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Chapter 816 Sweeping the Southeast (Part [-])
In Tai Chi Palace.

Fang Xuanling said to Li Shimin: "His Royal Highness, although Yang Wenqian's rebellion is peaceful, our army has paid a high price for it. Yang Wenqian's militarism, hundreds of miles in Gyeongju have been turned into scorched earth after this battle, and tens of thousands of people have been displaced. The capture of Gyeongju killed more than [-] of our soldiers, and we won't be happy even if we win."

Fang Xuanling went on to say: "Yang Wengan's rebellion also caused chaos in Hexi. Duan Decao took advantage of the situation to destroy the post station, block the roads, cut off communication with the imperial court, and at the same time lead troops to station in various counties. Yang Gongren once sent people to persuade him to surrender. He replied that if the persecution is too severe, he will surrender directly to Zhao."

Li Shimin asked: "Master Liang, you can't be silent at all."

"Yes, Liang Shidu is the most powerful person. He used the power of the Turks to repeatedly violate our borders. Now he has the support of the Zhao State and has repeatedly violated our Hexi hinterland. However, this person's military use is mediocre. Hou Junji defeated all the raids, so as long as the Zhao army doesn't increase troops in Hexi, I think Hexi should be fine." Fang Xuanling replied.

Li Shimin said: "The defense of Hexi cannot be taken lightly. If there is no Hexi, Longyou cannot be settled. If it is Longyou, Sichuan and Shu, Guanzhong cannot be settled. Li Chongjiu has 10,000+ grassland light cavalry, and he can go south at any time, plus Western Turks, With the help of Tuyuhun, the Hexi defense line is under great pressure."

Du Ruhui replied: "Your Majesty, there is no need to worry about the Hexi defense line for the time being. Chai Shao, Yang Gongren, and Yang Shidao are all famous generals of my Li Tang. Hexi is still guarded by my [-] troops. As for the Western Turks, there is no need to worry about Tuyuhun. This time, Chai Shao led [-] light cavalry to march straight into the Western Regions. , is enough to make Xi Yu Xiao Xiao timid."

Li Shimin was very relieved when he heard that, although Li Xiaogong and Liu Hongji were no longer available, the Guanlongmen Clan started their career with military exploits, and there were many famous generals, and the elite soldiers trained by Li Tang for more than ten years were also very capable of fighting.This time Chai Shao personally led [-] cavalry to sweep across the countries in the Western Regions, which really boosted Li Tang's prestige.

Li Shimin said: "This time the Turkic, Tuyuhun blow is enough, let Chai Shao and the Turkic, Tuyuhun, sign an alliance under the city, and then return to Hexi. Duan Decao is rebellious, and he will be a lonely confidant in the future."

"promise!"

"Your Highness, the battle in Henan is also very unfavorable. Zhao Jun Xu Shiji and Shan Xiongxin, two generals, gained momentum and continued to attack Henan. Li Jing could no longer hold on. Zhang Gongjin secretly told Li Jing that Li Jing wanted to retreat to Qinling and stick to Jingxiang."

Li Shimin did not speak after hearing this.Du Ruhui said at this time: "Your Highness, the Zhao army swept across the southeast, Lin Shihong's defeat has been decided, and Feng An, the governor of Gaozhou, also refused to pay tribute to Chang'an this year. Words are bad news.”

Hearing what Du Ruhui said, Li Shimin said: "The world is overthrown. Even people like Feng An are ready to move. Could it be that he wants to be Zhao Tuo? I don't need to pay attention to such people. Lingnan is full of miasma and people's customs are quite stubborn. Li Chongjiu can take it as his own. You can’t have it, let him go. As long as our army guards Jingxiang, we can keep Sichuan and Sichuan safe according to the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. Tell Li Jing that the battle in Henan is up to him alone, and I believe him!”

Fang Xuanling and Du Ruhui were all beaming when they heard this. Li Shimin's ability to delegate power to Li Jing and let him decide the war by himself is obviously very courageous.After all, the war situation in Henan is now very rotten, and the people's hearts are also abandoning Tang to Zhao. If Li Tang can break his wrists now and surrender Jingxiang, he will still have the strength of Zhao in the first battle.

Most people are unwilling to abandon such an important place as Henan. Li Yuan would definitely bear various political pressures and would not take such a risky decision.But Li Shimin also knew that the situation in Henan was unsolvable, so he boldly left it to Li Jing to decide.However, Fang Xuanling also knew that although Li Shimin was decisive, the general trend of the world was already on Zhao Guo's side. No matter how outstanding Li Shimin was, would he be able to reverse the general trend with his own power?

If it had been three or two years earlier, maybe the current situation would not be like this. Thinking of this, Fang Xuanling couldn't help but sigh secretly.Seeing Fang Xuanling like this, Du Ruhui also knew what Fang Xuanling was thinking, so he didn't say anything.

Both of them were single-handedly promoted and appreciated by Li Shimin, and after entering the Tiance Mansion, they were trusted and reused by Li Shimin.Both of them are loyal men, and both of them have the idea that the king treats me like a gentleman of the country, and I will repay the gentleman of the country.No matter what happened to Li Shimin's future, they could only do their best to help him and see if it could help the overall situation. As for success or failure, they were not in their consideration.

Just when the civil strife in Li and Tang continued, Zhao Jun was making great strides in Jiangnan.

Nanchang.

Ouyang Xun entered the city on horseback. The city of Nanchang had been captured three days ago, and the first battle of capturing Nanchang went smoothly.

But suddenly it rained heavily, and most of the [-] paces lost their way. Only Wang Xiongsheng led [-] soldiers to reach the city of Nanchang.Wang Xiongdan was not afraid when he saw that there were few soldiers, so he immediately led two hundred soldiers to shout that Zhao Jun is coming, Zhao Jun is coming!

The defender of Nanchang City, Sikong Wang Rong of Chu State, did not have the courage to fight at all, so he abandoned the city with only a dozen of his cronies, and all the defenders in the city surrendered.Wang Xiongdan captured this important town in one go, which shows that Lin Shihong's Chu army is really vulnerable.

When Ouyang Xun arrived in the city on horseback, there were soldiers guarding the stone road in front of the city gate, and the ground was very slippery because of the heavy rain.However, there are still many local people in blue shirts and bamboo baskets with mountain goods on their heads to sell in the city.

On the narrow streets of the market, most of the shops are open, and everything looks very peaceful.

Seeing such an orderly scene, it was obvious that the local guards were in charge, Ouyang Xun nodded in satisfaction, then entered Nanchang Mansion, and met Wang Xiongdan.

When Wang Xiongdan saw Ouyang Xun, he saluted him very politely. Ouyang Xun also knew that this person was appreciated by Li Chongjiu during the battle against Du Fuwei.Therefore, he, who has always been snobby, talked to Wang Xiongdan cordially when he met Wang Xiongdan.

The two exchanged friendly greetings for a while, and then talked about business.

Wang Xiongdan first reported the war against the Chu army to Ouyang Xun. He said: "After Lin Shihong was defeated in Jiujiang County, he and Lin Yaoshi led the main force to retreat to the mountains of Poyang County. Our army circled around. However, General Song did not intend to join the enemy, but instead led the army to Poyang and Yuzhang counties, led the army to guard every intersection, blocked the way out of the mountain, and sent troops into the mountain to search."

"But later we learned that after Lin Shihong came to the mountains, he made friends with the leaders of the Lingnan slang people with gold and silver, and recruited Dongbing soldiers to defend themselves. It was quite stubborn. Originally, we didn't pay attention to these Dongbing soldiers, and directly wiped out Lin Shihong. That's it. But before this Southern Expedition, His Majesty has explained that you need to be careful when mentioning all things about the Lingnan slang, and you might as well report to him before you deal with it. So I have already reported the general situation to Marshal Song, and I will lead the army here Stationed here, while resting the army and horses, it is also waiting for His Majesty's will."

Ouyang Xun said happily: "General Wang is courageous and resourceful, he controls his troops and horses with restraint, and he doesn't make mistakes easily, which really makes me admire. It just so happens that this time I came to Lingnan on the order of His Majesty, to see if I can contact Feng An , make a decision again."

Wang Xiongdan said with a smile, "Actually, Shangshu Ouyang doesn't need to be so troublesome. He even came all the way from Luoyang to go deep into the barren land of Lingnan. Our troops can be dispatched at any time, not to mention Lin Shihong, but Feng Ang is also captured together and presented to the city of Que in the future, isn't it a glorious thing?"

After hearing this, Ouyang Xun sneered and said, "For the barbarians, it is humiliating to use troops to win without martial arts. How can a military strategist be as simple as winning or losing? It is easy to defeat Feng An, but it takes Lingnan slang and millions of people to obey him." It's difficult."

"You." Ouyang Xun's sarcasm immediately angered the general, but he didn't dare to make a fuss in consideration of the other party's status and remained silent.

Wang Xiongsheng said: "Purgating Lingnan is out of the question, just causing more killings and harming the peace of heaven. Your Majesty is a magnanimous lord. Although the people of Lingnan are the survivors of Baiyue, they have intermarried with our Han people for many years. It’s not a real fanman. Isn’t the Feng family in Lingnan the descendant of Feng Hong in the Northern Wei Dynasty? So it’s good to be able to defeat others without fighting.”

Ouyang Xun stroked Xu and praised: "General Wang, what you said is not bad at all."

The next day, Ouyang Xun and Wei Shuxie, head of the Ministry of Rites at Daxingtai, Henan Province, went south to Lingnan.Wei Shuxie is a descendant of Jingzhao Wei's family, after Wei Wei, the general manager of Pingnan Chen.Wei Wei was guarding Lingnan back then and had good relations with the Feng family in Lingnan, so this time Li Chongjiu wanted to recruit Feng An from Lingnan, so he appointed Wei Shuxie as the head of the Ministry of Rites and asked him to go on the road with Ouyang Xun.

Ouyang Xun and Wei Shuxie took the local pro-Han slang as guides, went deep into the barren land in the south of Lingnan, and soon encountered the slang tribe.Ouyang Xun bluntly asked to see Feng An, and these slang tribes immediately invited Ouyang Xun to see him.

Originally, the base of the Feng family in Lingnan was in Nanhai County. Ouyang Xun thought he was going to cross the mountains, but he didn't expect Feng An to station troops near Ganshan Mountain.Both Ouyang Xun and Wei Shuxie were astonished.

Mount Gan guards the main road in south of the Five Ridges, but we can see that the local houses rise layer by layer according to the mountain, and the houses are also very distinctive. Chicken dolphins are called Malan locally.

While the local savages were watching with spears, Ouyang Xun looked at these people, but saw that they were all without leather armor, with their left lapels exposed, no crowns on their heads, and no silk shoes on their feet.The local soldiers are all tattooed with broken hair, and various beasts are tattooed on their chests to scare the enemy.

Ouyang Xun understands that if such soldiers go to fight on the plains of the Central Plains, with Zhao Jun holding strong armor and strong crossbows, and then forming a solid formation, such sloppy soldiers, a phalanx of 100 Zhao Jun can fight 1 people.But if it is a battle in the mountains and forests, in the harsh environment surrounded by miasma and pestilence in the south of the Five Ridges, coupled with the bravery of the soldiers themselves, the combat effectiveness is very extraordinary, and the strength of the troops is equal, and it is not certain who wins or loses.

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(End of this chapter)