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At the same time that Li Yuan sent troops to Luoyang, at the head of Xiangyang City, Li Xiaogong was also sighing.

"Big brother is really scared of Yuming! Knowing that this little is here with me, I will no longer rescue Jingxiang, but attack Luoyang instead! said that he was doing something to encircle Wei to save Zhao and lead Yuming to withdraw the army, I think it is obvious that he is letting the old man wait here to die! Li Xiaogong said angrily.

Although the weather is sunny now, cloudless, and the sun is shining on the surface of the Han River, it seems rippling, but Li Xiaogong is not in a good mood at all.

On the contrary, he was now very agitated and frenzied. He knew that now he was facing the situation of a battle against the water, the battle of Xiangyang, he could not lose again, and once he lost again, the land of Jingxiang would be completely lost.

Originally, the Zhou army had been in a stalemate with Li Xiaogong for a period of time before, and they wanted to destroy Li Xiaogong, but they were powerless. Li Xiaogong wants to capture Jiangxia and Baling, but it is absolutely impossible. Li Xiaogong is also quite satisfied with this situation.

Now that the Jianghuai army has been destroyed, Du Fuwei and Fu Gongzuo have become the swords of the Zhou army. There is only one force in the world that dares to argue with Yuming, Li Tang.

If he, Li Xiaogong, was not Li Yuan's younger brother, but just an ordinary Tang army general, maybe he would also consider adapting to the situation and surrendering to the Zhou army. It's a pity that his identity is not like that of an ordinary general, even if he is willing to surrender, he must be believed by others. But who would believe that he, Li Yuan's brother, would betray Li Tang?

In the era of the late Sui Dynasty, which had a deep concept of a gate valve family, this was simply unimaginable. Even if he did surrender, Yuming believed it. I am afraid that the spit of the people of the world will drown him too.

Therefore, Li Xiaogong had no choice but to hope for a miracle to happen. It is hoped that Li Jiancheng in the north will be able to create another miracle after occupying Hedong, occupy Hebei in one fell swoop, and divide the Zhou Dynasty into two parts, north and south, so that Li Tang will still have a chance to win.

It's a pity that the miracle didn't happen, and Li Jiancheng won first and then lost. After Yuming arrived on the battlefield, he was defeated in successive battles, not only Hejian County was lost, but even Hedong was also lost.

At this time, Li Xiaogong estimated that the next target of the Zhou army would be himself. After all, the Zhou army has the advantage of being a sailor, and it is a little unreasonable not to attack Jingxiang.

But after the Chinese New Year, the Zhou army first launched an attack on the Hetao in the north, which made Li Xiaogong feel happy, thinking that Yuming was planning to go north first and then south, and he could live a stable life for another year or two.

However, just when he was complacent, the main force of the Zhou army suddenly came. Yuming's 400,000-strong army attacked Jingxiang in parts, from Xiangyang in the north, to Jiangling in the east, and to the thousands of miles on both sides of the Xiangjiang River in the south.

Li Xiaogong had to engage in a hasty battle, because his naval division was far worse than the Zhou army's naval division, especially in the speed and attack power of the battleship, which could not be compared at all. In addition, the strength of the army was only less than half of the Zhou army, so six battles and six defeats. Tens of thousands of elite soldiers were lost in a month.

Although every time Yu Ming launched an attack, there were not many soldiers and horses, which was similar to the number of Li Xiaogong's attacking troops, but he was helpless against Yu Ming.

When he lost for the first time, Li Xiaogong felt that the time was not good, because the Zhou army was well equipped and good at cavalry. When he lost the second time, he felt that Yu Ming was too insidious and attacked his camp successfully. But by the time he lost for the sixth time, Li Xiaogong had already understood one thing: that is, if he wanted to defeat Yuming in the field, it would be difficult for him to reach the sky.

Moreover, the worst thing is: Yuming is not fighting alone, he is divided into a large army to attack, whether it is Wei Chi Jingde or Li Jing, it is not something that Li Xiaogong can resist.

Li Xiaogong used to think that it was not difficult to lead troops into battle, as long as there were generals who were good at commanding, soldiers who fought bravely were enough. Especially when attacking Xiao Mill, it fueled these thoughts in his heart.

Relying on the combat methods and experience of leading troops that he had figured out by himself, Xiao Mo and Xiao Yan's father had no way to take him, and they lost successive battles, allowing him to occupy the land of Jingxiang in one fell swoop. This made Li Xiaogong feel that it was nothing more than that when he led his troops to fight, he was able to defeat Xiao Miao, which showed that his level of leading troops had made great progress, and it was definitely not comparable to the Wuxia Amon when Li Yuan raised his troops.

So, when he learned that Yuming's army was coming, he took out the same set of combat methods to deal with Xiao Miao. But he didn't expect that after encountering the main force of the Zhou army led by Yu Ming, Li Jing, Wei Chi Jingde, etc., the Tang army warriors under his command turned out to be like paper paste.

Not only was the naval division ineffective, but in the first battle of Jiangling, the Tang Army's naval division suffered heavy losses and was sent to the bottom of the river by Zhou Tao one by one. Even the infantry battle was a series of defeats, and the lethality of the ironclad cavalry of the Zhou army was unimaginable to ordinary people.

Only then did Li Xiaogong realize that although his command level may have improved a lot, it was only compared with the past. Compared with Yu Ming, Li Jing, Wei Chi Jingde and other famous generals of the Zhou army, it is still far behind.

Even if sometimes, the other party's leading generals may only be better than a notch, but this gap is only one notch, so he can't catch up in his lifetime!

Today, Chi Jingde, the chief general of the Zhou army on the southern front, has already crossed Dongting Lake and occupied Changsha, Guiyang, Lingling, Wuling and other counties, and almost all the places south of the Yangtze River originally occupied by the Tang army have been lost.

Li Jing, the chief general of the Zhou army on the central line, with the cooperation of the naval division, also conquered Jiangling, and then attacked westward along the north bank of the Yangtze River, conquered the cities of Gong'an, Chibi, and Tianmen, and gradually approached Yizhou.

The Zhou army on the northern front was a large army led by Yu Ming, which swept all the Tang army cities except Xiangyang. Today, Xiangyang has become a lonely city, and it is not for Li Xiaogong to guard it, nor can it escape.

Although there are still 70,000 or 80,000 Tang troops in Xiangyang City, their morale has been lost, and in Li Xiaogong's view, it may be barely feasible to hold on for ten days and a half months, but it is impossible to hold on for a month. But if he wanted to escape, he didn't dare. As soon as the land of Jingxiang was lost, he could only retreat to Padang.

Although the terrain of Badong is dangerous, it can be called a one-man pass, and it is difficult for the Zhou army to conquer. But in this case, how can he go back and explain to Li Yuan? You must know that Li Jiancheng is Li Yuan's favorite son, or the East Palace, but he was still confined and abolished. And he lost Jing Xiang like this, and returned to Guanzhong in disgrace, even if Li Yuan didn't kill him, I was afraid that he would never be able to turn over again in this life.

However, Li Xiaogong still has a glimmer of hope: Xiangyang City is on the bank of the Han River, and if Yuming wants to break through Xiangyang, he must cross the Han River.

Although the Zhou army was strong, it was because the warships under Zhou Tao were tall and large, with fierce firepower and fast speed. The flow of the Han River is not as large as that of the Yangtze River, and the large warships of the Zhou Army's naval division cannot enter, and only some small and medium-sized warships can go upriver from Jiangxia and reach Xiangyang. And the combat effectiveness of this part of the warships is about the same as that of the Tang Army's naval divisions.

If the Tang Army's naval division relied on its familiarity with the terrain and leveled the combat effectiveness of the naval division's ships, there would still be a chance to win, so that it might be able to reverse the defeat.

When Li Xiaogong was thinking about it, a personal soldier hurriedly came to report: "General Qiyu, a large number of warships of the Zhou army have been upriver from Suizhou and are pouring towards Xiangyang, the number is about about the remainder, whether our army will attack, please decide whether the general will decide!" ”

"So fast?" Li Xiaogong was also taken aback. After pondering for a moment, he immediately ordered the naval warships to assemble and prepare for battle.

The officers and men of the Tang Army's naval division were also worried when they saw that the Zhou Army's naval division was pressing Xiangyang this time.

However, what made them a little relieved was that the giant warships of the Zhou army could not sail to the waters of Xiangyang, so this time they still had a great chance of winning against the Zhou army's naval division.

Li Xiaogong thought the same way, and after the naval general Sun Fujia reported that the naval warships were assembled, he couldn't wait to give the order to attack and meet the battle. He wanted Yu Ming to know one thing: his cavalry infantry army might not be able to defeat the Zhou army, but in the Han River, the water division was dominated by the Tang army.

Most of the naval divisions of the Tang Army were mobilized from Bashu, and the water in the gorge was turbulent and the channel was narrow, so the ships were small and their actions were flexible. Back then, Xiao Milling's sailor was defeated by Li Xiaogong. This time, the sailors of the Zhou army came to Hanshui, and the result would not be an exception.

Two hours later, Li Xiaogong was already standing on the bow of the boat, and the river breeze was blowing on the river, rippling blue waves.

He looked at the Zhou warship looming in the distance, although he was still full of confidence, but he still had an uneasy feeling. This time, the Zhou army's sailors went upstream, waiting for a long time, but they slowly swallowed and did not attack. This made the Tang army a little unbreathable.

Li Xiaogong knew in his heart that now it was different from the past, if he really stalemate in the water, it would be bad for him, after all, the Zhou army led by Li Jing was attacking Yizhou, once the city of Yizhou was broken, the Zhou army could rush to the back of Xiangyang City from the south, so that the defenders suffered from the enemy, and the Hanshui natural danger also lost its effect.

However, Zhou Tao did not attack, and he did not want to take the initiative. After all, Li Xiaogong's naval division troops were already his last troops that could be expected to achieve victory. If the Xiangyang Naval Division was defeated again, after the Zhou army crossed the Han River, Xiangyang would be lost immediately, and he would no longer have any possibility of defending the land of Jingxiang.

At this moment, a small boat came speeding by. Then a thin general jumped on his flagship and said, "General Li." Zhou Tao has mobilized more than 10 medium-sized warships, and under the escort of more than 10 small warships, they have begun to march towards our warships, and it seems that they are about to launch an attack. ”

This general is Sun Fujia, the governor of the Tang Army's naval division.

Hearing that Zhou Tao was going to attack, Li Xiaogong's heart suddenly burst into excitement, and he laughed at Yingtian and said, "Okay! We're going to make this snack a big defeat this time! ”

After Sun Fujia heard this, he was a little worried and said, "General, don't underestimate the enemy!" Zhou Tao destroyed the Jianghuai Army Naval Division across the Yangtze River, and defeated our Army's Naval Division in Jiangling, he is a powerful character! ”

Li Xiaogong said disdainfully: "Fu Jia, have you forgotten that there were more naval warships of Xiao Milling than Zhou Tao now, and they were also defeated by me on this Han River, and finally lost the country." This trip should be Zhou Jun's taste of failure. ”

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