Chapter five hundred and fifty-fifth welcome the Daming Wang Shi
In Xingquan Mansion City, Wang Shanxu looked at the report in his hand with a sad face and said nothing for a long time.
Although he was illiterate before, he has been struggling to read and write for more than a year. Naturally, he cannot write this article. He even does not recognize many words, but he can still understand simple written reports.
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The content of this report is very simple. It is a report on the supplies stored in the city.
It is said that food is no longer enough for the entire city's population for ten days, but other ordnance supplies are still sufficient, especially consumable supplies such as ammunition and bows and arrows, because during the initial evacuation, in order to ensure the safety of the defenders in eastern Guizhou
As for the supply of ammunition, there are still small-scale ammunition and bow and arrow workshops in the city. Although after the siege, the source of raw materials has been cut off and production can only rely on the original raw materials, but this is enough for the defenders in the city.
After all, the guns and weapons in the city are no longer full. There are only 500 muskets, and the artillery is only one 800-jin heavy cannon, more than a dozen 150-jin battalion cannons, and a hundred captured from the Ming army.
A pound of bowl-mouthed cannon.
Although the workshops in the city have stopped working, they still have enough ammunition and a lot of arrows.
As for cold weapons, with the Ming Army as the captain of the transport brigade, the Tang Dynasty has never been short of cold weapons. It's just that the cold weapons have less armor and the quality of the swords is worse, but they can still be used reluctantly.
The key now is not the lack of ordnance and ammunition, but the lack of food.
As early as a few days ago, Wang Shanxu had ordered that the entire city's food be collected and uniformly distributed by the military, but the food collected was not much.
This is not because those big households are unwilling to hand over the grain. Under the pressure of the military, those big households don't have the courage to hide large amounts of grain secretly. Of course, large amounts of grain cannot be hidden. The city is only so big, but people
There must be some rations hidden secretly for personal use.
The military can't force this too much. These big households keep their own rations, but the excess must be sold to the military.
However, even so, there is not much food collected. The city has been besieged for two months, and the food in the city is fixed. Big households will not hoard large amounts of food for no reason, and many people sell it privately at high prices in the early stage.
A batch of grain was obtained, but now there is not much grain left.
Putting away the report in his hand, Wang Shanxu looked up at the group of officers below, and then said: "Now that the food and grass are enough for less than ten days, do you have any strategies?"
At this time, a captain next to him said: "Captain, why don't we just break out of the encirclement? Now we still have four thousand men to fight, and we have enough ammunition to break out of the encirclement!"
But as soon as he said these words, a major next to him retorted: "Wouldn't the breakout play into the hands of the puppet Ming thieves? They have ambushed a heavy army outside the city. Now, less than half of our four thousand people are from the regular army.
The combat effectiveness is acceptable, but the combat effectiveness of the garrison is worse. If it is a breakout operation, it will have to rely heavily on the combat effectiveness of the Fourth Infantry Regiment. Using 2,000 people to fight 40,000 to 50,000 people is not a breakout, it is suicide.
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"Yes, breaking out is not feasible. Let's not talk about whether we can successfully fight out. But our military can break out, but what about the tens of thousands of people in the city? Most of them are loyal people who think like me, the Tang Dynasty. If the city is broken,
At that time, how could the puppet Ming army let them go?"
Xingquan Fucheng used to be the temporary capital of the Tang Dynasty, but it has undergone major changes. Most of the die-hard elements in the city have been cleared out or restrained and relocated, and the rest are cooperating people. In addition, there are still a large number of people and large groups.
People with close ties to the Tang Dynasty stayed here. In the eyes of the Ming Dynasty, these people were all rebels.
At the beginning of the Ming army's attack on the city, they said that if the defenders surrendered, it would be easy, but if they refused to surrender, then there would be no chickens or dogs left when the city was broken.
Don't think that the Ming army didn't dare to do this. They really did, and they did it in Zhengtai County!
Zhengtai County was the place of Longxing of the Tang Dynasty, and most of the senior officials of the Tang Dynasty were from Zhengtai. After the Ming Dynasty conquered it, they naturally wanted to kill them. After the initial attempt to persuade them to surrender failed, the Ming army stormed the city.
After the city was broken, more than a thousand defenders and more than 3,000 civilians who were stationed in the city were massacred, and no one survived.
Fortunately, before the Ming army launched a large-scale attack, the defenders had already conducted a large-scale evacuation of Zhengtai County. A large number of pro-Tang people were arranged to evacuate to Liping Mansion through various mountain roads and trails. Later, Liping Mansion became unsafe, and some
They even retreated to Liuzhou Prefecture.
Originally, Xingquan Mansion also carried out a large-scale retreat, but the population of Xingquan Mansion was larger, and those who retreated in the early stage were craftsmen, officials and their families. However, when they were halfway through the retreat, the Ming army came over.
Fortunately, most of the craftsmen have been evacuated before. Otherwise, Liuzhou Arsenal and several other arsenals may not be able to start production now!
However, even these people who remain in the city cannot give up easily unless they have to!
Of course, the main reason why this group of officers said they could not retreat was not because of the ordinary people in the city who could not give up unless absolutely necessary. The fourth level meaning of this was that they could give up under certain circumstances, such as to defend the city.
The army successfully broke through.
But wanting to break through and being able to break through are two different things!
"If we don't break out, is it possible to stay in the city and wait to die?" At this time, someone said again: "The reinforcements are still coming, and our army's food is almost exhausted. If we continue to wait like this, we don't know how many people will starve to death."
Woolen cloth!"
"Why don't the reinforcements come? The commander of the army has already led his troops to perform their best. Although the first rescue operation failed, as long as the friendly forces of the second army are given some rest and replenishment, they will definitely be able to open up the rescue channel!"
"In addition, wasn't there news some time ago that the Fourth Army in Guilin has begun to move north? When the Fourth Army arrives, are you still afraid of these pseudo-Ming traitor troops in front of you?"
"If the Fourth Army went north, these pseudo-Ming rebels in the city could still besiege the city so comfortably, and they would have withdrawn their troops long ago. From this, it can be seen that it is probably too early for the Fourth Army to go north!"
Listening to a group of people under his command arguing and arguing, Wang Shanxu was also upset!
He wanted to break out of the encirclement, and he had already done so. As early as a month ago, he tried to command the troops to break out of the encirclement. However, as soon as the forward troops left the city, they were intercepted by the Ming army's overwhelming superiority. In the end, they could only be helpless.
Return with success.
Originally, I wanted to wait for a few days to rest and then think of a way to break out, but I thought there were more and more Ming troops!
When the Second Army headquarters came to rescue before, because the communication channels were cut off, the defenders in the city did not know that the Second Army was launching an attack. If they had known, they would have cooperated and launched a counterattack.
So he rushed out.
But the problem is that he doesn't know, because Xingquan City was tightly surrounded by the Ming army. The Ming army didn't even use the strategy of surrounding three enemies, but directly surrounded it on all sides.
In this case, even if you send fast horses to break out, you still need to plan carefully. Even so, there is a high possibility of being intercepted by the Ming army.
Wang Shanxu didn't know that during the last siege rescue operation, Fang Xitong sent an envoy to Xingquan Fucheng in an attempt to get the defenders to cooperate in the battle. However, the envoy was intercepted and killed by the Ming army before they entered the city, and there was no success at all.
After sending the news, Wang Shanxu didn't get the information until a few days later that the Second Army headquarters had come to rescue and failed. Moreover, this was learned from the letter of persuasion to surrender sent in by the Ming army through archery.
The first breakout operation failed, and the Second Army headquarters failed to cooperate with the counterattack when it came to the rescue. After the Second Army headquarters failed and returned to Liping Mansion, Wang Shanxu could only continue to defend.
As for continuing to break out of the encirclement, Wang Shanxu knew very well that the possibility was slim. It would be difficult for such a group of defeated soldiers under his command to break through and leave alone. With these four thousand remaining soldiers, there were only two of them.
The regular army of less than a thousand people wants to rush out. You are a fool to think that the Ming army of 40,000 to 50,000 people outside the city is a fool!
So after thinking hard, I can only continue to wait passively. On the one hand, I ordered to save food as much as possible. We cannot provide sufficient supply to the whole city as before. Food supply must ensure the front-line combat troops as much as possible.
Rations, and this guarantee is also very different from the past. In the past, the regular army's food was enough to satisfy three meals a day, but now, even the soldiers of the regular army can only eat two meals a day, and one of them is porridge.
In addition, the young men who can help defend the city can also eat some dry food. As for the others, sorry, they can only eat a little porridge every day to barely stay hungry.
There is no way, there is only so much food, and if everyone eats it with open stomachs, they will not be able to survive the arrival of reinforcements.
Only the devil knows when the reinforcements will arrive. It may be three to five days, it may be ten days and a half month, or it may be a month later. As for if they don’t come after a month, then don’t come, because no matter how hard you save food,
, these grains cannot last until a month later.
By then, the soldiers and civilians in the city will surely starve to death. Even if they don't starve to death, they will probably surrender.
Don't overestimate the loyalty of the officers and soldiers of the Tang Dynasty. For the mid-level and senior officers and civil servants among them, surrender is impossible, because the Ming Dynasty cannot let go of those who rebelled, let alone
It is said that many of these middle and senior officers were actually former generals of the Ming Army.
When the Imperial Guard of the Tang Dynasty captured so many Ming troops, there were many middle and low-level officers of the Ming army who surrendered to the Tang Dynasty.
But the fact that the middle and high-level generals and civilian officials are unwilling to surrender does not mean that the ordinary soldiers are unwilling to surrender!
Now the situation can barely be maintained. Although we don't have enough to eat, we still have enough to eat. When the food is completely exhausted, it will probably be the time for the entire army to collapse. By then, the soldiers will probably dare to kill Wang Shanxu and open the door in order to survive.
The city gate welcomes Master Ming Dynasty!
So now Wang Shanxu is praying that whether it is the reinforcements from the Second Army Headquarters or the Fourth Army, it is best to arrive within half a month, and at the latest it must be within twenty days, otherwise the situation will worsen.
To the point where he was completely out of control.
And where are the reinforcements that Wang Shanxu has been waiting for, especially the new Fourth Army?
They are in Jingzhou, to be precise, they have just entered Jingzhou!