Meng Junli led his army to attack Suqian City alone without encountering any major obstacles. There were only five to six thousand defenders in the city, and there were no new standard troops among them, only more than a thousand new standard troops from Shanxi.
This new standard army from Shanxi was not detected in advance by the intelligence agency of the Da Chu Empire, because this new standard army really did not look like a new standard army. Its soldiers were all traditional troops, and the muskets they used were still the same. Bird guns, but there are a few field cannons.
The most important thing is that Shanxi's new standard army only went south for reinforcements after the New Year. When the Chu army just launched the Jiangbei Campaign, this Shanxi new standard army had just arrived in Xuzhou.
They only went south and arrived in Suqian in the past few days.
However, this new standard army from Shanxi did not cause any practical obstacles to the 39th Infantry Regiment.
Under the fierce firepower of the Chu army, this army from Shanxi had never even touched the Chu army, nor had it fought against a new type of army such as the Chu army. It had not even had much competition with other new standard armies of the Ming army itself. Contact the so-called new champions.
The performance is not like the new standard army at all, but is no different from the traditional old army.
They didn't know how to build a new type of anti-artillery. They simply relied on the city walls for defensive operations, and even deployed artillery directly at the top of the city.
Then the Chu army's artillery troops were all happy when they saw it. Then they rudely used multiple nine-pound field cannons, five-pound field cannons, and a batch of mortars to attack the Ming army's city. A surprise bombardment was carried out from the head artillery position.
As a result, the Ming army's long-barreled artillery at the head of Suqian City was basically destroyed. The artillerymen suffered heavy casualties, and even the artillery was overturned.
Immediately afterwards, the Chu army's artillery fire began to cover the city's head from other directions. The Ming army soldiers, who could only rely on the battlements of the city wall itself for defense, suddenly suffered heavy casualties.
A large number of solid shells from the Chu army's field artillery hit the thin battlement walls, and then scattered the thin walls on impact, causing casualties to the Ming army soldiers behind them.
A large number of mortar shells fired by the Chu army landed near the city wall one after another. A few landed directly on the top of the city wall and exploded, and some simply exploded above the city wall.
These mortar shells exploded in the air, or exploded after falling on the top of the city wall, causing great damage to the Ming army's defenders.
In just half a day, the Ming army on top of the city couldn't stand it anymore and fled one after another.
Even the dozen or so officials who were watching and commanding the battle in the city gate tower died or fled...
These idiots actually went directly to the city gate tower to watch and command the battle. They still used traditional concepts to think that this place was so high that the soldiers of the Chu army could not hit it.
As a result, the Chu army directly mobilized two sentries, and a total of eight field guns launched a fierce bombardment at the city gate tower.
Many Ming court officials were killed and injured on the spot.
The overall difficulty of this Suqian siege battle was far from comparable to the previous series of siege battles conducted by the Chu army in the south.
When the Chu army was fighting in various places in the south, its main enemies in the past year or two were the New Biao Army trained by the local Ming court governors, the Huguang New Biao Army, the Liangguang New Biao Army, the Jiangbei New Biao Army, and the Anlu Xin Army. Biaojun, Jiangnan New Biaojun, Jiangxi New Biaojun, Zhejiang New Biaojun, etc.
Among them, except for the Jiangbei New Standard Army, the rest of the New Standard Army have basically become history.
And these new standard troops are also strong and weak. The weak ones are actually not much better than the camp sentry soldiers, but the strong ones can still fight back and forth with the main force of the Chu army.
Regardless of their combat effectiveness, they have generally fought against the Chu army, know some details about the Chu army, and have some experience in dealing with it.
For example, they generally know that the Chu army's guns are sharp, and they even know that the Chu army's artillery, especially the long-barreled large-caliber field guns and mortars, are powerful siege weapons.
After being hit a lot by the Chu army's artillery, they naturally tried to think of ways to defend themselves against the Chu army's artillery, and finally built various anti-artillery fortifications.
In the end, Shi Kefa came up with the Jiujiang City Defense System, a defense system that was incompatible with traditional warfare. Later, Song Zushun went a step further and proposed a state defense system with offense in defense.
Whenever they encountered a city with complete fortifications and a new standard army stationed in the city, the Chu army would usually not get there quickly.
Because if you attack rashly, you will easily be counterattacked by the enemy's concealed firepower and suffer heavy casualties.
Therefore, most of the time, the Chu army used water and water to gradually clean up the Ming army's various fortifications through intensive shelling with a large number of artillery. After destroying these peripheral fortifications, they suppressed the firepower of the enemy's city walls through intensive artillery. Only then will the infantry attack be launched.
The previous battles of Jiujiang, Anqing, Hezhou, Huzhou, Gannan, Guilin, Wuzhou, Nanxiong, etc. basically followed this model.
The Chu army relied on its absolute firepower advantage to carry out long-term shelling, gradually crushing the Ming army's resistance.
But when it came to Suqian, the Chu army discovered that there were not even artillery defenses built on the opposite side...
So much so that when the fighting started, the Chu army had not even dispatched its infantry, and the artillery bombardment only lasted a few hours. However, the other side could no longer withstand the artillery bombardment, and then retreated from the city.
The next thing was very simple. The Chu army did not even engage in the time-consuming and laborious operation of blasting the city wall. They directly dispatched commandos under the cover of artillery to forcibly launch an operation to climb the city.
When the commando team entered the city to fight, they did not even encounter effective resistance. Therefore, the Ming army soldiers who had previously defended the city had already been defeated by the artillery bombardment. Now there were not many Ming army soldiers on the city.
The commando team climbed to the top of the city, then opened the city gate, and finally welcomed more main forces into the city.
As a result, Suqian City was captured by the Chu army, and the entire battle only took half a day.
In the morning, Brigadier General Meng Junli, deputy commander of the 10th Division, was still having breakfast outside the city, but by evening, he was already hosting his generals for dinner in the city.
When the 39th Infantry Regiment captured Suqian, the 23rd Mixed Brigade headed north to Pizhou, while the 10th Cavalry Regiment wandered around the periphery of the Western Front.
The 23rd Mixed Brigade encountered little resistance when it attacked Pizhou. Thousands of troops were originally stationed there. For example, the Shanxi New Standard Army was stationed here before.
However, most of the troops, including the Shanxi New Biao Army, had gone to reinforce Suqian, so the number of local troops left behind in Pizhou was less than a thousand.
Even if the 23rd Mixed Brigade was very unlucky along the way, with not many artillery and poor logistics supply, it would still have no problem attacking a city with less than a thousand men and no heavy artillery garrison.
It only took two days to crush the resistance of the defenders in the city, forcing the officials in the city to surrender with the remaining troops.
On February 22, the 23rd Mixed Brigade officially captured Pizhou.
As a result, the Chu Army's 10th Division and 23rd Mixed Brigade have successively captured three major cities along the canal north of Hongze Lake: Taoyuan, Suqian, and Pizhou.
This not only completed the strategic encirclement of Yang Sichang's troops in Huai'an, but also expanded the encirclement to a depth of hundreds of kilometers.
Immediately afterwards, in order to ensure the safety of the encirclement line and cooperate with the 1st and 11th Divisions in the annihilation operation against Yang Sichang's more than 20,000 troops in the Huai'an direction, Brigadier General Meng Junli, deputy commander of the 10th Division, led his troops to withdraw south from Suqian. When passing through Taoyuan, they also took away an infantry battalion stationed in Taoyuan, then turned around and headed south towards Qinghe.
As for the defense of Suqian and other places, it was fully handed over to the main force of the 10th Division and the 10th Cavalry Regiment and other friendly forces that arrived later.
As for the 23rd Mixed Brigade that had just captured Pizhou, under the leadership of Bai Yangrong, they were to rest and recuperate in Pizhou. After the rest, they would continue to fight along the Yellow River towards Xuzhou, trying to capture Xuzhou, which connects Shandong and Shandong at the same time. It is a strategic transportation location in Henan and Jiangbei.
According to intelligence, there are not many Ming troops in Xuzhou, and only a few thousand people can survive. The 23rd Mixed Brigade, which has rested and replenished a batch of artillery and ammunition, is capable of taking Xuzhou.
By late February, the 10th Division and the 23rd Mixed Brigade had each completed the first phase of their strategic goals: capture Suqian, join forces between the two armies, and cut off the connections between Fengyang, Xuzhou and even Shandong and Huai'an in the rear.
And in actual combat, they did better. For example, the 23rd Mixed Brigade captured Pizhou and prepared to march into Xuzhou.
The 10th Division was preparing to go south to attack Qinghe.
Qinghe County is located on the north bank of the Yellow River and is built along the river. It is only more than ten kilometers away from the Shanyang County of Huaian Prefecture.
Because it is located along the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, Qinghe City also belongs to the Jiangbei region. There are few prosperous cities. Although it is not as good as Shanyang County, the prefectural city of Huai'an where the Governor of Water Transport and other places are based, it is not bad.
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But such a prosperous city ushered in a large-scale exodus on the first day of March!
A large number of gentry and wealthy people in the city rushed out of the city and fled to the countryside.
All this is because the Chu thieves have already reached Qinghe City, which is only seven or eight miles away from Qinghe City.
The local gentry and wealthy people had heard to some extent that the Chu thieves were brutal and would often raid their homes and exterminate their families. Therefore, as soon as they heard that the Chu thieves were coming, many people began to flee with their gold and silver, their families and their families. .
However, they did not go to Huai'an Fucheng in the south, even though there were tens of thousands of troops garrisoned there, and Yang Sichang, the governor of the military affairs of several provinces, was personally in charge.
But they still didn't go...
Because there are tens of thousands of Chu thieves outside Huai'an City. Those Chu thieves had already arrived outside Huai'an City several days ago. At that time, they had already caused panic among the gentry and wealthy households in the city. A large number of wealthy gentry and wealthy households took out Huai'an City. Many of them fled to Qinghe County.
Now you let them run back to Huai'an City, isn't that nonsense!
