After the edict of the Eastern Expedition was issued, Li Yuan diverted his energy from the military, except for waiting for Li Xiaogong's war report, he no longer paid attention to the war in the south, seeing that it was already late February, the annual local debriefing followed, which was also the busiest period of the year for Li Yuan. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

In the imperial study, Li Yuan was discussing the imperial examination with Xiangguo Chen Shuda and the crown prince, and because the Northern Sui Dynasty advanced the imperial examination to the beginning of March, Li Yuan also considered following up and held the imperial examination of the Tang Dynasty at the same time in early March.

At this time, a eunuch reported at the door: "Your Majesty, His Royal Highness the King of Qin said that there is an urgent military situation to see!" ”

Li Yuan nodded, "Xuan him in!"

After a while, Li Shimin walked into the imperial study quickly, knelt down and saluted: "The son of the emperor to meet his father!" ”

"The emperor is exempt!"

Li Yuan asked, "Does the emperor have any urgent military situation to report to me?" ”

"Father, I'm afraid the situation in Jianghuai is not as simple as we know."

Li Shimin reported in detail the information that Yao Silian and Chu Liang had inadvertently obtained, Li Yuan's brows were already wrinkled, and he said for a while: "Doesn't the emperor think this information is a bit unbelievable?" ”

Li Shimin saw that his father didn't believe his words, and hurriedly said: "Father, those merchants and sons have already detained them, especially the fur merchant who spent the winter in Huoshan County, and the sons and daughters re-interrogated him again, he has no problem, the situation is completely consistent, father, tens of thousands of Sui cavalry are hiding in Jianghuai, Du Fuwei can still stir up chaos in Jianghuai, is this possible?" ”

Next to him, Li Jiancheng said: "Even if the information provided by this businessman is true, but when the cavalry entered Huoshan County in November last year, we had just considered using Du Fuwei, and these tens of thousands of cavalry should not be aimed at Du Fuwei, but had other intentions." ”

Chen Shuda also said solemnly: "Your Majesty, since His Royal Highness has confirmed it, then we should accept this reality, maybe there are some situations in Jianghuai that we don't understand, after all, up to now, we have not received a direct report from Du Fuwei, it is all kinds of hearsay news, Your Majesty, Weichen thinks that we must send someone to Lujiang County to confirm the situation." ”

Li Yuan was upset by this unexpected information, the second son always displeased him, his anger in his heart gradually rose, and when he saw Li Shimin wanting to speak and stopped, he shouted dissatisfiedly: "You still say everything at once!" ”

Li Shimin already felt that his father was angry, but if he didn't say some things, the consequences would probably be more serious, so he stubbornly said in a low voice: "Erchen agrees with the emperor's opinion, and Erchen also thinks that Zhang Xuan sent cavalry into Jianghuai for another attempt. ”

"What's the intention?"

"Father, the son thinks that Zhang Xuan wants to attack Jiangxia."

"Enough!"

Li Yuan shouted angrily, interrupting Li Shimin's words, he couldn't hold back the anger in his heart anymore, pointed at Li Shimin and scolded: "Everyone is stupid, but you are the smartest, do you think I don't understand that little bit of caution?" I tell you that this is the last time, and if you try to overturn the case for him, I will remove him directly. ”

Li Shimin knelt down and wept and said: "Erchen is by no means overturning the case for Qu Tutong, Erchen is worried that Zhang Xuan has already placed heavy troops in Jianghuai, at that time, not only will our Eastern Crusade fail, but even Jiangxia, Xiangyang and other counties will not be able to keep it, father, it is a matter of the overall situation, we can't be careless!" ”

Li Jiancheng and Chen Shuda also knelt down to ask the Son of Heaven to calm his anger, Li Jiancheng persuaded: "Father, Chen Xiangguo's plan is more feasible, no matter whether Du Fuwei succeeds or not, we should send someone to contact Du Fuwei, he is the person we installed in Jianghuai, he should be under our control, and he can't let him get out of control." ”

Although Li Yuan was dissatisfied with his son's constant opposition to the Eastern Crusade, he was actually very worried about what would happen to Jianghuai, but his son happened to step on his sore spot, so he would be furious.

Li Yuan calmed down the anger in his heart a little, and said to Chen Shuda: "I will hand over this matter to Xiangguo to deal with, and immediately send someone to Lujiang County to contact Du Fuwei, I need his debriefing report." ”

.........

After Li Xiaogong launched the Eastern Crusade, the Tang army was like a bamboo, and the county officials along the way surrendered one after another, and the 20,000 troops led by Li Xiaogong marched even faster, they were not hindered in any way, and the army entered Jiujiang County five days later.

The Tang army first arrived in Huancheng County, which is the county of Jiujiang County, and the army was in the city, and Zhu Wen led a group of officials out of the city to surrender, Zhu Wen of course got Zhang Xuan's prior permission to do so, otherwise it was the most beneficial choice for him to flee to Jiangbei by boat, otherwise once the Sui army came back, how should they face the officials who surrendered to the Tang Dynasty?

Zhu Wen held up a pot of soil and said: "We are willing to surrender the city to the heavenly army, and we only implore His Highness to be lenient to the people, restrain military discipline, and not indulge the soldiers." ”

Li Xiaogong ordered the soldiers to take over the surrender of the soil, which would be regarded as the return of Lujiang County to the Tang Dynasty, and he smiled at Zhu Wen: "The Son of Heaven of the Tang Dynasty has always been lenient to the people, since I am already a citizen of the Tang Dynasty, how can I disturb the people, please rest assured that Zhu Taishou will not enter the city." ”

Zhu Wen was overjoyed, and waved his hand again, a team of mule carts drove out of the city, the car was full of slaughtered pigs and sheep, Zhu Wen smiled: "There are three hundred pigs and a thousand sheep here, it is the heart of the people of Huancheng to the army, please Your Highness must accept it." ”

Li Xiaogong smiled and said, "Then thank you!" ”

He ordered the soldiers to accept the pigs and sheep, and asked the adjutant general to lead the army to camp outside the eastern city, and then he whispered to Zhu Wen: "There is something I want to inquire about, Zhu Taishou is here, please!" ”

Zhu Wen walked to the side with him, and Li Xiaogong said slowly: "We will only stay in Huancheng County for one hour at most, and when the ships are collected, the army will set off, but I really want to know about the situation on Peng Ze's side, I don't know how much Zhu Taishou can tell me?" ”

Zhu Wen smiled bitterly and said: "I understand what His Highness means, but I'm afraid I will disappoint His Highness, I know Pengze County very well, but the local government can't ask about the garrison situation in Pengze County, and we don't know anything either." ”

"Of course I won't ask for details, I just heard that there is a huge warehouse in Pengze County, is this news true?"

"This is true, because Pengze County is the foundation of the naval army, and a warehouse for storing grain and materials was built three years ago, and it is not a large warehouse, and a warehouse group, there are at least fifty large warehouses, which are next to the naval army camp, and I have visited it after it was completed."

"We got information that at least 300,000 stone of grain was stored there, is it true?"

Zhu Wen hurriedly shook his head, "I don't know very well, I can't talk nonsense." ”

"What do you think of Tai Shou personally?"

"This ..... Since it is the location of the naval army, there must be food materials in the warehouse, otherwise what the army eats, but I don't know how much food there is. ”

"I understand, thank you Mrs. Zhu for telling me the truth."

At this time, a soldier rushed to report: "Your Highness, our ship has arrived at the dock!" ”

If you take the land route, you must cross the mouth of Panyang Lake from Huancheng County to go to Pengze County, otherwise you have to go south to bypass the entire Poyang Lake, and the distance will increase by thousands of miles, so the Tang army collected civilian ships along the way, and only in Huancheng County, it collected 80 civilian ships, cargo ships, passenger ships, and fishing boats.

Li Xiaogong was very anxious in his heart, he not only wanted to seize the grain in Pengze County, but also hoped to seize the cargo ships there, according to the deployment map of the navy, there were hundreds of cargo ships of more than 2,000 stones, including two transoceanic boats, if he could seize these cargo ships, then their logistics and transportation problems would be solved.

Li Xiaogong immediately decided: "Pass my order, and the army will immediately cross the lake and march eastward!" ”

......

Li Xiaogong knew that Laihu'er had led the main force of the naval division to Jianghuai to support, so there should be only a very small number of warships and sailors and a large number of cargo ships left here in Pengze Lake, in order to prevent the ships from leaving Pengze Lake, the Tang army must use the fastest speed to kill the Sui army camp in Pengze County.

Because it was time-consuming for the Tang army to cross the lake, in order to seize every opportunity, Li Xiaogong ordered the fierce general Shi Huaiyi to be the vanguard, and led 3,000 troops to cross the river first, without waiting for the main force, and directly led the army to Pengze County.

Pengze County is located in the northeast of Jiujiang County, the Pengze Lake in its territory is connected with the Yangtze River, it is a natural lake port, here it has become the base camp of the Sui Army Naval Division, at most, there were nearly a thousand large and small ships moored in the lake, there are warships and cargo ships, the shore also built official offices, warehouses and camps, the main force of the Yangtze River Naval Division is stationed here, in addition, the Sui Army Naval Division has another part of the Naval Division in Jiangning.

Since the main force of the Sui army's naval division rushed north to support Jianghuai, there were less than 40 remaining warships and 2,000 Sui soldiers left in Pengze Lake.

However, there were still a lot of resources in the Sui army camp in Pengze Lake that had not had time to be transferred, including strategic materials such as weapons, armor, food, tents, etc., as well as hundreds of cargo ships.

According to the annotations on the deployment map of the naval army, there are at least 300,000 stone of grain in the warehouse.

Just after dawn, Shi Huaiyi, the general of the Tang Army, led 3,000 pioneers to kill a hundred steps away from the Sui Army's naval division. (To be continued.) )