The peripheral defenses that Yang Sichang painstakingly built in Changsha only lasted for three days before they were completely conquered by the Chu army outside the city.

During the three days of fighting, the Ming army defending the city suffered heavy casualties, especially on the first day because they were not familiar with the Chu army's fighting methods, resulting in extremely heavy casualties. Although the latter two days seemed better.

However, this reduction in the casualty rate is mostly caused by avoiding battle or even surrendering.

How should I put it? On the first day, most of the Ming Army, especially the Ming Army soldiers in the peripheral protrusions, still had some morale. Many of the Ming Army generals who commanded the battle still had illusions.

Therefore, on the first day of battle, the Ming army defending the city fought relatively bravely, using various methods to try to defend and even counterattack, and at one time caused hundreds of casualties to the Chu army.

However, this way of defending the city also brought extremely heavy casualties to the defenders.

Two to three thousand people were killed or injured in one day, which is not a small number.

But after the first day, as the Ming army fully realized the fierce firepower and powerful combat effectiveness of the Chu army, coupled with the extremely heavy casualties on the first day, many Ming soldiers, no matter whether they were generals or soldiers, were

They can't help but adopt a more cautious and even passive approach to combat.

The situation of counter-charges and close melees dropped significantly. Many Ming soldiers either hid from the beginning to the end and simply surrendered when the Chu army came to kill them, or they turned around and ran away as soon as they saw the Chu thieves coming up.

The Ming army's will to resist had been exhausted on the first day.

In the subsequent two days of peripheral battles, the Chu army fought steadily and gradually captured almost all tactical nodes outside Changsha City. Moreover, after two days, the losses were not as much as the losses on the first day.

Similarly, the losses of the Ming army were not much. They lost no more than a thousand people in two days, but the number of people who surrendered was much higher.

When the Chu army conquered the fortifications outside Changsha, based on the characteristics of the Chu army's siege operations and the characteristics of the Ming army's city defense operations, it basically means that the Changsha campaign has come to an end.

Because there are no external defenses, especially the threat of long-range firepower such as various types of short robes, musketeers, archers, etc. deployed at high points on some protruding parts, the Chu army can swagger forward with a large number of artillery and directly maneuver to a distance of several meters from the city wall.

Fire at the nearest location from a distance of 100 meters.

The fortifications of the city wall seemed thick, and there were various anti-cannon fortifications on the top of the city wall, but they still could not withstand the fierce bombardment of the Chu bandits.

Not to mention that on the sixth day after the war began, the Chu army carried out multiple blasts, blowing up two sections of the Changsha city wall into collapsed ruins.

What followed was a day-old commando assault. During this process, the Ming army once deployed heavy armored soldiers and musketeers as mobile forces to defend against such explosive assaults.

As a result, the two sides once engaged in a fierce battle around the gap in the ruins, but in the end the Chu army was superior.

On April 29, the second year of Chengshun in the Chu Empire, the Chu army finally reached and captured the northern gate of Changsha City after many days of fighting.

Then advance towards other city walls and important areas within the city.

At this time, it can be officially declared that Changsha City has been captured. Although there are still about 20,000 Ming troops in the city, these Ming troops can no longer block the Chu army's advance.

In the afternoon of that day, seeing that the overall situation in Changsha was irreversible, Yang Sichang finally gave the order to break out and flee south.

Yang Sichang himself led a number of senior civil and military officials, escorted by more than a thousand remaining New Standard Army right-wing troops, and broke out from the south city gate. At the same time, there were tens of thousands of Ming troops, regardless of whether they had received orders to break out, all of them were scrambling to be the first.

Evacuate Changsha and run away.

The reason why Yang Sichang and others were able to break through was purely because the Chu army did not completely seal Changsha, and specially opened the south gate for them to reduce the will of the defenders, encourage them to flee, reduce the difficulty of siege, and reduce the number of soldiers.

Casualties during the siege.

Surrounding three and attacking one is also a very old-fashioned but very practical psychological tactic in siege warfare.

Most defenders actually know that there must be an ambush behind the gap specially opened by the attacking side, but most of them still bite the bullet and break out through this gap.

Because if you don’t break through, you will die even worse.

As the Ming army broke through, the First Cavalry Brigade led by Wang Xiazi once again showed its power. They relied on the short-distance impact of the cavalry to continuously intercept and drive away the Ming army's breakout troops.

At the same time, the cavalry regiment and the Guards Cavalry Regiment of the Fifth Division also conducted coordinated operations.

With the cooperation of the three cavalry units, most of the Ming army's breakout forces were left behind.

However, Yang Sichang successfully broke through the encirclement and left, because it was the New Standard Army's right army who covered Yang Sichang's breakthrough.

Although the strength of the right army of this new standard army is not as good as that of the left army, it is still trained according to the main force of the Chu army, and its combat effectiveness is still much stronger than those of the sentry battalions.

More importantly, there is a cavalry force of about 400 in the right army of the New Standard Army. This cavalry is of little use in defending the city, so it has never been used.

But it is of great use in breakout operations.

These cavalry units provided reconnaissance, and at the same time engaged in a battle with the Guards Cavalry Regiment. Although they suffered heavy casualties, they were ultimately able to successfully cover the breakout of other forces of the New Standard Army's right army.

Although more than a thousand New Standard Army right-wing troops escaped, including Yang Sichang, this did not affect the Chu army's victory in the Battle of Changsha.

After the preliminary battle in the city ended, Xu Zhixian and Han Ziping, the senior generals, all looked happy, and they were all in a good mood when they reported to Luo Zhixue.

Chen Xingkai, the Minister of Taxation who came with the army, said directly after the military had finished the battle report: "Congratulations to Your Majesty, congratulations to Your Majesty, after the battle in Changsha, our army of the King of Chu not only wiped out tens of thousands of enemies, but

, it is even more powerful in Chunan, and within ten months, Chunan will definitely be able to spread the message!"

Xu Zhixian, the chief of staff, also said with joy on his face: "Even if the puppet Ming army in southern Chu wants to resist, they don't have enough troops to resist!"

"According to what we learned from prisoners of war and surrendering generals, the 30,000 Changsha garrison gathered by Yang Sichang have basically wiped out all the remaining troops in southern Chu. Even important places like Hengyang in the south, the garrison

There are only less than two thousand soldiers left, and Yuanzhou, where the remote governor is stationed in the west, only has a thousand soldiers left."

"After three battles in Linxiang, Yiyang, and Changsha, our army has basically annihilated the main force of the Puppet Ming in the southern Chu region, and its battalions and sentries have been swept away. What is left in each city is only a small number of guard posts and Qingqing

It’s just strong!”

Blind Wang on the side laughed and said: "Yang Sichang lost all his pants this time!"

Seeing the joy of the ministers, Luo Zhixue also smiled: "This time in the southward campaign, we were able to annihilate the main force of the puppet Ming Dynasty several times, even the two fortified cities of Linxiang and Changsha, all thanks to the concerted efforts of the soldiers!"
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As he said that, Luo Zhixue looked at Wei Kaifu, the Minister of Military and Political Affairs on one side: "The Military and Political Department must count the military merits of the officers and soldiers of each department as soon as possible, and the rewards must be distributed as soon as possible."

Luo Zhixue talked about military exploits and rewards. A group of lowly generals, especially the main generals in the participating armies, were all full of expectations.

Although the impact of this Chunan offensive was not as good as last year's sweep of Chubei, the actual scale of the battle was even greater than last year's series of battles across Chubei.

This kind of large-scale battle, and a completely victorious battle, is enough to create a group of new generals, several new counts and even marquises.

Even the rank of lieutenant general may be awarded after this battle.

Under such circumstances, not only the generals of the two main divisions were full of expectations, but also the generals of the Sixth Defense Division and the Eighth Defense Division were also full of expectations.

In this battle to the south, although the main battle was fought by the two main divisions, the garrison divisions also handled a lot, especially in the two capture operations. In fact, the soldiers of the garrison divisions were deeply involved.<

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In the two siege battles in Linxiang and Changsha, the Chu army and the Ming army fought fiercely for the defenses outside the city. In such battles, the soldiers of the garrison division also assumed important responsibilities.

In the subsequent stage of attacking the city wall, although the garrison division is not the main force, it is also responsible for launching attacks in other directions for containment, and even attrition operations.

The two garrison divisions suffered over a thousand casualties in the Battle of Changsha.

If you put in the effort, there will naturally be rewards.

This time, not only did a large number of soldiers of the garrison receive credit, but they will receive promotions and rewards in the future. Luo Zhixue also singled out the "22nd Garrison Infantry Regiment" that performed best among them.

The remaining more than 1,500 soldiers of the garrison infantry regiment were directly reorganized into the temporary fourth mixed regiment, and a large number of new soldiers, guns, armor and other weapons and equipment will be directly supplemented in the future.

This is the fourth existing main mixed regiment in the Chu Empire Army.

Before that, there were the temporary first, second, and third mixed regiments upgraded from three temporary mixed battalions. These three mixed regiments were previously stationed in Yunyang, Badong, and Xiangyang, all for

Set up to make up for the lack of local main force.

According to Luo Zhixue and the staff's conception, the tactical function of this temporary fourth mixed regiment is to fill the vacancies of the main force and to be used on the western front of Chunan, which is the front line of Governor Pianyuan's jurisdiction.

Although the war in Chunan is still going on, there is basically no big threat in the entire Chunan. What the Chu army will have to do next is to take down Hengyang, Baoqing and other places step by step.

Well, it is only limited to Dongting Lake and the Xiangjiang River system, mainly in plain areas, excluding mountainous areas with complex terrain.

Strictly speaking, the Chu army's Chunan offensive was not to capture the entire Chunan region. Its purpose was mainly to capture Dongting Lake and the plain areas along the Xiangjiang River system, which were the main population gathering places and important grain-producing areas in Chunan.

.

As for those in remote mountains and remote areas, although they will fight in the future, it will be secondary.

If nothing else goes wrong, after the Battle of Changsha, the Chu Empire will suspend its large-scale offensive on the southern Chu front line, the Guards Division will begin to move eastward, and a large amount of logistics supplies will be transported to the eastern front to prepare for the subsequent eastward offensive.
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Chunan will naturally leave some troops to continue fighting. In addition to the garrison division, the fifth division of the main division will stay in the Chunan area to continue fighting.

However, the Fifth Division will need to be responsible for Hengyang, Baoqing, and even continue the offensive southward in the Guangdong and Guangxi areas. The western front, mainly in the remote governor's jurisdiction, also needs a small-scale local force to serve as the core combat force.
Chapter completed!