Chapter 2004: Jiangling Attack and Defense (Part 2)
Under the joint fierce attack of Liu Ji and Liu Xiu, the defenders in Jiangling City were already less than 10,000, and one-third of them were injured. If there were no reinforcements, it would obviously not be able to stop the hundreds of thousands of Shu-Chu coalition forces for too long. .
As a last resort, Meng Gong could only recruit strong men from among the people in the city to supplement his troops.
Meng Gong had anticipated in advance that as the first wave of reinforcements was destroyed and the second wave of reinforcements successfully entered the city, no more reinforcements would be able to enter Jiangling in the future, so he was prepared in advance.
Meng Gong recruited 30,000 strong men in advance for training and to carry equipment and supplies.
Meng Gong did not expect that Er Liu, who had attacked Xiangyang, would turn back so quickly. He planned to concentrate his efforts on extracting Jiangling first, and in a very short period of time, he consumed less than 10,000 Jiangling defenders.
These 30,000 strong men have been trained for less than half a month. They only have a little fighting power. They cannot be called an army at all. They are just a group of ragtag men. It is okay to let them carry thunder soldiers and throw logs. They can confront the Shu-Chu coalition forces head-on. It's definitely unbearable.
Although Meng Gong knew this, he had no other choice. Jiangling City was at its last moment and could not be sustained without some cruel methods. He could only use his life to fill the gap.
In order to defend Jiangling City, Meng Gong ordered these motley crews who had only trained for half a month to go to the city tower to participate in the city defense high school. Needless to say, the results were extremely tragic.
Facing the coalition forces ascending the city tower, these new troops are not necessarily opponents in a three-on-one battle, and may even be counter-attacked by one of them.
Gradually, the number of casualties among the recruits increased. Some recruits were so emboldened by the descent that they dropped their weapons and ran away.
After all, there are only a few recruits who escape, but if this trend is allowed to go unchecked, it will only lead to a huge rout in the end.
Meng Gong had already expected this. He personally visited more than a thousand wounded soldiers to supervise the battle team and shot all the fleeing recruits with random arrows. All the recruits were frightened at once.
Although the recruits who wanted to run were afraid of the wolf-like coalition forces, they were even more afraid of being shot to death by their own people. They did not dare to run away and could only bite the bullet and fight the coalition forces.
Later, with the personal participation of generals such as Meng Gong, Han Shizhong, and Huo Jun, the morale of the new army was stimulated, and this played a role in defending the city instead of being a hindrance.
On the first day of defending the city alone, the new army suffered nearly 5,000 casualties, while the coalition forces only suffered nearly 1,000 casualties.
The Qin army, which was defending the city, suffered five times as many casualties as the coalition forces when facing the attacking coalition forces. This shows how huge the gap in combat power between these recruits who had been trained for half a month and the coalition forces was.
This is still under the command of Meng Gong, a famous city defender. If it were other generals, the casualties would probably be even greater.
The situation on the second day was slightly better, with only 4,000 casualties.
Three thousand on the third day.
Two thousand eight hundred on the fourth day.
Thirty thousand people participated in the defense of the city for only four days, but nearly 15,000 were lost, and 7,000 were too injured to continue fighting, leaving only 8,000 usable troops.
After experiencing the ordeal of blood and fire, all those who survived have been reborn and are no longer a bunch of rabble. Their combat power has been greatly improved. Naturally, they are incomparable to the elites who have been trained for many years, but compared to the county The soldiers still have to give in too much.
With the help of these 8,000 county soldiers, the pressure faced by Meng Gong is relatively small. However, as long as the Shu-Chu coalition forces do not withdraw their troops and the Hebei reinforcements do not arrive, the crisis in Jiangling City will still exist. It won't disintegrate so easily.
Liu Ji knew that Jiangling City was not easy to fight, and he did not want to lose too many troops here. However, the cannon fodder in his hands had been used up, and he did not dare to recruit people on the spot to consume people's hearts. After thinking for a long time, he thought of another cannon fodder. , Nanman slaves.
These slaves were all prisoners captured in the last battle with Chi You. There were a lot of them, forty or fifty thousand. However, because they were too wild and unruly, and Chi You was still there, Liu Ji could not do anything. They did not dare to incorporate them into an army, so they made all the 40,000 to 50,000 prisoners into slaves.
Jiangling City could not be attacked for a long time and was in urgent need of a large amount of cannon fodder, so Liu Ji thought of Nanman slaves.
In addition, if the southern barbarian army invades the border, these slaves may also initiate riots and cause cholera in Yizhou, so it is wise to transfer them away from Yizhou.
When Liu Ji asked Peng Yue to return to Yizhou to aid, he also transferred 40,000 Nanman slaves from Yizhou.
After marching for more than half a month, these 40,000 southern barbarian slave troops finally entered Jingbei, and the Jiangling offensive and defensive battle was about to enter its final moments.
Liu Ji promised to 40,000 Nanman slaves that as long as they could capture Jiangling City, they would be exempted from slavery and given the status of Han people. Those who were unwilling could return to Nanzhong.
After learning that by capturing Jiangling, they could be exempted from slavery, become Han Chinese, or return to their hometown, all the southern slaves were excited and were willing to help Liu Ji fight to gain freedom.
Liu Ji didn't regard these southern barbarian slaves as human beings at all. He wished that all these slaves would die in Jingbei, so he naturally attacked the city regardless of casualties.
Although the living conditions of the Nanman are extremely difficult, they have also created the strong physique of the Nanman people.
The physical quality of the Nanman people is much higher than that of the Han people. It can be said that they are a very advantageous source of troops. In addition, Chi You is good at training and training, so the combat power of the Nanman army is not weaker than that of the Korean and Han armies, but the equipment is really poor. Facing the Shu army Only then will you fall into a disadvantage.
Nowadays, these southern barbarian slaves have been slaves for several years, and their combat power has naturally declined a lot, but the basic foundation is still there. As long as they have weapons in hand, they are still a strong force.
Liu Ji did not dare to equip these southern barbarian slaves with armor, fearing that it would be difficult for him to control the slave army once the slave army's combat power increased, so he only gave the slave soldiers a sword and only 5,000 shields.
The Southern Barbarian slaves didn't know what Liu Ji was thinking. After all, the Southern Barbarians were short of iron, and five thousand shields was not a small number.
Seeing Liu Ji take out five thousand shields at once, the Southern barbarian slaves believed in Liu Ji's sincerity even more, and worked harder in the subsequent siege.
Following Liu Ji's order, under the cover of the Shu-Chu coalition's catapults, siege vehicles, siege crossbows and other equipment, 40,000 Nanman slaves brandished swords and carried shields and launched the most violent attack on Jiangling City. attack.
When Meng Gong saw that the attacking soldiers were neither Shu troops nor Chu troops, but barbarians, he thought Liu Xiu had transferred Wuling barbarians from Jingnan. Later, he could tell through the language the soldiers shouted. They are Southern Barbarians.
Meng Gong knew that there were a large number of Nanman slaves in Yizhou, but he didn't expect Liu Ji to be able to drive them.
The fighting style of the Southern Barbarian slave army was very crazy. Even if they suffered a thousand personal losses, they would still injure the enemy three hundred. They were attacking the city completely regardless of casualties.
This crazy fighting style of the southern barbarian slave army is extremely fatal to the current Jiangling defenders, but Meng Gong has no good way to do it. He can only bite the bullet and fight with the slave army to consume.
After half a month of offensive and defensive battles, three-quarters of the 40,000 Nanman slaves died in the battle, and a full 30,000 Nanman slaves died under Jiangling City. The Jiangling defenders also suffered nearly 8,000 casualties, leaving only Seven thousand defenders.
Since then, after holding on for two full months, the Jiangling Qin Army was finally about to run out of gas.
