Chapter 333: Turning Point

While the court was busy raising money, the Huguang battlefield also had new changes.

Defending Wuchang Prefecture did not mean that the entire army was huddled in the city; the hundreds of miles from Wuchang to Yuezhou were all battlefields.

The imperial army truly placed in Wuchang City totaled only two garrisons, plus tens of thousands of laborers.

More troops were deployed in surrounding strategic key points to block the enemy army from advancing into the Huguang hinterland.

"Provincial Military Commander, Viceroy, a battle report came from the front line: Assistant Regional Commander Shu led his troops to successfully launch a surprise attack on Huangzhou.

They routed five thousand rebel troops, beheaded over a thousand, and burned the grain and fodder stockpiled by the rebel army at the wharf."

Receiving this good news, everyone revealed smiles.

Beheading thousands of rebel troops was nothing; in recent days, the imperial army had launched attacks many times, and most of the time they had gains.

The true significance lay in burning the rebel army's grain and fodder.

Although it was only one of the enemy army's many granaries, it also possessed positive significance.

Sixty thousand troops were dragged to the front line, and every day they had to consume over ten thousand shi of grain.

This battle was equivalent to wiping out half a month's worth of grain for the enemy army.

Soldiers have to eat, and livestock have to eat fodder.

With a gap appearing, they had to find a way to make up for it.

The over ten thousand shi of grain on the front line was not this number when it reached the rear.

"Well done; tell Shu Zhongyi not to linger in one place for a long time.

Do not be limited to one city or one place; attack if there is an opportunity, and give up if conditions are not mature.

In the upcoming great battle, there is no specific target; he can play freely.

The same order, also tell the other several routes of soldiers.

As long as they don't suffer losses, they are allowed to dispatch troops on a small scale."

Li Mu immediately ordered.

Relying on the warhorses captured in Shandong, his cavalry unit successfully expanded to five thousand people.

It was nothing in the northern border, but in the southeastern provinces, this was the strongest cavalry unit.

With the high mobility of cavalry, there was no reason not to use it.

The rebel army never dreamed that the imperial army would cross the Han River, borrow the path from Xiangyang, and make a detour to kill into Huangzhou.

Relying on surprise, they successfully destroyed the materials stockpiled by the rebel army at the wharf.

With the first time, there would be a second time.

Even if the imperial army didn't attack, for the sake of grain safety, the rebel army had to dispatch more troops to guard the rear.

Unfortunately, the court's inland water navy was wiped out; otherwise, if the water route gave the rebel army another hit, the enemy army would be even more panicked.

After the imperial army reclaimed Huguang, the first thing they did was to restore the production of the inland shipyards.

But it was not to produce merchant ships, but to rush to produce warships.

Stopping the pace in Huguang and not continuing south was, to a certain extent, also because the imperial army's water navy lacked the ability to seize control of the Yangtze River shipping lane.

The great battle has progressed to now, and the strategic core set by Li Mu has not changed.

Mobilize the enemy, split the enemy, annihilate the enemy.

The rebel army seemingly sat on sixty thousand troops, but their troop utilization rate was very low, and many troops were contained.

On the local battlefield, many times the troops engaged by both sides were actually about the same.

Without any accidents, with similar troop strength, the rebel army had no power to fight back at all.

"They routed another five thousand rebel troops; counting the previous several confrontations, the number of rebel troops we have cumulatively routed has exceeded forty thousand.

The heads captured also number five or six thousand.

Adding the losses of the enemy army attacking the city, the rebel army's troop loss is at least over twenty thousand.

According to this fighting method, I am afraid that in a few months, the rebel army will not be able to stand it!"

Li Yuan said in a great mood.

Small victories looked inconspicuous when viewed separately, but when added together, the battle results were quite impressive.

The rebel army arrived under the walls of Wuchang City, and in less than half a month, they had fought away two or three thousand people.

It couldn't be said to be hurting the muscles and bones, but it would definitely affect morale.

"There are only those calculated; the routed soldiers will not all return to the enemy camp.

Some rebel soldiers were scared by us and took advantage of the chaos to leave the enemy camp, which is also not a small number.

The rebel army lacks effective care, relying entirely on the wounded to hold on themselves, so the reduction in personnel must be quite a lot.

If Wei the Rebel's arithmetic is good, I estimate that he is already scratching his head now.

Compared to before, the rebel army has become cautious, and our several layouts have not been taken by the enemy.

Otherwise, the current battle results could at least be increased threefold.

Not being able to achieve a big breakthrough is also a good thing.

If it were really fought fiercely and the rebel army was scared out of its wits, I estimate they would just run away directly.

Once the enemy army gives up the attack and fully defends the city, the war will not be so easy to fight!

News came from the court that the Emperor has issued an imperial decree for the imperial army in Henan and Shandong to march south to reclaim lost territory.

The troops we left in Guangdong and Fujian have also launched attacks on Zhejiang and Jiangxi respectively, and the flames of war are burning more and more vigorously.

Dragging the war situation down is beneficial to the overall situation of quelling the rebellion."

Li Mu said with feigned calmness.

These words were all deliberately said for everyone to hear.

It was to pass the good news down through their mouths, to boost the morale of the army in the city.

If he could truly and decisively wipe out the rebel army, he would have led his troops out to slaughter them long ago; why would he need to remain in a stalemate with the enemy army?

The so-called strategic big picture is the court's strategic big picture.

For the commander personally, the most immediate harvest is still illustrious military merit.

Even if he doesn't need it himself, his own relatives and the little brothers of the direct line also need it.

Not to mention the distant ones, at least his uncle's three sons cannot be allowed to return without merit.

Directly conferring a title is certainly unrealistic.

Virtue not matching position will inevitably lead to disaster.

But letting people rub some military merit and get a good position in the court after the war is something that cannot be missing.

The trusted subordinates below don't need to be mentioned; many people are stuck at the threshold of mid-level generals and high-level generals because of a lack of political resources.

Wanting to cross the threshold requires the blessing of military merit.

In recent days, Li Mu has been busy with the great battle, and Li Yuan has likewise not been idle.

However, it was not sorting out military affairs, but contacting the clan to see which girls in the clan had reached the age of marriage and had not yet been promised to anyone.

Trusted generals who were painstakingly cultivated certainly cannot be let others pull away.

The method of political marriage, although old-fashioned, wins by being effective.

Married generals are not discussed for now; the marriage of other young generals still needs to be worried about.

Once crossing the threshold of high-level generals, they possess the value of being won over.

The direct line of the Hou Fu is not enough; there are still distant branches of the clan.

Many distant branches have long since declined, and thanks to the protection of the clan, their lives can be slightly better than ordinary people.

The name of the Hou Fu is just something to take out and blow a cow.

Being able to marry these young generals is also a good thing.

The grass-roots generals cultivated by Li Mu don't need to be mentioned; if their families lived well, they wouldn't come out to be soldiers.

Interpersonal relationships are all in the army; letting their fathers arrange it, at most it's just the daughter of a village scholar.

If they meet someone with shallow eyes, it's probably a merchant's daughter.

It's not discriminating against merchant daughters, mainly in an era where the concept of scholar-farmer-artisan-merchant is deeply rooted in people's hearts, the merchant background is naturally a grade lower.

Even if it is a famous big salt merchant in the world, usually glorious and unlimited, the political status is pitifully low.

Among so many big officials in the court, none have married merchant daughters.

It's not that merchants didn't bet on scholars in advance, but once the two sides are married, they are destined not to climb to high positions.

Even if they pass the top scholar exam, it's useless; when they develop to a certain extent, they will encounter a threshold.

This is an unwritten rule of the officialdom.

The military general group is also applicable; violating the unwritten rule, a hat of "greedy for money and lustful" is directly buckled on the forehead.

It can be called professional discrimination, but this is the experience and lesson accumulated by the ancestors.

Eradicating the combination of power and money is something that rulers of all dynasties have been working hard to do.

It is a pity that the combination on the surface has been eradicated, but the connection in the dark has never been cut off.

Ganzhou Prefecture.

The roaring sound of artillery fire sounded, and the city gate suddenly opened, scaring the attacking imperial army.

"Stop the attack, first see what conspiracy the enemy army has?"

Zhang Ning immediately ordered.

It was simply too weird; the battle had just started, and the enemy army surrendered by opening the city.

If it happened at the end of the rebellion-quelling war, and the military and civilians in the city didn't want to lose their lives, it could still be understood.

Now Wei the Rebel, although having suffered certain setbacks, still has strength.

A strategic key point like Ganzhou, which also stockpiled a large amount of strategic materials, must certainly have a large number of defending troops in the city.

"General, we are truly toward the court!

Once we move, the rebels in the city will soon react; the speed must be fast.

Even if you are worried about a conspiracy, it won't be wrong to take the city gate first!"

Listening to the middle-aged man's words, Zhang Ning's hanging heart fell a lot.

No matter if it is the enemy's conspiracy or not, the city gate sent over, don't take it for nothing.

"Pass the order down, the main army immediately takes over the city gate.

After discovering there is no problem, then launch an attack into the city!"

Following an order, the main army successfully took over the city gate.

The rebel soldiers who originally defended the city not only did not resist but instead revealed expressions of relief.

Through some exchanges, Zhang Ning soon figured out the situation.

The reason why the soldiers defending Ganzhou City surrendered so refreshingly was entirely caused by the previous garrison and the prefect.

In the last Ganzhou defense battle, Yu Dadan and Duan Shengde, in order to defend the city, took a series of radical measures, forming a blood feud with the military and civilians in the city.

The means were too bloody to be brought to the table, so the rebel high-level officials chose to cover it up.

After the war, the two were promoted and left, but the military and civilians of Ganzhou were separated from the rebel army.

After suffering a loss once, now the military and civilians of Ganzhou have all learned to be smart.

Under the trend of hatred and common interests, as soon as the imperial army attacked the city, they directly offered the city gate.

With a group of insiders helping, the subsequent city attack was so smooth that Zhang Ning felt incredible.

The rebel generals just organized a counterattack, and someone took the lead to run away.

Some generals wanted to stop them, but were shot by their own people with cold arrows.

The city attack battle had only progressed halfway, and someone beheaded the rebel defending general and ran over to claim credit from him.

Seeing that the general trend was gone, the remaining defending soldiers also successively put down their weapons.

"Gentlemen, rest assured, the contributions you have made will not be forgotten by the court.

The things in the past were all forced by the rebels, and you were forced to do them.

Everyone being able to abandon darkness for light, those things in the past will all be let off without blame.

This general will ask for credit for you from the Provincial Military Commander!

The court reclaiming Ganzhou, you are all the first-merit ministers.

This general takes the liberty to decide to take a share from the spoils of war in the city as a reward for everyone.

Each person will be issued three shi of rice, ten taels of silver, half a bolt of cloth, and ten jin of salt; those who don't want grain, cloth, or salt can also be cashed out according to the market price.

Those who want to return home, after the war, this general will open a road permit for you.

Those willing to stay, wait for this general to go to the Provincial Military Commander's side to apply for a position for you.

..."

Zhang Ning immediately promised everyone.

With the promotion of his position, his political sensitivity also increased accordingly.

The rebel army's surrender in formation brought political influence that was by no means just reclaiming a Ganzhou City.

Everything done now was for the sake of buying horse bones with a thousand gold.

According to the previous plan, he feigned an attack on Ganzhou Prefecture to attract the enemy's attention, dispatched troops to surprise the enemy's rear, and destroyed the rebels' rule in Jiangxi.

Using the movement stirred up to exert pressure on Wei the Rebel thousands of miles away, influencing his decision-making.

Now being able to reclaim Ganzhou City, seize the materials stockpiled by the rebel army here, the effect caused will only be better.

The reward issued at this time is essentially still for the sake of buying horse bones with a thousand gold.

With the cooperation of these locals, stabilizing the situation in Ganzhou will be much simpler.

Taking Ganzhou is equivalent to seizing the bridgehead for the northern expedition, and Jiangxi will inevitably be shaken.

The most critical thing is that the materials for subsequent operations are basically ready.

Except for some ammunition that needs to be supplied from the rear, other materials were prepared by the rebel army.

Under Wuchang City, allied camp.

Looking at the battle report in his hand, Wang Weijiarui couldn't believe his eyes.

The Ganzhou City that blocked tens of thousands of imperial troops outside in the last great battle was actually lost so quickly.

Although the target of the city attack changed from the Fujian imperial army to the Liangguang imperial army, and the combat effectiveness improved quite a bit, this result still made him unable to accept.

"Trash!"

"All trash!"

"In the last Ganzhou defense battle, there were only a few thousand defending troops in the city, and Yu Dadan could hold Ganzhou City.

This time there were a full thirty thousand main force troops in the city, plus twenty thousand laborers, and it was actually captured by the enemy in one day.

Even if there were fifty thousand pigs placed in the city for the enemy to catch, they wouldn't be able to catch them all in one day!

..."

Wang Weijiarui couldn't help but curse angrily.

Now the one guarding Ganzhou is his trusted beloved general, who made great contributions in past great battles and was deeply trusted by him.

However, originally how much he trusted, now he hated how much.

Even if he couldn't hold Ganzhou, at least he should have persisted for a few months; how could he lose the city on the first day.

Wang Weijiarui, who was already worried because the Huguang war had not made progress for a long time, now completely collapsed.

To hell with his imperial dignity; whoever wants to act can act themselves; he only knows that he is very angry.

If it weren't for the defending general dying in Ganzhou, he would have liked to drag the person out and scrape him alive.

"Prince, calm your anger!"

"The top priority is not to pursue responsibility, but to quickly block the news.

The Wuchang battle is in a stalemate, which is the time to test the morale of the army.

The news of Ganzhou's fall must not be passed out.

In order to avoid the deterioration of the situation in Jiangxi, please ask the Prince to immediately select a fierce general to go back and preside over the overall situation!"

Prime Minister Chang Junyi opened his mouth to persuade.

It won't work not to block the news; the Wuchang battle is not going well to begin with.

If the soldiers were allowed to know that the Jiangxi old nest also had problems, the consequences would only be more serious.

Once the morale of the army has problems, the subsequent war will not be able to be fought.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 334 =====