"Haha, they are all drama masters!" Zhao Bing received the battle report of Zhao Mengjin's regaining Xuzhou. After reading it, he laughed.

After receiving the news that the enemy defending the Xuzhou city abandoned the city and fled in a hurry, Zhao Mengjin immediately left the brigade and led only some of his staff and the personal barracks of the department. Under the escort of the First Army's Cavalry Regiment, he rushed to Xuzhou overnight and ordered the two armies to speed up the marching speed. After he arrived in Xuzhou, he immediately summoned Qian Lin, the commander of the First Cavalry Division, to inquire about the war.

In fact, Qian Lin was like a dream to easily achieve such a great contribution, and he still couldn't figure out the key. He was ordered to arrive in Xuzhou to take charge of restraining the enemy and prepare to prevent him from entering Xuzhou once the imperial guards failed to stop the Halalu Guards. After the First Cavalry Division arrived in Xuzhou, the enemy had retreated into the city, so they set up camp five miles south of the city and sent alert troops to Fuli.

In the evening, the scouts found that an enemy brigade had gone out of the west gate in the city. They were unclear where and where they were going. Qian Lin ordered the scouts to continue monitoring the enemy's dynamics and ordered the entire army to enter a state of combat readiness to prevent the enemy's attacks at night. When the troops were assembled, the scouts reported that there seemed to be riots in the city, and fires appeared in many places, accompanied by fighting shouts. Before Qian Lin could figure out what was going on in the city, the scouts who monitored the enemy out of the city reported that they would return to the city.

Qian Lin couldn't figure out the situation and could only make people closely monitor the movements in the city. However, the city was already in chaos, and the shouts and crying in the city could be heard for several miles outside the city. The turmoil lasted for nearly two hours. At midnight, the west gate opened again. The enemy army left in full bloom and turned north. The marching speed was extremely fast, as if it was escaping. It was too late for Qian Lin to mobilize troops to pursue him.

Qian Lin was also thinking about what the enemy was going to do when he left the city. Hey! The east gate suddenly opened wide, and countless people rushed out of the city gate. He hurriedly dispatched troops to encircle and drove the crowd to investigate, preventing the enemy from cheating. After entering the city, the vanguard team found that the city was in a mess, and shops along the street were looted, and killed people could be seen everywhere on the road. The government offices and granaries were ignited, and all the defenders in the city were evacuated, and there were still rogues taking advantage of the situation to rob.

Qian Lin then led his troops into the city and ordered people to put out the fire in the city, and sent troops to patrol along the streets to suppress them. Anyone who had the opportunity to cause trouble was rectified on the spot. After dawn, he would go out to calm the people, check the losses, pay attention to the people killed by the rioters, rescue the injured, and resettle the refugees. At the same time, he urgently reported to Zhao Mengjin, asking for instructions on the next action, and asked him to go to Xuzhou to take charge of military and political affairs as soon as possible.

After Zhao Mengjin arrived, he thoroughly investigated. During the turmoil, more than 2,000 people were injured and killed, more than 400 houses were burned, and seven or eight out of ten shops in the city suffered losses. The wealthy families suffered the most losses and were almost spared. All valuables in their homes were robbed. After the fire in the treasury was put out, all gold and silver were robbed after verification, and more than 50,000 stones and thousands of pieces of silk and silk were still edible. The loss of other miscellaneous items was not large, and the list and account books were robbed.

Later, the scouts sent also found out that the enemy troops did not go to Yingtian Prefecture after evacuating from Xuzhou, but went to Pei County. The scepter cavalry sent to Fuli to find that the enemy's bodies were everywhere in the valley, and the stench could be heard for ten miles, while our army had all evacuated and was not sure where to go. Zhao Mengjin immediately reported the situation in Xuzhou, and immediately adjusted his defense after the first and fifth armies arrived, and recovered the counties and towns around Xuzhou.

After reading it, Zhao Bing figured it out. It was clear that the enemy generals who stayed in Xuzhou discovered that the Halalu Guard was completely wiped out in Jiagouji, and the withdrawn Song army returned, and realized that they had fallen into a trap. After the Halalu Guards were annihilated, they were frightened. They neither wanted to live and die with the city, nor were worried that they would be punished if they left the city and fled. Therefore, they directed and acted by themselves to escape from the crime.

Although Zhao Bing regretted that he could not take them on the list of the group destruction for the wonderful performances of Tang Gu and the other three, it was also a blessing for him to occupy Xuzhou without any bloodshed.

Tactically speaking, as one of the three supporting points of the Huaibei battlefield, Xuzhou was quickly recovered, resulting in the collapse of the "Iron Triangle" defense system of Fuli and Yingtianfu, making it impossible for the enemy to reinforce each other, while its own side could easily join forces to attack any other node. Strategically, the importance of Xuzhou's geographical location is unquestionable. It not only became a barrier between the two Huaihe Rivers, but also made the Jiangdong region no longer face the threat of the Mongolian Yuan. At the same time, Xuzhou will also become an important support point for the Huaidong defense system, and then become a bridgehead and logistics supply base for the Song army to advance north.

So from the overall perspective, Zhao Bing was not particularly concerned about the enemy's abandonment of the city and fleeing. After all, the benefits outweigh the disadvantages. But he still felt a little sour. The "drama" in his backyard was the day when he left Beijing and personally fought, and there was no time for peace. Compared with their performances, the three products of the Mongol Yuan were much worse than those of their performances, which made people feel ridiculous.

Zhao Bing was actually very confident in seizing the two Huaihe River and Huaibei regions. As early as the strategy was formulated and the battle began, he had already "delegated power" and handed over to several generals to freely play. He was more of a decision-maker and coordinator to direct the battle. His mind was more focused on positioning and development of the newly harvested land.

After the Shaoxing Peace Agreement, the Song Dynasty actually lost its terrain advantages. Because the monks north of Dasan Pass, Shangluo and Qinzhou were all ceded, and the terrain in this area was mainly mountainous. When the Jin people controlled this area, it was equivalent to making the terrain that was originally conducive to the battle of the Song army, the logistical weakness of the Song army.

On the Eastern Front, it was also because of the ceding of Haizhou and Sizhou, which led to the fact that Song would conquer these two places every time the Eastern Front sent troops, and then face the counterattack of the main Jin army who was waiting for work. The abandonment of Huainan also made it difficult to supply and was particularly easy to be counterattacked. In the later Longxing Northern Expedition and Kaixi Northern Expedition, although the Southern Song Dynasty started well, it was quickly passive because of this. The most typical example of the abandonment of Huainan on the logistics was the Duanping and Luoluo.

During the operation to recover the two capitals, although the base camp of the Southern Song army was not far from Feng Luoyang, the logistics could not keep up, but ultimately failed. To use the saying "I am about to fight to the death, why did Your Majesty surrender first?" Shaoxing peace talks seriously destroyed the military power of the Southern Song Dynasty, so that when the monarchs and ministers of the Southern Song Dynasty wanted to fight the northern expedition to recover the Central Plains, they all encountered various difficulties. When the Jin Kingdom finally perished, they ushered in a stronger Mongolian Yuan, which made the two Huai areas still frequently fall into wars, and the economy could not recover, and finally exhausted the last little essence of the Song Dynasty.

Therefore, Zhao Bing believed that whether he was consolidating the two Huaihe Rivers or even continuing the Northern Expedition, restoring the two Huaihe Rivers economy was the main task for the next period of time. But he also knew that he was facing many difficulties, because the war that lasted for a hundred years led to huge population losses. In this era, people are the most important productivity, and nothing can be done without people.

Zhao Bing’s idea was to immigrate from a densely populated area in Jiangnan to the Huaihe River. This would fill the population of the Huai River, and at the same time relieve the dilemma of "large population and small land" in Jiangnan. It is easier said than done. Because the Huai River is currently at the forefront of military affairs, wars will break out at any time. In addition, this area is not only deserted fields but also water conservancy facilities are seriously damaged. Under such conditions, anyone should think about it again and again.

Therefore, if you want to attract the population to Lianghuai, it is not enough to just talk and force. The most effective way is interests. By "releasing profits" to immigrate, people can spontaneously come to Lianghuai to develop. Zhao Bing asked the court to make a plan to prepare for the war and began to implement it. Lu Xiufu and other left-behind officials summoned the ministers of various departments to discuss the matter and formulate relevant policies. However, before the policy was introduced, a storm was caused in the court and the country. Not only did the officials in the court impeachment of Lu Xiufu and others who were in charge of the matter, but also instigated the students to stop the Empress Dowager's car and write a letter to the letter. The officials and gentry in the opposition also participated...

The first person to be attacked was Ma Zheng. The cavalry was suitable for long-range mobile combat in the plains and wilderness, and was the main assault force in the army. In a sense, without a powerful cavalry, it was impossible to become a feudal military power. In other words, the development of the cavalry was directly related to the prosperity and decline of the military movement. The weak military accumulation of the Song Dynasty was closely related to the lack of a capable cavalry.

At the moment, the Central Plains are near, and Zhao Bing understands that if you want to seize the Central Plains, even the south of the desert, the northeast, it must always have strong cavalry as the basis. Ensuring that the war horses have a stable source has become the top priority. The best way is to raise horses by yourself, so it is also urgent to formulate horse politics. After the Han Dynasty, horse politics has always been the founding policy of the Central Plains dynasty. In order to solve the problem of lack of horses, the Song Dynasty also changed the horse politics several times, but it was nothing more than swaying between "official raising" and "people raising".

The Song Dynasty also set up a shepherd to raise horses, but the result was not only high cost, but also high cost, and it required a large amount of land and officers and soldiers. In addition, poor management, the survival rate of horses was extremely low, and the horse breed was poor, so it was mostly not allowed to serve as a war cavalry, and the lack of war horses remained the same. After moving south, the Jiangnan area was full of water networks, which was not conducive to the galloping of war horses. In addition, the climate and environment were not conducive to horse raising, and the official horse farm was basically in name only.

"People's Raising" is basically the "horse protection law" in Wang Anshi's reform. The core content is to abolish pastoral supervision, distribute horses from state-owned horse farms to farmers with conditions, and at the same time exempt the taxes and labor of horse farmers. The government also provides subsidies. At first glance, it is also a pretty good policy. This is a move to plan for the country and want to incorporate horses into farmers, but unexpectedly the people are unable to bear it later. Because once the horse dies from illness and death, tens of thousands of yuan will be compensated, and a well-off family will go bankrupt. Therefore, "everyone takes the horse as a disaster" will cause people's sentiment and are immediately deposed.
Chapter completed!