There was a loud bang, and a gap appeared in the Jingzhou city wall. Deputy General Zheng Siwei led a thousand armored green battalions and rushed towards the gap in the smoke. They stepped on the gravel to occupy the gap first, blocking it with shields and spears.
"No retreat!"
"Fight to the death and never retreat!"
Zheng Siwei shouted that he had no way out.
Li Guo and other besieging troops outside were once his comrades in the army, but now because he killed his boss Meng Changgeng and surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, he has become a traitor they want to kill. Once the city is broken and falls into their hands,
That would definitely be worse than death.
Fortunately, the walls of Jingzhou City were high and strong, and they managed to hold up for so many days.
At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Huguang was an important battlefield where Li Zicheng's army and Zhang Xianzhong's Western Camp fought against the government troops. Jingzhou City was also devastated and dilapidated in the war. After Zheng Siwei surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, he was also very afraid of death, so he stepped up his efforts day and night.
Time to repair and strengthen the city.
He comprehensively upgraded Jingzhou's city defenses based on the original Ming Dynasty and Dashun city walls.
In the eighth year of Chongzhen's reign, Zhang Xianzhong led an army to storm Jingzhou, but failed to capture it in the end. In the fifteenth year of Chongzhen's reign, Li Zicheng personally led his army to conquer Jingzhou. King Hui Zhu Changrun fled, and Li Zicheng appointed Meng Changgeng to stay behind.
From then on, until Zheng Siwei killed Meng Changgeng and surrendered to the Qing Dynasty in the first month of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, Jingzhou was occupied by Dashun for nearly two years. After that, it never suffered from war again. After two years of continuous repairs, Jingzhou's city defense became stronger.
Originally, after Zheng Siwei surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty only awarded him the title of deputy general of Jingzhou, and the general of the army was 100,000 Ma Jinzhong. However, Ma Jinzhong quickly rebelled against the Qing and surrendered to the Ming Dynasty, stationed in Yuezhou, and Zheng Siwei, the deputy general, actually controlled him all the time.
Traveling to Jingzhou.
Previously, Ren Guangrong evacuated with Li Zicheng and took away many loyal troops in Jingzhou City. There were not many soldiers and horses in the city.
However, Li Guo and the others were not very strong. Although the Nine Towns' troops were said to number 200,000, they actually brought a large number of family members with them. This troops borrowed the route from Guanzhong to Hanzhong and headed south to Sichuan to follow in the footsteps of Li Zicheng, but it turned out that they were still a step too late.
He had no choice but to accept the recruitment of Lu Jianguo of the Ming Dynasty, but his morale was low, his military morale was unstable, and he did not have a stable base to move with his family.
Fortunately, after being recruited by the Ming Dynasty and reorganized into the Loyalty Battalion, at least we had a stable base in Hunan, so we would not be attacked from three sides.
This period of time is not so much the Zhongzhen Battalion's fierce attack on Jingzhou, but rather a reorganization process of the remaining troops of the Shun Army. The various divisions that were originally separated gradually came together again.
Now except Yuan Zongdi, He Yaoqi, Tian Jianxiu and others who are gathered near Wuchang, the rest have gathered here in Jingzhou.
While they besieged the city, they also harvested the ripe rice outside Jingzhou City.
It's a rare peaceful day, and I can finally take a break.
Don't look at Zheng Siwei's previous cry for help, which stated how powerful the invaders were, how fiercely they attacked, and how they attacked the city with every possible means. In fact, during that time, Li Chixin only besieged rather than attacked. His focus was on sweeping out the outlying counties of Jingzhou.
Seize materials, money and food to replenish various ministries.
After harvesting the rice, he followed the latest decree of the Supervisory State and began to divide defense areas with his generals. After deciding on Badong and other places as new base areas, he arranged for the generals to send troops and horses, and began to collect the families, women, children, and children in batches.
Incoming supplies are sent to those places.
It is true that there are soldiers surrounding Jingzhou City, but in fact they only number 20 to 30,000.
These people were not idle, they mainly dug trenches, built ladders, etc.
Do civil engineering work.
Zheng Siwei was also experienced. He sent troops to bury urns inside the city wall and conduct reconnaissance to find the secret tunnel dug by the Zhongzhen camp. After finding it, he dug in reverse direction, and after opening it, he attacked with fire, water, smoke, etc.
The two sides fought back and forth, occasionally with ants attached to the ladder to attack the city, and the battle lasted for several months.
By now, the weather has turned cooler and there isn’t that much rain.
Even most of their family members, supplies, etc. have been sent back to their respective new base defense areas in Badong. Li Guo and the others have almost finished arranging their respective soldiers through fighting and fighting, and their morale has gradually improved.
Even the tunnels dug for so many days were not in vain. They were one on the left and one on the right. Zheng Siwei was unable to guard against it. Finally, the tunnels were blasted with gunpowder, and Jingzhou's tall and strong city wall was also blown down.
"Fuyuan! The city is broken!"
Li Chixin, the Marquis of Xingguo, was very proud and told Du Yinxi, the governor of Huguang, who came to preside over the siege of the Zhongzhen Camp.
Du Yinxi nodded with satisfaction. Zheng Siwei had been exhausted these days and could not keep up with the speed of digging tunnels at the Zhongzhen Camp outside the city.
"Follow the plan."
The right commander of the Loyalty Camp, Gao Yigong, must be upright. Li Zicheng's brother-in-law, he immediately drew his sword and jumped on his horse, "Follow me!"
A battalion of men and horses followed, and in the distance, thousands of men and horses who had been prepared also moved on hearing the order and rushed towards the collapsed gap.
Zheng Siwei looked at the rushing intruders in despair. He could only hold the handle of the knife tightly and yell, "Each person who blocks the gap will be rewarded with five taels of silver. If you cut down a thief, you will be rewarded with another five taels!"
Gao Yigong approached with thousands of men and horses, and fired bows and arrows from a distance.
"Hold!" Zheng Siwei shouted.
Gao Yigong's soldiers advanced very slowly, and Zheng Siwei couldn't help but want them to come up faster.
But at this moment, there was another loud noise from the other side.
With the roar and smoke of gunpowder everywhere, another section of the city wall was tunneled under the city wall by the Zhongzhen Battalion, and then exploded with gunpowder and collapsed.
When the Chinese army was sitting under the flag, Li Chixin said to Du Yinxi, "This firearms mark in Fuyuan is really powerful. I will borrow some ghost guys to be my instructors later, and I will also make a firearms mark."
"His Royal Highness Jianguo assigned them to me from Yuying Shenji Town. These people are indeed good at firearms, and their explosive skills are also great."
As he spoke, there was another roar, and another section of the city wall collapsed, revealing a large gap.
Tian Hu, Zhang Neng and other generals each led their headquarters to press towards the gap.
Zheng Siwei listened to the roaring sounds from time to time, feeling extremely desperate.
The servant armored soldiers, who had finally managed to boost their morale, began to waver.
The guerrillas from Jia Ding camp couldn't help but move closer to Zheng Siwei and whispered, "General, we can't hold on any longer, let's break out."
Zheng Siwei looked at the intruders who were still slowly moving forward in the distance, feeling unwilling but powerless. The antlers of Haogou outside Jingzhou City had been swept away by the intruders in the past month.
Now the road below the city is smooth.
The two sides have been engaged in an offensive and defensive battle in the tunnel. They have been going back and forth in recent months. Who would have thought that the intruders are actually stronger, but they are just holding back.
If they had used the current tunnel blasting technique, Jingzhou would have been gone.
"Let's go, where to go? There are so many intruders outside, there is nowhere to escape!"
"It can't be broken out."
Zheng Siwei knew very well how much Li Guogao and the others wanted to kill him. Jingzhou City was his last resort. Once the city was destroyed, he would have no power to resist.