Hefei County Gate as usual bustling, pedestrians and businessmen come and go, quite lively, at this time, a cavalry galloped from a distance, into the city shouted: "Du Fuwei rebelled again, is coming to Hefei, close the city gate quickly!" ”

The people at the city gate were stunned at first, and then like a bombing nest, the crying and shouting were everywhere, the people cried for their fathers and mothers, stumbled and scattered, and in a moment, a group of county soldiers rushed quickly and began to quickly close the north and south city gates, and no one was allowed to enter or exit. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

In the afternoon, an army of more than 10,000 people appeared outside Hefei under the banner of Du Fuwei, but they did not attack the city, after nightfall, they left Hefei City to the south, and soon Chao County was breached, the county warehouse was looted by Du Fuwei's army, and the news that Du Fuwei led tens of thousands of troops to occupy Siding Mountain spread to Hefei County that night.

Liyang County and Huainan County also appeared in the news of Du Fuwei's army, Jianghuai counties sent a letter of distress to Zhongdu in the form of an 800 li express to ask for help from Zhongdu, and Jiangdu also imposed martial law, the city gate was closed, and the fleet on the Tongji Canal was temporarily suspended from passing to prevent being sacked by Du Fuwei's army.

There is a wealthy mansion covering an area of about 40 acres at the gate of Hefei County, the owner is called Jin Shirang, about 50 years old, he was a famous businessman in the Guanlong area, he has been doing business in Jianghuai for five years, his family has a lot of money, and he has quite a way in all counties in Jianghuai.

In the inner hall, Jin Shirang paced back and forth, looking quite anxious in his heart, Du Fuwei raised troops again, and the biggest impact was these merchants, he was in the brocade business, and if the tens of thousands of brocades he bought in Jianghuai could not be transported to Jianghuai and were looted by the rebels, he was afraid that he would go bankrupt.

At this time, a servant in the hall reminded, "The third prince is here!" ”

Jin Shirang turned around, only to see his nephew Jin Ming walking quickly, Jin Shirang has three sons, one in Chang'an, one in Zhongdu, one in Jiangdu, they each guard a big store, and Jin Shirang took his nephew Jin Ming to activities in Jianghuai counties, his nephew is as his name, very shrewd and capable, is Jin Shirang's right-hand man, especially good at dealing with the government.

Jin Shirang hurriedly stepped forward and asked, "Have you heard the news?" ”

Jin Ming nodded, "My nephew saw Wang Juncheng and got the latest situation of Du Fuwei from him. ”

"How?"

"Du Fuwei's troops are about 20,000 people, and one in Lujiang County is Du Fuwei's main force, about 12,000 people, they robbed the granary of Chao County this afternoon, and when they heard that they had lost tens of thousands of stone of grain, Li Taishou was very panicked, and he had already sent three letters for help to Zhongdu."

"Where is Duvowe's army now?"

"I heard that I went to Siding Mountain, which turned out to be Du Fuwei's lair."

Jin Shirang was slightly relieved to hear that Du Fuwei had not turned around to attack Hefei City, and his 30,000 brocades in the Hefei treasury were temporarily saved.

Jin Ming said again: "Wang Juncheng asked us not to transport goods abroad for the time being, now the waterway is very dangerous, it is easy to be intercepted by Du Fuwei's army, at least until the arrival of the Zhongdu army or the Yangtze River naval army can resume shipping." ”

Jin Shirang frowned, "But Chang'an urgently needs eight thousand brocades, what if you can't send them?" ”

"Tell the eldest brother about the situation, and let the eldest brother think of another way! Let's see if we can transfer the goods from Bashu. ”

Jin Shirang thought for a while and said: "You want to find a way to tell your eldest brother about the situation here, please understand the guest, we will do everything possible to transfer goods elsewhere." ”

"My nephew understood, so he went to send the pigeon letters."

Jin Ming left in a hurry, Jin Shirang sighed, Jianghuai was in war again, when would it be able to settle down.

.........

On the Yangtze River, a warship fleet from Jiujiang County is sailing in formation, this warfleet is very large, there are at least hundreds of warships, 2,000 stones, 3,000 stone large warships abound, on the warship headed by a battle flag hanging, on the word "come" is written, indicating that this fleet is the main force of the navy led by Laihu'er personally.

The warfleet was divided into two routes at the mouth of the Zhajiang River, one was composed of 300 warships, and continued to the east, they were responsible for completely blocking the river between Jiangxia and Qichun County, preventing the Tang army from taking advantage of the opportunity of the Jianghuai civil strife to enter Qichun County, and the other was led by Lai Hu'er, sailing along the Zhajiang River to Chaohu, obviously to support the defense of Hefei, before the arrival of the counterinsurgency army in the central capital, the naval army could only strengthen the defense of important cities.

Du Fuwei's re-raising of troops in Jianghuai had a great impact, and under its influence, the mines in Liyang County were forced to suspend production, and all the pig iron and blister copper in stock were transported to Jiangning on the other side, and the water transportation in Jiangdu was suspended, and the market was full of rumors.

Even Zhongdu was shaken by the chaos in Jianghuai, and the eight hundred miles of urgent messengers sent by the Taishou of the six counties of Qichun, Tong'an, Lujiang, Huainan, Liyang, and Jiangdu appeared on the streets of Zhongdu continuously, and the sound of hurried horses' hooves caused panic, and the price of grain skyrocketed overnight, forcing Ziwei Pavilion to order Chang to close the position and sell grain to stabilize the price of grain.

King Qi's orders were issued continuously, transferring 20,000 troops from Qingzhou, 10,000 troops from the Central Plains and 30,000 troops from Zhongdu, a total of 60,000 troops, and the general Luo Shixin went to Jianghuai to quell the rebellion.

.........

Chang'an, Taiji Palace Wude Palace, Li Yuan is discussing the final strategy of the Eastern Expedition with a group of important ministers, due to Li Shimin's strong opposition, the Eastern Expedition plan has not been passed, of course, not only Li Shimin, including Li Yuan himself is also a little uneasy, after all, this is the first time that the Tang Army took the initiative to attack the Northern Sui, which is of great significance, and Li Yuan does not want to end in failure.

The premise of the Eastern Crusade was Du Fuwei's army in Jianghuai, and Li Yuan had been paying attention to Du Fuwei's actions in Jianghuai.

Judging from the information sent by Zheng Shanguo, Du Fuwei's troops in the Huangmei Mine were very successful, and he had ended his activities in Qichun County and entered Lujiang County.

Pei Lin saluted Li Yuan, and smiled at everyone: "According to the latest information obtained from Zhongdu, the six counties of Jianghuai have all sent an urgent request for help to Zhongdu, the mines in Liyang County have been suspended, Jiangdu water transportation has stopped, and even the price of rice in Zhongdu has skyrocketed, forcing the Zhongdu Imperial Court to use Changping to throw grain to stabilize grain prices, according to reliable information, Zhang Xuan has ordered the transfer of 60,000 troops from Qingzhou, Central Plains and Hebei to Jianghuai to quell the chaos, and the main force of the naval army to protect the children has gone north from Jiujiang County. ”

Li Yuan nodded, and asked again: "These are all the effects, whether there is a specific situation of Du Fuwei, I would like to know." ”

At this time, Li Jiancheng said: "Enlighten my father, my son got a little news." ”

"Oh? Where did the emperor get the news? ”

"It is a silk shop in Xishi, and the owner's father is called Jin Shirang, who is currently buying brocade in Hefei, and he sent a pigeon letter from Hefei to his eldest son in Chang'an two days ago, which involves the specific activities of Du Fuwei in Jianghuai."

Li Jiancheng presented a letter to his father, "This is a copied letter, please see it!" ”

Li Yuan read the letter carefully a few times, obviously relieved, and he smiled at Li Jiancheng: "The emperor will tell everyone about it!" ”

Li Jiancheng said to everyone: "This letter was written five days ago, the businessman who wrote the letter is called Jin Shirang, and the Lujiang government has a good relationship, he got the news from Cheng Wangji of Lujiang County, Du Fuwei entered Lujiang County after the rapid expansion of troops, there are nearly 20,000 people, currently occupy Siding Mountain as the foundation, in addition to Liyang County and Huainan County also responded to Du Fuwei's army, Hefei City people are panicked, the city gate has been closed, no one is allowed to enter or exit, water transportation has also stopped, this Jin Shirang is trapped in the city is very worried. ”

At this time, Li Shimin, who had been silent, asked: "Why didn't Du Fuwei capture Hefei City?" but went around the city. ”

Pei Lin said with a smile: "Your Highness doesn't know, the moat of Hefei City is very wide, if you close the city gate, you must rely on ships to attack the city, Du Fuwei obviously can't do it, this is one, the second is that Hefei City also has a thousand county soldiers to garrison, it is by no means defenseless, it is not easy to capture it, the third is that the Northern Sui Navy is rushing to the aid of the starry night, relying on Hefei City to resist the Navy is obviously not the best choice, so Du Fuwei chose Siding Mountain, where both attack and defense, both the Navy and the infantry are difficult to attack the mountain, As long as Du Fuwei prepares sufficient food, he can confront the Sui army for a long time, this is a long-term move, although the capture of Hefei is a temporary advantage, but not long-term, Du Fuwei should have learned the lesson of the previous failure. ”

Pei Lian's analysis was reasonable and very thorough, which attracted unanimous praise from everyone, and Li Shimin couldn't refute it, so he had to be silent. ”

At this time, Li Yuan said excitedly: "Since Du Fuwei has entered Jianghuai and sabotaged the deployment of the Northern Sui army, then the conditions for the Eastern Expedition are ripe, and I have officially decided to go to Yuzhang County, I hope that all Aiqing will give full support and strictly keep secrets." (To be continued.) )