Ever since he learned that Wang Bianyi's cavalry interception failed and more than half of them were lost, Zhang Yue already knew that Nanchang was in danger!
Without the delay of the cavalry, the puppet Tang rebel army could quickly march to the gates of Nanchang City and launch an attack. The tens of thousands of infantrymen he sent to return to Nanchang could not rush back in time. With the existing ten thousand people guard station in Nanchang City,
Soldiers, it is basically impossible to stop the puppet Tang traitor army.
Therefore, he had anticipated the fall of Nanchang two days ago!
But even though he had expected it, he still couldn't accept it when he actually learned that Nanchang had been lost!
That’s Nanchang!
Without Nanchang, the subsequent war in the Jiangxi direction would be even more passive. The puppet Tang rebels could even enter Poyang Lake directly through Nanchang, and then enter the Yangtze River.
However, although he sighed, Zhang Yue did not give up his confidence. Although Nanchang was lost, he still had a chance to annihilate the main force of the second army of the puppet Tang rebel army under Fuzhou City.
As long as the Second Army of the Puppet Tang Dynasty can be annihilated, even if Nanchang is lost, it won't be a big problem!
Because as long as the Second Army of the Puppet Tang Dynasty is eliminated, the entire Jiangxi war situation will be revitalized!
In the future, Zhang Yue can completely lead his army to counterattack Nanchang and recapture Nanchang. In addition, he can also counterattack Ji'an and even Ganzhou in the future and push the front to northern Guangdong.
This was also the reason why he had known that Nanchang might be facing extremely dangerous situations, but still did not lead the main force to return reinforcements, but continued to pursue the Second Army of the Puppet Tang Dynasty.
In his view, the criterion for determining the outcome of this battle was not the gains and losses of Nanchang or one or two important cities, but more importantly, whether the Second Army of the puppet Tang Dynasty could be annihilated.
As long as the Second Army of the Puppet Tang Dynasty is destroyed, then it will be victory!
Taking a step back, it would be impossible to destroy the second army of the Puppet Tang Dynasty under Fuzhou City, but he could lead the main force to counterattack Nanchang later. There are only thousands of Puppet Tang thief troops in Nanchang City now. Is it possible that they can still stop it?
Will the counterattack of our 80,000-strong army succeed?
But the development of the situation quickly escaped Zhang Yue's control!
Because when Zhang Yue learned about the fall of Nanchang, Li Chunjing also learned the news later. After learning that the Fourth Mixed Regiment had captured Nanchang, Li Chunjing immediately ordered the withdrawal of troops from Fuzhou City.
Nanchang has already been conquered, what is he still doing under Fuzhou City, waiting to die!
Besides, although his Second Army is the main force, it actually lacks some of its offensive capabilities. The First Heavy Artillery Battalion, which is the core of the siege, has been transferred to the Fourth Mixed Regiment, and even one of the Fifth Artillery Regiment has
The field artillery battalion was also strengthened and assigned to the Fourth Mixed Regiment.
Therefore, for the current main force of the Second Army, its ability to attack critical areas has been greatly weakened, and it is difficult to capture Fuzhou in just one or two days.
At the same time, Zhang Yue's main force is behind him. If he continues to stay in Fuzhou, Zhang Yue will be able to bring an army of 100,000 people to kill him in less than two days.
At that time, we will be really surrounded by enemies from both sides and face the danger of being attacked from both sides, and it will be difficult to leave.
Besides, Li Chunjing never planned to actually capture Fuzhou from the beginning, so after learning that the Fourth Mixed Regiment's operation was successful, he quickly retreated with the Second Army without hesitation.
When Zhang Yue learned that the main force of the puppet Tang rebel army had withdrawn from Fuzhou City, he was stunned for a moment.
The puppet Tang bandit army will no longer attack Fuzhou?
Continue to pursue the main force of the puppet Tang rebel army?
But if the pursuit continues, what will happen to Nanchang?
Finally gritting his teeth, Zhang Yue chose to lead his army back to Nanchang!
But at this time, something happened again that made Zhang Yue vomit blood. He had just tried to return to Nanchang with his troops, when the puppet Tang bandit army behind him ran back again and assumed a posture of attacking Fuzhou.
At this time, Zhang Yue really felt that he was in a dilemma. It was either a decision to leave or not to leave!
Because if the number of reinforcements this time is small, there is no possibility of counterattacking Nanchang, and there may even be a chance of being bitten back.
Facing Nanchang City defended by five to six thousand people, Zhang Yue judged that at least 20,000 people were needed to counterattack, and these 20,000 people had to be the main force such as the Supervisor or the Border Army. However, among his main forces,
The total number of governors and border troops was only over 30,000.
If there are less reinforcements sent back to Nanchang, the puppet Tang bandits will come over and attack Fuzhou again!
In the end, Zhang Yue simply gave up his plan to counterattack Nanchang, and instead moved directly to Fuzhou. At the same time, he sent 3,000 frontier cavalry to continue tracking and harassing the main force of the Second Army of the puppet Tang rebel army.
Zhang Yue did not return to aid Nanchang, so Li Chunjing simply left Fuzhou City and then withdrew to Fengcheng to garrison.
After Li Chunjing led the main force of the Second Army back to defend Fengcheng, it became even more impossible for Zhang Yue's troops to counterattack Nanchang. If they wanted to counterattack Nanchang, they would have to face being intercepted by the main force of the Second Army at any time.
The danger is, to say the least, it is possible that Fuzhou will be knocked out again.
Now that Nanchang is finished, Fuzhou cannot be lost again!
Now Zhang Yue's mind is no longer on counterattacking Nanchang, or chasing and annihilating the main force of the Second Army of the Puppet Tang Dynasty. His mind is already on the deployment of defenses in Fuzhou and the subsequent deployment of defenses in Jiujiang.
He left a large number of troops in Fuzhou, even leaving all the border troops, and then there were thousands of local recruits. Supervisor Biao also left 5,000 people, making up a total of 20,000 people.
In addition to the main force of the people, there are about 40,000 young and strong garrison soldiers, as well as a large number of artillery.
Among the 20,000 main troops, there are also 3,000 frontier cavalry.
With a main force of 20,000, especially the 3,000 frontier cavalry, it would be very difficult for the puppet Tang rebel army to conquer Fuzhou!
Immediately, he quickly retreated north with the remaining main force of the supervision and a few guardsmen. Where was he going?
He led his army to retreat northward from Poyang Lake, and then retreated directly to Nankang Prefecture, north of Nanchang.
Nanchang has been lost, which means that the navy of the puppet Tang rebel army can enter Poyang Lake, and then enter the Yangtze River through Poyang Lake.
At this time, his next defensive focus was not only to firmly plant a nail in Fuzhou, but also to guard the entrance of Poyang Lake into and out of the Yangtze River, which was Nankang Prefecture.
He must adjust the new defense line in the shortest possible time to ensure that the entire defense line will not completely collapse due to the loss of Nanchang.
Although Nanchang was destroyed, the main force of the Jiangxi Ming Army was actually lost, and an important strategic bridgehead like Fuzhou was preserved!
If the puppet Tang rebel army dares to leave Nanchang and continue to move north, the Ming army in Fuzhou can advance westward at any time, cut off the supply line of the puppet Tang rebel army, and trap the puppet Tang rebel army heading north alone in the north of Jiangxi.
And this is actually the reason why Li Chunjing led his army back to defend Fengcheng, because Li Chunjing needed to maintain a large number of troops in this area to contain and threaten the main force of the Ming army in Fuzhou to ensure that they would not threaten Nanchang.
But what gave Zhang Yue a headache was that Nanchang had been lost. How should he explain to the court?
Could it be said that the fall of Nanchang was just a small accident?
But how to report to the court only gave him a small headache. He had been supervising six provinces in the south for two years, and he had not been idle in the past two years. He had been making guns and training the new army.
Moreover, the trained supervisor is still Zhang Yue's private army. Although Zhang Yue is still extremely loyal to the court, he also believes that the princes and His Majesty in the court can clearly see the difficulties of the current situation in the world.
He would never do anything to destroy the Great Wall.
Yes, even Zhang Yue is still extremely loyal to the Ming Dynasty and to Emperor Zhengde who appreciates and reuses him. But this does not mean that he does not know how much energy he has. On the contrary, he is more powerful than anyone else.
Everything is clear!
He has 50,000 governors with well-equipped guns and hundreds of thousands of guardsmen under his command. He is young and strong. These are factors that the court cannot ignore him!
Otherwise, when someone in the court impeached him for supporting the army and respecting himself at the beginning of the year, Emperor Zhengde would not have left him alone. In the end, he just gave Yu Dayou an advantage and used Shang Fang Baojian's power to restrain himself, but would have directly removed him from office.
The current situation in the south is closely related to Zhang Yue. Without his supervision and his painstaking efforts to maintain the defense line in the south, the puppet Tang rebel army would have already entered southern Zhili.
And the princes in the court saw this very clearly!
This is also the reason why none of the guns and artillery manufactured by the imperial court in the northern provinces were transported to Huguang and Jiangxi, but were instead equipped with the northern army on the spot.
Even the guns and artillery made in Jiangnan areas such as Nanzhili did not actually flow into Zhang Yue's hands. Instead, they were all equipped with border troops sent from the south and garrison soldiers from Nanzhili.
As for the equipment of Yu Dayou's bandit-breaking army, Yu Dayou also made it himself, and the other part was purchased from foreigners!
From the specific attitude of the Ming Dynasty in military deployment and building guns and training new troops in the past two years, it can be seen that the Ming Dynasty has already had a certain suspicion and guard against Zhang Yue, but now Huguang and Jiangxi are
He couldn't do without Zhang Yue and his supervisor, so he continued to endure it, and even continued to promote him.
After Zhang Yue forced back Hao Bainian's assault on Changsha in July this year, the Ming Dynasty gave him the title of Zuodu Yushi because of his merits in defending the territory.
You must know that in the tradition of the Ming Dynasty, the governor can usually only have the title of censor of the right capital, so giving him the title of censor of the left capital is an extra gift.
But after reaching this point, as a feudal minister, Zhang Yue was actually unable to be promoted. If he continued to be promoted, he would have to become minister of various ministries or join the cabinet.
However, with Zhang Yue's current power and status, if he is transferred to the capital to serve as minister or even cabinet, he will inevitably be suspected of being promoted on the surface and actually taking the opportunity to seize military power. Zhang Yue himself may agree, but there are a lot of votes under him.
Whether the generals will agree is another matter.
You can't just release your military power over a glass of wine at any time. If you don't do it right, you will end up in a yellow robe!