Officials at the level of government officials and guardsmen may have some influence in the local area, but in Yan Chujie's view, the power they hold cannot influence the situation of the war, and it is far from enough to negotiate terms with him. .
After all, the people who really make the decisions in the city are not them, but someone else.
As for the local richest man, Yan Chujie believes that his value does not lie in mediating the ongoing war. When local order needs to be restored after the war, letting such people come forward will come in handy.
Of course, it would be beneficial to Haihan if he could use a relatively small price, or even a blank check, to instigate the rebellion of these people whose positions have begun to waver.
But Yan Chujie would not put his hope of breaking the city on them. He still needed to be strong enough to forge iron. If he wanted to conquer Zhenjiang City, he would first have to show the ability to make the defenders despair.
After sending away these lobbyists, Yan Chujie decided to continue to strengthen the offensive in the afternoon, allowing an artillery battalion as a reserve force to join the battle, increasing the suppression of the fortifications on the top of the city, and creating conditions for the infantry to approach the city wall.
That afternoon, the fighting between the two armies continued.
The defenders in the city suddenly discovered that the shelling from the east of the city was more violent than in the morning.
Taking advantage of the truce at noon, the defenders made urgent repairs to several collapsed gaps in the barbican city. However, after suffering more intensive shelling, a larger collapse soon occurred again.
The gap in the collapse of the Wengcheng this time was several feet wide, and the Chaoyang Gate that was covered by it was exposed. At this time, the Haihan Army's artillery outside the city was finally able to directly attack the city gate.
During this period, the defenders in the city also tried to leave the city to fight and interfere with the Haihan Army's artillery tactics. However, the Han army had already been wary of this and deployed defensive positions outside the artillery positions. Even if the Ming army deployed cavalry to attack repeatedly, they still failed to achieve their goal. Instead, they lost nearly a thousand cavalry outside the city.
At dusk, the Chaoyang Gate in the east of Zhenjiang City was already in a mess. The two heavy gates had been damaged by cannonballs. If a large amount of earth and rocks had not been filled in the city in advance to hold the gates up, they would have collapsed long ago.
The tower on Chaoyang Gate was hit by bullets and caught fire shortly after the war started. It was almost burned by this time, leaving only the ruins of the wall still smoking.
Although the city gate has not been lost yet, according to this progress, it seems that it is only a matter of time before the Haihan army breaks through the city defense.
Yan Chujie had no intention of continuing the offensive after dark. The reduced visibility would affect the efficiency of the artillery attack and make it inconvenient for the infantry to climb the city wall. The offensive has lasted all day, and both weapons and combat personnel need to take time to rest and recuperate.
However, the attack did not stop completely. Yan Chujie had arranged for a team of engineers to sneak into the city at midnight and try to plant explosives in the ruins of Chaoyang Gate to wait for an opportunity to blast tomorrow.
At the same time, thousands of people gathered near Xiangshan, where a fierce battle took place between the two armies the day before.
After the Haihan Army captured Xiangshan yesterday, Yan Chujie believed that this place was very close to the river bank and had mountains for cover, so he set it up as a temporary logistics base to store grain, grass and combat supplies.
Today, when the Haihan Army attacked Zhenjiang City, the logistics department temporarily recruited more than a thousand civilians in the towns near Xiangshan to be responsible for transporting various materials shipped from the Yangtze River ashore.
So after hearing the news, many people flocked to this temporary base. They were not rushing to work for Haihan, but they wanted to take advantage of the opening of the waterway to escape by boat.
There was news that wars were going on in Changzhou downstream and Jintan, Yixing and other places in the south at this time, so the people's first choice of escape direction was Yangzhou on the other side of the Yangtze River. Yangzhou was assigned to Haihan after the last war between the two countries. Since both countries have extremely important business interests in the local area, Yangzhou has become a buffer zone between the two countries. Many cross-border trades are completed in Yangzhou. .
This time Haihan once again raised troops to attack the Ming Dynasty. Although the Yangzhou garrison was not mobilized to participate in the war, as one of the Haihan ruling areas closest to the battlefield, the local area also undertook a considerable part of the material supply task.
After the Haihan fleet took control of the lower reaches of Zhenjiang, Yangzhou began to send ships to transport supplies to the Haihan army, which mainly attacked the areas along the Yangtze River. There is a peaceful world over there in Yangzhou, this is the consensus of everyone. In the eyes of refugees, these boats naturally become escape routes to save their own lives.
As soon as the two awning boats docked, the people waiting by the river rushed forward and surrounded the docking area.
If it weren't for the heavily armed Haihan army maintaining order, these people would have rushed onto the ship regardless.
It took the soldiers a while to drive away the people who wanted to board the ship to escape. The people on the boat lowered the gangplank when they saw that the situation on the shore was under control.
A Haihan officer boarded the awning boat with a book in his hand.
A man who looked like a master on the ship quickly stepped forward and took the initiative to report: "Master, we are from the Dai family. The ship is loaded with raised military rations. Are we going to handle the handover procedures with you?"
The officer nodded and said: "That's right, report the goods on your ship. I'll make a record here. When I figure it out later, I'll write a receipt and give it to you to take back for delivery."
The man quickly took out a bill of goods and read from it: "Twenty live pigs, two live cattle, ten live sheep, a total of 200 chickens, ducks and geese, 300 catties of fresh fish and shrimp, 50 jins of various fruits and vegetables." One hundred catties, three thousand catties of rice, five hundred catties of flour, twenty pieces of gauze, forty catties of various medicinal materials..."
The supplies brought by these two awning ships cannot be said to be large, but there are indeed many types, with thirty or forty items scattered here and there.
Of course, these things are not provided to the Haihan Army for free, but are valued as combat materials purchased locally by the army, and the cost will also be settled later.
During the battle, the weapons and equipment of the Haihan Army were supplied from Hangzhou, Zhoushan and other places, but a considerable part of the supplies such as grain and grass were obtained from the nearby state capitals along the way to save transportation capacity as much as possible.
Taking on such an errand will naturally bring you a certain amount of profit, so local merchants in Yangzhou are also very active in this.
However, the Dai family itself is one of the richest salt merchant families in Yangzhou. It is no exaggeration to say that the business under their name is making a fortune every day, and there is no shortage of this income.
For the Dai family, whether they can make more or less from it is secondary. Taking this opportunity to maintain the relationship with the Haihan military is its real value.
While the cargo was being unloaded, the ship's escort quietly took out a few banknotes and handed them to the officer in charge of receiving the cargo: "Master, a little kindness is not disrespectful."
The officer stared at him and pushed him back: "Are you kidding me? I am Commander Dai's subordinates. We are all our own people. I can't accept this money!"
The Second Regiment of the Lu Qi Division, headed by Dai Chengrong, a descendant of the Dai family, was one of the troops that landed at Xiangshan to attack Zhenjiang City. If the quartermaster dares to accept this money, Dai Chengrong will find out later and he will not be able to deliver the goods.