Regardless of whether to withdraw or not, this matter is not decided now. Pang Tong must at least hold on until Chen Dao leads troops to help.
The communication efficiency of these days is not very high, and they all rely on scouts and envoys to communicate everywhere. If Pang Tong withdraws early, the scouts sent to notify Chen Dao fail to notify them in time for some reasons. Chen Dao still leads the troops and goes straight to the police. , that’s a big trouble.
Therefore, Pang Tong thought that as long as he could hold on, he would stick to the police station as much as possible. After Chen Dao's reinforcements arrived, he would decide whether to retreat to Jiangling.
And this defense lasted for another five days.
Outside the city, Zhu Ran was still stepping up his attack on the police at his own pace.
Although Zhu Ran was mentally prepared to fight to the end with the police, the difficulty of attacking the city was a bit too much beyond Zhu Ran's imagination.
It has been less than half a month since the attack on the city began, and it has suffered about 8,000 casualties. But so far, the soldiers of the Soochow Army have still not found a way to break through the city wall.
Although with the help of siege equipment prepared in advance, the Soochow army could approach the city wall with less casualties, once they entered the city wall for hand-to-hand combat, the Soochow soldiers were still unable to break through the interception of the defenders and establish a stable enough landing point on the city wall. .
This shows that the defenders in the city still have sufficient morale and combat power, and the public security guards also have very good command skills and can completely block the attacks of all Soochow soldiers on the three walls.
On several occasions, Zhu Ran really wanted to copy General Lü Meng's tactics, dividing his troops to besiege the public security forces, and rushing into Jiangling with light troops. But Lü Meng had already proven to Zhu Ran the consequences of doing so.
It's hard to say that General Lu Meng died of illness in the end, not because he was depressed because of the failure of this battle and finally refused to take down the public security forces. Zhu Ran really didn't dare to attack Jiangling.
Therefore, Zhu Ran warned himself again and again not to be impetuous. After all, the strategic purpose of sending troops this time was different from that of General Lu Meng before.
The main purpose of this attack on Jingzhou was to attract the Jingzhou army to return for reinforcements, and the secondary purpose was to capture Jiangling. Obviously, judging from the purpose of this strategy, Sun Quan, the great emperor of Wu, did not intend to completely fall out with the Han Dynasty.
If it is considered from the perspective of personal military merit, Zhu Ran certainly hopes to lead troops to conquer Jiangling and prove his ability. But after all, Zhu Ran is a very clear-headed general, not the kind of reckless man who is easy to get into trouble.
Rather than risking an unsuccessful attack on Jiangling, it would be better to capture the Public Security Bureau first.
In Jingnan today, the Han army occupies Wuling and Lingling counties, but the soldiers and horses from these two counties had been transferred back to Gongan and Jiangling four months ago. If the Soochow army wanted to attack these two counties, , you can just send troops and horses to take over.
The only bridgehead that the Han army still retains on the south bank of the Yangtze River is the Public Security Bureau. This is not only a barrier to defend Jiangling, but also a foothold for the Han army to return to Jingnan in the future.
Therefore, it is also very important strategically to capture the Public Security Bureau and clear out the Han's last stronghold city in Jingnan.
As for Jiangling, it is best if it can be captured. If it cannot be captured, it is not an unacceptable result to capture Gong'an and occupy the south bank of Chang'an.
Thinking of this, Zhu Ran decided to continue to strengthen the attack and seize the police.
But soon, Zhu Ran received some bad news.
The news was transmitted through Jiangxia County, so it was timely to a certain extent, but it still had considerable reference value for Zhu Ran, who was currently fighting in the police.
The Jingzhou Army finally returned for reinforcements.
This should have been good news. The biggest purpose of this strategy was to force the Jingzhou Army to return for reinforcements.
But the problem is that the military information passed from Jiangxia County told Zhu Ran that although the Jingzhou Army returned for reinforcements, only about 20,000 people came back.
Among them, 10,000 people returned to support Xiangyang, and another 10,000 people continued southward. If nothing else, they should have gone to support Jiangling.
This news was brought back by Zhou Yu on the front line of Xiangfan. There is no doubt about its reliability. Zhou Yu's judgment is generally rarely wrong.
Therefore, along with this military information passed to Zhu Ran, there was also a secret letter from Sun Quan.
In the secret letter, Sun Quan emphasized that regardless of whether the 10,000 Jingzhou troops returned for reinforcements, he hoped that Zhu Ran would capture Gong'an as soon as possible, then cross the Yangtze River and attack Jiangling.
Obviously, Sun Quan was not very satisfied with the fact that he had only attracted 20,000 Jingzhou troops to return for reinforcements. He still hoped that Zhu Ran could create pressure on Jiangling and force more Jingzhou troops to return for reinforcements.
From Sun Quan's perspective, it's actually easy to understand.
Forcing the Jingzhou army to return to Xiangyang is Sun Quan's ultimate goal, but the problem is that the Zhou Yu army that attacked Xiangyang only supported 20,000 people. After the 10,000 Jingzhou army returned to Xiangyang to aid, Wenpin also had 20,000 defenders. With Xiangfan's defense system in hand, no matter how powerful Zhou Yu is, he will not be able to pose a threat to Xiangyang in a short period of time.
In this case, the only place where the Jingzhou Army could feel threatened and had to withdraw its troops was Jiangling. Zhu Ran must achieve oppressive results in Jiangling.
For this reason, Sun Quan also told Zhu Ran that if he felt that he had difficulties or insufficient troops, he could write back to him and he would find a way to help Zhu Ran solve these problems.
Well, even though he said that, based on Zhu Ran's understanding of Sun Quan, if he really replied to the letter with a request, it would not only embarrass Sun Quan but also not be helpful at all.
Therefore, you still have to rely on yourself and continue to attack.
At the same time, Pang Tong, who was still holding on in the Public Security City, also received a secret message sent by Shi Bao from Jiangbei.
Of course Shi Bao knew that the Public Security Bureau was being severely besieged by the Soochow Army, so he wanted to know the specific situation of the Public Security Bureau and whether it could continue to hold on.
If you can hold on, that would be the best, but if you find it difficult, Shi Bao also suggested that Zhang Ren and Li Qiu try to hold on for another five days before they can lead their troops to cross the river from Yidu County. Retreat to Jiangling.
The reason why Shi Bao hopes that the police will continue to hold on for five days is because Shi Bao received a notice from the messenger sent by Wenpin in advance and knew that it would take about eight days for Liao Hua to arrive in Jiangling with 10,000 troops. Counting the secret of the messenger To cross the river and transport the secret message, Shi Bao judged that if the police held on for another five days, reinforcements from Jiangling would be in place in time. At that time, it would not mean much whether the police would continue to hold on.
If you can defend it, naturally it is better to defend it. After all, it is a bridgehead passage to the south of the Yangtze River. In your own hands, you can save a lot of trouble in the future counterattack.
But if it really cannot be defended, Shi Bao suggests that it is better to conserve troops, abandon the defense, retreat to Jiangling, and use Jiangling's city defense to stop the Wu army.
There is really no need to fight to the death.
This secret letter was finally successfully delivered to Pang Tong, who was stationed at the police station, and Pang Tong fully recognized Shi Bao's judgment.
To be honest, Pang Tong really didn't care if Jiangling was lost, and whether the police lost it or not.
Pang Tong has always been strategic. He always considers issues from a strategic perspective. As long as he can win the entire battle, he can weigh the gains and losses of local interests and give up.
But Zhang Ren disagrees.
First of all, Zhang Ren is not a strategist, he is a city-defending general. The gain or loss of this city is his responsibility.
Secondly, Zhang Ren did not object to Pang Tong's initiative to give up the police force. He just hoped that he could stay and hold on to the public security city until the last moment.
This is his duty and his last concern.
Zhang Ren is old and sick, and he is very sick.
As a general, he didn't want to die on the march because of fatigue. It would be better to let him live and die with the public security city, which would satisfy his last wish.
The old general's last wish moved Li Qiu and Jiang Wei, both generals, but Pang Tong said he could not understand.
After all, the way of thinking of civil servants and military generals is not very similar.
The decision to abandon the police force was made by Pang Tong, and he was mentally prepared to take responsibility.
But Zhang Ren was left to defend the city while he led his troops to retreat. In the end, Zhang Ren, an old general who had made great contributions to the country, was "defeated and died". Pang Tong could not bear this responsibility.
Therefore, even if Zhang Ren asked, Pang Tong was still vague and did not agree. He then sent someone to find Zhang Ren's eldest son, Zhang Lin, and asked him to go home overnight to prepare and take the old general's Frame, evacuate the police first.
Whether he was going to Jiangling or heading upstream to Badong County, the old general couldn't die in the Gong'an City.
After arranging all this, Pang Tong began to make formal calculations. Chen Dao still had a few days to arrive at the Public Security City.
As soon as Chen Dao's reinforcements arrived, it was time for Pang Tong to lead his troops to break through.
(End of chapter)
