I want to be emperor

Chapter 420 All are good people who obey the law and pay taxes

And other places are also unreliable. In the end, most of the gentry chose to flee to the countryside.

If other thieves came to kill them, if it wasn't for those big landowners with fortresses and large manors in the countryside, it would be more dangerous to flee to the countryside, because most of the thieves and the officers and soldiers who suppressed thieves like to go to the countryside collect money...

The manors of those big landowners may be more difficult for them to fight, but for ordinary manors and ordinary villages, one hit is a sure thing.

So when the thieves come to kill, the gentry and landlords often like to hide in the city.

However, when the Chu thieves came to kill them, these gentry and landowners turned around and didn't like to hide in the city. Instead, they liked to hide in the countryside, even if they didn't have a fortress-style manor at home, it was just an ordinary farm.

Because the Chu thieves behaved differently from other thieves, officers and soldiers.

Other thieves, officers and soldiers, all like to plunder the countryside, but the Chu army is different. They like to attack the city, and then ransack the homes of the gentry and officials in the city one by one...

On the contrary, it is generally not too hard to deal with the countryside.

The gentry hiding in the countryside, as long as they don't engage in armed resistance during the war, the general Chu army will not pay them too much attention.

As for the subsequent Great Chu Empire’s large-scale use of force to wipe out those big landlords hiding in the countryside, the military said that this is none of our business, it was the work of the armed tax police from the tax department, don’t blame me...

Besides, the tax department collects taxes, regardless of whether you are hiding in the city or in the countryside, it doesn't matter whether you are hiding in the city or in the countryside. You should collect taxes and ransack your home. If you refuse to accept it, you will be bombarded.

As an aside, the tax police are equipped with two-and-a-half catties of field guns in batches, and the Jiangbei Armed Tax Police under the Jiangbei Tax Department, which the Ministry of Taxation has recently focused on building and expanding, has even more powerful troops and luxurious equipment.

The Jiangbei Armed Tax Police, which has more than 4000 people, has eight two-and-a-half-pound field artillery pieces and four five-pound field artillery pieces under its jurisdiction. There are eight 24-jin mortars, and all kinds of individual equipment are comparable to the main force of the army.

If you really pull it out to fight, it is worthwhile against a mixed brigade under the old establishment of the Chu army.

However, it is basically impossible for this powerful Jiangbei armed tax police to concentrate on operations, because they were in collective action when they were organized, and they were soon dispersed in the form of brigades, squadrons, and small teams, and entered behind the army. Taxes were collected in various places in Jiangbei.

After all, tax collection, after all, this is not a war... It is a bit ridiculous for you to bring thousands of people to collect taxes, but it is very reasonable for you to bring hundreds of heavily armed tax police to collect taxes.

When the tax officials from the Taxation Department of the Great Chu Empire brought hundreds or even hundreds of armed tax policemen and dragged several cannons to find those landlords, those landlords were all law-abiding and tax-paying citizens, and they all clapped their hands. Chest said: It is our gentry's honor to pay taxes for the empire!
However, even though the armed tax policemen of the Great Chu Empire were powerful, they failed to reach Qinghe County, which is far away from the hinterland of the Chu army's control area. Hongze Lake is a big bay.

When Meng Junli arrived outside Qinghe County with the No.30 Ninth Infantry Regiment and other troops, all the big gentry in the city had already run away. military.

The more than 4000 defenders of the Ming army did not flee in anticipation, nor did they even build basic artillery fortifications like the defenders in Suqian, Pizhou and other places.

Among the more than 4000 defenders, more than 1000 people are part of the Water Transport Supervision Bureau reorganized by Yang Sichang. Although this water transportation supervision team is also a new force, it has not been long since it was formed, but Yang Sichang is a knowledgeable and capable person.

He was the one who fought in the Huguang New Standard Army before, and fought several battles with the Chu Army.

So even if the water transportation supervisors he made were some recruits, they were equipped with basic guns, and the training was not bad. The most important thing was that they knew how to build various artillery fortifications.

After Meng Junli led his army to arrive outside Qinghe County, he knew from a brief glance that it was impossible to take down Qinghe County quickly, so he could only fight slowly with superior firepower, at least deploying them outside the city The firepower points of the many fortresses in the city were allotted one by one before the next siege offensive could be launched.

Ever since, the Battle of Qinghe started like this.

The scale can't be said to be too large, and the infantry didn't fight like this. The main thing is that the artillery of both sides bombarded in rotation.

But most of the time, the Ming army was crushed and beaten by the artillery units of the Chu army.

When Meng Junli led the 39th Regiment to attack Qinghe County, in Huai'an City, which was only more than ten kilometers away to the south, Yang Sichang looked down at a large number of civil and military officials with frowning faces, and finally couldn't help sighing.

At this point in the battle, Yang Sichang already knew that Jiangbei was going to be completely doomed.

Not only is Jiangbei going to be completely finished, but I am afraid that even the tens of thousands of troops in Jiangbei, especially the nearly [-] new standard troops, will be completely finished.

Suqian, Pizhou, and Taoyuan counties in the north have been fully captured by Chu thieves, completely cutting off the channel for our side to retreat northward.

At the same time, they captured Sizhou, Jiuxian, Wuhe and other places, and also cut off the connection between Fengyang and Huai'an.

Baoying and Gaoyou Prefectures in the south fell into the hands of Chu thieves early on.

Huai'an has been heavily besieged by Chu thieves.

As for Song Zushun and the others in Yangzhou further south, they were also besieged in the isolated city of Yangzhou at this time.

The two core cities of Yangzhou and Huai'an along the Jiangbei Canal have been divided and strategically surrounded by the Chu army.They can't even retreat north if they want to break through the encirclement.

What can they do in such a situation?
If you can still do this, continue to resist for as long as you can.

As for continuing to hold on, and then waiting for the imperial court to send reinforcements from the north, Yang Sichang didn't count on it at all.

Because the imperial court did not have many fresh troops in Shandong and the southern part of Beizhili.

When Yang Sichang went south to Huai'an, he had already brought down the local guards in Baoding and Shandong, as well as the few new standard troops.

At the same time, the imperial court was also requested to send troops from Shanxi, Jiliao, Xuanda and other places to the south to reinforce the Jiangbei battlefield.

Otherwise, it would be impossible for the Ming court to concentrate more than 7 troops in the Jiangbei area, including five or six thousand frontier cavalry.

Many of the troops are from the North.

In order to defend Jiangbei and fight against the Chu thieves, the Ming court has basically allocated all the mobile forces in Shandong and the southern part of Beizhili.

Even the frontier troops in Jiliao and Xuanda have been mobilized a lot. This is how the 5000 multilateral cavalry active in Jiangbei now come from.

Under such circumstances, if the 7-odd army in Jiangbei could not defeat the Chu thieves, or even be surrounded and wiped out by the Chu army, it would be impossible for the imperial court to deploy many troops to the south for rescue in a short period of time.

Taking a ten-thousand-step back, the imperial court ignored the threat of captives and directly transferred the main force of Ji Liao to the south. It would take time, and it took months for the army to march south.

And a few months later?
I'm afraid that the grass on Yang Sichang's grave is a foot high...

There is no hope of breaking through, no hope of rescue, what Yang Sichang can do now is to continue to resist calmly, for as long as he can resist...

Wait until the city is broken and die calmly!

In this way, he can be regarded as worthy of Emperor Chongzhen's heavy use of him, and he can have a clear conscience.

Yang Sichang is now sitting in Huai'an with the mentality of dying in Huai'an, but not everyone under him will have the determination and courage to fight to the death like Yang Sichang.

On the eighth day of February, after several days of onslaught, the No.30 Ninth Regiment under the Tenth Division of the Chu Army and a Mortar Battalion and other units that were subsequently reinforced successfully broke through the outer defense line of Qinghe City and wiped out the Ming army's presence in the city. outside the numerous outlying forts.

At this time, the strength of the Chu army had already directly approached the city of Qinghe, and the mortars had moved to the front trenches, ready to bombard the city.

Seeing that the outer line of defense was breached, and the overall situation was hopeless to break through, and after receiving help, the water transportation supervisors in the city and thousands of local guards were already in panic. Many Ming troops fled their positions that night and went to the Chu army's positions. surrender.

There were even organized surrenders!
However, Li Xiangyu, the commander of the Zuo Army, the supervisor of the water transportation, was once again refused to rescue by Yang Sichang, so he gritted his teeth and sent an envoy to meet with the opposite commander of the Chu Army, expressing his intention to surrender.

Meng Junli was naturally very happy when he heard that the commander in chief of the Supervising Biao Army on the opposite side wanted to surrender, and immediately replied, as long as he surrenders, I will try my best to protect the lives of thousands of Ming troops in the city.

At the same time, he also promised that he would definitely fight for a better treatment for Li Xiangyu. It is naturally impossible to lead troops directly after he voted in, but it is not a big problem to give a military rank and a false job. Can continue to lead troops.

In order to avoid long nights and dreams, Li Xiangyu took the remnants of the defenders in the city and surrendered directly out of the city in the afternoon as soon as the matter of surrender was negotiated in the morning.

With Li Xiangyu's surrender, Qinghe County, which had blocked the Chu army for many days, officially fell into the hands of the Chu army.

Then the No.30 Ninth Regiment directly built a pontoon bridge on the Yellow River, crossed the river directly and occupied Qingjiangpu.

Immediately afterwards, the No.30 Ninth Regiment successfully contacted the troops of the No.11 Division.

The 11th Division, which was attacking in a roundabout way, circled the huge Hongze Lake, and finally joined forces with the No. [-] Division in Qingjiangpu, and formed a north-south pincer attack on Huai'an City.

Huai'an City, this meeting cannot be said to be surrounded by strategy, but directly and completely surrounded by the Chu army...

The strength of the Chu army has directly approached the outer fortifications of Huai'an City from the north and south.

The destruction of Huai'an City and the defeat of Yang Sichang are only a matter of time.

And this time will not last too long, because after the Tenth Division took Qinghe County, it cooperated with the main force of the Third Army to encircle Huai'an City.

Luo Zhixue, the emperor of the Great Chu Empire, also set off from Jinling City and arrived outside Yangzhou City.

Luo Zhixue not only came by himself, but also brought most of the 15nd Guards Division and a regiment of the No.[-] Division, as well as the [-]st Heavy Artillery Regiment and two Mortar Artillery Regiments.

After arriving in Yangzhou with Luo Zhixue, these troops joined the two divisions of the First Army, and with the fire support of the Navy's inland warships, officially launched a full-scale attack on Yangzhou City.

Once the Chu army captured Yangzhou City, a large number of siege heavy artillery and artillery shells and other supplies would continue to go northward to Huai'an through the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal and be used to attack Huai'an City.

At that time, even if Huai'an City is a tortoise shell with a relatively complete defense system, the Chu army will still be able to pry it open.

Once Huai'an is finished, it can basically be declared that the entire Jiangbei is also finished!

(End of this chapter)