According to the accounts of the survivors found by the peasant army in Wuchang City, the Wuchang Song Army had collapsed.
Many people killed each other and died, and many people rushed out of Wuchang City and fled south to north after burning, killing and looting, and their whereabouts are unknown.
They didn't even know how many people were alive in the city.
Of course, this is not the most important thing.
Xu Tong and his men piled the dead people in the city together and set them on fire, and then cleaned up the town. Only then did they find that the Song army had already moved all the residents away in order to guard this place. There were no residents in the city, which was a blessing in misfortune.
The collapse of the Song Army in Wuchang represented the failure of the Ezhou Army of the Song Dynasty. After Xu Tong launched the battle, the Ezhou Army was completely wiped out in about ten days. The smooth process made Xu Tong feel that he should lead the troops to Lin'an now. no problem.
He was only a partial force of 5,000 men, but he lifted up 30,000 Song troops and beat him. The Song troops even defeated him without even seeing his face.
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If the newly formed armies of the Song Army were all at the level of the Ezhou Army, not to mention 150,000, 1.5 million would all be serving food. It would have the name of an army but no soul of an army. Such an army would not be able to protect the country at all. Ability.
Xu Tong did not continue to advance after occupying Wuchang.
While he sent people eastward to investigate the fighting situation of the peasant army in the Jiujiang area, he also sent people back to Ezhou to inquire about the situation after his departure and the current military movements of the Xiangyang army.
He was very worried that the Xiangyang army would quickly send troops south to capture Ezhou after learning that Ezhou had fallen. So after capturing Wuchang, he only reorganized a little, then led his troops back, and hurried back to Ezhou to strengthen Ezhou's military strength.
The Xiangyang army is different from the Ezhou army. Its main components are veterans of the battlefields of Sichuan, Sichuan, Song and Jin Dynasties. They are the most capable troops in the Southern Song Dynasty. Otherwise, they would not be placed in a strategic location like Xiangyang to undertake defensive tasks. . .
This army doesn't need to be large, as long as 5,000 people come, it is enough for Xu Tong to drink a pot.
Although it was previously known through interrogation that Ezhou had offended the Xiangyang army in person, didn't the Xiangyang army consider themselves in the face of a crisis for their home and country?
Xu Tong was a little worried. After he returned to Ezhou, he made nervous preparations. He also planned to make a temporary assault once he learned that the Xiangyang army was heading south. He would gather all the instructors in the army to provide ideological education to the Song army prisoners of war, and then expand the army on the front line to enhance its military strength. To defend Ezhou.
But what he worried about never happened.
Because the Ming army is not the Song army.
Zhang Yuejing considered that the peasant army was still slightly inferior to the Xiangyang army with stronger combat effectiveness. In order to coordinate the peasant army's actions and facilitate them to complete their strategic tasks as soon as possible, Zhang Yuejing decided to help them again and attract the attention of the Xiangyang army.
Before the Shenji Battalion was in place, he once again ordered a military exercise on the border, creating a huge momentum and diverting the attention of the Xiangyang army to the north.
This military exercise was extremely excessive. The Henan Corps of the Ming Army defeated the enemy's First Division and went directly to the border areas of the Ming and Song Dynasties, and even directly entered the area under the jurisdiction of the Guanghua Army of the Southern Song Dynasty, and openly conducted naval exercises on the rivers under the jurisdiction of the Guanghua Army. Wu.
This unusual move attracted the commander of the Guanghua Army to immediately go to the local area to negotiate with the Ming army.
At the same time, the direction of Xiangyang was very uneasy and tense, and the main forces quickly entered a defensive state, ready to deal with the threat of the Ming army at any time.
The new Xiangyang Army Commander and Xiangyang Magistrate Wang Yan have not yet arrived, and the border officials have not yet arrived. The Guanghua Army Magistrate can only temporarily take over.
Zhou Benyuan, who exercised Wang Yan's authority on his behalf, did not dare to act recklessly. He could only immediately go to the court to explain the situation clearly to the court, and then personally led his elite subordinates to the area under the jurisdiction of the Guanghua Army to watch the Ming army's naval exercises from a distance.
Xiangyang is now on full alert, just in case the Ming army has military purposes and suddenly turns the exercise into a major offensive, then they can go down the river to Xiangyang, and the defense battle of Xiangyang will start immediately. There is nothing to say of.
In order to prevent the Song army from responding in time, Zhou Benyuan set up dozens of beacon towers from north to south along the Bishui River. Once he discovered that the Ming army was flowing down the river, he would raise smoke during the day and light beacons at night to quickly inform the Xiangyang army.
Under such a tense situation, Zhou Benyuan also received an unceremonious message from Wang Shun asking for help. Of course, he was not in the good mood to talk to him properly.
During this period, Xu Tong successfully launched a surprise attack on Ezhou, destroyed the Ezhou army, and formally threatened the survival of the Xiangyang army from the side and rear.
And at that time, Xu Tong had already divided his forces to capture Hanyang and Hanchuan, further consolidating the existing results of the peasant army.
So when Zhao Yucheng successfully destroyed the Jiujiang army on March 23, two of the three main armies in the Jinghu Theater of the Southern Song Dynasty were completely wiped out, leaving only the last one.
Zhao Yucheng received contact from Xu Tong on the evening of March 23.
After learning that Xu Tong's operations were as fierce as a tiger's and had directly destroyed the Ezhou army, he was ecstatic and immediately dispatched the remaining troops of the 2nd Division under his command to quickly go to Ezhou and return to Xu Tong's command. Down.
Then he had no intention of continuing to deal with the complicated post-war affairs, so he entrusted these matters to Du Qi, the deputy director of the Fuxing Association, and asked him to lead people to handle these matters. He led the troops towards Ezhou in a hurry.
Their next task is to cooperate with the Henan Corps to attack from the north and south, completely destroy the Xiangyang army, occupy Xiangyang, and cut off the Southern Song Dynasty in the middle.
The 60,000 main force of the peasant army will gather together and march towards Xiangyang from the directions of Ezhou and Hanyang, threatening the Xiangyang army's retreat from the side and rear. At the same time, Zhang Yuejing will dispatch the elite Ming army of the Henan Corps to launch a joint operation with the peasant army.
On March 25, all the troops of Xu Tong's Second Division arrived in Ezhou. Xu Tong was very happy to have 20,000 troops again and immediately ordered the army to attack.
Xu Tong decided to march westward along the Han River and then northwest, which would lead him all the way to Xiangyang.
It can be said that at this moment, Xiangyang Mansion is within the attack range of the peasant army.
Before the war, Zhao Yucheng's goal was to eat up the Xiangyang Army, the elite division of the Southern Song Dynasty, as much as possible.
This elite division is basically half of the elite of the Sichuan-Shu army. If the Xiangyang army is eaten, it will be equivalent to destroying half of the strength of the Sichuan-Shu theater in the Southern Song Dynasty. This will be of great benefit to Su Haisheng in Guanzhong when he leads his army south.
The Xiangyang army is located just east of the Qinling Mountains, so although it is adjacent to Hanzhong, the core of the Sichuan-Shu War Zone to the west, if you want to directly return to the Sichuan-Shu War Zone and go to the Hanzhong area, you have to go over mountains and ridges and pass the difficult and dangerous road in the Qinling Mountains to succeed.
This is an almost impossible task for the feudal army.
