Chapter 413: Digging Trench and Besieging the City
The Red Army approached the city of Wuchang, and Oboi had no choice but to return to Wuchang and command his troops to attack the Red Army’s Hongshan camp.

Yang Fang led the First Brigade of his personal soldiers to defend Hongshan, but they were almost defeated by the attack of the Manchurian soldiers. Fortunately, the navy came to his aid, and the main force of the Huben Town also chased to Wuchang, so Yang Fang was able to hold on.

The battlefield situation changed dramatically. Xianning and Tongshan became isolated cities. Ma Jinzhong led the 11th Infantry Brigade to attack Xianning fiercely, and Jiao Lian led the 4th Regiment of 40,000 people to attack Tongshan fiercely.

On the 12th, the Tongshan defenders were isolated and surrendered to Jiao Lian. The Xianning defenders had 3,000 Eight Banners soldiers, who were in great disarray after hearing the news. They set fire to the city at night and escaped.

On the 15th, the 4th Infantry Regiment arrived in Wuchang and cooperated with the Huben Regiment in besieging the city.

In the afternoon, Danchu led the generals out of the camp to survey the terrain and deploy military forces.

Wuchang is an important city in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, where goods from all over the world gather. It was originally a prosperous city. At this moment, outside Wuchang City is a pile of rubble, with homeless people everywhere, and the air is filled with the stench of corpses burned by the fire.

It turned out that the Tartars were tyrannical and cruel. In order to prevent the Red Army from using the houses outside the city to attack the city, they set fire everywhere for two consecutive days, burning all the houses outside the city.

“Lord, there are hundreds of thousands of people outside the city who are homeless, and many of them have been hungry for two days.” Director of the Education Bureau Chu Yongpei said, “Why not cook porridge to provide relief, and the people will be loyal to me. We can use these hungry people to dig trenches and besiege the city and recruit soldiers later.”

“I’m afraid we may have difficulty with food and fodder,” said He Zhaoji, the director of the Operations Bureau, who was more concerned about the food problem. “Giving hundreds of thousands of hungry people a bowl of porridge every day is a huge number. Our army has to transport food over thousands of miles, and there are hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses on the front line. Food and fodder are already quite tight.”

“We must not lose the hearts of the people,” said Yang Yuqi, the right military officer, who had just returned from inspecting the various camps. “Although these people live outside the city, they are inextricably linked to the people inside. If our army helps the hungry people, the people inside will surely be grateful, and it will certainly help us break into the city in the future.”

Everyone looked at Danchu, and he said, “In recent years, we have always used benefiting the people as our propaganda slogan. How can we sit back and watch the hungry people become homeless? Pass on my order, and the Auxiliary Soldiers Association will open porridge places in the south, west, and east of the city, and provide a bowl of porridge every morning and evening. As for food, we will find a way later.”

Danchu turned his horse and galloped towards the river. The generals followed him on horseback until they reached the surface of the river at Yingwu Island.

They were already close to the west of Wuchang, and the Qing army had set up camps outside the city to guard the city gates. Fortunately, the Red Army’s Neijiang navy was invincible and had basically cleared the Wuchang River. Although it was not possible to blockade Wuchang from the water, at least there were no ships flying the Qing army’s flags on the river.

Parrot Island was originally a large island in the middle of the river. It gradually sank toward the end of the Ming Dynasty, leaving only its long and narrow back exposed.

To the north of the Yangtze River facing Yingwuzhou is Hanyang County of Wuchang Prefecture, where the Han River meets the Yangtze River estuary. It is an important commercial town in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. Beyond Hanyang County is Hankou Town, which is a prosperous town with business and tourism. It is known as one of the four famous towns in the world, along with Foshan Town in Guangzhou, Jingdezhen in Jiangxi, and Zhuxian Town in Kaifeng.

To the south of the Yangtze River opposite Yingwuzhou is a place called Niuyutao, which is the last barrier outside the west city of Wuchang. The Qing army built a camp in Niuyutao and stationed elite soldiers there to help the garrison defend the city.

Everyone dismounted and checked the situation on the river. The operations staff took a simple map, and the director of the operations bureau, He Zhaoji, said: “Your Majesty, please look, this place is called Jiangxingzhou, located downstream of Wuchang, less than 20 miles away from Yingwuzhou. This island is very large, with a radius of five or six miles, located at the mouth of the Luoshui River. The Tartars have two camps here. I think we should first send the navy to capture Jiangxingzhou and cut off the Tartars’ retreat on the water.”

“Hmm,” Danchu murmured without saying anything. Suddenly there was a commotion not far away. It turned out that a group of hungry people saw that Danchu and his men were wearing bright armor, and they knew that they must be high-ranking officials of the Red Army, so they rushed over to join the army.

Danchu was just trying to understand the people’s sentiments, so he stopped the guards who were trying to stop him and said, “Let them come.”

The hungry people were ragged, pale and thin, and had obviously suffered a lot. They came to Danchu and others, knelt down in a crowd, and begged:
“I beg you all to take me in. I am willing to serve you like a slave.”

“My whole family was burned to death by the Tartars. I just want to join the army, kill a few more Tartars, and avenge my family!”

… “Dear fellow villagers, please stand up!” Danchu said, “The Red Army will set up a porridge factory tomorrow, and you can go there to ask for food. In the future, the Red Army will dig fortifications outside Wuchang City, and will rely on you. If anyone is willing to join the army, you can go to Hongshan Camp to sign up.”

The hungry people were overjoyed and said, “Sir, you are so kind and generous. We will never forget it!”

“When the Heavenly Army breaks through the city, I will definitely go up to help. If I don’t kill a few Tartars, I will not be a human being!”

……

After sending away the hungry people, everyone felt relieved. Qian Bingdeng said, “The people’s hearts can be used. Our army will surely capture the city this time.”

“It should be no problem to break the city. The key is to kill Oboi and wipe out the Eight Banners Army. Otherwise, it will be the same as the Battle of Hengzhou and the Battle of Changsha. If Oboi escapes, we will have to mobilize a large army to organize a major expedition.”

The Red Army had been fighting for years, and the number of troops suddenly increased to 300,000 or 400,000, which was close to the limit of the people’s strength. This time, if they could annihilate a large number of Qing troops by trapping Oboi in Wuchang, they could go down the river and directly take Jiangxi and Nanzhili provinces.

“Haste makes waste,” Danchu said, “So, first send troops to garrison around Wuchang, then send troops to clear the key passes outside the city, such as Niuyutao, Changhong Bridge, Shuangfeng Mountain, etc., gradually tighten the encirclement and trap Oboi in the city.”

“If we dig a trench outside the city to besiege Wuchang, how long will it take?”

Wuchang is close to the Yangtze River, and outside the city are East Lake and Shahu Pond, which can provide convenience for the Red Army to besiege the city. However, Wuchang is the capital of Huguang and the key to the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. The city is large and the walls are high. If you want to dig trenches outside the city to besiege it, it will cost a lot of manpower and material resources.

Taking the terrain into consideration and the Qing army’s city defense artillery into account, the length of the trench had to be much longer than the length of the city wall, generally at least four or five times the circumference of the city wall.

“The trenches used to besiege the city have to be very tight. Even though we can use the Yangtze River as a backup, the trenches outside the city must be more than fifty miles long. If they are ten feet deep and two feet wide, the amount of earthwork will be staggering and it will take at least three months to complete,” said the experienced Director of Operations He Zhaoji.

“The Tartars have many cavalry, and each of them can carry a bundle of fodder, so they can fill the trench quickly. The trench must be at least ten feet deep and thirty feet wide, so that when the Tartars break through, our army will be able to react.”

“I just don’t know whether Aobai will defend Wuchang to the death or break out of the city?”

“With the previous experience of Tunqi, I’m sure Aobai won’t dare to break out easily.”

……

After a long discussion, Danchu decided to dig trenches to surround the city. He said, “Gather the hungry people and the righteous army to dig trenches to surround the city. The trenches should be one zhang deep and three zhang wide. There should be beacon towers every li, a small camp every two li, and a large camp every five li.

“First, send a land force across the river to capture Hanyang and Hankou, and to seize Hanchuan, Xiaogan and other places to obtain silver, money, grain and rice for military use. The navy will first capture Tianxingzhou and tightly block the Yangtze River, so that no ship or sail can come to the Tartars.

“When the Tartars run out of food, we will break into the city and fight a bloody battle with them, and not let a single Tartar escape.”

(End of this chapter)