After Zhou Linzhi finished speaking, Shen Gai was stunned when he heard the words. Then he was silent for a while, then found a chair and sat down. He sighed deeply and rubbed his temples.
Headache, real headache.
The current situation in Sichuan and Shu really made him feel extremely embarrassed, and this matter was even more important than the Ming Dynasty's economic engulfment.
If the situation in Sichuan and Shu is allowed to continue like this, Shen Gai will even suspect that the people in Sichuan and Shu will support a descendant of the Zhao and Song clan as emperor and establish a separate court in Sichuan and Shu to fight against them.
This is a very fatal thing for them.
Here's the thing.
Because the land of Sichuan and Shu was far away from Lin'an, the political core of the Southern Song Dynasty, it had never been easy to control. The Southern Song government used the policy of preferring imperial examination resources to win over the hearts of Sichuan and Shu, so that the hearts of Sichuan and Shu were attracted to the imperial court, and there was no danger of overthrow for the time being.
After the fall of the Jin Kingdom, before and after the First Ming-Song War, Wang Gangzhong, the widely respected old Sichuan governor, unfortunately died of illness. His successor did not have much ability to subdue the arrogant Sichuan soldiers, so in the Second Ming Dynasty He was dismissed by the imperial court on the eve of the Song Dynasty War.
Zhao Xing, who was in power at the time, planned to appoint Fan Chengda, a Privy Council official recommended by Yu Yunwen, as Sichuan envoy and Chengdu prefect to fill the vacancy, but it was shelved because of the outbreak of war between the Ming and Song Dynasties.
During the Second Ming-Song War, the Song army was defeated like a mountain. The army collapsed one after another and the entire army was annihilated. Even the most elite Sichuan and Shu army suffered serious losses. Two-thirds of the 890,000 troops were lost, leaving only the Wu army. More than 30,000 troops under Lin's command still guarded northern Sichuan, and the rest of the troops were all lost on the battlefield outside Sichuan.
This wave of losses not only caused heavy losses and low morale for the most elite Sichuan-Shu Army in the Southern Song Dynasty, but also caused the Sichuan-Shu region to quickly adopt a strategy of closing off to the outside world in an attempt to protect itself.
Because the imperial court did not appoint the Sichuan envoy in time, after Yao Zhong was defeated and returned to Zi, the entire Sichuan military and people were shocked. They all thought that the Ming army was going to invade Sichuan and occupy Sichuan. There would be great turmoil in Sichuan, and the people were shocked. , there was chaos everywhere.
At that time, officials from all over the country were leaderless and unable to effectively suppress the unrest in various places. Under such a crisis, they had to find Wu Lin, the Sichuan Xuanfu envoy who was the only one who had the authority to persuade others and was well-founded in his position, and asked him to take charge of important events.
Because nominally, Wu Lin is the highest-ranking military and political official in Sichuan.
In terms of qualifications and prestige, the Zhizhi envoy generally has a lower status than the Xuanfu envoy.
Therefore, even if there is a Sichuan Zhizhi envoy in charge of military affairs, Wu Lin, the Sichuan Xuanfu envoy who is mainly responsible for guarding northern Sichuan, will still not be afraid of him.
It's just that Wu Lin is a military commander. Although he is nominally the highest official in Sichuan, it is impossible for the court to hand over administrative power to Wu Lin. So wouldn't Wu Lin be equivalent to the local emperor of Sichuan?
Therefore, the imperial court usually arranged for high-ranking civilian officials to serve as Sichuan envoys or pacification envoys. In terms of actual power, civilian officials could suppress military generals, just like Wang Gangzhong.
However, at that time, everyone in Sichuan believed that the court was in crisis and it was impossible to send a new civil servant. The Ming army was close at hand, so they could only rely on the general Wu Lin.
It is true that Wu Lin is a military general, but he has guarded Sichuan for decades, made many military exploits, and has wide prestige throughout Sichuan and Shu. At this moment, the Ming army is approaching Sichuan and Shu, and the enemy is facing the enemy. Military generals are more convincing than civilian officials. It makes everyone feel more at ease.
So officials from all over the country sent people to look for Wu Lin, hoping that he could preside over important events.
Wu Lin was also shocked when he learned that Yao Zhong was defeated in Zigui.
Although he was the leader of the Three Commanders' Mansion of Sichuan and Shu, Yao Zhong and Wang Yan were also his indispensable and important assistants. They led two-thirds of the Sichuan and Shu troops to fight in Sichuan, but they were defeated by the Ming army. Submerged, this would not make him relieved in any way.
On the one hand, he realized that the Ming army was strong, and the current military strength of Sichuan and Shu was simply unable to resist the Ming army's attack from the east. Even in the north, facing the threat of 100,000 Ming troops, they still had to rely on the terrain of northern Sichuan and needed the army to execute their plans perfectly. Only with predetermined tactics can we resist the Ming army's invasion.
At present, the Sichuan and Shu armies are stretched thin. He wants to save the situation, but feels that he can't do it alone.
After much thought, he called for Wu Gong and ordered Wu Gong to temporarily take his place and command an army of 20,000 to guard the northern Sichuan key road to prevent the Ming army from invading. He also carefully warned Wu Gong that he must implement his planned strategy. No changes may be made.
"If there is a mistake in Northern Sichuan, we will all die without a burial place, and the same will happen to you. Be careful, be careful, and never make any mistakes again."
Wu Lin warned Wu Gong carefully.
After a complete defeat in the Beijing-Shanghai battlefield, Wu Gong returned to Wu Lin to listen and bowed, saying that he already knew everything and would definitely follow Wu Lin's arrangements.
Wu Lin nodded, and then quickly gathered 10,000 troops to follow him south.
When passing through dangerous checkpoints on the road, some soldiers were left to assist in guarding. When encountering dangerous terrain, troops were also left to garrison in case the Ming army invaded and Wu Gong was defeated. These arrangements could at least buy him some time and delay the Ming army's attack. .
While going south, Wu Lin, in the name of Sichuan's Xuanfu envoy, sent orders to the local governments in Sichuan and Shu to select elite soldiers to assemble in Chengdu. He would also lead the elite troops to Chengdu. After gathering in Chengdu, he would be able to concentrate his main force to defend the land of Sichuan and Shu.
In the face of a formidable enemy, local government officials did not dare to slack off and sent local elite soldiers to Chengdu one after another. If the number was not enough, they would use all their strength to capture the strong soldiers and send them to Chengdu. In short, they would use as much strength as they could.
No one wants to be killed by the Ming army, right?
By the time Wu Lin arrived in Chengdu, the number of young men sent from various places had exceeded 20,000. Ten days later, the number of young men had exceeded 30,000.
Along with the strong men came a large amount of money, food and other military supplies, which was of great help to Wu Lin's military training.
Wu Lin broke up and reorganized these strong men, and asked his capable officers to lead them in emergency drills. Then he continued to send people eastward to find out the news outside the Ming army and Sichuan and Shu, and understand the general trend of the world.
Later, Wu Lin and officials in the Sichuan-Sichuan region received good news and not-so-good news.
The good news is that after the Ming army defeated Yao Zhong, it seemed that it had no further plans to march into Sichuan and Shu. It only stationed troops in the Zigui area and stopped moving forward. There is no danger in Sichuan and Shu for the time being.
This is certainly a good thing.
But soon after, they learned that the Ming army came to Lin'an and surrounded Lin'an. Afterwards, a palace coup occurred in the Lin'an court. The coup team headed by Shangshu Youcheng Shen Gai successfully launched a coup, deposed the emperor Zhao Kan, and established a new emperor Zhao Dun.
Later, the Lin'an court signed a peace treaty with the Ming Dynasty, giving up the country's title, emperor status, era title, and independent national identity, and officially became a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty.
The emperor became the lord of the country, and Zhao Dun changed from the emperor of the Song Dynasty to the lord of the Jiangnan Kingdom. His status was comparable to that of Li Yu, the later lord of the Southern Tang Dynasty.
There will be a series of treaties that humiliate the country, such as ceding territory and paying indemnities. Anyway, the Song Dynasty is gone. The one who is still alive now is the Jiangnan Kingdom led by Shen Gai, not the Song Dynasty.
This special situation caught Wu Lin and the main officials in the Sichuan-Sichuan region off guard and stunned them. They did not recover for a while and could not accept it at all.
