Chapter 451 North Road Competition (1)

The city being surrounded by death refers to the military level. Jiujiang was not really surrounded by death. There are several roads to get out of the city, such as the Yangtze River coming out from the north at night.

However, the official army controlled the peripheral areas, and this kind of traffic route became extremely unstable and safe.

Zhang Ning's family letter was sent back to Wuchang from Jiujiang, but the letter did not mention that he had received a letter from Wuchang. The letter was probably intercepted by the government army on the way.

People always leave many clues in the literal form. If Zhang Ning's letter of family can be maintained for a long time and reappeared in hundreds of years, people may be questioned that he is a time traveler.

The letter mentioned the allusion of the Battle of Waterloo at the beginning. It was obvious that the Battle of Waterloo was far from happening at this time, and there was a significant time difference.

In the distant West, the Duke of Wellington almost wiped out the French army in the Battle of Waterloo, achieving a complete victory over French Emperor Napoleon.But Wellington said, there is no winner in the war.In my heart, the military talent of the winner Wellington is far inferior to that of Napoleon, but he undoubtedly surpasses the latter in humanistic thought. This sentence can only be said with a pity for human suffering...

Yao Ji chewed on the unique grammar in her private letters, trying to understand Zhang Ning's changes in her thoughts.

She could guess that Zhang Ning might have thought that his mood had improved when writing the letter, but Yao Ji could only admit that he was indeed facing an extremely difficult situation and a tragic battle, and he once again exposed his fragile side, but he never knew it.

People who truly reach the realm of heroes and sages will not tell this.

Zhang Ning's mood should have been extremely bad.

He recalled his past actions, admitted his superficiality and immaturity, and everything he did at the beginning was just a vague ideal that could be realized as destiny was born, and many thoughts were taken for granted...

But reality is undoubtedly cruel. He saw with his own eyes the countless deaths brought by the war, as well as invisible disasters and casualties, and the difficulty of achieving his goal.

If such a big disaster was caused just by one's own selfishness, would it be more than worth the cost?

Some selfish desires can be satisfied through other paths, and may get less, but the cost will be less.

In the letter, he showed a contradictory and entangled side.

I have no way out until now, so I can only swallow the bitter fruit.

Because he cannot bear the consequences of the disaster of the person who cares and loves; if a person reaches the point where no one shares or pays for it, it is undoubtedly the saddest existence, and no matter how much he has it, it will become meaningless.

……

Yao Ji saw Zhang Ning's weakness, and she hoped that he would be stronger so that he could win and control the overall situation.

But in the end she was more willing to accept the real Zhang Ning at this time. It was because of his fragility that she was someone who was willing to share everything with her and could be firmly grasped by her in her heart.

……

Because it was a private letter, the outside world did not know the content, but important figures including Zhou Mengxiong all heard that Jiujiang sent a letter back to the palace.

Zhou Mengxiong finally agreed to send troops, a compromise made under pressure from all parties.

Wuchang could not bear the consequences of the loss of the Xiang King and the Zhuque Army's elite; Zhou Mengxiong has not yet reached the point where he thought he was confident that he could defeat the North Road of the Official Army.

Both sides concessions, and Zhou Mengxiong could not wait until the opportunity he wanted. If he did not compromise like this, he might see worse results, such as being seized of military power and handed over to someone he thought was even less competent.

At Zhou Mengxiong's request, the new army was reorganized into three camps, named Hu Ben Zhongwu Pingyuan, each camp was about 20,000 people, and six armies were established under the camp.

The system of the army is similar to that of the Zhuque Army’s camps. Each army has about 3,000 people and four posts; each post has 750, five brigades, and a general flag team is located under it.

Liu Mazi, the head general of Hu Benxing camp, was replaced by Zhou Mengxiong himself; Li Wenda, the head general of Zhongwu camp, was transferred by Zhou Mengxiong from other places; only the head general of Pingyuan camp was Liu Heju, who was not very similar to Zhou's people.

Yao Ji and the cabinet in the palace had to rely on Zhou Mengxiong to win this battle, so they could only admit this series of resettlement of military power; especially Mrs. Yao did not interfere at all, which surprised Zhou Mengxiong a little.

Zhou Mengxiong changed into someone he could do and guessed Yao Ji's thoughts.

Perhaps in addition to being forced to be helpless, she also thinks that she is within a controllable range.

Zhou Mengxiong was in charge of military power at this time and had to do his best to fight the decisive battle with the official army, otherwise the entire Huguang regime would not exist, and no matter how high his status was, it would be useless.

If Zhou Mengxiong is defeated and the overall situation collapses, there is no such thing as a power struggle; if you win, Zhang Ning can adjust it in time after getting out of trouble, and it can be easier to regain military power and rebalance, because the new army is not Zhou Mengxiong's private personnel.

Not only did the source of troops come from the recruitment of the imperial department of war, but the military expenditure also came from the Ministry of Revenue and civil servants at all levels. Zhou Mengxiong only had military power and could not penetrate into these yamen; even if he had the courage to deny the orthodox family of Gaozu, it would be difficult to mobilize these tens of thousands of troops to follow, and the Suzaku Army had other troops.

The total strength of the third battalion of the new army was about 60,000, and the total number of troop workers who served as labor service was not allowed. The entire army mobilized more than 100,000 people; the overall Suzaku Army actually belonged to the recruitment system, and the military expenditure was quite huge.

Only Huguang Province, the prefectures and counties on the south bank of the Yangtze River, have borne this military expenditure, and exploitation has reached its limit. Conflicts in various places have rapidly intensified in just a few months, and almost a straw is left to crush the foundation of the rule.

In order to make the final survival struggle, the six ministries of Wuchang and the government agencies at all levels must bear the military expenditure and plunder wealth and materials from all over the country.

First, sell official positions and fame, and directly and clearly priced, ask rich people to pay for official positions and ranks.

Second, the salt quota issuance and silver coupons are super-issuance. Due to the monopoly of official and salt, salt merchants are originally a very profitable industry. However, after the salt quota issuance several times, the market is not that big, and the consequences are quite complicated. In other words, silver coupons can not only be used in the government treasury to exchange materials and gold, silver and copper coins, but the treasury has no money at all, and even the materials are scarce. In fact, it is equivalent to forced use, and it is almost impossible to grab them.

Third, the additional donations and miscellaneous taxes were added to further exploit the people. Because the lower class people had no money, they mainly collected physical goods.

But these methods will continue as they go, the more they will not be able to continue, especially for official positions and fame. Those big families are waiting and watching who can rule Huguang? If the Zhuque Army is defeated and the people from the capital and the court will take over this territory, will the official positions and fame you bought be recognized?

In just a few months, Huguang's economy is on the verge of collapse.

Some counties encountered floods in summer, resulting in poor harvests in autumn. This small-scale natural disaster was normal in peace and prosperity. However, because the local warehouse was hollowed out, the prefecture was unable to provide relief, and local administrative chaos, it was heard that people had starved to death and people were rioted.

From large landlords to poor people, there are tendencies to be unbearable tyranny, and social contradictions are becoming increasingly intensified.

Once the Huguang army is defeated, the situation will definitely be unstoppable. The chief assistant Yang Shiqi has asserted in public that if the situation does not change, the court will not be able to support the second large-scale battle.

Zhou Mengxiong led a large army to fight under this situation. Most of the people had never fought a war, and they had never killed anyone. The soldiers were mainly farmers.

There were no official navy troops near Wuchang in the middle of the Yangtze River, but Zhou Mengxiong still did not dare to walk along the river.

At present, the largest navy of the Vermilion Bird Army is in Yuezhou, with thousands of people; there are also a small number of naval troops in Lizhou and Wuchang, but they are not in scale.

The weak navy was unable to ensure the shipping of the Yangtze River, and he was always worried that the official navy would patrol the river and seize the food and supplies.

Zhou Mengxiong could only go by land, and the food and supplies were transported along land.

Hu Benxing camp was the front army, Zhongwu was in the middle, and Pingyuan was in the back.

The entire army had more than 60,000 troops, each sentry was used as a marching unit, forming 72 troops and slowly marched towards the southern bank of Huangzhou.

The people and horses ran for more than ten miles, and there were tens of thousands of people transporting food behind them.

In addition to using mules, horses, cattle and other livestock to pull carts, people also use single-handed wheelbarrows. The convoy along the way is very spectacular.

Zhou Mengxiong had previously sent people to spend money to bribe a middle-level general and several lower-level generals in the Jiangbei official army through connections, thereby obtaining the general situation of the official army.

The Northern Road Official Army is currently deployed in the southern part of Huangzhou. Although they have all crossed the Yangtze River, they are not in a hurry to continue to move south. Instead, they set up several large camps on the south bank of the Yangtze River to intercept reinforcements.

This route is mainly composed of the Beijing camp and the local guards, which is known as 100,000, but the information Zhou Mengxiong obtained was: the three soldiers of the Shenji camp, namely the Central Army, the number of people at the Zuoye and Youye was about 15,000; all the five military camps were all, and the total number of soldiers at the Wuba was less than 30,000; there were more than 10,000 soldiers at the Zhufu of Henan, De'an, Huguang, Huangzhou, De'an and other local guards.

The number of people who fought for the entire battle was less than 60,000, but with the imaginary number of officials who were vain and some temporary recruitment of traits without weapons, it is not a boast that they claim to be 100,000.

Shenji Camp and Wujun Camp were both soldiers in the Beijing Camp. Some of them participated in the training of the Northern Expedition to Mongolia during the reign of Emperor Yongle. Because most of the soldiers were hereditary, the new soldiers in the son inherited their father's business also had good military training; most of the intermediate military officers came from the Ministry of War. In addition to taking the exam for archery, horses, riding, shooting, swords, guns, and sticks, they also had to take the exam for military strategy theory. The generals who passed the military precepts had higher quality, which was of course even better than the grass-roots farmers.

The Beijing camp is a strong army for Zhou Mengxiong's new army and cannot be regarded as lightly.

However, the remaining more than 10,000 soldiers of the garrison were trapped in Zhou Mengxiong's eyes. The mainland garrison had not used troops for many years, and the system was accelerated, so the Dushi only planned and trained twice a year. The combat power was really limited, and it might be a little stronger than the unorganized green forest mob.

The Northern Road Official Army stationed troops in Huangzhou, located between Wuchang and Jiujiang.

Zhou Mengxiong gave up the clever strategy and prepared to march into Huangzhou steadily, and then talked about the rescue of Jiujiang after the decisive battle with the Northern Route Army...

The world is so big that there are many roads; the siege of Jiujiang is also in a hurry.

However, the Suzaku Army had no right to control water, and the long land supply line was very fragile, so Zhou Mengxiong could not ignore the threat of the Huangzhou official army.

From Wuchang to Huangzhou, the shortest land route is only two hundred miles apart.

Zhou Mengxiong's new army was almost all infantry. He only walked thirty or forty miles a day in a slow day, and only a few days later he entered the battlefield area.