Ouyang Lin knew very well in his heart that as a hardcore ally of Wei Zixuan and Yin Chengyi, whether it was Tian Mu, the head of the Northern Ya Reverse Scale Division, or Cheng Wen, the Empress of the Holy Tang Dynasty, they could pose a huge threat to the secret investigation he carried out.

The slightest negligence will end up with a tragic end of dying before leaving the school.

Therefore, if you really want to secretly stare at Wei Zixuan and Yin Chengyi, you must first clear the obstacles of Tian Mu and Cheng Wen.

Tian Mu said over there. According to Ouyang Lin's judgment, this person is a pure person of fame and fortune, although he is attached to Wei Zixuan's family, but he is not too deeply involved. Ouyang Lin only needs to go and explain the situation to Emperor Li Bing, and then Li Bing will come forward to order Tian Mu, the most wasteful Changshi Master in the history of the Reverse Scale Division, he will definitely not dare to move.

The real trouble is actually Cheng Wen.

Since the old Guogong Cheng Kaiyang died in Liangzhou, the Zhenguo Mansion has plummeted, and it almost did not survive the darkest period of the Shengtang Dynasty, and was directly wiped out in the long river of history.

Now, the reason why the Cheng family was able to miraculously turn over and become the leader of the imperial nobles again was largely because of Wei Zixuan's great help.

For this, the Cheng family is grateful.

And more importantly, whether it is the Zhenguo Mansion or the queen, they still need to have powerful allies in the court, so as to gradually consolidate the foundation of the power of the gate lord. Wei Zixuan, who is the left servant of Shangshu, and Yin Chengyi, who is the governor of Dadu, are naturally the preferred partners that Cheng Wen's brothers and sisters can't refuse.

To put it bluntly, the fundamental interests of the two sides have long been deeply tied together.

In particular, the killing of Cheng Xi made the queen Cheng Wen completely furious, and hated Li Jiangyao, the capital of the Zhenjiang army, so she leaned further towards Wei Zixuan and vowed to join forces to get rid of the enemy.

In this case, even if the emperor was invited to come forward, Ouyang Lin was not sure to prevent Cheng Wen from secretly intervening in the investigation.

What's more, he can't ask Li Bing to come out in this face.

After all, Cheng Wen is the queen and the wife of the emperor. As a vassal, daring to provoke the relationship between the emperor and the empress is a capital offense.

However, Cheng Wen's factor cannot but be solved. Behind the Zhenguo Mansion are many wealthy nobles, inside and outside the palace, up and down the government and the opposition, and there are their connections and eyeliner everywhere. Well-informed, I'm afraid it's no less than the North Ya Reverse Scale Division. Therefore, this is definitely a big obstacle for Ouyang Lin to secretly investigate Wei Zixuan and Yin Chengyi.

What to do?

Just when Ouyang Lin was worried about how to deal with the queen's peripheral hidden danger, an unexpected situation made him stunned: Fengyi Palace sent a decree to summon the forbidden army's tiger and leopard to ride the pro-Xun Yi guard, Ouyang Lin.

-

Boom –

With a loud bang, the east gate of Xuancheng was slammed open by a thick log, and the soldiers of the Sixth Army of Zhenjiang loosened the cow belt that bound the trunk of the tree, drew the long knife at their waist, and rushed into the city with a shout.

At the same time, the infantry of the Second Army had also climbed to the top of Xuancheng City and engaged in a fierce battle with the rebels.

Farther away, tens of thousands of cavalry of the First Army of the Wind were rushing left and right, roaring back and forth, violently sweeping away the enemy soldiers outside the city.

The general attack launched at dawn has lasted for three hours now, and the smoke is billowing up and down Xuancheng, and there are battlefields of fighting everywhere.

Because the main force followed the main general Ye Rongcheng to the downstream to aid Jinling, the rebel forces in the direction of Xuanzhou were sharply reduced, and there were less than 50,000 horses at this time. And Xu Youchang's Zhenjiang army was not only superior in numbers, but also launched a surprise attack from the east, which immediately caused the rebels guarding the city to have the illusion that Ye Rongcheng's large army had been defeated, or even annihilated.

All of a sudden, the defenders were panicked and demoralized, and if it weren't for the city defenses to rely on and barely resist, let alone three hours, they might not be able to hold out for even half an hour, and they would collapse and flee.

However, the miraculous three hours have also touched the limit of the rebels. As the east gate was smashed open by the Zhenjiang army, the defending party's will to fight finally dissipated, and more and more people gave up resistance, either disarming and surrendering on the spot, or taking advantage of the fact that the Zhenjiang army had not besieged Xuancheng and fled.

In one morning's work, Xu Youchang successfully conquered the front-line camp of the Jiangnan rebels, Xuanzhou. The Zhenjiang army annihilated more than 21,000 enemies and captured more than 9,000 people. There are countless trophies such as grain, grass, equipment, weapons, and horses.

When the news came, Ye Rongcheng, who was confronting Li Jiangyao in Dangtu County, a hundred miles to the east, was suddenly blindsided.

After just sleeping for one night, Lao Wo was directly kicked by the other party, and it was kicked by Xu Youchang, who was supposed to attack Jinling downstream, which was simply inexplicable.

It was only at this time that Ye Rongcheng finally reacted and fell for the trick.

It is false that Xu Youchang led his troops to attack Jinling, and it is true that he took a detour to kill Xuanzhou with a horse gun. And Li Jiangyao's ambush of Feng Tuo and the defense of Dangtu was just a scene, the purpose of which was to contain the main force of the rebels and at the same time cover Xu Youchang's actions.

Ye Rongcheng gradually realized the pain of Ronald and Durham, and also understood Bao Yuchun's difficulties. Li Jiangyao is as brave as a tiger and as cunning as a fox!

However, he didn't have much time to feel and empathize, and the situation would become very critical. As the commander-in-chief of the whole army, he must make a decisive choice as soon as possible.

Ye Rongcheng faced three choices: turn around and counterattack and recapture Xuanzhou; Immediately attack and fight a decisive battle against Li Jiangyao; Move to the southeast and deploy a new defense system on the front line of Changzhou, Huzhou, Liyang, and Anji to defend Hangzhou.

Soon, Ye Rongcheng gave up the first two options.

The reason is simple: he is not completely sure of retaking Xuancheng from Xu Youchang's hands; Whether Li Jiangyao was alone and bluffing, or whether he was hiding heavy troops and had another conspiracy, he did not see through.

But one thing is clear, as long as Ye Rongcheng attacks one side, the other side will run for reinforcements in the blink of an eye, and attack the main force of the rebels on both sides.

At that time, who is confident that they can withstand the joint blow of Li Jiangyao and Xu Youchang at the same time?

And a more important problem is that starting from Xuancheng or Dangtu, four hundred miles away in the southeast, is Hangzhou, where Li Jiong, the king of the Jin Dynasty, is located.

Therefore, Ye Rongcheng could only rush to the vicinity of Taihu Lake and build the defense system of the surrounding cities to prevent the Zhenjiang army from continuing to raid and directly threaten the safety of the rebels.

Thinking of this, Ye Rongcheng no longer hesitated, and on the day of the fall of Xuancheng, he led his soldiers and horses to leave the Dangtu battlefield and go straight to Taihu Lake.

In this way, the rebels completely abandoned Xuanzhou, the fulcrum of the Dajiang defense line, and the breakthrough on the south bank was completely torn apart by Li Jiangyao and them.

If the imperial court can have enough ship capacity at this time, it can even send the Blue Dragon Legion and the Vermilion Bird Legion over together, and immediately launch a general attack on the rebels.

It is precisely because of this that Bao Yuchun, who has a huge naval fleet, cannot but immediately suspend the war in Yiling, quickly turn around to help defend the downstream, re-cut the north-south transportation line on the river, and prevent the imperial court from crossing the river in an all-round way.

When Ye Rongcheng ran to Huzhou in a panic to build a defensive line, Li Zhi and Lao Jianhua, who were almost frightened, jointly sent instructions to Bao Yuchun, with sincere words and anxious tones, in a word: You come back quickly, otherwise everyone will be finished!

Uncle and nephew Bao Yuchun, who received the emergency military order, were also secretly surprised. The two of them didn't expect in advance that the Xuanzhou base camp, which had been operating for many years and was impregnable, and at the same time had the fierce general Ye Rongcheng and 300,000 soldiers and horses stationed there, was successfully captured by the Zhenjiang army in less than half a month, and even the capital Hangzhou was facing the front and crumbling. This Li Jiangyao is really terrible.

Out of the consideration of the unity of the foundation, Bao Yuchun had no choice but to order the fleet to leave the battle and rush to the downstream waterway to prevent a large-scale attack by the imperial court.

To tell the truth, although the rebels took the initiative and received some victories in the battle on Yiling's side, the overall situation was very different from that of more than half a year ago.

With the assistance of Wang Wenlie and others, Yang Li lived up to expectations and desperately blocked the crazy attack of the Bao family's uncle and nephew with an inferior army. Although the loss of the warship was not small, it did not damage the foundation of the fleet, let alone lose the important naval base of Yiling.

Seeing that the unforgiving Broadsea Fleet suddenly sailed away, Yang Li and the others finally breathed a sigh of relief, and knew that it must be the success of Dadu Hu that threatened the situation of the rebels in the Jiangnan region, and then forced Bao Yuchun to fall short and have no choice but to withdraw his troops.

A big battle in which both sides pointed at the opponent's key points at the same time finally came to an end.

Li Jiangyao and Xu Youchang led the army to retreat back to Jiangbei; Bao Yuchun and Bao Xinyan commanded the fleet to block the waterway; Yang Li Wang Wenlie repaired the water village warship; Ye Rongcheng Xie Bao rebuilt the Xuanzhou defense line.

The warring sides engaged in an earth-shattering wrist-wrestling contest and then returned to where the war started, and it was business as usual.

After the war, Li Jiangyao's original analysis of the situation in the world was once again deeply recognized by the military generals: whether it was a land war, a battle in the plains, or a siege of a city, it was not difficult for the imperial army, but the problem was difficult for the control of the river. As long as the main force of the enemy's naval forces remains, there is no way to talk about a full-scale conquest.

Once the back road is cut off by the other side, reinforcements and food and grass cannot keep up, so there is only one left to loot and fight alone.

At the same time, Xu Youchang also summarized the entire process of the fight with the rebels in detail, and focused on analyzing the characteristics and fighting methods of the main force of the rebels, wrote a book, and sent people to Murong Xue, Ma Hongjie and Chang Tao for the brother army to study and prepare for war.

Li Jiangyao also added a lot of his own thoughts and opinions on the experience of the troops in crossing the river, especially the hydrological weather, the time connection, and the coordination of ships, all of which were based on battlefield records, which were both objective and solid, and provided a great boost for the future combat operations of various army units.

Li Jiangyao also emphasized one thing to Murong Xue: build more ships! Collect more ships! No matter how big or small, the more the merrier!