Chapter nine hundred and seventy-four: life does not see people and death does not see corpses
The next day was the first day of the first lunar month of the seventh year of Xuanping.
This day is the first day of the Lunar New Year, but the Second Army of the Tang Dynasty and the Fifth Army together launched a general attack on Huangzhou City!
Tens of thousands of soldiers continued to rush towards Huangzhou City like a tide, and multiple assault battalions took turns to go into battle. The soldiers of the assault battalion wearing plate armor were covered by artillery fire and muskets from the rear, or through the gaps in the ruins of the city wall blasted by engineers.
, or simply climb up the long ladder to the top of the city and engage in hand-to-hand combat with the soldiers of the Supervisory Left Army.
The next day, the second day of the Lunar New Year, the two sides broke out in the most violent hand-to-hand combat since the Battle of Huangzhou. On that day, the Dubiao Zuo Army died in more than 4,000 people on the spot, and the 7th Infantry Division died in more than 1,000 people.
The 7th Commando Battalion, which cooperated with the division, suffered 70% casualties!
This assault battalion was not the first assault battalion to rush to the city. They were the third assault battalion to launch a charge. However, they were ambushed and intercepted by the city's governor, with almost dozens of shotguns and hundreds of matchlocks.
The soldiers were ambushing another section of the ruined city wall. When the 7th Commando Battalion thought they had finally rushed up, they suddenly opened fire. Shotguns, muskets, and grenades were thrown at the commando battalion, causing the battalion to have more than 600 people.
, more than half were killed or injured on the spot!
The brutal fighting between the two sides left the Spring Festival without any warmth and joy in the face of war!
As night approached, although Huangzhou had not yet been captured, the Tang army successfully captured the outer city wall. The remaining Dubiao Zuo army was forced to retreat again. This time they could only retreat to the inner city!
Du Danqing had high hopes that the Huangzhou defense line could hold on for more than a month even after being besieged. In fact, it has only resisted for seven days so far!
It’s only seven days!
Du Danqing simply couldn't understand why he failed miserably in the end despite being so well prepared!
That night, Du Danqing stayed up all night. He did not discuss the war with his staff, and no one thought hard about how to break the situation!
He just stayed in his study, drinking rice wine and reading with a book in his hand amidst the rumble of gunfire coming from outside.
When the explosion sounds, there will always be a flash of light outside, which is the sound and light of the shell after it falls in the city and explodes.
He had been fighting against the puppet Tang rebels for many years, and he had already become accustomed to the sound of explosions!
Even based on the sound of the explosion, he was able to tell that it should be the 48-pound heavy howitzer of the Puppet Tang Bandit Army.
When these pseudo-Tang rebels were fighting, the artillery shells would not stop almost all the time. Sometimes he was suspicious that these pseudo-Tang rebels had so many artillery shells, and their artillery fired so many
Won't the shells and barrels be scrapped?
Although Du Danqing claimed to have a good understanding of the Tang Dynasty, he, like most people of this era, did not understand the special characteristics of the entire Tang Dynasty!
Will the artillery of the Tang Dynasty King's Division be destroyed? Of course, but in the material storage warehouse at the back, there are rows of brand-new artillery waiting to be replaced at any time.
Are there that many shells? That’s nonsense!
The production of artillery shells by the Ming Army relied on craftsmen to build them one by one by hand, but the arsenal in the Tang Dynasty used assembly line production, and the production efficiency was dozens of times that of the Ming Army!
And don’t you look at how many arsenals there were in the Tang Dynasty that produced ordnance. Under the three major weapons companies, there were twelve arsenals of various sizes producing various types of ammunition!
Every day, ships loaded with various types of ammunition ply the Yangtze River waterway, supplying various types of ammunition to frontline troops.
Therefore, these doubts in Du Danqing's heart are still because he does not know enough about the Tang Dynasty!
However, this lack of understanding sometimes led many Ming army generals to one-sidedly place the reason for the defeat on the sharpness of the Tang Dynasty's guns and artillery, thereby neglecting other aspects of the Tang Dynasty's army.
For example, Du Danqing is currently thinking about guns and ammunition, but he does not know that when the Tang Army broke through the outer city wall, it actually relied on the assault battalion, and the assault battalion had a large number of soldiers with cold weapons.
And when the ordinary infantrymen rushed to the top of the city for hand-to-hand combat, they also relied on bayonets!
Sharp guns and artillery inevitably brought many advantages to the Tang Army, but the Datang Army's frequent victories relied more on training and bravery.
When the two sides are fighting with bayonets, it has nothing to do with the sharpness of the guns. It is purely a competition of training and courage of both sides!
As a result, the Dubiao Zuojun still performed quite well when the two sides were engaged in long-distance confrontations, but when the two sides engaged in hand-to-hand combat, they often collapsed quickly!
This is also a characteristic of almost all contemporary Ming armies!
There were Ming troops who dared to engage in gunfire with the Tang Army, and there were quite a few of them!
But there were only a few Ming troops who dared to fight with the Tang Army on bayonets.
Therefore, on the battlefield, there will often be scenes like this. When the two sides exchange guns and artillery fire at medium and long distances, the Ming army can still fight in a decent manner. However, when the Tang Army launches a bayonet charge, the Ming army on the opposite side often
It just collapsed.
Does Du Danqing know this? He knows it, but does he understand it?
He doesn't understand!
The night of this day passed under the continuous bombardment of the Datang Army, and the next day, the Infantry of the Datang Army, who had rested all night, began a new round of attack!
This time, it was even more difficult for the Dubiao Zuojun to defend.
At noon, the east gate of the inner city was captured by the Third Infantry Division of the Tang Army!
An hour later, the 3rd Infantry Division continued to advance and captured many temporary fortresses built by the Ming army based on many masonry houses behind the inner city.
At about four o'clock in the afternoon, the 12th Infantry Division of the Fifth Army, which launched another attack, also broke through the Ming army's defense and captured a temporary fortress on the left side of Dubiao's left army headquarters, and advanced to a distance from Dubiao.
Less than fifty meters away from the headquarters of the Biaozuo Army!
The soldiers of the third battalion of the 34th Infantry Regiment of the 12th Infantry Division could already clearly see the sign hanging on the huge building across the street.
The signboard above clearly indicates the importance of this building: The Yamen of the Commander-in-Chief of the Zuo Army, Governor of the Ming Dynasty.
It has to be said that even the style of the signboard is copied from the Army of the Tang Dynasty, because the Tang Dynasty liked to hang long vertical signboards, and then they would write such-and-such prefectural government office and so-and-so division headquarters of the Tang Dynasty.
The inspectors learned the data from the Tang Dynasty Army thoroughly, and even did not forget to learn things like signboards. However, the Datang Army often used such-and-such headquarters, headquarters, and their inspectors used such-and-such commander-in-chief yamen.
Without much hesitation, after waiting for several shotguns from the rear to come up, the soldiers of the third battalion immediately launched an attack on the commanding office building.
Under the bombardment of guns and artillery, a mere ordinary building was naturally unable to resist. Although there were many Ming soldiers resisting inside, it was obvious that the situation was over now. Their resistance was not very resolute. Many people were
After a slight resistance, they gave up their swords and guns and surrendered. In fact, more Ming soldiers actually surrendered when the soldiers of the Tang Army rushed in.
This is also the reason why their battle today went so smoothly, because after the Tang Army captured the outer city, it was almost certain that the Du Biao Zuo Army was destroyed, and their resistance was destined to be meaningless.
Many generals who supervised the bidding made various choices out of desperation!
Some people try to break out with their troops and escape, but if they break out before being completely besieged, there is still hope of escaping in a small-scale breakout. But now, they are all blocked in the inner city, and they still want to break out? It's too late!
There are also a small number of generals who were supervising the standard, and imitated the generals who died in Changsha and Hengyang and committed suicide in despair!
Some people took off their military uniforms, abandoned the army, and began to escape on their own, but the inner city was only so big, not to mention that there were not many ordinary people in the inner city. They were all supervising soldiers. After they took off their military uniforms,
, where can you hide after throwing down your weapon?
And more supervisory generals surrendered in desperation with their direct subordinates who were still loyal to them!
The battle has been carried out. Now, these gentry disciples have tried their best and have met the high expectations of their elders at home. It is time to think about their own lives.
There are also a very small number of people who want to betray themselves on the spot, surrender, and try to perform meritorious service at the last moment, but to save their lives, or even further become a part of the Tang Dynasty. For these people, the King of the Tang Dynasty will never refuse
.
As long as you are willing to do anything, you will be treated favorably!
However, the above mentioned are all generals who are supervising the standard, or to be more precise, they are the children of the local gentry in Huguang!
Ordinary supervising soldiers are not included. They naturally follow what others say. Most of them chose to escape and surrender when the city was broken. In such chaotic moments, saving lives is the key. Who cares about the gentlemen above?
Life and death!
The Ming Army Supervisors who defended the Zuojun Commandery Office were no exception. More than half of the hundreds of Ming troops surrendered on the spot, and the rest fled, with only a handful of people resisting!
But the third battalion was not a vegetarian. Needless to say, it directly greeted the stubborn Ming army with guns and artillery. After gradually advancing, it came all the way to the inner courtyard!
This inner courtyard was obviously the central command center of the former Supervisory Committee Left Army, because there were numerous paper documents scattered on the ground, and a group of officers wearing the uniforms of Supervisory Officers raised their hands one by one.
The soldiers came out slowly under the bayonets!
The major battalion commander of the third battalion walked in and saw that it was very messy inside. There were messy things everywhere on the ground, papers were scattered all over the ground, and there were many corpses lying on the ground.
It is obvious at a glance that some of the corpses were shot to death with muskets or bayonets, but there are also a few that can be seen to have been self-inflicted.
He directly ignored the group of captured prisoner supervisor officers who were taken away, and then said: "Where is Du Danqing?"
The subordinate shook his head: "I haven't found him, I haven't found his person, and I haven't found his body!"
The major frowned after hearing this: "You can't see people alive or dead, or their corpses?"