Chapter 654: Panic Civilian and Military Officials
In the Forbidden City of the capital, although it is already spring and the temperature has begun to warm up, Emperor Zhengde is still covered with a thick quilt, and there are several charcoal basins in the corner of the house that continuously radiate heat.
Let the whole house feel free and stuffy.
"Now the Tang bandits are coming with great force. Not only are they besieging Hengyang in Huguang and threatening Changsha, but now they are heading north to Jiangxi to plot Ganzhou. What do you, your lords, think about this?" When Emperor Zhengde spoke, his voice was thin and continuous.
After saying a few words, he started coughing continuously.
But the group of Ming ministers below did not dare to look down on Emperor Zhengde. They all lowered their heads and did not dare to say a word.
Emperor Zhengde has been in control of the court for more than 40 years. Ever since he came to the throne, he has always disliked these ministers. When necessary, he would even bypass the cabinet and even the six ministries to handle affairs.
The prestige that came down has already kept these important officials of the imperial court in submission.
Now that the Tang bandits have rebelled, they invaded three provinces, and launched a fierce offensive in the direction of Huguang and Jiangxi. Naturally, the court is disgusted with the storms one after another!
On the front line, countless civil and military officials have been beheaded because of their ineffective suppression of bandits. Seven or eight senior officials above the fourth rank have been beheaded and their homes confiscated, and even more have been imprisoned.
Nowadays, anything related to the puppet Tang rebel army is not a good thing.
Seeing that a group of ministers did not speak, Zhengde immediately snorted softly. Although the voice was soft, the ministers below could hear Emperor Zhengde's dissatisfaction.
Immediately, several cabinet ministers had no choice but to speak out, but they were talking about trivial matters.
Then while talking, he put the matter on Zhang Yue's head again.
However, there was a bold censor who said that Zhang Yue had been supervising the southern provinces for nearly a year, but he had not made any achievements. He also lost troops and generals one after another and lost many cities. Several people wanted to impeach Zhang Yue for his incompetence and advocated that Zhang Yue be arrested.
Take him back to the capital for questioning.
Immediately there was another commotion, and everyone agreed with this man's words, and the censor said: "Zhang Yuekong has hundreds of thousands of troops, but he has been unable to exterminate the Tang thieves. He is suspected of holding the thieves' own dignity!"
After hearing this, Emperor Zhengde stared at the right minister of the Ministry of Works and said: "With love for you, how should we suppress this Tang thief?"
After hearing this, the censor showed a hint of surprise on his face: "I thought that while the Tang rebels were not yet firmly established, I would directly send troops to attack southward, seize Shaozhou first, and then attack Zhaoqing. Hundreds of thousands of officers and soldiers would go south, which would be enough to sweep away the puppet Tang Dynasty.
All resistance from the bandit army will be taken by then to seize Zhaoqing and capture the false emperor alive...!"
Emperor Zhengde propped up his half-lying body at this time, and then directly interrupted him: "Shut up!"
Then Emperor Zhengde turned his attention to several cabinet ministers, but these people were even more afraid to speak at this time. After a while, Emperor Zhengde said: "I intend to send the border troops south to suppress the rebellion. What do you all think?
"
Emperor Zhengde said this as a question, but who dared to oppose him, and they were not all ignorant middle-level officials, they were all real important ministers, and they knew the situation in the south quite well.
Is Zhang Yue incompetent? He is indeed incompetent. For almost a year, not only has he failed to counterattack Guangdong and Guangxi, but he has also lost many troops and generals, including Shaoyang.
However, if another person went to the south, could he do better than Zhang Yue?
Not always!
Zhang Yue presided over the suppression of bandits in the south, and would basically send battle reports back to the capital every three days. Moreover, the strategies adopted by Zhang Yue in the southern provinces were all approved by the cabinet and Emperor Zhengde. The core strategy was:
While holding on to the fortified city to counteract the enemy's weapons and gain time, they also made firearms and trained a new army.
At this stage, we strive to stabilize the situation. After two or three years, when enough guns and cannons are built and enough new troops are trained, we can then go south and destroy the Tang bandits in one fell swoop.
This will be a huge overall plan that will span more than three years, or even more than five years. Without the support of cabinet ministers and the nod of Emperor Zhengde, how could Zhang Yue be able to implement it?
The censor just now said that Zhang Yue was incompetent and ineffective in suppressing bandits. Wasn't this a clear plan to slap Emperor Zhengde and the cabinet ministers in the face?
At the same time, Zhang Yue's overall strategy was effective. At least it did not happen like last year, where the puppet Tang bandits continuously attacked the city and captured one province after another.
The only troublesome thing is that they still underestimated the combat effectiveness of the Puppet Tang thief army. The Puppet Tang thief army, which was less than 100,000, was fighting in several directions at the same time, and was able to overwhelm hundreds of thousands of local officers and soldiers.
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Now, the top priority is not to hold anyone responsible, but to stop the fierce momentum of the puppet Tang rebel army heading north, not only from Huguang, but also from Jiangxi.
Otherwise, if Huguang is defended, but Jiangxi is captured, it will also cause great trouble.
Once Ganzhou and Nanchang fall, it basically means that the puppet Tang thief army has the ability to enter the Yangtze River at any time. If Jiujiang is not protected, Nanjing will not be protected!
Just when Emperor Zhengde in the capital and the big bosses of the Ming Dynasty were worried about the situation in the south, Zhang Yue also felt uncomfortable. When he learned that the puppet Tang thief army was about to arrive in Ganzhou, he immediately sent a message to Jiangxi Central
The Ming army in the northern region quickly moved south, and at the same time, 3,000 newly recruited supervisors from Wuchang were dispatched to Jiangxi for reinforcements.
However, Zhang Yue also knew that even if he sent additional reinforcements, the distance was so far away that when Ming officers and soldiers from Wuchang and even northern Jiangxi went south to reinforce Ganzhou, it would be too late anyway. If he wanted to defend Ganzhou, he had to rely on
The efforts of local officers and soldiers.
But can it be defended? He doesn't have much hope for this.
The defense of southern Jiangxi is the responsibility of the governor of Nangan. Well, it is not just the several prefectures in southern Jiangxi, but actually includes Shaozhou Prefecture, Nanxiong Prefecture, northern Chaozhou Prefecture in Guangdong, Tingzhou Prefecture, and Zhangzhou Prefecture in Fujian
Mansion and other places are all defense areas belonging to the governor of Southern Jiangxi.
The current battle between the Ming Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty mainly consists of the Northern Front, the Eastern Front, and the Western Front.
As for the western front, that is, Yunnan and Sichuan, where it is difficult to travel through mountains and there are many chieftains. It is not the main attack direction of the Tang Army. The defense force of the Ming Army is not strong. The fighting in this area is not exciting. It is a small battle.
There was a lot of trouble, and this area did not belong to Commander Zhang Yue, but was resisted by local officers and soldiers from Yunnan and Sichuan.
The northern line includes southern Huguang and northeastern Guizhou, which belong to the defense area of Governor Huguang and the defense area of Governor Pianyuan respectively. The defense area of Governor Huguang is also the main fierce battle area between the two sides, and the main forces of both sides are gathered here.
As for the eastern front, it is Jiangxi and Fujian, and all the defense areas in this area belong to the governor of Southern Jiangxi.
Strictly speaking, Shaozhou Prefecture in Guangdong and Chenzhou in Huguang, where the two sides fought fiercely before, were also part of the Nangan Governor's Defense Area, but Zhang Yue made certain adjustments and were directly placed under the Huguang Governor's Defense Area.
Zhang Yue supervised six provinces, and his troops were said to be 800,000, but in fact they were only 300,000 or 400,000 at most. Half of them, more than 200,000, were concentrated in Huguang and northeastern Guizhou. This place is not only the main force.
At most, it also includes all his more than 20,000 supervisors and 5,000 border troops.
His more than 20,000 supervisors were firearms troops built after the puppet Tang thief army.
As for the governor area of Southern Jiangxi, there are about 100,000 troops, but this does not include the tens of thousands of musketeers under the command of the Fujian capital commander Yu Dayou. This unit is currently stationed in Quanzhou and is being reorganized and trained in the Fuzhou area.
The more than 100,000 troops of the governor of Southern Gansu were dispersed to Ganzhou Prefecture, Zhangzhou Prefecture, Tingzhou Prefecture, Nan'an Prefecture and other places, and even some troops were allocated to assist in the defense of Nanchang.
Once this force is allocated, there are actually not many troops left in various places!
In addition, this time the rebel army came north to Jiangxi so fast that the local Ming army had not even reacted. They had already broken through many small and medium-sized cities. Although the Ming army stationed in these cities were everywhere,
Not many, but there are ten or twenty thousand people in total.
In other words, before the puppet Tang rebel army attacked the capital city of Ganzhou, the Ming army under the governor of Nangan had already lost 20,000 people.
The total number of troops of the governor of Nangan in the south of Jiangxi is only 50,000, and of these 50,000, there are now less than 20,000, and there are still more than 20,000 scattered and stationed, and there is no time to rush to the capital of Ganzhou. In other words, Ganzhou is now
The Ming army in the city was only more than 10,000 people at most.
And one thing that needs to be noted is that these Ming troops are all local guardsmen, and many of them are actually young men recruited temporarily. As for the elites like the governor, the border army, and the musketeer army, I'm sorry, but they are not
There were not many, at most there were only two or three thousand soldiers recruited by the governor of Southern Gansu.
The rebel army also rushed towards Ganzhou with lightning speed, without giving the Ming army in Jiangxi area much time to react. Before they could retreat to Ganzhou, Wang Shanxu had already led the Fifth Infantry Division to Ganzhou.
, on the way they also killed a group of 3,000 Ming troops who had fled back to Ganzhou from Nan'an Prefecture.
Such a situation cannot help but make local civil and military officials in Jiangxi nervous and even panicked.
Zhang Yue had no choice but to dispatch troops from central and northern Jiangxi, Wuchang and other places to go south for reinforcements, but God knows whether they could arrive in time.
And Zhang Yue's worry was not unreasonable. The Fifth Infantry Division rushed northward all the way, just because they didn't want to gather the Ming troops scattered in various places, so that Ganzhou would become a turtle shell like Hengyang. What they wanted was
Quick victory.
However, this quick victory was not intended to quickly capture Ganzhou, but specifically to annihilate the effective forces of the Ming army!
So when they arrived at Ganzhou City, they were not in a hurry to attack the city, but were preparing to encircle the city and call for reinforcements!