Of course, the news about the Battle of Huangzhou could not reach Jingzhou for a while, so Song Tianbiao did not know that the entire army of Supervisor Biao Zuojun in Huangzhou had been wiped out.
Now he is staring at Jingzhou City, thinking about how to capture Jingzhou City at the minimum cost and in the fastest time.
It had been several days since he landed in Jingzhou, but he was not in a hurry to immediately launch an attack on Jingzhou City, let alone a general attack, in fact he even launched a tentative general attack.
He had already contacted intelligence personnel from the Military Intelligence Department and learned some general information about the garrison in the city.
The garrison in Jingzhou City is similar to what previous intelligence showed. There are about 10,000 garrison in the city, but only 7,000 of them are governors, and the remaining 3,000 are local guards and young soldiers.
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This situation is also the situation of most Ming army defenders. Even if Zhang Yue has established a main force such as Dubiao, in fact, the Ming army's guard soldiers and temporary recruitment of young men still exist, only
But the quantity is smaller than before.
When defending the city, these guard soldiers and young men were basically used as civilian husbands.
On the other hand, in fact, this kind of auxiliary force also existed in the Tang Dynasty, but it was not in the name of guard soldiers and temporarily recruited young men, but in the name of reserve divisions, patrols, etc.
Needless to say, the reserve division is the reserve force currently established by the Tang Dynasty. It mainly focuses on suppressing local areas on weekdays. If it encounters a large-scale war, it will also assist the main force in fighting.
When necessary, after mobilization and supplementation, these reserve divisions will also go to the battlefield and become part of the main force.
As for patrol police, there are actually not many patrol police in each place, especially in some relatively large cities, the number of patrol police can reach hundreds or thousands.
Take Songjiang Prefecture, for example. After the Tang Dynasty captured the south of the Yangtze River and designated Shanghai County within its jurisdiction as a trading port, this place has become the most economically active prefecture in the Jiangnan region, and its core Shanghai County has become even more prosperous.
It is a rapid development. It is said that local land prices have risen several times continuously in just two years, and this upward trend shows no sign of stopping.
This place has gathered a large number of businessmen, some from the Jiangnan area, some from all over China, and some from all over Southeast Asia, and even Europeans. This has led to a very complicated security situation. The Songjiang Prefecture Patrol Police Bureau is also the only one in the entire Datang Dynasty.
It is the largest prefectural-level patrol bureau in the country, with more than 3,000 patrol officers.
Although these patrol officers maintain law and order on weekdays, if an enemy attacks Shanghai, they can certainly provide certain help to the military.
In addition, the Tang Dynasty military often recruited civilian men to engage in logistics, transportation, fortification construction, etc.!
In this regard, there is actually no difference between the civilian husbands recruited by the Tang Dynasty and the young men recruited temporarily by the Ming Dynasty, and the work they did was basically the same.
The only difference is that the Tang Dynasty military never included these civilian men in the army's combat order, and basically did not let them go to the battlefield. However, the Ming army usually used these young men recruited as troops.
Let them participate in the defense of the city.
The three thousand guardsmen and young men in the city were directly ignored by Song Tianbiao. After fighting with the Ming army for so many years, he knew very well what the Ming army's guardsmen and young men were. They were basically their own civilians.
are of the same type.
The real opponent is only 7,000 Dubiao.
If it were a field battle, these seven thousand governors would not be their opponents at all. Maybe a round of field battles could completely defeat them, but the Ming army in the city probably wouldn't rush out stupidly, they would defend to the death.
!
This was also the choice made by many Ming armies over the years when facing the Tang Army's offensive.
But today, can the Ming army's stubborn defense stop itself?
Song Tianbiao doesn’t think so!
Because this time he attacked Jingzhou City, all of his Second Infantry Division was here, and their strength was twice that of the supervisor in the city. This was also a strength advantage that the Tang Army rarely encountered in the Ming Army's combat experience.
Song Tianbiao, who had the advantage of military strength, was not worried about not being able to capture Jingzhou. The only thing he had to consider was to reduce his own casualties as much as possible, shorten the time, and avoid taking too long and causing any accidents.
In the past three days, although no formal attack was launched, everything that needed to be done accurately was built. Engineering equipment was built, tunnels and trenches were dug, artillery positions were built, and the navy's artillery was moved.
Ashore and transported to outside Jingzhou City.
Now, three days later, the preparations that need to be made are complete, and Song Tianbiao has also decided to launch an attack!
At noon that day, after Song Tianbiao held his first military meeting, he formally issued an order for the artillery unit to open fire on the defenders in the city!
Before launching a general attack, bombing with artillery was also the established procedure for the Tang Army to attack the city. However, this time, Song Tianbiao said to the commander of the Second Artillery Regiment, "We must maintain the rhythm during the bombardment and don't attack randomly. We
The artillery shells are limited, hit important targets as much as possible!"
The commander of the Second Artillery Regiment is also a veteran artillery officer. As a colonel and commander of the artillery regiment, he is naturally very aware that although they brought a lot of ammunition this time, subsequent replenishment will be more troublesome.
Their ammunition had to be transported from Yuezhou to replenish it. Traveling such a long distance meant that even if the Tang Navy completely controlled the Yangtze River waterway, transportation would still take time and capacity.
Therefore, the Second Artillery Regiment's artillery shells seem to be sufficient now, but it is absolutely impossible to be like the Second Army's attack on Susong and Huangzhou. There is no need to have any scruples. After all the artillery shells are used up, the Logistics Department can be used at any time.
Provide them with supplements.
The Second Artillery Regiment should save its use. After defeating Jingzhou City, it still has to defend the city to prevent the Ming army from counterattacking!
If all the artillery shells are fired, what will happen if the Ming army counterattacks later?
Therefore, in the subsequent shelling, the Second Artillery Regiment and a heavy howitzer battalion temporarily strengthened to the Second Infantry Division, the Naval Artillery Regiment and other artillery units=, the intensity of the shelling was significantly reduced, and many of the Second Infantry Division who observed the shelling
The officers all had serious expressions, because they felt that the current shelling was not strong enough, and they were worried that they would not be able to effectively destroy the numerous artillery positions deployed by the Ming army on the top of the city and kill or injure their artillery.
But when many officers of the Second Infantry Division were frowning, many Ming army generals on the city walls were also frowning. Why, they thought the Puppet Tang's bombardment was too powerful.
As a supervisor, all aspects of the army were copied from the Tang Army. Naturally, they also attached great importance to artillery. Even if they could only produce artillery by hand, Zhang Yue organized countless craftsmen to produce as many artillery pieces as possible and assign them to
Subordinate supervision unit.
The Dubiao Youjun vanguard guarding the city of Jingzhou was naturally equipped with guns and artillery. The guard had 7,000 men and was equipped with twelve five-pound cannons, five seven-pound cannons, and more than one hundred kilograms, three
There are about fifty bowl-mouthed cannons weighing less than 100 kilograms and Franco machine guns.
This kind of firepower is actually quite a lot for an army with only 7,000 soldiers. The early Tang army could not equip so many artillery with the same strength.
The previous vanguard generals also believed that their own artillery power was powerful enough, but when they saw the scale of the Tang Army's artillery attack, they were all stunned!
The puppet Tang rebel army outside the city only numbered more than 10,000 people, but they organized more than 100 artillery pieces to bombard Jingzhou City indiscriminately!
The disparity in strength here is simply despairing!
The main artillery force of the Datang King Division outside the city is the Second Artillery Regiment, which has two five-pound field artillery battalions and one nine-pound field artillery battalion. Each artillery battalion has eighteen artillery pieces, which is very standard.
The field artillery regiment under the main infantry division of the Datang Army has a total of fifty-four field guns.
In addition, the infantry division also temporarily strengthened a heavy short-barreled howitzer battalion, with twelve 24-pound howitzers and four 48-pound howitzers.
The navy supported thirty-two artillery pieces, including twenty five-pound cannons, six nine-pound cannons, and six forty-eight-pound howitzers!
The total number of the above-mentioned artillery pieces exceeds one hundred!
Moreover, this number does not include the six five-pound cavalry cannons under the jurisdiction of the Second Cavalry Regiment. Each infantry regiment and baggage regiment have shotguns. Each infantry regiment in the Tang Army has according to the standard establishment.
A twelve-gun artillery unit, equipped with two-pound shotguns and three-pound shotguns.
Well, the same is true for the baggage regiment, because the Tang Army's baggage regiment has never been a simple transportation unit. To a certain extent, it is the fourth infantry regiment, but its usual task is to transport and escort baggage. It is necessary
Sometimes you can participate in line combat.
More than a hundred field guns and howitzers were bombarding Jingzhou City. Even if the frequency of bombardment was lower than in previous battles, it was still difficult for the Ming army defenders on top of the city!
At first, the Ming army on the top of the city wanted to use artillery to counterattack, but when they were continuously killed by howitzers on the top of the city and the artillerymen suffered a large number of casualties, they gave up this plan.
Because of its disadvantage in artillery, the Ming army basically had no advantage in the artillery exchanges with the Tang army!
After seeing the Ming army's artillery on top of the city being completely suppressed, the officers of the Second Infantry Division outside the city breathed a sigh of relief. Both the artillery and their musketeers on the Ming army on top of the city were suppressed.
Only then can they take the next step!
Next, other units of the Second Infantry Division also appeared one after another, but they still did not formally attack the city, but filled in the moat and dug communication trenches.
At the same time, amidst the rumbling sound of artillery, the soldiers in the engineering camp also waved the engineering shovels made of fine steel in their hands and continued to dig tunnels, preparing to dig the tunnels under the city wall and bury explosives.
After the blasting is successful, it will be time for the Second Infantry Division to launch a general offensive!