Extinguish Chen!

The order came suddenly! Just after the Lantern Festival, Emperor Wen of Sui Emperor Yang Jian ordered an attack on Nanchen!

Although the Sui Dynasty had been preparing for the war to destroy Chen as early as when it was first established, it still needed a lot of time to prepare for the mobilization of hundreds of thousands of troops needed to attack Nanchen, the grain and grass needed for the army, and the more than 200,000 people who supplied logistics and requisition.

However, this work will not be delayed for long.

At the beginning of February of the fifth year of the emperor's reign (the twenty-ninth year of the Xia calendar), Emperor Wen of Sui officially issued a letter to discuss Chen Yuwen, and set up Jiangnan Province in Shouchun (now Shou County, Anhui) in the same month, and appointed Yang Guang, the eighteen-year-old king of Jin, as the provincial Shangshu Order, and Yang Jian's confidant Gao Gong was assisted by Changshi to lead the military deployment of destroying Chen.

At this time, Yang Guang was just seventeen or eighteen years old, and when he was a weak crown, he took on the great task of leading the army to destroy Chen, which was really high-spirited.

Because Yang Jian is suspicious by nature and is very distrustful of generals with foreign surnames, and only let this son, who has been very talented since he was a child, take on this responsibility, so Yang Guang is not only the Shangshu Order of Jiangnan Province, but even listed as the marching marshal with Yang Jun and Yang Su, which can be described as a high and powerful position.

At this time, another figure of the later generations also began to emerge during this period, that is, Yang Guang's young cousin Li Yuan, the Duke of Tang Guo.

Because Li Yuan's mother is also Dugu Xin's daughter, and Queen Dugu is a sister, Queen Dugu is Li Yuan's aunt, and this relationship is actually a very close kinship.

With such a good background, Li Yuan is also stained with the light of his aunt Empress Dugu, and he does have some skills, so he is very appreciated by Yang Jian, and at the age of twenty, he has now become a Qianniu Reserve (Praetorian Guard Military Attaché) personally appointed by Emperor Wen of Sui.

In the future, he will also be tired of the history of Qianzhou, Longzhou, Qizhou and other assassins, especially Longzhou and Qizhou, which are both Guanzhong Prefectures, and the geographical location is extremely important, so it proves that he is also very valued, and this time Li Yuan also followed the army to the expedition.

The Sui army attacked the Chen Dynasty in eight ways.

The first army was Yang Guang who led the army out of Liuhe, the second army was Yang Jun who led the army out of Xiangyang, the third army was Yang Su out of Yong'an, down the Three Gorges from the upper reaches of Bashu, and the fourth army was Yang Rensi, the assassin of Jingzhou, out of Jiangling (now Jiangling, Hubei), and joined Yang Su to go east.

The Fifth Route Army was Qichun (now Qichun, Hubei), and the Sixth Route Army was Han Baohu, the governor of Lujiang, who went out of Lujiang (now Hefei, Anhui), crossed the river from Hengjiang (now Hexian County, Anhui) and attacked Quarry (now Dangtu, Anhui).

The Seventh Route Army was He Ruobi, the governor of Wuzhou, who went out of Guangling (now Yangzhou, Jiangsu), crossed the river from Guazhou, and attacked Jingkou (Zhenjiang, Jiangsu).

The Eighth Route Army was led by Yan Rong, the governor of Qingzhou, after going south to Haizhou, to conquer Donghai County (Yuzhou Island) to the east, and then out of the East China Sea (Lianyungang, Jiangsu), crossing the sea from Qishan to attack Nansha (now the mouth of the Yangtze River), in order to prevent Nanchen Junchen from escaping from the sea.

The Sui army mobilized a total of more than 600,000 troops on these eight routes, with a total of 90 marching commanders, with Yang Guang, the king of Jin, as the commander-in-chief, and launched an attack at the same time on a front that connected Canghai in the east and Bashu in the west, thousands of miles long.

After Yang Jun left Xiangyang on the second road, he led his army to be stationed in Hankou in the north of the Yangtze River, and here he received the Sui army that came downstream, at this time Nan Chen sent Zhou Luo, a general of the navy, to fight, and he commanded the troops stationed in Nan Chen along the river in Ba Gorge to block the advance of the Bashu Sui army.

After Yang Su left Yong'an, he led the navy down the river to the Three Gorges Pass, and the army began to defeat the Chen army that was blocked by many forces along the river, but when it reached Liutoutan (now Yichang City, Hubei), it was blocked by the Chen Dynasty general Qi Xin and the navy at Langweitan (now Yichang City, Hubei).

Because Yang Su was afraid that when he waved his army down during the day, the enemy knew that his strength was false, so he waited until night to command the naval army to go down the river, and at the same time as the naval army attacked, he also sent infantry to land from the south bank to attack Qi Xin's camp, and sent the general Liu Rensi to lead the cavalry to defeat the Chen army general Baisha there on the north bank.

When it was dawn, Yang Su successfully defeated Qi Xin, the general of the Chen army, and then led the naval army to continue down the river to the east.

At this time, in order to defend against the Sui army, Nanchen arranged a large number of troops along the river, and when the Chen army along the river learned that the Sui army was attacking, they flew to the Nanchen court in Jiankang like a snowflake, but when the front-line soldiers fought bravely with the Sui army, they did not know that their efforts were all in vain.

Shi Wenqing and Shen Keqing, the ruling ministers reused by Chen Shubao, the queen of Chen, in addition to fighting for power and profit and squeezing out other talented ministers of Southern Chen, would only accompany Chen Shubao every day to fill in glamorous words, drink and have fun, and ignore the urgent documents of the front-line soldiers.

Since ancient times, traitors and fortunate ministers can actually be divided into two concepts, some of the traitors may be really upright, like to use conspiracy and trickery, but because they want to maintain their status, power, they still have a good ability, and they can barely maintain the country. Night Night Chinese

The typical representative of this is Li Linfu in the Tang Dynasty and Cai Jing in the Song Dynasty, these two people are not talented, but they are typical and inferior people, but Li Linfu is famous for employing people, Cai Jing is also good at financial management and is highly valued, and calligraphy can be called everyone.

Compared with the traitorous ministers, most of them have no ability to govern at all, and only rely on the king's favor to gain power, but they often ignore the overall situation, only care about the immediate situation, and the sky is in full swing.

Shi Wenqing and Shen Keqing, as the ruling ministers of Nan Chen, will not be able to escape once Nan Chen is destroyed, so it is said that even if you don't want Empress Chen to know the news of the invasion of the Sui army, you should deal with these things well, so as to ensure your own power.

The two of them were good, in the face of the news of the continuous invasion of the Sui army, they turned a blind eye, and even the queen Chen got the news of the Sui army's invasion from the palace maid, and they still said to Chen Shubao that this was just a matter of exaggeration by the border defenders for the sake of military achievements.

So the innocent Chen Shubao listened to the words of the two like a good baby, and they continued to spend all day and wine in Jiankang City, Chen Shubao hugged Zhang Lihua and Kong Guifei day and night, and only hoped that such a day would last for thousands of years.

What was the strategic arrangement of the Chen Dynasty at this time?

The Southern Chen court was still unprepared, relying entirely on the soldiers on the front line to resist the organized and premeditated attack of the Sui army.

Because Jiankang is the national capital of Nanchen, it has become the key offensive direction of the Sui army, and the Sui army has a total of Yang Guang, Wang Shiji, Han Baohu, He Ruobi, and Yan Rong in Huainan, and it can be said that more than half of the more than 600,000 troops are concentrated here.

In the face of the powerful offensive of the Sui army, the naval army originally stationed in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River was quickly transferred downstream to resist the strong threat of the Sui army to Jiankang City, but this caused the Chen army in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River to be very empty.

At this time, the generals of the Chen army in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, such as the Three Gorges, were being replaced, and these armies were still pinned down by Yang Su's army, so on the Yangtze River defense line thousands of miles south of Chen, there was no strength on the upper and middle reaches of the river to block the Sui army.

Of course, Nan Chen is not without understanding that there are people, and there are still many people alive among the generals left by Chen Baxian and Chen Qian, and they can certainly see that the Sui army can cross the Yangtze River and go south from these gaps at any time, and the Yangtze River natural danger that Nan Chen relies on can no longer stop the Sui army's attack.

In view of this situation, Fan Yan, the general of the Southern Chen Protector Army, suggested to Yuan Xian that Jingkou (now Zhenjiang, Jiangsu) and Caishi (now Dangtucheng, Anhui) had been strategic locations for the Northern Dynasties to attack Southern Chen since ancient times, and that they must send more elite troops to defend them, and at least 200 warships should be sent to defend along the river in case of contingencies.

At this time, Chen Shubao had fun in the harem every day, and political affairs were decided by Shi Wenqing and Shen Keqing and the ministers after discussion.

Yuan Xian, the servant, and Xiao Maha, the hussar general, both agreed with Fan Yan's proposal, but when they submitted it to the ministers for discussion, they were vetoed on the spot by the ruling Shi Wenqing and Shen Keqing, and even reprimanded Fan Yan for having nothing to do.

I don't know if these two people are the fine works laid out by Emperor Wen of Sui a long time ago, otherwise these two people are really strange enough, and they have repeatedly chosen the most unfavorable approach to Nan Chen, I am afraid that even Yuan Shao in the Three Kingdoms period will bow down to them.

Soon the news of the Sui army's march down the river reached Jiankang City, and Yuan Xian resubmitted the old proposal, but it was again vetoed by Shi Wenqing and Shen Keqing, who believed that the so-called emergency military situation of 'the Yangtze River moat, which was thought to be limited to the north and the south', was just a deliberate exaggeration by the border generals for their military exploits.

Therefore, after reprimanding many ministers, the two continued to play music, drink, and compose poems, and did not care about the border troubles at all.

In their opinion, it is now April is the rainy season in the south of the Yangtze River, and the river water rises sharply in spring, and even the soldiers of the Nanchen Water Army, who are accustomed to handling boats, will show fear on their faces when they talk about the Yangtze River at this time, not to mention the Sui army in the north that is not good at boating.

The poor soldiers of the Chen army on the front line were fighting desperately with the Sui army, but the ruling ministers in the rear did not care about them at all.

Some people will never regret it if they don't burn their buttocks, Shi Wenqing and Shen Keqing are typical representatives, just when they had nothing to do with Chen Shubao, the queen of Chen, to write glamorous words and spend all day drinking, they suddenly got an urgent news that the Sui army in the east also crossed the river and went south.

In July, when the subtropical high ruled the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, the rainfall on both sides of the Yangtze River dropped sharply, causing the width of the river to also be greatly reduced, so the Sui army in Huainan began to cross the river on a large scale.

On the day of the Obon Festival in mid-July, when Emperor Chen Shubao was meeting with his ministers, He Ruobi, the governor of Wuzhou, led an army from Guangling to cross the river and suddenly appeared under the city of Jingkou.

Jingkou City, which was also known as Zhenjiang in later generations, was only about 200 miles away from Jiankang City, and the Sui army only needed one day to reach the city, which seriously threatened the safety of Jiankang City.

After receiving this news, Nanchen Junchen in Jiankang City really panicked.