Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 18 Boy’s Ambition
"The previous [-] Northern Expeditions of the Chinese Dynasty had already severely damaged the northern captives, so that the northern captives did not dare to approach the border fortress easily, and could only harass the Daning and Kaiping areas."

On the tenth day of April, Zhu Gaoxu's voice sounded in the study room. At this time, Zhu Gaoxu was in the study room with Wang Xuan and Yang Zhan to analyze the sand table.

Zhu Gaoxu pointed to the north of the sand table with a branch and conducted self-analysis from north to south, while Yang Zhan and Wang Xuan were listening to the lecture and the other was taking notes on what Zhu Gaoxu said.

After ten days of analysis, coupled with information obtained from interviews with Bao Tao Guards, Hezhou Guards Qianhu, and command and envoys, Zhu Gaoxu roughly concluded Zhu Yuanzhang's military attitude towards the north and the region.

"The imperial dynasty occupied Hexi and Monan with important towns such as Yijinai (Ejina Banner), Ningxia, Dongsheng (south of Hohhot), Kaiping (Duolun County), Daning (Chifeng), etc., and sent Tangqi to constantly patrol the border. We use the land to farm and herd horses to support the military, reduce the pressure in the pass, and protect the people in the pass."

"To be specific, the main center of the first line of defense in the northern part of the country is in Dongsheng. Dongsheng is connected to Kaiping, Dushi, Daning, Kaiyuan and other places in the east, and connected to Helan Mountain and Gansu Beishan in the west."

"The characteristic of the first line of defense is that 'the terrain is straight, so it is close and easy to defend.' Its disadvantage is that it is vast and sparsely populated, and the long-term troop garrison consumes national power."

As Zhu Gaoxu spoke, he used branches to point out the cities in the north bit by bit.

Yang Zhan wrote quickly with pen and ink in his hand, writing down what he said one by one.

"The second line of defense of the dynasty is the vassal system established on the basis of 'respecting the king and repelling the barbarians' to guard the frontiers and expand the territory."

"This system starts from Suzhou in the west and ends in Liaodong in the east. It extends to the border fortresses and all the dangerous passes. They all control the fortresses and are supported by Yuanrong generals. They have the power to control orders and have the power to support the army."

"In the Sai King's system, you can clear the desert when entering, and you can build tents to guard against each other. Once the northern barbarians are strong and the first line of defense is difficult to suppress, the Sai King can be sent out to patrol the border."

"Although it is called a patrol, the main purpose is to encircle and suppress the remnants of the Beibei soldiers and weaken the number of Beibei soldiers and horses, so as to prevent the Beibei soldiers from going south."

While Zhu Gaoxu was speaking, he would be silent for a moment from time to time. This was because he was thinking about why Zhu Yuanzhang arranged it this way.

However, his thoughts are very fast, and it often only takes a few breaths to figure it out, and then he talks about the third line of defense:
"The third line of defense of the dynasty is the defense line formed by the Qin, Zhou, Lu, Qi and other vassals relying on the Weishui River and the Yellow River, with the Qinling Mountains and the Huaihe River as their backs."

"Although the four vassal kings have few guards, the three vassals of Shu, Chu, Hunan and Nanzhili can support each other with the fourth line of defense behind them."

"At the same time, because the fourth line of defense is located in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, it can rely on water conservancy to transfer in to support Nanjing City at any time."

"However, this also means that the city of Nanjing is extremely vulnerable to the threat of the Three Feudatories, especially the feudal vassals in Jingzhou and Wuchang, which are adjacent to the Xiangfan and Chufan in the Yangtze River waterway. Therefore, Jingzhou and Wuchang are extremely important. .”

"Generally speaking, the entire arrangement is based on the depth of the north and south of the country, carrying out layered defense, and arranging vassals such as Jin, Zhou, Chu, and Hunan on the middle line, ready to provide support to the east and west fronts at any time."

"However, this system has a huge flaw, that is, the geographical depth is too long. Although it is suitable for defense, it is not suitable for offense."

"The border troops in various places are too scattered and take too long to assemble. Once the main force of the defense line leaves the fortress, the defense line will immediately weaken and be easily surrounded and attacked by the Northern Captives."

"Therefore, the imperial court must gather another force to replace the border army's defense task after the army leaves the fortress."

"These soldiers and horses are the Imperial Leopard Guards and the Hezhou Guards..."

Zhu Gaoxu told all Zhu Yuanzhang's intentions, which made Yang Zhan, who was recording, and Wang Xuan, who was listening, thirsty.

However, Zhu Gaoxu did not pay attention to their status. Instead, he placed his hands on the sand table and frowned.

He figured out Lao Zhu's arrangement, but at the same time he also understood the difficulties Lao Zhu faced.

The Yuqian Bao Tao Guard and the Yuqian Hezhou Guard are considered the elite of the Ming army, and they are indeed capable of undertaking the defense work after the main force of the frontier army leaves the fortress.

But the problem is that they have too few people and too few horses.

Therefore, if the Beilu attack was frustrated in one place and then turned forward, the two cavalry guards would never be able to catch up with the main force of the Beilu. This is why Zhu Yuanzhang was anxious to buy horses.

An elite cavalry must have at least one riding horse, one pack horse and one military horse, so as to maintain the high mobility of this unit.

Since it was a defensive battle, the Ming army did not have to worry about supply problems. What they had to do was to send troops to monitor the main force of the Beilu after they detoured southward, so that the main force of the Beilu would not dare to plunder the interior easily.But according to the information that Zhu Gaoxu has gathered from Bao Tao Guard and Hezhou Guard these days, Bao Tao Guard and Hezhou Guard only have one riding horse and one military horse, and no pack horses.

As for the Ming Dynasty, there were only more than [-] horses in the entire world.

While maintaining a certain number of cavalry in the north, it is also necessary to maintain two cavalry guards of 7000 people.

It can be said that Zhu Yuanzhang has tried his best to solve the problem of northern captives going south in the future, and Ming Dynasty has also reached its current limit.

From a military perspective, Zhu Yuanzhang has achieved the ultimate, and Zhu Gaoxu has no solution to this problem at all.

"How did my cheap dad solve this problem..."

Zhu Gaoxu looked at the sand table and was puzzled.

At this time, even if he wanted to write a letter asking his cheap dad about his ideas, he didn't have time.

"It seems that from a military perspective, it's hard for me to excel."

Zhu Gaoxu suddenly became discouraged. Although he had made rapid progress, it was only theoretical.

He believed that he was not a military genius, and naturally he had no way to use the current Ming Dynasty's resources to solve the situation of the northern invaders' invasion from the south.

Wang Xuan on the side looked at Zhu Gaoxu's silence and knew that he could not think of a way to go further. Therefore, Wang Xuan looked at Yang Zhan, then bowed to him and said:
"Your Highness, we can't go any further on defense, so why not turn to offense?"

As soon as Wang Xuan said the words, before Zhu Gaoxu could speak, Yang Zhan shook his head and said: "It's too difficult to attack..."

"The problem with the Northern Expedition is not that our soldiers cannot defeat the enemy, but that the north of the country cannot support the Northern Expedition with too many troops."

Yang Zhan explained the reason why he could not attack. Zhu Gaoxu also slightly nodded when he saw this, and then pointed at Liaodong, Beiping, Shanxi, Shaanxi and other places with the branch in his hand.

"The northern part of the country is vast and sparsely populated, and the eastern part of Liaodong is full of military households, military households and their relatives. Judging from the results of last year's inventory, the number of people is less than 40."

"Beiping has less than 200 million people, Shanxi has 410 million, and places like Shaanxi and Gansu have only more than [-] million people. Most of them are naturalized citizens of Semu, Xifan and Beilu."

"Even if the population figures in the above provinces are reduced by [-]%, the number of males will only be over three million."

"Currently, there are no less than 50 northern captives living in Mobei, and nearly 20 men."

"Even if we are one against two, we will still have to send one hundred thousand troops."

Speaking of this, Zhu Gaoxu couldn't help but sigh: "With one hundred thousand soldiers and horses, judging from the distance, I'm afraid it would take 50 men as civilian husbands to support the army's approach."

"If the northern captives escape and the army returns without success, the losses will range from millions to hundreds. Neither the dynasty nor the people will be able to bear it..."

During the conversation, Zhu Gaoxu had given up persuading Zhu Yuanzhang to conduct the Northern Expedition, because such an attack would require at least several years of rest for the northern provinces to recover.

From this point of view, Zhu Yuanzhang's strategic layout of layers of defense is indeed impeccable, at least for the moment.

At this moment, Zhu Gaoxu understood the gap between himself, Zhu Yuanzhang, and Zhu Di.

However, he did not think that he would always fall behind.

Everyone will grow. As long as there is a platform, Zhu Gaoxu doesn't believe that he will always stand still.

One day, he will change the Ming Dynasty's strategy and tactics, transforming hierarchical defense into point-like distribution and focused defense.

(End of this chapter)