After Wang Shanxu besieged Ganzhou, he was lucky. Some Ming troops from other places foolishly came to Ganzhou to die, so he surrounded the area several times to call for reinforcements and collected several thousand Ming reinforcements.
Ming armies from other places no longer foolishly come to Ganzhou for reinforcements!
After discovering that the Ming army no longer foolishly came to die, Wang Shanxu was not hypocritical. There was no benefit in continuing to wait, so he officially launched a fierce attack on Ganzhou!
There are not many Ming troops in Ganzhou city, and there are not many artillery and other firearms. The fall is inevitable!
On the eighth day of March, the Fifth Infantry Division led by Wang Shanxu captured Ganzhou City at the cost of nearly a thousand casualties!
After the news of the fall of Ganzhou spread, the world was shocked!
Because after Ganzhou is captured by the puppet Tang bandits, Nanchang will face threats. Nanchang is no less important than Changsha!
There was no need for the imperial court to send anyone to convey the order. Zhang Yue himself had already issued several orders in succession, almost allocating all the reserve forces in Jiujiang and Nanchang areas, and at the same time requested the South Zhili area to send troops to assist in defense.
Then he himself left Changsha and went to Nanchang to take charge!
At the same time, the Ming army in southern Zhili also received the imperial decree early and began to mobilize a large number of troops to go south, first of all to station in Ji'an, the southern gate of Nanchang!
This is how they dared to rush and accumulate at least 50,000 troops in the city before the puppet Tang bandits arrived at Ji'an City. At the same time, they prepared a large number of troops in Nanchang and Fuzhou in the rear.
This is how a new line of defense has been hastily built.
Wang Shanxu led his troops to rush all the way in March, and also forcibly captured Ganzhou. As a result, his 5th Infantry Division was tired of soldiers due to continuous fighting in recent months. At the same time, the loss of soldiers and ammunition was also relatively large. After seeing the Ming army in front, another
After playing the same turtle game as in Huguang, they also stopped heading north again.
And sent people back to Ganzhou to ask for strategic instructions for the next step!
On March 29, after Li Xuan received the report from Wang Shanxu, he did not hesitate and let Wang Shanxu continue to attack the north regardless of casualties. Instead, he agreed to Wang Shanxu's request. After the troops advanced to Ji'an Mansion, he suspended the attack.
A large-scale offensive, start resting and replenishing on the spot!
Li Xuan agreed with Wang Shanxu to stop the large-scale northward offensive. On the one hand, the Fifth Infantry Division needed to be revised. On the other hand, he did not want the Fifth Infantry Division to go too far alone.
Another very important point is that as April begins, the rain begins to increase, which will not only affect the use of guns and other firearms, but will also make the roads muddy and make supply transportation more difficult.
So it’s not just the Fifth Infantry Division. In fact, after April, whether it’s the First Army in Huguang, the Second Infantry Division in northeastern Guizhou, or the Fourth Infantry Division fighting in Yunnan or Sichuan,
, in fact, they all stopped large-scale offensives one after another and prepared to build defense lines on the spot to survive the rainy season.
Make sure that in the months when the rain is falling, the weather is humid, and the Tang Army's combat effectiveness has declined, it is almost possible to prevent the Ming army from finding a breakthrough, and avoid capsizing in the gutter!
The suspension of large-scale offensives across the board can also allow the already extremely nervous Datang Dynasty to breathe a sigh of relief and have time to send various types of ordnance, ammunition and even new recruits to the front line for replenishment. At the same time, the suspension of large-scale offensives can also allow the already extremely nervous
It is the financial situation that is prone to bankruptcy that can be alleviated.
After all, although the expenses of the Tang Army were high in peacetime, they were even higher during wars. Suspension of offensives could also effectively reduce financial pressure.
After the Fifth Infantry Division and even the puppet Tang rebel army in Huguang suspended their major offensives, Zhang Yue and many officials from the six provinces and even the Ming Dynasty officials in the Jiangnan region felt a little relieved. Although they were a little embarrassed, they finally felt at ease.
Blocked the northward offensive of the puppet Tang rebel army.
To be precise, this large-scale northward attack by the puppet Tang rebels should have started in December with the Huguang Offensive. After February, the Huguang Offensive was suspended for a period of time, but in March, the Jiangxi Offensive was launched again.
It lasted for four months.
In the past four months, the Tang Army successively mobilized four infantry divisions and three temporary regiments with more than 60,000 troops to launch fierce offensives in Huguang, northeastern Guizhou and Jiangxi.
As for the Ming army, it successively mobilized a total of no less than 300,000 troops to participate in the war, including troops from Huguang, Jiangxi, South Zhili and even Fujian!
As for victory or defeat, from a tactical point of view, the Tang Dynasty must have won an undisputed victory. In several battles, they captured the southern part of Hunan and southern Jiangxi, and occupied cities of great strategic significance such as Shaoyang and Ganzhou.
, and actually surrounded Hengyang and threatened Changsha and Nanchang, two cities that no Ming Dynasty could lose.
At the same time, the Army of the Tang Dynasty killed more than 20,000 Ming troops and captured more than 40,000 prisoners, including countless minors. However, it completely collapsed as a result, and at least more than 100,000 Ming troops lost their organization.
As for the Tang Army, about 1,500 people were killed and about 2,000 were injured!
But from a strategic point of view, the strategy planned by the Tang Dynasty since last year has failed, because the Tang Army not only failed to capture Changsha, it did not even capture Hengyang, and it also failed to capture Nanchang, the strategic target in March.
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In other words, none of the specific important strategic goals have actually been achieved, let alone the subsequent strategic concept of drinking from the Yangtze River and then heading south along the Yangtze River to the south of the Yangtze River.
Although the Ming Dynasty lost many troops and many cities, it could be said that it blocked the large-scale northward offensive of the puppet Tang rebel army. Although it was said that it still suffered heavy losses, if compared with the Ming army's departure from Guangdong and Guangxi in the second year of Xuanping,
In terms of the rout in the region, the performance of the Ming army this time was actually much better.
At the same time, their tactical concept of holding on to the city and avoiding frontal combat with the puppet Tang rebels in the wild was also realized!
Although the puppet Tang thief army was powerful, they could not expect to easily win against fortified cities like Hengyang, Changsha, and Nanchang. Therefore, Zhang Yue breathed a sigh of relief and paid more attention to the original suggestion that he give up the field battle and hold on to the city.
Song Zhiwen.
After entering April, Song Zhiwen was recommended by Zhang Yue because of his meritorious service as counselor of military aircraft. Song Zhiwen was also given the title of "Youqian Du Yushi", a fourth-rank official. However, although Song Zhiwen was promoted, his job was
There is still no change, he is still responsible for making firearms and recruiting soldiers.
Now, Zhang Yue regarded Song Zhiwen as his most effective confidant, and almost handed over all the matters of recruiting troops, training, and making guns and artillery in the rear.
Song Zhiwen also lived up to his expectations and worked brilliantly under Zhang Yue. In the past year, he had recruited and trained at least tens of thousands of new soldiers for Zhang Yue and built a large number of guns.
However, although the puppet Tang rebels have suspended their offensive, it does not mean that they are at the end of their game and have no fighting power, so they can launch a major counterattack.
In fact, the puppet Tang thief army that went north to Jiangxi and Huguang is still strong and powerful. It is not possible to attack the fortified city, but it is not a big problem to hold it!
Because this involves an unavoidable problem, that is, the Ming army has no strength and does not even dare to fight in the field with the puppet Tang rebels. Once they leave the city, they will basically die.
Therefore, when the rain began to fall in April, Zhang Yue's strategy submitted to the capital was to still stick to Changsha, Hengyang, and Nanchang, strengthen recruitment, build guns and train new troops, and use the existing supervisory standards and musketry troops as standards to formulate
Train at least 100,000 new troops. Once the 100,000 new troops are trained, they will fight to the death with the puppet Tang rebels. They also try to propose reducing the old troops at the local guard stations and divert military expenditures to build more guns and cannons.
Then he complained that the military expenditure was insufficient and asked the court to allocate more military expenditures. He also petitioned to rectify the salt affairs to raise military expenditures and set up a "business donation" to collect the military expenditures needed to quell the thieves from the merchants.
In addition, the memorial requested to strengthen the navy force in the Yangtze River Basin, and mobilize the navy from the Jiangnan area into the Huguang and Jiangxi basins to build ships and train troops. The superficial reason was to prevent the rebels from using the Xiangjiang River, but everyone knew that Zhang Yue was doing this just in case.
If after the rainy season has passed, the puppet Tang rebel army marches north in large numbers, and after the fall of Changsha and Nanchang, the imperial court can still rely on naval power to block the puppet Tang rebel army to the south of the Yangtze River, and block the route of the puppet army along the Yangtze River to the south of the Yangtze River.
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This is also the innovative effort made by Zhang Yue, a local feudal official, to deal with the predicament in front of him!
However, not all of the many innovations proposed by Zhang Yue were approved by the imperial court. The imperial court approved his strategy of training a new army and holding on to the city, and was also preparing to deploy naval forces to the Yangtze River. However, it directly rejected his plan to eliminate the troops.
The strength of local garrison troops and the idea of levying additional donations from thieves and merchants!
Everyone knows that local guards cannot fight. The imperial court did not expect these local guards to be able to fight. However, the situation in the world is unstable now. If the huge local guards are eliminated, there may be trouble.
What's going on?
Moreover, the world is becoming more and more unstable. The puppet Tang rebels in the south are causing such ferocious riots, and careerists in many places are following suit. Last year, the number of rebellions reported by various places increased at least ten times compared to previous years!
In Shaanxi alone, the local government suppressed more than 20 small and medium-sized rebellions.
Even on the southern front, such as Huguang, Jiangxi, Fujian and even the prosperous areas south of the Yangtze River, there have been small and medium-sized rebellions!
Although the local guards could not defeat the puppet Tang rebels, they were still a powerful tool to suppress rebellions in various places and maintain the local rule of the Ming Dynasty!
As for the shortage of troops on the front line, Emperor Zhengde had already decided against all opinions and decided to dispatch 20,000 frontier troops south to reinforce Zhang Yue!
Li Xuan could also see some flaws in many of the Ming Dynasty's responses, but Li Xuan did not overreact to this. Although a series of offensives in winter and spring did not ultimately achieve the strategic goals that his side wanted, they were still rewarding.
No small matter, now the Tang Dynasty needs to digest these fruits of victory and prepare for the autumn and winter offensive after the rainy season!
Although the war is now over, it does not represent the end of the war, but the most adequate preparation for the next war!