Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 887 Touring the Stone Village
Not long after Shizhai was taken down, it has not been cleaned up yet. The corpses and bloodstains scattered around the village are shocking, but Chen Bangyan heard that Shizhai was taken down, but he couldn't wait, so he called Liu Shun and others to enter Shizhai.

Chen Bangyan is not an official who has never seen the world. He has become accustomed to this kind of bloody scene. Back then, there was a mountain of corpses guarding Guangzhou, so he didn't have any timidity.

At this time, he was walking peacefully in the stone village, surrounded by gunpowder smoke. Many houses in the village were lit by the flames of war, and they were "crackling" burning. , Discarded weapons can be seen everywhere.

A group of people came to the center of Shizhai. The ground was covered with blood, and there were countless corpses of Qing soldiers lying on their stomachs.

Zhang Youde, who was directing the cleaning of the corpses, saw a group of people coming, wiped the blood on his body with his hands, and immediately greeted him, clasping his fists with a bright face, "Gebu, Duzhen, the last general is lucky, take this stone village down."

Seeing that he was proud, Liu Shun patted him on the shoulder, his face was full of approval, Chen Bangyan smiled, "I heard that Commander Zhang even killed the full forehead concubine Huisai?"

Zhang Youde touched his forehead, "That guy wanted to escape, but the last general grabbed his pigtail and chopped him off with a single knife."

In fact, Chen Bangyan hoped to capture Huisai alive and learn about the situation in Yangzhou City through him, but since he was killed, that's fine.

Chen Bangyan nodded slightly, and said as he walked: "You have made a great contribution, and this pavilion will ask His Highness for your contribution."

Zhang Youde grinned overjoyed when he heard this, and hurriedly saluted to thank him. Chen Bangyan waved his hand, and then said to the people behind him: "The stone village has been laid down, and the red cannons must be brought up immediately to bombard the west city and make preparations for the siege. "

Chen Yujie, who was following behind, hastily stepped forward, "The lower officials have already made arrangements!"

Chen Yujie is the nephew of Xu Guangqi and Xu Ge, the chief instructor of the artillery team of the Ming army. He directed many artillery battles. When Wang Yan was guarding Yangzhou, he shot at the Tupo in the west city. command.

It was precisely because he had commanded the artillery battle in Yangzhou that Wang Yan sent him to Yangzhou to command the artillery team of the Ming army.

As they spoke, the crowd had already reached the east wall of Shizhai, Zhang Youde immediately stepped forward and led the crowd up to watch the west city of Yangzhou together.

At this time, the Qing army on the top of the city was preparing fortifications, and Shizhai was condescending, so you could have a clear view of the defense of the west city.

Chen Bangyan looked at the top of the city with his naked eyes first, and saw countless figures swaying above and below the city, so he stretched out his hand backwards. Zhang Youde understood, and took out the binoculars inserted in his waist, but saw that it was full of blood, so he hurriedly clamped them He wiped his underarms and handed it to Chen Bangyan.

Looking at the top of the city with a telescope, the Qing army is urging the civilians to put bags of sandbags on the top of the city, strengthen the city wall, and pile up artillery emplacements. It seems that fortifications are also being built in the city.

Chen Bangyan moved the circular vision to the city, and saw that the Qing army used sandbags to build parapets at the intersection of the streets. He smiled and handed the binoculars to Liu Shun, "Duoduo is going to die with us in Yangzhou." Fight!"

Liu Shun took a binoculars to observe for a while, then put it down but sneered: "Don't worry about the cabinet, Duoduo wants to die, but the people in the city may not all be willing to follow him to die."

Zhang Huangyan, who was standing on the side, also said: "The people guarding Shizhai are mostly the elite of the Qing army in Yangzhou, consisting of more than a thousand banner men and many coats. Duoduo wants to rely on this elite team to guard Shizhai. As long as we attack No less, the morale in the city will naturally rise, but once we capture, the defenders of Yangzhou will be discouraged, it's like a confrontation between two long spears, we can easily break through the wooden gun barrel by cutting off his hardest spear head."

Chen Bangyan agrees with Zhang Huangyan's analysis very much, he can't help turning half of his body, and listened to him continue, "Duoduo defends Shizhai with elites, and the elites are undefeated. Naturally, other troops will not have other thoughts, but now that the elites are defeated, I think People in Yangzhou City are already in turmoil, as long as we can break into the city, if the battle situation is even slightly unfavorable, the Qing army in the city will surely collapse or surrender."

Many generals and officials in the Ming army obviously shared this opinion.

Chen Bangyan nodded thoughtfully, "Jian Zhang is right. Now Yangzhou must be in turmoil. This pavilion cannot give Duoduo time to calm down the army. We must put pressure on Yangzhou immediately."

As he spoke, Chen Bangyan pondered for a moment, "The bombardment must be in place quickly, destroying the fortifications of the Qing army in the west city as soon as possible, and then staying through the night, and then shooting some letters of persuasion into the city to disturb the morale of the army in the city. Finally, the speed of digging ditches must be accelerated. Fortunately, the moat will be connected in two days!"

After hearing this, everyone knew that the time to capture Yangzhou was coming, and they were all very excited. They all bowed in unison, expressing their obedience to the commander's order.

Chen Bangyan raised his hand to tell them not to be too polite, and then turned around, "Whoever you have a task, do it right away. You have to work harder. After Yangzhou is captured, this pavilion will serve you a wine to celebrate."

Among the group of people, Chen Yujie and others heard this, hurriedly bowed, took a few steps back, then hurriedly turned and ran down the wall of the village.

After everyone who had something to do left, Chen Bangyan stared at the city wall for a while, took a deep breath, and walked down, saying, "Go! Go see how the navy is preparing?"

Although there are still more than 4 Qing troops in Yangzhou City, although there are many people, they are all miscellaneous names, either green battalion soldiers full of fresh recruits, or veterans left over from the four towns in Jiangbei.

Most of the newly recruited green battalion soldiers were strong men captured by the Manchu Qing, or refugees and bandits who came from Zhao'an. They had the same characteristics as the old soldiers left by the four towns, that is, they were good at fighting against the wind, but not against the wind.

The army in the city is inferior to the Ming army in terms of training and equipment. Only a few bannermen and coats in the city, and some old soldiers from the four towns are able to fight. But because of their old age, these soldiers are very capable. Fighting, but they all become slickers in the army, which is beneficial. When the battle situation is favorable, these veterans will fight bravely and have astonishing combat power. But if the situation is not right, they must be the first to run.The war between the Ming and Qing Dynasties has been fought for so many years, they are not clever, they will not survive now.

Chen Bangyan agreed with Zhang Huangyan's analysis, and coupled with his own opinion, after the fall of Shizhai, he was no longer optimistic about the Qing army in Yangzhou.

This is not only because he has seen the weakness of the Qing army, but also because the Ming army has made sufficient preparations for the siege. From the siege of the city in August to the middle of October, the Ming army has besieged Yangzhou for nearly two months. Ready for the general attack.

The Han people have been good at attacking cities since ancient times. The Ming army has enough experience in attacking and defending cities. The Ming army has attacked many cities like Yangzhou. Although Yangzhou City is tall and strong, it also has its flaws.

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(End of this chapter)