Su Yonglin's order made Zhou Zhi a little confused at the time, but now Zhou Zhi understands.
"So that's it. Your Majesty has long expected such a day. Then I understand. Since the orders have been received, what is there to worry about? Just send troops!"
Zhou Zhi quickly issued an order to send troops. At this time, the Song army in Zhenjiang Prefecture on the south bank of the Yangtze River was preparing to withdraw southward. It was not fully prepared to face the Ming army's southward attack.
Although the king ordered to closely monitor the actions of the Ming army on the north bank of the river, the Ming army on the north bank of the river had already begun preparations for war. Now that the preparations are over, they are just waiting for the order to march. As long as the Ming army attacks quickly enough, the Song army will respond Don't come.
In fact, this is also true.
Zhou Zhi issued the order to attack on the evening of August 19th. At dawn on August 20th, when there was just a glimmer of light, the Ming army on the north bank of the river began to cross the river on a large scale.
At this moment, the Song soldiers who were responsible for monitoring the Ming army on the south bank of the river were dozing off on the beacon tower and did not notice that the Ming army ships had crossed the river.
So very quickly, the Ming Army's cross-river vanguard successfully eliminated all the Song Army's beacon towers along the coast, preventing them from lighting the beacons, and then quickly attacked and advanced, leaving room for a large-scale landing of follow-up troops.
The vanguard attacked the Song Army's three lines of defense on the road from Zhenjiang Prefecture to Jiang'an non-stop, and successfully broke through continuously. From early morning to dawn, about ninety o'clock, the Ming Army's vanguard had successfully broken through the Song Army's Three lines of defense are approaching Zhenjiang City.
The city defense of Zhenjiang was relatively empty and slack because most of the soldiers went out to "help" the people "fortify the walls and clear the fields." The east gate was knocked down by the vanguard of the Ming army, and chaos broke out in the city.
The thunder cannons carried by the Ming army were thrown out one after another, causing explosions. The sound was like thunder and the sound was so powerful that the Song army thought that the main force of the Ming army was suddenly attacking, which broke the psychological defense line of the Song army. The Song army in the city was defeated like a mountain.
At that time, the capital commander Wang Fang was counting supplies in the military camp outside the city. He was not in the city. The Song army in the city could not mount effective resistance, and the city was quickly captured by the vanguard of the Ming army.
When Wang Fang learned of this, he was shocked and quickly ordered the army to counterattack.
More than 5,000 Song troops rushed in in a panic to try to recapture Zhenjiang City, but by this time the main force of the Ming army had already arrived. The Song army's counterattack was intercepted by the Ming army outside Zhenjiang City, and an encounter began immediately.
Zhou Zhi's Youyi Army was not equipped with firearms. It was still the old standard equipment of the Ming Army, but it had a lot of cavalry.
Among the 30,000 troops under Wang Fang's command, there were only more than 500 cavalry serving as his personal guards.
The Ming army formed an infantry formation, and the cavalry used mobile combat forces to attack the Song army's formation. The Song army's formation was unstable. Wang Fang had no choice but to send 400 cavalry to fight in an attempt to block the Ming army's front. However, the cavalry was defeated and was completely annihilated by the Ming army's cavalry. , even the retreat was captured by the Ming army cavalry.
The infantry of the Ming Army also fought bravely. They had not fought for three years. Once the war started, the soldiers were so sharp that they defeated the Song Army's formation head-on. The Song Army could not resist and soon fell into collapse.
Wang Fang was shocked, knowing that he would not be able to escape the blame for losing Zhenjiang, so he planned to lead the remaining guards in a desperate charge to attack the Ming army's center, but he was held back by his deputy general.
"If you keep the green hills, you won't be afraid of running out of firewood. The only plan now is to retreat immediately, collect broken troops on the road, and quickly go south to Dusong Pass. As long as you guard Dusong Pass, you can stabilize your position. The general can also rely on this The merits and demerits are equal to each other, so there won’t be no way out!”
Of course Wang Fang didn't want to die so helplessly, so he gritted his teeth and gave the order with a ruthless heart.
"withdraw!"
So the king abandoned his army and took advantage of the chaos to flee south with more than a hundred personal guards.
More than 5,000 Song troops were defeated outside Zhenjiang City, and the entire army was annihilated. The Ming army won the battle, captured Zhenjiang City, and defeated the Song Army's Zhenjiang Dutongsi army in one fell swoop. Wang Fang worked hard for three years to build defenses along the river. , was completely penetrated by the Ming army in one morning.
Of course, if it hadn't been for Song Ting's order to withdraw his troops and go south to concentrate on defense, the king might not have been defeated so quickly.
But now that the matter was over, there was nothing to say. Wang Fang fled all the way south, trying to collect the defeated troops, and quickly went south to guard Dusong Pass to protect the safety of the north of Lin'an City. However, what he did not expect was that a Ming army cavalry was chasing after him. He doesn't relax.
This Ming cavalry had one person and two horses. Wherever he ran, the Ming cavalry chased him. They looked like they would not give up until they reached their goal. Wang Fang had no choice but to order half of the guards to abandon their horses and flee for their lives. Let him and the remaining guards have one person and two horses, and then continue to flee south.
The two groups of men were running away and chasing each other, chasing Wang Fang until he had no way to go to the sky or to the ground.
Wang Fang originally planned to collect the broken troops and defend Dusong Pass, but the Ming cavalry chased them to Anji at an extremely fast speed. He had no choice but to let the deputy general and the remaining guards fight the Ming cavalry to the death. Give him a chance to escape.
The deputy general led more than fifty personal guards in a desperate battle with the Ming cavalry, which was more than twenty times his own, and soon all died in the battle. Under the protection of the last three personal guards, Wang Fang ran for his life and headed towards Dudu. Escape in the direction of Songguan.
The Ming army killed all the Song troops who were blocking it, and then pursued them all the way. As a result, Wang Fang's last three guards were forced to fight to the death with the Ming army near Dusong Pass to fight for Wang Fang's life. Wang Fang finally succeeded in escaping. Enter Dusong Pass.
But the bad news is that the Ming cavalry abandoned their horses and followed up the mountain. After a bloody battle with the Song army guarding the pass, and losing more than a hundred people, they actually broke through Dusong Pass and defeated the more than 500 Song army defenders at Dusong Pass. Songguan was then defeated by the Ming army.
Wang Fang fled in a hurry when the Ming army fought a bloody battle at Dusong Pass.
Wang Fang originally wanted to fight to the death and die for his country, but failed, so he focused on gathering the defeated troops to defend Dusong Pass, but failed. In the end, he only had one goal left, which was to survive.
Fortunately, after the Ming army conquered Dusong Pass, they did not pursue him again and let Wang Fang go. Wang Fang, who was left alone and lost his soul, was able to continue to live.
But after he calmed down, he realized that the tens of thousands of troops were gone and he was the only one left. Is it possible for him to return to Lin'an with only one person left?
What would happen if I returned to Lin'an with only my own safety?
Yu Yunwen was dissatisfied with him to begin with. Now that he had fled back to Lin'an alone, lost his garrison and lost his army, what else could he use to establish himself?
When Yu Yunwen is angry, he will probably operate on him and kill him, so he must not go back.
But his parents, children, and clan members are all in Lin'an. What will they do if they don't go back?
Will he be killed?
Wang Fang was heartbroken. After thinking carefully for a while, he decided not to return to Lin'an.
Anyway, no one knows that he is still alive now. Even if he loses the battle, if he dies in battle, the court will not treat his family so harshly that it will chill the rest of the generals.
Therefore, although the family members of those who died in battle would no longer receive such good treatment from officials, they could at least save their lives.
If he went back and was defeated in the war, he would inevitably be punished along with his family, and he might even be exiled or something like that. Then life would really be worse than death.
The current situation is extremely dangerous. Lin'an may be in danger. The Ming army has already captured Dusong Pass. Once they gain a foothold, Lin'an will be a piece of meat for them. The Song Dynasty is in danger.
At this moment, no matter what, you can't run around. It's best to find a place to hide and wait until the war is over before making plans.
So he decided to hide anonymously in the mountains around Lin'an, and after the war was over, he would secretly return to Lin'an to inquire about his family. If his family was safe and sound by then, that would be the best, and the family could escape Lin'an together and go to Lin'an. Escape to the south, the farther away the better. .
If he couldn't find his family, or if his family was unfortunately disposed of by the court, then... then there was nothing he could do. A grown man would still have the possibility to survive.
Wang Fang sat alone in the barren mountains, thinking about his experiences over the past few years, and couldn't help but look up to the sky and sigh, mocking his own incompetence and cowardice.
He also vowed to fight to the death with the Ming army to avenge Liu Qi... Now let alone revenge, he couldn't protect himself.
General...
I'm sorry for you!
Wang Fang knelt down and cried bitterly for a while, then took off his armor, leaving only his single clothes, and ran for his life into the jungle.
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