Chapter 359: Restarting the Nanjing Battle

"Impossible!"

"The noble families of Yangzhou defected to our dynasty, but they submitted a letter of surrender.

With the things they did, returning to the puppet court side, they will inevitably be liquidated.

Qin Tianrui's weight is not enough; he is not qualified to protect them all in front of the puppet emperor.

Even if some betrayed, it would be at most a portion of the families; there would not be a collective betrayal!"

Hu Yuzhe hurriedly refuted.

The intermarriage between the powerful and noble in the court and the scholar-official families was a suggestion he made; the Yangzhou noble families were just a part of it.

The effect was very obvious.

Facing the great ladies sent to their door, the group of upstarts in the Wu State simply couldn't handle it.

Without much effort, everyone became their own people.

With the pillow talk, the surrendered official faction led by him quickly integrated into the Wu State's power center.

The Emperor Pingnan Fu Haoxuan also trusted him greatly.

The Yangzhou noble families' rebellion instantly pushed him into an awkward position.

Once trust is lost, the good days for these surrendered officials will come to an end.

"Minister Hu, if it weren't for these guys betraying, even if the end general were more incompetent, I wouldn't have lost Yangzhou Prefecture so quickly.

Just wait and see!

If they didn't betray our Wu State, the Great Dayu side would definitely liquidate them.

Conversely, if the puppet court accepts them, it proves that what the end general said is not false!"

Liu Laoxu guaranteed with certainty.

He didn't know how many people betrayed, but he had already helped the Great Dayu do the liquidation work in advance.

The noble families in Yangzhou City were now all wearing mourning clothes, and everyone was crying.

Some unlucky ones were directly wiped out.

With so many people dead, if the Great Dayu court pursued their responsibility, it would be unreasonable.

Let time verify it; he was not afraid at all.

It seems he is rough and hasn't read much; those are all appearances.

If you really treat him as a reckless man, then just wait to be pitted!

Ordering the slaughter of the noble families in the city before retreating was not only to vent anger but also to find a scapegoat for losing the city and territory.

"Alright, the truth of this matter will be known later."

"Now that Yangzhou has fallen, our Great Wu dynasty is in danger; do you ministers have any wonderful strategies to reverse the situation?"

Pingnan Fu Haoxuan asked.

Investigating the group of Yangzhou noble families, the matter should end there.

Continuing to investigate, the fire would burn to everyone's back house, and even his harem would be affected.

As an emperor, Pingnan Fu Haoxuan wants face.

Such shameful things can be handled privately; there is no need to make a big fuss.

Rather than caring about these trifles, it is better to consider the aftermath.

"Your Majesty, Yangzhou Prefecture is lost; just take it back.

The enemy troops entrenched in Yangzhou are only the Jiangxi First Town.

Fighting all the way from Anqing to Yangzhou, the enemy cannot be unscathed, and the puppet court generals also like to eat empty pay.

A town that is not full, at most, has six or seven thousand people.

Now mobilizing troops, it is entirely possible to take Yangzhou Prefecture back before the puppet court reacts."

Yang Jingren's words made Fan Xiuwen half-dead with anger.

The Right Chancellor only needs to give suggestions; the implementation is all the work of the Ministry of War.

Theoretically, concentrating the main army now can indeed take back Yangzhou Prefecture.

The problem is that the Ministry of War does not have that many mobile troops now.

The enemy being able to quickly seize Yangzhou City, having internal agents is not enough; they themselves must also possess sufficient strength.

Referring to the imperial army's combat power, without several times the troops, going over is just contributing combat records to the enemy.

Moreover, the enemy is now the side defending the city, which increases the difficulty of the war.

"Right Chancellor, most of the country's armies are concentrated on the front line, and the number of troops left behind is limited.

The mobile troops prepared earlier have now been taken to Suzhou Prefecture by the Marquis of Wumu.

At this moment, it should be about time for fighting to break out there; if they withdraw in a short time, it will inevitably shake the morale of the front-line army.

To quickly recover Yangzhou Prefecture, the only way is to mobilize troops from the capital.

Once this is done, the capital will be empty.

If the enemy troops seize the opportunity and head straight for our Great Wu capital, that will be troublesome!"

Fan Xiuwen politely refused.

Yangzhou City is the gateway to Nanjing, and he also wants to take it back as soon as possible.

But having ideas does not mean it can be done.

With insufficient troops in hand, he, the Minister of War, has no way.

In fact, he, the Minister of War, is only high-ranking and powerful on the surface.

Those arrogant soldiers and fierce generals below simply cannot be managed by him.

The power to mobilize troops and appoint generals is all in the hands of the emperor; the Ministry of War plays more of a role in helping the emperor.

The main significance of its existence is not to manage the national army, but to take the blame for the emperor after problems arise.

"There are not many troops in the capital; at most, two or three tens of thousands of troops can be mobilized; any more will affect the defense of the capital.

The puppet court army dares to go deep alone to seize Yangzhou, so it is possible to raid Nanjing.

If the troops are insufficient, it is easy for the enemy to take advantage of it.

If the Ministry of War has difficulties, think of ways to overcome them.

Our Great Wu has a million-strong army; if the troops are insufficient, think of ways to squeeze them out, and there will naturally be some."

While speaking, Yang Jingren specially glanced at Hu Yuzhe.

The defensive power of a great city like Nanjing goes without saying.

When the righteous army attacked Nanjing, they attacked for more than a year and paid a painful price before taking it.

Changing to the Yu army to attack, it is equally impossible to take it in the short term; the only risk is working together inside and out.

First, a large number of Chu State officials rebelled, and then the Yangzhou noble families defected; a trust crisis inevitably appeared in the Wu State court.

Even the most trusted Hu Yuzhe has now become a suspect.

A group of Great Dayu surrendered officials and officials from gentry backgrounds all look like traitors.

……

Yangzhou City.

As the winner of the great battle, Qin Tianrui is busy pacifying the group of injured noble families in the city.

The battle situation was truly too tragic; counting every family, all suffered heavy losses.

Those who could survive were all lucky ones.

This letter of surrender should be the most tragic in history.

The matter developed to this step; even pleading can be saved; anyone who sees it will say they are loyal.

Deep in his heart, Qin Tianrui still had a bit of small embarrassment.

The tragic scene was entirely due to his misjudgment of the noble families' strength in the city, which led to it.

He just wanted to weaken their strength, but never imagined that he would weaken it too much in a moment of carelessness.

Now there is no need to be wary; without decades of time, they simply cannot recover from this loss.

Competition also exists within the gentry group; they will not watch them recover.

During this period, there must be many challengers taking the opportunity to squeeze their interests.

Knowing is knowing, but Qin Tianrui had no intention of pitying them.

Family rise and fall is the norm, and noble families cannot escape the laws of history.

Think of his Xingguo Duke Mansion; at its peak, it was much more prominent than these local noble families in Yangzhou, but it still headed toward decline.

Even the title left by the ancestors, they did not take it back.

The interests in the court were all divided up.

If they hadn't known the times and adjusted their strategy in time, they wouldn't even have the opportunity for revival.

He himself is still struggling for the revival of the family business; where does he have the energy to pity others?

"Pass the order down: immediately send the victory report back to the Viceroy's office."

Scanning the official document and confirming there were no omissions, Qin Tianrui immediately ordered.

With the merit of recovering Yangzhou, he, the General of the Jiangxi First Town, can be considered to have lived up to his name.

When discussing merits after the war, his ranking will definitely not be low.

The more it is this kind of time, the more one must be careful and cautious.

Without reinforcements, sitting in a lonely city is very dangerous.

……

Nanchang Camp.

Except for the initial tentative attacks, the two sides directly opened the mode of staring at each other.

Occasionally bored, the imperial army and the rebel army launched a scolding battle.

At the beginning, the imperial army sent scholars who were good at speaking, but unfortunately, they were defeated in the scolding battle.

Various classical Chinese, the rebel soldiers simply couldn't understand.

No matter how literary the scolding is, it is useless work.

On the contrary, the rebel soldiers' full mouths of dirty words, although lacking connotation, everyone could understand.

After realizing this, the two armies directly opened the mode of greeting each other.

If not heard with his own ears, Li Mu wouldn't believe there were so many dirty words in the world.

"Report!"

"General Qin sent news that the Jiangxi First Town seized Yangzhou City five days ago, beheading enemy troops..."

The victory report flying into the camp made everyone confused.

Clearly, the Jiangxi First Town went to Anqing, then transferred to Luzhou Prefecture; the Marquis of Wuyang even contacted the imperial armies of Huguang and Henan, preparing to rendezvous with them.

Never imagined that in just over ten days, the good news of recovering Yangzhou would come.

After a brief loss of focus, everyone cast their eyes on Li Mu.

This is the military method of catching them unprepared, filled with a strong Li Mu color.

"Everyone, don't look at me like this; I told you earlier that the Jiangxi First Town might go to recover the lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

Now General Qin recovered Yangzhou, which is entirely within reason."

Li Mu said with a smile.

Such an answer obviously could not convince everyone.

"Might go to recover" represents drawing a cake.

In the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, there are only a few prefectures, and Yangzhou City's importance definitely ranks at the forefront.

Under normal circumstances, the Jiangxi First Town alone simply couldn't seize Yangzhou.

Going deep alone is almost the same as sending oneself to death.

Unexpectedly, the drawn cake became reality again.

So much so that everyone suspected this was Li Mu's secret arrangement.

In fact, from the beginning of the expedition to Anqing, he had completely delegated power.

Separated by hundreds of miles, remote control and showing off operations is very life-threatening.

To erupt with combat power, the best choice is to let the generals play autonomously.

The purpose of this expedition was to cause destruction; the main army hitting Yangzhou is a strategic victory, and seizing Yangzhou City is entirely beyond expectations.

"Regional Commander, how many things are you hiding from us?"

Jiangxi Provincial Governor Bai Panshan asked with a depressed face.

Deceiving the enemy is fine, but actually deceiving one's own people.

Going deep into the enemy's rear and being able to seize an important city completely does not conform to the art of war.

However, in view of Li Mu's combat record, no one dared to take the art of war and talk to him.

As long as they can win the battle, all other problems are secondary.

"Minister Bai, I didn't deceive you.

This operation was purely an accident.

Our initial strategic goal was Anqing, but we encountered the pig teammates of the Regiment Army and could only choose a tactical transfer.

Later, exerting force to take Yangzhou City was caused by many factors; you can wait for General Qin to return to discuss the specific battle situation."

Li Mu explained calmly.

It is truly not that he wants to pretend to be forceful; recovering Yangzhou City was entirely an unexpected joy.

He doesn't need military merit now, so there is no need to share the subordinates' credit in this regard.

"Recovering Yangzhou City is like a steel knife inserted into the enemy's heart.

In the subsequent great battle to suppress the rebellion, the strategic initiative has already reached our hands.

Subsequently, we only need to send troops over, use Yangzhou Prefecture as a fulcrum, and launch an attack on Nanjing.

The importance of the other battlefields is greatly reduced.

As for how to fight specifically, Regional Commander Li will be responsible for arranging it!"

The Marquis of Wuyang said happily.

He didn't read military books in vain; he knew the strategic locations of the Great Dayu dynasty clearly.

Yangzhou Prefecture is a lonely city, but it is also not a lonely city.

The navy can transport reinforcements and supplies directly through maritime transport.

"Nanjing, whether in political status or strategic value, is far higher than Nanchang, Jiujiang, Hangzhou, and other places.

The court also closely follows Nanjing's movements; having the opportunity to directly recover Nanjing is much more cost-effective than investing heavy troops in other areas.

Besides leaving a town of troops to continue to contain the rebel army in Nanchang City, the rest of the troops should hurry to participate in the Nanjing Battle.

Not only on our side, but we must also coordinate with colleagues as soon as possible.

As long as the news of recovering Yangzhou spreads, those who have ideas about the merit of recovering Nanjing will actively participate.

Concentrate the forces of all parties, take Nanjing as soon as possible, and I want to break the rebel army's spine in one fell swoop!"

Li Mu said with a serious expression.

Emperor Yongning has been urging them to recover Nanjing; now the opportunity has finally been sent to the door, so naturally, it must be grasped in time.

Recovering Nanjing, this great battle to suppress the rebellion will enter the final stage.

War is about people's hearts.

Losing Nanjing City, fighting for the world becomes a joke, and it is difficult for the rebel army's hearts not to scatter.

After fighting this battle, he should be busy recovering the "Jiaozhi Provincial Administration Commissioner," without having to compete with colleagues within the Great Dayu.

"We obey!"

A group of officials answered in unison.

It can be seen that the temptation of recovering Nanjing is not ordinary for everyone.

Even if it is just to make up the numbers, they must actively participate.

……

Outside Hangzhou City.

"The Jiangxi army recovered Yangzhou, and the Marquis of Wuyang invited us to launch the Nanjing Battle together, directly capturing the thief and capturing the king.

Fellow colleagues, do you have different insights?"

Looking at the official document in his hand, Jing Guoliang's hands trembled while speaking.

Yangzhou City returning to the imperial army's hands so quickly was completely beyond his expectations.

If it weren't based on trust in the Marquis of Wuyang and Li Mu, he wouldn't dare to read the content of the letter.

The imperial army fought too fast, without a single sign beforehand.

"Governor, what is there to hesitate about? Such a thing as recovering Nanjing must definitely be actively participated in.

The subordinate proposes to immediately mobilize the navy and transport the various units over.

Start from the two lines of Suzhou Prefecture and Yangzhou Prefecture, march toward Ying Tian Prefecture, and strive to recover Nanjing within the year.

Let the officials in the court see the style of our Min-Zhe men!"

The Zhejiang Provincial Governor responded immediately.

That excitement, those who didn't know would think he had been promoted.

……

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 360 =====