246 [Wonderful Night Attack] (For the Silver League Warm Sun 1314
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In the late Ming Dynasty, there were really no decent battles to fight in the south.
The city is in disrepair and the armaments are lax. If Zhao Han really encounters difficulties, Chongzhen can laugh out of his dreams.
This can be seen from the city walls in various places in southern Hunan.
Many are new!
Take Changsha Prefecture as an example. Including Changsha City, there are eleven counties and one state. Of these twelve cities, by the end of Zhengde, seven of them did not have proper city walls.
Xiangtan, such an important commercial city, still used wooden city walls in the early years of Wanli.
But by the end of Wanli, all the masonry city walls in various prefectures and counties in Changsha Prefecture had been repaired. The fundamental motive of the local officials in building the city was to prevent the peasant uprisings that occurred one after another in southern Hunan during the Wanli period.
When a group of untrained peasants come and kill them, they can make the officers and soldiers run away with their heads in their hands.
Unable to resist, local officials could only build fortifications and let the peasant army ravage the villages and towns. When the trouble became serious, the imperial court sent troops to encircle and suppress it, and the suppression lasted for several years.
This is the normal state of war in the south, and it is impossible for Zhao Han to encounter decent resistance.
Just when Li Zheng was besieging Changsha, the Xia family from Xiangyin, Ningxiang, and Yiyang joined forces to recruit troops.
The Xia family originally lived in Yiyang, but one branch moved to Ningxiang during the Northern Song Dynasty. During the Yongle period, one branch of the Xia family from Jiangxi migrated to Xiangyin, and matched the genealogy of the Xia family in Huguang.
The three Xia clans stand on a three-legged basis, all located next to Changsha.
Although their response was slow, the battle was huge. A total of more than 7,000 local warriors were recruited to support Changsha.
Li Zheng had already sent spies to Xiangyin, mainly to investigate the situation of the enemy in Xiangyin and see if he could send a small number of troops to steal the city.
As a result, they discovered the direction of Xiangyin and thousands of regiments marched bravely towards Changsha.
Li Zheng was so happy that he wanted to besiege the city and call for reinforcements!
There were not many troops sent. Hu Dinggui and Chen Fugui each led 500 regular soldiers. They set off at night and circled to the north, ambush in Matan Mountain forty miles away from Changsha City.
The Xia family's team training troops moved very slowly. Hu Dinggui and Chen Fugui rested for two days in Matan Mountain, and those guys finally arrived late.
The spy sneaked back into the mountains and said: "More than ten miles away to the north, those regiments camped by the river. I don't know what the river is, but it is a small river anyway."
Hu Dinggui asked: "South bank or north bank?"
"On the south bank," the spy said, "the enemy army began to cross the river in the morning, and only brought all the baggage over in the middle of the afternoon. I guess they were tired and hungry, and they didn't want to continue on their way, so they camped directly by the river. The camp was in a mess, so they cut it down.
Some bamboos were used as fences. There were not many tents in the camp. Most of the enemy troops slept in the open and burned grass everywhere in the camp to smoke out mosquitoes."
Is this motherfucker here for an armed outing?
It would take more than 7,000 people to cross a small river and it would take a whole day.
Moreover, they also set up camp across the river, which was extremely considerate. Hu Dinggui didn’t even have to cross the river to attack the camp.
After nightfall, Hu Dinggui and Chen Fugui led their troops down the mountain. They took off their armor in advance and placed it in the mountain. They all marched lightly and marched for more than ten miles in the middle of the night, finally arriving at the enemy's riverside camp.
The moonlight was bright tonight. Hu Dinggui quietly touched it and almost laughed out loud when he got so close.
The regiment training troops run by these gentry were no different from the peasants who had just started to rebel. They didn't understand anything, and almost all the mistakes that could be made were made in the camp in front of them.
Hu Dinggui and Chen Fugui each led 500 regular soldiers and began to approach little by little.
"kill!"
Hu Dinggui kicked over the bamboo fence and rushed into the enemy camp easily.
Ordinary Tuanyong almost all sleep in the open air with a mat or straw mat under their bodies. Although they burn grass maggots in the evening, the effect has worn off by this time, and many Tuanyong are bitten by mosquitoes and cannot sleep.
In this state of being unable to sleep, if we march for a few more days, we will be physically and mentally exhausted before the battle begins.
When a thousand Datong troops entered the camp, the heroes woke up one after another.
I don't know how many enemies came in the shadows. Their first reaction was to run away. They didn't even bother to grab their weapons and ran towards the river quickly.
Plop, plop...
The sound of falling water was heard all the time, and they all jumped into the river on their own initiative. Almost all these Hunan men could swim, and they didn't even wear armor. They had already thought clearly about jumping into the river to escape once they encountered the enemy. Except for the sons of the gentry, ordinary soldiers were not willing to do so at all.
fight.
Especially those tenants, they participated in the group training purely because the landlord promised to reduce rent this year, and the team training troops can still provide food every day.
The group of more than 7,000 people agreed, as if they had received a military order, rushing north and jumping into the unknown river. Then they performed various swimming postures, some dog paddle, some breaststroke, some freestyle, and night raids.
It's like a swimming competition.
There were also some grain transport boats parked on the bank of the Xiangjiang River. When they heard the noise, they immediately rowed away.
A thousand Datong troops chased to the river and were dumbfounded as they looked at the churning river water under the moonlight.
Hu Dinggui and Chen Fugui looked at each other, dumbfounded.
"How many have you killed?" Hu Dinggui asked.
Chen Fugui said: "I only focus on chasing the enemy and disrupting the enemy camp, but I haven't killed any of them."
One thousand Datong elites attacked more than 7,000 regiments at night and penetrated the enemy camp. It seemed that no blood was shed on either side.
Tuan Yong didn't have time to escape, so he lay down on the ground and surrendered. In order to disrupt the camp as quickly as possible, the Datong Army did not bother to kill those lying on the ground, and rushed deeper into the area crazily.
This is the first time that Hu Dinggui has fought in such a strange battle since he joined the army.
After daybreak, the number of people was counted and more than 600 prisoners were captured.
And finally the casualties were discovered. One regiment hero was trampled to death, and seven regiment heroes were stabbed to death.
"Is this considered a victory?" Chen Fugui was a little confused because most of the enemy troops successfully escaped.
Hu Dinggui pointed to the food and grass in the camp and said with a smile: "We must have won the battle. The enemy has no food and grass. I don't know how long it will take to come again."
Chen Fugui scratched his head and said, "They are just here to deliver food and grass."
"Ha ha ha ha!"
Hu Dinggui laughed happily.
There must be a lot of food and fodder for more than 7,000 people. Unfortunately, half of it was transported by ship and had been rowed away during the night, otherwise more could have been captured.
Hu Dinggui summoned the prisoners and asked, "Where did they come from?"
"Xiangyin, Xiajiachong." A prisoner answered.
Hu Dinggui was a little surprised: "You actually speak Jiangxi dialect?"
The prisoner said: "I heard from my elders that the entire village in our area was moved from Dexing, Jiangxi."
"Old cousin," Hu Dinggui said with a smile, "I'm from Fengcheng, not far from Dexing, with a few counties in between. Why do I want to help the government fight the war?"
The prisoner replied: "Master Xia said that as long as you join the army and serve as a regimental hero, this year's land rent will be reduced by 10%. When the army is sent to fight, the master will have to take care of the food."
Hu Dinggui simply called all the hundreds of prisoners over and said loudly: "You guys are so worthless. You are working for the landlord for a few buckets of rice. Has anyone heard of King Zhao Tian?"
"I heard... I heard." The prisoners replied sparsely, with many of them looking horrified.
Hu Dinggui felt that there was something wrong, so he said, "Tell me, what kind of person is King Zhao Tian over there?"
No one answered, no one dared to speak.
Hu Dinggui pointed to the previous prisoner: "Old Biao, tell me, don't tell lies!"
The prisoner trembled and said: "King Zhao likes to kill people and eat human flesh. His soldiers want to kill all the young men, rob all the women, and use children as military rations."
"Damn it, these landlords really know how to make stuff up!" Hu Dinggui became furious and ordered, "Preacher, come here and tell them, I'm going to bed first!"
The soldiers took turns to rest for half a day and had lunch. Hu Dinggui ordered them to return, and the hundreds of prisoners were all used to transport food.
Along the way, the missionary officer repeatedly explained the policy, which made the captives’ eyes light up.
Not only the tenants, but also the farmers are eager to share the land. As long as Mr. Zhao comes, they can also divide their fields.
Hu Dinggui wanted to give Li Zheng some advice. After the battle was over, he would give food to the prisoners and let them go home and actively promote the war.
The prisoners and provisions were still on the way. Li Zheng had already received the news and immediately asked people to write more letters persuading them to surrender.
"Commander Fu, there are bandits in the north!"
Wang Zhiliang immediately rushed to the north city wall, and sure enough he saw a thousand Datong troops escorting hundreds of prisoners. There was too much food, and the hundreds of captives were too busy to handle it, so several hundred Datong troops were divided among them to transport the food.
Li Zheng immediately ordered people to shoot letters into the city. The officers and soldiers guarding the city were so frightened that their faces turned pale.
Especially the gentry who were recruiting troops for regiment training were trembling with fear at this moment. The content of the letter was very simple. Li Zheng lied that he had captured Xiangyin and Changsha had become an isolated city.
The gentry collectively went to find Wang Zhiliang. Wang Zhiliang said calmly: "Don't be alarmed. This is a lie."
A gentry said anxiously: "But the thieves really came from the north and brought many prisoners and baggage with them. Xiangyin must have been captured!"
Wang Zhiliang explained: "Either the rebels ambushed the reinforcements, or the rebels went to the north to plunder, and they robbed the prisoners and baggage."
A large section of the moat outside the city has been filled in by Li Zheng's grain transport team, which carries soil every day.
Tao Aizhi looked at the filled-in section of the moat and quietly gave instructions to his three younger brothers. Then he went to Wang Zhiliang, raised his hands and said, "Commander Fu, Wansheng can hang out in a basket at night and feign surrender to the rebel camp.
We agreed to be internal responders and raise a fire as a signal three days later. When they enter the urn city, they will catch turtles in an urn. Although it cannot annihilate the rebel army, it can dampen their morale and boost the morale of our army."
There were more than 11,000 garrison troops in the city, and the Tao family raised more than 4,000. Wang Zhiliang attached great importance to the four Tao brothers.
Wang Zhiliang shook his head and said: "Rebels will not be fooled and will detain you. Don't take such risks."
Tao Aizhi said: "Wansheng can tell the rebels that it was Fushuai who asked Wansheng to surrender. Wansheng really intends to join the thieves. Then he can make an excuse to go back to the city to arrange things, and then he can escape easily."
Wang Zhiliang did not agree, but fell into deep thought.
The city of Changsha is tall and solid, so there will definitely be no problem in defending the city. The problem is that morale has been declining.
In ancient times, city offensive and defensive battles often lasted for several months. Unless the entire army was determined to die, they would never block the city gates. One of the important reasons for keeping the city gates was to go out of the city to fight a few games at any time. As long as a small victory was achieved, the city would be improved.
Boosting morale, even a draw can boost morale. Otherwise, the longer the siege lasts, the lower the morale of the defenders will be.
However, this ragtag group of people under Wang Zhiliang's command had only been besieged for half a month, and their military morale was already weakening. They had to win a small victory.
At this moment, Wang Zhiliang hoped that the rebels would attack the city quickly, so that he could use the city to continuously inflict casualties on the rebels. As long as he could cause casualties, his morale would be boosted, but Li Zheng just slowly filled the moat.
Seeing the moat being filled up section by section was simply a torment for the mob in the city.
When the rebels actually attacked the city, they were not so panicked.
It feels like there is still a boot that has not yet been dropped.
After thinking about it, Wang Zhiliang decided to take the risk and said to Tao Aizhi: "Then you can leave the city tonight."
Tao Aizhi had no choice. There were Wang Zhiliang's soldiers at the city gate. All his soldiers from the Tao family were used to guard the city wall, and they were divided into four groups.
He wanted to set fire to the city at night, but he was afraid of failure and the four brothers would definitely be beheaded.
Only by allowing Li Zheng to lead troops to attack the city and attack the sections of wall defended by the Tao soldiers can the two sides cooperate perfectly. But this is tantamount to allowing Li Zheng to take risks. If the Tao soldiers cheat and are not adequately prepared, Datong soldiers will definitely be killed or injured.
heavy.
Neither Li Zheng nor Tao Aizhi truly trusted each other.
In Li Zheng's view, Tao Aizhi had 4,000 soldiers, so he could just jump back inside the city, and then he would be able to take the opportunity to attack the city.
To put it bluntly, I want the other party to take action first, so that it has been delayed until now.
Tao Aizhi ventured out of the city this time to communicate with Li Zheng in person, otherwise there would be no tacit understanding between them.