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Qin Mu had ordered Hui Dengxiang and Jin Shenghuan's 60,000 troops to implement the leapfrog tactic, sailing across Anqing and heading straight for Caishiji.
This invisibly created even greater pressure on Meng Ke. Since Huangshiji in Jiangdong could not be captured, the subsequent grain ships were always threatened by artillery fire.
The remaining 8,000 troops of Tulai were like a tough bone to chew, which gave Mengke a headache.
Mengke set up three lines of defense on the north and south sides to prevent Tulai from making a desperate attempt to break out. The battle had come to this point, and if Tulai escaped again, Mengke would not know where to put his face.
After the three lines of defense were set up, Meng Ke sent troops to make a feint attack during the day, and then served Tulai a proper meal at night under the cover of darkness. Under the stormy attack, Tulai's 8,000 troops could not rest for a moment, and had to light a large number of fires for lighting.
Huangshiji was not big. After three days, everything that could be found was burned by Tulai. The thousands of Qing soldiers did not even have firewood to cook and could only eat raw rice to fill their stomachs.
At night, it was pitch black on Huangshiji, and many people in the Qing army suffered from night blindness and had difficulty distinguishing things.
Meng Ke took advantage of this and often ordered his soldiers to reach the foot of Huangshiji before suddenly launching a fierce attack. He attacked Huangshiji many times, but the Tatars, who had no way to survive, resisted extremely fiercely, and the Qin army, which attacked from above, was forced to retreat again and again.
Compared to Meng Ke, the pressure Tulai endured was a hundred times heavier. Thousands of soldiers and horses were attacked day and night without rest, and they would die of exhaustion sooner or later.
There is no hope of breaking out, and morale is low. They are now relying on reinforcements from Nanjing to barely hold on, but after so many days, there is still no sign of reinforcements.
Hong Chengchou did send reinforcements. Nikan led 8,000 troops from Nanjing to rush to Anqing for support. But before they reached Taiping Prefecture, Hui Dengxiang's 60,000 troops attacked Caishiji under the cover of the navy, and the entire Taiping Prefecture was in a state of emergency.
Caishiji was the second and last line of defense that Hong Chengchou had set up to protect Nanjing. However, there were only 16,000 soldiers and no artillery. Under the rapid attack of the Qin army's land and sea forces, the situation was precarious. Nikan had no chance to come to Anqing and hurriedly joined the battle of Caishiji.
In addition, Hong Chengchou ordered Xu Yuxian, who was stationed in Tongcheng, to lead 20,000 troops to the south to help Anqing. Xu Yuxian was a general under Zuo Menggeng. The 20,000 Zuo troops arrived at Qiaozhen, which was still 200 miles away from Anqing. After hearing that Qin Mu had sent Hu Shouliang's 3,000 cavalry to meet the attack, they stopped in Qiaozhen and hesitated.
At this point, it was impossible for reinforcements to arrive in Anqing City in a short period of time.
Under the command of Liu Meng, tens of thousands of Qin troops under the city, each carrying half a bag of sand, rushed to the moat under the dense rain of arrows from the top of the city. The Qing army concentrated all its artillery to bombard the city. The Qin army fought one after another, and finally filled the trench after paying a heavy price.
Kong Youde in Anqing led a group of elite soldiers to open the west gate and attack the new camp of the Qin army to the east. Liu Meng ordered the supervisory team to line up behind the new camp and sent Guo Yunlong to attack the west gate to block Kong Youde's way back. The two armies fought fiercely at the west gate, killing so many people that the sky changed color, corpses were everywhere, and even the river was dyed red with blood.
On the other hand, the tunnel at the foot of Mashan was being dug day and night, and it was less than fifty feet away from the Anqing city wall. The navy had brought tens of thousands of pounds of explosives, waiting to be used for blasting after the tunnel was dug.
"Report. King Qin, General Liu Yongzhi has captured Kuizhou, Qin Yiming and Ma Wannian have captured Chongqing at the same time. Liu Wenxiu's 40,000 troops have arrived in Chongqing and are attacking the city fiercely. Qin Yiming is outnumbered and has sent people to ask General Liu Yongzhi for help. General Liu Yongzhi asks King Qin for instructions on whether to reinforce Chongqing."
The news sent back by the messenger made Qin Mu, Sima An, He Liang, Gu Junen and others who were busy stop.
According to the original plan, after Liu Yongzhi captured Kuizhou, he would not go southwest to Chongqing, but would take advantage of the chaos in Sichuan to attack Guang'an, Dazhou, Nanchong and other cities directly westward from Wanzhou.
Once they reinforced Chongqing, not only would they become enemies with Liu Wenxiu, but they would also most likely lose the opportunity to capture Guang'an and other cities.
"What are your opinions?" Qin Mu asked.
Sima An spoke first: "Li Dingguo and Liu Wenxiu have not yet torn their relationship. If we reinforce Chongqing at this time and become an enemy of Liu Wenxiu, we must first consider Li Dingguo's feelings. Now we don't know how Wang Huanran and Li Dingguo negotiated, so it is inappropriate to provoke Li Dingguo at this time."
He Liang added, "However, Chongqing is an important town in eastern Sichuan. It is not necessarily a good thing for it to fall into the hands of Liu Wenxiu, whose identity is unclear. Besides, Qin Yiming and the King of Qin are of the same blood after all. In addition, Qin Liangyu has a strong influence in Sichuan. If we can win her over, it will be of great benefit to the surrender of the chieftains and city guards in Sichuan in the future. This time Qin Yiming has asked me for help. If I do not save him, I will undoubtedly lose the best opportunity to win Qin Liangyu over."
This problem is quite tricky, no wonder Liu Yongzhi at the front did not dare to make a decision on his own;
If we do nothing to save him, we will lose the opportunity to win over the Qin family of Zhongzhou.
If he went to rescue him, he would become an enemy of Liu Wenxiu. If Qin Liangyu refused to support Qin Mu, he would lose both his wife and his army.
While everyone was thinking deeply, the newly appointed Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of War, Lu Daqi, said: "King Qin, Chongqing has an extremely prominent strategic position. Controlling Chongqing is equivalent to controlling the entire eastern Sichuan. Since Qin Yiming has asked for help, I think it would be a good idea to let Liu Yongzhi rush to help and take the opportunity to control Chongqing.
If Qin Liangyu still doesn't want to support the King of Qin in the future, at least we still have Chongqing in our hands, so our efforts will not be in vain. As for Li Dingguo and Ai Nengqi, they may be a little unhappy, but I don't think they will change their original intentions because of this. At most, the King of Qin will show more sincerity in the future."
Whatever is in your stomach is yours. Lu Daqi's suggestion was in line with Qin Mu's wishes, so he immediately ordered someone to send a message to Liu Yongzhi, asking him to rush to Chongqing as soon as possible.
Just as this problem was solved, another messenger came in and reported: "King of Qin, Duoduo sent Ashan to lead 40,000 troops to reinforce Lekedehun. The situation at Hulao Pass is critical and the army is seriously short of food. Commander Ma Yongzhen requests food and fodder support."
Qin Mu frowned slightly when he heard this. Ma Yongzhen said that Hulao Pass was in danger, but he did not mention anything else. He only requested food and grass support. This was actually a reminder for Anqing to break through as soon as possible and end the situation of fighting on two fronts as soon as possible.
Otherwise, if Luoyang cannot be defended, even Xiangyang will be in danger.
At the same time, Ma Yongzhen also pointed out that the biggest difficulty he faced was the problem of logistics supply. The Luoyang area had been in ruins after years of fighting, and the local people were still eating tree bark and wild vegetables. It was impossible for tens of thousands of Qin troops to get supplies from the local area.
The food and weapons for an army of tens of thousands of miles had to be transported from Wuchang, and the laborers would have to eat half of them on the way. It was a very difficult task to transport food and weapons for an army of tens of thousands of miles.
"Pass on my order, have Ma Yongzhen hold out for another half month. If the battle goes badly after half a month, you can decide whether to abandon Luoyang and withdraw to Xiangyang."
“Yes!”
"Send a message to Meng Ke, and give him three days to capture Huangshiji and open up the road to the east so that we can advance to Taiping Prefecture as soon as possible."
“Yes!”
"Report, King Qin, General Han Gang was surrounded by Fei Yanggu's 4,000 troops in Chashan on his way to reinforce Lanxi. General Han Gang led his troops in a bitter battle with the enemy for three days and two nights, and all 1,000 soldiers were killed."
"Han Gang died in battle?" Qin Mu felt as if he had been hit on the head. Han Gang and another lieutenant general Li Chen were the most outstanding military talents in the first batch of training camps he had trained. The scenes of them training and eating together in the past were still vivid in his mind.
"Where is Han Xiu? Hasn't Han Xiu arrived in Quzhou yet? Why didn't he reinforce Han Gang?"
"Replying to the King of Qin... General Han Xiu has not yet arrived in Quzhou. There are only 2,000 troops left in Quzhou City. It was already the afternoon of the next day when we received the news that General Han Gang was surrounded in Chashan. If we send more reinforcements, we are afraid that Quzhou will be lost, endangering the entire Jiangxi defense line..."
Seeing that Qin Mu was about to get angry, Sima An quickly advised: "King Qin, the border between Jiangxi and western Zhejiang is full of mountains and ridges. It is understandable that Han Xiu's marching speed is slow. There are too few troops in Quzhou. I am afraid that reinforcing Han Gang will not help, but may even lose Quzhou."
"King of Qin..."
"If you have something to say, just say it!"
"Yes, yes, General Han Gang's body was not found in the tea mountain. He might have been captured by the Tartars."
"Prisoners?" Qin Mu's expression changed. He had always promoted the idea in the army that it was better to die in battle than to be captured. Only in this way would the weaker party be determined to fight the Tartars to the death.
Han Gang was a general he had trained personally and regarded as his confidant. If he surrendered, it would undoubtedly be a slap in the face to Qin Mu.
"Yan Gaofei!"
"I am here."
"Tell Ye Bushou to check immediately to see whether Han Gang was captured or surrendered. Find out as soon as possible."
“Yes.”
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ps: The ranking on the monthly ticket list has been dropping, and the situation is really pressing. The second update is presented today, and I continue to ask for support from monthly tickets.
Please give me a monthly ticket!
.(To be continued..)
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