Su Xiong saw the first division of Lu Chenyang ascending to the top of Anqing City.
The First Division planted the flag of the Qin Army at the top of Anqing City.
Anqing City, which was heavily defended by the Ming Army, had been captured by the First Division.
The engineering ships of the Qin Army, with the assistance of steam engines, have salvaged concrete stones from the river.
It took the First Army almost a month to destroy the Ming army's reinforced concrete fortress outside Anqing City and capture Anqing City.
Li Wenfang, Chief of Staff of the First Army, said with emotion: "Anqing Guards General Huang Degong, he is a capable person.
At first, he took the initiative to attack us, but later he discovered the gap in combat effectiveness between the two armies, so he focused on defending the city.
Relying on Anqing City, they held on for nearly a month before retreating.
Some time ago we got news about the northern battlefield.
The fight there is going extremely smoothly. The troops have already arrived at Shuntian Mansion and will soon launch an attack on the capital.
According to intelligence from the Military Intelligence Bureau, the Ming army in the southern Zhili region built three important cement walled cities.
The three important cities of Anqing, Wuhu, and Jiangning are the guarantee for the Ming army to guard the Yangtze River."
Su Xiong was very confident and said with a smile: "No need to worry, Anqing City is already the largest cement walled city in the southern Zhili region.
They have only blocked us for a long time, less than a month.
We have plenty of time, so there is no need to rush, just take your time.”
Li Wenfang heard this and said: "Our speed has slowed down, but the Second Army and the Fifth Army are not slow.
The Second Army has captured Luzhou Prefecture and is attacking Fengyang Prefecture.
The Fifth Army has captured Huizhou Prefecture, and they are attacking Huanghua Pass on the border between South Zhili and Zhejiang.
The gentry regiments in the southern Zhili area were very well armed and were able to withstand the offensives of the Second Army and the Fifth Army.
These regiments are trained and armed and do not engage in direct combat with our army.
On the contrary, they often carried out sneak attacks on the logistics troops and harassed our army's camps.
The Second Army and the Fifth Army began to be overwhelmed.
They later reacted and sent small groups of troops plus garrison troops to attack the countryside and small towns.
Directly attacking the foundation of these gentry will eliminate the soil for the existence of gentry regiment training and armed forces.
Now the Second Army and the Fifth Army are attacking very quickly.
They may take Nanjing one step ahead of us."
Su Xiong saw that Chief of Staff Li Wenfang was trying to win credit.
He said with a smile: "I wish all the main forces of the Ming army would come to both sides of the Yangtze River to deal with me.
In this way, one of the Second Army and the Fifth Army can make a breakthrough, and our army will win this battle."
Boom! Boom!
While Su Xiong and Li Wenfang were talking, the clouds quickly gathered outside and heavy rain began to fall.
Li Zhengfeng, Zhu Shi of the First Army, looked at the heavy rain and said worriedly: "The Ming army wanted to slow down our attack.
They used concrete stones to directly block the Yangtze River.
As a result, water levels are now generally rising in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.
The Poyang Lake water system is a good reservoir.
But this reservoir is almost reaching its limit, and if the water rises further upstream, it will easily cause major floods on both sides of the Yangtze River."
Su Xiong frowned and said, "I'm not worried about the rain.
The current water volume of the Yangtze River is still far behind the major floods that will affect us.
I'm afraid that the Ming army is crazy and would rather kill a hundred enemies and lose a thousand, so they directly block the Yangtze River and artificially create a huge flood."
Li Zhengfeng shook his head and said: "The water surface of the Yangtze River is too wide and the flow rate is huge.
It would be extremely troublesome for the Ming army to block the Yangtze River.
They want the flood to occur near our army, and the place that blocks the Yangtze River must not be too far away from us.
Our army will not give the Ming army too long. If we want to block the Yangtze River in a short time, the Ming army cannot do it with its current strength."
…………………………
Huang Degong led his troops to retreat from Anqing City.
The thieves in yellow are so powerful, these people really don't care about their lives when fighting.
He sent 6,000 soldiers and horses as a surprise, and surrounded less than 1,000 yellow-clad thieves.
These thieves in yellow ran out of weapons and ammunition, and they directly fought with the Ming army with bayonets.
The Ming army used flintlock muskets to shoot at the yellow-clad thieves. Even if the muskets were not as good as the yellow-clad thieves, they still fought back and forth.
When the thieves in yellow launched a bayonet charge, the Ming army collapsed immediately.
The thief in yellow had 6,000 elite soldiers. After the early battles, they became 4,500 elite soldiers.
But they failed to stop more than five hundred thieves in yellow from charging.
The military formation under Huang Degong was directly penetrated by these thieves in yellow clothes.
He saw the strong fighting power of the thief in yellow.
He did not choose to fight head-on with the yellow-robed thieves, but instead relied on the fortified city to gradually defend.
The yellow thief has very strong firepower.
Huang Degong built many reinforced concrete fortresses outside Anqing City, imitating the fortifications of the yellow thieves.
He originally thought he could use these fortresses to hold off the thieves in yellow for a year and a half.
Unexpectedly, it only took less than a month for the thieves in yellow to use heavy artillery to capture these fortresses and attack Anqing City.
Huang Degong discovered that Anqing City was about to be undefendable.
He did not choose to stay in Anqing and fight to the death with the thieves in yellow.
Huang Degong took advantage of the yellow-clad thieves before they surrounded Anqing.
He left some guardsmen to guard the city to confuse the yellow-robed thieves, and then evacuated with his elite troops.
They evacuated in small boats. The yellow-robed thieves' big boats couldn't cross the Yangtze River, so there was no way to pursue them.
Huang Degong took a boat and walked to the vicinity of the Liyang River Inspection Department.
He saw Governor Ma Shiying commanding the soldiers, and what was he tinkering with on the Yangtze River Embankment?
Ma Shiying previously threw concrete stones into the Yangtze River.
The main purpose is to artificially set up obstacles in the Yangtze River to prevent the large ships of thieves in yellow from passing through.
These concrete stones are mainly strips of stone. The strips of stone are placed along the Yangtze River and can block a certain amount of Yangtze River water flow, but most of the water flow can still pass through normally.
Ma Shiying also tried to place it sideways in the river, but he couldn't hold it down at all.
There is no fixed base, and the huge water flow directly washes away the concrete stones.
This has a certain impact on the people on both sides of the Yangtze River, but the impact is not significant.
Ma Shiying had previously clamored that when it rained heavily, the Yangtze River would flood and drown the thieves in yellow.
When Huang Degong heard this, he just laughed it off.
He approached the Ming army on the bank of the Yangtze River and found out what these people were doing.
They actually dug the Yangtze River embankment and loaded a large number of wooden barrels into the dug pit.
Huang Degong saw contents spilled out of some barrels. These were fresh black powder.
"Ma Shiying wants to blow up the Yangtze River embankment and artificially cause the Yangtze River to burst its embankments."
When Huang Degong thought of this, he immediately moved his small boat closer to the big ship where Ma Shiying was.
Huang Degong boarded the ship and looked at Ma Shiying with a smile on his face. He said sullenly: "Governor Ma, you are not afraid of damaging your moral character by doing this.
Blowing up the Yangtze River embankment will cause the death of many people on both sides of the Yangtze River."
Ma Shiying snorted coldly and said: "The death of these mud-legged people has nothing to do with me.
They are like leeks, they will grow back soon after they die.
If we can kill more of the army of thieves in yellow, this is the guarantee that we can survive and continue to enjoy glory and wealth.
I have dug holes and placed black powder on the three-mile-long Yangtze River embankment.
Multiple sticks of gunpowder can ignite all gunpowder barrels at the same time.
I found seven dead soldiers. As long as they see the army of yellow-robed thieves passing by, they will blow up the Yangtze River embankment and flood the yellow-robed thieves.
Even if the thieves in yellow are very strong, they cannot withstand the power of natural disasters."
Huang Degong looked at Ma Shiying's unwavering face.
He continued to persuade: "We can't do this.
The people on both sides of the Yangtze River were all people under the rule of the Ming Dynasty, and they were all loyal to the Ming Dynasty.
What kind of place is this? This is the core area of South Zhili. How can we break open the Yangtze River levee here?"
Ma Shiying said with an unhappy expression: "Not just here, if Wuhu City and Jiangning City can't hold on, we will burst the embankments.
This is a plan approved by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, to stop the thief in yellow at all costs.
No one can be sacrificed.
We were killed by thieves in yellow clothes. No matter how well those mud-legged people live, what does it have to do with us?"
Huang Degong looked at Ma Shiying fiercely and could only say harsh words: "I will definitely impeach you like His Royal Highness the Crown Prince."
He wished he could take matters into his own hands and tie up Ma Shiying.
But he cannot do this and cannot give others a reason to deprive him of his military power.
…………………………
After the First Army took a short rest, the engineering troops also opened the Yangtze River route.
Su Xiong led his troops from Anqing City and continued eastward to attack the towns along the Yangtze River.
Chief of Staff Li Wenfang frowned, looked at Su Xiong and said: "Commander, I always feel that something is wrong.
The Ming army invested a large amount of concrete stones in the Yangtze River near Anqing City to block the waterway and hinder our army from advancing through the Yangtze River.
When we walked out of Anqing City, there were no obstacles on the Yangtze River.
It seems that the Ming army really hopes that we can quickly pass through the Yangtze River.
There's nothing blocking us at all."
Su Xiong was also keenly aware that the situation on the battlefield was a bit strange.
"Chief of Staff Li, I heard the king give lectures to military school students.
One of them mentioned marching near large rivers.
Be very careful as the enemy uses water attack methods.
Since ancient times, fire and water have no mercy.
Water attack and fire attack are low-cost and quick-result strategies.
When I saw the concrete stones blocking the Yangtze River, my first reaction was that the Ming army wanted to use such things to block the Yangtze River and cause a major flood.
At this time, the Yangtze River had not yet flooded, so the Ming army's method of blocking the Yangtze River did not work.
I don’t think the Ming army will stop in time, they will still try.”
Su Xiong immediately ordered Chen Zhongwen, commander of the Third Division, to send a reconnaissance force to check the situation of the Yangtze River Embankment.
Zhao Xiaohei, commander of the reconnaissance company of the 3rd Division, led his men to inspect the land south of the Yangtze River Embankment.
He opened the military map and marked his location.
Near the Liyang River Inspection Department, no abnormality was found here and it is relatively safe.
"Company Commander, there seems to be a smell of gunpowder in the air."
"Xiao Shi, did you smell it wrong? There is no smell of gunpowder smoke around here."
"Company Commander, it's not gunpowder.
It's the smell of sulfur in gunpowder.
I sneeze easily when I smell sulfur.
The doctor at the hospital told me it was an allergy.
There must be sulfur in this place, and this is not a place rich in sulfur.
There is a lot of sulfur smell in the air, which is probably black powder."
When Zhao Xiaohei heard this explanation, his expression immediately became tense and he said loudly: "Everyone, look carefully to see if there is any black powder.
Be careful not to fall into the enemy's trap."
"Company Commander, the soil on the Yangtze River Embankment is relatively fresh. I think it may have been dug up not long ago."
Zhao Xiaohei directed his soldiers to dig out the areas where the embankment had been dug with small shovels.
When the dead soldiers of the Ming army saw this situation, they knew they had been exposed.
The match was immediately lit.
Zhao Xiaohei saw that they had dug out a wooden powder barrel.
Suddenly I heard a constant banging sound in front of me.
A large hole was opened in the Yangtze River embankment by black powder.
A huge amount of river water poured out along the blasted place.
…………………………
June 10th.
Su Xiong looked at the soldiers of the First Division who were attacking Wuhu. They were directly hit by the massive flood.
In the blink of an eye, more than a thousand soldiers were swept away by the flood.
Wuhu City, a city heavily defended by the Ming army, was also directly submerged by floods.
When Su Xiong saw this scene, he was so angry that he slapped the table hard.
"Be on guard against all odds. I didn't expect the Ming army to be so ruthless.
Tens of thousands of Ming troops are in Wuhu City, and we are attacking the city.
The Ming army actually broke the dike again, flooding our army and the Ming army's own people.
There is really no way to prevent this strategy of killing a thousand enemies and damaging yourself ten thousand."
Su Xiong immediately arranged for the second division to take out boats, bamboo rafts, sheepskin rafts, and all usable things.
While sending troops to rescue the soldiers of the First Division, they rushed into Wuhu City.
The Yangtze River water rushes out very quickly.
The gates of this newly built concrete city in Wuhu are almost submerged by floods.
You can directly climb the city wall by boat. The Ming army in the city was plotted by their own people, and their morale collapsed.
Now flooded again, they had no choice but to surrender.
Regardless of casualties, the Third Division Chen Zhongwen's troops captured the Yangtze River Embankment as quickly as possible and blocked the breach in the Yangtze River Embankment in a short time.
Li Zhengfeng, Zhu Shi of the First Army, lamented: "The Ming army artificially broke the embankment near the Liyang River Inspection Department.
The southern bank of the Yangtze River was severely affected, with hundreds of thousands of farmland destroyed by floods and tens of thousands of people missing and dead.
If our army had not blocked the gap in time, the south bank of the Yangtze River would have been hit even more seriously.
This disaster also slowed down the speed of our army's operations.
The Ming army is now reaping the benefits and feels that the first breach of the dike did not harm our army.
They actually chose this tactic of dying together.
Let our army and the Ming army in Wuhu City endure the flooding together."
Chief of Staff Li Wenfang guessed: "The defender in Wuhu is Huang Degong. According to the news from the Military Intelligence Bureau, this man is a princeling.
The internal struggle of the Ming army was extremely fierce, and what the Ming army did was also related to their fierce party struggle."
The Qin army moved very quickly.
The breach in the Yangtze River embankment was blocked, and the massive river water receded.
The first division's casualty statistics showed that 1,800 people were dead or missing, and more than 300 people were injured in one day.
Counting previous casualties, the First Division suffered nearly half casualties.
Their muscles and bones have been damaged and they cannot withstand high-intensity combat missions in a short period of time.
The First Army suffered heavy losses, but also gained.
The Ming army in Wuhu City surrendered to them.
The First Army captured Wuhu, leaving only Jiangning outside Nanjing in front, a city that the Ming Army focused on defending.
This method of the Ming army effectively slowed down the Qin army's march.
Su Xiong dispatched the third division to seize the Yangtze River embankment as soon as possible wherever it arrived to guard against water attacks by the Ming army that did not distinguish between ourselves and the enemy.
－－－－－－Digression－－－－－
Kavin sorted out the outline and finally sorted out his ideas. The story of the southern battlefield is over with a few more chapters.
The gap in strength between the two armies is too obvious now, so we cannot give Nan Ming a reverse cheat. There is no need to drag this plot out.
It's too late to finish writing two chapters. The two chapters will be separated tomorrow and normal updates will resume the day after tomorrow.