"Your Highness, this is the current situation in Jingnan."

In the palace, Li Yingxu took a thick piece of information and asked Zhang Wei to hand it over to Li Ye. Naturally, these materials were not collected by Li Yingxu when Li Ye decided to go to Jingnan, but they were prepared before, otherwise they would not be so fast.

Looking at the information in front of him, Li Ye understood Jingnan more thoroughly.

Jingnan Jiedu envoy was formerly known as Jingzhou Metropolitan Governor's Mansion, and at the same time, Jiangling Mansion was established in Jiangling.

From the establishment of the Tang Dynasty to the present, a total of eight prefectures have been set up, of which before the Anshi Rebellion, there were Jingzhao Mansion, Taiyuan Mansion, Henan Mansion (i.e. Luoyang) and Hezhong Mansion, after the Anshi Rebellion, four prefectures were set up one after another, namely Fengxiang Mansion, Chengdu Mansion, Jiangling Mansion and Xingyuan Mansion.

However, the establishment of these eight prefectures is not the same, except for Gangneung Prefecture, the other seven prefectures are all related to the emperor, all because the emperor has visited. Gangneung is different, Gangneung has a government, and it is only because of the population surge that it has set up a government.

Don't look at the seven states under the jurisdiction of the Jingnan Jiedu Envoy, but the population is not less than that of Xichuan. At this time, there were 500,000 registered households in the seven prefectures under the jurisdiction of Jingnan Jiedu, of which more than 200,000 were in Jiangling Prefecture, accounting for nearly half of the population of Jingnan.

Li Ye had known about Jingnan's situation before. Prior to this, the nominal envoy was Zheng Shaoye, but in fact it was Chen Ru, but Jingnan was really controlled by the prison army Zhu Jingmei, so the situation in Jingnan was more complicated.

But on the whole, Jingnan's military strength is not strong, or the strength of Chen Ru and Zhu Jingmei is not strong, as for the assassins of the states under their jurisdiction, they don't have much opinion on who will serve as the envoy of this festival, so Li Ye entered Jingnan, mainly to deal with Chen Ru and Zhu Jingmei.

At this time in Jingnan, Chen Ru controlled 3,000 tooth soldiers, and Zhu Jingmei controlled 5,000 loyal soldiers.

Zhu Jingmei's reputation in Jingnan was also not good, and she often used false excuses to kill many generals and businessmen and seize their property. According to the information, what Zhu Jingmei did in Jingnan was angry and resentful, and the loyal army had no military discipline, so even if Li Ye disposed of this, Jingnan's opposition would not be very big.

And Li Ye also values Zhu Jingmei's family property, the other party has robbed so many people's property, and it is worth a lot of money, if he can grab it, at least he doesn't have to worry about military spending for a short time.

"Your Highness, if we follow what has been said above, we may be able to start from the contradiction between Chen Ru and Zhu Jingmei and induce the two to fight among themselves, so that His Highness's resistance in Jingnan will be much smaller." Zheng Ningji, who was on the side, looked at it and said after a while.

"Zheng Sima's words are wrong." Pei Rong shook his head, "The situation that Lord Zheng said is the most beneficial to His Highness, but it is not excluded that the two of them will abandon their previous suspicions and jointly boycott His Highness."

You must know that His Royal Highness is not only going to serve as the pastor of Jiangling, but also to serve as the envoy of the festival. Chen Ru claimed to stay behind, obviously also attached great importance to the position of the envoy of Jiedu, His Royal Highness went here, it was tantamount to taking the position that belonged to Chen Ru, if it was instigated by Zhu Jingmei, the two of them could join forces. ”

"Your Highness has the Tiance Army, do these two still dare to make trouble?" Sun Ye said disdainfully.

Although his daughter is not the concubine of Shouwang, she is a side concubine, so Sun Ye is also very happy during this time, and her confidence in speaking has increased a lot.

And seeing Sun Ye's expression, Pei Rong was also very unhappy, if he didn't have a daughter, how could he let the other party come from behind and climb on his head? Fortunately, Li Ye did not deliberately favor the other party because Sun Ye was his father-in-law, and did not let Sun Ye interfere in the affairs of the Tiance Army.

"Sun Changshi, you can't say that. Although His Highness is accompanied by the Tiance Army, if he can surrender without a fight, it is naturally the best. Li Yingxu did not care about Sun Ye's identity, but talked about things.

"For Jing Nan, this king doesn't know much, but he only knows it on this paper. It is definitely not possible to rely on one-sided statements to draw conclusions, so this king needs someone to take the first step and go to Jingnan to make a front stop for this king and find out the situation of all parties in Jingnan. Li Ye thought for a while and said.

According to the information, although Jingnan is located along the Yangtze River, it is a convenient place for transportation after all. In the north, it can go up to Shannan East Road and Shannan West Road, connect Hunan Observation Envoy and Qianzhou Observation Envoy in the south, strangle East and West Erchuan in the west, and connect Huainan and other places in the east.

What's more important is the population. Although there are only 500,000 households in Jingnan, which is not as good as Xichuan, you must know that there are more than a dozen states in Xichuan and only seven states in Jingnan. In this day and age, population is the most important thing, and more people mean more soldiers.

"Your Highness, Your Majesty is willing to go." Li Yingxu stood up and asked.

Li Ye looked at the other party seriously and said in a deep voice, "You have to think about it!" ”

"Your Highness, Xia Guan is a native of Jiangxia, he has traveled around since he was a child, and he is more familiar with Jiangling, and there is no one under His Royal Highness who is more suitable than Xia Guan." Li Yingxu said seriously.

"Since you insist on it, then this matter will be handed over to you, and if you make a great contribution, this king will definitely be rewarded." Li Ye said.

。。。。。。

"Keep it for me, as long as you keep it, Ben Shuai will be rewarded."

Xingyuan Mansion, on the city tower at this time, a uniformed ox was patrolling back and forth under the protection of a group of pro-soldiers, and did not forget to encourage the morale of the army.

Outside the city, a dense army was approaching the city walls, and arrows were flying. Suddenly, with a 'zheng' sound, a sharp arrow pierced through a personal soldier next to him, looking at the arrow stuck in his neck, he who had not been on the battlefield suddenly had an upset stomach, and hurriedly went down the city tower quickly under the protection of his personal soldiers.

Originally, the morale of the defenders on the city tower was not good, and Niu Miao, who was the envoy of the festival, fled from the city tower again, which caused the morale to drop significantly. Fortunately, the enemy army outside the city does not have many climbing equipment, otherwise it is one thing whether they can hold it or not.

After getting off the city tower, Niu Miao hurriedly found a safe place, and asked the people around him, "Is there any news from the Duke of Jin?" ”

The person next to him looked a little embarrassed, "Jieshuai, the news took three days for the money to spread, Xingyuan is thousands of miles away from Chengdu, and it is estimated that the news has not yet arrived in Chengdu Mansion." ”

"Why is it so slow? And what about reinforcements from other states? Didn't they let them come with reinforcements? Why haven't you seen anyone yet? Niu Miao scolded.

"Marshal, only Fengzhou and Bazhou have sent reinforcements, and there is no news from other states." The person next to him said in a huttering voice.

"Waste, it's all a bunch of waste, and when it comes to employing people, none of them are reliable. There are also these traitors of the loyal army, who actually dare to attack Xingyuan, and after this incident, Ben Shuai must dismantle them! ”

I don't want to think about it, those states that have not replied to the letter, nine times out of ten, they want to watch from the sidelines. Thinking of the usual stabbing history is respectful, when it is really time to employ people, none of them will make a move, and the already short-tempered Niu Miao suddenly became angry.

For the army attacking Xingyuan, he also inquired clearly, it was Yang Fuguang who formed the Zhongwu Badu, and the leader was Lu Yanhong. He didn't expect Lu Yanhong to be so bold that he would dare to attack Xingyuan, and he didn't expect his army to be defeated so quickly, and the other party basically went to the city in one day.

In fact, this is also normal, although there are tens of thousands of troops in Shannan West Road, they have not been on a large battlefield, and the closed terrain makes the army here look sluggish, how can it be the opponent of the loyal and military Badu in the southern and northern wars. Moreover, there are many people in Zhongwu Badu, and many local officials either surrender or flee when they hear the wind, but there is no resistance, and Zhongwu Badu hits the city of Xingyuanfu.

Now Lu Yanhong has less than 5,000 troops in his hands, and there are nearly 20,000 people in Zhongwu Badu outside the city, how can this be fought? It's not that Lu Yanhong doesn't have an army in his hands, the army of the entire Shannan West Road adds up to forty or fifty thousand, but it is distributed among the leaders of various large and small armies, and the army under the command of Lu Yanhong is less than 20,000 people, and half of them are in Fengzhou, which was originally used to guard against the Huangchao army.

Previously, the threat of Shannan Xidao came from Huangchao, who occupied Chang'an, and naturally had to hoard a large army in Fengzhou, who would have thought that there would be enemies coming from the east.

The army of Xingyuan Mansion is not a level of opponent with Zhongwu Badu, not to mention that it is now inferior in numbers, and no one is optimistic about this battle to defend the city.

People born in this era, the feudal towns are divided, and the city head changes the king's flag, if you are loyal to someone, you will definitely not live long in this troubled era. Before, Niu Miao was powerful, and they chose to take refuge in Niu Miao, but now that the Zhongwu Badu is powerful, why can't they take refuge in the Zhongwu Badu?

In this era, it's not a shame to be in the morning, look at Li Keyong, people have rebelled, and now they are not also the envoys of the Hedong Festival?

Niu Miao, who was furious there, naturally didn't know that his subordinates who he thought were loyal were already beginning to think about the way back, and if he knew, he didn't know if he would be angry.

。。。。。。

"General Lu, we lack large-scale siege equipment, so the siege will cause heavy casualties, it is better to stop first, and wait for the siege equipment to be ready before attacking the city."

Seeing that several attacks failed to take Xingyuan City, Wang Jian, who was watching the battle in the rear of the army, couldn't help but suggest.

"General Wang's words are wrong. According to the news confided by the general, there are not many troops in Xingyuan Mansion at this time, and if we wait for the arrival of reinforcements from the other side, we will not be able to fight. Attacking Xingyuan Mansion, what we want is to attack it unprepared, if we can't take Xingyuan Mansion before the imperial court reacts, we will really become rebels. The green-robed man next to him said with a smile, not caring about the casualties of the siege.

"What Li Senjun said is that as long as Xingyuan Mansion is taken, it will not affect the casualties." Lu Yanhong laughed.

"General, someone from outside the camp has come, claiming to be a representative sent by the general of the city's tooth soldiers."

"What's the situation?" Lu Yanhong frowned slightly.

The green-robed man on the side smiled and saluted Lu Yanhong, "Congratulations to the general, General Hexi, it seems that the tooth soldiers in the city don't want to fight to the death with the general, they are here to surrender." As long as the general handed over this matter to Li, Li would definitely not blow his hands and take the Xingyuan Mansion to the general.

As long as Xingyuan Mansion is taken, it will be a matter of time before the general is annexed to other places in Shannan West Road. ”

(End of chapter)