After Guo Junzhen, Liu Xiyao and Lin Chenggong joined forces in Wuchang, they received full support from Gao Yigong and Hubei gentry and businessman Geng Yingqu. After replenishing various supplies needed for naval operations, they sailed forward smoothly.
It flows eastward and goes straight to the foot of Jiujiang City.
In the Battle of Jiujiang, the battle plan of the Breaking Army was entirely drawn up by Guo Junzhen. Guo Junzhen was perverse and domineering, and his eyes were too high. He did not consult with Wuyue Jiedushi Gao Yigong and the two naval commanders Liu Xiyao and Lin Chengcheng.
, directly determined the strategic policy of attacking Xiaochikou first.
Guo Junzhen concluded that Xiaochikou City was too small and narrow to compete with the artillery carried by the navy ships of the invading army. Moreover, most of Jiujiang's supplies were transported from Xiaochikou in small rowing boats. Deposing Xiaochikou, removing its horns, and strengthening our barriers can
Solve the worries of capturing Jiujiang later.
Because the Ming army neglected to take precautions, Chu Chuang's navy attacked with small boats at night and succeeded easily. Then he sent troops to the river bank and attacked and burned the back mountain camp. As a result, Gan Yong was defeated and fled north.
By daybreak, Jiangxi Governor Yuan Jixian was originally stationed at Guijia, and more than ten forts in the Duheqiao area had also been destroyed. After that, Guojun Town sent Lin Chengcheng to lead the action, and Lin Chengcheng was the first of the five Gezuo battalions to surrender.
Li Laiheng is so handsome, so although he is dissatisfied with Guo Junzhen's domineering attitude, he still obeys orders.
The navy of the Breaking Army dispatched gunboats, moved the camp to Xiaochikou, bombed indiscriminately, and destroyed several strongholds outside the city with newly-cast red cannons, giving full play to the navy's firepower advantage. The Shicheng fortifications built by Yuan Jixian were attacked
The damage was so serious that the defenders did not even dare to stand on the parapet to defend themselves, nor did they dare to cook in the city.
On the third day, Guo Junzhen and Liu Xiyao completed the preparations for the general attack. The land division landed and stormed the city gate. The soldiers of the invading army stacked the straw that had been prepared on the ground and entered as a barrier. In an instant, the trench was filled.
The morale of the defenders at Xiaochikou completely collapsed, and they gradually laid down their weapons and surrendered. Jiujiang lost its special corner, its supplies were completely cut off, and the situation was already isolated.
However, the terrain in Jiujiang is difficult after all. Although Gan Yong's combat power is not strong, Yuan Jixian is a very talented governor. He also received strong support from the Jiangxi gentry and gradually increased the Jiujiang garrison to more than 6,000 Ming officers and soldiers.
, there are more than 10,000 people in Ganyong.
Huang Degong, the most adept general of the Yongwei camp in the Ming army in the south of the Yangtze River, also sent thousands of troops to Jiujiang to assist in defense.
Just when Yuan Jixian learned that Xiaochikou had been lost and was intensively strengthening the defense of Jiujiang, Guo Junzhen seized the good opportunity of the Ming army to focus on the defense of Jiujiang and secretly ordered Lin Yang to dispatch small rowing boats and the North Bank Army Division to advance quickly and surprise the Hukou Fortress.
, and then cut off the horns in the lower reaches of Jiujiang River.
Hukou is the key to the Yangtze River, with numerous natural dangers, overhanging rocks, and rapid water flow. It is daunting and extremely difficult to conquer. The infiltration force led by Lin Chengcheng lacked gunboats and had only a small number of troops. However, he sneaked around and made an unexpected move.
The enemy caught the enemy by surprise and lurked in the mountains behind Hukou, waiting for the navy to attack and then launch a sneak attack.
Tian Xiong, the general of the Ming army who was responsible for defending Hukou, was Huang Degong's subordinate, but Tian Xiong was careless and ignorant of Lin Chengcheng's actions. When the main force of the navy of the Chuang Army launched a diversionary attack on Jiujiang, Lin Chengcheng
He also secretly ordered many small rowing boats and fire boats that had penetrated near the lake entrance to harass the fortress at the entrance of the lake.
When Tian Xiong's attention was completely attracted by the navy on the river, Lin Yangcheng personally led the land division to launch a charge on the mountain behind Hukou. The land division swooped down from the top of the mountain, and the Yongwei battalion was caught off guard and ran out of camp.
.
This unit was originally an elite Ming army force that Yuan Jixian relied heavily on, but due to Tian Xiong's mistakes, it collapsed without a single battle. Affected by this, the local Jiangxi army guarding Jiujiang became morally disorganized and could no longer fight.
Guo Junzhen took the opportunity to order all ministries to launch a general offensive, and together with Liu Xiyao, they successively attacked Gan Yong's fortresses at Shizhongshan and Meijiazhou, and the situation was overwhelming.
By that evening, Lin Chengcheng led the infiltrated army troops to the city, while Guo Junzhen intercepted them by land and water, and the intruders were able to break through the Hukou fortress. Tian Xiong led his army to break the siege and escape. After Yuan Jixian heard the news, he sighed with regret.
, after making a pilgrimage to the north, he wanted to commit suicide by drowning, but he survived by chance and was rescued by his staff and fled to Nanchang.
There is also a group of Xiaogushan fortress defended by Gan Yong. It was originally one of the strongholds in Jiujiang and Hukou. At this time, after learning that Hukou was successfully attacked by Lin Chengchang, they immediately sent people to surrender to Guojun Town.
Show, voluntarily surrender.
Both Liu Xiyao and Lin Chengcheng agreed to accept Gan Yong's surrender, but Guo Junzhen believed that the Gan Yong trapped in Xiaogushan, according to the people nearby, burned, killed and looted, and they were the worst. Guo Junzhen was firmly opposed to accepting it.
The surrender of the Gan Yong troops was intended to completely eliminate them.
His stubbornness aroused strong dissatisfaction between Liu Xiyao and Lin Chengcheng. Especially Lin Chengcheng believed that the surprise attack on Hukou was successful. Although the battle plan was drawn up by Guo Junzhen, during the specific battle process, it was also because of his flexible command on the fly.
, detour from the enemy's side and gain a complete victory.
Guo Junzhen didn't care at all about the face he had just won. He refuted and reprimanded his opinions in public, which of course made Lin Chengcheng feel extremely embarrassed.
Later, it was only because Gao Yigong came forward to mediate and proposed that Li Laiheng's old system should be followed and Gan Yong, who had blood debts in his hands, should be dealt with in a public trial, that the confrontation between the three generals was slightly resolved.
At this time, although Tian Xiong had fled and Yuan Jixian fell into the water and was injured and fled to Nanchang, there were still some Ming troops, especially the remnants of the Yongwei Battalion with higher combat effectiveness, guarding Pengze and Madang at the junction of Jiangxi and Anhui.
Peng Ze controlled the upper reaches of Anqing, and Madangji was one of the most important strongholds nearby. The Yongwei camp planted stakes here to block the river, but according to Guo Junzhen's observation, the Ming army's defense system seemed tight, but
Because Tian Xiong had already fled back to Anqing, many soldiers had no intention of holding on.
So Guo Junzhen asked Governor Lin Cheng to lead a small boat out and ordered the sailors of the invading army to slowly pull out the stakes. On the other hand, he used the invading army to destroy the fortresses at Xiaochikou, Xiaogushan, Hukou and Meijiazhou.
With the power of victory, he lured Pengze's defenders to surrender.
As a Beijing camp unit, the Yongwei Battalion itself was much lighter in warlord nature than other units operating near Jiangnan at this time, and had a more vigorous offensive spirit.
However, since Tian Xiong abandoned his army and fled back to Anqing, Yuan Jixian also abandoned Jiujiang and hid in Nanchang to guard Pengze and Madang. This lone army had to either abandon Madang Town and follow Tian Xiong's example and return to Anqing, or they had no choice but to surrender.
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After all, based on their strength, compared with Guo Junzhen's amphibious and land forces, they are really outnumbered.
In theory, escaping back to Anqing is indeed the best plan. After all, the general Tian Xiong has already fled back to Anqing, and these ordinary soldiers will follow suit. Huang Degong will not punish them harshly.
However, at this time, Guojun Town had sent part of the land division of the intruders ashore and deployed them near Madang to threaten the exits of the defenders' eastward escape and block them. With no choice, the defenders surrendered to the intruders.
So far, Guo Junzhen was able to basically eliminate the main force of Gan Yong, and also took advantage of the situation to defeat part of the Yongwei camp and occupy the entire jurisdiction of Jiujiang Prefecture.
After Jiujiang, which was the key to Wu Chu, was completely controlled by the invaders, from Wuchang to Nanjing, apart from Anqing, which had dangerous terrain that could prevent the invaders from flowing eastward, other places such as Tongling, Wuhu, and Taiping were basically unable to contain the enemy.
The role of the momentum of the army's march eastward.
Just because the war situation in North China was becoming more and more tense at this time, Li Laiheng sent several letters to Suizhou in one day, urging the three military envoys Chen Xin, Gao Yigong, and Bai Wang to mobilize the remaining troops of Chu Chuang who were staying in Huguang as soon as possible and mobilize northward reinforcements as soon as possible.
Guo Junzhen just returned from Jiujiang and gave up his plan to further conquer Jiangnan.
After all, there were still Huang Degong, Liu Liangzuo, Fang Guoan, Wang Zhiren and Fujian Zheng's troops in Jiangnan at this time. Once they were too involved, Huguang would not be able to reinforce the North China front in time.
The further evolution of the war situation in the south will have to wait for the outcome of the decisive battle in the north.