On July 14, 1645, a fleet of black smoke appeared on the water of the Yangtze River flowing eastward. Obviously, this was a fleet of people from the east coast.

The fleet consisted of six large ships, all of which were loaded with about thousands of east coast soldiers. They were sailing to the river near the Guazhou Ferry in Yangzhou in later generations. The east coast army, which had been resting on Lishiri Island for five days, took ten days to sail to the Yangtze River Basin. In order to hurry up, the five slow sailing ships sailed separately from the steam speed ships from the beginning, so at this time, only these six speed ships drove here.

Many small boats were placed on the fleet, and the 3rd Squadron of the Standing Team crossed several small boats and then rowed towards Guazhou Ferry on the shore. Behind them, some sailors also rowed the boats and began to measure the water depth on the river surface and mark the waterway.

The 3rd Squadron quickly approached Guazhou Ferry. At this time, there was no ship at the ferry. I don’t know if the vanguard of Duoduo’s army had already arrived at the city of Yangzhou. There were few people at this ferry that should have been extremely prosperous. Maybe the ships were all plundered, and Li Zhengang, who was standing at the stern of a small boat, thought secretly.

The 3rd Squadron quickly occupied the empty Guazhou Ferry. They searched the entire ferry. Except for the miscellaneous items scattered in the houses on the shore, there was no figure here. Li Zhengang climbed up from the waist-deep river water, his whole body was a little wet, which made him feel a little annoyed that he did not put on the whale skin water that Shuai Mo had given him.

"Report to the deputy captain of the corps. Our department has searched within 300 meters near the landing site, and no soldiers of the Ming or Qing army were found. They only caught two baskets and clawed eels, but they couldn't understand what they said. Our department is all from the northerners. There are no soldiers proficient in Wuyu, so it is impossible to interrogate them." Pei Qin, the captain of the 1st brigade, stood attentive in front of Li Zhengang, and then saluted.

Li Zhengang is from Shaanxi, so naturally he can't understand what they are talking about.

He looked at the young farmers (or fishermen) who looked at them with a look of horror, sighed, and said, "Let them go, they are all innocent people, and they can only live a few days of peace in the whole year. Give them one dollar each, spend my special expenses, let them go. In addition, send someone to the ship to report to General Mo. Let the security team immediately send elite scouts off the ship to investigate the enemy situation. The Duoduo's army must have not yet arrived at the city of Yangzhou."

Li Zhengang is now the deputy captain of the 1st Regiment of the Stand-Up Team (the acting captain of the corps is the temporary lieutenant Junior). He is considered a senior cadre in the Stand-Up Team system. His monthly salary is 20 yuan and there is a special monthly expense of 8 yuan (it can be considered as pocket money and the benefits of senior officers).

"Who knows where Duoduo's army has gone? Maybe it has arrived in Yangzhou now." Pei Qin smiled with his lips and then arranged for people to return to the fleet to report the situation.

It is said that after receiving the order from Dorgon to the southern expedition on April 10 (the lunar calendar), Duoduo began to lead the main force to the south, which was more than a month later than in history. He led all the troops out of Hulao Pass, and the Mongolian soldiers who went straight to Guide with Gushan Ezhen's begging Yintu, and the foreign vassal Mongolian soldiers led by Bernekan and others. Due to the disastrous battles in Shandong, Duoduo's actions to recruit various troops and prefectures and counties in Henan were not as smooth as he imagined. Therefore, he did not arrive outside the city of Sizhou under the control of the Nanming Dynasty until the tenth day of June. He crossed the Huai River that night, and the nearby Ming army had already fled and no one came to stop them.

After crossing the Huai River, he was surprised to hear that the yellow-clad thief army was circulating in Qilu and Lu, and the power was very rampant. Dorgon ordered Gushan Ezhenjunta to lead 2,500 people to go east to collect Xuzhou, Suqian, Xinghua, Tongzhou and other prefectures and counties, and then recruited local Ming troops on the spot. On the one hand, they provided food and grass to the Duoduo army, but also connected with Shandong, which was still under the control of the Qing court, and waited for an opportunity to go north to support Shandong.

In this way, he continued to procrastinate. When Dorgon arrived twenty miles north of Yangzhou City, it was already June 15 (July 8th Gregorian calendar), nearly two months later than in history. In history, Dodo set up camp on the north of Yangzhou City on April 17th, and then waited for the red-clothed cannon until April 24th to attack Yangzhou. There was no military operation against Yangzhou before this. This can be seen from the suicide note written by Shi Kefa.

In this time and space, Duoduo's red-clothed cannon was still late, and it was delayed until this morning to arrive at the city of Yangzhou. The various troops arranged by the Nanming in Jiangbei naturally had already surrendered to the Qing Dynasty. Shi Kefa, a mediocre person who had no strategic vision and no military ability, was inconsistent, and even his subordinates could not bear it. Such people could still hold high positions, and it was really unreasonable to not perish in the Nanming. How could a group of pigs bring Shi Kefa, a fool who was useless except integrity and integrity to such a high position, and then let him make almost all the mistakes he could make in more than a year, and push the so-called four towns of Jiangbei that consumed a lot of manpower and material resources to the side of the Qing Dynasty.

Of course, the people of the East Coast did not know where Duoduo's army was, and they didn't even know who Yangzhou was currently under. They came here just to support them with friendly support, and by the way, they could see if they could get some cheaper. As for hoping that they would fight some tough battles beyond their own abilities, it was impossible.

The scouts quickly got ashore. The Shandan hunters had been on the boat for ten days, and each of them was a little in a bad mood. In fact, not only them, but many of the horses carried with the boat were also in poor condition. The captain of the security team, Kurhan, picked up more than a dozen war horses that seemed to be able to ride, and then selected several skilled subordinates and began to investigate information in the north.

After the scouts set off, the East Coast people sent the 5th Squadron of the Stand Up Team to the shore. Then there was no other movement on the river except for the naval boats that were measuring the water depth and marking the waterway. Six steam clutches had already lowered their sails and reduced the boiler temperature to the lowest level, drifting on the river surface waiting for the news to come.

The news came back the next day. The captain of the security team, Kurhan, ran back with several subordinates who were almost wounded, and behind them were dozens of Qing cavalry who were chasing him. These cavalrymen wearing foam nails and cotton armor seemed to be white-armored soldiers of a certain flag, both in terms of skills and equipment, but they were immediately surprised when they chased Guazhoudu.

Because in front of them were hundreds of infantry wearing yellow clothes, big caps, and long spears, and the famous yellow thief dressed in the Qing army. Even though these Duoduo's subordinates had never fought with the East Coast people in Shandong, they had long known the existence of this "pirate group" from the documents and the words of their superiors and colleagues. But weren't these yellow-coated pirates just making trouble in the Liaohai Sea? Why did they keep making trouble until the Yangtze River? The leader of the team hesitated a little. After a vengeful look at the East Coast scout who caused several casualties to them, the leader turned his horse's head and led his cavalry to disappear at the scene like a gust of wind. It seemed that he was in a hurry to go back to report the military situation.

"Yangzhou City has been broken and has only resisted for one day." Kurhan said concisely in Chinese, which he was not very skilled. "Duoduo used cannons to collapse the city wall. When we retreated, the Qing army had already rushed to enter the city first. However, they already knew our existence, and Duoduo would probably adjust its deployment and attack the dock."

Mo Ming, standing on the front deck of the steam engine sailboat of "Fenshui", looked at the lush reeds on the bank of the river. After a while, he said to Xiao Xi, the company commander of the 102nd Company of the Army standing behind him: "Since the Qing army has broken through Yangzhou, the overall situation in Jiangbei has been settled. The Qing army, which has incorporated more than 200,000 troops from Liu Liangzuo, Liu Zeqing, Li Benshen (i.e. Gao Jie's remnants), has a strong momentum, and has a relatively wealthy Jiangbei territory to supply food and grass, and it is no problem to support long-term combat. Then we will not be able to stay here, that is, we will just disgust them."

"It's good to be disgusting. The funny monarchs and ministers of the Nanming Dynasty are probably already planning how to escape or surrender at this time. Dorgon will inevitably divide his troops to attack other prefectures and counties in Nanzhili in order to join the Qing army of Ajige who came from the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. I don't know if Li Chuang died in the upper reaches, but where the war has gone. Alas, I really want to drive the boat up and take a look." Xiao Xi lit a pipe for himself and said.

"Look at it!" Mo Ming smiled and cursed, and then said, "The most important thing for Dorgon now is how to find a way to cross the river and attack Nanjing as soon as possible. Nanjing is now empty, with no intention of fighting, and the general has no intention of guarding. With the combat power of the paper-like army of Nanming, it is basically about to collapse, and the Qing army can occupy it in an armed marching. Anyway, we are idle and nothing to do, so we just sway here and harass us when we see Qing army ships crossing the river. Ours are all steam fast ships, and we can turn around almost in place without considering the current or wind direction, so we don't need to be afraid of those Qing army soldiers. So I decided to stay here for two days to see if there is any advantage to take."

"That's good." Xiao Xi nodded and said. They really can only harass themselves here. If the Qing army brings a large number of ships to cross the river, it will be basically impossible for the six ships with poor firepower (each ship with eight small and medium caliber artillery) to stop the Qing army from crossing the river. Here, they can only harass them symbolically.
Chapter completed!