Eight hundred and fortieth chapters Altan Khan's decision
Emperor Zhengde led his army south to Shandong, and even prepared to go south to the Jiangbei front line. But as soon as he left, there was a turmoil in the capital. Many people, well, mainly the civil servants, felt that they had to wait.
The opportunity that has lasted for many years has finally come. As long as the prince is crowned emperor at this time, the Ming Dynasty will usher in a new benevolent king!
Well, a benevolent gentleman who listens to them!
As for Emperor Zhengde, that bastard was not a good emperor at all. He never listened to his ministers. Well, now, the pseudo-Tang Dynasty has occupied half of the Ming Dynasty.
Now, it’s time for the Ming Dynasty to help a benevolent king save the world!
Many people secretly went to persuade the prince, saying that the opportunity should not be missed and would never come back, but the prince was kind and resolutely rejected their proposal, which made them regretful.
On the other side, on the Mongolian grassland, Ada Khan also heard that Emperor Zhengde had almost depleted all the troops in the north, and then went south to fight in person.
And now, he couldn't bear it anymore.
The current situation is clear. In the next period of time, it will be the best opportunity for the Tatars to break through the Ming army's defense lines and march south to the Central Plains. To be honest, he is very excited.
Two days ago, the envoys sent by the Ming Dynasty tried their best to say that they wanted to borrow troops, but Anda Khan didn't say anything at all. He neither agreed nor refused.
He was naturally unwilling to simply borrow troops in exchange for titles and trade benefits, and the Mongolian army under his Anda Khan had fought with the border troops of the Ming Dynasty for many years. It would not be an exaggeration to say that they were mortal enemies.
Zhengde was having a hard time, but he was in a very comfortable mood.
It is absolutely impossible to ask him to borrow troops to help Emperor Zhengde resist some Tang army in the south!
But at the same time, he was also very clear that once the Ming Dynasty was defeated and the Tang army unified China, he would face a huge crisis in the next step, but this kind of crisis would only be the difficulty of moving south.
But if those Tang troops dare to go deep into the grasslands, Anda Khan will show them that although your guns and artillery are powerful, they are still useless on the grasslands.
On the grassland, cavalry is king!
Guns and artillery play a huge role in attacking and defending, but how useful can they be when there are only a few cities in the entire Mongolian grassland?
In addition, he also felt that this opportunity to go south was a rare one. After going south, the best result would be to watch the Ming and Tang armies defeat both sides. Then he would use the advantage of the cavalry to sweep across the Ming and Tang armies on the North China Plain.
In this way, is it possible that the Ming army can return to the major border towns it occupied during its march south?
Going south, for the strong men in the Mongolian grasslands, is a dream that has been lingering in their hearts for thousands of years. Whenever they have this opportunity, they will not give up.
If the Tang army is too powerful, he can also take advantage of the cavalry to escape!
As long as he is careful and cautious, Anda Khan feels that he should be able to get a lot of benefits from going south this time. Even if it doesn't work out, he can still rob some people, food, and property back.
Anda Khan was also a fierce man. If he wanted to go south, he didn't think too much about it. He just prepared to go south. Of course, before going south, he had to make preparations. First, he had to bring along all the tribes that were not convinced by him.
On the one hand, it is to prevent these tribes from rebelling in the rear after they go south. On the other hand, it is to let them become cannon fodder when preparing for war, and to cut off the rear when they want to escape, so as to preserve the strength of their direct tribes as much as possible.
Anda Khan went south. Although on the surface he agreed to borrow troops from the Ming Dynasty, in fact Anda Khan and the Tatar leaders knew that this time they went south and the borrowing of troops was all in vain.
, the important thing is to take the opportunity to go south, control a few border towns and areas, and then take the opportunity to go south to fish in troubled waters. If there is a chance, kill the Ming army and the Tang army together. If there is no chance, just get a vote and come back.
In short, with the current situation in the world, sitting around and doing nothing is the worst thing to do!
To be honest, Emperor Zhengde could more or less guess what Anda Khan was thinking, but he didn't care!
In order to go south for his own expedition, he almost transferred all the border troops. Except for a few fortified cities, the Tatars were allowed to come and go freely in other places. Moreover, when the Tatars went south, no matter whether they wanted to or not, in the end
You have to reduce the pressure on yourself.
A large number of Tatar cavalry went south. No matter how powerful the puppet Tang rebel army was, they still had to allocate troops to deal with it. In this way, the pressure on themselves would be much less.
As for the Tatars plundering some property along the way, Emperor Zhengde no longer cared about it!
Now that the Great Summer is about to fall, who cares about missing a few bricks and tiles!
News of the unusual movements in the north quickly spread to the south through spies from the Military Intelligence Department!
In the north of the Yangtze River, outside Huai'an City, Hao Bainian was preparing to attack Huai'an City. He heard that Emperor Zhengde from the north personally led his army southward, and then heard that the Tatars also began to move southward in large numbers. He couldn't help but sigh:
"This pseudo-Ming Emperor is quite ruthless!" After hearing what the spies said about the situation in the north, Hao Bainian couldn't help but admire him. At this time, the Zhengde Emperor still had the courage to destroy the pot and sink the boat. He was worthy of ruling the country of China.
For more than 40 years, he was a fierce man who played a group of courtiers to death during his rule.
But so what, the rise of the Tang Dynasty is already unstoppable. If nothing else, just relying on its own third army, not to mention the personal conquest of Emperor Zhengde, even if it is conscripted by ten Zhengde Emperors, he
Hao Bainian was confident that he would win the battle.
He knew very well that even if Emperor Zhengde personally marched, he would not be able to mobilize many troops, and they would definitely not be able to compare with the previous Yangzhou defenders in terms of eliteness.
The 100,000 Ming troops in the Battle of Yangzhou can be said to be the last batch of Ming troops capable of fighting.
The northern provinces and frontier armies, as well as the Ming army in the Beijing camp, are now short of guns and artillery, and the quality of the soldiers is definitely not comparable to the elite Yangzhou Ming army before.
The only thing that worried him was the Tatar cavalry!
Regardless of whether these Tatar cavalry were borrowed from Zhengde, or the Tatars had other intentions and took the opportunity to go south to attack the city and seize territory, they were all enemies of the Tang Dynasty.
If their cavalry comes less, the threat will not be great, but if too many cavalry come, it may not be easy to handle.
There are not many cavalry in the Tang Army. His Third Army only has 4,000 cavalry at full strength. If the Tatars come with 30,000, 50,000 or more cavalry, they may not be able to fight if they encounter them in the wild.
Good to fight!
However, Hao Bainian is only slightly worried. Now, these things are still too early. Now Hao Bainian's top priority is to capture Huai'an, then take a good rest, replenish troops and supplies, and then move westward and northward.
He has received the latest order from Li Xuan, asking him to capture Huai'an as soon as possible, and then capture Fengyang Mansion and Xuzhou. After capturing these two places, with the arrival of severe cold weather in the north, the Third Army will
Suspension of large-scale military operations.
At that time, the strategic focus of the Tang Dynasty will shift to Anqing. In other words, the Third Army will not receive limited reinforcements in terms of strength and supplies.
Calculating the time, the time left for him is only one month at most.
Hao Bainian, who knew that time was tight, was not affected by the changes in the north at all, but quickly launched the Huai'an Campaign!
There were actually not many Ming troops defending the city at this time, but most of them were Ming troops who had fled all the way here. The morale of the troops was very low. In addition, the local Ming troops were seriously short of guns and artillery.
The Ming army in the Jiangbei area initially had a lot of guns and artillery, but most of them were lost in Yangzhou. Many of the 20,000 people who escaped escaped empty-handed.
Except for the Beijing camp, some of the Ming troops originally garrisoned were second-line troops and were extremely short of guns and artillery.
As a result, the morale of the Ming army in Huai'an City was low, and they also lacked guns and artillery. At the same time, the city defense here had not been reinforced for a long time like Yangzhou. In this way, they could not stop the fierce attack of the Third Army.
.
After smashing down more than two hundred artillery pieces, they successfully captured Huai'an City without even digging tunnels and blasting. It took the Tang Army three days from the initial attack to the capture of the city.
One day for preparation, one day for bombardment, and one day for siege!
The whole process was almost a textbook battle, without any surprises.
After conquering Huai'an, the troops of the Third Army advanced directly to the Yellow River, Huaihe River, and Chaohu Basin.
At this time, the Navy of the Tang Dynasty also cooperated and transferred many ships for inland river warfare into the Yellow River Basin, where they merged with the original canal fleet and reorganized into the new Yellow River Fleet.
This is also the fourth river fleet in the Tang Dynasty. It is not large in scale, with only more than forty combat ships, but they are all specially built river warships. Their combat effectiveness has exceeded that of the Pearl River Fleet, and its strength is second only to
Yangtze River Fleet.
The war in the north was going smoothly, so even if Li Xuan heard about Emperor Zhengde's personal conquest and the Tatars marching south, he was not too moved.
Even if Emperor Zhengde went on a personal expedition, the Ming army was just like that and could no longer pose any threat to the Third Army. As for the Tatar cavalry, as long as Hao Bainian was smarter, he would not foolishly play mobile warfare with others and find opportunities.
Just have a head-on decisive battle, and it is possible to win. No matter what happens, you can still stabilize the battle line.
The most important thing now is to prepare for the Anqing war!
Today's Anqing is like a sharp knife inserted into the artery of the Yangtze River, preventing the Tang Dynasty from using the Yangtze River to connect troops and material supplies in Huguang, Jiangxi, Jiangnan and other places.
But if we want to fight north with confidence, capture Huguang, or even finally march to Sichuan or Henan, Anqing must be captured first.