Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 599 Postscript: Yongli (2)

"Boom boom boom——"

In June of the fifth year of the Yongli reign, while the northern front was stabilized under the control of Li Zheng, the government troops in the south began to pacify the southwestern kings under the command of Li Yue.

In August, the King of Qi in Guangzhou was surrounded and the court, at the suggestion of Li Zheng, simply demoted the King of Qi to a commoner.

In the twelfth month, the army led by Prince Yi of Hanzhong was pacified.

In the first month of the sixth year, Li Yue learned that King Han of Chongqing was preparing to raise an army, so he took the initiative and the King of Han burned himself to death.

Upon learning the news that King Han had committed suicide by burning himself, the remaining 25 princes who had been enthroned during the Hongxi period, including King Qin, King Jin, King Zhou, King Chu, and King Tang, rose up in arms one after another. For a time, the situation south of the Qinling Mountains and the Huai River became devastated.

Due to the cold winter, Yang Fang's troops were short of supplies and their offensive was temporarily suspended compared to a few months ago.

Li Zheng handed over the northern defense line to Jiang Qiu, returned to Beijing, and hired a large number of profit-seeking people with a large reward to train for combat.

This army was called "Sharp Soldiers" by Li Zheng, and its number continued to increase from 30,000.

By April, the number of elite soldiers had reached 160,000. They did not care who was just, they only cared about military pay and rewards.

Their military pay was four times that of ordinary Ming troops, and one hundred and twenty taels of military pay per year was enough for them to bear the infamy.

Li Zheng took out a large number of army weapons from the arsenal to equip them and accelerated the training of pilots.

Since the quality of the air force was high and most of them were children of powerful people, and most of them did not dare to fight to the death, even though the Ming Dynasty had an advantage in the number of aircraft, it was still suppressed by the Northern Air Force led by Yang Fang.

Over ten planes crash almost every day over the Yanshan Mountains; such a death rate is not a task that the children of the rich and powerful would dare to undertake.

One of the things Li Zheng needs to do most is to urgently train a group of pilots who are not afraid of death.

In addition, the plan is to recapture the Shanxi and Shaanxi regions and recover the southwest.

The southwest region has the largest military merit system except for the north. If it is occupied by these vassal kings for too long, the imperial court will face the risk of being attacked from both the north and the south.

In August, Li Zheng led an army of 160,000 elite soldiers southward and successively put down the rebellions of the King of Jin, the King of Qin, and the King of Zhou.

In the twelfth month, Yang Fang's attack on the Yanshan Mountains failed. The native Japanese people rebelled, and ethnic rebellions also broke out in Korea.

During this period, the eighteen feudal lords of Beizhou gathered 240,000 troops to attack the Beizhou Dusi.

In the fourth month of the seventh year, Qibei was occupied by the King of Liang, Xihai was occupied by the King of Yong, Da Shi was occupied by the King of Ba, and Persia was occupied by the King of Yong.

In June, King Zheng, King Yue and King Xin became independent in Nanzhong, Bangkala, Laos and other places.

In July, Li Zheng appointed Li Meng as a general and ordered him to lead an army of 20,000 into Sichuan to join forces with Li Yue to encircle and suppress the King of Shu. Li Zheng himself led his army to Changsha to quell the rebellion of the King of Zhao.

On August 12, Yang Fang broke through Xifengkou, and the Northern Army to support the King attacked Yongping and Beijing. Jiang Qiu withdrew 60,000 troops to Juyongguan and defended Beijing.

Upon hearing the news, Li Zheng ordered Song Guogong Hu Xiang to go south to take over 30,000 elite soldiers and hold their ground, while he himself led 80,000 elite soldiers north.

On August 18, Yang Fang launched a fierce attack on Beijing for six days, but Jiang Qiu held his ground and refused to come out.

On August 20, Li Zheng led his troops to Fangshan and launched a counterattack after resting for a night.

The iron torrent of the Northern Army faced off against the iron torrent of the Central Sharp Army. The world's largest armored cluster battle broke out in Hebei, attracting the attention of the world.

At the beginning of the armored cluster battle, the Northern Army, with its huge number of 1,200 heavy tanks, 3,000 medium tanks, and 4,200 light tanks, crushed the 7,200 light, heavy and medium tanks led by Li Zheng.

However, with a large number of pilots trained by Li Zheng taking to the sky, the air force group with 3,000 fighter jets and bombers quickly defeated the Northern Army's air force and launched bombing on the ground.

The Union Army suffered losses, but not great.

On the first day of September, Yang Fang prepared to concentrate his forces to attack the city of Beijing. However, Li Zheng transferred the seven naval fleets concentrated in the East Ming Ocean back to the West Ming Ocean, and at the same time attacked Lushun, Dingliao and other places in Liaodong.

Yang Fang was worried that the military factories in the rear would be attacked, so he had to withdraw from Hebei, leaving 150,000 troops in the Yanshan Mountains to guard against Li Zheng's counterattack, and he led 60,000 troops to withdraw to Liaodong.

The battle to defend the capital ended here. The Northern Army lost about 20,000 soldiers, 2,300 tanks of various types, more than 2,500 self-propelled artillery, anti-tank self-propelled artillery, and anti-aircraft guns, more than 4,000 vehicles of various types, and more than 800 fighter planes and bombers...

As for the government troops, after Xifengkou was breached, a large number of soldiers, except those in the capital, surrendered, and nearly 50,000 people surrendered or fled. Non-combat losses reached more than 600 tanks, more than 3,600 vehicles, more than 800 artillery pieces of various types, and 72 aircraft.

The losses in the battle were 750 tanks, 4,600 vehicles, 1,400 artillery pieces of various types, more than 300 aircraft, and more than 28,000 soldiers...

This war made the world realize the importance of air supremacy, and also made people realize the horror of armored cluster combat.

If the Ming Dynasty deployed these two armored clusters into Xizhou, it would flatten the entire Xizhou within three months.

Of course, this is just an estimate by the Western Continental countries, but in reality, the Ming army's advance would probably be even faster.

At the same time, this war also made the Ming Dynasty aware of each other's shortcomings.

The Northern Army's air force and navy were inferior to those of the Imperial Court, and the Imperial Court's army was inferior to that of the Northern Army.

Of course, the most important point is the psychological problem of soldiers.

A large number of grassroots soldiers in the imperial court were not willing to fight for the powerful, so once the war fell into a disadvantage, they would surrender to the Northern Army without hesitation, and after surrendering, they would immediately turn their guns around and fight again, while unleashing powerful combat power.

During the Battle of Beijing, the armies of three guards even revolted to support the Northern Army, causing great panic among the government army generals.

This situation made Li Zheng realize that the millions of officers and soldiers, except for the elite soldiers, were not interested in this at all.

It's okay to let them play defense, but it's complete nonsense to let them play offense.

Of course, they cannot be dismissed. Once they are dismissed, they will definitely join other loyalist armies without hesitation and unleash even more powerful force to disintegrate their own side.

There was no other way. After the battle, Li Zheng could only hire more "sharp warriors" from the territory directly under the Ming Dynasty.

Shannan, Nanyang, Korea and Japan became concentration areas of the so-called "sharp warriors".

Relying on a powerful navy, the world's more important straits are still in the hands of the imperial court. However, the imperial court's control over Beizhou and Dongzhou has obviously declined significantly.

On the fifth day of October, the Beizhou Regional Command lost the vast territory east of the Beizhou Mountains (Rocky Mountains), and the eighteen princes each occupied an area.

Seeing that the imperial court did not send troops to suppress the rebellion, the twenty-four princes of Dongzhou also began to form an alliance to attack the Dongzhou Regional Military Commission.

In the twelfth month, Li Zheng recruited another 200,000 "elite soldiers". After several rounds of consumption, the number of elite soldiers reached a new high and reached a peak of 320,000.

In February of the eighth year, Li Yue, with the help of Li Meng, put down the rebellions of the King of Shu, the King of Lu and the King of Liao.

During this period, Li Yue's troops plundered in Sichuan and military discipline was poor. Only Li Meng's 20,000 troops were remembered by the people because of their strict discipline.

Li Meng took advantage of the war to constantly replace some of the weak-willed and profit-seeking people in the army, and revived the military Sima system that was in charge of military ideology during the Hongxi period.

From the time he took over the army to the end of the rebellion, it took less than half a year, and the entire army's ethos was completely changed.

Not only that, before receiving the transfer order, he personally led the troops to help the local people in the garrison build roads, bridges and houses, which were the military styles during the Hongxi, Xuande and Jingtai periods.

Although the Ming army was still able to fight in the future, this style became less and less common. When Li Meng resumed this style, the army he led was called "sons and daughters' soldiers" by the people of Sichuan.

In March, Li Zheng dispatched Li Yue to lead an army of 60,000 to attack Yunnan, and left Li Meng to garrison Sichuan.

In September, after nearly half a year of ideological work and work style improvement by Li Meng, the morale of the 30,000 troops in Sichuan under his rule was completely renewed, and Sichuan gradually returned to its pre-war state.

During this period, Li Yue suffered several setbacks in his attacks on Yunnan, and the Prince of Jingjiang and the Prince of Dai in Guangxi caused serious rebellions, so Li Yue was transferred to Guangxi to quell the rebellion.

On the second day of October, Li Zheng appointed Li Meng as the governor of Sichuan and Guizhou, and concurrently as the General Pingnan to lead troops from Sichuan and Guizhou into Yunnan to quell the rebellion.

Li Mao did not rush to attack, but instead rectified the work style of the Guizhou Regional Military Commission and the Provincial Administration Commission before leading an army of 50,000 into Yunnan.

At that time, Yunnan was divided among the princes of Gu, Min, Han and the Duke of Qian. The Duke of Qian had been in decline since the Zhengde reign, so after the prince of Han raised his army, Duke of Qian, Mu Minjing, withdrew to Dali and stationed there with only 30,000 troops. The princes of Gu and Min each had 40,000 troops, while the prince of Han, Zhu Bolan, had the largest number of troops, with more than 120,000.

In addition to them, the Duke of Nanguo in western Yunnan not only controlled western Yunnan, but also controlled parts of South Central and Laos, with an army of nearly 150,000.

Although Duke of Nan Guo Wang Maogong declined his military officer position under pressure from Li Zheng, Li Zheng also knew that he did not have the energy to replace the position of Duke of Nan Guo's Mansion in the local area, so he appointed Wang Maogong's son Wang De as the commander of Nanzhongdu.

After the southwestern kings established their own regimes, Wang De fought with them on and off, and acted as if he was taking his time, which showed that he was obviously not prepared to wipe out the kings.

The vassal kings such as Zheng, Yue, and Xin were also aware of this, so they all developed their business with peace of mind.

As Li Meng entered Yunnan, Prince Gu, who was stationed at the gateway to Yunnan, took the lead in fighting him.

On the sixth day of the third month of the ninth year, Li Meng led 30,000 Sichuan troops to fight against Prince Gu at the Nanpan River, but secretly commanded the air force to bomb the road for Prince Gu's army to retreat to Qujing, and ordered the Guizhou troops to go around and cooperate with him to encircle Prince Gu's main force.

Without firing a single shot at Qujing City, Li Meng surrounded Prince Gu's 30,000-strong army and deliberately opened a mountain pass for Prince Gu to lead the remaining 10,000 troops to break through, thus recovering Qujing.

After breaking out of the siege, Prince Gu immediately led his army to flee to Kunming and joined the camp of Prince Han Zhu Bolan. After Li Mao recovered Qujing, he did not rush west to Kunming, but went south to besiege Prince Min in Lin'an, and repeated the same trick to let Prince Min lead the remaining troops to break out of Kunming.

On the ninth day of April, King Zhu Bolan of Han led 70,000 troops to garrison Songming, the northeast gateway of Kunming. Li Mao led 20,000 troops to make a detour from the south and appeared at the Qipan Mountain in the west of Kunming. After Zhu Bolan's air force was dispatched, it was repelled several times by the air defense positions deployed by Li Mao on the Qipan Mountain.

Zhu Bolan retreated to Kunming, but Li Mao suddenly appeared in Songming area and launched a strong attack. Songming fell and the northeast gate of Kunming was lost.

Seeing that the northeastern gate of Kunming was lost, Zhu Bolan led his troops to relocate the military factory and retreat to Yuanjiang. Li Mao did not stop him. Zhu Bolan successfully withdrew and Li Mao recaptured Kunming.

Li Mao's three times of loosening the water soon let Zhu Bolan and others know that he had no intention of being an enemy of the royal family. The discipline of the cavalry under his rule could be called the Yue Family Army of this era. Therefore, Zhu Bolan and others began to withdraw from Yunnan and retreat to Laos and South China under Li Mao's unlimited loosening of the water.

On the seventh day of August, Li Meng sent a telegram to Beijing, saying that he had driven the three kings back to South China and Laos.

Li Zheng did not expect Li Meng to be so fast, so he ordered him to station troops in Kunming and wait for the Beijing officials to inspect.

In September, the navy that attacked Liaodong was repelled. Yang Fang ordered several major arsenals in the north to begin manufacturing a large number of fighter jets and bombers. At the same time, he began to call on 80 million people in the north to join the army and apply to become pilots.

In October, after more than half a year of training, Li Zheng launched an offensive against Yang Fang, and Yang Fang went to the front line in person to defend the city.

Although the government army's air force group was larger and more powerful, the Northern Army was able to hold on to the northern part of the Yanshan Mountains with the help of its largest military industry, anti-aircraft artillery.

In February of the tenth year, the King of Liang invaded Poland-Lithuania and Prussia invaded Poland.

The main Polish army was caught off guard and was completely wiped out by the Liang army, and Prussia and the King of Liang divided Poland.

In March, Hungary occupied the Balkan Peninsula and the Ottoman territory was reduced.

In May, Hungary and Prussia divided Austria and the German principalities.

In September, the Beizhou Regional Command was eliminated by the Eighteen Princes, and the Beizhou continent became completely independent from the Ming Dynasty. The Eighteen Princes each deployed their armaments.

In October, the Hezhong Military Command announced its support for the emperor, and the Ming court's actual controlled land in Zhongzhou was limited to areas within the Great Wall, Jiaozhi, Anxi, Beiting, and U-Tsang.

On the fifth day of December, the soldiers of the North Sea Fleet revolted, and the fleet was affiliated with the Northern Army to Defend the King. Li Zheng began to recruit naval elites.

On December 24, the East China Sea and East China Sea fleets successively declared uprising and surrendered to the Northern Army to support the emperor.

In February of the eleventh year of the Yongli reign, Yang Fang died of illness on his way south to prepare for the attack on Beijing. He was seventy-one years old.

After Yang Fang's death, the Northern Army fell into a power struggle.

Yang Gengli, the son of Yang Fang, advocated going south to defend the king, while Chen Xuan and others thought that they had to wait until the air force gained the upper hand before going south. The war fell into a stalemate, and Li Zheng also got a chance to catch his breath.

On March 15, He Qin, the Imperial Censor, impeached Li Mao for harboring the enemy and taking advantage of the situation. Li Zheng was shocked and ordered Li Mao to come to the capital.

At that time, several of Li Meng's close associates advised him not to go to Beijing. After all, Li Meng was in control of the three provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan, had 160,000 troops, and owned the world's second largest military-industrial system. He was fully capable of restoring order.

In response to his subordinates' reminders, Li Meng simply asked someone to deliver a letter to Hu Su, and then went north alone.

Even Li Zheng was very surprised to learn that Li Mao was heading north.

On March 24, Li Meng arrived in Beijing and was placed under house arrest in the southern suburbs by Li Yue.

On the same day, Hu Su received a handwritten letter from Li Meng, in which Li Meng dissuaded Hu Su from starting a rebellion by saying, "The government is not yet dead, nothing can be done, and we must not act rashly."

After Li Meng was placed under house arrest, Li Zheng also began to let Li Yue take over his business.

At the same time, Li Zheng also began to retaliate against some nobles who had forced him to retire in the past.

A large number of nobles and civil officials had their homes raided and confiscated by the "sharp soldiers", and a large amount of military funds were sourced.

These guys who wantonly play power games seem as immature as babies in front of the barrel of a gun.

In July, the King of Liang and the King of Yong launched an expedition to the east, with a coalition force of up to 200,000.

Upon hearing the news, Li Zheng ordered Li Yue to lead 200,000 elite soldiers to the west and to control the troops in Anxi, Beiting, Gansu and other places.

On August 12, Li Yue arrived at the front line.

At that time, the government army had 200,000 elite soldiers and 180,000 other officers and soldiers, totaling 380,000.

The Air Force has 1,760 fighter jets and 457 bombers.

In addition to 380,000 soldiers, the army also has 400 heavy tanks, 900 medium tanks, 1,500 light tanks, 37,000 trucks, and 5,200 armored vehicles.

In addition, there are 2,600 self-propelled artillery pieces and more than 800 anti-tank self-propelled artillery pieces.

Faced with such a huge military force, Liang Wang Zhu Bohai and Zhu Yizhu, who had the support of the Western Army, were not afraid at all.

The two of them had 200,000 soldiers and more than 6,000 tanks of various types. The number of their air force planes was no less than that of the official army, and the number of self-propelled artillery was even greater.

After all, before the war, the Western Army was the only one with enemies, and its firepower and manpower were the greatest among all the armies.

If Prince Ba and Prince Yong were also willing to join the battle, Li Yue would have no chance of winning unless his military strength was doubled.

On the fifth day of September, Hezhong Commander Cao Xianhu joined the army to support the king and personally led 60,000 troops from Hezhong to provide assistance.

The number of the Western Royalist Army reached 260,000. Although it was still less than the government troops, the government troops only had 200,000 elite soldiers who could fight. Once the elite soldiers were injured, the rest of the government troops would surrender immediately. This was why Zhu Bohai and his men were not afraid at all.

As they hold the moral high ground, the number of their troops will only increase rather than decrease.

In comparison, once all the elite warriors of the Li family are killed, they will be doomed.

In April of the 12th year of the Yongli reign, after more than half a year of preparation, the Battle of Hezhong officially broke out.

On April 22, the Western Royalist Army, under the command of Zhu Bohai, launched an attack from Hezhong Prefecture with Cao Xianhu's Hezhong Armored Army as the center, Zhu Yishu's Xihai Army as the left wing, and Zhu Bohai's Qibei Army as the right wing, with the support of the Western Air Force.

To this end, the three armies launched a race for victory.

Under the cover of the Air Force, Cao Xianhu's armored army broke away from the left and right routes and went straight in. In eight days, they rushed 1,200 miles in one breath and completely captured the Ili River defense line at the gateway to Ili.

Upon hearing the news, Hu Su advised Li Yue to withdraw to Tingzhou to deploy defenses, but Li Yue refused to listen and insisted on deploying defenses in Yili.

On April 24, the army began to prepare for war, and the two sides launched a protracted battle at the foot of the Tianshan Mountains.

However, as Zhu Boqian told Zhu Yizhen back then, the Ili River Valley is easy to defend in the east but difficult to attack, and easy to attack in the west but difficult to defend.

Facing the Western Loyalists Army advancing from the west, the flat Ili River Valley was simply the best battlefield.

Because of the North and South Tianshan Mountains, the air forces of both sides had basically no room for pursuit. The sky was filled with combat planes, and a plane crashed every few breaths.

On the ground, artillery fire from both sides yielded results, and many sharp soldiers were killed or wounded.

When Li Zheng learned of Li Yue's deployment, he immediately sent an urgent telegram ordering him to withdraw to Tingzhou. At the same time, he ordered six Western fleets to enter the West Sea (Black Sea) and launch an attack on the West Sea mainland.

Li Yue received the urgent telegram, but did not retreat immediately, but insisted on fighting in Yili.

On May 12, the armored army led by Cao Xianhu broke into the defense line for more than 100 miles, and while attacking the headquarters directly, they also fired artillery fire not far from the headquarters.

Li Yue, who ran out of the command center, was shot in the thigh by Cao Xianhu. Although Hu Su hated Li Yue, he still carried him on his back and retreated to Yingsuo County.

Cao Xianhu chased for more than ten miles, and finally stopped because he ran out of fuel.

In this battle, more than 60,000 so-called elite soldiers were killed, 100,000 elite soldiers were defeated, and more than 30,000 were missing.

Zhu Bohai and his companions easily recruited 160,000 officers and soldiers. When they were about to pursue them, they learned that they were attacked in the rear and had to withdraw from the territory of Yili Prefecture.

Li Yue was seriously injured and was taken back to Beijing for recuperation. Li Zheng ordered Hu Su to temporarily serve as the commander-in-chief of Beiting and Anxi.

After receiving the order, Hu Su immediately commanded 100,000 elite soldiers to counterattack Hezhong Prefecture.

As he expected, Zhu Bohai and others failed to foresee that the government army would dare to counterattack after suffering a great defeat, so there were not many troops left in Hezhong Prefecture, and thus Hezhong Prefecture was lost.

Upon hearing the news, Li Zheng immediately appointed Hu Su as General Pingxi, not seeking to pacify Xi, but to ensure that the defense line was not lost.

On the fourth day of June, Li Yue arrived in Beijing to recuperate.

In August, Wang De, the commander of Nanzhong, responded to the call for the king to serve the emperor and joined forces with the vassal kings of Zheng, Yue, Xin, Han and others to attack Kunming Prefecture.

In September, the entire Yunnan province was lost, and Wang De's troops were dispatched to Sichuan, Guizhou, Guangxi, and Jiaozhi.

For a time, the southwest was in danger...

(End of this chapter)