In the face of the Chinese army, which was constantly launching offensives like a tide outside the city, Wu Ruxiao was deeply helpless!

Although he had shrunk his forces in the early stage, and at the same time hoarded a large amount of food to prepare for a long-term death, the difference in strength between the two sides was really large.

At the beginning, it was better, the Chinese army at that time wanted to encircle the point and send reinforcements, so it only launched an artillery bombardment on Zhenjiang and carried out some preparatory attacks, not saying a large-scale siege, but focused on encircling and destroying Li Xiucheng's reinforcements.

Now that Li Xiucheng's headquarters had been destroyed, Lin Zhe was able to mobilize the forces of the 3rd Division, the 5th Division and the two auxiliary defense divisions to Zhenjiang, and the greatly strengthened Chinese Army launched a general attack on Zhenjiang.

Wu Ruxiao's troops in Zhenjiang City immediately couldn't stand it, and the Chinese army outside the city seemed to be determined to take Zhenjiang Field, and they didn't care about casualties at all when attacking.

Wu Ruxiao didn't know that a large number of casualties during the siege of the city were not the regular army of the Chinese army at all, and the regular army was so precious that Lin Zhe was reluctant to use them as cannon fodder.

The main force of the siege was the auxiliary defense force in the Chinese army, especially the two newly formed Ninth and Tenth Auxiliary Defense Divisions were used as real cannon fodder, and they were forcibly driven up to charge the battle again and again.

You must know that these people were still Taiping soldiers a few days ago, in other words, in fact, this Zhenjiang is the Taiping army beating itself.

With the increasing number of casualties among the Chinese army's auxiliary defense forces, the defenders of Zhenjiang City also suffered heavy casualties, and many trenches and fortifications outside the city built in advance have been gradually captured, and the two sides are currently fighting around the city wall.

Five days after the Chinese army launched a general attack on Zhenjiang, it had already attacked the city several times, especially the soldiers of the Ninth Defense Division who had just surrendered but were still forced to shave their heads.

Climbing to the top of the city, they engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the Taiping army, which brought a large number of casualties to the Taiping army.

At this time, Lin Zhe also noticed a very interesting phenomenon, that is, it seems that these former Taiping soldiers who surrendered themselves fought more bravely than when they were still Taiping Army, and he learned from the battle report that during the Battle of Danyang, Li Xiucheng led 20,000 people and the Third Division and other troops to fight a big battle, and only lasted less than an hour before the whole army collapsed.

And now, these former Taiping soldiers who have just surrendered to Cheng seem to be much more courageous than their former comrades-in-arms.

In fact, this situation is not impossible, in order to strengthen the combat effectiveness and loyalty of these auxiliary defense forces, the Chinese army gives them relatively generous treatment, and on the other hand, the Chinese army forces them all to shave their heads.

Once you shave your head, there is absolutely no way back, the Manchus see that you have to fight, and the Taiping army sees that you have to fight, except for continuing to mix in the Chinese army, they have no way to retreat.

In addition, the Chinese army is known for its strict military law, and this rout will be killed 100% in front of the battle, you must know that in the past few days, the Chinese army's supervision team has killed hundreds of deserters from the auxiliary defense army in front of the battle.

Although it is also dangerous to attack forward, in fact, the war in this year was not World War I or World War II, and if we could not move, tens of thousands of casualties would be killed or wounded, and in fact, the casualties in frontal combat were relatively limited, and large-scale casualties generally occurred during the rout.

Throughout the many battles of the Chinese army, the number of enemy troops killed and wounded by them in frontal battles is not as large as imagined, and the vast majority of them are the number of enemy troops killed and wounded by their own side after the collapse of the enemy army.

And a very important point is that the Chinese army also treats the auxiliary defense forces differently, and the soldiers sent to fight as the main force to climb the wall are generally the soldiers in the camp in the auxiliary defense divisions, and the bravery of these soldiers is relatively good, and they are generally the main combat force in the auxiliary defense divisions.

In this way, there is an illusion, that is, these assistant defense divisions are more brave when attacking the city!

However, in any case, Tongguò continued to attack, and now the Chinese army has already captured the city, and once the Chinese army occupies the city wall, then the Zhenjiang city can also be declared lost.

In the face of these situations, Wu Ruxiao was anxious, these days of defending the city, the soldiers under his command have been killed and wounded at least more than 3,000, don't think that there are 30,000 people under his command, only 3,000 dead and wounded only account for one-tenth of them, it seems that there is no injury to the bones, but things cannot be directly looked at the surface of the numbers.

Any army has a tolerable casualty ratio, and once that ratio is exceeded, it will cause a chain collapse reaction.

A large number of soldiers were still wounded but not dead, and a large number of wounded lay behind the city walls or elsewhere, wailing all day and night, which greatly damaged the morale of the army.

Now that the city has been lost several times, the morale of the soldiers in the city is generally low, and even a large number of middle and high-ranking generals are pessimistic about whether they can hold Zhenjiang.

No, at today's military meeting, many generals just sighed and said:

"For example, it is impossible for the Beijing side to send reinforcements to our Zhenjiang today, and it is extremely difficult to hold Zhenjiang with our strength alone!"

"Yes, since the original Zhongwang's reinforcements fell into the treacherous scheme of the Chinese army and were destroyed, we have no reinforcements!"

"What kind of loyal king, this Li Xiucheng dared to take refuge in the Chinese demon army, such a traitor wasted the trust of the Heavenly King and the nine thousand years old in him!"

"The army has been defeated, in order to save the lives of tens of thousands of soldiers, he is also forced to be loyal to the king, is it possible that you can still sit back and watch the tens of thousands of innocent soldiers under your command die tragically?"

As soon as these words came out, everyone present was silent, and now everyone understands this situation very well, that is, Zhenjiang will definitely not be able to hold it, and it makes no difference if it can be held for one day or three or five days, and the city is broken.

It's not that they are ineffective in fighting, in fact, they are already desperate to defend Zhenjiang, but the opponent is too strong to rely on them alone, and it is impossible for Tianjing to send reinforcements.

Although Tianjing originally had a lot of troops, he had already sent 20,000 troops before, and the remaining troops were only forty or fifty thousand at most.

There are no reinforcements outside, and many trenches and fortifications outside the city on their side have been lost one after another, and at present they can only defend the city wall, judging from the fact that the enemy has recently climbed the city wall several times, it is unknown how many days the city wall can hold out.

And on the day the city is broken, I'm afraid the fate of these people here will be very bad!

At this time, someone spoke: "Didn't you send a letter from outside, why don't we ......?"

Before he could speak, someone immediately shouted and scolded: "What do you mean, do you want to learn from Li Xiucheng's traitor, if you want to join the demon army, I will not agree to die!" ”

Immediately, some people joined the scolding war, one by one saying that they would fight to the death, and some said that Zhenjiang was guarding to this day, and they were already worthy of the king of heaven, and they had to endure humiliation for the lives of tens of thousands of soldiers.

Wu Ruxiao looked at them, and sighed in his heart, if they dared to say anything about surrender a few days ago, but now seeing that the situation is getting worse and worse, these people can't bear it anymore, they also want to live, and they want to keep their glory and wealth.

Don't think that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was founded on the religious belief of God, and everyone was a believer, in fact, for most of the lower-level soldiers and low-ranking officers, they were more religious believers, but this was not the case at the top.

Not to mention anything else, the former Eastern King Yang Xiuqing completely regarded the Divine Religion as his ruling tool, and if he had nothing to do, he would play with the Heavenly Father to descend to earth, if you want to tell me what God Religion Yang Xiuqing believes in his heart, it is better to say that Yang Xiuqing himself is God.

Today's Shi Dakai is also a non-believer, otherwise he would not be like Yang Xiuqing, continue to put Hong Xiuquan in the air, and he would be the 9,000-year-old who is in charge of the military and political power of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

In fact, like all regimes, the glory and wealth pursued by the elites of the upper echelons were not exempt from vulgarity, otherwise the upper echelons of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom would not have become luxurious and blessed after the Tianjing was conquered.

Although Wu Ruxiao and his generals are not the top magnates of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, they are also considered to be the ruling class, if they continue to resist stubbornly, once the city is broken, they will not only lose their glory and wealth, but also lose their lives.

In this case, Lin Zhe sent a letter of persuasion to the city, and the letter of surrender said that as long as they were willing to take the initiative to surrender, they could not only avoid the suspicion, but also absolutely not pity the high-ranking officials.

If you surrender, you can continue to maintain the glory and wealth, even if you surrender in the past, you can't continue to lead the army because of suspicion, but the glory and wealth of this life can be guaranteed, and it is much better than the city being broken and dying.

Moreover, the Chinese army is different from the Qing army, the Qing army rarely accepts prisoners of the Taiping army on a large scale, and even kills prisoners on a large scale. As for the Chinese army, there has been no large-scale killing of prisoners so far, and everyone knows that the auxiliary defense army under Lin Zhe is a number of surrendered troops.

If you surrender to the past, your lives can not only be saved, but also continue to be a soldier to eat food, the current Chinese army has raised the anti-flag, and in the future, you will urgently need to serve in the war, if you are willing to take the initiative to join, you may not have an important opportunity!

The most important thing is that this Zhenjiang is about to be unable to hold it, so it is no wonder that these Taiping generals are seeking a way out!

Two days later, the Chinese army once again attacked the city head at the south city gate, and this time the Chinese army quickly put in a regular infantry regiment to climb the city wall after the soldiers of the auxiliary defense division climbed the city head, and with the addition of this regular infantry regiment, they quickly occupied and expanded the area of the city wall.

At this time, Wu Ruxiao was finally unable to suppress the surrender of his generals, and that night, several generals who wanted to take the initiative to surrender to Cheng led their own personal troops to launch a mutiny, killing a number of Taiping generals who resolutely opposed Surrender, and then controlled Wu Ruxiao's personal troops.

More than ten generals knelt in front of Wu Ruxiao's door, kneeling and begging Wu Ruxiao to bear the burden of humiliation for the lives of more than 100,000 soldiers and civilians in the city, and dedicate the city to China! (To be continued.) )