This political change, which can be called a palace coup, was the first and large-scale political action launched by Zhao Yu after the war.
He acted quickly. After the ministers of the main war faction arrived and before Zhao Gou returned to Luan, he took down the government of the main peace faction at lightning speed, achieving a seamless switch from the main peace faction to the main battle.
The dominant peace-supporting government under Zhao Gou was struck by thunder and overthrown.
The war-fighting government led by Zhao Xun officially came to power and began to take full control of the political and military affairs of the Song Dynasty.
After Zhang Jun arrived in Lin'an, he was personally appointed by Zhao Hao as the Privy Councilor, taking charge of the Privy Council and the military power of the Song Dynasty. With the support of Emperor Zhao Hao, he could carry out drastic reforms in the army.
After the personnel appointments were completed, Zhao Hao was very happy to face this situation of "all the people were in favor of the dynasty", so he called them together for a meeting to conduct an all-round reflection on the Song Dynasty's tragic defeat to the Ming Dynasty in this war, and Come up with targeted countermeasures.
Each of them had a lot to think about this fiasco.
Zhang Jun first expressed his views.
"This great defeat can be said to be caused by the laxity and neglect of military equipment along the border. The second reason is that the court officials are insensitive and timid and dare not fight. The overall strategic planning is in chaos and the frontline generals cannot cooperate with each other. It’s the third one.”
Zhang Jun began by listing three major reasons why the Southern Song Dynasty was bound to be defeated, which was unanimously agreed by everyone in the congregation.
Then Zhang Jun broke up the issue and discussed it with them.
"The dereliction of military equipment along the border is not something that happens in a day or two. It is a problem that has arisen since the agreement with the Jin Kingdom. The troops under the command of General Zhongxing who are capable of conquering and fighting have gradually neglected their training and lost their strength due to the long-term delays entrusted to them by inhumane people. The fighting power of the past.
Not to mention that in terms of ordnance, the top and bottom are perfunctory and skimping on funds, so that the swords and guns are not sharp and easy to rust and corrode. The wood of the bows and crossbows are either not up to standard, or the strings are not up to standard and cannot be pulled at all, or they break as soon as they are pulled. .
Officers do not go through strict assessments, but are awarded important military leadership positions only based on who can get the favor of the Privy Council civil servants. Some even bribe superior officers in exchange for military positions. Is it possible that such people hold military positions to rectify the army and prepare for war? ?
The same goes for soldiers. There are many old, weak, sick and disabled people in the army. The situation of being underpaid is very serious. An army that is under paid is a general army. The old, weak, sick and disabled who are not under paid are called elite soldiers. What is a real army that can fight? ? How many percent? "
Zhang Jun told the practical problems he learned, and the ministers nodded.
Hu Quan also sadly reported some of the problems he knew to Zhao Kan.
"As far as I know, Jiankang Dutong Si Dutong has always had a reputation for corruption, and the phenomenon of empty pay for his troops is very serious. There are even rumors that Jiankang Dutong Si's 70,000-strong army was stolen by him and During the meeting, the generals and generals were eating less than half of their pay, which shows how far corruption has reached in the military!"
Zhao Min frowned, his anger rising in his heart.
After the battle, Zhao Yu basically learned the details of the whole process since the war with the Ming army through comprehensive information from all aspects.
Although the two major commanders on the front line were defeated and destroyed, Liu Qi's troops still put up a very fierce resistance. Yangzhou did not give up until the last moment, which could be regarded as preserving the last dignity of the Song Dynasty. Especially Liu Qi himself was still because of the war. Death from illness due to overwork can be regarded as death in the line of duty.
Therefore, Zhao Hao did not hold Liu Qi responsible for the defeat, and allowed his merits and demerits to be balanced. He would not reward him, his family would not punish him, and everything would remain as before.
Then, according to the court's practice, a funeral was arranged for Liu Qi, but there was no big fuss. It was regarded as giving Liu Qi face, this page was considered to have been revealed, and everyone did not owe each other.
But the general of Jiankang Prefecture, Wang Quan, really deserves to die.
This bastard ran away before the Ming army attacked Jiankang Mansion, leaving his subordinate Yao Xingli to guard Jiangning City. As a result, the Jiangning garrison followed Wang Quan's footsteps and ran away on the eve of the war, leaving less than four thousand defenders to face The Ming army's 20,000 troops were quickly wiped out.
Yao Xing died in the battle, and was posthumously granted the title of Taiwei by Zhao Hao. He was reburied with the ceremony of Taiwei, so as to protect his descendants.
Wang Quan, the bastard, fled to Chizhou Capital Commandery and asked for the protection of Chizhou Capital Commander Li Xianzhong.
Li Xianzhong was the Song general who performed best in this battle. Not only did he lead his army to take the initiative to recapture Jiankang Mansion, but he also reluctantly fought against the Ming army in the field.
Although the battle was still defeated in the end, it at least ensured the retreat of the army and preserved Chizhou, preventing the Ming army from further invading and destroying the Song army's defense line along the river.
Therefore, Zhao Hao decided to promote and reward Li Xianzhong after the war and severely punish the royal power.
He appointed Privy Council editor Yu Yunwen to go to Jiankang Mansion to investigate and collect evidence, to investigate Wang Quan's crime of breaking the law, eating empty wages and running away during the war before the war. He was prepared to kill him if the crime was found to be unforgivable.
The family law of Zhao and Song Dynasties does not kill scholar-bureaucrats, but your royal power is not a scholar-bureaucrat, what else do you want?
Especially now that all the royal court and central government backers have collapsed, and the main war faction is in full power, do you, the royal power, still want to escape?
Zhao Hao gave an order and asked Li Xianzhong to personally capture Wang Quan and come to Lin'an. Li Xianzhong was rewarded and Wang Quan was imprisoned and prepared to be executed.
Of course, in addition to the royal power, what annoyed Zhao Xin was the palace commander Zhao Mi who lost his army and generals in the defeat of Huzhou and directly led to the siege of Lin'an.
However, seeing that Zhao Mi had indeed resisted for several days without escaping, and that he was already sixty-one years old, and that Yang Cunzhong interceded for him regardless of his previous suspicions, Zhao Min did not kill him in the end, but demoted him to a commoner and took him away. All positions were given preferential treatment, and the whole family was assigned to Leizhou and was not allowed to return to their hometown.
Then Wang Quan and Zhao Mi's subordinates were dealt with one by one according to their positions and faults. Some were sentenced to death, some were demoted to common people, and some were demoted and retained.
All in all, the factions of Zhao Mi and Wang Quan in the army collapsed, and two hills inside the Southern Song Army collapsed.
Two senior generals, Wang Quan and Zhao Mi, were dealt with one after another. Although they achieved the effect of bringing order to the chaos and killing chickens to scare monkeys, the problems in the army were still very serious.
The first thing to bear the brunt is the loss of this battle.
Regarding this issue, the pragmatic Shi Hao obtained first-hand data and reported it to Zhao Hao.
"According to the specific battle report, the Song Dynasty's army to attack the Ming army going south this time consisted of the three Dutong divisions of Zhenjiang, Jiankang, and Chizhou and the forbidden army of the three yamen of Lin'an. Among them, the Zhenjiang Dutong division had a rated number of 40,000 troops, and the Jiankang Dutong division had a rated number of 40,000. There are 70,000 soldiers, and the Chizhou Dutong Division has a rated number of 17,000 soldiers.
In addition to the three major command divisions, the number of imperial troops from the three Lin'an yamen participating in the war was 50,000. In the first stage, 20,000 went north to Zhenjiang, and in the later period, 30,000 went north to Huzhou. In addition, about 6,000 naval soldiers were used. To sum up, , in this battle, not counting the Battle of Lin'an, which did not start in the end, a total of 183,000 troops of the Song Dynasty participated in this battle.
Correspondingly, as the attacking side, the specific forces dispatched by the Ming army, according to what its commander-in-chief Zhou Zhi told him after the peace treaty was signed, were 50,000 horse infantry and 13,000 naval forces. The total force was 63,000, which was almost the same as that of the Ming army. One-third of our army.
In terms of battle losses, we still don’t know the battle losses of the Ming army, but the battle losses of our army can be counted. In this battle, except for the 10,000 people of the Zhenjiang Dutong Division who guarded Yangzhou and were not destroyed, the rest They were destroyed in Huainan and Jiangnan respectively.
The imperial court banned 50,000 troops, of which 20,000 were destroyed in Hushu Town together with the defeated troops of Zhenjiang Dutongsi, and the other 30,000 were destroyed in Huzhou. The three armies had a total number of less than 5,000 defeated troops currently counted. In addition, only the ten thousand garrison of Yangzhou returned to Jiangnan.
As for the Jiankang Prefecture, according to accounts from some of the defeated troops, except for the 4,000 people who were destroyed in Jiangning City and the Jiankang Navy that was destroyed on the water, the Jiankang Prefecture's army almost completely collapsed without a direct confrontation with the Ming army.
In Chizhou, Li Xianzhong attacked Jiankang Prefecture with 10,000 troops, encountered the Ming army, and then retreated. He reported that his losses were about 2,000, and preserved the main force of the Chizhou Dutong Division. Therefore, if he did not lie, the Chizhou Dutong Division Still complete.
In other words, the Jiankang Dutong Division and the Chizhou Dutong Division combined lost more than 69,000 people. Counting the losses of the Zhenjiang Dutong Division and the Sanya Forbidden Army, the Song Dynasty lost ten troops in this battle. More than 44,000 people. "
