"Your Majesty, Xiaosi came with news from the southwest, dug up Liu Shizheng's treasure, and also caught him, this harvest is not small." Early in the morning, Cen Tianshi hurriedly ran over to find Li Xuanqing and said with a smile.

"It seems that Liu Shizheng, this guy, has had a very nourishing life in Qianzhou over the years. Let Yang Yi send someone to transport the treasure back to Chang'an and hand it over to Qianzhuang, and after counting, issue new Tang coins as appropriate to supplement and circulate in the market. Li Xuanqing took the information handed over by Cen Tianshi, glanced at it and said with a smile, "Now the Ministry of Finance is fat, and after a few big battles, the gold and silver in the warehouse are estimated to be enough for this year's additional expenditure, right?" ”

Cen Tianshi nodded with a smile and said, "Not only is it enough for this year's additional expenditure, but according to the calculation, it is estimated that next year's military expenditure will be enough." Your Majesty, this is a huge amount of savings. ”

"When Tiancheng and them take over all parts of Lingnan, next year's task is to dredge water transportation, connect the whole country, and promote internal circulation to drive the development of the post-war economy." Li Xuanqing didn't break Cen Tianshi's careful thoughts, but just smiled: "If the estimate is good, next year we can trade with people from outside the world in Guangzhou, these people are very interested in my Chinese things." ”

"Guangzhou is still in Liu Yin's hands, I heard that this guy has made a mess of the Liangguang generation, and I don't know when Tiancheng will be able to take Guangzhou." When Cen Tianshi heard Li Xuanqing's words, he suddenly said melancholy.

"Sir, if Tiancheng hears this, they will probably find you desperately. The soldiers of the southern front have hardly heard of it since the beginning of the year, and they are careful to demoralize. Li Xuanqing was immediately happy when he heard this tone.

However, when Li Xuanqing and Cen Tianshi were discussing the war on the southern front in Hangzhou, Yang Tiancheng's Jiangnan Command had also accompanied him outside Zhangzhou City, and joined Xue Wanli and Chai Jia's subordinates, preparing to go north to Tingzhou after conquering Zhangzhou, and completely pocket the Fujian region. At this time, Qian Ning's department had already invaded the territory of Lu Guangchou, and was preparing to take it in the near future and become one with the Hengzhou generation. After Chen Yu's subordinates succeeded Qian Ning, they besieged Lu Yanchang, and the three-way army made the Lingnan Domain Alliance completely collapse.

In August of the second year of the Apocalypse, Yang Tiancheng and Wang Houchun personally commanded an army of 100,000 people on the Eastern Front to attack Zhangzhou and besiege Wang Chengyan of Wang Chao's remaining troops in the city. At this time, Zhangzhou City was already in turmoil, there was no rescue outside, there was no war spirit inside, and Wang Chengyan, who was helpless, could only open the city and surrender under the peak of the Tiance army, and Zhangzhou was successfully taken.

After taking Zhangzhou, Chai Jia led his troops north to attack Tingzhou, while Xue Wanli led his troops to attack from Zhangzhou and advanced into Chaozhou, starting the campaign against Lu Guangmu. At the same time as Chai Jia went north, Chen Yu also led his army to capture Fuzhou, completely defeated Lu Yanchang and captured his people, and Lu Yanchang's troops were completely destroyed.

At this time, the busiest people were Li Jipeng and others who hurried over from the rear. Not only did he arrange for people to take over the large and small cities taken by the military, but he was also responsible for commanding the National Guard to take over the prisoners and escort them back to various parts of the north, and even the money, grain, and materials seized by the army, as well as the local treasury and the private treasury property of Lu Yanchang and Wang Chao, all of which needed to be counted by him, and then escorted north to Chang'an by water transportation and handed over to the Ministry of Finance. In order to cooperate with Li Jipeng's actions, not only did the National Guard and the Logistics Department send a large number of people to assist him, but even the Ministry of Finance and Qianzhuang formed a takeover group on the road, preparing to come to the front line to cooperate with Li Jipeng.

"I said Jipeng, are you too busy to turn around?" Yang Tiancheng saw that Li Jipeng had been busy here and there almost sleepless day and night in the past few days, so he couldn't bear to make him a cup of tea, and pressed him on a chair to let him rest.

"Don't worry, I'm still busy, Minister Yang in the rear will send someone to take over as soon as this side is cleaned up." Yang Tiancheng's actions made Li Jipeng a little embarrassed, and hurriedly replied.

"Aren't you already the deputy minister of the Ministry of Guards? Why are you still in battle? Wang Houchun also walked in at this time and interjected.

Wang Houchun's words made Li Jipeng smile bitterly: "Now there is a shortage of people everywhere, and I have almost transferred more than half of the manpower of the guard department and the military management area, but in the face of the south, your military is fighting too well, and the chassis is expanding too much, we really can't draw manpower." I heard that Minister Zhang has sent people from various sources, but it is still not enough. He himself had rushed from Chang'an to the southwest region and worked with General Yang to prepare to set up the Yamen of the Southwest Military Region first, and then slowly came step by step. ”

Li Jipeng's words made Yang Tiancheng and Wang Houchun not know what to say for a while, the military has regained such a large territory in continuous operations, but I didn't expect it to be so difficult for the rear to accept?

"Then why don't you let the army slow down?" Wang Houchun looked at Li Jipeng's appearance and smiled bitterly.

Before Wang Houchun's words were finished, he was interrupted by Li Jipeng, "No, deputy marshal, absolutely not." Two marshals, you haven't seen how the people in the southeast live. Although the southeast has always been a rich place, but it is only the upper class of the powerful and rich, and the lower class people may not live better than the Central Plains, and there is even a strange phenomenon, the more prosperous the place, the more embarrassed the life of the people at the bottom. When I was in Hangzhou, I saw with my own eyes how many people went out of the city to look for wild vegetables to satisfy their hunger, and when I asked later, I learned that when Qian Biao left, he even collected all the taxes after three years in advance, and the people did not have a single grain at home. You must know that it is Hangzhou, which is more prosperous than Jinling City. Li Jipeng's eyes began to turn red as soon as he said this, and his tone became extremely sad, "I think our speed is too slow now, and the sooner we reunify, the sooner we let the people live a better life." ”

Undoubtedly, Li Jipeng's words made Yang Tiancheng and Wang Houchun silent for a while, they were busy commanding operations during this time and had no time to take into account the people's livelihood issues, if Li Jipeng didn't say it, maybe they would never know that there was so much darkness and poverty hidden under the prosperity of Jiangnan.

"I heard that Liu Yin has been a powerful man in Guangzhou for a long time, I think let Chen Yu send someone to take over the task of capturing Tingzhou, transfer Chai Jia into Chaozhou and Xue Wanli to work together, take Lu Guangmu as soon as possible, and then come to Guangzhou. Guangzhou is the center of the entire Lingnan, as long as we take Guangzhou, we can completely control the entire Lingnan region, echo Xue Yang's southwest theater, and plan for them to unify the southwest. Wang Houchun thought about it and began to revise the previous battle plan.

Wang Houchun's mind Yang Tiancheng knew that only by taking the lead in approaching Guangzhou could he completely disrupt the deployment of the entire Lingnan Alliance, disrupt their rear, and lose the support of Guangzhou for the entire southern feudal towns. So he didn't say much, nodded and asked Wang Houchun to immediately modify the order and issue an order to Chen Yu and Chai Jia.

The change in the combat order of the Jiangnan Command also made Chen Yu and Chai Jia a little confused, but soon the two began to follow the order. After Chen Yu dispatched people south to hand over to Chai Jia, Chai Jia also led his army from Tingzhou to quickly catch up with Xue Wanli's troops, and the two of them marched together outside Chaozhou City.

At this time, Liu Yin, who was located in Guangzhou, had actually decided to send troops to aid Lu Guangmu, after all, if he didn't understand the truth of the cold lips and teeth, if he didn't understand it, then Liu Yin would not be able to sit in the position of the envoy of the Lingnan Daojiedu, and the Tiance Army continued to advance without stopping at all, the meaning of which Liu Yin felt numb when he thought about it, you must know that he had worked hard in Guangzhou for so many years to save these family businesses, which could not be easily taken away by the Tiance Army in any case.

After thinking about this clearly, Liu Yin sent his eldest son Liu Changlu to lead the main force of the Cantonese army from Guangzhou to advance rapidly towards Lu Guangmu's place of governance in Chaozhou, and quickly informed Lu Guangmu of his intentions. In this way, with the addition of Liu Changlu, the last feudal town in Lingnan that did not directly fight with the Tiance Army had also sent troops at this time. In Chaozhou, more than 200,000 people were concentrated on both sides at once. This is a rarity in the entire history of conquest in the South.

Yang Tiancheng and Wang Houchun, who learned the news, set off from Zhangzhou again to the front line, ready to see the strength of the Cantonese army with their own eyes. However, at this time, Xue Wanli had already begun to make a move on Chaozhou. After Liu Changlu arrived in Chaozhou, Lu Guangmu also became bolder, relying on his own troops to be nearly half more than the Tiance army, and began to go out of the city to fight, ready to try to see if he could use the advantage of strength to defeat the Tiance army.

Out of town to fight in the field? This made Xue Wanli almost jump up happily, and without saying a word, he directly led the army to set up a formation, and the two sides began to fight outside Chaozhou City. It's just that Lu Guangmu was disappointed that his army, even with the assistance of the Guangdong army, was still not the opponent of the Tiance army. If it weren't for Liu Changlu leading the army to intercept Xue Wanli's outflanking troops from the side, Lu Guangmu would have the opportunity to withdraw the army into the city, and maybe he could directly take Chaozhou in a battle.

However, although this battle made Xue Wanli a little unwilling, it made Liu Changlu more and more clear about how powerful the Tiance Army was. However, for the Guangdong army who has been in Guangzhou for so many years, he also has his own killer features. So after pacifying the troops in the city, Liu Changlu found Lu Guangmu, and after the two muttered for a long time, Lu Guangmu also swept away the dejected atmosphere of his previous gray face, laughed, turned around and ordered a big feast and Liu Changlu pushed the cup and drank it happily.

"Dashuai, didn't you have a good time today?" Lu Guangmu and Liu Changlu in Chaozhou City were drinking, and in the big tent of the Tiance Army outside the city, Chai Jia and Xue Wanli were chatting about the daytime battle while enjoying the shade.

"Chai Jia, the headquarters is about to go to Chaozhou. Do you think we should work hard to win Chaozhou tomorrow? After all, before Tiancheng transferred you over, it had the meaning of quickly opening up the southern route and marching into Guangzhou. But now that Liu Changlu has led the army to support Lu Guangmu, I'm afraid that if the other party shrinks to Guangzhou and doesn't come out, do we have to fight again in Guangzhou? Xue Wanli had a little headache.

"I see that the two marshals on the command side probably want to see how strong the Guangdong army is, so they are in a hurry to come from Zhangzhou." Before Chai Jia could answer, Li Lisan, who had finished arranging military affairs outside the account, walked in and said with a smile: "But I suggest not to rush Liu Changlu back, I heard that this person is much more powerful than his father Liu Yin, and he is extremely good at forbearance, if the handsome man beats too hard, it will really make him retract." ”

"I haven't seen you for a while, how did I find out that your level is good?" Chai Jia nodded at Li Lisan's analysis and said with a smile: "But what I said is also true, the weather in the south is hot, our army is fighting continuously, and the brothers are also tired, in my opinion, it is better to rest for two days, just wait for the command to arrive before launching an attack, and at that time, I am afraid that this gang of fish belly troops in Chaozhou will not succeed?" Defeating Liu Changlu and Guangzhou is equivalent to half of the defeat. Maybe we can win without a fight. Guangzhou is an important town in Lingnan, and if we bomb it, I'm afraid that the Prime Minister will be unhappy again. ”

Xue Wanli had no opinion on Chai Jia's analysis, and after several people had decided on it, they began to rest outside Chaozhou City and wait for the arrival of Yang Tiancheng and Wang Houchun. At this time, Liu Changlu also felt very lucky to see that the Tiance army outside the city did not attack immediately, and almost immediately notified the support troops in the rear to rush over immediately and bring over the killer weapon that he had trained in Lingnan for many years.

In fact, if Chai Jia knew what Liu Changlu was thinking at this time, he might have to hurry up and attack the city even if he didn't care about fatigue. The killer weapon of the other party may be really difficult to compete with if it encounters other armies. It's just that this killer weapon was broken by Wang Houchun at once when he went to the battlefield, but it brought huge casualties to himself and directly collapsed his troops.

However, at this time, Yang Tiancheng and the others were still on the way here, so they naturally didn't know what was about to happen ahead. Along the way, Hu Xiaosi in the southwest also came with good news, and the information sent to Hangzhou before was also sent to the two of them, and the treasure that Hu Xiaosi dug up also made the two of them smile. Speaking of digging treasure Tiance Army, it is estimated that no one is the opponent of this guy, it is said that Liu Shizheng is also an extremely shrewd person, and when he met this guy, he was considered to be bad luck for eight lifetimes, and he himself was escorted to Chang'an and waited for the trial of the law court.

"Looks like there's nothing going on in the southwest. Liu Shizheng was annihilated, Xue Yang could spare all his energy to deal with the Qi, and it was time for this largest minority tribe in the southwest region to end. Yang Tiancheng sat on the horse and said with a smile as he walked, "It's just that I don't know what formation Xue Yang plans to use when he fights the cavalry." ”

"Just that group of Dian horses, is it still a cavalry?" Wang Houchun was a little disdainful of Yang Tiancheng's thoughts and said with a smile: "It's not that Tianyi hasn't fought before, and it's not much better than the infantry." I see that the third battalion is faster than their so-called cavalry. ”

Wang Houchun said this, but Yang Tiancheng remembered something, nodded and said: "Don't you say that I almost forgot what the emperor said before, do you remember the silver wheel bicycle that the first battalion was equipped with before?" After the southern expedition did not bring over, I heard that the bicycle factory in Chang'an is now selling this kind of vehicle is very hot, you ask people to send a message to the logistics department, let them purchase a part of it and send it to the front line, the first batch will be sent directly to Xue Yang, there are many mountainous areas in the south, there are many mountain roads, and bicycles are definitely better than manpower. ”

Yang Tiancheng's words made Wang Houchun suddenly realize, and hurriedly asked the staff officers behind him to draft an order on the horse and send it to Chang'an as quickly as possible to Zuo Tiancheng. No one thought that this paper order would save Xue Yang much effort in the southwest region, so much so that after the war, Xue Yang specially invited Yang Tiancheng to dinner to thank him for this idea.