Chapter 552 Street Fighting in Zhaozhou

The night was dark, and the entire city of Zhaozhou was already asleep.

Since the Mongol Middle Route Army entered the city, the people in the city have basically been moved to the neighboring areas, and the city has become a veritable barracks city.

At this time, on the desolate city wall, the two commanders of the middle route army of the Yuan Dynasty were still standing silently. With the moon and stars sparse, the breeze blowing from time to time, and the insects and cicadas chirping outside the city, it was supposed to be a refreshing night, but the two seemed to turn a blind eye and just looked south. The place where the eye can be seen is the place five miles south of the city of Zhaozhou, where is the camp of the Southern Dynasty army, the distance of five miles has long exceeded the limit of normal human sight, even if the eyesight of the two is good, they can't see in the dark night, not so much that the two are looking with their eyes, but that they are feeling with their hearts.

The surrounding guards and the soldiers guarding the city were far away, for fear of disturbing the two of them.

I don't know how long it took, Boyan first said: "Marshal Ashu, since entering Zhaozhou, the emperor has not had clear instructions for my middle route army, although he has not ordered to defend it to the death, but our army cannot retreat this time." ”

Ah Shu let out a "hmm" and sighed: "There is no way back, there is Dadu behind." ”

Boyan involuntarily looked back and said: "In the past few days, I have been thinking that even if the city gate is broken, our army can also engage in a desperate street battle with the Southern Korean army in the city. In this way, it may be possible to narrow the gap between the two sides in terms of weapons. ”

Ah Shu thought for a while and said, "Boyan, I've also thought about this matter. Rather than attacking the Southern Korean army outside the city, the opportunity for street fighting may be more advantageous to our army, and the only risk may lie in the Southern Korean fireballs. For close-range and unformed melee, the muskets of the Southern Dynasty and the bows and arrows of our Dynasty are roughly the same, and their power will be weakened, and the fireballs do not seem to be limited by the terrain and formation, but as long as our troops can get close to the enemy in time, the effect of the fireballs will be partially canceled out. However, the city of Zhaozhou is small, and there are only two gates in the north and south, once it falls into street fighting, it is very likely to form a state of endless death. ”

"But it's better than attacking out of the city, right?"

"That's for sure."

"That's good." Boyan, who had received Ah Shu's support, seemed to have made up his mind, "Marshal Ah Shu, I will immediately bring this matter to the emperor." In addition, early tomorrow morning, the generals will be summoned to discuss the details of the street fighting. ”

When a person comes to a crossroads, faced with two paths of no return, both of which he knows and may be the point of no return, how to choose? Of course, there are many people who will say, I don't make a choice, I'll go back, but what if someone in the back has a knife and forces you to make a choice?

For Ah Shu and Boyan, it is only a matter of time before the city of Zhaozhou is broken, and there are three ways to choose in front of them, one is to withdraw the army as before, but there is no way to retreat; The second is to attack before the Song army breaks through the city, this road has also been tried, and in the face of firearms, the probability of success is almost equal to zero; The third is to engage in street battles with the Song army in the city, although this road has not been walked, but in the face of fire bombs, even with the bravery of the middle route army, can it be pleased?

At this time, Boyan can only try, no matter what, there may be a glimmer of opportunity in this third way.

The choice is confusing, but once the choice is made, it can be relaxing, because you only need to think about what will happen on the chosen path.

Ah Shu, who walked down the city wall, suddenly thought of what Meng Tianxiang said a few days ago, should he think about the 50,000 troops in the city? After the street fighting, how much will these 50,000 troops remain?

On the twenty-second day after the continuous shelling, the south gate of the city of Zhaozhou was already crumbling, and all the soldiers on both sides of the Song and Yuan dynasties knew very well that tomorrow would be the day the city gate collapsed.

In the camp of the Song army, I held a final meeting on the battle tomorrow.

I first said: "Generals, since the Northern Expedition of our army, it has been smooth sailing, under the absolute superiority of firearms, most of the Yuan army retreated without a fight, and tomorrow's battle of Zhaozhou, maybe it is still the case, but there may also be street battles in the city, if the latter situation occurs, it will be the most difficult battle of our army." After several years of hard training, our Great Song army is no longer the army that only defended the city in the past, so I believe that even if there is a street battle, our army will have a victory rate of more than ninety percent. You say, don't you? ”

"Your Majesty, our army will win."

"Yes, that's good." I nodded confidently and said, "General Lu Wenhuan, you will arrange tomorrow's tasks." ”

"Yes, Your Majesty." Lu Wenhuan stood up and said, "Generals, according to the information that our army has, the city of Zhaozhou is built between two mountains, its north and south are long, east and west are narrow, easy to defend and difficult to attack, and the road topography in the city is unknown. After tomorrow's shelling, there will be two situations, one is the same as Dengzhou, Nanyang and other places, the Yuan army retreats without a fight, and the other is that after the city is broken, the Yuan army will conduct street battles in the city. If it is the first case, there is no need to prepare, as long as you enter the city directly, but the city of Yuzhou is the last barrier of the capital of the Yuan Dynasty, so it is very likely that the Yuan army will not give up. Ladies and gentlemen, since our army has artillery, the most difficult siege in the past has become easy, and we must be prepared to deal with the street fighting in the city. In close quarters, because the firing speed of muskets is slightly slow, the task of the Royal Forest Army is to quickly find the firing point after entering the city, and form a line of defense, with squads or platoons as a unit, try to circle the Yuan army in a fixed range, and use muskets and grenades to eliminate them one by one. The task of the rest of the troops is to cooperate with the Royal Guards so that the enemy cannot get close to them. ”

"There are more than 50,000 Yuan troops in the city of Zhaozhou, of which 40,000 are elite Mongolian cavalry in the middle of the road, but they can only fight on foot in the city, and the Mongolian iron cavalry without war horses will be sharply reduced. Generals, in street battles, we may encounter many unforeseen situations in advance, which requires our officers and men to deal with various incidents flexibly and flexibly, and there is only one principle, to destroy as many enemies as possible while preserving themselves. At present, the number of grenadiers in our army has reached 28,000, General Wenzhang and General Li Long, you don't need to save. ”

"Yes, Lu Shuai, the last general understands."

"Next, Lu will talk about the specific tasks of each army." Lu Wenhuan said with a serious expression.

At the same time as our army held a meeting, Boyan and Ah Shu in the city of Zhaozhou were also arranging tomorrow's tasks.

Under the expectant gaze of tens of thousands of Song soldiers, the artillery began its final roar.

After a few rounds, the walls around the gate collapsed.

Wanyan Tianlei ordered: "Each artillery position, move left and right in the direction, target, the city walls on both sides of the city gate." ”

The cannon sound of "boom, boom, boom" sounded again after a few breaths, covering the Song army to rush towards the city.

Meng Tianxiang and Duan Donglou took the lead, leading the Zhongshun Army and the Xingfu Army to rush to the city gate, followed by the First Division of the Imperial Forest Army led by Wen Zhang, followed by the Second Chamber led by General Wu Songhan, and then the Third Division of the Royal Forest Army led by Commander Li Long, and the Nineteenth Chamber led by General Lu Shikui.

In the smoke, a hundred soldiers of the loyal army who followed Meng Tianxiang threw a hundred projectiles into the city gate, and when the explosion sounded inside the city gate, except for a small number of soldiers who took care of the war horses, the rest of the soldiers dismounted one after another and rushed in on foot.

The city gate was filled with smoke, and there were no Yuan troops in visibility.

Meng Tianxiang and Duan Donglou discussed slightly, and each led the people of the headquarters to move forward cautiously. Under the command of Wen Zhang, a regiment of troops quickly walked to the city wall, and then crawled on the ground, aiming their guns at the city, capturing possible targets one by one. The rest of the musketeers formed small positions in platoons and sheltered houses every few meters, and after the front position signaled that it was safe, the soldiers behind rushed to the front to build a new position.

After walking about 200 steps, a dense rain of arrows was shot from a relatively tall building, and immediately, countless Yuan troops rushed out of the adjacent houses and attacked the Zhongshun army, the Xingfu army, and the Imperial Forest army at the front.

"Enemy attack, fight." Meng Tianxiang and Duan Donglou issued the same order from different areas at the same time.

Soon, more and more Yuan troops rushed out of the houses. As he moved forward, he shouted loudly, "Rush." ”

As soon as the Song army in front saw that the enemy was outnumbered, they began to retreat, and the musketeers in the rear positions immediately threw grenades and lit the arquebus. A moment later, the sound of gunfire and explosions converged, and soon drowned out the shouts of the Yuan army.

Rows of Yuan troops fell, and the follow-up ones rushed up.

Gradually, many positions that had finished throwing grenades were broken through by the Yuan army, and the musketeers did not fight hand-to-hand with the Yuan army, but retreated to the next position, which made more and more musketeers in the rear positions, and with the cooperation of the projectiles, temporarily stopped the attack of the Yuan army.

With the entry of a large number of Song troops outside the city, a chaotic situation began to appear in the city of Zhaozhou.

Although the city of Zhaozhou is not small, more than 50,000 Song troops poured in at once, which also made the battlefield suddenly seem cramped.

The Song army was mainly based on the Imperial Forest Army, supplemented by the infantry army, and combined firearms with cold weapons to kill the Yuan soldiers in front of the position. In the breached position, the infantry army was the mainstay, supplemented by the Imperial Forest Army, and the Yuan army soldiers engaged in hand-to-hand combat.

Although there was no such grandeur as the field war, the tragedy of the battle was not exaggerated.

I waited anxiously outside the city, and the troops around me entered the city one after another, leaving only the artillery battalion, four thousand guards and a regiment of musketeers.