[Let's ask for a commuter pass first!] For the sake of Lao Gao's diligence, support Lao Gao, and don't be too ugly on the monthly ticket list. 】

Yiling County was occupied silently, with only a few hundred defenders in the county, and the city surrendered under the strong pressure of the Sui army, and when the people of Yiling County woke up, the flag on the head of the city had become the Red Eagle Battle Flag of the Sui Dynasty.

After occupying Yiling County and Yichang County, the first thing Wang Junkuo did was to cut off the chain bridge of Dingshu Fort and arrange a ferry on the river beach to transport the people who needed to cross the river.

It should be said that the trick of breaking the chain bridge was extremely vicious, and unless there was a ferry, the army could only go to Jiangling County, hundreds of miles away, to cross the river, where the Tang army had more than 100 large ships.

The second thing Wang Junkuo did was to integrate all the nearly 7,000 Tang troops captured successively into the Sui army for intensive training, and all the officers above the captain level were all served by the Sui army, so that the Sui army had 17,000 troops in Yiling County.

Wang Junkuo immediately sent someone east to report the matter to the coach Yang Yuanqing......

Wang Junkuo's 10,000 cavalry walked from east to west, a total of 15 days, but from entering the territory of the Tang army in Jiangxia County to Yiling County, it took a total of five days and five nights, day and night, extremely cautious and cautious, far away from the Tang Dynasty garrison, avoiding the county seat, and marching in the remote countryside.

Although the Sui army was extremely cautious, they were discovered by the local government of Ziling County when they were passing through Nanjun, and the county magistrate of Ziling County received a report from the villagers that a 10,000-strong cavalry had crossed the border. The county commander immediately sent people to Jiangling County to report to the Taishou of Nan County, and found a suspicious army, and it was difficult to determine whether it was the Tang army or the Sui army.

Zhao Song, the Taishou of Nanjun, realized that the situation was serious and that it was impossible for the Jingxiang Tang Army to have 10,000 cavalry, so he immediately found the Nanjun garrison and asked them to report to Li Xiaogong with an eagle letter, when Li Xiaogong received this urgent report. It was already the early morning of the third day when Ziling County discovered the crossing of the Sui army.

And Wang Junkuo had already seized Yichang County the night before, and Li Xiaogong stood on the city tower, watching the eagle gradually disappear at the southern end. His heart became extremely cold, and an intuition told him that Yichang County had been lost.

Beside. Shi Gao Shilian, the head of Jingzhou, persuaded in a low voice: "Your Highness, it is still necessary to immediately inform the imperial court, strengthen the defense of Shuzhong, and prevent the Sui army from taking advantage of the weakness to attack Bashu." ”

After the death of the eldest grandson Sheng, he took his sister and nephew to the family to raise him, and according to the will of the eldest grandson Sheng, he married his niece to Li Shimin, and he had a very good relationship with the Li family.

Li Xiaogong shook his head, "I'll report back if I don't reply in the evening!" ”

He sighed. Turning around and going down to the city, Gao Shilian looked at Li Xiaogong's lonely back, and he also sighed, he could understand Li Xiaogong's helplessness at this time.

There was no panic, no thunderstorm. But it doesn't mean that he is not in a hurry, if the eagle letter can be delivered in time, then with three thousand defenders, he can completely hold Yichang County, and even the Sui army has no chance to cross the river.

If the Sui army had already captured Yichang County, the Tang army's large-scale counterattack would not have had an effect. The anxiety and bitterness in Li Xiaogong's heart at this time are really difficult to express to outsiders.

However, Gao Shilian also knew that the Sui army's occupation of Yiling actually had little impact on the Jingxiang Campaign, although the Sui army cut off the Tang army's withdrawal to Bashu, but the Tang army could still withdraw to Hanzhong.

The real threat to the Sui army's occupation of Yiling Road is actually Bashu, which has an impact on the overall situation of the entire Tang Dynasty, Gao Shilian is worried, and the only way to deal with the Yiling crisis is to deploy heavy troops in Bashu, so I don't know if the court has so many troops deployed?

Li Xiaogong left the city wall, and under the escort of hundreds of personal soldiers, rode slowly towards the palace, at this time Li Xiaogong's heart was in chaos, and he was a little unsure of where to start.

Dozens of miles away in the north is Xu Shiji's 40,000 army, and in the east is more than 100,000 Sui troops killed from Jiangnan, and now another Sui army is killing Yiling.

The entire Jingxiang was surrounded on three sides by the Sui Dynasty's 200,000 troops, and he only had 80,000 troops in his hands, how should he deal with it?

Li Xiaogong returned to the palace, walked into his study, stood in front of a huge sand table, silently looked at all parts of Jingxiang on the sand table, the location of the Sui army had been checked with the red flag, only to feel that there were many killing opportunities, and a big war was about to break out on the land of Jingxiang.

Du Fuwei's army slaughtered from Jiangbei to Yong'an County, Xiao Miao's army from Jiangnan to Jiangxia County, and there was also a Sui army fleet of hundreds of large ships in Dajiang.

There is also Xu Shiji's department in Nanyang County, with 40,000 troops to suppress Xiangyang, and his army is mainly concentrated in Xiangyang, Nanjun, Jiangxia, and Anlu counties.

He only has 80,000 troops, which cannot be spread too widelyIn fact, like Baling County and Changsha County in the south, there are only 2,000 garrisons each, symbolizing that a small number of troops are stationed, while other Qingjiang Counties, Yuanling Counties, Wuling Counties, etc., have no troops stationed at all.

Li Xiaogong picked up a red flag and planted it on Yichang County, first assuming that Yichang County had been lost, at this time, Li Xiaogong saw the chain bridge between Anshu City and Qiting Town, and he thought for a moment.

In fact, from this chain bridge, it can be seen that Yang Yuanqing's strategic intention to seize Yiling County, if he wants to attack Nanjun from the west, then this chain bridge will definitely not be demolished, and they can't cut off their own way.

And if Yang Yuanqing's strategic intention is to point to Bashu, then the Sui army will definitely tear down this chain bridge.

Thinking of this, Li Xiaogong immediately turned around and shouted, "Someone!" ”

The two guards walked into the study quickly, bowed and said, "Please give orders to Your Highness." ”

"Convey my order to Captain Lin, immediately send someone to Qiting Town to investigate the situation of the chain bridge, and must reply before dawn tomorrow!"

"Obey!"

The two guards saluted, turned around and retreated, Li Xiaogong stood in front of the sand table with his back hand, now the Sui army is still in the process of advancing westward, and the battle cannot be fought for a while, the key now is in the imperial court, how many reinforcements can the imperial court send?

At this time, Li Xiaogong's heart was full of expectations for reinforcements......

The vast river surface is sparkling and vast, and in the distance, piles of white clouds are piled up on the blue river like a hill, and here is the territory of Jiujiang County of the Yangtze River, and a fleet of nearly 500 sea ships is cleaving the waves and sailing westward.

The giant sail was puffed up, and with the power of the east wind, the ship was moving fast, and the front was not far from Jiujiang County.

Starting from Jiangyangcang, the Sui army's thousands of large ships and soldiers divided into two routes, all the way north along the Tongji Canal to Liyang, transporting 200,000 stone grain and a large amount of materials to Liyangcang, and the prince Yang Ning also followed the fleet north and returned to Taiyuan.

Another fleet was led by Yang Yuanqing, with 10,000 cavalry in the ship, carrying 300,000 grains and a large amount of forage and armor and other materials to Jingxiang to support the Jingxiang campaign.

On the bow of the first big ship, Yang Yuanqing stood with his hands in his hands, staring at the river in the distance, hundreds of egrets hovering and soaring on the river, the whole river surface presents a faint green sè, the water quality is clear, and the distant sky is as pure as a blue jewel, clear water and blue sky, this is the Yangtze River of Dasui.

"Your Highness, there is Huancheng County in front, and there are still ten miles."

While the soldiers pointed to the small black dots that appeared in the distance, the weather was clear, and the visual distance was extremely far away, and it could be faintly seen that it was the outline of a city.

Yang Yuanqing nodded, "Stop for an hour in Huancheng County." ”

He needed to meet with the Taishou of Jiujiang County and appease the magistrates, which was very important, not only to appease Jiangnan, but also to appease the officials of the counties along the Yangtze River.

In fact, there are Yuzhang County, Yichūn County, Luling County, Linchuan County, Poyang County, etc., these prefectures and counties do not rely on the Yangtze River, so they can only let Cen Wenwen appease themselves.

Yang Yuanqingda's thinking turned to Wang Junkuo, in terms of time, he should have arrived in Yiling County a long time ago, I don't know if he has captured Yichang County, which is related to the major strategic plan to seize Bashu.

If the capture of Yichang County fails, then the Tang Dynasty will have a retreat to Bashu in the south, which is a scene that Yang Yuanqing absolutely does not want to see, then he can only storm Hanzhong after the Battle of Jingxiang, pinch Hanzhong, and strangle Li Yuan's attempt to move the capital to Bashu.

However, the terrain in Hanzhong is dangerous, and with Luo Yi, a good fighter, to defend it, the Sui army is bound to pay a great price for attacking Hanzhong.

At this time, Yang Yuanqing was most concerned about the situation in Yiling, and with Wang Junkuo's strategy, he hoped that he had not seen the wrong person.

The fleet gradually reached Huangcheng County, and on the mast, a crew member waved a red flag high, signaling the ships behind to dock in Huangcheng County.

The boat gradually slowed down, Yang Yuanqing's big ship leaned towards the wharf, Huancheng County was built close to the Yangtze River, only one mile away from the river, it is a large county, with a population of more than 3,000 households.

On the wharf, gongs and drums are beaten, colorful flags are flying, lively and abnormal, tens of thousands of people in Jiujiang County gather at the wharf to welcome the arrival of His Royal Highness the King of Chu, when the ship gradually approached the wharf, the cheers on the wharf resounded in the sky, and tens of thousands of people were in high spirits, boiling for it.

Dozens of officials were already waiting on the dock, and the first official was Cen Wenwen, who had just taken up the post of Taishou of Yuzhang County, and there were several high-ranking officials next to him, Jiujiang County Taishou and Poyang County Taishou, as well as Qi Chūn Taishou on the other side of the Yangtze River, as well as Shi and Sima, the county magistrates.

These were originally officials of Xiao Liangguo, appointed by Xiao Miao, after Xiao Mi surrendered to the Tang Dynasty, these officials also wrote letters to surrender to the Great Sui, and Yang Yuanqing ordered Cen Wenwen to appease them, and still let them serve in their original positions to maintain the stability of Xiao Liang's hometown.

At this time, Cen Wenwen led the officials to come forward to salute, and more than a dozen officials bowed to the ground and bowed deeply, "See His Royal Highness the King of Chu!" ”

"Ladies and gentlemen, please excuse me."

Yang Yuanqing smiled and helped everyone up one by one, and said good words to reassure, saying that the imperial court would attach importance to the southern counties, and be as light as the north, and at the same time would protect the interests of officials from infringement.

In short, I want them to be officials with peace of mind, and stabilize the situation in the south for the Sui Dynasty, as for whether they are corrupt and bend the law and other illegal things, they will not consider it now, and after unifying the world in the future, they will slowly settle the account.

At this moment, Yang Yuanqing suddenly saw a carriage parked not far away, and a pair of clear and bright deep eyes were silently watching him in the carriage window.

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