Chapter 1: Battle of Wuchang (I)

Compared with Zuo Liangyu's light marching, Xiong Tingbi's 45,000 army and 3,000 grain, grass and supplies supply teams had a great reduction in the speed of the marching. After walking for fifteen days, he entered Xiangyang. After resting for three days, he continued to march towards Hanyang.

Xiong Tingbi had no idea whether Zuo Liangyu could take down Yuezhou City. It would be good to take down, but there was no way to take down. Zuo Liangyu's army was used to sacrifice when necessary. This was Xiong Tingbi's inner thoughts. He was not in charge of the army. Sometimes necessary sacrifices could bring strategic initiative and overall victory. Xiong Tingbi still did it.

The purpose of occupying Yuezhou is to attack Wuchang when the army attacked Wuchang. The reinforcements from Yuezhou Prefecture and Changsha Prefecture could not rush to Wuchang in time. Even if they could not occupy Yuezhou City, Zuo Liangyu's five thousand army could hold back the reinforcements for a while and win more time to attack the city. This is Xiong Tingbi's original intention. Zuo Liangyu may not fully understand for the time being. Once he cannot take Yuezhou City in the shortest time, he should understand this strategic intention with his wisdom.

After walking for sixteen days, the army finally entered the territory of Hanyang Prefecture. In the middle, five thousand troops were drawn from Xiangyang Prefecture to join the army. If they join forces with the Hanyang defenders, the troops would reach 60,000.

Xiong Tingbi was very worried that Zuo Liangyu's five thousand army had entered the enemy's hinterland had been out of news for almost ten days, and I don't know if it was a blessing or a disaster.

Twenty days ago, Hong Chengchou quietly handed over government affairs to Jiang Riguang, the former youngest Zhan Shifu, who came to take over his position as the prefect of Yangzhou, and led his Yangzhou Water Village to quietly advance westward, and ordered the other seventeen water villages to leave a small number of troops to maintain patrol and alert tasks on the river. The rest quietly gathered to Hankou in batches and standby.

Hong Chengchou himself also moved into the Hanyang Mansion's yamen the day before Xiong Tingbi's army arrived in Hanyang and began to prepare for all matters to attack Wuchang. This time, his 18 water camps were only assisting in transporting the army to the other side to land. The combat mission was to station a thousand navy troops on the other side, but they had nearly seven or eight thousand troops. Although the boat was small, many ants ate the elephants to death. As long as the command was properly, a mere thousand navy troops would not be the opponent at all.

The army quietly entered Hanyang. Hong Chengchou and Hanyang Prefect Bi Zisu personally went out to greet him. Hanyang Prefect Bi Zisu transferred Zhu Yinglong and an imperial edict from the position of Liaodong military deputy envoy. His intention was self-evident. Since he took office, he has rectified government affairs and purchased a large amount of reserved military rations. So far, the official warehouse of Hanyang Prefecture has been able to provide about half a year for food and grass for a 100,000 army. Of course, it is also related to the geography of Hanyang. There are many lakes here and there will be no shortage of water. It is also located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. There are very few floods. Because the summer harvest has just passed, the grain in the official warehouse of Hanyang Prefecture is so full. The battle is very full.

"The subordinates are waiting for each other, and finally the commander is here." Bi Zisu was excited to bow when he saw Xiong Tingbi in brightly dressed in armor.

"The new Huguang Censor Hong Chengchou was appointed as the chief inspector of Huguang!" Hong Chengchou was also very excited. Although he was not the head coach of Huguang this time, his identity as the Minister of Jiangfang was destined to play a key role in landing operations. So let's talk about the opportunity to make achievements. How could Hong Chengchou, who was only in his early thirties, not be excited.

"Two sirs, please get up!" Xiong Tingbi hurriedly stepped forward and helped them up and said, "If we recover Huguang, we will rely on the strong help of the two sirs!"

"You are polite to the commander, and the officials and others should do their best to be loyal to the court."

Bi Zisu and Hong Chengchou welcomed Xiong Tingbi into Hanyang City and set up a simple banquet. The battle is imminent, and everything is simple. Moreover, Xiong Tingbi's frugality is too abundant. It would be unhappy to the Governor, and wouldn't it be worth the loss?

"Master, look, in the fourth year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty, Zhou Dexing of Jiangxia, expanded the city to the south of Huangge Mountain (Sheshan). The mountain first covered the city. The city was about 20 miles away, and there were 9 city gates, including Dadong Gate in the east, Xinnan Gate in the south, Baoan Gate in the south, Wangze Gate in the south, Zhu'er Gate in the south, Pinghu Gate in the west, Hanyang Gate in the north, Caobu Gate in the north, and Xiaodong Gate in the north. In the 14th year of Jiajing, when the chief censor Gu Zi rebuilt Wuchang City, it was changed to Dadong Gate in the east.

It is Binyang Gate, the Xinnan Gate is Zhonghe Gate, the Wangze Gate is Wangshan Gate, the Zhuae Gate is Wenchang Gate, the Caobu Gate is Wusheng Gate, and the Xiaodong Gate is Zhongxiao Gate. In addition, there is also a lookout platform, which can be seen from thousands of miles of Yangtze River, which is easy to defend but difficult to attack. After Huang Yuntai came to Wuchang, he continued to build arrow towers and a small number of large crossbows. He concentrated half of the troops in the city on the front line of Linjiang." Bi Zisu was also responsible for intelligence collection tasks and pointed to Wuchang City in the sand table and explained.

"How about the firearms in the city?" Xiong Tingbi was concerned about whether the opponent had heavy weapons such as artillery, otherwise it would be difficult to fight. Although the troops were superior, they did not have any tactical advantages in attacking one side. Moreover, if the opponent had a navy, if they could not attack in one go, they would be killed by others and they would be killed off the river. The navy attacked one mile and no matter how many troops there were, they could not save the defeat.

"As far as the officials know, the Wuchang defenders had about 3,000 to 4,000 firearms and about 500 Fran machine cannons. It seemed that there were only two red barbarian cannons, all of which were deployed in Hanyang Gate."

"Master, our army's various muskets are less than 5,000, and the Francs run only 400, which is less than the defenders in Wuchang." Yang Zhaoji interrupted worriedly.

"How come there are so few?" Bi Zisu said in surprise.

Xiong Tingbi replied calmly: "The emperor ordered the stop of production of muskets and gave the muskets and Fran machine cannons from the armed warehouses of each province. There are only so many at the moment!"

"Then how can I fight this battle?" Bi Zisu said inconscientiously.

"Mr. Bi, don't worry. The emperor stopped the production of muskets in order to produce more advanced firearms. However, the emperor did not let us fight this unsure battle. He first allocated the twenty red cannons cast for Liaodong to me." Xiong Tingbi explained patiently.

"Master, when will the Red Barbarian Cannon arrive?" Yang Zhaoji has been with the army. He had never seen the shadow of the Red Barbarian Cannon at all, and couldn't help but interrupt and asked.

"It's almost done. I have received a letter from Fei Ge. Three days later, the Red Barbarian Cannons will be escorted to Hanyang. Once the Red Barbarian Cannons arrive, it will be the time when our army will lead the troops south to attack Wuchang." Xiong Tingbi showed an optimistic smile on his face.

"With the Red Barbarian Cannon, I'm not afraid anymore. I was worried just now!" Bi Zisu immediately smiled embarrassedly.

"Mr. Hong, you are responsible for the ships crossing the river. Are you ready?" Xiong Tingbi turned to Hong Chengchou and asked.
Chapter completed!