The siege of Xiangyang City has lasted for a year, and Li Siye has continued to recruit troops in the direction of Nanyang, in addition to nearly 200,000 besieging troops, there are also 60,000 Flying Tiger Cavalry who are ready to send reinforcements at any time. The amount of food and grass these people spend on a day is astronomical. Li Siye put Xu Bin and Gao Shang in charge of the entire logistics supply, and they established several evenly distributed forage fields along the canal, and the grain requisitioned by each state was first concentrated in Luoyang, and then the grain ships went all the way south to Suiyang, from Suiyang to Nanyang by land with people and animals, and then transferred from Nanyang to Xiangyang City.

In addition, Hanzhong in the upper reaches of the Han River provided half of the supply of the besieging troops, and all the grain ships went down the Han River, and Zang Xiyan personally sent troops to escort them, which could directly reach the vicinity of Xiangyang City, reducing unnecessary manpower consumption and reducing food loss.

Li Siye's northern regime has built a complete logistics system, which is to ensure that the siege can be extended for a long time, and never give Xiangyang City a chance to survive.

Guo Ziyi, who had anticipated this situation earlier, once ordered the people to tear down their houses and farm in the city when there was enough food, and they dug tunnels to live underground. However, the area of the city is limited after all, and even if all the buildings are removed and all the fields are reclaimed, it will not be able to meet the food of the soldiers and civilians, and hunger will eventually hit.

After discussing with Zhang Xun, Guo Ziyi believed that farming in the city could only subsidize a part of the food, and if this continued, the people would not be able to eat, and sooner or later the phenomenon of cannibalism would occur. Guo Ziyi decided to send people out to ask for help from Jiankang's emperor Li Yu, as long as the emperor could recapture Jingmen to attack the Yong army, which had been besieging the city for a year, it would definitely bring life to Xiangyang City.

He organized three teams to send letters for help, but was discovered and surrounded by the Yongjun army, and had to return to the city. Zhang Xun also sent his fierce general Nanba, and when the moon was dark and the wind was high, he led the thirteen horsemen to rush out of the encirclement and go in the direction of Jiangcheng.

Nanba's heart was as anxious as a fire, because as time passed, there would be groups of people in Xiangyang City who would starve to death. He didn't have time to go to Health to see Li Yu, so he had to go to Xu Shuji, the general who was stationed in Jiangcheng and was in charge of Jianghuai defense.

The imperial court's troops in the nine counties of Jingxiang were all concentrated in Jiangcheng, with a total of about 90,000, and the grain and grass transported from the entire Jiangdong by water were also concentrated on the wharf on the bank of the river, and there were two granaries of hundreds of thousands of Hu in the city, which was in stark contrast to the starving Xiangyang City. Nanba rode on a horse and saw these grain and grass hoards, and his eyes gradually turned red.

In fact, compared with the north of the Yellow River, which has only one canal water system and one Yellow River water system, the water network south of the Yangtze River is vertical and horizontal, the crops are harvested twice a year, and the harvest is more than three times that of the fertile fields in the north.

Originally, the chief in charge of Jianghuai's defense was Guo Ziyi, but after Guo Ziyi took office, he immediately regarded Xiangyang as the focus of defense and set up his headquarters in Xiangyang City. As the Yong army moved south, Xiangyang City was gradually besieged, and Guo Ziyi also lost the access to command outward, cutting off contact with the defenders of Jiangcheng and the rest of the state.

At this time, the ruling faction in the court was the group of eunuchs headed by Yu Chaoen, and he immediately said to Li Yu: "Guo Ziyi is already in danger of Xiangyang, located in the forefront of the battlefield, once Xiangyang is lost, the Jianghuai generals are leaderless, please Your Majesty choose another person to be responsible for the defense of the Jianghuai region."

This guy has already prepared for Xiangyang to be unable to hold on, and he has no correct prediction of the situation in the whole world.

A few people of insight in the DPRK and China expressed their opposition, although Xiangyang was besieged, it could not fall into the hands of the enemy under any circumstances, and once Xiangyang was lost, Li Siye controlled the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River, and Jiangdong could not hold it at all. Guo Ziyi's power to be in charge of Jianghuai's defense must not be stripped away, but one person can be sent to stay in Jiangcheng to serve as Guo Ziyi's replacement and deputy.

For the substitute candidate, Yu Chaoen recommended Xu Shuji to Li Yu. Prime Minister Li Kui also recommended Xu Shuji against his will because of his attachment to Yu Chaoen. Prime Minister Xiao Hua thinks that Xu Shuji is treacherous and cunning, seeking more personal gain, in a modern phrase, he is a refined egoist, and sending such a person to guard and dispatch Jingxiang must only care about his own selfish interests, and it is difficult to look at the overall situation. But for the person who succeeded Guo Ziyi, they did not have a suitable candidate, but in view of the importance of Guo Ziyi to the Tang Dynasty, they elected Guo Ziyi's eldest son Guo Yao to replace Guo Ziyi, who could give his father all the support he deserved in the rear.

But Yu Chaoen's father-in-law once again showed his fierce loyalty, shouted everyone in the court, covered his chest and said bitterly: "Do you still remember Guo Xi's surrender to the enemy, how dare you hand over all Jianghuai to the hands of the Guo family's children." Xu Shuji is not Guo Ziyi's old department, and the decisions he made are also fair, and he also asks His Majesty to think deeply. ”

Li Yu did muttered in his heart, I heard that Li Siye had made Guo Xi the secretary of the Criminal Department, and now the other party has the advantage, in case the Guo family and his son really surrendered, his Yangtze River natural danger will definitely be surrendered to a strong enemy.

After careful consideration, Emperor Li Yu finally decided to appoint Xu Shuji as Guo Ziyi's deputy general to Jiangcheng, but as soon as he arrived in Jiangcheng, he lost Jingmen. But in order to shirk responsibility, he gave Li Yu a table and said that he was only a deputy general, and he could not command his subordinates if he was not right, so he led to the loss of Jingmen, and also caused Xiangyang to be surrounded and killed by the Yong army, cutting off Xiangyang's only external communication channel.

Li Yuxin believed that it was true, and gave all the command of Jingxiang to Xu Shuji, let him completely replace Guo Ziyi to give orders, and constantly increased troops and transported grain to Jiangcheng from the rear, and ordered him to take back Jingmen and try to rescue Xiangyang.

Now Xu Shuji has received a large amount of food and strong troops, but he squatted in Jiangcheng and refused to move until Nanba came to the door in person.

Xu Shuji knew that he was at a loss, and he thought that the combat effectiveness of these Jiangdong recruits under his command was low, how could he dare to fight against the Youyan Tiger and the Northwest Blue Wolf brought by Li Siye. It's not that he didn't think about saving Xiangyang, but he really didn't have the courage to touch the 200,000 northern troops, and he didn't even dare to get close to contain him.

When Jingmen Pass was broken by the Yong army, Xu Shuji had already sentenced Xiangyang City to death in his heart, and no one could save him. If you can't defend the city, you dare to fight with the Yongjun army? His only hope was that Xiangyang City had better exhaust all the sharp energy of the Yong army, so that they would not have the strength to attack Jiangcheng, and after withdrawing, he would be able to survive the hurdle again.

It's just that at the moment, Nan Jiyun, the subordinate sent by Zhang Xun from Xiangyang City, came to the door, which is really annoying, and it is not okay to send him away like this, in case he runs to Jiankang to find the emperor for help, this will reveal his negative rescue.

Li Yu has twice ordered Xu Shuji to find a way to provide assistance to Xiangyang City, he took advantage of the protection of Yu Chaoen is only Yang Feng Yin, to find various reasons for himself, sometimes even deception, he sent three times to the emperor in the note that sent troops to attack Jingmen, but the Yong army was too strong in combat, several times did not overcome, so defeated and retreated.

But the real situation is that the elite of the 6,000 Yongjun troops stationed in Jingmen are so idle that their eggs are about to fall, and they live a boring life every day standing on the city wall. Originally, the Tang army was only a dozen miles away from their nearest stronghold, the county seat, but Xu Shuji not only ordered these soldiers not to be allowed to come close to investigate, but instead withdrew such an important stronghold.

He was very afraid that Li Siye would go beyond the norm and directly bypass Xiangyang to fight Jiangcheng, and the only thing he could do in the face of this situation was to try to shrink back and not attract the attention of the enemy, otherwise it would be a catastrophe.