Because of the betrayal of those miscellaneous troops, coupled with the distrust of the clan, it is more important to ensure the stability of the war situation and avoid greater changes.
Zhong Yu had no choice but to reluctantly send these hundreds of thousands of carefully trained troops to the eastern forests as cannon fodder to squeeze out their last remaining value.
As for these cannon fodder, all of them are innocent, what do you think? From the moment they wavered and failed to work on the battlefield, their current outcome was already doomed.
Zhong Yu is not a benevolent lord. The methods he used against betrayers in the past were far more ruthless than the gentle land reclamation now.
Nowadays, they are only punished to open up wasteland for farming, which can be considered to be very lenient.
In this way, under Zhong Yu's order, the remaining miscellaneous troops, which numbered about 200,000, all received orders to mobilize, and rushed to Dongjiang Province one after another. Under strict orders and several sixth-level powerhouses, they brought 50,000 elite troops with them. Under the pressure of others, he headed towards Sanlin, a thousand miles away.
There, they will experience countless life and death tests and pass through many dangers, and in the end less than one out of ten will survive.
Thousands of miles of mountains and forests are no laughing matter.
The land within the mountains and forests is indeed fertile, and if it is fully developed, it would be equivalent to almost half of the Ming Dynasty. In the current situation in the mainland where the basic territory has been allocated and it is difficult to expand the territory, this is a fat man.
But there is such a piece of fat that will not move. No one, whether it is the Ming Dynasty or other dynasties adjacent to the thousands of miles of mountains and forests, has taken a bite of this piece of fat.
The reason for this is naturally not that the emperors of the major dynasties did not want to, but because the situation in the mountains and forests is too dangerous.
Within the thousands of miles of mountains and forests, poisonous smoke and miasma are densely covered. Poisonous insects and snakes can be seen everywhere. Even the water you drink is poisonous. You can encounter swamps or subsidences if you take just two steps, and you may be poisoned if you touch a leaf or grass.
The situation is extremely dangerous, and even if ordinary humans have a certain level of cultivation, it is extremely difficult to survive in it.
Even some powerful fourth- and fifth-level monks may fall victim to these little tricks and die because of an accident.
Even those monsters who grew up and cultivated in the mountains and forests, if they are not familiar with the conditions in their original basic territory, they may die if they go too far, which is extremely dangerous.
Even the Demon King of Huangshan, who had protected the school's thousands of miles of mountains and forests, was only able to run rampant in most areas. There were four or five secret realms in the mountains and forests. He didn't even dare to enter because it was too dangerous.
Now that these 200,000 troops are filled in, Zhong Yu will probably be able to open up 2 to 3 counties for him, which is equivalent to a small state in the Ming Dynasty.
It can support an army of 200,000, but it requires the full support of a province and consumes most of the finance.
After investing so much effort, the harvest is only so little. It is a loss-making business for everyone. Those major imperial courts where countless smart people gather will naturally not foolishly go to do such a thankless task.
The miscellaneous troops were transferred away, and naturally the Ming Dynasty court opposite could not seize cities one by one with countless traitors leading the way everywhere they went, as before.
As mentioned before, the total military strength of Yuguo is about 1.5 million.
Nowadays, apart from the previous battle losses and countless defections, there are also 200,000 troops who have just been used as cannon fodder and transferred to open up wasteland in the mountains and forests.
Zhong Yu probably has about 800,000 troops left. These are all trustworthy and their fighting morale is relatively high.
Among these troops, they guard the southern border and some are divided to maintain security in various provinces. In the end, there will probably be about 400,000 troops left.
Zhong Yu planned to use these 400,000 elites to slowly take advantage of the city's defense and consume Ming's power bit by bit.
I have said before that the logistical pressure of the Ming Dynasty was actually very high. To maintain an army of hundreds of thousands, the Ming Dynasty needed the entire country to do it.
And because he had predicted the current situation, Zhong Yu mobilized strategic materials from various places to the rear early and strictly controlled them.
After several years of preparation, countless people who wanted to secretly hide strategic materials were all dealt with. After some killings, the remaining people became more honest and no longer dared to openly disobey.
Nowadays, the most important strategic materials in various places, that is, military rations, have been allocated by Zhong Yu early, and there is not much left at all.
It was simply impossible for the Ming Dynasty to obtain supplies from various places, unless they took the risk of offending everyone and took away the one-month rations Zhong Yu left for them from the hands of the people, forcing them to Dead end.
If we really do that, even if Ming Dynasty can get enough food rations to sustain a longer war, Zhong Yu will be very happy.
Because this means that the people of the Ming Dynasty have completely dissipated. From now on, Zhong Yu will rule the areas that have been harmed, and there will no longer be the slightest obstacle or difficulty, and the soldiers he recruits will not be on the battlefield like before. defection.
Even because the Ming army is filled with a large number of surrendered soldiers who defected from the Ming Dynasty, these surrendered soldiers may defect again because their relatives were harmed by the Ming Dynasty.
In order to prevent themselves from suffering the same fate, the people in the rear will truly start to fully support Zhong Yu.
The Ming Dynasty captured seven or eight state capitals on various fronts, which together accounted for a province. Even the army expanded by hundreds of thousands, reaching a scale of more than 900,000 and nearly one million, which was extremely huge.
However, although the number of troops has increased, it also means that the logistical pressure has further expanded.
Every time the Ming Dynasty captured a treasury, they could find that there was not much military rations inside. At most, it could only maintain the garrison of that city. It would take half a month to a month, and no more would be gone.
Then I went to buy from major grain stores in the city, only to find that those who sold grain didn't have much. The grain they sold was official, and it wasn't much.
A food rationing system was actually implemented throughout the Imperial Kingdom, including the army.
Now that the Ming Dynasty has captured many prefectures and counties, it is natural that it cannot conquer the territory and then leave it aside. They are the righteous teachers of the imperial court, so they naturally have to send officials to educate the people and stabilize people's hearts.
Therefore, the Ming Dynasty did not conquer a single territory. Officials accompanying the army served as local parent officials, and then established a basic administrative framework and slowly began to restore people's livelihood.
But the first problem before them was that there was not enough local food, which could only last half a month or a month. If food cannot be transferred during this period, there will be a famine in the area and all the people may starve to death.
In addition to millions of troops, the Ming Dynasty also added millions of civilians waiting for subsidies, making the burden even heavier.
(End of chapter)