Fang Yuan looked at the back of Li Yan being escorted down, and admired Li Gongzi even more for this invading army. Knowing that the two armies were fighting, he, as the chief general of the Huguang garrison, entered the Longtan Tiger's Den when he arrived in Nanzhili, but he dared to come.

Li Yan had arranged all the measures to resist Fang Yuan's invasion before leaving, and then came to persuade Fang Yuan to give up the idea of the westward expedition with all his might, which could be regarded as loyal to Li Zicheng.

Fang Yuan was silent for a long time, and Li Yan's sudden appearance gave him a weighing of the pros and cons, forcing him to re-examine the military plan of this expedition to the west. Since Li Yan had already taken precautions, the military plan to raid Yichang and Yiling was declared bankrupt.

If you insist on going west, you must have a big fight with Li Zicheng. If he only singled out Li Zicheng's forces, Fang Yuan would still be six or seven percent sure that he would be able to win in one battle. But the imperial court in the north was eyeing it, but it had to be guarded against.

As Li Yan said, the praying mantis catches the cicada and the yellow finch is behind, and I don't know who is the cicada, who is the praying mantis, and who is the yellow finch. If you can't distinguish between praying mantis, cicadas, and yellow finch, it's a big deal to wait and see what happens, and you won't make a big mistake. If you were originally a praying mantis and a cicada, but you mistakenly thought that you were a yellow finch, then you would really be doomed.

Therefore, Fang Yuan's top priority was to reassess the possibility that after he and Li Zicheng went to war, the imperial court in the capital would take advantage of the fire to loot. Until then, it must not be lightly moved. The so-called move has no regrets, and this mistake is a complete loss.

In the next few days, Fang Yuan took a multi-pronged approach and temporarily suspended the matter of the western expedition.

First, he immediately summoned Jing Jie to inform Li Yan that he had come to Nanzhili and was detained, and expressed his doubts. Jing Jie was Lao Chen's commander, and the lives of 150,000 Xuanjia soldiers were at stake, and he supported Fang Yuan's prudence. After a little discussion, the two temporarily postponed the date of the westward expedition by one month on the grounds that the armaments and materials had not yet been assembled.

Second, Fang Yuan ordered Hu Qi to send Jinyi guards to Shandong, Shanxi and other places to reconfirm whether the imperial court's preparations were to the south or the north.

Third, he ordered Xi Benzhen to recall a few merchants who had been trading furs, Haidongqing, and pearls outside the customs all the year round, and he wanted to personally ask these merchants whether the Manchu Qing Dynasty had any signs of gathering into the customs.

Fourth, Shi Lang, the commander of the naval division, sent two sentinel ships, pretending to be merchant ships, and went up the Yangtze River, along the way to check whether the deployment of the invading army was really as tight as Li Yan said, and there was no leakage.

Here, Fang Yuan had just suspended his expedition to the west, but Chen Yuanyuan from Taoyuan suddenly sent someone to invite him, wanting to invite Fang Yuan to go to Taoyuan once to check the accounts of the welfare lottery.

Fang Yuan is most concerned about the military affairs of the Western Expedition at the moment, the Taihu base has gathered all the senior generals of the Xuanjia Army, 130,000 Xuanjia sergeants, and all kinds of armaments and materials are piled up. As the commander-in-chief of the Western Expedition, Fang Yuan spent nine of the 10 days at the Taihu Military Base inspecting the troops, waiting for the military situation in the direction of Huguang and Henan in order to make a correct assessment and response.

Where does he have the mind to go to Taoyuan and Chen Yuanyuan to check the accounts? What's more, according to the normal process, just checking the accounts, it would be too much of a fuss for a prefect to go there, where is the need for Fang Yuan, the regent, to go in person.

In ancient times, it was a great favor for the emperor to go to the minister's house, although Fang Yuan did not have the identity of an emperor, he was the de facto emperor of Jiangnan. Although he doesn't play music on weekdays, it doesn't mean that a woman can point fingers at him and assign him at will.

In Fang Yuan's opinion, this Chen Yuanyuan was really beautiful and arrogant, broke the rules, and commanded the regent's actions at will.

Fang Yuan didn't want to get used to Chen Yuanyuan's willfulness, so he didn't go to Taoyuan in person at her request, but sent Qiu Lin, the head of the independent accounting team, to check the accounts with Chen Yuanyuan.

Ten days later, the sentinel ship sent by Shi Lang to reconnoiter returned from Yichang to the Taihu base, and the information brought back was that Li Yan had indeed as he said, in the waters of Wuchang and Hanyang for dozens of miles, countless huge trees were tied with iron chains and hemp ropes, and at least eight pontoon bridges were built to block the river, and they were only open for six hours a day for passing ships.

On the line from Yuezhou to Yichang, countless shipwrecks have indeed sunk on the river. Small and medium-sized merchant ships can barely pass through, but the large warships of the Xuanjia Army cannot pass smoothly.

Judging by Shi Lang's professional vision, it will take at least a month to forcibly clean up iron chains, pontoon bridges, and shipwrecks to open up the westward channel. This does not include the time spent capturing the military towns along the coast. Without capturing these important military towns along the coast one by one, it is impossible to send a large number of civilian ships and laborers to clear the river.

Li Yan really didn't come to blackmail Fang Yuan, his so-called one month to clean up the river was the most conservative estimate, and it would actually take longer. If it is delayed on the Yangtze River for a month, Li Zicheng is a fool and has already led the army back to Huguang. If you go to capture Yichang and Yiling again, there is still a fart.

Fang Yuan's previous military plan to attack Yichang and Yiling from the Yangtze River upstream, completely failed, and he was both angry and hated Li Yan's deployment on the Yangtze River.

Since the military plan of the sneak attack failed, everything had to be considered in the long run, Fang Yuan ordered Jingjie and Shi Lang to continue to prepare for the war at the Taihu base, and he returned to Suzhou Mansion to wait for the news about the imperial court from the north.

Qiu Lin from the independent accounting group came to report to Fang Yuan, she went to the peach garden to check the accounts with Chen Yuanyuan, but unexpectedly, Chen Yuanyuan only asked Fang Yuan to go by name, otherwise he would not reconcile the accounts and invited her out of the peach garden.

Fang Yuan's military plan fell through, from a sneak attack battle to a positional war, and he was already in a very bad mood, but seeing that Chen Yuanyuan was still blindly playing tricks, he couldn't bear it anymore and was furious, so he immediately sent Jinyi Wei to Taoyuan to bring Chen Yuanyuan to the Regent's Palace.

He wanted to take a look this time, whether Chen Yuanyuan was crazy this time, or if he was evil, he kept making trouble with him these days, and he had to shout to meet him.

Half a day later, Chen Yuanyuan was taken to the Regent's Mansion by Jinyiwei, and in the lobby of the palace, Yingying's Chong Fangyuan bowed, and then looked down at the ground without saying a word.

Fang Yuan said in a deep voice, "Chen Yuanyuan, you are getting bolder and bolder!" The independent accounting team came to Taohuayuan to check the accounts, and you dared to drive people out! In a few days, I'm afraid that the lonely king will come to the door and you will be kicked out of the door, right? ”

Although he proclaimed himself the regent, he never called himself the lone king in front of everyone on weekdays. Today, he deliberately called himself the lonely king in front of Chen Yuanyuan, just to make Chen Yuanyuan, a great beauty, understand that he is the regent in charge of Jiangnan, not a minister who bows down under her skirt. Let Chen Yuanyuan know the sense of proportion in the future, don't be arrogant about beauty, ignore the difference between the top and bottom, and blindly make trouble.

All coquettish and willful behaviors, moderation is amorous. However, everything is over, and it will be annoying.

Chen Yuanyuan still lowered his head and was silent, and after a while, a soft cry came.

Fang Yuan saw that she was crying, making trouble, and hanging herself again, woman! Can you change the trick?!

Fang Yuan was angry, ignoring her crying, and didn't bother to pity the fragrance and jade, but instead scolded and said, "Okay, you didn't shout to see the lonely king, now you don't see it, say it!" ”

Chen Yuanyuan looked up at Fang Yuan, already in tears, "Regent, please look at the merits of the concubine before the concubine, let the concubine live!" ”

Fang Yuan stared at her watery eyes, pear blossoms with rain, he was slightly stunned, and couldn't help but sigh secretly, she deserved to be the first beauty in Jiangnan, she was really born beautiful, she smiled, and even cried so moving.

What made Fang Yuan even more stunned was that Chen Yuanyuan, who was running the Peach Garden and the Welfare Lottery, suddenly came to the door to do something dead or alive, and asked in amazement, "Chen Yuanyuan, what is the way to live, you can make it clear, when do I want you to die?!" ”

Chen Yuanyuan also stared at him, whimpered and said, "Did the regent agree and give the concubine to Zhu Yihai, the king of Lu?!" ”