The Rise of History’s Most Powerful Empire

Ever since Zhong Yu made up his mind to stand firm and the Ming court made up his mind to attack, a protracted war was inevitable.

Jiangdu City is located in the center of the six southern provinces and is surrounded by other five provinces. It is the center of the entire six southern provinces and the hub for controlling the south.

If the Ming Dynasty wants to retake the entire south, it must first retake Jiangdong Province where Jiangdu City is located.

Only by controlling Jiangdong Province can we use it as the center and attack the other five provinces that are isolated from the surrounding area, so as to quickly regain the lost ground.

Similarly, if Jiangdong Province is not captured, then no matter how much territory the Ming Dynasty attacks any province in the south and grabs it. In other areas, Jiangdong Province can be the center, and all forces can be concentrated to attack the Ming army, making it difficult for the troops to step by step.

The battleground for military strategists refers to Jiangdong Province, and its status is roughly equivalent to Jingzhou in the Three Kingdoms period. If Ming wanted to unify the south, it had to win Jiangdong Province.

Therefore, the goal of the Ming Dynasty from the beginning was to take Shang'an Province in the north of Jiangdong Province first.

As the border between Jiangdong Province and Ming Dynasty, Shang'an Province has naturally deployed heavy defenses, with strong troops, many cities along the way, and dangerous checkpoints can be seen everywhere, making it extremely difficult to attack.

And because he knew the purpose of the Ming Dynasty very well, Zhong Yu deployed 400,000 troops here from the beginning, of which there were 200,000 trusted elites, which were enough to defend against the attacks of the Ming Dynasty.

As for some other provinces, except for some places that are so-called closed to the outside world, they have deployed troops ranging from 50,000 to 100,000 in twos and threes, and established a not-so-strong line of defense to resist Ming's aggression.

Zhong Yu could see very clearly that as long as Jiangdong Province was not lost, some other surrounding provinces would be occupied by Ming Dynasty. Then he can also use the central location of Jiangdong Province and the convenience of developed transportation to quickly mobilize enough elite troops to attack and recover the lost land.

Therefore, there is no need to deploy so many defenses in other places to disperse their already reluctant troops.

The line of defense has been laid out, and after a tentative decisive battle on the front line failed, Zhong Yu had already given up his plan to confront him head-on. Now these defensive facilities, which were originally arranged just in case, have finally come in handy.

As long as the Ming Dynasty didn't retreat, or sent the eighth-rank Taizu to take action, then Zhong Yu would have the confidence to drag it down, knowing that it would drag Daming to its collapse and lead to its extinction.

Even if this world is a mythical world, full of gods and Buddhas, the marching armies of the major dynasties still have requirements and pressures in terms of supplies.

Daming now dispatched 500,000 troops, and after a round of annexation and recruitment, it even reached a scale of 700,000.

Such a huge army, just to supply him with food, grass and military supplies, is also assisted by cultivation methods, and more than 3 million cooks and people are needed to help transport supplies.

3 million civilian husbands, and they must be strong men, that is not a small number. Most of the population of a province in the Ming Dynasty is only 10 to 20 million.

If Daming wants to collect 3 million civilian husbands, it will take at least 3 to 4 provinces to fully support it without affecting the most basic agricultural production in the province.

And now there are only a few provinces left in Ming Dynasty, only a mere 12. The strong men who want to go out to three quarters of his territory at once, how long can they last with the national strength of the Ming Dynasty that is on the verge of collapse.

I dare not say anything else, as long as he is delayed for another two or three years, the people at the bottom of the Ming Dynasty will starve to death everywhere, and I will starve to death first.

Therefore, it is impossible to fight for four or five years for a long time.

This is also one of the reasons why the Ming Dynasty is now attacking fiercely.

The attack of the Ming Dynasty was very fierce. Among the 700,000 attacking troops, except for 200,000 allocated to the four sides to act as partial monarchs and cannon fodder, the main force of 500,000 attacked the central area in person.

The war has just begun, and the situation in the Ontario battlefield is not good.

Although Zhong Yu is not worth defending with a 400,000 army, there are many second-to-fifths among them, and there are also swinging fence-sitters. With only 200,000 defenders, it is not enough to guard against the betrayal of the comrades and the fierce attack of the enemy after all.

So at the beginning of the battle, under the fierce attack of the enemy, relying on its own superiority in numbers, regardless of attrition and fierce attack, the seven prefectures and one prefecture of Upper Ontario lost three prefectures, leaving only half of the territory Persevering.

The reason why they were defeated so quickly with strong city defenses was that, apart from the lack of their own numbers, there were also reasons for some internal personnel to mutiny.

Countless Ming's original surrendered troops, as well as newly recruited troops, immediately surrendered one after another when they saw the king's division of the Ming Dynasty's army approaching, or even defected directly, which led to a sudden change in the battle situation.

In just such a confrontation, 100,000 of the 200,000 miscellaneous troops will defect, and the remaining 100,000 will also be fluctuating, and may continue to defect at any time.

The two consecutive defections finally made Zhong Yu soberly aware that if the Ming Dynasty could not be completely wiped out, this nominal orthodoxy would be defeated.

Then no matter how much territory he occupies in the Ming Dynasty, the people at the bottom will not sincerely rely on him.

Even if they seek refuge, they are pretending to be false snakes. When the Ming Dynasty army arrives, they will turn against each other one after another.

In this way, no matter how many soldiers and horses you train, you are just spending money to prepare the army for the Ming Dynasty.

Zhong Yu, who had come to his senses, did not dare to trust the remaining troops, and transferred them away one after another, and no longer assigned them to the front line.

These evil-minded armies will have a job well suited to them.

That is to go to the east of Dongjiang Province in the east, that is, within the thousands of miles of mountains and forests, to open up the territory for the imperial country and turn forests into fields.

To put it bluntly, it is to let these people use their own lives to forcibly open up countless fertile fields for Zhong Yu in thousands of miles of mountains and forests, in a disguised form to increase the land area and enrich the heritage of the Yu Kingdom.

Expanding the living area for the human race, reducing the living space of the monster race, and turning the barren forest into fertile land can also gain luck. And the luck obtained is not cheap, far faster than slowly compressing and extracting the luck of those bottom people.

Throughout the past history, all dynasties that can expand the living space for the human race are in a state of prosperity, with great ancestors and good ministers emerging one after another, and the country's military strength is extremely powerful. To put it another way, it is luck and destiny.

Why is this so? It is because they have opened up the hidden value of that piece of land, can use it, and have been rewarded with humanity.

After all, not having enough open living space is tantamount to enhancing the power of humanity in a disguised form.

Then Humanity obtained some resources from it, showing a little bit, enough for a dynasty to be strong for decades.