Chapter 267: Overwhelming Superiority

Xu Chengqing had traumatic tinnitus, and his brain circuit now only kept repeating the words that the rebels had entered the city, and after slapping his two big ears vigorously, Xu Chengqing sobered up a lot: "Quick, stop them no matter what." ”

"The rebels are coming... The rebels are coming again..."

A soldier shouted in a panic at the top of the ruins on the city tower, the smoke was gradually dissipating, and the rebels in the distance were walking towards the city gate in a neat manner, the team was not panicked at all, and it was only two hundred steps away from the city gate.

"Quick, archers prepare..."

The surviving archers were stretching their bows and arrows out of the female wall, bursts of gunfire rang out, and then countless flying lead bullets hit the entire female wall like a torrential rain.

"Chief soldier, the city gate can't be carried, you go quickly, and you will defend it in the end..."

Xu Chengqing's ears were bleeding, but he didn't pay any attention at the moment, his left ear was already deaf, and his right ear was buzzing, but seeing the situation outside the city, he also knew that the hope of holding the county seat of Wujin was too slim.

However, even so, Xu Chengqing still stood up and drew his knife and shouted: "Soldiers, the traitors have been killed, follow me to defend against the enemy..."

.

The sound of gunfire, artillery, arrows breaking through the air and the earth-shattering shouts of killing were staged at the east gate of Wu County, Suzhou City, Huang Degong's face was solemn, the enemy's offensive was extremely fierce, and it was still unknown whether the 1,800 people of the guard regiment could hold Suzhou.

The officials and soldiers chose Wu County instead of Suzhou because the city wall of Wu County was much shorter than that of Suzhou, and it was not difficult to attack the city.

However, now the defense of the entire Suzhou is only one guard regiment, and more than 1,000 former Suzhou guards who surrendered.

"Has the deputy of the building group come back?"

"Nope..."

The guard regiment of the Dingwu Army has not been expanded, but everyone knows that Huang Degong and Lou Xingye have a bright future, although they are only a small regiment commander and deputy regiment commander, but as long as they are decentralized, they are more than enough to be a division commander.

After Zuo Liangyu and You Shilu's 40,000 troops arrived in Suzhou, the Suzhou gentry, who was not originally too peaceful, suddenly felt that Chen Cao's general trend had gone, and secretly colluded with each other to prepare for the defense of Suzhou.

Lou Xingye, who got the news, personally led his men and horses into Suzhou City to purge this group of people, so as not to make the already overstretched defense even more difficult.

"Tuanza, it's up again..."

In Huang Degong's view, such a desperate attack by the officers and soldiers was unexpected, and he knew the combat effectiveness and fighting will of the guards who went north when he was in the border army in Liaodong, such as this kind of guards in Liaodong and Jiannu once the whole army was wiped out, why was he so afraid of death when he went to the south.

However, Huang Degong still saw the clue from it, behind the formation of this group of guards, there were actually many soldiers in border army costumes pressing the formation, seeing this, Huang Degong's heart tightened, could it be?

"Tuanza, the enemy army is divided and headed to Gui'anmen..."

Gui'an Gate is on the northeast side of Wu County, just to the right of Huang Degong's location, and it is a city gate that opens on the left side of the east gate of Wu County and is next to the city of Suzhou.

The officers and troops divided their troops and returned to Anmen, with a very obvious intention, that is, to attack Suzhou from multiple points.

In the three days since the arrival of the officers and soldiers, Huang Degong has been closely controlling the defense of the city gate, especially the east gate of Wu County, which the officials and soldiers focus on, so that it is impossible to leak the specific defense of the city.

"Divide the troops, reinforce and return to Anmen..."

Lou Xingye was slashing off a dead soldier in front of him with a knife at this moment, and detained the whole family of several wealthy gentry and wealthy families who intended to cooperate with the outside world in the governor's yamen, and received the news that the war was tight.

"Has the messenger for help returned?"

"Back to the group deputy, Lord Huang has no news yet."

Lou Xingye did not believe that the official army had cut off the road to the south and blocked them from going to Songjiang for help, according to Huang Chunyao's footsteps, he should have arrived in Qingpu yesterday, and the army was assembled and hurriedly went north, at least the day after tomorrow.

"Deputy regiment," a personal soldier came over: "Reliable information, Zhang Shihuang and others contacted many people to secretly collude with the new annex army of Taixingmen to defend the city, and prepare to surrender the city when the enemy army attacks Suzhou." ”

Lou Xingye was originally dissatisfied with those landlords and old wealth, but now that he got the news, he immediately prepared to kill, taking advantage of Chen Cao's absence, to clean up this group of people first: "The whole team gathers, first go to Taixingmen to take down all those people who eat inside and outside, and then go to clean up Zhang Shihuang's group." ”

.

"Back off, back off... Bring our tiger squat cannon here. ”

Xu Chengqing's ears had already regained his hearing, and he was commanding inside the city gate at the moment, but relying on the cover of the big shield was not enough to resist the Dingwu army that had already attacked the city.

Lead bullets flew sideways, from time to time there were soldiers shot and fell to the ground, and then the strength of the counterattack was not at all, and the news from the north gate was that the north gate had been lost, the rout had been formed, and it had become impossible for Wujin County to hold until noon.

"General soldier, Wujin can't be defended, nothing can be done, general soldier, you withdraw first, and the last general will cover the withdrawal of the army."

Xu Chengqing also has self-knowledge, now that Wujin has been lost, he will resist the rebels here, and there is only one result, that is, he was surrounded in Wujin and the whole army was annihilated.

"Okay, after leaving 10,000 people for you, you wait for the opportunity to act..."

The morale of the defending army lies in the command of the generals and the use of the soldiers, and now that Xu Chengqing has given the order to retreat, the soldiers who have long shown signs of rout and fled have run faster than Xu Chengqing, the general soldier, so that Xu Chengqing has gathered tens of thousands of people in the middle of the road.

Chen Cao did not order a pursuit at all after learning the news that the official army was fleeing frantically, his target was not Xu Chengqing, but a sneak attack from the rear.

Just after getting the news of the recovery of Wuxi, he fell into contemplation, Song Che's consideration was correct, the official army did not return from Zhongxi, but ran directly to the direction of Suzhou, this move can show that the commander of this army is by no means a mediocre person like Zuo Liangyu, it must be a general sent by the imperial court.

But when most of the world's famous generals are under their command, who is coming?

"Order, order the third division to quickly prepare and rush back to Suzhou."

As soon as the order was issued, the soldiers of the Third Division, who had just entered most of the group, retreated one after another, and their horses were outside the city, and it was only two days of work to return to Suzhou on horseback, and the time was completely in time.

Only Ning Guoxing's artillery division had no choice but to stay in Wujin.

Tang Kainian rode a horse and hurried, and his subordinates were arresting the prisoners: "Grandpa, Xu Chengqing has run away, nearly 10,000 prisoners have been captured, and Wujin City has been taken." ”

Chen Cao nodded, and then said: "Long Wujun stayed in Changzhou Mansion, I left the artillery division to you, I am worried that Xu Chengqing will definitely come to Wujin again, and I will leave it to you here, and then I will go north after I finish packing up the men and horses who attacked Suzhou, in addition..."

Chen Cao thought for a while, and then said, "Send someone to keep an eye on King Fu's movements." ”

Tang Kainian clenched his fists: "Don't worry, Grandpa, this place will be handed over to the last general..."

.

Chen Cao urgently returned to Suzhou with the Third Division, and when he arrived at the city of Suzhou, the battle was in the white-hot stage.

"What the hell is going on?"

Chen Cao frowned and looked at the county seat of Wuxian County, which had been burned to ruins by the fire, and couldn't help but look solemn, Suzhou's defense forces were too small, and now the situation was too chaotic, what was the battle situation in the city, and there was not a single herald who came out to report the news.

Tang Yannian rode his horse around, and the rangers sent out rushed back: "Tell the division, the officers and soldiers are going to Wujiang." ”

An hour later, Song Che, who led the first division back a few days ago, personally went out of Suzhou City: "Grandpa..."

"How's it going?"

Song Che let out a sigh of relief: "Fortunately, the Shenwu army has arrived, and the official army has now been defeated and gone in the direction of Wujiang County." ”

Chen Cao frowned, looking at the smoke coming out of the city: "The official army set fire to the city? ”

Before Song Che could speak, more than a dozen horsemen quickly came to Chen Cao's side, who was the leader not Huang Degong and Lou Xingye?

When the two saw Chen Cao, they immediately dismounted and knelt on the ground, shouting in unison, 'guilty'.

Huang Degong was the first to speak: "The last general is ashamed of his father's cultivation and failed to hold Suzhou." ”

Lou Xingye also agreed.

Chen Cao didn't know the inside story, he didn't expect that the official army would have a sudden sneak attack, and Zuo Liangyu's gang could still attack Suzhou.

Song Che saw that Chen Cao did not speak, so he said: "Grandpa is angry, the guard regiment has 1,800 manpower and does not retreat, and there are traitors in Suzhou City, and our army is outnumbered, resulting in the loss of Wu County and Suzhou City, and when the general leads the troops to pursue the official army at the end, there are only more than 600 people left in the guard regiment who are still fighting hard. ”

Although Chen Cao kept a cold face, he still took over the topic after Song Che finished speaking, and laughed three times before saying, "Do you think I'm angry?" The reason I didn't speak was because I was thinking about what they were going to do next. ”

Huang Degong and the others breathed a sigh of relief, according to their understanding of Chen Cao, today's move was just a formality.

Later, Chen Cao learned the specific inside story from the mouths of Song Che, Huang Degong and others.

It turned out that before the city of Wuxian was broken, Lou Xingye had just captured the new garrison of Taixingmen, and was about to arrest Zhang Shihuang when he heard the shouting of killing in the direction of Dongping Gate, and when he arrived at Dongping Gate, the city gate had been breached, and a large number of officers and soldiers rushed into the city gate.

It was only later that I learned that it was Zhang Shihuang and others who opened the Dongping Gate.

The official army took advantage of the situation to attack in a big way, entered Wu County from Gui'anmen, and then began to set fire to kill and loot, and Wu County was in chaos.

At this time, the situation was no longer under the control of Huang Degong's more than 1,000 people, so he could only give up Wu County and enter Suzhou City.