national surname chiming

Chapter 203 Baling Siege
Although Liu Shunchen knew that Shen Shuren's reinforcements would arrive soon, after all, they hadn't arrived yet.

After all, there is still at least half a day's time difference between the messenger and the main force.

Therefore, he had to rely on his own troops to defend Chenglingji for half a day. If Li Dingguo dared to attack, he had to resolutely repel it.

Fortunately, Liu Shunchen's psychological advantage was much better than that of the defenders in Baling City. After all, he knew that reinforcements were coming soon, and the morale of the whole army was also very high, showing a burst of fighting spirit.There are also Wubao fortifications to rely on, so it shouldn't be a big problem.

And even if the reinforcements arrive, it is impossible to arrive all at once, and the main force will have to be mobilized and set off in batches.It is estimated that the first batch is just the cavalry unit under Shen Shuren's command, the number will not be large, and then the main force of the Wuchang Battalion.

As for more follow-up troops, it may take seven or eight days or even ten and a half months of scheduling, preparation, and marching before they can arrive at the Hunan battlefield in batches.

Shen Shuren is not a god, and Zhang Xianzhong's behavior has long been out of the track of history, so it is impossible to predict it by opening the prophet's perspective.

Therefore, no matter how high the IQ of Shen Shuren was, at best, he was just playing a trick to show the enemy a falsehood, taking advantage of the enemy's lack of logistics supplies and the mentality of definitely expanding new territories to lure Zhang Xianzhong out.

As for the exact route Zhang Xianzhong would be lured out from, Shen Shuren didn't know.

Therefore, he could only divide his troops to guard beforehand. Xiangyang in the north also reserved a considerable part of his troops, and Wuchang in the south also reserved them. There are also some other key nodes, which cannot be completely relaxed.

The troops here in Wuchang are designed to respond quickly once Zhang Xianzhong chooses to fight out from the native and Miao mountainous areas such as Shizhouwei and Yongshun Xuanweisi.

The troops in Xiangyang, on the other hand, were just in case Zhang Xianzhong crossed Shennongjia and left Yunyang again—although Shennongjia is more difficult to cross than Shizhouwei, it's not that the geography is more dangerous, but that Shennongjia is a completely uninhabited land , only savages, unable to raise food and grass halfway, so it is more difficult to maintain logistics than the natives and Miao people in mountainous areas.

But after all, it is impossible to rule out the possibility of this eventuality. Zhang Xianzhong went out of Jingmen to attack Xiangyang last year. What if it happens again this year?

Zhang Xianzhong failed to overturn Shennongjia in the end, but this does not mean that Shen Shuren's troops in Xiangyang were wrong.

Be careful.

Shen Shuren, who claims to have a total force of 2, can be used to deal with Zhang Xianzhong in the first five or six days, that is, the first [-] people.

……

The reinforcements sent by Fang Kongzhang were temporarily stationed in Chenglingji, and of course they quickly attracted Li Dingguo's attention.

That morning, Li Dingguo's vanguard troops arrived at the foot of Baling City, and the scout cavalry spread out dozens of miles to scout.
And you can also see large warships lined up on the surface of the river and at the mouth of the lake, so they must not be the local guards of Yuezhou Prefecture.

Li Dingguo had just disembarked and had yet to gain a firm foothold, when he received this important military situation reported by his subordinates. He also attached great importance to it, and immediately summoned the main generals for a brief discussion.

Soon, lieutenant general Bai Wenxuan, vanguard Pan Shirong, Jiao Guangqi and others all came to Li Dingguo's Chinese army camp.

Li Dingguo was also unambiguous, and straight to the point expressed his concerns: "Fang Kongzhang's reinforcements have arrived at Chenglingji, and according to the reports from the scouts, the scale of reinforcements discovered so far is not large, probably only a few thousand people.

But the key point is that our army is trying to make an emergency landing in Baling. If the defenders in the city know that reinforcements have arrived, even if they don't know how many reinforcements are there for the time being, it will greatly boost the morale of the defenders in the city.In this way, once the forced landing fails, there is only a forced attack.

Therefore, the top priority is that we must send an army to Chenglingji. It would be best if we can annihilate the army before it can gain a firm foothold. The reinforcements went south and exchanged news with the defenders in Baling City—who would dare to lead troops to fight against Chenglingji? "

Lieutenant General Bai Wenxuan asked for orders immediately: "Second General, let me go! I'm afraid Chenglingji will be difficult to break through quickly. After all, there is a Wubao camp. I'd better make two-handed preparations and stop the news first."

Li Dingguo thought for a while: "You are also needed on the siege side. Since you are not sure about taking Chenglingji, you are a bit overqualified."

The two pioneers next to him heard that Jiao Guangqi was more reckless and dared to fight, so he followed up and asked: "Then let the last general go!"

Li Dingguo felt that he was a little reckless, but this matter is not too difficult, it is better to let positive people do it, so he finally added a word of care:
"You can go. I will give you thousands of cavalry and [-] infantry. The strength of the troops should be at least two or three times that of the defenders. After arriving, you can first test whether the officers and soldiers are tenacious. If the morale of the officers and soldiers is high, If you can't stick to it, don't waste your life in vain, just block the news.

I kept two-thirds of the main force for myself and besieged Baling.Wen Xuan, you lead the troops to camp in the east of the city, and I will camp by the Dongting Lake and surround the city on both sides. "

After Li Dingguo gave his orders, each general took his orders and went.

Zhang Xianzhong has been entrenched in Sichuan and Hubei for a year and a half, and now there are [-] to [-] direct troops left, and the cannon fodder of the new attached army is almost the same.

The previous bloody battle with the natives and Miao people of Shizhouwei and Yongshun Xuanweisi caused heavy casualties, and there were also many deaths and injuries from the epidemic. Strong men, expand the total number of the army back to about [-] or [-].

Of course, the quality of the soldiers must have dropped significantly.Now the number of veterans who have been bandits for many years in Shaanxi, Henan and other places has fallen below [-], and the proportion of hungry people has further increased.

Moreover, Zhang Xianzhong left 8 strong men to guard the house at Sun Kewang's place, so he and Li Dingguo together brought out more than [-] people.

Zhang Xianzhong had 3 on his route, and Li Dingguo had just over [-] on his route, so it was already a lot to distribute more than [-] people to Jiao Guangqi to Chenglingji. If there were more, Li Dingguo himself would be stretched.

……

After Li Dingguo and Bai Wenxuan hurriedly set up camp and hastily completed the siege of the city, they reviewed the measures to persuade them to surrender.

Zhang Xianzhong's army is now coming over the mountains, and there is no way to bring heavy artillery. At most, there are only a few Flang machines in the single digits. They were seized from the Ming army when Lixian, Anxiang and other places were frightened and surrendered. .

On average, if you capture a guard or county seat, you can seize at most one or two Flang machines, and they are all old-fashioned small Frang machines of three to five hundred catties, and none of the thousand-pound Flang machines.

It is impossible to break through the city wall and break through Baling with this little firepower, that is, to scare the defenders at the top of the city by hearing a noise.

But idleness is also idleness, so Li Dingguo arranged all the three hundred to five hundred catties of Flang machines in the army at the west gate of Baling City, and blasted them fiercely at the gates and battlements.

After three rounds of gunfire, he asked a group of scolding soldiers to come forward and shout in unison, and persuaded them to surrender after a few hundred steps:
"Listen to the defenders of the city, one hundred thousand soldiers from the Eight Great Kings are here! Open the city within a day, and the whole city will not be killed! Tomorrow, after attacking the city with all your strength, surrender, and kill [-]% of the wealthy households in the city! Kill half of the rich households in the city in three days! Kill half in five days! City, slaughter the whole city without leaving any chickens or dogs behind!"

Bai Wenxuan listened from the side, still a little unwilling, and quietly persuaded Li Dingguo: "Why did the Second General give them a day to think about it? They should surrender immediately."

Li Dingguo shook his head: "We need time for people to think. Those stupid officials of the Ming people are afraid of taking responsibility. Before surrendering directly, they have to check how to shirk their responsibility. And we have not built siege weapons now. If they refuse to surrender immediately, we will If you can't fight back with color immediately, you will lose your spirit when the time comes.

Intimidate the enemy, but also ensure that once the enemy does not accept the intimidation, you can immediately make them bleed with real strength!Progressing day by day, increasing the number of people in the city to be slaughtered, the intimidation is enough. "

Historically, after the [-]th or [-]rd year of Chongzhen, Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong gradually formed such a tacit understanding of scary tactics.Moreover, the further you go to the back, the stronger the thieves are, and the harsher the conditions are.

For example, after 16 years of Chongzhen, Li Zicheng even broke through Kaifeng, Xi'an was also captured, and after Sun Chuanting was killed, his intimidation price was also increased to the highest: after entering the army and approaching the city, those who surrender before the attack begins will not be killed.If you resist for one day and then surrender, you will slaughter one-third of the city, and if you resist for two days and then break the city, you will slaughter two-thirds.Those who resist for more than three days before breaking the city will slaughter the whole city.

There are a few more such examples, and after the news spreads, the effect is very exaggerated. As a result, in history, after Li Zicheng crossed the Yellow River from Kaifeng to the north, he encountered stubborn resistance along the way except Zhou Yuji. After being slaughtered, other places basically did not dare to resist.

Of course, Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong are not yet so strong, so Zhang Xianzhong's army has agreed to offer a threatening price of "resisting for more than five days before breaking the city, and slaughtering the whole city", and the time for preparing siege weapons on the first day is just in time. Think clearly for the defenders and slow down their minds.

In addition, psychological warfare is not just waiting, but something has to be done.After Li Dingguo was scolded, he immediately implemented supporting measures, and asked the soldiers to carry a bunch of heads on long poles and shout outside the city.

"The heads of Yongding Guard and the three Qianzongs are all here! They dared to resist the Heavenly Soldiers, and their entire families have been slaughtered! The heads of the entire families of Cili County, Anxiang County Magistrate, County Chancellor, Chief Bookkeeper, and Dianshi are here!

The Heavenly Soldiers of the Eight Great Kings defeated five counties within five days!Those who block must be killed!Shimen County, Li County, and Jiuxi Guards will return to the Heavenly Soldiers, and all the soldiers and common people will be preserved! "

The gatekeeper at the top of the city, Mr. Qian, watched the battle, trembling with fright, and quickly reported the situation to the prefect and the guard who were discussing countermeasures in the government office.Of course the prefect and the guard were also panicked, and they got up in panic all day long.

……

Under the city of Baling, Li Dingguo had exhausted all his tricks, but at least he had to wait for another day before the officers and soldiers tried to persuade him. After all, this was the seat of a mansion, and he hadn't been persuaded enough to surrender.

On the other side of the battlefield, [-] miles north of the city, around the last hour of the day, Jiao Guangqi also led an army of nearly ten thousand people to Chenglingji in a chaotic manner, and after a short observation, he tried to persuade him to surrender , Intimidating, while preparing to attack.

Jiao Guangqi's persuasion words are of course similar to Li Dingguo's. It is nothing more than saying that for every day of resistance and the destruction of the stronghold, [-]% more people will be slaughtered, so that the defenders can take care of themselves.

The difference is that Jiao Guangqi is more impatient and will not give the defenders time to think.The defenders did not agree to surrender on the spot, so he immediately launched a strong attack.

However, although Liu Shunchen was cowardly, at least he had good location and fortifications to rely on.When Shen Shuren received Zuo Liangyu's inheritance last year, he also found a batch of old-fashioned firecrackers in Wuchang and Hanyang armies.

So this time for reinforcements, Liu Shunchen had [-] old-fashioned firecrackers, [-] of which were given to Fang Kongxuan by Shen Shuren.

No matter how slow and inefficient the old-fashioned gunfire is, the lethality is still very impressive when there is a fortress wall to rely on.

After a fierce fight, the morale of the Ming soldiers who knew that they had reinforcements was high, and they defended the wall without retreating. Hundreds of old-fashioned firecrackers fired at each other, shooting the forward of Jiao Guangqi who was only trying to climb the wall with a simple flying ladder. .

Jiao Guangqi was also decisive. After hundreds of people were killed and injured, he immediately realized that a strong attack would not work, and switched to isolation operations to surround the enemy and prevent the news of reinforcements from being sent to Baling City.

In this way, it took another hour to pass. Before noon, Jiao Guangqi had just fenced off the camp, and he didn't have time to cut wood to make a fence. At most, he asked the soldiers to dig a long semi-finished trench, the depth of which was not more than one foot. I didn't even prepare any bamboo sticks for traps, and then I saw a small army of reinforcements from the north arriving again.

There are not many people, only about two thousand, but they are all cavalry.The leading general is not a direct descendant of Shen Shuren, but just Zhu Wenzhen, a general from Cao Bianjiao's old army who was rescued from Liaodong.

There was no way for Shen Shuren to let Liaodong fled generals lead the cavalry, because he had no cavalry generals under his command before, and his direct descendants were all southerners, who were not good at horse fighting.

The general of the Liaodong Army, at any rate, lived with Guan Ning's cavalry, fought together as a robe, and had never eaten pork and seen pigs running. As long as he learned half the combat power of Guanning's cavalry, he would be very qualified.

Jiao Guangqi didn't understand the situation for a while, so he didn't send troops to intercept Zhu Wenzhen from entering Chenglingji.

After a cup of tea, Zhu Wenzhen met Liu Shunchen and briefly asked about the situation to understand the enemy's situation.

Later, when he learned that Liu Shunchen was so cowardly that he hadn't sent the news of "reinforcement has arrived" to Baling City to boost the morale of the army, Zhu Wenzhen couldn't help being very disdainful:
"How do you do it! The reinforcements have arrived, why don't you think of a way to notify the defenders in the city? What if the defenders surrender in despair because they don't know that there are reinforcements! You are going to miss a big deal!

Before dispatching troops, the first thing Shen Futai told me was that after arriving in Yuezhou, we must let the defenders know that we are here as soon as possible! "

Liu Shunchen was also helpless, and he spread his hands: "General Zhu, it's not that we don't want to report the news, Zhang Ni has always been cunning, and I heard that he even sent people to defraud the city. Those who went in, didn’t the person who reported the letter died in vain?”

Zhu Wenzhen proudly despised: "Who told you to report the letter secretly? If you report the letter to the defenders, if you don't believe it or open the door, let's go back the same way! Destroy the part of the bandit army blocking the road, and then you can report the letter safely!"

Li Shunchen was stunned: "Defeat the enemy army encircling the city, and then report? General Zhu, are you kidding? There are at least 4000 people in Jiao Guangqi's department. We only have [-] here, and you brought only [-]."

It would be good if we defended Chenglingji, you let us take the initiative to go out of the city with 6000 people and find 1 people to fight in the field?Go and take your 2000 people there yourself!I want to defend Chenglingji and not let the waterway at the mouth of Dongting Lake fall into the hands of thieves! "

Zhu Wenzhen was also unambiguous: "If I go, I will go! I don't want you infantry to get in the way! Although I only have 2000 troops, it is impossible to wipe out these 1 people, but I will defeat some of them and kill a bloody road to report a letter , but more than enough!"

(End of this chapter)