Traveling the Heavens in Thunderbolt

Chapter 1132 West Wall

Faced with such an urgent situation, Zhao Zhuan, at the suggestion of Wen Tihen, decided to mobilize nearly one million civilians from Jing'an and even Jiangnan Provinces for labor service and ordered them to go to Xiangfan to build warships.

In order to cross the Guangling River as quickly as possible and achieve the strategy of destroying Chu.

Li Yang no longer cared about anything else. He tore off his past disguise of tenderness and affection, and used the Qingzhou Army to force the civilians to perform continuous high-intensity labor.

Under such coercion, Li Yang completed the reconstruction of the Qingzhou Navy in less than three months, which would have taken a year to complete.

The price paid was that millions of civilians were conscripted, and five to six out of ten died.
-
The fourth year of Xiangfu, late spring.

The rain is as soft as butter.

The Grand Secretary's Mansion in Tai'an City is a small pavilion overlooking the lake, with exquisite hangings under the eaves.

Two people of the same age stood side by side, one was the young uncle of the emperor, Yan Chiji, and the other was Kong Zhenrong, who worked in the Ministry of War.

The two of the four evils of Liangzhou back then, although they went to Liyang, they are still close friends.

Kong Zhenrong crossed his arms and grinned, "Li Hanlin is really amazing. He becomes more and more courageous in battles and has become the only remaining white horse captain outside the Beiliang Pass. Especially after the Wuchuan Campaign last year, he, Cao Wei, and Wang Jingchong's cavalry, in cooperation with Yue Pengju and Wu Jinqing, beat the soldiers of Beimang Beiting and cried for their parents. It is said that they defeated the imperial tent army led by Dong Zhuo, the king of the Southern Court of Beimang, and joined forces with Xu Fengnian at the foot of Beimang Huangting City."

Yan Chiji subconsciously rubbed the stubble on his chin, which seemed to be getting more and more prickly. Thinking back to the past, among the four people, Kong Wuchi looked the most mature and had a beard the first, and Li Hanlin often laughed at him, Yan Chiji, for being a pretty boy. Unfortunately, he was just a little ugly, and was a million miles away from Nian Ge'er.

Yan Chiji asked, "What do you think would happen if we stayed in Beiliang?"

Kong Zhenrong had obviously thought about this question a long time ago, and said without hesitation: "You can either be a clerk under Lu Baijie of Qingliang Mountain, or be a military secretary in Jubei City. But I am different. At the very least, I can be a white horse captain like Li Hanlin!"

Yan Chiji laughed and scolded, "What a shame! You can only be so arrogant when they are not around. When they were around in the early years, you, Kong Wuchi, always behaved like a quiet person."

Kong Zhenrong rolled his eyes and felt helpless.

Xu Fengnian, Li Hanlin, Yan Chiji, Kong Zhenrong, Li Fuzhen, Yan Dongwu.

There were six people that year.

Three of them are in Beiliang and three are in Tai'an.

Three of them stayed in their hometown, and three went far away.

Yan Chiji was silent for a long time, and then he said softly, "You and Li Hanlin both think that I read the most books, but Nian Ge'er is naturally smart, so he is more reasonable than me. In fact, it is not true. I only figured it out later. In fact, when our family secretly left Beiliang, Nian Ge'er knew it a long time ago. That's why he said those drunken words to me alone when we met for the last time. He said that the book said that all good things must come to an end. Don't be afraid, the book also said that there is no place in life where you don't meet each other. When one banquet is removed, there is always a chance to set up another one."

Yan Chiji turned his head, his face full of tears, and looked at Kong Wuchi, "I know that the four of us, plus my sister and Li Fuzhen, the six of us, will never have the chance to be together again in this life."
-
The third year of Xiangfu, early summer.

King Zhao Sui of Jiaodong led his elite troops southward, joined forces with Gu Jiantang, stationed troops in Lianghuai, and was ready to join the battle to suppress the rebellion against Chu at any time.

The Qingzhou navy, which had been completed, had complete manpower, huge warships, and sufficient food and fodder.

The Qingzhou navy marched south and sounded the clarion call to destroy Chu in Liyang.

Afterwards, Gu Jiantang and Zhao Sui rested in Lianghuai to replenish food and grass, and then broke into the West Wall from Lianghuai.

Gu Jiantang and Zhao Sui, two famous generals of the Spring and Autumn Period, led an army of 300,000 to the city. At the same time, Xie Xichui and Kou Jianghuai, the two pillars of Western Chu, also led the most elite 250,000 troops of Western Chu to the city. Jiang Si, the empress of Western Chu, appointed Zhang Bianguan as the general of Western Chu, the supreme pillar of the country, and commanded the army to fight against Liyang.

As if it was God's will, Li Yang and Xi Chu once again started a decisive battle at the West Wall.

The last time the army was led by Xu Xiao and Chen Zhibao, this time it was Gu Jiantang, Chen Zhibao, and Zhao Sui, most of whom were veterans who participated in the Spring and Autumn National War.

On the Western Chu side, there is the newly grown young generation including Zhang Bianguan, Xie Xichui, Kou Jianghuai, etc.

Lu Xiangsheng led the troops from Jing'an Road, Jiangnan Road and other three routes to station them near Guangling River, preparing to cross the river.

The Qingzhou navy had a large fleet, sufficient manpower, and the support of the powerful Liyang, and they launched a frantic attack on the navy led by Gu Dazu.

Under the command of Gu Dazu, the Western Chu Navy launched a counterattack, and the results were often one to two, one to three or even one to four.

However, Li Yang did not care about his own losses at all, and continued to conscript civilians to build warships for the Qingzhou Navy to ensure the numerical advantage of warships on the front line.

The price was that many civilians died of exhaustion. The people in Jing'an Road and Jiangnan Road suffered from poor livelihoods due to the heavy labor service in Liyang, and there was widespread complaint.

Even many families in Lianghuai Road were taken away by Liyang.

Fortunately, when Gu Jiantang and Zhao Sui stationed troops here, they did not let the soldiers go.

In addition, Jiedushi Cai Nan was an old subordinate of Gu Jiantang, and provided a list of many unscrupulous merchants and wealthy families, and confiscated their property to provide military supplies for the 300,000-man army.

If Zhao Zhuan's order were really followed, the people of Lianghuai Road would really be in dire straits under Li Yang's successive operations.

The Battle of West Wall broke out. Zhang Bianguan worked together with Xie Xichui and Kou Jianghuai to fight against famous generals Gu Jiantang, Chen Zhibao and others, and they were not inferior at all.

The two sides fought fiercely at the West Wall for more than ten days. Nearly 100,000 people of Western Chu were killed in the battle, and Li Yang also lost more than 80,000 people.

At this time, bad news came from the court of Western Chu that the Prime Minister Sun Xiji died at home.

As a stabilizing force in Western Chu, Sun Xiji relied on his own prestige and means to balance the various forces in the court and assisted Empress Jiang Si in governing the country.

With him around, the court of Western Chu is stable and all forces can live in peace.

With the death of Sun Xiji, various forces in the court of Western Chu began to fight for power.

Even if Jiang Si stepped in to mediate, she often ended up only causing more problems than she anticipated.

With the emergence of party struggles, countless rumors spread throughout the streets and alleys. Some said that this was the disaster of a woman in power, while others were sinister and insinuated, saying that the current emperor was actually a wild fox spirit that walked out of the mountains and had lived for a thousand years, but was just wearing human skin.

Some even say that Empress Jiang Si was actually an orphan that Cao Changqing found on the street, and that she was a puppet created just to satisfy Cao Changqing's selfish desire to become the emperor's teacher.

Faced with a powerful enemy, many knowledgeable people were unwilling to participate in party struggles and rushed to the battlefield. Some died in battle, some were posthumously honored, and some were given beautiful titles.

With the disappearance of these people, the children of the aristocratic families who had been suppressed in the north continued to pour into the court. Fathers and sons were in the court together, and even three generations of the same family were officials.

(End of this chapter)