The matter of the battle of Huangzhou naturally could not be transmitted to Jingzhou for a while, so Song Tianbiao did not know that the left army of the governor in Huangzhou had been wiped out.

Now he is staring at Jingzhou City, thinking about how to take Jingzhou City at the lowest cost and in the fastest time.

It had been several days since he landed in Jingzhou, but he was not in a hurry to immediately launch an attack on Jingzhou City, let alone a general attack, in fact, even a tentative general attack.

He had already made contact with the intelligence officers of the Military Intelligence Department and had learned some general information about the defenders in the city.

The defenders in Jingzhou City are about the same as the previous intelligence shows, the defenders in the city are about 10,000 people, but only 7,000 of them are the governors, and the remaining 3,000 people are the local guards and young soldiers.

And this situation is also the situation of most of the defenders of the Ming army, even if Zhang Yue has established such a main force as the superintendent, but in fact, the guards in the Ming army and the temporary conscription of young men still exist, but the number is less than before.

When defending the city, these guards and young men were basically used as people's husbands.

On the other hand, in fact, there are also such auxiliary forces in the Tang Dynasty, but not in the name of guards and temporarily recruited young people, but in the name of reserve divisions, patrol police, etc.

Needless to say, the reserve division is the reserve force established by the Tang Dynasty at present, which mainly suppresses the local area on weekdays, and if it encounters a large-scale war, it will also assist the main force to fight.

When necessary, after mobilization and replenishment, these reserve divisions will also go to the battlefield and become part of the main force.

In terms of patrol police, in fact, the number of patrol police in each place is not quite small, especially in some relatively large cities, the number of patrol police can reach hundreds or thousands.

For example, in Songjiang Prefecture, after the Tang Dynasty conquered Jiangnan and demarcated Shanghai County within its jurisdiction as a treaty port, this place has become the most economically active prefecture in the Jiangnan region, and its core Shanghai County is a rapid progress, it is rumored that the local land price has risen several times in just two years, and the rising momentum has not stopped.

The place brings together a large number of businessmen, there are from the Jiangnan region, there are from all over China, there are from all over the Nanyang, and even Europeans, which also leads to the public security situation is quite complicated, the Songjiang Prefecture Patrol Police Bureau is also the largest prefecture-level patrol police station in the whole Tang Dynasty, with more than 3,000 patrol police.

Although these patrolmen maintain law and order on weekdays, if the enemy attacks Shanghai, they will certainly be able to provide some help to the military.

In addition, the Datang military often recruits people to engage in logistics and transportation, fortification construction, etc.!

At this point, in fact, the people recruited by the Tang Dynasty military are no different from the young men temporarily recruited by the Ming Dynasty, and the work they do is basically the same.

The only difference is that the Tang military has never included these civilians in the combat sequence of the troops, and basically will not let them go to the battlefield, while the Ming army usually uses these conscripted young men as an army and allows them to participate in the defense of the city.

The three thousand guards and young men in the city were directly ignored by Song Tianbiao, who had fought with the Ming army for so many years, and he knew very well what kind of goods the guards and young men of the Ming army were, basically the same type of people on his side.

The real opponent is only 7,000 governors.

If it is a field battle, these 7,000 governors cannot be their opponents at all, and maybe a round of field battles can completely defeat them, but the Ming army in the city is estimated to not rush out stupidly, they will defend to the death!

This is also the choice of many Ming troops in the face of the Tang Army's attack over the years.

But today, will the Ming army's stubborn defense be able to stop itself?

Song Tianbiao doesn't think so!

Because of this attack on Jingzhou City, his second infantry division was all here, and the strength was twice that of the superintendent in the city, which was also a rare force advantage that the Tang Army could encounter in the experience of the Ming army.

Song Tianbiao, who has the advantage of troops, is not worried about not being able to take Jingzhou, the only thing he has to consider is to reduce his own casualties as much as possible, shorten the time, and avoid taking too long and causing any accidents.

In the past three days, although there was no formal offensive launched, nothing was done accurately, building engineering equipment, digging tunnels, trenches, constructing artillery positions, and then moving naval artillery ashore and transporting them outside Jingzhou.

And now, three days later, the preparations that should be made are ready, and Song Tianbiao has also decided to attack!

At noon that day, after Song Tianbiao held a military meeting earlier, he officially issued an order for the artillery unit to open fire on the defenders in the city!

Before launching a general attack, bombardment with artillery is also the established procedure for the Tang Army to attack the city, but this time, Song Tianbiao said to the commander of the Second Artillery Regiment: "When shelling, we must maintain the rhythm, don't fight indiscriminately, our artillery shells are limited, and we will hit important targets as much as possible!" ”

The commander of the Second Artillery Regiment is also an artillery officer with old qualifications, and as the commander of the Colonel's Artillery Regiment, he naturally knows very well that although they brought a lot of ammunition this time, it is more troublesome to replenish it in the future.

Their ammunition has to be transported from Yuezhou to replenish, and it takes time and capacity to travel such a long distance, even if the Tang Navy completely controls the Yangtze River waterway.

Therefore, the artillery shells of the Second Artillery Regiment seem to be very sufficient now, but it is absolutely impossible to do the same as the Second Army's attack on Susong and Huangzhou, without any scruples, after the artillery shells are exhausted, the logistics department can provide them with replenishment at any time.

The Second Artillery Regiment has to save money, and after fighting Jingzhou City, it has to defend the city in the follow-up to prevent the Ming army from counterattacking!

If all the shells are gone, what will happen if the Ming army counterattacks in the future?

Therefore, in the next shelling, the Second Artillery Regiment and a heavy howitzer battalion temporarily reinforced to the Second Infantry Division, the Naval Artillery Regiment and other artillery units = were significantly reduced during the shelling, and many officers of the Second Infantry Division who observed the shelling were serious, because they felt that the current artillery bombardment was not strong enough, and they were worried that they would not be able to effectively destroy the many artillery positions deployed by the Ming army on the head of the city and kill and injure their artillery.

But when many officers of the Second Infantry Division frowned, many Ming generals in the city also frowned, why, thinking that the artillery bombardment of the puppet Tang was too great.

As a superintendent, all aspects are copied from the army of the Tang Army, and they naturally attach great importance to artillery, even if they can only produce artillery by hand, but Zhang Yue still organized countless craftsmen to produce as many artillery as possible and assign it to the subordinate superintendent troops.

The guard of the right army of Jingzhou, which guarded the city, naturally also got the guns and artillery, the guard had 7,000 people, with 12 five-jin cannons, five seven-jin cannons, and about 50 bowl-mouth cannons and Franc machine guns of more than 100 catties and less than 300 catties.

This kind of firepower is actually a lot for a superintendent with only 7,000 people, and the early Tang Army could not be equipped with so many artillery pieces with the same strength.

The previous avant-garde generals also thought that their artillery strength was strong enough, but when they saw the scale of the artillery bombardment of the Tang Army, they were all dumbfounded!

The puppet Tang thief army outside the city was only more than 10,000 people, but it organized more than 100 artillery pieces to bombard Jingzhou City!

The difference in strength here is simply desperate!

The artillery force of the Tang Wang Division outside the city is the main force of the Second Artillery Regiment, which has two five-pound field artillery battalions and one nine-pound field artillery battalion, each artillery battalion has 18 artillery pieces, which is a very standard field artillery regiment under the main infantry division of the Tang Army, with a total of 54 field guns.

In addition, the infantry division temporarily reinforced a battalion of heavy short-barreled howitzers, with twelve 24-pound howitzers and four 48-pound howitzers.

The navy supported thirty-two guns, including twenty five-pound guns, six nine-pound guns, and six forty-eight-pound howitzers!

The total number of the above-mentioned artillery pieces is more than a hundred!

Moreover, this figure does not include the six five-kilogram cavalry guns under the jurisdiction of the Second Cavalry Regiment, and the scattered guns under the jurisdiction of each infantry regiment and baggage regiment.

Well, the same is true of the baggage regiment, because the baggage regiment of the Tang Army has never been a simple transport unit, to a certain extent, it is the fourth infantry regiment, but the task in peacetime is to transport and escort the baggage, and it can participate in line operations when necessary.

More than 100 field guns and howitzers shelled Jingzhou City, even if the frequency of shelling was lower than in previous battles, but for the Ming defenders on the city, it was still difficult to suffer!

At first, the Ming army at the head of the city still wanted to counterattack with artillery, but when they were continuously killed and wounded by howitzers on the head of the city, and the artillerymen suffered a large number of casualties, they gave up this plan.

Because of its inferiority in artillery, the Ming army basically did not have any advantage in the artillery fire with the Tang Army!

After seeing that the artillery of the Ming army at the head of the city was completely suppressed, the officers of the Second Infantry Division outside the city breathed a sigh of relief, and the Ming army at the head of the city, whether it was the artillery or their musketeers, was suppressed, and they were able to carry out the next move!

Next, other units of the 2nd Infantry Division also appeared one after another, but still not officially besieged the city, but filled the moat and dug the communication trench.

At the same time, amid the rumbling of artillery, the soldiers in the engineer battalion also waved the sapper shovel made of stainless steel in their hands and continued to dig the tunnel, preparing to dig the tunnel under the city wall to bury explosives.

After the blasting is successful, it is time for the 2nd Infantry Division to launch a general attack!