Such a cold edict was unprecedented since Zhao Min came to the throne.
Everyone felt the strong anger in the emperor's heart.
Zhang Jun's death is certainly a good thing for some people, but some ministers realize that this may not be a good thing for them as a whole.
The emperor set a precedent by banning killings. So in the future, it is really hard to say whether the Song Dynasty can continue to maintain the political situation of not killing scholar-bureaucrats.
Even if the magic box is opened and closed again, can the things that come out of it still come back?
No one can guarantee that.
Therefore, many people began to silently consider whether their previous actions to kill Zhang Jun were really in their interests.
Of course, there are still many people who do not pay attention to these, but are more concerned about whether they can take this opportunity to completely drive Zhang Junyu out of the court, completely complete the transformation of the nature of the Southern Song Dynasty court, and complete a gorgeous counterattack.
How Zhang Jun drove them out of the center of power, how they are going to drive Zhang Jun's remaining party out of the center of power now.
Great revenge belongs to yes.
But it is already the end of July, and there is no time for those who are worried or continue to engage in political struggle.
Under the leadership of Shi Hao, the Privy Council began to operate at full speed. They immediately sent people to investigate the banditry situation on Jiangnan West Road, and immediately investigated and counted the soldiers and horses that could be sent to Jiangnan West Road to launch an attack.
The conservative ministers certainly retreated when faced with the problems of the Ming Dynasty, but when faced with their own internal problems, they were not much more conservative than Zhang Jun.
When dealing with Zhang Jun, they could say that Zhang Jun was impatient and aggressive, but when it was their turn to put down the Jiangnan West Road rebellion within the year, they were also impatient.
They put forward the slogan of eliminating banditry on Jiangnan West Road within three months, and fully cooperated with Shi Hao in investigating the matter.
While the Privy Council sent many spies to find out the news, it also began to count the number of soldiers and horses that the Southern Song Dynasty court could mobilize.
Before the First Ming-Song War, the Southern Song Dynasty had 400,000 troops, divided into the Forbidden Army system and the three theater systems of Jianghuai, Jinghu and Sichuan.
The Sichuan-Sichuan War Zone has always been relatively stable. Since the rise of the Wu brothers, they and their old troops have been fighting at the forefront of Sichuan.
The imperial court has three armies in Sichuan: Jinzhou, Xingyuanfu and Mianzhou, which are currently led by Wang Yan, Wu Lin and Yao Zhong respectively.
These three armies have always stood on the front line against the Jin army. They have fought against the Jin army several times and won and lost each other. They are the most elite armies in the Southern Song Dynasty.
After the fall of the Jin Kingdom, these three armies continued to confront the Qilu Corps of the Ming Army Su Haisheng without changing their locations.
Regardless of before and after the war, this army has always maintained its complete organization and has never fought against the Ming army, so it is still intact for now.
In the Jinghu Theater, before the war, Li Dao commanded the Jingnan Prefecture Army, Tian Shizhong commanded the Ezhou Army, and Qi Fang commanded the Jiujiang Army.
In the Jianghuai War Zone, before the war, Li Xianzhong commanded the Chizhou army, Wang Quan commanded the Jiankang Prefecture army, and Liu Qi commanded the Zhenjiang Prefecture army.
As for the Lin'an Forbidden Army, there are three forbidden armies: the Guard Ma Jun Division, the Guard Infantry Division, and the Palace Front Division.
Before the war, they were led by Palace Commander Zhao Mi, Guard Ma Jun Commander Cheng Min and Guard Infantry Commander Li Peng.
Before the First Ming-Song War, the Southern Song Dynasty had a main force of 400,000 consisting of nine local garrison armies from Sichuan to Huainan and three Lin'an Forbidden Forces. These 400,000 people were the main force of the Southern Song Dynasty against the Jin Kingdom in the past and against the Ming Kingdom now.
However, with the outbreak of the First Ming-Song War and the outbreak of banditry on Jiangnan West Road, among the twelve main forces, only the three main forces in the Sichuan-Sichuan Theater remained intact.
During the war between the Ming and Song dynasties, six units of the Jianghuai War Zone and the Lin'an Forbidden Army of the Southern Song Dynasty suffered devastating blows from the Ming army.
The Jiankang Prefecture army and the Zhenjiang Prefecture army were almost completely destroyed, and only the Chizhou army still retained its complete organization.
The Dianqian Division's army, the bodyguards' cavalry army, and the Infantry Division lost more than half of their nearly 100,000 troops, and only 40,000 people remained behind, becoming today's Dian Qian Division.
So after the war, except for the Dianqiansi army, the other five armies had to re-recruit and retrain. Large bundles of copper coins were thrown down, resulting in tens of thousands of troops. However, the specific plan has not yet been announced. It is not possible to achieve it completely.
After the banditry broke out on Jiangnan West Road, the Ezhou army in Tianshi and the Jingnan army led by Li Dao, which the imperial court used to attack, were severely hit first. The Jingnan army was completely wiped out, and the Ezhou army withdrew after losing part of it.
Qi Fang's Jiujiang army and the Chizhou army that were handed over to Shao Hongyuan were completely wiped out.
In a bandit attack, the main force of the Song Army in the Jinghu Theater was almost destroyed, and it was also overtaken by the Chizhou Army, which still had combat effectiveness, so that the Southern Song Army fell into a situation where its forces were stretched thin.
After Shi Haoti took charge of the Privy Council, he discovered that the army reconstruction plan led by Zhang Jun some time ago still played some role.
After the war, Zhang Jun took charge of the reconstruction of the Chizhou Army, the Zhenjiang Prefecture Army, the Jiankang Prefecture Army, as well as the Guards Ma Army and the Infantry Division.
According to Zhang Jun's plan, it is to restore the 60,000-strong army of the Guards Horse and Infantry Division and the 100,000-strong army of Chizhou, Zhenjiang Prefecture, and Jiankang Prefecture.
This is an army reorganization plan with a total of 160,000 troops.
For this plan, Zhao Jun and Zhang Jun gritted their teeth and poured money into it, building the shells of three garrison armies and two forbidden armies.
In the new reorganization plan, Li Xianzhong was appointed as the commander of the Jiankang Prefecture's army, Liu Qi's remaining general Wang Fang was appointed as the commander of the Zhenjiang Prefecture's army, and the Chizhou army was handed over to Shao Hongyuan.
In terms of the Forbidden Army, Yang Cunzhong still commands the 40,000 troops of the Dianqian Division who protect Zhao Gou's safety.
The original generals of the two armies of the Guards Ma Junsi and the Infantry Division were either killed in battle or executed. Zhao Hao personally promoted General Wang Chongti to the Guards Ma Junsi, and General Zhou Yunti to the Guards Infantry Division.
A new Jianghuai defense line was set up, and in terms of the army, except for the original 10,000 Chizhou Dutongsi and the 10,000 remnant troops of Zhenjiang Prefecture, there were almost no other troops available.
Zhao Hao and Zhang Jun just gritted their teeth and spent money here. They took advantage of the Jianghuai area to recruit troops when there were many wars and refugees. Up to the time of Zhang Jun's incident, in the third year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty and the second year of Longxing in the Southern Song Dynasty, they had recruited more than 70,000 soldiers. People serve as soldiers.
Regarding the issue of troop distribution, Zhang Jun advocated building a three-armed garrison system first, and then rebuilding the Forbidden Army, because it was more important to defend against the Ming army.
Out of Zhao Jun's desire to personally control the army and the deterrence of the 40,000 Forbidden Army controlled by Zhao Gou, he opposed Zhang Jun's suggestion and demanded that the Forbidden Army be rebuilt first.
After some debate, the monarch and his ministers reached a consensus, with 30,000 troops to strengthen the imperial army and 40,000 troops to form a garrison army.
The specific allocation was that the Guard Ma Junsi and the Guard Infantry Division each led 15,000 people to set up the Forbidden Army first. Zhao Min's wish to personally control an army came true.
Then, because the Chizhou army already had people and little defensive pressure, it maintained its strength of 10,000 people.
Among the 40,000 troops, because Zhenjiang Prefecture's army still had 10,000 remaining soldiers, 15,000 of the 40,000 troops were divided among the 40,000 troops and given to Zhenjiang Prefecture, and the remaining 25,000 were given to Jiankang Prefecture.
As a result, the Jiankang Prefecture army controlled by Li Xianzhong and the Zhenjiang Prefecture army controlled by Wang Fang gained the confidence to form large armies respectively.
Therefore, the situation in the Jianghuai War Zone before Shao Hongyuan was dispatched was that the Lin'an Forbidden Army had 70,000 people, and the three armies of Zhenjiang Prefecture, Jiankang Prefecture, and Chizhou had 50,000 people.
The preliminary reconstruction of the Jianghuai War Zone in the Southern Song Dynasty was completed, and it once again had the theoretical confidence and possibility to resist the Ming army's invasion.
Only in theory.
But even in theory, the army's airs have been put up, and at least it looks relatively good-looking. Everything was going in a good direction, but who could have known that the banditry on Jiangnan West Road would break out at this time.
What's even worse is that the Southern Song Dynasty was defeated.
The extermination operation launched with the Jinghu Theater Army as the main force failed miserably. When the main force of the Jinghu Army was almost destroyed, it also affected the Jianghuai Theater.
With the destruction of Shao Hongyuan's troops, the Chizhou army was also destroyed. A corner of the Jianghuai defense line was left empty, and the 50,000 garrisoned army was reduced by 10,000.
If this is nothing because the Ming Dynasty was also in a state of civil strife, then the destruction of the Jiujiang army and the Jingnan army and the losses of the Ezhou army were really fatal.
The Jinghu Theater directly faced the Henan area of the Ming Dynasty and the pressure of the 100,000-strong Henan Corps of the Ming Dynasty.
Originally relying on the dense water network in the south of the Yangtze River and the excellent defense system built by Yue Fei earlier, the Privy Council assessed that the Jinghu War Zone would not face the situation in the Jianghuai War Zone during the Ming and Song Dynasty wars while remaining on the defensive.
Moreover, the people of the Song Dynasty did not know that the Ming army was so powerful and capable of fighting, and they had no similar psychological preparation. Now that they know it, they will naturally not make the same mistake.
In future battles with the Ming army, the main focus will be on defense, not offense. Try to use the city and the defense system built in advance to launch offensive and defensive battles with the Ming army, and try to avoid field battles.
In this way, the Ming army's combat effectiveness and cavalry advantages can be curbed to a considerable extent. By using the dense water network and solid cities and fortresses, even if the Ming army's 100,000 Henan Corps troops are fully dispatched, they will not be able to cause a devastating blow to the army in the Jinghu Theater. .
Moreover, the way the Ming army broke through the Song army's defense line in the Jianghuai theater was through a surprise attack, which caught Liu Qi by surprise, causing Liu Qi's troops to collapse quickly, without delaying the Ming army.
In the Jinghu Theater, there were no such conditions for the Ming Army to implement surprise tactics. There were strong fortresses everywhere, and there was no center that they could directly destroy. Therefore, the Ming Army was destined to be unable to replicate the victory in the Jianghuai Theater in the Jinghu Theater.
The Privy Council under the leadership of Zhang Jun made this assessment and believed that the military strength in the Jinghu Theater was sufficient.
After Shi Haoti led the Privy Council, he agreed with Zhang Jun's view and believed that the Song army could not engage in a field battle with the Ming army, but needed to stay on the defensive and use the city-centered defense system to launch a protracted battle with the Ming army in order to defeat the Ming army. Military logistics and consumption of the Ming army's effective forces were the main methods of combat.
In short, if you can't fight in the field, don't fight in the field. If you can defend, then defend. Use strong walls and clear fields as the main fighting method.
In this way, everything will be fine. Until the Song army is properly trained and its combat effectiveness is enhanced, this is the best way to defend the Song Dynasty.
However, the banditry on Jiangnan West Road completely changed this situation.
Not only did Zhang Jun's army reorganization plan "collapse in the middle" before he had time to implement it, but the main force in the Jinghu Theater was almost destroyed. The strategic defense barrier facing the Ming army in the Jinghu Theater was almost ineffective, leaving a huge gap for the Ming army. before.
At this time, Shi Hao had already realized that the situation was not good. The battle on Jiangnan West Road had greatly weakened the military power in the Jinghu Theater and created a strategic hole in the Jinghu defense line.
At this moment, if the Ming army launched a strategic offensive and broke in directly from the Jinghu theater, it would be enough to cut off the Southern Song Dynasty.
Jingnan South Road, Jinghu North Road, and Jinghu South Road cannot stop the Ming army's attack at all. By then, the Jianghuai War Zone and the Sichuan-Shu War Zone will not be connected from end to end, and they will fight separately. If the Ming army becomes a little stronger, Guozuo of the Southern Song Dynasty will probably come to an end.
Soon, Shi Hao and others also learned the specific situation of Jiangnan West Road. They learned that the bandit army had grown larger and occupied almost the entire Jiangnan West Road. It was developing extremely fast and its momentum was quite terrifying.
This is not just the Longxing Prefecture that they knew before. Most of the entire Jiangnan West Road has been controlled by bandits. They control several state capitals. Several state capitals and millions of people have escaped from the Southern Song Dynasty. Take control.
As long as they were given a little time and some brains, they could raise a huge army and pose a huge threat to the national security of the Southern Song Dynasty.
This is no ordinary bandit, and this cannot be solved with ordinary heavy punches.
Shi Hao was covered in cold sweat.
He realized that the efforts of the officials to kill Zhang Jun almost ruined the Southern Song Dynasty Guo Zuo.
This wasted time and effort for more than half a month. The Privy Council failed to perform its duties well because of this turmoil, so that such important news was only known to the court at this time.
At this moment, the bandits are already wreaking havoc on the land of Jiangnan West Road!
broken!
Shi Hao had completely understood the seriousness of the matter.
So Shi Hao prayed that the Ming army would not learn the news so quickly, and prayed that the Ming army would not have time to launch a strategic offensive because of Su Yonglin's large-scale anti-corruption campaign. He immediately reported it to Zhao Han and informed the entire court.
He needed Zhao Min and all officials to clarify an issue.
The most important thing at the moment is definitely not to liquidate the radical militants, and it is definitely not to expand the political struggle and drive all the radical militants out of the court. It is to immediately fill the void in the defense line caused by large-scale military attrition in the Jinghu Theater, and Try to curb the continued development of banditry on Jiangnan West Road.
If the main force in the Jinghu Theater cannot be replenished, once the Ming Dynasty has evil intentions, it will attack immediately, and the Southern Song Dynasty will be in ruins.
If the banditry on the Jiangnan West Road could not be curbed, a large part of the Southern Song Dynasty's territory would be missing. From then on, there would be constant disputes, and it may not be possible to quell it even if the national power is exhausted.
This is the most serious fact at the moment.
He immediately went to Zhao Hao and asked Zhao Hao to immediately mobilize the Lin'an Forbidden Army to supplement the lack of military strength in the Jinghu Theater and rebuild the Jinghu defense line as quickly as possible to prevent the Ming army from reacting and launching a strategic attack on the Jinghu Theater in the Southern Song Dynasty.
