After a while, everyone who was supposed to come came and everyone who was supposed to leave also left.
The entire top decision-making team was standing next to Zhao Hao. Everyone looked unhappy, their brows were furrowed, and their faces looked helpless and frightened.
Zhao Hao sat on a chair and pressed his temples with his hands, trying to relieve his headache, but he couldn't relieve it no matter what.
He seemed to have calmed down, but in fact he was not.
"Let's talk about it. What should we do? How to save Xiangfan? The 80,000-strong army is gone. Now the court has no army left. The Ming army is moving south on a large scale. Xiangfan is in danger, Jinghu is in danger, and the Song Dynasty is in danger. At this time, What should we do?"
His slightly hoarse voice and anxious words seemed to indicate that he was not very stable.
However, there are many people in the top decision-making team who are more panicked than him, but few are calmer than him.
But fortunately, Yu Yunwen was still calm.
Yu Yunwen, who was severely beaten and was still bleeding from the nose, immediately spoke up.
"Your Majesty, although Li Xianzhong was defeated, the Second City of Xiangfan is still in the hands of our army, so the Ming army cannot abandon the Second City of Xiangfan and move south on a large scale. The Second City of Xiangfan is still the barrier of the Song Dynasty.
As for the reinforcements, there are 30,000 Sichuan and Sichuan reinforcements. If they can reach the battlefield, plus the Xiangfan garrison, there will still be 70,000 troops, and most of them are elites from Sichuan and Sichuan with strong combat effectiveness. The current situation is not that bad. "
After hearing what he said, Zhao Xi felt a little relieved. Then he looked at Yu Yunwen's miserable appearance with a nosebleed. He sighed and asked the imperial doctor to come and deal with Yu Yunwen.
"Having said that, Li Xianzhong's entire army was wiped out, and the three Jiangnan towns and Lin'an Forbidden Army lost half of their strength. The army that was finally raised suffered heavy losses. It was just one battle, just one battle! Is the Song Dynasty's army really that weak?
I spent millions of dollars to raise an army, spent a lot of money on materials, gave them food, clothing, military pay, weapons, and training. I even conducted a military parade in person, but the result was just one battle, one battle! "
Zhao Min was heartbroken and full of frustration.
"Your Majesty, compared to this, I think the most important issue is the Ming army's new firearms."
Hu Quan, who was sitting aside, rubbed his swollen face and said hurriedly: "The last news sent back by Li Xianzhong stated that the Ming army had two new types of firearms. The reason why he was defeated was that he could not fight against these two new types of firearms.
One kind of firearm can be used to destroy a military formation, and another kind of firearm can penetrate shields and armor. Li Xianzhong couldn't fight with it, so he was defeated. He couldn't fight against it. In the current court, I'm afraid no one can. confrontation.
If the Song Dynasty did not know how to fight against such firearms, no matter how many troops it had, it might not be able to fight against the Ming army. After all, we cannot expect it to rain every day. "
"Firearms! Firearms again! Damn firearms again! Why are the Ming army's firearms so powerful? Why can't they fight against it? Don't we have firearms in the Song Dynasty? Don't we have firearms that we can use in the Song Dynasty? Why can't we fight against the Ming army?! "
Zhao Min was so angry that he smashed the teacup in his hand to the ground.
The ministers could not answer this question.
It seems that when the Ming army fought with the Jin state, they were very good at using firearms, and the Jin army suffered a lot from the firearms that the Ming army was good at.
After the Ming Dynasty replaced the Jin Kingdom, it went to war with the Song Army. The Song Army also suffered from firearms many times and was blown to pieces by the Ming Army's firearms.
The Southern Song Dynasty court has always attached great importance to the research and development of firearms, so it attached great importance to the fact that the Ming army had such powerful firearms. It constantly tried to improve the Southern Song Dynasty's own firearms and achieved certain results.
But after all, they could not compete with the Ming army.
At that time, the Ming army's firearms, large rockets and thunder cannons, gave the Song army a great shock. In terms of siege warfare and water warfare, the Ming army used the firearms they were good at to pose a great threat to the Song army.
The Southern Song Dynasty was able to produce large rockets and thunder cannons that looked exactly the same on the outside and similar on the inside, but for some reason, their power was much lower.
Officers and soldiers who had seen the power of the Ming army's firearms described it as loud and powerful when they exploded. The fireballs that exploded were huge and the air waves they set off were bigger. In comparison, the firearms of the Southern Song Dynasty were like fireflies. The light of fire competes with the sun and moon.
Of course this is a bit exaggerated, but that’s what it means.
Later, some craftsmen suggested that the problem might be the Ming Army's gunpowder. Perhaps the Ming Army had more useful gunpowder, which was why it was so powerful, but it was difficult for them to obtain the Ming Army's gunpowder formula.
Occasionally, firearms that the Ming army failed to explode were fished out of the water several times. When they opened them, they found that the gunpowder was soaked. Even if they were dried and looked at again, they had no previous effect, so it was difficult for them to trace them in reverse and imitate them.
The spies they sent to the Ming Dynasty had never been exposed to anything related to the firearms of the Ming Army. The Ming Army kept firearms very secret, and it was almost impossible to find out any information about firearms in the society.
This made the spies of the Southern Song Dynasty very strange.
The recipes for making firearms and gunpowder in the Southern Song Dynasty were so expensive that they could be sold in Lin'an, but there was no news about it in the Ming Dynasty?
Therefore, the Southern Song Dynasty court was quite helpless. It felt that the Ming army's firearms were not much stronger and could not dominate the trend of the war. The war still relied on physical fighting, so it did not care too much.
But they didn't expect that times had changed this time.
This time, the Ming army's new firearms can actually destroy an army formation with one shot?
What a terrible firearm is that?
How can this resist the Ming army's attack?
Even the truly capable senior officials in the highest decision-making circles are helpless when faced with this problem.
Li Xianzhong, who was the most capable of fighting, was completely defeated by the firearms of the Ming army. No matter how capable they were, they were not professionals in fighting and could not say that they would be better than Li Xianzhong in their military use.
Even in the current Southern Song Dynasty, there is really no more powerful and famous general than Li Xianzhong to fight - Wu Lin of Sichuan and Sichuan still has to keep an eye on the northern Sichuan defense line and cannot move lightly.
Unless the Southern Song Dynasty court decided not to abandon Sichuan and Shu, then it could probably order Wu Lin to leave Sichuan and Shu to preside over the Xiangfan war.
But can Wu Lin face the Ming Dynasty's firearms?
Zhao Xun looked up to the sky and sighed, lamenting his fate.
Chen Junqing, the minister of the Ministry of War, saw the helplessness of the emperor Zhao Min, and he suddenly became angry in his heart. He immediately stood up and asked for help.
"Although I am stupid, I have read a few military books, and I have some research on military affairs. I can't say that I am better than Li Xianzhong, but I can still hold on to the city. In the worst case, Xiangfan cannot be saved, and the Ming army flows down the river. Straight to the south of the Yangtze River.
I ask you to lead troops to defend Luzhou and Anqing Prefecture to prevent the Ming army from taking advantage of the situation to attack. If you can stop it, it will be a great blessing from Your Majesty. If you can't stop it, I am not capable enough and will be harmful to national affairs. I will die to repay Your Majesty's kindness! "
Chen Junqing was once Zhang Jun's disciple. I dare not say how capable he is, but at least he is on par with Zhang Jun in terms of integrity. Zhao Xing also knows this, so he still has some trust in Chen Junqing.
Under the current circumstances, Chen Junqing took the initiative to request to lead troops to fight and go to the most dangerous place to face the Ming army's attack, which gave Zhao Hao a little comfort in his heart.
However, was Chen Junqing's behavior an act of saving the country or an act of committing suicide?
This is indeed open to question, and it’s hard to say.
Because everyone can be sure that Chen Junqing is not the opponent of the Ming army. If the Ming army really wants to invade Huainan West Road and completely seize the land of Jiangbei, it will not take any effort at all. Chen Junqing cannot stop it, and the court does not have more troops to allocate. Chen Junqing.
The three towns in the south of the Yangtze River are already short of troops. The Lin'an court only has 40,000 garrison troops left, and their combat effectiveness is at Schrödinger's level. I don't know if they have it or not.
Zhao Min even felt that he no longer had a reliable general around him, and even Yang Cunzhong, who stayed by Zhao Gou's side to protect Zhao Gou, was stronger than the generals in his hands.
Judging from the current situation, continuing to send troops out is tantamount to courting death. This suggestion was ultimately not adopted.
Zhao Hao no longer knew what to do, so he could only appoint Zhou Linzhi to the position of acting privy envoy again at Ye Yiwen's suggestion. Yu Yunwen and Hu Quan continued to serve as deputy privy envoys. Everything else remained as usual, without any changes.
There was a lot of protest from the ministers, but Zhao Hao went to court and scolded him, and then said that he would appoint a few old guys to lead troops to resist the Ming army. These old guys were scared to death and kept saying "This is not the treatment of Confucian ministers" 】, and then quickly claimed to be sick and stayed behind closed doors.
Seeing this kind of behavior, Zhao Min was angry, funny and chilled at the same time.
What is the treatment of Confucian officials?
What is the treatment of Confucian officials?
How come I haven’t heard of it and don’t understand it?
If anyone dares to push you further, I will tie you up and throw you to the front line to fight. See if you can still fight off the enemy with your words!
After Zhao Xun made such a statement, all the officials in the court turned off their fire, fearing that they would be sent to die on the battlefield by the emperor. Then Zhao Xun made sure of one thing.
At the critical moment, there were very few people who were willing to die for him, but many who wanted to survive. Even though they all knew the policies of the Ming Dynasty and Su Yonglin's cruelty, they still did not dare to fight to the death when the enemy was facing them. .
They simply don't have the courage and would rather live than die.
His Song Dynasty may eventually fall because of too many people like this.
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