Four hundred and fortieth chapters capture the city
By the end of November, Chizhou, a majestic and majestic city famous for thousands of years, was beaten beyond recognition by both warring parties.
Large areas of city bricks were bombarded by Cyclone Crossbow stone bullets for more than 20 days, and large areas collapsed and peeled off. The exposed rammed earth walls were also covered with branch-like cracks and looked desolate.
There are collapsed gaps everywhere in the city wall, which have long been soaked with the blood of generals from both sides.
There were broken swords, bows, halberds, and spears everywhere under the city wall, and there were countless broken arrows.
In the haste, there were still corpses that had not been cleaned up, and the remaining bricks and debris were filled in the gaps, or there were one or two severed arms protruding from the wooden fence wall, which was so hideous.
Chizhou City borders the Yangtze River to the north, Qitian Lake to the east, and the remaining mountains extending from Mount Jiuhua to the river to the south. The city is high and dangerous, but the rebel army along the river and the Jiangxi rebel army have 120,000 to 30,000 troops, but they are
There is not enough open battlefield space to spread out.
In addition to approaching the city from the west, the siege troops and horses can only force their way in from the official post road in the southwest corner, insert themselves into the open and narrow valley two or three miles between the northern foot of Qijing Mountain and Chizhou, and launch an offensive against the south gate of Chizhou.
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The attacks in these two directions were along the river, with the Jiangxi army in charge. Then, the Five Tooth Army navy warships sent part of the soldiers of the army along the river to the North City Gate near the river and the Qitian Lake.
The east gate attracted the attention of the defenders.
The number of Chizhou garrison increased to more than 40,000 before the war, and the commander was changed to Wen Bo, son of Wen Muqiao.
In his early years, Wen Muqiao was the military supervisor of the Huainan Jiedu Envoy. Although he was a civil servant, he knew military affairs.
Emperor Tianyou rose to power across the Yangtze River and Huaihe Rivers, commanding his troops to conquer all directions. Wen Muqiao assisted Empress Xu in guarding the rear, and they fought many tough battles over the years.
Although Wen Bo and other descendants of the Wen family did not have as great military exploits as Li Yu, Zhang Wei, Du Chongtao and others, they had guarded the city with their father since childhood, resisting the attacks of powerful vassals. When it came to defending the city, Zhang Wei was not mentioned at all.
, under such famous generals as Du Chongtao.
However, considering that the Nanya Forbidden Army guarding Chizhou was disorganized and morale was low, no one thought that it would be too difficult to capture Chizhou.
The Zuo Que Army expanded to more than 25,000 before the war, but Li Zhi used the Zuo Long Que Army as the main force and attacked the two cities of Chiwu and Xunyang in Jiangzhou as quickly as possible, and attacked Xunyang on the banks of the Hengjin River.
When they entered the city, they also fought two tough battles.
Especially in the battle where Li Zhigao captured Jiangzhou warrior Zhong Yanhu on the banks of the Hengjin River, Zuo Longqiao's casualties were higher than those of Zhong Yanhu's troops. In addition, they stormed Xunyang City and killed and wounded more than 14,000 enemy soldiers twice.
Although the total casualties of Zuo Longque Army exceeded 7,000, it was much larger than Yang Zhitang's Jiangxi Recruitment Army responsible for attacking Pengze City from the west bank of Poyang Lake.
Although the Zuolongque Army is an elite force that has fought a hundred battles, with such a high casualty ratio, it is difficult for them to engage in the next fierce battle without stopping, and they must rest and recuperate.
In addition to the wounded soldiers who need to recuperate, more new soldiers need to be transferred from the rear counties and counties to add to the camp for training.
Besides, Yang Zhitang and Zheng Yu, as the envoys of the two armies, could not just sit back and watch all the scenery go to Li Zhigao.
Therefore, when actually organizing the attack on Chizhou, Zuo Longque's army did not push directly to the city of Chizhou in the early stage. Instead, they stayed in Pengze City to rest and recuperate. They mainly used Jiangxi recruiting troops and state soldiers recruited from various states in Hunan to advance to the city and take turns to attack the city.
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The gap between the main elite and the local troops was completely reflected at this time.
In addition to the Wuya Army Navy blocking the Yangtze River waterway and blocking the Louchuan Army Navy's warships from upstream to reinforce Chizhou, they did not have the energy and combat power to participate in the cooperation. Eighty thousand people, led by local soldiers and horses, took turns attacking Chizhou, and the whole battle was
In twenty days, a large number of siege weapons were lost, and more than 20,000 soldiers and horses were killed and wounded, but they were still unable to enter the city.
The principle of one rising and the other falling is applicable everywhere. The Yueyang soldiers and horses took turns for more than 20 days, but they failed to break the morale of the defenders. On the contrary, the defenders saw that there was hope of repelling the Yueyang soldiers and horses.
, military morale and morale became increasingly strong.
After the navy of the Louchuan Army headed by Yang Jian, Marquis of Zhenyuan, was unable to build new ships due to a shortage of supplies, they fought water wars more cautiously. At first, they only carried out small-scale harassment from downstream to upstream.
After seeing that Yueyang's troops and horses were weak in the attack on Chizhou, the naval forces of the Louchuan Army were prosperous from the lower reaches, and the dispatch of water fortresses in the direction of Tongling became more and more frequent. In the later period, hundreds of large and small warships were organized to rush to Qitian Lake.
, and frequently fought with the Wuya military water warships at the mouth of Qitian Lake.
After the Five Tooth Army navy united with the water camps in the states of Poyang Lake, its warships and men and horses were larger than those of the Lou Chuan Army. However, whether it was ordinary generals, middle and lower-level military attaches, or even high-level generals commanding operations, they lacked the breadth of space.
With the experience of large-scale water battles on the water surface, they were defeated in several battles. In the end, they were suppressed by the navy of the Louchuan Army, and they could only huddle up and defend in Qitian Lake east of Chizhou City.
This is because the Guangde Army reversed the situation in Xuanzhou too quickly and too suddenly. A large number of soldiers and horses gathered together. It was difficult to adapt to the rhythm of bloody sieges and water battles in a short period of time, let alone accumulate tactical skills step by step.
Advantage.
An existence like the Chishan Army that can form a powerful combat force in a short period of time is, after all, an exception.
Zheng Yu and Yang Zhitang saw that the situation was not good, so they had no choice but to hand over the command of the battlefield to Li Zhigao, mobilized the Zuo Longque Army who had rested and replenished new soldiers, launched a strong attack on Chizhou from the west, and used Xuzhou to create new fortunes.
Hundreds of whirlwind crossbows came over and were assembled in front of the city to suppress the defenders. After three days of storming, the west city gate was captured.
However, the defenders did not collapse.
Under the command of General Wen Bo, during the stalemate offensive and defensive battles in the past more than 20 days, not only the sewage channels in the city were connected as a defensive inner wall, but also the narrow streets near Beicheng Shuiguan, state offices and other sturdy buildings were used
Enclosed by a palisade wall, a simple inner city was formed to resist stubbornly and make the final resistance.
Li Zhigao mobilized thousands of generals into the city and fought with the defenders in every street and alley. It was not until the end of the month that he completely occupied Chizhou, which had been completely crippled. However, he still watched the defender Wen Bo helplessly.
He led more than 3,000 remaining soldiers to break out from Shuiguan in Beicheng, joined the navy of the Louchuan Army and fled towards the lower reaches of the Yangtze River.
In the battle to capture Chizhou, the combined casualties of the Jiangsu Recruitment Army and the Jiangxi Recruitment Army exceeded 40,000, which was even higher than that of the defenders who were believed to have low morale and weak combat power before the war. It was somewhat disconcerting.
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However, after the capture of Chizhou City, the defenders of Tongling and Fanchang fled in panic to Caishi City, an important town east of the Shuiyang River Estuary. This also meant that the main force of Yueyang marched eastward to Jinling and opened the channel to join the Guangde army.
This is still a crucial victory for Yueyang.
Li Zhigao stood in front of the relatively intact North City Gate Tower, looking towards the mouth of Qitian Lake in the northeast corner. The sunken warships and the remaining masts were exposed on the vast water. Although the final glory belonged to him, he still felt sad in his heart.
The heavy casualties were secretly shocking and depressing.
"The Marquis captured Nanling two days earlier than here, but the battle was not easy. In order to preserve his strength this time, Han Qian's Zuo Guang German army did not dispatch at all..." Deng Tai climbed up to the city gate tower and took Li Pu from Nanling.
The messenger was sent to bring them over and report the details of the Youguangde army's attack on Nanling City under Han Qian's order.
Deng Tai's tone was also very accusatory towards Han Qian. Li Zhigao naturally knew why Deng Tai had such a subtle change. He sighed slightly in his heart and just said lightly: "I understand."
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At this moment, Li Pu stood at the head of Nanling City, feeling somewhat high-spirited.
They successfully captured Nanling City two days ago, but it was not an easy fight.
Mainly Li Pu and Gu Zhilong also wanted to preserve their own strength as much as possible in the early stage, so they first sent state soldiers from Hangzhou and Xiuzhou to attack Nanling City.
The Xiu Hangzhou soldiers may not be weak in defending the city, but whether they are the soldiers and horsemen who directly lead the troops or the grassroots military attachés, there are very few people who have participated in siege operations.
Since they came all the way, apart from simple ladders, they were not equipped with large siege equipment, and there were no craftsmen who could make large siege equipment with them.
They suddenly attacked the city as the main force. How could the siege progress smoothly?
Li Pu and Gu Zhilong were eager to achieve success again and urged them urgently. Soldiers and horses from the two states gathered under the city, and they also bravely raised ladders to attack the city.
Although the city of Nanling is not large and cannot be said to be high risk, there are only more than 5,000 defenders in the city, and less than half of the Nanya Imperial Guards. The rest are mostly county soldiers or forcibly recruited civilians. Supplies are scarce and the generals are distracted.
Morale was low, but even so, the soldiers and horses of Xiu and Hangzhou were in panic and attacked for several days, suffering heavy casualties, and were even attacked by the defenders who came out of the city to fight back twice.
If Li Qi hadn't led the elite troops to supervise the formation nearby, and both times he used his personal bravery to lead a small number of elite troops to defeat the defenders who had withdrawn from the city, the local troops in the two states would have been almost defeated.
Gu Zhilong and Li Xiu saw that the morale and combat effectiveness of the local state soldiers were too low. They ignored the objections of Wu Zun, the governor of Hangzhou, and Chen Fan, the governor of Xiuzhou. They decided to dismantle the Xiu Hangzhou soldiers, select the best from them, strengthen the unified command of the Youguang German Army, and then unite the remaining soldiers.
The old and weak soldiers will be organized into auxiliary soldiers, responsible for the construction of siege equipment, the construction of trenches and walls, and the transportation of grain and fodder, etc., to slow down the pace of siege.
After that, they established a foothold outside Nanling City.
After building a batch of siege equipment, Li Pu and Gu Zhilong mobilized the Youguangde army and took turns attacking the city step by step, gradually eroding the will of the defenders to fight. Only two days before the fall of Chizhou city, they were able to completely attack the city.
Annihilate the Nanling garrison and capture Nanling City at a relatively small cost.
This battle seemed to have a lot of casualties, but they were mainly concentrated in the local troops and horses from Xiuzhou and Hangzhou. After the Youguangde army absorbed the strength of the Hangxiuzhou soldiers, the generals were tempered in the siege war, and their combat power was still considerable.
The enhancement - this is also the key reason why Li Pu stood in front of the city gate tower in high spirits at this time.
Facing the calculations of Li Pu and Gu Zhilong, although the officials of Xiuhang and Hangzhou felt unhappy, they saw that the final victory was just around the corner. When the time came, they would be indispensable for official appointments and honors, and they did not care about the harm to the local children.
