Southern Ming: A boy soldier at the beginning, supporting the world

Chapter 386 Killing a Chicken with a Bull's Knife

The next day, Cen Danchu approached Xiangtan with the central army and stopped at the old city. Xiangtan originally had an old city, which was originally used for garrisoning troops and has been abandoned. It is located ten miles south of the city, exactly where the Lianshui River and the Xiangjiang River meet.

Unlike Changsha, Xiangtan is located on the west bank of the Xiangjiang River, with its east gate as a water gate that leads directly to the Xiangjiang River. As the scouts had said, the Qing army used sunken ships and fences to block the river, and deployed artillery on the tower of the east gate of Xiangtan to block the Xiangjiang River.

Yang Fang, the commander of the First Brigade of the Imperial Guards, came to ask for an audience and said, "Your Majesty, the Tartars are relatively conservative in their defense. Apart from setting up defenses at Taling, Liushuling, and Yunhu Bridge, they have not stationed troops outside Xiangtan City. I arrived at the old city yesterday, and then crossed the Lianshui River, and successively captured the two camps of Taling and Yunhu Bridge. Today, the troops will be divided into two groups, one to attack Liushuling, and the other to attack the southern city of Xiangtan. We will first use bamboo ladders to test the siege."

Huben Town had three regiments of personal soldiers, the second and third regiments were newly formed this year, and they were in short supply of war horses and rifles. Only the first regiment had been affiliated with Huben Town for a long time, with one man and one horse, and sufficient ammunition, so it served as the vanguard of the western route and advanced along the west bank of the Xiang River.

"I heard from the scout that the main force of the Eight Banners is still in Changsha. Who are the Tartars in Xiangtan?" Dan Chu asked.

The Red Army has two systems for reconnaissance and intelligence. The reconnaissance team is affiliated with the Intelligence Bureau, which is directly under the Nanyue Palace and is very active on the battlefield and behind enemy lines. The scouts are affiliated with the army. All units above the standard have scouts, who are mainly active on the battlefield, especially on the front line.

Although such a setting may be suspected of duplication and waste, it is conducive to eliminating intelligence blind spots and maximizing intelligence acquisition. This is of self-evident significance in wartime.

"During the battle yesterday, we captured a lot of prisoners. It is said that there is a team of Manchu Eight Banners in the city, about 200 people, a battalion of Han Army Eight Banners, who are Shen Yongzhong's subordinates, and two battalions of Green Battalions, one battalion of Northern Zhili soldiers, and one battalion of Hunan soldiers. These are the battalion soldiers, about 6,000. There are also militias, a total of three regiments, about 4,000 people."

The garrison had 10,000 soldiers, which sounded impressive, but they were using only 200-odd Manchurian soldiers to control 6,000 battalion soldiers and 4,000 local soldiers? With this kind of composition, could they still stop the Red Army from attacking the city?

Yang Fang then added: "Xiangtan is a small city, with a circumference of only three miles, a rammed earth structure, and a height of only two feet. There are 21 households in the city, but the actual shortage is very large. The Tartars guard Xiangtan with 6,000 battalion soldiers and 4,000 rural soldiers. Although there are many soldiers, they are not united and can be easily taken advantage of by our army.

"It is worth noting that the Tartars implemented the baojia system in Changsha, Yuezhou, Changde and other prefectures, and encouraged landowners and gentry to organize militia. Quite a few powerful landowners were bewitched by them and organized militia to resist the Heavenly Army, trying to stop the chariot with their own arms."

In the early Ming Dynasty, Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang issued an imperial decree to implement the Lijia system throughout the country in order to strengthen his rule over the grassroots. Generally speaking, every 110 households formed a Li, and ten wealthy households were selected to take turns to serve as Lizhang. The remaining 100 households were organized into a Jia, and one household was selected as Jiashou. The Li in the city was called Fang, the suburbs were called Xiang, and the countryside was called Li.

Lijia was mainly responsible for the payment of grain taxes and grassroots self-government. Since the middle and late Ming Dynasty, in order to strengthen public security, Wang Yangming started to promote the Baojia system throughout the country. However, at this time, the Ming Dynasty was already weak, and its organizational and mobilization capabilities had declined significantly compared to the early Ming Dynasty, so the Baojia system was not implemented well.

The Qing dynasty inherited the Ming system and after entering the Shanhai Pass, they used cruel officials and strengthened the Lijia system and Baojia system in various provinces. Last year, Shunzhi ordered the southern provinces to organize militia training to cooperate with the Eight Banners and Green Camp to fight against the Qing army.

Militia training has existed since ancient times. In the late Ming Dynasty, when peasant uprisings were frequent, the Ming court also strongly encouraged militia training, calling militia militia the rural soldiers. The Qing court went a step further and issued an imperial decree to establish militia bureaus in the southern and northwestern provinces to manage rural soldier affairs.

Huguang was located on the front line of the war and bordered Guangdong, Guangxi and Jiangxi, so it was greatly affected by the Red Army. The Qing Dynasty Huguang Governor He Mingluan and Huguang Sichuan Governor Luo Xiujin were very effective in supervising the militia training, and recommended military positions to the "tuanzong" of the local soldiers and granted them the title of "qianzong" of the Green Camp.

There are quite a few powerful landlords who are hostile to the Red Army's policy of requiring tenants to pay taxes, and they are very enthusiastic about organizing militias. Xiangtan alone can send out 4,000 militiamen to help in the war, which shows that militias have great potential. "No problem. Fulin is desperate and is trying all sorts of methods. He hopes that the militiamen can stop the Red Army?" Danchu said with a smile: "Where there are landlords, there are tenants. There are few landlords and many tenants. The Red Army called on tenants to pay taxes, and tenants responded in droves. Even if a few landlords organize militiamen, how can they stop the mantis arm stopping the chariot?"

Wang Xihu, the commander of the Auxiliary Soldiers Association, echoed, "The Red Army can go anywhere if they ask the tenants to pay grain. I am following the order of the king to call on the people. In addition to the volunteer army, the boatmen, fishermen, and tenants will all respond. If everything goes well, the Auxiliary Soldiers Association will open up the waterway in two days at most, ensuring that the army can go straight to Changsha."

"Who are the Tartars responsible for guarding Xiangtan?" Dan Chu asked.

Feng Jiali, the director of the Intelligence Bureau, answered on the side: "There are two people. Among the Manchurian Tartars supervising the battle is a Jiala Zhangjing, who is not well-known and has no direct combat troops under his command. He is probably equivalent to a military supervisor. The Green Camp soldiers and the local soldiers are led by a Wang Zhigang, who was born in Dongjiang Town and is under the command of Shen Yongzhong."

"A nobody." Danchu sneered and said, "Dongjiang Town has three kings and one duke. All three kings have been wiped out, and the feudal army has been annihilated by the Red Army. The only one left is Shen Yongzhong, who is even more insignificant. Xiangtan is the gateway to Changsha, but the Tartars did not appoint a general or deploy heavy troops in Xiangtan, which shows that they have no will to fight. Hong Chengchou and Tunqi have run out of tricks, and Changsha will definitely not be defended."

Everyone was delighted by the king's judgment.

Feng Jiali added: "When the Tartars face a major war, they must deploy the Eight Banners of Manchuria and Mongolia on the front line to show their intention to fight to the death. Xiangtan does not have the Eight Banners of Manchuria and Mongolia, so the Han army and the Green Camp will not have the intention to fight to the death. The Green Camp in Xiangxiang has been withdrawn, and the city is guarded by a regiment commander, who has sent envoys to surrender. The composition of the defenders in Xiangtan is complex, and there is no large group of Manchu Tartars supervising the battle. Once the Red Army attacks the city, some of the defenders will flee without fighting, or surrender because of fear of fighting."

He Mingluan, the governor of Huguang, required each prefecture and county to organize militia and appoint a "tuanzong" to manage the matter. According to the plan, each prefecture and county should set up a battalion of local soldiers, which would be about 3,000 people according to the organization of the Green Camp infantry.

In fact, due to insufficient local financial resources, the militias in prefectures and counties often had less than 1,000 soldiers. Xiangxiang County is located west of Xiangtan and upstream of the Lianshui River. There are large plains along the Lianshui River. It is also considered a large county. In fact, the militia in the county only had about 1,000 soldiers.

It is simply a fantasy that these rural militiamen want to resist the Red Army.

Looking at Xiangtan from afar, one can see flags flying all over the city walls and crowds of people on the battlements.

Danchu said: "The enemy has no will to fight, and they may go west to Wu Sangui or east to Oboi. Our army should fight quickly and attack Xiangtan fiercely, and try to capture Xiangtan before tomorrow, so as to intercept the Tartars as soon as possible and fight a decisive battle with them.

"Your First Brigade of the Imperial Guards do not need to attack Liushuling, nor do you need to use bamboo ladders to attack the city. Set up camp in the south of Xiangtan City today and prepare for the siege. Urgently dispatch the Red Barbarian Cannon and the Tenth Cannon from the Navy Division. All of them must be in place this afternoon. Before the evening hour, the first round of artillery shells must hit the south gate of Xiangtan.

"Tonight, the artillery brigade will bombard the city all night long. Don't be stingy with the shells, and don't stop in between. Before the morning of tomorrow, the artillery brigade must blast a gap more than ten feet wide near the South Gate. The First Brigade of the Imperial Guards has selected a death squad in advance, ready to rush into the city from the gap to fight in the streets. Xiangtan is a small city, and the Red Army will definitely be able to capture Xiangtan in one fell swoop."

(End of this chapter)