After reorganizing the troops in the capital for several days, on the tenth day of the ninth month, Li Hualong officially led the troops into battle as the Governor of Henan and Nanzhi.
On the ninth day of the New Year, Shen Yicheng gave him the task of opening the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal within three months and sending grain to the north. The grain reserves in the capital and other regions could only support him for three months at most. If he still couldn't complete the task in three months, he could do as he saw fit.
The army under his command consisted of fifty thousand soldiers from Ji Town, and ten thousand elite soldiers from the Capital Army, a total of sixty thousand soldiers. Meanwhile, the local armies from Henan and Southern Zhi were under Li Hualong's command as well. Therefore, the number of soldiers under Li Hualong's command was no less than one hundred thousand.
The capital had already gathered experienced people from the Ministry of War to do a strategic analysis. They had come up with a more suitable strategy, which was to pretend to be the main force and head south to Yangzhou to intimidate the main force of the Zhennan Army's navy, while the main force crossed the Yangtze River from another place and directly attacked Nanjing.
This was a more suitable strategy.
But on the morning of the tenth day of the ninth month, two hours before the army set out, the latest intelligence report arrived.
In Zhennan Prefecture, the Zhennan Army's navy began to attack Yangzhou five days ago. With the advantage of the navy and firearms, they easily reached the north bank. Yangzhou Prefecture was in a state of emergency. The northern section of the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal was in a state of emergency. Yangzhou Prefecture urgently needed reinforcements.
Thus, their strategic plan faced a major blow.
In a panic, Shen Yicheng called for another military conference.
"We still have to fight according to the original plan! Otherwise, our army will fall into the rebel army's trap! They'll lead us by the nose! The rebel army has a shallow foundation in Jiangnan. If we don't take this opportunity to cross the river, destroy the main force of the rebel army, and recover Nanjing, the situation will fundamentally change if Thief Xiao's main force advances north quickly! "
Li Hualong insisted on his previous strategy and insisted on following it. He was determined not to be led by the nose by the Zhennan Army. He felt that this was a scheme of the Zhennan Army, forcing them to concentrate their main force in Yangzhou instead of taking a detour to attack Jiangnan.
This would also buy time for Xiao Ruxun's main force to advance.
And Xiao Daheng was very dissatisfied with this.
"Are we just going to let Yangzhou Prefecture fall and the rebel navy follow the Grand Canal north to the capital? The capital only had twenty thousand soldiers that could fight! It's not like you don't know what kind of trash the rest of them are! The Imperial Court didn't hand the main force over to you to use the Imperial Court as bait to attract the main force of the rebel army!
At that time, even if you recover Nanjing! The capital was gone! Then what's the point of recovering Nanjing? We've all become Thief Xiao's prisoners! What's the use of recovering Nanjing?! "
Xiao Daheng had suffered a lot of anger from Li Hualong in the past few days, and at this moment, he completely broke out.
The veins on Li Hualong's forehead bulged.
"What do you know? This is what the rebels want us to do! If they sent their main force south to Yangzhou, they would fall right into the rebel army's trap! Putting the main force in Yangzhou and entangling with the rebel army there? Are you waiting for us to run out of food to surrender?! "
"Tens of thousands of rebels? Tens of thousands of soldiers? You, Supervisor Li, have 60,000 elites and countless local troops under your command. Can't you deal with tens of thousands of rebel soldiers?! Or are you planning to use the capital as bait to put all of us in danger so that you can make a name for yourself?! "
Xiao Daheng angrily rebuked Li Hualong. Li Hualong's face turned red as he angrily shouted, "What did you say?! You dare to slander me like this?! I'm wholeheartedly working for the country, and you dare to slander me like this?! "
"Isn't that the case?! You took the main force away, and the capital only has tens of thousands of garrison troops with weak defenses. How do you know that this isn't a trap within a trap of the rebel army? The goal is to take the capital in one fell swoop?! When the time comes, the Grand Chief will be gone, and His Majesty will fall into the hands of the devil. What will you do then? What will you do?! "
Xiao Daheng and Li Hualong argued until their faces were red. They refused to back down and only stopped when Shen Yicheng angrily roared.
"Enough! The enemy is in dire straits, and not only do you not want to cooperate sincerely, you're slandering each other. What kind of logic is this?! "
Seeing Shen Yicheng so angry, Li Hualong and Xiao Daheng didn't dare to say another word. They glanced at each other and hatefully stopped arguing.
Only then did Shen Yicheng let out a sigh of relief. After thinking for a while, he looked at Liu Huangchang.
"Little Xuan, what do you think we should do now?"
Compared to Xiao Daheng and the arrogant Li Hualong, who had never been on the battlefield, Shen Yicheng was more appreciative of the experienced and humble Liu Huangchang.
Hearing Shen Yicheng's question, Xiao Daheng and Li Hualong both stared at Liu Huangchang.
Liu Huangshang felt a strong pressure pressing down on him.
Li Hualong was a strong person, and this was needless to say.
Xiao Daheng was Liu Huangchang's benefactor, and Liu Huangchang couldn't go against him.
When Shen Yicheng asked Liu Huangchang, it was not necessarily to let Liu Huangchang support Xiao Daheng's opinion.
Liu Huangchang had already guessed that Shen Yicheng's sensitive heart had sensed a deep sense of crisis. He didn't believe that the troops and towns along the canal could withstand the attack of Xiao Ruxun's navy. If Xiao Ruxun could use the navy to take Zhenjiang Prefecture and Nanjing, then it was only a matter of time before he took the capital.
Similarly, Shen Yicheng didn't believe that the trash in the capital could achieve a miracle.
Shen Yicheng was very sensitive and uneasy. At the moment, he might not be willing to take risks at all.
After taking the biggest risk in his life, the repercussions still hadn't ended. In fact, they were getting more and more intense. He started to doubt and distrust himself.
At this moment, he needed a sense of security, not a risky move.
Although Liu Huangchang thought that Li Hualong's method was not impossible to try, and even Li Hualong's method was right, at least it could pull the situation back from the situation where Xiao Ruxun had the upper hand to a stalemate, and give the imperial court time to react and mobilize troops from all over the country to rescue the king, instead of passively being beaten like now, and not even knowing the route of the rebel army.
However, Liu Huangchang said what Shen Yicheng wanted to hear.
"I think what Minister Xiao said is very reasonable. The capital is the most important thing. If the capital can't be protected, everything else is nonsense."
Liu Huangchang briefly explained his idea: "Perhaps we can use the main force to go south to Yangzhou, and send a force south to Jiangnan to threaten Nanjing and Zhenjiang Prefecture from the side, forcing the rebel army to retreat, to achieve the purpose of stabilizing the war situation. In short, we must not lose control of the canal, and cannot give the rebel army the possibility of going north along the canal to the capital. After all, we don't have a navy that can fight the rebel army on the water."
Minister Xiao sneered at Li Hualong.
Li Hualong saw Liu Huangchang's anxious face, and several times he wanted to open his mouth, but after seeing Shen Yicheng's cold eyes, Li Hualong instantly understood Shen Yicheng's meaning.
Therefore, Li Hualong could only deeply sigh.
"Since this is the case, I will use a strong general and an elite force to cross the river south to threaten the rear of the rebel army, and maintain enough pressure on the rebel army. Otherwise, the rebel army will not easily retreat!"
Li Hualong could only settle for the next best thing.
"Okay, it's better to have another layer of protection."
Shen Yicheng directly nodded in approval.
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
