In the early morning of the second day, the entire north and south banks of the Huai River section of Fengyang City were shrouded in thick fog, and although the sky did not rain, it gave people a wet feeling.

On the north bank of the Huai River, outside the Qing army camp, dozens of Baoyi were pushing carts to pull the Han people who had been beaten to death by exhaustion and death to bury them in the newly dug pits.

These people were taken captive from the north by the Qing army, and they were already short of food and clothing, and they were subjected to extremely heavy labor, and they were often beaten by the overseers. In just over a month, more than half of the 20,000 or 30,000 people who were taken captive have died.

In the thick white mist, on the official road that winds north from the Qing army camp, more than a dozen wheelbarrows are being pushed by groups of clothed soldiers, and more than 20 sleek corpses are placed on the carts.

Although people are dead, the only two thin pieces of clothing left on their bodies are of great value to those who are still alive.

On the north bank of the Huai River, all around are white, villages and farmlands appear in front of you from time to time, but there is no breath of life and cultivation among them, a few clothed soldiers stopped the car, and then struggled to lift it, and the corpse on it fell into the deep pit that had been dug long ago.

At the same time, on the field on the north bank of the Huai River, there were bursts of horses' hooves from time to time, and the clanging sound of the armor leaves rubbing and colliding on the soldiers' bodies.

After more than half a month of reconnaissance and fighting, the Qing army has killed and wounded nearly 100 sentinels, and now it has roughly figured out the situation of the Ming army on the opposite side - except for the south bank of the Huai River, several villages near the river are each stationed in hundreds of Ming troops, and the rest of the places are defenseless, but the city defense of Fengyang City is very solid.

Early this morning, under the order of Duoduo, groups of Qing cavalry of more than a dozen people began to cross the river in batches on newly built boats and boats, and secretly landed on the north bank of the Huai River as a vanguard to meet the large number of soldiers and horses of the Qing army who were about to cross the river.

Of course, at this time, these Qing cavalry did not dare to rashly attack the Ming army in the nearby villages. As the vanguard of the army, all actions are naturally in the service of a specific strategic goal. The matter of a hammer in the east and a stick in the west, the Eight Banners soldiers with extremely strict military discipline will naturally not do it.

Xue Lao Er is now in a village closest to the Huai River, and he has secretly entered the front line last night, on the one hand, to check the deployment and preparation of the army, and on the other hand, to better grasp the movements of the Qing army.

The Ming army currently has a strategic advantage over the Qing army, and the initiative on the battlefield is still in the hands of Zhou Shixian to a certain extent, so Duoduo will wait for the arrival of foggy weather, so as to surprise and cross the river with minimal losses.

Of course, if it suddenly rained heavily, neither Zhou Shixian nor Duoduo could drive the army to continue to act, and their firearms and armor determined that it was impossible for the soldiers to fight in the rain.

Xue Lao Er looked at the vast fog in front of him, and was about to walk down the watchtower at the head of the village, but he vaguely heard something, and suddenly stopped in place and looked out.

Duoduo rode his horse on the embankment on the bank of the Huai River, looking at the Ming army camp behind the slow white fog, his eyes were still white, and he didn't see the Tang Ma Lai report, and he couldn't help but feel a little anxious.

In the past month or so, the Ming army in the south has indeed given him too many "surprises", and he even has some doubts that the opponent's combat strength is not inferior to the Shun army in Shaanxi.

However, this was not enough to make Dodor afraid. After all, it is the Shun army, and it is not the opponent of the Eight Banners of the Qing Dynasty, not to mention the Ming army on the opposite side, which is actually capable of fighting soldiers and horses, and there are not as many troops under his command.

Duoduo had already roughly figured out Zhou Shixian's troops, but he regarded Zhou Shixian's 25,000 army as an imaginary number, and only counted thirty percent of the soldiers and horses.

Of course, this is not Duoduo's underestimation of the enemy, but his cautious performance, after all, if it is calculated according to thirty percent, the hundreds of thousands of Ming troops on the other side of the river can have forty or fifty thousand elites.

In fact, excluding Zhou Shixian's unexpected army and the seven or eight thousand soldiers he replenished the weapons, money, and food for the armies half a year ago, and the seven or eight thousand soldiers who were trained in an emergency, the so-called elite of the Ming army was no more than 10,000.

Just thinking about this, two Qing army Tang horses suddenly galloped from the west, and after seeing Duoduo's banner of the Chinese army, they quickly dismounted and ran to Tunqi on the side, and then handed the Tang newspaper to Tunqi.

Tun Qi took the military report sent by Tangma, opened it and looked at it, and immediately showed a happy smile on his face, and the heart that was originally hanging was finally let go, and it was immediately given to Duoduo.

When Duoduo saw it, he was also overjoyed, and immediately ordered: "Order Nikan, Malashi, and Ahsan, immediately lead the army across the river, and let these Nikans see what Manchurian cavalry is!" ”

Duoduo had already arranged his troops and horses a few days ago, but he had been waiting for the opportunity. If the smuggling is discovered by the Ming army too early, it must be a difficult landing battle, which is not the result that Duoduo wants to see, and the Ming army on the opposite side has already proved their strength.

Although he despised the Ming army, he was still careful when the other party showed his strength. After all, there were too few Manchurian soldiers, and once there were heavy casualties, it was possible to shake the country's foundation.

So this time, in addition to the vanguard at the beginning and the 2,000 soldiers and horses who landed first and stabilized the position, Duoduo sent over first, first 20,000 green battalion soldiers, and then 10,000 soldiers and horses of Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming.

This is the regular way of playing after the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the Central Plains, incorporated a large number of Ming troops, and formed the Green Battalion. Most of the time, the Eight Banners took advantage of the defeat of the Ming army and the Green Battalion soldiers, looking for fighters and achieving victory at a very small cost.

Victory after victory, coupled with the hard propaganda of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, over time, there is naturally a myth of the invincibility of the Manchu Eight Banners, which is the importance of propaganda.

Duoduo won the Battle of Tongguan at a very small cost, and had already overpowered Azig. Dolgon, on the other hand, seemed to be intent on suppressing Azig and ordered the other party to pursue Li Zicheng. Naturally, Dorgon understood this, and he also knew that he had to make greater contributions, otherwise after Azig, Dorgon would inevitably attack him in order to consolidate his power.

The Manchu and Han generals who received the order, such as Dorobelenikan, Kong Youde, and Geng Zhongming, immediately began to organize their ranks, and clarified the order of the attack, the direction and the tasks of each department from top to bottom.

Kong Youde rode on a war horse, wearing a silver-white iron armor with a cotton armor inside, unless it was a firearm and a long axe, or an armor-piercing cone and other sharp weapons, denying that there were no other attacks that could hurt him.

After the first battle outside Huai'an, Kong Youde has been thinking about revenge, and now he has finally waited for the opportunity, which makes him a little excited. In his opinion, as long as the Manchurian troops were dispatched, these Ming troops would inevitably collapse at the first touch, and the defeat would be like a mountain, which was beyond doubt.

Kong Youde ordered his cronies to recheck the preparations of his soldiers and horses, and after confirming that there were no problems, he immediately looked south.

At the same time, on the side of the Ming army, the two battalion officers of Sun Hu and Wu Xingye had already led their troops and horses into the front line of the battlefield on the south bank of the Huai River, and under the cover of the fog and village buildings, they also unknowingly entered the preset ambush circle, and they would serve as the vanguard of Zhou Shixian to meet the Qing army.

Strictly speaking, this is the first time that the Manchu Eight Banners have faced off against Zhou Shixian's new army on the frontal battlefield, and Zhou Shixian's apprehension in his heart is inevitable, but he is more confident, and he is looking forward to seeing how much impact this army that has condensed all his efforts will have on the Qing army.

After the striker arrived at the designated position, Zhou Shixian immediately ordered Zhang Hong, Li Daxi, Zheng Hu and other officers to start moving on the city wall, making the appearance of just reacting, and began to assemble out of the city.

Zhou Shixian needed these movements to lure the Qing army to attack.

For this day, Zhou Shixian and his generals waited for more than a month, and could only watch the Qing army burn and loot in the north, but they could not make the slightest move.

Zhang Hong, Li Daxi, Zheng Hu and others quickly led three battalions of soldiers and horses out of the city in an orderly manner, the cavalry opened the way, and the infantry soldiers followed.

Zhang Hong knew that everything was expected by the horse, the Qing army really wanted to take advantage of the fog to raid, and now it was simply in the trap of the horse, this time he must make a great contribution to repay the horse's kindness.

Wu Xingye, who led the cavalry on both flanks of the "Jinwu Camp", soon heard the sound of dense horses' hooves, at least tens of thousands of horses' hooves knocking on the ground at the same time. In other words, in the case of one person and two horses, this must have at least 3,000 Qing cavalry!

Although he could not see the situation of the Qing army clearly, he relied on his years of battlefield experience and judged the approximate distance of the Qing army based on the sound of horses' hooves from far and near.

As time passed, the fog had gradually dissipated, and the more than 2,000 musketeers under Sun Hu's command, as well as the more than 300 artillery soldiers assigned to him by Zhou Shixian, were also ready.

In order to give the Qing army a fatal blow, Zhou Shixian transferred ten four-pounder cannons and thirty tiger squat cannons to Sun Hu, with the expensive flintlock pistol bought by John Tang, it was such a cloudy day, as long as half of these weapons were effective, the lethality was also amazing.

In order to avoid the suspicion of the Qing army, Zhang Hong also sent hundreds of cavalry to the front to contain and block, but was soon repelled by the Qing army's brigade, and after leaving more than 30 corpses, he could only return in embarrassment.

Thousands of cavalry galloped at the same time, the ears of the soldiers of the two armies were earth-shattering horses' hooves, even the earth was also trembling, soon, a Qing cavalry, wearing double armor, holding a heavy axe, one person and two horses through the dense fog, and dozens of the same cavalry appeared behind him, quickly piercing out of the dense fog, unstoppable.