Chapter 416 Conquer Nanchang First
After receiving the secret letter from the Marshal’s headquarters, Kuang Shi read it twice before passing it to the instructor Zhang Tongchang.

Zhang Tongchang glanced through it quickly and said with a sense of relief, “Fortunately, the king has no intention of blaming me.”

Kuang Shi rubbed his dry eyes and said, “Although I don’t blame you, your tone is not good after all. I guess Wuchang is also in a difficult situation. We can’t send reinforcements, and if we insist on attacking Nanchang, it will inevitably make people talk behind our backs.”

“This?” Zhang Tongchang shook his head and said, “It is the best strategy for our town to stay and attack Nanchang. It will be good for the war situation in Jiangxi and Huguang. The king is very righteous and will not blame us for this.”

Zhang Tongchang had a long career, being a descendant of Zhang Juzheng and a student of Qu Shisi. When Cen Danchu was still a boy soldier, Zhang Tongchang was already active in the officialdom of Guangxi, assisting Qu Shisi in defending Guilin for a long time.

Kuang Shi was young and a rare leader in the Red Army, but he was sometimes impatient. Zhang Tongchang was mature and steady, serving as the instructor of the Second Infantry Regiment. He worked very well with Kuang Shi and was regarded as a model instructor for the entire army.

People at that time often compared the Red Army’s instructors with the Ming Army’s military supervisors, but the Ming Army had very few military supervisors, while the Red Army assigned instructors to the team level, which played an extremely outstanding role in unifying military power and implementing military orders.

Kuang Shi was in overall military responsibility and was not as carefree as Zhang Tongchang. He said, “The king certainly understands us and supports us in the siege of Nanchang, but our comrades in Huben Town and the Fourth Town may not understand us. They are stepping up the siege of Wuchang, and the trenches have not been dug yet. The Tartars are rushing over, and they may have already cursed us behind our backs.”

“Haha,” Zhang Tongchang smiled and said, “In this case, we must intensify the siege of Nanchang. Once we capture Nanchang, the rumors will naturally fall apart.”

“Yes, the sooner we take Nanchang, the sooner we can reinforce Wuchang!” Kuang Shi made up his mind and said, “We must overcome the difficulties and capture Nanchang as soon as possible!”

On that day, Kuangshi summoned his generals and invited Wang Xing, the commander of the Jiangxi Garrison Town, Zhu Tongjian, the deputy commander, and other comrades to discuss countermeasures together.

He first read the king’s secret letter to everyone. The reactions of the people were different. Some were fierce and advocated to immediately send troops to reinforce Wuchang. Some looked hesitant and unwilling to abandon the crumbling Nanchang. Some looked worried, worried that if they did not besiege the city tightly enough, the Tartars would rush to Wuchang to help, and they would inevitably be blamed by the king…

Kuang Shi came straight to the point and made his position clear. He said, “Wang Zhen, Zhu Zhen, fellow comrades, I have written to the king and made it clear that I will not send troops to reinforce Wuchang. It is not that I do not consider the overall situation, but I have my own unspeakable difficulties.

“The troops of our two towns have been stationed at the gates of Nanchang for a long time, and we are determined to capture Nanchang. The Tartars sent troops to rescue Wuchang, and the defenders are weaker and their morale is even lower. Our army has more infantry and cannot march fast. Instead of sending troops to reinforce Wuchang, we should speed up the siege and capture Nanchang as soon as possible.”

“That’s right!” Wang Xing agreed with Kuang Shi’s opinion and said, “As long as our army captures Nanchang and then divides its troops to besiege Jiujiang, Wuchang will be isolated and will collapse without a fight if the siege lasts for a long time!”

Both town commanders advocated the siege of Nanchang. Naturally, the other generals had no objection and expressed their support.

“Very good!” Kuang Shi said, “If we don’t send troops to reinforce Wuchang, we must capture Nanchang as soon as possible. Our army has been besieging the city for nearly two months, and the Tartars in the city have lost 5,000 fresh troops. If we can’t capture Nanchang, I will have to commit suicide to apologize to the king!”

This was quite serious, and the generals said enthusiastically:
“Taiwan Governor, please arrange the siege. I am willing to be the vanguard and lead the death squad to rush into the city first!”

“If we fail to capture Nanchang, I will commit suicide to apologize to the governor. Please let someone with more virtue take over!”

……

After mobilizing the enthusiasm of the generals, Kuang Shi began to arrange the siege. He still used the method of siege by digging holes, and the direction of the digging holes was chosen outside Desheng Gate.

The Red Army had organized two underground sieges, the first one was outside Deshengmen. It had just rained in spring, and the Ganjiang River was flooded. Nanchang is close to the Ganjiang River, and the underground water level is very high, so the tunnels are wet and humid. The Red Army finally dug to the city wall near Deshengmen, but the buried explosives were damp, so part of them failed to explode, and the collapsed city wall was not wide. At that time, the morale of the Qing army was high, and they organized troops to block the loopholes.

The second time, they chose to attack the city by digging a hole outside the Yonghe Gate. Halfway through the digging, they were discovered by the Tartars. The Tartars dug trenches near the city to block the Red Army’s tunnels, and built a moon city inside the Yonghe Gate, which made the Red Army’s previous efforts go to waste.

After fierce wars, the Qing army gradually mastered the method of dealing with underground sieges.

There are two commonly used methods to determine the direction of a cave. One is to climb up high and look far away. If you see withered grass and trees on the ground, that is the direction of the tunnel. The other is to dig a hole near the city, turn a large urn upside down, and have a blind person listen, which is often effective.

There are three common methods used to prevent the Red Army from attacking the city from underground. One is to dig trenches near the city to block the attack. The second is to build a moon city inside the city. The third is to prepare sandbags, coffins, baskets and other items to temporarily block the gaps in the city wall in case the city wall collapses.

Given the topographical characteristics of Nanchang, if the Red Army wanted to break into the city, Deshengmen and Yonghemen would be the most suitable points of entry. Kuang Shi assessed the situation and decided to use the old tunnel outside Deshengmen to shorten the construction period and cover up the traces of the tunnel.

The engineering battalion used the Wenxiao Temple outside Desheng Gate as a cover and dug tunnels day and night. Zhu Tongjian led the Jiangxi garrison to attack Yonghe Gate to cover up the second garrison’s intention to attack the city.

Two days later, the tunnel was completed. At 3 p.m., the Qing army was preparing to eat when they heard a muffled sound from underground. Smoke and dust covered the sky at Desheng Gate, and soon a gap more than ten feet wide was revealed.

The Red Army was very skilled in using underground siege methods, and often organized secondary explosions to kill the enemies who were repairing the city walls. This time, the underground siege was far from Deshengmen, deliberately avoiding the Moon City built by the Qing army.

The Qing army did not dare to act rashly for fear of being blown up by the Red Army.

The Red Army’s 500-man death squad had been waiting for a long time, and under the leadership of Li Jianjie, a brave general from the Second Town, they rushed straight to the gap at Deshengmen.

“Revenge for the King of Ningxia and the King of Yulin!” The Sixth Brigade was mainly composed of Dongxun’s former subordinates, and Li Jianjie was Li Chengdong’s adopted son and Li Yuanyin’s younger brother. In addition to conquering Nanchang, they also wanted to avenge Li Chengdong and Jin Shenghuan, so they shouted this slogan.

Others clamored, “Capture Nanchang and capture Loto alive!”

The Qing army did not dare to come to fight until the five hundred death squads approached the city wall. This delay of less than a quarter of an hour was fatal to the defenders. When the two armies finally engaged, the Red Army had already climbed the gap in the brick wall and began to rush into the city.

The Qing army gradually gathered around, desperately blocking the way and fighting with the Red Army’s death squad. They were outnumbered and gradually gained the upper hand. However, they never expected that the Red Army’s rear guard had arrived and gradually controlled the gap in the city wall, and the soldiers poured into the city like a tide.

Lotto was still struggling to survive, and he led the Qing army to come to his aid. The Red Army had already carried ladders and attacked Nanchang from all directions.

At about 9:00 p.m., the Red Army captured the Deshengmen Gate and welcomed the troops into the city. The Qing army was already doomed, and the Green Camp was the first to surrender. The Eight Banners still tried to struggle and engaged in street fighting with the Red Army.

Unfortunately, the Red Army was large in numbers and powerful. Fifty thousand soldiers from the Second Town and Jiangxi Town poured into the city and engaged in a fierce battle with the Eight Banners soldiers in every house and courtyard.

By the evening, the Red Army successively captured the governor’s office, the provincial governor’s office, the provincial prosecutor’s office, and other offices. Seeing that the situation was hopeless, Loto led his troops to break out, but was blocked by the Red Army at every level and blocked by trenches. In the end, he only led more than a thousand cavalrymen to break out of Nanchang.

(End of this chapter)