The Great Chu Empire was established in the second year of Chengshun and the ninth year of Chongzhen in the Ming Dynasty.
August 24th, a gentle breeze, suitable for a funeral.
On the top of Nanchang City, a group of people looked at the outside of the city with sad faces and even a little panic!
In their sight, there were actually no Chu thieves in gray military uniforms as expected outside the city. There were only large trenches and parapets, as well as a few gray figures looming in the trench parapets.
Only in the distance two or three miles away can we see a Chu bandit camp, but these camps are also built based on the terrain, and are separated from the south city wall by undulating low terrain, so even on the top of the city, it is difficult to Very clear about the whole picture.
Even though they didn't see too many Chu troops in their sight, it didn't affect their fear!
Because at this moment, there are really tens of thousands of Chu thieves outside Nancheng!
Two days ago, a group of gray thief cavalry suddenly came outside Nanchang City. After arriving in Nanchang, this Chu thief cavalry did not attack the city. Instead, they completely blocked the outside of the city. Even the waterways were used first. Artillery, and then using forcibly confiscated ships to berth, directly blocked the Ganjiang waterway.
As a result, many powerful gentry who wanted to escape from the city to avoid the war were unable to escape.
Well, in fact, they can go out. After all, there are so many places, and the Chu army's cavalry can't really block it by one person every five steps or one post every ten steps. If you escape alone, the Chu army's cavalry won't be able to find you.
But if you run away alone, you won't be able to take away such a large amount of money and food.
For small households, they can take away gold and silver with them.
But for those rich and powerful families, their belongings need to be transported by horse-drawn carriages.
In fact, these powerful and powerful households, to be precise, their gold, silver, soft food, etc. are the real blockade targets of the Chu army's cavalry. As for the small households, the Chu army actually does not bother to care about them.
In fact, the Chu army had little interest in even the powerful individuals.
As long as you don't flee with a large amount of money and food, you can go wherever you like.
Therefore, in the past two days, many people still fled from the city, and then fled alone through the Chu army's blockade to other places to avoid the war.
but……
Except for a few secretly transported out of the large amount of gold, silver, soft money and food in the city, most of them are still in the city.
And this is enough for the Chu army.
Soon after the Chu thieves' cavalry arrived, nearly ten thousand Chu thieves arrived. This time, the Chu thieves came not only with a large number of infantry, but also with a large number of artillery.
At this time, everyone in the city knew that if nothing was done, Nanchang, where they were located, would soon follow in the footsteps of Jiujiang and fall into the hands of Chu thieves, and everyone present might not end well.
Jiangxi Governor Xie Xuelong said: "We are facing a powerful enemy. Do you have any good strategies to defeat the enemy?"
However, the group of civil and military officials around him and behind him were all silent, and no one spoke.
When Jiangxi Governor Xie Xuelong saw that no one was speaking, he immediately looked at one of the generals and said, "Vice General Li, you are a veteran who has fought against the Chu thieves many times. You know a lot about the Chu thieves. In your opinion, how should we defeat the enemy?" "
After hearing this, the middle-aged Lieutenant General Li hesitated and said: "The Chu thieves are coming fiercely, and there are dozens of red barbarian cannons. We must not waste the battle. We must stabilize the city defense!"
Xie Xuelong, the governor of Jiangxi, said: "What if the Chu thieves bombarded the city wall with red cannons, supplemented by heavy armor to attack the city?"
Vice General Li looked embarrassed at this time. When he saw the governor staring at him, he immediately took a deep breath and said loudly: "Fight to the death. If the Chu bandits attack the city, we will fight to the death and live together in Nanchang!"
As soon as he said this, someone beside him sneered: "Death or coexistence? De'an has been dead for several days. Why don't you, Li Congde, stand here properly?"
When Vice General Li Congde heard this, his face immediately changed, and he turned to look at the other party with an angry expression... But when he saw a civil servant wearing a red robe next to him, he immediately lowered his head!
That was Huang Xingwen, deputy envoy of the Jiangxi Prosecution Department.
He couldn't afford to offend this fourth-grade civil servant!
As mentioned before, the status of generals in the Ming Dynasty, especially in the middle and late periods, was very low. When it came to civilian officials, especially those who managed military affairs, regardless of their rank, they were basically suppressed to death.
As for this Huang Xingwen, as the Deputy Inspector, his rank is only a fourth rank. However, if the traditional Deputy Inspector does not handle military preparations, he does not have any special rights. Huang Xingwen can completely ignore it.
Even the deputy inspector-general's immediate boss, the third-grade Jiangxi inspector-general, actually doesn't have much real power.
But Huang Xingwen is different... This person is the agent for military preparation. He patrols Ruizhou Prefecture, Yuanzhou Prefecture, Linjiang Prefecture, some counties in Ji'an Prefecture, counties in the west of Nanchang Prefecture, etc., and supervises the troops stationed in the above-mentioned prefectures. Generally speaking, That is to patrol the prefectures and counties in western Jiangxi and supervise the army.
What is the concept of this position?
You can refer to Shi Kefa. Before Shi Kefa became the governor of Anlu, he used the title of deputy envoy to patrol Jiangbei states and supervise the Jiangbei army.
They are both deputy inspectors, but the gap in power and status between them is huge.
The political status of officials in the Ming Dynasty, especially civil servants, had little to do with their rank or position. What mattered was their dispatch!
A governor is no more than a fourth-rank official, and I am just a small censor of Qiandu.
And those Kedao officials who can influence the situation in the court are only in the seventh rank!
Even among the cabinet bosses, many are only in the fourth or fifth grade...
And many second- and third-grade civil servants are actually like that. For example, the chief envoy is said to have graduated from the second grade, but when he sees the governor who is the fourth-grade chief censor, he doesn't dare to take a breath. .
This fourth-grade deputy inspector has such a special position.
Mainly because of this position, you can perform several special tasks, such as training and military preparation.
Tixue is what people often call academic affairs. This position is a very noble position. It presides over the academic affairs of the province and has extremely important authority, which is to preside over the provincial examination.
It is an important way for civil servants to recruit disciples during their political careers.
If you want to be a boss, how can you do it if you don't have many students who can fight?
At the same time, this deputy envoy can also be dispatched to preside over military preparations. During wars, a small number of deputy envoys are appointed to patrol various prefectures and serve as supervisors of the army.
In this case, his political status will soar sharply. His nominal immediate superior, the Inspector-General, as well as the nominally highest local chief executive, the Chief Envoy, and the military commander will all command their envoys in front of the Deputy Inspector-General who has the authority to supervise the military. Gotta step aside.
Why?
Because if the deputy inspector who supervises the army does a good job and earns a reputation as a knowledgeable soldier, he can be the governor in minutes. Well, the governors of the Chongzhen Dynasty changed very frequently, especially when war broke out. In the area, a governor will be changed every three days.
Even with the current speed at which Chongzhen replaces the Sixth Minister of the Ministry of War and the Minister of the Ministry of War, in a few years he might become the Right Minister of the Ministry of War, or even become the Minister of the Ministry of War.
The minister from far away has no shortage of words to say, let alone the governor.
In the late Ming Dynasty, this governor was a full-fledged minister with great power.
Huang Xingwen today is on this right path.
This person's position was not something that could be decided within Jiangxi or even Jiangxi Governor Xie Xuelong, but was personally promoted by Wang Jiazhen, the governor of the military affairs of the eastern provinces and who was in charge of Jinling City in Yingtian Prefecture.
This person's political status in Jiangxi is generally ranked fourth.
Second only to Anlu Governor Shi Kefa, Jiangxi Governor Xie Xuelong and Nangan Governor.
Faced with such a middle man, a potential boss, even if Li Congde is already a deputy general, even if his status in the army is second only to that of the general, he still does not dare to be presumptuous.
Speaking of which, Li Congde's actual status in the army is actually not much different from that of the general soldiers.
After all, in the Ming court, the relationship between the chief soldier and the deputy chief soldier is not that of superior and subordinate. The relationship between them is that the chief soldier leads more soldiers and the deputy chief soldier leads less soldiers.
It is impossible for a commander-in-chief to command a deputy commander-in-chief to fight in a war. He does not have that power.
After all, both of them have the same immediate boss, the governor;
There are also common deputy bosses, such as the supervisory army who serves as the deputy envoy to the inspection or the chief secretary's political participation officer.
Li Congde like this can be considered quite capable in the army, but in front of Huang Xingwen, he still has to lie down obediently!
So when Li Congde saw Huang Xingwen reprimanding him, he just showed an embarrassed smile.
Huang Xingwen ignored him, but took a step forward and went to Jiangxi Governor Xie Xuelong and said, "Qian Xian, the bandit army is now strong. We should quickly mobilize the young men in the city and defend the city to the death!"
snort!
Jie Xuelong looked at the middle-aged civil servant in front of him, his expression unchanged, but inside he was extremely disgusted.
He disliked this Huang Xingwen very much.
The reason is simple!
This poor place in Jiangxi seems to be a province, but in fact there is not much under the jurisdiction of his governor.
Ganzhou and other state capitals in the south are the territory of the governor of Southern Gansu.
Jiujiang Prefecture in the north was originally his territory as the governor of Jiangxi, but since the imperial court established the governor of Anlu, in order to coordinate the defense of the eastern front, Jiujiang Prefecture and Nankang Prefecture were directly placed under the jurisdiction of the governor of Anlu.
As a result, Xie Xuelong, the governor of Jiangxi, was even more embarrassed. The only territory under his jurisdiction was the central area of Jiangxi.
This was already unfortunate enough, but after Wang Jiazhen came to Jiangnan, he recommended Huang Xingwen to be the deputy inspector of Jiangxi, to patrol Ji'an Prefecture and other places and supervise the army.
Moreover, this Huang Xingwen was a well-connected person. He had served as a police officer in Jiangnan, and he had been with Shi Kefa for a while, so he was said to be a good soldier.
To put it bluntly, Wang Jiazhen felt that Xie Xuelong, the governor of Jiangxi, was unreliable, so he sent Huang Xingwen here, claiming to be the deputy envoy to the inspection, but in fact he controlled only half of the remaining troops under the governor of Jiangxi.
It would be strange if Jie Xuelong felt happy.
Now this person is talking about recruiting young people, which makes Jie Xuelong even more unhappy.
Now that the official warehouses in the city are empty, how can we recruit young people? Moreover, the recruitment of young people in Huang Xingwen's mouth does not mean the recruitment part. Last night, Huang Xingwen came to him and said that he would recruit all the young people in the city, and he planned to send these young people directly to the city. The head is fighting with Chu thieves.
This is just crazy!
Let’s not talk about whether we can afford to support so many young and strong civilian men. Even if we can, we can’t really send the young and strong people to the city to fight with the Chu bandits.
Young men who have not received military training can do some auxiliary tasks, such as helping to build fortifications, boiling water and throwing stones when defending the city.
But if you really let them fight with the Chu thieves, you will let them die.
Under such circumstances, if all the young and strong men were to be recruited and sent to the city, that would simply be to let the young men and women in the city die.
He Jie Xuelong has been patrolling Jiangxi for many years. Although he did not say that he really loved the people as his own children, he could barely live up to his conscience. At least he would not engage in massacres or let the young men die. On the contrary, he allowed the young people to die. It can be said that he has done a lot of practical things, especially annihilated many bandits, pacified the place, and brought a relatively stable life to the local area.
When Chu thieves besieged the city, although he also recruited a group of young and strong civilians to help defend the city, he only recruited a part of the people.
But he didn't intend to be as frantic as Huang Xingwen and drive all the people to the city just to consume the ammunition of the Chu thieves.
He can't do this kind of thing.
Therefore, Jie Xue Long said: "All the young men and women in the city who can barely fight have been recruited. The rest are all old, weak, sick and disabled. Recruiting disciples consumes money and food and is of no use. There is no need to mention this matter again!"
Jie Xuelong knew very well that based on the current situation in Nanchang City, whether or not to recruit civilian husbands would not affect the final outcome of Nanchang City: the city was destroyed and people died!
Can't even escape!
In this case, why should all life be ruined?
Jie Xuelong sighed, then turned around and walked down the city wall with the officials.
While these senior civil and military officials in Nanchang City were looking sad, several middle and low-level generals from the Ming Army also gathered together in a courtyard near the west gate of Nanchang.
I saw one of the middle-aged guerrillas saying: "Now Nanchang can't be defended anymore!"
A young guard on the side also said: "Brother Wang is right, there are more than 10,000 Chu thieves outside the city. No matter how we fight, they can't be defeated!"
I saw the young guard continue: "Now we have less than five thousand soldiers in the city. They are either defeated troops with no morale or morale, or weak old and young. I am afraid that less than half of them can carry swords and go into battle."
"And we don't even have a Hongyi cannon now, let alone a Hongyi cannon. Even the general cannon, Fo Langji and other old cannons are not many. What can we use against the Hongyi cannon among the Chu thieves?"
"You have all seen it before. When the Chu thieves came over, they brought dozens of Hongyi cannons, many of which were heavy cannons capable of firing nine kilograms."
"Without the Hongyi cannon to compete with it, this city wall will be reduced to ruins overnight."
"Not to mention artillery, even the infantry does not have many muskets, armor, swords, and spears. There is not a single new musket, and there are only two hundred muskets!"
"And the total number of armored soldiers is only four hundred."
"There are few Chu thieves wearing thousands of armors. Even the musketeers among the Chu thieves wear light armor."
This defense got more and more exciting: "How can we defend this? It is impossible to defend it!"
"My brothers, like me, all escaped from De'an all the way. They also saw how powerful the Chu thieves were. Although De'an was smaller back then, it was much stronger than it is now. Even so, we couldn't defend it. Now How can Nanchang be able to defend it!"
Having said this, the young guard looked around and said: "We also fought hard to kill thieves in De'an before. So many brothers were killed or wounded, so we can be considered worthy of the court."
"Now that Nanchang is about to be destroyed, it's time for us to think about it for ourselves and our families."
As soon as this man said this, several other people immediately looked at him, with different expressions on their faces, and they didn't know what they were thinking.
After a long time, Wang Youyi said: "Qian Shou, you mean to break out of the encirclement? There are tens of thousands of Chu thieves outside the city, and there are more than a thousand fine cavalry. Breaking out of the encirclement is not easy."
Qian Shoubei shook his head slightly, looked around at everyone again, and then took a deep breath and said, "Why do we need to break out? We can directly sacrifice the city to Chu, and use the dedication of the city to exchange for great wealth!"
