Chapter 134 Why can’t I go to the battlefield?
In early July, two pieces of good news reached the Tang army camp near Yangzhou Prefecture.

First, Concubine Dong gave birth to the first prince, a big fat boy weighing 7.9 jin.

Second, the navy from southern Liaoning, Juehua Island and other places finally arrived. Before that, the navy from Tianjin and Shandong Denglai had already been stationed in Nantong Prefecture, Jingjiang County and other places. After the northern navy arrived, the Tang army's attack on the south bank of the Yangtze River officially began.

The Nanjing regime of Zhu Changxun was short of military force, and its main fighting forces were either a few troops retreating from the north or local and Han soldiers transferred from the southwest.

The defense south of the Yangtze River was under the charge of Zhu Xieyuan and Zhang Heming.

Zhu Xieyuan was a 61-year-old veteran official who had been stationed in the southwest for a long time. He put down the rebellion of She Chongming in Sichuan. Last year, when he was about to fight the rebellious chieftain in Guizhou, his father passed away, so he returned to his hometown to mourn.

Zhang Heming succeeded Zhu Xieyuan as the governor-general of Guizhou, Sichuan, Huguang, Yunnan and Guangxi. After the sudden changes in the north, he stabilized the situation in the south and sent the native and guest soldiers gathered in Sichuan and other places to the east in case of sudden changes.

Both the Tang and Ming armies had relatively strong naval forces. Therefore, the Tang emperor, who sought stability, quickly sent naval forces to capture Zhenjiang Prefecture, just south of Yangzhou Prefecture, after all the naval forces he could recruit had arrived, and then moved his troops south.

The water network in the south of the Yangtze River is well developed, so the Tang army's Liao cavalry's tactics of rapid raids and close combat, which they are good at, could not be used.

Because the Ming army always pursued the strategy of building strong camps and fighting static battles, the equipment of the soldiers in the south of the Yangtze River was not very good, but their firearms and chieftain soldiers were remarkable.

Therefore, the Tang army advanced towards the city of Nanjing in the west by both water and land.

Nanzhili has not experienced large-scale unrest for nearly a hundred years. The last major military turmoil was during the Jiajing period when more than 50 Japanese pirates arrived at the outskirts of Nanjing.

In order to minimize the impact of the war, Emperor Xianqing specifically ordered that ordinary people should not be harassed. When going to the homes of wealthy families to collect salaries, they would also target large landowners who owned thousands of acres of land.

The Tang army's intensity of exploiting the land was much smaller, but the salary they extorted from Zhenjiang and Yingtian prefectures was no less than that from any other prefecture in northern Jiangsu. The cotton cloth from one prefecture was even equivalent to that from three or four prefectures in the north.

In the late Ming Dynasty, cotton planting was popular in Southern Zhili. Not only the rich families but also the common people made a lot of profit from cotton spinning and became much richer than the poor people in the north.

It took the Tang army five days to cover the 140 miles from Zhenjiang to Nanjing. After recruiting a large number of grain transport troops and civilian laborers, the Tang army's marching speed dropped to about the same level as that of the ordinary Ming army.

Apart from the city walls, Nanjing City also has an outer wall with a circumference of more than 120 miles. There are 18 city gates in the outer wall. There are brick-covered city walls near the gates, and the rest of the city is all earth embankments.

It took only an hour or so to break through the earthen embankment because the Ming army did not defend it carefully. Afterwards, the main force of the Tang army was stationed near Houhu and Hongshan in the northeast of Nanjing City.

The Tang army navy anchored near the outer city's Funing Gate.

In order to prevent Zhu Changxun and other powerful people from fleeing southward, Emperor Xianqing specially deployed elite cavalry to surround the outer city of Nanjing.

After everything was ready, on July 15th, the Tang army officially deployed its troops, with the land troops attacking the city from the Shence and Jinchuan gates, and the navy supporting from the Yifeng gate in the west.

It just so happened that the northern part of Nanjing City was the military camp where the defenders were stationed. The Ming army was relatively professional in defending the city. Zhu Xieyuan, who was in charge of the defense, was an old official who had led troops for many years. There were not many mistakes in the morning battle, and his use of artillery was even much better than that of the northern soldiers, causing a lot of losses to the Tang army's siege equipment.

The two sides fought until the afternoon, and the Tang Emperor, who felt that the progress was too slow, finally could not bear it any longer, so he ordered his men to push the special catapults to the foot of the city, preparing to climb the city wall and fight in person.

"Your Majesty, how can this be done? The affairs of state depend on your Majesty, how can you sacrifice yourself to attack the city?"

"Our Tang army has the best timing and support, and the food supply route to Huguang has been cut off by our army by water. Even if we fail to capture the city, we can still kill the rebels inside. Your Majesty, you must not risk arrows and firearms in person!"

Many civil officials and military generals knelt before the dragon chariot and begged for mercy. The new dynasty had just started, and apart from the concubines and relatives in the inner court, they were the ones who least wanted anything to happen to the emperor.

Li Hao laughed, "Why can't I go to the battlefield? Bring me the battle axe!"

With only tens of thousands of health points, he could chase down and kill all the defenders of Nanjing by himself, provided they didn't wander around.

Seeing that they could not persuade the Emperor, many civil and military officials, after discussion, requested to dispatch elite troops to climb ladders to attack the city, hoping to disperse the firepower of the defenders.

Emperor Xianqing agreed with a wave of his hand. The emperor's personal participation in the battle would greatly boost the morale of the Tang army, and he was ready to take Nanjing in one fell swoop. As expected, after the emperor in his imperial robes appeared in front of the battle line, not only did the Ming army's artillery fire more frequently, but the Tang army also became excited, and the pace of the siege was greatly accelerated.

When the Tang emperor, holding two axes, descended from the sky under the artillery fire of the Ming army and landed on the top of the city wall, many Ming army soldiers were so shocked that their jaws dropped.

"Could it be that all the rumors are true? Can Marshal Li take down the city by himself?"

"Oh my god, why are we still fighting?"

"Look, the brothers over there are already running away."

After the Ming army soldiers realized that the rumors circulating in the city were probably 80% true, their morale dropped to the bottom. In addition, the elite Tang army also attacked the city walls one after another. Except for a few troops such as the Xiaoling Guard, the remaining native and guest soldiers transferred from the west escaped faster than each other.

Even if they surrendered, they had to find a spacious place to avoid being accidentally injured by the Tang army on the top of the city.

Emperor Li Hao of Tang, wearing a crown and robes, chased hundreds of Ming soldiers all the way down from the city wall. Some elite Tang soldiers, worried about accidents, protected the emperor on both sides and behind him. The Tang army killed their way into the military camp in the city. The Ming soldiers, who could not hold on, saw the good opportunity without a general to supervise the battle and knelt down in surrender.

"May Your Majesty be honored as His Majesty."

"I pay my respects to my father, the emperor!"

"Long live the emperor!"

Various names came up one after another, and Emperor Xianqing ordered people to gather these surrendered soldiers.

Although Zhu Changxun was rather incompetent, the financial resources of Jiangnan were very strong. Old ministers such as Zhu Xieyuan and Zhang Heming were quite reliable and actually raised money to pay several months' wages to the foreign soldiers who were transferred to defend the city. Thus, they were able to hold off the fully paid Tang army for a whole morning.

"Pass on my order. Do not embarrass old ministers like Zhang Heming and Zhu Xieyuan. Capture them alive if possible. As for the other heroes like Xiaoling Guards, try to persuade them to surrender. Gather the bodies of the dead Ming soldiers together and build a good tomb for them."

He had no intention of arguing with these low-level soldiers. The right thing to do was to get Zhu Changxun as soon as possible to make soup with him.

Things became much simpler after the city was captured. The pay that veteran ministers such as Zhu Xieyuan paid to the foreign soldiers was not enough to support them in street fighting, so the Tang army had roughly taken control of the gates of Nanjing before nightfall.

The former Prince of Fu, Zhu Changxun, left the Nanjing Palace in the morning. They knew they could not escape either by water or by land, so they blended in with the people.

The Tang army searched among hundreds of thousands of Nanjing citizens for several days before they finally found Prince Fu's family.

Prince Wu abdicated the throne to Emperor Xianqing, so Zhu Changxun's behavior was definitely treason. Therefore, the people in Nanjing City had little objection to Emperor Xianqing's order to cook Zhu Changxun, and many people even applauded.

Because during the dispute over the national foundation, both Prince Fu's mother, Concubine Zheng, and Prince Fu himself had done a lot of evil, and Zhu Changxun had not done many good things in Henan.

The only thing that made Li Hao unhappy was that the people of Nanjing were so used to being pampered that they actually refused to eat Prince Fu's meat. Emperor Xianqing had no choice but to order people to marinate the cooked meat and send it to places like Henan in the west.

After Nanjing, the center of Southern Zhili, was destroyed, Songjiang Prefecture, Suzhou Prefecture, Changzhou Prefecture and other places surrendered. After all, these cities were not heavily guarded, and the new dynasty performed the etiquette of abdication. The Zhu family also got a King of Wu and a Marquis of Fengyang.

After the Tang army quickly took over Southern Zhili, Zhejiang, Huguang, Jiangxi, Henan and other places surrendered one after another. The local officials were afraid that if they surrendered too late, they would lose their position in the new dynasty.

Instead, local gentry were desperate for the Ming Dynasty, and small-scale rebellions sprang up like mushrooms after a rain.

The situation is not much different from that of 260 years ago, when it was also the Mongolian military households that revolted and the Han gentry who defended the Mongol Yuan territory.

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(End of this chapter)