Chapter 267 Overwhelming Advantage
Xu Chengqing suffered from traumatic tinnitus. His brain circuit was now just repeating the words that the rebels had entered the city. After slapping his two big ears hard, Xu Chengqing became more awake: "Quick, stop them no matter what." .”
"The rebels are coming...The rebels are coming again..."
A soldier yelled in panic from the top of the ruins on the city tower. The smoke was gradually dissipating. The rebels in the distance were walking neatly towards the city gate. The team did not panic at all, and they were only two hundred steps away from the city gate.
"Quick, archers are ready..."
The surviving archers were leaning out of the parapet with their bows and arrows ready. Bursts of gunfire rang out, followed by countless flying lead bullets, which hit the entire periphery of the parapet like a heavy rain. The dozens of arrows fired were worth the effort. Whether you hit the target or not depends on your luck.
"Commander, the city gate can't hold it any longer. Leave quickly, we will guard it in the future..."
Blood flowed from Xu Chengqing's ears. At this moment, he didn't pay attention at all. His left ear was deaf and his right ear was buzzing. But seeing the situation outside the city, he knew that the hope of holding on to Wujin County was really slim.
However, even so, Xu Chengqing still stood up, drew his sword and shouted: "Soldiers, the traitors are coming, follow me to defend against the enemy..."
.
The sound of gunfire, artillery, arrows piercing the air and the deafening shouts of killing were staged at the east gate of Wuxian County, Suzhou City. Huang Degong had a solemn look on his face. The enemy's offensive was extremely fierce. With only the 1,800-strong guard regiment, Whether Suzhou can be defended is still unknown.
The officers and soldiers chose Wu County instead of Suzhou itself because the city wall in Wu County was much shorter than that in Suzhou, and it was not difficult to attack the city.
However, the entire defense of Suzhou now only consists of a guard regiment and more than a thousand surrendered former Suzhou Guardsmen. Suzhou is so large that once the government and army divide their forces to attack, they will not be able to defend it.
"Has the building deputy come back?"
"No..."
The security regiment of the Dingwu Army has not been expanded, but everyone knows that Huang Degong and Lou Xingye have a bright future. Although they are only a small regiment commander and deputy commander, as long as they are decentralized, they can be more than enough to become a division commander.
After Zuo Liangyu and You Shilu's 40,000 troops arrived in Suzhou, the wealthy Suzhou gentry who were not too peaceful in the first place suddenly felt that Chen Cao was gone, secretly colluded, and prepared to cooperate internally and externally to sacrifice the defense of Suzhou.
After receiving the news, Lou Xingye personally led his troops into Suzhou City to eliminate these people, so as not to make the already stretched defense even more difficult.
"Tuanzuo, here we go again..."
Such a desperate attack by the officers and soldiers was unexpected for Huang Degong. When he was in the Liaodong frontier army, he knew the combat effectiveness and fighting will of the guardsmen who went north. War means the whole army will be annihilated. Why are they not afraid of death when they reach the south?
However, Huang Degong still saw clues from it. Behind the formation of the guards, there were actually many soldiers in frontier uniforms. Seeing this, Huang Degong felt tight in his heart. Could it be?
"Tuanzuo, the enemy troops have divided their forces and gone to Gui'anmen..."
Gui'anmen is located on the northeast side of Wu County, just to the right of Huang Degong's location. It is a gate that opens to the left of the east gate of Wu County and is adjacent to the main city of Suzhou.
The officers and soldiers divided their forces and returned to Anmen with the very obvious intention of attacking Suzhou from multiple points.
In the three days since the arrival of the officers and soldiers, Huang Degong has been closely controlling the city gate defense, especially the east gate of Wu County, which is the focus of the officers and soldiers, so that it is impossible to leak the details of the city's defense. Thinking of the sudden actions of the officers and soldiers today, The only thing that Huang Degong could think of was that someone in Suzhou City informed the officers and soldiers outside the city of their true story.
"Divide your troops and reinforce Gui'anmen..."
At this moment, Lou Xingye was chopping off a dead man in front of him with a knife, and detained the families of several wealthy gentry and wealthy families who were cooperating with each other inside and outside the governor's office, and then received news that the war was serious.
"Has the messenger who asked for help returned?"
"Back to the regiment deputy, there is no news about Mr. Huang yet."
Lou Xingye didn't believe that the officers and soldiers had returned first and cut off the southward route, blocking their way to Songjiang for help. According to Huang Chunyao's schedule, they should have arrived in Qingpu yesterday. The army was gathering and rushing north, at least the day after tomorrow.
"Regimental deputy," a soldier came over: "Reliable news is that Zhang Shihuang and others have contacted many people and secretly colluded with the new auxiliary troops guarding the city at Taixingmen, preparing to surrender the city when the enemy attacks Suzhou."
Lou Xingye was originally dissatisfied with those landlords and wealthy people. Now that he got the news, he immediately prepared to go on a killing spree. Taking advantage of Chen Cao's absence, he first dealt with this group of people and said, "Assemble the whole team and go to Taixing first." Let’s take down all the scoundrels, and then go and deal with Zhang Shihuang’s group.”
.
"Back up, back up quickly... bring in our Crouching Tiger Cannon."
Xu Chengqing's ears have recovered his hearing, and he is currently commanding inside the city gate. However, relying on the cover of a large shield is not enough to resist the Dingwu army that has already invaded the city.
Lead bullets flew everywhere, and soldiers fell to the ground from time to time after being hit by their guns, but there was no counterattack at all. Moreover, the news from the north gate was that the north gate had been lost, and the rout had taken shape. It was already impossible for Wujin County to defend until noon. impossible.
"Commander, we can't defend Wu Jin. Nothing can be done. Commander, you withdraw first. Later, we will cover the withdrawal of the army."
Xu Chengqing is also self-aware. Now that Wujin has been lost, if he continues to resist the rebels here, there will only be one result, and that is to be surrounded by Wujin and the entire army will be annihilated.
"Okay, I'll leave 10,000 people behind for you, and you can act as the opportunity arises..."
The morale of the defending army lies in the command of the generals and the dedication of the soldiers. Now that Xu Chengqing has given the order to retreat, the soldiers who had already shown signs of fleeing ran faster than Xu Chengqing, the commander-in-chief, so much so that Xu Chengqing even managed to gather several soldiers halfway. Thousands of people.
After Chen Cao learned that the officers and soldiers were fleeing crazily, he did not order a pursuit at all. His target was not Xu Chengqing, but the sneak attack troops from the rear.
He just got the news that Wuxi had been recaptured and he fell into deep thought. Song Che's consideration was correct. The officers and soldiers did not return from Zhongxi, but ran directly towards Suzhou. This move can show that the commander of this unit He was definitely not a mediocre person like Zuo Liangyu, he must be a general sent by the imperial court.
However, most of the famous generals in the world are under his command, so who will come?
"Send the order and order the Third Division to prepare quickly and rush back to Suzhou quickly."
As soon as the order was issued, the soldiers of the Third Division, who had just entered most of the battle, retreated as a team. Their horses were outside the city. It took only two days for the horseback attack to return to Suzhou, which was completely in time.
Only Ning Guoxing's artillery division had no choice but to stay in Wujin.
Tang Kainian came on horseback. His men were capturing prisoners: "My lord, Xu Chengqing has escaped. There are nearly 10,000 prisoners. Wu Jincheng has been captured."
Chen Cao nodded, and then said: "The Longwu Army will stay in Changzhou Mansion, and I will leave the artillery division to you. I am worried that Xu Chengqing will definitely come to Wujin again, so I will leave this place to you. After I finish cleaning up the troops who attacked Suzhou, I will leave it to you." Go north, and..."
Chen Cao thought for a moment and then said: "Send someone to pay attention to King Fu's movements at all times."
Tang Kainian clasped his fists: "Don't worry, sir, I'll leave this place to the general..."
.
Chen Cao led the third division to return to Suzhou urgently to aid. When they arrived at the city gate of Suzhou, the battle was at a fever pitch.
"What happened?"
Chen Cao frowned and looked at the Wuxian county town that had been burned to ruins by the fire. He couldn't help but look solemn on his face. Suzhou's defense forces were too few and the current situation was too chaotic. No matter what the battle situation was in the city, no messenger came out to report the news.
Tang Yannian rode his horse in a circle, and then the cavalry sent out rushed back: "Inform the master, the army and the army have gone to Wujiang."
An hour later, Song Che, who had led the first division to return reinforcements a few days ago, left Suzhou City in person: "Master..."
"How's it going?"
Song Che let out a long breath: "Fortunately, the Shenwu Army arrived. The officers and soldiers have now been defeated and headed towards Wujiang County."
Chen Cao frowned and looked at the thick smoke coming out of the city: "The officers and soldiers set fire to the city?"
Before Song Che could speak, more than a dozen riders quickly came to Chen Cao's side. Who was it if it wasn't Huang Degong and Lou Xingye?
When they saw Chen Cao, they immediately dismounted and knelt down, shouting "Guilty" in unison.
Huang Degong was the first to speak: "I will be ashamed of my father-in-law's cultivation and failure to defend Suzhou."
Lou Xingye also echoed.
Chen Cao didn't know the inside story. At that time, he didn't expect that the officers and soldiers would unexpectedly attack Suzhou, and that Zuo Liangyu could suddenly attack Suzhou.
When Song Che saw that Chen Cao didn't speak, he said: "Sir, please calm down. The 1,800-strong guard group will not retreat. We encountered rebels in Suzhou City and cooperated with others. Our army was outnumbered and even lost Wuxian and Suzhou City. At the end of the day, the general When the officers and soldiers led the troops to pursue them and arrived, there were only about 600 people left in the guard regiment who were still fighting hard."
Although Chen Cao kept a cold face, he still took over the topic after Song Che finished speaking, laughed three times and said, "You think I'm angry? The reason I didn't speak is because I was thinking about their next move. .”
Huang Degong and the other two breathed a long sigh of relief. According to their understanding of Chen Cao, today's move was just a formality.
Later, Chen Cao learned the specific inside story from Song Che, Huang Degong and others.
It turned out that before the Wu County city was broken, Lou Xingye had just captured the new auxiliary army guard at Taixing Gate. When he was about to arrest Zhang Shihuang, he heard shouts of death from the direction of Dongping Gate. By the time he arrived at Dongping Gate, the city gate had already closed. After being breached, a large number of officers and soldiers rushed into the city gate. Lou Xingye only led a company of troops at that time and could not resist it at all, so he had no choice but to retreat;
Only later did I find out that it was Zhang Shihuang and others who opened the Dongping Gate.
In Wu County, a border army suddenly joined and attacked Gui'anmen with all their might. The government troops took advantage of the situation and launched a large-scale attack. They entered Wu County from Gui'anmen and then began to set fire, kill and loot. Wuxian County was immediately in chaos.
At this time, the situation was no longer within the control of Huang Degong and his more than a thousand people, so they had no choice but to abandon Wu County and enter Suzhou City.
