Chapter 218: Battle of Chengdu 8
Fang Xinyu was puzzled. Why was the artillery of the Dashi Army so powerful? Could it be that there were time travelers in the Dashi Army?
This artillery has a very long range. Although it cannot be compared with theirs, it is acceptable in this era.
Looking at the artillery fire of the Dashi Army, Fang Xinyu commanded the hot air balloon bombers to knock out the Dashi Army's artillery one by one. The city gates and the gate towers were all reduced to ashes in the bombing.
Only the remaining rubble was left. This was the effect of a dimensionality reduction attack. There were flames everywhere, broken walls everywhere, and the bodies of the Dashi Army everywhere.
Fang Xinyu even used their homemade incendiary bombs. The Dashi Army soldiers struggled in the sea of fire, while the Ming army watched from the sidelines, just like watching a group of ants running around after being burned by their own fire.
Fang Xinyu observed through a telescope and found that several yellow-haired foreigners were leaving the city gate surrounded by dozens of soldiers and fleeing towards the Shu Palace.
Fang Xinyu thought to himself, "Damn it! There are foreigners around at this time. It seems what Zhao Xiaofei said is true! The West is really going all out to promote Catholicism! Taking advantage of the war, they sent people to all sides to support it! There were foreigners with Zhang Xianzhong, and later the Yongli regime of the Southern Ming Dynasty! I wonder if there are foreigners with Li Zicheng? But now I finally know how far their artillery can reach! It turns out they have these foreigners giving them guidance!"
Fang Xinyu took out the yellow command flag, which Ma Xiangling had given him. It could command the white-pole soldiers following him on the ground. These white-pole soldiers were brought here by Ma Xiangling. They only obeyed Fang Xinyu, and the yellow command flag was specifically for commanding them.
Fang Xinyu waved his command flag, and the centurions on the ground led their white-pole soldiers into Chengdu. They rushed in the direction Fang Xinyu directed, and in one charge, they captured the entire group. The two yellow-haired foreigners were captured, and Fang Xinyu planned to personally interrogate them after the Battle of Chengdu to find out what had happened.
The two foreigners kept explaining their origins in broken Chinese, but Fang Xinyu had no time to care about them because he still had to command the battle!
Fang Xinyu instructed Zeng Ying and the others to divide their forces into 30,000 and advance to Sanhe Bridge, preparing to cross the river and enter the Shu Palace. He then led the remaining soldiers and the White-Pole Soldiers to Zunyi Gate and Guangzhi Gate, preparing to block Zhang Xianzhong's escape route. Zhao Xiaofei and the others had studied Zhang Xianzhong, and they knew that his reckless nature would never concern himself with the loss of a single city. Even though Chengdu was important, Zhang Xianzhong, despite his best efforts, would still flee if he saw no hope of defending the city.
Fang Xinyu looked at the map and thought that Zunyi Gate and Guangzhi Gate were Zhang Xianzhong's best escape routes. Only by blocking them would there be a chance to capture Zhang Xianzhong.
So he took 100,000 troops to block the two gates, but Zeng Ying was a little annoyed. He was the commander-in-chief of the southern route of the Chengdu Campaign. How could you, Fang Xinyu, seize power?
Zeng Yingxin said, do you think you can replace me if you can smash the Zhonghe Gate with your hot air balloon?
Zeng Ying began to wonder how he could snatch this credit from Fang Xinyu. This was a great achievement that could earn him the title of Marquis or Duke. There was no way he could let Fang Xinyu get this opportunity.
In his central army, Li Zhanchun said, "General! Fang Xinyu can't take so many people with him! With just one order from you, he can take away at most 10,000 people!"
Zeng Ying said, "Now is not the time to prepare for the class. You lead the troops to Guangzhi Gate, and I'll lead the troops to Zunyi Gate! Let's deploy our troops here first. Fang Xinyu can't ask us to leave!"
"General, you are right! I will arrange people to go now!" Li Zhanchun said and went out.
At this time, Fang Xinyu was full of confidence and planned to command his troops to block Zhang Xianzhong. However, reality slapped him in the face. Apart from a few thousand white-pole soldiers given by his wife, Fang Xinyu had basically no command over the rest.
Fang Xinyu was furious. "At this very moment, you haven't cooperated with me to take down Zhang Xianzhong! And now you're trying to steal the credit from me?" Fang Xinyu grabbed his revolver and headed to Zeng Ying to argue.
The captain beside him stopped him and said, "General! It's useless for you to go. These soldiers are led by others most of the time. How can you possibly command them now? Apart from not daring to rebel, what else can't they do?"
After the captain finished speaking, Fang Xinyu calmed down. "Yeah! Besides not daring to rebel, what can't they do? If they rebel, they'll lose their money and food, and their army will immediately collapse. But how did the Ming Dynasty fall? Wasn't it because of these corrupt officials, grabbing credit for merit and running away from responsibility? It's only natural for them to do this!"
Fang Xinyu thought to himself: Damn it! Never mind! Even these few thousand men can compete with Zhang Xianzhong.
As for Zhang Xianzhong? He had already made preparations for his escape. He was clad in golden armor, and a large number of his loyal followers followed him. These included not only his old comrades who had joined him in the uprising, but also many desperate men who had been fed with money and women.
They had the best weapons, the best food, the best clothes, and even the best horses.
When Zhang Xianzhong heard that Yinghui Gate had been breached, he began to move. At this time, Zhonghe Gate in the south had been captured by Fang Xinyu, and Zhang Xianzhong led tens of thousands of troops to break out in different directions.
Just as Fang Xinyu and Zeng Ying were arguing, Zhang Xianzhong took advantage of their chaotic command and rushed out from the most unlikely place they thought was the diplomatic gate.
Zhang Xianzhong thought that Zeng Ying and his men, coming from the south gate, would surely assume that they would escape through the northwest gates, where they had the fewest men. However, it was very likely that they were lying in ambush there, waiting to catch him in a trap.
With this in mind, Zhang Xianzhong made a decision and rushed out of the Jiaoli Gate. Perhaps there would be fewer troops there, and it turned out just as Zhang Xianzhong had imagined. Furthermore, Zeng Ying's conflict with Fang Xinyu had actually helped Zhang Xianzhong escape successfully. When he looked back, the army of over a hundred thousand men had been reduced to only twenty or thirty thousand. The former Emperor of the Great Western Empire had departed in disgrace, his nearly one million-strong army utterly annihilated in such a short time.
Now, surrounded by enemies on all sides, the only way out was to escape. But where to escape? The only way out was to go north and join Li Zicheng.
After reaching a safe place, he shouted, "Where are my two adopted sons? Where did they go? Can anyone tell me?"
Everyone was silent. A man who looked like a military advisor said, "Your Majesty, I heard from the people below that General Dingxi was killed by Qin Liangyu. His head and body were separated!"
Zhang Xianzhong widened his eyes and looked like he was about to kill someone. Among his adopted sons, only Li Dingguo was the one he liked the most.
So he asked again, "Where is Sun Kewang?"
At this moment, a group of light cavalry came running towards them. Zhang Xianzhong nervously picked up his sword. He thought it was the Ming army chasing them, but when he looked closely, he saw that it was Sun Kewang!
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