Chapter 417: The City is About to Be Broken
The Second Town captured Nanchang, and the two prefectures of Nankang and Raozhou soon rebelled. Kuang Shi then led his troops northward and besieged Jiujiang, an important town in northern Jiangxi.

Jiujiang is bordered by the Yangtze River in the north and the mouth of Poyang Lake in the east. It is the backbone of the six southeastern provinces and has been managed by the Qing army for a long time. If the Red Army captures Jiujiang, it can threaten Nanjing. The enemy’s retreat in Wuchang will be cut off and the situation will become more difficult.

Kuang Shi did not have a powerful navy and did not attack Jiujiang by force. Instead, he sent out Deputy Town Commander Du Yonghe to lead two infantry divisions to rush to Wuchang overnight.

Du Yonghe was originally a general of Dongxun and served as the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, with a special status. He led his troops to surrender to the Red Army, allowing Cen Danchu to smoothly take over Guangdong. Because of this achievement, Du Yonghe was promoted to deputy commander of the Second Infantry Regiment.

In late April, Du Yonghe led his troops to Wuchang. He saw 100,000 civilians digging trenches outside the city. The Red Army used trenches to connect mountains and lakes, forming a tight blockade outside Wuchang.

The soil from the trenches was piled up at the back to form a wall of chevaux de frise. A beacon tower was built every li, a small camp every two li, a large camp every five li, and artillery forts were deployed occasionally.

The Red Army was well mobilized and the trench digging progressed quickly. In another month, when the trench was completed, the Qing army would be unable to escape.

Before Du Yonghe’s troops arrived, he went to the headquarters to pay respect to the king. After meeting, Du Yonghe saluted and said, “King, I am here to reinforce Wuchang on the orders of Kuang Zhen.”

In this attack on Wuchang, Cen Danchu led the Huben Town and the Fourth Town with a total of 130,000 troops. In addition to the casualties in combat, he had to divide his troops to attack Hanyang, Hankou, Hanchuan, Xiaogan, Huangpi and other places in Jiangbei, capture Daye and Wuchang County (now Echeng City, 120 miles east of Jiangxia County, a part of Wuchang Prefecture), and block the Qing army’s reinforcements. There were only less than 80,000 troops available for the siege of Wuchang.

Danchu was worried about the lack of soldiers, and Du Yonghe’s troops came to help, just like a timely help. He was very happy and asked, “Very good, how many soldiers did you bring?”

“I am bringing the Fifth and Sixth Armies, less than 30,000 troops.” Du Yonghe carefully observed Danchu’s expression and saw that he had no intention of blaming him. He said, “Before, the battle in Nanchang was getting more urgent. My garrison stayed in Nanchang to besiege the city and was unable to reinforce Wuchang in time. I hope the king will forgive me.”

“It’s okay,” Danchu said, “The Second Town concentrated its main forces to attack Nanchang first and pinned down Lotto in Nanchang. The decision was correct. I don’t blame you. Kuang Shi said that this battle was very enjoyable. Tell me in detail…”

Talking about the Battle of Nanchang, Du Yonghe was immediately beaming with joy and said, “Our army besieged the city for nearly two months…”

The Second Infantry Regiment and the Jiangxi Garrison Regiment besieged Nanchang for nearly two months. The city was cut off from reinforcements and food supplies, and the defenders were already short of food.

The Manchu Ningnan General Loto was restless and often criticized his subordinates. The Green Camp in the city was alienated from him and surrendered secretly. Oboi ordered Loto to send troops to reinforce, and Loto sent another 5,000 bannermen to Wuchang, making the defense of Nanchang even weaker.

The Red Army attacked the city through underground tunnels and rushed in, first capturing Deshengmen and then pouring into the city, engaging in fierce street fighting with the Eight Banners.

In the chaos, the Green Camp in the city turned against the Red Army and attacked the Eight Banners. Lotto was in even more trouble and had to abandon the city and break out. More than 10,000 Eight Banners soldiers were blocked by the Red Army. In the end, only more than 1,000 Eight Banners soldiers broke through the siege and retreated to Jiujiang.

More than 600 Eight Banner soldiers surrendered to the Red Army, including not only Han soldiers but also Manchu and Chahar Mongolian banner soldiers. Kuang Shi rejected all objections and accepted the surrender of the Eight Banner soldiers, tattooed them on their faces, and dispersed them into the Second Infantry Regiment and Shoude Town in Jiangxi…

“The intelligence agency has received accurate information that Luo Tuo was so ashamed after arriving in Jiujiang that he committed suicide out of fear of punishment. From Huguang to Jiangxi, across the thousand-mile Yangtze River, there are only a few isolated cities left, such as Wuchang, Jiujiang, and Hukou.” Qian Bingdeng said, “In recent months, Oboi has sent troops to attack from time to time, but there is no sign of a breakout. From time to time, the Tartars have come to aid Wuchang. Our army has blocked them layer by layer, but we will not fight to the death with the Tartars and let them enter the city. There are many people in Wuchang City, and all the food depends on aid from outside. We have besieged the city for a month. In another month, the food in the city will run out and the city will be broken.”

“It is the common people who are suffering!” Danchu sighed, “The Tartars are brutal and cruel. They will do anything to rob food. If we take the city one day later, the common people will suffer one more day.”

Du Yonghe had once defended Guangzhou alone, and he knew exactly what it was like. He said, “My Lord, please allow me to speak frankly.”

Du Yonghe brought 30,000 new troops. Cen Danchu was about to rely on him and said, “Just speak frankly.”

“What is the most important thing for an army to defend a city? In my opinion, it is not the city wall, not the food, but hope. Soldiers will be willing to defend the city only when they have hope. Back then, I was alone defending Guangzhou…”

At that time, Du Yonghe was alone in Guangzhou, and Cen Danchu was ordered to help Guangzhou, but he had to return to western Guangdong because Kong Youde invaded Guilin. Later, Shang Kexi and Geng Jimao invaded Guangzhou, and Du Yonghe, with no external help, fled to Qiongzhou by sea.

It is not appropriate to talk about this old matter with the king. It seems that Du Yonghe is blaming the king for not saving Guangzhou.

Qian Bingdeng interrupted him and refuted, “Du Zhen is wrong. Zhang Xun, a famous general of the Tang Dynasty, defended Suiyang to the death. He was isolated and helpless, with no food or grass, and no hope for his soldiers to survive. However, he was able to stop the An Lushan rebels in the isolated city and save the Tang Dynasty from danger.”

Du Yonghe was quite obedient and agreed, “What the young man said is very true. The Tang army is a righteous army, and the Tartars are a brutal army. Zhang Xun can live and die with Suiyang, and the soldiers and civilians of the whole city share the same hatred for the enemy. Oboi is unkind, and the soldiers and civilians all hate him.

“Now the Tartars’ food supply is cut off, the city is short of food, Luo Tuo in Nanchang has been killed, and Aljin in Jingzhou is blocked in Yuezhou. The Tartars in Wuchang have no external aid and have no will to fight. Our army will attack Wuchang day and night with elite troops, and we will surely break the city ahead of time. The morale of our soldiers is high, and we are willing to be the vanguard to attack Wuchang.”

Danchu was thinking the same thing, and said, “You have come from a long way, so you should rest your troops and conserve your energy. When the time is right, I will command your troops to attack Wuchang.”

Ten days later, the Red Army concentrated 100 artillery pieces and red-haired cannons on Shuangfeng Mountain and fiercely bombarded the Wuchang city wall. After a day of bombardment, the Red Army blasted a gap of 50 to 60 meters long. Du Yonghe ordered the Second Town Death Squadron to attack the gap fiercely.

However, the gap was small, the Tartars were still strong, and the Red Army was ultimately unable to enter the city.

But the situation was developing in a direction that was favorable to the Red Army. Every household in Wuchang City hung red cloth strips at the door, because the Red Army had already issued an order that people who hung red cloths would be obedient citizens and would not be killed after the city was captured. The Eight Banners soldiers also began to hide red cloths so that they would have a way out when the city was captured.

Cen Danchu was calm and did not rush to attack the city. He ordered the Red Army to strictly guard their positions and seal off the Tartars, not letting any of them escape. The soldiers stepped up their efforts to dig trenches, and the intelligence agency scouted and instigated the rebellion of the Green Camp…

(End of this chapter)