Xu Tong led the soldiers forward, eating pancakes and salty cheese along the way, obtaining a large amount of carbohydrates, protein and extremely high calories to quickly replenish their physical strength.
As a result, traveling over mountains and ridges is not a problem, and the overall physical fitness of the army is maintained at a good level.
After the entire army successfully assembled at the predetermined location on March 13, in order to ensure the combat effectiveness of the army, Xu Tong gave them a day of training, allowing them to continue eating pancakes and salty cheese, and also collect some wild fruits encountered on the road. , replenish various nutrients needed by the body and accumulate physical strength.
After a day's rest, the physical fitness of the entire army returned to a state that could successfully fight. So on March 15th of the fifth year of Hongwu, Xu Tong led the warriors who followed him to inspect the ordnance, adjust their status, and launched fighting.
At the end of the ugly hour on March 15th, when it was just dawn, Xu Tong led the warriors out of Jiangxia Mountain and went straight to Ezhou City.
When they arrived near Ezhou City, just as the Ezhou City Gate was opening, Xu Tong decisively ordered three hundred knights to risk their lives and rush to the city gate. With decisive courage, they rushed into the city gate and killed all the Song troops in the gate hole. .
Xu Tong then rushed forward with his troops, shouting to kill loudly. The peasant army swarmed into Ezhou City and decisively attacked the Song army and government in Ezhou City.
In a very short period of time, the Song army and government forces in Ezhou City suffered a devastating blow.
Before daybreak, Song Chen, the governor of Ezhou, was attacked by the peasant army in his mansion. All his guards were killed in the battle. He hid in the toilet, and was then found by the peasant army and captured together with his family.
Wang Shun, the chief general of the Ezhou army, originally lived in a military camp outside the city, but he happened to go into the city last night to ask for more ordnance from Song Chen. The two quarreled until midnight and broke up unhappily. Wang Shun did not go back and planned to continue today. and Song Chenmo.
As a result, the peasant army suddenly attacked Ezhou City.
The personal guards around him protected him and he wanted to escape. When he fled to the city gate, he was attacked by the peasant army who had already controlled the city gate with arrows. Most of the personal guards around him were killed and injured. He fought hard with his sword, but it was difficult for him to hold on with his fists. Soon, Captured.
All the four gates of Ezhou City were quickly controlled by the peasant army. All the military and political officials in the city became turtles in the urn. They died, were injured, and were arrested. Not only the officials and civilians, but also a large number of generals from the Ezhou army were there. During the chaos, he was killed and captured by the peasant army. .
In fact, they themselves are to blame.
Of course, the soldiers did not dare to disobey the military orders for the whole army to prepare for war, but mid-level and senior officers had many privileges. They felt that it was not fun to live in the military camp, and it was very depressing and uncomfortable. Anyway, the war had not started yet, and they were living in Ezhou City. Wouldn’t it be nice to have food, drink, and women?
So I went to Ezhou city to eat, drink and have fun, usually at night and back in the morning, spending a night of ecstasy.
Then they ran into a surprise attack by the peasant army on Ezhou City.
Who can blame this?
The officers suffered a devastating blow, and the troops garrisoned in the city also lost their organization in the chaos and fled in all directions. Some even set fires, burned, killed and looted during the escape, trying to fish in troubled waters for profit, and then return directly to their hometowns.
Without the control of officers, the Song soldiers were like kings of destruction. It was clear that the peasant army was attacking rapidly, but they did not think about defense. Instead, they took advantage of the chaos to burn, kill and loot, further intensifying the chaos in the city.
As a result, the peasant army did not exert much force, and Ezhou City completely collapsed.
So this surprise attack ended quickly.
At four o'clock in the morning, Xu Tong entered the Governor's Mansion and looked at a room full of kneeling military and political officials from Ezhou in the Southern Song Dynasty, with a look of ridicule on his face.
"Because the general is not with his army, but he lives in the city and enjoys himself wantonly. Now he is captured by me. What else can I say?"
Xu Tong ordered all these people to be imprisoned, leaving a small number of troops to control the prisoners of war and pacify the city, and then quickly led the main force out of the city to attack the main force of the Ezhou army in the Song army camp, trying to defeat them with a decisive attack while they were leaderless. .
There is only one chance. If he cannot seize this great opportunity to win with less and win more, once those soldiers react, he will be trapped in Ezhou City and wait for Zhao Yucheng to come for reinforcements.
Xu Tong boldly and decisively led his army out of the city to attack the Song Army camp on the hills and highlands outside the city. However, he was surprised to find that the Song Army camp outside the city was already ablaze and fell into civil strife.
what's the situation? Haven't I beaten it yet?
Why did they get into chaos on their own?
Xu Tong couldn't figure this out and once suspected that this was a tactic by the Song army to lure the enemy. However, he felt that so many people captured in the city would not lie. How could these Song soldiers have the brains to lure the enemy?
So Xu Tong decisively led his army to attack and attacked the Song army camp outside the city. Only then did he find that the Song army in the camp was indeed broken up and killing each other in a very tragic state.
Bomb the camp?
Xu Tong didn't have time to think so much. His head was filled with the excitement of victory. He waved his army to cover up the attack and joined the chaos. The corpses of the Song army were scattered all over the field, covered with bloody and bloody bodies.
The battle finally ended at early noon. The Song army suffered a disastrous defeat and was almost wiped out. All the Song army's strongholds in and outside the city were captured by the peasant army.
After that, Xu Tong knew why the Song Army camp outside the city collapsed before he launched an attack.
Because there are people among the Song army.
Previously, the Lin'an court recruited new soldiers. The recruitment plan of 70,000 and 80,000 new soldiers needed to be realized, so the standards were very relaxed.
Basically, you are a man. You don't have to have white hair to join the army, and it doesn't matter where you are from.
If you really have to worry about this, who would want to be a soldier?
I'm afraid it wouldn't be enough to capture all the people around Lin'an City as soldiers.
Therefore, Su Changsheng was able to arrange for a group of relatively brave Skynet Army spies to go into hiding among the new Song Army.
Because these spies were of high quality, brave, and knew a few words, they quickly passed the special military examination and were immediately appointed as junior officers in the army, controlling a team of fifty people.
This group of spies was later broken up and organized into different armies, and seven or eight of them were assigned to Wang Shun's command, and came to Ezhou to become a member of the Ezhou army.
When the peasant army launched a surprise attack on the city, it was so loud that even the military camps outside the city noticed it. They all felt strange and frightened, not knowing what was happening.
Because the senior officers in the military camp are basically living in Ezhou City, there is not even a senior officer in the military camp that everyone can obey. Several mid-level officers gathered together to discuss things, but they were killed by themselves in the military camp outside the city. People attacked.
Because of the strict hierarchy in the Song Army, not only soldiers would be severely beaten, scolded and humiliated, but even junior officers would inevitably be bullied and beaten by superior officers.
At the critical moment when changes occurred in Ezhou City and there was no one to talk about it in the military camp outside the city, the three spies who stayed in the military camp discovered an opportunity.
