, he would have to fight to the death with the main force of his Ming Guards, and Yangzhou was undoubtedly just the best choice for both sides in the current situation.

Duoduo hoped to take Yangzhou before the Guards army encircled it, so that he could reach the city of Nanjing with great momentum, so as to divide and attack the main force of the Ming Guards.

And Zhu Youzhen hoped that the Ming Guards could block Duoduo's offensive under Yangzhou City, and find an opportunity to completely annihilate Duoduo's headquarters.

After crossing the river, the Second Corps of the First Guards Army came directly to Hongxian and Lingbi. The First Corps of the Second Guards Army, under the leadership of Liu Zhaoji, had already rushed to Suqian, and the next stop was Huai'an.

In fact, the First Corps of the Third Army of the Guards began to assemble and rush to Yangzhou after the Battle of Mengcheng was over, and had arrived in Fengyang as soon as the front foot of the Duoduo Department arrived in Linhuai.

This has been explained above, Zhu Youzhen dared to do this, and he would definitely choose to gamble south from Yangzhou after Duoduo was frustrated in Mengcheng and Dingyuan.

The Second Corps of the Third Army of the Guards Army rushed to Lai'an immediately after the Battle of Dingyuan, and has now arrived in Liuhe.

The Second Corps of the Second Army of the Guards Army had already arrived in Jiangdu from Zhenjiang under the leadership of Qin Bangping, the brother of Qin Liangyu, the deputy commander-in-chief, and the First Corps had now left Nanjing City and was ready to be transported directly to Yangzhou City by Liu Kongzhao's navy.

A desperate struggle is destined to start under Yangzhou City, the money bag of the Ming Dynasty, but Yangzhou City at this time does not know that the war is approaching, and it is still singing and dancing.

Just as in the original history, the gentry and common people of Yangzhou City did not know that a nightmare massacre was imminent.

(End of chapter)