The fourth encirclement and suppression war attempted by the Southern Song Dynasty did not start.
Because this so-called Fourth Encirclement and Suppression War was actually initiated by the peasant army, with the goal of completely defeating the Jinghu Theater in the Southern Song Dynasty and cutting it into two strategic offensives.
The nature of this war was already different when Zhao Yucheng decided to take the initiative to attack.
On the sixth day of March in the fifth year of Hongwu, Zhao Yucheng led his army to attack.
On March 9th, Commander Zhang Xiaohu of the Fourth Division led the vanguard in a surprise attack on De'an, killing more than 800 Song troops. He took the initiative and got off to a good start, removing a military stronghold of the Song Army.
On March 11, the main force led by Zhao Yucheng defeated the Southern Song Dynasty navy in Duchang County by water, destroyed more than 40 ships and captured more than 50 ships. Then the army stormed the beach and landed, successfully captured Duchang County, and won Another victory.
On the same day, Zhang Xiaohu's vanguard army attacked the Nankang Army in a surprise attack and defeated all the left army units of the Jiujiang Army in the area of the Nankang Army. They killed more than 600 people and captured more than 1,300 people.
On March 12, Zhang Xiaohu's troops pointed directly at Xinqiao.
On March 13, Zhang Xiaohu defeated another unit of the Jiujiang Army's Left Army at Xinqiao, killing more than 400 people and capturing more than 1,500 people, achieving a complete victory.
On the same day, the main outpost navy of the Peasant Army commanded by Zhao Yucheng had approached the Hukou area and conducted some reconnaissance on the Song Army Navy in the Hukou area.
On March 14, about 60 ships of the Peasant Army Navy raided the Song Army's navy in the Hukou area in the early morning, attacked the Song Army with rockets, and defeated the Song Army's navy in the Hukou area. More than thirty ships were burned and more than sixty were captured.
On the same day, the main force of the Peasant Army's infantry landed east of Xinqiao. Zhang Xiaohu led the vanguard to complete the task and move closer to the main force.
In the afternoon of that day, both sides marched toward the headquarters of the Jiujiang Army and Dehua County. .
So far, on the eighth day of the war, the Song Army had no victory. Facing the active attack of the peasant army, the Song Army's infantry and naval forces were defeated like a mountain. The peasant army's offensive was swift and fierce, and its momentum was overwhelming.
The Song Army did not expect this wave of strategic attacks launched by the peasant army. Until the peasant army started to fight, they did not know that the peasant army had already started to attack.
But in fact, the series of war preparations of the Peasant Army are not absolutely secret, and there is no such thing as absolute secret these days, so the top leaders of the Song Army have actually known about the Peasant Army's war preparations for a long time.
When did Zhou Yun, the commander of the Jiujiang army, know that the peasant army had begun to take action?
The answer is in mid-February, not long after the peasant army started preparing.
At that time, he heard from businessmen who were doing business with the Peasant Army that the Peasant Army had begun to purchase large quantities of ordnance, cloth and other military supplies, and had begun to collect ships, and there were signs of mobilizing troops. He looked very nervous.
But Zhou Yun didn't take it seriously.
Because the news that the imperial court was going to launch the fourth encirclement and suppression campaign had actually spread in this area.
The Southern Song Dynasty court had nothing to keep secret, and military intelligence was as open to observation as a sieve. The court had just decided to start a war, and all the well-informed businessmen there knew the news.
When the businessmen know about it, the peasant army also knows about it. This is normal.
Merchants discovered business opportunities and began to seize the opportunity to increase prices and sell large quantities of things to the peasant army. The peasant army also began to scan the goods and spend a lot of money.
The businessmen made a lot of money, and the boss behind the businessmen, Zhou Yun, and the officials in Jiujiang area also made a lot of money.
Ordnance is something that is beyond the reach of ordinary businessmen. Those who can engage in this kind of business cannot even think about it if they don't have an official background.
Therefore, in his opinion, the peasant army collected news about the changes in ships and troops in order to cope with the imperial court's fourth encirclement and suppression campaign. They were accumulating strength to prepare for resistance and were doing this for defense. This was normal and no big deal.
In the previous attacks, the peasant army occasionally counterattacked, but basically they were passively beaten, waiting for the Song army to attack them, and this time was no exception.
Zhou Yun did not think at all that the peasant army's collection of ships and changes in the army were preparing for an attack.
He just felt very sorry that once the war started, it became difficult to make money.
Then they stepped up their efforts to sell some things that they were reluctant to sell to the peasant army. At the same time, the price increased so much that the peasant army would buy it no matter how high the price was.
Beautiful.
In fact, in order to paralyze Zhou Yun and the officials in the Jiujiang area, the Peasant Army was still discussing arms business with Southern Song merchants on the water until the fifth day of March, the day before the war started. They kept saying that no matter what the price, as long as it was good quality Just take it.
The merchants brought the news back to Zhou Yun and others. Zhou Yun and others were dazzled by the golden gold bars. They only thought about making money and did not care about anything else.
So much so that when some Southern Song businessmen discovered that the peasant army was mobilizing civilians and collecting carts, Zhou Yun and others ignored the important information and regarded it as business opportunities.
The response strategy is to raise prices.
Want ordnance?
sure!
Need to pay more.
What was originally thought to be a difficult matter, turned out to be that the peasant army would pay whatever price they wanted without saying a word. The 230% profit almost drove the businessmen and officials crazy. They were focused on making money and making money without doing anything else. Care.
But they never thought that the weapons had been sold to others, so when they came with weapons, how could they resist?
money?
Zhou Yun didn't care or pay attention to it. He only wanted to make money. He turned a blind eye to more and more pre-war warnings and still made money.
Therefore, it was not until March 12 that Zhou Yun received an accurate frontline military report saying that the peasant army had launched an attack on the areas controlled by the Southern Song Dynasty with great momentum and that De'an County had been breached.
Zhou Yun was shocked when he heard this, but at the same time he felt incredible and couldn't believe it.
Why did the peasant army that was still talking about business suddenly start a war?
He is stocking up for the arms agreement reached between the two sides on March 5th, and is preparing to make a big profit from him, but now the peasant army is coming?
Do you want to buy for zero yuan because you don’t want to pay?
Zhou Yun couldn't believe this military report and doubted whether it was a false alarm. While sending people to let the main army begin to reorganize and prepare for war, he also sent people to continue south to inquire about the news.
It didn't take long, less than a day later, and Zhou Yun was extremely shocked to learn that the main force of the peasant army, tens of thousands of people, was marching towards Dehua County in a mighty manner. Looking at that number, it was larger than the number of the Jiujiang army. need more.
At the same time, he received urgent military reports from two ports east of Dehua County, saying that the peasant army and navy had captured their port and blocked it. The port was now unusable and all the navy had been destroyed. defeated.
In other words, he had just confirmed that the peasant army had launched an attack, and he was faced with a situation that could be called hell mode.
He only had one port and one naval force left to mobilize, and the main force of the peasant army's infantry, which outnumbered his army, was approaching Dehua County step by step.
how so?
How could the peasant army take the initiative to attack?
There is no sign that they are going to take the initiative to attack!
Never before!
In panic, Zhou Yun forgot what he had not been vigilant about when he should have been vigilant before, and quickly convened a military meeting to ask his generals about their strategies.
When he panics, the generals will only become more panicked. Everyone is good at making money. Even if they are unfamiliar at first, they are talented and they will soon become experts.
But in terms of marching and fighting, they are generally mediocre.
A group of cobblers came up with all kinds of bad ideas, but none of them worked. Some people advised Zhou Yun that a gentleman should not stand under a dangerous wall. If he has already reached this point, he should not hurry up. What are he waiting for?
Are you waiting to hold a welcome party for the peasant army and perform a few performances on the way?
Change your strategy quickly!
