Ming Dynasty: A mere unruly commoner is rebelling against the heaven?

Chapter 278 After recovering Annan, quickly lead the troops to Jiangnan!

All the orders issued by Zhu Youtang were passed down layer by layer, and the first to take action was the Ministry of Works in the capital.

The troops in the Xishan military camp in the capital city dispatched soldiers to transport all the firearms and ammunition produced by the craftsmen of the Ministry of Works back to the Xishan military camp.

These advanced firearms were distributed to the soldiers of the Shenjiying.

The first batch of flintlock rifles consisted of only 5,000 pieces, so they were distributed first to the elite soldiers in the Shenji Camp.

The soldiers who got the new flintlock rifles were overjoyed.

The soldiers who didn't get it could only look at it with envy.

After that, the nine generals of the nine important border towns received Zhu Youtang’s war mobilization order.

Since Zhu Youtang personally led the army to inspect the nine frontiers last time, the entire north is now under his actual control.

Zhu Youtang used the most direct and thunderous means to regain the military power in the north. Now the nine generals in the nine important towns on the nine borders are all Zhu Youtang's staunch confidants.

Wang Chun, the Dragon and Tiger General and the commander-in-chief of Xuanfu, who was located at the gate of the capital, was the first to receive Zhu Youtang's military mobilization order.

"Military mobilization, prepare 10,000 troops, ready to march south at any time?!"

Wang Chun looked at the imperial edict in his hand with an expression of incredible shock on his face.

You know, the war in the north hasn't stopped for a few months, and he has only been the commander-in-chief of Xuanfu for less than three months. Zhu Youtang is about to mobilize troops in the south again? !
The Ming Dynasty still has an army of 100,000 troops, conquering Annan!

With such excessive military spending, could the Ming Dynasty's finances support such frequent military campaigns?

A trace of worry appeared on Wang Chun's face. Since taking over the position of General of Xuanfu, he has deeply experienced the difficulty of training and leading troops.

The daily consumption of food and fodder just to feed these nearly 100,000 border troops is an astronomical figure that is unimaginable.

"Brother, what's wrong? You look very ugly."

While Wang Chun was thinking, his younger brother Wang Shi, standing beside him, asked with concern.

Wang Chun came back to his senses and took a deep breath.

He knew that these things were not something he should consider.

The only thing he needed to do was to obey Zhu Youtang's order without hesitation, mobilize troops, and prepare to march south!
Wang Chun's face became solemn: "Pass the order down, immediately select 10,000 elite soldiers, obey His Majesty's order, and be ready to march south at any time!"

When Wang Shi heard that it was a major matter involving mobilizing troops, his expression became serious.

"Yes, Commander-in-Chief!"

After Wang Chun became the general of Xuanfu, Wang Shi's status also rose and he became a lieutenant general of Xuanfu.

After receiving the order, Wang Shi left quickly and carried out Wang Chun's order meticulously.

After Wang Chun took office, he quickly won over a group of veteran soldiers and developed them into his own personal soldiers.

But the number of Wang Chun's personal soldiers was far from ten thousand.

In addition, his foundation is shallow and his prestige among the border troops is not enough.

So in order to select these 10,000 people to go south, Wang Chun racked his brains.

First of all, Zhu Youtang specifically requested elite soldiers, so Wang Chun could only give priority to veterans who had participated in many battles, had rich combat experience, and had strong combat effectiveness.

Secondly, in order to better improve the obedience of the army, a certain number of personal soldiers are needed.

But the number cannot be too large, he still needs to leave some personal soldiers to manage these veteran soldiers in Xuanfu...

In the end, ten thousand carefully selected soldiers gathered on the parade ground in Xuanfu.

This parade ground had just undergone a major cleansing a few months ago.

At that time, the blood of those executed by Zhu Youtang flowed all over the parade ground, and the stench lasted for several months.

Even the veterans who had fought in the battlefield and killed the enemy felt a chill in their hearts when they saw that scene.

It was precisely because of the remaining power left by Zhu Youtang that Wang Chun was able to completely control the military affairs of Xuanfu in a very short period of time.

Wang Chun stepped onto the stage and began to mobilize: "Soldiers, His Majesty has issued an order that the nine important border towns will march south at any time!"

"I eat your salary and share your worries. The war is imminent. As your subjects, what should we do?!"

After Wang Chun finished speaking, all the soldiers in the field burst into solemn shouts of killing.

"Kill! Kill! Kill!"

……

The scene in Xuanfu is played out in every important town in the Nine Frontiers.

At Zhu Youtang's command, an army of 100,000 was ready to march south to fight!

On the other hand, large amounts of grain and fodder from the northern provinces were also continuously transported to the capital.

However, transporting grain is a time-consuming job. Transporting grain from granaries in various places to the capital can basically only rely on animal power such as donkey carts and ox carts.

This requires a lot of time, waiting for food and fodder from all over the country to arrive in Beijing.

However, once the grain arrives in Beijing, the rest of the matters will be easy to handle.

The grain transport troops would use the Grand Canal from Beijing to Hangzhou to quickly transport grain to the south of the Yangtze River.

If Zhu Youtang really wanted to declare war on Jiangnan, he would no longer need those large numbers of logistical troops.

The canal transport troops could meet the logistical supplies of the army solely by water transportation.

Subsequently, the three provinces of Luzhou, Yuzhou, and Ezhou launched a blockade of the Jiangnan region.

These three states are close to the south of the Yangtze River and are important transportation routes in and out of the south of the Yangtze River. Their geographical location is extremely important, and it is also the place most prone to change.

Once Zhu Youtang's order to blockade Jiangnan was passed down, there was no certainty as to how well it could be carried out.

As expected, Zhu Youtang's order to blockade Jiangnan ran into problems at the execution level as soon as it reached Luzhou, Yuzhou, and Ezhou.

The commanding generals of these three state garrisons had actually been replaced by Zhu Youtang before.

The senior officers of the garrison did not dare to disobey the order and carried it out.

But problems arose when it came to the lower-level Qianhu Suo.

These thousand-household offices were very close to the Jiangnan gentry.

Secondly, the amount of land they embezzled was also in the hands of Wang Yan and others.

Zhu Youtang's strategy in dealing with these garrison officers was to strike the tigers first and then the flies.

Once a state's commander-in-chief discovers a problem, he will immediately arrest and interrogate the person, and will not show any leniency if necessary, such as skinning the person or slowing him down to a pulp.

The commander of a prefecture will make a judgment based on the circumstances of the case. If the circumstances are serious and outrageous, the person will be arrested and interrogated immediately.

If the situation is minor, just leave it alone for now and deal with them slowly after the situation stabilizes.

Finally, when it came to the county-level Qianhu Suo, they would just leave it alone for the time being and wait for the reckoning in the autumn.

Because there are so many of these people, if we fight them immediately, I'm afraid all the thousand households in the Ming Dynasty will be in chaos.

The Ming Dynasty’s military system was already terminally ill.

Only by completely abolishing this system and re-establishing a centralized local military system can the problem of local military loyalty be completely solved. The military strength of the three states' thousand households was well managed.

A large number of troops arrived at the roads leading to the south of the Yangtze River and blocked them.

However, most of the officers and soldiers in the Qianhu Suo were just working without putting in any effort, and they were just pretending to do something to fool the court.

If we really have to fight, we definitely can't rely on these people.

Moreover, such a large-scale action by the soldiers of the three state garrisons naturally alarmed all forces in the south of the Yangtze River.

There was no need for them to tip off, as all forces in Jiangnan accelerated their actions.

In recent days, riots have occurred one after another in various places in Jiangnan. Some county governments have actively mobilized soldiers from the garrisons to quell the riots, while other county governments have remained indifferent and watched the situation escalate.

The strangest thing is that the entire Nanjing officialdom fell into an eerie deathly silence.

Zhu Youtang did not send anyone to Nanjing to hold him accountable.

The entire officialdom of the two capitals of the Ming Dynasty seemed to have fallen into a tacit silence, a strange kind of calm before the storm.

The last to receive the order was Wang Yue's army far away in Annan.

At this moment, Wang Yue's army had completely recovered the land of Xuanhua Prefecture, and then continued to march towards Duobang City.

Outside the city of Dobang, Wang Yue encountered Annan's most elite elephant troops.

There are many elephants in Annan. Since a long time ago, the people of Annan have captured and tamed some elephants and used them for heavy work such as carrying, construction, and clearing roads.

Later, the Annan people even used domesticated elephants in battle.

Elephants are huge in size, with thick skin and flesh. They are not afraid of the charging of war horses or the long-range attacks of arrows, and are invincible on the battlefield.

During the Yongle period, when the Ming Dynasty launched an expedition to Annan, these elephant troops from Annan had performed brilliantly on the battlefield.

When Wang Yue first encountered the elephant soldiers on the riverbank outside Duobang City, his offensive was thwarted due to his lack of experience.

Faced with the huge size of the elephant, the three thousand battalion's war horses shrank back.

The Shenjiying's muskets have a very short attack range, a very slow reload speed, and limited attack power, so the damage they cause to target soldiers can be ignored.

But the poison-coated arrows from the Fifth Army Camp had an unexpected effect.

The venom on an arrow may not be able to kill those huge elephants immediately.

But with so many arrows hitting them, even the elephants could not withstand the highly toxic venom and fell to the ground and died.

Later, it was Mu Cong who proposed to use fire attack to deal with Annan's elephant soldiers.

Mu Cong had one hundred horses brought in, their eyes blindfolded with cloth, and then he used wooden frames and paper to make many lion images, and then he covered all the horses with the painted lion skins.

Afterwards, Mu Cong ordered people to set fire to the cardboard on the horses. The horses were frightened and rushed towards the elephant soldiers' camp like crazy.

The burning horses rushed towards the elephant soldiers recklessly. The frightened elephants disobeyed orders and fled in all directions. The elephant soldiers' formation was suddenly in chaos.

The Ming army took advantage of the chaos and attacked, with arrows and muskets falling on the elephant soldiers' camp like crazy.

Although muskets could not cause fatal damage to these thick-skinned and tough elephants.

However, the huge noise made by that thing made the already frightened elephant soldiers even more panicked, to the point where they had no idea what to do.

Moreover, muskets still have a great deterrent effect on soldiers riding elephants.

In this way, the Ming army defeated the Annan elephant soldiers, and Wang Yue took advantage of the victory to attack Duobang City overnight.

By dawn, Wang Yue's army had already captured Duobang City.

The commander of Duobang City was killed in the battle, and the prefect led all the officials to surrender.

After Wang Yue led his troops into the city, fearing that the incident in Xuanhua Prefecture would happen again, he launched a thorough cleansing of Duobang City.

After another round of heavy killing, the Ming Dynasty completely recaptured Duobang City.

In this way, if Guihua Prefecture is recovered to the west and Liangzhou is recovered to the east, then the entire northern part of Annan will be within the sphere of influence of the Ming Dynasty.

But at this moment, Wang Yue was not considering the issue of recovering Guihua Prefecture and Liangzhou.

Because Thang Long, the capital of Annan, is only two rivers away from Dobang City.

Wang Yue’s priority is to capture the capital of Annan in one go, capture Li Hao’s entire family alive, and escort them to the capital for execution!
Dobang City.

Wang Yue and Mu Cong walked up to the top of the city wall together. Looking at the smoke rising and the devastated Duobang City, they were in a good mood and laughed out loud.

"Hahaha, Lord Duke, in today's battle, thanks to your Lion Fire Attack Strategy, we were able to defeat Annan's elephant soldiers without any effort."

"Otherwise, even if it is the Xianzhen Camp, facing those huge, thick-skinned and extremely powerful elephant soldiers, it will be a tough battle."

"Your Excellency the Duke is truly a master at using troops, and is extremely resourceful!"

Wang Yue bowed to Mu Cong and said with a convinced look.

Mu Cong waved his hand slightly, smiled modestly and said: "General Wang, you are too kind. This plan was not thought up by me, but by General Zhang Fu, the Prince of Dingxing."

"When our ancestor Mu Sheng and General Zhang Fu went south to conquer Annan together, they also encountered Annan's elephant soldiers here in Duobang City."

"General Zhang Fu drew a picture of a lion and disguised his horse to charge, and used his magic weapon to break the defending army's elephant formation, and took advantage of the victory to capture Duobang City."

"When my ancestor told me about his southern expedition, he mentioned this battle, so I wrote it down. Today, I happened to use this strategy."

"What I didn't expect was that after all these years, the Annan people still haven't made any progress. They were defeated twice in a row using the same method. Hahahaha..."

Mu Cong and Wang Yue laughed out loud, expressing their joy.

Thang Long, the capital of Annan, is right before their eyes. They are about to recover Jiaozhi, which has been independent for decades, and make up for the regrets of several generations of emperors.

How could they not be excited and delighted?

At this time, the military supervisor eunuch Zhang Yong came to the top of the city wall and said, "The imperial edict has arrived. Duke Mu Cong of Qian and Governor-General Wang Yue of Southwest China, receive it immediately!"

Mu Cong and Wang Yue's faces straightened, and they immediately knelt down to receive the order: "We will obey your order!"

"By the order of the Emperor Tian Cheng Yun, I hereby order: to appoint Mu Cong, Duke of Qian, as the Left Deputy General of the Conquering the Barbarians, to assist General Wang Yue in the Conquering the Barbarians, and to govern Annan!"

"General Wang Yue, after quickly recovering Annan, lead your troops to Jiangnan immediately, for fear of unrest in Jiangnan!"

After the imperial edict was read, Mu Cong and Wang Yue hurriedly bowed respectfully and carefully took the imperial edict from Zhang Yong.

"Your humble servant will obey the imperial decree!"

After standing up, Wang Yue first congratulated Mu Cong: "Congratulations, Duke. You have finally got what you wished for. His Majesty's appointment has finally come."

Mu Cong smiled slightly, and his face was filled with worry again: "Your Majesty's last words about the fear of changes in Jiangnan, what did you mean?"

"Your Majesty also wants us to pacify Annan as soon as possible and then lead our troops to Jiangnan. Does that mean... Your Majesty is going to use military force against Jiangnan?"

Wang Yue shook his head, looking a little worried: "It seems that our speed is not fast enough!"

"Pass the order down. Rest in Dobang City for a day tomorrow. The day after tomorrow morning, attack Thang Long and capture the Annan Li clan alive!"

Zhang Yong bowed and accepted the order: "Yes, General!"

(End of this chapter)