The city was besieged refers to the military level. Jiujiang was not really besieged. There were several ways to leave the city, such as leaving at night from the Yangtze River in the north. However, the government and army controlled the outer areas, and this traffic route became extremely unstable and safe. .A letter from Zhang Ning’s family was sent back to Wuchang from Jiujiang, but the letter did not mention receiving a letter from Wuchang. The letter was probably intercepted by the army on the way.
People always leave a lot of clues in words. If Zhang Ning's family letter can be preserved for a long time and reappear hundreds of years later, people may question him as a time traveler. It was mentioned at the beginning of the letter The "allusion" to the Battle of Waterloo is that the Battle of Waterloo was obviously far from happening at this time, and there was a significant time difference.
"In the far west, the Duke of Wellington almost annihilated the French army in the Battle of Waterloo and achieved a complete victory over the French Emperor Napoleon. But Wellington said something, there is no winner in the war. In my heart, The victor Wellington's military ability was far inferior to that of Napoleon, but he undoubtedly surpassed the latter in humanistic thinking. This sentence can only be said with compassion for human suffering..."
Yao Ji chewed on the unique grammar in the private letters, trying to understand Zhang Ning's changes in thoughts. She could guess that Zhang Ning might have thought that his mood had improved when he wrote the letter, but Yao Ji could only admit that he was indeed facing an extremely difficult situation. And a tragic battle, and once again exposed his fragile side, but he never knew it. People who have truly reached the realm of "heroes" and "sages" will not talk like this.
Zhang Ning's mood must have been extremely bad. He recalled what he did in the past and admitted that he was superficial and immature. All he did at the beginning was just with the instinct of rebellion and personal desire, and thinking that it was okay to follow his destiny. A vague ideal to realize, a lot of taken-for-granted considerations... But the reality is undoubtedly cruel. He has seen with his own eyes the countless deaths caused by the war, as well as the invisible disasters and casualties, and the difficulty of achieving the goal. If it is only because of selfishness that such a situation is caused Will a major disaster outweigh the losses? Some selfish desires can be satisfied through other ways, and you may get less, but the cost will also be less.
He showed his conflicting and entangled side again in the letter. Now he has no way out and can only swallow the bitter pill. Because he cannot bear the consequences of disaster for the people he cares about and "loves"; if a person reaches the point of no return The point where people share and pay for something is undoubtedly the saddest existence. No matter how much you have or get, it will become meaningless.
...Yao Ji saw Zhang Ning's weakness. She hoped that he would be stronger so that he could win and control the situation. But in the end, she was more willing to accept the real Zhang Ning at this time. It was precisely because of his fragility that he was a willing person. Share everything with her, someone who can be firmly held by her in her heart.
…
Because it was a private letter, the outside world did not know the content, but important figures including Zhou Mengxiong all heard that Jiujiang had sent the letter back to the palace. Zhou Mengxiong finally agreed to send troops, which was a compromise made under pressure from all parties. Wuchang could not afford the pressure of the King of Hunan and The consequences of the loss of the elite of the Suzaku Army; Zhou Mengxiong has not yet reached the point where he thinks he is confident of defeating the North Army. The two sides have made concessions to each other, and Zhou Mengxiong cannot wait until the time he wants. If he does not compromise like this, he may see something worse. The result is, for example, being deprived of military power and being handed over to someone he thinks is even less competent.
At Zhou Mengxiong's request, the New Army was reorganized into three camps, named "Hu Ben", "Zhongwu" and "Pingyuan". Each camp had about 20,000 people. There were six armies under the camp. The structure of the army was similar to that of the Zhuque Army camp.
Each army has about 3,000 men, divided into four posts; each post has 750 troops, five brigades, and a general flag squad and so on.
The commander of the Huben camp, Liu Mazi, was replaced by Zhou Mengxiong himself; the commander of the Zhongwu camp, Li Wenda, was a relative of Zhou Mengxiong's wife's family who was transferred back from other places; only the commander of the Pingyuan camp was Liu Heju, who did not look like a member of the Zhou family.
At this time, Yao Ji and the cabinet had to rely on Zhou Mengxiong to win this battle, so they could only admit this series of military power arrangements; especially Mrs. Yao did not interfere at all, which somewhat surprised Zhou Mengxiong.
Zhou Mengxiong replaced him with someone he liked and guessed Yao Ji's thoughts. Perhaps she was not only helpless, but also believed that it was within her control. Zhou Mengxiong was in charge of the military at this time, and he must do his best to fight a decisive battle with the army, otherwise the entire Huguang regime
If Zhou Mengxiong is defeated and the whole situation collapses, there will be no power struggle; if he wins, Zhang Ning can make timely adjustments after getting out of trouble, and it will be easier to take back the military power and re-check the balance, because the new army is not owned by Zhou Mengxiong.
Not only did the troops come from the Imperial Ministry of War, but military expenses also came from the Ministry of Household Affairs and civil servants at all levels. Zhou Mengxiong only had military power and it was difficult to penetrate into these yamen. Even if he had the courage to deny the orthodoxy of the Gaozu family, it would be difficult to mobilize these people.
Thousands of armies followed, and the Suzaku Army also had other armies.
The total strength of the third battalion of the New Army is about 60,000, and there are countless servicemen who serve in corvee service. The number of people mobilized by the entire army exceeds 100,000. The entire Suzaku Army is actually a recruitment system, and its military expenditures are quite huge. Only one province in Huguang has done so.
The prefectures and counties on the south bank of the Yangtze River were responsible for this military expenditure, and the exploitation had reached its limit. Conflicts in various places rapidly intensified in just a few months, and there was almost only one straw left to crush the foundation of the rule.
In order to make the final struggle for survival, the Six Ministries of Wuchang and the yamen at all levels must afford this military expenditure and plunder wealth and materials from top to bottom. There are three main methods. First, sell official positions and fame, and directly ask rich households to pay for them at clear prices.
Second, the over-issuance of salt and silver certificates. Due to the monopoly of official salt, salt merchants were originally a very profitable industry. However, after the over-issuance of salt is several times over, the market is not that big, and the consequences are quite complicated.
Not only can silver certificates be exchanged for materials and gold, silver and copper coins in the government treasury in name, but the government treasury has no money at all, and there is also a shortage of materials. In fact, it is equivalent to compulsory use, and it is almost robbed. Third, exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes are added to further exploit
The common people, because the people at the bottom have no money, mainly receive money in kind.
But these methods became increasingly unsustainable later on, especially the official positions and honors. The big families were waiting to see who could rule Huguang. If the Suzaku Army was defeated and people from the imperial court in the capital took over the territory, would the official positions and honors they bought be recognized?
In just a few months, Huguang's economy was on the verge of collapse. Some counties suffered floods in the summer, leading to poor harvests in the autumn. Such small-scale natural disasters were normal in peaceful times, but because local warehouses were emptied, the state government was unable to provide relief, and local administrative
Chaos, I heard that people had starved to death, and there were riots among the people. From the big landlords to the poor, they all tended to be unable to bear the "tyranny", and social conflicts became increasingly intensified. Once the Huguang Army was defeated at this time,
The situation will definitely be out of control, and the chief minister, Yang Shiqi, has publicly declared that if the situation does not change, the imperial court will not be able to support a second large-scale battle.
It was under such circumstances that Zhou Mengxiong led a large army to go on an expedition. Most of the people had never fought in a war and had never killed anyone. The soldiers were mainly farmers.
There is no official naval force near Wuchang in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, but Zhou Mengxiong still dare not take the waterway along the river. At present, the largest navy of the Suzaku Army is in Yuezhou, with several thousand people; there are also a small number of naval forces in Lizhou and Wuchang, but they have not yet been established.
The scale. The weak navy could not guarantee Yangtze River shipping, and it was always worried that the navy would patrol the river and seize the grain road and baggage. Zhou Mengxiong could only take the land route, and the grain road and baggage were also transported along the land route.
Huben's camp was in the front, Zhongwu was in the middle, and Pingyuan was in the back. There were more than 60,000 soldiers in the army, and each sentry was a marching unit, forming seventy-two groups of soldiers and horses, slowly marching to the south bank of Huangzhou. The troops and horses stretched for more than ten miles in front and back.
, followed by tens of thousands of civilians transporting grain. In addition to using mules, horses, oxen and other animals to pull the carts, there were also single-person hand-pushed wheelbarrows. The convoy along the way was very spectacular.
Zhou Mengxiong had previously sent someone to bribe a mid-level general and several low-level generals in the Jiangbei army through connections, thereby obtaining the general situation of the army. The North Road army is currently deployed in the south of Huangzhou. Although they have all crossed
Yangtze River, but did not rush to continue southward, but set up several large camps on the south bank of the Yangtze River to intercept reinforcements.
This group of troops is mainly composed of the Beijing camp and the local guards, and is said to be one hundred thousand. However, the information Zhou Mengxiong received is that the number of troops in the three groups of Shenji camp, that is, the Chinese army on the left and right, is about 15,000; the entire fifth military camp
, the total number of soldiers in the five battalions should be less than 30,000; there are also more than 10,000 soldiers in Henan Prefecture, Huguang, Huangzhou, De'an and other places. The full number is less than 60,000, but with the imaginary numbers of the officers and soldiers being paid and some temporary recruitment
For a handyman without weapons, claiming to be worth a hundred thousand is not a boast.
The Shenji Battalion and the Fifth Military Battalion are both soldiers from the Beijing camp. Some of them participated in the Northern Expedition to Mongolia during the Yongle Emperor's period. And because most of the soldiers are hereditary, the new recruits also have good military training after inheriting their father's legacy; mid-level military attachés
Most of them come from the military examinations of the Ministry of War. In addition to the test of archery, horse riding, shooting, swords, guns and clubs, they also need to test the theory of war. The generals who pass the martial arts examinations are of higher quality, certainly better than the rough peasants. The Beijing Camp is a strong force for Zhou Mengxiong’s new army.
The army cannot be taken lightly.
However, the more than 10,000 remaining guards were not under Zhou Mengxiong’s eyes. The inland guards had not used troops for many years, and the system was accelerating. The system was only organized and trained twice a year. Their combat effectiveness was really limited, perhaps only better than that of the unorganized soldiers.
The mob in the green forest is stronger.
The North Route Army stationed troops in Huangzhou, which is located between Wuchang and Jiujiang. Zhou Mengxiong gave up on using clever strategies and prepared to march into Huangzhou step by step, and then talk about rescuing Jiujiang after a decisive battle with the North Route Army...
It was so big that there were many roads, and the siege of Jiujiang was imminent. However, the Suzaku Army did not have water control rights, and the long land supply line was very fragile. Zhou Mengxiong could not ignore the threat from the Huangzhou official army.
The land route from Wuchang to Huangzhou is the shortest, only two hundred miles apart. Zhou Mengxiong's new army was almost entirely infantry, and they only walked thirty or forty miles a day, and only had a few days to enter the battlefield area.&%