Red Mansion: Seizing Jiangdong, starting with pirates

Chapter 107, Attack Chuzhou

This morning, the youngest of the three Hu brothers was secretly digging a tunnel when it unfortunately collapsed and he died inside.

Because Chuzhou City was strong, in order to capture the city more easily, Fang Yong had people dig a tunnel in secret in advance.

did not expect……

People make mistakes and horses stumble, and this time, Hu Sanzhe was caught in it.

Fortunately, the tunnel constructed by Hu Er and Hu Da is still being dug smoothly.

Fang Yong brought dumplings to comfort the two men personally, presented them with gold and silver, and guaranteed an official position for Hu San's son. Such an attitude really flattered the Hu brothers. They were so moved that they shed tears and knelt on the ground, saying that they would dig a way through Chuzhou for the general and establish meritorious services!

On the second day after the winter solstice, the army led by Ma Laohei broke through Fengyang, crossed the Huangshiling Mountains, and stationed troops behind Chuzhou.

The two armies responded to each other and soon established contact.

In terms of military strength, Fang Yong led 50,000 soldiers and horses.

Apart from the defenses deployed in the cities along the way, Ma Laohei had about 60,000 soldiers and horses left.

The two sides had a total of 110,000 troops, surrounding Chuzhou from front and back.

There were originally 5,000 defenders in Chuzhou City. After Feng Tai captured Jinling, the Governor of Suzhou fled to Chuzhou with officials of all ranks. He joined forces with the Governor of Huizhou, mobilized garrisons from various places, recruited young and strong men to resist Feng Tai's invasion, and expanded the military force to 40,000.

However, a lot of these soldiers were lost in the subsequent battle with Feng Tai. When Chen Ruiwen led his troops to attack Feng Tai, he ordered the recruitment of some elite troops. Therefore, there are currently about 15,000 soldiers in Chuzhou City.

When the Governor of Huizhou learned that Fang Yong was coming, he hurriedly recruited young and strong men from all over the country to strengthen the city's defense.

However, due to the implementation of the court's new policies this year, it became difficult for the people in the countryside to survive and most of them hid in the mountains, so there were few responses.

The governor of Huizhou used both capture and deception to barely recruit five or six thousand young and strong men, and lured three or four thousand gangsters to form a garrison of about 25,000 people to resist Fang Yong's attack.

However, during this period, the story of Huaiyin Hou "bloodbathed Tianwang Temple and defeated Xiaoke with one arrow" spread, shocking the martial arts world. Most of the three or four thousand martial artists fled overnight, and now there are only 20,000 defenders left to guard the city.

The highest-ranking official defending the city was Wu Gui, the prefect of Chuzhou.

As for the governor of Huizhou, he had already packed up his property and fled back to his hometown in Yicheng.

The world is in chaos now, and the imperial court has no time to control the south.

As the governor of Huizhou, what does it have to do with him even if Chuzhou City is captured?

However, having said that, it is better not to break the city. Now all the food, fodder and soldiers in Chuzhou City are still prepared by the Huizhou Governor, and he can be said to have done his job reluctantly.

As usual, before attacking the city, Fang Yong sent someone to deliver a letter of persuasion for surrender.

Soon news came that the messenger had been detained. Wu Gui did not choose to surrender directly, but he did not kill the messenger either.

It seems that the faith of officials in the court is not as firm as that of Wei Yinghong.

Fang Yong then gave orders and led his men to attack the city simultaneously with Ma Laohei's troops on the other side.

The artillery cart rumbled forward. Although it had been used once in Yangzhou, it was still useful.

However, unlike Yangzhou City, all the cannons in it were sold by Wang Ziteng, there were still many cannons in Chuzhou City.

These cannons and gun carriages roared at each other, causing some damage to the gun carriages from time to time.

Fortunately, the live ammunition artillery of this era had limited lethality, and Fang Yong’s artillery carriage was wrapped in thick iron sheets. Even if it was hit by a shell, it would only be deformed and would not be completely damaged.

The soldiers relied on artillery carts to fill the river and attack the city.

Wu Gui relied on the city wall to hold his ground.

Chuzhou City is thick, and the 20,000 defenders in the city are not a small number, and the defense is quite complete. It is difficult for Fang Yong's attack to gain much advantage immediately.

However, unlike Feng Tai's attack on Chuzhou, this time the Huaiyin army attacked Chuzhou from the front and back. Ma Laohei and Fang Yong surrounded Chuzhou from the front and back, cutting off the supply of supplies in Chuzhou. This was a great advantage for Fang Yong.

Even if the city cannot be taken in the end, once Chuzhou runs out of ammunition and food, the city will be broken.

On the ninth day of the siege, the moat was filled and the siege entered a white-hot stage.

Niu Jin led his troops to charge the city wall again.

Fang Yong actually advised him not to lead his troops into battle personally every time.

But for Niu Jin, perhaps this is what he is best at.

Niu Jin held a big axe in front of him and personally led his soldiers to climb the ladder.

The soldiers guarding the city threw a huge rock down, but Niu Jin raised the back of his axe and pushed the rock away.

Niu Jin rushed to the city wall.

The personal guards followed closely behind and killed and repelled a small area on the city wall.

A soldier slashed at him from the side with a knife, but Niu Jin did not notice it. At the critical moment, Niu Jin's personal soldier blocked it with his arm, and half of his arm fell off.

"Ahhhh!"

The bodyguards screamed.

Niu Jin angrily hacked to death the officers and soldiers who had just launched a sneak attack.

But he was not careful and got stabbed in the left calf again.

It turned out that one of the fallen soldiers was not completely dead.

War is cruel, and even a high-ranking general can easily lose his life in battle.

Wu Gui quickly ordered more soldiers to go to defend the area where Niu Jin was.
Soon, a large number of government troops arrived to reinforce them. However, since Niu Jin had not yet gained a firm foothold, there were limited soldiers who could come up to support him, so he was quickly beaten back by the large number of government troops.

The siege went on fiercely.

You pull and I pull, and the soldiers' lives are ruthlessly consumed in the tug of war.

After a few days, the government troops were somewhat tired from the continuous siege.

At night, Fang Yong called a scout team of fifty people.

These are all experienced scouts with agile skills and good combat capabilities.

Fang Yong ordered them to launch a sneak attack on Chuzhou City from the side of Langya Mountain at night, use grappling hooks to quietly climb up the city wall, enter the city, and blow open the city gate.

Everyone took the order and set out quietly at night.

late at night.

Liang Lie and other scouts wore night clothes and quietly approached the city wall.

Several experienced scouts threw a few stones up, but they attracted no attention.

So a few of them decided to go up and try it out first.

Liang Lie threw out the hook skillfully, hooked it onto the city wall, and then climbed up quietly.

Several team members around him also followed Liang Lie forward.

Liang Lie was the fastest and was the first to climb to the edge of the city wall.

He pushed his hands upwards, preparing to climb up the wall, but suddenly he felt a sharp pain and his expression twisted instantly.

He almost screamed in pain, but considering the current situation, he had to endure it.

It turned out that someone had nailed broken knives and blades onto the edge of the city wall. They were extremely sharp and were difficult to detect in the darkness. Liang Lie put his hands up and was immediately stabbed with two deep cuts.

Fortunately, the defenders on the city wall were all dozing off due to exhaustion and did not notice the situation here.

Liang Lie endured the pain and when he saw the team members were about to come up, he quickly blew a mountain partridge whistle softly and called the team members to stop.

Liang Lie went down the same way.

After going down, he informed others of the situation above.

After understanding the situation, everyone took precautions and then quietly climbed up the city wall.

The defenders on the city wall were lax in their defense, so the crowd covered their mouths and cut their throats, launching a successful sneak attack.

Then everyone quietly went down the city wall, killing several defenders in the process, and arrived at the city gate safely.

The situation at the city gate made everyone both worried and happy.

The good news was that there were no guards at the city gate and it was empty.

The worrying thing is that the city gate was blocked by a large amount of sand and soil, and it was impossible to blow it open.

Faced with such a situation, everyone didn't know what to do for a moment. Liang Lie thought for a moment and said:
"Since we can't blow up the city gate, let's blow up the city wall!"

(End of this chapter)