With the end of April and the arrival of May, after the completion of the reorganization, the Third Garrison Brigade, which had expanded to nearly 10,000 troops, had already arrived in Guangzhou!

Now almost the entire main force of the First Army, as well as the Third Garrison Brigade, are gathered under the city of Guangzhou, as long as the weather improves and the Tang Army is more prepared, then the general offensive against Guangzhou will be launched!

In order to boost morale, and also to increase the strength of the front line, Li Xuan was ready to drive another personal expedition, and took more than 3,000 guards to the south!

In the Guards of more than 3,000 people, all branches of the army are complete, among which the Guards Artillery Battalion is equipped with 12 800-pound heavy guns and 6 1,200-pound heavy artillery!

In the past two months, the Tang Dynasty has obtained a large amount of raw materials because of the capture of Guangxi and northeastern Guangdong

In this battle, Li Xuan was determined to pay attention to the battle and pull out Guangzhou, the last nail that stopped the Tang Dynasty in the Tang Dynasty and swept the two Guangzhous, so as to establish the rule of the Tang Dynasty in the two Guangzhous and even the entire southern region.

Therefore, for the first battle in Guangzhou, Li Xuan is far more concerned about the war in Guizhou and Huguang, as for the war in western Guangxi and even in Yunnan, Li Xuan can't even look at it now, let Li Chunjing take the Third Army to toss, anyway, it's just like that.

It's not good to go there, it's not good to go there.

But as for Guangzhou, Li Xuan not only personally asked about the pre-war preparations, but even prepared to drive the imperial expedition in person, and personally commanded the army to launch an attack.

Li Xuan wants to drive the expedition in person, although this time Liu Bagou and they also put forward certain opinions, saying that the front line is dangerous, so that Li Xuan should not easily get into danger, but their dissuasion may have been useful two years ago, but today, Li Xuan, who has really controlled the entire Tang Dynasty, is too lazy to pay attention to the words of these civil officials.

He was going to command the attack on Guangzhou, and he didn't want to climb the city wall of Guangzhou with a knife.

Besides, with the First Army, the Guards Army and the Third Garrison Brigade there, even if the siege is unfavorable, there will not be too much danger, if the army dares to take the initiative to go out of the city to meet the battle, Li Xuan can wake up with a smile in his dreams!

On the sixth day of the fifth month, after everything was ready, Li Xuan, Empress Bai, Empress Dong, and Ye had a family reunion breakfast, and then officially led the civil and military officials and guards who went with them to set off.

When Li Xuan set out on the expedition, he wore his dragon-patterned military uniform according to the custom, and then rode a fast horse, this time it was not that he didn't want to take a naval ship to the south, but now the Xijiang River east of Antelope Gorge, the Tang Navy can't control it at all, if the army goes south by boat, it will be a big trouble if it is caught by the Ming army's sailors.

In addition, many people mistakenly think that the Pearl River on the edge of Guangzhou is connected to the main stream of the Xijiang River, but in fact it is not.

The Pearl River in a broad sense, and even the Pearl River basin in the Pearl River Delta region, including the Xijiang, Beijiang, Dongjiang and other rivers, while the Pearl River in the narrow sense is actually just a small tributary flowing through Guangzhou, but although this tributary Pearl River is not long, the river surface is very wide.

The Xijiang River does not flow through Guangzhou, and its outlet to the sea is not the Pearl River estuary, but in Zhuhai, and there are several small estuaries in addition.

In other words, if you actually go down the Xijiang River, there is actually no way to reach Guangzhou.

Of course, the Pearl River Delta region has a dense water network, and although the main stream of the Xijiang River does not flow through Guangzhou, it can still enter the Pearl River from the Xijiang River through some small waterways, and then reach Guangzhou.

However, the navigability of these small waterways is very average, and the river is difficult to turn around, and it is casually blocked by the Ming army's naval division, so the fleet of the Tang Dynasty Wangshi will have to be in a dilemma.

Therefore, whether it was the first army before or the current Guards led by Li Xuan, they would advance on foot, and even in order to avoid encountering the Ming army's sailors, they would first go north, then cross the Beijiang River from the Sihui area, and then continue eastward to cross the Pearl River and many other tributary water networks, and then enter from the north of Guangzhou City.

The whole trip is also the route of the First Army eastward into Guangzhou, and it is also the main logistics supply line for the Tang Dynasty to maintain the First Army and the Third Garrison Brigade on the front line.

When they crossed the Beijiang River from Sihui, Colonel Lei Wan, the deputy director of the Operations Department who accompanied them, complained to the Tang Navy, saying that they only knew how to shrink under the Antelope Gorge Fort, and if they dared to come out to defeat the Ming Army's naval division and completely control the Xijiang waterway, how could there be such trouble, how convenient it would be to go down the river directly from Zhaoqing and then arrive in Guangzhou through the mouth of the Pearl River.

But he only complained slightly, if he really asked him to let the Tang Navy go to war and take the initiative to find the Ming Army Navy to fight, he would not do it 100%.

There is no other reason, the Tang Navy is still too weak now, and it can't do the Ming Army's naval division in the Pearl River Basin, and there is basically no second possibility except to send death to meet it.

If the navy is not strong, the army in the Tang Dynasty can only fight on its own.

Although there are many ships and naval guns in the Ming army's naval division, they can't go ashore, at most they are just giving artillery support to the Ming army department on the Pearl River, but the Tang Dynasty Wang Division is not stupid to attack from the south of Guangzhou, that is, near the side of the Pearl River, they will attack from the north, east and even west, just don't go to the south.

If it is explained that in order to support the defenders in the city, the naval division gave up the ships to go ashore and fight on foot, Hao Bonian had a hundred confidence to annihilate these Ming naval divisions on land.

It's a pity that the sailors of the Ming army are not stupid, knowing that the puppet Tang thief army is strong in land warfare, but they don't have the courage to give up the ships and let the sailors go ashore to fight, if they dare to do this, they would have landed directly in Zhaoqing to fight.

Moreover, although the gains and losses of Guangzhou City are very important, the loss of Guangzhou City is not the business of these sailors, as long as the fleet is there, these sailors can go there.

All the way east, Li Xuan is still busy every day!

He naturally doesn't care about military affairs, especially detailed marching affairs, and has a group of officers under him to deal with it, he only needs to grasp the general direction, on the contrary, even if he leads the army to recruit in person, but what consumes his most time is a lot of messy administrative affairs.

Because of the many systems he set up in order to centralize the imperial power, there are a lot of government affairs that need to be handled by him personally, even if there is a huge secret art institution of the Hanlin Academy to help him reduce the burden, but the Hanlin Academy is not a decision-making body, just an auxiliary institution, and many government affairs need Li Xuan's personal approval to be completed.

To put it bluntly, if Li Xuan doesn't work for a day, the government affairs of the Tang Dynasty will be paralyzed for a day!

Although he is a little tired, Li Xuan knows deeply that now is not the time to be lazy, even if he is tired, he has to firmly grasp the power in his hands, and if he wants to be lazy and enjoy happiness, he will talk about it later.

So this time in the pro-conquest, in addition to the military officials and the guards, he also brought half of the senior cabinet officials and officials of the Hanlin Academy, and at the same time borrowed the military's post station system to establish close ties with Zhaoqing.

Although this is a little troublesome, Li Xuan has no sign of giving up his rights, and he doesn't want to cause a lot of trouble when he leads the army to conquer outside.

Although this Tang Dynasty has occupied several provinces, it is still too fragile, he must always pay attention to it and take care of it, but he can't let Liu Bagou and them play badly.

It doesn't matter if they look for death by themselves, but he, Li Xuan, doesn't want to die!

Because the rainy season in Guangdong is still going on, although it is no longer as southerly as in March and April, and even the clothes can't be dried for a whole month, but it still rains often.

This kind of rainy weather is naturally not suitable for the Guangzhou Campaign, so the guards led by Li Xuan are not in a hurry, but rush to Guangzhou unhurriedly.

When they arrived in the north of Guangzhou, the temporary headquarters of the First Army, which was set up at the foot of Baiyun Mountain, the sky was finally clear.

Taking advantage of this rare sunny day, Hao Bonian and other front-line generals also took great pains to organize a huge welcome ceremony, arranged thousands of troops to line up to respond, and even arranged a small-scale review to show Li Xuan the high morale of the front-line troops.

Dressed in a military uniform and riding a war horse, after slowly walking from the parade unit of the First Army's First Infantry Corps, Li Xuan nodded slightly to Hao Bonian who was following him: "The morale of the troops is maintained well, it seems that Hao Aiqing has worked hard, hard!" ”

Hao Bonian immediately said: "The minister is afraid, compared with His Majesty's hard work day and night, how can this matter be regarded as hard work, the soldiers can maintain high morale and strong combat power, thanks to Your Majesty's wisdom!" ”

Li Xuan said that he had worked hard, and Hao Bonian, as a courtier, naturally didn't dare to bear it, even if it was really hard, he had to say that it wasn't hard!

Besides, now the entire Tang Dynasty knows that His Majesty is a workaholic, especially in the past year or so, with Li Xuan's slow restructuring and centralization of power, he has been dealing with almost a large number of government affairs almost every day, not only dealing with many documents and reports, but also maintaining an early dynasty every day, and meeting with many courtiers every day, listening to the courtiers' work reports or thoughts before taking office, and giving corresponding suggestions.

Your Majesty is as busy as a dog every day, and you, as a courtier, dare to say that you are busy, very hard? Look for death!

After a brief review of the first step corps, Li Xuan did not have a long discussion with many generals on the spot, this newcomer, it is better to rest for a day first.

The First Army has besieged the city of Guangzhou for more than two months, and it has been preparing for more than two months to conquer the city, and the launch of the Battle of Guangzhou is not bad for such a day or two.

After a good night's sleep, the next day Li Xuancai convened a strategic meeting to expand the imperial front, and the main civil and military officials of the First Army, the Third Garrison Brigade, the Guards, the Privy Council, and the Military Department all participated!

After looking around at the dozens of high-ranking civil and military officials sitting or standing below, Li Xuan, who was sitting on the top dragon chair, slowly spoke: "The importance of the First Battle of Guangzhou must be known to all Aiqing, but I still want to say that this battle is related to the foundation of the empire, and there must be no loss!" ”

After saying this, Li Xuan looked at the expressions of everyone, and found that these officials were extremely cautious regardless of martial arts, and none of them showed a relaxed demeanor, so he slowly continued: "How to fight in this Guangzhou, all Aiqing can speak freely, if you can put forward a feasible strategy, I will not hesitate to reward you!" ”