The reinforcements tore through the enemy's blockade from the north, captured two battalions in a night battle, and forced the enemy to voluntarily abandon three company camps in the north of the city. Anyone could see that a breakthrough was possible.
Xu Huai, Xiao Yanhan, Qian Zerui accompanied Qiao Jien, Gu Jian and others into the city. Xu Wei and Wen Hengyue also organized some soldiers and civilians to greet them. The eyes of these soldiers and civilians were full of ardent gratitude, but their miserable situation made Xu Huai
Can't bear to see it.
To be precise, ordinary people in Taiyuan City ran out of food half a year ago. At the beginning, the city was in spring and summer with lush vegetation, and people could still pick grass stems and leaves to satisfy their hunger. However, after autumn, not even a single green leaf could be found in the city, and they were so hungry that they couldn't bear it.
, just eating tree cores, hundreds or even hundreds of people die of hunger and disease every day.
At the beginning, Xu Wei sent people to collect and bury the people who starved to death. In the end, too many people died of starvation, and the generals became weaker and weaker. When the weather cooled down, they left these corpses in the houses.
However, Xu Wei also has statistics on starvation in the city, generals who died in battle, and deaths from injuries and illnesses.
Before the war, there were a total of 180,000 soldiers and civilians in Taiyuan City, including the family members of the Tianxiong Army. They defended Taiyuan for a year and died fighting on the city walls. They died of injuries due to lack of medical treatment, hunger and disease, and even more of the latter.
, more than 80,000 people.
There are now slightly more than 100,000 soldiers and civilians left in the city.
The condition of the defenders was also very poor.
Although after the people were without food for half a year, there was still a small amount of food in stock to feed the defenders, but the standard was reduced to only a quarter of the normal level, or even lower. In the end, the leather armor and the leather used to make the armor were boiled.
To satisfy hunger, this is definitely not a normal meal.
Nowadays, in addition to the weakness caused by long-term hunger, most of the garrison generals also have many serious illnesses, such as abnormal swelling of their hands and feet, withered beard and hair, joint pain, etc.
These cannot be relieved or cured by eating three to five meals.
After seeing these real situations, Qiao Jien and Gu Jian had to admit that it was unrealistic to take away all the more than 90,000 Taiyuan soldiers and civilians safely.
"Before the enemy's reinforcements arrive, we still have to organize the evacuation of soldiers and civilians from the west of the Han army's camp in Yunzhou as much as possible!" When everyone entered the Taiyuan government office, the doors and windows were almost torn down, and the stone foundations were moved onto the city wall. Gu Jian said straightforwardly
said.
As the general magistrate of Fuzhou, he has always been the main person in charge of Linfu Road's contact with the Hedong Road Division on matters such as wealth, grain, and prisons.
In the past year, although the Gu family did not dare to send troops to harass Lanzhou and other places openly, they always paid attention to the war in Taiyuan.
Xu Wei, Wen Hengyue and the Luliang Mountain resistance rebels also sent people to Fuzhou many times to contact Fuzhou.
Gu Jian is quite familiar with the situation in Taiyuan City.
Under the current situation, he advocates direct evacuation as much as possible.
They are not worried about how much of the main force of the Red Army going south will come back for reinforcements now, but they are worried about Yan Muchi's efforts in the Huihe River Valley (Yunshuoying and other prefectures) and the eastern foothills of Yinshan Mountain and the Hunhe River (Cangtou River) Valley in the north of Shuozhou.
, a large number of cavalry can still be mobilized to go south for reinforcements in a short period of time.
Gu Jian did not think that the strength of the Fuzhou and Chushan cavalry could withstand the enemy's offensive from the flanks and protect the Taiyuan soldiers and civilians from retreating westward; he believed that the only chance was before Nayan Muchi could assemble the cavalry.
How much can be withdrawn?
"How many soldiers and civilians can be evacuated depends entirely on you. General Wen and I decided to stay behind and hold back some of the enemy troops," Xu Wei said, "When the enemy's reinforcements move south from Huihe River, you should stop thinking about us.
Got it!"
"How can this be done? I promised in front of His Highness that I will bring Master Xu and General Wen back to Luoyang safely!" Qiao Jien said.
"No matter how many people in the city volunteered to be the queen in the end, they stayed because of me and Mr. Xu Fu. How could we bear to abandon them? And there must be someone who stayed to be the queen. Apart from me and Mr. Xu Fu,
, and no one else can do it." Wen Hengyue said resolutely.
"Tomorrow night, I will lead my troops in a night battle to seize the Han army camp in Yunzhou. If it can be captured, Yin Chao will never dare to act rashly again. In the end, it will be enough to leave one or two thousand men and horses behind; if it cannot be captured, then it will only be
Can you please invite Mr. Xu Fu and General Wen to stay and break up the queen?" Xu Huai said resolutely.
"Everything depends on the military marquis!" Xu Wei and Wen Hengyue both bowed their hands in salute to Xu Huai.
At this time, the Han army camp in Yunzhou had six thousand defenders and tens of thousands of hard laborers. No one could imagine how difficult it would be to capture it overnight.
However, if the Han army camp in Yunzhou can be captured overnight, it will completely open the way to retreat to Tianmen Mountain to the north.
The Taiyuan army and people are so weak that it will be extremely difficult to pass through the low mountain area west of the Yunzhou Han army camp on foot. If the Yunzhou Han army camp is captured, the Taiyuan army and people can retreat north along the post road.
Especially for the people of Taiyuan who have not experienced formation training, the level of difficulty is completely different.
In addition, the Yunzhou Han Army Camp has a large amount of supplies including grain, clothing, etc.; based on grain alone, it is no problem to support the food of Taiyuan soldiers and civilians for one or two months.
To seize this batch of supplies, as long as Taiyuan soldiers and civilians can avoid the Lingjinggou Canyon in time, even if the passage to Lanzhou is blocked by a large group of Japanese soldiers, they still have a chance to climb over the high mountains at the western foot of Luliang Mountain and enter Fuzhou.
Of course, whether the Han army camp in Yunzhou can be captured in a night battle will also be the key to further deterring the enemy forces near Taiyuan.
Taiyuan's 100,000 soldiers and civilians are evacuating north of the city. Even if they are done in batches, the team will be greatly stretched.
It would be difficult for Xu Huai to provide comprehensive protection with just such a small number of elites in his hands. The enemy forces near Taiyuan are several times larger than theirs. At this time, even if they attack in separate groups, they may be able to easily withdraw their troops from the north.
The people were thrown into confusion.
Of course, the prerequisite for all this is that Xu Huai not only had to capture the Han army camp in Yunzhou, but he also had to capture it in a very short period of time, even if it was delayed for three to five days.
The military and civilians in Taiyuan are extremely weak as a whole, and it is far from possible for them to recover after just three to five full meals.
However, in addition to the 20,000 to 30,000 people who died in battle on the city walls and those who died after injuries due to lack of medical treatment, the main victims of hunger and disease were the old, weak, women and children with poor health.
More than half of the 100,000 soldiers and civilians left in Taiyuan are men ranging in age from ten to thirty or forty years old.
In addition to the stronger physical fitness of middle-aged men, another very important reason is that after falling into a very serious famine, every household basically gave priority to young men to eat the little food they had left.
.On the one hand, due to traditional use, young and strong men will receive more care. At the same time, a family also needs young and strong men to ensure a certain amount of physical strength in order to go out to find food.
It is not even ruled out that there are many people who secretly changed their sons and ate them.
With such a large base, Taiyuan City can still mobilize three to four thousand soldiers capable of participating in the battle.
Otherwise, Taiyuan would have been captured before the main force of the Chihu West Route Army moved south.
Xu Huai scheduled the attack on the Yunzhou Han Army camp on the next night, not earlier. The main reason was that it would take time to transfer the capable soldiers and war equipment from Taiyuan to the battlefield south of the South Gate of the Yunzhou Han Army camp.
Movement at night is more concealed.
And the time to attack the Han army camp in Yunzhou cannot be later.
Xu Huai mainly considered that Li Chulin, Yin Chao and other enemy generals should not be able to grasp the detailed information on their side. Only when the enemy is in a state of shock and panic, and dare not act rashly, can they have the best chance to attack Yunzhou Han.
The environment of the military camp.
If the delay continues and Li Chulin and Yin Chao are contacted to contact the Qing Shun Army and Zhennan Zong Palace to find out their true and false intentions, things will become more difficult.
At least they did not dare to mobilize all the capable soldiers from Taiyuan City to guard against the possibility that Yin Chao would launch a new offensive against Taiyuan City from the south.
In addition to the disadvantages in terms of military strength and the lack of time, Chushan Cavalry and Taiyuan Soldiers and Horses also have other advantages.
In addition to the ten trebuchets captured from the front fortress, the camp they stormed and the three camps abandoned by the enemy contained a large number of war equipment used by the enemy to storm Taiyuan City from the north - to storm Taiyuan City from the north, it was originally
The enemy's main attack direction.
These war weapons include more than a hundred shield carts, sidecars, iron pulleys, and ram carts, as well as dozens of building carts, city climbing carts, and dozens of three-bow crossbows.
There are also a batch of three-bow bed crossbows in Taiyuan City. In the past year-long city defense battle, these bed crossbows could not be used due to damage to bow strings and other accessories. At this time, the bow strings, crossbow arms and other accessories were replaced, and there were eight more
The bed crossbow can be put into use.
On the night when it was decided to storm the Han Army camp in Yunzhou, twelve tower carts and city boarding vehicles with a height of more than five or six feet were deployed to the south of the Han Army camp in Yunzhou. Each of the building vehicles and city boarding vehicles deployed two three-bow crossbows.
Early the next morning, a methodical offensive was launched against the Han army camp in Yunzhou.
At that time, trebuchets were all traction type. Each medium-sized trebuchet required thirty or fifty people to pull at the same time in order to smash the stone bullets and mud pellets into the enemy camp or enemy position. It needed to occupy a large space. In Yunzhou
Only eight aircraft could be deployed to the south of the Han army's camp, and irregular city bricks were thrown directly towards the enemy camp in an orderly manner.
The city bricks are irregular and there is no time to grind them into a spherical shape. Just throw them out with a trebuchet. Don't expect any accuracy at all.
The wall of the Han army camp in Yunzhou is only more than one foot high. In comparison, the building carriage and the city climbing carriage have the absolute advantage of being in a commanding position. At this time, several people need to lift the tail of the bed crossbow to launch it. Of course, there is no
How much precision is there?
However, there were nearly 20,000 defenders and hard laborers in the enemy camp that was 700 paces square, and the density was quite high.
At the same time, the enemy did not expect the Taiyuan defenders to be able to break through their second line of defense.
Therefore, the roofs of the military buildings of the Han Army camp in Yunzhou were not specially reinforced with bundled logs. They were mainly made of wooden frames covered with grass, and the rammed stone walls were also very thin; and the hard laborers were even crowded into shabby roofs.
The tents were very weak in resisting the bombardment of stone bullets, and even giant arrows shot by crossbows could easily pierce through them. Two to three hundred people were killed or injured in one day.
This is already a quite terrifying number. Even if it is far from causing the defenders to collapse, it is enough to make them stay in the camp in panic.
There is no excess grease in Taiyuan City, but in addition to preparing more dry firewood as fire starters, the offal and fat meat of the slaughtered mules and horses are also collected overnight, boiled into grease, and stored as fire starters for night battles.