This siege of Nanchang once again proved with facts that relying on ordinary guard soldiers and young men recruited temporarily could not stop the Tang Army, and even the most basic resistance could not be achieved.
However, it is precisely because the majority of the defenders in Nanchang City are guardsmen, and at least a small number are local recruits, that the Fourth Mixed Regiment was able to capture Nanchang City so smoothly!
If these more than 10,000 people are governors and frontier troops, then the fourth mixed regiment will not be so easy. I am afraid it is still unclear whether it can capture Nanchang.
In Luling City, Ji'an, faced with a fierce attack by 30,000 Tang troops and more than a hundred artillery pieces, the Ming army in the city put up a tenacious resistance and caused considerable casualties to the Second Army.
However, the only ones who resisted fiercely at the beginning were the Du Biao New Army and the border army. Although the ordinary guard soldiers and young men in the Ming army defending the city were more numerous, their role was not as good as that of the Du Biao New Army. Ten of the frontier troops
one part.
If troops like the Ming Army's Inland Guards were placed on the side of the Tang Army, they would have been eliminated all at once, so as not to waste military expenses and food. In fact, the Tang Army really did this.
The garrison with a strength of nearly 100,000 people has a stronger combat effectiveness than the Ming army's garrison soldiers, but if it is said to be reduced, it will be reduced.
But now, there is no longer any idea of using prisoners of war to organize large-scale armies!
Currently, only a very small number of prisoners of war captured by the Royal Division of the Tang Dynasty can continue their military career, and such people must first be selected and then undergo complete recruit training before they can join the current Royal Division of the Tang Dynasty.
Most of the more prisoners of war became laborers in the reclamation regiments, cultivating and farming in the rear, while some continued to stay in prisoner-of-war camps, digging and building roads and bridges in major mines.
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Even within the Ming Dynasty, they knew that the local guards in the interior were of no use. Zhang Yue wanted to abolish the local guards more than once, so as to free up military spending to expand the scale of the new army.
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However, the Ming military guard system that has been formed in the past two hundred years, even if it is in a state of decay, cannot be said to be abolished. There are too many constraints here, even the most powerful among the many feudal ministers of the Ming Dynasty.
Zhang Yue was helpless about this.
The more than 10,000 guardsmen in Nanchang City only resisted for one afternoon, only one afternoon!
After more than 300 people were killed or injured in the resistance at the city head, the entire army was declared defeated and Nanchang was lost!
However, after the city was broken, the casualties of the defenders in the city were even higher. Well, this was mainly because the Tang Army blocked the main roads in the city. Some of the defeated soldiers who wanted to take the opportunity to escape or sabotage were killed and injured a lot.
And this number cannot even be counted, because the city is too chaotic now, and the fourth mixed regiment is too lazy to count how many defeated troops it has killed and wounded.
In this battle, the Fourth Mixed Regiment suffered more than 20 casualties and more than 60 injuries. It is worth noting that more than half of the casualties occurred after entering the city. Strictly speaking, the casualties during the siege phase were 50%.
Less than ten people!
The total casualties of the Fourth Mixed Regiment were not even one-tenth of the casualties caused by the battle with the Ming Army cavalry yesterday!
And this battle can be regarded as the easiest offensive battle that the Tang Army has fought in the past year or so. It attacked twice the enemy with inferior forces and killed or injured less than a hundred people in order to capture a well-defended city like Nanchang.
Nanchang City not only has extremely thick city walls, but also has at least dozens of artillery pieces. Although most of the other artillery pieces are old goods, some of the newly made five-pound cannons, seven-pound cannons and shotguns were owned by Zhang Yue.
The main force has been taken away, but the defense force is still sufficient!
If the defense is replaced by a force with a relatively strong will to fight, it is absolutely impossible for the entire army to collapse with only two to three hundred casualties!
After setting foot on the top of Nanchang City, Gu Shizhong couldn't help but sigh: "It would be great if the puppet Ming thieves were all soldiers of these guards!"
The person next to him also said: "Yes, if the rebel army looks like this, in less than three years, I, the King of the Tang Dynasty, will be able to pacify Yunei and lay the foundation of the Tang Dynasty for all generations!"
It's a pity that their idea is impossible to realize. The Ming Dynasty also knew that the inland guards were useless, and they never expected to rely on the guards to suppress the puppet Tang Dynasty. Now they are fighting against the puppet Tang rebels in the south.
The main force is the frontier army and various newly recruited and trained soldiers, such as the Dubiao New Army under Zhang Yue, the Bandit Breaking Army under Yu Dayou, and local soldiers trained by local civil servants and military generals.
The main force of Zhang Yue's troops who are chasing the Second Army is this kind of troops!
Although the combat effectiveness of these border troops and various recruited soldiers is still not as good as that of the Tang Army, they are much better than the local guards!
After seizing the city wall of Nanchang, Gu Shizhong quickly allowed his troops to take control of various traffic arteries and important buildings in the city, mainly warehouses, official offices, etc. He did not even bother to meet the surrendered Ming army civil and military officials, but was the first to
The time is to command the troops to quickly enter the city and then re-reinforce the city defense.
Transport the artillery in and move it to the top of the city, sort out the artillery captured from the Ming army, and redefine it. If you want to defend Nanchang City in the future, city wall defense and artillery are the most important.
At the same time, it was also the first time to directly declare martial law throughout the city. People in the city were not allowed to go out on the streets at night without any reason. Even if they went out during the day, they must be prepared to be interrogated by patrol soldiers at any time. Anyone who did not obey the interrogation would be punished as a false spy. But how?
What's the punishment? Just kill him on the spot!
And immediately accepted a large number of warehouses from the Ming army. Nanchang, as the main defensive city before Zhang Yue's main force, stocked a large amount of food and ammunition. Although some of it was taken away by Zhang Yue's main force, some of them remained in the city.
There are many kinds of food and ammunition, and the food alone is enough to feed an army of 100,000 people for a month.
When the city was broken, although some Ming army generals and officials tried to burn the food and ammunition, most of the Ming army collapsed, and the fourth mixed regiment also moved quickly, so only a small part was burned, and most of them were burned.
He was rescued.
With this food and ammunition, Gu Shizhong's troops can guard the area for at least a few months without any worries!
However, in order to better defend Nanchang, Gu Shizhong did not want to cause chaos in Nanchang City and cause too much trouble to himself. However, he did not have the time and energy to deal with the internal affairs of Nanchang City, so he transferred several administrative officers.
Then they transferred and demoted Ming army officials who voluntarily surrendered, and at the same time accepted a large number of government officials and other personnel in the city who originally belonged to the Ming Dynasty, and began to implement strict military control of Nanchang City!
Because Gu Shizhong knew that it wouldn't take long for the Ming army's counterattack to come!
And it's not just the tens of thousands of Ming troops who returned to aid Nanchang, but Zhang Yue's main force of one hundred thousand.
Gu Shizhong even thought about it with his toes and knew what Zhang Yue's reaction would be once he learned that Nanchang was lost. He would definitely be furious, and then lead an army to fight back to Nanchang!
This also means that the fourth mixed regiment may face the attack of Zhang Yue's main force in a few days!
After capturing Nanchang, the Fourth Mixed Regiment said it was impossible to retreat. Li Chunjing and he spent so much effort, wasn't it just to capture Nanchang City and open the waterway to Poyang Lake and even the Yangtze River!
If we retreat, it will mean that all our previous efforts have been wasted. How can we deal with the death and injury of thousands of soldiers living outside Nanchang City!
Gu Shizhong must defend Nanchang, even if he is facing an attack by Zhang Yue's 100,000 main force, he must hold on and wait for the arrival of the main force of Li Chunjing's second army!
In order to defend Nanchang, the interior of Nanchang City must remain stable. Strict officers and martial law are necessary, and material control is also necessary. After all, there are still a large number of people in the city.
Although some people in the city had fled Nanchang in advance due to the war, there were still more than 30,000 people in Nanchang. In addition, there were nearly 10,000 Ming army defenders who had surrendered, been captured, or remained in the city.
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But these people cannot be allowed to cause chaos, nor can they be killed all at once or driven out of the city.
These people were the labor resources for defending the city, and Gu Shizhong also expected to use them to repair the city's fortifications and help build some equipment for defending the city.
Therefore, after daylight the next day, the Fourth Mixed Regiment began to recruit young men in the city to speed up the construction of the city's defenses, and built the city's defenses in accordance with the Tang Army's own method.
For example, for the artillery positions deployed at the top of the city, they will not be deployed directly behind the battlements!
Although the solid shells of field artillery cannot cause much damage to the city wall itself, they can't be blocked by the battlements. In order to protect the artillery and other defenders, the city walls must be on the basis of the battlements.
Carry out reinforcement.
For example, in an artillery position, it is necessary to pile up a large number of sandbags in front of the artillery!
When Gu Shizhong was setting up defenses in Nanchang City!
News of the fall of Nanchang also slowly spread. Finally, the defenders in the city still had some conscience. When the city was broken, they sent messengers to carry letters and Pegasus to report to Zhang Yue!
However, it was not Zhang Yue who got the news first, but the tens of thousands of Ming troops who were rushing to Nanchang!
The next day, after the more than 10,000 Ming army, which was only fifteen kilometers away from Nanchang City, learned that Nanchang had been captured by the puppet Tang rebel army, although a few stupid young people said they would counterattack while the rebel army was not yet firmly established.
As for Nanchang, those senior generals are still very stable!
Siege?
What a joke!
If you want to die, don't get involved with us!
They didn't even dare to go to Nanchang City, fearing that the puppet Tang rebels would attack on their own initiative, so they stopped almost ten kilometers away from Nanchang City. On the one hand, they sent people to monitor Nanchang City;
Send someone to report to Zhang Yue and ask for help!
To retake Nanchang, it is unreliable to rely on these ten thousand people. Zhang Yue will have to send the main force back!
After the news reached Zhang Yue, Zhang Yue did not get furious this time. Instead, he sighed and murmured: "The situation is difficult!"