Traveling the Heavens in Thunderbolt

Chapter 1103: The Gentlemen
After arranging the matters concerning grain transport, Zhao Zhuan also discussed the conscription and recruitment of soldiers from various places.

After finalizing the decision to train 500,000 elite soldiers like those of Beiliang in three years after Li Yanghua, Zhao Zhuan finally carried out the most important event of this morning's court session, which was to discuss the future strategies for using troops against Beiliang and Western Chu.

Prime Minister Qi Yanglong stepped out and said, "Your Majesty, Gu Jiantang reported that he has completed the mobilization of the border troops of the two Liaos and will march south soon."

Zhao Zhuan arranged: "Okay, let the general lead the army directly to Jing'an Road, no need to come to the capital to report on his work."

The young emperor did this because he wanted Gu Jiantang to block the Beiliang Army on their way back north.

However, the Beiliang army was mostly composed of cavalry. Even if Gu Jiantang led the elite Liao soldiers, it would be difficult to keep Beiliang as long as Xu Fengnian deliberately avoided the sharp edge.

This move was more to save Li Yang's face.

The young emperor said: "Northern Liang is nothing to be afraid of. Western Chu is my confidant in Liyang. Xu Gong."

"The minister is here."

"You are to concurrently serve as the General of Jizhou."

"My minister obeys."

The order to transfer the Minister of War Xu Gong to Jizhou was obviously to let him preside over the reconstruction and strengthening of Jizhou's defense line.

"Order the Secretariat to draft an edict. Lu Xiangsheng is loyal to the country and has made great military achievements. From today on, he will be promoted to General of the Southern Expedition and will be in charge of eliminating the remnants of the Western Chu."

At this court meeting, Li Yang formally formulated the strategy of defending the north and advancing to the south, aiming to first concentrate his forces to destroy Western Chu.

Lu Shengxiang, who suffered a series of defeats on the southern front, was promoted to commander-in-chief of the court's southern expedition.

Compared with the last time when he was constrained everywhere, this time, His Majesty the Emperor personally gave Lu Shengxiang the power to act at his discretion in the Wuying Palace.

Half of the Ministry of War and the entire military forces in the capital are leaning towards him, and he also has the power to control the vast territories of the fourteen states in the Central Plains, including Jing'an Road. He also half-seriously said, "The general is away from the emperor and is not bound by his orders."

In this way, Lu Shengxiang seemed to have become a Jiedushi above the Jiedushi. After stepping out of the Yangshen Temple today, he almost controlled half of the Liyang Dynasty's troops.

However, the white-robed soldier immortal stationed at the western fortress, the villain Tu Chen Zhibao, was not under the jurisdiction of Lu Xiangsheng.

In order to prevent a rift between the two, the court increased Chen Zhibao's army to 80,000, assigned a special person to be in charge of the supply of food and fodder, and granted him exclusive power to act at his own discretion, so that he and Lu Xiangsheng were not under the same command.

Afterwards, Zhao Zhuan made the decision and said, "We should first train our troops and wipe out the rebellion of Western Chu. By then, I believe that Northern Liang will recognize its position."

As he spoke, it seemed as if Beiliang could be destroyed in the blink of an eye.

After the morning court session, Zhao Zhuan left Qi Yanglong, Chen Wang, Sun Yin, Lu Xu and others in the Yangshen Palace to hold another small court meeting.

As the matter was confidential and those attending the meeting were all important officials in the court and close ministers of the emperor, it is unknown what was discussed specifically.

But after the meeting, when the eunuch on duty entered the palace to clean, he took a secret glance and vaguely saw that the face of the Emperor Li Yang was very dark.
-
Hello everyone, I am the dividing line of water word count-——
In the upper reaches of the Guangling River, several large ships with the "Xu" flag flying were sailing upstream, followed closely by hundreds of Mengchong small boats, creating a scene of hundreds of boats competing for the current and thousands of sails standing in competition on the river.

The first few large ships were built in Liyang in a hurry and stored in Jing'an Road to rebuild the Qingzhou navy.

In the battle of Jing'an Road, after defeating the Qingzhou army of Jing'an King Zhao Xun, Xu Fengnian immediately divided 5,000 Liangzhou right cavalrymen and headed to the Qingzhou navy station as soon as he took over the canal. The Qingzhou navy had just been rebuilt not long ago, and most of the navy soldiers had never fought in battles and were insufficient in combat power. They also learned from the captives that the Qingzhou army had been defeated.

So when the Northern Liang army surrounded them, the commander of the Qingzhou navy chose to surrender.

The last seeds of the Qingzhou navy were thus incorporated into Beiliang without bloodshed.

Several warships that were supposed to play a huge role in the future war to the south changed their owners intact.

Xu Fengnian integrated the Qingzhou navy and the recruited boatmen and chose to take the Guangling River route to bring more than 30,000 Beiliang cavalry and 800,000 shi of grain back to Beiliang.

He failed to fulfill Li Yang's wish and returned to Beiliang by land.

On a towering ship in the middle, Xu Fengnian, surrounded by a group of guards, stood by the railing, admiring the scenery on the river.

Xu Yanbing arrived and whispered, "Gu Jiantang has led 100,000 elite troops south, and Emperor Liyang asked him to come directly to Jing'an Road."

Xu Fengnian smiled and said, "It seems that the one sitting in the Yangshen Palace is still unwilling to watch me take away 800,000 shi of grain, so he sent Gu Jiantang to lead the troops to intercept me. Unfortunately, his actions are destined to be in vain."

Xu Yanbing suddenly realized, "So the prince had previously sent General Yu south to Western Shu to force the Qingzhou navy to surrender and collect ships. From the beginning, he had made up his mind not to go through Jizhou and return to Northern Liang."

Xu Fengnian smiled and said, "Since Liyang established its capital in Tai'an City, no one has ever come to the gates of the city. My arrow has severely slapped Liyang in the face. Any emperor would not let us go back to Beiliang so easily."

Looking at the scenery along the river, Xu Fengnian said with emotion: "I left Baidi in the morning amidst the colorful clouds, and returned to Jiangling a thousand miles away in one day. This ancient poem is great. Back then, Western Shu had chiseled a stone wall and hung three iron chains to block the river, trying to stop our Beiliang's improvised navy. I never thought that the naval battle ended before it even started, and the natural barriers along the river were completely destroyed by the Beiliang army. It took our Beiliang less than two months to destroy Western Shu."

Xu Yanbing said: "From now on, if we from Beiliang want to go to Jing'an and Lianghuai, we don't need to go through Qingcheng anymore, we can go by water."

Xu Fengnian said with a smile: "Northerners ride horses, and southerners ride boats. Since we are in the south, we should follow the local customs. Let people know that we in Beiliang not only know how to ride horses, but also how to row slowly."

Xu Yanbing said calmly, "There is another piece of news. Zhao Xun, who was thrown into Chunshen Lake by Li Hanlin, became seriously ill after being rescued by Princess Jing'an."

"It will take at least half a year or ten months for His Royal Highness Prince Jing'an to recover from his illness." Xu Fengnian naturally knew what Xu Yanbing meant by telling him this news.

When the deer was lost in Liyang, the whole world started chasing after it.

Among all the contending forces, Beiliang, which is the most powerful, seems to be the most qualified to ascend the throne and become emperor, and share the world equally with the Liyang orthodox.

But in fact, it is just the opposite. Xu Fengnian is the least suitable to change the python robe into a dragon robe so early.

This time, the troops were sent out to defend the border of Beiliang for the world, but Liyang humiliated the former king, ignored the hatred of the soldiers buried in the border, and took the name of righteousness.

No matter how badly Xu Weixiong spoke of the Liyang royal family in that edict, the court and the people, especially the people of the world, still had their hearts set on Tai'an City.

Whether considering Beiliang's need for development or dealing with the immortals in heaven, Xu Fengnian was unwilling to be the first to step forward at this time.

Originally, according to Xu Weixiong's idea, Xu Fengnian was to go south and take the opportunity to bring Prince Jing'an Zhao Xun back to Beiliang.

Thanks for the reward from Li Meng, the God of Death.

(End of this chapter)