Since the enemy troops from the north have withdrawn to Zhongxiang City, and considering that Zhongxiang City is Chengtianfu City, the height and thickness of its city walls and the width of its moat are much stronger than Yicheng, which is the county seat.
At the same time, many Ming troops retreated to Zhongxiang. In addition to the guardsmen and Qingzhuang who stayed behind in Zhongxiang City, it is estimated that the enemy troops in Zhongxiang City have exceeded 20,000.
Faced with such Zhongxiang City, it is unlikely that the Baoxiang Army can take it down easily.
Under such circumstances, Luo Zhixue simply did not let the army rush all the way south. It would not have much impact if it was sooner or later.
Luo Zhixue just asked Wang Xiazi's cavalry to go south in advance. He did not want Wang Xiazi's hundreds of cavalry to attack the city. It was purely to reach Zhongxiang City first and conduct a peripheral blockade of the city.
The Ming army guarding the outer areas continued to reinforce Zhongxiang City.
Luo Zhixue himself led the main force southward at normal marching speed, and was expected to arrive two days later than the cavalry force.
When Luo Zhixue led the main force to go south to Zhongxiang, he temporarily left the fifth garrison brigade behind. On one side was the Ming army stationed in Yicheng to guard against the Ming army in the direction of Nanzhang to control the land logistics line.
The other side is also for the custody and reorganization of large numbers of prisoners.
Previously, Wang Xiazi's cavalry unit almost created a military miracle. With only 600 cavalry, they defeated tens of thousands of Ming troops and captured more than 5,000 enemies.
Although in fact the collapse of the Ming army was mostly due to low morale and had nothing to do with Wang Xiazi's cavalry itself, this extremely exaggerated victory was still attributed to the First Cavalry Brigade.
These more than 5,000 prisoners of war will also be selected and reorganized in accordance with the long-standing practice of the Baoxiang Army. Some qualified and voluntary soldiers will be selected for reorganization.
Although the quality of this group of prisoners of war is not very good, it should not be a problem to pick out about 2,000 prisoners. In this case, a garrison regiment can be considered.
The existing troops of the Fifth Garrison Brigade were directly divided into two, from one garrison regiment to two garrison regiments, and new recruits were added separately.
In this way, the fifth garrison brigade can be considered to have more than 4,000 people, and it can reach full strength.
In the follow-up period, the fifth garrison brigade that has replenished the troops will be reorganized and trained in Yicheng while guarding the logistics line and providing force cover for the many transportation groups affiliated to the logistics department on the southward logistics line.
With the Fifth Guards Brigade in the rear, the two main forces on the front line, the First Division and the First Cavalry Brigade, can safely move south to Zhongxiang.
On July 29, Luo Zhixue personally led the main force of the First Division to arrive outside Zhongxiang City, and joined up with the First Cavalry Brigade, which arrived there two days in advance.
After arriving at Zhongxiang City, the Baoxiang Army did not conduct any comprehensive siege of Zhongxiang City. Instead, they only accumulated heavy troops at the north gate and dispatched a small number of troops near the east gate. As for the west gate, which was close to the Han River, there was no way to deploy heavy troops.
As for the South City Gate area, we did not send troops to besiege in order to reduce the enemy's will to resist.
It's just that in the wilderness between Jingyue Lake and Mochou Lake, Wang Xiazi's First Cavalry Brigade is ambushing here. Once the enemy reinforcements come up from the south, or the enemy troops really stupidly come from Zhong Xiangnan, If the city gate escapes, then the First Cavalry Brigade can respond quickly.
After Luo Zhixue made the basic deployment of troops, he also began to order each unit to build siege equipment. The staff also collected the enemy's defense situation on the city, especially the firepower deployment on the enemy's city, to prepare for the subsequent siege. Provide intelligence basis for operations.
The next day, the First Artillery Regiment tried to bombard Zhongxiang City, but the bombardment effect was very poor. The shells either flew over the city and stayed in other areas of the city, or they hit the city wall directly...
However, solid cannonballs weighing just over two kilograms hit the city wall that was several meters thick, and had no effect except leaving a small crater.
Seeing that the artillery bombardment was ineffective, Luo Zhixue simply suspended the offensive and prepared to wait for more reinforcements, especially the siege mortar troops, to arrive before attacking again.
Facing a city garrisoned with 20,000 troops, both Luo Zhixue and Xu Zhixian appeared to be very cautious and had no thoughts of rash advances.
After all, the strength of the garrison inside the city was twice that of the troops defending the countryside outside the city.
This rash attack on Zhongxiang was not impossible to win with the high morale of the Baoxiang Army and the fire support provided by a large number of heavy armored infantry and artillery, as well as a large number of musketeers.
But the casualties may not be few.
Nowadays, the main force of the rural protection army is still very valuable. If one or two thousand people were killed or injured just to attack a Zhongxiang city, Luo Zhixue would be heartbroken.
Therefore, Luo Zhixue would rather slow down his offensive than pay too many casualties.
Xu Zhixian also expressed his caution: "In the past, when attacking a city, the attacker often needed several times or even ten times more troops to successfully attack the city. Although our Baoxiang Army has unparalleled field combat capabilities, it is still difficult to attack the city along the way. If there are some deficiencies, a direct attack may result in heavy casualties, so it is better to make more adequate preparations and mobilize more troops to attack the city."
Luo Zhixue looked at the wall of Zhongxiang City in front and nodded: "Relying on the current First Division, attacking Zhongxiang is still prone to accidents. It would be more appropriate to continue to increase troops!"
Xu Zhixian and Luo Zhixue both believed that it was inappropriate to attack the city hastily now, and both believed that additional troops were needed before attacking the city.
This also means that the Zhongxiang battle will not be fought for a while.
It had been at least three or four days since the Baoxiang Army arrived in Zhongxiang City. Except for the exploratory bombardment on the second day, they stopped siegeing the city. For the time being, they only continued to build siege equipment and various fortifications outside the city.
This made Tang Hui and other Ming court civil and military officials in the city relieved.
"It seems that these security thieves are not omnipotent. At least they are not good at attacking the city."
"Yes, these security guards have been tossing around outside the city in the past few days, but I haven't seen them produce anything. Although they have also built siege equipment, they are only small objects such as long ladders and shield carts. , no large siege engines were built.”
"I have also seen their little red barbarian cannons. These cannons are quite powerful outside, but in the final analysis they are still too small. The cannons weighing more than two kilograms are enough to hit our city wall and make a hole in it. What's more, Don’t talk about directly blowing through our city wall.”
"It's true that they have a lot of heavy armor and need more embankments!"
"What are you afraid of? They have heavy armor, and so do we, and we also have artillery. No matter how many heavy armors they come over, they are still no match for our artillery!"
After listening to the words of a group of generals under his command, Tang Hui felt relieved a lot from what he had been talking about.
Tang Hui didn't know much about military affairs, but the generals under him did. This understanding didn't mean how good they were at leading troops in battle, but their ability to run away when they saw danger.
On the way north a few days ago, when they heard that the Yicheng garrison failed to cross the river and the tens of thousands of troops collapsed, they all sensed danger. Then one of them nervously strongly suggested that Tang Hui lead his troops south. Escape... no, return to defend Zhong Xiang.
Thanks to their timely advice, otherwise they would have been entangled by the rebel army's elite cavalry if they had been so late in retreating, and the 20,000-strong army would have perished on the banks of the Han River in minutes.
Nowadays, these people look relatively relaxed and speak with confidence, indicating that the danger is not great. Zhong Xiangcheng cannot say that he is as stable as Mount Tai, but it should not be a problem to guard him for a few months.
With so many months as a buffer, it is estimated that reinforcements from other places will be able to reach Chubei to help him relieve the siege.
Tang Hui and the others were now confident and felt that Zhongxiang could hold on. However, what they didn't know was that on July 30th, a large group of rural protection troops were launched in Xiangyang City.
This rural protection army has a small number of troops, only more than 500 people, but they are all gray cannons, and many of the troops carry muskets on their backs.
"Gene Era"
One look at their military uniforms and individual weapons, and you can tell that they are the main force in the Baoxiang Army system, not a garrison.
Due to time constraints, the production of military uniforms is limited in a short period of time. At the same time, the Baoxiang Army continues to expand new main forces. Because the gray military uniforms worn by ordinary soldiers have always been in short supply, they can only be supplied to the main forces for the time being.
The uniforms of ordinary soldiers in each garrison are still the original Ming army uniforms. Only officers will change into the Baoxiang Army's own officer uniforms, wearing gray or dark blue officer uniforms.
Not to mention weapons, the biggest feature of the main force of the Baoxiang Army is not the military uniforms or artillery, but the 18mm individual matchlock gun.
In fact, the Ming army or Dongli also had matchlock guns with such a large caliber, or even larger calibers, but they were generally heavy-duty long-barreled matchlock guns that required the assistance of a gun stand, or two people working together to operate them, well, which is commonly known as carrying a gun.
These heavy arquebuses, which are called heavy arquebuses, are two different things from the 18mm individual light short-barreled arquebuses in the Baoxiang Army. They are not even the same type of weapon, and there is no comparison.
This army of more than 600 people who came out of Xiangyang City to protect their hometowns was clearly the main force protecting the bandits.
It's just that this main force to protect the thieves is unusual. In addition to its own strength, it also carries a batch of artillery and dozens of baggage carriages.
What outsiders don't know is that in addition to the newly formed unit of the Fourth Infantry Regiment, this rural protection army also has a very special artillery unit.
It was an artillery post belonging to the first siege artillery battalion that Luo Zhixue ordered to set up after he went south to Jianghan.
The artillery equipped by the First Siege Artillery Battalion is very special. It is not the two and a half catty artillery that is very famous in the Baoxiang Army and even heard of by the Ming Army, but the newly developed and produced eighteen catty mortar cannon.
The artillery technology of this mortar is very simple. It is basically similar to the old ultra-short-barreled artillery such as the original Tiger Crouching Cannon. They are all ultra-short-barreled artillery, and their ballistic curves have a short range.
But when this simple artillery is paired with large-caliber matchlock grenades, it will directly evolve into a siege weapon: a siege mortar.
