Chapter seven hundred and eighty fifth Wang Yiqi to discuss peace
Although Wang Yiqi was hesitant in the early stage, when he really found that there was no other better option, he was very decisive and decided to send troops to declare the city on the spot.
Moreover, when he sent troops to declare the city, he did not plan to leave too many troops in Jinling City. He only left a mere 3,000 Jiangnan New Army and 7,000 garrison troops. Only 10,000 people were left to guard Jinling City.
However, the remaining main force of nearly 100,000 people was taken away by him, preparing to attack Xuancheng with a thunderous force, and then first annihilate the fifth infantry division of the rebel army, and then face the main force of the second army of the rebel army.
At the same time, he also sent fast horses to Anqing to ask the Anqing defenders to stop stupidly staying in Anqing. The puppet Tang rebel army had no intention of coming along the Yangtze River. There was no point in continuing to defend Anqing.
Let the Anqing garrison immediately cross the river and go south.
First occupy Guichi, and then go all the way south to cut off the supply line of the rebel army. You can even take the opportunity to test the authenticity of Pengze Hukou. It is said that there is a logistics supply station for the puppet army of the Tang Dynasty, where a large amount of food, grass and ammunition are stored.
However, he also knew that it was easy to cut off the supply line of the rebels, but it was probably impossible to attack Hukou. Although the second army of the rebels had entered South Zhili, there were still rebels in Jiangxi.
As for the First Army.
He had already learned that the first army of the rebels, that is, Hao Bainian's army, had completely taken over the defense of Huguang and Jiangxi. As the supply and logistics base for the rebels, Hukou's military strength was even stronger than that in Nanchang.
The bandit army in Nanchang only had two or three thousand soldiers, but in Hukou it was said that there were more than ten thousand people.
Of course, Wang Yiqi didn't know that although the Tang Army at Hukou had more than 10,000 people, there was actually only one infantry regiment that was a regular army unit, and the rest was the newly established 7th Supplementary Brigade.
However, the difference between the supplementary brigade and the regular army is not too big in terms of military uniforms and even weapons. Without a deeper understanding, it would be difficult for the Ming army to tell whether these were new recruits or the main force of the rebel army.
At this time, Wang Yiqi couldn't help but want to blame Zhang Yue. Zhang Yue held a hundred thousand troops, but he was watching a movie in Huguang. He had sent several letters asking for help, but Zhang Yue
There was no movement at all.
There was no news of a large-scale cross-river counterattack at all.
At this time, Zhang Yue was also complaining about Wang Yiqi!
Damn, if I hadn't helped you contain the first bandit army in Jiangbei, the bandit army would have fled to the south of the Yangtze River long ago. By then, you, Wang Yiqi, would be even more unstoppable.
Is it possible that you have to ask me to send you across the river to die in order to do you a favor?
In fact, Zhang Yue was also in a dilemma, because the First Army facing Zhang Yue was not weak in strength. It had three infantry divisions and two mixed regiments, which was one more infantry division than the Second Army.
After such a long period of rest, the First Army has also restored its combat effectiveness, and all its units have also completed reorganization. Of course, there is still a slight shortage of artillery and ammunition, but this does not affect the First Army.
The fact that combat effectiveness has been restored.
Strictly speaking, Zhang Yue is actually under greater pressure. After all, the 7th Infantry Division of the Second Army is still a new unit, but the various units of the First Army under Hao Bainian are all old units.
The 1st Infantry Division, 2nd Infantry Division, and 3rd Infantry Division are all in the First Army.
Judging from the pressure faced by Zhang Yue and Wang Yiqi, we can basically draw a conclusion, that is, the current strength comparison between the Tang Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty has actually changed.
After several years of continuous war, the Tang army had actually surpassed the Ming army on the southern front in terms of strength.
The First Army, the Second Army, and the Third Army combined have six infantry divisions, six mixed regiments, four heavy artillery battalions and other main forces, with a total strength of more than 140,000. If we add Hunan and Jiangxi
If the five supplementary brigades in the two places are included, the total strength is 160,000.
However, as for the Ming army on the opposite side, their total strength is naturally greater. Including the guardsmen and young men recruited temporarily, the number is probably more than 500,000, but those who can fight are actually far less than that.
Zhang Yue had 100,000 troops, and Wang Yiqi had about 150,000 troops.
In terms of the strength of the main forces between the two sides, the gap is no longer as wide as last year.
However, even though the Ming army still has a strength advantage, the gap in personnel quality and equipment is relatively large. The most obvious one is field artillery and other heavy artillery. The Ming army on the opposite side is only three points of the Tang Dynasty at most.
About one.
Of course, the Ming Army's bowl-mouth cannons, Folang machine guns and other shotguns were numerous, which exceeded the number of shotguns of the Tang Army.
These gaps between the two sides also resulted in a relatively large gap in combat effectiveness between the two sides, which offset the Ming army's strength advantage.
If this were not the case, the Ming army would not have been able to only passively defend and would not dare to take the initiative to attack.
Zhang Yue stood still, so Wang Yiqi had to rely on himself.
Having made up his mind, he also led his army southward with a desperate attitude. A hundred thousand troops marched southward in a mighty manner!
It didn't take long for the Tang Army's reconnaissance cavalry to learn about this situation, and Pegasus reported it to Chen Keqiao of the Fifth Infantry Division.
When he learned that Wang Yiqi personally led an army of 100,000 people to the south, and was heading towards his own Xuancheng, Chen Keqiao knew that a war was coming.
On the one hand, they accelerated the consolidation of Xuancheng's city defense, and on the other hand, they also sent fast horses to report to Li Chunjing.
Under the desperate pursuit of the fast horse, Li Chunjing soon learned the news that Wang Yiqi led his army south, and immediately said to An Zichen: "Look, they just came out!"
"Let's turn around and go north. We will fight Wang Yiqi to the death in Xuancheng!" When Li Chunjing said this, he was no longer as calm as before, but showed a rare cautious look.
His more than 20 days of planning and various actions were just to force Wang Yiqi out of Jinling City. Now he finally came out, but Wang Yiqi led an army of 100,000 to the south, and a decisive battle was inevitable.
In this kind of decisive battle, all the strategies of both sides are useless. What is competing is who has more troops, who has more artillery, and the true combat effectiveness of both sides.
After all, in this kind of strategic decisive battle with more than 100,000 troops on both sides, any conspiracy and conspiracy will be crushed under the crushing force of the army!
Li Chunjing made a false shot and led his army back to Xuancheng instead of going to Hangzhou. Wang Yiqi naturally doesn't know about it now, but he will probably know about it in a few days, but this is no longer important.
Since Wang Yiqi went south with an army of 100,000 people, he never thought about going back empty-handed!
If we go here, we will either severely damage or even annihilate the main force of the second army of the puppet Tang thief army, or the 100,000-strong army will be wiped out in ashes!
This battle will directly determine the ownership of this prosperous place in Jiangnan!
It will even directly affect the subsequent situation of Tang and Ming's hegemony!
And neither Li Xuan in Zhaoqing nor Emperor Zhengde in the Forbidden City knew about all this.
Although the generals on the front lines of both sides would frequently send messages back to the rear, these messages would be delayed. From Jiangnan to Zhaoqing and the Forbidden City, it would take seven or eight days or even longer to reach the Forbidden City.
Now Li Xuan didn't even know that the army had captured Xuancheng, and he didn't even know that Li Chunjing was already shooting a feint outside Hangzhou.
Emperor Zhengde also didn't know that the situation in Jiangnan was already facing the most dangerous period. At this time, Emperor Zhengde had just received the document that Wang Yiqi had sent to the capital ten days ago. In the document, Wang Yiqi still said with confidence:
Although the bandit army successively marched into Huizhou Mansion, Ningguo Mansion and other places, the bandit army continued to attack for hundreds of miles, and it was already at the end of the war. When the bandit army came to Jinling City, he would lead the army to entangle the main force of the bandit army.
, and then let the Anqing garrison go south to cut off the rebels' supply line.
When the time comes, great success can be expected!
But the top leaders of both sides did not expect that in just a few days, the situation in Jiangnan would change dramatically, and the person who brought about this change was none other than Li Chunjing!
Through a series of tactical changes, he threatened Wang Yiqi and led his army to leave the city and go south for a decisive battle by attacking Hangzhou!
And this is almost an upright conspiracy. Wang Yiqi clearly knew that going south was extremely dangerous, but he had to go south!
In the last few days of October, the armies of both sides were conducting high-speed maneuvers.
Moreover, the direction of movement of both sides changed again. On the last day of October, that is, the 30th, Li Chunjing sent a message to Chen Keqiao via fast horse, asking him to abandon Xuancheng and continue to march eastward to seize Jianping.
And he himself also led his army to go north to Guangde.
On November 4, a small number of cavalry units from the Ming Army arrived in Xuancheng and found that Xuancheng was deserted. They immediately reported this to Wang Yiqi's army who was already in Liyang.
Wang Yiqi quickly realized that the bandit army might want to join forces, so he immediately led his army to continue setting off from Liyang!
On November 6, Wang Yiqi's forward cavalry discovered that the rebels had occupied Jianping, and the rebels who captured this place were their previous target, the Fifth Infantry Division of the rebels. Wang Yiqi's army then headed for Jianping.
It didn't take long before Wang Yiqi's reconnaissance cavalry also discovered the main force of the second rebel army heading north from Guangde. At this time, it was too late for him to besiege the Jianping rebel army first.
Should we continue to besiege Jianping, or should we directly set up our positions and face the enemy's main force, or should we retreat to Liyang?
The generals under Wang Yiqi quarreled for a full half day, arguing back and forth, with major differences, but their disputes did not affect Wang Yiqi's decision at all!
Because Wang Yiqi had already decided that he wanted to directly lead his army to continue southward, not to besiege Jianping, let alone retreat, and to directly engage in a decisive battle with the main force of the rebel army!
If we continue to attack Jianping, we may fall into a trap attacked by the rebel army from both front and rear.
In addition, the morale of their army is pretty good now, and the soldiers also have a do-or-die mentality. But if they haven't seen the puppet Tang rebels yet, or they just fled back to Liyang in despair, their morale will be affected.
great loss.
What's more important is that the puppet Tang rebels are not stupid. Now that they have retreated, if they catch up behind them, this retreat may turn into a huge rout!
So retreat is not within the scope of Wang Yiqi's consideration!
When he led the army out of Jinling City, he knew that this battle was inevitable and extremely risky. Although the current situation deviated from the original expectation, it was still inseparable and a fight was still necessary.
Just a field!
So in the end, he overpowered all the generals and decided to set up a battle formation outside Jianping City and fight to the death with the puppet Tang traitor army!
If this battle is won, then everything is easy to say, but if the battle is defeated, then Wang Yiqi will send someone to send the memorial written in advance to the Forbidden City.
There are a lot of words in this document, but everything else is nonsense. What Wang Yiqi really wants to say is only two words: peace!