Late Qing Dynasty Executioner

Chapter 192 The most terrifying thing is street fighting

At this time, Fu Cha Mingliang had 10,000 troops in Langzhong, and 5,000 each in Guangyuan and Bazhong.

Chen Gu's original military force consisted of 100 logistics battalions and 2,000 young and strong men from Zizhou. Since not many troops were needed to defend Zitong County, Chen Gu transferred 100 logistics battalions and 300 green camp soldiers from Scar, leaving him with half of the troops, plus 600 archery battalions from Zhoushi headquarters and 5,000 Chengdu peasant soldiers.

Chen Jue now has 200 logistics battalions, 1,000 Green Camp soldiers, 2,000 young and strong men from Zizhou, 5,000 peasant soldiers from Chengdu, plus Yunhua's 850 special companies, totaling nearly 10,000 people.

Among them, a total of two thousand people from the logistics battalion, the Green Camp Army and Yunhua's special company were equipped with rifles.

Lao Piao had fifty snipers, three hundred from Fobao's main battalion, three hundred from Yuanbao's artillery battalion, one thousand from Jiangjin County's joint defense team, one thousand from Luzhou's joint defense team, one thousand from Kang Minghui's bandit army after its expansion, and five thousand from Chengdu's peasant army, which was less than ten thousand people in total. Except for the five thousand from Chengdu's peasant army, the rest of the troops were equipped with rifles.

Comparing the military strength of both sides, Chen Gu's army was still at a slight disadvantage, but in terms of firepower, Chen Gu's army was far superior to the imperial army, not to mention that Fu Cha Mingliang had divided his troops into three locations.

However, as the defender, Fu Cha Mingliang was not afraid even though his troops were half the size of Chen Gu's.

To the west of Langzhong City, Chen Gu’s central military tent was set up five miles away from the city wall, and there was a hill between it and Langzhong City.

Chen Gu had no choice but to place the central army tent so far away. The army had just arrived in Langzhong and had not yet settled down when Fu Cha Mingliang arrived to meet them. Twenty large artillery shells were fired from Langzhong City, with the farthest one reaching a distance of nearly ten miles, or five thousand meters.

Although the twenty shells did not cause any casualties, they frightened Chen's army.

Chen Gu wanted to set up the camp one mile outside the city gate, but his generals strongly opposed it. They believed that troops were indeed needed near the city, but only small groups of troops would be needed to be stationed in dispersed areas to prevent the enemy from leaving the city.

As for the location of the army's station, it is better to be as far back as possible, not to mention the central military tent.

At this time, Chen Gu's central military tent was no longer the small tent of only ten square meters, but had become a large tent of one hundred square meters, fully equipped with beds, tables, chairs and other items, and even bamboo rafts were laid on the ground.

Zheng Ming, Lao Nian, Lao Piao, Yunhua, Yuanbao, Zhou Shi, Kang Minghui and others were sitting on both sides of the long table, whispering about the war in front of them.

Chen Gu took a sip of tea, put down the cup, and asked, "Everyone, tell me, how should we fight this battle?"

"How else can we fight? We can just build a bamboo frame to attack the city. It's just a small county town in Langzhong anyway. Now that we have strong soldiers and horses, are we afraid that we can't take it down?" Lao Piao said nonchalantly.

Zheng Ming shook his head and said with a smile: "Langzhong is the seat of Baoning Prefecture after all, it cannot be a small county town. In addition, it controls the waterway of Jialing River, and the city has always had rich supplies.

It is the veteran general Fu Cha Mingliang who leads the troops. Our tactics have already been exposed. It will not be so easy to attack Langzhong now. Even if we take down the city wall, it does not mean we can win. This battle is likely to be a fierce one."

The terrain of Langzhong City is actually very similar to that of Jiangjin County. It is also in the shape of a Chinese character "几" surrounded by rivers on three sides. The only difference is that the Chinese character "几" in Jiangjin County is more regular and rounded, while the Chinese character "几" in Langzhong is crooked.

"You mean Fucha Mingliang might fight with us in the streets?" Lao Piao asked in surprise. Zheng Ming nodded and said with a smile, "It's not possible, but it will definitely happen. After all, the city wall cannot be defended, retreating into the city for defense is actually a good choice!"

The idea of ​​street fighting was not something Zheng Ming had thought of. On the march to Langzhong, Zheng Ming and Chen Gu naturally kept discussing this final battle over and over again.

At the beginning, Zheng Ming was quite optimistic, because now in the whole Sichuan, only a few big cities in the northeastern part of Sichuan were in the hands of the court, while Chen Gu had the whole Sichuan as his support, so it was naturally no problem for him to defeat a small corner of northeastern Sichuan.

At least in the entire local battlefield in Sichuan, the general situation was on Chen Gu's side.

But Chen Gu was not so optimistic about this final battle. The reason why his side was able to be so unstoppable at the beginning was mainly because Le Bao had mobilized all the elite troops in Sichuan, but they were lost to Fobao without any results.

This resulted in a lack of military forces in the entire Sichuan province, and coupled with the court's lack of understanding of its own military equipment, Luzhou and Zizhou quickly fell into their hands.

Another big reason was that the rampant corruption in the Qing court caused people to turn against the Qing government, allowing them to maintain their rule over various places with very few troops. In some places, they did not even need to send troops, but simply formed a local joint defense team to maintain their rule.

It has to be said that the people's will is something that cannot be seen or touched, but it does exist.

If Chen Gu also loses the support of the people, rebellions will break out in various towns and villages. Let alone conquering the whole of Sichuan, it will be difficult for Chen Gu to get out of Jiangjin County with his limited military force.

Compared with the whole Sichuan which is short of military forces, Langzhong is now strong in both men and horses. Ten thousand troops may not seem like a large number, but if they are placed in a county, they can have an absolute dominant position. At least at this time, there will be absolutely no voice against the court in Langzhong City.

If it was a face-to-face battle in the wild, Chen Gu would naturally be confident of annihilating Fu Cha Mingliang, but if it was a siege, then he would need to plan carefully.

Compared with siege warfare, Chen Gu was more afraid of street fighting. In the traditional concept of that era, as long as the city wall was breached, it meant that the city had fallen.

But Chen Gu from later generations knew that the city wall was just a prelude, and street fighting was the beginning of a city war.

Especially when Fucha Mingliang already had some understanding of his own armaments, street fighting was bound to happen. Fucha Mingliang would never limit himself to fighting for the city walls and waste too many troops.

Once street fighting begins, the advantage of weapons will be quickly leveled. At that time, the defenders only need to ambush in various places such as rooftops, windows, and behind doors, and they can also cause great damage with just a cold weapon.

As for whether Fu Cha Mingliang would choose street fighting, Chen Gu believed that the strategic and tactical vision of a veteran general could not be too bad.

Knowing full well that the city walls were undefensible, Fucha Mingliang still chose to occupy the city instead of setting up ambushes in the wild, which would inevitably lead to street fighting. Only by relying on street fighting could Fucha Mingliang delay long enough to wait for the arrival of subsequent reinforcements from the court.

After listening to Chen Gu's analysis, Zheng Ming couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat. If he followed his military strategy and continued to attack and charge fiercely after entering the city, he might suffer a great loss, and in the end, he might be at a disadvantage in both offense and defense.

(End of this chapter)