Colonel Xie Xiaobo then added: "On the day of the general attack, I will personally carry out the blasting operations. Even if there is an accident, I will dare to issue a military order to absolutely guarantee that there will be a blasting point smoothly." Detonate!"
When Li Chengtong saw Xie Xiaobo saying such things, he naturally shut up and stopped talking about the blasting issue.
Although he didn't say it, he was still worried about the failure of the blasting, because it was expected that the first wave of troops rushing to the city would be an assault battalion composed of elite soldiers under his first division.
If the assault battalion fails to attack or even suffers heavy losses due to the failure of blasting, then the losses will be huge.
But Colonel Xie Xiaobo has already issued a military order, what else do you want...
Subsequently, other people raised some questions or doubts one after another, and others also answered them one after another or discussed solutions together.
But overall, the real problems were only minor issues, and the combat plan formulated by the staff was generally quite reliable.
After all, in order to formulate a plan to conquer Wuchang City, the General Staff had collected all kinds of intelligence more than a month in advance, made numerous deductions, and thought of many ways.
There are dozens of people who formulate the combat plan, covering personnel from the Operations Department, Strategy Department and other staff departments. The Logistics Department also sends people to participate.
This is also a great feature of the Baoxiang Army's war, that is, the staff department formulates macro strategic planning and large-scale battle plans.
The General Staff is responsible for training and operations, and formulating grand strategies and battle plans for major battles. This is much more complete than the military system in traditional dynasties.
In contrast, the Ming Dynasty did not have a professional organization to formulate macro strategies and battle plans for major battles.
For example, the current strategy implemented by the Ming court to encircle and suppress the bandits and to encircle the rural protection army is all pieced together.
Yang Sichang put forward some suggestions, Hong Chengchou also put forward some suggestions, and then the top civil servants made it final with a slap on the forehead.
But what to do specifically, I'm sorry, Chongzhen and his ministers don't know or understand... It's up to the generals on the front line to figure it out on their own.
To sum it up, the boss talks but does not do anything.
I just went back to work, but I didn’t know what to do, so I had to do my own thing in the end.
The good results of the staff system have led Luo Zhixue to decide to implement the staff system in the division, brigade and regiment levels, providing the army chiefs with a complete staff team to help them make suggestions and identify deficiencies.
However, the promotion of the staff system will have to wait until the Wuchang Battle is completed. Now that the army is on the move, it is not suitable to make too many changes to avoid delaying the war effort.
After the Battle of Wuchang is over, Luo Zhixue will gradually begin to promote the staff system, establishing the position of chief of staff at the three levels of the division, brigade and regiment, and then pairing it with a number of full-time staff officers to form staff teams.
After an imperial military meeting, Luo Zhixue decided on the time for the final general attack.
the day after tomorrow.
That is October 22nd.
This time point is already relatively late. As the weather gets colder and colder, it will become increasingly unfavorable for the siege. The rural defense army must speed up its actions to launch a general attack as soon as possible.
On October 21, the engineering force reported that gunpowder had been buried at the two secret blasting sites, and the final placement of the fuse and detonation would be carried out tomorrow.
Also in the afternoon of the same day, Luo Zhixue met with the battalion commander and other officers of the assault battalion to boost their morale.
In tomorrow's siege, the assault battalion will be responsible for the most important and dangerous task, which is to rush forward immediately after the blast is successful to launch siege operations, seize the blast gap, and welcome rear reinforcements to arrive and control the surrounding city walls.
That night, Luo Zhixue once again summoned some school-level officers, mainly officers from various ministries who would launch the siege tomorrow, also to boost their morale.
After a night of silence, there was a sudden noise outside Wuchang early the next morning.
A large number of soldiers of the Baoxiang Army came out of the camp and began to form formations. Many soldiers of the Baoxiang Army also directly entered the communication trenches and approached the city wall.
Such a large-scale mobilization of troops could not be concealed at all. The Ming army observers on top of the city immediately discovered something strange and urgently reported it to a group of senior civil and military officials in the city.
Soon, a group of senior civil and military officials, including the Huguang Chief Envoy, the Huguang Administrative Envoy, the Wuchang Prefecture, and the Huguang Metropolitan Commander, all appeared at the top of the city. ,
They did not dare to go directly to the city gate tower, because that place was a living target. If they dared to go up, once they were discovered by the artillery of the anti-Japanese army, they would be hit by fierce shelling in minutes.
They hid directly in a section of the city wall and looked out of the city through the battlements.
This sight frightened them!
"There are at least tens of thousands of thieves here, and there are thousands of thieves in the east. They are about to launch a general attack!"
"There are so many heavy armors among these security guards. Look, at least half of the thieves in the first few square formations are in heavy armor."
"What a good thing!"
Among these senior civil and military officials, none of them had confidence when faced with the thick and dark crowd of anti-thief troops outside the city. They all looked panicked.
It’s okay if you don’t panic!
They are very powerful defenders of the rebels. A few days ago, their defenders were hiding in the city, and they were shelled by the rebels, killing nearly a thousand people.
If the rebel army launched a general attack this time, wouldn't there be more casualties?
Once there are too many casualties, the city's defenders will collapse in minutes.
Senior officials like them still know very well what kind of troops they have.
There seemed to be more than 20,000 garrison troops in the city, but in fact most of them were ordinary guard soldiers drawn from various places in southern Chu.
Of the more than 20,000 people, only three or four thousand were killed by the fighting soldiers. The rest were all ordinary guardsmen who did not even have much military training on weekdays.
Although they all hold weapons and wear military uniforms, their actual combat effectiveness is very worrying.
Such an army of 20,000 may seem like a large number of people, but after the rebels rush to the city, only a few thousand soldiers will really dare to fight with them on the city.
What can really be relied on are the generals' personal soldiers and servants. These people are even fewer, and the total number is estimated to be only two to three hundred people.
In addition, there are not many artillery pieces. There are only a dozen or so general cannons and Folang machines weighing more than 200 kilograms, but there are more than a hundred offensive cannons and tiger crouching cannons weighing several tens of kilograms. However, the power of these artillery pieces, which weigh only a few dozen kilograms, is too small and the range is too short, making them useless.
Wuchang City seems to have more than 20,000 troops garrisoned, but in fact the overall strength is much worse than Zhong Xiang's original defenders.
This is why after the army left the city, they decisively withdrew to Wuchang City after hearing that the beachhead was lost. At the same time, after the first batch of more than 3,000 bandit soldiers arrived in Wuchang City, they did not have the courage to take the initiative to attack and catch the bandit army off guard.
Because with the quality of this group of Ming troops, if they dared to fight the rebels in the wild, they would be seeking death.
Let alone field battles, they don't have much confidence even if they stick to Wuchang.
At the beginning, Tang Hui led an army of 20,000 to defend Zhongxiang. Although Zhongxiang's city defense was average, the strength of the troops stationed at Zhongxiang was stronger.
There are more soldiers and more artillery, especially large artillery.
But Zhong Xiang was not captured in the same way back then.
Although their city defense facilities in Wuchang City are now stronger, their military strength and artillery are still not as good as Zhong Xiang's back then.
More importantly, morale in the city is very low.
Under such circumstances, it would be difficult to block the rebel army's general attack.
Regardless of what the Ming army inside the city thought, the Baoxiang army outside the city started their siege operation step by step.
The infantry began to move out in large numbers and entered predetermined positions. The artillery was also ready. A large number of artillery shells had arrived in advance and were stored near the artillery positions.
As long as the Ming army on the opposite side dares to go to the top of the city to resist, the large and small artillery of the Baoxiang Army will launch a fierce bombardment on them without mercy.
The Ming army in the city also knew that the city was very dangerous, and the infantry of the Baoxiang Army outside the city did not start to attack. Naturally, they would not be foolish enough to attack the city in large numbers now, but only sent some people up scattered and scattered. Just in case.
More Ming soldiers were gathered one after another and hid in the fortifications behind the city wall. As long as the security forces sent out infantry to attack the city, they would board the city to carry out counterattacks.
At about 8:30 in the morning, the artillery unit of the Baoxiang Army began a suppressive bombardment, targeting some of the locations on the city where the Ming army gathered, especially the section of the city wall where the Ming army deployed artillery.
You don't want to kill as many enemy troops as you want, but you want to suppress them so that they can't let go of the city and control the artillery to counterattack.
At this time, in a section of the traffic trench, hundreds of assault battalion soldiers were also ready, as were the soldiers of the 1st Infantry Brigade on the left and right sides and in the rear.
Now, they are waiting for a signal!
Signal to attack!
At the rear of the battlefield, Luo Zhixue looked at the temporarily calm battlefield in front of him with a calm expression. He even smiled and said something to Xu Zhixian beside him.
"Xu Aiqing, I heard someone proposed to you yesterday. I heard that he is from a scholarly family in Hanyang. This is a good thing. You are now old enough. It is time to get married. I will give you a big house later. As a wedding gift!"
After hearing this, Xu Zhixian said with an embarrassed face: "I also have this idea, but I am alone and have no elders. Isn't this worrying!"
Luo Zhixue said: "This is not simple. As long as you are willing, I will marry you!"
When Xu Zhixian heard this, he immediately beamed with joy and said: "Your Majesty still knows what your Majesty wants. In fact, I wanted to mention this before, but I didn't dare to disturb Your Majesty!"
Luo Zhixue chuckled: "You have such a temperament that you always like to beat around the bush. Just talk about these little things directly."
While the two were chatting, someone came over. It was Colonel Xie Xiaobo, director of the Engineering Department. He came up and said: "I pay homage to your Majesty!"
"Both blasting sites have been prepared and can be ignited and exploded at any time. Please give me your permission!"
Luo Zhixue looked back at him, still smiling and said: "Then what are you waiting for? Let's explode!"
Colonel Xie Xiaobo immediately bowed and said: "I obey your order!"
Following Luo Zhixue's order, about a minute later, he saw a sudden vibration on the city wall directly in front of him, followed by a dull loud noise coming from the city wall.
Looking again, I saw that the originally tall city wall in front had collapsed into a piece of gravel and soil!
At this time, a rapid whistle sounded from the starting position of the assault battalion on the front line!
A large number of soldiers from the assault battalion of the Baoxiang Army jumped out of the trenches and rushed towards the collapsed city wall that was still emitting smoke and dust in front of them.
"Come on!"
"kill!"
"Long live the rural protection army!"
