After Zhang Xun gave up Suiyang City, there were two southbound roads in front of Li Siye's army, one was along the canal, passing through Xuzhou, Suqian, Gaoyou, and finally arriving in Yangzhou, facing the Yangtze River. The other way is also from Suiyang, down to Chenzhou, Runan, Huai'an, into the Nanyang Basin, attack Xiangyang, first take the land of Jingxiang, and then go down the river to dominate the world.

According to Li Siye's plan, he was more inclined to base himself in Yangzhou, cross the river to attack Zhenjiang, once he crossed Zhenjiang, he could take Jinling Yuhang, and the Jiangnan court had no power to fight back. His intention was that it would be easy to take refuge, the city of Xiangyang was strong, Guo Ziyi had been operating there for a long time, and it was very difficult to conquer Xiangyang. Although the 100-mile Yangtze River opposite Yangzhou is also a natural danger for him, after all, geographical factors are still easy to overcome.

Xu Bin raised objections and said to him: "My lord, the Yangtze River is comparable to the Cao Canal, and these warships we built are also like a flat boat on the river. Although our army has the advantage of artillery, its soldiers are not able to communicate with water, and it is inconvenient for them to fight on water. On the opposite side of Yangzhou is Zhenjiang City, which is difficult to conquer according to the riverside. In the past, the Chibi River where Cao Cao went south was far less than Yangzhou and Zhenjiang and the water surface was still difficult to defeat. ”

After Li Siye thought about it carefully, he asked Xu Bindao: "The soldiers are not used to water warfare, so what if I build a water village in Yangzhou to build a hundred-foot ship?" The hull of the ship is like a tall building, the deck is as wide as walking on the ground, and you can go to the city by crossing the river. ”

Xu Bin said: "Lord, it is not a good thing for the hull to be too big, it is difficult to maneuver if it is large, whether it is a big boat or a small boat, it is necessary for soldiers to paddle with both hands, once it reaches the river, it is difficult for the big boat to turn around, and the mountains from Zhenjiang to Jinling are vertical and horizontal, the water network is dense, and the paddy fields are strange. After crossing the river, it was not conducive to the cavalry trek, and they could only give up the cavalry advantage to fight with the enemy on foot, which was extremely unfavorable to our army. ”

"Whether or not you want to attack Jingkou from Yangzhou to the south, Xiangyang must also be taken, and pacifying Jiangnan is not an overnight achievement. Li Yu is not a mediocre master, on the contrary, he has made quite a lot of achievements, and there are also famous generals such as Guo Ziyi, Fugu Huaien, Li Sheng, and Zhang Xun in the Tang Army. If Jingxiang cannot be occupied, only break through from Yangzhou and Gaoyou, once the river is crossed, it will become a lone army, and the logistics supply will be unsustainable. Now we have won Shuzhong, Hanzhong, as long as we break through Xiangyang, go south to Jiangcheng, we can borrow the Yangtze River and Hanjiang water conservancy, so that Shudi, Hanzhong and Jingxiang are connected, and then it is expected to dominate the world. “

After thinking about it repeatedly, Li Siye said quietly: "Xu Gong is right, since he killed Shi Chaoyi and defeated Guo Ziyi in the south to occupy Luoyang and Suiyang, he was a little overconfident, but he didn't know that Tang Zhi's strength was still in Jiangdong, and if he wanted to be completely pacified, he still needed to make long-term plans." ”

Duan Xiushi stepped forward and said: "In the humble opinion of his subordinates, our army has strong troops, and it is completely possible to attack in three ways, the east road south to attack Yangzhou, the middle road south to attack Hefei Anqing, and the west road to the south to attack the Nanyang Basin. ”

Li Siye looked at Xu Bin and asked, "Gong Xu, what do you think?" ”

Xu Xianggong said with a smile: "As long as you don't get over the Yangtze River, no matter how you fight the lord, you will be sure to win, and there are no taboos on the three, five, and nine roads." In addition, it is Xiangyang, if the lord is not fully prepared, do not touch Xiangyang. ”

"Since this is the case, then the three-way army will go south and completely sweep away the remnants of the enemy in Jiangbei."

Li Siye was the commander of Duan Xiushi's East Route Army, and the main direction of attack was Yangzhou, Zhang Guangtao was the commander of the Middle Route Army, the main direction of attack was Anqing, and Tian Chengsi was the chief commander of the West Route Army, and the main direction of attack was Nanyang and Xiangyang. The Three-Way Army struck a blow at the stubborn pro-Tang forces entrenched north of the Yangtze River. The attack of Duan Xiushi of the Eastern Route Army was very smooth, and the prefectures and counties along the way surrendered, even if there were prefectures and cities that were unwilling to surrender, the gunboats heading south along the canal bombarded the city, and most of them had to abandon the city and flee.

When the army arrived in Yangzhou, the gentry and common people who had fled south across the Yangtze River were covered with small boats. Duan Xiushi's staff members suggested to him: "General, the people have moved their families, and the loss of population will destroy the farming in Huaibei, so why don't the generals cross the gunboats under his command on the river and fire cannons to intimidate them, so as to prevent most of the people from fleeing south."

Duan Xiushi shook his head and said: "No, the people's hearts can only be unblocked, if they want to escape, let them escape, only by treating the people who stay in Jiangbei can we save the people's hearts." In the future, when we unify the south, they will still be the people of the community, and this is really the land of the king under the whole world, and the shore of the land will not be the king's ministers. ”

After Duan Xiushi led his troops to Yangzhou, Li Siye ordered him to build a water village on the river outside Yangzhou, build a warship, and make the momentum as big as possible.

The city of Jingkou opposite Yangzhou was already heavily guarded, and Li Sheng, the general of the Tang Army, trained a naval army of 10,000 people in the water village of Zhenjiang City, including more than 60 Huanglong ships and countless small boats of all kinds. Moreover, the Tang Army is far from comparable to the Yongjun Army in terms of the training of the naval army, and all of the soldiers in the army are strong generals who are retrograde and hit the water for thirty miles.

Zhang Guangtao, the commander of the Middle Route Army, led the Hedong Army under his command, and they were smooth sailing at first, surrendering one after another along the way, and only when they finally reached the city of Anqing, did they encounter real resistance.

Liu Changqing, the Taishou of Anqing, was just a scholar, but he was able to be firm and persistent at the critical moment of the survival of his family and country, standing on the city wall with a horizontal knife in his hand, and resolutely organizing military and civilian resistance.

At this moment, the strength of the real Tang army in Anqing City was only 2,000 people, and Liu Changqing organized more than 8,000 soldiers and civilians in just a few days, strengthened the city wall and deployed fortifications, and vowed never to let Anqing fall into the hands of the Yong army.

Zhang Guangtao sent people to shout under the city wall to persuade him to surrender, Liu Changqing shot the enemy in anger, and no matter how the enemy lured him, he would not change his loyalty. Zhang Guangtao's patience was finally exhausted, and he ordered the siege of the city in anger, but he was full of light cavalry and jumping in Hedong along the way, without artillery blessings, and there were no ballistas and other siege equipment. I had to temporarily order people to cut down trees and build siege ladders to attack the city walls.

Liu Changqing was quite talented in defending the city, he deployed manpower to rotate back and forth at the various city gates, used the battle-hardened soldiers and militia groups, and figured out many sharp weapons that could condescend to kill the enemy repeatedly. The Tang army that attacked the city wall was killed by these sharp weapons, and when they climbed again, they were already terrified.

The siege of Anqing lasted for more than a month, and Zhang Guangtao was unable to take Anqing for a long time, so he became more and more anxious, and swore that after the city was captured, Liu Changqing's five horses would be divided.

The march route of the West Road Army Tian Chengsi was the shortest, he led the Youyan cavalry, as well as the Khitan and Xi tribe and other two iron cavalry forcibly requisitioned by Li Siye, the fastest march speed in all the southbound armies, it took only six days to reach the city of Nanyang, after more than 20 days of fierce fighting, Nanyang Taishou suddenly withdrew with the army and civilians in the middle of the night, and burned down the houses in the city, leaving the Yongjun a burning empty city.

Tian Chengsi completed the task and arrived at the city of Xiangyang, but in the more than 20 days of his attack on Nanyang, the loss of troops was too great, and his morale gradually declined, and he no longer posed a threat to Xiangyang in front of him.

He could only present a letter to Li Siye, asking him to send a large army to attack Xiangyang.