In June of the fourteenth year of the Great Cause, after learning that Du Fuwei led his troops westward, he went to attack Jingling and put on the appearance of wanting to pocket the Pegasus Ranch. www.biquge.info Li Qin was worried that Du Fuwei would capture Nanjun after capturing Jingling and incorporate the powerful Yangtze River Naval Division, so he decided to implement the second phase of the strategy plan that was originally to be implemented after the year.

The second phase of the plan is the second step of the Jiangnan strategy plan that Li Qin circled with Su Dingfang, Shen Luoyan and others when he was farming in the saddle.

The first step is to attack Danyang, Biling, Wujun, Yuhang, Huiji, Xuancheng, Xin'an, Sui'an and other Jiangyou essence areas, and then obtain the foundation for hegemony in the world.

The second step of the Jiangnan strategy is to enter Jiujiang, Yuzhang, Poyang, Linchuan, Luling, Jiangxia, Baling, Yichun, Wuling, Qingjiang, Changsha and other counties in the west, while occupying the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, open up the land passage with Bashu, and then prepare for the future march into Bashu.

This is quite an important step.

In Li Qin's view, if the first step is to obtain the foundation of hegemony for himself, then the second step to advance west along the Yangtze River is a step to truly gain the power to compete for the world.

"It's useless to have only Jiangdong, and I don't want to be a corner of Eastern Wu, so it's necessary to march westward. Only as Mei Zhoulang said in the original plan to divide the world to Sun Cejin, can I really have the possibility of fixing the world. Li Qin understands this very well.

In this era, most of the area south of the Yangtze River was still not very well developed, and only the counties along the Yangtze River and around Dongting Lake could be called densely populated and economically developed.

There is no way for people to change up all at once, so they want to have a large population to enrich their power, one is to migrate the people of the land to enrich the population under their rule, as they did in Jiangdu, and the other is to directly conquer the place with a large population.

After Li Qin occupied Jiangdong, westward expansion was inevitable.

Originally, Li Qin's plan was to move westward a year after Jiangdong was pacified, and sweep through the eleven counties of Jiangnan from the bottom up like the capture of Jiangdong, but Du Fuwei's eagerness to advance westward made Li Qin have to act early to accommodate these densely populated and economically good places before Du Fuwei.

It's a race against the clock. Li Qin was also very helpless.

However, as far as the current attack on the eleven counties in the south of the Yangtze River is concerned, Li Qin also has a favorable place, that is, relying on the connections of the high-ranking officials of the Sui Dynasty that he rescued, he directly persuaded the officials in the south of the Yangtze River to take refuge.

Although this time it was selected as the target of the eleventh county of Gangnam. It has long been divided between Lin Shihong and Xiao Miao, but Lin Shihong has long passed his most majestic time, and Xiao Miao has just rebelled against Sui, and his local rule is not the most reliable.

Li Qinduo has gathered information about them. Based on this information, he made an estimate and believed that these two men were definitely not his opponents.

Now after the Battle of Jiangdu, Li Qin has a further estimate of his strength: "Xiaoguo Army and Du Fuwei are not my opponents, how can Xiao Mo and Lin Shihong do it?" ”

"As long as I defeat Lin Shihong and Xiao Miao, then the south of the Yangtze River will be my world. At that time, I will be able to use this foundation to negotiate with the Song Valve and unify the south as quickly as possible. As long as we can take the land of the south before the unification of the north, who in the world will still fight? This is Li Qin's abacus.

In this abacus, Lin Shihong and Xiao Mo are undoubtedly the top priorities.

Therefore, Li Qin made a plan: "I will crush them heavily in this battle!" ”

At that moment, Li Qin's Red Army began to mobilize.

At that time, relying on the strong steel output of the Ma'an Iron and Steel Plant and the adoption of iron mold casting cannon technology, Li Qin threw off his arms and armed his fleet with a large number of artillery after the Battle of Jiangdu.

From April of the 14th year of the Great Cause to June of the 14th year of the Great Cause, Li Qin had armed forty gunboats again.

Although the number of guns placed in the new gunboats was much smaller than the previous ten. A gunboat carried only twenty-six guns, but because the guns equipped with ships were larger in caliber and had a longer firing range, the advantage of the newly formed gunboats over the original ten gunboats was almost overwhelming.

In order to advance westward, Li Qin, of course, brought his most elite troops with him.

This time, Li Qin asked Su Dingfang to stay behind, with Li Jing as the general, and took a total of 12,000 people from Maoshan Town, Huangshan Town, and Kunshan Town as the vanguard, and came to Hu'er and Ling Zhigao to take the lead in advancing westward by land, attacking the three counties of Poyang, Yuzhang, and Linchuan.

"Pharmacist, I'll give you these three places. How to fight, you think about it yourself, you don't have to report it to me. All I ask is that you can take these three places in the shortest possible time and as quickly as possible. Li Qin chuckled and patted Li Jing's shoulder and asked him.

"Please rest assured Wu Gong!" Li Jing clenched his fist to Li Qin and led the army away. The soldiers and horses of Maoshan Town, Huangshan Town, and Kunshan Town under his command were all mountain troops expanded and separated from Maoshan Town.

After the Battle of Jiangdu, Li Qin's industry began to enter the stage of mass production, and various weapons were produced in large quantities, especially the musket that shone in the Battle of Jiangdu, Li Qin specially designed a style with a short barrel for the mountain camp and the water camp, so that they could be used in a narrow and unchanging environment.

According to Li Qin's original plan, his troops must complete at least 60 percent of the firearms before the western offensive can be launched. However, the time to launch the attack was now advanced, and despite Li Qin's overtime work, the muskets and ammunition that could actually be produced were only enough to replace half of the crossbowmen in the army.

Right now, what Li Jing took away was such a "miscellaneous" army mixed with muskets, bows and arrows, crossbows, and knives.

"He should be able to take this team and complete our mission." Looking at the figure of Li Jing leading the team away, Shen Luoyan stood beside Li Qin and said leisurely.

She didn't have much contact with Li Jing, she only heard that this young man's level was very good, but she didn't know how good it was.

The westward expansion plan of Jiangnan was completed by her and Su Dingfang together, which instilled a lot of hard work in the two of them. When the plan was formulated, Shen Luoyan thought that Su Dingfang was serving as the pioneer, so many of the arrangements were accommodating to Su Dingfang's habits, but he didn't want Li Jinglai to be the pioneer now.

People are different, but can the plan still work?

That's what worries her.

"Don't worry!" Li Qin waved his hand lightly: "I believe in the pharmacist!" He's strong. ”

Li Qin said, his words were full of trust in Li Jing.

Shen Luoyan looked at Li Qin puzzled, not knowing what the reason for his trust in Li Jing was. She wanted to ask, but Li Qin didn't mean to explain.

On the third day after Li Jing's troops, Li Qin's navy also set off, a huge fleet of 200 merchant ships, escorted by 40 gunboats, heading south of the Yangtze River, and the first target was Jiujiang.

At this time, Jiujiang and Yuzhang were the boundaries of Zhang Shan'an, a native of Duzhou.

Zhang Shan'an is an old bandit with a very small heart. He is also a member of the Demon Gate, but he is a person who destroys emotions. This faction is not right with Lin Shihong's Yin Kui faction. Lin Shihong didn't know his identity at the beginning and accepted him. But he didn't want him to attack Lin Shihong blatantly just because Lin Shihong didn't let him enter Yuzhang City.

Zhang Shan'an attacked Lin Shihong's camp, defeated Lin Shihong's army, and burned the outer city of Yuzhang. Lin Shihong's strength was damaged because of this, and he turned from prosperity to decline, so he had to transfer the governance office to Nankang.

After that, Xiao Mo rose up and took the opportunity to occupy Yuzhang City, and Zhang Shan'an was forced to retreat to Jiujiang. Jiujiang was originally the chassis of Ren Shaoming of the Iron Cavalry Club, but after Ren Shaoming was killed by Li Qin's two apprentices, Xu Ziling and Kou Zhong last year, he was taken advantage of by Zhang Shan'an.

Not long ago, Zhang Shan'an relied on Jiujiang to gather the remnants of the Iron Cavalry Association, and the support of Qu Ao, the Tiele people, went south again, drove away Xiao Miao's soldiers and horses, and regained Yuzhang City.

His existence became the first obstacle to Li Qin's westward advance.

In the face of Li Qin's fleet advancing west along the Yangtze River, Zhang Shan'an felt that he was invincible, and while blocking the river with iron cables to prevent Li Qin from going south along the turbulent water, he sent people to Li Qin to express his willingness to submit to Li Qin, and only asked Li Qin to agree that he would continue to maintain his control over Jiujiang and Yuzhang.

"If Duke Wu agrees to this condition, my general is willing to move the city to the same and remove the iron cable." The envoy sent by Zhang Shan'an said to Li Qin.

"General Zhang has a heart! Let me discuss this matter with your subordinates. Li Qin's eyes narrowed when he heard this, and he did not directly agree, but took a delaying strategy.

Zhang Shan'an's envoy had no choice but to retire first.

After sending him away, Li Qin smiled and asked the people who had been with him: "The treacherous Zhang Shan'an actually sent someone to ask for surrender. Tell me, can we agree to such a dangerous person's request? ”

"As soon as the army came out of Danyang, someone came to take refuge, which is a good thing! Why didn't the lord agree? Shen Luoyan smiled when she heard this, and persuaded Li Qin.

"Don't laugh, such a dangerous person, putting him in the rear, is simply uncomfortable for himself. Zhang Shan'an is capricious, and I'm worried that he will give me such a shuttle. Li Qin smiled bitterly and shook his head.

"The lord doesn't have to worry, the reason why Zhang Shanan was able to sneak attack Lin Shihong was because Lin Shihong was unprepared. As long as we abide by the law and make proper preparations, even if Zhang Shan'an has bad intentions, I can let him fall into the net. Shen Luoyan said and laughed confidently.

"Will the plan be released?" Li Qin's eyes lit up when he heard this.

"The lord can ...... like this," Shen Luoyan said in detail with Li Qin.

She made a lot of sense, and Li Qin nodded heavily as he listened.

After Shen Luoyan's arrangement, Li Qin knew the bottom of his heart, and at that moment he summoned Zhang Shan'an's envoy again and told him what he meant:

"General Zhang is willing to take refuge in me, and I am really happy. I know that General Zhang has a gap with Lin Shihong and Xiao Miao, and these two are also my targets for this westward expansion. Now that I have the refuge of General Zhang, I believe that I will definitely achieve victory.

As a reward for General Zhang's surrender, I decided to reward General Zhang with 20,000 stone of military rations and 3,000 steel knives, and asked General Zhang to come to our army tomorrow to receive them. At that time, I also happened to set up a banquet to have a drink with General Zhang and others. ”

With his eyes open, with a sincere face, and saying something that doesn't mean his heart, Li Qin has gradually learned these skills after experiencing a lot. At present, he made a sincere guarantee in front of Zhang Shan'an's envoy, and did not let Zhang Shan'an's envoy see that Li Qin was just acting.

Seeing that Li Qin agreed to his lord's request, Zhang Shan'an's envoy was immediately overjoyed. At that moment, he said goodbye to Li Qin and ran towards Huangkou City in a puff of smoke.

After knowing that Li Qin was advancing westward, Zhang Shan'an's 30,000 troops were stationed in the city of Huangkou.

Looking at the back of Zhang Shan'an's envoy leaving, Li Qin smiled, and he instructed Nangong Haizhu, who had already become a town general: "Be careful with me tonight, maybe Zhang Shan'an will return to his old tricks." ”