The Qing army was blocked at the bridge and lacked grenades like the Ming army, a weapon that could quickly open the breakthrough.

The brave Eight Banners soldiers were unable to break through the Ming army in the face of the formation. At this time, the Ming army kept firing muskets and throwing grenades on both sides, causing heavy casualties from the Qing army.

A sound of retreating horn sounded, and Sun Linglong roared angrily with anger on his face, "Retreat!"

When the Qing soldiers crowded on the bridge heard the order, some musketeers knelt on the edge of the floating bridge with one knee. After firing a gun, they got up and retreated. The archers stood at the edge of the floating bridge and continued to cover the archery, leaving a passage in the middle to provide the heavy armored infantry retreat.

Seeing that the Qing army was about to retreat, Yu Guowang picked up a battle axe and jumped up, "Brothers! Kill!"

The Ming soldiers picked up their weapons, rushed out of the trenches, jumped off the bridgehead, and rushed into the Qing army.

More than a dozen armored soldiers from Zhenghuang Banner were responsible for breaking the rear, wielding the sword and spear to block the bridge, and the Ming soldiers rushed up, stabbing spears and slashing the heavy armored soldiers one by one.

However, these armored soldiers are not so easy to kill. By the time the Ming army finished killing, the attacking Qing army had retreated to the West Bank.

Geng Jimao counted the losses, and more than 600 elite soldiers of the Zhenghuang Banner were lost, which made him feel a little painful.

Seeing that the Ming army on the other side was well defended, Geng Jimao knew that it would be difficult to seize the suspension bridge with his own strength, but he was unwilling to withdraw, so he had to shrink his troops, station on the west bank, and wait for reinforcements to arrive.

Although the Ming army defeated the Qing army's attack just now, the quality of the Qing army made Zhao Ming frown.

From the Qing army's attack just now, the orderly and unlucky behaviors during the retreat, and the voluntary severance of the rear, Zhao Ming knew that this time he was an elite soldier from the Qing army.

These people are probably much more difficult to deal with than Ma Guanghui and others.

Zhao Ming ordered his soldiers to clean the battlefield and ordered the bodies of the Eight Banners soldiers to be collected and hung on the floating bridge, intending to anger the Qing generals and ask the Qing army to continue attacking the floating bridge, thereby killing and injuring the Qing army more. However, the Qing army did not attack the floating bridge again, but instead set up camp on the west bank.

In the next few days, the Qing army did not continue to attack the floating bridge, nor showed any signs of crossing the river from other places, and seemed to have given up its intention to break through the canal defense line.

At night, Zhao Ming ordered Yu Guowang to lead elite troops to raid on a boat, but the Qing army had experienced a long battle formation and was experienced, and the effect was not obvious.

In mid-April, outside the Ming army camp, Zhao Ming patrols along the river and observes the other side with a thousand-mile mirror.

Suddenly, from the west of the canal, bursts of thunder came faintly. Zhao Ming couldn't help but hold back the horse's reins and said with wrinkles: "Did you hear it?"

The generals followed him and all the war horses were pinned down and turned around to look west. Wang Chao first frowned and said, "Master, it seems to be a shelling!"

Li Zhongming said: "The Qing army has been sieging Wu for more than ten days, and the siege should be ready. I am afraid that the Qing army will start to attack the city."

The Qing army vanguard tried to seize the floating bridge, break through the Xicheng Canal, and enter Susong's action. After being defeated by the Ming army, the Qing army on the west bank set up a solid camp and monitored the Ming army on the east bank. He did not initiate a forced crossing. It was obviously preparing to pull out Wu and enter the city first, and then break through the Xicheng defense line with all his strength.

Zhao Ming listened carefully and heard the sound of cannons continued, for fear that nearly a hundred heavy artillery would bombard Wu's city.

The strength of the Qing army was somewhat beyond Zhao Ming's expectations.

This made Zhao Ming a little worried. Wu Jincheng had only 20,000 defenders. Faced with nearly five times the attack of the Qing army, how long can Wang Yi and Wang Deshun last?

"Return to the camp!" Zhao Ming had a calm face, pulled out the reins of the horse and led many subordinates back to the camp.

At this time, Zhao Ming and his group returned to the camp near Gaoqiao Town and walked straight into the coach's tent. Zhao Ming took off his helmet and placed it heavily on the table. He said in a deep voice: "What are you doing to retreat to the enemy?"

Nowadays, Donghai Town is known to have 80,000 soldiers, and only about 60,000 can be used for combat.

Two thousand of them were trapped in Wujin, 30,000 were deployed on the front line of the canal, and 10,000 naval troops were in Jiangyin Water Village.

The Qing army used 100,000 troops to attack Su Songchang, and 100,000 troops were used to defend various cities, resist the counterattack of the Ming army in Zhejiang, and rescue Donghai Town.

After Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming began to attack Donghai Town, Zhu Yihai received Zhao Ming's request for help and immediately sent troops to respond.

However, the Zhejiang Army has just recovered Hangzhou shortly after, and the previous battle consumed a lot of money and food to help the victims, which made Zhu Yihai temporarily unable to peek at Nanjing. Therefore, the Zhejiang Army's attack could only play a restraining role and could not help Donghai Town and turn the situation around.

At this time, everyone surrounded the sand table. Wang Chao first frowned and said, "The main force of the Qing army besieged Wujincheng and sent Geng Jimao to lead more than 10,000 cavalry to station in Wujin and Wuxi. If we cross the river at this time, we will be attacked by the Qing cavalry across the river. Even if we successfully cross the river, with more than 10,000 Qing cavalry monitoring, it will be difficult for the army to approach Wujin!"

Li Zhongming said: "Previously, the general's plan was to rely on Wujincheng to restrain the Qing army and use Xicheng defense line to block the Qing army from entering Susong. After the Qing army could not advance for a long time, the troops suffered heavy losses, and the strength was reversed, and then launched a counterattack. Now the Qing army has just begun to besiege Wujincheng, and its edge is in full swing. If our army rashly crosses the river to reinforce, it will be difficult to win. It is better to wait for a while to wait for the opportunity to fight according to the original plan!"

Zhao Ming said with a calm face: "The day before yesterday, the Qing army attacked the floating bridge. I saw that the Qing army was very elite. Today, I heard the sound of cannons in the west. We can tell that the number of heavy artillery in the Qing army was no less than that in me. Therefore, I was worried about whether Wu Jincheng could block the attack of the Qing army. If Wu Jin was trapped, the morale of the Qing army would be greatly boosted, and Su Song would probably not be able to defend it!"

Many soldiers were worried about this, but there was no way to worry about it. The Qing army was powerful and would definitely not be able to fight the decisive battle now. I could only hope that the Wujin defenders could defeat the enemy's spirit.

After Zhao Ming finished speaking, he turned his head and looked at Xia Wanchun and said, "Xiao Yin, can Your Highness increase his troops, capture Huzhou, and threaten Nanjing?"

After the Battle of Changzhou began, Zhu Yihai sent Xia Wanchun to Zhao Ming's army to facilitate the communication between the two armies and inform them of their respective actions.

Xia Wanchun bowed and said, "Duke, now the Qing court has gathered elite troops in Jiangnan. Although the Qing army in Jiangnan only has 200,000, they are all elite troops drawn, and their strength is stronger than the soldiers of Your Highness and the Duke. At this time, although the main force of the Qing army attacked the Duke, there are still 100,000 people in Mandahai to defend the local area and monitor Your Highness's army. The combat power of these 100,000 Qing troops is better than that of the Zhejiang army. Your Highness will not fulfill the expectations of the Duke's army with weak attacks, and the generals of the road will not agree."

Zhao Ming's face darkened when he heard the word "Yu Yu", but Zhu Yihai and him combined were indeed weaker than the Qing army in Jiangnan.

Previously, the Qing army's attention was on the Longwu court. Now that it was shifting to Jiangnan, it was equivalent to concentrating its strength to attack a corner of the army, and its strength was naturally not proportional.

Seeing Zhao Ming and the generals' expressions, Xia Wanchun suddenly walked to the middle, held his fists and continued, "Duke, for the sake of the present, I think I have the opportunity to be in the upper reaches. The Qing Dynasty drew elite troops from Huguang and Jiangxi to go east to Jiangnan, causing the troops of Huguang to be empty. If the upstream can make contributions, then move forward and arrive."

Zhao Ming pondered for a while when he heard the words. A few days ago, because the court sent a Fu Shangrui over, Zhao Ming was very dissatisfied with the court. At the same time, he also understood that as the court became stronger and gained a foothold, the court would inevitably cut off the vassals.

This made Zhao Ming feel selfish. In fact, he did not want the Longwu court to become bigger. However, at this time, it was difficult to defeat the Qing Dynasty with the power of the Zhejiang clan alone. Zhao Ming stood up and paced back and forth. After a while, he turned around and pointed at Chen Mingyu and said, "Mr. Yan is now in a high position in the middle and high position in the court, and is deeply trusted by His Majesty. Mr. Chen, you go to Changsha personally and beg the court to send troops."
Chapter completed!