Zhao Yucheng moved westward with excitement, and ordered a naval force to advance to the port north of Dehua County, capture the last Southern Song military port, completely destroy the nearby Southern Song navy, and cut off the passage of this Song army. Possibility of escape by water.
On March 16, Zhang Xiaohu's vanguard army arrived outside Dehua County. He led his army to sweep the Song Army's military strongholds outside Dehua County. He found that these military strongholds were not reliable, and most of the defenders had no fighting will, and they collapsed at a touch. .
Soon, Zhang Xiaohu wiped out the Song army's facilities around Dehua County, and then immediately marched westward according to Zhao Yucheng's order, quickly capturing Ma Tou garrison and guarding this important river defense position.
At the same time, Zhao Yucheng also led a large force of peasant army to arrive outside Dehua County, surrounded Dehua County on three sides, and began to prepare to attack the city.
On March 17, when Zhao Yucheng led his army to begin the siege, the Peasant Army Navy attacked the Dehua Military Port in the early morning and destroyed and captured more than 30 Song Army warships in the port.
At this point, the Song Army's inland rivers, naval patrols, and warships in the Jiujiang area were all wiped out, and the peasant army gained control of this section of the Yangtze River system.
The First Division of the Peasant Army Navy then marched westward and arrived at Ma Tou Shu, where they cooperated with Zhang Xiaohu's troops to block this section of the Yangtze River waterway to prevent the Ezhou army from attacking before the army captured Dehua County.
However, Zhao Yucheng and Zhang Xiaohu obviously thought too much about this.
On March 16, Zhou Yun's request for help was sent to Ezhou and to Wang Shun. Wang Shun was shocked to learn that the peasant army had initiated a war.
"The thieves took the initiative to attack the Jiujiang army? Is there such a thing?"
"This is absolutely true! Moreover, there are many rebels. Zhou Tongzhi needs Wang Tongzhi's help very much. Otherwise, once the Jiujiang army is defeated, the rebel army will inevitably attack Ezhou. How can the Ezhou army be alone? Please also ask Wang Tongzhi to send troops to help. !”
Wang Shun hesitated for a while and nodded slowly.
"Okay, I understand. I will immediately arrange for the army to go to support. You should go back immediately and inform Zhou Tongzhi, asking him to hold on and don't give up!"
"Thank you Wang Zongzhi!"
The messenger was greatly grateful and immediately set off back to Dehua under the protection of the cavalry arranged by Wang Shun.
After the messenger left, Wang Shun did not immediately arrange for troops to support Zhou Yun, but thought of another thing.
How could the peasant army suddenly initiate a war?
Aren't they supposed to be on the defensive side?
Why did you suddenly take the initiative to attack?
And it sounds like they have so many troops that Zhou Yun cannot fight alone, and he needs to send troops to support him to fight against the peasant army. .
Why did the peasant army suddenly become so strong?
Wang Shun thought about the current situation and thought of the new army he currently had, which was not very powerful.
An army has just been formed and trained for several months. Some soldiers have not yet mastered the coordination of military formations, and cannot even use weapons sparingly.
Especially in terms of crossbowmen, crossbowmen are easy to train, but archers are really difficult to form an army for two or three years.
But the problem is that he now has many ordinary longbows, but is very short of strong crossbows and divine arm bows.
Although some ordnance supplies were obtained by bribing Ezhou officials, the number of important crossbows and divine arm bows was still very small. Therefore, the current Ezhou army is facing an extreme shortage of long-range shooting power.
He told the Privy Council about this matter before he led his troops to Ezhou to garrison, but the Privy Council was indifferent to it and just told him that there must be a road to the mountain and that there would be a solution when he arrived in Ezhou.
Then Wang Shun discovered...
There must be a road before the car reaches the mountain - a dead end.
The ordnance he hoped to replenish became a means for local bureaucrats to make extra money.
A group of new soldiers who couldn't even quickly form and change military formations, and a total of less than two thousand archers and crossbowmen, this was his thirty thousand army.
But despite this, as a general with professional qualities, Wang Shun still did not despair.
If he was given another year, he would have some confidence that he would be able to raise a more regular army with a certain combat effectiveness.
He will work hard to train the army to make it more professional, more effective and capable of winning wars.
But right now, his army is just showing off, with silver-like pewter spear heads that look good, but are actually useless.
So when the Privy Council was preparing to launch the fourth encirclement and suppression war, Wang Shun conveyed his suggestions to the Privy Council. He felt that it should be postponed for a while to allow the recruits to be more fully trained. Just the few months of training in Lin'an City...
I really underestimated the amount of training required by the professional army.
However, the Privy Council didn't take it seriously at all, and instead told him that such matters should be decided by the Privy Council, the court ministers and the emperor. He was just a military attache and should not interfere with the court's decision-making.
Otherwise, the outcome will be hard to say.
Wang Shun, who understood the truth well, could only choose to shut up.
But the current problem couldn't be solved by shutting up. He didn't want to cause trouble, but trouble came to him.
The Jiujiang Army formed earlier and has a larger number of veterans. Wang Shun believes that the combat effectiveness of the Jiujiang Army is higher than that of the Ezhou Army. Now the Jiujiang Army cannot deal with the peasant army. Even if his entire army is dispatched, he will probably be defeated. The peasant army counterattacked and was defeated.
It is incorrect and unwise to send troops even though you know you will be defeated.
At this time, a wise general should understand his own shortcomings, choose the right approach, and avoid getting angry, so Wang Shun made a decision——
Fuck the support, I won't die.
When the training of the army is insufficient, the best way to offset the disadvantages and exert the advantages is to defend the city, use the city to offset the gap between yourself and the elite army, delay as much time as possible, and then...
Ask for help from the Xiangyang army!
The Xiangyang army is basically all cut-offs from the battlefield, and quite a few of them are veterans who have fought face-to-face with the Jin people. They are very strong in fighting, and they are the absolute elite among the Song army. They don't all need to come. , even if only ten thousand people come, it will be enough to deal with the peasant army.
But then again, his colleagues asked for help. If he didn't send out any troops, it would be unpalatable to the court in the future, so Wang Shun decided to adopt a compromise plan.
That is to say, the goal of dispatching troops is to support the Jiujiang army will not change, but the speed of travel...
It's more particular.
It’s difficult to walk when it rains, it’s difficult to walk when it’s windy, it’s difficult to walk when it’s thundering, it’s difficult to walk when the sun is too strong, and it’s difficult to tell the direction and it’s difficult to walk when it’s cloudy.
So the marching speed will be very slow.
As for when he will arrive in Dehua County to support Zhou Yun...
We are always on the road!
Wang Shun quickly made a decision that was in his own interests.
As for Zhou Yun, although there was nothing special about it, there was no friendship worth risking for him to help.
Moreover, he had heard before that Zhou Yun's business with the peasant army was booming, which made him very unhappy when he had just arrived and had no foundation and no ability to operate business.
It's time to suffer.
I just need to take care of my one-third of an acre of land.
