Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 423 0418 [Decisive battle in the wild? 】

Zhong Xiang is a psychopath, or a bit paranoid.

He still has four states, one prison, and one army left, so he can completely occupy Jinghu Road. In the end, he stopped fighting south and transferred back to the army to fight Zhu Ming in Jiangling.

Especially Guiyangjian, where there are Dafu Yinkeng, Maoshou Yinkeng, Baizhu Yinkeng, Jiuding Yinkeng, and many other unknown small folk silver mines.

As long as Guiyang prison is captured, a lot of money is waiting for him.

Continue to fight west, and there are silver pits in the upper and lower slots.Turn around and fight eastward, and there will be another silver pit for prolonging life.

Does a lonely Jiangling need to be so tough?
In fact, it is impossible to move south...

Most of them are mountainous areas, the climate is slightly different, and the customs are also different.

Also because the expansion is too rapid, there are not enough religious affairs officers.Not only is the taxation a mess, the cities and villages are also poorly managed.

The newly formed army lacks soldiers and beliefs, and a large number of ruffians and hooligans are mixed into it.

There were even some gentry and merchants who felt that they could not stop Zhong Xiang's army and announced their conversion to Manichaeism in advance.Then, the gentry and merchants led the people to rebel, set up a dharma altar to honor Zhongxiang as the co-lord, and secretly gave money and bribes to Zhongxiang's cronies.

Zhong Xiang, who lacked a religious affairs officer, took advantage of the situation and accepted this kind of investment, as long as he paid a certain amount of taxes.

In Hengzhou and Yongzhou, there are such speculators everywhere.

The Chu regime quickly corrupted and gained a bad reputation in the newly occupied areas.The gangsters turned into officers, guess what they will do?Gentlemen and merchants became religious leaders, and guess what they would do?
Take Leiyang County as an example. The cronies and troops sent by Prime Minister Zhong only occupied the county seat, Xincheng Town and Jiaoyuan Yinkeng.Other vast rural areas are all controlled by local religious leaders.These speculators, even under the banner of Manichaeism, attacked and annexed each other for territory.

Zhong Xiang also tried to gather power, and arranged for some small leaders to go to various rural Buddhist altars to be the altar masters.

But speculators have their own coups, one to corrode one, one pair to corrode a pair.

Those who follow the clock and rebel, most of them belong to the suffering background.Those who can be sent to the south to take over the villages are even less popular, and even their piety is questionable.Sending money and women, how can they bear it?Once I went to the countryside, I was wooed within a few days, and I completely forgot what I was here for.

In the first few states that were conquered, the ruling class also gradually corrupted.

From county towns to villages, religious leaders think that they have made great achievements through hard work, so what's wrong with enjoying a little bit?
Zhong Xiang gradually lost control of the grassroots, but he just took the grassroots route!
Faced with this change, Zhong Xiang was not vigilant.

Because everyone is very obedient, not only earnestly carrying out orders, but also singing praises to Zhong Xiang, the Great Chu State is filled with a false and powerful atmosphere.

Zhong Xiang has not preached in person for a long time, and he is the first to break away from the grassroots.

The continuous defeat in the south is attributed to the reasons of terrain, climate and customs.He felt that it was very difficult to go further south, and he had to develop north and east in the future. Jiangling was the bridgehead that crossed the Yangtze River, and he had to defend it no matter how high the price was.

……

"Generalissimo, the Chu bandits have traveled from Mianshui to the Han River."

"Let Sun Lan keep it safe."

Zhu Ming has a very headache now. He intends to control the scale of the war, but the battlefield becomes bigger and bigger.Both sides invested more and more troops, so much so that Zhu Ming didn't send any more troops to the Zhijiang battlefield.

At this moment, Zhu Ming really wanted to pry open the cover of Zhong Xiang's sky, and see how this person's brain circuit was born.

Not only are there more and more Chu troops in Jiangling City, as far away as Dongting Lake, the Chu troops also took the initiative to cross the Yangtze River and occupy Jianli County, Yusha County and Mianyang Town.

These three places belong to anarchy.

The officials of the Song Dynasty had already run away, Zhu Ming was too lazy to collect it, and Zhong Xiang obviously looked down on it.

Being so disliked is purely worthless.

In this era, Honghu Lake has not yet been formed, and the surrounding area of ​​Honghu Lake in later generations, even tens of miles to the northwest, northeast, and north, are all scattered swampy areas.

If there is a big flood, it will become the country of Ze for tens of miles.

From the administrative changes in Jianli, Yusha, and Mianyang, we can see how miserable these places are.It will be promoted to county for a while, and reduced to town for a while. On average, it will change once every 20 years.

The general situation is this: What, the county town of XX was flooded?Then downgrade it to a town.The town of XX was flooded this time, and the population there is quite large, so the county government can be moved there to work.

For Ju Ming, it doesn't even have military value.

The Yangtze River was controlled by Zhong Xiang. If Zhu Ming went to occupy Jianli County, not only would he not receive a few taxes, but he would have to cross the swamp to transport rations.Once the war starts, it will be difficult to supply the army food, so it is better to station troops north of the swamp area.

The army under Zhu Ming is now stationed in Qianjiang, Hanyang and later Mianyang in order to prevent Zhong Xiang from going north.

The reason why we say Mianyang in later generations is because the town of Mianyang was not there at this time.

A military official named Cheng Hu came to Jiangling as an envoy.

Zhong Xiang received him very happily, and asked, "What can you say, little thief Zhu?"

Cheng Hu replied: "The Generalissimo asked Your Excellency if you want to start a full-scale war? If so, the Generalissimo will transfer 30 troops from Sichuan. If you don't plan to go to a full-scale war, then please withdraw the troops across the river on the eastern front. "

Zhong Xiang sneered: "Who first went to Jiangling City to rob grain? Who sent sailors to plunder Baishui Town? And who sent troops to capture my Zhijiang City?"

Cheng Hu said: "Your Excellency wrote a letter to plan to rule the river, but he has been occupying Jiangling for a long time, and Zhijiang is unwilling to leave. The Generalissimo will naturally give corresponding rewards."

Zhong Xiang said, "Zhijiang is to the north of the Yangtze River? It's in the middle of the Yangtze River!"

Cheng Hu said: "To rule the river, the Yangtze River will naturally be divided into two. Based on the center of the Yangtze River, the north belongs to us, and the south belongs to you. In this way, Zhijiang is our county!"

Zhong Xiang laughed angrily: "What a big turban with a sharp tongue!"

Cheng Hu said with a serious expression: "The generalissimo just asks, do you want to start a full-scale war? Within ten days, the Chu army on the eastern front will not withdraw. Please bear all the consequences yourself! Farewell."

The messenger left, and Zhong Xiang fell into deep thought alone.

He is at a loss now, not knowing where to go.

I can't move to the south, and I tried to go to the west, but it still doesn't work.He believes that it is mainly due to the terrain. The territory of the Song Dynasty is easy to defend and difficult to attack, and the gentry are also actively recruiting soldiers from the countryside. It is no longer a situation where he can casually attack the city.

On the contrary, it is best to fight north. His navy is dominant, and Jiangling is the bridgehead.

Although Zhu Ming's army is strong, they will fight sooner or later, so it is better to fight now.

Is it really going to be a full-scale war?

In case of defeat, Zhu thief took the opportunity to kill Jiang, what should I do?

……

Zhu Ming is stalling for time, otherwise he would not be interested in sending envoys to negotiate.

"We have to make a quick decision. Bring down Jiangling as soon as possible, otherwise it will be difficult to supply military rations." Bai Chongwu is now in charge of the military rations dispatch, and only makes suggestions from a logistical point of view.

Qian Chen has gone to work as a civil servant, and is currently not under Zhu Ming's account.

However, Wang Ting said: "This year the Yangtze River rainy season has come earlier, and there have been several rains. The mud outside the city not only makes it difficult for cavalry to gallop, but also makes it difficult for infantry to attack the city. We must wait until the weather clears and the ground dries up before attacking Jiangling."

Zhang Tong also said: "The weather is like this, you can't go against the sky."

"Going against the right time may lead to a big defeat." Wang Yuan followed up with advice.

Zhu Ming is in a dilemma. Due to the soaring water level of the Yangtze River, the grain and grass in Sichuan have been suspended.

It didn't rain in Hanzhong, but the wheat planting area was very small, and the summer grain was confiscated at all, and the grain had to wait until the rice was harvested in autumn.

This year, there was too much rain in the Jingjiang River Basin, and the time came too early, which completely disrupted Ju Ming's plan.

After thinking about it, Zhu Ming had no choice but to order: "Let's withdraw the troops. I don't know when the rain will stop. The army is just consuming food and grass outside. Han Shizhong, He Ji and the others will continue to be stationed in Zhijiang. The troops on the eastern front will also stay, and the water transportation will not be enough. Too much consumption. The main force retreated to Jingmen and Dangyang, and then went south to attack Jiangling after harvesting the rice."

It doesn't rain every day, but every now and then, the ground gets wet again before it's dry.

The soil work during the siege was extremely difficult. Even if the artillery and musket troops were pulled back, the gunpowder in such weather would not be stable.The flattening cannon and catapult can still be used, but if the enemy troops go out of the city to cause damage, it will be difficult for the cavalry to take advantage of their maneuverability, so they can only mobilize the infantry to fight.

There is also the moat of Jiangling, which directly connects to the Yangtze River and rises with the water level of the Yangtze River.

It is impossible to fill up the moat, so we can only build a pontoon bridge to cross it. If the enemy troops guard the other side, they will suffer heavy casualties if they cross the moat.After the sun clears, you can build an earth platform and order to suppress the enemy on the other side. The tiger squatting cannon can also bombard the enemy, and the casualties can be greatly reduced.

In addition, if the rain keeps falling, the water from the Yangtze River may overflow to the residential areas outside the city, and Zhu Ming's troops will have to fight through the water to climb the city.

There is no need to spend any more.

Zhu Ming ordered the withdrawal of the troops. After leaving behind two elite troops, the whole army left the camp one after another.

At this moment, the troops in charge of breaking the rear sent someone to report: "The enemy army has left the city, and the gates of the city are all open!"

On the east, west, north, and north walls of Jiangling City, the seven gates were opened together, and countless Chu troops rushed out.

Zhu Ming went back to check it himself, observed with a telescope for a while, and couldn't help muttering: "Is Zhong Zhong crazy? There is a strong city that cannot be defended, so he has to go out of the city to fight."

Zhong Xiang is not crazy, but after careful consideration, he made the decision to fight in the field.

He knew that sooner or later there would be a battle with Zhu Ming, and it was fine if he didn't want to fight for the time being, but Jiangling City had to be handed over.

Zhu Ming took Jiangling, and he will definitely make progress next year, and he will let Kuizhou soldiers attack Yidu and Changyang.Because only by capturing Yidu, Sichuan's food and army, can we dare to go east with confidence.

Yidu and Zhijiang are gone, so what about Songzi?
I'm afraid Songzi won't be able to keep it for a long time.

Why not take advantage of the muddy and humid rainy season, making it difficult for Ju Ming's cavalry to function, and probably difficult to use firearms, and he has more troops, so seize this opportunity to fight a decisive battle!
No matter how strong the enemy is, he must always face it. It is impossible to hide in the city and defend for the rest of his life.

(End of this chapter)