The early morning mist has not yet dispersed, and the military camp is already busy.
In the early morning, Zhang Yin personally led 500 cavalry around the city, confirming the news that all the rebels had withdrawn.
In the middle of the night yesterday, the rebels began to evacuate in large numbers. Two troops were sent to monitor the movements of the Beijing camp on the flanks. The scouts of the Beijing camp also spied on the news. Under Zhang Yanling's instruction, they did not harass the rebels, but allowed the rebels to retreat.
Evacuate.
Naturally, the generals still have some opinions on this. The rebels evacuated from the city, which was a good opportunity to attack them, but the Marquis allowed them to leave. Is this not letting the tiger go back to the mountain? Could it be that the Marquis has a Madonna heart attack and is unwilling to cause more killings?
evil?
But in fact, what they don't understand is that the rebels outside the city are much more difficult to deal with than the rebels trapped in the city. After all, the opponent's number is twice that of their own. If they really open up to fight outside the city, the victory of the Beijing camp's soldiers and horses is certain.
Yes, but a huge price must be paid.
The rebels trapped in the city were burdened with the shackles of not wanting to lose the city, which instead put them in a situation where they were passively beaten. They became the target of firearms attacks. Fighting in the wilderness was a mess, and that was not a good thing.
Artillery is naturally very powerful when attacking fortresses and hitting fixed targets, but it is not very powerful in field battles. If it is caught in a melee, artillery cannot move quickly and becomes a liability.
If you still have 5,000 cavalry in your hands, you have nothing to fear. If you have large groups of cavalry charging in and out, it will be difficult for the opponent to resist.
However, Zhang Yanling's plan is not to fight this army to the death. A larger enemy is in the south. It is not the time to fight decisively. Right now, it is necessary to drive the opponent out of the city and gather them like cattle.
The army encircled them and trapped them in one place. At that time, the final decisive battle was carried out and the victory was completed in one battle.
What's more, a seed planted by Zhang Yanling has sprouted. Zhang Yanling believes that it is not a good idea to force Zhao Sui to a dead end. Maybe letting him join forces with Liu Liuyang Hu and the others will yield different gains.
After all, Liu Qi is dead.
At the time of reception, news was delivered that Jiang Bin, Xu Tai and others had captured Hejian Mansion the night before yesterday. What was also delivered was the status of the casualties.
The three frontier guards and horses suffered more than 30% casualties, which was extremely tragic. Moreover, Jiang Bin captured Hejian Mansion at the last whistle, which shows what a difficult siege they had gone through in the past two days.
However, this also made Zhang Yanling look at Jiang Bin with admiration. Although this guy hugged Liu Jin's thigh, he was still a bit fierce in fighting. However, to attack a Hejian Mansion with only 10,000 rebels stationed, he gave him so much
Even with so many siege equipment, there were so many casualties and the battle was so difficult. That was not because the enemy was so powerful, but because the leader did not plan well and only knew how to attack blindly.
Once this kind of attack on a fortified city is carried out, heavy casualties are inevitable.
Jiang Bin is brave and resourceless, and cannot be put to much use. Apart from a ruthless spirit, the rest is nothing more than this. This may be a bad habit developed in fighting in border towns.
After all, what is needed to fight against the Tatars is ruthlessness. Because the Tatars are ruthless, you must be even more ruthless to defeat them. The Tatars like to attack head-on, so the border troops need to confront them head-on.
Even if the cost is heavy, the capture of Hejian Mansion will be a good thing for the overall situation of countering the rebellion. After the flanking areas are cleared, the overall idea of outflanking and decisive battle can be completed.
Zhang Yanling immediately ordered people to praise and encourage them, and ordered them to rest for two days, clean up the remaining enemies in the counties and cities under the jurisdiction of Hejian Prefecture, and then outflank them from the east to the south to join his own army.
Zhang Yanling also immediately reported to the court the success of recovering Hejian Prefecture and Baoding Prefecture. Zhu Houzhao also breathed a sigh of relief. Although it had only been less than ten days since the expedition, Zhu Houzhao had already sent people to inquire many times.
…
Just when Zhang Yanling led his troops into Baoding Prefecture, a fierce siege battle was unfolding in Shunde Prefecture in the south.
After formulating the strategy of dividing their troops and going south in early March, Liu Chong and Yang Hu led an army of 50,000 to attack south. In just three days, they captured Zhending Mansion, formerly guarded by Shenwu Zhongwei.
There were more than 3,000 defenders in Zhending Prefecture, and nearly 5,000 people in total were trained by the government and police officers. Under the leadership of Li Quan, the prefect of Zhending Prefecture, and Ning Gao, the anti-theft censor, they fought with the 50,000 rebels who were attacking the city.
.
Originally, although the number of soldiers and horses defending the city was not large, it was not impossible to defend the city with the help of the fortified city. The prefect Li Quan also made preparations early and closed it after learning that Baoding Prefecture had fallen.
No one is allowed to enter or leave the city gate of Zhending Mansion, lest the rebels disguise themselves as refugees and sneak into the city to act as internal agents.
Moreover, because Zhending Mansion is the headquarters of Shenlong Zhongwei, it has a large amount of combat materials. Shenlong Zhongwei is the military force under the control of the Chinese Army Dudu Mansion and has a large amount of powerful equipment. There are two general cannons installed at the top of the city.
Twelve. There are also several cannons in the warehouse that are close to the limit of firing times and need to be scrapped. There are also more than ten crossbows and countless bow and arrow supplies.
With so many powerful weapons and supplies to defend the city, it stands to reason that they can make the rebels who have no means of attacking the city suffer.
However, that was not the case. After the siege began, people in the city soon joined forces to cause trouble and started causing trouble in the city.
The reason is naturally caused by the previous Ma Zheng and the New Land Deal. The anti-theft censor Shi Ninggao was sent by Liu Jin to suppress the people. It was his arrival that caused the local governments to block the intersections and search and capture the fleeing people.
He committed all kinds of crimes including torture, insult, and blackmail. This person has long been hated by the people of Zhending Mansion.
The rebels outside were victorious one after another, making a great noise. The people in Zhending Mansion were also worried and had some thoughts in their hearts. Ning Gao conducted another round of searches in Zhending Mansion, arrested some people who spread the news about the rebels, and beat them as
The thieves work carefully.
After this operation, everyone hated Ning Gao and wanted to eat his flesh and drink his blood.
The rebel army attacked the city, soldiers and horses went to the city to defend it, and the security in the city was empty. At this time, what are you waiting for if you don't start a riot? When the defenders at the top of the city resisted the enemy and defended the city, a fire broke out in the backyard, and the city became riotous.
At this time, there were not many soldiers and horses in the first place, but now they had to allocate manpower to suppress the public order in the city. They paid attention to both ends and failed to take care of both ends. They only lasted for three days, to be precise, only two days and three nights. It was really
Dingfu was captured. The people in the city killed the policemen patrolling the city and opened the east gate. A group of rebel troops broke into the city and the city was broken.
Ning Gao paid the price for what he had done. He was captured by the rebels and executed in the street. A large number of people watched, smiling as if they were celebrating a festival.
The cruelty of the common people was also outrageous. Someone specially set up a salt water basin. The rebels cut Ning Gao's hand with a knife, and the common people sprinkled salt water on Ning Gao's wound. The cut meat was soaked in the salt water and someone chewed it.
After eating, Ning Gao was left with only a skeleton.
Following the practice in Baoding Prefecture, Liu Liu, Yang Hu and others ordered all the land to be given to the people, opened warehouses to release grain, and took a series of measures. The people of Zhending Prefecture regarded Liu Liu and others as saviors and gods.
Liu Liu spent two days expanding his army in Zhending Mansion and obtained another 10,000 young men. He loaded the captured siege weapons and a large amount of combat supplies into trucks and continued southward.
In the next ten days or so, officials from all the prefectures, counties, cities and towns they passed fled. The local regiments' training troops either surrendered, surrendered or fled, and they were invincible.
It was not until they arrived at Shunde Mansion a few days ago that this momentum was curbed. There were a large number of imperial officers and soldiers stationed in Shunde Mansion, which became a roadblock to Liu Liu and Yang Hu's army.
There were not many soldiers and horses in Shunde Prefecture. There were only two thousand-household offices with more than 2,000 people, plus some local regiments to train and serve as miscellaneous soldiers, only 3,500 people. But when the two guards and horses who came north from Kaifeng Prefecture arrived at Shunde Prefecture.
, Zhang Yanling just gave the order to stop going north and stick to the city.
Therefore, more than 13,000 soldiers and horses from Kaifeng Prefecture were stationed on the spot. The location of Shunde Prefecture happened to be the only way to Henan. It was also a barrier for Guangping Prefecture and Daming Prefecture below. Guangping Prefecture and Daming Prefecture
They also mobilized more than 4,000 soldiers and horses and a large amount of supplies to Shunde Prefecture to participate in the defense of the city.
In this way, the number of soldiers and horses stationed in Shunde Mansion, a small city, reached 20,000 in a few days.
After the battle began, more than 60,000 rebels took turns attacking the city, with cannons rumbling above and below the city and shouts of killing. By the end of the day, both sides suffered heavy casualties.
The low city wall of Shunde Prefecture was broken through several times, but was recaptured several times. Although the rebels had many troops, they lacked combat skills, practical experience, powerful siege weapons, and could not get internal response. Therefore, they encountered tenacious resistance and
loss.
The two sides fought many times in the meat grinder-like area of the North City Wall, with as many as 4,000 casualties. The rebels alone suffered more than 800 casualties and nearly 2,000 wounded. The defenders also suffered 1,000 casualties.
Remain.
Both sides understand one thing, that is, this battle is related to the overall situation. The rebels need to open an exit to the south. Once the enemies here are annihilated, there will be no restraints going south. The world is vast, and the rebels can run freely north of the Yellow River.
If it cannot be won, the grand strategy of going south will be in vain and the rebels will be trapped in Hebei.
For the defenders of Shunde Prefecture, the order of the Pingtai General was very clear: block the thieves' southward march at all costs and delay the arrival of the imperial army.
Neither side will give up because it's a matter of life and death.
The next day, the fierce battle continued. The rebels launched five sieges in one day, with more than 5,000 casualties on both sides.
The third day was an even more tragic day, with the number of casualties on both sides reaching the peak. On this day, the number of casualties on both sides reached nearly 7,000. Looking at the battlefield, the two sides were entangled and fighting up and down the city wall, and both sides were red-eyed.
.There was no plan at all and we fell into a melee.
The rebel soldiers also had no regard for life and death, because there were too many dead people and too many sights of flesh and blood and body parts, and they became numb. They attacked completely mechanically, wave after wave, without stopping at all.
By dusk, the North City wall was completely broken. Yang Hu took the lead and personally attacked the city wall, captured it and stood firm. After that, the battle was no longer suspense. The number of officers and soldiers in the city was less than 10,000, and it was no longer possible to contain the rebel attack.
Momentum. As a large number of rebels poured into the city at dark, the Battle of Shunde Mansion finally came to an end.
In this battle, the rebels killed more than 3,000 people and injured more than 6,000 people. The defenders died in more than 2,000 people and injured 3,000 people. Two thousand people were captured. The rest of the troops escaped from Nancheng. After this great battle
, up and down the northern wall of Shunde City, not a single brick or stone was clean, they were all soaked in blood. Corpses were piled up like mountains, like a hell.
Liu Liu and Yang Hu had no time to be happy because just when the battle was over, they received a series of bad news from the north.
Hejian Mansion was captured.
Baoding Prefecture was captured.
Compared with the loss of the two cities, what shocked Liu Liu even more was that his younger brother Liu Chen was beheaded outside the north gate of Baoding Mansion.