Chapter 438 Transition
Time flies by, and in the blink of an eye, three years have passed since the Ming Dynasty's 500,000 troops marched south.
These three years have had a very far-reaching impact on the situation in Ming Dynasty, and the changes they have brought about are also very large.
First of all, the army of 500,000 marched southward, and the morale of the army was raging. They attacked the city and seized the land along the way, without any obstacles, and quickly regained the land of the two provinces. And gradually invaded the enemy's Gyeonggi land, causing turmoil in the enemy's country, causing countless oppressed righteous men to rise up against the enemy's tyranny and respond to the imperial court's crusade.
Rebellions in various places quickly disrupted the barely settled rule of Yuguo, causing turmoil in the originally stable rear, and loopholes in the collection of taxes and the maintenance of the situation, and the integrity of the defense.
Daming's army took advantage of this opportunity to attack, achieved great results, and regained some lost ground, greatly increasing their momentum.
Things went smoothly. It seemed that if it went on like this, the Ming army would be able to regain all the lost land in the south within a year and completely drive out the rebellious forces.
But everyone soon discovered that their predictions were all wrong.
Although a lot of land was lost, the territory that Zhong Yu could control suddenly shrank on a large scale, and the strategic space became narrow and difficult to move.
But from another point of view, it also represents the central region. There are a lot less places to defend. It is possible to concentrate the limited army and defend in more critical places. It has stronger forces to resist the enemy's attack and let the defense line become thicker.
This change made it difficult for the stronger crusade army to make an effective breakthrough in the next attack.
However, although the defense has become more stable, the Ming army was able to slowly capture some fortresses regardless of losses by virtue of its superiority in numbers, and slowly moved towards the center of Jiangdu City.
Since Daming captured more and more provinces, its strength has also become stronger.
Whether it's a search in the newly recovered provinces, or some help from the mainland, the strength of the Ming Crusade Army has gradually increased.
One year after the start of the war, four of the six southern provinces had been lost. The Ming army completely surrounded Zhong Yu's territory and began a large-scale general offensive. The number of Ming's army has reached an astonishing 1.2 million, while the opposite Yuguo still has only 400,000.
The reason for this is mainly because Zhong Yu has the resources of the small world, and can continuously draw troops from all walks of life to fill the consumption on the battlefield.
Zhong Yu couldn't trust the locals from all over the south. All of them were devoted to the Ming Dynasty, and they regarded Zhong Yu as an invader, a traitor and rebellion, and they couldn't get their sincere support at all.
Recruiting them to serve as an army is only used to send troops and equipment to the Ming Dynasty on the opposite side. It is of no use at all, but will increase the strength of the enemy.
So Zhong Yu could only, and only dared to recruit people from his own small world.
However, the resources of the small world are limited after all. Although it has the support of the heavens and the world, maintaining the rule of all circles also requires strength. Moreover, it is necessary to ensure that the new world can be continuously plundered to carry out greater plunder, and it is necessary to maintain a large invading army.
In this way, although Zhong Yu's army is large, many of them will be assigned to various worlds to suppress and rule, or capture new worlds to bring more income and resources to Zhong Yu.
There are really not many forces that can be drawn out to support Zhong Yu's battle in the world of Liaozhai.
In fact, because of Zhong Yu's continuous mobilization of troops and horses over the years and the consumption of luck and energy, the operation of the small world has already experienced a slight load, which is somewhat difficult to maintain.
Even the territories that have been conquered by all walks of life are gradually experiencing small-scale hope and turmoil due to insufficient guarding forces.
If it weren't for Zhong Yu's ability to quickly mobilize the power of other worlds, come to those turbulent worlds to quell the rebellion, and stabilize the situation, maybe these worlds may escape Zhong Yu's control again.
Because there are so many sites to maintain and such a big situation to control, Zhong Yu has very little power to mobilize. Up to now, it can only maintain 400,000 troops on the battlefield to resist the attack of the Ming army that is three times its size.
But fortunately, it is now in a defensive position. It does not need to confront the Ming army on the frontal battlefield. It can use the advantage of the city wall to defend, which greatly reduces the loss of Zhong Yu. It is rare that the battlefield can be maintained.
Now it is because there are fewer places to defend and more troops can be concentrated, and the defenses of Zhong Yu's various defensive cities are also much stronger. The enemy wanted to capture it, but didn't pay several times the casualties, so don't even think about it.
However, the situation is ultimately tilted in the direction of the Ming Dynasty. No matter how persistently Zhong Yu resists, it is still difficult to stop the Ming Dynasty's increasing army and continuous supply.
After resisting for half a year, there was only one province left between the two provinces, and even if the 400,000 army had been supplemented, only 300,000 remained.
Zhong Yu was trapped in Jiangdong Province, trapped in Jiangdu City, where he was doing his last struggle.
Daming wanted to recover the south more quickly. In order to eliminate the remaining enemies in the south more quickly, more troops were mobilized to besiege the remnants of the Imperial Kingdom in Jiangdong Province.
The rest of Zhong Yu's army resisted desperately, because they knew that they had no way out, they were surrounded by enemies, and they had nowhere to escape.
As for the situation where the enemy on the opposite side of the surrender is red-eyed, it is not certain whether to accept it or not. And no one knows whether he will regret it after accepting it.
After fighting for another half a year, when the Yu Kingdom's army was completely dead and wounded, and there was no longer any resistance.
Zhong Yu decisively led the domestic high-level officials to withdraw to the eastern land, where he led the army to carry out the next resistance.
The previous wars were all placed in the six southern provinces, and the four eastern provinces of Yuguo were not greatly affected, not only because the Ming army did not have more troops to attack separately, but also because the capital of Yuguo was in the south.
According to the general thinking at the time, if the capital fell, most of the country would basically be ruined, and the remaining land could be swept down like a plow.
So as long as the capital, which has gathered most of the power of a country, is taken, how can the remaining forces stop the powerful enemy who can take the capital?
So after the six southern provinces were completely captured, the daimyo's crusade army still had about one million left, and they immediately turned their guns and attacked the remaining four eastern provinces.
There were still 200,000 remnant soldiers from the Imperial Kingdom entrenched there. After sweeping them away, Daming truly regained the territory taken by the rebels.
Except for the five provinces taken by the Jin Dynasty in the north, all the land can be restored. This is an exciting event.