Jingzhou is located on the north bank of the Jingjiang River. It controls the dangers of Bashu at the top, the Jianghu Meeting at the bottom, and guards the natural moat of the Yangtze River. It is a hub connecting water and land transportation from east to west, south, and north. It has been a battleground for military strategists since ancient times.
Jingzhou City, also known as Jiangling City, got its name from the fact that Jiangling County was established as the county seat after the Qin Dynasty broke Ying Dynasty.
The city wall of Jingzhou is about 1,125 feet long from east to west and 360 feet wide from north to south. The city wall is 3,084 feet long and about 2.7 feet high.
The city wall currently has eight gates and two gate towers. The ancient city of Jingzhou is divided into three floors: the water city on the outside, the brick city in the middle, and the earth city on the inside.
Jingzhou City has a moat with a total length of 3,150 feet, a width of about 9 feet, and a water depth of 1.2 feet. It connects to Taihu Lake in the west, Chang Lake in the east, and the ancient canal.
When the city was built during the Ming Dynasty, in order to prevent the city foundation from sinking and flooding the city, glutinous rice slurry was poured into the stone gaps at the right foot of the city, making the city wall particularly strong.
At the same time, the city wall of Jingzhou is equipped with urns, watchtowers, war houses, forts, caves for hiding soldiers, and city gates. It has a complete defense system and has always been easy to defend but difficult to attack. It is said that "Jingzhou is conquered with iron".
During the Kangxi period, the Manchu Qing Dynasty built a wall in the middle of Jingzhou City. The Manchu Eight Banners soldiers were stationed in the east, which was called Mancheng; the government offices and civilian houses were in the west, called Hancheng.
Outside Jingzhou City, in the military camp tent, military commander Qian Lushan asked Ma Jiulu, who was opposite him, with a sad face:
"Commander Ma, we have been guarding Jingzhou City for three days now. These three days of attacks have caused nearly two thousand casualties to our army, but Jingzhou City has not yet been captured. Is there any good plan?"
Originally, the military officers should not have too much involvement in the war in the army. After all, the main job of the officers and soldiers of the bandit suppression army is to provide life care and ideological guidance. However, the unsatisfactory war situation made him unable to help but ask Ma Jiulu.
Since the anti-bandit army entered Hunan, the anti-bandit army has always been invincible. Ma Jiulu and others did not expect that the resistance in Jingzhou City was so strong.
In particular, all the Manchus in Jingzhou City went to the battlefield. Those who could draw their bows all went up to the city wall, and all the old, weak, women and children went to the battlefield.
Originally, the method of attacking the city created by Zhang Rui gave the Qing army a headache all the way, and most of the green soldiers defending the city did not want to fight for it.
What matters is. This bandit-suppressing army will divide the fields after they capture the city, and the Green Camp soldiers who surrender like them are not bad at all. Therefore, since they attacked the city along the way, the bandit suppressing army did not encounter many green soldiers who were really serious about defending the city and fighting for their lives.
After all, in the eyes of these Green Camp soldiers, there is really no need to throw away their lives for only one or two silver stipends. But this bandit-suppressing army is still so good at fighting. The key is that if you surrender, you can be selected into the bandit-suppressing army. Their monthly salary is higher than that given by the Manchus. If you retire, you can still have land, and your children and grandchildren will not have to live alone. Can do the job of being a soldier.
"Currently, I haven't been able to come up with a good solution. I can only see if Chief of Staff Wang has any good countermeasures. I am really to blame for the casualties of our army. I also let Brother Six down. "Ma Jiulu's words were full of self-blame. After all, Zhang Rui had great trust in him by letting him lead an army.
"Actually, I can't blame you. Who would have thought that the Manchus in Jingzhou City are so fearless of death. If they hadn't hidden in the city wall and harmed our army, our army would not have suffered such casualties." Qian Lushan also He said very helplessly.
At this time, the guard's voice came from outside the tent door, and it was Wang Kaiyuan who arrived.
"Counsel Wang, you're here." Qian Lushan saw Wang Kaiyuan coming in at the door of the accounting room and gave him a military salute.
"It's Qian Junzheng! You are here too." Wang Kaiyuan also saluted back with a military salute. Now Wang Kaiyuan has reached an instinctive conditioned reflex for the military salute.
"Chief of Staff Wang, does your staff have any good ideas for this Jingzhou City?" Ma Jiulu asked directly without being polite to Wang Kaiwen.
"Yes, the method does exist. However, the method we developed over there still requires a lot of casualties." Wang Kaiyuan replied, with a bit of disappointment in his tone.
"Hey, the casualties in sieges have been high since ancient times. If it really doesn't work, we can only endure the casualties and attack by force. I'll apologize to Sixth Brother again! We can't let the brothers in front die in vain." Ma Jiulu listened. Wang Kaiyuan gritted his teeth and made up his mind.
"Speaking of Brother Six, just when I wanted to come over to find you, I met the messenger sent by Brother Six. He said that Brother Six would arrive at our side the day after tomorrow at the latest and let us prepare what he wanted. Wait for him. So I’m here to discuss it with you." Wang Kaiyuan said to Ma Jiulu.
"Sixth Brother is coming over? Has he already captured Wuchang City?" Ma Jiulu asked quickly.
"It seems like this. I got to know the messenger. While we were still fighting Jiangling, Sixth Brother and the others had already captured Wuchang City." Wang Kaiyuan said with an admiring tone.
"Brother Six is Brother Six, so fast." Qian Lushan couldn't help but admire.
"No, it is said that as soon as Sixth Brother and the others arrived at Wuchang City, they captured Wuchang City that night with the help of the brothers who entered the city in advance." Wang Kaiyuan said: "It turns out that Sixth Brother had already started to attack Wuchang City after defeating Yueyang City. The war in the city.”
"Speaking of siege, Sixth Brother's siege methods are endless, it's really hard for us to imagine." Ma Jiulu also looked like he was slumped to the ground.
"Commander Ma is right. When Brother Six left all the staff to me, I thought we could capture Jingzhou before Brother Six and the others captured Wuchang! I'm really ashamed." Wang Kaiyuan looked embarrassed. said.
"Brother Six will always be our support. It's normal if we can't compare to him. By the way, what did Brother Six ask us to prepare?" Qian Lushan did his work casually.
"Qian Junzheng is right." Ma Jiulu immediately agreed.
"What Qian Junzheng said makes sense." Wang Kaiyuan said, not wanting to lag behind.
Immediately afterwards, Wang Kaiyuan took out an envelope from his arms, handed it to Ma Jiulu, and said, "This is what Sixth Brother wants."
Ma Jiulu was a little surprised when he looked at the envelope handed over by Wang Kaiyuan. After he received the envelope, he realized that it had not been opened yet. But it was Wang Kaiyuan who was waiting for him to come to Kaifeng, probably because he was worried about his own feelings.
Ma Jiulu looked at the envelope in his hand. When he raised his head, he saw Wang Kaiyuan and Qian Lushan also staring at the envelope in his hand. I guess they were also looking forward to seeing what Brother Six wanted!
"hiss…"
A sound of tearing paper
Ma Jiulu tore open the envelope without thinking too much, and saw that there were only three pieces of paper in the envelope, which was not very thick.
When Ma Jiulu stretched out his fingers to take out the three pieces of paper and unfolded them, he saw that there seemed to be something drawn on the three pieces of paper.
