Emperor Jianwen was certainly well aware of Zhu Di's abilities.
Therefore, as soon as the game began, Emperor Jianwen poured all his strength into trying to crush Zhu Di.
However, due to the gap in the ability of Zhu Di and Emperor Jianwen, many of Emperor Jianwen's key forces could not be used.
Emperor Jianwen, who gave his all at the beginning of the game
As early as the time of Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Di showed amazing talent, and Emperor Jianwen certainly did not dare to underestimate this uncle, and he gave his all as soon as the game began.
Before Zhu Di revolted, Emperor Jianwen adjusted the deployment near Beiping and formed a strategic encirclement of Beiping.
Zhu Di fought together, and Emperor Jianwen sent the veteran general Geng Bingwen to lead an army of 300,000 to fight.
As soon as Geng Bingwen was defeated, Emperor Jianwen asked Li Jinglong to command 500,000 troops (including the army left by Geng Bingwen) to attack.
After Li Jinglong's initial defeat, Emperor Jianwen continued to dispatch troops, and by the time of the Battle of Baigou River, Li Jinglong, Guo Ying, and Wu Jie had a total of 600,000 men (perhaps slightly exaggerated).
At the Time of the Battle of Baigou River, the Southern Army was 600,000, and the number of soldiers and horses that had previously been damaged (excluding those who defected to the King of Yan) was 100,000; on Zhu Di's side, the soldiers and horses were about 100,000, in addition, Zhu Di also wrapped up zhu Quan, the king of Ning, who had "eighty thousand soldiers".
Both the northern and southern armies are the armies of the Ming Empire, and they are both field armies that can fight!
That is to say, within eight months of the outbreak of the war, about 900,000 troops of the Ming Empire were thrown into the vicinity of Beiping!
In addition, because Zhu Di had pretended to attack Datong and Liaodong, a large number of garrison troops in Datong, Liaodong, and Shandong near the battlefield (Shandong alone was stationed 200,000, and the total of the three places should be 300,000-400,000) was actually involved in the war.
When Zhu Yuanzhang set the quota of the Tianxia Guards, the total number of soldiers in the world was 1.9 million, but they were distributed throughout the country, and the elite field troops were mostly gathered in the north.
It can be said that in order to pacify Zhu Di, Emperor Jianwen gathered almost all of his field forces at the beginning of the game, which can be described as doing his best!
However, this is only on paper.
Due to the mistakes of Emperor Jianwen's courtiers and Zhu Di's military talents, although Emperor Jianwen seemed to have exhausted all his strength, he did not exert the most critical strength.
Unable to play cavalry legions
In the Battle of Jingnan, the yan army's cavalry superiority made it come and go freely and firmly grasp the initiative.
However, in fact, Daming was not the only Yan army with powerful cavalry.
The entire northern defensive line was massed with a large number of cavalry.
Liaodong, Shanxi, Daning and other places have a large number of cavalry with rich combat experience.
However, although Emperor Jianwen had gathered enough troops, these key cavalry were not brought into play.
Soon after the start, Zhu Di encircled King Ning's army, of which the elite Duoyan Sanwei became Zhu Di's vanguard.
After that, the cavalry of the whole of Shanxi and Liaodong did not play a major role.
This was mainly due to the lack of unified scheduling of the battle situation by the Jianwen Emperor.com.
War requires not only the command of the commander-in-chief at the front, but also the unified coordination and dispatch at the highest level.
In that year, when Xu Da and Chang Yuchun were on the Northern Expedition, Zhu Yuanzhang uninterruptedly commanded the various departments from the perspective of the overall situation, not only issuing guidance to Xu Da and Chang Yuchun in a timely manner, but also allowing Deng Yu, Feng Sheng, Tang, and the various departments to actively cooperate, or blockade Tongguan, or attack in separate ways, or in a timely manner into the command of Xu Da and Chang Yuchun, and the various corps coordinated as one to disintegrate Dayuan.
However, due to the lack of military ability of Emperor Jianwen and Qi Tai and Huang Zicheng, only the commanders geng bingwen and Li Jinglong were appointed to the war, and they could not guide the operation at a higher level.
Therefore, the Ming army in Liaodong attacked from behind several times, but due to the lack of coordination with the main army, it was unable to form a joint force, and it always returned in vain, and the effect was not good.
Therefore, although Zhu Di did not have an advantage in the number of cavalry in fact, he always maintained a strong cavalry advantage and grasped the initiative of the battle situation.
The defenders who could not play
In addition to the field corps, the fortresses and cities were also the territory of Emperor Jianwen, and the local garrisons should have been able to play a role.
However, when the Yan army moved, the defenders in various places either fell or collapsed, and most of them did not play a role.
This was mainly because of Zhu Di's precipitation, strategy, and Jianwen Emperor's missteps.
At the beginning of the war, the battlefield was mainly near Beiping.
Most of the nearby defenders had been under the command of Zhu Di, and because Zhu Di "could push sincerity and appoint people", he won the hearts of the army.
In addition, the families of these defenders were mostly in Beiping.
Therefore, when the Yan King attacked various places, most of the defenders surrendered Kaesong.
At the same time, Zhu Di's insight into human nature also allowed him to easily resolve some resistance.
For example, Song Zhong resolutely resisted Zhu Di, and he published rumors that the families of their army were mostly slaughtered by Zhu Di, inspiring the troops to fight with the Yan army.
As a result, Zhu Di saw through this strategy and let the family members of Song Zhongjun appear in front of the battle and appear to speak, so that Song Zhongjun mutinied and won in one fell swoop.
Of course, Emperor Jianwen's mistake was also an important reason why the defenders could not play a role.
Zhu Di raised an army, which was originally a rebellion.
However, due to Emperor Jianwen's cutting of the domain, he was too hasty, making it impossible for him to "understand himself in the world", and gave Zhu Di a pretext.
Therefore, the Battle of Jingnan, in the hearts of the armies, was no longer a counterinsurgency war, but a family infighting in the Zhu family, and the defenders could not make a desperate effort.
Therefore, when Zhu Di attacked various places, the defenders did not dare to defend the city, mostly out of the city for a battle, and once unfavorable, they surrendered the city.
An outside advantage that cannot be exploited
Zhu Di fought against the world in a corner of pingbei, and was surrounded by enemies on all sides.
In this case, Zhu Di's actions should have been strictly restricted.
However, throughout the war, Zhu Di came and went freely and was very calm.
The reasons for this are, first, that Emperor Jianwen lacked unified guidance on the overall situation, and second, Zhu Di's decisive action at the beginning.
After Zhu Di raised his troops, he immediately began to control the surrounding dangers and defuse the disadvantages of the internal line.
After the uprising, the Yan army quickly captured Tongzhou, Jizhou, and Zunhua, and empties the east.
Subsequently, the Yan army attacked Juyongguan to the north, "a hundred people defended it, and all the people could not see it", and there was no longer any worries about the north.
In this way, before Emperor Jianwen could react, Zhu Di removed the troubles on the eastern side and pulled out the thorns of the northern back, in order to concentrate on fighting against the Ming army in the south.
After wrapping up Queen Ning, Zhu Di basically got rid of the unfavorable situation of the internal line.
After that, Zhu Di not only did not have to be restrained by the threat of the enemy on his back, but instead could mobilize Li Jinglong by pretending to attack Datong and pretend to take Liaodong to make the southern army relax its vigilance.
Emperor Jianwen's external advantage was thus of no use.
The field army that cannot be fully utilized
Of course, the hundreds of thousands of field troops that were just assembled were far more than Zhu Di's troops, and they still had the power to crush them.
However, several mistakes of Emperor Jianwen made it impossible for the field army to give full play.
First of all, it is a mistake in choosing a general.
Emperor Jianwen first entrusted the veteran general Geng Bingwen, and after Geng Bingwen's defeat, he replaced him with Li Jinglong.
Although Geng Bingwen was defeated by Zhu Di, after all, he was a veteran general, good at defense, and still able to defeat without collapsing, Li Jinglong was completely out of the way, completely led by Zhu Di's nose, leading the army to wear thin clothes and fighting Zhu Di in the ice and snow, how could he win?
Secondly, there is a hasty assembly, and the coordination of various departments is uneven.
At the Battle of Baigou River, the Southern Army gathered the veteran general Guo Ying, the strong general was safe, and there were 600,000 troops.
However, Zhu Di saw that the various departments were a temporary combined army, with many people and easy chaos, and they did not know before and after the attack, and when they struck left, they did not correspond to the right, the generals were not dictatorial, the government decrees were different, and there was no doubt that they would be defeated.
Therefore, under the First World War, the Confederate Army was greatly defeated.
It can be said that the size of the field army has exceeded the command ability of the generals of the Southern Army, and the number of soldiers is useless.
Of course, more importantly, Zhu Di had accompanied Zhu Yuanzhang in the imperial court and was familiar with the characteristics of the generals.
Therefore, the huge enemy army, in Zhu Di's eyes, is actually an independent unit, Zhu Di exerts his strategy, and it is enough to disintegrate the opponent!
Therefore, let's stop saying why Emperor Jianwen didn't gather some more troops! No matter how much you assemble, it will only be more chaotic, and it will only be reimbursed faster!
Emperor Jianwen did not have a light enemy, and as soon as he started the game, he did his best to mobilize soldiers and horses, occupying an absolute advantage in numbers.
However, the outcome of a war is by no means determined solely on the number of people.
As in Sun Tzu's Art of War. According to the Book of Initial Plans, the key elements that determine victory or defeat are "the Tao, the Heavens, the Earth, the Wills, and the Law."
Emperor Jianwen's missteps in the strategy of cutting down the domain, the lack of overall guidance, and the mistakes in the selection of generals made him at a disadvantage in terms of popularity, arms, and command; while Zhu Di's perennial management of Beiping and the beginning of the war quickly seized key points and outstanding military talents, making the balance of victory tilted in his favor.