Late Tang

At the end of April, Zhao Ji led the left army with 5000 troops to break through Yancheng of Chuzhou, and the forward entered Yangzhou.

Immediately afterwards, Zeng Yuanyu led a 1-horse army on the right in early May to take Huaiyin and Xuyi, the important towns in the west of Chuzhou.

At this time, the Jianghuai rainy season, continuous days of torrential rain made the flat land into rivers, and the accumulated rain was overpainted.

Although Gao Pian gathered troops and horses to Gaoyou, he was also trapped by the rain for a while, and could not immediately send troops south along Hangou to attack Li Jing in Anyi City.

The continuous torrential rain caused the two armies of Qinhuai to confront each other at the border of Chuyang and Yangzhou.

The heavy rain not only stopped Gao Pian from going north, but also stopped Li Jing from going south.During this continuous rainy season, the city of Anyi was flooded, and many low-lying areas in the city became a swamp.At this time, Li Jing's barracks had to withdraw to the higher-lying urban areas of the city. Most of the soldiers had to squat on the roofs, and could only take turns entering a small number of unflooded houses to avoid the rain.

For several days, Qin Jun was unable to cook raw food, and all he ate was dry food and canned food.Fortunately, the Qin army still has naval warships, which can transport dry food and canned supplies from the rear.

Gongsun Lan wore long calfskin boots and a poncho on her body. She entered Anyi City, where half of the city was flooded, on a naval yacht, and finally went to find Li Jing by wading through the water.

Li Jing was sitting on the gate tower in the north of Anyi City, eating the freshly cooked fish cakes that the cook had just made.Thin sashimi is the most convenient food at this time. It doesn’t need fire, it’s light and translucent, and it tastes very good when dipped in sauce.

"It is said that spring rain is as expensive as oil, but if it rains too much, I can't stand it." Jing Xiang smiled at Gongsun Lan when he saw her, "General Gongsun has worked hard."

Li Jing looked at her with caring eyes.

"Your Highness, has this rain ruined your plan?"

Li Jing swallowed the sashimi, took a glass of rice wine and drank it down in one gulp, with a slight smile on his face. "No, the rain came in a timely manner. Not only did it not destroy any of my plans, but it also helped me a lot."

"Oh?"

Jing Xiang explained for Li Jing on the side: "This time we were able to defeat Gaoyu and win Shanyang and Xuyi, the important towns in Huaidong, which is already beyond expectations. Now, we have captured the entire Chuzhou, but We are short of troops this time, so we cannot immediately start a decisive battle with Gao Pian, defeat Gao Pian in one fell swoop, and annex Huainan. What we need now is to accept as soon as we are good, not to fight Gao Pian, but to take advantage of the opportunity of defeating Gao Yu's army to take The empty Huaidong first-line territory needs to seize more land."

"After the king of Qin broke through Shanyang, he immediately went south to Anyi. In fact, he didn't come to find Gao Pian for a decisive battle. He just wanted to attract Gao Pian's attention and force Gao Pian to lead his troops to fight. In this way, the two generals Zhao Ji and Zeng Yuanyu will be able to fight. Sweep Huaidong. The most important thing is that General Zeng Yuanyu was able to take down the important town of Xuyi. Originally, we planned to stay in Anyi City for only a few days. It is difficult for Gao Pian to send out troops with such a large scale, so we will spend more time here with Gao Pian."

Gongsun Lan frowned and said, "Your Highness leads [-] soldiers, but uses himself as a bait to attract Gao Pian to gather the main force to attack. This is too risky."

"If the Chinese army is not under my command, and there are only [-] soldiers and horses, how can Gao Pian believe that I am going south to attack Yangzhou?" Li Jing replied, "What's more, if another general leads the army, I'm afraid it won't happen. Like me, I can immediately attract Gao Pian to come with all his strength."

"This rain has really helped us a lot." Gongsun Lan took off her poncho, handed it to the guards, and walked over to Li Jing and sat down.

"This rain really helped us a lot. I don't think Gao Pian would have imagined that the rain in the Jianghuai River did not hinder us from going south, but instead became our helper." Li Jing also admitted with a smile that he was lucky. Huai, blocking Hangou to flood Shanyang, and now heavy rain prevents Gao Pian from leaving Gaoyou and going north to Anyi. "Everyone is equal before the opportunity, but we seized the opportunity, and the victory is the victory. Do you have any good news?"

Gongsun Lan Shifang naturally took the wine glass handed over by Li Jing, drank it all in one gulp, and drove away the dampness and coldness on her body. "I have brought some news, both good and bad. Your Highness wants to hear the good news or the bad news first?"

Li Jing chuckled, "The news doesn't matter whether it's good or bad, it just needs to be comprehensive."

Gongsun Lan also smiled, "Then let me tell you the good news first. The good news is that the right army led by General Zeng Yuanyu lived up to His Highness's expectations. After breaking through Xuyi, they did not stay. Instead, with the cooperation of the navy, they continued to attack the west. Haozhou, first break Zhaoyi, and then take a boat to attack Zhongli, the city of Haozhou. Just received the exact news that General Zeng has captured Zhongli City, an important town in Huaixi, and is currently taking advantage of the victory to send troops to sweep all counties in Haozhou. Haozhou can be completely captured."

The continuous heavy rain is not suitable for large-scale operations, and Gao Pian's tens of thousands of troops can only stay in Gaoyou.But for Haozhou, which is currently empty, although Zeng Yuanyu only has 1 troops, it is enough to sweep Haozhou.Especially with the cooperation of the navy.The Huaiyin and Shanyang battles just now almost wiped out the Huai army's strength on the front line of the Huaihe River.The two states of Chu and Hao are extremely empty.With Zeng Yuanyu's [-] troops and the cooperation of the navy, the attack on Haozhou is as easy as Gao Jie's attack on Haozhou last time.

This is indeed great news. First take Chuzhou, then go to Haozhou, and win the three important towns of Shanyang, Xuyi, and Zhongli on the south bank of the Huaihe River. It can be said that in this way, Li Jing can be regarded as completely established in Huainan .Even if he retreats now, Gao Pian will not even think about taking Chu and Hao back for a while.

When Gao Pian sent troops this time, he first captured Shi Pu's Haozhou, but now he lost Haozhou to Li Jing in a blink of an eye, and instead built a Chuzhou. It can be said that he lost his wife and lost his army.

"What about the bad news?" Li Jing asked.

Gongsun Lan saw that Li Jing was not very excited when he heard the news of taking Haozhou, so she knew that Li Jing had planned to take Haozhou.

"The bad news is that Haozhou has been captured, but Shouzhou has no chance. According to the information obtained by the Military Intelligence Bureau, Gao Jie has secretly communicated with Huang Chao many times. According to our analysis, Gao Pian probably has secretly joined hands with Huang Chao."

"It's not uncommon. It's a combination of interests." Li Jing was not surprised to hear that Gao Pian would secretly unite with Huang Chao.Huang Chao, Gao Pian, and Li Jing are now gathered in the Huainan area of ​​the Central Plains. If Li Jing is strong, then Gao Pian will naturally join hands with Huang Chao.However, this kind of alliance is not so stable, just like Sun Liu's alliance against Cao.

Gongsun Lan said again: "The three generals Ge Congzhou, Huo Cun, and Zhang Guiba under Huang Chao's command suddenly sent troops to Xuzhou. According to the news just received, Shi Pu saw that the situation was not good and had already surrendered to Huang Chao. Huang Chao just ordered that Shi Pu Became the Hussar General and Minister of the Ministry of War, and entered the court as an official. Changed the Probation Army to Wuning Army, granted Huo Cun the Wuning Army Jiedu Envoy and Xuzhou Governor, and then cut the southern part of Xuzhou into Suzhou, and Zhang Guiba as Suzhou Assassin."

"The Qi army has captured Xu and Su?" Jing Xiang asked in surprise.Earlier, both Li Jing and Gao Pian sent people to recruit Shi Pu, but this guy was vacillating.Li Jing and Gao Pian threw Shi Pu aside and started fighting.But now, Li Jing had just defeated Gao Pian and was about to collect the spoils of Xuzhou. Who would have imagined that Huang Chao swallowed this piece of meat first.

"Isn't Pu very stubborn at this time, why is he so overwhelmed?"

Li Jing was also a little surprised that Huang Chao picked the peaches. "It can't be said that Shi Pu is soft-boned. He didn't want to belong to either of the Qin and Huai families before, but he just wanted to take advantage of our struggle with Gao Pian and Huang Chao's three families to get involved in it and to protect himself. But now, since Gao Pianbing If the balance is broken, it will be difficult for Xuzhou to survive."

"But even so, Shi Pu should also see that our Qin army is powerful, and why we surrendered to that grass thief Huang Chao instead."

Li Jing also felt uncomfortable for a while, if Pu surrendered the whole city at this time, Li Jing would not treat Shi Pu badly.But now Shi Pu didn't vote for him, instead he voted for Huang Chao, which made Li Jing very angry.

"Any more news?" Li Jing's face changed slightly.Huang Chao suddenly captured Xuzhou and Suzhou, which was not a good thing for Li Jing.Gao Pian gathered an army in the south, and Huang Chao captured Xu and Su in the north. Li Jing's troops in Jianghuai are not many, and there is a risk of being pinched by Huang Chao and Gao Pian.

The leaders of Huang Chao's side are not idle people. Yingzhou Governor Ge Congzhou, Haozhou Governor Zhang Guihou, Suzhou Governor Zhang Guiba, and Xuzhou Governor Huo Cun are all generals under Huang Chao's command.

Li Jing originally wanted to take this opportunity to snatch Shouzhou over, but now it seems that there is no chance.

"Liu Hanhong, the Jiedu envoy of the Zhendong Army in the east of Zhejiang, formed an alliance with Gao Pian, and sent troops to Hangzhou in the west of Zhejiang a few days ago. Zhou Bao hastily led the troops back to fight."

Li Jing snorted coldly, no wonder Gao Pian dared to go north to Gaoyou with all his soldiers from Yangzhou. It turned out that he had persuaded Liu Hanhong to send troops to Zhou Bao to deal with the enemies in the backyard.It has to be said that Gao Pian did not earn his name in vain. After all these years of bloody storms, his mind is still very strong.Although the front line suffered a big defeat, in the blink of an eye, Liu Hanhong in the south of Zhedong faced Zhou Bao, and Huang Chao in the north against Li Jing. The situation in Huainan, which was already in jeopardy, immediately improved a lot.

"Your Highness, it seems that Jianghuai can't stay for a long time. We have to withdraw our troops and return to Sizhou immediately. It is important to take Xusu Erzhou back first." Jing Xiang suggested that Xusu Erzhou's strategic importance is very important for the Qin Army's Shandong and Henan strategic plans. Importantly, it is impossible to give up such an important place to Huang Chao.

Before Li Jing could answer, he heard an eager shout: "Your Majesty!" He turned his head away, and the fifth concubine came from the rain all wet, and Li Jing got up and brought him a cup of warm rice wine.

The fifth concubine looked a little embarrassed. He panted and reported to Li Jing, "Your Majesty, there is an urgent military situation! The Military Intelligence Bureau has just received an urgent report that the Emperor Chang'an has secretly left for Xichuan Chengdu with Tian Lingzi. In addition, Hebei urgently reported that Liu Yue said the other day. In the evening, he was suddenly assassinated in Youzhou and died!"

"The emperor is lucky enough to be in Shu? Is this really true?" Li Jing asked hastily.Although Huang Chao has been attacking Tongguan, because Tongguan is guarded by Cui Anqian and others, and Li Jing's soldiers and horses have also arrived in Henan, Huang Chao has not attacked Tongguan with the whole army as in history, but defended Luoyang and proclaimed himself emperor.The situation in Chang'an has not reached the point where it cannot be defended. Why did Li Xuan suddenly run away at this time.

"The emperor and Tian Lingzi left suddenly with [-] Shence troops. They did not inform Chang'an officials in advance. Only a small number of ministers got the news and left together. Many royal families and officials were left in Chang'an until the third day. The news spread throughout Chang'an, and now the whole Chang'an is in chaos, the people of Chang'an thought that Tongguan had fallen, and countless officials, soldiers and civilians fled westward with their families."

Compared with the emperor Xixing, the news that Liu Yue was assassinated and killed by Lulong Jiedu is not so shocking.

Li Jing walked around with his hands behind his back, his eyebrows lowered, his heart fluctuated and his thoughts were chaotic.

After a long time, Li Jing said: "Immediately send an order to return to the north tomorrow." (To be continued.)