Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Chapter 342 Battle Situation on the Southern Front
On the second day of the winter month, after the banquet, Chang Yuchun and Liao Yongjian hurried back to Dangtu without having time to spend much time with their wives and nephews. The Yuan army's navy had already freed up its hands in Jiangxi and might go down the river at any time, possibly to attack Anqing, or directly to Jiankang or Caishiji.

So the task that Lu Jin had just assigned to Chang Yuchun changed before it even started. Previously, there were two stages of advance planned, and the goal was to fight to the border of Jiangxi. Now the goal was to occupy Wuhu and Fanchang first, extend the defense line along the Yangtze River outward, and repel this wave of counterattacks by the Yuan army.

At the same time, at noon that day, Lu Jin sent people to cross the river to pass on orders to Hua Gao in Hezhou and Yu Tingyu in Luzhou on the opposite bank, urgently transferring Tang Xiong's 112nd Regiment under Hua Gao's 32th Division to Wuwei County to control the mouth of Rushu River and drive seven-star piles into the river channel of Rushu River to prevent the Yuan army's navy from entering Chaohu Lake from Wuwei County, and then follow Chaohu Lake directly to Luzhou, the old nest of the Shengwu Army.

Although the headquarters of the Marshal's Mansion and everyone's family have moved to Jiankang, the logistics production base of the Shengwu Army is still in Luzhou for the time being. If the iron factory and artillery range are taken over by the Yuan army, Lu Jin will have nowhere to cry.
He also sent someone to convey a message to Yu Tingyu, asking him to urgently transfer three regiments of Zhao Yong's 111th Division to Tongcheng on the Anqing Road to form a second-line reserve in the rear. With more than people, they should be ready to support the Anqing front at any time. They should also check how many grenades, guns and ammunition were in stock at the Luzhou Iron Works, take them all and send them to Liao Yongan in Anqing.

Then, three regiments of Yu Tingyu's 105th Division were stationed in Luzhou and Lu'an respectively, and another regiment was sent to protect the iron factory. All the iron materials in the iron factory, as well as the weapons, armor, artillery and other stocks produced were moved to Luzhou City.

The ironworks can be abandoned at the critical moment, but all the craftsmen and their families in the ironworks must be transferred to Luzhou City. Also, someone should be sent to notify the horse farm in Maotanchang, and if the situation is not right, they should take the horses to Luzhou City.

Finally, Lu Jin ordered Bian Yuanheng's 108th Division stationed in Gaoyou Prefecture in Jiangbei, asking them to seize the time to reorganize and train, and be ready to be transferred to the southern front to participate in the battle at any time. Bian Yuanheng and Li Huafu's 108th Division now has six regiments including the main force and supplementary regiments, with a total number of nearly people. This is the third-line general reserve force prepared by Lu Jin.

As long as the situation is not really beyond redemption, this division, called the 108th Division, which actually has a strength equivalent to the total reserve of an army, does not need to be moved for the time being.

After finishing all the arrangements, Lu Jin breathed a sigh of relief. This should be foolproof, right?
However, he was still very curious about how Xu Shouhui and the Yuan army fought in Jiangxi, and how the Yuan army suddenly freed up its hands. So he called Bao Yu again, and asked Feng Guoyong and Xia Yu to be his advisers. The four of them looked through the intelligence sent by Jiangxi in the past few months to judge the situation in Jiangxi.

Although the butterfly effect caused by Lu Jin's time travel has greatly affected the course of the war in this time and space, Lu Jin only arrived in August last year and took Luzhou in September. It took him half a year to control the entire Luzhou Road. He did not cross the river at that time. Although he had a certain influence, it was not enough to shake the strategic situation of Xu Shouhui and the Yuan army in Jiangxi and Huguang.

Therefore, although Xu Song's situation in the southern battlefield has changed to a certain extent, the overall strategic situation remains similar to that in history, without any drastic changes.

Xu Shouhui proclaimed himself emperor in October last year, and immediately captured Wuchang and established his capital there. He then annexed Chen Youliang and conquered Mianyang Prefecture and other places. It was not until the beginning of this year that he demonstrated his strong offensive power. From January to March, in three months, he conquered Yueyang in Hunan to the south, Jingzhou to the north, Kuizhou, the eastern gate of Sichuan to the west, and almost entered Sichuan. To the east, he conquered Raozhou and Xinzhou in Jiangxi, as well as Huizhou in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and even briefly occupied Jiangzhou (Jiujiang).

But they only enjoyed glory for three months. Starting from the intercalary March, the situation in Xu Song took a sharp turn for the worse, and the Yuan army launched a counterattack from all sides.

The Yuan army in Huguang Province joined forces with the Miao army in Guangdong and Guangxi to counterattack from Hunan and drove Chen Youliang out of Yueyang. The Yuan army in Sichuan also left Sichuan from the east and recaptured Kuizhou and Xiazhou Road. The Yuan army in Jiangxi also recaptured Jiangzhou (Jiujiang).

From the intercalary March to June, Xu and Song suffered successive defeats, lost thousands of miles of territory, and looked on the verge of collapse. It was at that time that Xu Shouhui had to find ways to seek external aid. He tried several times to win over Lu Jin, but he always made excuses to shirk his responsibility. Peng Yingyu was so angry that he decided to make a breakthrough from the east himself. So he personally led his army to the east and fought all the way to Hangzhou.

Peng Yingyu captured Hangzhou in July, which immediately triggered a frenzied counterattack by the Yuan army in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. By September, they had been driven back to Raozhou, Jiangxi by Dong Tuanxiao and Yuelu Temur. Then on the Double Ninth Festival on September 9th, Lu Jin officially led his troops across the river.

Lu Jin was still clear about what happened in the first half of the year, but things changed in the following months. Xu Shouhui and the Yuan army in Jiangxi and Huguang continued to fight a tug-of-war, and it could only be said that both sides won and lost.

On the eastern battlefield, after Lu Jin crossed the river, Yulu Timur immediately returned from Huizhou to Jiqing for support, but was defeated by Lu Jin. However, Dong Tuanxiao led the main force of the Yuan army in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and kept chasing Peng Yingyu. With the momentum of a great victory, he chased him for thousands of miles, causing Peng Yingyu's eastern expedition army to flee in disarray and suffer heavy losses.

After Peng Yingyu retreated from Hangzhou, he gathered his remaining troops and retreated all the way. He successively lost the entire Huizhou Road, Wuyuan and Dexing, then lost Fuliang Prefecture (Jingdezhen City) and Leping, and finally lost Poyang, the capital of Raozhou Road. He retreated to Yugan Prefecture (Yugan, Jiangxi) with a few thousand remaining troops, and was then surrounded by Dong Tuanxiao and his army of tens of thousands of troops.

Upon learning that the evil monk Peng Heyu, the leader of the Xu Song Group in charge of Liantai Province, who had been rebelling for more than ten years, was blocked in the city, Dong Tuanxiao went crazy and frantically besieged the small county of Yugan. The Yuan troops under his command naturally knew that it would be a huge achievement if they could kill Peng Yingyu!

Peng Yingyu was defeated all the way and only had a few thousand remnants left. Their morale was low and their manpower was small. How could they withstand such a crazy siege by the Yuan army? He wanted to ask Xu Shouhui for help, but the battles in other directions of Xu and Song were also very intense, and they had no spare strength to support him.

Finally, after being besieged by Dong Tuanxiao day and night for seven days, Peng Yingyu's defenders in the city broke their swords and ran out of arrows, and were attacked by the Yuan army. Peng Yingyu knew what would happen if he was caught by the Yuan army, and he was unwilling to be humiliated, so he cut his own neck, but he couldn't avoid the knife, and his head was still chopped off by Dong Tuanxiao.

Since then, the Xu Song army suffered a complete defeat in the war in the east. After killing Peng Yingyu, Dong Tuanxiao took advantage of the situation to recapture Longxing Road (Nanchang), Fuzhou Road and Jianchang Road (Nancheng, Jiangxi), and recovered the entire line from Jiujiang to the south, from Poyang Lake to Ganjiang River. It was because of this that the Yuan army in eastern Jiangxi was freed up.

Xu Song suffered a heavy defeat in the war in the east, but fought back and forth with the Yuan army in other directions.

On the northern front, the Red Turban Army of Xu Song initially captured Jingmen Prefecture. The prefect of Jingmen, Nie Bing, simply abandoned the city and fled in the first round. Then Nie Bing recruited local militia to fight back and recaptured Jingmen for the Yuan court.

In August, just when Peng Yingyu was driven back from Hangzhou, two generals under Xu Shouhui named Yu Junzheng and Dang Zhongda led their troops to recapture Jingmen Prefecture. Nie Bing, the prefect of Jingmen in the Yuan court, was captured alive and continued to curse. Finally, Yu Junzheng smashed all the teeth of this traitor with a knife, and then chopped off Nie Bing's limbs and dismembered him to death.

On the northern front, the Xu-Song Red Army won a great victory.

On the southern front, General Ni Wenjun of the Xu Song Dynasty took advantage of the fact that the Yuan army from Huguang was advancing northward and detoured to the south, re-encircling Yueyang, Hunan, using the tactic of besieging Wei to save Zhao, in order to lure the Yuan army from Huguang to return for support and resolve the crisis in Hubei. As expected, part of the Yuan army from Huguang was attracted back, but Ni Wenjun had no intention of attacking Yueyang by force. He just wanted to mobilize the Yuan army. After his goal was achieved, he took the initiative to withdraw. Although the two sides fought, there was no winner.

In the central and western parts, in September, the general Yu Junzheng, who had just conquered Jingmen Prefecture, led his troops to attack Zhongxing Road (Jiangling). The Pingzhang of Huguang Province, Yaozhu, led his troops to resist, but was defeated by Yu Junzheng. He fled all the way and led the remaining troops to retreat to Songzi.

It was thought that Yu Junzheng could take advantage of the situation to capture Jiangling, but who would have thought that even the regular army of the Yuan court in Huguang was defeated. Then a local Yuan court militia general Fan Zhongkai and a monk from Jingmen named Li Zhi appeared. The two of them joined forces to defeat Yu Junzheng. Yu Junzheng had to retreat to Jingmen. This battle ended in a seesaw battle.

In addition, there are two battlefields that must be mentioned. One of them is Yuanzhou Road (Yichun, Jiangxi), which was where Peng Yingyu first rebelled more than ten years ago. After the failure, he fled to the Jianghuai region.

However, this year's Yuanzhou Road is particularly lively. First, the Xu Song army conquered Yuanzhou, and then it was recaptured by the Yuan army. Xu Song conquered it again, and was driven away by the local Yuan army militia. Xu Song conquered it again, and the Yuan army drove them away again. The two sides have fought back and forth in Yuanzhou for three rounds, changing hands six times. The battle is fierce, but the people in this area have also suffered. You can imagine what the outcome will be.
Another battlefield was the Yuan army's navy.

Because Xu Shouhui proclaimed himself emperor and founded a country in Wuchang last year and occupied Jiangzhou (Jiujiang) for a time, resulting in the killing of a large number of Yuan court officials in Jiangxi, the Yuan court appointed several new officials in Jiangxi this year. Among them, the newly appointed Jiangxi Provincial Governor Xingji and Jiangxi Provincial Councilor Yu Que, together with the Jiangnan Executive Yushi Zhongcheng Manzi Hague, three provincial civil officials led the navy to station in Hukou County where Poyang Lake flows into the Yangtze River. At the same time, they also sent a general named Wang Weigong to lead the army to set up a solid camp on Xiaogu Mountain, advancing both by land and sea, resting the troops while confronting the Xu Song army.

However, the change occurred here, probably because it was closest to Lu Jin's territory and was most affected by the butterfly effect. In the original history, the Yuan army's navy was defeated in this battle.

In the original time and space, the barbarians Hague and Xingji recruited local militia in Jiangsu and Zhejiang and fought all the way back to Jiangxi from Huizhou and Chizhou. After nearly half a year of continuous fighting, the soldiers were already exhausted and were resting in Hukou County. On September 20th, the Xu Song army in Jiangxi made a large raft with reeds and released many burning reed fire rafts from upstream and downstream at the same time, igniting the Yuan army's navy and causing a great defeat for the Yuan army.

Xingji, the governor of Jiangxi Province, who had just taken office and had not yet worked in the government office for a day, was shot in the eye by an arrow from the Red Army of Xu and Song. He fell into the boat and was finally captured alive by the Red Army of Xu and Song and locked up in jail. Xingji starved himself to death, and only Manzi Hague escaped. Then there were the events that led to Manzi Hague leading the navy to fight against Zhu Yuanzhang.

However, in this time and space, the defeat of the Yuan army's navy, which should have occurred, did not occur. There are two reasons for this. First, in the 12th year of Zhizheng, Peng Yingyu's eastern expedition to Hangzhou was defeated faster and more miserably than in history. He quickly lost Raozhou Road, which exposed the flank of Nankang Road (Xingzi, Jiangxi) in the Poyang Lake area. The Yuan army attacked from the flank of Xu Songhong's army on Nankang Road, reducing the pressure on the Yuan army's navy in Hukou County.

Second, a person who should not have appeared in the leadership of the Yuan army navy appeared, Yu Que, the councilor of Jiangxi Province in this time and space.

Yu Que, it is said that his ancestors were Uighurs from Xixia. Later, his ancestors joined the Yuan court to destroy the Song Dynasty, so the family moved to Luzhou. Yu Que himself should be considered a Luzhou native. He was a famous Confucian scholar in the late Yuan Dynasty. Wang Guangyang, who had just joined Lu Jin, was Yu Que's student.
In the original history, in the 12th year of Zhizheng, after Xu Shouhui conquered Jiangzhou (Jiujiang), the Yuan court also knew that Anqing, which controlled the two rivers, was a vital place. So, before Xu Song conquered Anqing, it urgently sent Yu Que to be the governor of Anqing Road.

After Yu Que went to Anqing, he lived up to the expectations of the Yuan court. He did nothing but three things: training soldiers, cultivating land, and repairing city walls. He defended Anqing alone for seven years and repelled hundreds of attacks by the Xu Song Red Army, which resulted in Anqing not being conquered by Xu Song. He can be regarded as a full-level tower defense player at the end of the Yuan Dynasty.

It was not until later that Chen Youliang rebelled and took Xu Shouhui with him to command the generals, and personally led the main forces of Xu and Song to besiege Anqing, that he finally captured Anqing. In the end, Chen Youliang wanted to surrender Yu Que, but was flatly refused by Yu Que, who committed suicide by slashing his throat with a sword. Then Chen Youliang went to attack Zhu Yuanzhang in Nanjing.

However, in this time and space, since Lu Jin captured Anqing at the beginning of this year, Yu Que had no place to take office. At the same time, Jiangzhou (Jiujiang) was also conquered by Xu Song. After weighing the pros and cons, the Yuan court decided to recover Jiangzhou first. Therefore, Yu Que's appointment became the councilor of Jiangxi Province, which resulted in him not appearing in Anqing, but being in danger in the navy of the Jiangxi Yuan army.

This man is very capable and vigilant. With him in the Yuan army's navy, even if Xu Song launches another wave of fire attack as in history, it is very likely that Yu Que will detect it in advance and dodge it. This is a difficult opponent to deal with!

After reading the intelligence, Lu Jin didn't recognize many of the people mentioned in it, but he knew this Barbarian Hague and Yu Que. He knew Barbarian Hague because this guy had fought with Zhu Yuanzhang several rounds in history, and this guy did not die after being beaten away by Chang Yuchun, and went to Zhang Shicheng and stayed there for many years. He was also a strange man.

He knew Yu Que because he had guarded Anqing alone for many years and was the teacher of Wang Guangyang, the prime minister of the early Ming Dynasty. As for Xingji, the governor of Jiangxi Province, he didn't know him at all.
"Who is this Yu Que? Does anyone know his background?" Lu Jin pointed at the intelligence and asked knowingly.

Unexpectedly, before Bao Yu, who was in charge of intelligence, could say anything, Xia Yu, who had just defected, spoke up.

"My lord, I know a thing or two about this man."

"explain."

"This Yu Que, courtesy name Tianxin, was born in Gansu. His ancestors were not Han Chinese. His father had been an official in Luzhou, so he moved to Luzhou with his father. Although he was not Han Chinese, he was smart and studious. He lost his father when he was young, so he taught himself to support his mother. He had some reputation in the scholar circle. Wang Guangyang, who had just entered the shogunate the day before yesterday, was his student.

"Later, the Yuan court learned of his name and granted him the title of Jinshi. He once worked as a Tongzhi in Sizhou (Xuyi), and was later transferred to the Yuan court's Secretariat, where he served as the head of six ministries. He also participated in the compilation of the history books of the Song, Jin, Liao and Three Kingdoms. The last time I heard of his name was when I heard that he was compiling history in the Yuan court. He must have been sent here recently."

Lu Jin glanced at Xia Yu and asked curiously, "How do you know so much?"

Xia Yu immediately clasped his fists and replied, "This person has some reputation in the scholar world. The Yuan court's compilation of the history of Song, Jin and Liao is quite eye-catching, so many scholars in Jiangnan pay attention to him. In addition, I have heard a little about Wang Guangyang's background. At the banquet today, I asked Mr. Wang about his teacher, so I know it so clearly."

Lu Jin nodded, but did not continue the conversation. Instead, he turned to Bao Yu and asked, "Yu Que is from Luzhou. Does he have any family in Luzhou?"

Bao Yu frowned and said, "It's hard to say. He should have a family. He has been an official in the Yuan court for so many years. Has he taken his family to Dadu? If they are in Luzhou, we should have heard of them. Even if they are in Luzhou, there has been no news for so long. It is possible that he has changed his name or ran away secretly."

Lu Jin knocked on the table and said, "Send someone to check. If there is nothing, forget it. But if you find his family members, invite them to Jiankang."

"Yes." Bao Yu immediately bowed and accepted the order.

Xia Yu heard it but didn't say anything. Lu Jin just asked to invite the people over, but didn't say to kill anyone. Besides, in military struggle, people would use any means necessary. Even if he killed someone, so what? No matter how famous or capable Yu Que was, since he helped the Yuan court, he was an enemy. If he didn't surrender voluntarily, he would die. Xia Yu was not that kind of pedantic Confucian scholar.

Lu Jin then asked, "Do you know who is the commander of the Yuan army's attack on Anqing? How many soldiers did he lead? What kind of soldiers were they?"

Bao Yu immediately replied, "The commander-in-chief is Xingji, the governor of Jiangxi Province, and Yu Que, the governor of Jiangxi Province. The soldiers they led seem to be the Miao troops from Guangdong and Guangxi. Previously, those Miao troops ran to the Jiangxi battlefield. Last time, there was intelligence that these Miao troops appeared in Jiangzhou. It is not certain whether they came to Anqing.

"But our intelligence station found a piece of news that Yu Que seemed to dislike the Miao army and had reported to the Yuan court to stop the Miao army from continuing to march to join the war."

"Oh? There is such a thing?!" Lu Jin asked curiously.

(End of this chapter)