To put it simply, what happened some time ago was of course very embarrassing for the Southern Song Dynasty.
A rebel army of 4,000 people set out from Jiangnan West Road and penetrated five state capitals and the hinterland of the Southern Song Dynasty. They killed officials and destroyed countless warehouses, directly destroying the war potential of these five states. .
The local chaos also spread to other surrounding state capitals. For a long time, it was difficult for the two Zhejiang regions to provide the Southern Song Dynasty with any food and wages to continue the war.
Everything that was finally accumulated was destroyed, and I don’t know how long it will take to accumulate it again. Anyway, according to the financial system of the Southern Song Dynasty, it would be difficult to recover within five years, unless they expropriated and expropriated these places.
The state capitals that were destroyed were particularly serious in Xinzhou and Quzhou.
"The bandit army defeated five state capitals and more than ten counties including Xinzhou, Quzhou, Yanzhou, Wuzhou, and Lin'an Prefecture. They fought thousands of miles, killed hundreds of officials and officials, destroyed hundreds of warehouses, and the territory of the five states was completely destroyed. It was dilapidated and officials suffered heavy losses.
At present, the remaining local government cannot even effectively restore local order, so that people are panicked. Many people have directly moved to other states to take refuge out of fear. The local area is in chaos, and they are requesting the court to send people and troops for support. "
Ye Yiwen quietly told Zhao Hao the news he had found out.
Zhao Xin rubbed his temples seemingly calmly.
"Is this really what four thousand thieves did?"
"yes……"
Ye Yiwen replied softly.
"Where's Qi Fang?"
"There is no definite news yet, but the logistics are destroyed and he is isolated and helpless. Qi Fang may have been... in trouble."
"Where's the army?"
"His Majesty……"
"Where is the army?!"
Zhao Min's tone suddenly became sinister.
Ye Yiwen shuddered and said: "According to judgment, it is very likely that the entire army has been...already...annihilated."
Zhao Min took a deep breath.
After a long time, he said in a slightly hoarse voice: "Where is Wu Gong?"
Ye Yiwen's face darkened.
"Wu Gong went to the table and said that because the weather suddenly turned cold, and the supplies used by his unit in winter were mostly damaged and could not be replenished in time, many soldiers died of frostbite, and if the battle continued, the entire army would be destroyed, so he really couldn't support it. We can only risk retreat."
"Where's Yao Zhong?"
Zhao Hao looked at Ye Yi with the last glimmer of hope and asked: "Where is the most elite army of the Song Dynasty?"
"Yao Zhong's troops have just arrived in Dangyang, but Wu Gong has already retreated. He has suffered heavy losses and the local area is unable to support the food and wages for Yao Zhong's troops' expedition. Now Yao Zhong's troops have arrived in Jiangling and sent a letter asking the court what to do next. , they will obey the court’s orders.”
Zhao Min was silent for a while, then suddenly became furious. He stood up and pushed everything on the table in front of him to the ground. With the sound of shattering, his roar was full of unwillingness.
"Why!!!!"
He stared angrily, veins popped out on his forehead, and his eyes were full of anger and unwillingness.
He was angry and unwilling. In fact, Wu Gong was even more angry and unwilling than him.
Wu Gong even had the upper hand for a time, suppressing Zhao Yucheng and beating him until Zhao Yucheng was almost unable to fight back, but in the end he still failed to win.
This is not his fault, but if it were, it would be the cheating logistics and cheating bureaucrats of the Southern Song Dynasty.
Wu Gong set out from Ezhou with 25,000 troops, and his first target was Nanchang.
Considering the threat from Jianchang County to the retreat, Wu Gong detached a force to attack Jianchang County after landing at Poyang Lake.
Lu Chengren was in charge of the defense forces in Jianchang County. He led 5,000 troops to defend Jianchang County and fought fiercely with 5,000 invading Song troops, causing huge damage to the Song army.
From the beginning to the end, Wu Gong did not know how many troops there were in the peasant army. The intelligence work of the Song Army was so outrageous that Wu Gong always felt that the peasant army he faced was only 20,000 to 30,000 people. , and most of them are just mobs.
However, Zhao Yucheng concentrated on defending Nanchang County with a total of 40,000 troops, two divisions of troops, and another division of Linjiang Army guarding the rear as a reserve force. He himself was at the forefront and carried out attacks on Nanchang City. Fortress transformation, all city defense weapons were used.
They even used cross-river iron cables and sunken ships to block the entire Ganshui branch leading from Poyang Lake to Nanchang.
Several waterways could have been used, but they were all blocked by shipwrecks and cross-river cables.
As a result, Wu Gong led his army only to find out halfway that the ships could no longer move forward. A large area in front was full of sunken ships, and it would take no telling how long it would take to clear them all.
Wu Gong was helpless, feeling that his advance was already very fast, and the reaction of the peasant army was too fast.
So he could only order to change the water route to the land route, and it took a lot of time before he could start again.
Fortunately, the rebels could not seal off all of Poyang Lake, so they could still use the Poyang Lake waterway to transport logistical supplies to the place closest to the battlefield, which somewhat reduced the losses and risks of logistical transportation.
All the way south, they did not encounter any obstruction by the peasant army ships, so Wu Gong believed that the peasant army had not established a naval force at all and could not fight a water war at all, so the method of transporting logistics by water was correct, and the Privy Council did the right thing.
In this case, there was only the last distance left to go by land, and Wu Gong didn't care so much.
He commanded 20,000 troops to move south along the Gan River, advancing all the way and searching for the enemy. The army was well organized and there was no weak spot to exploit.
After the news reached Nanchang, Zhao Yucheng frowned, feeling that this was not an easy battle.
In fact, this is also the case. Zhao Yucheng tried to send troops to harass Wu Gong's troops, but they were repelled by Wu Gong's careful arrangements. Repeated harassments had no results, and he was afraid that they would not be strong enough for a head-on confrontation. He could only watch them arrive and set up camp in the north of Nanchang City, preparing to Siege the city.
Because the navy could not be used to attack Nanchang City, the three-dimensional siege operation planned by the Privy Council for joint naval and infantry operations could not be carried out for the time being, and it could only rely on the infantry attack.
But it doesn't matter. Wu Gong is better at using infantry and cavalry combat, but is relatively new to water combat. If the opponent gives him a chance to perform, he is also willing to accept the challenge.
While Qi Fang continued to make mistakes and fell into Xu Tong's trap step by step, Wu Gong was not affected at all. He did not care about the strong wall and clearing the country in a short distance, and started a determined attack on Nanchang City step by step.
All kinds of siege weapons and siege troops went into battle, and the surging attacks continued to shake the defense of Nanchang City.
Zhao Yucheng sat in Nanchang City, calmly commanded the troops to defend the city, and used various defensive weapons to resolutely resist the Song army outside the city.
He knew that his military strength was superior, and the Song army's military strength was almost half less than his. Although his combat strength was not superior, he firmly believed that he could achieve the final victory.
Of course, it's not like he wasn't fully prepared.
For example, he also ambushed a force on Meiling on the west side of the city, preparing to suddenly attack when the two sides were fighting inextricably and the Song army was tired, catching Wu Gong by surprise.
However, the Song army under Wu Gong was not weak, and their advance and retreat were well planned. For a while, Zhao Yucheng could not find a way to win through a side attack.
After the two sides fought around Nanchang City for seven or eight days, Zhao Yucheng discovered that the Song army was tired and did not have a tight formation when they returned to the military camp.
After such an opportunity was captured by Zhao Yucheng, he immediately ordered the city to fire arrows into the sky. After receiving the signal, the assault troops on Meiling rushed out like tigers coming down the mountain and quickly attacked the Song army.
It was also Wu Gong's negligence. He was harassed by troops sent by Zhao Yucheng along the way, so that he focused all his energy on the city and ignored Meiling. After a hasty exploration, he concentrated on attacking the city and striving for a quick victory. Unexpectedly, he was tricked.
The Peasant Army's swift attack dealt a big blow to the Song Army. Some Song Army soldiers dropped their weapons in panic and ran away. The Peasant Army directly killed them, causing considerable damage to the Song Army in one encounter.
However, things did not change in the direction Zhao Yucheng hoped.
It was thought that the exhausted Song Army's returning troops would be defeated by the Peasant Army's recharged commandos. Then the defeated troops would definitely attack the Song Army's camp. The Peasant Army would take advantage of the situation to cover up and win a big victory.
Because he was well prepared, Zhao Yuchengdu planned to go out of the city to attack. Unexpectedly, the Song army actually withstood the peasant army's surprise attack and did not collapse.
The three thousand peasant army responsible for the raid were certainly not weak, and their equipment was also good. However, after a brief panic, the Song army was stabilized by the unwavering Wu Gong with the sound of rumbling drums.
There is a difference between an army that has been carefully trained and an army that has become a monk halfway. There is a big difference between the two sides.
When the Song army was in panic, they were overturned by the peasant army's rapid attack. However, the front army was defeated, but the rear army, led by Wu Gong's general Zhao Qi, withstood the peasant army's attack.
They resisted the attack of the peasant army. Over there, Wu Gong immediately mobilized his cavalry to attack the peasant army's raiding force. The peasant army was hindered and restrained, and was unable to complete the task quickly and lost the opportunity.
As a result, the defeated Song army was reunited by professional officers, regained its formation and combat effectiveness, turned around and killed them.
The raiding force immediately fell into a dangerous situation and was in danger of being wiped out.
As a last resort, Zhao Yucheng immediately sent his fierce general Gao Meng to lead the elite troops out of the city to respond.
