After getting the battle report in Shuzhong, Li Jing left Yang Gongqing to sit in Dengzhou, blocked Qin Qiong's return to help, and led an army of 50,000 to the south, Li Jing knew that the continuous heavy rain was not suitable for cavalry action, and deliberately avoided the heavy rain season in summer, and waited until autumn to start. During the rapid march of the army, a gust of cold wind blew, with a bit of coolness, the trees in the field were still so green, butterflies danced among the wildflowers, and the beautiful flying shadows accompanied by a few yellow leaves falling from the trees, with an indescribable melancholy.

Although it was already autumn, the sun was still very hot, the breath of the war horses condensed into milky white heat in the air, the Hexi army was strictly disciplined, the cavalry was galloping on the main road, and the infantry army was detouring in the fields. Looking at the wheat in the field like a rolling thousand waves, Li Jing couldn't help but shake his head, and said to the red whisk girl: "Just rush this crop, Li Tang is also a step behind, the introduction of Champa rice arranged by the king of Yue has made Jianghuai's grain output rise sharply, for the sake of the people, we must speed up the pace of unifying the south." ”

The red-whisked female silver helmet and silver armor have the suave momentum of a female general, pursed her lips and smiled: "You were stunned by King Yue's head, and now when you open your mouth, these are the big truths." I heard that he really made his eldest brother king overseas, which is not easy. ”

Suo Yanshou, who was following Li Jing and his wife, interjected: "Uncle Xiao is such a person, sometimes it seems to be calculating, but in fact, he is open-minded, when we built Tianshan County empty-handed, Gao Bei and I had no bottom in our hearts, we always thought that he was playing with us, but I didn't expect Uncle Xiao to really do it later." ”

Luo Shixin deliberately snorted coldly and said: "Suo Yanshou, now that you are bolder, dare to say that King Yue is calculating, see if I don't sue you in a book." ”

Luo Shixin has been Yang Chong's scholar and personal guard for a while, and Suo Yanshou are Yang Chong's cronies, and everyone knows that the two are joking; Li Jing turned around and said, "Shixin, don't be kidding, there is Xinye in front, or you take someone to explore the road first, and see if Pang Qingyun is still in the city." ”

Luo Shixin agreed, took his subordinates and guards, crossed Li Jing's team, ran all the way to the front of the army, beckoned his back battalion, and went to Xinye first. Although Pang Qingyun, the defender of the Tang Army in Xinye, continued to expand the army and concentrated 6,000 people, he was still unable to resist the Hexi Army in terms of strength, but Pang Qingyun was dizzy for a while, did not retreat in time, and was blocked in the city by Luo Shixin, and as a result, the city wall was blown open for four days, the whole army was destroyed, and Pang Qingyun died in battle.

Li Jiancheng's army in Xiangyang was only 30,000 people, and when he heard about the situation of the new field, he completely destroyed his determination to go out of the city to meet the battle, and abandoned all the cities north of Xiangyang; Xiangyang City, Fancheng built along the river, across the river, Li Shuliang led 4,000 elite soldiers to hold on to Fancheng for six days, the city was still broken, more than 1,000 Tang army infantry crossed the Han River by boat, returned to Xiangyang City. Li Jing was not in a hurry to attack the city, and divided the two armies of Suo Yanshou and Luo Shixin to attack and occupy Zaoyang and Laohekou respectively.

Because the Tang Army's sailors were guarding Jiangling and other places, Li Jiancheng was not worried about Li Jing's expansion of the results, but when he heard that Li Jing was arranging for the army to harvest the grain north of Hanshui, Li Jiancheng understood why the other party came. The occupation of Fancheng was Li Jing's last step, the other party did not plan to attack Xiangyang at all, the other party valued the grain in this area of Xiangyang, and now it was the harvest season, and the other party could use the grain in the field as military food and confront himself for a long time.

However, Li Shuliang and Wang Jue did not recommend going out to compete with the Hexi army for food, first, across the Han River, the army was inconvenient to move, but in the plain, the infantry army faced the cavalry of the Hexi army, and the odds of victory were too small. In the entanglement of the Tang Army, the grain north of the Han River fell into the hands of the Hexi Army, giving Li Jing the capital to feed the war; As soon as the harvest was over, Li Jing left Luo Shixin to lead 15,000 horse infantry troops to defend Fancheng, led the army to make a detour through Zaoyang, and joined Dong Jun of Yiyang County to capture Handong County.

Then the Hexi army went straight to the south like a wild horse that had escaped from the reins and attacked Jiangxia; During the Great Cause, Yang Guangfu changed Ezhou to Jiangxia County, and the seat of governance was Jiangxia County, with a total of more than 80,000 residents in seven counties, and less than 50,000 residents after many wars and conscriptions. Zhou Faming commanded 30,000 troops to meet the battle in Xiaochang, but he didn't expect Li Jing to suddenly release nearly 10,000 Tang army captives and scholar slaves captured in Zaoyang and Handong.

Suo Yanshou seized the fighter plane, led 5,000 cavalry into the Tang army's formation, walked a son-shaped, killed two in and two out, the Tang army was suddenly in a mess, Li Jing ordered Kan Ling and Dong Jun to attack from both wings, the Tang army was defeated and was chased by the Hexi army for twenty miles. Thanks to Zhou Shaofan, he led an army to help, and he went out halfway, and left after saving Zhou Faming; Li Jing recalled the pursuers, counted the results, killed 12,000 Tang troops, and captured 20,000.

Zhou Faming did not dare to fight again on the shore, categorically rejected Zhou Shaofan's suggestion to go to Jiangling, and after fleeing back to Jiangxia County, he directly led the army across the river and repaired in Jingkou Town to avoid the battle; Zhang Shan'an, the governor of Hongzhou of the Tang Army, did not go to Yuzhang County to fight Li Xiaogong, but directly led more than 4,000 of his men to Xiakou, and formed a horn with Zhou Faming to resist the Hexi army.

The city of Jiangling is as tall and strong as Xiangyang, but unlike Xiangyang, it lacks elite soldiers and generals in a hundred battles, and most of them are the surrendered troops of Xiao Milling Liang and the local government soldiers. The guard general Pei Lin had already been frightened, and the thrilling past jumped in front of him, fleeing from Jinju to Gangneung, where else could he escape? The battle situation in Chengdu was even more sinister, and Li Yuan personally went to battle, but it is conceivable that the difficulty of the war has reached the final point.

I once remembered when Yang Chong was regarded as a joke about Corporal Li Jing's courtesy of Corporal Li Jing, even Pei Lin had the same opinion; Now Pei Lin can't laugh, Chang'an, Nanyang, Dengzhou, Jiangling, Li Jing chased all the way like this. Fortunately, the rebellion of Gai Yan, the governor of Jiangzhou, saved Pei Lian time to hesitate, and tens of thousands of Li Tang's officials and troops fled from the west gate of Jiangling when they heard the news.

Li Jing did not order the pursuit at the first time, but asked Suo Yanshou and Kan Ling to go to the riverside to grab ships, and 400 boats, large and small. Cen Wenwen and more than 100 other officials didn't have time to escape, they all went out of the city and surrendered, most of these people were Xiao Liang's subordinates, who had not been reused, betrayed Li Tang, and did not have the slightest psychological obstacle.

The fall of Jiangling had a huge impact on the battle situation in Xiangyang, the Tang army lost supplies from the south, and it was meaningless to defend it, and Li Jiancheng could only retreat to Yichang when he was attacked from three sides, southeast and north. Fortunately, the Tang army in Xiangyang were all veterans of the war, and Li Jiancheng's men were well armed, so they quickly formulated a plan to withdraw from the cities of Xiangyang by land and water in an orderly manner.

(End of chapter)