When Hou Zhi returned to Yangzhou, the first thing he did was to order Yangzhou Mansion Hu Cao to join the army and go to Runzhou, bringing back the remains of Tang Yuankai and other senior generals who died in battle; The second thing is to write a memora. One of the twists and turns is that the Yangzhou army deployed Ma Zhong, abandoned the crowd and fled alone when the Tang army had slowed down the pursuit, and the deputy commander of the Yangzhou army deployed Wang Lezheng to flee on the battlefield. Another book is to detail that after the defeat of the Yangzhou army, he went to Runzhou alone to fight wits and courage with the Southern Tang Jiangguogong.

The next day, Ma Zhong returned to Yangzhou, and then Wang Lezheng also returned to Yangzhou with his heels. It turned out that after Wang Lezheng crossed the canal, he did not go to the north gate of Runzhou, but went to the river to find a village, grabbed a few small boats, and watched the situation. When the Yangzhou army broke out in the middle of the night, Wang Lezheng took the rest of the river by boat several times, and after such a delay, Ma Zhong ran in front of Wang Lezheng.

The two of them laughed at fifty steps and laughed at a hundred steps, but they couldn't attack each other, so they discussed the rhetoric and polished it a few times before they went on their respective tables on the second day.

The report was sent to Bianliang in an eight-hundred-mile urgency, and Zhao Kuangyin was furious after reading it.

After receiving Hou Zhi's urgent report, although Zhao Kuangyin was angry, he didn't listen to one-sided words, and just sent someone to detain Ma Zhong and Wang Lezheng to Bianliang. This will read the urgent report of these two people, but Zhao Kuangyin completely believed Hou Zhi's words. Ma Zhong and Wang Lezheng, the two generals of the defeated army, also whitewashed their abandonment and fleeing alone, which is really not a pity. At that moment, he sent people to Yangzhou to order the two generals to commit suicide.

Ma Zhong and Wang Lezheng received the order to go to Bianliang. This is to be expected. Unexpectedly, as soon as he walked to Gaoyou, another attendant came with a will.

"The 30,000 soldiers of the Yangzhou army were all lost in the south of the Yangtze River, and the left and right sides made the commanders loyal to the country. It is said that the military capital Yu waited for Tang Yuankai to rush to death, and the Runzhou army also called him a hero. Compared with the two, did the two generals really go to Bianliang like this? "The waiter said compassionately.

Ma Zhong and Wang Lezheng didn't know what was wrong, and Zhao Kuangyin didn't even see each other, so he wanted them to die quickly. Ma Zhong originally wanted to dedicate the draft of the attack and defense situation of the Ning State Army and the possible methods of breaking the enemy that he had painstakingly thought about for the past few days.

As soon as Ma Zhong spoke, the chamberlain said, "Our family is here to convey the will." The two generals let our family finish their errands, and our family can also say a few good words. Otherwise, our family can only have one thing to say to the emperor. ”

So saying, he asked the guard to bring two daggers.

Ma Zhong and Wang Lezheng were helpless and both killed themselves.

On the other hand, Fu Lezhan, who joined the army in Yangzhou Prefecture, crossed the river and came to Runzhou to ask for the remains of the senior generals who died in the Yangzhou army. Fu Lezhan got Hou Zhi's secret order, and he got the Taohuadu Wharf, so he made a picture of the country and commanded the Runzhou sergeants.

At the beginning, Fu Lezhan was still worried, after all, the Yangzhou army had just been so defeated, and he didn't want the generals of the Runzhou army to endure it in every possible way. Before entering the assassination mansion, Fu Lezhan casually found a person to reprimand Lu Jiang who came out to greet him, and Lu Jiang was so angry that his forehead was bruised, and his eyes were spitting fire, but he finally suppressed his temperament and welcomed Fu Lezhan in.

Fu Lezhan believed Hou Zhi's words at this time, and went to see Jiang Guogong in shame.

Unexpectedly, as soon as he entered the door, he heard Jiang Guogong, who was the head above, say coldly: "This official of the Song State doesn't know anything, so wanton that I am a general of the Runzhou army, is it really not good to be the sword of this father?" Let's let him accompany the remains of the dead officers of the Yangzhou Army across the river. ”

Fu Lezhan was shocked, and just wanted to kneel down and beg for mercy, when a guard pulled out a knife and stabbed him. Fu Lezhan was a civil official, how could he resist, and he died on the spot.

The next day, seeing the bodies of senior generals such as Jiang Feiyu, He Shengrong and Tang Yuankai, as well as the bodies of Fu Lezhan, who had joined the army in Yangzhou Prefecture, arrived at the Yangzhou wharf, Hou Zhi had mixed feelings in his heart. Taking advantage of the expedition to the southern Tang Dynasty, Yangzhou Mansion prepared grain, and Hou Zhi took advantage of it and embezzled 30,000 taels of silver. It's just that the henchman didn't act secretly, and was grabbed by Fu Lezhan, but he bit it tightly. But if Hou Zhi spit out the 30,000 taels of silver that he was greedy for, Hou Zhi was really reluctant, and second, he had to go up and down, left and right, and the actual amount he got was only 20,000 taels, and the other 10,000 taels had no way to ask others back. Hou Zhi wanted to give Fu Lezhan 5,000 taels to block his mouth, but Fu Lezhan refused to eat it. Hou Zhi was secretly distressed, and he never thought that Jiang Guogong would help him solve such a big trouble so quietly.

Hou Zhi was also afraid that Jiang Guogong would put forward any conditions, but Jiang Guogong did not mention any conditions at all. Hou Zhi didn't think that Jiang Guogong could blackmail him in this matter. It's just that Fu Lezhan wants to sue him for corruption, how can Jiang Guogong know? Thinking of this, Hou Zhi also shuddered for no reason.

Of course, Li Congyi didn't want Ma Zhong and Wang Lezheng to pass easily, after all, as a senior general, the first time he fought with Ning Guojun, he naturally couldn't adapt to Ning Guojun's tactics at all, but if he fought again, Ning Guojun might not be able to win so easily. The best way is to make it impossible for these two people to continue to be generals of the Song Army, at least not to talk about the lessons of facing Ning Guojun.

As for helping Hou Zhi solve this trouble, he was also worried that Hou Zhi's corruption would be bitten by Zhao Kuangyin, which would cause Hou Zhi's words to be greatly discounted. Otherwise, Li Congyi didn't bother to care about Hou Zhi's life or death.

It's just that Li Congyi didn't expect that Zhao Kuangyin really didn't have much patience for the deployment of the two chief and deputy who buried the entire Yangzhou army.

The fall of the Yangzhou army shook Cao Bin outside Jinling City.

However, Cao Bin couldn't do anything for a while. Cao Bin's troops were not abundant. There were about 120,000 defenders in Jinling City, and by this time, Cao Bin's troops gathered under Jinling City were also more than 120,000. The ratio of forces between the two sides is nothing more than one-to-one. That is, the Jinling defenders lacked the will to fight, and they blindly defended it, so Cao Bin dared to besiege the city on all sides with such a force.

Hou Zhi returned from Runzhou to the north and said that the Southern Tangjiang Guogong would lead the army of Xuanrunchang Sanzhou to aid Jinling. Cao Bin smiled slightly. It's not that Jiang Guogong's threat is ridiculous, but Xuanrun often fights repeatedly, and if he doesn't rest for a while, it will be impossible to attack. In addition, the current battle to defend the city in Jinling has just begun, since Jiang Guogong can win two battles and two victories, that is a person who knows the soldiers, and it is impossible to come to Jinling to join in the fun at this time when it is neither early nor late.

But Zhao Kuangyin turned Hou Zhi's performance around, which naturally had his intentions. Jiang Guogong let the Song State lose its troops and generals, and the Song army always had to return the color.

"There are more than 10,000 troops in Tiande, and they have done nothing in Lishui, and the general originally didn't want to pay attention to it, but now that the Yangzhou army is defeated, our army must also return the color. The general planned to take the flag of the Tiande army, but the general's strength was also insufficient, and he could not stop his troops in Lishui City. The general was only allowed to attack with 10,000 men to lure the German army out of the city for field battles. Who wants to lead an army to fight and annihilate the German army? Cao Bin took a stick and poked it heavily at the Lishui place of the Shuaitang map.

"The last will go!" As soon as Cao Bin's words fell, one person stood up, it was Tian Qinzuo, the supervisor of the left wing.

Tian Qinzuo led 10,000 troops, went up the Qinhuai River, and attacked Lishui.

The towns of Moling and Jinling on the west bank of Qinhuai River were lost, and the Tiande army was stationed in Lishui with Du Zhen, and the defensive pressure was not small. Tian Qinzuo's army went south alone, and Du Zhen saw the opportunity to fight. At that moment, more than 3,000 troops of the original Jiankang army in Liyang were ordered to rush north to aid Lishui.

Liyang, in the east of Jinling, is an important town on the Lishui River. Lishui flows into Taihu Lake, and Gucheng Lake upstream of Lishui is connected to Shuiyang through an artificial waterway, thus communicating Xuanzhou and Changzhou. The Liyang defenders moved, and the relevant military information quickly spread to Li Congyi.

"Du Zhen wants to fight with the Song soldiers!" The General Staff quickly came to a conclusion.

Li Congyi didn't expect that on this plane, Du Zhen's Tiande Army would replace the original historical Ning Guojun in this way to fight this Lishui Field Battle.

Lu Jiang didn't think that Du Zhen had an advantage with 13,000 against Tian Qinzuo's 10,000. After Lu Jiang arrived in Runzhou, he fought with the small force of the Yangzhou Military Department, and won and lost each other, but in fact, Lu Jiang fought according to the city, even if the defenders on the city wall did not give actual support, it also enabled Lu Jiang's troops to choose the time of the battle more favorably - if their own side was in an unfavorable situation, they would retreat into the protection of the city wall, and the Song soldiers would not dare to really chase and fight. Moreover, it is not necessarily a good thing for Du Zhen to bring the rest of the 3,000 Jiankang Army.

However, after the Runzhou army defeated the Yangzhou army, it was annoying to say that Du Zhen's Tiande army could not defeat the 10,000 Song army. After all, compared with the rebuilt Runzhou Army, the Tiande Army is the real original Runzhou Field Army. In terms of equipment and the quality of soldiers, it will not be worse than the rebuilt Runzhou soldiers.

"You have to fight for it." Li Congyi didn't mind very much.

received a letter from Li Congyi, the king of Wei, hoping that Du Zhen would strictly guard Lishui, wait for the reinforcements of the Ning army to be in place, and then fight a decisive battle with the Song army. Du Zhen only hesitated slightly, and then threw the letter aside. When the reinforcements of the Ning Army arrived, wouldn't the Song soldiers increase their troops? Or did Song Bing simply retire? Take another 10,000 steps back, and win the battle with the assistance of Ning Guojun, who is this military merit? Changzhou won the war, did the imperial court say that it would reward Shi Yu Wancheng? Runzhou won, and Liu Cheng was slashed by Jiang Guogong after staying in that section!

Du Xin has made up his mind, and he will fight with the Song soldiers in the north of Lishui City, on the bank of the Rouge River.

Not to mention that the Lishui War is about to break out, Cao Bin is also actively preparing to build another Yangtze River pontoon bridge at this time.

The walls of Jinling were strong, and Cao Bin never expected to be able to go down with a single drum, so he could only carry out a long-term siege. However, Jinling was not only the capital of the Tang Dynasty, but also close to the border of the Song State, and had a lot of materials for the war. Therefore, the time for the siege on all sides must not be short. And the annexation of the Tang State by the Song Xing, of course, could not be as wanton as Wu Yuejun's plunder.

Under such circumstances, the supply work of Cao Bin's more than 100,000 troops was extremely heavy.

However, Fan Ruoshui's reconstruction of the pontoon bridge was limited by the shortage of pig iron. The Song army sent troops in October, and it was already winter when they besieged Jinling, so all kinds of military supplies should be based on grain and straw, war weapons second, winter clothes and other cold items again, and others should be left behind.

Fan Ruoshui wanted to use the quarrying iron yard of the Tang Kingdom, but found that the pig iron inventory had already been swept away, even the iron furnace had been destroyed, and the miners, furnace workers, master craftsmen and other people were nowhere to be seen. But Fan Ruoshui had no way out, so he had to ask Zhao Kuangyin for instructions on transporting pig iron from Bianliang, and on the other hand, he was searching for personnel near the quarry, wanting to repair the quarrying iron furnace to smelt pig iron.

However, it was also Fan Ruoshui's bad luck, three 300 stone ships transporting 50,000 catties of pig iron, came from Bianliang with great difficulty, and in the first month of the Yangtze River Zhenzhou (now Yizheng) section of the river, suddenly encountered a strong wind, and sank one, and one barely rushed to the shore and ran aground and capsized, and the pig iron was also difficult to load and unload.

Fan Ruoshui's repair of the quarrying iron furnace was also in February, and finally dismantled the east and made up an iron furnace, but before the fire was lit, it was attacked by a group of more than 100 enemy troops on a dark and windy night. By the time the defenders of the Song army camp came out of the camp to counterattack, the enemy had already burned the iron furnace again, and even those craftsmen had fled.

In March, the Song army once again transported 50,000 catties of pig iron from Bianliang, and Fan Ruoshui rebuilt iron piles on the south bank of quarrying. In the past few months, Fan Ruoshui has already chosen a location, and as soon as the pig iron arrives, he will melt the iron and build piles.

In mid-March, Fan Ruoshui quarried on both sides of the bank, cost nearly 60,000 catties of iron, and built six iron cast foundation piles, which were used as the bridge foundation on the south bank and then built a pontoon bridge.

This time, there was neither a large army on both sides of the strait, nor did Cao Bin and other generals observe it, and only Li Fuyi, the transfer envoy from western Beijing who was in charge of the logistics of the army, was present to witness it. The pontoon bridge was completed, Li Fuyi was elated, but Fan Ruoshui was not happy.

Without him, the timing is missed. Now, in addition to the eastern camp, the southern and western camps are all overwhelmingly pressing the Tang army under the condition of poor supply. At this time, the role of the pontoon bridge of quarrying, that is, it was only useful to Li Fuyi, and for Cao Bin and other generals, it was just icing on the cake.

In any case, Fan Ruoshui's second completed quarrying pontoon bridge dealt a heavy blow to the confidence of the Southern Tang Dynasty court in Jinling.

Xu Xuan, who thought that Song Jun was quarrying and building floating boards, was just a child playing house games, fell ill and could not come to the court. Zhang Xun suspected that Xu Xuan's illness was fake, and it was true that he had no face to come to see Li Yu. But at this time, there is no need to step on Xu Xuan.

"Today's plan is to make Zhu Lingyun send a general to lead the water army to attack the quarrying pontoon bridge from upstream!" Zhang Yi suggested. The Song army's siege of Jinling was also a major challenge to the logistics of the Song state, and the pontoon bridge was completed, so that the Song army could besiege Jinling for a longer time and more calmly. No matter what, the Tang army must always react.

Li Yu set his eyes on Chen Qiao. Chen Qiao hesitated for a moment and said, "You can also give an order to King Wei to see if the water battalion of the Ning State Army can cooperate with the attack on the quarrying pontoon bridge." ”

Li Yu was stunned: "When did the Ning Guojun have a water camp?" ”

Chen Qiao said: "In March last year, Ning Guojun used Xuanyao to be attacked by mountain pirates, and wanted to build a water camp to defend the Shuiyang River. In April, the minister agreed, and His Majesty used his seal. ”

Li Yuleng for a moment, and he couldn't say that he forgot about it, let alone that he didn't read it at all, so he skipped it and didn't mention it: "So according to what the two Aiqing said." ”

Zhang Xun watched coldly. It is not difficult to guess His Majesty's thoughts, and now the King of Wei is like the Jiedu envoy of the Five Dynasties, and he has really brought a threat to the throne. And Chen Qiao specifically mentioned this, but he didn't mean it.

Now that several months have passed, why the Song army did not build the bridge for the first time has long been known. Unexpectedly, King Wei had already seen through Fan Ruoshui's poisonous plan, and took the opportunity of carving words on the cliff wall to chisel the boulder into more than a dozen pieces, and then carved the incision with patterns to cover it up in every possible way. As a result, Fan Ruoshui was stunned and unprepared, and suffered a big loss all of a sudden. It is said that this Fan Ruoshui vomited blood after the pontoon bridge was broken, and after finding the cause of the collapse of the cliff, he vomited blood again, but he became more and more frustrated.

Obviously, no matter whether Jinling makes an order or not, the King of Wei will consider breaking the bridge again. But if Chen Qiao had to add this will, then the King of Wei would just act according to the order if he broke the pontoon bridge again.

However, before Jinling's decree reached Hukou, there was a report of the defeat of the Jiangzhou defenders.