Destroy Jin and conquer Song, and carry the Northern Expedition through to the end

Chapter 416: Heroes from all directions come to surrender

On December 3rd, just when Da Huaizhen was about to launch an attack, the Jingnan Army finally completed a new round of military reorganization and inventory of spoils.

The Jingnan Army also took advantage of the opportunity to complete a new round of expansion, with the number of combat soldiers reaching more than 12,000.

In addition to the soldiers and civilians gathered along the way, the soldiers also came from the defeated Song army who were fighting guerrilla warfare in the surrounding areas.

Since the Song Dynasty moved south, the system of military service in different places has been in name only. Lianghuai is the national frontier, so there is no need for "the bright moon of Qin and the pass of Han, but the people have not returned from the long march of thousands of miles."

Correspondingly, the various armies of the Song army were accustomed to recruiting soldiers nearby. On the one hand, it was convenient to recruit, and on the other hand, the soldiers did not have to travel far away from their hometowns.

This created a problem: gangs and factions quickly emerged within the army. Of course, given the state system, the Song army couldn't possibly experience the same situation as the Wei Bo Ya army during the Five Dynasties. However, after the Song army was defeated, these soldiers would often disperse and return to their hometowns, defending their hometowns while observing the situation. They didn't have the resilience to regroup.

However, this time the Jin army was really too inhumane. They just plundered and did not even do basic work to ensure the safety of the people. As a result, the military discipline of the puppet army that defected to the Jin Kingdom was quickly deteriorated.

As the saying goes, a bandit's mistakes are like a comb, and a soldier's mistakes are like a comb.

Compared with the Jin army, these puppet troops have three characteristics: enemies, bandits, and soldiers. They are ruthless when it comes to plundering the land.

The puppet army would rob wherever the Jin army could, and would rob even more wherever the Jin army had no time to take care of.

This also led to the puppet army being more tolerant towards the people around them except in their hometowns.

The reason why Lu Yuanhua surrendered was that he had no choice but to choose when he saw that the situation was hopeless, otherwise Dongguan would definitely not have had a good ending.

Of course, Lan Junhao secretly rebelled against Lu Yuanhua in the end, which was also related to the fact that this guy only protected Dongguan and did not think of a way to protect Chao County.

Those destroyed villages and towns were also the hometowns of the defeated Song army. These Song soldiers could run away, but ordinary villagers could not. As a result, the surrounding Song troops had a blood feud with the Jin army.

After the Jingnan Army captured Chao County, before they even raised the recruitment flag, defeated soldiers who had settled in the surrounding mountains came to join the army. After the news spread, a heavyweight finally came last night.

Yao Buping, the grandson of Yao Xing, a senior general of the Song State who fought to the death at Weizi Bridge and the commander of the enemy army, came to join the army with nearly a thousand remaining soldiers.

This quickly attracted the attention of the entire army.

Yao Xing was a great general who had emerged since the Jing Kang period. This time, Yao Xing and his son defeated a larger force with a small force at Weizi Bridge, and their death was so tragic that even Wanyan Liang exclaimed when he saw it: If the Song Dynasty had ten generals as great as Yao Xing, how could our army dare to advance?

Now that Yao Xing and his son are both dead, his eighteen-year-old grandson Yao Buping still wants to lead his army to fight the Jin bandits to the death. How can this not move people?

After Liu Huai personally welcomed Yao Buping, he was in trouble again.

Because although Yao Buping was Yao Xing's grandson, his age meant that his military experience was only that of a captain of a hundred men. Even if he brought nearly a thousand Song troops, it would be impossible for him to be made a commander, on par with Zhang Xiaoyi and others.

He can't even be a commander.

At the moment of battle, if the hundreds of men under his command were at a loss as to how to advance or retreat, the entire battle might be ruined.

This is not about not believing in Yao Buping's determination to resist the Jin Dynasty, it is purely a matter of ability.

Yao Buping seemed to have noticed Liu Huai's hesitation, or perhaps this young man who had suddenly encountered an unexpected change had become extremely mature and steady. He immediately said that he was willing to be a squad leader under Liu Huai, and only asked to follow the Jingnan Army to kill the Jin bandits.

For Yao Buping, the death of his father and grandfather was not just a matter of dying at the hands of the Jin people, but also due to the shameless betrayal of the Song army represented by the royal power.

The first thing Yao Buping had to do was not to join the army to seek revenge, but to find someone to serve.

At least you don't have to be on guard against betrayal by friendly forces all the time.

Originally, he wanted to join Liu Qi or Li Xianzhong, but who could have imagined that it was the Jingnan Army that crossed the river with such an indomitable momentum?

Liu Huai thought for a moment and decided to talk to Yao Buping.

The Jingnan Army could set up another army, or even set up another army outside the system to defeat the enemy, so that Yao Buping could inherit his grandfather's official position, and the hundreds of Song troops he brought with him would also have a place to go.

However, this enemy-breaking force's military structure was incomplete and certainly could not compare to the one led by Zhang Xiaoyi, so it could only perform secondary tasks such as maintaining public order and guarding the city. In the upcoming battles, they would definitely not be allowed to participate in major offensives.

Another way was to let Yao Buping take thirty to fifty confidants with excellent horse riding and martial arts skills to the Flying Tiger Army to serve as Liu Huai's personal guards, and the rest of the troops would be disbanded and absorbed into the Jingnan Army.

This certainly looked like looting, and specifically looting Yao Buping, which could easily lead to rumors and scorn among the Song army. However, Liu Huai maintained a straightforward attitude, laying everything out in the open. This caused both Yao Buping and the other military leaders to panic.

After a brief discussion, Yao Buping chose the second path and became a captain in the Flying Tigers.

In essence, these remnants of the Song army still wanted to fight to the death with the Jin army, otherwise there would be no need to come to the Jingnan army to suffer.

The Jin army that invaded Lianghuai was small and could only control the main transportation routes. If the remaining Song army did not want to resist the Jin, they could still unite and seize control of one or two counties and act tyrannically.

Therefore, Yao Buping did not want to choose the first option, which is theoretically the best choice.

I joined the army to kill the Jin bandits. If you don't let me go to the battlefield, why should I join your Jingnan Army?
After dealing with Yao Buping, the rest of the people will be easy.

After a round of military expansion, the number of Jingnan troops increased rapidly, and the military register was finally produced after working overtime that morning.

The Flying Tiger Army expanded to 800 men and was temporarily led by Zhang Baiyu.

Lei Ben's elite vanguard troops were expanded to 800 people.

Zhang Xiaoyi's troops defeated the enemy and expanded to two thousand men.

The vanguard troops under Shi Qilang were expanded to 1,500 men.

Luo Shenyan's left army expanded to 1,700 men.

The right army under Wang Shilong was expanded to two thousand men.

Xin Qiji's Tianping Army expanded to 3,500 people.

The original number of 7,000 troops crossing the river was almost doubled.

This will almost inevitably lead to a decline in combat effectiveness, even if most of the expanded troops are Song troops and Qian troops with certain military experience, who can understand flags, listen to drums, and have seen blood in battle, but military structure and coordination cannot be achieved overnight.

However, there was no other way. If the army was not expanded, not only would they not be able to cope with the upcoming war, they would not even be able to accommodate the various Song troops that had gathered. People without food would cause trouble, let alone those with knives in their hands. However, the Jingnan Army could not afford to feed these people for free, so it was imperative to absorb them into the army, or even split them into two armies.

However, the Jingnan Army had one advantage, which was that it focused on cultivating the military and cultural knowledge of ordinary soldiers and had a large reserve of grassroots officers. In the next battle, they could only use the old to bring up the new and form an army as quickly as possible.

As for military equipment, food, and horses, there were even more.

Including the spoils captured during the battle against the Wurui Army's First Meng'an at Yuxikou, the Jingnan Army had captured a total of 5,000 sets of full body armor, 3,000 of which were ready for use without modification. Among these were not only the Jin Army's signature gourd helmets, but also many phoenix-wing and hat-shaped helmets commonly used by the Song Army, clearly looted from the armories of important cities like Hefei.

In addition, there are 4,000 divine arm bows, 400,000 arrows, 3,000 long swords, 8,000 long spears, 1,000 axes, and so many miscellaneous weapons that it is difficult to classify them all at once.

As for horses and mules, there were also many of them. Excluding the slightly injured animals, more than 700 main war horses were seized, most of which were donated by the first Meng'an of the Wurui Army.

At least five of their Moukes dismounted and fought on foot, resulting in their horses having almost no participation in the battle and being wiped out by the Flying Tigers' armored cavalry.

There were also more than a thousand second-rate horses.

There were about 3,000 oxen, mules, and donkeys, most of which were captured from the Jin army's water strongholds. These oxen and mules were naturally conscripted from Huaixi, and the Jin army was quite thorough in plundering them, because oxen and mules were not only important means of transportation, but also meat and fish that could be used for snacks.

If Liu Huai could find some large carts now, he could form a mule and horse corps with decent mobility.

There were also many miscellaneous military supplies such as armor, ropes, leather, etc., which could not be counted in a short time.

As for food, cloth, and winter clothing, there was even more. After Chao County and Dongguan released grain for disaster relief and reserved enough for the army for four months, there was still a lot left, sealed in the warehouse city for backup.

These were the food and supplies needed to sustain more than 30,000 regular troops on the front line and tens of thousands of signed troops. Now, they had all been taken by the Jingnan Army.

These men, horses and supplies are the capital that Liu Huai needs to stay in Chao County.

But it is still not enough. The success of all strategies depends on whether they can withstand the attacks of the Jin army.

(End of this chapter)