Chapter 857: Battle for Jiangxia

Jiangxia City.

Liang Tong stood on the city wall, his brows tightly furrowed.

The generals beside him also wore faces full of worry.

When the news of Shacheng falling arrived, he was shocked and horrified, simply unable to believe his ears.

At the very beginning, it was clearly their active situation of pincering the Yan King Army together with the Changcheng army.

But overnight, this situation turned passive.

They were surrounded in turn.

When he first received this news, he had wanted to lead troops to retake Shacheng.

But he immediately abandoned this idea.

Although he had many troops and horses, it was fundamentally impossible to retake a city garrisoned by the Yan King Army.

Because he was clear that the Yan King Army was now equipped with a type of firearm even more terrifying than the front-loading rifled musket.

Attacking the city was a path to certain death.

And bypassing Shacheng was also impossible.

The Yan King Army would not let them leave easily.

Digging trenches on the only road to Guizhou and cutting off the path was something they could absolutely do.

Therefore, after weighing the options, he decided to hold Jiangxia to the death while sending men to Changcheng to request reinforcements.

He hoped the Changcheng army could bypass the Yan King Army to their rear and carry out another counter-pincer.

This was their only hope for victory.

But what he did not know was that the current Changcheng had long since been surrounded by the Prince's Personal Army.

The people they sent out were destined to be unable to deliver the message into Changcheng.

"The grain and grass inside the city are only enough to last two months; if there are no reinforcements within two months, everything is finished," one general said.

Liang Tong's brows furrowed even deeper, "This is under the condition that the Yan King surrounds without attacking; if the Yan King launches an attack on the city, it is hard to say if we can hold out for a month."

Xiangzhou is located in the south of Da Song and is a barren land.

Therefore, the city walls of the commandery and counties are neither high nor thick.

Jiangxia is a commandery city, so the city walls are even shorter and thinner.

If it were not a last resort, he would never have stationed himself in Jiangxia.

However, in order to hold out a bit longer, he had dug quite a few trenches around Jiangxia City these past few days.

He hoped to delay time as much as possible.

Realizing that what he said was too discouraging, he suddenly said loudly, "Everyone, when we set out, this general said that this war is a decisive battle between us Shizu and the Yan King. Even if the situation is difficult, we must fight this war to the end. As long as the Westerners' reinforcements arrive, we can achieve victory."

The generals nodded; now their only hope was the Westerners.

Therefore, no matter what price they had to pay, they had to drag out the Yan King's pace.

Even if the Yan King won everything else, as long as Ba City was still there at the last moment, they would have hope for a comeback.

This Da Song would still belong to the Shizu in the future.

As they were speaking, they suddenly discovered that the Yan King Army had begun to move.

The Yan King Army to the north and east moved toward the two flanks of Jiangxia City, gradually surrounding Jiangxia.

At the same time, the Yan King's artillerymen were searching for suitable locations to establish artillery positions.

It appeared they were about to launch an attack on Jiangxia City.

Seeing this, Liang Tong and the generals fell into a silence.

This fierce battle in Jiangxia could not be avoided...

At the same time.

After Chang Wei ordered Qin Shan and Guan Tong to surround Jiangxia, he bypassed the city to the east to meet with Zhao Xu.

"Your Highness, this general interrogated the Shacheng Commandery Governor in Shacheng; they said the Wu army only carried two months' worth of grain and grass," Chang Wei said.

Zhao Xu knew what Chang Wei wanted to say; he meant to surround Jiangxia without attacking and wait for it to fall into chaos on its own.

Tactically speaking, this was of course the optimal solution.

However, while this was the optimal solution for the battlefield before them, it was not the optimal solution for the overall situation.

Because for every extra month the war dragged on, the possibility of the Westerner armies intervening in Da Song's internal chaos increased.

Therefore, the Wu army must be resolved as quickly as possible; it could not be delayed.

After all, after taking Jiangzhou and Xiangzhou, there were still Bazhou, Yunzhou, and Yizhou.

Thinking of this, he said: "This King told you long ago to keep your sights on the long term, not just stopping within the country. Since even you, a Great General, are like this, it seems the other generals have not made much progress either."

Having said that, he explained it to Chang Wei once.

Hearing this, Chang Wei gave a sheepish laugh, "It is this general's fault."

Zhao Xu glared at him, "After the war in Jiangnan ends, you should think carefully about Da Song's future offshore strategy and how to fight wars overseas."

Looking toward the south, he continued, "It is not that the war ends once Da Song is unified; on the contrary, the real war has just begun. A pack of wolves is at Da Song's doorstep, waiting to devour us. They are much harder to deal with than the Shizu army."

"Yes, Your Highness." Chang Wei put away his playful expression, his demeanor becoming serious.

At the same time, there was an irrepressible excitement in his heart.

This was the fighting spirit of a swordsman when challenging the next opponent.

"Rest for one night, and launch the attack on Jiangxia tomorrow," Zhao Xu ordered directly.

The night passed without incident.

The next morning, just as the eastern sky was beginning to brighten, bursts of thunder sounded across the earth.

This was the artillerymen launching a bombardment on Jiangxia.

The howitzers were responsible for bombarding the soldiers of the influential clans within the trenches before the city, while the rifled cannons bombarded the Jiangxia city walls directly.

They intended to shatter this short and thin city wall completely.

"Tell the artillerymen not to conserve cannonballs; strike them hard," Zhao Xu said, looking toward the battlefield as he issued the order.

The battles of Jiangzhou and Xiangzhou were undoubtedly among the major campaigns before unification.

After the victory in the campaign, the prefectures controlled by the influential clans on the outskirts of Bazhou were essentially stripped away by him.

After that, by taking Yizhou, conquering Yunzhou, and finally capturing Bazhou, the Great Song would restore the territory of its most prosperous era.

However, this territory clearly could not satisfy him.

In the future, it would be necessary to take back the territories controlled by Tibet and the Northern Di.

Otherwise, he would have no face to face the people of future generations.

"Boom, boom, boom..."

As his order was issued, the sound of the cannons grew increasingly dense.

Cannonball after cannonball fell onto the trenches and the city walls as if they cost nothing, exploding into a sea of fire.

Under the fierce bombardment of the Prince's Personal Army artillerymen, the generals and soldiers of the influential clans dared not stay on the city walls at all.

Six hundred thousand people could only crowd into the small city of Jiangxia, listening to the explosions outside the city like birds startled by the mere twang of a bow, the atmosphere filled with despair.

Such shelling lasted for six days and was still continuing.

During this period, soldiers were constantly sent out of the city to replenish the soldiers in the trenches.

Many corpses of dead soldiers and wounded soldiers were carried back into the city.

In just six days, thirty thousand corpses and over forty thousand wounded and disabled soldiers had gathered within the city.

It was currently summer, and these corpses piled together soon began to rot, the foul stench filling Jiangxia city.

Because of infections, the wounded soldiers also kept dying every day.

And compared to death, the emotion of despair continued to spread.

More soldiers refused to go out of the city to guard the trenches.

There even occurred incidents where soldiers mutinied over this matter and killed their generals.

Although it was suppressed, one could see the trend from these small signs.

Liang Tong and a group of influential clan generals felt increasingly worried about the low-level influential clan soldiers.

It was on the seventh day.

Suddenly, some black dots appeared in the sky, and then paper scraps fell into Jiangxia city like snowflakes.

The influential clan soldiers picked up these paper scraps and discovered that they were pictures.

Looking at these pictures, many influential clan soldiers shed tears.

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