After Ezhou was captured, Xu Tong did not stop.
His mission is not yet complete.
After interrogation, he learned that the Song Army had other troops stationed in other places, such as Qingshanji, Bailuji, Fankou and Wuchang. There were also 16,000 soldiers of the Ezhou Army in these four places.
Wang Shun seemed to focus his defense on the east. He had no idea that the peasant army would go over the mountains and out of Jiangxia Mountain to directly attack the Ezhou base camp, so he sent it.
He sent it, the entire remaining army was sent, and the logistics of the Ezhou army was basically sent.
What's even more terrible is that the important transportation channels and retreat channels of the Xiangyang army were also cut off.
After Xu Tong won the victory, he seized a large amount of grain, grass and supplies. However, when he opened several arsenals in Ezhou, he discovered that there were not many ordnances left in these arsenals. Even if there were, they were mostly defective products, not good ones. . .
It seems that the good products were really sold to the peasant army by them almost out of pocket.
With this kind of reserve, even if Xu Tong didn't make a sneak attack, the Ezhou army would not be able to hold on for long if it faced off directly with the main force of the peasant army.
But according to this, the Jiujiang army also has arms trade with the peasant army, so wouldn’t the Jiujiang army not be able to hold on for long?
Xu Tong looked at several arsenals and laughed.
On March 16, after only one night's rest, Xu Tong went out again.
He left a thousand troops to garrison Ezhou and divided them into two groups. Two thousand troops led by Lieutenant General Jiang Gao crossed the Chaos River to attack Hanyang. Two thousand troops were led by him personally and rushed to Qingshanji to attack Qingshanji. Song Army.
He would not dare to divide his troops because of the small number of his troops, because he was sure that except for Ezhou and Xiangyang, there would be no organized Song troops stationed in the cities elsewhere.
It was impossible for the Song army to arrange thousands of troops to defend every city, and it was impossible to deploy regular troops with enough deterrence in all localities. The military expenditure would be too high and the Southern Song government could not afford it.
They can only arrange some people who are fake and powerful in the local area, which is enough to scare the civilians.
But it is obviously not enough to deal with the peasant army.
Therefore, the time has come for thousands of soldiers to march forward.
The time has come for large-scale siege of cities and territories.
Although he did not have 10,000 troops, the Southern Song Dynasty also did not have enough military power to deal with his elite, and he himself had enough courage to confront the Song army.
What's more, the Song army didn't know his details at all. He asked the soldiers to put up more flags and pretended to be a large army. Maybe he could scare the Song army to death.
as expected.
Although Xu Tong felt that he had underestimated the Song Army, it was necessary to correct his attitude and avoid overturning because of underestimating the enemy. It was necessary to consider the impact of the brave generals and brave soldiers among the Song Army. Reflection is necessary.
Because Su Yonglin said that strategically, we should despise our opponents, but tactically, we need to pay attention to our opponents.
In terms of grand strategy, the fall of the Southern Song Dynasty was inevitable, but in terms of tactics, some of the outstanding generals and elite troops of the Southern Song Dynasty could still cause them some trouble.
Therefore, Xu Tong conducted self-reflection in time, suppressed his emotions of underestimating the enemy, and forcibly adjusted his emotions.
But Song Jun's performance still told him ruthlessly——
Facing the Song army, he did not underestimate the enemy enough.
When he thought that the surprise attack on Ezhou caused chaos in Ezhou and the disastrous collapse of more than 10,000 troops was the lower limit of the Song Army, the Song Army could still tell him with a contemptuous smile -
Do you think this is my lower limit?
pattern! Tucson is broken!
The lower limit can be extended downward infinitely!
On the afternoon of March 16, Xu Tong led two thousand peasant troops to Qingshanji to launch an attack.
He prepared to fight an evenly matched surprise battle, defeating the defending Song army through a brave and sudden attack.
However, when the two thousand Song troops stationed in the local area discovered that the peasant army was coming from behind holding a large number of military flags, they failed to resist and collapsed.
The garrison officers were so frightened when they saw this scene that they took the lead in escaping without resisting at all.
When the commander ran away, of course the soldiers would not put up a desperate fight. They dropped their weapons and ran away across the mountains and plains, running very fast without thinking of resisting.
Most of the Song soldiers instinctively fled directly to the river bank to the north, fought for ships, and tried to cross the Yangtze River and escape to Jiangbei to survive.
However, there were too many people and few boats to allow everyone to take a boat to Jiangbei to escape, so they began to compete for the right to use and ride on the boats.
Many people were beaten and even died because of the fight for the boat. Many people fell into the water and drowned because they fought for living space after getting on the boat.
In order to survive, they will never feel any guilt for pushing their comrades into the water.
On the contrary, they will only regret that their actions were not resolute and powerful enough.
When the peasant army chased them to the river, more than half of the more than forty Song Army ferries were already sailing in the river, and the riverside was full of Song Army corpses, as well as Song Army soldiers who were fighting each other to grab the boats - in In this regard, they are willing to fight with their lives.
But when they saw the peasant army pursuing them, they collapsed again. Without thinking, they jumped into the river and tried to swim across the Yangtze River.
The result, of course, was that large numbers of soldiers were swept away by the surging river water and drowned. Almost half of the Song army ships that tried to cross the Yangtze River on ferries lost control due to the strong river water, and either rolled over or went downstream with unknown destination. place.
Some of the remaining ships were attacked by arrows from the peasant army. Some people died. Some people used the corpses of their companions as shields to successfully avoid the peasant army's shooting and escaped with their lives.
Of course, there were only about two to three hundred people in this group, and most of the Song troops died on the riverside.
No peasant army was killed in this battle, only more than 20 people were sprained and injured because they were too eager to pursue the Song army.
The 2,000 Song troops stationed at Qingshanji were completely wiped out.
Xu Tong was speechless about this result.
No, this should be because I am lucky. There must be some brave men among the Song Army, but I haven't met them yet.
Pay attention to your opponent tactically! Pay attention to your opponent tactically!
Can't slack off! Don't underestimate the enemy!
So he calmly ordered the entire army to rest for a while, and then continued to attack Bailuji. He still had to catch the Song army by surprise with a quick and determined raid, and then defeat the Song army through a brave battle.
But he encountered a similar situation again.
On the afternoon of March 17, the Peasant Army arrived in Bailuji and launched a sudden attack. The Song Army stationed in Bailuji saw the Peasant Army attacking from the rear and saw so many military flags that they thought it was a large Peasant Army force. So it collapsed quickly.
Like Qingshanji, the Song army garrisoned in Bailuji did not put up any effective resistance, and Bailuji was quickly occupied by the peasant army.
A small number of the two thousand garrisoned Song troops died in battle, and most of them were similar to the Song troops in Qingshanji. They died fighting for the river and on the way across the river. In order to fight for the ferry and living space, they bravely drew their swords on their comrades and companions. , fighting desperately with red eyes, the intensity of their momentum fully proved that they were not without fighting ability.
But Xu Tong didn't understand why these people couldn't use this fighting power on the battlefield of confrontation.
In the end, many Song soldiers died by the river - killing each other.
Some of the remaining people fled to Jiangbei by boat, some were shot to death by arrows fired by the peasant army, and only a few survived and were captured by the peasant army.
Xu Tong felt greatly shaken, and he began to doubt whether Su Yonglin's so-called "tactical emphasis on opponents" concept could be applied to the Southern Song Dynasty.
Can?
Can't?
He was a little confused too.
He let the army rest for an hour, ate a lot of pancakes and cheese to replenish their strength, solved some personal problems, and then continued to move towards Fankou.
