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

Chapter 394: Attack on the North Gate
On the second day, Jiao Lian led more than 10,000 troops from the Fourth Regiment across the river and set up camp in the Laodao River, Liuyang River, and Yuanjialing area. The First Brigade of the Imperial Guards had no worries and, with the support of the Artillery Brigade and the First Brigade of the Navy, began to attack Xiangchun Gate.

Changsha's north wall has two large rivers, Laodao River and Liuyang River, so transportation is inconvenient and there is only one city gate, Xiangchun Gate. In contrast, the west city faces the Xiangjiang River and has four gates: Linxiang Gate (Daximen), Derun Gate (Xiaoximen), Chaozong Gate (Caochao Gate), and Tonghuo Gate; the east city has three gates: Liuyang Gate, Xinkai Gate, and Xiaowu Gate; the south city has one gate: Huangdao Gate.

The Red Army attacked from the south, and the Qing Army focused its defense on the Huangdao Gate area. To defend against the Red Army's navy, the three gates of the West City were also heavily guarded. Only the North Gate area was not taken seriously by the Qing Army, but it became the direction of the Red Army's first attack.

The construction of Changsha City began in the early Western Han Dynasty. During the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty, the defense commander Qiu Guang rebuilt the city with bricks and stones on the outside and rammed earth on the inside. The wall was 24 feet high and 14 miles in circumference. It was the largest city in Hunan.

During the Ming Dynasty, Hunan and Hubei were combined into one province, called Huguang. As the Ming people vigorously developed Hunan and effectively controlled the chieftains of Xiangxi, Hunan's status became increasingly important.

Changsha is the largest city in Hunan and has become the center of Hunan. If the Red Army captures Changsha, it will undoubtedly shake the Qing army's rule in Huguang.

The Red Army's attack at Xiangchun Gate was simple and crude. They directly arranged red cannons and ten-gun cannons in the north of the city and bombarded the city walls.

The defenders of the North City were Shen Yongzhong's troops, who originated from Dongjiang Town. Although they were not good at field battles, they were quite tenacious. The city wall was slightly damaged, and the defenders immediately rushed up to repair it. In the evening, the Red Army blew down a section of the city wall and organized a suicide squad to attack.

The defenders fought desperately, using all kinds of weapons: cannons, muskets, bows and arrows, battering rams, rolling logs...

The suicide squad barely managed to climb to the top of the city wall, but suffered heavy casualties and the enemy's artillery fire was too fierce, so they had to retreat through the gap in the city wall.

In order to boost morale, Hong Chengchou offered a large reward for the Red Army's suicide squad. Unexpectedly, a group of suicide squads rushed out from the gap and chased the Red Army's suicide squad in turn.

Danchu had already decided on Xiangchun Gate as the main attack direction. He felt regretful upon hearing the news and personally went to the camp outside the north gate to supervise the battle.

Liu Fangliang, the commander of the 12th Brigade, came to ask for an audience and said straight to the point: "Your Majesty, in the autumn four years ago, just like today, Li Buzhi (Li Chixin) followed the order of Duke Du Wenzhong (Du Yinxi) and led the Loyalty Battalion to besiege Changsha.

"At that time, the great traitor Xu Yongku was guarding Changsha. The Loyalty Camp was encircling Changsha more and more tightly, and Bu Zhi's supervision of the battle was getting more and more urgent. The dead soldiers dug three large holes under the city wall. If it weren't for He Tengjiao's selfishness, the Loyalty Camp would have been able to recapture Changsha.

"In today's situation, Shen Yongzhong is not as brave as Xu Yong, and the elite Red Army is far superior to the Zhongzheng Camp. If we can rush the army to attack Xiangchun Gate, one after another, repeatedly, we will surely succeed in the long run."

"No," said Yang Fang, the commander of the First Brigade of the Imperial Guards, "Brother Mingyuan, it's not that I'm afraid of fighting, you just take it too lightly to break the city. When the Loyalty Battalion had tens of thousands of troops attacking Changsha, there was only one acting general, Xu Yong, in the city with only 3,000 troops, and he still couldn't conquer the city.

"Today, Hong Chengchou is stationed in Changsha. There are 30,000 Tartars guarding the city, and there are more than 40,000 Eight Banners and Green Camp troops outside the South Gate. In my opinion, although our army is attacking the North Gate fiercely, we do not have enough troops to attract the troops to come back for help.

"As long as Tunqi is still in the south city, the defenders will have confidence and dare to fight me boldly. Once there is a change in the south of the city, the defenders will be shaken, and our army will surely break the city."

Liu Fangliang was very senior and looked down on the young Yang Fang. He retorted, "Otherwise, since our army has advanced to the north of the city, we should try to break the city from the north and not pin our hopes on the battlefield in the south. Does that mean that we will not attack the north gate unless Ma Zhentai defeats Tunqi?"

"This..." Yang Fang was speechless, his face flushed with anger. It's not that he didn't dare to attack, but the casualties today were too great, and they were all elite soldiers in the association, which made people feel sad.

Disagreements between generals are common in the army. Danchu was surprisingly calm, silently observing the map and calculating the comparison of enemy and our forces, as if he didn't care about the quarrel between the two. "Stop arguing," said Jiao Lian, the commander of the Fourth Town, "Changsha is a strong city, and there are elite Eight Banners soldiers in the south of the city. We should not think that we can win Changsha in one battle. Tomorrow, we will continue to attack Xiangchun Gate and force Tunqi to fight. Lao Ma will lead the Huben Town to fight Tunqi, and the pressure on our side will be reduced a lot."

"I'm afraid," Qian Bingdeng interrupted, "I'm afraid that Oboi will lead his army to help. If we can't capture Changsha before Oboi arrives, we will be in danger."

Intelligence showed that Oboi had already moved out of Nanjing, and judging by the estimated distance, he had almost passed Anqing.

Danchu glanced at the map and found that the combat staff had changed Oboi's position and moved it to Pengze. The Manchu soldiers had many horses and were very fast, and could march at least a hundred miles a day.

Pengze County belongs to Jiujiang Prefecture in Jiangxi Province, located in the northeast corner of Jiangxi Province, adjacent to Dongliu, Jiande and Wangjiang counties in Anhui Province. The speed of Oboi's advance was unexpected.

Wu Sangui was relatively quiet. After all, Sichuan had been devastated for a long time and there was a shortage of food. The Three Gorges and Kuidong areas were all occupied by the Ming Dynasty's righteous army. Wu Sangui's troops were neither the Eight Banners nor the Green Camp, which made him unique among the Tartars. He had no relationship with Tunqi and Oboi, so he would not easily go east.

Dan Chu turned around suddenly and found that everyone was looking at him, hoping that he would make a decision as soon as possible.

"Hmph," he cleared his throat and said resolutely, "Our army bypassed Shimapu and landed in the Sanchaji area downstream in order to speed up the war and accelerate the speed of breaking the city. In today's battle, although the death squad suffered heavy casualties, the Tartars also suffered heavy casualties.

"What we are worried about is that the troops in the north of the city are weak. Even if we break into the city, we will be easily counterattacked by the Tartars. Send a message to Ma Jinzhong and Li Dingguo, and leave one battalion each from the 10th and 11th brigades to manage Changde and Yuezhou, and the rest of the troops will rush to Changsha overnight."

When the Red Army advanced into Changsha, they still adopted the strategy of "cutting off the branches and removing the main trunk", and thus sent Ma Jinzhong and Li Dingguo to plunder the prefectures and counties outside Changsha.

These two people are also responsible for protecting the main force of the Red Army and blocking the Tartar reinforcements. Now that Hunan righteous men have joined forces to revolt, and the whole of Hunan has suddenly become a prairie fire, it is better to transfer these two people back to Changsha to support it, so that the Red Army will have an additional 20,000 to 30,000 fresh troops, and it will be more certain to break the city.

"Lord, should we also take action in the second town?" Qian Bingdeng asked.

"Secretly order Kuang Shi to gather the troops of the Second Town to besiege Nanchang and attract Aobai's rescue." Danchu paused and said, "Let him consider the situation. If Aobai reinforces Nanchang, let Kuang Shi withdraw the siege immediately and defend Ji'an and Jianchang. If Aobai reinforces Changsha, Kuang Shi may as well attack Nanchang."

Jiao Lian smiled knowingly and said, "It depends on whether Aobai will protect Changsha or Nanchang, Jiangxi or Huguang."

"Yang Fang, Liu Fangliang." Dan Chu called out the two names with a dignified look without getting angry.

"I am here!" they both answered in unison.

"We will attack the north gate again tomorrow. This clan will personally supervise the battle. You two associations must cooperate closely and organize another strong attack tomorrow. If the Tartars dare to descend from the city again, we must make sure they never return."

"promise!"

(End of this chapter)