Southern Ming Rebel Army

Gao Yi followed closely beside Meng Jun, and from time to time he asked, "Commander-in-chief, is it time for the heavy armored troops to go into battle?"

But Meng Jun always shook his head and said, "The time has not come yet." The heavy armored troops can only be used at critical moments. Today is when the defenders are most prepared. The enemy is not yet frightened, so even if the heavy armored troops go into battle, it will only hurt their morale.

After three hours of bloody fighting, the soldiers of Ningwu Town were a little tired. They launched attacks on the city again and again, desperately rushing to the wall of Zhenjiang City, but were driven down again and again by the defenders. After the bloody battle, a large area of land near the city wall had already been dyed a shocking blood-red color.

The battlefield was filled with smoke, shouts, and the sound of weapons clashing resounded through the sky. At this moment, a crisp sound of a gong suddenly came from the rear camp of Meng's army. Upon hearing this signal, the originally fierce and bloody battle scene began to calm down. The attacking soldiers retreated like a tide, leaving behind a devastated battlefield.

As the horn sounded, Meng's army retreated, and the Zhenjiang defenders took the opportunity to descend from the city, set fire to the pontoon bridge and the siege tower ladder.

Seeing that today's battle was over, Ma Deyang stopped even the artillery fire. He walked into the city wall tiredly and took off his armor. He had four or five wounds on his body. Although the armor protected him and the wounds did not penetrate deep into the flesh, blood still oozed out.

Although they repelled the Meng army's siege, Ma Deyang showed a dazed look on his face. This Meng army was different from the bandits of the past. The bandits of the past attacked the city and drove the people like ants. Their morale was low and they had almost no training. They had no armor, and it was rare for them to have archers to cover them when climbing the city.

It was not like the opposite side, where artillery fire was non-stop, there were also muskets for cover, there were also many archers, and the morale of the soldiers was high. Ma Deyang thought that Meng Jun's claim to have an army of 300,000 was similar to what Li Chuangwang boasted about in the past. If so, Ma Deyang would naturally be sure of holding Zhenjiang. But now, he could not guarantee how long he could hold it.

As soon as the war had just stopped, Ma Deyang urgently dispatched dozens of teams of messengers, about a hundred cavalry, to report to Jiangning. At the same time, Ma Deyang secretly sent his confidants to prepare boats on the riverside in case of emergency.

Meng Jun and the other generals were all gloomy. In today's battle, not only did the east side return empty-handed, but the same was true for Bai Yongfu, Qian Biao, and Wang Fugui in the south. Although some brave warriors climbed up to the top of the wall, they were still driven down the city by the defenders.

Back in the tent, everyone felt a little depressed. Zhenjiang City was indeed tall and majestic. Although the city was not big, it was still solid.

Bai Yongfu broke the dull atmosphere and said: "General, judging from what happened today, if we attack the city by force, it will probably take at least ten days to break the city."

Lin Shiqi shook his head and said, "Commander-in-chief, if we attack the city by force, the soldiers will suffer heavy casualties. If the casualties are too heavy, we must be aware that the Lekedehun troops will arrive soon, so we must be on guard."

Meng Jun heard this and asked Zhang Bo, who was standing beside him, "Deputy Envoy Zhang, where has Leke Dehun gone to? Have you found out how many of his troops are heading south?"

"Replying to the Governor, we received news three days ago that Lekedehun had just set out from Changsha, but the news only started to be transmitted on February 10th. When Lekedehun set out from Changsha, he had 5,000 elite soldiers from the Eight Banners with him. The number of Green Camp soldiers is unknown, but it should not be less than 40,000," Zhang Bo stood up and answered Meng Jun and the generals.

Meng Jun said in a deep voice: "That means Lekedehun should have reached Yueyang by now, and it will take half a month to go down the river to Jiangning."

"Even if we take Zhenjiang today, and then spend three days to reach Jiangning and then prepare for the siege, we can capture Jiangning City in eight or nine days," Zhao Yongping said to everyone with some disbelief.

Meng Jun tapped the table lightly, thought for a moment and said, "After the food and weapons are delivered to Zhenjiang, the navy of Shen Tingyang's army will go up the Yangtze River to see if they can attack Lekedehun on the water. If not, they can force them to abandon their ships in the Tongling and Chizhou areas, which can also delay them for a few days."

"Governor, Geng Zhongming of Anqing is already planning to build a navy. He has recruited 3,000 naval soldiers, more than 30 warships, and more than 100 other small boats. Although they are newly built, they should be able to protect Lekedehun's troops," Zhang Bo said to Meng Jun after hearing this.

Meng Jun pondered for a moment, then said: "Follow this order. Even if the navy is wiped out, Lekedehun cannot be allowed to return quickly. Xia Wanchun, draft a military order."

"It's the governor."

Seeing that the morale of the crowd was low, Meng Jun tried to comfort them, "Although Jiangning City is strong, the city walls should be as high and thick as possible. However, the bigger the city, the better. Jiangning's city walls are 80 miles long. How many people would Hong Chengchou need to guard them? If he guards everywhere, it would be the same as not guarding anywhere."

Hong Chengchou also knew that Jiangning City was too large to be defended for long. When Meng Jun was eyeing Jiangning, Hong Chengchou had already mobilized more than 30,000 Green Camp soldiers including Yang Wulie, Lin Guangyuan, etc. to gather in Jiangning. Later, he felt that the troops were insufficient to defend the city, so he asked Dorgon to order Shandong General Ke Yongsheng to move 4,000 soldiers to Jiangning. There were originally 2,000 Eight Banners soldiers defending Jiangning City, and Ma Degong and Tian Xiong gathered 5,000 defeated soldiers. There were still more than 8,000 Green Camp soldiers stationed in Jiangning.

The garrison of Jiangning numbered about 50,000 men. When Meng Jun swore to go to war, Hong Chengchou recruited able-bodied men in Jiangning and assigned them to civilians, totaling 60,000 men.

Meng Jun then issued an order: "Rest for one night and fight Zhenjiang again tomorrow. The artillery will not stop firing at night and continue to bombard Zhenjiang City. Send troops to guard against night attacks by the Qing army."

Everyone obeyed the order and retreated.

As the order was given, the silenced artillery roared again, and there were cries of surprise from the top of the city. Ma Deyang was furious and said, "Madman, you are still firing at this time!"

The rounds of artillery bombardment left the Zhenjiang defenders, who wanted to repair the city wall, helpless.

At night, Ma Deyang sent his subordinate Liu Ke to lead a thousand soldiers to attack the artillery position of Meng's army at night, but they were discovered early by patrolling soldiers. In the melee, Liu Ke was killed in the battle. Only a few of the thousand Qing soldiers escaped back to Zhenjiang City, and the morale of the Qing army dropped again.

The next morning, a faint glow spread over the earth. However, this ray of light seemed so insignificant compared to the battle that was about to unfold.

The army was ready for battle, with Zhao Yongping and Wu'an Town as the main force in this siege. Zhao Yongping stood in the front, with a look of determination in his eyes.

As the military drums sounded again, the soldiers marched forward and pushed out the siege equipment again. After several days of preparation, there was still some equipment left. As the army came into range, the Qing troops on the city wall also began to shoot arrows and throw stones to stop the army's attack.

Zhao Yongping's troops are mostly new recruits. Although they have been trained for a long time, they have never fought in a big battle. Their siege strength is obviously inferior to yesterday. Meng Jun frowned, wondering whether he should send Changlin Town to attack the city instead.

At this time, Lin Shiqi came up to Meng Jun and said, "Commander-in-chief, look, the city wall has been damaged by the bombardment over there. If they bombard it again today, I estimate that there will be a gap in the city tomorrow."

Hearing this, Meng Jun raised his telescope and observed carefully. After a while, he put it down and said excitedly, "Very good."

Gu Yanwu beside him kept writing newspaper manuscripts. During the time he was with Meng Jun, he had sent out dozens of newspapers, which was like a live broadcast in the Ming Dynasty.

There were also five painters from the Propaganda Department who painted dozens of portraits, including one of Meng Jun leaping on a horse, one of Meng's troops marching, and the most important one was one of Meng's troops attacking Zhenjiang. Meng Jun hoped that these portraits could be passed down to future generations.