Chapter 304 Nandu Attack and Defense IV
"You entered from Yuejiangmen?"
Chen Cao stood up: "Seriously?"
Xin Zhao nodded: "It's absolutely true, but it's not that we entered the inner city directly from Yuejiang Gate, but from the city wall two miles northeast of Yuejiang Gate;
That section of the city wall is the remnant of the Lime Mountain. It is the connection point between the northern outer city and the inner city's Yuejiang Gate section. The height of the city wall is less than seven meters. There are three more city gate exits there, which are used to transport people from the north of the Yangtze River into Nanjing. Although the miscellaneous passage for supplies was blocked before the war, Zhang Gaoping personally led troops to attack the city and sent people to clear the blockade. Now Zhang Gaoping has led tens of thousands of people into Lime Mountain. "
"It seems that the Battle of Nanjing has reached a critical moment." Chen Cao looked at Huang Chunyao: "Yunsheng, is our plan feasible?"
Huang Chunyao said with a meaningful smile: "Li Yuan, the emperor of the Tang Dynasty, supported Emperor Gong of the Sui Dynasty Yang You to ascend the throne and proclaim himself emperor. A year later, Yang You ascended the throne and the Tang Dynasty was founded..."
"Huh...that makes sense..."
Chen Cao nodded, then turned to look at Zhao Xin: "Send someone to tell Tang Kainian that the Longwu Army will change the feint attack into a formal attack."
"yes..."
.
"What..."
Sun Chengzong staggered back a few steps and almost fell. If Cheng Lin hadn't been able to catch him with his hands and feet, he might have fallen from the horse path to the city gate. With such a high distance and Sun Chengzong's age, there was no way he could survive.
"Immediately mobilize all the reinforcements into the Lime Mountain to stop the rebels. Also, send someone to send a message to Governor Qi, saying that Yuejiangmen has been lost and the rebels have entered Beikuo City."
"yes..."
Cheng Lin helped Sun Chengzong sit down on the chair in the tower, with a serious look on his face: "Superintendent, Beikuo City is not like Nankuo City. Mrs. Qin over there has 200,000 troops to mobilize, but we only have 100,000 troops here. , the rebels seemed to deliberately induce us to fight in Nankuo City, but in fact the main direction of attack was to the north;
Now that the rebels have invaded the city from the direction of Yuejiangmen, General Zhang Shen has died in the battle, and the general may think that Nanjing cannot be defended..."
"Nonsense..." Sun Chengzong sternly scolded Cheng Lin: "Reinforcements from Jiangxi and Huguang are about to arrive, and reinforcements from Shandong are also on the way. Although the outer city is lost, Nanjing can hold on behind the high wall of the inner city."
Cheng Lin smiled bitterly: "Among the 400,000 defenders, 150,000 were transferred from Shandong Dusi. There are no more soldiers and horses in Shandong. The capital troops in the capital cannot be mobilized. The last general is you who came from Datong. forget?"
Chongzhen actually still has a lot of troops, and he can mobilize at least one million more. But now, of the one million mobile troops, 500,000 are located all over Liaodong, with a very wide depth. The remaining 500,000 troops and 300,000 are all in the capital, belonging to the capital. battalion and the 12th regiment and battalion troops, and the remaining 200,000 are in various places in the south.
Seventy thousand reinforcements from Huguang and Jiangxi are on the way. Twenty thousand reinforcements from Guangdong Dusi have just entered Zhejiang. When reinforcements from Sichuan entered Shaanxi, they were recruited by Yang He to suppress civil unrest.
Except for the 70,000 people heading north, there are actually no troops in Nanjing that can support them unless the Beijing camp sets off.
But now that the Beijing camp is setting off, the reinforcements of hundreds of thousands of people will not be able to reach Nanjing in less than half a month, let alone Chen Cao, a firearms unit.
Sun Chengzong didn't know how to answer Cheng Lin. Not long after, the messenger from Jinchuan Gate arrived at Shangyuan Gate, bringing Qi Boyu's decision.
"The Governor has an order to give up the defense of the entire Beikuo City, shrink all troops and enter the inner city, and place the defense line between the six gates of the inner city including Shence, Jinchuan, Zhongfu, Yuejiang, Fengyi, and Dinghuai. Inside."
Sun Chengzong looked at the torches in the opposite camp with difficulty, and then looked at Cheng Lin: "Withdraw..."
.
"The entire army retreats..."
"ignition..."
Qin Liangyu personally led his troops at Jubao Mountain in the evening to drive out the tens of thousands of rebels who rushed into the city. It was so thrilling that he did not dare to close his eyes at night, so he led his troops back to the camp in front of Ande Gate.
Suddenly, there was a sound like shaking of the ground, which woke her up from the bed. When she walked out of the camp to observe, a huge flame from the southeast lighted up the entire night sky, and a powerful air wave struck from the southeast. Come, even her bun and temples are flying under the influence of the air waves.
Qi Boyu had not slept in front of the duty hall of the Fifth Army Governor's Mansion. The huge vibration made the teacup on his table jingle: "Quick, send someone to find out what happened."
"Where is that over there?"
Daughter-in-law Zhang Fengyi frowned and looked over: "Mom, it seems to be in the direction of Shuangqiao Gate."
"What's wrong..." Qin Liangyu shouted, and then asked Zhang Fengyi to bring the war horse: "Immediately send the order, all the reserve troops will move to Jubao Mountain, Shizhu's troops and horses, follow me to Shuangqiao Gate."
Chen Cao was startled awake by the huge shaking. He had already fallen asleep after the Longwu Army launched the offensive. The huge shaking made him think that an earthquake had occurred: "Xin Zhao, quickly find out what happened."
The Shuangqiao Gate of Nanjing Nankuo City can no longer be called the Shuangqiao Gate. In the previous violent explosion, the entire city gate of Shuangqiao Gate and the three miles to the left and right of the city wall connected to the city gate were destroyed. Where was the city gate blown? Don't even know.
The explosive equivalent used by the engineering troops this time was five times that used in Hangzhou City. The tall double bridge gates outside the city have now been razed to the ground.
Su Mao, the deputy commander guarding Shuangqiaomen, could not even find his body. Guerrilla general Qin Zuoming was also affected by the explosion in the Shuangqiaomen camp and was seriously injured and fell into coma. He was carried by a group of Shizhu soldiers and evacuated to the inner city. .
Li Wanchang excitedly patted the engineer squad leader on the shoulder, then drew out his sword and personally led the assembled men into the city from the ruins of Shuangqiao Gate.
To the southwest of Shuangqiao Gate is Jubao Mountain, where 20,000 troops have just settled in during the day. The main camp is at the foot of Jubao Mountain. To the southeast of Shuangqiao Gate is Zhengyang Gate of the inner city, which is the geographical symbol of the entire Nanjing city. Li Wanchang He led 50,000 people and went straight towards Zhengyang Gate, then handed them over to the deputy general and other leading generals.
At that time, there was chaos at Shuangqiao Gate...
.
Xu Hongji didn't have the courage to climb the city. Now Xu Chenqing was in command at the top of the city. The hail of bullets on the city was deafening in the camp below the city. Besides, bullets and artillery didn't have eyes, so the consequences of being shot were unpredictable.
The situation of the two neighboring Cangbo and Xianhe gates is no different from here. Under the indiscriminate attacks from the three divisions of the Longwu Army, only the old three-eyed muskets, bird muskets and some turtledove-foot muskets are used to stop the Sui. The firing attack was simply whimsical.
However, although the three divisions attacked with great intensity, they never launched a city-climbing battle from beginning to end.
Although the artillery and muskets were powerful, Xu Chengqing, who defended the city, found that as long as he evaded and did not choose to fight back, the casualties would not be large at all.
"this..."
Xu Chengqing looked at Li Shouye beside him: "What do you mean?"
"Sir, it seems that the rebels outside the city have no real intention to attack the city?" Li Shouye and Xu Chengqing leaned against the thickest part of the city wall.
Lead bullets and explosions exploded one after another, all hitting the hiding place of the two men.
An orderly soldier crouched and rushed in front of the two men: "Your Majesty, the Duke has an order, please come to the camp to discuss matters urgently."
In the camp, Xu Hongji informed Xu Chengqing that Beikou City had been lost and Sun Chengzong was ordered to retreat to the inner city. Just as a group of people were discussing the situation of the war, an inner city messenger rushed into the camp with a black flag. : "Wei Guogong... Something bad happened. The Shuangqiao Gate of Nankuo City was blown up by the rebels with gunpowder. The Shuangqiao Gate was lost. Tens of thousands of rebels entered the city through the Shuangqiao Gate."
Because Nankuo City faced King Fu's main force head-on, Qin Liangyu had 130,000 troops to guard Nankuo City. In addition, with the 100,000 reinforcements in the inner city that could mobilize and support at any time, the rebels captured Shuangqiao Gate in one fell swoop. There should also be enough time to mobilize troops to drive them out again.
"Didn't we just drive out the rebels from Jubao Mountain before nightfall?"
The messenger shook his head angrily: "I don't know, I just came here to inform Duke Wei on the order of Mrs. Qin, and asked Duke Wei to make his own decision."
It will take at least an hour to rush from Nankuo City to the inner city to inform Qi Boyu. After Qi Boyu has discussed how to deal with it, he will send someone to inform Xu Hongji. It is estimated that it will be daylight here. The movement of hundreds of thousands of people will not take one or two hours. What contributed to this was that Xu Hongji's side retreated to the inner city in accordance with the plan made before the war for the fall of the outer city. It was impossible to complete the operation in less than a day and a half.
How could Xu Hongji have such a decisive decision before the battle? If he really had it, he would not pass the title of Duke of Wei to his son after I entered the Qing Dynasty.
Xu Chengqing saw Xu Hongji's embarrassment and saw Xu Hongji looking at him, so he gave Xu Hongji a silent wink.
Xu Hongji understood and immediately dismissed the other people in the tent, leaving only Xu Chengqing and himself.
"Tell me..."
"Based on the current development of the situation, the general will believe that the fall of Nanjing is inevitable."
This sentence seemed to come out of Xu Chengqing's mouth without any trouble. In fact, the soles of Xu Hongji's feet were numb. What Nanjing means to Wei Guogong's family could not be more obvious. Since the day Chengzu moved the capital, , the Xu family was relied on to stay in the southern capital;
Although it was not like the previous tradition that the prince overseeing the country must control Nanjing, but as the Xu family was left behind in Nanzhili and was actually in charge of all the military affairs of all military posts south of the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers in the Ming Dynasty, the loss of Nanjing also meant the defeat of the Xu family.
As the top nobles of the Ming Dynasty and the head of the imperial lords of the Ming Dynasty, the Xu family has been in the lineage of Wei Guogong for more than two hundred years and has been rich and powerful for so long. Once Nanjing is in trouble, according to Emperor Chongzhen's urine, the Xu family will not be able to get rid of it. Anything cheap.
It took a long time for Xu Hongji to look up at Xu Chengqing. The middle-aged man in front of him was a son of the Xu family. He was the closest and newest person to Xu Hongji: "Yaoguang (Xu Chengqing's pseudonym), be honest, Chen Cao will give it to you." What benefits were promised?”
