After arriving in Xiangyang, Xuan Yi wrote another letter to Huang Zide. The letter said that Huang Zide's army was now too far away from Xiangyang, and it was difficult to supply. Moreover, according to the original plan, at this time, we should concentrate our forces to cross the Yangtze River and control the entire Huguang. And Zuo Liangyu has been a little nervous recently, so he can't send more supplies to the front line for the time being. If the supplies in front were really scarce, he suggested that Huang Zide could retreat first.

Xuan Yi knew that his suggestion would most likely not be adopted. He could even imagine how everyone reacted when Huang Zide received the letter and showed it to everyone. Liu Jiexuan has a good relationship with himself, and it is estimated that he will not oppose it too directly, and most of them will say: "Dao Chang, this person is really like Zhuge Liang." What is the saying? It's called 'Zhuge is only cautious in his life'. The Taoist really has this demeanor, hahaha......"

As for Niu Juming, it must be to say: "Dao Chang is far away from the front line, where does he know the military situation here?" He himself has always regarded the Song Dynasty emperor's remote control of the battlefield thousands of miles away as a joke, but now he has also committed the fault of the Song Dynasty emperor. ”

Even such a discussion may not happen, maybe by the time the letter is delivered to Huang Zide's hand, Huang Zide will already be on his way to Jingshi.

But by writing such a letter, his foresight became more and more evident once something happened. This, of course, is more conducive to the operation thereafter.

After sending this letter, the Xuanyi Daoists began to build ships and form a naval army under the pretext of preparing to cross the river to fight. This naval army is said to be prepared for crossing the river. But Xuan Yi knew that if he only considered crossing the river, he didn't need to build a naval army at all. In the previous life, when Huang Zide retreated from the defeat of the Beijing Division, the defeated army was just approaching the Yangtze River, and Zuo Liangyu fled without a fight. Xuan Yi estimated that as long as the news of Huang Zide's occupation of Jingshi came, and then he led his troops to approach Wuchang, Zuo Liangyu would most likely escape.

The purpose of establishing the naval army was to defend the envisaged battle of Xiangyang. The moat of Yangyang is connected to the Han River, and it is as wide as 100 paces, and the warships can sail into the moat, and cooperate with the fire on the city walls and the four urns in the moat to fight the besieging Tartars.

……

Niu Juming traveled day and night, and when he arrived in Xi'an, he heard that Huang Zide had already led the army to Taiyuan. Then he hurried to Taiyuan, he walked quickly with his baggage, and it took another month to arrive in Taiyuan. Fortunately, after Huang Zide conquered Taiyuan, he repaired it for a while, otherwise Niu Juming really didn't know if the little supply he brought was enough for him to catch up with Huang Zide. This is also a major problem in transporting supplies over long distances, that is, a large part of the supplies are consumed by the convoys themselves.

Therefore, if you take into account that the supply team also consumes food on the way to Jingxiang, so from the perspective of carrying supplies alone, the supplies provided by Niu Juming to Huang Zide are actually pitiful. Therefore, Huang Zide could not continue to stay in Taiyuan for a long time. So he began to wave his army north, went down to Xinzhou without a fight, and then advanced to Daizhou.

Zhou Yuji, the defender of Daizhou, seriously resisted. However, Zhou Yuji's army was too small, and Daizhou City was a little bigger, so after a few days, Zhou Yuji could only retreat to Ningwu Pass.

Ningwu Guancheng is much smaller, and the number of Zhou Yuji's army is enough. In the previous life, Huang Zide's department spent more than ten days here before he died to break the city. But this time, Huang Zide's troops quickly used blasting technology to blow up the city wall of Ningwu Pass, and then put a large number of troops into the street battle, and it took two days to solve the battle.

Ten days later, Huang Zide's army approached Shuozhou, and the Shuozhou defenders surrendered without a fight. After nine days, Huang Zide's army arrived in Datong, and Jiang Huang, the general of Datong, surrendered with tens of thousands of troops, and then Wang Chengyin, the chief soldier of Xuanfu, also surrendered with tens of thousands of troops. So the army in Huang Zide's hands plus the auxiliaries exceeded 200,000 people.

It's really a lot of trouble to supply so many people. In the past, when Huang Zide had the most subordinates, it was no less than this. But at that time, most of those people were displaced people and did not have their own organization. There was really nothing to eat, and Huang Zide could completely abandon them and let them starve to death. Anyway, they are scattered, and they can't make any trouble. But now these surrendered troops are different, because there has been no time to rectify and reorganize, and they still maintain the structure of the Jokhang official army and have their own organization. If they were to starve, there would be a great mutiny at once. Because every time he took a city, Huang Zide would leave some men to guard it, so although the number of his army has increased to more than 200,000, there are only about 10,000 truly reliable troops among them. Under such circumstances, once a major mutiny occurs, it will be almost impossible for these 10,000 people, not to mention suppressing the rebellion, to protect themselves.

"Marshal, there is only one way at this time." Niu Juming said to Huang Zide, "That is, immediately call the emperor, attack the crime in heaven, and crusade against the false Zhao." Your Majesty, now that this is near, only the Jingshi may have supplies that can feed such an army. ”

"Jingshi is a big city, and it is well defended." Huang Zide said, "It's not so easy to take it down." If the army is under the fortified city, but there is no supply, I am afraid that it will be even more dangerous. ”

At this time, Hui Yuanru on the side spoke: "Your Majesty, the destiny of heaven has been clarified. Lao Chen was an official in the pseudo-Zhao back then, and he also knew the truth of the Beijing camp. Emperor Chengzu, the puppet Zhao Jingying, was indeed the elite of the world, and even when he arrived at Emperor Yingzong, he was still able to fight. But now, Jingying is actually just a silver-like pewter spearhead. In the Beijing camp, there is a serious shortage of salaries, and the real number of people is less than 20% of the number on the roster. And even these people actually have no combat effectiveness, because these people are not in the barracks, but are sold by their commanders to the high-ranking officials and nobles in the capital as slaves. Therefore, the three major battalions of the nominal Beijing Division, with more than 100,000 troops, are actually less than 20,000. And these people don't practice on weekdays, where do they have any combat power? Lao Chen and the officers in the Beijing camp also have contacts, as long as His Majesty's troops are under the Beijing Division, a letter from Lao Chen can persuade them to submit to His Majesty. ”

Huang Zide thought about it, then turned his head to Liu Jiexuan and asked, "Old Liu, what do you think?" ”

"I think we are now sailing against the current, or rushing over in one go, if we want to retreat, I am afraid that we will be in trouble. So, now we can only do it in one go! Liu Jiexuan said.

After several people decided on a strategy, Huang Zide only let the army rest for three days, and then transferred his troops to the east, approaching the Beijing division from the direction of Juyong Pass. At the same time, he issued a message, declaring that he personally led an army of one million and wanted to go to Beijing to "hang the people and cut down the crime" and overthrow the tyrant.

At this time, Jingshi was already in a panic. On the one hand, Emperor Chongde had to urgently mobilize troops to come to the rescue, but on the other hand, he could not come up with the money needed to mobilize these troops. At this time, the only troops that can be mobilized and have a little combat effectiveness are the army in the hands of Wu Changbo, the chief soldier of Shanhaiguan. It's just that the army of Liaodong Jiangmen has always had a characteristic, that is, if you don't see rabbits, you don't scatter eagles, and you don't open if you don't see silver. But at this time, where did Emperor Chongde get such a large sum of silver?

In order to make such a sum of money, Emperor Chongde had to take out the method that had already failed once—asking the nobles and officials to donate freely—again. This time, though, his approach has changed slightly. He first asked his empress Empress Zhou to persuade her father, Guozhang Zhou Kui, to come out with 20,000 taels of silver first, set an example, and drive other officials to donate money.

Empress Zhou knew that her father was unusually stingy. Asking him to come up with the money may make him feel more distressed than cutting his flesh. So he specially summoned Zhou Kui and spent a whole hour doing work for him. But Zhou Kui just insisted that he had no money:

"Queen, our family was originally just a small family, and you don't know it. Where can there be 20,000 taels of silver! Don't say 20,000 taels, it's 10,000 taels, and our family can't take it out! ”

"Father, I see that the thieves are about to enter the Jingshi!" Empress Zhou said, "When the thieves enter the Jingshi, can you still keep even one copper property?" The wealth of our family is tied to the death of the imperial court, one is prosperous, and the other is lost! You...... At this time, how can you still be so unplugged! ”

Speaking of this, Queen Zhou couldn't help but shed tears.

"Queen, I understand what you said." Zhou Kui said, "However, our family really doesn't have so much money, and I can't change this money out of thin air." ”

"Then you say, how much money can you get!" The queen seemed to be shaken a little when she heard her father's words, and quickly put away her tears and asked.

"Huh?" Zhou Kui pondered for a moment and said, "Twenty thousand is definitely not available." Most...... Up to five thousand! ”

When Empress Zhou heard this, she sighed and said, "No matter what, there must be 10,000." So be it...... I sold some things in the palace, and I have five thousand, and I will give you these five thousand. You take it, don't make a noise, plus our family's original five thousand, it can be regarded as a whole number. Our family took the lead, and only then did someone move it......"

Zhou Kui listened, and thanked him for his gratitude. The next day, after the early dynasty, Emperor Chongde came to Kunning Palace. The face doesn't seem to look good.

Empress Zhou greeted Emperor Chongde, and then asked cautiously, "Your Majesty's face is not very good, but what happened?" ”

"Guozhang Zhou Kui, I have always treated him preferentially, and now I want him to take the lead in donating a donation, today he came to the court wearing a tattered hundred clothes, saying that he sold his family property and donated three thousand taels of silver to the court! It's really ......"

"What? Only three thousand taels!? Empress Zhou was also stunned all of a sudden.