Chapter 414: Oboi trapped in Wuchang
After capturing Niuyutao, the next target of the Red Army was Shuangfeng Mountain.

The Qing army stationed two thousand soldiers here – there were originally one thousand local militiamen, but they were more likely to cause trouble than to accomplish anything, and many of them were secretly connected with the Red Army, so Oboi simply dismissed them all.

The Second Brigade of the Red Army was responsible for attacking Shuangfeng Mountain. The commander of the brigade, Cen Guangyun, was originally the chieftain of Tianzhou and personally went to the front line to supervise the battle.

“Since the Eastern Expedition, the Qinyi Association has made many contributions, and the day before yesterday, they captured Hongshan. Today, our association will focus on attacking Shuangfeng Mountain. We must go all out and strive to capture Shuangfeng Mountain in one battle.”

“Xietai, have the artillery’s rockets been dispatched?”

Shuangfeng Mountain is a small mountain outside Wuchang City with a relatively high terrain. The Qing army built a large camp on Shuangfeng Mountain and deployed artillery to respond to the Wuchang defenders.

“They have been transferred here,” Cen Guangyun said, “but the 100% guns and the Red Cannons are deployed at Changhong Bridge and cannot be transferred here for the time being.”

“That doesn’t matter. As long as the rockets are brought over, we will be able to defeat the enemy with confidence.”

The Qing army’s Shuangfengshan camp was not built solidly, with only a wooden wall erected outside the camp. Due to the fire outside the city, wood was in short supply, so the wooden wall of the Shuangfengshan camp was not solid, with only wooden fences erected and separated by wooden strips.

Rather than calling it a wooden wall, it is better to call it a fence. The imperial guards were all equipped with mountain-splitting cannons, which could easily break through the wooden wall. The sky-rocketing cannons could fire shrapnel shells directly into the Qing army camp. Even if the Qing army was in a high position and retreated into the city, they would still be killed and wounded by the shrapnel shells.

It is just as the unjust have few supporters, the just have many supporters. The Qing army was unpopular, no one helped to build the camp, so the camp was built in a simple manner. On the contrary, the Red Army had already started digging trenches, and there were 100,000 civilians mobilized.

At 9:00 pm, the Red Army’s sky-rocketing cannons and mountain-splitting cannons began to show off their power. Although the Qing army was in a dominant position and had the advantage of terrain, they had no effective cannons and were unable to suppress the Red Army. The soldiers had no choice but to lie on the ground and behind their shields to avoid the Red Army’s artillery fire.

At noon, after half an hour of artillery preparation, the Red Army blasted two large gaps in the wooden wall of the Qing army’s Shuangfengshan camp. Two death squads, each with more than 300 people, each holding a shield, rushed towards the gaps in the wooden wall from the west and south.

The Qing army was quite brave. They used carts, wooden boards and other objects to block the gaps and charged at the Red Army with their spears.

The second pro-communist group was mainly composed of Tusi soldiers from western Guangdong. They had been through many battles, were brave and skilled in fighting, and were willing to risk their lives to charge. Tusi soldiers had climbed mountains and crossed streams since childhood, and were fearless of death. Some of them thought the gap was too crowded, so they simply climbed over the wooden wall and fought hand-to-hand with the Tartars.

After a successful attack, Cen Guangyun led his soldiers and rushed towards the Shuangfengshan camp under the bullets of the Qing army.

There were only two thousand Qing troops in the camp, including one thousand Green Camp and Han troops, and it seemed that they were about to be overwhelmed.

Oboi was watching the battle on the top of the city wall. Seeing that the Shuangfengshan camp was about to be breached again, he had to dispatch troops from inside the city to reinforce.

The Red Army also came prepared, sending the Third Brigade of its own soldiers to specifically block the defenders. The Red Army had already mastered the tactic of besieging a city and attacking its reinforcements, which could be used in both large battles and small battles.

After two hours of fighting, the defenders were defeated and had to burn down their camps and retreat back to the city with the help of their comrades. The Red Army pursued them boldly and did not stop until they reached the moat. The defeated soldiers fought for the drawbridge and hundreds of them fell into the moat. Those who could not swim naturally drowned, and some people who could swim also drowned because they were wearing heavy armor.

In Wuchang, the morale of the Qing army was low. Banbulshan was so worried that he couldn’t sleep all night. He complained to Oboi: “General, this is not a solution. Now that Hanyang has been lost, the ships have been cut off, and the food supply has been completely cut off. The red bandits are gathering under the city and attacking calmly, eliminating our strongholds one by one. If we sit and wait for death, even if the red bandits don’t attack the city, our army will starve to death.”

He had a very low status in the royal family, and only got the title of Fuguogong by clinging to Oboi. This time he left Beijing to announce the imperial edict, originally wanting to take the opportunity to get close to Oboi, but he didn’t expect to be implicated by Oboi and trapped in Wuchang. It’s really too clever to plan too much, but it cost you your life!

Oboi had many brothers, and Murima was the bravest and most valued by Oboi. But now, Murima had lost confidence and said dejectedly: “The people in the city are shaken, the bandits are ready to make a move, the Han army, the Green Camp, the officials, and the people are all unreliable. The red bandits have already started digging trenches. Once the trenches are built, even if our army has more than one man and more horses, it will be difficult to escape.”

If the generals were so pessimistic, let alone the middle and lower-ranking soldiers. Oboi had been in many battles and knew the importance of morale.

In the past, the Manchurian army was invincible, and after a victory, the soldiers made a fortune, so their morale was quite high. But since he fought with the Red Army, his army lost more than it won, and when the soldiers heard that the Red Army was a tiger guard, they often became afraid before the battle.

It will be difficult if soldiers have no confidence in fighting!

Back then, Oboi had mocked Tunqi for retreating without a fight, losing troops and humiliating the country. Now the situation was such that even Banbulshan and Murima had lost confidence and were urging him to break out of the city.

Aobai’s food and ammunition supply was about to be cut off, and the key defensive points outside the city were gradually eliminated by the Red Army. Apart from breaking out of the city, what else could he do?

In addition, the morale of the military and civilians in the city is unstable, and many of them are secretly communicating with the Red Army. If this is tolerated, once there is a food shortage, the Green Camp, Han Army, militia, and gentry will pay money and surrender.

No wonder, when Zhu Chenggong led the navy to besiege Nanjing, the garrisoned Eight Banners shouted to massacre all the Han people in the city. If he had not been cautious, Oboi really wanted to massacre all the Han people in the city and then burn the entire Wuchang.

“Isn’t it said that there are profiteers selling rice on the Yangtze River? How much grain and rice can we buy from them?” Oboi tried his best to remain calm, avoiding showing his inner panic, and asked about the logistics of the central army.

“The price of rice is too high. Before the Red Bandits captured Tianxingzhou, the government army’s grain ships could still bring in grain. At that time, profiteers were already raising the price of rice, and one stone of rice was sold for eight taels of silver. Now that the Red Bandits are powerful and are ruthlessly arresting profiteers and blocking the Yangtze River, profiteers dare not come here to sell rice. Occasionally, there are ships docking, but they are all small sampans with not much rice, and one stone of rice is priced at twenty taels of silver.”

Silver was expensive in the late Ming Dynasty. In the grain-producing areas of Southern Zhili, a stone of rice could only be sold for less than one tael of silver. Even during the war years, a stone of rice could only be sold for four or five taels of silver at most. As the siege of Wuchang became more urgent, unscrupulous merchants dared to raise the price of rice to twenty taels of silver. This was really absurd.

Oboi was so angry that he blew his beard and glared, cursing: “You bastard, when I defeat the Red Bandits, I will definitely catch all the profiteers and kill them all.”

“For now, we can still supply food. There is still food in the city. If things get bad, we can go to the people’s homes to plunder silver and rice. It won’t be a problem to last for three months.” The central army changed the subject and said, “The key is gunpowder and lead. Our army has a lot of firearms, and the consumption of ammunition is alarming. The Red Bandits have blocked the Yangtze River and the siege is getting tighter. We can’t get ammunition. Every penny we use means we have less. Once the ammunition is used up, the guns and cannons will be useless.”

“Brother! Why don’t we break out as soon as possible, go to Nanchang, join forces with Loto, and then have a decisive battle with the Red Bandits!” Murima couldn’t bear it any longer and said bluntly.

“Break out? Break out! What the hell!” Aobai suddenly got angry and said, “What about the sky rockets? What about the 100% cannons? Throw them all away? There are only 40,000 bannermen left. If we try to break out, they will be killed by the Red Bandits. How many will be left in Jiangxi? Are you sure that Luotuo can hold Nanchang? Didn’t you see what happened to Tunqi? Our army will hold out for three months, and the court will definitely send troops to rescue us.”

Oboi was furious, veins popping out on his forehead and the flesh on his face twitching. He shouted, “Even if all of us men of the Eight Banners die in Wuchang, we will never retreat a single step. Pass on my order, rest today and leave the city tomorrow to fight the Red Bandits!”

He turned to the central army and said, “Tomorrow, while the two armies are fighting, we must rush to transport a batch of food, fodder and ammunition into the city to reassure the troops.”

(End of this chapter)