Zhang Malin's artillery not only smashed the city gate tower to pieces, but also directly bombarded the city gate to pieces.
However, the defenders in the city were obviously well prepared. They actually piled up a large amount of debris and even gravel in the city gate, leaving only a small path for only a few people to enter and exit.
At the same time, after blasting through the city gate, it was discovered that there was an urn city behind the city gate. You didn’t need to look to know that there were a large number of archers and other defense facilities deployed on the walls around the urn city. If you rushed in rashly, even the heavily armored soldiers would probably be unable to advance or retreat. , and finally died tragically at the hands of the defenders.
Under such circumstances, the Baoxiang Army simply gave up the idea of fighting in through the city gate and continued to use the old method. Artillery suppressed enemy artillery fire, musket archers suppressed the firepower of the infantry at the city head, and then dispatched heavy armored infantry to conquer the city and clear the city gate. Behind the enemy forces on the nearby city wall, that is, the Wengcheng, a large number of ordinary soldiers were sent into the city through the city gate.
This set of siege campaigns had already been used by the Baoxiang Army during the previous Battle of Nanyang City, but it was actually not very useful.
After all, using 600 kilograms of field artillery to attack the city head can actually cause very limited damage. In this way, it can kill the enemy, let alone scare the enemy.
When it was supposed to be an attack on Nanyang City, the artillery brigade's artillery wasted a lot of ammunition, and in the end they only killed and injured dozens of people. The reason why the Ming army retreated at the top of the city was purely because their morale was not good, and dozens of people were killed or injured in the back city. The head collapsed.
Therefore, whether this set of battles can be effective depends entirely on how tenacious the enemy's will to fight is. Even if the opponent is not an elite division, as long as there are one or two thousand soldiers who resist, the artillery of the Baoxiang Army will not be able to exert much power. strategic role.
In the end, you still have to rely on a large number of archers and musketeers to provide close fire cover, and rely on heavy armored infantry to rush to the top of the city to fight.
However, in the original Nanyang City, the Ming army defending the city did not have a large number of elite troops. They even only had two to three hundred ordinary soldiers.
The situation in Fancheng is similar now. According to pre-war intelligence, the defenders in Fancheng were only two to three thousand strong, of whom there were only five hundred combat soldiers.
To say five hundred is to overestimate the enemy's force as much as possible.
When the number of soldiers is not large enough, it is impossible to rely on those guard soldiers who have not even tried their best in military training to resist the artillery fire of the rural protection army.
No, after the Baoxiang Army launched long-range artillery fire at the West City Gate all morning, at noon a large number of light artillery began to move forward within a distance of two hundred meters and began to suppress fire at medium distances.
At this time, the Ming army on the top of the city was still resisting stubbornly, and from time to time they used the old artillery on the top of the city to fire back.
But when the archers and musketeers in the Baoxiang Army came forward and began suppressing fire at close range, the Ming army defending the city did not dare to get close.
The next thing was simple. First, the moat, which was not in good shape, was filled in. Then more than two hundred heavy infantrymen wearing heavy armor were dispatched. With the assistance of a group of ordinary soldiers, they began to climb through the long ladder with iron hooks. city wall.
At the beginning, the performance of the Ming army on the top of the city was actually pretty good. Some soldiers led a group of sheep-like guard soldiers to resist stubbornly.
But this kind of stubborn resistance did not last long. When the soldiers who took the lead in fighting killed and wounded more than a dozen people, when the heavy armored infantry of the Baoxiang Army climbed to the top of the city after paying a certain amount of casualties, they began to rely on heavy armor to kill. After a special kill, he quickly defeated more than 20 Ming soldiers who dared to come forward to fight.
The remaining dozens of soldiers and more ordinary guards dispersed in a hurry.
Because at that time, the heavy armored infantrymen of the Baoxiang Army who had boarded the city had already occupied a section of the city more than ten meters long and began to receive more of their own friendly troops on the city.
Facing hundreds of thieves from the Baoxiang Army wearing full-body armor and armed to the teeth, the Ming army at the top of this section of the city simply couldn't stop them.
They lack the fighting will to fight to the end, and they even lack the heavy armored infantry to fight in close combat with the heavy armored infantry.
There are only four to five hundred soldiers in the Ming army defending the city, and these so-called soldiers are not armored soldiers. In fact, there are even fewer elite soldiers who are actually wearing heavy armor.
Not to mention the ordinary guard soldiers. Most of the knives and spears in their hands are rusty iron knives and iron spearheads.
There is a huge gap between the two sides in terms of equipment and combat will.
Because after more than twenty soldiers who dared to fight were wiped out, the remaining people naturally lost the courage to continue to resist, and most of them turned around and ran away.
At this point in the battle, it can actually be declared that the Battle of Fancheng has come to an end. Next, the Baoxiang Army will continue to climb the city head step by step, expand the military advantage on the city head, and gradually occupy more city walls.
About two-quarters of an hour later, the Baoxiang Army commandos who boarded the city successfully captured the area around the west city gate, cleared the defenders on the urn behind the city gate, and cooperated with the Baoxiang Army soldiers outside the city to move away the blockade. Debris and gravel in the doorway.
At about 12 o'clock at noon, a large number of soldiers of the Home Guard Army poured into the city through the West City Gate. Not only did they enter in person, they even entered with a large number of 200 kilograms of light artillery.
Just half an hour later, a large number of enemy troops fled from the East City Gate. The Ming troops at the South City Gate, North City Gate and other places also quickly gave up resistance and began to join the fleeing army.
In response, Wang Xiazi, who had been prepared for this, directly pursued him with his cavalry.
Facing the thousands of Ming troops who escaped from the city, Wang Xiazi's cavalry troops did not need to fight hard, and the other side surrendered.
More than a thousand people fled in embarrassment, most of them even lost their weapons. How could they fight against two hundred elite cavalry?
Can't fight, can't escape, this is their current situation!
Therefore, the deputy general Zhong Wenshan who led the Ming army decisively surrendered!
Failure to surrender is death!
After the place of refuge surrendered under the threat of Wang Xiazi's cavalry, the main battle in the city also ended.
Around three o'clock in the afternoon, the rural protection army had completely eliminated the organized resistance in the city and announced the full occupation of Fancheng.
This also means that the Baoxiang Army has fully captured the Xiangyang and Fancheng areas and controlled the Han River channel.
The follow-up rural protection army can not only use the Baihe River to transport ordnance and grain from Nanyang Prefecture southward, but also connect it with Xiangyang Prefecture and Nanyang Prefecture.
You can also use the Han River to go to Yunyang, or go south to the Jianghan Plain.
The strategic situation suddenly opened up.
If he can withstand the counterattack of the surrounding Ming army in the future, then Luo Zhixue will be able to truly gain a foundation for hegemony.
In the evening of that day, Luo Zhixue was not in a hurry to enter Fancheng, but held a post-war meeting at the headquarters outside the city.
All the generals of the army going south and the people from the grain collection office were present.
There are field force generals such as Wang Xiazi, Huang Dingquan, Li Dongshao, and Dong Mingjie, as well as military generals represented by Huang Guangmao and Xu Zhixian.
"In the battle to the south, after many days of hard fighting, more than 80 of our troops were killed or seriously injured, and about 200 were lightly injured. The main casualties occurred in the Battle of Fancheng. In the Battle of Xiangyang, the enemy troops were in chaos due to surprise attacks. Due to the unorganized resistance, the casualties were not large, and the total casualties were within our estimate, and even better than our estimate."
"In return, our army captured Xiangyang City and Fan City in succession. The enemy troops in the two battles originally totaled 8,000 people. Except for the organized escape of hundreds of enemy troops from the east gate of Xiangyang City, all other organized enemy troops were destroyed by us. annihilated or captured."
"In this battle, our army killed more than 600 enemy soldiers, not counting minor injuries, and captured more than 5,000 people. Another thousand enemy soldiers fled without knowing their whereabouts."
"In addition, we also seized more than 30 artillery pieces of various types, of which 18 are intact and meet the conditions for use by our army. They are all short-barreled loose artillery pieces."
"In addition, more than 300 sets of various types of armor were seized in good condition and usable, including more than 50 sets of high-quality iron armor that can be used as heavy infantry of our army."
"More than 200 cannons and about 800 guns of various types were seized."
"In addition, a large number of knives, spears, bows and arrows and other weapons were seized."
"The seizure of various types of gold, silver and general supplies will be handed over to the Grain Recruitment Department."
After Huang Guangmao finished speaking, Chen Xingkai from the grain collection office immediately stood up, flipped through the account book in his hand and said:
"With the cooperation of the military, our grain collection office has completed a preliminary inspection of Xiangyang Prefecture, and the inspection of Fancheng is still in progress."
"According to current statistics, we have seized a total of 1.83 million taels of cash from official warehouses in Prince Xiang's Mansion, Xiangyang, and Fancheng, as well as from the residences of some recalcitrant officials and gentry."
"There is another 1.8 million catties of grain. The above-mentioned money and grain are mainly from the private properties of the official warehouses of the two cities and the Prince Xiang's Mansion, as well as the residences of some recalcitrant officials and gentry. For the time being, it does not involve the grain stocks in the grain merchants in the two cities and the non-refractory gentry, The private property of officials does not include the assets of various trading houses and other assets controlled by the gentry who are recalcitrant to officials."
"The assets controlled by some recalcitrant officials and gentry are relatively complicated. We still need to sort out and seal them one by one to avoid affecting all of them. At the same time, we also need to be lenient to some commercial banks that have cooperated with us."
"However, after subsequent investigation one by one, it is expected that a large number of assets will be seized. The specific amount needs to be seen again."
"In addition, there is good news. We have seized a large amount of iron, saltpeter, sulfur and other strategic materials from the official warehouse and many workshops under the control of the former government. At the same time, we have also controlled more than hundreds of various ordnance manufacturing craftsmen."
"In addition, we also discovered a huge amount of iron, gunpowder, saltpeter, sulfur and other strategic materials from the dock warehouse in Xiangyang City. The amount is so huge that we can manufacture a large number of guns, swords and so on. Ammunition, this batch of strategic materials can even meet the extreme production needs of the Li Qingdian Arsenal for more than two months."
Having said this, Chen Xingkai saw the greedy expressions of the generals present, even more greedy than when he heard about money and food just now.
After all, the Home Guard Army is actually not short of food for the time being, and they will have enough money in the Battle of Nanyang City, not to mention more gold and silver obtained in the Battle of Xiangyang City.
Therefore, gold, silver, food, etc. could no longer shock Wang Xiazi and the others too much.
But iron materials and gunpowder-related strategic materials are different.
Now the Baoxiang Army is extremely short of such things, and the Li Qingdian Arsenal in the rear is consuming a large amount of strategic materials and raw materials every day.
If we can swallow up this batch of supplies in the dock warehouse, we won't have to worry about it in the next few months.
However, when Chen Xingkai saw everyone's faces, he chuckled and then said: "However, this batch of goods belongs to Fenghe Trading Company and is prepared to be sold to us."
