I want to be emperor

Chapter 205 The Confident Ming Army

Now that the enemy troops going north have withdrawn to Zhongxiang City, and considering that Zhongxiang City is Chengtianfu City, the height and thickness of its city walls and the width of the moat are much stronger than Yicheng as a county seat.

At the same time, many Ming troops retreated to Zhongxiang, plus the guards and young men left behind in Zhongxiang City, it is estimated that the enemy troops in Zhongxiang City have exceeded [-].

Facing Zhong Xiangcheng like this, the Rural Protection Army is unlikely to be able to take it down easily.

Under such circumstances, Luo Zhixue simply didn't let the army run all the way south, and it wouldn't matter much sooner or later.

Luo Zhixue just let Wang Xiazi's cavalry go south ahead of time, and he didn't want Wang Xiazi's hundreds of cavalry to attack the city. It was purely to block the city's periphery after arriving at Zhongxiang City first.

The Ming army defending the outskirts continued to reinforce Zhongxiang City.

As for Luo Zhixue himself, he led the main force to the south at a normal marching speed, which was expected to arrive two days later than the cavalry.

When Luo Zhixue led the main force to go south to Zhongxiang, he temporarily left the Fifth Garrison Brigade. On the one hand, he was stationed in Yicheng to guard against the Ming army in the direction of Nanzhang to guard the land logistics line.

The other side is also for guarding and reorganizing a large number of prisoners.

Previously, Wang Xiazi's cavalry unit almost created a military miracle. With just 5000 cavalry, they defeated tens of thousands of Ming troops and captured more than [-] enemies.

Although in fact, most of the collapse of the Ming army was due to low morale and had nothing to do with the cavalry under Wang Xiazi's troops, but this extremely exaggerated result was still counted on the head of the First Cavalry Brigade.

These more than 5000 prisoners of war will also be reorganized in accordance with the usual practice of the Rural Protection Army, selecting some qualified soldiers who volunteered to join the army.

Although the quality of this batch of prisoners of war is not good, it should not be a problem to pick and choose about 2000 people. If this is the case, there will be a garrison regiment.

The existing troops of the fifth garrison brigade were directly divided into two, from one garrison regiment to two garrison regiments, and recruits were recruited separately.

In this way, even if the fifth garrison brigade has more than 4000 people, it can be fully staffed.

For a period of time to follow, the fifth garrison brigade, which has supplemented and surrendered troops, will reorganize and train in Yicheng while guarding the logistics line, providing armed cover for the many transport regiments affiliated to the logistics department on the southward logistics line.

With the fifth garrison brigade in the rear, the two main forces, the first division and the first cavalry brigade on the front line, can go south to Zhongxiang with confidence.

On July 29, Luo Zhixue personally led the main force of the First Division to arrive outside Zhongxiang City, and joined the First Cavalry Brigade who had arrived there two days earlier.

After arriving at Zhongxiang City, the rural protection army did not carry out any comprehensive siege of Zhongxiang City, but only hoarded heavy troops at the north gate, and dispatched a small amount of troops around the east gate. As for the west gate near the Han River, there was no way to deploy heavy troops.

As for the Nanchengmen area, they did not send troops to besiege in consideration of besieging the three and reducing the enemy's will to resist.

It's just that in the wilderness between Jingyue Lake and Mochou Lake, Wang Xiazi's [-]st Cavalry Brigade is in ambush here. Once the enemy troops come to reinforce them from the south, or if the enemy troops are really stupid, they will come from Zhong Xiangnan. If the city gate escapes, the First Cavalry Brigade can respond quickly.

After Luo Zhixue made the basic deployment of troops, he also began to order all the troops to build siege equipment. The staff officers also collected the situation of the enemy's defenses at the top of the city, especially the deployment of firepower at the top of the enemy's city, to prepare for the subsequent siege. Operations provide the intelligence base.

On the second day, the First Artillery Regiment tried to shell the top of Zhongxiang City, but the shelling effect was very poor. The shells either flew over the top of the city and stayed in other areas of the city, or hit the city wall directly...

And the solid shells weighing more than two catties hit the city wall several meters thick at every turn, and had no effect except leaving a small crater.

Seeing that the shelling effect was not good, Luo Zhixue also simply postponed the offensive, preparing to wait for more reinforcements, especially the siege mortar troops, to arrive before attacking.

Facing a prefectural city with [-] troops garrisoned, whether Luo Zhixue or Xu Zhixian, they all appeared very cautious and did not have any aggressive ideas.

After all, the strength of the defenders inside the city is twice as much as that of the rural defenders outside the city.

This rash attack on Zhongxiang, relying on the high morale of the rural protection army and the fire support provided by a large number of heavy armored infantry, artillery, and a large number of musketeers, is not impossible.

But I am afraid that there will be many casualties.

Now the main force of the Rural Protection Army is still very valuable, if it is to attack a Zhongxiang City, 2000 people will be killed or injured, Luo Zhixue is heartbroken to death.

So Luo Zhixue would rather slow down the offensive than pay too many casualties.

Xu Zhixian also expressed his caution in this way: "In the past, when attacking a city, the attacker often needed several times or even ten times more troops to be able to attack the city smoothly. If there is something lacking, a direct force attack may cause more casualties, so it is better to make better preparations and mobilize more troops to attack the city."

Luo Zhixue looked at the walls of Zhongxiang City in front of him, nodded and said: "Relying on the current first division, it is still prone to accidents to attack Zhongxiang by force. It is more appropriate to continue to increase troops!"

Both Xu Zhixian and Luo Zhixue believed that it was inappropriate to attack the city rashly now, and both believed that it was necessary to increase the number of troops before attacking the city.

This also means that the Zhongxiang battle will not be fought for a while.

At least three or four days had passed since the Army of the Township Protectors arrived in Zhongxiang City. Except for the tentative bombardment on the second day, the subsequent siege stopped. For the time being, they only continued to build siege equipment and various fortifications outside the city.

This relieved Tang Hui and other civil and military officials of the Ming court in the city.

"It seems that these security thieves are not omnipotent, at least they are not good at attacking the city."

"That's right, these thieves have been tossing around outside the city for the past few days, but I haven't seen anything they tossed out. Although they have also built siege equipment, they are all small objects such as long ladders and shield vehicles. , did not build a large siege vehicle."

"I've seen their little red cannons too. They're powerful outside, but they're still a bit small in the final analysis. Those cannons weighing more than two catties are enough to smash a hole in our city wall. What's more Don't talk about blasting our city walls directly."

"But they have a lot of heavy armor, so they need a lot of embankments!"

"What are you afraid of? They have heavy armor, so do we, and we also have artillery. No matter how many heavy armors he kills, he is not the opponent of our artillery!"

Listening to the words of a group of generals under his command, Tang Hui let go of what he had been raising all the time.

He, Tang Hui, doesn't know much about military affairs, but the generals under his command do. This understanding doesn't mean how good they are at leading troops in battle, but their ability to run away when they see danger.
On the way to the north a few days ago, when they heard that the Yicheng defenders had failed to cross the river and the tens of thousands of troops collapsed, they all sensed the danger. Immediately afterwards, one of them was very nervous and strongly suggested that Tang Hui lead his troops south. Escape...no, go back to defend Zhongxiang.

It's also fortunate that they suggested it in a timely manner. Otherwise, when they retreated one day later, they would probably be entangled by the elite cavalry of the bandit army, and the [-] army would be buried by the Hanshui River in minutes.

Now these people are relatively relaxed in expression and confident in their words, which shows that the danger is not great. This Zhong Xiangcheng dare not say that it is as stable as Mount Tai, but it should not be a problem to keep it for a few months.

With such a few months as a buffer, it is estimated that reinforcements from other places will be able to reach Chubei to help him out.

Tang Hui and the others are confident now and think that Zhong Xiang can hold on, but what they don't know is that on July [-], a group of rural protection troops were dispatched in Xiangyang City.

The rural protection army is small in strength, only more than 500 people, but it is all gray cannons, and many of the troops are carrying muskets on their backs.

Looking at their uniforms and individual weapons, you can tell that they are the main force in the rural protection army system, not the garrison.

Due to time constraints, the production of military uniforms is limited in a short period of time. At the same time, the Rural Protection Army continues to expand the new main force. Because the gray uniforms worn by ordinary soldiers have always been relatively tight, they can only supply the main forces for the time being.

The military uniforms of ordinary soldiers in the garrison are still the original uniforms of the Ming army. Only the officers will change into the officer uniforms of the Rural Protection Army, wearing gray or dark blue officer uniforms.

Not to mention weapons, the biggest feature of the main force of the Rural Protection Army is not military uniforms, nor artillery, but [-]mm individual matchlock guns.

In fact, the Ming army or Dongyaoli also had matchlock guns of such a large caliber, or even larger calibers, but they were generally heavy-duty long-barreled matchlock guns, which required the assistance of a gun rack, or two people to cooperate to operate, well, it is commonly known as carrying a gun.

These so-called heavy matchlock guns are different from the [-]mm individual light short-barreled matchlock guns in the Township Protection Army. They are not even the same type of weapon, and there is no comparison.

This more than 600 rural protection army from Xiangyang city can be seen at a glance as the main force of the protection bandits.

It's just that this main force of protecting the thieves is unusual. In addition to its own strength, it also carries a batch of artillery and dozens of carriages.

What outsiders don't know is that in addition to the new unit of the Fourth Infantry Regiment, this rural protection army also has a very special artillery unit.

It was an artillery post belonging to the First Siege Artillery Battalion that Luo Zhixue ordered to set up after he went south to Jianghan.

The artillery equipped by the First Siege Artillery Battalion is very special. It is not the two-and-a-half catties artillery that is very famous in the rural protection army, even the Ming army has heard of it, but the newly developed and produced eighteen catty mortar.

The technology of this kind of mortar gun is very simple in this book. It is basically similar to the old ultra-short-barreled artillery such as the original tiger squatting gun.

But when this simple artillery is paired with a large-caliber matchlock grenade, it will directly evolve into a siege weapon: a siege mortar.

(End of this chapter)