According to Qi Fang's thinking, he believes that Zhang Jun must now hope that the war can end as soon as possible. The sooner it ends, the better it is in Zhang Jun's interests.
It would certainly be good for Qi Fang himself to end this battle quickly.
But compared to the slim future, Qi Fang didn't trust Zhang Jun and didn't think he would get any satisfactory benefits after successfully completing the task.
In contrast, maintaining this situation, confronting the rebels, and constantly fighting, but they can't win or lose. Maintaining an undefeated situation, constantly wasting the court's money and food, made Zhang Jun heartbroken and troubled. By the extreme!
Wouldn't that be great?
good! that's all!
Qi Fang then decided to use his existing advantages to reoccupy the areas that had been recovered, arrange defense lines, and then maintain the status quo, sending some troops to harass the rebels, but not to fight with the rebels unless the rebels dared to attack him .
The army eats, drinks, has fun, consumes food and military pay here, giving more benefits to the army, giving more benefits to themselves, making the troops under them more grateful to themselves, loyal to themselves, and preserving their basic base.
In doing so, even if the Privy Council questions him, his reasons will be very sufficient——
The number of troops under his command was insufficient to make progress, and the thieves were powerful. He did not dare to be defeated again, so he could only wait for the troops from Chizhou Dutongsi to arrive, and then make progress when the troops were strengthened.
Before that, he could only hold on to the previous victory of the Song Army without losing it, and wait for the Chizhou Dutongsi's army to arrive.
The Privy Council could urge him, or he could shirk it. Unless the Privy Council was really willing to replace him at the last minute and was willing to risk the instability of the army, then he had nothing to say.
Qi Fang did not intend to take the lead, but at the same time, Zhang Xiaohu also followed Zhao Yucheng into the Luoxiao Mountain.
The peasant army began to practice their internal strength and did not plan to continue to advance in the short term. The other rebel armies also learned about the Song army's offensive and the current uprising situation, and they also stopped their actions and actively prepared for war.
For a time, the turbulent Jiangnan West Road Uprising actually calmed down temporarily.
The situation has inexplicably entered into some strange balance.
But if there is balance here, there will be problems there.
Su Yonglin encountered some emergencies.
The Tata'er tribe, a grassland tribe based in the north of Linhuang Mansion, sent people to meet Su Yonglin and presented war horses, cattle, sheep, leather, bone products and other grassland products as tribute, hoping to renew the vassal relationship with the Jin Kingdom with the Ming Dynasty. , hoping to surrender to the Ming Dynasty.
This sudden situation surprised Ming Ting.
Su Yonglin has been on the defensive and vigilant towards the northern grasslands since he destroyed the Jin Kingdom in Dingding Central Plains, and has no aggressive plans.
For example, in the northwest region, he stationed the Hebei Corps, with Han Jinggui as commander, in Datong Province, northwest of Zhongdu, to guard the inside and outside of the Great Wall, and to maintain a vigilant attitude towards the Wanggu tribe north of the Great Wall.
The Wanggu tribe is a tribe that guards the border for the Jin people. The leader serves as an official for the Jin people and has a close relationship with the Jin people. After Su Yonglin destroyed the Jin, he quickly seized the Great Wall and sent troops to defend it to prevent the Wanggu tribe from possible southward invasion.
However, there has been no sign of Wanggu's southward invasion for so long, but they have never sent anyone south to contact the Ming Dynasty. I don't know what they have in mind.
Su Yonglin meant that Wang Gubu would not provoke him, and he did not want to provoke Wang Gubu, so he should try to maintain the status quo and not change it.
This is true in the northwest, and also in the northeast. The local Linhuang Mansion area is garrisoned by the Xuanjia Army under the Liaodong Corps.
Wei Kexian, the first deputy commander of the Liaodong Corps, led this unit to be stationed in Linhuang Mansion, guarding against the Tata'er Department.
According to the information learned by the Ming court, compared with the Wanggu tribe's surrender and attachment attitude towards the Jin Kingdom, the Tata'er tribe was more independent. Sometimes they surrendered to the Jin Kingdom, and sometimes they stabbed the Jin Kingdom in the back. The two sides often had wars, and often There are also collaborations.
The Jin Kingdom often had no way to deal with them, so they could only spend money to eliminate disasters. The Tata tribe was wise enough to accept the money and surrendered to the Jin Kingdom, relying on the Jin Kingdom to bully other tribes on the grassland. During this period, in Mongolia, The eastern part of the plateau dominates.
Su Yonglin was also very vigilant about such a tribe that could fall out of favor faster than flipping through a book, and strictly ordered the Liaodong Corps to be on guard against the Tatar people to avoid being deceived without realizing it.
In addition to the outer defense of the Hebei Corps and the Liaodong Corps, Su Yonglin also directly commanded the Yanyun Corps to be responsible for the mountain defense and the Great Wall defense line north of Zhongdu. It was the second line of defense south of the first line of defense composed of the Hebei Corps and the Liaodong Corps. .
In this way, a three-dimensional mobile defense mode is constructed, which still has strong defensive capabilities against the prairie cavalry.
Because his main energy was on developing himself and dealing with Xixia and Southern Song Dynasty, Su Yonglin did not take things on the grassland too seriously.
First, as far as he knew, the various tribes on the prairie were at war with each other at this moment, and there was no unified core of political power that could threaten the Central Plains.
Secondly, if Su Yonglin remembered correctly, Temujin, who finally unified the grasslands and created the Great Mongolia, was still a baby or not even born, and was not enough to be the object of Su Yonglin's fear.
Thirdly, Su Yonglin had absolute confidence in the military strength of the Ming Dynasty. He believed that the Ming army he led would never collapse on the grassland.
All kinds of factors combined, Su Yonglin did not set his sights on the grassland for the time being. He was raising war horses and training cavalry. His main target was not the grassland, but Xixia and the Southern Song Dynasty.
In particular, Su Yonglin's view is correct.
During this period, there were quite strong tribes on the grasslands such as the Tata'er tribe, the Naiman tribe, and the Klei tribe. The Qiyan tribe, the direct origin of the Great Mongolia, was not currently the strongest tribe.
From east to west across the plateau, the four major groups of Tata'er, Qiyan, Kelie, and Naiman and the five groups of Merqi in the north coexisted and faced each other. In order to compete for the highest power to dominate the entire plateau, the five major tribal groups fought fiercely.
The five major groups are constantly vendetta against each other, and they are not monolithic within themselves.
Each group has different branches within it, and there are often conflicts between branches. No leader with sufficient strength and charisma can complete the task of unification.
Therefore, during this period, the political situation on the grassland was fragmented, and there was indeed no force that could pose a threat to the Ming Dynasty.
But just because Su Yonglin is not interested in Grassland does not mean that Grassland is not interested in him.
After Su Yonglin destroyed the Jin Kingdom, he temporarily cut off contact with the tribes in the grasslands. Naturally, the old mutual trade between the two sides was no longer there.
At the beginning, both the Prairie Wanggu tribe and the Tata'er tribe felt inexplicable fear because of the sudden fall of the Ming Dynasty to the powerful Jin Dynasty. They only dared to protect themselves and did not dare to deal with the Ming Dynasty for fear that the Ming Dynasty would cross the Great Wall to attack them.
But as time went by, they discovered that the Ming Dynasty had no intention of going to war with them, and was just guarding the Great Wall defense line.
After doing this for a long time, these tribes began to murmur in their hearts, wondering what the Ming Dynasty meant, and they also needed mutual trade with the Ming Dynasty. After losing the way of mutual trade, they would not be able to get many things.
The Wanggu tribe did not dare to act rashly because of their closer relationship with the Jin Kingdom. They could only send people to negotiate with the Tata'er tribe. They asked the Tata'er tribe who had fought with the Jin Kingdom to come forward to contact the Ming Dynasty to see what Ming Dynasty was to them. view.
In addition, Yesugei, the leader of the Qiyan tribe, led his troops to sneak attack the territories of the Tatar tribes many times before, causing the Tatar people to suffer heavy losses. The Tatar people were also very unhappy and hoped to get strong reinforcements.
Urged by this situation, in August of the second year of Hongwu, the Tatar tribe took the lead in sending a southward envoy of more than 500 people, carrying cattle, sheep, horses and other tributes that had been presented to the Jin Kingdom, and embarked on the journey On the way to the Ming Dynasty to pay homage to the emperor.
The first thing they came into contact with was the patrol cavalry team of the Xuanjia Army. The patrol team reported the news to Wei Kexian, who personally led five hundred elite cavalry to meet with them.
There were also some people who could speak Chinese in this group of Tatar people going south. When they saw the heavily armed Wei Kexian and the five hundred mysterious knights, they were sensible and did not use force, but took the initiative to negotiate.
Wei Ke first negotiated with them and learned that they were envoys from the Tatar tribe, hoping to go to Zhongdu to meet the Ming Emperor and discuss surrender and mutual trade with him.
