Summoning the Peak of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 2925: Reinforcement of troops on the Eastern Front, Bai Qi recovers from injury

Chapter 2925: Reinforcement of troops on the Eastern Front, Bai Qi recovers from injury

Yuzhou, Yingchuan, Xuchang.

After looking at the system prompt, Ying Hao couldn't help but sigh: "I didn't expect Qingzhou to be unified as easily as Haizhou. I thought a decisive battle would break out in Qingnan."

In the Central Plains War, although the Qin army's focus was first on the west and then on the east, it did not mean that Ying Hao did not pay attention to the eastern front.

Honestly speaking, Zhu Di first severely damaged Zhou Yu's navy, then suppressed the dissatisfaction of the Qi faction, and finally took the initiative to give up Qingnan, allowing the Ming-Song coalition forces to escape unscathed. This performance was already perfect, even better than Cao Cao's response.

Compared with Zhu Di, who did not care about the gain or loss of a city or a piece of land, Cao Cao, who fought for every inch of land, was ultimately narrow-minded.

Cao Cao wanted to have everything taken care of, but in the end he failed to gain anything good from anything, so his army on the western front was almost completely wiped out, and Cao Cao only had the cavalry to retreat to the eastern front.

Up to now, the Qin army's 33 armies on the eastern front had suffered a loss of 35,000 naval troops and 35,000 land troops. The total casualties in the three-month war were 70,000.

On the other hand, the 500,000 Ming-Song coalition forces on the defensive were suppressed by the 330,000 Qin troops. After three months of fighting, there were 55,000 casualties in the many battles in Qingnan. Zhou Yu's attack on the Jianghuai coastal defense caused nearly 9,000 casualties to the coalition forces, and the casualties in the East China Sea naval battle were as high as 57,000. The total casualties reached 130,000.

The 330,000 Qin troops lost 70,000, which was a huge loss. However, with the Qin attacking coalition defending, the 500,000 Ming-Song coalition forces sitting on the Qingnan defense line suffered a loss of 130,000 soldiers. The total casualties were 60,000 higher than that of the attacking Qin army, and the Qin army also voluntarily gave up the three counties of Qingnan. Such a record can also be called a great victory.

The main credit for the Qin army's success in southern Qing was due to Zhou Yu. If he had not frequently sent troops to harass the Ming's coastal defense line, thus tying down nearly 200,000 Ming troops, it would have been impossible for the 250,000 Qin troops on the northern front to defeat the 500,000 coalition forces.

But even Zhou Yu made a big mistake in the naval battle. If he had not overestimated the Qin navy's land combat capabilities and made a misjudgment, the Qin navy's losses would never have been so great.

However, Zhou Yu was lucky because he was the one who gave the order, but later he led his troops to fight a naval battle. However, the blame was put on Qi Jiguang. Of course, Qi Jiguang was not without any responsibility.

Zhou Yu also knew that most of the responsibility for this matter lay with him, and Qi Jiguang was just taking the blame for him, so he took the initiative to take responsibility and pleaded for Qi Jiguang.

Taking into consideration that the navy had lost nearly half of its troops in the battle and a large number of generals were either seriously injured or killed, and that now was the time when they were most in need of manpower, Ying Hao naturally could not punish Qi Jiguang severely, so he only symbolically fined him a few months' military pay.

The Qin army lost 70,000 troops on the front battlefield and failed to capture Qingnan. As a result, Zhu Di took the initiative to withdraw his troops because of Cao Cao's defeat, which allowed the Qin army to occupy the three counties of Qingnan without losing a single soldier.

Of course, it's just occupation.

Just like Haizhou, which is in constant turmoil now, Qingnan, which was also occupied without bloodshed, also contains many hidden dangers. The biggest of these is that the local people do not obey the rule of the Qin Dynasty.

From the intelligence from the front line and the fact that Zhuge Liang left behind 35,000 defenders before he left, it is not difficult to judge that the people of Qingnan were resisting the Qin Dynasty's notice. Otherwise, how could so many troops be needed to garrison there?

In response, Ying Hao asked in confusion: "Why would the people of the three Qingnan counties not obey the rule of our Great Qin?"

  You must know that when the Qin army occupied the four counties in western Yanzhou, the people of Yanzhou were celebrating and welcoming the Qin army into the city with joy. Why was the situation completely different when it came to Qingnan?

Speaking of faith, most of the people in Qingxu do believe in the Ming Cult, but even the orthodox Ming Cult has been integrated into the Qin Dynasty. It makes no sense for the Ming Cult believers in Qingnan to resist the rule of the Qin Dynasty.

  But in terms of policies, not only is Daqin’s tax rate lower than Ming’s, but its policies are also more friendly to the lower-class people. So why would the people resist Daqin’s notification to Qingnan?

Seeing this, Jia Xu quickly stepped forward to explain, “Your Majesty, Ming is different from Wei.

The people of Wei State lived a very hard life, barely able to maintain adequate food and clothing, and Cao Wei's policies were extremely harsh on the lower-class people, so the people of Yanxi naturally hoped to come under the rule of our Great Qin.

But the people of Ming Dynasty were different. There was no exploitation by aristocratic families and no excessive taxes. In addition, the gains from the looting of Yingzhou gave Ming Dynasty enough wealth to develop internal governance, so the people lived a relatively prosperous life.

Once people's lives became better, they naturally did not want war to break out. However, our army's expedition to the Central Plains turned the entire Qingnan into a battlefield. Among the 120,000 troops lost by the coalition forces, more than 50% were from the former Qi faction, and these soldiers were all native to Qingnan.

The total population of the three counties of Qingnan is only over 1.3 million, but over 60,000 young and strong men died at the hands of our army. This has caused half of the families in one-third of Qingnan to lose their male members, which is why they are so resistant to our army's rule."

"I see."

Ying Hao showed a look of realization and thought: Cao Cao is really good at controlling his subordinates. He exploited the people to such an extent, but there was no peasant uprising.

Even though the people of Cao Wei were the most miserable among all the forces, so even though many people died in the Qin-Wei War, as long as they came under the rule of Qin, it was equivalent to a rebound from bottoming out, a breakthrough between zero and one, and there was naturally hope for the future.

On the other hand, the people of the Ming Dynasty were already living a good life. Even if the policies of the Qin Dynasty were better, for them it was just an improvement from level two to level three. There was no substantial difference, and it naturally could not make up for the pain of losing their sons and husbands.

In this regard, Jia Xu proposed three solutions:

One is to send more troops to garrison to prevent the people from causing unrest due to hatred.

The second is to strengthen propaganda to dilute hatred, through brainwashing propaganda accumulated over time and time to dilute hatred. The third is to put all the blame for the war on Zhu Di, saying that if he hadn't tried to stop the chariot with his arms, so many people wouldn't have died, thus shifting the people's hatred of the Qin Dynasty to Zhu Di.

Ying Hao naturally adopted all of Jia Xu's methods, but the effect was not very good. The problem in Qingnan was the same as that of Haizhou in the northwest. It could not be solved in a short period of time and it would take a long time to completely digest it.

"There are still 370,000 coalition troops in Xuzhou, and Zhou Yu's navy needs to be repaired. Zhuge Liang and Su Dingfang only have 180,000 troops on the eastern front after leaving enough troops to garrison in the rear. The difference in the strength of the two sides is a full 190,000. In terms of military strength, they are already a little insufficient."

Ying Hao sighed. He ordered Su Dingfang and Zhuge Liang to advance. His original intention was to fight a decisive battle in southern Qinghai, so as to weaken the total strength of the Song-Ming coalition forces. However, Zhu Di did not accept the challenge and directly preserved his strength by sacrificing his chariot to save his king.

After Zhu Ming gave up the three counties in southern Qing, although his strategic space and war potential were reduced, he no longer had to engage in long-term warfare and his front line became more complete.

In addition, although Xuzhou is easy to attack but difficult to defend, as long as Langya County in the north is not lost, 370,000 troops are more than enough to defend Xuzhou, and the mobility is greatly improved, so that the threat of Zhou Yu's navy will be minimized in the future.

"I thought Cao Cao was the biggest obstacle for our army to conquer the Central Plains, but I didn't expect that Zhu Di, the Emperor Chengzu of the Ming Dynasty, was no less powerful. No one should be underestimated." Ying Hao thought to himself.

"Your Majesty, the coalition forces in Xuzhou are more than 370,000," said Guo Jia.

"Huh? What's going on?"

Ying Hao was startled, then asked, "Have the demon sect rebels in Yandong moved to Xuzhou?"

Although the fighting power of the rebel army formed by the Demon Sect is weak, they have the advantage of large numbers and many experts. Although they do not pose a threat to the Qin army on the front battlefield, it will still be quite troublesome if they retreat and defend.

However, after experiencing a huge expansion of their strength in a short period of time, the leaders of the major rebel forces in the Demon Sect also wanted to preserve their strength, so they had internal disagreements on whether to fully support Wei in its fight against Qin.

An Lushan, the nominal leader of the rebel army, has not yet completely integrated the Demon Sect rebel army. Only after the integration is truly complete can he pose a threat to the Qin army.

"The Demon Sect's rebel army did not move to Xuzhou, but according to the information collected by the Black Ice Platform, after the East China Sea Battle, the navies of the Ming and Song dynasties suffered heavy losses. However, by purchasing Eastern Wu naval prisoners of war from Liu Xiu, their naval strength is recovering rapidly." Guo Jia advised.

"Not only that, Cao Wei was also buying prisoners from Liu Xiu, but they were all infantry. The Eastern Wu prisoners captured by Chu were almost all taken by the three kingdoms of Wei, Song and Ming." Jia Xu also said.

The corner of Ying Hao's mouth twitched involuntarily, and he thought: Zhu Di, Zhao Kuangyin, and Cao Cao are these three guys who are pushed into a corner, and they can even do things like buying prisoners and sending them into the army.

Using prisoners of war as soldiers is at least better than training new recruits from scratch, but the morale will definitely not be very high. Facing a powerful army like the Qin Army, they can only be used to defend the city and are basically of little use in field battles.

"Wait, after Cao Cao's extreme military expansion, he was already so poor that he was almost eating dirt, and now he is even more penniless. How could he still have money to buy prisoners from Liu Xiu?"

Anyway, Ying Hao didn't believe that Liu Xiu would give prisoners to Cao Cao for free. After all, this guy would not get up early without benefits. This time, he finally smelled the business opportunity of human trafficking and there was no way he would let it go.

"According to the intelligence gathered by Black Ice Terrace, Liu Xiu allowed Cao Cao to pay off his debts with supplies, and Cao Cao directly sold 3,000 war horses, which facilitated this deal."

"Haha, they are quite resourceful. They are using all means to restore their strength. However, the coalition forces can use prisoners of war as soldiers, so our army can do the same. The coalition forces' plan to wear down our army through attrition is doomed to fail."

After saying this, Ying Hao suppressed the sneer on his face and asked Guo Jia, "How is the reorganization of Li Cunxiao's 100,000 surrendered troops going?"

From the time Cao Ren surrendered, Ying Hao ordered Zhuge Liang to advance, to the time Zhu Di took the initiative to withdraw his troops, and the Qin army occupied the three counties of southern Qing without losing a single soldier, only half a month had passed.

Ying Hao gave Li Cunxiao one month, and half of the time has passed. After the 100,000-strong army has been trained, and since there is no shortage of troops on the Western Front, he plans to send these 100,000 troops to support the Eastern Front.

The lower limit of Zhu Di's military strength on the eastern front was 370,000. With the purchased prisoners of war and newly recruited soldiers, the upper limit would not be less than 430,000.

Before Zhou Yu's navy recovered, it would be good if Zhuge Liang and Su Dingfang's 180,000 troops could maintain the previous enemy-to-us casualty ratio. It was obviously impossible to chew this hard bone, so it was urgent to increase troops on the eastern front.

"Your Majesty, the reorganization of the 100,000 Cao Wei surrendered troops has been going smoothly, but it was General Zhao Yun who was in charge. After Li Cunxiao became the Grand Commander of Yanzhou, he delegated all military affairs and became a hands-off manager, studying martial arts with Jia Fu."

After Guo Jia's words came out, not only Ying Hao couldn't hold it anymore, even Jia Xu's mouth twitched uncontrollably.

Although Jia Fu was seriously injured in the battle of Dongjun, he was lucky enough to obtain the complete "Blood Nerve" and "Ashura Sutra" from Minghe afterwards, which completely completed his future martial arts path.

Normally, with Jia Fu's injuries being so serious, he would need at least half a year or even a year to recover. However, after completing his training, his recovery ability also increased greatly. It only took him two or three months to recover through the training. Now, he has recovered about 60% to 70%.

As for why Jia Fu was recuperating in Chenliu, it was naturally because he obeyed Ying Hao's order and passed the "Blood Nerve" to Bai Qi.

(End of this chapter)