Chapter 195: Tit for Tat
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"Boom boom boom..."
The flying thunder cannon that the Hunan Green Camp had never seen before made the Jiangling City defenders "eat" their fill. Especially the team coming out of Nanji Gate.
It was an army of 5,000 people, 3,000 Yichang Green Camp + 2,000 Jingzhou Bannermen, among which the Jingzhou Bannermen also set up a nine-in-ten chain formation. Unfortunately, their fighting will was very poor, and their spirit of sacrifice was so weak that it made people vomit. They were only bombarded by artillery fire for a while, except for the flying thunder cannon and some small cannons, and the formation became unstable and the morale of the army began to waver.
When the musketeers on both sides fired at each other, the rapid defeat of the Bannermen turned the 5,000 troops that rushed out of the city into a complete joke. After the collapse of the 2,000 Jingzhou Bannermen, the 3,000 Yichang Green Camps were defeated. If it weren't for the cavalry that suffered a great loss in the attack on the right wing of the Fu Han Army - they were severely punished by the Fu Han Army's tiger squat cannon and cavalry battalion, and rushed towards the pursuing Fu Han Army at an angle, only God knows how many of the 5,000 Manchu and Han soldiers could return to Nanji Gate.
The two battalions of musketeers moved northwest, then turned south to the left wing of the Hunan Green Camp. When they were 200 meters away from the Hunan Green Camp, the musketeers of the two battalions stood still, and then, like a juggler, with the left end of the team as the top, the right end moved horizontally to the south, just like a chopstick changing from vertical to horizontal, quickly and neatly changing from five columns to five rows.
"March in step!"
With a loud shout, as the whistle sounded, the musketeers of the two battalions were divided into two arrays and pressed down to the left wing of the Hunan Green Camp.
200 meters? This is a very short distance. For the musketeers waiting in formation, it only took two minutes for both sides to enter the range. "Bang, bang, bang..." Gun smoke filled the left wing of the Hunan Green Camp.
The gunshots were the bell of the Hunan Green Camp. The Hunan Green Camp, which was already shaky during the counterattack of the Fu Han Army, was really unable to hold on. This Hunan army of more than 10,000 people was not all from Zhengan Town. Zhang Rui's headquarters had only more than 4,000 people, less than half of them.
At the beginning of the war, the attacking force with the brave Zhenxiang soldiers as the fist was defeated by the Fu Han Army. The Zhenxiang soldiers suffered heavy casualties. Then the counterattack of the Fu Han Army forced the Zhenxiang soldiers to fight with all their strength, and even asked for help from the Miao local soldiers. In other words, although the teams on the left and right wings of the Qing soldiers came from Hunan, they had no direct relationship with the Zhenxiang soldiers. Perhaps some of their camps were also stationed in western Hunan, but it did not mean that their combat effectiveness and will could be the same as the Zhenxiang soldiers.
Especially the "easy" defeat of the Jiangling defenders, not to mention that Chen Ming's battalion left behind was completely liberated, but it also allowed Chen Ming to at least withdraw two more battalions from it to join the attack on the Hunan Green Camp.
"Tell Zeng Yinglong to hold on, hold on!" Zhang Rui's face had long lost the confidence before the war. He was now like a wolf king who was at a disadvantage in the challenge of his opponent, full of fear and irritability.
Zeng Yinglong was the commander of the left wing of the Qing army.
"Tell the people in Jiangling City that I want reinforcements, immediate reinforcements. Let them beat Chen Ni's ass again, again!" Zhang Rui also roared angrily at the personal soldiers who were going to Jiangling City to report the news. "Tell Xue Shiyan, tell the officials in the city that the Zhengui soldiers are finished, and Jiangling City can't be saved..."
The crisis in front of him was not what Zhang Rui imagined. In his original idea, he could completely defeat Chen Ming. Not to mention annihilating Chen Ming's army, he could also cripple them and win a beautiful victory. But the reality was extremely cruel. Not only could he not win a beautiful victory, but his own troops were likely to be crippled by Chen Ming. To avoid this cruelest scene, the only life-saving straw Zhang Rui could grasp was the defenders in Jiangling City.
Xue Shiyan, who was still in shock, had just sat down on the chair when he saw Abukai, who was hanging one arm, striding into the room. Abukai was shot in the arm when he was charging. Fortunately, his cotton armor was not cut corners, otherwise Abukai's arm would not be hanging, but disabled.
"Brother Chunlin, just outside the city, Xue and his men thank you for saving my life."
When the whole army was defeated, without Abukai's life-saving blow, the pursuing Fu Han army team slowed down, and it was not impossible that the 5,000 Manchu and Han soldiers who left the city were killed or wounded. Because the two thousand bannermen were defeated too suddenly, it was too disappointing.
Abukai's family knew their own business. Yichang Town might not be Chen Ni's opponent, but they really wouldn't be defeated so easily. The bannermen stationed in Jingzhou had not been in battle for many years, and they had forgotten the skills of fighting. They were bombarded by cannons and thunder cannons, and then hit by volleys, and they collapsed so happily!
But these are already facts in the past. What they need to face most now is how to deal with the current situation.
The Hunan Green Camp is already completely at a disadvantage. If they shrink in the city and don't come out, Zhang Rui will be in trouble. Then when Chen Ni turns around, can he really defend Jiangling City with Yichang Town and the bannermen and men in the city?
The Taotai and prefects in Jiangling City have no say in such matters. Perhaps in peacetime, the Taotai's status is even more important than that of the general, but when the war really comes, Xue Shiyan will take the command power without hesitation. And Abukai obviously trusted Xue Shiyan more than he trusted the Taotai and the prefect.
So before the fast horses sent by Zhang Rui for help arrived at Jiangling City, the Shuijin Gate opened again, and Abukai led the remaining six or seven hundred horsemen to gallop out. Following them were the Green Camp soldiers of Yichang Town led by Xue Shiyan, and the garrisoned bannermen in Jiangling City did not need to move anymore. They only needed to stay in the city and do a good job of defense and support.
…
In this battle, Chen Ming's goal was very simple: to defeat the Hunan soldiers and the Jiangling defenders who left the city. In order to suppress the morale of the defenders to the greatest extent, Chen Ming really wanted to take down the Jingzhou Prefecture City and deal a heavy blow to the Qing Dynasty.
As long as he took down Jiangling City and cleaned up all the bannermen officials and nobles in Jingzhou City, regardless of age, it would inevitably shake the whole world. At that time, Qianlong would have to regard the encirclement and suppression of the expeditionary forces heading south as the first priority to quell the rebellion, which could alleviate the pressure on the base to a certain extent and relieve the worries of his cheap father.
In Chen Ming's calculations, he would not kill all the bannermen in the city. He only needed to kill all the officials and nobles, those who were qualified to lead the way, and then drive the 20,000 to 30,000 bannermen here to push Wuchang all the way.
The thing Chen Ming wanted to do most was to use the bannermen as a "shield", drive them to fill the ditches, trenches and moats, and then watch the defenders' choices with a smile.
I don't know if the Qing soldiers guarding the city at that time had the courage to "go on a killing spree"?
So he must take Jiangling City. This is a very important step in Chen Ming's next strategic layout!
As for whether this is too cruel? He just laughed. Is this cruel? Look at the history of the Qing Dynasty entering the pass. This is a tit-for-tat. Besides, he didn't really want to completely destroy a certain nation. The Manchus have a population of one or two million, and it's really a bit unbearable to kill them all. But the officials and nobles in this nation, or the elites among them, are not worth killing...