I am Da Song

Chapter 159
The old man left the Yellow Crane Tower in the west, and the fireworks went down to Yangzhou in March.The lonely sail is far away, the blue sky is gone, only the sky of the Yangtze River can be seen.

At the end of March, the main force of the Shenwu Right Army marched to Yangzhou City on Huainan East Road.It is opposite to Jiangnan across the river.

Since the suppression of the rebellion, the size of the Shenwu Youjun has been expanding, from more than [-] people at the beginning, soaring all the way to more than [-] people today.

Among them are mainly the number of people who joined the volunteer army, and a small part is the recruits recruited by Yue Fei.

According to the population density of the two Huaihe Rivers, the number of Shenwu Youjun should have continued to rise.However, limited by the supply of food and grass, Yue Fei had to try his best to suppress the size of the army.

The food supply of Shenwu Youjun cannot be counted on Tokyo at all.In fact, Tokyo has to rely on the food and grass in the Huainan area for emergency relief.

In an ordinary year, with the wealth in the southeast, it can easily supply another 30 troops in addition to supplying Tokyo.

However, in the past few years, a large number of western troops went south to Ping Songjiang and Fangla, which had already consumed most of the food stored in the southeast treasury.

The purchase of food and grass for the Shenwu Youjun was almost entirely organized by Yue Fei himself.

This kind of thing seems sensational to talk about. An army raises its own food and grass and recruits its own troops. How is it different from a warlord?

But in fact, this is really not a bad thing for the Song army.

From the moment the Song Army was established, the biggest disadvantage of the Song Army was that it did not have its own logistical supply capabilities.

Therefore, as long as the scale is large, or as long as an expedition is attempted, it will inevitably lead to a disastrous defeat due to logistical supplies, and hundreds of thousands of soldiers will die tragically on the battlefield as a result.

The Shenwu Youjun is currently creating a new model for the entire army, that is, the army itself forms a logistics force, which is professionally responsible for transporting grain and grass.

Yue Fei specially created a new organization for this army, called the Wei Qin Army.The establishment is as high as more than [-] people. They are responsible for the treatment of wounded soldiers, the construction of fortifications, and the supervision of grain transportation.

Don't think that the soldiers will dislike the Medical Service Army. In fact, the whole army is eager to join the Medical Service Army.It's not because there are a large number of beautiful nurses here, but because the medical service army is more like a group of officers than soldiers.

Especially the millet management division of the Wei Qin Army, there are four battalions under this division, each with 500 people.Looking at the scale, we can see that it is impossible for these 2000 people to supply the food transportation work of the huge army.Their duties are to coordinate the corvee collection for the army and supervise the delivery of grain and grass by the people.They are more like petty officials who manage corvee in the government.

The difference is that if there is a war, they need to gather together, fight in formation, guard the food and grass, and wait for the army to gather.

This danger can be ignored.If the main force of the enemy army hits the rear, the food road will be cut off.The battle situation must have been very dangerous, even if they were on the front line, they might not be safer than sending food.In addition, most of the time, they are in the rear to supervise the transportation of food and grass, and no enemy can be seen.

All in all, when the country is in chaos, the power of the army will increase significantly.Shenwu Youjun belongs to this typical situation.

Taking advantage of Huainan's suppression of the rebellion, they seized the right to transport food from the hands of civil officials and took it under their own control.Each city in Huainan has different treasuries, and the imperial court cannot control and coordinate them in detail.The millet envoy of Shenwu Youjun sent troops to carry it by himself.

After this model has been in operation for a period of time, it has also increased the confidence of the court ministers and given the army a little trust.Since the mid-Tang Dynasty, the guard against the army for hundreds of years has eased.

Because as far as the current situation is concerned, no one believes that the Shenwu Youjun will rebel.Not only the leader of the Shenwu Youjun, Yue Fei, is loyal, but more importantly, the Shenwu Youjun has a heart of loyalty from top to bottom, whether it is an officer, a non-commissioned officer or a soldier. , Guard Sangzi.

In this case, even if the commander-in-chief is replaced by someone else, the army will not follow the commander-in-chief to rebel.

As a result, generals and the army were no longer the most guarded objects of the emperors and ministers of the Song Dynasty.

The Song Dynasty has vaguely noticed from top to bottom that the way to control the army seems to be not only to suppress and belittle, but also to implement a noble spirit to the soldiers, that is, the spirit of being loyal to the country, the nation, and defending the country.

Some Confucian schools even proposed more radically that scholar-bureaucrats also need to implement this spirit.Scholar-bureaucrats always pride themselves on their country and forget themselves, so why are there always people who betray the country and seek glory when the country is in crisis?Could it be that noble scholar-officials are not as good as warriors?
Of course, due to the short period of time, this genre has not yet fermented its influence, but it has only sprouted in some state capitals.That is, the budding of nationalism, all the people of this nation, whether civil or military, should be loyal to Zhu Xia.

This trend of thought is most intense in the military.Because the "Spring and Autumn" is talked about every day in the army, about loyalty and righteousness, about being loyal to the emperor and serving the country.

The soldiers of the Shenwu Youjun most firmly believed in Zhao Huan's phrase "I am the country".In their hearts, everything that goes against the official will is treason, a traitor who may threaten their own interests.

This made their fighting will extremely firm. At the end of March, the Shenwu Youjun marched to Yangzhou. On the second day of April, the army crossed the Yangtze River and entered Zhenjiang Mansion.

Unlike Zhao Huan's thought that the small court in the Southern Song Dynasty would be ignorant and corrupt, this small court in the south of the Yangtze River was really resisting with all its strength.

Zhao Gou and a group of prime ministers and scholar-bureaucrats actively prepared for the war, took the initiative to meet the enemy, and mobilized more than 14 troops from all directions to help Zhenjiang Mansion.

They have ambitions and lofty aspirations, and they want to rule the river.Various strategic deployments have been made, and elite soldiers and generals have been dispatched.It is by no means muddled and waiting to die.

But the ending was sad and tearful.There are many things that cannot be achieved without hard work.

A decisive battle broke out between the two sides, and the two armies fought fiercely, but it only took one day for the 14 troops in the south of the Yangtze River to be completely defeated by the Shenwu You Army.Corpses were scattered all over the battlefield, and the pillows of the dead were strewn about. There were mountains of corpses and seas of blood everywhere in a radius of more than ten miles. The fallen flags and broken spears made the battlefield extremely bloody and desolate under the afterglow of the setting sun.

There was no other reason for the disastrous defeat of the Jiangnan army, just because they only had this level of combat power, and they really couldn't beat the Shenwu Youjun.

They nominally have 14 troops, but they are seriously underpaid. The actual number may not even be 8, only [-] or [-].Moreover, Jiangnan has been in peace for a long time, and the army's armor is not uniform, and training is neglected.On the battlefield, there is no shadow of a strong army, only the fate of being crushed.

The small imperial court of the Southern Song Dynasty still has not realized that a country must have a strong military force.A rule maintained only by scholar-bureaucrats is like a castle built of sand.When a strong army invades, their usually mean, oppressive, and deserted army will fall apart.The high-ranking scholar-bureaucrats will die under the enemy's sword.

The Shenwu right army broke through the Yangtze River, and the front of the soldiers immediately swept from Zhenjiang Mansion to the east and west sides.On the east side, Niu Gao led the army straight to Changzhou, and on the west side, Yue Fei personally led the army. The army advanced rapidly and surrounded Jiankang Mansion before the small Jiangnan court had time to react.

The prime minister of the puppet dynasty, Wang Boyan, stayed here to fight on the front line, but the defeat came too quickly, and he was blocked in the city by the Beiwei army before he could escape in the future.

After two days of siege, Jiankang City was destroyed, and the Shenwu Youjun captured more than [-] officials below the prime minister of the puppet dynasty.

These lofty scholar-bureaucrats still didn't understand until they were captured!Why are the noble literati and bureaucrats united as one, but they were invaded by a powerful army of the enemy country and trampled down in the dust? They are not as humble as a wild dog.

However, the imperial court has already completed the mobilization of war, and the Shenwu Youjun almost used an absolutely elite division to attack a group of mobs, and quickly completed the sweep of the corrupt scholar-bureaucrats.Order is being restored rapidly southward along the Yangtze River.

(End of this chapter)