In the past few months, whether he was angry or desperate, Xiong Wencan had experienced everything he should have experienced. However, no matter what mood he was in or what changes he made, he could not stop the Chu army from conquering one after another. city.
From Ganzhou to Nanxiong, Guilin, then to Shaozhou, Liuzhou, and then Guangzhou!
Now, it’s Wuzhou’s turn!
This gave Xiong Wencan a very bad feeling: What is supposed to come will always come. Now, with the Chu army coming, everything has come to an end.
It's just that he, Xiong Wencan, will not let himself fall into the hands of Chu thieves, nor will he fall into the hands of thieves like others. He, Xiong Wencan, also has his own pride.
He will fight until the last moment in Wuzhou City!
As for escaping, he actually considered it, but gave up the idea in the end.
Because he has no way to escape!
Before the Chu army surrounded Wuzhou City in early July, the Chu army had actually captured other cities around Wuzhou one after another.
The 7th Division of the Chu Army successively captured Shaoguan in June, and also captured Deqing Prefecture, Luoding Prefecture and other places south of Wuzhou. In addition, part of the troops also directly entered Guangxi and captured Cenxi.
Finally, Chu's temporary 14th mixed regiment and other garrison troops also successively captured Gaozhou, Leizhou, and Lianzhou.
This means that the roads from Wuzhou to the east and south are blocked.
In addition, the Chu Army's Fifth Division, the Sixth Garrison Division, the Tenth Garrison Division and other units fought all the way south from Huguang, and successively captured Guilin, Pinglefu, Huaiji and other areas north of Wuzhou. Later, some of the main forces of the Fifth Division The troops entered Liuzhou Prefecture, then followed the Xijiang River and its upstream tributaries, and successively captured Liuzhou, Xiangzhou, and Wuyi. They then moved down the river and entered Xunzhou Prefecture. After capturing the prefectural city of Guilin, they successively captured Wujing Prefecture. , Pingnan County and other places.
The series of military operations led by the Fifth Division basically blocked the possibility of Xiong Wencan leading his troops to break out from Wuzhou to the west.
As for going north, don't even expect it. All the way north is Chunan, which has long been the territory of the Great Chu Empire.
With all four directions being blocked, Wuzhou City has actually been strategically surrounded.
Even though the troops of the Chu Army's 7th Division had not yet reached the gates of Wuzhou City, Xiong Wencan had no way to escape.
"The Point Guard Is Here"
Since he couldn't escape, Xiong Wencan could only continue to huddle in Wuzhou City and defend to the death.
——
On July 4th, after several days of preliminary preparations, the Chu army, mainly the troops of the fifth division, also captured Teng County and reached Wuzhou Prefecture to successfully join forces with the Chu army's seventh division.
The Chu army also launched a strong attack on Wuzhou City.
A large number of artillery shells began to be fired towards the city of Wuzhou, including solid shells of various calibers, as well as 18-pound, 24-pound, and 48-pound mortar shells.
Although the city defense system in Wuzhou City is good and can resist some of the Chu army's artillery bombardments, the scale of the Chu army's artillery bombardment is too large, and Wuzhou City lacks the corresponding artillery counterattack force, so it can only be passively beaten one-sided. Therefore, the fortifications in the city were gradually destroyed.
In order to conquer Wuzhou City, successfully end the Guangdong and Guangxi Campaign, wipe out the last stubborn Ming army in the Guangdong and Guangxi areas, and stabilize the rear for the subsequent Northern Expedition of the Chu Empire.
Army Lieutenant General Huang Xiangbin basically mobilized all the artillery that could be mobilized, especially the heavy artillery units.
In terms of mortars, there are two battalions under the Eighth Mortar Regiment, one mortar battalion under the Artillery Regiment of the Seventh Division, and two battalions under the Second Mortar Regiment that previously accompanied the main force of the Fifth Division. , half of the battalion under the jurisdiction of the Fifth Division.
The above-mentioned mortar units of each department have assembled a total of more than 40 48-pound mortars and more than 20 24-pound mortars.
As for the 18-pound mortar, there are even more. This thing has become the standard artillery for regiment-level troops in the Chu army. Every main infantry regiment will have it, even the artillery regiment in the garrison division. Comes with a certain 18-pound mortar.
A large number of mortars launched an artillery bombardment at Wuzhou City, a solid military fortress-type city, and the lethality was just high.
In addition, a large number of nine-pound and five-pound field artillery have also joined the shelling sequence. Although the solid bullets are not particularly effective against such a fortress city with a complete city defense system, it is better than nothing. After all, more shells can be fired. Play some role.
In total, hundreds of artillery pieces launched an intensive bombardment on Wuzhou City, which lasted for three full days and fired countless shells.
By the fourth day, when the Chu army's heavy-armored assault troops began to launch a strong attack, the defenses inside and outside Wuzhou City were already in dire straits. A large number of houses close to the city wall in the city were also hit, and even triggered a fire. A certain fire.
The defenders in the city faced the Chu army's infantry attack. Although a small number of troops resisted, this resistance had no practical significance.
And in fact, more Ming troops did not resist after the Chu troops attacked the city. Even the Central Army of the Guangdong and Guangxi New Standard Army, which Xiong Wencan regarded as a guard, did not actually resist.
In the past few days, the two to three thousand people of the Guangdong and Guangxi New Standard Army were able to be completely surrounded and subjected to intensive shelling without a large-scale uprising, rebellion, or surrender. This was considered a sign of their loyalty to Xiong Wencan. The utmost benevolence and righteousness.
This is true for the Chinese Army of the New Standard Army of Guangdong and Guangxi, not to mention the other guards. If it were not suppressed by the Chinese Army before, they would have surrendered long ago...
As the soldiers of the Chu army boarded the city!
In the Governor's Mansion in the city, Xiong Wencan also ushered in the last moment of his life!
After bathing and burning incense, he committed suicide with a Bailing hanging beam that had been prepared long ago. Then Xiong Wencan's personal followers filled the house with Xiong Wencan's hanging beam with kerosene and ignited it according to Xiong Wencan's orders during his lifetime.
Xiong Wencan's death also announced that the resistance in Wuzhou City was completely lost. Soon, a large number of Ming army soldiers, including various young men who had been forcibly recruited by Xiong Wencan, came out one after another.
After capturing Wuzhou City, Army Lieutenant General Huang Xiangbin was overjoyed. That night he wrote a handwritten letter of success and sent a three-hundred-mile express to Jinling City to let His Majesty know as soon as possible that Wuzhou had been conquered and Guangdong and Guangxi were at peace.
After writing the victory report, Army Lieutenant General Huang Xiangbin, in the name of the garrison commander of Guangdong and Guangxi, conducted a simple reorganization of the troops under his jurisdiction, began to deploy tasks, and continued the remaining battles in the Guangdong and Guangxi areas.
Although Wuzhou was won, it can be regarded as winning the Guangdong and Guangxi regions as a whole, but there are still many places that are not actually controlled, such as several coastal cities in Chaozhou Prefecture and Nan'ao Island, such as Hong Kong Island and other places. Coastal islands, etc. are still under the control of Zheng Zhilong's command.
In addition, there are many cities in Guangxi that have not yet been captured, such as Yulin Prefecture in the south of Wuzhou Prefecture, and then there are the large areas of western prefectures in Guangxi, such as Qingyuan Prefecture, Sien Prefecture, Nanning Prefecture, and Siming Prefecture. , Taiping Prefecture, Zhenan Prefecture and many other state capitals in western Guangxi.
Moreover, these places are relatively complicated. Some of them were originally controlled by the Ming court, but there are also many places that have the name of state capital, but are actually controlled by local chieftains.
Army Lieutenant General Huang Xiangbin will need to mobilize troops to fight or appease in the future to gradually control these places.
However, although fighting will continue to break out in Guangdong and Guangxi, especially in Guangxi, just like the fighting in eastern Sichuan, Guizhou and other places, although it continues to break out, it can actually no longer affect the overall strategy of the Chu Empire.
The remaining Ming army forces in the above directions and the chieftains can no longer pose any great threat to the Chu Empire.
This also achieved the main strategic purpose of the Chu Empire's launch of the Guangdong and Guangxi Campaign: to eliminate the strategic threat posed by Xiong Wencan's troops in the Guangdong and Guangxi areas, so as to avoid being stabbed by Xiong Wencan in the hinterland of Huguang and Jiangxi during the Northern Expedition.
There is still a Fujian and Zhejiang region left for the same strategic purpose, to be precise, it is the Fujian region.
This place is more complicated than Guangdong and Guangxi. It's not that Zheng Zhilong is better at fighting than Xiong Wencan. In fact, in terms of purely ground combat, Zheng Zhilong's troops are not as good as the Guangdong and Guangxi New Standard Army under Xiong Wencan.
Even though Zheng Zhilong has a large navy and has many contacts with foreigners, it is an illusion to think that his ground combat forces are very advanced.
In fact, Zheng Zhilong's ground combat troops have no different combat mode from the traditional Ming army. In a real fight, they can only fight the Chu army's garrison. Once they encounter the Chu army's main force, , that is basically the party that gets beaten unilaterally.
In terms of ground combat effectiveness, the Chu army did not encounter any practical obstacles when they marched into southern Zhejiang. However, they still fought relatively restrainedly on the front line and did not really beat Zheng Zhilong's troops to death.
The main reason is that the Chu Empire still wants to appease Zheng Zhilong so far.
There are dozens of large fleets of thousands of ships, including large warships of several hundred tons or more.
Well, although this large size is classified as a frigate or cruiser in the Da Chu Empire Navy's ship classification, equipped with twenty or thirty cannons, this kind of warship is already considered very good in the East Asian waters.
There are even more medium-sized warships equipped with about ten cannons, numbering in the hundreds!
As for those small boats, offshore transport ships and ordinary armed merchant ships, it goes without saying.
Moreover, quite a few of these warships have gradually appeared in the past ten years and have become the main warships of the Ming Dynasty Navy and Zheng Zhilong's navy...
Although the name of the bird ship is very vulgar, and don't think it is very backward, in the first half of the 17th century, this type of ship is still very competitive in East Asian waters, so the old ones are simply replaced Ship types such as Fu Chuan, Cangshan Chuan and Sha Chuan were eliminated.
The hull layout of the Daye-class frigates and Xiangyang-class cruisers newly built by the Dachu Empire Navy actually refer to the bird ship to a certain extent.
These two warships of the Da Chu Empire Navy not only referenced the bird ships, but also the outdated Fu Ships, and even the European-style galleons.
But it is only for reference, because the above-mentioned referenced ships all take into account the needs of transporting cargo, and many of them belong to the ranks of armed merchant ships. Their main mission is not for fighting, but for ocean trade and freedom of movement in ocean trade. Save.
However, there is no need for the warships of the Dachu Empire Navy to transport goods for ocean-going trade.
They only need to fight, so every ton of displacement can and must be used for combat. Therefore, the type of warships built by the Dachu Empire Navy is quite special.
However, the warships of the Da Chu Empire Navy seem to be very good, but they have not been built in large numbers... The Da Chu Empire Navy is still suppressed by Zheng Zhilong's command...
Therefore, the empire's top officials still hope to recruit Zheng Zhilong, but the conditions offered cannot satisfy Zheng Zhilong.
However, as the situation continued to change, especially the Chu army broke through the Fenshui Pass in Funing Prefecture, and the Chu army on the northern line also captured multiple checkpoints in the northern part of Jianning Prefecture, tens of thousands of Chu troops entered the hinterland of Fujian. At this time, Zheng Zhilong finally wavered!
