Wu Gong was very happy to see troops dispatched from the city.
He believed that he had an advantage in field combat, but siege warfare would bring greater casualties.
As soon as his command flag was waved, an army immediately stepped forward and started a fierce battle with the peasant army Gao Meng's troops who were attacking in the city.
Soldiers from both sides faced each other, and their military formations collided with each other. You stabbed me, and I stabbed you. The fighting went back and forth.
However, this is not what Zhao Yucheng is pursuing.
If Gao Meng cannot penetrate the Song Army's defense line, the Song Army will completely gain the upper hand, and then the three thousand assault troops will be in danger.
In fact, they were already in danger and were gradually unable to sustain themselves under the fierce counterattack of the Song army.
This is a strengthened brigade-level team under the First Division under the personal command of Zhao Yucheng. The leader is one of the more than 100 people who followed Zhao Yucheng southward, named Lin Xun.
Seeing that the battle situation was unfavorable and the reinforcements were blocked and could not come to respond, Lin Xun secretly thought that something was wrong and felt that the problem was serious.
At this time, light rain gradually began to fall in the sky, and the cold wind blew, which was very uncomfortable. Lin Xun felt that he could not continue, so he decided to lead his troops to the rear to give more people a chance to escape and move to the west.
There are no enemies there.
So Lin Xun issued an order, asking his lieutenant general to withdraw first with more rear troops, while he personally stood in front and cut off the rear.
The deputy general was unwilling, but Lin Xun gave him a death order. As a last resort, he led his troops to retreat from the west, gradually leaving the battlefield.
Wu Gong tried to pursue, but Lin Xun personally led the soldiers to launch a counterattack. For a while, he was unable to do anything to Lin Xun.
In a rage, he ordered more cavalry to rush straight to where Lin Xun was, beating Lin Xun's bodyguards into a mess.
Lin Xun was caught off guard and was surrounded by Wu Gong's soldiers, and he couldn't escape despite fighting hard.
When he was exhausted, he took one last look in the direction of Nanchang City and launched the final attack.
He cut off a horse's leg with a knife, causing the Song soldiers on it to fall to the ground and die. Then he turned around and was hit on the head with a hammer by a cavalryman who was following him, and he died heroically in battle.
After Lin Xun died in the battle, his subordinates were extremely sad and angry, and they fought with swords one after another.
More than a thousand peasant troops in the rear were surrounded and annihilated by the Song army in the ensuing fierce battle. They were all killed and no one surrendered.
However, due to their desperate fighting, another part of the peasant army was able to escape and retreat toward Junzhou in the west.
Zhao Yucheng stood on the city wall and watched the destruction of Lin Xun's troops. He gritted his teeth, made fists with his hands, and his nails almost pierced his flesh.
But he still made the right decision.
Ming Jin withdrew his troops and ordered Gao Meng, who could not break through the Song army's blockade, to retreat. He acknowledged the fact that the peasant army's combat effectiveness was insufficient and the tactics failed.
As time went by, the light rain tended to develop into a moderate rain. Seeing that the soldiers were soaked by the rain, Wu Gong did not forcefully order the pursuit. Instead, he gave up when he saw a good situation. He ordered the troops to withdraw and sent people to occupy Meiling. For support purposes.
After the First World War, the peasant army lost thousands of troops and generals, and its morale was low.
Zhao Yucheng reluctantly stopped his troops, closed the city gate, prepared to defend the city, and would never leave the city easily again.
After this battle, Wu Gong gained the upper hand and tested out the peasant army's lack of field capabilities, so he became more confident to win this battle.
However, things did not develop as he thought.
This battle was already in the middle and late November of the third year of Hongwu. With the arrival of the rain, the temperature in Nanchang dropped sharply and the cold wind suddenly rose. It was quite a bit [cold icy rain slapped randomly on the face] the trend of.
It's windy and rainy, so fighting is naturally very difficult.
But that's fine if it's just a matter of not being able to fight. But the problem is that Wu Gong's problem is not just the inconvenience of fighting.
One night passed, and a large number of soldiers fell ill with colds and fevers and lay on their beds unable to get up.
Another night passed, and more soldiers fell ill with colds and fevers, lying on their beds unable to get up.
Wu Gong personally went to inspect the situation of the wounded and sick, and found that the number of soldiers with colds and fevers who were unable to fight increased sharply, and the wounded barracks could no longer accommodate them.
Wu Gong went to the military doctor and asked for an explanation. The military doctor had no choice but to say that the temperature had dropped sharply, it was windy and rainy, and most of the soldiers had been wetted by the rain yesterday, and the army lacked ginger to boil water to dispel the cold, so Only then did a large number of soldiers fall ill.
"Why isn't there enough ginger? Wasn't there an accurate count before the war?!"
Wu Gong found the quartermaster and spat at them.
The quartermaster looked aggrieved.
"I didn't bring much when I set out. The warehouse at the rear said that it would be replenished later, but I haven't seen it yet. I told you about it, but you were in a hurry to send troops, so you didn't care."
Wu Gong thought for a moment and was speechless.
Because he really remembered this, the quartermaster told him before sending out troops that except for food, many military supplies were not available.
Wu Gong was in a hurry to send troops according to the order of the Privy Council, so he asked the quartermaster to arrange for Ezhou and warehouses along the way to make up for the supplies transported later, and then he didn't care.
"It hasn't been delivered yet?"
"Yes, so far, apart from the food, there is not enough. It is not enough for all the soldiers. We have tried our best to provide ginger soup."
The quartermaster's answer made Wu Gong very angry, so he immediately wrote an order and asked the rear warehouse to immediately allocate enough ginger and medicinal materials to treat colds and fevers to support the army.
However, it takes time from the issuance of orders to the arrival of items. Under the management of this group of bureaucrats in the Southern Song Dynasty, this time may be extended indefinitely.
Wu Gong also knew that he had to wait, so he could only ask the soldiers to put on the winter clothes prepared in advance to keep out the cold, so as to combat the falling temperature.
But in the following days, the situation not only did not improve, but intensified.
A large number of soldiers suffered from colds and fevers due to the cold, and the number of sick people was increasing, so that Wu Gong had to suspend the battle plan and use many barracks as temporary wounded soldiers camps.
However, the Song army lacked military doctors. There were only 27 military doctors in the army of more than 20,000 people, and they could not take care of them even if they were busy vomiting.
While Wu Gong anxiously sent people back to urge ginger and medicine, he personally investigated why so many soldiers were sick. Could it be a plague?
It shouldn't be. If it was a plague, people would have died long ago, and not even one of them could escape.
But why are the people who live in the same military camp still alive and well?
Wu Gong was puzzled.
Until one day when Wu Gong was inspecting the military camp, he saw a soldier wearing winter clothes laughing at three other soldiers wearing winter clothes for being cold and useless.
Seeing the soldier's arrogance and the other three people's shrinking heads, he suddenly had an idea and rushed forward to tear the winter coats of these four people. After taking a look, it suddenly dawned on me.
