That night, Yang Zhen, who was in Zhenjiang Fort, was busy directing the soldiers guarding the city to clean the battlefield inside and outside, and was busy taking advantage of the truce between the Qing Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty to repair the collapsed city wall as soon as possible.

Therefore, he did not pay too much attention to the movements of the Qing army outside the city after their second siege failed.

He only knew that the river east of Zhenjiang Fort was very calm that night. The Qing captives outside the city did not use their heavy artillery that could hit the city or the cavalry that came and went like the wind to interfere with Yang Zhen's troops clearing the battlefield and repairing the city wall.

action.

Although Yang Zhen and several of his main generals felt a little strange about this, they were naturally happy that the Qing captives would not interfere with them.

After all, the Qing army's two consecutive days of strong attacks put great pressure on all the troops in the city.

Although the various troops under Yang Zhen's command did not suffer much loss, in the two battles before and after, the east and west cities combined, the condescending soldiers who defended the city, only killed a dozen and injured more than a hundred, and

Most of them were Korean soldiers.

However, the Qing Dynasty's shelling and siege also made all the soldiers and horses in the city highly nervous and exhausted. After the two consecutive days of offensive and defensive battles, everyone was exhausted physically and mentally.

However, no matter how hard we work, we can never leave the damaged city wall without repairing it, and ignore the corpses of men and horses on the ground both inside and outside the damaged city wall.

Therefore, the most tiring and arduous thing for the soldiers under Yang Zhen's command was not to ambush behind the city fortifications, fire cannons and throw flying generals at ten thousand enemies, but to clean up endlessly after the battle.

Battlefield and repair of city fortifications.

Because of this, it was not until the sun rose the next morning that the cleaning of the battlefield inside and outside the east wall of Zhenjiang Fort came to an end, and the section of the wall that collapsed the most was once again closed with Juma logs, filled with sandbags and poured with water to form ice.

Yang Zhen and his subordinates finally breathed a sigh of relief, gained more energy, and began to pay serious attention to the enemy situation outside the city.

The reason why we started to pay serious attention was because Yu Haichao, who was stationed at the northern section of the East Wall after yesterday's battle, sent someone to report to Yang Zhen last night, saying that he had vaguely heard the sound of artillery in the northeast.

Moreover, in the middle of the night yesterday, Yu Haichao's subordinates who were responsible for the night watch reported that they saw a group of people carrying torches running from the direction of Yiju Fucheng in the northeast, and finally disappeared in the wilderness on the east bank of the Yajiang River.

These inaccurate information were a bit irrelevant to Yang Zhen and his generals who were busy cleaning the battlefield and repairing the gaps in the city defense at that time, so they did not really try to figure it out.

However, after cleaning the battlefield and repairing the city defenses the next morning, they began to pay attention to the Qinglu outside the city again, only to find that at three o'clock in the morning, the Qinglu camp in the direction of Waihua Island was still quiet.

Usually at this time, the patrol horse team wearing Qinglu Zhenghuang Banner armor has already made countless trips back and forth on the ice on the east side of the main channel of the Yajiang River.

But today, although there was still smoke in the Qinglu camp, no scouting horses came out. Even the nine scrapped Tianyou Cheer General heavy artillery they left on the heavy artillery position on the ice yesterday were not dragged back by men and horses.

It was just thrown on the frozen river, and no one cared about it.

Yang Zhen never believed that the puppet emperor Huang Taiji of the Qing Dynasty, or the obedient king Kong Youde, or the Huaishun king Geng Zhongming, had been so generous, or that they had so many heavy artillery in their army that they would scrap them or temporarily unable to do so.

The heavy artillery used was discarded as scrap metal.

Of course the Qing Dynasty could smelt iron.

In particular, after Huang Taiji came to the throne, he changed the massacre and high-pressure policy of the Han people in Nuerhachihoujin, and began to use the Han craftsmen in their territory and captives to gradually restore many mining and metallurgical sites established in Liaodong Town in the Ming Dynasty.

It's just that the Qing captives were Qing captives after all. In terms of mining and smelting iron, they not only relied heavily on the Han craftsmen under the Eight Banners, but also were highly wary of these Han craftsmen.

And although on the surface they have converted to the Lama Yellow Sect, which is popular among tribes in the Eastern Mongolian grasslands, this is a strategy to win over the tribal leaders in the outer Fan grasslands. In fact, they still retain a strong Saman atmosphere, and various superstitions are prevalent.

Therefore, although there are many rich iron ore resources in the areas they control, the scale of their mining and smelting is less than one-tenth of that of Liaodong Town in the Ming Dynasty, and copper and iron cannot be self-sufficient at all.

This is why they have been traveling thousands of miles to purchase copper and iron artifacts at high prices from Zhangjiakou or Dushikou.

Of course, the copper and iron materials required by Yang Zhen's troops to make muskets, cast artillery, and produce various ordnance and ammunition materials will only be able to supply the current size of the army.

If Jinhai Town continues to expand its army or further expands the scale of the war, Yang Zhen will not be able to be completely self-sufficient with the current source of iron ore.

Therefore, Yang Zhen looked at the broken heavy artillery of General Tianyou that was "abandoned" on the ice of the Yajiang River by the Qing Dynasty army with great envy.

Although we know that they are all heavy artillery that have been scrapped and cannot be used, taking them back will still be an important strategic resource in the future.

Yang Zhen's heart was moved, and after thinking about it for a while, he began to feel that something was wrong in the Qinglu camp outside the city.

Thinking back to the so-called "enemy situation" that Yu Haichao sent to report to Qiu Zhenhai and himself twice in the first half of the night and the second half of the night yesterday, Yang Zhen seemed to realize something.

At noon that day, Yang Zhen ordered a "banquet" on the east gate of Zhenjiang Fort, that is, on the tower of Zhenjiang Gate, and summoned the main generals from the east and west lines of the city to have lunch and talk about things.

The lunch that Yang Zhen served as a "banquet" for the generals was horse meat that was cut into pieces and boiled over a high fire that had been returned to the city last night. There were no other condiments, only the sea salt produced in Jinhai Town was added, and it was marinated overnight.

It turned out to be soft and fragrant.

After yesterday's battle, the soldiers in the city will not be short of meat for at least half a month.

Because the siege troops sent out by the Qing rebels yesterday, except for the heavy artillery team, were all horse-armored troops.

Although more than 3,000 Qing captives were killed inside and outside the city, and not all of the war horses they were riding were left on the battlefield, there were still as many as 1,000 dead and wounded war horses that were taken back to the city.

More than 1,200 horses.

Of course, Yang Zhen hoped to get a living war horse that could still be ridden. After all, he also hoped that several firearms regiments and battalions under his command would one day be able to carry out rapid long-distance raids.

But if there is no one alive to ride, then he also needs the dead, as well as the injured horses that cannot be ridden.

After all, Zhenjiang Fort had been besieged for so long, and the Yajiang waterway was completely frozen, making it difficult to transport supplies from Jinhai Town. These dead and seriously injured horses could just make up for the shortage of meat in the city.

Moreover, now it is the severe cold winter when dripping water turns to ice, so Yang Zhen does not have to worry about the horse meat being divided and stored, which will spoil in a short period of time.

Therefore, last night, Yang Zhen ordered someone to go out of the city despite the risk, and cut up all the Qing Dynasty war horses that were lying dead or seriously injured lying on the river bank and under the city wall, and brought them back to the city.

"Although I didn't eat horse meat often before, it tastes really good when it's cooked properly!"

The main generals of the various regiments and camps who came to Zhenjiang Gate to attend the meeting came one after another to the city gate building where Yang Zhen stayed last night.

They sat down in order and ate the horse meat served in basins. They were all beaming and in a good mood.

According to Yang Zhen's arrangement, the soldiers and horses in the city repelled two strong attacks by the Qing army. The previous worries about the fall of the city in the hearts of the generals of each regiment and camp had long since disappeared.

Even Liulin, the former military governor of Ping'an Road and governor of Pyongyang, no longer feared the Qing army as before.

“It smells so good!”

At this time, his face was full of joy. Like other generals, he was sitting in the only remaining gate tower of Zhenjiang Castle. He held a piece of horse meat in his hand and ate it while he couldn't help but sigh. He had completely lost the previous attention to everything.

The so-called elegant demeanor of being gentle and gentle.

"Captain, from this morning till now, there has been no movement at the several camps of the Qing army outside the city. Even the patrol sent out every day to detect horses has not seen a single group today. It's really strange!"

When everyone arrived at the venue, they saw that Yang Zhen said nothing and served plates of stewed horse meat first, so they ate as much as they wanted until their stomachs were full, and then they began to talk.

Li Lu, who was the first to speak, immediately reported to Yang Zhen what he, the deputy general of the Central Army of the Eastern Expedition, knew about the situation.

Then when he opened his mouth, everyone else also put down the delicious food in their hands, and everyone talked about their guesses about the movements of the Qing army.

After all, what Li Lu just said has been heard by the generals stationed in the west city and east city. It is not a secret. They have been aware of it for a long time.

"Yes, Governor, the Qinglu were defeated twice in a row the day before yesterday, and there was suddenly no movement today. Could it be possible that they would just retreat in spite of the difficulties and withdraw their troops and run away? Hahahaha——"

"Withdraw troops and run away? Haha, you are thinking of a good thing. In my opinion, the Qing captives have lost two battles in a row. It is true that they are not good at attacking again. But if the Qing captives don't attack by force, it may not be a good thing for us.

Qinglu is holding back some bad news."

"It doesn't matter what evil they are holding back, we have the governor's clever calculations and if the command is determined, what can the Qing captives do to us? The most they can do is continue to encircle us without attacking, waiting for us to run out of food and grass, but our food and grass can still be

It will last for several months!”

"Exactly, after a few months, when the rivers thaw and the sea and waterways become unblocked, no matter how many troops and horses the Qing Dynasty has, they will not be able to really cut off our supply routes for food, grass and ammunition."

"Yes, when the river thaws in the future, let's do what the governor is doing now. If the Qinglu army tries to fight, it won't be able to defeat it. If it tries to encircle it, it won't be able to encircle it. At that time, it will be the time for the Qinglu troops to really withdraw.

Got it!"

For a time, An Yingchang, Qiu Zhenhai, Yang Shen, Zhang Chen, Liu Lin and others all followed Li Lu's words and expressed their views on the Qing captives' movements and the future war situation.
Chapter completed!