"Report~!"

"What?"

"Returning to Your Majesty, the Southern Tang military camp withdrew its troops to the south. Down the Huai River, I don't know why. ”

When Li Jing heard the news, he immediately waved his hand and motioned for the herald to retreat. Then looked at the two sons beside him, Li Congjia's resourcefulness has always been outstanding, Li Hongji has become more and more powerful recently, Li Jing knows that he is old, not as bright as a young man, and now what he has is experience.

"What do you think Zhou Jun wants to do?"

"Well...... Li Congjia said: "I think the Zhou army wants to go south to attack Luzhou." ”

"I don't think so. ”

"Then what's more? The Huai River runs through most of the Central Plains, they don't want to cross the Huai River to return to the Great Zhou, so how long will it take?" Li Congjia has always been very confident in his judgment, and this time is no exception. Except for attacking Luzhou, the Zhou army had no feasible solution.

Li Hongji said: "I think the Zhou army wants to go to Lu'an, of course, not to attack Lu'an, but to ...... The Huai River outside Lu'an is less than 100 meters wide, and they can cross it from there. However, it is 200 miles from Shouzhou to Lu'an, and it takes several days to walk. Our navy army will definitely be able to block the waterway in advance, so that the Zhou army has nowhere to escape. ”

"That's right~ They can also use this trick. Li Congjia admired the growth of his eldest brother so much, the straw bag in the past is really gone, and now Li Hongji is much wiser than ordinary people.

In fact, Li Congjia also knows very well that the eldest brother has always been very smart, but he doesn't like to use his brain, and he is not clear about the current situation. So now Li Hongji is constantly learning, constantly using his brain to make his brain flexible again. Of course, the grasp of the current situation and geography is also improving.

It was the first time that Li Congjia was persuaded by others with a few words, Chai Rong was not a fool, even if he captured Luzhou, it would be a dead end. If an army of 200,000 occupies a city within the scope of the enemy, it will definitely be besieged, and even if Li Jing does not speak, a large number of men and horses will attack.

Unless Chai Rong gave up the military power in his hands, he divided the 200,000 army into several batches and attacked the cities around Shouzhou respectively, connecting all the cities into a defensive line, so as to resist the attack of the Tang army. But this is also impossible, as long as the military power is not in Chai Rong's hands, the military power he took away may not be able to be taken back, and there will definitely be people who surrender because of fear, and the loss will be even greater at that time.

Li Congjia didn't expect that the Huai River outside Lu'an City was shallow, and he also knew that Chai Rong wanted to retreat, but the Huai River was a great obstacle, but the soldiers had to cross the river to retreat. It is not impossible to bypass the Huai River, but it is too long and too far to have a small chance.

However, it is possible outside Lu'an City, because the distance is very short, as long as you are careful, everyone can cross the river safely. After arriving in Lu'an, they didn't need to build a pontoon bridge at all, they only needed to connect it with ropes. At a distance of less than 100 meters, as long as you grit your teeth, even a weak person is not impossible. Faced with such a life-and-death choice, no soldier will back down.

"Hongji, you said to go from here to Lu'an, and then cross the river...... How much time does it take? 200,000 people walk 200,000 miles, and it should take a lot of time to cross the river. ”

Li Hongji nodded and said, "That's true, I don't think it will be less than 7 or 8 days." However, our navy can reach the outside of Shouzhou City in three days, and it will only take one day to catch up with Zhou's army. The waterway is much faster than the land route, so we don't have to worry about it at all. The Zhou army was also helpless, because the further downstream you went, the narrower the estuary became, so the more restrictions the navy was subjected to. ”

"Oh~ But there's no point in doing that, isn't it?"

"Yes, but Zhou Jun has no other way. Li Hongji chuckled: "We have basically won this battle. Just wait for our navy to come from the Bohai Sea and the Yangtze River to the Huai River, it will be the end of the Zhou army. But there is one thing I still can't figure out, why Chai Rong took this risk, if they cross the river now, although the loss is huge, but it will not be wiped out. But...... I always feel a little uneasy. ”

Li Hongji was still a little worried, he felt that Da Zhou was not so easy to deal with. Chai Rong, Zhao Kuangyin, Fan Zhen, and Wang Bo are all tricky characters, and after learning about their relationship with Zong Xin, Li Hongji always felt that things were going too smoothly, which made people a little unbelievable.

First of all, Chai Rong was seriously ill, and the sneak attack on the Zhou army's pontoon bridge twice was successful, and some people even burned the grain and grass of the Zhou army. It went so smoothly that everything went as expected. Li Hongji wouldn't feel strange if these things were planned by Wu Yazi, but all of this was planned by his father and younger brother...... I'm a little worried.

"Hongji, what's not at ease?"

Li Hongji said: "Father, the sons always feel that things are going too smoothly. If it was all planned by the Daoist Commander of Wuyazi, Erchen would not be suspicious, but ...... It felt a little strange from Jiahe's father's plan. ”

"What do you mean by this? Do you mean that I can't compare to Wuyazi?" Li Congjia said: "Brother Huang, Wuyazi is just a foreign Taoist priest, I am your own brother, don't you know how much ability I have?"

"What Cong Jia said makes sense, why do you look down on your own brother and father? Could it be that our ability is so poor? Wu Yazi is indeed powerful, but Cong Jia is not bad compared to him, regardless of martial arts and resourcefulness. Li Jing said excitedly: "Of course, you are also very good, and I Li Jing is very comforted to have your sons." But to be honest, if you were so good in the early years, how could it be Chai Rong's turn to fight us? The Great Zhou can't be established, and I will destroy Liu Zhiyuan when he establishes the Great Han. ”

"This time it's calculated, in a few days we will be able to capture the 200,000 troops of the Great Zhou, and then we will drive straight into Bianliang and capture Bianliang. The more Li Congjia thought about it, the more excited he became, as long as it was done this time, then the other surrounding countries would not be a problem.

First take Wu Yue, then attack the Southern Han and Northern Han, and finally seize Western Shu to dominate the world. The next step is to go north to counterattack the Khitan, not to mention the destruction of the Khitan, Li Jing hopes to recapture the sixteen states of Youyun in his lifetime.

"I don't know where Lin Renzhao is now, it's better to hurry...... The widows can't wait. ”

Lin Renzhao in Li Jing's mouth is the general of the Southern Tang Dynasty Naval Army, this person has superb martial arts and extraordinary resourcefulness, and was appointed as the governor of the water division.

Lin Renzhao's personality is somewhat similar to Liu Renzhen, but he is not as slow as him, but he is just cautious in his work. After Lin Renzhao became the general of the navy, he developed the navy of the Southern Tang Dynasty into the first in the world, and the navy of the Great Zhou Dynasty could not be compared at all.

Although the Zhou army also has some water army, the level is too poor to compete at all. Lin Renzhao will not be proud of the strength of the navy, but will be careful everywhere and strive to win.

Lin Renzhao fended off pirates in the South China Sea for many years, and pirates from Dongying often robbed passing merchant ships and coastal residents. In fact, coastal residents have nothing to rob, but Dongying people just like to do these things, and since the opening of the sea route in Datang, there have been many more such ronin pirates in Dongying.

Dongying's life is far inferior to that of the Central Plains, so they want to rob everything here. For them, as long as it is a Chinese thing, it is a good thing. If you can grab gold and silver, you will be considered a fortune.

Therefore, Lin Renzhao's main battle target is still at sea, not only pirates but also Wu Yue's fleet. Although the combat effectiveness of the Wuyue fleet is far inferior to that of the Southern Tang Naval Division, it is also a coastal country, and their naval strength is not weak.

..................

Lin Renzhao was enjoying the scenery along the way on his boat at this time, when the Southern Tang Navy had just crossed Hongze Lake and was heading towards the Huai River Valley.

After Lin Renzhao received Li Jing's holy decree, he set off several days in advance, and Lin Renzhao was also at full speed, and even found a lot of slender men and ordered people to row and try to catch up. Although he didn't know what it was, Lin Renzhao vaguely felt that this time might be unusual.

The road was calm, but as the spring blossomed and the spring rain began to fall, the river began to rise and the current became faster, and the boat traveled faster than expected.

It took only three days to rush from Hongze Lake to the middle reaches of the Huai River, and Li Congjia and Huangfu Jixun had already arrived outside Shouzhou. These two people understood the situation and were strong in martial arts, so Li Jing sent them to tell Lin Renzhao about the situation here, so that he could know the importance of this matter.

After learning that the Zhou army had not yet crossed the Huai River, Lin Renzhao accelerated the process and rushed directly to the lower reaches of the Huai River.

On the way, I encountered some pontoon remnants that were hung in the river, which were connected by iron chains and ropes, and although the head and tail were broken, there was still a wide area, blocking the way of the fleet.

Lin Renzhao didn't speak at all, and the front row of the fleet directly released the small boats of the salvage team, and quickly removed all the wreckage, which did not affect the speed of the ship at all.

This was an eye-opener for Huangfu Jixun and Li Congjia, because the organization and discipline of the fleet were too strong, and in the face of such a not trivial problem, it could be solved without Lin Renzhao speaking, and the so-called well-trained was nothing more than that.

It only takes one day to travel from Shouzhou to Lu'an by water, but it takes three days to travel by land. After a long day of boat travel, the advance team had already discovered the traces of the Zhou army, because there were too many people, so they walked slowly, and at the same time, they also found the iron lock Hengjiang, which was also the usual way to resist the naval army.

If it is an ordinary ship, there is really no way to encounter the iron lock Hengjiang, and it may capsize if it rushes over directly. Because the speed of the ship is too fast, and at the same time it is too heavy. It is very dangerous to get caught in a chain or lose your balance.

Lin Renzhao still didn't speak, and the salvage team went out again to directly cut off the iron chain connecting the river, and there was no obstruction at all.

"Lord Lin, the advance team has discovered the camp of the Zhou army and is camping on the bank of the river. Deputy Zheng Yanhua said excitedly: "They thought that they could sit back and relax with the fixed trick of crossing the river with an iron lock, and they dared to camp on the bank of the river, don't these straw bales know that the Southern Tang Navy is the first in the world, if they can't even solve this little trouble, how dare they call it the first in the world?"

"Don't underestimate the enemy, there are many capable people in the enemy army, and Zhao Kuangyin alone can destroy one of my fleets. Ordered to slow down and observe for ambushes. The purpose of the navy is not to fight the Zhou army, we just need to seize control of the Huai River and prevent them from crossing the river. Wherever Zhou Jun goes, we will follow. ”

"Yes. ”

。 m.