The war in southern Huguang started in December of the second year of Xuanping. It can be said that it has lasted for more than a month. During this month, both sides have been going back and forth to achieve what they want.
Combat objectives.
However, the combat plans of both sides on the battlefield are constantly changing as the situation on the battlefield changes, which means that the plans cannot keep up with the changes!
When the Tang Army first moved north, Hao Bainian planned to advance step by step, first taking Yizhang, Chenzhou City, Guiyang City and other more important cities south of Hengyang City, and then launch a general attack on Hengyang City.
However, I didn't expect that the Ming army would turn out to be a coward. Even though they had several times the strength advantage, they still hid in the city and did not dare to come out.
In order to avoid losing troops and time in numerous continuous offensive battles, Hao Bainian adopted the lure strategy of rushing north with the main force and leaving the ambush troops behind for ambush. However, this gave the Ming army an opportunity to swallow up the main force of the puppet Tang rebel army in one go.
A series of subsequent battles between the two sides ensued.
But now, the situation on the battlefield is completely different from that of a month ago. It is naturally not much better for the Ming army. They lost their troops and generals, and also lost their Yizhang.
But it was not ideal for Hao Bainian. Although he had annihilated 20,000 Ming troops and captured Yizhang, in the end, he found that the situation he faced had not fundamentally changed from a month ago.
The Ming army is still hiding in the fortified city and cannot come out!
The only change is that there is no need to attack the city all the way and fight several consecutive battles as before. Now, the main force of the Ming army in southern Huguang has gathered in Hengyang City. As long as he can take Hengyang City, then the entire southern Hunan will follow.
In this area, it is basically impossible to stop the pace of our own army!
And he also saw another opportunity, that is, after the Ming army in Changsha moves south to Hengyang City, how many Ming troops will be left in Changsha City?
Ten thousand? Twenty thousand? How many of them are the main force of the Ming army, what they call the supervisors and border troops!
If there are very few Ming troops in Changsha, can I attack Changsha?
However, judging from the previous deployments of the Huguang Ming Army, Zhang Yue, the puppet governor of the six provinces of the Ming Dynasty, seems not stupid. He has always tried his best to avoid evenly matched frontal field battles with his own main force, and instead adopted the strategy of holding on to the city and allowing
The frontal field combat ability that the King of the Tang Dynasty was proud of could not be brought into play!
It can be seen from this that Zhang Yue is not stupid, and there is no way he will make Changsha empty!
What if when he led his troops to attack Changsha, he encountered Changsha being defended by several people. Even if the defending troops were all local guardsmen, it would not be possible to capture it in three to five days.
The Ming army can easily cut off the supply line of our main force. What's worse is that if the Ming army in the direction of Hengzhou returns to Changsha, we may fall into a pincer attack by the Ming army totaling more than 100,000 or more.
Even though Hao Bainian had great confidence in his First Army, he was unwilling to let his troops fall into such a predicament of being attacked from both front and rear!
Alas, he regrets it now. In Yizhang and Chenzhou, the Ming army in the direction of Guiyang suffered too badly. If he had pretended that the supply line was cut off at that time, I am afraid that the Ming army in Hengyang City would have already come out to surround him.
At that time, he will be able to face the decisive battle in the open field that he has been pursuing so hard, and this battle will determine the victory of the Huguang War.
It's a pity that he didn't know that the Ming Army was making such a big move at the time. By the time he reacted, the victory reports of all the units under his command had already been reported. At that time, he knew that the Ming Army was planning such a big move.
.
There is no regret medicine in this world. Since the Ming army has been frightened by itself and has completely given up its plan of siege, it is not that easy to get tens of thousands of Ming army main troops out of Hengyang City in a short period of time.
’s matter.
Now, he must have a new method, a method to capture Hengyang and even Changsha, a method to annihilate the Ming army in southern Huguang!
While Hao Bainian was thinking hard about how to break the situation, Zhang Yue in Changsha City was also frowning!
Hao Bainian in the puppet army of the Tang Dynasty was worried about annihilating the Ming army, while Zhang Yue was worried about how to block the advance of the puppet army from the north!
As for the main force heading north to encircle and annihilate the puppet Tang rebel army, this idea was completely abandoned after he received Xu Xinchang's letter!
The letter from Xu Xinchang said that the puppet Tang thief army had arrived at Hengyang City. It was estimated that the number of thief soldiers was 30,000, and they were all real thieves, not a single fake thief.
At the same time, Zhang Yue also learned from various sources of public information that in the second half of last year, the Tang bandits carried out drastic military reforms, eliminating the weak garrison and banditry camps, and instead
Strengthen the regular army.
In other words, there will be no distinction between real thieves and fake thieves in the Pseudo-Tang thief army in the future!
Thinking of this, he admired and even envied Hao Bainian in the puppet army of the Tang Dynasty. People thought that the garrison was unusable and would be eliminated if they said it was to be eliminated. However, Zhang Yue also felt that the inland garrison troops were unusable and wanted to
We need to eliminate them all, and then allocate military funds to train Du Biao and other new troops.
However, this kind of idea can only be imagined by him. Eliminating local health stations? According to the current situation of the Ming Dynasty, that is absolutely impossible. Let alone him as the governor of the six provinces, even if the cabinet bosses collectively
Going out and adding a Zhengde emperor would be impossible.
The only thing they can do is to do the same as Zhang Yue, while maintaining local guards, recruit as many young people as possible, and then organize and train a new army.
After the rise of the Tang Dynasty and the continuous disastrous defeats of the Ming army's inland guards, the Ming Dynasty, under the strong promotion of Emperor Zhengde, who was already lying on his sick bed, began a wave of large-scale firearms manufacturing and large-scale training and recruitment!
Zhang Yue's supervision and Yu Dayou's Musket Army are typical representatives. In addition to these two typical representatives, in fact many local officials, especially in areas close to the front lines of the Tang rebels, have launched gun-making and artillery training.
The wave of new troops!
It's just that the scale and momentum of these local officials' gun-making and military training are not so great!
In addition, another very important change is that local governments have begun to raise their own military expenditures on a large scale!
To build artillery and train the army, the imperial court did not have much money. Most of the military expenses had to be raised by the local governments. In order to raise military expenses, those local officials used all their methods.
Of course, it is definitely impossible to ask officials to pay for themselves. It is also impossible to reach out to those gentry who have backing and background. The only way is to apportion a part to the merchants from ordinary gentry, and then impose various taxes.
Such as exorbitant levies and miscellaneous taxes. For example, Zhang Yue petitioned for the establishment of "anti-thief pay" in Huguang, Nanzhili, Fujian, Sichuan and other southern provinces. The money earned was used exclusively for the military expenditures needed to suppress thieves. Emperor Zhengde has already approved his petition!
This has brought a very serious negative impact!
Well, this does not mean that the Ming Dynasty will lose its central financial power, because the Ming Dynasty never had central financial power, and the financial power was all in the hands of local officials, so it cannot be said to be lost.
The real impact of this approach by local officials is that the pressure on ordinary people, especially the people at the bottom, instantly increases!
Although Zhang Yue’s proposed levy for thieves is divided, the average burden on the people will not be very heavy, it can even be said to be very light, but there are policies from above and countermeasures from below. When the levy for thieves is actually collected
, the powerful people in the local area will naturally not pay, so their shares will have to be transferred to ordinary people who have no power and power.
What's more important is that local officials at the grassroots level often use clever excuses to collect extra taxes. If they should collect one tael of silver, they dare to collect 10 taels of silver!
Although Zhang Yue received a large amount of military expenditures to maintain military expenditures by pacifying the bandit pay, it also became a carnival feast for the Ming Dynasty officialdom, ranging from cabinet bosses to ordinary officials!
If actual statistics are used, then the tax burden of the people in the southern provinces has at least more than doubled in just one year, and only one-tenth of this increase is used for military expenditures in each province.
Where did 90% go? Naturally, it went into the private pockets of officials at all levels!
Such a carnival is not a trivial matter for ordinary people's families who would be ruined if they encounter even the slightest misfortune, but a major event that will cause their families to be ruined.
Ordinary people in the feudal era had extremely low tolerance for disasters, especially the farmers at the lowest level. If the grain harvest was slightly less, they would have to sell their sons and daughters!
In this year, under the Ming Dynasty, countless families were destroyed and people died!
Therefore, it shows that the local officials of the dynasty built guns and trained new armies at the expense of the people's livelihood.
And this is not what the literati and officials say that the people are in dire straits, because the gentry class behind the literati and officials are still living well, with everything they need to eat and drink, and nothing wrong with them.
The people who are living in dire straits refer to ordinary people, especially the poorest people at the bottom!
It is a pity that the officials cannot see this situation where the people are living in dire straits, and they don’t care if they see it. These mud-legged people will starve to death. If they dare to rebel, they will be suppressed directly!
After using many methods, Zhang Yuecai managed to maintain such a large army. However, now he found that with the existing army, he still could not stop the northward offensive of the puppet Tang rebel army!
Now, he suddenly understood Wang Yue, the former governor of Guangdong and Guangxi!
It’s not that I don’t want to kill the thief and make a meritorious deed, it’s that I really can’t do anything!
At that time, Wang Yue watched helplessly as the puppet Tang rebels fought all the way from Liuzhou to Wuzhou, and then to Guangzhou!
Now, Zhang Yue is also watching helplessly as the puppet Tang bandits march north to Hengyang, but there is nothing he can do about it!