A thousand-year-old family that began with the Battle of Makino

Chapter 1032: Jinling's lavish battle at Chibi, marching straight into the Southern Tang Dynasty

"Report..."

The capital of Southern Tang, Jinling.

The Xia army was blocked in Jiangbei. The rulers and ministers of Nanjing, who had not taken any action for two months, breathed a sigh of relief and dispelled their fear of the Xia army.

One minister even said: "It is said that the Xia army is as fierce as wolves and tigers, but now it seems that they are just like that. They are still blocked by the Tang Dynasty in the north of the Yangtze River. The Tang Dynasty navy is invincible in the world."

Li Jing was also very happy, so he ordered that except for the cities where the Yangtze River defense line was located, the rest of the counties and cities should lift the wartime state and restore people's livelihood.

Jinling also returned to its former prosperity and luxury.

"We lost the war on the western front, our navy was completely wiped out, and only a few warships returned. Grand Admiral Lu Zhiyuan died for his country, and Ezhou is in imminent danger."

The Southern Tang emperor and his ministers, who were enjoying the singing and dancing, were immediately stunned and then fell into chaos.

At this time, Prime Minister Zhong Mo said: "Your Majesty, don't worry. It's just the navy on the western front. We still have the East China Sea Navy and the Nanjing Navy, with hundreds of warships. There is no need to worry."

Li Jing heaved a sigh of relief, and then pointed at the ministers who were in a mess in the hall, and laughed: "I have a million soldiers and the power of the navy, so there is nothing to worry about. Keep playing music and keep dancing."

After that, singing and dancing resumed in the hall, as if nothing had happened.

In the minds of the Southern Tang rulers and their ministers, even though Lu Zhiyuan's army had lost 300 warships, they still had more than 100 warships from the Jinling Navy and more than 200 warships from the East China Sea, which were enough to control the Yangtze River Basin.

And isn’t there Ezhou?
Therefore, after mobilizing half of the East China Sea Navy and most of the Jinling Navy to station in Jiangzhou to take over the defense line of the Jiangxia Navy, they no longer cared about it.

11th year of the reign of Great Chaupenin

October
With the help of the navy, tens of thousands of Xia troops on land fought day and night, and there were dozens of cannons and continuous bows and crossbows on the river.

Finally, Ezhou could not hold out, the water fort fell, and the Xia army attacked from the north gate, and Ezhou was lost.

Li Hongji, the crown prince of Southern Tang who was guarding Ezhou, fled from the east gate in a panic with thousands of people and retreated to Jiangzhou. He faced Li Yu in Hongzhou and organized the second line of defense on the western front.

When the news reached Jinling, it still did not receive attention from the rulers and ministers of Southern Tang, and singing and dancing in the palace continued as usual.

November 3rd

The Xia army attacked Jiangzhou.

At the same time, more than 200 ships of the Tang navy and more than 50 ships of the Xia navy fought in Hukou.

Li Zechen, the commander of the Tang navy who had been newly transferred to Jiangzhou, saw that the number of his warships was several times that of the enemy. He did not attach importance to the suggestions of several captains who escaped from the battlefield of Chibi. Instead, he regarded them as defeated generals and threw them into jail.

So when more than ten new warships of the Xia army attacked, the cannons roared in unison, and often more than ten guns could sink a Tang ship, leaving the enemy no chance to get close to them.

Moreover, the Xia army's new warships abandoned heavy equipment such as rackets, bows and crossbows, and were lighter and faster.

In just two hours, dozens of Tang army ships were sunk by the Xia army, and the morale of the Tang army collapsed. The more than a hundred surviving warships fled.

The ship that Li Zechen was riding on was caught up by the Xia army because of its speed and was forced to stop and captured alive.

Without the assistance of the Jiangzhou navy, half of Jiangzhou’s defense line was gone.

November 10

After Jiangzhou was captured, Li Hongji, the Crown Prince of Southern Tang, finally had nowhere to escape. When he boarded a boat to escape to Hukou, he was discovered by a warship of the Xia army, sunk, and died in the bombardment.

November 13
The Xia army left a force of 10,000 people to garrison Jiangzhou to monitor the Tang army in Hongzhou in the south, while the rest of the army quickly advanced eastward.

November 26

With the help of the navy, Xia's army advanced rapidly along the south bank of the Yangtze River, successively conquering Chizhou, Tongling, Fanchang, and Wuhu, and finally arriving at Dangtu.

At this time, the rulers and ministers of Southern Tang finally reacted.

"Impossible, absolutely impossible. How could the Xia army be so fast? Where is my Jiangzhou navy? Where is my crown prince? What on earth is Li Yu doing?"

Li Jing finally stopped playing dumb and pulled his head out of the sand. He suddenly discovered that the Xia army was already at the gates of the city.

One minister replied timidly: "The crown prince died in Jiangzhou, and most of Jiangzhou's navy was lost to the Xia army."

"The Xia people placed their siege weapons on their warships. Our army was unable to stop them, and our navy collapsed as soon as they were touched."

"As for King Zheng, after the Xia army conquered Jiangzhou, they stationed more than 10,000 elite soldiers there. I don't think he's easy to deal with." Li Jing's face was as pale as a pig's liver, and he was obviously furious.

"My late emperor, I am sorry for you and my ancestors. Is the Tang Dynasty going to perish in my hands?"

After saying this, he vomited blood and fell into a faint.

The ministers were shocked and immediately called for the imperial physician.

November 27

Dangtu fell, and tens of thousands of Xia army’s southern troops moved in.

In addition, Xia's army also transferred more than 100,000 people from Jiangbei, and combined with the southern army, there were 200,000 people.

December

When the Xia army arrived at Jinling City, hundreds of thousands of troops surrounded it. The river surface north of Jinling was densely packed with Xia army's warships.

The entire Jinling area, south and north of the river, was filled with Xia flags flying.

Lu Yue, who was stationed in Dantu, Runzhou, did not dare to leave the city to rescue Jinling. He just defended the city and waited and watched the situation.

At this time, Li Jing finally woke up slowly.

"Your Majesty, the Xia army has arrived at the city. The Tang Dynasty is in danger."

"Your Majesty, I'm sure the Xia army has been on a long expedition for several months, and the soldiers must be tired and homesick. It would be better to send an envoy to pay tribute and delay the war."

"That's right, it's better to pay tribute and be a vassal, at least we can save the country."

Lying weakly on the sickbed, Li Jing listened to the words of his ministers and finally let out a long sigh:
"Send an envoy to the Xia camp to ask for peace. Tell them that our Great Tang is willing to pay tribute and garrison the southern corner of Great Xia, and fight against the rebellious Southern Han on behalf of Great Xia."

In the Jiangbei summer camp, Crown Prince Bai Mu of Great Xia and his generals were looking at the cowhide drawings in front of them and discussing the matter.

At this time, a guard came out of the tent and said, "Your Highness, someone from Nanjing has come to ask for peace with Daxia on behalf of the Emperor of Southern Tang."

Bai Mu threw down the ebony stick in his hand and frowned, "Are you sure you want peace, not surrender?"

"The other party did say please make peace."

"Your Highness." Bai Mu looked over and saw that it was the governor Hu Yanfu. "The ruler and his ministers of the Southern Tang Dynasty are really not sincere. I would like to ask you to try to attack Nanjing to make them see the reality so that they don't talk nonsense again."

"I ask you to attack Jinling and destroy Southern Tang."

The public opinion is strong and the military morale is high.

Bai Mu looked at the chief inspector Luo Minhan.

"Your Highness, please forgive me for speaking frankly. Nanjing is easy to take, but Southern Tang is not. Cities are easy to take, but the people's hearts are not."

As he said this, he took two steps forward and marked an area on the drawing with his hand.

"Jiangxi?"

The area drawn by Luo Minhan is the Jiangnan West Road preset within Daxia, which includes Hongzhou, Xinzhou, Fuzhou, Quzhou, Qianzhou, Fuzhou, Quanzhou and other places.

These areas are mostly mountainous and have many barbarians. The Southern Tang has been operating here for a long time, and it is not possible to conquer them with just a large number of people.

"Come here, tell the envoy from Southern Tang."

After a while, the Southern Tang envoy came out of the summer camp with excitement on his face, followed by several riders galloping out towards Kaifeng.

December 12
Crown Prince Bai Xi of Great Xia and Prince Li Yu of Zheng of Southern Tang signed an alliance on a Xia army warship on the Jinling River.

They agreed that Southern Tang would give up the title of emperor and change to the title of king, use the era name of Great Xia, submit to Great Xia, and pay tribute of 100,000 pieces of silk and 300,000 shi of grain every year, and not prevent Nanyang merchants from going north to Great Xia to do business.

At the same time, he donated all the lands north of Jiangzhou, Chizhou, Jinling Prefecture, Runzhou, Changzhou, and Suzhou.

Southern Tang only retained a hundred warships of the East China Sea Navy, and handed over the rest to Daxia.

The Southern Tang moved its capital from Nanjing to Hongzhou and renamed it Nanchang Prefecture.

(End of this chapter)