After the Baoxiang Army forcibly broke through from the north city wall, the Ming army in the city was completely in chaos.
Except for a few generals such as Lin Nianyao who once led troops to resist, many other generals immediately ran towards the south wall with their direct troops as soon as they saw something bad happening.
However, there were too many Ming troops in the city, and so many people suddenly crowded into the South City Gate area, which directly caused traffic jams.
There were quite a few Ming troops in Zhongxiang City. There were originally two to three thousand guardsmen in the city. Later, Tang Hui retreated to Zhongxiang with nearly 20,000 people. In the past period of time, city officials continued to recruit young men in the city to help defend the city.
The total number of troops participating in the defense of the city was at least 25,000, of which more than 10,000 were on the northern city wall, which was the focus of defense.
However, during the siege of the city by the Baoxiang Army, they killed or injured seven to eight hundred people on the first day, and many of them were probably easy.
During the siege of the city this morning, hundreds of people were first killed and injured by artillery fire. After the infantry led by the assault battalion entered the city, they also killed and injured hundreds of people one after another during the battle for the city head.
In other words, before the Ming army collapsed and retreated, the total number of Ming army casualties was estimated to be only a few thousand, but less than 2,000.
The rest of the people all want to run away...
More than 20,000 people ran towards the south city gate, and the city gate was only so big that it was impossible to let so many people pass through in a short time.
In order to get out of the city first, many soldiers of the Ming army directly fought with fists, kicks and even swords and guns, and staged a drama to seize the way from the friendly forces.
As a result, the Ming troops in the South City Gate area engaged in large-scale cannibalism. At least hundreds of Ming troops were killed and wounded by their own swords and guns.
The escape route was originally small, and there was no organization, so the situation was extremely chaotic. Therefore, not many Ming troops could actually escape from the city. When the Baoxiang Army reached the south gate, they began to force a large-scale surrender. During the Ming Dynasty, only about 7,000 to 8,000 Ming troops actually escaped, and most of them were Ming troops originally stationed near the southern city wall.
These Ming troops who escaped from the city continued southward under the leadership of their generals.
At this time, Wang Xiazi's 1st Cavalry Brigade and the 1st Cavalry Regiment came over again.
Although the Baoxiang Army apparently wanted to encircle three enemies, they attacked the North City Gate, blocked the East City Gate, and left the South City Gate and West City Gate alone.
But in fact, a thousand-man cavalry was ambushed a few miles away from the South City Gate, between Mirror Moon Lake and Mochou Lake.
Once the Ming army broke through and fled from the south city gate, they could escape to the sky in a short time, but in fact it didn't take long before they were intercepted by the cavalry protecting the thieves.
So when Luo Zhixue learned that a large number of Ming troops broke out of the city and at least seven or eight thousand people fled, he just laughed: "There are blind people here, they can't escape, but those who escaped from the west city gate and escaped by boat Can’t stop it!”
The fact was exactly as Luo Zhixue expected. The seven or eight thousand Ming troops who escaped from the south city gate first were intercepted by Wang Xiazi's cavalry not long after.
The Ming army, which had already abandoned its armor and lost its morale and morale to the bottom, saw thousands of cavalry appearing in front of them, and did not even have the courage to resist.
After discussion with several Ming army generals who led the team, they decisively sent to negotiate with the Baoxiang Army and prepared to surrender...
Well, not surrender, but surrender.
The war has reached this point, and there is nothing they can do. It is time to think about themselves.
In the past period of time, they had heard to some extent that the Baoxiang Army treated the surrendered soldiers well, and the treatment would be even better if they surrendered voluntarily.
There is no need to worry about personal safety after surrendering, and there is no need to worry about losing everything immediately after surrendering.
If they go there and do well, they will have a bright future. Huang Guangmao and Fei Bingqing from the Thieves Protection Army are typical examples.
These two people are the generals!
Now Huang Guangmao has become the commander of the West Route Army in the Baoxiang Army. He commanded tens of thousands of soldiers and horses under his command to capture cities and territories in Yunyang. The Ming army in Hanzhong and Kuizhou Prefecture had no temper and could only rely on the city to resist. .
Huang Guangmao's reputation was also known to the civil and military officials of the Ming Dynasty as the Western Route Army continued to conquer cities and territories.
As for Fei Bingqing, his reputation is not small. He and another bandit leader An Yongduo jointly conquered Yuzhou, and later participated in the battle with Zuo Liangyu in the eastern suburbs of Yuzhou.
Now, I heard that he is already some kind of brigade commander in the bandit army.
Even Chen Yongfu, who has not yet led an army, is now gradually spreading his reputation. Under the deliberate publicity of the Baoxiang Army, Chen Yongfu and Chen De's father and son have become typical examples of surrendering generals.
They first served as military advisers, and later Chen Yongfu served as deputy minister of logistics in the rebel army. Even his son Chen De served in the center of the rebel army, and his position was not weak.
Some time ago, someone in the city actually received a letter from Chen Yongfu persuading him to surrender, saying that Lao Chen and I are doing quite well in the Baoxiang Army. If you are willing to come over, then Lao Chen I will definitely recommend them and they will become the founding project of the country in the future. It’s also a matter of minutes.
This is still talking about senior generals who surrendered in the past, not to mention ordinary middle and low-level officers and ordinary soldiers. The Baoxiang Army now has preferential treatment for surrendering troops. As long as they can pass the assessment, they can obtain the garrison. There are real deficiencies there, even for middle and low-level officers.
Even Tang Hui knew that there were two types of soldiers protecting the countryside, one was the bandit army that mainly used guns and cannons, and the other was the bandit army that mainly used cold weapons.
The thieves' army, which mainly uses cold weapons, that is, the garrison, used to be all officers and soldiers.
Anyway, they are all fighting for their lives. Working for the Ming Dynasty means selling their lives. Working for the Baoxiang Army is also selling, not to mention that the Baoxiang Army can still have enough to eat.
Therefore, many Ming army soldiers had no psychological burden to surrender, and many even had vague expectations.
Once this is done, you will have enough to eat...
The strategy of being kind to the surrender also played a huge role for the Baoxiang Army in persuading the Ming Army to surrender.
They also lost the battle, but these Ming army generals surrendered to the Baoxiang Army without any psychological pressure. However, if they were facing traitors like Gao Yingxiang, most of them would not choose to surrender.
When fighting the bandits, many Ming army generals died, but not many surrendered, especially the senior generals.
However, when fighting the Baoxiang Army, not many Ming generals died in the battle. On the contrary, many surrendered and surrendered.
The difference here is actually very simple!
The reason for surrendering to the Baoxiang Army was because these generals of the Ming Army believed that the Baoxiang Army had some promise and followed rules. Although its strength is still a little weak now, it has extremely strong combat effectiveness. More importantly, the Baoxiang Army has been established and stable. rule, owning a large territory of its own.
Even if the territory is smaller and the number of troops is smaller, it is still a vassal town or even an independent kingdom that can be ruled by one side.
And Gao Yingxiang and those thieves? They can only run away here and there, without even a territory. It really makes people unable to see where the future lies.
Based on these circumstances, the seven or eight thousand Ming troops who broke out of the city simply surrendered after being intercepted by Wang Xiazi's cavalry.
Blind Wang smiled and accepted another seven to eight thousand surrendered troops.
Speaking of which, since Wang Xiazi went south from Xiangyang, he has accepted the surrender of more than 10,000 troops...
However, Wang Xiazi's cavalry only had more than 600 people. Even the first cavalry regiment he was asked to lead temporarily only had more than 4,400 cavalry. The total of the two was about 1,000 cavalry.
With such a small number of people, more than 10,000 prisoners were taken, and no one believed it.
When Blind Wang smiled and accepted the prisoner, Tang Hui also woke up leisurely...
At this time, he was on a large ship, and there were more than ten other ships carrying officers and soldiers in front and behind him.
Originally, they broke out towards the South City Gate at first, but found that there were too many people there and were worried that the Baoxiang Army was ambushing outside the South City Gate, so they changed their minds midway and broke out towards the West City Gate. , and then seized more than a dozen ships parked on the riverside and began to flee south along the river.
However, this was an escape, but the number of troops who successfully escaped with Tang Hui was only less than 2,000.
Faced with such an ending, Tang Hui didn't know how to explain to the court...
There’s no way to explain this!
According to the character of the man in the Forbidden City, once the news of Zhong Xiang's defeat reaches the Forbidden City, an imperial edict to arrest him and imprison him will be issued accordingly.
Damn it, I shouldn't have gone north if I had known better.
Anyway, he, the governor of Huguang, had been dismissed, but Lu Xiangsheng, who took over, died in battle, so he had to continue to take charge of Huguang affairs temporarily.
Originally, he only had to wait for a month or two, waiting for the new governor from the imperial court to arrive and take office, and then he could go to Guangxi to make meritorious deeds.
But after Zhong Xiang's fiasco, I might not even have the chance to be demoted to Guangxi...
Tang Hui couldn't help but sigh when he thought of the tragic end in the future.
——
While Tang Hui sighed, Luo Zhixue in Zhongxiang City was in a good mood.
In this storming of Zhongxiang, the Baoxiang Army not only successfully conquered Zhongxiang City, but more importantly, through this battle, they figured out a set of siege tactics suitable for the Baoxiang Army.
In the battle to attack Zhongxiang City, the tactics of the Baoxiang Army were actually very simple. They relied on their own powerful artillery to directly suppress the defenders in the city, making them unable to raise their heads or even dare to go to the top of the city to resist.
After suppressing the enemy forces at the head of the city, they began to fill in the moat, and finally dispatched infantry to attack the city.
A very simple tactical idea.
But it is not easy to do this, at least it is almost impossible for the Ming army or Dongdu and other armies.
Because the simple tactics of the Baoxiang Army are based on powerful artillery firepower.
In particular, the siege mortars played a huge role. Even though only eighteen siege mortars were deployed in this battle, their role was greater than that of other artillery combined.
In addition to siege mortars, the Baoxiang Army also had a large number of light short-coat and long-barreled field artillery.
This constitutes a multi-layered, comprehensive artillery firepower.
Only with such a powerful artillery unit can we effectively cover the infantry siege.
If other armies with less powerful artillery had fought like this, they would have smashed their heads on the city wall and bled!
