Southern Ming Rebel Army

When the news of Liu Liangzuo's assassination reached Bolo's ears, he was writing a letter to Prince Yu Duoduo. Duoduo led his troops to capture Yangzhou, kill Shi Kefa, conquer Nanjing, and capture Zhu Yousong, the Hongguang Emperor of the Southern Ming Dynasty. At this time, he had been conferred the title of Heshuo Deyu Prince. When he received the news of Liu Liangzuo's assassination, he was stunned. He did not expect that the things in the novel could actually happen before his eyes. The general was actually assassinated in the army. However, after hearing that Liu Liangzuo was not seriously injured, he shook his head and smiled.

Liu Liangzuo himself did not take it too seriously. After all, the arrow's kinetic energy was mostly blocked by his armor, so it was only a minor injury. Liu Liangzuo had been in the military for many years, and there were injuries more serious than this. Liu Liangzuo laughed at himself and said, "It seems that I am old, and I was actually taken advantage of by some petty thieves."

Bian Hu said quickly, "My lord, even tigers take naps sometimes. Your majesty is still there."

Liu Liangzuo waved his hands and said, "Forget it, I'll take a nap first. I'm a little sleepy. What the hell is going on?"

Bian Hu winked and said, "Sir, do you want to arrange a beauty? You have been working hard these two days, do you want to have a good rest?"

Liu Liangzuo hesitated, shook his head and said, "Forget it, I'm a little tired today." Then he laughed and scolded, "You idiot, what nonsense are you thinking about every day?"

Liu Liangzuo certainly didn't expect that these were the last words he said when he was awake. As soon as he entered the tent, Liu Liangzuo fell asleep. In less than two hours, his body temperature began to rise, his forehead was hot and he was talking nonsense. The personal soldiers outside the tent noticed that something was wrong inside, and when they went in, they were horrified and hurriedly called for the medical officer. The medical officer hurried into the tent, wiped Liu Liangzuo's body and fed him medicine. After a long time, they finally concluded that the arrow wound was poisonous.

"You quack doctor, how dare you kill a great man? Someone, take this bastard out and chop him to pieces." Bian Hu was furious when he saw that a general had died in this childish assassination. He ordered the medical officer to be chopped to pieces.

"General, please spare my life. An arrow has penetrated his lungs. No medicine can help. It is not my fault." The medical officer was trembling with fear and knelt on the ground begging for mercy. However, Bian Hu did not want to listen and asked his subordinates to drag him out. The begging for mercy gradually faded away until it ended with a scream.

In Bolo's eyes, apart from the soldiers from Liaodong who could fight a little, the other soldiers from the Central Plains, Shaanxi and Shandong were not very good. As for the soldiers from Jiangnan, he even sneered at them. The saying that Jiangnan was a place of outstanding people and beautiful scenery was all nonsense. Since he went to Jiangnan, the Southern Ming soldiers who surrendered everywhere made Bolo extremely contemptuous of the southerners. He had not seen any outstanding people since he came to Jiangnan. Didn't Qian Qianyi, whose literary name was resounding throughout Jiangnan, also kneel down under the iron hoof of the Qing Dynasty?

He never thought that after returning to Beijing from Duoduo, he first encountered a setback in Jiangyin, and then encountered another tough nut to crack in Suzhou. He sent a general out to capture some civilians, but he was assassinated to death. Isn't this ridiculous?

There was a sound of weeping outside the Qing army camp. All the civilians who were captured by Liu Liangzuo and Bai Yongfu were forced to shave their heads.

"Governor, in my opinion, the city wall of Suzhou is very strong and wide, so it is not easy for artillery to destroy it," Han Xiong shook his head.

"As for building another wall behind the wall, where should it start and where should it end? In my opinion, this is impossible." This time, Lin Shiqi rarely agreed with Han Xiong.

……

After Meng Jun and the generals discussed, they all agreed that Yang En's idea was a bad one. Not to mention how long it would take to demolish the many houses behind the city, they just talked about how much time and resources it would take to build another city wall.

After the meeting, several people returned to their respective defense positions. Only Yang En stayed by Meng Jun's side. Yang En looked at Meng Jun's exhausted expression and comforted him, "Commander-in-chief, the defense will take a long time, so don't worry too much."

"Alas, time is running out. The world has come to this point. The longer it is delayed, the more stable the Eight Banners will be. The disaster at Yashan is just around the corner. How can I not think about it?" All the pressure was on Meng Jun, not only the sense of crisis of Bolo's siege of Suzhou, but also the proven history. It is wise to go with the flow, but Meng Jun chose to go against the flow.

Yang En looked at Meng Jun's figure with his hands behind his back. He was so young, but there were some white hairs around his ears, but he still stood straight like a benchmark. Yang En didn't know when he couldn't help but burst into tears.

In the southern city of Suzhou, more than a hundred villagers gathered at the foot of the city, and not far away the Qing cavalry were still watching covetously. If it were not for the firepower on the top of the city, they would have rushed over immediately.

"What's going on?" Han Xiong, who was guarding the South City, frowned and asked the soldiers guarding the city. Then Han Xiong looked at the villagers under the city and knew what was going on. Wu Tai beside him said to Han Xiong, "General, the Tartars are arresting able-bodied men everywhere. These are the villagers who are fleeing. But I don't know if there are spies among them."

Han Xiong said slowly, "Put some hanging baskets down from the city, and bring up a few people at a time. They are all from the same village, so if you can save them, then save them."

"The general is extremely merciful and compassionate, and his reputation will last for generations..." When the villagers living under the city saw a hanging basket coming down from the top of the city wall, they kowtowed and cried out in gratitude.

The Qing cavalry not far away saw that there was no opportunity to take advantage and immediately turned their horses and left. When the soldiers guarding the city pulled the refugees up, they found that some of these people had their heads shaved. When all these people were transferred into the city, the elders around them cursed loudly, and the onlookers denounced these refugees for abandoning their ancestors and being disloyal and unfilial.

Some of the villagers who were surrounded and scolded by the crowd were filled with anger, some were ashamed, and most of them were crying secretly, while those who had not shaved their heads were secretly relieved.

At this time, Prince of Lu Zhu Yihai had received more than ten letters from Meng Jun asking for help, almost three times a day. The Zhejiang officialdom, which had been relatively comfortable, was thrown into panic by Meng Jun's emergency letters. Zhu Yihai even convened several court meetings to discuss whether to send troops to Suzhou.

Zhu Yihai was determined to make progress and recover the lost territory, so he immediately initiated the dispatch of troops. The Prime Minister Fang Fengnian, Zhang Guowei and other civil officials advocated holding on, while Fang Guoan and Wang Zhiren advocated fighting. They argued for several days about whether to fight or defend. Finally, Zhu Yihai personally stepped in to threaten that he was unworthy and would abdicate and return to his fiefdom. Only then did Zhang Guowei, Song Zhipu and other civil officials agree to send troops to rescue.

Zhu Yihai then appointed Fang Guoan as the chief commander, Zhang Mingzhen as the deputy general, and Zhang Huangyan as the military supervisor, commanding 30,000 Zhejiang regular troops and 40,000 rebel troops, claiming to be an army of 100,000. He decided to send troops to Suzhou. Of course, with the integration strength of the Ming Dynasty at that time, it would be impossible to quickly assemble such a large army within ten days or half a month. Just when the Lu Wang regime began to raise military rations, salaries, and equipment, the Qing army under the city of Suzhou could no longer wait.