To the west of Yangzhou City, thousands of people were digging ditches under the threat of the Qing soldiers' butcher's knives.
The ditches, several feet wide and half a foot deep, gradually extended toward the bottom of Yangzhou City.
It only took a hundred or so steps to reach the moat.
Cut off the connection between the moat and the canal, turning it into a pool of stagnant water, and then divert the water in the moat through ditches, and then fill it with soil until it reaches the bottom of Yangzhou City.
The moat, which is several feet wide and has rippling blue waves, is a natural barrier for attacking Yangzhou City.
This fact was well known to the commanders of both Ming and Qing Dynasties.
Therefore, Chen Yue deployed heavy troops between the moat and the city wall outside the city.
Each stone bridge outside the city gate was guarded by a battalion of troops, echoing the defenders on the city wall.
However, when the Qing soldiers forced the people to dig ditches, the defenders were helpless.
With too few troops, the Ming army was unable to rush out to rescue the people and stop digging the ditch.
They could only watch the ditch getting closer and closer to the moat step by step.
The artillery on the city could fire at the people digging ditches, but for some reason the Ming army commander delayed giving the order.
The artillery on the city only aimed at the Qing army's artillery array.
The woman Ren Duoduo scorned this behavior of the Yangzhou defenders.
She was just afraid of hurting the people's names, so she allowed the ditch to force the city moat.
This defender general was nothing more than a pedantic man.
He didn't even have mercy to command troops.
They don't understand how such an enemy can be worthy of being his opponent, Pingnan Marquis Chen Yue, who is more than worthy of his name.
However, this Ming army commander whom Duduo looked down upon gave him a big slap in the face today, making him dizzy and his face was burning, and his heart was filled with endless anger.
"Speak clearly."
Duduo tried his best to stand upright and stared angrily at the Eight Banners sentry who reported the news.
According to custom, the Eight Banners soldiers would send out numerous cavalry sentries every day to explore nearby movements, check the possible movements of the enemy, and at least control any disturbance within a radius of dozens of miles.
Today, when the cavalry on a routine sentry trip to the south reached thirty miles south of Yangzhou, they discovered the Outer Mongolian cavalry trapped in a tight siege and rushed to report the message.
In order to annihilate this Ming cavalry with only a thousand men, Duduo did not hesitate to send more than 3,000 Outer Mongolian cavalry.
In addition, there were thousands of green camp soldiers collecting food along the way.
He thought that he could easily trap and kill this Ming cavalry, but he did not Thinking that our own cavalry was trapped by the Ming army.
Duduo didn't think much, and quickly sent the cavalry from the guard army commander Ashan and Gushan Ezhentu Lai to quickly reinforce the cavalry and make sure to rescue the besieged Nikan tribe.
However, not long after, bad news came.
When Ah Shan and Tu Lai rushed to the battlefield with their troops, all they saw were headless corpses everywhere and the remnants of the war that had not yet been extinguished.
All three thousand cavalrymen were killed by the Ming army and their heads were cut off and taken away.
The blood of the Qing cavalry stained the canal banks red.
The three thousand cavalrymen did not care, because they were all levied servants of Outer Mongolia, not the full force of the Eight Banners.
But the killing of Nikan Yild and other Eight Banners generals made Duduo heartbroken.
Nikan was his nephew and a descendant of Aisin Gioro, and Yild and other generals who led the army were also brave generals in Manchuria.
If you think about it carefully, from Sizhou to now, more than 5,000 Eight Banners and Mongolian cavalry have died at the hands of the Pingnan Army.
The Manchu, Han and Mongolian Eight Banners who followed Duduo south to defeat the Ming Dynasty add up to more than 40,000 and less than 50,000.
People, now that Yangzhou has not been captured, the loss has been as high as 20%.
This gave Duduo a sense of fear deep in his heart, followed by endless anger.
At present, there are more than 100,000 Qing troops outside Yangzhou City.
Most of them are newly surrendered Ming Army Green Camp troops.
The Eight Banners Soldiers will definitely lose their prestige among the Green Camp troops if they lose consecutive battles.
Relying on their invincible combat power, the Green Camp soldiers were obedient, but now that three thousand cavalry were wiped out in one fell swoop, the Green Camp generals would have strange thoughts in their minds.
These green camp soldiers now simply cannot tell the difference between the Mongolian cavalry and the Eight Banners soldiers, so measures must be taken as soon as possible to reverse this situation and re-establish the invincible image of the Eight Banners soldiers.
At present, the Ming army is huddled in the city, but there are several battalions of troops stationed in the moat outside the city.
Duduo originally wanted to wait for the trenches to be dug to divert the water from the moat before these Ming army operations were carried out, but now it seems that they cannot wait for that moment. .
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And early the next morning, when a subordinate came to report that the Ming army actually hung the heads of the captured Qing soldiers on the city wall with ropes, a surge of anger rushed straight to Duduo's forehead, and he could no longer care about the gains and losses of the battle.
The fallen soldiers were humiliated by the Ming army after their deaths.
The heads of Nikan and others were hung under the west city tower.
How could Duduo endure such humiliation any longer?
I must invade Yangzhou and kill all the soldiers and civilians in the city, leaving no chickens or dogs behind.
Duduo ordered that Gushan'er Zhenyibaitu be the main general, Mele Zhangjing Li Litai be the deputy, and lead 3,000 people from the 5,000 green battalion of 3,800 banners to launch an attack on Yangzhou.
Their mission was to annihilate the Ming army deployed outside the west gate and seize the stone bridge at the west gate.
First drive the Ming army into the city, and then calmly deal with the moat and city walls.
This is Duduo's plan.
Although he was extremely angry inside, he did not lose his mind.
Naturally, the five thousand green battalion soldiers at the front were used as cannon fodder to attract the artillery fire of the Ming army at the top of the city.
However, under the supervision of the Eight Banners soldiers behind them, although there were heavy casualties, no one dared to turn around and escape.
When the Qing army was three miles away from the city wall, dozens of Franco machine guns in the West City began to fire.
The shells fell into the Qing army's ranks from time to time.
From time to time, Qing soldiers were hit by the shells and fell to the ground without a word.
However, for the eight thousand For a huge queue of people, it is like a few waves in the sea, disappearing without a trace in an instant.
The artillery attack seemed to shake the earth, but in fact it was more frightening.
In this age of solid bullets, the real casualties were not too many.
The artillery of the Qing army was also firing fiercely at the city head, and the city walls of Yangzhou were crumbling under the bombardment of the red cannons.
When one mile away from the city wall, the Tiger Crouching Cannon at the top of the city began to fire.
This shot of more than a hundred projectiles was more powerful for defense than the French cannon.
However, the Qing army and the Ming army fought countless battles, so they naturally knew how to take precautions.
The soldier at the front of the queue held a scull shield covered with thick cowhide.
Most of the projectiles of the Tiger Crouching Cannon were blocked by the scull shield.
Even if it could penetrate the scull shield, the damage to the soldiers behind would be greatly reduced.
Under the protection of the oars and shields, the Qing army continued to approach the west gate.
When they walked a hundred steps away from the city wall, the firecrackers and crossbows at the top of the city were still firing.
Thousands of firecrackers had already been mobilized on the west wall, aiming at them through the crenellations.
Shooting started below, and the barrage of arrows enveloped the entire Qing army.
The Qing army's casualties suddenly increased a lot.
At the same time, the Eight Banners archers also approached the moat.
They aimed their bows and arrows at the city and began to fight back.
The arrows rained down on the city, causing heavy casualties to the Ming army at the city
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