Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 267 Bringing things to order

"Beep--"

In the early morning, the day after Yang Zhan led his fleet to successfully enter the Yangtze River Estuary, tens of thousands of soldiers carrying armors on horses came south from the north and stopped at the east side of a city that had recently been repaired.

"Is this Yangzhou City?"

"Why is it not as prosperous as the book says?"

"Yeah, it's bare, not even a tree."

Outside Yangzhou City, as Ta Shi, Duo Er, Qi and others spoke, Zhu Gaoxu on horseback also glanced at Yangzhou City.

When they went north, Yangzhou City was still expanding, but now it has been completely repaired.

Yangzhou City is seven miles long from north to south and five miles wide from east to west. The city wall is about three feet thick.

There are five gates in the entire city, namely the Dadong Gate Haining Gate, the West Gate Tongsi Gate, the South Gate Anjiang Gate, the North Gate Zhenhuai Gate, and the Xiaodong Gate.

A canal runs between the Bohai Sea and Yangzhou City, but there are many recently built buildings to the east of the canal where they are located.

Thinking about it, Yangzhou City could not accommodate too many merchants into the city, so the merchants could only be placed on the east side of the canal to conduct business.

If Zhu Gaoxu remembers correctly, these businessmen will become the main driving force for Yangzhou City to build the East City in the future.

"Don't destroy the buildings here easily. The inside of the pass is no better than the outside. There are too few trees. They can only be transported down the Yangtze River from the southwest to the south."

Zhu Gaoxu told everyone, and then took out his telescope to observe Yangzhou City.

The distance between him and Yangzhou City was only about two miles, and he was just out of reach of the Confederate artillery.

Under his observation, there seemed to be camps on the north and south sides of Yangzhou City. Sheng Yong probably adjusted the camp direction because he was worried about being bombarded by the Bohai Navy.

"It's almost more than two miles. Sheng Yong still counts."

Zhu Gaoxu chuckled lightly, and then said to everyone: "When we are stationed in the camp, we must pay special attention to the defense in the north. Tangqi is released twenty miles away."

"General, take your orders!" Everyone agreed, and then began to set up camp under Chen Chang's arrangement.

Compared with Zhu Gaoxu's ease, Sheng Yong at the top of Yangzhou City had a solemn expression.

He stood at the top of the city. Although they were far apart, from the size of the crowd, it could be seen that Zhu Gaoxu's troops were probably as many as the Yunti Pass guard said, no less than thirty or forty thousand.

"Qianshi, what should we do now?"

The commander Meng Tao asked Sheng Yong, but Sheng Yong pondered for a moment, and then said: "Hang on, it is already April, and in half a month it will be the plum rain season. Once the plum rain comes, his firearms will not be used, and we will When we cooperate with Marquis Yuexun to capture them."

"Where is Marquis Yuexun?" Sheng Yong asked about the main force such as Yu Tongyuan and Pingan who went south on March 28. Meng Tao on the side responded without thinking: "We have arrived in Pizhou, only more than four hundred miles away from here. It will take at most three days to arrive.”

"Three days..." Sheng Yong nodded, and then looked at the Bohai Navy outside the city.

With the defense of Yangzhou City, it is not a problem to hold it for three days. By then, as long as Yu Tongyuan's more than 10,000 cavalry arrive in the north of Yangzhou, and with the arrival of the rainy season, it will be 70,000 against 30,000 to 40,000.

Although the Bohai elites are elite, Sheng Yong does not feel that the 20,000 elites in Beijing in his hands are not as good as them.

Thinking of this, Sheng Yong also turned around and left, continuing to strengthen the Yangzhou city defense.

From early morning to dusk, the Yangzhou defenders did not wait for the Bohai Navy to attack because Zhu Gaoxu was not in a hurry to attack them.

As long as he leads the army to Yangzhou, it will be enough to attract the attention of the whole Jiangnan.

Time flies by, and when night falls, at the mouth of the Yangtze River, more than 300 miles away from Yangzhou, Chen Xuan has also accumulated a day of temper.

He waited for a long time at Liao Kok Tsui, but never saw the Bohai Navy attack.

As time passed, he persisted until the morning of April 5th with red and swollen eyes.

However, before Yang Qiu's shift came, he waited for the imperial pension fleet to arrive.

The fleet set off from Suzhou and mobilized the Changping warehouse and treasury there to distribute pensions and food to the brothers who died in the battle yesterday.

"fine……"

Seeing the pension money and food arriving, Chen Xuan breathed a sigh of relief and felt that it was worth it to shamelessly ask Lin Jiayou.

However, when the boxes of pension money and food appeared in front of him, Chen Xuan was not calm anymore.

"This...why is it a treasure note?"

On the deck, Chen Xuan looked up at the official responsible for escorting the pension, his eyes full of surprise.

Faced with his inquiry, the official said helplessly: "Suzhou Prefecture has insufficient money and food, so we can only distribute treasure notes as pensions."

"Is there any improvement?" Chen Xuan asked quickly. After all, after Zhu Yuanzhang's death, the value of Baobao began to decline under the influence of Jianwen's New Deal.

If he remembers correctly, the current treasure banknote can only be equal to 500 cash.

"Of course it is impossible to improve." The official said sternly: "There is a lot of trouble in the southwest right now. The court does not have enough copper coins, so it can only use treasure coins to tide over the difficulties."

"The officers and soldiers of the three armies are all citizens of our Ming Dynasty. They should be considerate of the court's dissatisfaction."

"The Ministry of Household Affairs has done calculations. Including the food allowance and reward money, the total is 74,627 treasure notes. Please count it, Governor Chen."

The officer's words not only chilled Chen Xuan, but also chilled the hearts of all the soldiers on the deck.

In their opinion, there was no telling when they would die in battle, but the court still used treasure money to fool them.

This kind of treatment is completely different from the treatment of the Bohai Navy. How can it be worth their death?

As for the so-called considerateness mentioned by officials, everyone also scoffed at it.

Without money, there is no need to talk about ideals, and ideals cannot be eaten as food.

All they know is that their pension has been reduced in disguise. The original pension could still allow the family to live comfortably for two or three years and make a living, but now...

"I know..."

Chen Xuan suppressed his temper and responded. When the official saw this, he also nodded and turned around to board the sand boat and sailed upstream towards Suzhou.

As soon as his front foot left, there was a lot of curses on the deck of the back foot.

"We have our heads tied to our belts, and the court is just fooling us like this?"

"Who doesn't know the virtues of treasure banknotes? Thirty-six strings of treasure banknotes can't even buy thirty kilograms of rice!"

"Damn it, these bunch of dog civil servants!"

"I'm working so hard here, and they're deducting my pension from behind!"

For a while, the shouts and curses continued, but Chen Xuan did not stop them. Perhaps in his opinion, the court was bullying them too much.

Others don't know, but Chen Xuan knows it very well.

The imperial court is not without money, on the contrary, it is very rich.

Starting from the 28th year of Hongwu, gold, silver and copper mines from the southwest have been continuously transported to the capital. Even with the use of banknotes to offset taxes and other policies, the amount consumed is not large.

Now giving them treasure money is just to fool them.

"what happened?"

For a moment, a steady voice sounded among the shouts.

Yang Qiu arrived at Liao Kok Tsui in a warship, and several military attachés beside Chen Xuan also explained to Yang Qiu the reasons for everyone's anger.

Faced with what they said, even Yang Qiu, who was trying to win over Chen Xuan, felt speechless.

Does the importance of the Yangtze River Navy still need words?

At this time, he actually used treasure money to fool the Yangtze River Navy. This method made Yang Qiu doubt whether the emperor he had never seen before was a fool.

Even though the pre-Song Dynasty emphasized culture over military affairs, they never deducted military pay and pensions when a powerful enemy approached.

"What are those people in the court thinking?"

Yang Qiu touched his forehead and felt that it was not that he was powerful, but that there were frequent fainting moves in the temple.

But in this way, he had a chance.

Yang Qiu glanced at the indignant crowd, but did not speak directly, but prepared to wait for the news to ferment.

As time passed, Yang Qiu, Chen Xuan and others changed shifts and asked them to take what the court was doing to Chongming Island.

When night fell, when Yang Qiu and Chen Xuan returned to Chongming Island after changing shifts, they saw the soldiers with low morale.

"Go and ask Governor Chen to come over for me, saying that we have something important to discuss."

Yang Qiu looked back at his cronies, who also bowed and left. About half an hour later, Chen Xuan, who had just changed his shift, returned to Chongming Island with doubts.

Yang Qiu ordered people to cook a table of delicious food in Qianhu House. When Chen Xuan arrived, Yang Qiu also bowed and said, "Brother Yanchun."

"I wonder why Brother Yang called me here?" Chen Xuan stopped in the middle hall, did not sit down directly, but went straight to the topic.

Looking at his appearance, Yang Qiu also knew that it was impossible to get him drunk, so he got straight to the point:

"When I came back today, I found that rumors were spreading in the army. Many soldiers said they wanted to desert the army. I wonder if Brother Yanchun knows?"

"Of course..." Chen Xuan frowned. How could he not know why his brothers wanted to desert the army? After all, it was because the imperial court was deducting money and food while making people work.

"If this news gets out, I'm afraid you and I will also be targeted by officials above the temple."

Yang Qiu was talking eloquently and at the same time glanced at Chen Xuan: "I wonder what Brother Yanchun thinks of the Prince of Bohai County?"

"..." Chen Xuan understood what Yang Qiu wanted to say. After all, the title of Bohai County Prince could make him clear that Yang Qiu might want to seek refuge with Zhu Gaoxu.

He didn't speak in a hurry, but analyzed the situation in front of him.

His Yangtze River Navy had less than 5,000 men, while the Pingwa Navy had tens of thousands.

In addition, the Bohai navy to the north of Liao Kok Tsui is probably not small in number. It seems that he has no chance of winning against the two of them.

Chen Xuan was still weighing the pros and cons, but Yang Qiu, who had been reluctant to speak, spoke up:

"To be honest, dozens of Bohai warships have been put into the Nanjiang estuary. Brother Yanchun, you should know better than me what this means."

"Even if you tell the news to the capital, the capital will take credit for you?"

Yang Qiu chuckled, and Chen Xuan also fell into a daze. He never expected that Yang Qiu actually joined the Bohai Navy without telling him.

"If you surrender now, you might still be able to achieve merit. If it's later, then..."

Yang Qiu pressed forward step by step. After hearing this, Chen Xuan's face was tangled, but in the end he slowly said: "I...surrender."

"Okay!" After hearing Chen Xuan's words, Yang Qiu immediately clapped his hands, stood up and said to Chen Xuan: "The capital is surrounded, it will only last for a day or two, and what we need to do is to stand still until the capital is surrounded, we will Then he turned the ship around and headed for the capital, transporting tens of thousands of troops from the Bohai Sea to the south of the Yangtze River!"

"Please rest assured, Brother Yanchun. The King of Bohai County is wise and never stingy with rewards for promoting your achievements for the Brotherhood. I think you should know better than me."

After that, Yang Qiu raised his glass: "Let's have a drink."

"..." Chen Xuan silently raised his glass, touched it with Yang Qiu and drank it down in one gulp.

Looking at Chen Xuan's condition, Yang Qiu couldn't hide the smile on his face.

It's not that he has outstanding abilities, but that the people above the temple are really stupid.

Next, he waited for the capital to be surrounded, and waited to help the Bohai Navy transport Jiang.

At the same time, when everything was stable in the south, Zhu Di in the north also successfully found a place to cross the river under continuous searches by Tangqi.

On the early morning of the sixth day of the Lunar New Year, the sound of fighting and iron horses echoed on both sides of the Baigou River.

The largest and most brutal main battle during the entire Jingnan War is about to break out.

Stuck between the two armies was a newly built wooden bridge.

The water depth under this section of the wooden bridge was very shallow, so it became a battlefield between the two armies.

When the piercing wooden whistle sounded, Zhu Di, who was riding on horseback, pulled out the sword on his waist and said: "Expand the formation!"

Following his opening, more than 100,000 Yan troops began to expand their formation, and then began to halt the entire team under his command.

Fang Kuan, who led the front army, saw Zhu Di's order and immediately led the army to cross the shoals and wooden bridges here.

The news spread. Li Jinglong, who was in charge of the 200,000-strong Southern Army, could not see the situation ahead, but he could judge what Zhu Di wanted to do through the sand table.

"The front army spread out, resisted with long spears, and fired artillery to defend the enemy."

Li Jinglong spoke slowly, and as he spoke, in less than a quarter of an hour, gunfire began to sound from the north.

Two kilograms of stone bullets were fired, injuring three to five people in a row, and there were hundreds of such stone bullets.

After suffering Zhu Gaoxu's loss, Li Jinglong also began to skillfully imitate the Bohai Navy's artillery tactics, and it was very successful, at least when dealing with the Yan army, which lacked artillery, the effect was very successful.

"The cavalry marches and forms a defense against the enemy. Their artillery should be a mile away."

Zhu Di released his cavalry, and the cavalry also began to take a detour to prepare to cross the river elsewhere.

This scene was seen by the Southern Army's horse infantry. Although their number was only 20,000, they still left the main battlefield under the command of Li Jinglong and prepared to intercept the Yan Army's cavalry who took a detour to cross the river.

At the same time, the former army led by Fang Kuan successfully crossed the river, but they faced Confederate spearmen who were waiting with guns.

The shoal, which was more than a hundred paces wide, was crowded with people. The Confederate army defended the enemy with long spears and used fire gate guns for sneak attacks. The tactics were very similar to the Bohai Navy's matchlock tactics, but the power was much inferior.

But despite this, Fang Kuan's troops were still repelled. Zhu Di took the telescope "given" to him by Wang Yi and painfully looked at the continuously defeated front army in front of him.

The 200,000 Southern Army and the 130,000 Yan Army faced off at the Baigou River. Although there was only one battle, all the ministries cooperated to replenish troops, and for a time there were countless casualties in the Baigou River shoal.

Faced with this situation, Zhu Di drew his sword and said: "With the Chinese army on top, if we open an opening, we can gain a foothold on the south bank!"

Zhu Di ordered Zhang Yu to lead a Chinese army of 30,000 infantry to attack, which together with Fang Kuan was nearly 50,000.

Zhu Di originally thought that Zhang Yu and Fang Kuan could easily gain a foothold. However, as soon as the Yan Army and the Southern Army clashed, the Yan Army's spearmen were defeated, causing many casualties.

The art of war was full of energy but failed again and again. However, faced with this situation, Zhu Di was keenly aware that the Southern Army was moving very slowly.

"Fang Kuan's entire army retreats, Qiu Fu, take the lead!"

Zhu Di ordered the attack again, and the Confederate artillery fired in response.

This time Zhu Di saw clearly that the cooperation of the Southern Army was not in place. In other words, if the Yan Army went south, as long as they could grasp this connection problem, they would be able to gain a foothold on the south bank.

"Tell Qiu Fu to insert himself into the gap between the Zhuozhou Guards and the Taiyuan Guards. Once they break through, immediately stabilize the formation and wait for me to lead my troops across the river."

The majestic formation of more than 300,000 troops, whether it is the Yan Army or the Southern Army, both sides are guarding the flanks and rear, especially the Southern Army, so the Yan Army cavalry has been unable to make achievements.

However, as Zhu Di seized the gap between the Zhuozhou Guard and the Taiyuan Guard, Qiu Fu successfully led thousands of people across the river and stood firm. Seeing what was ahead, Zhu Di immediately waved his whip:

"Entire the entire army to cover up and expand the position on the south bank!"

"kill!!"

Zhu Di took the lead, and the horse and infantry following him also charged.

When the news reached the rear, Li Jinglong spoke unhurriedly: "Continue to use artillery fire. Once their formation is unstable, the whole army will charge and beat them back to the north bank."

Although Li Jinglong was dissatisfied with the mistakes in the cooperation between Zhuozhou Guards and Taiyuan Guards, he knew that now was not the time to discuss guilt.

Using the Baigou River to severely injure Zhu Di is what he must accomplish now.

"kill!!"

Among the chaotic army, the Yan army formed a camp step by step, and the Confederate army also formed a camp step by step. The spears of the two sides collided. Zhu Di galloped on horseback, with his bow and arrows drawn, constantly attacking the soldiers of the Confederate army.

"Boom boom boom——"

Suddenly, the Confederate artillery fired again, and a gap was opened in the Yan Army formation. Seeing this, Zhu Di quickly prepared to retreat, but many people in the Confederate army were already eyeing him.

Suddenly, arrows rained down, and the war horse Zhu Di was riding was injured and fell. Although he was an expert in equestrian skills, he was still thrown to the ground.

"Your Highness!"

Zhang Yu and Qiu Fu rushed to the front to help him up, but at this moment, the southern army's formation was also pressing closer.

For a moment, Zhu Di, as the commander-in-chief, actually fought with the Southern Army. This scene made Wang Yi frown.

"His Royal Highness, King Yan, why would you go to the front if you don't have His Highness's ability?"

Wang Yi complained, then turned to look at the 20,000 Bohai horse infantry behind him:

"Surprise and detour, help the army retreat northward!"

"Beep--"

The exclusive Bohai whistle sounded, and 20,000 horse infantry began to cross the river.

After they arrived at the south bank, they, under the leadership of Wang Yi, kept making rounds and shooting arrows in front of them. Some of the southern front troops were hit by arrows in the face and fell down.

During the chaotic battle, Zhu Di changed his horses three times, but they were all shot to death by Confederate archers.

Fortunately, the Bohai horse infantry led by Wang Yi had excellent shooting skills, and with the protection of Qiu Fu and Zhang Yu, he successfully crossed the river beach and returned to the north.

"Withdraw troops!"

Seeing that it was impossible to break through Li Jinglong head-on, Zhu Di immediately withdrew the Yan army on the south bank.

On this day, the northern and southern armies of Baigouhe suffered thousands of casualties, and the morale of the Yan army was low.

Zhu Di found a war horse and rode on it. He glanced at the more than 200,000 Confederate troops on the south bank unwillingly, and immediately turned the horse's head back to his camp.

After a while, Zhang Yu, Zhu Neng and others organized their own armies, and all the generals of the Yan army gathered in Zhu Di's commander's tent.

"We were almost able to break through Li Jiujiang's troops today. It would be great if we also had artillery."

Zhu Di sat in his seat and kept complaining about the artillery.

Wang Yi was silent when he heard this, and the generals turned their attention to him.

"With Bohai's artillery, we might be able to gain a foothold on the south coast today."

Zhang Yu also spoke, and Zhu Di even started to draw a pie: "Wang Yi, write a letter to the second brother and say that I have already fought with Li Jiujiang in Baigou River. As long as Li Jiujiang in Baigou River is captured, We can reach the Huaihe River by the end of the year."

Zhu Di said this, but Wang Yi was unfazed.

"As for the artillery, it is useless even if His Highness writes a letter, let alone the general..."

Wang Yi bowed in return, but Zhu Di felt unlucky after hearing this, and could only mutter: "The way the second child is picking at you doesn't look like me at all."

Anyone who heard what he said would know that he was angry, so they did not agree with him.

Seeing that no one spoke, Zhu Di continued:

"Although there were thousands of casualties in today's battle, I also saw Li Jiujiang's problem."

"He has too many veteran soldiers and horses. Those veterans are mean and rigid and unwilling to follow Li Jiujiang's orders. That's why the Zhuozhou Guard and Taiyuan Guard exposed their problems today."

"I will lead you across the river again tomorrow. If Li Jiujiang can't solve this problem, I can use this problem to defeat him."

Zhu Di was complacent, but at this moment the sound of horse hooves came from outside the tent.

He looked around in surprise and saw Zhang Fu walking into the tent and bowing: "Your Highness, Master Daoyan is coming to see you on horseback."

"Old monk came to see me?" Zhu Di's heart tightened. He knew Yao Guangxiao. If Yao Guangxiao came to him in person, it would definitely mean that something terrible had happened.

In Zhu Di's view, there are currently few things that can make Yao Guangxiao come to him, either in Zhu Gaoxu, Shandong, or in the Tatar, Oara and other tribes in Mobei.

With uneasiness, Zhu Di looked at the tent eagerly, and it was not until a quarter of an hour later that he heard the sound of horse hooves.

Yao Guangxiao, who is sixty-six years old, has white hair and beard, but is still in good health. He turned over and dismounted in one go.

"Old monk, what happened?"

Zhu Di walked out of the tent, but Yao Guangxiao took a look at the situation outside the tent, bowed to Zhu Di and then walked inside the tent.

Zhu Di followed Yao Guangxiao and watched as Yao Guangxiao glanced at the generals in the tent. After making sure that there were people in the tent who could be trusted, he took out a letter.

"His Royal Highness abandoned the artillery and heavy baggage, and headed south lightly. The news arrived in Peiping three days ago. Now he has unplugged the Yunti Pass and advanced into Huaidong."

"What?" Zhu Di was stunned. Not only him, but everyone was stunned.

"His Royal Highness invaded Huaidong, Yu Tongyuan, Pingan and others returned to support, Wu Gao also led Song Xuan and Liu Zhen southward, and Sheng Yong withdrew to Yangzhou."

"In addition, the navy from the Bohai Sea has also arrived at the Yangtze River Estuary. The current guards at the Yangtze River Estuary are Chen Xuan and Yang Qiu. The poor monk estimates that things will change, so he came here to tell His Highness to cease the war and withdraw to Zhuozhou."

Yao Guangxiao explained his intention of coming here, which was simply that he did not want Zhu Di to work in vain.

At present, Zhu Gaoxu has already reached Huainan, and if he dares to go south lightly, he must have something to rely on. Perhaps this war, which has lasted for more than a year, will be completely ended this year.

But when faced with Yao Guangxiao's words, Zhu Di's mind went blank: "The second brother... has entered Huainan?"

　I had a high fever due to influenza A last night, so I wrote this chapter in the hospital.

　　If the infusion can be cured today, I will go home and replenish it before ten o'clock in the evening. If it is not cured, this chapter will be the only one.

　　

　

(End of this chapter)