Han Jian declared war in a high-profile manner and led his troops to the expedition in a low-key manner, and even did not make too many waves around Jiangdu City. Jiangdu is only 300 miles away from Yangzhou, even if Han Jian leads the troops to march 60 miles every day, after five or six days, Jiangdu's soldiers and horses can be under the city of Yangzhou.

At this time, Yangzhou City and Jinling City had fallen into the hands of Zhu Tongjing.

Zhu Tongjing led more than 26,000 soldiers and horses down the river from the south bank of the river, captured Yangzhou, and then infiltrated Jinling in three days to completely occupy the imperial city of the Southern Dynasty. Zhu Tongjing, as a former master of the Qi Dynasty, with the assistance of Yangzhou City and Jinling City, captured these two cities almost bloodlessly.

But what followed was the escape of Xiao Ling, the king of Hui, and Xiao Zhan, the empress, who were in charge of the state affairs of the Southern Dynasties, escaped from the east gate of Jinling City when Jinling City was in the most dangerous situation, and only escorted by a few soldiers and horses, all the way to the south, through southern Zhejiang, to the direction of central Fujian. The direction they went was the same as that of Sima Yi and Li Fangwei towards Xu Ding.

Then the Northern Dynasty led the troops to the south under the personal expedition of Han Jian, King Hui ordered 300,000 soldiers and horses of King Hui on the way to flee south, and the people and horses who were transferred to the land of Jiang and Jiangxi rushed back to help, Xiao Ling was in southern Zhejiang, and did not go south, and Xiao Zhan's life and death are not known for the time being, but in fact, Xiao Zhan went all the way south to meet Sima Yi.

On August 12, Sima Yi and Li Fangwei finally arrived at the city of Xuding after a half-month journey of day and night.

At this time, in the city of Xuding, there was Sun Lin, a general under the command of King Hui, who was in charge of the army, and in the battle with the surrounding rebel army, the entire Xuding was in a state of closing the city gate, and even Li Fangwei could not enter the city.

Sun Lin was appointed by Xiao Ling, the king of Hui, after Li Fangwei took refuge in Xiao Zhan, but because Sun Lin himself was a military general, it stands to reason that he could not take charge of the local civil administration with the position of Taishou. Can be after the Yangzhou riots. Lingnan and Fujian and Zhejiang generations have been in turmoil, and even local peasant armies have risen, so that the cities are in danger, under the leadership of Sun Lin, Xu Ding closed the city gate and did not have too much contact with the outside world, and the soldiers and civilians in the city were united in one mind. It can be regarded as support for Sun Lin, the new Taishou, which is not a good thing for Sima Yi and Li Fangwei, who have returned from afar.

Sima Yi originally wanted to fight Li Fangwei without bloodshed, take military control of Xu Ding, and with the backing of Xu Ding's local soldiers and horses, he launched the Qin Wang order.

At present, Xu Dingcheng can't enter, and Xiao Ling, the king of Hui, launched a world proclamation of King Qin in southern Zhejiang, and at this time, even if Sima Yi and Li Fang can only enter Xu Dingcheng. At most, it only controlled Xu Ding, and could not form a banner of the Southern Dynasty.

On 14 August, on the third day after Sima Yi and Li Fangwei arrived in Xuding, Sima asked Li Fangwei to send a "messenger" to receive a secret letter from King Hui and an edict from the empress into the city.

Due to the chaotic situation around Jinling, no one knows who is the main one in Jinling City now. After Xiao Ling issued King Qin's proclamation, the people of the world didn't even know whether he was alive or dead. However, because Sima Yi had inspected military affairs in Fujian and Zhejiang, he was deeply supported by the generals and soldiers in the army, and his arrival even Xu Dingtai Shousun Lin had to pay attention to it.

The secret letter and the empress's edict were all forged by him, and they were all false. After Sima entered the city. Temporarily living in the post house in the city, he secretly contacted Li Fangwei's old department, trying to assassinate Sun Lin when he met Sun Lin, and took advantage of the chaos to take control of Xu Ding.

At noon on August 15, Sun Lin agreed with his subordinates. When he went to the post house to meet Sima Qi in person, Sun Lin himself was suspicious of Sima Qi's identity, but after all, he had the opportunity to meet Sima Qi when he was inspecting military affairs, he knew Sima Qi, and after seeing Sima Qi, he eliminated his doubts and was respectful to Sima Qi.

In the post house, Sima borrowed less than 60 soldiers, all of whom were Li Fangwei's original domestic slaves and dead soldiers, and Sima was ready to assassinate Sun Lin at any time by throwing a cup.

But after Sun Lin entered the secret conversation with Sima Yi for half an hour, Sun Lin followed Sima out of the main hall of the post house, and then Sun Lin ordered the city gate to be opened to welcome Li Fangwei, who was originally too guarded, to enter the city, and Sun Lin chose to surrender to Sima Yi at a critical time.

It's not that Sun Lin is greedy for life and afraid of death, but he judges the situation at a critical time, with Sun Lin's status in Xu Dingcheng, he can't do it to calm the people, let alone lead the army to King Qin or even issue the order of King Qin, Sima Yi was a military advisor above 10,000 people under one person in the Huiwang system, and his wisdom is far from being comparable to his Sun Lin, after the empress came to power, Sima Yi was in the court as the right minister, Sun Lin regarded Sima Yi as a life-saving straw, after Sima Yu entered the city, the military and political power were entrusted to him, and it was also to reduce the pressure on his own shoulders.

But there is also Sima through the statement that Xu Dingcheng is not a big city in the generation of Fujian and Zhejiang, peasant armies and rebellious armies all over the world, Xu Ding can temporarily cut off contact with the outside world, but after a long time, Xu Ding will inevitably be in chaos, with Sun Lin's ability and his appeal, he can only hold a corner, which is equivalent to a slow death, and sooner or later will be annexed by other military forces, even if Zhu Tongjing or the Northern Dynasty soldiers and horses are killed in the future, because Sun Lin was a subordinate of King Hui, Sun Lin and his subordinates can not have a place in Zhu Tongjing and the Northern Dynasty court.

Sun Lin was on guard against Sima from the beginning, and then humbly sought advice, Sima Yi pointed out that in order to achieve great causes, it was necessary to continue to be loyal to King Hui, help King Hui to win the imperial industry, and at the same time drive the army of the Northern Dynasty out of the territory, which coincided with the general direction agreed by Sun Lin and his subordinates before. Subsequently, Sun Lin took Sima as an order, decided to hand over the military power in the city, and welcomed Li Fangwei into the city.

On 15 August, Li Fangwei entered Xuding City and was welcomed by the people in the city.

The Li family has been running Xu Ding for more than 30 years, even if it is very average in terms of political performance, but in the face of the chaos of the country, the people need Li Fangwei as the backbone, and this time Li Fangwei went to Xuding with King Hui and the empress "envoy" Sima Yu, Xu Dingcheng seems to be the military and political core of the entire Southern Dynasty.

That night, led by Li Fangwei and Sun Lin, a Mid-Autumn Festival banquet was held in the city, and the gentry and people in the city were invited to the banquet.

After the banquet, Sima immediately issued an order in the name of the Son of Heaven to order the soldiers and horses from all over the country to be integrated, accept the military command of the empress and the king of Hui, and send troops to the north.

Sima Yi's issuance of this Qinwang Decree was far inferior to Xiao Ling's Qinwang Decree in southern Zhejiang, and Sima Yi only integrated the military power in central Fujian and Lingnan in this way.

Sima sent messengers from all walks of life. With the warrant forged by Sima to go to various places to recruit troops and horses, Lingnan and Fujian were already suffering from military disasters, and the local guards either participated in the riot, or kept a wait-and-see state for the riot, because of the military changes in Jinling City in the north, making the place like a headless fly. Sima's warrant was tantamount to a beacon of guidance for the local guards and guards.

Five days after Sima Yi's warrant was issued, the Taishou of the three cities around Xuding personally sent people to Xuding to contact King Qin, none of these places were careerists who wanted to achieve the great cause of the emperor, their main purpose was to keep their own bodies, even if some of them participated in the rebellion, they were also provoked by Zhu Tongjing and his generals, and when they calmed down and knew that the empress might be in Xuding City, they immediately realized that they were playing with fire and self-immolation.

Meanwhile. A major battle also broke out on the battlefield in Jiangbei.

Jiangdu's soldiers and horses marched southward, Han Jian's 20,000 light cavalry opened the way, and the army had already marched under Yangzhou in less than three days. Qi Dynasty in the Jiangbei cities, except for Yangzhou, the rest of the cities are all looking at the wind and surrendering, before the Northern Dynasty army to the city, the defenders in the city have opened the city to surrender.

The 60,000 soldiers and horses of the Northern Dynasties, starting from Jiangdu, arrived within 60 miles of Yangzhou on August 14. Han Jian's Chinese army camp was less than thirty miles away from Yangzhou City, and he could launch an attack on Yangzhou at any time.

On the other side. Zhu Tongjing's men and horses crossed the river to the south on the ninth day of August, and they also went south to several cities without bloodshed, and the local defenders of Chu were all in danger. They have long heard of Su Tingxia's notoriety, and after Su Tingxia sent troops to Chudi, there were not too many cities to surrender, but they were all closed to the city. Even the military system of joint defense of the city formulated by the court of the Southern Dynasties before is gone.

On August 13, the soldiers and horses of the King of Jiangjiang and Jiangxi moved closer to Jinling City, and the vanguard soldiers and horses were less than 200 miles away from Jinling City.

The military of the Southern Dynasties had fallen into a state of complete chaos, and the more than 100,000 stragglers sent by Xiao Ling to Jiangjiang had withdrawn from the land of Jiangjiang one after another. Under the banner of King Qin, but in fact, it is not at all careless and has no organization. But if Jinling City is besieged by these people from all walks of life, Zhu Tongjing will still be unable to fight with Zhu Tongjing around Jinling City.

Zhu Tongjing took the initiative to attack, and on August 11, he sent 6,000 cavalry to attack several cities in Jiangkou in advance.

Zhu Tongjing took the opportunity to gather the men and horses of King Hui's old department, and originally sent out 6,000 cavalry, but by August 20, no less than 30,000 old troops of King Hui had defected to Zhu Tongjing.

Immediately Zhu Tongjing sent troops to the land of southern Zhejiang, to completely strangle the only thousands of local garrisons around Xiao Ling, Xiao Ling fled south in a hurry after inquiry, the first Qinwang order of the Southern Dynasty court was easily disintegrated by Zhu Tongjing, Xiao Ling counted on 100,000 Qinwang soldiers and horses either scattered and fled, or was absorbed by Zhu Tongjing, the territory of the Southern Dynasty, from Jiangjiang along the river to Jinling generation, all controlled by Zhu Tongjing.

Xiao Ling thought that the general trend was gone, and there were fewer and fewer relatives around him, and some people even wanted to kill him and send the head to Jinling City to invite merit.

Just as he was fleeing south, the second Qinwang Decree issued by Xu Ding came from the south, and the Qinwang Decree was issued by Sima in the name of Xiao Ling and the empress.

Xiao Ling was in a predicament as if he had seen a savior, and after quelling the rebellion of the people around him, Xiao Ling had less than sixty followers left around him, and he kept going in the direction of Xu Ding.

On August 22, Han Jian's troops were still besieging Yangzhou City, besieging three and one, and forming a comprehensive offensive against Yangzhou City in three directions, east, west and north, but they did not send troops to attack, in fact, Han Jian was waiting for Zhu Tongjing to send troops to rescue Yangzhou City.

Han Jian sent Zhang Xing to lead the naval army to escort the landing soldiers and horses to the western part of Zhejiang, and after occupying several small county seats, he captured Gusu City on August 17. Suzhou was lost, the eastern gate of Jinling City was opened, and Zhang Xing's naval army marched eastward along the mouth of the Yangtze River, which was equivalent to holding the way of Jinling City to the north to aid Yangzhou City, and the entire Yangzhou City fell into a lonely city.

If Zhu Tongjing sent troops to cross the river to the north, with the strength of Zhu Tongjing's water division, he could not compete with the warships of the Northern Dynasty at all, so even Zhu Tongjing simply abandoned Yangzhou City.

Because Zhu Tongjing also knew that since they lacked sailors, and the warships and troop carriers of the Northern Dynasties were unstoppable, it was impossible to use river defense to guard against the soldiers and horses of the Northern Dynasties, so it was better to focus on city defense.

On August 29, Empress Xiao Zhan arrived at Xuding City under the escort of more than a dozen relatives, which was another major event in the military system of the Southern Dynasties.

Sima Yi got a message sent by Xiao Zhan two days in advance, and sent the people in the city to the north of the city in advance to greet him, and on the same day, Sima Yi personally took Li Fangwei and Sun Lin to go out to greet him, and there were envoys sent from central Fujian, southern Fujian and Lingnan counties and counties together with him.

After Xiao Zhan entered the city that day, he immediately took Sima Yi as the general on the same day to coordinate all matters related to the rebellion of King Qin of the Southern Dynasty. On the same day, Sima Yi also sent letters to various parts of the Southern Dynasties, announcing that the empress had arrived in Xuding, and that King Qin's affairs were not only to crusade against the traitor Zhu Tongjing, the king of Linjiang, but also to drive away the northern invaders and defend the territory of the Southern Dynasties.

Xiao Ling escaped from Jinling City, there were not many people around her, and there were some female relatives around her to escort her, but on the way to the south, because these palace maids and female guards were overworked, they either fell behind or had an accident, and there were only a dozen palace guards who could really escort her to Xu Ding. These guards were once sent to the palace by King Hui to protect the safety of the empress, but in the end, they did their duty in the chaos and successfully escorted Xiao Zhan to Xu Dingcheng.

On August 30, Xiao Zhan personally inquired about the government affairs in Xu Dingcheng, and Sima Yi, as a general and right minister, oversaw the military affairs and government affairs of the Southern Dynasties, and presented to Xiao Zhan all the military movements he had collected in various parts of the south these days. Xiao Zhan ran all the way, and only then did she know the specific situation in the north, and at this time, the news of Zhu Tongjing's disintegration of the Qin Wangjun army in Jiangjiang had just reached Xu Ding, and Xiao Zhan also realized that her imperial uncle King Hui had almost no power to resist in this political turmoil, and the great cause that Sima had achieved with his assistance was disintegrated by Zhu Tongjing in an instant.

On the second day of the ninth lunar month, the news of Xiao Ling's flight from southern Zhejiang reached Xuding City, and Sima realized that Xiao Ling and Xiao Zhan, the two core figures who had once held military power and political power in Jinling City, would meet in the small city of Xuding.

Unlike in Jinling City, today's King Hui Xiao Ling is like a lost dog, and he no longer has the previous high authority, even if he comes, he can only be subservient to the empress. (To be continued.) )