11-63 Battle of Zhangye

The first to arrive in Zhangye was the light cavalry unit of the Red Shirt Army, composed of Wang Fuchen's forward battalion and Xue Chaoyi's horse thieves, armed with light weapons such as firearms, grenades, sabers and spears.

But the Red Shirt Army had too few soldiers, 5,000 men and horses were as small as a drop in the ocean in front of hundreds of thousands of Western Xia troops, the Western Xia people opened the encirclement and put them in, and after a fight, the reinforcements finally rushed into Zhangye City, but only 3,000 of the 5,000 people remained.

Anyway, after waiting for the reinforcements, the morale in the city was greatly boosted, Wu Sangui personally came to greet Wang Fuchen, seeing that the handsome and dashing little General Wu in the past is now yellow and thin, and his eye sockets are deep, Wang Fuchen is not embarrassed, the food in the city has long been exhausted, and there is no decent food to entertain Wang Fuchen and them, and these reinforcements are advancing lightly and do not bring much dry food, so these three thousand reinforcements actually do not play a big role, but will increase the consumption of materials in the city.

Looking at the Western Xia army outside the city to re-encircle Zhangye City into an iron bucket, Wu Sangui finally understood the enemy's intentions, they were not unable to take Zhangye, but adopted the strategy of besieging the city to send reinforcements, inducing the Ming army to come to help, with Zhangye as the center, gradually consuming the vitality of the Ming army, and dragging down the logistics of the Ming army, this is Galdan's wishful thinking.

Wu Sangui hurriedly told Wang Fuchen about this idea, and asked him to telegraph to Liu Ziguang, asking them to return to Lanzhou and stop making senseless sacrifices, the long Hexi Corridor is enough to drag down the logistics of any powerful army, Zhangye is a bureau of Galdambu, whoever jumps in will die.

But it was too late, Liu Ziguang's rear team arrived in Zhangye three days later, but this army did not enter the city, but set up camp twenty miles away from the city, surrounded by carts and camels in a circle, and quickly laid out anti-cavalry thistles and mines, so fast that the Western Xia army was unimaginable, and it was only half an hour for the scouts to see the enemy's traces and the large group of men and horses rushed over to find the fighters. Looking at the impregnable Ming army camp, the cavalry of the Western Xia army tentatively rushed twice, and only gave up when they encountered fierce counterattack.

After the Ningxia Campaign, the Western Xia people have understood the combat methods of the Red Shirt Army, they are very shrewd and no longer attack, but the camp is encircled, and three trenches are also dug to hinder the other party's actions, you don't let me rush in, I still won't let you come out, now it is a cold winter wax moon, there is not even a single grass on the desolate land, the Red Shirt Army has so many people and camels, and they can no longer get replenishment after eating up the grain and grass, the camp is surrounded by three layers inside and three layers outside, and the transport team behind can't pass, as long as it is surrounded for a month, Without the Western Xia army attacking, the Ming army was defeated.

In the face of a strong enemy, the Red Shirts had to hold on, like a hedgehog with a tight body, no one in the two armies could help anyone, so the well water did not violate the river water and stalemate with each other, but the Western Xia Army's attack on Zhangye was more ferocious, the daily bombardment continued, and the sound of killing could be heard from dozens of miles, seeing that the friendly army was increasingly unable to support, but he could not do anything, the Red Shirt soldiers were all indignant and asked to fight, But they were all reprimanded by Liu Ziguang.

Relying on the ammunition brought by the three thousand reinforcements, Zhangye City barely supported for seven days, after a large number of wounded soldiers retreated, died of cold and starvation, Wu Sangui Tiger eyes were tearful, but helpless, it was winter, the cold was abnormal, the things that could be used for heating in Zhangye City were burned almost, in this way, they froze to death before starving, the food in the city had long been exhausted, and now they live by eating horse meat, horse meat is boiled in snow water, not even salt, the taste is as difficult to swallow as firewood, even so there are many people who can't eat itIn the city, there were often cases of officers and soldiers of different battalions fighting and injuring people to death in order to compete for horse meat.

There are currently three factions in this Zhangye city, in addition to Wang Fuchen's department, the western army is divided into Wu Sangui's Hunan army and Liu Zongmin's Guanzhong army, among which Liu Zongmin's people and horses are the most, this horse thief-born general soldier has a great opinion of Liu Ziguang, and keeps complaining about why Liu Ziguang's soldiers and horses have arrived outside the city but do not move to attack to relieve the siege for Zhangye, and even bluntly said that Liu Ziguang wants to take the opportunity to eradicate him as a dissident, which makes the people in the city panic, Wu Sangui has no choice but to pinch his nose and persuade Liu Zongmin to persist every day.

The turning point finally came, one day the grain and grass officer of the Xixia army is now from Jiayu Pass The grain truck was suddenly interrupted, you must know that there are 200,000 troops in the pass, tens of thousands of grain and grass are consumed every day, people eat horses and chew all rely on the transportation from outside Jiayu Pass, to say that the logistics pressure, the Xixia people bear no less than the Han people, the grain and grass officer hurriedly reported to the general Danzila, Danzila is the first general under the account of Galdan, brave and strategic, the plan to besiege the city and send reinforcements is he formulated, after hearing that there is a problem with the supply of grain and grass, he quickly sent someone to investigate, The result was extremely shocking, it turned out that Jiayuguan was captured by the Ming army three days ago!

This news is unbelievable, 200,000 troops are lying across the Hexi Corridor, with mountains and deserts on the left and right, could it be that the Ming army has flown over with wings? It was really said by Danzira that Jiayuguan was captured by the airborne troops of the Red Shirt Army, this Xiongguan that choked the exit of the Hexi Corridor was lost, and the grain route of Zhangye's 200,000 Xixia army was broken, and he was trapped to death before he trapped others, Danzila sent an army of 50,000 to counterattack Jiayuguan, and the rest of the men and horses attacked Zhangye and the Red Shirt army camp regardless of losses, striving to solve the enemy before the grain and grass ran out.

The battle was extremely fierce, the soldiers once had hand-to-hand combat with the Western Xia army, the corpses were everywhere outside the camp, the infantry of the Western Xia army was pulled up and destroyed by the formation, and no one retreated, Liu Ziguang saw the tenacity of the enemy, seeing the enemy army who did not take human life seriously, the red shirts were also stunned, and the black pressed people seemed to be unable to kill them all, the artillery hit and blew up a flesh and blood vacancy, and it was quickly filled, and the Xixia infantry wearing tattered sheepskin jackets and holding small round shields and scimitars kept pouring over on the horizon, howling and rushing over, the stainless steel guns of the fire guns have become fiery red and deformed because of too many shots, and the cannonballs are even less than one, and if this continues, it will be defeated sooner or later.

Liu Ziguang took the sword given by the emperor to personally supervise the battle, and when he saw the marshal on the battlefield, the courage of the soldiers increased greatly, and even moved a counterattack, not to mention the attack of the Western Xia people, and also captured a lot of spears and knives, ready to be used in hand-to-hand combat after the ammunition was exhausted.

In fact, the pressure of the Tangut people is also very great, Danzira does not show favoritism, the military law is extremely strict, no matter who is, who dares to retreat from the battle is only to show the public, when fighting, the military law team follows behind the attacking troops, if the Chinese army does not have the order of Ming Jin, it is to beat all the people are not allowed to retreat, there are those who dare to retreat, all bow and arrow to serve, when the soldier is to die forward, to retreat is also to die, the battle is dead in the hands of the enemy, there is still a little pension, and death in the hands of the military law team can only bring shame and punishment to the family, so I have to fight to move forward, Batch after batch died.

Danzira rode on a horse, observing the situation on the battlefield with a clairglass, although there were countless casualties, but he was not moved at all, anyway, the cost of recruiting these soldiers is very low, a life is far less valuable than a war horse, so he will not hesitate to use the tactics of the sea of people to fill up, and when the ammunition of the Ming army is exhausted, it is when the elite cavalry appears on the stage to sweep the tail, this method of warfare is more stupid, not Danzira's original intention, but the Ming army flew to capture Jiayuguan so that the famous general was very flustered, he was afraid that the Ming army would make some tricks, That's why I used this sea of people tactics to fight the battle.

After a day's battle, he still failed to conquer the camp of the Ming army, and the energy of the Western Xia army was also exhausted, Danzira ordered the soldiers to harass all night and not let the Red Shirts rest, while his cavalry troops were full of war meals, went to bed early, and only waited for the general attack in the early morning to eradicate the Red Shirt camp in one fell swoop.

At this time, the ammunition of the Red Shirts has been exhausted, the guns of the soldiers at the front are empty, only the bayonets are flashing with cold light, the cold wind blows Buddha, like a steel knife cutting the face, the winter temperature in the Western Regions is so low that these Central Plains soldiers are unimaginable, the corpses in front of the battle have frozen into ice mounds, and the blood stains have also formed ice cubes, and they are slippery when they walk on it, the winter clothes of the Red Shirts are not enough to withstand the wind and cold, some soldiers sneak out of the trenches and pick off the sheepskin robes on the dead bodies to keep warm, and more than a dozen huge bonfires were lit in front of the battle to illuminate the battlefield and prevent the enemy from night attacks, Instead of firewood, corpses were used for bonfires, and the smell of burning human flesh and fat filled the air, making people vomit and suffocate.

After a whole day's onslaught, the Red Shirts had lost two trenches, and now retreated to the third trench, that is, the last trench in front of the wall, and wanted to take advantage of the enemy's rest to deepen the trenches, but the temperature plummeted at night, and the ground was frozen like steel, and the shovels were shoveled down only a string of sparks, and they could not even shovel a mark, so the soldiers had to shrink into the shallow trenches, wrap their sheepskin jackets tightly, and discuss the future with each other.

A lot of people died in this battle, and seeing the robes that got along day and night dying beside them, the soldiers knew that their death was not far away, most of them were knowledge-based soldiers who had attended the martial arts academy and could write letters to their families, so they all took out the suicide notes they had already written and exchanged them with each other, promising to help each other take care of their families as long as they didn't die.

The bonfire reflects the young faces, they come from Jiangsu and Zhejiang, from Huguang, from Shanxi, Shandong, from the land of Yan Zhao, in order to kill the enemy and serve the country, and reproduce the heroic style of the Han Dynasty, the brainwashing work of the Red Shirts is really good, although everyone knows that they will die tomorrow, but no one is sad, everyone is vying to show their contempt for death, there are a few junior officers who are talented and talented and also started to make poems, the tragic and heroic verses infected the young soldiers, the north wind whimpered, The song of the Red Army of Manjiang, which gradually sounded on the position of the Red Shirt Army, was transmitted to the camp of the Western Xia Army, and Danzila, who had not slept all night and was still planning for tomorrow's general attack, couldn't help but look sideways, and said in his heart that this Han army was indeed very different from those enemies in the past.

In the dark night, snowflakes gradually fell, and no one saw it, and countless airships flew silently towards the campfire of the Red Shirt camp in the night sky......