I want to be emperor

Chapter 342 October Jinling
When the decree to recall and arrest Wang Jiazhen and the decree to appoint Fan Jingwen as the governor of Nanjing arrived at Jinling City, the Chu army had just conquered Wuhu, Taiping Prefecture, which was only a hundred kilometers away from Jinling City.

A group of civil servants and military generals in Jinling City asked him what to do?
Fan Jingwen said: "Unite as one, stand firm and wait for help."

And faced with a series of questions from his subordinates, such as: the bandits are powerful, the defenders in the city are no more than [-], and there are no more than ten long cannons. How should we stick to the strong attack of Chu bandits?

How many reinforcements?from where?When will it arrive?

There are hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians in the city. Once the bandits besiege the city, what will happen if there is not enough food and grass?
Facing these problems, Fan Jingwen was helpless!
Defend the city?It was easier said than done, there were only ten thousand defenders in the city, and most of them were old, young and weak. Some of the elite soldiers in the city had actually been transferred to the Jiujiang defense line and lost, including the [-] new standard troops under the command of Governor Yingtian.

Now there are only 2000 troops in the city, of which the new standard army is only [-] newly recruited and trained by Governor Ying Tian.

There are not many artillery, because Wang Jiazhen sent a lot of artillery, especially the usable Hongyi cannon, and even the general artillery, Flang machine and other artillery to the Jiujiang defense line because of the previous support for the Jiujiang defense line. Cannons, there are only a dozen Hongyi cannons, and the other general cannons weighing more than two hundred catties, there are only twenty or thirty Flang machines.

Not to mention the city defense system, Jinling City is too big, the perimeter of the city wall alone is dozens of miles, and the city area is so large that it is impossible to build a complete fortification like other cities in such a large place.

Because the project volume is too large, it is impossible to completely cover it. We can only selectively strengthen the fortifications in some areas, but the thieves are not stupid. Jinling City is so big, they can completely bypass the places where the Ming army is heavily fortified. The weak point launches an attack.

There are not enough troops, not many artillery, and the city defense fortifications are not good.

Fan Jingwen couldn't see any hope of keeping the city!

As for reinforcements?

Although there are still some troops in the surrounding prefectures and counties, they are not many, and with the passage of time in the south of the Yangtze River, there are fewer Japanese pirates who used to roam the coast. After all, Zheng Zhilong has been recruited as an official of the Ming court. The phenomenon of pirate raids has been greatly reduced.

As for the current thieves, they are still captives in the east, and they are still far away from Jiangnan.

Under such circumstances, it is naturally impossible for the local area to maintain too many elite soldiers, and the only troops have been transferred to the western front to fight against the Chu army.

In order to deploy the Jiujiang defense line before, many troops in the Jiangnan area, including the new standard army under Governor Yingtian, were transferred to Jiujiang.

After the news of the fall of Jiujiang spread, Wang Jiazhen urgently mobilized many reinforcements from surrounding areas to reinforce the front lines of Hukou, Anqing Mansion, and Chizhou Mansion.

After Hukou was finished, Wang Jiazhen organized a third reinforcement.

Before and after this, Wang Jiazhen almost transferred the only troops in the south of the Yangtze River, and even some of the troops in Zhejiang, to the western front. The total number exceeded 5, including several thousand new standard troops.

But these Jiangnan troops who went to the western front never returned.

Now there are not many troops left in the entire Jiangnan area.

After the fall of Anqing, Wang Jiazhen urgently dispatched the last batch of fresh troops from the surrounding area to garrison Jinling City.

Today, in the whole of Jiangnan, except for Jinling City, which still has more than 2 troops, there are not many troops in other places.

It was impossible for Fan Jingwen to call in reinforcements from the south of the Yangtze River or even Zhejiang, because there were no soldiers to call for him, at most it was just a temporary recruitment of civilians.

However, the many actual battles between the Ming army and the Chu army have proved that, let alone civilians, even ordinary guards are useless against the Chu army, and they can't even consume much ammunition for Chu thieves.

There are no reinforcements in the Jiangnan area, but there are still some fresh troops in the Jiangbei area, such as the governor of Fengyang, the governor of Water Transport and other governors, as well as the Jiangbei new standard army that Wang Jiazhen had previously compiled.

The new standard army compiled and trained by former Nanjing Governor Wang Jiazhen had only 5000 troops and a serious lack of equipment due to its short time.

However, the Ming army in the Jiangbei area is also very busy now, and most of them cannot protect themselves.

In the past, the Ming army in the Jiangbei area, such as the troops under the governor of Fengyang and the Jiangbei New Standard Army, tried to reinforce Anqing City according to Wang Jiazhen's order, but before they arrived, Anqing City was captured by the Chu army. .

Then the Chu Army's First Cavalry Brigade also crossed the river in Anqing, and cooperated with the Chu Army's Second Army to continue to attack eastward, successively capturing Qianshan, Tongcheng, Lujiang, Wuwei Prefecture and other places.

Now part of the Second Army is heading north to the Hefei area of ​​Luzhou Prefecture, and part of it is continuing eastward to Hezhou.

Now the governor of Fengyang and other Jiangbei troops are trying to curb the northward movement of the Chu Army's Eighth Division and other troops in the Hefei area.

The Jiangbei New Standard Army was previously ordered to garrison Hezhou with the local Ming army in an attempt to block the eastward advance of the Fourth Division of the Chu Army.

The Ming army in the Jiangbei area could not leave.

The defenders are not strong enough, and there are not many reinforcements. What can Fan Jingwen do?
He can only say a lot of things like supporting the imperial court for 200 years, he would rather die than submit, and he said that the coffin has been prepared, and he vowed to live and die in Nanjing... trying to boost morale.

However, none of the civil and military officials in the city are stupid.

When they saw Fan Jingwen's appearance, they knew that the iron nails of Jinling City were about to die.

As a result, some people sent their family members out of the city first, and at the same time prepared escape routes for themselves, and ran away immediately when the Chu thief was killed.

Others quietly connected with people from the Military Intelligence Division of the Great Chu Empire's General Staff.

People's hearts are floating in Jinling City in October!
And in Wuhu, more than 100 kilometers west of Jinling City, Luo Zhixue just led the First Guards Division to arrive here.

Before he arrived at such a place, the First Army had already left this place and continued eastward, attacking Dangtu.

If there are no accidents in the follow-up, the First Army will continue to advance eastward, and it is estimated that it will be able to kill Jinling City in a short time.

At the same time, in the Jiangbei area, the Second Army is currently divided into two groups. Although the Eighth Division is short of troops and because it went north to Hefei, it directly left the Yangtze River waterway, which made it difficult to supply, so the progress of the northward battle was slow.

However, the progress of the Fourth Division's attack on Hezhou is relatively smooth. According to the latest battle report, the Fourth Division has basically captured the surrounding areas of Hezhou, and is preparing to launch a general attack on Hezhou.

Once the Fourth Division can take Hezhou, then the First Army and other troops advancing eastward in the south of the Yangtze River will not have to worry about the Ming army crossing the river from the Hezhou area and cutting off their retreat.

And if the Fourth Division continues to advance eastward, it can directly capture Jiangpu, which is across the river from Jinling City, and directly cut off the route for the Ming army and many dignitaries and gentry in Jinling City to flee across the river.

In fact, it would be easier and easier to cut off the connection between Jinling City and Jiangpu on the north bank, and use the navy fleet to block it, but it is not easy for the navy now.

The Yangtze River Fleet of the Great Chu Empire Navy has already flown down the river after the Battle of Anqing. In addition to cooperating with the army to attack the cities along the way, some warships have actually been killed directly outside Jinling City to test the strength of the local Ming army navy. , but the news from the navy is not optimistic!

On the pier outside Jinling City, there have been reinforcements from the coastal areas of the Ming army navy.

And many of the ships of the Ming army navy were large ships fighting along the coast, and there were quite a few of them.

The most important thing is that the naval divisions of the Ming army who came from the coast for reinforcements are much stronger than those of the Ming army...

Many Ming army sailors inside either fought against pirates all year round, or were simply recruited by pirates, and some of them were Zheng Zhilong's fleet!
As for the Great Chu Empire Navy, it seems that there are a lot of warships, but in fact most of them are small boats. The only ones that can barely confront the large coastal warships of the Ming army are the six first-class inland river warships.

In response to the coastal naval forces of the Ming army appearing in the vicinity of Jinling City, the Navy stated that the Navy has the ability and confidence to guarantee the progress of the Jinling City Campaign, and keep the enemy in the waters east of Jinling City, preventing the enemy navy from destroying Jinling City. West of the Yangtze River waterway.

And the implication of these words is that the navy has no confidence in being able to kill the Ming army navy in the Yangtze River Basin.

It has to be said that this is also the first real military problem that Chu Jundong encountered when he came in, and there is no good solution in a short time.

After all, the strength of the Chu army's own navy was like this. Even if they captured a group of warships from the Ming army's navy, it was still difficult to confront the Ming court's coastal navy.

If you want to gain an advantage, you can only wait for the newly built warships to be built and launched one after another, and more qualified sailors and gunners will be trained.

And this takes time.

Naturally, Luo Zhixue would not wait for the navy to gradually expand its strength and completely control the waterways of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River before launching an attack.

The eastward campaign has progressed to this point, and the Great Chu Empire doesn't have much time to wait slowly.

Now is the Little Ice Age, the weather in October is already very cold, and the northernmost Nanyang Mansion under the control of the Chu army has already started to snow.

Even the Eighth Division, which was fighting in the Hefei area, mentioned in many battle reports that the weather was getting colder.

According to the experience of previous years, even if the Jiangnan area enters October, the weather will become cold rapidly, and heavy snow may fall at any time.

Once the heavy snow falls, it will inevitably cause huge obstacles to the large-scale military operations of the Chu army.

Even if the Chu army has prepared enough winter clothes in advance, heavy snow will make marching difficult and material transportation even more difficult.

The Chu army, even Luo Zhixue, was unwilling to attack Jinling City or even Jiangnan when the snow was falling.

However, if the fight is delayed, the Ming court will be given more time after the cold winter passes, and more reinforcements will probably arrive in the Jiangnan area by then.

If possible, Luo Zhixue still hopes to see the entire south of the Yangtze River before entering the real snowy weather.

Even if the entire Jiangnan cannot be taken, at least Jinling City must be taken.

In this way, there is not much time left for Luo Zhixue and Chu Jun.

(End of this chapter)