After many discussions, Su Yonglin came up with a comprehensive guideline for political work, and sent this opinion to relevant departments for review and implementation.
After the political work is over, there is the military work.
The Battle of Xiangfan ended successfully. The main forces of the Peasant Army and the Henan Corps were relatively intact, and they were fully capable of launching the next round of offensive.
The next round of attack is of course also necessary.
This war is by no means enough to capture the two cities of Xiangfan. This war not only needs to capture the two cities of Xiangfan, but also further capture the Zhongdu area of the Southern Song Dynasty, physically cutting the Southern Song Dynasty in two.
Su Yonglin immediately ordered the Privy Council to issue permission for the Yanyun Regiment's Tabai Army and Huben Guards to send 10,000 cavalry and a total of 40,000 people to go south for support.
After the success of the first phase of the operation, Su Yonglin asked Zhang Yuejing to launch an attack on Jing Southwest Road, Jinghu North Road and Jinghu South Road in the Southern Song Dynasty with the existing troops.
Su Yonglin asked Zhang Yuejing to command Zhang Yuejing to complete the comprehensive attack and occupation of the central theater of the Southern Song Dynasty, occupy all the Jingxi South Road, Jinghu North Road, Jinghu South Road and Jiangnan West Road, and cut off the entire Southern Song Dynasty.
At the same time, Su Yonglin began to plan to reorganize the peasant army led by Zhao Yucheng into the Jiangxi Corps. .
Zhao Yucheng led more than a hundred cadres to the south, raised an army of 80,000 from scratch, occupied an entire area in the hinterland of the Southern Song Dynasty as a base, and cooperated with the Ming army in a beautiful annihilation war, successfully defeating the Southern Song Dynasty. The newly rebuilt army was crippled.
In this battle, the peasant army was first used as the main force to defeat the two main armies in the Jinghu Theater, and 60,000 enemies were annihilated. Then the Ming Army's Henan Corps was the main force, and 120,000 enemy troops were annihilated. The Song Army annihilated as many as 180,000 soldiers. .
Throughout the entire battle, the peasant army's performance was remarkable and worthy of praise, and was praised by Su Yonglin.
The entire military strength of the Southern Song Dynasty had not even returned to the level of 400,000 after reconstruction, but was about 370,000. This wave took away almost half of it.
Not to mention that several years of reconstruction efforts and tens of millions of dollars of investment were all in vain. After this battle, the demise of the Southern Song Dynasty was not only a consensus within the Ming Dynasty, but also a consensus within the Southern Song Dynasty.
As long as the Yellow River project is completed, Su Yonglin can fully move south, command his troops to destroy the Song Dynasty, and reopen the era of great unification.
The two hundred years of troubled times since the separatism of vassal towns at the end of the Tang Dynasty will completely end in the Hongwu period of Su Yonglin. This essentially chaotic period of the Warring States Period will also come to an end in this era.
But for now, I still have to finish the journey step by step, without rushing, jumping, or running, lest I twist my feet.
Moreover, although the Jinghu War Zone was destroyed and the Jianghuai War Zone was crippled, the Sichuan-Shu War Zone still has combat effectiveness.
Although the Sichuan-Shu War Zone in the Southern Song Dynasty also lost 40,000 troops.
Regarding this point, Xin Qiji has a relatively complete report.
"Based on the information currently obtained, there is an army in Sichuan and Shu in the Southern Song Dynasty moving towards Fengjie. The number is about 30,000. It is the most elite Sichuan and Shu army in the Southern Song Dynasty. Judging from the posture and direction, it is going to Xiangfan for support.
Once they leave Sichuan, they will directly face the First and Third Divisions of Zhao Yucheng's Peasant Army. Judging from the current situation, the Peasant Army's combat effectiveness is not enough to confront the Sichuan and Shu armies of the Southern Song Dynasty, so they should be sent to the rear. Withdraw and leave this battle to the Henan Corps. "
Su Yonglin nodded.
"This matter will be left to the General Staff Headquarters for coordination. The General Staff Headquarters is solely responsible for military command tasks. This is your task and scope of responsibilities. If necessary, you can go south at any time to coordinate the overall situation."
"clear."
Xin Qiji and Ma Weiying nodded.
This is how military affairs progressed.
So not only did Hedong Province mobilize a large amount of materials to support Henan Province, but now Guanzhong Province was also asked to provide stored materials to support Henan Province's operations. Su Yonglin sent Privy Councilor Sun Ziyi and Finance Minister Lin Jingchun to go out on business to fully coordinate Hedong Province. The province and Guanzhong Province provided support for this military operation.
The scope of the war was required to be expanded, but for the Ming army on the front line, the intensity of the war was very normally reduced.
It can be said that there is no doubt at all when such a situation occurs.
Because the mobile strategic counterattack force of the Southern Song Dynasty had been completely lost, what was left to the Ming army was the fish pond situation with tens of thousands of soldiers.
All the main combat troops in the Jinghu Theater of the Southern Song Dynasty were wiped out, and no army could be found to resist the Ming army's attack.
The captured soldiers of the Song Army were required by the Ming Army to do hard work to repair and restore the places damaged in the war. Before the arrival of specific orders, Zhang Yuejing consciously controlled the scope of the siege, mainly consolidating the results of the battle and repairing the local areas.
He temporarily devoted himself to the rest of the army and the restoration of people's livelihood.
During this period, Zhao Yucheng went to Xiangyang City to meet Zhang Yuejing. He was extremely excited to meet an old acquaintance and talked a lot.
Zhang Yuejing and Zhao Yucheng didn't have much friendship in the early days. If we really want to talk about friendship, it was when Zhao Yucheng entered the theoretical knowledge of Xiuxinghui. At that time, Zhao Yucheng and Zhang Yuejing attended cram school together and had a friendship.
Later, Zhang Yuejing took charge of his own affairs. Later, Zhao Yucheng was ordered to go south from Henan to the Southern Song Dynasty to open up a base. Zhang Yuejing managed to deliver many supplies.
"Speaking of which, I really didn't expect that your boy could really pull up a team. He even pulled up a team of 80,000 people in one breath and survived many encirclement and suppression campaigns. Now he is completely different from the stupid young man back then. Same."
Zhang Yuejing teased Zhao Yucheng back then.
Zhao Yucheng smiled bitterly for a while.
"Back then, when I was young and energetic, I dared to do anything and wanted to do everything. After hearing a few superficial things, I thought I knew everything, could do anything, and was omnipotent. But how could this be true?"
"Do you understand everything now?"
"I have walked the same path that the Chairman has walked. Walking around, I can say goodbye to my past self. I also understand a lot of truths and see a lot of things. Only now do I realize how difficult it is to achieve great things. It’s easy.”
"That's natural. We are fully aware of how difficult and dangerous it is along the way, but we have to say, how could we succeed without the chairman? At the beginning, we were completely dependent on the chairman. We would do whatever he said. What, we can hardly go on independently.
Everything the chairman did was right. He made almost no mistakes. Everything he said was correct and everything went according to his expectations. This is why many people regard him as a god. To be honest, I thought the Chairman was a man from heaven. "
Zhang Yuejing chuckled: "It seems ridiculous now that I think about it, but at the time, I really thought so. Don't tell anyone."
Zhao Yucheng also laughed.
"We are not people in heaven. Who dares to say that the Jin Dynasty will be destroyed in three years? In fact, I feel that if the chairman is determined to destroy the Song Dynasty, he will not take it for a year. Waiting until now is just to renovate the Yellow River and finish the Yellow River Project. …”
"The progress of the Yellow River project is still good. Before the war started, I went to see Tian Guizi. He said that the progress was going well and that the siege would be completed by the eighth year of Hongwu at the latest. By then, it would be the end of the Southern Song Dynasty."
"Eight years of Hongwu..."
Zhao Yucheng said with emotion: "Although it is a bit regretful, this is good. At least, we can make the base area stronger. By the way, how about leaving me in charge of dealing with the Sichuan and Shu armies of the Southern Song Dynasty?"
