Chapter 708 Li Chunjing is going to take risks again
The two sides ended November in what seemed to be an overall calm, but this was only calm on the surface!
In late November, Emperor Zhengde sent Wang Yiqi, the former governor of trilateral military affairs, to the south to serve as Shangshu of the Ministry of War in Nanjing. However, this was only a superficial position, because he also sent governors of Nanzhili, Fujian, and Zhejiang military affairs to rectify military affairs and prepare for the war.
The puppet Tang thief army rushed into the south of the Yangtze River
Wang Yiqi was one of the real bigwigs in the Ming Dynasty in recent years. Speaking of political status, he was much higher than Zhang Yue. Moreover, when he went south, Emperor Zhengde not only gave him the title of Minister of the Ministry of War in Nanjing, but also gave him
He named the crown prince Taibao.
If we talk about political status alone, Zhang Yue is in front of him, even if he is flattering, he can't keep up!
But sometimes things can't be settled this way, because Zhang Yue has soldiers and horses under his command, and Wang Yiqi's authority is only in Nanzhili, Fujian, and Zhejiang, and he can't control Zhang Yue's head.
After Wang Yiqi arrived in Nanjing along the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, he used the thunderous methods he had used in the border town. A new official came to take office and killed a lot of Nanzhili people on the spot for any reason.
The general of the guard station.
It greatly shocked the Jiangnan officialdom!
Why did Wang Yiqi have such confidence? In addition to Emperor Zhengde's support for him, it was also because he took office with 8,000 border troops and 2,000 Beijing troops!
If these ten thousand people are brought to Jinling City, who would dare to disapprove?
In addition, all the more than 20,000 border troops previously transferred to the south are under his command!
After shocking the Jiangnan officialdom and establishing his prestige, he also began to rectify military affairs!
What's interesting is that Wang Yiqi's method of reorganizing military affairs is actually quite similar to Zhang Yue's. He also builds guns and cannons to train new troops. Of course, the method he adopts is more compromise. He does not directly organize and train the military like Zhang Yue.
The standard was turned into workers and farmers.
The first thing he did was to arm the border troops!
Before coming to Jiangnan, he had read a lot of documents about southern military affairs and knew that it was no longer enough to rely on swords to fight wars. Guns and artillery were needed, so the first thing he did when he arrived in Jiangnan was to give the present
Some more than 20,000 border troops were equipped with guns and other equipment.
In addition, he began to mobilize capable people from various local guards, and then recruited some recruits to supplement them. Following Zhang Yue's supervision, he formed the "Jiangnan New Army", and then used the new army method to organize and train. As for the old and weak, he also
Instead of eliminating them, they were allowed to continue doing whatever they were supposed to do in the local health center.
Of course, outsiders cannot know the actual results. At least before fighting a battle, no one knows whether his method is effective or not. However, he had been in Jiangnan for only a month and wrote a letter to Emperor Zhengde in December.
At that time, it was already propaganda. Now, there are more than 300,000 soldiers in various provinces in the south of the Yangtze River. They are all equipped with guns and sharp swords and thick armor. If the puppet Tang thief army dares to invade Jiangnan, the thief army will never come back.
After these words reached Zhang Yue's ears, Zhang Yue couldn't help laughing!
How could Wang Yiqi, an old man, be able to organize an army of 300,000 men in just one month?
I stayed in Huguang for two or three years and spent a lot of hard work to train 50,000 supervisors and reorganize 30,000 training troops. The total army is only 80,000!
However, you, Wang Yiqi, have only been here for a month, and you are able to train an army of 300,000 people? You don’t have to do any drafts to brag!
I'm afraid that among the 300,000 people, only the 20,000 to 30,000 border troops can be fought. The rest are probably guard soldiers and young men recruited temporarily. These guard soldiers and young men recruited temporarily will not be able to fight.
When the puppet Tang rebels invaded, you would be lucky if Wang Yiqi didn't hold you back. You still expect them to attack the puppet Tang rebels. What a joke.
Not to mention that Zhang Yue sneered at this, even Yu Dayou was speechless. When did an army of 300,000 armed with guns and cannons appear in the Jiangnan area? Could it be that Yu and I were so ill-informed?
Three hundred thousand troops, this number is naturally true, but it can also be said to be false!
Among these 300,000 people, in addition to Yu Dayou's 10,000-strong bandit-breaking army, there are also about 25,000 border troops and 2,000 Beijing camps. These troops are actually troops equipped with guns and cannons. In addition, there are also
There are 10,000 people who Wang Yiqi recruited from various guards, and they are matched with the Jiangnan New Army composed of about 20,000 newly recruited soldiers. These people are still mainly equipped with cold weapons, and are also equipped with a few guns. However, Wang Yiqi
Efforts are being made to equip them with more guns.
Counting those who can fight and those who can barely fight, there should be about 70,000 people, 10,000 of Yu Dayou's bandit-breaking army are in Fujian, more than 20,000 people are concentrated in Fuzhou, and the remaining part is deployed in Anqing and Jinling.
And the rest are naturally all guard soldiers and temporary young men!
If you want to say whether these guard soldiers and temporary young men can fight, that's nonsense!
If the guardsmen and temporary young men could fight, Zhang Yue would not be able to form a supervising force, Yu Dayou would not be able to destroy the rebel army, and even Wang Yiqi himself would not be able to form a new Jiangnan army.
In the battle against the puppet Tang rebels, those guard soldiers and temporary young men had completely lost their role, and were even incapable of assisting in combat.
From the fact that Emperor Zhengde sent Wang Yiqi to the south of the Yangtze River, it can actually be seen that the Emperor Zhengde had already prepared in advance for the follow-up loss of control in Jiangxi and the possible war in the south of the Yangtze River.
If he wasn't facing a major threat, why would Emperor Zhengde directly divide the Jiangnan area into a war zone?
At the same time, it can be seen that Emperor Zhengde's fear of Zhang Yue has deepened. He did not directly hand over the defense of Jiangnan to Zhang Yue, but sent other important officials of the court to take charge.
This major change of the Ming Dynasty in November and December soon reached the ears of Li Xuan of the Tang Dynasty, but Li Xuan didn't feel much about it.
Whether the enemy is Zhang Yue, Wang Yiqi, or Yu Dayou, there is no essential difference, they are all going to be fought anyway!
The Ming Dynasty fought against them, and the Tang Dynasty fought against its own!
After entering December, the soldiers of the Second Army were replenished, and the new recruits also went through a certain adaptation period. At the same time, the ammunition that was almost consumed was replenished.
This also means that the Second Army is already capable of launching a large-scale strategic offensive again!
But this time, Li Xuan did not set a too specific strategic goal for the Second Army. It was not Jiujiang or Fuzhou, but a very general goal, which was to find an opportunity to severely damage the Ming army in front of them and prepare for the subsequent march into the South.
Zhili laid the strategic foundation.
To put it bluntly, this time the goal is not to attack a certain city, but to annihilate the main force of the Ming Army.
At the same time, it also fully delegates power to Li Chunjing. The Second Army can decide on its own how to fight in the future. As long as it does not deviate from the general framework, Li Xuan in the rear will not interfere!
After receiving such an order, Li Chunjing breathed a huge sigh of relief. What he was most afraid of was receiving an order from Li Xuan asking him to attack Fuzhou or Jiujiang.
Now, both Fuzhou and Jiujiang were built by the Ming army just like Tietong. If you want to attack them by force, you will need to pay huge casualties.
Even if there are many artillery to assist in the battle, this kind of critical battle is not easy to fight.
Now, His Majesty has given him the power to make his own decisions, so that he can let go and have a good fight with the Ming army.
Fighting in Jiujiang? Not going!
Fighting in Fuzhou? Still not going!
where to?
At the Second Army's internal strategy meeting, Li Chunjing pointed directly at Wuchang Mansion: "This is our goal this time!"
"Assault on Wuchang? Wouldn't it be too difficult? Our army's logistics may not be maintained. Moreover, if we want to attack Wuchang, the enemy from Jiujiang may come to counterattack Nanchang, and may even outflank our army's retreat.
ah!"
Li Chunjing, however, did not take it seriously and said: "They want to counterattack Nanchang, but it is not that easy to fight. As for outflanking our army's retreat, wouldn't this be a good opportunity to fight them in the field combat that we are best at!"
Looking at the still confused eyes of his subordinates, Li Chunjing said: "The last time I attacked Fuzhou, I said that you must save those who attack the enemy, and it is the same this time!"
"According to the intelligence, Wuchang is the base camp of the puppet Zhang Yue. It has a large number of ordnance workshops, stores a huge amount of food, and is even their training base for new recruits. If we capture Wuchang, then it can be said that it is
Having cut off the roots of Zhang Yue's troops, do you think Zhang Yue would let us attack such an important Wuchang?"
Li Chunjing said with confidence: "If the enemy comes to intercept us, then we will not attack Wuchang and directly annihilate these Ming troops who dare to come out of the city to attack. If they don't come out, just in time, we will take away their lair!"
"But how should the logistics line be solved?" someone said immediately!
It's a long way from Nanchang to Wuchang. It would be very difficult to travel all the way without a solid logistics line.
Li Chunjing said: "There is no need to consider the logistics line. We will set off directly with a large amount of supplies. It doesn't matter if we go slower. If we can't go to Wuchang, we won't need the supply line. If we go to Wuchang, Zhang Yue has so many supplies there."
Are you worried about running out of supplies for your workshop and food?"
Although the army is said to need logistical supply lines to maintain it, in theory, as long as the army carries enough supplies, it can alone support combat needs for a long period of time.
However, even though Li Chunjing made this decision, many generals of the Second Army were still a little worried!
Going to Wuchang is quite risky!
But this is Li Chunjing's fighting style. If he didn't take risks, Li Chunjing wouldn't be Li Chunjing.
Because Li Chunjing was planning to set off with the 5th Infantry Division and two mixed regiments, this meant that only the 6th Infantry Division was left to garrison Nanchang, Fengcheng and other huge rear areas.
This made Cai Erhu of the 6th Infantry Division feel like Alexander!