Wuzhou was lost. This cannot be concealed. However, when Wuzhou was lost, it also caused great damage to the rebel army. Our soldiers fought very bravely. This is the key point and must be emphasized, again and again.
mentioned.
Then there is another point that must be emphasized, that is, Wuzhou was surrounded by enemy forces and had no friendly reinforcements. It faced numerous heavy artillery bombardments from the rebel army. The army of 100,000 kept attacking, but it still held on for more than a full month.
, in the end, because they were out of ammunition and food, and unable to defend themselves, our own army took the initiative to break through.
So the Battle of Wuzhou was not about the defenders being beaten and fleeing in panic, but a strategic retreat in order to preserve their strength. Well, the losses were greater during the retreat. Twenty thousand people died, and several thousand died.
Ten thousand people remain.
As for how the 50,000 defenders became 20,000, his first choice was to eliminate all the young and strong, so that only 30,000 were left. Then he also threw away some of the old, young and weak from the guard.
Guangdong's 10,000 reinforcements were also cut in half, said to be 5,000. Anyway, the court did not know how many people Wang Yue had recruited to defend Wuzhou City. Based on this calculation, the full force of Wuzhou's garrison was only about 20,000.
And how did the more than two thousand people who escaped become ten thousand people? It's simple. If you round it up, more than two thousand people will become three thousand people! Three thousand people will be rounded off again, and they will become five thousand, five thousand people.
If one thousand is rounded up, it would be nearly ten thousand people.
As long as you round up a few more times, more than 2,000 people will become nearly 10,000 people in a matter of minutes!
Besides, after he enters Guangdong, he will immediately recruit young men to supplement them, and he will be able to draw out a force of 10,000 people in a matter of minutes. By then, who knows how many of these 10,000 people were evacuated from Wuzhou and how many were temporary
Recruited!
Anyway, the sky is high and the emperor is far away. It is impossible for the adults in the capital to come to Wuzhou in person to find out how many people were killed, injured and how many people were evacuated during the Battle of Wuzhou. Even if they did find out, damn, do you believe the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi?
Is it Wang Yue's, or are you just relying on rumors from outside?
It is said outside that the puppet Tang rebel army has millions of elite soldiers. Do you believe it?
After explaining the situation of the Battle of Wuzhou, the next step is to say that they will lead the army back to Guangdong, and then use Zhaoqing and the cities along the Xijiang River to resist. At the same time, they will continue to wait for reinforcements from the imperial court, and prepare to go to Guangzhou and fight against the rebels.
Conduct a strategic decisive battle and annihilate the puppet Tang thief army under the walls of Guangzhou in one fell swoop!
After he put forward these key points, several of his staff began to think about how to write in detail word by word.
In order to write this battle report memorial, Wang Yue took out all the papers from that year's national examination and discussed with a group of staff all night. He waited until dawn before writing this battle report memorial.
It was written down.
Some of the words in it will probably make people who know the real war situation in Wuzhou drop their jaws!
Because there is no shortage of words such as heavy damage, annihilation of thieves, victory, victory, etc. If someone who is not aware of this reads this, they will think that the Ming army won the battle of Wuzhou. This is a good news report reporting the great victory of Wuzhou. Although the victory is a bit
Miserable, and for the sake of the overall subsequent strategy, Wuzhou was voluntarily abandoned.
After such a letter was sent, the big boss in the capital, Superintendent Zhang Yue, didn't know whether he believed it or not!
Not to mention that Wang Yue fled with the remaining defeated generals, and on the other side of Wuzhou City, Li Xuan failed to capture or kill Wang Yue and Wei Yan, two real senior officials of the Ming Dynasty, but the results of this battle were extremely great.
Satisfied.
In this battle, since the Western Front broke through first and caused the collapse of the Ming Army, the Eastern Front also broke through because of the Ming Army's defeat. After entering the city, the army first controlled the city wall, and then the frontline generals on the Eastern and Western Fronts executed Li
Xuan's pre-war order was to send troops to attack and defend the warehouses in the city immediately.
The Ming army in the city was defeated in a hurry and left even more hastily. Wang Yue and the others did not have time to order the troops to burn down the warehouses, let alone set fire to the city.
So after the troops of the Tang Dynasty King's Division successfully arrived and took control of the warehouse, what they saw was that many warehouses were filled with grain.
These were the grains that Wang Yue had worked hard to collect from the Guangdong and Guangxi areas and prepared for the tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians in Wuzhou City. It was enough to feed 100,000 people for half a year.
In the beginning, Wang Yue planned to hold on for at least half a year. Who would have thought that Wuzhou City could only hold on for half a month. Whether the extra food was burned or not, it would naturally be an advantage for the puppet Tang rebels.
When Li Xuan outside the city learned that the troops had seized a large amount of food, the depression that Wang Yue and other thousands of Ming troops had fled was instantly wiped away. He immediately sent someone to send a message to Hao Bainian and other senior generals that tonight he
Let’s have a big banquet for all the ministers and celebrate the achievements of all the soldiers!
Li Xuan was happy, and the generals below him were even happier. They won the battle and captured so much food. This at least meant that the troops would not be short of food for several months, and could even support the troops fighting in western Guangxi.
Part of the military rations for the three armies.
And more importantly, winning a battle represents military merit. After this battle, many people may be promoted or even knighted.
Before the war, Li Xuan had already let out the news in advance. This battle is related to the rise and fall of the country. If Wuzhou is successfully captured, I will not hesitate to reward you generously!
Promotion and promotion are certain!
Therefore, in the subsequent purge operations, a group of generals worked even harder!
Due to the large number of defeated soldiers in the city, although the Tang Dynasty King's Division controlled all the city gates and walls, as well as all major important locations in the city, the work of clearing out the remaining soldiers was still quite troublesome.
At night, there were still many Ming troops in the city who had broken up and resisted. For safety reasons, Li Xuan and a group of senior generals did not enter the city as soon as possible that day, but continued to stay in the camp outside the city.
That night, Li Xuan held a banquet and personally entertained the meritorious soldiers. Naturally, they drank and talked happily during the banquet. Because of this banquet, even the post-war statistical work and post-war discussions were moved to the next day!
The next day, after the continuous clearing operations yesterday and at night, the stubborn resistance of the Ming army in the city was basically eliminated. The Tang Dynasty King Division that entered the city deployed patrol troops at all important nodes, and began to
Searching from house to house, the Ming army collapsed.
After the city was breached, the defeated soldiers of the Ming army always liked to take off their military uniforms and hide in private houses. This happened to them many times, and the King of the Tang Dynasty also had experience.
All young and strong men are the target of suspicion. Anyone who resists slightly will be killed on the spot as if the Ming army has broken down!
After carefully identifying those who do not resist, if they are ordinary local people, they will naturally not be embarrassed. But if the Ming army is defeated, they will be taken away directly and put into prisoner of war camps.
Nowadays, the prisoner-of-war camp set up outside the city has already housed tens of thousands of prisoners of war in just one day, and more prisoners of war are constantly being found and thrown into the prisoner-of-war camp.
In the evening of the next day, the troops entering the city were controlled and the defeated Ming army in the city was basically eliminated. Well, by the way, many green-skinned hooligans who took the opportunity to cause trouble were also suppressed and eliminated. Today, the public security situation in Wuzhou City is the best in history.
, the good thing couldn’t be better.
That night, Li Xuan, who still had not entered the city, once again held a strategic meeting before the imperial court. In addition to hearing the battle report, more importantly, he discussed the next battle plan!
Wuzhou was won, but that doesn't mean that the progress of the Tang Dynasty King will stop here!
In the eastern part of Guizhou, 30,000 Ming troops have entered Xingquan Prefecture. Although there has been no military report yet, it can be guessed that the fight over Xingquan Prefecture must be very difficult.
In addition, after moving south to Wuzhou, they also need to go east along the Xijiang River to Guangdong as soon as possible, and seize Zhaoqing, Guangzhou, Foshan and other places in a victorious pursuit. The local Ming army must gather a large number of troops to defend Zhaoqing and Guangzhou to avoid Wuzhou again.
Attack the enemy.
Although the results of the Battle of Wuzhou were great, the Tang Dynasty's royal division also suffered considerable casualties. The statement in Wang Yue's booklet about killing numerous thieves was really not a boast.
The Battle of Wuzhou can be said to be the one in which the Royal Army of the Tang Dynasty suffered the heaviest casualties among the many battles it experienced.
Among them, the third garrison brigade was completely crippled, with more than one-third of its personnel reduced. This means that only the third garrison brigade, the Tang Dynasty King's Division, suffered two thousand casualties!
Coupled with the losses of other troops, the total loss figure will be an extremely huge number.
So that night, Li Xuan and a group of senior generals listened to Zeng Ziwen, the director of the Operations Department, talking about the losses suffered by the enemy and us. They all looked grim. Even when they heard that the Ming army had killed over 10,000 people and captured nearly 20,000 people,
Moreover, the large amounts of food and ordnance seized, including more than a dozen cannons weighing hundreds of kilograms, failed to make them smile.
This kind of huge casualties is not only for ordinary soldiers, but also for officers. Take the third garrison brigade as an example. The commander of the fifth garrison regiment was killed. One of the five battalion commanders below was killed and two were injured. The captain was killed and six were injured.
More than ten people.
Listening to Zeng Ziwen talking about familiar names being killed or injured one after another, these people couldn't be happy!
Even though he was mentally prepared, Li Xuan was still shocked when he heard the final casualty figures!
In this battle, a total of more than 1,200 regular troops of the Tang Dynasty King's Division were killed and more than 800 were slightly injured. The seriously injured were not counted separately because most of the seriously injured did not survive the post-war statistics.
When counting post-war losses, there are often only battle deaths and minor injuries!
Adding up the battle deaths and minor injuries, the regular army casualties in each department were 2,000. This number was almost several times higher than in usual large-scale battles!
In addition, the casualties of the garrison were even more severe. The 3rd garrison brigade was crippled, with 2,000 casualties, and the 5th garrison also suffered about 1,000 casualties. The combined total of the two resulted in more than 3,000 casualties.
In other words, in this battle, the total casualties of the Tang Dynasty King Division reached more than 5,000!