Qiming 1158

Chapter 1039 Entering Xiangyang
According to the accounts of the survivors found by the peasant army in Wuchang City, the Song army in Wuchang had collapsed.

Many people killed each other and died, and many people rushed out of Wuchang City and fled south to north after taking advantage of the chaos, burning, killing, looting, and missing.

They didn't even know how many people were still alive in the city.

Of course, this is not the most important thing.

Xu Tong and his subordinates piled up the dead in the city and set them on fire, and cleaned up the town. Only then did they discover that the Song army had already moved all the residents away in order to guard the place, and there were no residents in the city.

The collapse of the Song army in Wuchang represented the failure of the Song Ezhou army. After the Ezhou army launched the battle in Xu Tong, the entire army was wiped out in about ten days. The process went smoothly and Xu Tong felt that he should lead his troops to Lin'an now. no problem.

He was only a partial division of 5000 people, but he hung up [-] Song soldiers to beat him, and even the Song soldiers defeated themselves without even seeing his face.

The merits of the war are also delivered directly to the door, which is equivalent to yes.

If the newly formed army of the Song Army is at the level of the Ezhou Army, let alone 15, 150 million are food deliverers. They have the name of the army but not the soul of the army. Such an army has no ability to defend the country at all.

Xu Tong did not move forward after occupying Wuchang.

While he sent people eastward to investigate the situation of the peasant army in the Jiujiang area, he also sent people back to Ezhou to inquire about the situation after his departure and the current military trends of the Xiangyang army.

He was very worried that the Xiangyang army would quickly send troops south to capture Ezhou after learning of the fall of Ezhou, so after capturing Wuchang, he just rectified a little, then led his troops back and hurried back to Ezhou to strengthen the military power of Ezhou.

The Xiangyang army is different from the Ezhou army. The main components are the veterans of the Sichuan, Shu, Song and Jin battlefields. They belong to the most capable army in the Southern Song Dynasty. Otherwise, they will not be placed on the strategic ground of Xiangyang to undertake defensive tasks. .

This army does not need to be too much, as long as there are 5000 people, it is enough for Xu Tong to drink a pot.

Although it was learned through interrogation that Ezhou had offended the Xiangyang army in person, in the face of the crisis of the country and the country, wouldn't the Xiangyang army consider themselves?
Xu Tong was a little worried. After he returned to Ezhou, he prepared nervously. He also planned to make a temporary attack once he learned that the Xiangyang army was heading south. All the instructors in the army would be assembled to give ideological education to the Song army prisoners of war, and then the front line would be expanded to strengthen the army. To defend Ezhou.

But what he feared did not happen.

Because the Ming army is not the Song army.

Zhang Yuejing considered that the peasant army was still slightly inferior to the stronger Xiangyang army. In order to coordinate the actions of the peasant army and facilitate them to complete their strategic tasks as soon as possible, Zhang Yuejing decided to help them and attract the attention of the Xiangyang army.

Before the Shenji Camp was in place, he once again ordered a big martial arts performance at the border, creating a big momentum and making the Xiangyang army's attention fully shifted north.

This time the martial arts exercise was very excessive. The first division of the Ming Army Henan Corps broke the enemy's army and went directly to the border areas of the Ming and Song Dynasties, and even went directly to the Guanghua Army area of ​​the Southern Song Dynasty, and held water military exercises on the rivers in the Guanghua Army area. Wu.

This unusual move attracted the Zhijun of the Guanghua Army to immediately go to the local area to negotiate with the Ming army.

At the same time, the direction of Xiangyang was very uneasy and tense, and the main force quickly entered the state of defense, ready to deal with the threat of the Ming army at any time.

The newly appointed Xiangyang Army Commander, Wang Yan, the prefect of Xiangyang, has not yet arrived, and the border officials have not yet arrived, so the Guanghua Army Zhijun can only temporarily go up.

Zhou Benyuan, who was exercising Wang Yan's authority on his behalf, did not dare to act recklessly. He could only tell the court the situation on the table immediately, and then personally led his elite subordinates to the area under the jurisdiction of the Gwanghwa Army to watch the drills of the Ming army and navy from a distance.

Xiangyang is now on full alert, in case the Ming army has military purposes and suddenly turns the exercise into a major offensive, then they can go down the river and reach Xiangyang, and the defense of Xiangyang will start immediately, there is nothing to say. of.

In order to avoid the Song army's untimely response, Zhou Benyuan set up dozens of beacon towers along the Bishui River from north to south. Once the Ming army was found to be flowing downstream, he would raise a wolf smoke during the day and set a beacon fire at night to quickly inform the Xiangyang army.

Under such a tense situation, Zhou Benyuan also received the unceremonious request for help from Wang Shun. Of course, he was not in a good mood to talk to him. He turned him over in a few words, so he stopped entanglement with him and focused on preventing the Ming army from going south.

During this time, Xu Tong successfully attacked Ezhou, destroyed the Ezhou army, and officially threatened the survival of the Xiangyang army from the rear.

At that time, Xu Tong had already divided his troops to capture Hanyang and Hanchuan, further consolidating the existing achievements of the peasant army.

So when Zhao Yucheng successfully wiped out the Jiujiang army on March 23, two of the three main forces in the Jinghu theater of the Southern Song Dynasty were wiped out, leaving only the last one.

Zhao Yucheng was contacted by Xu Tong on the evening of March 23.

After learning that Xu Tong's operation was as fierce as a tiger and directly abolished the Ezhou army, he was ecstatic, and immediately dispatched the remaining troops of the second division under his command to quickly go to Ezhou, returning to Xu Tong's command. Down.

Then he didn't have the heart to continue dealing with the complicated post-war affairs, so he appointed Du Qi, the deputy director of the Renaissance Society, to lead people to deal with these matters, and he hurriedly led the troops to Ezhou.

Their next task is to cooperate with the north and south of the Henan Corps to attack, completely destroy the Xiangyang army, occupy Xiangyang, and cut off the Southern Song Dynasty.

The [-] main force of the peasant army will gather together and march toward Xiangyang from the direction of Ezhou and Hanyang, threatening the retreat of the Xiangyang army from the side and rear. At the same time, Zhang Yuejing will dispatch the elite Ming army of the Henan Corps to launch a joint operation with the peasant army.

On March 25, all the troops of Xu Tong's second division arrived in Ezhou. Xu Tong was overjoyed to have 2 soldiers and horses in his hands again, and immediately ordered the army to attack.

Xu Tong decided to follow the Han River to the west and then to the northwest, and he could go all the way to Xiangyang.

It can be said that at this moment, Xiangyang Mansion is within the attack range of the peasant army.

Before the war, Zhao Yucheng's goal was to eat as much as possible the Xiangyang Army, the elite division of the Southern Song Dynasty.

This elite division is basically half of the elite of the Chuanshu army. If the Xiangyang army is eaten, it will be equivalent to destroying half of the strength of the Chuanshu Theater in the Southern Song Dynasty.

The Xiangyang army is located to the east of the Qinling Mountains, so although it is adjacent to Hanzhong, the core of the Sichuan-Shu War Zone to the west, if you want to return directly to the Chuan-Shu War Zone to the Hanzhong area, you have to climb over mountains and mountains and pass the difficult road of the Qinling Mountains to succeed.

And this is an almost impossible task for the feudal army.

(End of this chapter)