Ruichang City is only about 40 kilometers away from Jiujiang City. At such a short distance, even the slow-moving old Ming army carrying a lot of baggage can usually arrive in about three days.
If it were the Chu army, it would only take two days to fight from Ruichang City to outside Jiujiang City.
And not only a large number of soldiers will pass by, but also a large number of artillery and baggage will also arrive.
On average, they march 20 kilometers a day, and the terrain along the way is flat and there are official roads available. This is not a problem at all for the current Chu army.
Even two days were enough.
On August 4th, Luo Zhixue led his army to officially set off from Ruichang City. In the afternoon of August 6th, they had arrived outside the west gate of Jiujiang City.
Immediately, the army began to set up camp relying on some fortifications and camps built by the vanguard.
The attack on Jiujiang is destined to be a forceful attack that will not take too long and relies heavily on heavy artillery, so there is no need to rush and there is no need to rush.
"First arrange for the ministries to set up camp and repair the fortifications!" Luo Zhixue was riding on his horse, looking at the large number of soldiers in gray military uniforms in front and behind him, and said to Xu Zhixian on the side: "First clear the firepower of the city defenses on the opposite side, and wait for the artillery. Once we are in position, we can attack again. Although time is tight, we cannot waste soldiers just to save time."
Xu Zhixian immediately shouted: "Your Majesty is wise!"
"Jiujiang City has strong defenses and is supported by a lot of Hongyi cannons. There is also a group of Anlu New Standard Army in the city. If we are fully prepared and attack by force, I am afraid there will be no small losses. Your Majesty is considerate of the officers and soldiers. It is truly a tribute to our ministers. What a blessing!"
It is also a forceful attack on Jiujiang. If Luo Zhixue requires the troops to capture Jiujiang quickly, even if the Chu army can capture Jiujiang, they will inevitably suffer more casualties.
But if we have more time and are more prepared, casualties can be effectively controlled.
Luo Zhixue smiled: "The soldiers are fighting hard for the empire, so naturally I have to think more about the soldiers!"
No need for Xu Zhixian to say anything, Luo Zhixue knew that Jiujiang City was not easy to fight. Although he also wanted to win it in a short time, preferably within two or three days, this was unrealistic.
The overall defense level of this place is much stronger than that of Linxiang City before!
Not only are there more troops and artillery, but the defenses, especially the anti-artillery fortifications, are more complete. If the strategy is wrong during this fight, it will easily turn into killing the Ming army on the opposite side.
Therefore, even though time was tight, Luo Zhixue decided to take it easy.
After all, it is only August, and even if we spend a month on the Jiujiang front line, it is unlikely to affect the Chu army's eastward strategy this year.
Before setting off from Wuchang, Luo Zhixue had clearly put forward the strategic goals of this year's eastward campaign in the imperial strategy meeting held by Luo Zhixue.
There is only one core strategic goal in the early stage, which is to capture the front line of Jiujiang where the Ming army is heavily stationed, including Dehua (Jiujiang City), which is governed by Jiujiang Prefecture, and Hukou, which is separated from Dehua by the mouth of Poyang Lake. In addition, capture There are four cities in total, namely De'an City and Xingzi City in the south of Dehua.
And in the process of taking these four cities, they tried their best to annihilate the Ming army's effective forces, especially the new standard army, cavalry, artillery and other troops in the Ming army.
If they can successfully capture these four cities and annihilate the Ming army in large numbers, then the Chu army can attack northern Jiangxi unscrupulously, cross the mouth of Poyang Lake, and advance towards the south of the Yangtze River.
The entire early strategic goal has been achieved.
The mid-term strategic goal is to capture Anqing. The reason for capturing this place is very simple. It is to open up the Yangtze River waterway and provide logistical support for the subsequent entry into the hinterland of Jiangnan.
The later strategic goal after capturing Anqing was to march straight into the hinterland of Jiangnan and even Zhejiang, and in the process capture the important city of Jinling City.
According to the battle plan formulated by the General Staff, the early stage of the battle, that is, to capture the Jiujiang front line and even the entire central and northern Jiangxi regions, is best before September. However, if the progress is not smooth, it is not unacceptable to relax it until October.
As for Anqing, we just need to capture it before the cold winter arrives.
As for the entire eastward campaign, we must strive to complete it before May next year.
Why choose this time? Because starting from June and July is the time to collect summer grain...
Conquering the south of the Yangtze River to collect taxes was the core goal of the Chu Empire's 100,000-strong army marching eastward. Naturally, it was impossible to wait for the Ming court to collect all the summer grain before attacking.
As for this year’s summer and autumn crops.
There is no need to count on summer grain in the Jiangnan region this year, but summer grain in Jiangxi, especially northern and central Jiangxi, can still be counted on.
According to the tradition of the Ming court, the summer grain collection was basically completed before August.
However, although the food has been harvested, it does not necessarily mean that it will be transported away by the Ming court.
On the contrary, the Jiujiang front line gathered tens of thousands of Ming troops, and the daily food consumption was a very huge number. The local food would most likely be retained to supply the officers and soldiers.
In other words, the large amounts of grain collected by the Ming court government are now either in various official warehouses, in the warehouses of various Ming army, or in various private grain stores.
There is also a large amount of private food, and it is estimated that most of it is lying in the granaries of various big landowners.
Now that the Chu army has reached the north of Chu, it can directly receive a large amount of food from the Ming government and the Ming army.
In the future, grain can also be confiscated from the gentry and landlords. If it is difficult to confiscate, compulsory requisition at a fair price can also be adopted.
After such a wave of operations, the Chu Empire no longer had to do the hard work of summer harvesting and collecting summer grain, and it could get a large amount of grain when it came.
Of course, if you want to get a large amount of summer grain, you have to act quickly. If you wait for a long time, who knows how long the summer grain in northern and central Jiangxi can be stored, what if it is destroyed by the Ming court.
For autumn grain this year, this time is more generous. According to the tradition of the Ming Dynasty, the autumn grain needs to be collected in February of the following year.
The Chu Empire will probably be able to collect autumn grain on its own in the Jiangxi area by then.
As for the autumn grain in the Jiangnan area, it depends on the progress of the troops. If the battle goes smoothly, there may be a wave of collection.
But if the fight does not go smoothly and is delayed for a few months, then the autumn grains in the Jiangnan region will have no fate with the Chu Empire...
Because the speed of eastward march is directly related to how much summer and autumn grain can be collected in Jiangxi and Jiangnan areas this year.
Therefore, Chen Xingkai, the Minister of Taxation who came with him, visited Xu Zhixian on the day the army arrived outside Jiujiang City.
He didn’t say anything, just reminded Xu Zhixian and several other military generals again:
"Brother Xu, Your Majesty has said: time is money! If we call a month earlier, we will charge an extra month!"
"This money is not a small amount, it is at least one million a month, and if we can win Jiangnan in February next year, we can earn tens of millions more!"
"Most of the money collected is used as military expenses for your military!"
"If the action is slow and we don't get enough funds before tomorrow summer, we will be in big trouble. By then, your military will not be able to talk about 20 to 30 million yuan in military expenses. It is impossible to have 10 million yuan!"
After Chen Xingkai reminded the military, he patted his ass and left. Anyway, he just collected taxes... The more taxes he collected, the greater the credit.
As for how the military can find a way to capture Jiangnan quickly, that's not what he, the tax collector, should worry about.
After sending Chen Xingkai away, Xu Zhixian's face darkened slightly, and then he snorted coldly: "What the hell, you're using finances to pressure me!"
"Damn it, how can our military not know if we don't have money?"
"If it weren't for the smooth march eastward to make money, our military would have transferred a total of 80,000 main troops in one go?"
Li Chengtong on the side said: "Don't pay attention to him. He was such a virtuous person when he was in Funiu Mountain. Relying on His Majesty's respect, he has always spoken very unpleasantly. However, this person is still quite capable of making money. Don't." Get along with him!"
Xu Zhixian snorted coldly: "If it weren't for the fact that he would make money, I would have killed him with a knife."
Li Chengtong chuckled!
Chen Xingkai is the counselor in charge of taxation and property affairs, and one of the seven most powerful ministers in the Chu Empire.
In terms of political status, your Xu Zhixian is on par with Chen Xingkai...
If one of the two must die, I don't know who your Majesty will protect.
After all, although there are few people who can be chief of staff, there are really a few candidates in the army.
But if you look at the Chu Empire, there is no second tax collector who can get what Chen Xingkai deserves.
He knew that Xu Zhixian had always disliked the civil servants in the Government Affairs Council, and it was not just Chen Xingkai who did so. Even Guo Quanshu, the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, Xu Zhixian had never looked upon him favorably.
As for why this is so...
It seems that the civil servants at the Government Affairs Council are thinking about cutting military spending every day, and every once in a while they say that the military spends too much money.
Then he often brags in front of His Majesty, saying that in the current entrepreneurial period, it is undeniable and even necessary to have higher military expenditures. But when the false Ming Dynasty is overthrown, the Eastern captives are killed, all the bandits are wiped out, and the world is unified, then military expenditures will also be higher. It should be normalized.
In other words, many civil servants are now thinking about the issue of disarmament after the unification of China...
This made a group of generals very angry!
I am still leading troops to conquer the world, but you guys are just thinking about laying off us in a few years. Even if you want to cross the river and demolish the bridge, you have to cross the river first...
And don’t start shouting that the bridge will be demolished when I cross the river before I finish crossing the river...
Isn’t it clear that we want to give their military eye drops?
Xu Zhixian, as the military boss who has the most direct contacts with civilian officials, often sees the faces of civilian officials, so he hates them even more.
But compared to Xu Zhixian's disgust, Li Chengtong is much better, he is very tolerant.
If China is unified, he will probably retire and enjoy the blessings. Whether he will be disarmed or not will have nothing to do with him.
What, don’t step back?
Li Chengtong is not stupid... With his current status as lieutenant general of the army, if he can turn around and continue to lead the troops to fight, by the time he unifies China, he will have at least one general, and he may also have a marshal.
The title is most likely Duke.
His position in the military is probably among the top!
If he doesn't take the initiative to retire and enjoy the blessings after he comes to China, His Majesty may be worried.
And Li Chengtong himself is even more worried...
He is also afraid of death!
