Chapter 31: Victory over the Imperial Court
He Xi listened to the sound of the Yellow River and said leisurely to Ye Chen, "What do you think should be done when the enemy army moves north?"
Ye Chen was silent for a while and said: "Those who can only retreat, at most, give them two or three hard blows when retreating."
He Xi was not surprised at all by Ye Chen's countermeasures.
There is no other reason.
The gap in strength between the two sides. Historically, the Southern Army was able to organize an army of 800,000 to attack, but King Yan's Northern Army was greatly outnumbered. This is the reality. The current situation is very different from that in history. First of all, the number of people is different.
Not to mention the Ming Dynasty's conquest of Korea and Japan, let's just talk about the promotion of vaccination. If you look carefully, vaccination has been promoted for more than ten years. This has greatly reduced the mortality rate of children. It can be said that before vaccination, four or five of ten children could stand, which was already good. But after vaccination, eight or nine out of ten children can stand, which is normal.
Although these were the ten years of the Ming Dynasty, there were various conflicts among the upper class, which even reached an irreconcilable state. However, for the lower class people, it was a decade of development. The prices of various tools were cheap, taxes were not high, and the cost of land reclamation was reduced. ,etc.
The population of Ming Dynasty increased a lot.
Although the latest demographics have not yet begun. Even within a few years, it will be impossible to update population data. But He Xi estimates that the population of Ming Dynasty has reached hundreds of millions.
Much more than in history.
As the Ming Dynasty's national power increased, this war would be larger than the Jingnan War. The size of the Southern Army will be larger, but here, the population limit of the Northern Army is at this limit. An army of 500,000 is the limit.
Therefore, when the Confederate Army marches north in a large scale.
Ye Chen couldn't fight head-on, so he might as well retreat to the Hejian defense line and hold on with a solid defense line.
He Xi said: "When the time comes, what will be the Southern Army's attitude towards these prefectures and counties?"
Ye Chen's heart moved, his eyes suddenly lit up, and he said, "Your Excellency, you have a clever plan. I admire you."
Everyone hangs out in the army, whether it is the Southern Army or the Northern Army, they are all essentially Ming troops. Ye Chen also understands everyone's virtues. Just like the three orders and five appeals that went on that night, it didn't work. It was like beheading more than a hundred heads before the people below would obey.
Is the Southern Army better than the Northern Army?
No, it will only get worse.
Because of He Xi's inner moral bottom line, he has to deal with it better than most people in this era. His standards for the army were those of the benchmark ***, so in his eyes, the Ming army's military discipline was simply rubbish, but compared to the army in the troubled times of the late Yuan Dynasty, the Ming army was considered to be better.
So He Xi had the idea of strict military discipline and transforming the Ming Dynasty into a new army, but there was no He Xi in the Southern Army. Therefore, the military discipline of the Southern Army will only be worse than that of the Northern Army.
In addition, not everyone is so tolerant of local forces. And militarily speaking, it is impossible for them to be tolerant. The reason why He Xi was tolerant was because He Xi had no intention of guarding these places. These are optional places. But it was different for the Confederate Army.
Even if the commander-in-chief of the Confederate Army, who understands justice and cares for the people, will not liquidate these places because they have surrendered, but these many troops have reached the Hejian defense line and stopped moving forward. The needed supplies must be transported from here, and civilians must be recruited. They all come from these places.
This will bring a heavy burden to the local area, and these corvees are much more harmful than the ordinary Ming army's failure to observe military discipline.
It's about killing people.
In this way, it goes without saying that people in these places have different opinions.
Moreover, just because He Xi did not occupy it this time does not mean that the generals did not occupy it. In the future, the Confederate army will be defeated in these places. It is estimated that the propaganda will be determined, and it will be the kind of people who are up and down, determined and will not rebel easily.
It can even be said that the land north of the Yellow River is not important. What is important is the symbolic meaning of the support of the people in these prefectures and counties. If the people on the battlefield are willing to surrender to the Northern Army but not to the Southern Army, the political significance will be very important.
After all, the war between the two sides is essentially a civil war.
Zhu Yunwen ascended the throne, and it seemed that everything in the world, except Beijing and Liaodong, was in Zhu Yunwen's hands.
, but is this really the case?
No, Zhu Yunwen conspired with the scholar-bureaucrats to take Jiangnan, Jiangxi, Fujian, Guangdong, and other places into his hands. Without him, these places were relatively free of war. This is where the power of scholar-bureaucrats is relatively strong, which is the last remaining territory of the Southern Song Dynasty.
After Boyan destroyed the Song Dynasty, he claimed that he could fight without bloodshed, which was naturally false. But it is true that the scholar-bureaucrats who surrendered in Jiangnan tried to win over them. In these places, the losses in the wars at the end of the Yuan Dynasty were not great, so the scholar-bureaucrats had the upper hand. It is true that these places are really loyal to Nanjing.
But it is different in other aspects. In many places in the northwest and southwest, it is not easy to sit back and watch the success or failure, but it is not easy to command the place like Hongwu years did.
This can be seen from Nanjing's method of dealing with Qu Neng.
Therefore, it may seem simple, but it is actually very important.
He Xi said: "If you understand this, I can go back with peace of mind."
Ye Chen said: "Sir, are you going back?" Then Ye Chen felt that the joy in his tone seemed a little too much, and said quickly: "We can't live without your guidance here."
He Xi said: "I am here and I have already done everything I can do. As long as you do as I say, it will be the same as if I were not here. And the real battlefield in this world is not here, but in the court."
He Xi understood very well the reason for this war.
For him, if he just helps Zhu Xiongying ascend to the throne of God, nothing will change, and this war will be lost. Similarly, when the scope of a war reaches a certain level, the biggest issue is not the outcome of the war.
Yes, winning or losing on the battlefield is important.
For example, this battle in Yu County. This suddenly shocked the world and gave the Northern Army more time and strategic room for maneuver. But the problem is that for both the North and the South, there is no problem in winning or losing in such a war. It is impossible to decide life or death for both parties.
What really determines the life and death of both sides is the decisive battle involving hundreds of thousands of people and millions of people. At that time, it will not only be a military issue, but the national strength to support the military is also very important.
This is Ye Chen's battlefield. Rather than He Xi's battlefield.
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News of Tang Shengzong's defeat reached the capital.
The whole of Nanjing was shocked.
If we say that Zhu Xiongying was the supervisor of the country in Beijing before, many people thought it was a small problem in the succession of the throne. After all, China has a long history. Such small problems in the succession of the throne are often used, which is nothing more than spin. Spin out. Many people don't even survive three months.
Not everyone has the strategic vision of Xu Da and Feng Sheng, and they feel that this battle cannot be settled easily.
But at this moment, the battle of Yu County made many people start to think about this issue. Of course, they did not think that the imperial court, that is, Nanjing, would lose. After all, the gap between the two sides was too big. They felt that the imperial court's manpower and material resources were far superior to those of Beijing, and that there were famous generals like clouds and stars like rain.
Suppressing the chaos in Beijing is not a matter of taking control at one's fingertips.
But this battle made them suddenly feel that it might not be so easy to bring King Wu to Beijing.
This change of thinking is unacceptable to Zhu Yunwen.
the reason is simple.
Before, in the subconscious minds of the court ministers, Zhu Yunwen was the emperor, and King Wu Zhu Xiongying was the traitor. Now, in their eyes, Zhu Yunwen is still the emperor, and King Wu is the king of Wu. What does it mean? Zhu Xiongying is a contender for the throne, not a traitor.
Don't underestimate this little change. The impact on the entire court was huge.
Regarding the rebels, everyone in the imperial court naturally took the lead in order to put down the rebels. Seeking credit, like Tang Shengzong. But for King Wu, a contender for the throne, there is another thing to think about. What if, even if it is just a case, this King of Wu really takes the throne?
Once many people start to have this idea, there will be problems in the operation of the Nanjing imperial court. It is not a big problem, but everyone is passing the blame to each other and wants to save some favor and buffer. , and will also think more about costs.
These don't seem to be
The trivial incident made the Nanjing court, which was not functioning very well, become even more sluggish.
There is no problem if one person's mind is wavered, but if a group of people is wavered, it will be directly reflected in the atmosphere of the court.
