Just when Zhao Guodong was happy to have the cannon ship arrived in Yangzhou, in the city tower on Anjiangmen, the south gate of Yangzhou City, Hong Chengchou, the governor of the six southern provinces of the Qing Dynasty, brought some generals to watch the sparks on the canal.

Yangzhou was originally called Guangling, and Guangling City was built by Chu during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Guangling is the birthplace of today's Yangzhou. During the Western Han Dynasty, Liu Bang appointed his nephew Liu Bi as the King of Wu and Guangling was the capital. During the Three Kingdoms, the wars in Wei and Wu were in chaos, and Guangling became a military important military location in the Jianghuai area. During the Northern Zhou Dynasty, Guangling was renamed Wuzhou. The Sui Dynasty unified China, and Emperor Wen of Sui changed Wuzhou to Yangzhou, and the title of Yangzhou was fixed.

The current Yangzhou city wall was first built in the Tang Dynasty. The previous city wall no longer existed after wars in previous dynasties. The Yangzhou city in the Tang Dynasty included a square Zicheng and a rectangular Luocheng, with an area of ​​about 20 square kilometers. There were two cities in Yangzhou in the Tang Dynasty, which were the result of economic development. In the early Tang Dynasty, there was only Zicheng, also known as Yacheng, and most of the government offices were concentrated in this city. Luocheng was built in the fourth year of the Tang Dynasty. Chen Shaoyou, the governor of Huainan, ordered it to be built, and the area was about four times that of Zicheng. The main residents in Luocheng were developed commercial areas and residential areas. In the water transportation network centered on Chang'an, Yangzhou always played a hub role. The transportation of food, grass, salt, money and iron in the Tang Dynasty had to pass through Yangzhou. Many merchants from all over the country lived in the city and engaged in trade, making Yangzhou city industry and commerce developed, and "rich the world" between the Jianghuai River. Yangzhou has since become the largest metropolis in southeast China.

At the beginning of the Song Dynasty, Yangzhou was located in a key area of ​​grain transportation and the nationwide wars stopped, Yangzhou once again became the economic and cultural center in southeast China, which was comparable to the importance of the capital of Bianliang of the Song Dynasty. It is recorded that Yangzhou's commercial taxation year was about 80,000 yuan, ranking first in the country. In the early Southern Song Dynasty, Emperor Gaozong of Song Dynasty, Zhao Gou fled south under the Jin army. Before officially taking Lin'an as the capital, he used Yangzhou as his first year. This move also promoted the prosperity of Yangzhou. For more than a hundred years, Yangzhou was always the front line of the Southern Song Dynasty's anti-Jin and Yuan Dynasty.

In the early Ming Dynasty, after a long confrontation between the Song and Jin dynasties, the brutal rule of the Yuan Dynasty and the warlord separatist at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, there were many people who died in war and displaced, and the city was very depressed. Zhang Delin, the marshal of the Ming army, believed that the original city was empty and difficult to defend, so he decided to use the southwest corner of the Song Dynasty to rebuild it, so he had a "old city".

After the middle of the Ming Dynasty, Yangzhou was surrounded by the river and sea, with convenient transportation and prosperous economy. It was also the location of the Lianghuai Capital Transportation Commission established by the Ming Dynasty. It was responsible for the national salt course collection and grain transportation in the north. Therefore, it became one of the most frequent areas of harassment and looting of Japanese pirates. The production and life of the city were greatly affected. In order to prevent Japanese and anti-Japanese war, the prefect Wu Guifang built a city in the east of the city, which was a new city. Defense of Japanese and anti-Japanese war was the direct reason for building a new city, but the old city was too small, resulting in a large number of foreign populations who came to Yang to do business and make a living living outside the city, which was also an inevitable requirement and urgent need for building a new city. After the new city was built, Yangzhou City formed a pattern of two cities connected, like one city outside and two cities inside.

Because the city building technology in the Ming Dynasty is far superior to that in the Tang and Song dynasties, Yangzhou City is called the world's strongest city. The thickest part of the city wall is thirty feet thick. The outer layer of the city wall is made of bluestone. The rammed earth is mixed with glutinous rice juice to tamp it. After hundreds of years of baptism, the Yangzhou city wall is stronger than the concrete of later generations. The solidity of the ancient city wall can be referred to the later Anti-Japanese War. On November 7, 1937, the Japanese army wanted to break through Tongguan and open up the passage to Xi'an westward, but until the Japanese surrender on August 15, 1945, Tongguan was not broken by the Japanese army. This shows the construction technology of ancient Chinese city walls.

In the north of the city of Ming Dynasty, there were Beijing, Taiyuan, Xi'an, Luoyang, Yangzhou, and Jinan. On the contrary, the south was not very strong except for Wuchang and Nanjing's outer walls. However, the inheritances left by Zhu Yuanzhang did not play their due role. Beijing did not fight at all, and directly opened the city to surrender. Yangzhou Shi Kefa only fought for one day, and Wuchang also persisted for one day, and Nanjing opened the city to surrender like Beijing. On the contrary, Jiangyin and Jiading, without a strong city, were all dealing with the Qing army to the end. I wonder if Zhu Yuanzhang knew that the solid city wall he left for his children and grandchildren had become the stronghold of the Tartars outside the pass. Could Zhu Yuanzhang be angry and resurrected from the Xiaoling Mausoleum?

When Hong Chengchou was in Nanjing, he looked at the Ming army in Guangdong with the combat power of other Ming troops. He thought that the Ming army would collapse when he saw the Qing army's battle flag, but he didn't know that he suffered a great loss outside Nanjing. After fleeing to Yangzhou, Hong Chengchou summarized his experience and found that no matter how tricks he used in the wild, he could not deal with the turtle formation of the Guangdong New Army. He could only rely on the city wall to fight the attrition war with the Ming army. According to the Ming army's full firearm unit, the consumption must be very large, and as long as he had enough food and grass, he would definitely be able to drag the Ming army to death.

Hong Chengchou's strategy was very useful. Because of Duodou's massacre in Yangzhou, there were only less than a thousand people left in the city. In recent years, after the Qing government immigrated, the people around him moved to Yangzhou, which restored some popularity, but there were less than 100,000 people, which was much worse than the previous ones.

However, because the city of Yangzhou was small, the food and grass were not consumed so much. After fleeing to Yangzhou, Hong Chengchou immediately ordered the last batch of grain to be intercepted for the purpose of defending the city. Then he strengthened the walls and cleared the fields outside Yangzhou City, and did not leave any useful things for the Ming army, which made Zhao Guodong now transported all grain from the south through the canal.

While preparing, Hong Chengchou also ordered Zu Zerun to be stationed in Huai'an to 10,000 Han army flags stationed in Huai'an. Zu Zerun is the eldest son of Zu Dashou, a member of the Zhenghuang Banner of the Han army, and a first-class viscount. Zu Zerun's 10,000 people were garrison troops staying in Huai'an to ensure the safety of grain. Not many of them are now occupied by Nanzhili, and the grain has been broken. These 10,000 elite troops were transferred to Yangzhou to defend the city. In addition to these, there were Henan general Zhu Shichang, Shandong deputy general Wang Shixuan and other generals, who pieced together a total of 60,000 to 70,000 people. Hong Chengchou was preparing to use these tens of thousands to resist the Ming army from the south.

As soon as the battle started, the Qing generals thought that Yangzhou City could not be defended, and the Ming army's artillery fire was fierce, and Yangzhou must fall. However, Hong Chengchou used his harsh means to suppress all the generals and persevered in the first attack of the Ming army. The Qing army relied on the heavy city walls to kill and injure the Ming army.

But good luck came to the end with the arrival of the Ming army's new cannon. Hong Chengchou stood on the city wall and saw the ships like a dragon on the canal outside the city, and knew that the Ming army's reinforcements were coming. Zhao Guodong has worked hard for more than a month, but Hong Chengchou has worked hard to defend. Although the Ming army's artillery fire has no choice but to the Qing army guarding the city on the city wall, he is not polite to the small projectiles that can hit a piece of Qing army every time they shoot. Solid artillery shells hit the battlements, arousing

The gravel is no less powerful than the musket. In addition, the soldiers of the Ming army are very physically strong. In hand-to-hand combat, two to three Qing soldiers are often needed to compete with one Ming army soldier. Hong Chengchou has seen the bodies of the dead soldiers of the Ming army. The strong muscles are not comparable to the thin Qing army. Hong Chengchou feels that the Ming army outside the city must be Zhu Hongsan's elite. Not to mention the Han army flag, such soldiers can also have the power to fight.

The generals under Hong Chengchou also fought for more than a month and were exhausted. Now that they saw the Ming reinforcements coming, they knew that tomorrow would be a fierce battle.

As Hong Chengchou's confidant, Ma Degong said: "Governor General, the reinforcements of the Ming army are coming, what should we do?"

Hong Chengchou sighed and said, "Tomorrow will be a fierce battle. You can arrange it and let the soldiers take turns to rest and prepare for the battle tomorrow!"

Ma Degong did not mean that. He looked around and saw that there was no one else except his own personal soldiers. All other Han army flag generals were far away. Ma Degong asked in a low voice: "Sir, we have been guarding Yangzhou for more than a month with 60,000 or 70,000 people, which is worthy of the Regent. Prince Ying's 170,000 troops did not persist for a day outside Nanchang City. I think we should withdraw?"

Hong Chengchou looked at the surroundings and whispered to Ma Degong: "You go down and prepare and transfer our troops to Huaimen, Beicheng Town. If it really doesn't work, we will leave the city and retreat to Jinan!"

The entire Huaiyang area army has been drained by Hong Chengchou. Once Yangzhou City has fallen south of the Yellow River, there will be no Qing army, and they can only retreat to Shandong.

Ma Degong listened to Hong Chengchou's arrangements and nodded to lead the people down to make arrangements.

Zhao Guodong outside the city was very happy. The cannons that had been waiting for the flowers to fade finally arrived. However, what he said was a nonsense to siege tonight. It took several hours to unload the 3,000-pound cannon, and also to choose a shooting position and build fortifications. That would be the only way to attack the city tonight. So on New Year's Eve, the long-lost quiet outside Yangzhou City ushered in, and everyone in the city was preparing for the next day's battle.

The Ming army outside the city fought at night and finally unloaded fifty cannons from the ship at dawn and began to build positions five miles outside the south gate of Yangzhou.

After dawn, Hong Chengchou came up to the city wall again and saw the Ming army's cannons outside as if dead. It was dark last night, and he only saw reinforcements coming from the Ming army, but he didn't know what was transported. Today dawn saw clearly that the reinforcements were heavy artillery.

When Hong Chengchou saw the powerful worker pushing the cannon truck hard, and the ruts of the cannon truck pressed on the frozen ground, he knew that these cannons were not simple, and each one was afraid that they would weigh less than 5,000 kilograms. In the past, Hong Chengchou bullied Zhao Guodong without heavy artillery, but now people have heavy artillery, how can they fire?

Zu Zerun was born in the Liaodong Iron Cavalry and had never obeyed other Ming troops except the Eight Banners of the Qing Dynasty. Now seeing that the Ming army is all focused on the cannons, he stepped forward and said, "Governor General, why not take thousands of people down to fight, and you may be able to destroy these cannons while the Ming army is not prepared!"

Zu Zerun had never fought field battles with the Guangdong New Army and was very ambitious, but Hong Chengchou was different. He had suffered the loss of field battles of the Ming Army. Now, he heard that Zu Zerun was not aware of the world and said quickly: "No, no one is allowed to go down to the city. You don't know how powerful the Ming Army's muskets are!"
Chapter completed!