I want to be emperor

Chapter 403 The Death of Xiong Wencan

In the past few months, whether angry or desperate, Xiong Wencan has experienced everything he should have experienced, but no matter what his mood is or what changes he makes, he has not been able to stop the Chu army from conquering one after another. city.

From Ganzhou to Nanxiong, Guilin, then to Shaozhou, Liuzhou, and then Guangzhou!
Now, it's Wuzhou's turn!
This made Xiong Wencan have a very bad feeling: What should come will always come. Now that the Chu army is here, everything has come to an end.

It's just that he, Xiong Wencan, will not let himself fall into the hands of Chu thieves, let alone fall into the hands of thieves like everyone else. He, Xiong Wencan, also has his own pride.

He will fight to the last moment in Wuzhou City!
As for running away, he actually considered it, but finally gave up on the idea.

Because he has nowhere to escape!
Before the Chu army surrounded Wuzhou City in early July, the Chu army had already captured other cities around Wuzhou one after another.

The Seventh Division of the Chu Army conquered Shaoguan one after another in June, and by the way also captured Deqing Prefecture and Luoding Prefecture in the south of Wuzhou. In addition, some troops directly entered Guangxi and captured Cenxi.

In the end, the temporary No.14 mixed regiment of the Chu army and other part of the garrison forces also successively captured Gaozhou, Leizhou, and Lianzhou.

This is equivalent to blocking the road from Wuzhou to the east and south.

In addition, the fifth division of the Chu army, the sixth garrison division, and the tenth garrison division fought south from Huguang all the way, and successively captured the areas north of Wuzhou, such as Guilin mansion, Pingyue mansion, and Huaiji, and part of the main force of the fifth division followed The troops entered Liuzhou Prefecture, followed by capturing Liuzhou, Xiangzhou, and Wuyi along the Xijiang River and its upstream tributaries, and then entered Xunzhou Prefecture along the river. After capturing Guilin, the capital city, they captured Wujingzhou successively. , Pingnan County and other places.

The series of military operations led by the Fifth Division basically blocked the possibility of Xiong Wencan leading troops to break out from Wuzhou to the west and leave.

As for going north, don't even count on it. All the way to the north is Chu Nan, which has long been the territory of the Great Chu Empire.

In the case that the four directions of southeast, northwest and north have been blocked, Wuzhou City has actually been surrounded strategically.

Even if the strength of the Seventh Division of the Chu Army hadn't reached the city of Wuzhou at that time, Xiong Wencan had nowhere to escape.

Since he couldn't escape, Xiong Wencan could only continue to hide in Wuzhou City to guard against death.

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On July [-]th, after several days of preparatory work by the Chu army, the troops of the fifth division also captured Teng County, went to Wuzhou Prefecture and successfully joined forces with the seventh division of the Chu army.

The Chu army also launched a strong attack on Wuzhou City.

A large number of shells began to be fired towards the city of Wuzhou, including solid shells of various calibers, and mortar shells of 24 catties, 48 catties, and [-] catties.

Although the city defense system in Wuzhou City is doing well, it can withstand part of the Chu army's bombardment, but the scale of the Chu army's bombardment is too large, and Wuzhou City also lacks corresponding artillery counterattack forces, so it can only be passively beaten on one side. As a result, the fortifications in the city were successively destroyed.

In order to conquer Wuzhou City, successfully end the Battle of Guangdong and Guangxi, wipe out the last stubborn Ming army in the Guangdong and Guangxi area, and stabilize the rear for the subsequent Northern Expedition of the Great Chu Empire.

Lieutenant General Huang Xiangbin basically transferred all the artillery that could be transferred, especially the heavy artillery unit.

In terms of mortars, there are two battalions under the Eighth Mortar Regiment, one mortar battalion under the jurisdiction of the Seventh Division Artillery Regiment; , half a battalion under the jurisdiction of the Fifth Division.

The mortar units of the above-mentioned ministries have assembled more than 40 48-jin mortars and more than 20 24-jin mortars.

As for the [-]-jin mortar gun, there are even more. This thing has become the standard artillery for regiment-level troops in the Chu army. Every main infantry regiment will have it attached, even the artillery regiment in the garrison division. It is equipped with a certain [-]-jin mortar.

A large number of mortars shelled Wuzhou City, a solid military fortress-type city, and the lethality was just right.

In addition, a large number of nine-pound and five-pound field artillery were also added to the shelling sequence. Although solid bullets are not particularly effective for this kind of fortress with a complete city defense system, it is better than nothing. After all, more shells can be fired. play some role.

Adding up, hundreds of artillery shelled Wuzhou City intensively, which lasted for three full days, and countless shells were fired.

On the fourth day, when the heavy-armored assault troops of the Chu army began to launch a strong attack, the fortifications inside and outside Wuzhou City were already in dilapidated condition. A certain fire.

As for the defenders in the city, facing the infantry attack of the Chu army, although a small number of troops resisted stubbornly, this kind of stubborn resistance was of no practical significance.

And in fact, more Ming troops did not resist after the Chu army killed the top of the city. Even the central army of the Liangguang New Standard Army, which Xiong Wencan regarded as a guard, did not actually resist.

In the past few days, the two 3000-strong Guangdong and Guangxi New Standard Army Central Army were able to be completely surrounded and subjected to intensive shelling without a large-scale uprising, rebellion and surrender. up.

This is the case for the central army of the Guangdong and Guangxi New Standard Army, not to mention the other guards. If it hadn't been suppressed by the Chinese army before, they would have surrendered a long time ago...

Follow the soldiers of the Chu army to the top of the city!
In the Governor's Mansion in the city, Xiong Wencan also ushered in the last moment of his life!

After he bathed and burned incense, he hanged himself with a white ling that had been prepared long ago. Then Xiong Wencan's relatives piled kerosene in Xiong Wencan's hanging beam house and lit it according to Xiong Wencan's order before his death.

The death of Xiong Wencan also declared that the resistance in Wuzhou City was completely lost. Soon, a large number of soldiers of the Ming army, including various young and strong men who had been forcibly recruited by Xiong Wencan before, came out one after another.

After taking Wuzhou City, Lieutenant General Huang Xiangbin was also overjoyed. That night, he wrote a good news in his own handwriting and sent it to Jinling City [-] Li urgently to let His Majesty know that Wuzhou has been conquered and Guangdong and Guangxi have been leveled.

After writing the victory report, Lieutenant General Huang Xiangbin, in the name of the garrison commander of Guangdong and Guangxi, carried out a simple reorganization of the troops under his jurisdiction, and then began to deploy tasks and continue the remaining battles in the Guangdong and Guangxi areas.

Although Wuzhou has won, it can be regarded as taking Guangdong and Guangxi as a whole, but in fact there are still many places that cannot be actually controlled, such as several coastal cities in Chaozhou Prefecture and Nan'ao Island, such as Hong Kong Island and other places. The coastal islands and so on are still under the control of Zheng Zhilong's troops.

In addition, there are many cities in Guangxi, which have not yet been taken down, such as Yulin Prefecture in the south of Wuzhou Prefecture, and a large number of western Guangxi prefectures, such as Qingyuan Mansion, Sien Mansion, Nanning Mansion, and Siming Mansion. , Taiping Mansion, Zhen'an Mansion and many other state capitals in western Guangxi.

Moreover, these places are relatively complicated. Some are places controlled by the Ming court, and many are in the name of state capitals, but are actually controlled by local chieftains.

Lieutenant General Huang Xiangbin will need to mobilize or fight or appease troops in the future to gradually control these places.

However, although the battles in Guangdong and Guangxi, especially in Guangxi, will continue to break out, just like the battles in eastern Sichuan, Guizhou and other places, although the outbreaks continue, they can no longer affect the overall strategy of the Great Chu Empire.

Whether it is the remaining troops of the Ming army in the above-mentioned directions, or the chieftains, they can no longer pose any great threat to the Great Chu Empire.

This also achieved the main strategic purpose of the Great Chu Empire in launching the Guangdong-Guangzhou Campaign: to eliminate the strategic threat posed by Xiong Wencan's troops in the Guangdong-Guangzhou region, so that Xiong Wencan would not be stabbed by Xiong Wencan in the hinterland of Huguang and Jiangxi during the Northern Expedition.

For the same strategic purpose, there is still a Fujian and Zhejiang region left, to be precise, the Fujian region.

This place is more complicated than Guangdong and Guangxi. It's not that Zheng Zhilong is better at fighting than Xiong Wencan. In fact, purely referring to ground combat, the strength of Zheng Zhilong's troops is not as good as that of Xiong Wencan's Liangguang New Standard Army.

Although Zheng Zhilong has a large navy and has a lot of contact with foreigners, he thinks that his ground combat force is very advanced, which is an illusion.

In fact, Zheng Zhilong's ground combat force is no different from the traditional Ming army in its combat mode. In a real fight, it can only fight with the garrison of the Chu army. Once it encounters the main force of the Chu army , that is basically the side that was beaten unilaterally.

In terms of ground combat effectiveness, when the Chu army marched into southern Zhejiang, it did not encounter any practical obstacles, but the front line was still relatively restrained, and Zheng Zhilong's troops were not really beaten to death.

The main reason is that the Great Chu Empire still wants to appease Zheng Zhilong so far.

In a large fleet of thousands of ships, there are only dozens of large warships weighing hundreds of tons.

Well, even though this large ship is classified in the ship class of the Great Chu Empire Navy, it only belongs to the class of frigates and cruisers equipped with twenty or thirty guns, but this kind of warship is already considered very good in the East Asian waters.

And there are more medium-sized warships equipped with about ten cannons, as many as hundreds!

As for those small boats, offshore transport ships, and ordinary armed merchant ships, it goes without saying.

Moreover, quite a few of these warships have only gradually appeared in the past ten years, and have become the main warships of the Ming court navy and Zheng Zhilong's navy...

Although the name of the bird ship is very vulgar, and don’t think it is very backward, but in the first half of the [-]th century, this type of ship is still very competitive in the East Asian waters. Ship types such as Fuchuan, Cangshan, and Shachuan were eliminated.

The hull layout of the Daye-class frigates and Xiangyang-class cruisers newly built by the Great Chu Empire Navy actually refer to the bird ship to a certain extent.

The two warships of the Great Chu Empire Navy not only refer to the bird ship, but also refer to the outdated Fuchuan, and even refer to the European galleon.

But it is only for reference, because the ships referred to above all take into account the needs of cargo transportation, and many of them belong to the ranks of armed merchant ships. Their main mission is not for war, but for ocean trade and freedom in ocean trade. Save.

However, the warships of the Great Chu Empire Navy do not have the need to ship goods for ocean-going trade.

They only need to fight, so every ton of displacement can and must be used for combat, so the warships produced by the Great Chu Empire Navy are quite special.

However, the warships of the Great Chu Empire Navy seem to be quite good, but they haven’t been built in large numbers yet... The Great Chu Empire Navy is still under the pressure of Zheng Zhilong, isn’t it...

Therefore, the top management of the empire still hoped to appease Zheng Zhilong, but the conditions offered could not satisfy Zheng Zhilong.

However, as the situation continued to change, especially when the Chu army broke through the Fenshui Pass in Funing Prefecture, the Chu army also took down multiple checkpoints in the northern part of Jianning Prefecture on the northern line, and tens of thousands of Chu troops entered the hinterland of Fujian. At that moment, Zheng Zhilong finally wavered!
(End of this chapter)