Fu Shanhe

Chapter 233 Strong walls and clear fields
Outside the general's camp, the rain was pouring down.

Inside the commander's camp, all the generals sat upright.

"Everyone, Jiujiang Prefecture fell five days ago. We must adjust our previous battle plan!"

Li Mu said with a serious expression.

Plans cannot keep up with changes, and the siege and attack on reinforcements were determined based on the previous situation.

At this moment, the rebels captured Jiujiang Prefecture and headed straight for Anqing camp, which had a major impact on the situation in the world.

If we continue to procrastinate in besieging a point and attacking reinforcements, the entire Jiangnan region might be lost.

After losing the three provinces in the south of the Yangtze River, Dayu also came to the end of its dynasty.

The most urgent and most important task is to find ways to boost military morale and inspire the fighting spirit of the military and civilians in Jiangnan.

Only by preserving the south of the Yangtze River can we preserve Dayu’s country and people.

"Sir, how could a military stronghold like Jiujiang Prefecture fall so quickly?"

Yun Yufeng asked doubtfully.

In his memory, Jiujiang has always been an important military town of the Dayu Dynasty.

Not only were the city walls strong, but they were also heavily guarded.

Especially after the White Lotus Rebellion spread to Jiangxi, the imperial court strengthened the defense of the Jiujiang area.

After the battle of Jiujiang broke out, the imperial court immediately ordered all provinces to send troops to reinforce Jiujiang.

"The defenders lost their courage when they met a group of teammates who only cared about protecting themselves and had no sense of the overall situation.

With the betrayal of the traitor, it would be a miracle if we could hold on.

Well, there are too many people involved behind this, and it’s not good for you to know too much.

Now that we have made a new plan, we will capture Yongzhou in the shortest possible time.

If conditions permit, it would be best to capture or kill the bandit leader alive!"

Li Mu said with a frown.

The fall of Jiujiang was the result of the combined effects of multiple factors.

According to the official definition, it must be the traitor who takes the blame.

But as a bystander, Li Mu could not forgive the idiots in Zhejiang and Nanzhili.

Giving up Jiujiang Prefecture and directly building the Anqing defense line seems to be a good choice.

In fact, it was the stupidest decision.

After losing this bridge connecting Jiangxi with East China and Central China, Nanchang was surrounded on three sides by the rebels.

The situation in Jiangxi is almost irreversible.

After capturing Jiangxi, the rebels' military strength is bound to experience explosive growth.

Next, the two provinces of Nanzhili and Zhejiang will passively become the main battlefields for fighting against the rebels.

Anyone who encounters such a terrible situation will be at a loss.

Deep in his heart, Li Mu was already mourning for Lord Xu who was thousands of miles away.

As soon as he regained his position, he was blamed for a huge crime.

Given the infighting style among civil servants, the various impeachment memorials that will follow will probably fill up several rooms.

"Commander-in-chief, the rebels will strengthen Yongzhou's defenses now that they know we are launching an attack.

It is almost impossible to seize the city by deception.

To capture Yongzhou Prefecture, a tough battle is inevitable.

In my opinion, we should simply besiege Yongzhou and mobilize heavy artillery to launch a violent attack.

We can also adopt the tactics of digging tunnels, filling them with gunpowder and blowing up city walls that the rebels have used many times.

If necessary, we can make a move to bypass Yongzhou and go down the river.

Now, Yongzhou, Hengyang, Changsha and other provincial capitals are important sources of money and food for the rebels, and they cannot afford the consequences of losing these areas.

If we create enough pressure, maybe the enemy will come faster to help, and we can set up an ambush on the way."

Xie Zhiyuan said with a beaming expression.

The rebels are a disaster to other troops, but in their eyes, they are military merits that come to their doorstep.

Under the influence of successive victories, the arrogant and brave generals under Li Mu did not take the rebels seriously at all.

Even though we knew that the enemy was preparing to mobilize ten times the force to engage in a decisive battle with them in the Yongzhou area, we were not afraid.

After receiving the news, everyone's first reaction was how to defeat the enemy one by one.

These are the experiences summarized from the previous battles. No matter how many directions the enemy comes from, they just need to catch them and beat them hard first.

Due to the inconvenience of information transmission, it is completely feasible militarily to seize the opportunity to create a time difference.

“Thank you, sir, your strategy is too slow.

The imperial court needs good news, and Dayu needs victory.

The other armies are unreliable. We are the only one who can turn the tide now. We must fight this battle with swiftness.

It would be best if we could win in one battle and crush the rebels' arrogance.

The rebels knew that we were going to attack Yongzhou, so they must have made careful deployment, but other areas were not sufficiently prepared.

Rather than wasting time fighting the rebels in Yongzhou, it is better to do the opposite.

Leave one part behind to continue attacking Yongzhou, and dispatch elite troops to take Hengyang City along the river, and then launch a surprise attack on Changsha City!"

Yuan Ze's proposal made everyone's eyes light up.

The risk is indeed a bit high, but the returns are high enough.

If this battle plan could succeed, the strategic situation in Huguang would be reversed in an instant.

The rebels in Yongzhou don't even need to send troops to attack, they will just run away obediently.

"Master Yuan, your plan is too risky.

If we are not careful, the army will suffer heavy losses.

The success of the plan depends entirely on the enemy's lack of preparation.

If the enemy is prepared after we capture Hengyang and we fail to capture Changsha in one fell swoop, the rebels from all directions will surround us.

Don't forget that at this moment, hundreds of thousands of rebels are rushing towards Yongzhou from various battlefields!"

……

Looking at the active performance of the generals, Li Mu knew that Dayu’s sky would not fall for the time being.

However, the positions of these generals are not universal.

His team originally came from the Wucheng Bingmasi, and later on he brought in many descendants of meritorious officials and nobles.

Because they have received systematic military education, these people develop much faster than ordinary people after entering the military.

Ordinary soldiers are almost all illiterate, and they have to figure everything out on their own, so their growth rate is relatively slow. In order to balance the power under his command, Li Mu has been promoting literacy education in the army and has also set up officer training classes.

However, these are long-term projects and the results will not be seen in a short period of time.

The high proportion of children of noble families is not without its advantages.

In addition to everyone being active when encircling and suppressing the rebels, everyone also had to be much braver when facing civilian officials.

Without Li Mu's nod, no matter the governor or the governor-general, no one would dare to refuse.

They also dare to implement some slightly extraordinary reforms.

The most important thing is that through these ties, we have been able to build closer relations with a group of nobles.

Although most of these old nobles are useless people who just want to eat and wait for death, they are still good for boosting morale.

For example: His personnel appointment this time caused a stir in Beijing.

There were a lot of impeachment memorials from the civil servants. If it were not for the support of the noble group, Emperor Yongning would definitely not be able to withstand the pressure.

Over this personnel appointment, the nobles and the civil officials came face to face in the court, which was the first dispute between civil and military officials in the Yongning Dynasty.

There is no doubt that military generals are no match for civil officials in quarrels.

But it doesn’t matter. The quarrel in the court successfully delayed the decision-making time.

With the fall of Jiujiang Prefecture, the dispute between civil and military officials suddenly became a secondary contradiction, and the main contradiction once again became the country and the people.

Even if the civil servants in other regions don't care, the civil servants in the Jiangnan and Huguang regions must be panicking at this moment.

Suppress the generals and there will be plenty of opportunities later.

The rebels' butcher knives will not hurt anyone no matter how prominent their identities are.

If the clan elders and children fall into the hands of the rebels, they will be in danger of death.

Except for a few who were worth surrendering, most of the aristocratic families were brutally slaughtered by the rebels.

Theoretically speaking, as long as he wins a few great victories at this point in time, he will probably receive a new appointment.

The titles of commander-in-chief and general were just the final titles for local military generals in this era. In the early years of the founding of the Dayu Dynasty, there was also an official title of "Admiral".

You can supervise the military affairs of one province or several provinces.

Similar to the Jiedushi in the Tang Dynasty, they have a lot of say in local areas and can compete with governors and provincial governors.

It is a non-permanent position with grades of second rank, first rank and first rank, depending on the additional title at the end.

Li Mu had been coveting this position for a long time.

I originally thought that I would have to stay in the position of commander-in-chief for ten or eight years before I would have the opportunity to plan and operate.

I never expected that it would be delivered to my mouth so soon.

Although the civil servants may shout loudly, they are also the group that compromises the fastest when it comes to their own interests.

In order to protect the interests of their families, the gentry in Jiangnan and Huguang will most likely choose to temporarily loosen up on the military generals.

The situation has deteriorated to this point. If the rebels are not suppressed, they will become rootless.

No matter how cold-blooded one is, one still has to consider one's official hat.

According to the rules of Dayu, once an elder in the clan passes away, the younger generations within the five degrees of mourning must observe mourning.

If officials in Jiangnan returned to their hometowns on a large scale to observe mourning for their fathers, as they did in Guangdong and Guangxi before, they would soon lose their voice in the court.

When the mourning period was over and he returned to the court, everything was no longer the same.

For their own interests, they also had to find a way to suppress the White Lotus rebels as soon as possible.

"Pass the order down, starting from tomorrow, speed up the march.

You must reach Yongzhou City within three days!"

Li Mu immediately gave the order.

Once you have straightened out your thoughts and distinguished between friends and enemies, it will become clear what to do next.

War, in its essence, serves politics.

……

Yongzhou City.

They had just held a celebration banquet for the capture of Jiujiang Prefecture, and then they received the bad news that the puppet dynasty's army was approaching.

Although reinforcements from all directions were rushing in quickly, Shi Rongxian still felt the pressure.

“The enemy troops increased their march speed, and the rain did not hinder their progress.

According to the enemy's current speed, they will arrive two days earlier than estimated.

Pass the order down, asking the nearby Holy Kingdom troops to move closer to Yongzhou immediately.

We have to be quick. Once we delay until the enemy surrounds the city, we will have no chance!"

When issuing this order, Shi Rongxian always felt a little awkward.

The Holy Kingdom’s army in the Yongzhou area numbered 80,000.

Together with the surrounding troops, the total force is as much as over 100,000.

Facing the 40,000-strong army of the Pseudo-Dynasty, the most normal course of action would be to lead the army to kill the enemy.

But this time, he actually chose to defend the city.

What made him feel even more strange was that no one present objected to such an order.

This means that everyone subconsciously feels that these hundreds of thousands of troops are no match for the enemy's 40,000 troops.

“Holy Emperor, please rest assured!
After learning the news of the enemy's attack, all units were rushing to prepare.

Now we have completed the scorching heat and clearing of Yongzhou Prefecture.

With Yongzhou City as the center, within a radius of fifty miles, the enemy cannot find a house, a grain of food, a piece of wood, or a civilian!"

Wu Zekai promised solemnly.

Fortifying the city and clearing the countryside is the militia's favorite tactic. If they can't defeat them head-on, they'll resort to these little tricks.

These measures can not only delay the enemy's siege speed, but also increase the enemy's logistical pressure.

If he hadn't been leaning against a big river, he would have even planned to poison the water source.

"Ok!"

“Good job!”

"We are so well prepared this time, I don't believe that thief Li Mu can still capture Yongzhou City.

However, the enemy was extremely vicious in employing their troops, and particularly liked to defeat our enemies one by one.

Send people to notify the reinforcements to be vigilant on the road and not give the enemy any chance to take advantage.

Once you are close to the front line, don't rush to Yongzhou. Move together after you meet up in Hengyang."

……

(End of this chapter)