I want to be emperor

Chapter 301 Breaking Changsha

Yang Sichang's painstakingly managed peripheral fortifications in Changsha lasted only three days before they were completely conquered by the Chu army outside the city.

During the three-day battle, the Ming army defending the city suffered a lot of casualties, especially on the first day because they were not familiar with the fighting methods of the Chu army, resulting in extremely heavy casualties, although the next two days seemed to be better.

However, this reduction in the casualty rate was more caused by avoiding war or even surrendering.

How should I put it, on the first day, most of the soldiers of the Ming army, especially the soldiers of the Ming army in the outer salient, still had some morale, and many of the generals of the Ming army who commanded the battle still had illusions.

Therefore, on the first day of the battle, the Ming army defending the city was relatively brave. They used various methods to try to defend and even counterattack, and at one time caused hundreds of casualties in the Chu army.

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

Two or 3000 people were killed or injured a 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, this made many Ming troops, no matter whether they were generals or soldiers. Involuntarily adopting a more cautious and even more passive combat method.

The situation of melee melee fighting in the back charge has dropped significantly. Many soldiers of the Ming army either hid from the beginning to the end and surrendered neatly when the Chu army came up, or turned around and ran as soon as they saw the Chu thief coming up.

The Ming army's will to resist was exhausted within the first day.

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

Similarly, the loss of the Ming army was not much, and the loss was 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 defense operations, it can basically mean that the Battle of Changsha has come to an end.

Because there are no peripheral fortifications, especially the threat of long-range firepower such as various types of short robes, musketeers, and archers deployed at high points on some protrusions, the Chu army can swagger and put a large number of artillery in front, and directly maneuver to a distance of several meters from the city wall. Fire at the nearest distance of [-] meters.

The fortifications of the city wall seem to be thick, and there are various anti-cannon fortifications on the top of the city wall, but they still cannot withstand the fierce shelling of the Chu thieves.

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

The next step was the commando assault of the old days. During this process, the Ming army once deployed heavy armor and musketeers as mobile forces to guard against such explosive assaults.

As a result, the two sides fought fiercely around the gap in the ruins, but in the end the Chu army was superior.

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

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

At this time, it can be officially announced that Changsha City has been breached. Although there are still about 2 Ming troops in the city, it is no longer possible for these Ming troops to stop the advance of the Chu army.

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

Yang Sichang himself led a number of high-ranking civil and military officials, and under the escort of the remaining 1000 new standard soldiers, the right army, broke through from the south gate of the city. Run out of Changsha.

The reason why Yang Sichang and the others were able to break through the siege was purely because the Chu army did not completely block Changsha, and specially opened the south gate for them to reduce the will of the defenders, prompt them to flee, reduce the difficulty of attacking the city, and reduce the Siege casualties.

Siege three to one, this is also a very old-fashioned, but very practical psychological tactic in siege warfare.

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

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

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

At the same time, the Cavalry Regiment and the Guards Cavalry Regiment of the Fifth Division also carried out cooperative operations.

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

However, Yang Sichang broke through the siege smoothly, because it was the right army of the new standard army who covered Yang Sichang's breakout.

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 organized and trained according to the main force of the Chu army, and its combat effectiveness is still much stronger than those battalion sentinels.

More importantly, there is a cavalry of about 400 cavalry in the right army of the new standard army. This cavalry is useless in defending the city, so it has never been played.

But it is very useful in breakout operations.

These cavalry units provided reconnaissance and at the same time engaged in battle with the Guards Cavalry Regiment. Although they suffered a lot of casualties, they finally allowed them to successfully cover the other forces of the New Standard Right Army to break through.

Although more than 1000 Xinbiao Youjun escaped, Yang Sichang also escaped, but this did not affect the outcome of the Chu army's complete victory in the Battle of Changsha.

After the preliminary battle in the city was over, Xu Zhixian and Han Ziping's senior generals were all beaming, and they were all in a good mood when they reported to Luo Zhixue.

And Chen Xingkai, the Minister of Taxation who came with the army, said directly after the military report was over: "Congratulations, Your Majesty, congratulations to Your Majesty, after the Battle of Changsha, our Great Chu King Division not only wiped out tens of thousands of enemies , is even more powerful in southern Chu, and within ten months, Chu Nan will be able to spread the message!"

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

"According to what we learned from the prisoners of war and the surrendered generals, the [-] Changsha defenders assembled by Yang Sichang have basically scoured all the remaining troops in southern Chu. Even in important places like Hengyang in the south, the defenders There are only less than [-] left, and the remote governor's garrison in Yuanzhou in the west has only a thousand troops left."

"After the three battles in Linxiang, Yiyang, and Changsha, our army has basically wiped out the main force of the Puppet Ming Dynasty in the south of Chu, and its battalion sentinels have been swept away. What is left in each city is only a small number of guards and green soldiers. Just strong!"

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

Looking at the joy of the ministers, Luo Zhixue also smiled: "This time the southward battle has been able to wipe out the main force of the hypocrisy several times, and even the two strong cities of Linxiang and Changsha are all thanks to the concerted efforts of the soldiers!"

As he said that, Luo Zhixue looked at Wei Kaifu, Minister of the Military and Political Department on the side: "The Military and Political Department must count the military exploits of the officers and soldiers of each department as soon as possible, and the rewards should be distributed as soon as possible."

Luo Zhi learned about military exploits and rewards, and a group of lowly generals, especially the main generals in the participating troops, were full of expectations.

Although the impact of the Chunan offensive this time is not as good as last year's sweep of Chubei, the actual scale of participation in the battle is even greater than last year's sweep of Chubei.

This kind of large-scale battle, and it is still a big victory, is enough to create a new batch of generals, several new earls 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 had expectations, but even the generals of the sixth and eighth garrison divisions were full of expectations.

This time in the southward battle, although the main battle was fought by the two main divisions, they, the garrison divisions, also handled it well, especially in the two capture operations, in fact, the soldiers of the garrison divisions were deeply involved.

In the two siege battles of Linxiang and Changsha, both the Chu army and the Ming army fought fiercely around the fortifications outside the city. In this kind of battle, the soldiers of the garrison 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 to contain, or even expendable operations.

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

If there is dedication, it will naturally be rewarded.

This time, not only did a large number of soldiers of the garrison get credit, they would be promoted and rewarded in the future, Luo Zhixue also listed the best-performing 'No.20 Second Garrison Infantry Regiment' separately.

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

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

Prior to this, the temporary first, second and third mixed regiments were upgraded from three temporary mixed battalions. These three mixed regiments were previously stationed in Yunyang, Badong, and Xiangyang, all for the sake of Set up to make up for the lack of local main force.

In Luo Zhixue's and the staff's vision, this temporary Fourth Mixed Regiment also served as a tactical role to fill the vacancy of the main force.

Although the war in southern Chu is still going on, there is basically no big threat in the whole of southern Chu. What the Chu army has to do in the future is to take Hengyang, Baoqing and other places step by step.

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

Strictly speaking, the purpose of Chu’s southern Chu offensive is not to capture the entire southern Chu area, but to capture the Dongting Lake and the plains along the Xiangjiang River system, which are the main population gathering places and important grain-producing areas in southern Chu. .

As for those in remote areas, although they will fight in the future, they are all secondary.

If there is no accident, after the Battle of Changsha, the Great Chu Empire will suspend the large-scale offensive on the southern front line of Chu.

Naturally, part of the troops on Chu Nan's side will continue to fight. In addition to the garrison division, the fifth division in the main division will stay in the Chu Nan area to continue fighting.

However, the Fifth Division will need to be responsible for Hengyang, and Baoqing will even continue its offensive going south to Guangdong and Guangxi. The western front, mainly in the remote governor's area, also needs a small-scale army here to serve as the core combat force.

The temporary formation of the Fourth Mixed Regiment is about to undertake this task.

(End of this chapter)