I want to be emperor

Chapter 424

In order to capture the fortress in the eastern suburbs, the Chu army invested another assault battalion of the infantry regiment, with a total of more than [-] people.

In order to resist the attack of the Chu army, the Ming army invested about 500 people, all Jiangbei new standard troops, and they were also the most elite group of troops under Song Zushun's command.

Therefore, the fight between the two sides was very tragic.

The dense gunfire rang out for more than half an hour, and the screams and screams also rang out for more than half an hour.

When the explosions in this place gradually subsided, the top of the fortress in the eastern suburbs outside Yangzhou finally floated the black-edged and red-backed black dragon holding sword flag of the Great Chu Empire Army.

Around the Chu army's flag, there were dead and wounded on both sides!
Just half a quarter of an hour later, the many artillery pieces of the original Ming army in the Eastern Suburb Fortress were turned by the Chu army and started shelling towards the Ming army.

Two quarters of an hour later, more than a dozen artillery pieces of the Chu army, including four 48-jin mortars, also arrived at the fortress in the eastern suburbs, and began to condescend to bombard the Ming army.

As for the defense line of Yangzhou City, which Song Zushun painstakingly managed, with the fall of the fortress in the eastern suburbs, when the Chu army used the fortress in the eastern suburbs to deploy more than 20 artillery pieces for fierce shelling, it suddenly became vulnerable!

Many civil and military officials of the Ming army watching the battle at the top of the city, when they saw this scene, they all came up with the same idea: Yangzhou is in danger!

As for Song Zushun, before the fall of the fortress in the eastern suburbs, he had already descended from the city and began to mobilize troops to deploy other lines of defense in case the Chu army used the fortress in the eastern suburbs to set up a large number of artillery and attack the other lines of defense violently.

He could guess with his toes that after the Chu army captured the fortress in the eastern suburbs, they would definitely use the terrain advantage here to deploy artillery, and then bombard the surrounding Ming army positions.

Therefore, as soon as he saw that the fortress in the eastern suburbs could no longer defend, he immediately began to adjust the deployment of the defense line.

However, although Song Zushun's reaction was quick and he made a very decisive decision, in the face of the absolute strength of the Chu army, all his efforts were useless.

After conquering the fortress in the eastern suburbs, the Chu army continued to bombard the Ming army's positions on a large scale through the forts on the fortress in the eastern suburbs.

A day later, on February 24, the Fourth Division of the Chu Army launched another fierce attack in the eastern suburbs.

This time the onslaught, thanks to the close-range and condescending artillery support provided by the Eastern Suburb Fortress, made the fourth division fight very smoothly.

Only with less than 200 casualties, they successively took down multiple fortress positions and numerous trench positions.

Although the Jiangbei New Standard Army fought desperately under the command of Song Zushun, they were completely passive when they were at a huge disadvantage in terms of strength and firepower, and when the forts on the eastern suburbs fortress continued to threaten them overhead.

On February 25, after two days of fierce fighting, the Fourth Division successfully deployed all the outlying positions of the Ming army in the eastern suburbs, including four important forts outside the city.

At this time, there was no Ming army's outlying position between the Fourth Division of the Chu Army and the city wall of Yangzhou City. Afterwards, the attack of the Chu Army could directly face Yangzhou City itself.

And for the current war mode, this can basically declare that the Chu army has opened the eastern corner of Yangzhou City, and it will be much easier to fight in later.

That's right, for the battle between the contemporary Chu army and the Ming army's new standard army, especially the Jiangbei new standard army, which has done a particularly good defense and is not bad in combat effectiveness, the outer positions are their biggest. The defensive support point, as for the city wall itself, it is actually not very useful.

The seemingly tall city walls are too ineffective against mortars, not as good as trenches...

And Song Zushun obviously knew this, so when all the outer positions in the eastern suburbs were completely lost, Song Zushun was no longer as calm as he was a few days ago.

Although Song Zushun knew very early on that he had been surrounded by strategy, there was a high probability that this battle would be a lost result.

But according to his prediction, even if he is sure to lose, he should be able to defend it for a few months no matter what.

However, there have been several months here and there. It seems that the Chu army has surrounded Yangzhou City for more than a month, but in fact it only took five or six days to launch an attack.

The real attack was three days ago.

In just three days, the fortress in the eastern suburbs and all the outer defense lines in the eastern suburbs were completely lost, and the Jiangbei New Standard Army, the main force of the battle, suffered more than 3000 casualties.

Such a result was beyond Song Zushun's prediction.

Now he looked at Chu Jun outside the city and couldn't help sighing.

They all use guns and cannons, and they all train with strict discipline, and Song Zushun also spares no effort to collect money and food, and the money and food that the soldiers get is also sufficient.

But why is there such a big gap in performance in actual combat?

Our own side lost at least 3000 people, and also lost the so-called eastern suburbs positions, and more importantly, we relied on fortresses and trenches for defensive operations.

As for the opponent, it is estimated that there were only about 500 casualties, and a considerable number of the wounded were treated. The real loss of death or disability is estimated to be only [-] people.

Such a comparison is enough to make Song Zushun feel desperate!
And Song Zushun also knew very well what made him desperate. It was not enough money and food, not enough guns, especially long-barreled artillery.

If he had dozens of long-barreled cannons in his hands, even if they were only two-and-a-half catties or five catties, then the outcome of this Yangzhou battle would be completely different.

But no if...

He doesn't have so many long-barreled artillery.

He was able to cobble together more than 20 long-barreled cannons. This is the result of his hard work and offending many salt merchants, so that he was dismissed as the governor of Water Transport.

Seventy or eighty or even hundreds of cannons, he didn't even dare to think about it!

In desperation, Song Zushun saw with his own eyes that the Jiangbei New Standard Army, together with those guard soldiers who had little combat effectiveness, ushered in a big collapse in the next few days...

After the Chu army captured the fortresses in the eastern suburbs of Yangzhou and other positions in the eastern suburbs, on the one hand, they directly launched an attack on Yangzhou City itself from the eastern suburbs. Onslaught.

The scale of the battle suddenly expanded several times compared to the previous few days.

Under the full-scale offensive of the Chu army, the Ming army under Song Zushun's command could withstand it.

Even the Jiangbei new standard army, which he regards as his own soldiers and who give priority to all kinds of money, food and materials, will have to be defeated again and again in the face of the fierce artillery fire of the Chu army and the continuous infantry attack.

As for those guard soldiers, they can only be cannon fodder in this fierce battle, and sometimes they can't even be cannon fodder...

There will often be a group of guard soldiers who just entered the front line, but after being violently shelled by the Chu army, they collapsed and fled.

In the end, Song Zushun could only form a large number of supervising teams to prevent these guards from retreating without authorization.

However, under such pressure, the guards were not easy to mess with.

After five or six days of misery and fear, they saw that Yangzhou would be conquered sooner or later. At the same time, Song Zushun kept forcing them to serve as cannon fodder and go to the front to consume the ammunition of the Chu army...

Ever since, many guard soldiers began to flee the front line spontaneously, then dropped their weapons, and ran to the Chu army with a white flag to surrender.

In the beginning, only sporadic guard soldiers fled spontaneously, but soon led by officers, groups ran over and surrendered.

They would rather surrender to the Chu army than continue to die as cannon fodder.

Surrendering to the Chu army, it's hard to say how the treatment will be in the future, but it is definitely not necessary to die. The Chu army is notorious for treating the captives kindly.

But if you continue to resist as cannon fodder, you will die in battle sooner or later.

Moreover, their deaths in battle are of no value except for consuming some ammunition of the Chu army.

And when more and more soldiers of the guards began to flee, or even fled in formations, the Jiangbei New Standard Army was inevitably affected, and the situation of fleeing and surrendering also began to appear.

After this situation occurred on the front line, the offensive of the Chu army slowed down instead. Every day, they carried out shelling to create pressure, and then kept calling for the opponent to surrender.

After all, although continuing to attack Yangzhou will definitely win Yangzhou, casualties will also be inevitable. According to the estimates of the staff, if we continue to attack until the entire city of Yangzhou is taken, at least thousands of casualties will be paid.

The casualties of thousands of people may not be a big deal to the generals of the Ming army, but they are considered relatively large casualties to the Chu army.

In all previous battles of the Chu army, the casualties were basically relatively small.

Battles with more casualties are often big and tough battles.

For example, the previous Battle of Jiujiang, the Battle of Ganjiang, and the current Battle of Yangzhou are all typical tough ones that are difficult to fight.

Now that the other party has signs of large-scale fleeing, the Chu army is naturally happy to see the other party fleeing more. It is best for the other party to surrender in order to reduce their own casualties and ammunition consumption.

The casualties of thousands of people is not a small number, but the ammunition needed to continue to storm Yangzhou is a huge number.

In the modern age when ammunition is so expensive, it is natural to save some guns and guns when fighting.

Ever since, a very strange scene appeared outside the city of Yangzhou. During the day, the Chu army fired artillery step by step, and then rushed twice casually.

When the evening begins, there will often be many Ming troops fleeing in groups and surrendering...

A few days later, even in broad daylight, many Ming soldiers came to surrender.

When the time entered March, Song Zushun found that his troops had fled at least several thousand people.

This is much greater than the losses suffered in combat.

And not only the soldiers on the front line surrendered in large numbers, but even the civil and military officials in the city tended to surrender!
At this time, Song Zushun knew that this Yangzhou... this country is completely hopeless!

(End of this chapter)