I was pulling trees in Daming, and Lao Zhu begged me to come out of retirement

Chapter 97: The army marches out to defend the river
Facts have proved that superstition was a common problem among people in the feudal era.

Especially Zhu Yuanzhang, who had been influenced by "science", studied the map day and night after hearing the multi-level defense system proposed by Li Shanchang.

As a result, Li Shanchang didn't understand the strategy he was studying.
But he saw that Jiqing (Nanjing) was indeed a good place.

Zijin Mountain stretches from north to south, like a giant dragon lurking, while Shitou Mountain is steep and overlooks the river, like a crouching tiger.

The entire Yingtian is in a position of a dragon coiling and a tiger crouching, with mountains behind and water in front, and the feng shui is extremely good.

In addition, six dynasties established their capitals here, so not only is the terrain dangerous, but it is also very rich.

Hit him! You must hit him!
So Zhu Yuanzhang, who had been recuperating for a year, decided to cross the river and attack Jiqing (Nanjing).

This raises a problem.
Zhu Yuanzhang had no navy.

Zhu Yuanzhang's troops were either cavalry or infantry. It was nonsense to think that they could swim across the Yangtze River as it was a natural barrier.

So Li Shanchang suggested to recruit Yu Tonghai as a navy to attack Cai Shi first and then break through Taiping.

"Marshal, although Yu Tonghai is a robber, he controls thousands of warships. If we recruit him, we will be able to capture the ferry and go straight to Jiqing."

Zhu Yuanzhang frowned as he held Yu Tonghai's resume (intelligence).
"What kind of warships are these? They're just a bunch of broken fishing boats. How can these robbers be put to good use?"

Li Shanchang pulled the corner of his mouth.

Brother, you look down on other people's fishing boats, but you don't even have a boat.

But Zhu Yuanzhang was not at all panicked and patted Li Shanchang on the shoulder and said with a smile:

"It's just a natural barrier. It may be a natural barrier to others, but it's just a paper tiger in front of our science."

At this time, many of the 24 generals from Huaixi had already come to surrender.
Zhu Yuanzhang ordered that 30 soldiers be left in each of the three bases in Guangzhou, Ruzhou and Runing, and that Zhou Dexing and several other generals among the generals guard the rear. The remaining nearly troops would set out after the spring plowing and cross the Yangtze River.

Because Zhu Yuanzhang had previously repaired the Yellow River embankment, the salt fields that had been flooded resumed operations.
The losses suffered by Yuan Dynasty officials were compensated, so they turned a blind eye to Zhu Yuanzhang's rebellion.

Coupled with the stories of ghosts and gods spread by Jia Lu and Chelibuhua, as well as the combat effectiveness of Zhu Yuanzhang's elite heavy cavalry, these combined made it possible for the Yuan court, which was plagued by the emperor's debauchery, royal disputes, powerful ministers' misrule, and political decadence, to indulge Zhu Yuanzhang for more than a year.

But letting it go doesn’t mean completely ignoring it.
If Zhu Yuanzhang had always stayed in the districts and counties headed by Guangzhou, Ruzhou and Runing, the Yuan Dynasty would not have interfered too much.

In the 13th year of Zhizheng,
Two years after Zhu Yuanzhang started the Yellow River Uprising, he led an army of 300,000 soldiers straight to the Yangtze River, which shocked the world.

You should know that Zhu Yuanzhang's status at this time was higher than Liu Futong of the same period.

At this time, Liu Futong's luck had been cut off by Zhu Yuanzhang, and he was now hiding in Yingzhou, struggling to resist the harassment of Yuan soldiers.

Tuotuo and others naturally could not ignore Zhu Yuanzhang's actions, and began to order the southern troops to gather towards Caishi and Guazhou Ferry.

By the time Zhu Yuanzhang arrived at the river bank, 500,000 troops had gathered on the other side of the river. If Zhu Yuanzhang dared to cross the river, the Yuan army would surely attack the enemy halfway across the river!

Without Liu Futong and Han Liner standing in front of the stage to attract fire, Zhu Yuanzhang became the number one enemy of the Yuan Dynasty.

Although it was not as severe as when Zhang Shicheng proclaimed himself king in Gaoyou and was besieged by a million-man army,
But it was also the beginning of the largest war at the end of the Yuan Dynasty.

And most importantly, Zhu Yuanzhang was the attacker and the Yuan army was the defender.

At this time, Tuotuo was deploying defenses in Jiqing.
Just as Li Shanchang said, as long as we set up important towns along the Yangtze River, we can gain a foothold on the other side of the Yangtze River.

According to intelligence analysis, Zhu Yuanzhang has an elite cavalry team that is even more perverted than the Yuan cavalry, and the other side also has the so-called magic of "moving mountains and filling the sea".

It would be unwise to rush into a decisive battle with them. It would be better to defend the river and attack the enemy when they are halfway across the river. This way, we can destroy the enemy's mobility to the greatest extent.

Moreover, in the past few years, he adopted the suggestions of the left chancellor Wugusun Liangzhen and the right chancellor Wulianghatai to cultivate land in the capital.

With these two people serving concurrently as Grand Minister of Agriculture, he himself led the work of the Grand Minister of Agriculture, and thus brought water to irrigate the fields from Xishan in the west to Qianmin Town in the east, from Baoding and Hejian in the south to Danzhou and Shunzhou in the north, thus obtaining a good harvest.

In addition, the Yellow River floods were alleviated, and the salt fields resumed operations, saving a lot of money and grain.

This time in the battle with Zhu Yuanzhang, he was absolutely confident that he could defeat him.

Now the North is also gathering troops,

He only needed to eliminate Zhu Yuanzhang's manpower here, and when the northern army arrived and formed a siege, he could easily wipe him out.

Tuotuo just wanted to look up to the sky and let out a long cry, saying that he had not fought such a prosperous battle since the Yellow River flooded.

Three years ago, he presided over the currency change, but not only did it fail to ease the court's finances, but it also caused a sharp depreciation of the original paper currency.

Even the imposition of severe punishment on those who issued the order not to use paper money did not stop the trend of collapsing prices.

The reason why Zhu Yuanzhang was allowed to develop in Guangzhou in the past two years might be because the price of rice in the north and south was as expensive as pearls due to the new banknotes.

Now, with consecutive years of bumper harvests and the restoration of supply from the salt fields, the court's finances have been greatly alleviated.

This time Zhu Yuanzhang rashly sent troops and proposed to wipe them out, but unexpectedly he did not encounter much resistance.

Tuotuo looked at the mark on the marching map and sneered:

"God descending to earth? I want to see where you came from and whether you have ever paid taxes to the court!"

Zhu Yuanzhang soon arrived at the other side of Caishi and set up camp.

Looking at the densely packed tents, Zhu Yuanzhang felt a little scared.

He found Li Shanchang, pointed at the ferry crossing opposite and asked, smacking his lips:

"Sir, you said that if we hold the river, we can defeat the enemy halfway across the river. Now we are being defeated halfway across the river. What should we do?"

Li Shanchang looked at Zhu Yuanzhang with a MMP expression.
If you hadn't shown off so early, would the Yuan Dynasty have made such a big fuss to deal with you?

The reason I asked you to capture Jiqing (Nanjing) is just to deal with the enemy like we are doing now.

As a result, the enemy uses it before you succeed.

Li Shanchang was even considering whether to escape early.

I am a counselor, not a god. God? No, wait.

Li Shanchang licked his cheeks and asked Zhu Yuanzhang:
"Why don't you go back to the mountain and ask the God of Land for help? Besides, don't you have the magic to build a bridge out of thin air? Why don't you just build a bridge across the Yangtze River?"

Zhu Yuanzhang shook his head awkwardly and said:
"One fairy treasure can push a bridge deck up to 8 meters, and then we need to use fairy treasures to rearrange and push it forward. Given the distance of the Yangtze River, it will take at least half a month to build a bridge deck, and we can't be disturbed during this period."

"And the bridge deck is not indestructible. Basically, it will be attacked by the enemy halfway through construction."

Cubes with MC rules are not invincible. Under the continuous bombardment of artillery and catapults, the stones will eventually disappear and break into pieces.

If there is time, building a wall can be used for defense.

But building a bridge under the opponent's nose is simply giving the opponent a head.

This is only possible if Tianyu builds the bridge himself.

For a moment, Zhu Yuanzhang and Li Shanchang looked worried, and neither knew how to break the impasse.

(End of this chapter)