Chapter 462: Jiangyin Attack and Defense

A victory can greatly boost the morale of the army and people in Jiangyin City, but it cannot change the situation on the battlefield. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 Although Liu Zhaoji's attack on the camp killed Li Shuotai, the commander of the Eight Banners, and killed nearly 1,000 Eight Banner soldiers, and captured more than 10,000 Green Battalion soldiers. However, the Qing army outside the city was still extremely strong, and the Manchu leader Yu Prince Duoduo led the team, gathering Manchurian generals such as Beile Boluo Gushan, Beizi Tunqi, and Hetuo, and carrying almost three-quarters of the Eight Banners of the Eastern Route Army, with a total of 30,000 people. In addition, there are dozens of general adjutant generals such as Ma Degong, Zhang Tianfu, and Tian Jie, who surrendered, and there are as many as 80,000 soldiers in the green battalion.

Almost all the elite Qing troops in Jiangnan were gathered under the city of Jiangyin, and the total number of troops was more than the total number of soldiers and civilians in Jiangyin City.

As for Jiangyin City, in addition to the more than 20,000 township soldiers who have no combat effectiveness, it is the Chongming Army of the Third Town to which Liu Zhaoji belongs, and the total strength of the Sha Qianli Department is only 4,000 people.

In fact, Liu Zhaoji was not willing to stay in Jiangyin, but Mao Shibai, who arrived in Jingjiang, had to obey the order. Mao 18 was the commander appointed by Ren Siqi, and all the Chongming troops on the Jingjiang side had to obey his command.

Yan Ermei arrived in Jiangyin City and personally persuaded Yan Yingyuan to agree to withdraw from the people of Jiangyin. However, encouraged by Liu Zhaoji's break of the Qing army, few of the people in Jiangyin City were willing to flee. Yan Yingyuan instead persuaded Yan Ermei that the Chongming army should be stationed in Jiangyin with all its might, and if a large number of Qing troops could be killed or injured in Jiangyin, the situation in the entire Jiangnan would be completely different.

Yan Yingyuan's eloquence is very good, and he has a great view of the overall situation, Yan Ermei can't refute it, maybe he agrees with Yan Yingyuan's analysis in his heart. It was a pain to watch a loyal man like Yan Erme watch one city after another fall, and finally everyone flee to an isolated island. However, the mission on his shoulders made him have to persuade as much as possible, and the effect of such persuasion can be imagined.

In order to avoid Yan Ermei's embarrassment, Shi Kefa personally inscribed a desperate poem and asked him to send it to Chongming to express his vow to stick to Jiangyin's heart:

"Eighty days with allegiance,

Table Taizu Thirteen Dynasty figures,

100,000 people die with one heart and righteousness,

Stay in the Ming Dynasty for 300 miles! ”

After reading it, Yan Ermei burst into tears, so that people took the poem to highlight Jiangyin overnight, and rushed to Chongming by boat. Since then, Yan Ermei has never mentioned the words of persuasion to abandon Jiangyin.

After arriving in Jiangyin, Duoduo's army rested for three days and immediately began to attack the city. The siege strategy of encircling three and missing one was adopted, leaving the north gate and attacking the east, west and south gates with all their might.

The green battalion soldiers were naturally the main force attacking the city, and the 70,000 green battalion soldiers launched a life-for-death attack on Jiangyin under the coercion of the Eight Banners.

Up and down the city of Jiangyin, arrows rained down, and brick and lime bottles were thrown from the city like hail. Countless green battalion soldiers screamed and fell inside and outside the moat, but there were still hundreds of ladders set up at the head of the city, and thousands of green battalion soldiers climbed the ladder like ants with sharp blades and shields in their hands.

Rocks fell like rain at the head of the city, and countless green battalion soldiers screamed and fell from the ladder like dumplings.

After Li Shutai's siege, the township soldiers at the head of Jiangyin City were more familiar with defending the city, and they did not need Liu Zhaoji's main force to participate, and only the township soldiers blocked the siege of the green battalion soldiers.

Occasionally, the green battalion soldiers attacked the city, and immediately the spearmen of the Chongming army surrounded them, and countless spears picked off the green battalion warriors who attacked the city.

For three days in a row, it blocked countless attacks by the Green Battalion. However, the casualties of the village soldiers in Jiangyin City were also very large, with four or five thousand dead and wounded under the bows and arrows of the Qing soldiers. The main reason is that the bow and arrow power of the Eight Banners is too great, and tens of thousands of archers stand under the city and shoot at the head of the city, and there are village soldiers falling under the rain of arrows every moment. In the end, the village soldiers at the head of the city had to defend the city with shields on their heads.

Seeing that it was obvious that the siege could not be taken by relying on the ladder, Duoduo changed the siege strategy and ordered the city to be dug up.

With three layers of cowhide as the top, there are nine beams and eight pillars inside, and more than ten points are set up under the city to start digging the city. Each cowhide tent can accommodate more than 100 Qing soldiers, and the three-layer cowhide arrows on it cannot be penetrated, and the masonry will also pop up when it falls on it.

Seeing this, Yan Yingyuan ordered a cauldron to be set up, filled with tung oil, and began to heat it over a blazing fire. When the tung oil was burned and boiling, it poured down from the city, and the boiling oil burned through the cowhide in an instant, and fell on the Qing soldiers inside, countless torches fell from the city, and the green battalion soldiers screamed and became a burning man.

The strategy of digging the city could not be done, so Duoduo could only find another way, but fortunately, at this time, artillery was transported from Nanjing, Hangzhou and other places, and Duoduo ordered artillery to attack the city.

Hundreds of artillery pieces of all kinds were sandwiched on the high ground outside the city, aiming at Jiangyin and launching a continuous artillery bombardment. Shells rained down on the city, falling on the city and in the city of Jiangyin, breaking bones and tendons, houses collapsing and collapsing, and Jiangyin suffered great casualties at every moment.

The taste of being beaten was not pleasant, and the morale of the city inevitably dropped. Although there were also firearms at the head of the city, and there were many muskets, there were few artillery pieces that could reach far. Although there were hundreds of guns on the warships in the fleet of the Chongming army on Jingjiang Island, after all, the warships could not reach the city of Jiangyin.

The artillery bombardment lasted for three days, and thousands of Jiangyin soldiers and civilians died under the artillery of the Qing soldiers. Yan Yingyuan led the craftsmen in the city to brave the rain of bullets to desperately repair and rebuild the broken city wall.

On the night of 16 August, the rain was pouring down, and the roaring artillery that had been roaring for several days finally stopped.

The gate of Jiangyin Beicheng was quietly opened, and Liu Zhaoji personally led 3,000 Chongming troops to kill the artillery positions of the Qing soldiers.

The Qing artillery on the position had long been hiding in tents to avoid the rain, and was caught off guard by the Ming army who touched it. But in the face of heavy artillery, the Ming soldiers had no choice, and it was impossible to transport it into Jiangyin City. In desperation, I had to plug the muzzles of the guns with wood, hoping that it would be blocked for a few days.

After experiencing the killing of Li Shutai, Duoduo had long been prepared for the night attack of the Ming army, and 5,000 fully armed Eight Banner soldiers surrounded and killed.

Liu Zhaoji led his men to fight fiercely with the Eight Banners, and the gap between strength and combat power was too great, so he could only retreat in a hurry. However, the Eight Banners were chasing too tightly and could not enter the city safely, and Liu Zhaoji, who had no choice, could only lead his troops to retreat towards the river, and fled to Jingjiang under the response of the Mao Eighteenth Water Army, less than 1,000 people could escape their lives, and the Chongming Army in the third town had been disabled.

Without the assistance of the main force of Liu Zhaoji's Chongming army, the situation in Jiangyin City is even more precarious, and there is a danger of falling at any time.